Same old same old from the leftist New York Times

Smarter Times which apparently exists to point out flaws in NYT, from grammar, to sloppy writing, to amnesia in stories.  http://www.smartertimes.com/1609/vanishing-northeastern-republicans

“Of all the angles for the New York Times to choose for a front-page post-election political story, the "vanishing Northeastern Republican" one they used is pretty lame.

The Times blames President Trump: "A Trump-Fueled 'Wipeout' for House Republicans in the Northeast," is the headline.

But the Times has been writing the obituary of Northeastern Republicans since long before Donald Trump became a political force.

Here, for example, is a Times dispatch from 2006:

It was a species as endemic to New England as craggy seascapes and creamy clam chowder: the moderate Yankee Republican.

Dignified in demeanor, independent in ideology and frequently blue in blood, they were politicians in the mold of Roosevelt and Rockefeller: socially tolerant, environmentally enthusiastic, people who liked government to keep its wallet close to its vest and its hands out of social issues like abortion and, in recent years, same-sex marriage.

But this election dealt the already-fading New England Republican an especially strong blow, one that some fear will increase the divide between the two parties nationally by removing a longstanding bridge between them.

Of 22 members of the newly elected House of Representatives from New England, only one is a Republican: Christopher Shays of Connecticut, who eked out a victory while two other Republicans from his state, Representatives Nancy L. Johnson and Rob Simmons, lost to Democrats.

Not only is it an old story, but it also doesn't particularly fit the results in 2018, which saw Republican governors elected in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts, and Republican congressmen Pete King and Lee Zeldin hold on their Long Island congressional seats.”

Matt Whitaker, the Left’s latest cause

Mike Huckabee writes: “President Trump’s appointment of Jeff Sessions’ chief of staff Matt Whitaker as acting attorney general to temporarily replace Jeff Sessions is generating a lot of hysterical screaming from Democrats, who will not accept anything less than a totally unfettered special counsel.  Of course, Democrats in 2018 react with hysterical screaming to everything relating to Trump, so there’s little reason for Trump or his supporters to take them seriously.”

https://www.mikehuckabee.com/index.cfm?p=latest-news&id=1850B584-11B3-44EE-8D18-EB2B0A20D57F&s=6MHR

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/11/matthew-whittaker-jeff-sessions-replacement-excellent-choice/

Last night we had demonstrations here in Columbus against Matt Whitaker—several hundred people.  My husband was really puzzled.  “Where do they find these kooks?” he asked.  “Social media, and huge databases of protestors on call for any reason for Democrats/Progressives/ Socialists.” I said.  I think they also get paid, at least beer money.

Racist, sexist, homophobic, yada, yada

Everything is racist: starting and ending with the people you disagree with (on any subject at all).  (David Warren commenting on his website being blocked) https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2018/11/09/on-hate-racism/

“To people who hate the truth, the truth looks like hate.” Father Paul Sullins suggesting the strong relationship between a sub-culture of homosexual priests and the abuse of young men.  http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/is-catholic-clergy-sex-abuse-related-to-homosexual-priests

Women and Brain Health

NEW YORK -- Former First Lady Laura Bush launched the Campaign for Women's Brain Health here on Tuesday evening to empower women with the tools they need to become more knowledgeable about the brain, and to better implement brain care for themselves and their families.

The project is a collaboration between UsAgainstAlzheimer's, WomenAgainstAlzheimer's, and Woman's Day magazine. The campaign's goal is to expand the fight against Alzheimer's to include all aspects of brain health, noted George Vrandenburg, of USAgainstAlzheimer's, and Jill Lesser, of WomenAgainstAlzheimer's.

"To achieve this, the partnership is engaging three key groups: families and communities; providers, payers, and health systems; and policymakers," Vrandenburg and Lesser stated.

Rest of the article   https://www.medpagetoday.com/neurology/alzheimersdisease/76199?

Your race card has expired, liberals

"No president in history came to office with more political capital than Barack Obama. He squandered it like a lottery winner within a few months. If liberals had any sense of irony, they would appreciate the inanity of braying about racism right after America elected a black president." Joy Tiz, Sept. 16, 2009

But Obama was so good at it, it's now all out, worse than ever, never slow down, and every candidate, black, white, and brown is using it. Black socialist woman didn't win in Georgia--must be racism; black male with questionable background not elected in Florida--must be racism. Black millionaire Don Lemon feels free to demonize all white men, and liberal commentators now go after white women as victims of patriarchy for not voting for blacks.

Halloween is over, time for Christmas

Quote of the Day

The political bias on college campuses

Perhaps you aren't convinced college campuses are just birthing rooms for young Democrats?

"In total, Florida public college employees donated $587,454.47 from 2017-2018. Of that amount, 94.8 percent were made to Democrat politicians or Democrat organizations" and, "Employees of the University of Texas have given $1.1 million during this election cycle, more than 92% of it to Democrats." and at Yale "96 percent of these donations went to Democratic political campaigns and committees."

Of course, I think these are voluntary contributions--public school teacher unions (membership required in order to teach) give 99% to Democrats.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/america-s-most-partisan-industry-1541542039?

Rejoice you pure in heart

I usually save the printed hymns from the Sunday bulletin, and then noticed we had sung “The Church’s One Foundation” twice in a month, once as an entrance hymn and once as a closing hymn.  However, when I looked at the attribution, they were different, with one attributed to Plumptre and Messiter, and one to Stone and Samuel Wesley.  I was pretty sure that Wesley was the one we sang, so I looked up the other combination, and found “Rejoice you pure in heart” and enjoyed this lovely choir, the Metro Singers of Hyattsville, MD . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_GBKSqtgvI 

Then I looked back through what I’d saved, and indeed we had sung “Rejoice you pure in heart.” Don’t know if the misattribution came from the copied source, or if when inserting the hymn into the template, the attribution from a previous week slipped in. 

House lost in mid-terms

Milo said it best

“Abortion is the business model of Planned Parenthood, and business is booming. Looking at the period of 2000 to 2013, government funding increased from just over $200 million to the aforementioned $500 million, while abortions rose 66 per cent and adoption referrals dropped 25 per cent.

More importantly, Planned Parenthood is gaining market share at a strong clip. In 1986, it accounted for about 6 per cent of the abortions in the United States. That has grown to more than 30 per cent as of 2011. This type of growth makes Planned Parenthood the Apple Corp of the Valley of Death.

Planned Parenthood can attribute a good portion of their boffo baby-killing business to their president since 2006, Cecile Richards. Richards is well on her way to personally matching Hitler’s body count. Breitbart has done the grim maths so you don’t have to.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2015/08/22/godwins-law-planned-parenthoods-body-count-is-up-to-half-a-holocaust/

Guest blogger Yusnaiberth explains how socialism really works in the 21st century

I was born and used to live in a very rich country, where anything you planted grew, where any small or big business used to succeed, where people used to leave the country ONLY for two reasons: 1. to study (Post-Grades or Masters) or, 2. for tourism, but they used to come back to keep growing and to keep living happy with everything...with their family and friends to be in an eternal party and comfort.

Since the 50’s, that country used to be the destiny of thousands of immigrants, most of them from Europe. That Country, blessed with beautiful lands, forests, rivers, desert, mountains and beaches; where the Angel Falls is!. . . that country where the most beautiful women used to be . . . that country, that was a paradise WAS my Venezuela, UNTIL Socialism=Communism put its hands on her in 1998. 

That was when Hugo Chavez Frías took the power (a military ex-convict for trying to take the power by force in 1989 and 1992, but then got amnesty from the left party in power).  Everything else I tell you about this story you can find in YouTube or Google.  This man convinced people to vote for him to get rid of the two main parties (AD & Copey) and their corruption, based on Socialism, but at the end it came out to be something worse . . . that “XXI ‘s Century Socialism” was just Pure Communism.

That government became a Dictatorship regime, my country went from a wealthy status to just ruins today.  Chavez destroyed the national production, he closed and/or expropriated any business which disagreed with his ideology: all free, high taxes, exchange control, price control,  etc. Electrical, Communication, Transport and Water companies went from private to public.  Money destined for technology, improvement and maintenance of all those services were stolen . . . disappeared!

He made indefinite re-election, made the presidential period longer . . . anybody in the public administration or system who disagreed or wasn’t registered in his party was fired.

Venezuela was destroyed economically and socially in less than 14 years and once Chavez died, he left as his successor, Nicolas Maduro and this one made things worse, radicalizing the “revolution” and receiving orders and instructions direct from Castro’s Brothers.

Venezuela became a partner with Iran, Russia and China and it is confirmed those countries already have cells and colonies residing there, making Venezuela a huge threat for United States.

Hundreds of thousands of people have died fighting against this regime or due to the insecurity, food and medicine being scarce.

I used to work for +14 years in a big American Company (Procter&Gamble), which during +50 years had its Latin American Division settled in Caracas-Venezuela. We used to be +2000 employees between offices and industrial plants.  Now there are no more than 30 employees, I’m not exaggerating.  Company had to move all its operations due to the insecurity and exchange and price control and the has same happened with all the industries.

Ruins...just ruins is what you can see today...

I came here legally, running away from the regime and insecurity, that was 11 years ago (2007), after I fought against the regime, I protested, voted, signed, ran and almost was killed in a march in 2002.

I finally gave up and realized there was nothing to do anymore if I wanted a future . . . alive. In the last two years I’ve lost 4  members of my family due to lack of medicine or medical attention. People are dying for human rights violation during protests in 2014, then in 2017 . . . Do you know what Obama did or said? NOTHING! He looked to other side!

It’s hard to summarize so many things my country has lived, but what I wanted to say you in one phrase is: “I know the monster and I know what’s inside his guts”...and during 8 years of Obama’s Presidency I could detect so many signals of the same socialism Chavez sold to us. A socialism fed with populism, hate, resent and envy.

I used to give him the benefit of doubt, until in 2013 when I personally participated in a movement to ask Obama for sanctions for the Human Rights violators and Narco-Cartel Military Leaders. Obama ignored us for 7 months, he ignored the +400 students killed or disappeared plus hundreds of political prisoners. HE DID OR SAID ANYTHING! Approved the first sanctions because the pressure of the Republicans Marco Rubio and Diaz Balart and because 2016 election was coming.

Donald Trump, well I didn’t like him that much at first, but I knew that anything against Hillary would be much better...but, something happened, he has not only done everything he promised the USA, he approved not once but 6 rounds of sanctions against Venezuela’s regime corrupt and military cartel members AS HE PROMISED.

Other things made me so convinced about Trump and the RED Wave: the daily cry and attacks of the lefties, everyday posts in Facebook promoting hate and spitting resent and an eternal victimization for the past. . .people who didn’t forgive and move on. . .parents like me supporting things like abortion or early years gender change (I wondered what about if is your own kid?). . .the always “poor illegal immigrant” but God forgive you! if you tell them to open their homes to strangers and pay all their expenses even their visas, medical and school expenses! I’m tired of hearing people who take all for granted and believe a government is responsible for each of their failures and wrong decisions.

And the last drop in the glass...Venezuelans who came here running away of socialism voting for Democrats just to obtain personal benefits.

I’ve been pretty active not only here but in Spain (my husband’s country) where socialism is already destroying that country economy and safety stability. The violent immigrants coming from Africa are being supported and protected by the left-socialist government. I see that  if Democrats win, the same is gonna happen with the violent invasion called “caravan”.

I’m sorry! I tried to summarize too many stuff...I could be writing and writing hundreds of reasons why USA is in danger.  My only purpose is to open the eyes of those who have never been out of USA and don’t really know what socialism is.

I became a Citizen Last May 2018 and I couldn’t be more proud to give my first vote in this country to fight against what I ran away of. I will defend this Country, the country which opened its arms to me, my kids’ country, because they were born here and now my Country, My Sweet Home.

I’m sorry if my English grammar isn’t good, I’m doing my best to speak and write better English every day as part of my obligation of INTEGRATION as immigrant.

Thanks!

Voter suppression by the media

Inside the beltway bubble

 

https://www.lifenews.com/2018/11/06/washington-post-columnist-if-you-vote-republican-youre-okay-with-racism/?

“Appearing on MSNBC Live With Craig Melvin late Tuesday morning, left-wing Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart accused anyone voting for Republicans in the midterm elections of being “okay” with “racism.” Asked later if some Democrats running in red states were “perhaps a little left of the center,” he dismissed such concerns and insisted they were just living their “truth.” “

Democrats and their crony media throw the word racist around like it was candy corn on Halloween. It has become meaningless.

I hope John James wins in Michigan

The investigation is finished—414 pages

Now where does Justice Kavanaugh go to get his reputation back?

“In addition to Ford, Kavanaugh and the three witnesses Ford named — who either denied any knowledge of the alleged incident or directly refuted her claims — the committee spoke with 14 former classmates of Ford and Kavanaugh. "None of them had any knowledge of the conduct alleged against Justice Kavanaugh by Dr. Ford or of the gathering at which she claimed to have been assaulted," the committee states.”

Quite a comprehensive investigation. About Ford, her drinking and party lifestyle, one person reported: " “I wish I could say all of the things I know, but I don’t want to put myself out there.”

I don't blame her. The shameful way the Democrat senators acted, I would never want to be called to testify in traffic court, let alone a SCOTUS confirmation. And no wonder the names are redacted.  They’d never be able to eat in a restaurant or pump their own gas again.  That’s how evil and poisoned the Democrats made this.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/38008/senate-judiciary-heres-everyone-we-interviewed-james-barrett?

https://www.dailywire.com/news/38006/senate-judiciary-committee-report-45-interviews-james-barrett

I understand that Christine Blasey Ford plans to write a book (for a lot of money).  How?  She can’t remember anything!  She needed marital counseling to even come up with lies!

We vote tomorrow

Diversity, Inclusion, Multiculturalism, Microaggression, Ableism, etc.

It’s a huge industry—diversity and inclusion.  There are special reeducation camps on all college campuses, with sub-groups within departments and student organizations and this has expanded to/within corporations.   I noticed this announcement for Ohio State.  It’s like religious evangelism—in fact, it is a religion, except supported by tax dollars. Ohio State has had such an office/department since 1970—almost 50 years.  It’s almost impossible to untangle the number of staff positions and departments—there is for instance, a Council of Hispanic Organizations (UCHO) and the Hispanic Oversight Committee (HOC) at The Ohio State University. They’ve been publishing a magazine for over 25 years.

D and I essentially exists to convince people to base decisions, culture and lifestyle on how people look.

“The “Check Your Blind Spots” Tour is a series of events in partnership with CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion™. The “Check Your Blind Spots” event aims to give faculty, staff, students and community members the opportunity to learn about unconscious bias, perhaps discover some of their own and become aware of companies doing the same.

By participating, you will be empowered with the knowledge and resources needed to strip yourselves of preexisting biases and better understand the role that you can play in advancing diversity and inclusion within your communities and in your future places of work”

Strength Training humor

Sometimes I use a strength training book for humor. Like the IT band stretch. After you cross one leg behind the other ankle. . .

"Lean forward until you are as close to the floor with your fingertips as you can go Or if you are able, grasp your toes, or, as a more difficult modification, place your hands flat on the floor."

In what world?.

“Hollis Lance Liebman has been a fitness magazine editor and national bodybuilding champion. Currently a Los Angeles resident, Hollis has worked with some of Hollywood’s elite, earning rave reviews. He is the author of several fitness books, including The Core Training Kit, Anatomy of Core Stability, and the forthcoming Anatomy of Exercise Encyclopedia. (Amazon)”

• Series: Exercise in Action
• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Thunder Bay Press (May 27, 2014)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 162686053X
• ISBN-13: 978-1626860537

Thoughts on the Central American “caravan”

Some in the caravan are women and children, and depending on which cable news channel you watch, that will be the focus of the camera.  But estimates are the caravan is about 80% young males.  There are also a few criminals, and a few traffickers.  Not all, by any means.  But how many do you folks who don’t object to open borders find acceptable?  10 out of 7,000?  20?  30?  How many trafficked children (documented during the Obama years and reported by Washington Post) are OK? 10? 50? Of the 333,000 illegals deported in 2015, some 42% had criminal convictions (that doesn’t count illegal border crossing or not returning for a court date).  So don’t be so naïve to assume this caravan has no men with criminal behavior.

We actually do have a legal immigration system.  Most immigrants (76%) are in the country legally—and I wish Trump would mention that more often--while a quarter are “unauthorized,” low estimates 11-12 million.  In 2015, 44% of the legals were naturalized U.S. citizens. From 1990 to 2007, the illegal alien population tripled in size – from 3.5 million to a record high of 12.2 million. They don’t necessarily come across the border—some overstay a student visa or their H1B1 visa to work for Google and Facebook.  Again I ask you.  What is the right number for illegals to reside, work, start families with children who will be citizens, educate, use medical care, apply for college, send millions back home, etc. in the U.S.?

These people in THIS caravan of October 2018 are NOT refugees—they have not been in a war, have not spent years in a camp waiting for sponsors, they are well dressed, seem well fed, there are organizations helping them with supplies—they do have a crappy government that can’t control crime. Mexico has offered them asylum and they’ve said No which is how we know they aren’t desperate.  Mexico is not the “streets paved with gold” they seem to imagine or have been promised by various non-profits encouraging this.   But they can seek asylum in the U.S. if they go to the right place.  That isn’t walking across the border. 

Why should these people, most of whom will not come back for a court date if released into the population (catch and release), have priority over displaced people from Africa, or Asia or Iraq (including many Christians)?  There are wars going on all over the globe. Millions are moving on foot or in caravans, crossing dangerous rivers, mountains and deserts.  This group is drawing attention because of the election, and both parties are using them as bait—vote for us, vote for us! This caravan is about Trump—let’s just be honest.  Most of the illegal aliens who already are here live in the top metro areas, all controlled by Democrats.  So of course this is a political issue!  What party wouldn’t want millions more voters indebted to it?

The problem with this chart below is it doesn’t distinguish between legal immigrants and illegal aliens.  But you can pretty much tell.  It’s just tough for the Chinese and Indians to sneak in.  That said, in the next quarter century, Asians will out number Hispanics in either and both types. I don’t recall the name of the law, but the U.S. actually discourages people we might say are influenced by western civilization, or make it very difficult for them. Someone in government decided racial diversity was better than continuity, shared values and history.

Microfiber pollution

I was reading a very interesting article in the Summer 2018 National Parks magazine about microfibers and the plastic pollution in our oceans, rivers and lakes.  A few years ago those tiny particles in toothpaste, hand wash and other personal care products were outlawed, however, synthetic clothing when washed also releases tiny fibers that make it past all the filters and they end up in the water ways. 97% of the microplastics found in a national park study were microfibers most from synthetic clothing, but also fishing nets, carpets, wet wipes and cigarette butts. So even if we think we’re reducing our plastic footprint by consciously not buying food items stored in plastic bottles, each time we buy/wash a polyester blouse, sweater or coat, we’re putting that waste into the waterways.  I agree it’s a big problem. BUT.  This comment at the end of an article  https://storyofstuff.org/blog/microfibers-are-microplastics-1/ with all the inflammatory shoulds and musts is not the way to go or win people over.

“It is crystal clear that the earth needs to recover and that is only possible with mass industry green reconversion. So plastic and all fossil fuels and derived byproducts must stay in the ground as we turn to clean natural renewable energies and go back to old comfy healthy cotton, wool, flax, silk, and intro hemp which makes a great textile as well. All governments need to stop and ban the plastic and fossil fuel production and use and ban them from imports as well. They will find the financial solutions to help small biz reconvert while big ones must pay the enourmous damage they have caused by reinvesting in a full on green repurpose and conversion. “ (Paula)

Cha-Ching. More taxes. More wealth transfer.  More government interference in our lives.  I’d like to see what’s in her closet.

Every item of clothing I’m wearing from my underwear and socks to the colorful scarf while I write this blog is made of synthetic material, but because I keep my clothes forever, and older clothing releases more fiber than newer when washed, I’m doubled damned!

I’ve done my little part to ride my life of plastic.  When I discovered that chewing gum was made out of plastic, I stopped that habit of 70+ years.  I thought they were still using tree sap.

Here’s a blog to help you lighten the plastic damage you’re personally doing to the waterways. https://myplasticfreelife.com/plasticfreeguide/

Oh For a thousand tongues to sing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O9kw3cILpg

We recently sang this in church—but to a more familiar tune by C.G. Glaser (1828).  Since Charles Wesley wrote it in 1739, I wondered what music had been used in the intervening 90 years.  Perhaps this one, but the YouTube didn’t give information on the music. Additional information from the web:

“ Lowell Mason’s (1792-1872) arrangement of the Carl G. Gläser (1784-1829) tune AZMON is used with “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing” in the UM Hymnal. Gläser was a German composer and contemporary of Beethoven. Though Charles Wesley’s text has been sung to a number of tunes through the years, AZMON is the dominant choice throughout the hymnody of the mainline denominations.” https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-o-for-a-thousand-tongues-to-sing

“If I had a thousand tongues, I would praise Christ with them all.” So said Peter Böhler to Charles Wesley, inspiring the first line of the classic hymn, “Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer’s praise” (Psalter Hymnal Handbook.) Written to celebrate the one year anniversary of Charles’ conversion to Christianity, this declaration of Christ’s power and victory in his own life, rich in Biblical imagery of the Kingdom of God, becomes our own hymn of praise. We stand with the angels before the throne of God, lifting our voices as one church to glorify the one who “bids our sorrows cease.”

And yet, we also sing in the knowledge that the Kingdom of God is not yet fully realized. We proclaim Christ’s victory as a declaration of hope that we will see Christ reign over all. We stand with the voiceless, the lame, the prisoner, and the sorrowing, and lift our song of expectation. (Bulletin blurb, https://hymnary.org/text/o_for_a_thousand_tongues_to_sing_my#authority_media_flexscores)

The original hymn had 18 stanzas. The seventh stanza became the first stanza of the hymn that we now know.  We sang four. 

Things I have noticed—guest blogger Jim

Things I have noticed recently:

Just read that 4,153,237 people got married last year; not to cause any trouble but shouldn't that be an even number?

Today a man knocked on my door and asked for a small donation towards the local swimming pool I gave him a glass of water.  KEEP GOING

I want to die peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather. Not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car.

If I had a dollar for every girl that found me unattractive, they would eventually find me attractive.

I find it ironic that the colors red, white, and blue stand for freedom until they are flashing behind you.

When wearing a bikini, women reveal 90% of their body... men are so polite they only look at the covered parts.

A recent study has found that women who carry a little extra weight live longer than the men who mention it.

Relationships are a lot like algebra. Have you ever looked at your X and wondered Y?

Did you know that dolphins are so smart that within a few weeks of captivity, they can train people to stand on the very edge of the pool and throw them fish?

I think my neighbor is stalking me as she's been googling my name on her computer. I saw it through my telescope last night.

Money talks, but all mine ever says is good-bye.

You're not fat; you're just easier to see.

If you think nobody cares whether you're alive, try missing a couple of payments.

I always wondered what the job application is like at Hooters. Do they just give you a bra and say, “Here, fill this out?”

My therapist said that my narcissism causes me to misread social situations. I’m pretty sure she was hitting on me.

On average, an American man will have sex two to three times a week. Whereas, a Japanese man will have sex only one or two times a year. This is very upsetting news to me.  I had no idea I was Japanese.

The location of your mailbox shows you how far away from your house you can be in a robe before you start looking like a mental patient.

I think it's pretty cool how Chinese people made a language entirely out of tattoos.

Money can’t buy happiness, but it keeps the kids in touch!

And finally!

The reason Mayberry was so peaceful and quiet was because nobody was married. Think of this; Andy, Aunt Bea, Barney, Floyd, Howard, Goober, Gomer, Sam, Earnest T Bass, Helen, Thelma Lou, Clara and, of course, Opie were all single.  The only married person was Otis, and he was always drunk!

Democrats want to go backwards

This should be the closing argument for the election: The economy. It's the best in my lifetime. The Recession was over June 2009--before the first dollar was released from Obama to "help." Did it feel over to you? It was the slowest recovery in history, yet Democrats want to return to that!

Obama did everything he could to hold back full recovery to make us more dependent on government--from a take over our health insurance and higher taxes, to shutting down reporters (Trump didn’t jail reporters, but Obama did), to the addition of strangling regulations, to brow beating us with negativity about the country, to bailing out banks and taking over auto companies, to threatening jail if we didn't buy his insurance product, to enabling ISIS and extending the war, to confusing users of public toilets. He virtually destroyed the Democrat Party which has now been taken over by Socialists and other radicals.

Health Care = Impeachment

People (aka Democrats) say Trump is using fear of an alien invasion to rally his base, but Democrats are using health care to try to impeach Trump. Grab the House and drop the issue of health. When Obama took over a fifth of the U.S. economy, health care was barely an issue. Something like 15% didn't have health insurance, many because they didn't want to make a co-pay, preferred not to carry it, or hadn't applied for one of the 4 government plans available. It was a made up issue to grab more power. But once the government "gives" people something, it's difficult to take it back.

Gosnell and Searcy

Nick Searcy who both directed and acted in the Gosnell movie writes,

"I realize, looking back, that I was quite naïve about how this film would be received. I truly believed that if we did it the right way, even the so-called Hollywood Left would appreciate our fairness in telling the story, see its value, and, furthermore, share our goals in getting this important story before the public.

Sadly, I was wrong. As I said, this town runs on fear — the fear not only of failure but, more insidiously, of being shunned because of your political opinions. I was gratified by the talented people in this industry, many of them who differed with me politically, who did believe in our script and were willing to come on board. But many people, some of them good friends of mine, declined to work on this film, not because of its quality but because of the fear of reprisal or even ostracism by the groupthink herd in Hollywood. More than once, I was asked questions like “Are you crazy?” or “Are you sure you want to do this?”"

I had read and reviewed the book, “Gosnell, The Untold Story of America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer” by Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer. I have volunteered in a pregnancy crisis center for 5 years and on the prayer call list for 15—so I was not as shocked as others by this movie.  I contributed money to have this film made. I was very reluctant to see it, but I did, and it is an excellent film. A first class story with excellent production values. You won't be sorry if you see it.

We like to say we have free speech in this country, guaranteed by the First Amendment.  And to an extent, that’s true.  But we don’t have the right to a job, career, family or friends after we exercise the right. And Searcy’s disappointment in his friends is so true.

All Saints and Reformation Sundays

We had such a fabulous music selection on Reformation Sunday—choir, organ, brass.  I don’t know how these things are planned, if there is a worship committee or it’s the choir director Brian and organist Allan or the pastors, but it all worked together.  The prelude was a smashing organ-Trumpet piece called  Chorale with Interludes by Charles Callahan. https://www.morningstarmusic.com/composers/c/callahan 

Our musicians sit behind the congregation in the balcony, so I always have to turn around if I want to see them.  Anyway, as the prelude came to a glorious end, and the trumpet stopped, one pipe on the organ wouldn’t—a very low register with a rumble you could hear a few blocks away.  It must be every performer’s nightmare.  Dave Mann was the pastor who was leading the service (senior pastor Steve Turnbull gave the sermon), and he is also an organist, so he stood there and smiled and waited, but it got louder and louder and you could hear someone rustling around trying to shut down the organ.  So he decided to just go ahead with the Confession and Forgiveness, which had to be shouted. Soon the organ noise quieted down as it was shut off (?).  But an elaborate Call to Worship was planned, and we were not only reading scripture, but were supposed to sing all 4 verses of “A Mighty Fortress” interspersed with scripture, and the organ was needed for that.  So after each verse, the loud malfunctioning pipe would continue, and the lead pastor had to shout over it. Finally, at the end of that section, we heard the maverick pipe sort of quietly slink away.

During coffee time after the service in the narthex I asked one of the choir members how it was fixed and she said someone got a ladder and went up inside the pipes, and stuck in something to stop it.  I’m sure a repairman will be called.  The organ had a huge refurbishment in 2005, thousands and thousands of dollars which I think a donor paid for because it was about 30 years old, and I’m sure general maintenance is  expensive.  http://churchacronym.blogspot.com/2005/05/pentecost-concert-our-choir-presented.html

Today November 1 is All Saints Day, from which we get the festive contraction Halloween, for All Hallow’s Eve. So this coming Sunday is All Saints Sunday.  It too is a lovely service, but more sober.  The names of the congregants who have died since last October 31 are read from the pulpit. Since we are gone in the summer, sometimes I’m not aware of the death.  Then during communion the names of our own remembered friends and relatives are read from cards we had filled out.  "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus . . ." Hebrews 12:1

"Most Lutheran churches use the first Sunday in November to remember all the saints in the Church of Christ Jesus, especially those members and friends of the local congregation who have been called to Heaven in the previous year.

The custom of commemorating all the martyrs of the Church on a single day goes back at least to the third century. All Saints' Day celebrates not only the martyrs and saints, but all the people of God, living and dead, who together form the mystical body of Christ.

In Europe, All Saints' Day is also called All Hallow's Day ('hallowed' means 'sanctified' or 'holy'). October 31st, the evening before All Saint's Day is named All Hallow's Eve, which was contracted to Halloween." (Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Ypsilanti, MI)

Would you fight back?

"The liberal media in America complain because President Donald Trump often calls them "fake news" and "the enemy of the people." They also charge that Trump's criticism fuels an uncivil atmosphere that sparks violence, e.g., they are now blaming Trump's rhetoric for the mail bomber and the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.

But the liberal media do not view their own extremist, hyperbolic "news reporting" and commentary for contributing to America's political incivility, even though their diction is far more militant, repulsive, and noxious than anything Trump has said about the press."
This is how the media describe our president of the United States, and indirectly his supporters, like me. . .

sociopath,
a disturbed person,
a traitor,
white nationalist,
white supremacist,
white bigot,
racist,
sinister,
destructive virus,
treasonous,
straight out of Munich 1928,
Mussolini,
Joseph Stalin,
Nazi,
evil,
mentally unfit,
dictatorship,
Hitler,
unfit to be human,
domestic terrorist,
psychologically troubled,
hate monger,
imperial wizard,
neo-Nazi,
Axis Power,
unfit,
a national security threat,
piece of sh*t,
killer,
out of control,
domestic terror group,
a menace,
nuts,
dictator,
mentally unstable,
Putin's c**k holster,
madman,
giant a**hole,
bigot-in-chief, and
racist-in-residence.

Now be honest, wouldn't you fight back too?
https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/michael-w-chapman/what-liberal-media-actually-say-about-trump-aka-hitler-mussolini-white?

The murder of Whitey Bulger

Whackers Get Whacked by Dan Flynn, American Spectator Winter Hill Gang leader James “Whitey” Bulger, who once “won” a multimillion-dollar prize from the Massachusetts lottery, ran out of luck in West Virginia Tuesday. The 89-year-old died in prison, violently, shortly after his transfer to the United States Penitentiary, Hazelton. The same federal government that empowered Bulger to murder enabled his murder through massive incompetence. Bulger’s brother, Billy, serving as the most powerful politician in the Bay State and an FBI agent on Whitey’s payroll enabled him commit crimes for decades in Boston with impunity. Much like some police, he shook down drug dealers, bookies, and other racketeers for profit. The former Alcatraz inmate’s criminal instincts and street smarts helped him elude capture while on the lam from late 1994 until 2011, when a tip from Miss Iceland, 1974, led to the feds capturing him in Santa Monica, California, a place a long way from South Boston. Many believe, and still believe, the FBI never really wanted to catch a guy who embarrassed them in such a major way. They knew he did wrong. But he knew they did wrong, too. A trial found Bulger complicit in 11 murders. His story inspired characters played on the silver screen by Jack Nicholson and Johnny Depp. But his reluctance to use phones and his ability to elude photographers made him a mysterious, mythic figure in his native South Boston. There, many cast the villain as a hero. “He kept the drugs out of Southie” was a familiar, and false, refrain. But as in the local pedophile-priest scandal, belated media coverage of Bulger’s misdeeds eroded any folk-hero status he once enjoyed. The few reporters who covered him accurately faced threats. Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr, for instance, became the subject of a Bulger assassination scheme. Strangely, knowledge that Bulger became a “rat” for the government, and not any of his murders, did the most to harm his image in South Boston. This, along with gentrification, erased any notion of Bulger as a rogue worthy of admiration. This work as an informant ultimately led to his undoing. Michele McPhee, a tied-in crime reporter who I frequently filled-in for during my flirtation with talk radio in Boston a decade ago, reports that the perpetrator attempted to gouge the wheelchair-bound Bulger’s eyes out. Whoever did the deed apparently knew where the security cameras looked. McPhee cryptically notes about a former Bulger associate: “Cadillac Frank Salemme's recently convicted codefendant Paul Weadick is a Hazelden inmate.” Various reports indicate involvement by mafia-affiliated inmates. “You live by the sword, you die by the sword” seems too neat a conclusion here. Bulger worked the system for decades. The system, which strangely put him in general population, allowed men like him to work him over for a few minutes. Bulger’s life showed that fine lines sometimes differentiate cops and criminals. His death shows that, too.

Ancestry.com and Cesar Sayoc

Cesar Sayoc, the accused pipe non-bomb threat and Trump lover, claims to be Seminole Indian (and a lot of other things), but they won't claim him. Sort of like the Cherokee won't claim Elizabeth Warren. But what puzzles me about this article is the role of Ancestry.com. Are "roots" companies supposed to be revealing personal biographical and biological information to newspapers about people who have used their services? Didn't the Germans use genealogies to track down people with a drop of Jewish blood?

https://www.miamiherald.com/latest-news/article220680590.html

What’s going on with the 14th Amendment?

Yesterday I read an article on the birthright 14^th amendment (which I truly believe Trump is using to get his base in high gear for the election and to keep the CNN opinion/new readers and watchers riled up and jumping off a cliff) which gave some fascinating background. I think it was from 2010—or at least a number of years ago since this pops up from time to time. It was by Ann Coulter, someone I rarely read since she also likes to get people riled up (during the 2016 campaign I think she supported Trump, but then turned against him; don’t recall the details). Anyway it provided historical background that was fascinating. I didn’t know any of it. In 2015 she did a scathing piece on the stupidity of Fox News on the topic of the 14th amendment, but in 2010, her piece was much more reasoned (if she can be called that) and detailed on anchor babies and it involved a footnote. http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2010-08-04.html

“The 14th Amendment was added after the Civil War in order to delegitimize the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision, which held that black slaves were not citizens of the United States. The precise purpose of the amendment was to stop sleazy Southern states [i.e. the Democrat party] from denying citizenship rights to newly freed slaves -- many of whom had roots in this country longer than a lot of white people.
The amendment guaranteed that freed slaves would have all the privileges of citizenship by providing: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."
The drafters of the 14th amendment had no intention of conferring citizenship on the children of aliens who happened to be born in the U.S. (For my younger readers, back in those days, people cleaned their own houses and raised their own kids.)
Inasmuch as America was not yet a massive welfare state, attracting malingerers, frauds and cheats, it would be amazing if the drafters even considered the amendment's effect on the children of aliens.
But they did.
The very author of the citizenship clause, Sen. Jacob Howard of Michigan, expressly said: "This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers."

Coulter continues in the 2010 article:

“And then, out of the blue in 1982, Justice Brennan slipped a footnote into his 5-4 opinion in Plyler v. Doe, asserting that "no plausible distinction with respect to Fourteenth Amendment 'jurisdiction' can be drawn between resident aliens whose entry into the United States was lawful, and resident aliens whose entry was unlawful." (Other than the part about one being lawful and the other not.)
Brennan's authority for this lunatic statement was that it appeared in a 1912 book written by Clement L. Bouve. (Yes, the Clement L. Bouve.) Bouve was not a senator, not an elected official, certainly not a judge -- just some guy who wrote a book.

So on one hand we have the history, the objective, the author's intent and 100 years of history of the 14th Amendment, which says that the 14th Amendment does not confer citizenship on children of illegal immigrants.  

On the other hand, we have a random outburst by some guy named Clement -- who, I'm guessing, was too cheap to hire an American housekeeper. Any half-wit, including Clement L. Bouve, could conjure up a raft of such "plausible distinction(s)" before breakfast. Among them: Legal immigrants have been checked for subversive ties, contagious diseases, and have some qualification to be here other than "lives within walking distance."

Truth

Socialist running the south

From the Secretary of Homeland Security

“There is an appropriate way to express your solutions, to express your ideas. I welcome them at all times, but these calls to violence, these calls to disruptions, are not effective, not productive and frankly they just contribute to additional deconstruction of our ability to work together,” the secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said."

That's a very nice, reasonable, political way to talk, but it doesn't hide the fact that the calls for violence, disruption and resistance from the Left are not intended to be productive or contribute to harmony. They are intended to bring down the Trump administration. If you think things are bad now, wait until November 7. If Republicans keep the House and Senate, there will be more rioting, burning, and screaming at the moon.  If Republicans lose Congress, Democrats will immediately begin plans to destabilize the government and stall the economy.  They will see to it that Trump can succeed at nothing that benefits the country.

https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/melanie-arter/dhs-secretary-there-was-time-when-i-had-review-daily-death-threats

Social Justice

Antisemitism in the Democrat Party

Michael Smith writes: "Antisemitism lives and thrives on the left:

- Louis Farrakhan openly spews hate and is embraced by Democrats like Keith Ellison.

- Linda Sarsour allies herself with feminist groups and the pussy hat wearing Women's March.

- Former President Obama, VP Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry cozy up to Iran.

- Obama and the DNC support sending strategists to Israel to help opposition candidates defeat Netanyahu.

- Anti-Israel BDS and pro-Palestinian movements are aligned with campus leftist movements.

In America today, you can be fired from a 25 million a year media job for merely suggesting that blackface as part of a Halloween costume is OK and celebrated for opposing Israel and supporting people who are blood enemies of the Jewish people."

Karen Mayhew, guest blogger—a good read

She writes on Facebook:  “I am so excited to see so many stories of walking away that I feel compelled to share my own. Caution long:

Born to into a very split household, Dad was a devout Catholic Republican and Mom a bed wetting liberal Jew. I know you're all thinking, "say what?" Anyway, while politics were rarely discussed as a family, politics were an event. Election night the phone got unplugged and pizza got ordered in. I grew up on ABC News Election Nights with Brinkley and Hugh Downs. I remember my Dad taking me to a Reagan rally at the Portland Airport Holiday Inn. It was a good growing up.

As I got older (high school) some of my Mom's liberal politics crept into my arguments. Hey, I was a teenager. I remember actually defending abortion at one point in of all places in Sunday School. This was the early 90's Portland, Oregon before Portland went full on insane.

1996 was my first election and I voted for Dole. Where did I switch from defending abortion in 1992 to voting for Dole 4 years later? I didn't go to college, I went to work out of high school and nothing moves teenage idealism to conservatism than seeing taxes taken from your paycheck.

But that was only the very beginning.

In 1998 I moved to San Francisco because I could and because I hated boring Portland. San Francisco's liberalism was so repulsive in every sense. Bums, drugs, corruption, anti-Israel, racism cloaked as diversity, if you name it and hated it, SF had it in spades. I lasted 4 years in SF before squirreling back to Portland. SF was terrible in 2002 and I saw the writing on the wall. That writing is what we read about everyday now. Poop maps anyone?

Back in Portland, married, a new homeowner and decidedly conservative, I found myself a plaintiff against my employer and the SEIU when my job was hijacked and this my career threatened. I successfully sued the union OUT of my job and an activist was born.

I became a national face for the Right to Work when Bush was President, testifying to Congress in 2007 against card check, something the democrats sarcastically and deceptively called the employee free choice act (ECFA). My story and many others like mine made certain EFCA never made it to Bush's desk. To this day I will never be able to repay those Constitutional, Federalist Society, attorneys whose brilliant legal minds came to my rescue pro-bono. A legal activist was born.

Then came the nightmare. His name was Obama. Obama kissed the asses of the union I had just defeated. He promised if elected EFCA would be the law of the land. And he won. I was more determined and more conservative every day that he promised he had a pen and a phone. He rammed through Obamacare, lost Congress, won re-election in 2012, and then lost the Senate in 2014. And yet he still terrorized freedom through executive fiat while he stacked the courts. He was wildly unpopular if the losses his party suffered yet he laid the groundwork that his stains would linger a long time. Maybe forever.

In 2013 I escaped for good insane Portland to North Carolina. For the first time in my life I lived where I could be an out, loud and proud conservative. And I was one in real life and on social media. And boy did those Portland, Oregon Facebook friends unfriend me at an impressive clip. A conservative??? Oh noes! Well ... Bye! I attended my first CPAC in 2014, I met fellow activists from all over the nation, I honed my skills in activist boot camps, landed at Heritage Action and in 2015 went to work for Ted Cruz's Presidential campaign. Ahhhh, life was good until it was Trump v Clinton.

I hated both of them and voted for neither. While I celebrated Inauguration Day, it was a celebration for me of Obama being gone. I had massive reservations about Trump until January 31st 2017, the night Trump nominated Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. One of the last events I participated in (before moving to my current location, Wisconsin) was the effort to lobby for Gorsuch. He was such a longshot but judicial activists like myself knew he was the next Scalia. And Trump delivered him.

Last June the SCOTUS (with Gorsuch) delivered the Janus decision that gives public sector union members the right to work. The decision was a Hosanna for a right to work advocate like me. The next day, Kennedy announced his retirement from the court.

On July 9th, Trump nominated a milquetoast Court of Appeals judge named Brett Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh was nothing to be excited about. But the increasingly unhinged left had other plans. Especially a crazy lady from Palo Alto and a Senator named Feinstein.

At the time of Kavanaugh's hearings, the left for over a year and a half had thrown everything they had at Trump to no avail. He was winning, America was winning, McConnell was winning. And the left was incredulous. And since they couldn't get Trump they were going to get somebody. Anybody. Judge Brett Kavanaugh was the unlucky victim.

What happened to Kavanaugh turned me into the biggest activist yet. The Democrats went so vile that a once a milquetoast judge was now someone I was willing to put my life on hold for to fly to DC, twice, to lobby Senators to confirm. Again, a judicial activist. A lover of the Constitution and the rule of law could not be stopped.

What happened to Kavanaugh was the Democrats doing in full view what created this walk away campaign, though I know its birth goes back to 2016. The assaults by the media, the invective by candidates (a basket of deplorables) and the like. From Wisconsin, I welcome all of you to the side of righteousness and fairness. To the Constitution, to the right to life, to liberty, to the pursuit of happiness; I walk with you to #MAGA.”

Karen gave me permission to repost this from the Walkaway Facebook page.  Wow.  She’s on fire.

Tucker on open borders

Historically, Democrats supported strong borders because they knew American workers could never compete with illegal immigrants. Now, they regularly support “open borders.” So why the drastic change? They know it hurts American workers. Why don't Democrats care anymore? Watch them flip on immigration issues in this video, even since 2006.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUU2iWxrH2M

Thinking about organized crime and Khashoggi

When the news came out about the death, torture and mutilation of Jamal Khashoggi, the NYT Muslim reporter killed by his own countrymen, our media were horrified because he was one of their own. The story was even used to club Trump--but then everything is. Obviously, he'd done something to offend his "tribe" or "family."

I was reading "Ohio's Black Hand Syndicate; the Birth of Organized Crime in America" by David Meyers and his daughter Elise Meyers Walker at the time. (It happened in Ohio.) The Appendix contains the By-laws of the organization. Article 1: "The person who tries to reveal the secrets of this society will be punished with death." The articles go on to describe what other offences will be covered by Article 1 and includes offending someone, or harming another branch of the group or family. And the articles include using a knife to mark the offender, and stabbing. In fact, having one's body marked with a knife or being stabbed is also the punishment if a member has received an insult but didn't report it! And a member can be marked with a knife, stabbed, or branded if he fails to use the knife on someone else when ordered (perhaps the Saudis had the same rule?).

This crime syndicate was born in a fruit store in Marion, Ohio, and terrorized immigrant communities. All this was late 19th and early 20th century organized.  Evil is global and not confined to one ethnic, religious or national group.

Glenn Beck interviews Michael Rectenwald of NYU

Michael Rectenwald is a former Communist professor at NYU and is now a libertarian. What really changed his views was having his friends and colleagues attack him because he didn’t like the PC atmosphere on campus and wrote about it. Was attacked as just another Cis-gender white male supremacist. He was an outstanding professor, loved by his students, did all the committee and membership stuff you have to do to get P & T at a university. Published many articles and books defending Marxism. But as I’ve mentioned before eventually the Left eats its own, and it went after him.

Glenn Beck is probably the best interviewer on radio/TV—actually lets his guest speak. Although we don’t watch him regularly like we did 5 years ago, he’s outstanding in this capacity. This is an excellent story about Prof. Rectenwald’s transition, not from male to female, but from left to liberal/libertarian. He explains what is happening in our culture: Communism is like blowing up a building with bombs; post-modernism is like placing a few strategic termites and waiting for the building to fall. He dates this to 1968. And it begins with language. There is nothing but language, and to subvert the culture, you begin with the language. https://www.glennbeck.com/glenn-beck-podcast/michael-rectenwald-episode-3

Oh, and by taking a stand and not submitting to “a mental health leave” for his political views, he did get his job back.

Having THE TALK with children in the 21st century

Forty five years ago I was probably considering how to talk to my children about “where do babies come from.”  And as they got a little older I even asked my church for help as they neared those scary adolescent years (btw, got zip nada zilch).  It’s a little tougher today.

• Sex Outside of Marriage
• Same-Sex "Marriage"
• Divorce
• Contraception
• Abortion
• Reproductive Technologies
• Modesty
• Pornography
• Transgenderism
• Homosexuality

I can be fairly certain we talked about divorce.  That was all around them. Playmates. Cousins. TV and movie themes.  Even children’s books were addressing that trauma for children. And yes, modesty.  I’m sure they saw my disapproval at some of the 70s fashion when we went shopping or watched TV together.  But transgenderism?  Never.  In fact, until the Supreme Court decided to undo thousands of years of tradition for pagans and religious people alike, there was little said about that, but certain well funded groups needed a new challenge.  Same sex “marriage” in the 1970s was not an option—in fact, until the election of 2012, no responsible candidate for president would have even suggested it.

But there’s help today that wasn’t available then (in part there was no need for this title in the 70s).  Leila Miller and Trent Horn have co-authored, “Made This Way, How to Prepare Kids to Face Today's Tough Moral Issues.”  Some churches are buying it in bulk ($5) and giving it to parents.

The authors are Catholic (I heard about the book on the podcast of Catholic Answers), but don’t let that deter you if you don’t share their faith.  Catholics are really the only Christians who have a well thought out, systematic teaching on sexuality.

The authors’ approach “begins not with the Bible or Church teaching but with the natural law. In kid-friendly ways, Miller and Horn help you communicate how the right way to live is rooted in the way we're made. God's design for human nature is a blueprint or owner's manual for moral living that any child can grasp through reason and apply to modern controversies over sex, marriage, life and the quest for human fulfillment.”

Leila Miller and Trent Horn.  Made this way, How to Prepare Kids to Face Today’s Tough Moral Issues. Catholic Answers Press, 2018

Sample chapter

NYU Professor Michael Rectenwald—Springtime for Snowflakes

If you are employed in academe and are a conservative, stay off Twitter and Facebook. https://vimeo.com/284319829?fbclid=IwAR1eDZIB1ESYP5_yXl_Vp-yBSmqleCDDprPhhtgzxLO6vJh1eaEssHFipYE

HR's threatened "voluntary" leave of absence for mental health (his political views were a "cry for help") reminds me of the USSR or China. A former leftist, he's fighting back. What happens in academe has metastasized to the general culture.

Rhetorical question

19 months of constant resistance

 

The media are just egging the unstable on.  Hoping it will get Trump killed.

“When was the last time an actor assassinated a president?” asked Johnny Depp at a film festival recently.

"Yes, I'm angry. Yes, I am outraged. Yes, I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House," Madonna said.

“Impose martial law until we know the Russians weren’t involved in the election . . . I want to send the military to the White House. . .” Rosie O’Donnell

Eating in the 1950s

A thank you note

I'm one of the millions who sent money to make the Gosnell movie. Today I received another nice "thank you."

"Yes, your support has meant that a baby will not be killed in an abortion. It will survive thanks to you. This extraordinary miracle happened when a group went to see the Gosnell Movie in Bakersfield. A group of moms was so moved and motivated by the film that they decided to go and stand at a nearby abortion clinic with their small children. There they met a woman going for an abortion and with their babies they inspired her not to go in."

The power of a well made film with a message.

The WalkAway Campaign

There is a social media site that’s getting a lot of traction, and I read it since I was a Democrat until 2000.  The founder, Brandon Straka, a gay actor (I suspect he must be out of work), has done some TV appearances on Fox—or possibly others. The bulk of the “testimonies” are young people—of all varieties—gay, trans, brown, black, born again Christians, Muslims, atheists, white even foreign—who have walked away either from liberalism or Democrat party.  Many submit videologs about their epiphanies.  Not all say they’ve become Republicans, but they aren’t voting Democrat in this or the 2020 election.  Their biggest complaint seems to be they are tired of being treated like victims, and they realize the media are biased.  That said, this one pasted below seems a little formulaic to me—as if it were written by a Democrat or two I know.  As if they were suddenly to see the light.  Question:  Do people really become wise, sensible, patriotic and pragmatic by getting off social media and not watching the news?

“I'm 26. I was a Democrat and progressive every since I first got into politics. Loved President Obama, voted for Bernie in the primary. Then voted for Hillary. I HATED Trump, the reason is because I thought he was racist, sexist and a bigot, I also thought all Republicans and his were supporters were too. When he won, I was devastated. Couldn't believe this happened. I expected the world to end, literally. Up until a little over a month ago, I was a dedicated viewer of CNN and MSNBC, listened to SiriusXM progress on a daily basis etc. Everyday that passed by, I got madder and madder. And I hated him more and more. I finally got so tired of him, I decided to stop watching the news and take a break from social media. That was when I finally had time to think, on my own, without 24/7 liberal commentary/media TELLING me how to think.. I realized this is the greatest country on Earth. I'm not a victim, I'm not a whiner. I take personal responsibility for myself. There's so much to be grateful for being an American. I started questioning why I was a Progressive. The reason is because I thought I was SUPPOSED to be one. I also realized that the news paints this man in such a terrible light, they WANT you to hate him. While in reality, this country is doing GREAT under his leadership. They want you to focus on his character and not how America is becoming the world leader again. Every single attack against him is that he's supposedly racist sexist and bigoted, that's all bs man. Nobody wants to talk about how great America is doing right now. When you realize that, there's no way you can be a Dem anymore. He is standing up for this country, and they hate it. They want him to be a globalist and make the rest of the world happy, at the expense of Americans. I honestly believe they don't love this country. I didn't. I came to the revelation that 90% of what I was complaining about was BS and playing the victim. All rooted in emotions and zero logic. I was mad all the time and truly didn't know why. That's exactly how all of them are. They'll never admit this country is wonderful. They'll never admit this man is doing great. I am. Therefore I am not a Democrat anymore, and I will vote for him in 2020. And whoever wants to help him along the way. I believe millons of Americans like me are walking away, silently. The media will never report it. But they will see sooner rather than later.”

Kavanaugh and caravan didn’t seem to do it, so--

After the Justice Kavanaugh debacle when many independents and even some Democrats turned against the last minute smear tactics of the Democrats in the Senate, a meeting was called.  Senate Democrats, members of the deep state, high level members of the Obama administration, tenured radicals in academe, late night comedians and the main stream media put their heads together two weeks before the election and said, "What can we do to stop this man who has foiled everything we've been able to throw at him?"

And they came up with another last minute plan . . . more dangerous and evil than all the rest combined. If anyone gets hurt, it will just be one of the little people who work for a living, because all the “targets” have layers of security.

Which party has an unabashed record for violence?

At 47%, Trump's approval rating at mid-terms is higher than Obama's in 2010, and 6 bombs didn't go off right before elections giving Democrats free air time to talk about how awful Trump is.

It's the Democrats who have been encouraging violence--Clinton, Holder, Waters, etc. Just Google "violence against Fox" and you'll find stations attacked with bombs and trucks in Baltimore, Boston, and LA, and that's as far as I got.  What comedians have shown Trump’s severed head on YouTube/TV? Who thinks it’s funny to threaten his son with rape, and produce a rap video of the first lady as a stripper. Then subscribe to Washington Post on line and have 9 out of 10 articles be not just anti-Trump. but full of lies. The intent is to outrage their readers, and if it brings some unstable people to violence Nancy Pelosi gets her “collateral damage.” Who has been attacking members of the Trump administration in restaurants, malls and elevators? Who tells their supporters to get in the faces of Republicans and drive them out, or kick them when they are done?

The left is so undone with their collective inability in government, academe and entertainment to thwart we the voters, they are moved to violence.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/pipe-bombs-story-why-no-one-trusts-media/

Lovely tradition

On this day in 1987

The Borking. On October 23, 1987, the United States Senate held one of the most-controversial votes on a Supreme Court nominee in its history, when it rejected Robert Bork’s appointment.

The evil and words of Ted Kennedy was still apparent during the Kavanaugh hearings. We heard almost exactly the same charges.  "“Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists would be censored at the whim of government, and the doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is often the only protector of the individual rights that are the heart of our democracy,” he said.

The irony is the Supreme Court always moves to the left, even with an appointment by a Republican.  Democrats are never disappointed in a Republican nominee—Republicans always are.

Update from Larisa on Lily’s leukemia

“Today Lily had her first 4 week off treatment appointment. Her counts looked good. Not quite normal yet but that is expected. She is feeling much better off chemo. Her back pain which was causing a bunch of issues a couple of months ago is much better since she started doing acupuncture!

Overall Lily is doing great. She is enjoying her senior year of high school. She has heard back from two colleges that she has been admitted and is waiting on her final 4 colleges and nursing programs to make a final decision.

Overall her body is still recovering from the two years of more chemo. This month they are running some additional tests to see how her immune system is recovering. Those results will take a couple of days. In addition she is continuing to follow up with orthopedics on her back — they recommended acupuncture which is working so praying that continues to improve her back and overall pain level. She will also follow up with endocrinologist in December. We are hoping getting off chemo will help with the issues she has had there. Time will tell on most of this. We are cautiously trying to wean her off some more of her meds. It will be a slow process.

So on a different note please send up a prayer for our sweet clinic friend Finn. His cancer continues to spread. He and his mom sat often beside us at clinic. Such a sweet family. Please keep them in your prayers. Rhabdo is a horrible cancer.”

https://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2017/09/childhood-cancer-grandmothers-guest-blog.html

https://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2018/09/lilys-leukemia-battle.html

https://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2018/09/september-is-childhood-cancer-awareness.html

Hungry children at schools

I'm watching a TV ad about hungry children and school feeding programs. It’s a very positive message about how these programs help children learn.

I attended kindergarten in Alameda, CA during WWII and remember receiving free milk (in glass bottles). I asked my husband who went to first grade (no kindergarten) in Indianapolis. He remembers free milk also--he even recalled leaving the classroom and going to a particular place in the building to get the milk.

When I was in high school we could buy milk cartons for 2 cents (no pop in the building in those days). The lunch program in the 1950s used "surplus government commodities," and according to the document cited below it began in 1947. Who can forget shredded turkey in gravy on mashed potatoes with a side of green beans? Not as good as mom's. My mother recalled lunches at her one room country school in Lee County, IL, but the parents brought it.

Now children can receive breakfast, lunch, after school snacks and summer nutrition programs when schools are closed either free or subsidized by the government. Breakfast programs began in 1966 as a pilot program, and became permanent in 1975. And now we battle obesity in children and almost 40 million children are fed at school. But "food insecurity" apparently has increased, not decreased.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_meal_programs_in_the_United_States

https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/child-nutrition-programs/national-school-lunch-program.aspx

https://fns-prod.azureedge.net/sites/default/files/SNDA-IV_Findings_0.pdf

When the government separates children from parents

As you all know, our state and local governments separate children from their parents--usually an agency called child services something, and like what's happening at the border it is for their own safety and well-being. Sometimes the parent is going to prison, sometimes the home life is chaotic, sometimes the parent is mentally ill, or abusive, or homeless or has died.

If possible, the agency representing the state works to reunite the family, just as is going on at the border, sometimes they place them with relatives, as immigration services is doing, sometimes the hearings are extended or postponed, as is happening to the illegal immigrants who then just disappear.

It's a long, tedious process. Occasionally our American children are "surrendered," and an adoptive family is found, or they go to foster care until they "age out." It's always disruptive and painful for the children. If you care about the children our government is protecting at the border, toss in some care for America's children who go through this every day. . . maybe visiting dad in prison, maybe at granny's part of the time, and aunty's home part of the time. Frequent school changes, lost records, and missing friends while going from foster home to foster home.

Although the agencies are state and local, much of the funding for our U.S. children comes from your federal government which has an elaborate reporting system, and even then it sometimes fails the children (which is the sad story you read in the papers). The Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) collects case-level information from state and tribal title IV-E agencies on all children in foster care and those who have been adopted with title IV-E agency involvement. These child statistics include race, ethnicity, age, demographics, court dates, adoption and foster records, medical including immunization (which the foreign children don't have, btw), parents' problems, income, etc. quite detailed and the information collection and research has been going on for decades.

The border children have none of these records, and information is collected on the fly. The federal agencies have to be sensitive to child trafficking, and there's no quick way to find out who these children belong to. During the last administration an unknown number of children were placed with traffickers. I looked at the Ohio AFCARS page which had 18 different elements, and found it overwhelming. The section for tribal groups has 24 different elements.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/obama-administration-placed-children-with-human-traffickers-report-says/2016/01/28/39465050-c542-11e5-9693-933a4d31bcc8_story.html?

The Obama administration failed to protect thousands of Central American children who have flooded across the U.S. border since 2011, leaving them vulnerable to traffickers and to abuses at the hands of government-approved caretakers, a Senate investigation has found.  (Washington Post, Jan 28, 2016)

Hymns of praise

 

We attend the traditional service at our Lutheran church (NALC) in Upper Arlington, Ohio.  There are two other types of services—one I call “happy clappy” which I’m guessing is mostly post-1960s songs and praise music without liturgy and the other “clangy bangy” with very loud guitars and drums, and we have two locations for one congregation. Right now we have a total of five services, but I can remember a time when we had 10, trying to suit all the tastes in worship style and preaching. Our traditional service at Lytham Road has a choir and the other two have praise bands with perhaps a quartet to lead the music.  The pastors rotate, so we all eventually hear the same sermons by the same pastors. Right now we’re in a study called “Gathered,” which is about worship.  Last week was on music (song) with sermon by senior pastor Steve Turnbull and yesterday was the sacraments by Aaron Thompson who is director of the high school ministry.  Lutherans have two sacraments—baptism and communion, but for 1500 years the Christian church had six sacraments, but Martin Luther cut them to two, and today many Protestant and Bible and non-denominational churches have no sacraments, only memorials.

So this all leads to the opening hymn of praise, “Praise the Lord! O Heavens. I always read the information about the hymn writers at the bottom of the page (I don’t like to read words on a screen, because I like to see the music so I can practice my dwindling ability to read music.) This one said, Text: The Foundling Hospital Collection, London, 1796.  One of the beautiful things I appreciate about the Internet is I don’t have to wait long to satisfy my curiosity. An antiquarian book dealer, Simon Beattie of London had one for sale and was discussing its history. You can go to his website for further explanation of the institution and its collection, and also http://www.intriguing-history.com/foundling-hospital-collection/  The hospital has a fascinating history which includes Dickens and Handel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundling_Hospital

The Foundling Hospital, Britain’s first children’s charity, had been established by Thomas Coram in 1739.  ‘The Hospital chapel, in use by 1749 and officially opened in 1753, soon became well known for its music as well as for its elegant architecture and adornments …  The singing of the children at ordinary Sunday services was a great attraction to fashionable London and became an important source of income to the Hospital through pew rents and voluntary contributions.  Music was specially composed and arranged for the Hospital chapel, and the success of the singing led to a demand for this music, which was met by the publication of a book called Psalms, Hymns and Anthems; for the Use of the Chapel of the Hospital for the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and Deserted Young Children.  It is generally known more informally as the Foundling Hospital Collection’ (Nicholas Temperley, ‘The Hymn Books of the Foundling and Magdalen Hospital Chapels’, Music Publishing & Collecting: Essays in Honor of Donald W. Krummel (1994), p. 6).  [from Beattie’s blog)

This hymn is in the 1978 Lutheran Book of Worship and the Lutheran Service Book and Hymnal of 1958, which notes the text is by John Bacchus Dykes, 1823-76, which wouldn’t work with the copyright of 1796.