Propolis—bee glue

Today I ordered a small bottle of propolis. . . bee glue.  On Feb. 28, which was “Rare Disease Day” I found a podcast about rare diseases which featured a bee keeper, formerly of Wall Street. https://harperspero.com/podcast-notes/carlystein

Her passion for the power of the bees originated from a personal medical issue she faced while traveling in Italy. After discovering the incredible healing properties of bee propolis while abroad, she set out on a mission to share the wonders from the hive and educate people on the integral role the bees play in our ecosystem.

So that aroused my curiosity and I began researching propolis, bee glue, which bees use to repair and protect their hives.

According to WebMD:  “Propolis is a resin-like material made by bees from the buds of poplar and cone-bearing trees. Propolis is rarely available in its pure form. It is usually obtained from beehives and contains bee products. Bees use propolis to build their hives.
Propolis is used for canker sores and infections caused by bacteria (including tuberculosis and upper respiratory tract infections), by viruses (including HIV, H1N1 "swine" flu, and the common cold), by fungus, and by single-celled organisms called protozoans. Propolis is also used for cancer of the nose and throat; for treating warts; and for treating gastrointestinal (GI) problems including Helicobacter pylori infection in peptic ulcer disease.
People sometimes apply propolis directly to the skin for wound cleansing, genital herpes, cold sores (herpes labialis), vaginal swelling (vaginitis), and minor burns. Propolis is also used topically as a mouth rinse to treat painful mouth sores and inflammation (oral mucositis) and thrush (oropharyngeal candidiasis) and to improve healing following oral surgery.
In manufacturing, propolis is used as an ingredient in cosmetics.”

I went to several stores that carry supplements, health foods, etc., and although I did find the spray, I didn’t find the capsules, so I ordered them on line.  Sounds like a wonder drug, and from the two research/medical articles I read, it’s different and useful for a variety of things based on the geographic area, just like honey.

This one has an emphasis on propolis from India, but covers all countries.  Lots of references. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3872021/

“Propolis is a natural resinous mixture produced by honey bees from substances collected from parts of plants, buds, and exudates. Due to its waxy nature and mechanical properties, bees use propolis in the construction and repair of their hives for sealing openings and cracks and smoothing out the internal walls and as a protective barrier against external invaders like snakes, lizards, and so forth, or against weathering threats like wind and rain. Bees gather propolis from different plants, in the temperate climate zone mainly from poplar. Current antimicrobial applications of propolis include formulations for cold syndrome (upper respiratory tract infections, common cold, and flu-like infections), wound healing, treatment of burns, acne, herpes simplex and genitalis, and neurodermatitis. Worldwide propolis has a tremendous popularity, but in India the studies over propolis have just started, not extensively reported except few regions of India like Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Gujrat, and Madhya Pradesh.”

This one is very long and detailed with chemical analysis: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4461776/

The one caution most sites mention is that some people have allergic reactions to honey and propolis.

https://saveourbones.com/the-overall-and-bone-health-benefits-of-caffeic-acid/

Caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) is one of the main medicinal components of propolis. Propolis is a naturopathic formulation collected by honeybees from buds and exudates of conifer trees and plants. It is used by the bees as a protective barrier in the hive. CAPE in breast cancer research.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3144783/

Use of CAPE in dental diseases. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6381107/

Anti-viral properties of CAPE https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4665029/

Anti-microbial https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4927136/

Cognitive improvement elderly http://www.propolisscience.org/propolis-and-cancer/brazilian-green-propolis-prevents-cognitive-decline-into-mild-cognitive-impairment-in-elderly-people-living-at-high-altitude/   refers to article in Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, 63(2) 551-560, April 2018

Anti-cancer affects of propolis  https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.2042-7158.2011.01331.x#.WvHN9e5RMoU

From the inside—how she escaped the welfare trap

Tinker writes on Facebook:

“I have been a life long conservative (not to be confused as a Republican) because of how I watched the “system” take advantage of my mother’s propensity toward drugs, alcohol and terrible men. She had 5 children from 3 men (not husbands) and fed her addictions more than she fed her children. She would bring her destructive “love” relationships into the home and subject her kids to the inevitable destruction that was to be our “normal” way of living.

She was on every subsistence available to her, and learned how to game the system with precision. Welfare would occasionally call to schedule an appointment for a “welfare check” and with that handy little heads up, my mother would move her man’s clothes etc., out of the house so that it appeared to be just her, a poor pathetic abused woman, and her five hungry kids struggling to make ends meet. As a CHILD I saw that this was wrong and hopeless, but the checks kept coming . . .yet somehow life never got better.

My mom was never truly helped by any of these handouts, in fact quite the opposite. But more importantly, her children were absolutely never helped by this government “assistance “. It became a lifestyle, a career actually for my mother until the day she died at 39 due to a (rather short) lifetime of drug and alcohol abuse. She learned how to sell food stamps for cash, and work a waitressing job (for cash) while still collecting “government assistance “. And make no mistake, it’s a community. All of her friends were exactly the same, and all of their kids had the same look of despair as my mothers children.

I am so grateful, GRATEFUL that I somehow saw the reality of this cycle of abuse (and that’s what it is!) that was perpetrated on our family. I truly believe that the “system” saw all of us kids as future Democrats. I really do. I left home at 16, moved in with a friend and her family, finished high school and began building my own life. Happy in the struggle of it too because I knew I was free. Free from being held down by a system that promised to give me clothes and food if I would remain faithful to the system. No way!

Then for some reason, though my mother was anything but political, I was drawn to such things. In the 10th grade I was intrigued by Ronald Reagan. The media hated him, my teachers weren’t crazy about him and sometimes said the most awful things about him, but I just couldn’t believe these things were true of someone who had been elected by the people of America. My father had been in the army, my grandfather and uncle had served in the Air Force, so at heart, I was a patriot (I didn’t really know that term then), but I really loved America. So I began listening to Ronald Reagan, and then I wrote him a couple of letters. . . .and he wrote back! My first ability to vote was in his re-election, I was 19 and I couldn’t have been more proud to cast my vote for him.

My whole extended family (as I later learned) were blue blood Democrats, so I guess I defected from tradition without knowing it. We never openly discussed politics in my family. So, I can truly say that I have always been a conservative. Not because I was trained to be such, but because life’s struggles and lessons had shaped me in that direction, and I learned first hand the rewards of hard work. It just made sense to me.

I am also a woman who loves Jesus, I have since I was a very young girl. He is (quite literally) my Savior. I think it is SO IMPORTANT to know what you believe, and WHY you believe it. Because THAT is what makes us authentic, and real, right down to our soul. Our beliefs cannot simply be an “anthem” or some clever meme, they must reveal who we are and act as a compass, or we will crumble when the storms of life come blowing through, or fall for silver tongued politicians who say what our itching ears may want to hear.

Thank you Brandon [Walkaway campaign] for your courage, your honesty and most importantly, your willingness to use your life to help others in the struggle. Your interview with Mark Levin was captivating and raw and I found myself praying for you and thanking God for your strength and willingness to accept something that had been so contrary to your previous beliefs. Continue to shine your light of truth so that others can break free from the bonds of emotional entrapment which the Left has so skillfully kept them strapped to.

AOC’s New Green Deal

Patrick Moore, a founder of Greenpeace, issued a spanking to do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter. [according to Dan Flynn of Spectator.org]

“Pompous little twit,” he wrote the freshman congressman on Twitter. “You don’t have a plan to grow food for 8 billion people without fossil fuels, or get food into the cities. Horses? If fossil fuels were banned every tree in the world would be cut down for fuel for cooking and heating. You would bring about mass death.”

But guess who would still have food and fuel? The socialist politicians like Alex Cortez. 

FLOTUS speaks out for children

“This week, First Lady Melania Trump will be traveling the nation to speak about the opioid epidemic and share what the president’s administration is doing to address the crisis. This will be in conjunction with her Be Best campaign to also promote the well-being of children and online safety. On Monday, she will travel to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and then to Seattle, Washington. On Tuesday, she will take part in town hall discussions in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“Whether it is social media and technology or drug and alcohol abuse, children in our country and around the world are faced with many challenges. Through Be Best I will continue to shine a spotlight on the well-being programs that provide children the tools and skills required for emotional, social and physical well-being and promote successful organizations, programs, and people who are helping children overcome some of the issues they face while growing up in the modern world.””

Presidential Prayer Team

https://www.whitehouse.gov/bebest/

And of course, what we can expect from NPR, reporting on her campaign one month in. . .

https://www.npr.org/2018/06/07/617642736/1-month-later-whats-become-of-melania-trumps-be-best-campaign

And pot shots from CNN.  It is so predictable.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/31/opinions/the-problem-with-melania-trumps-be-best-campaign-dantonio/index.html

Washington Post’s limp correction of Covington story

Washington Post's walk back of its false, misleading story on the Covington Catholic kids hasn't satisfied Mike Huckabee.

"But read WaPo’s statement and note what it doesn’t say (like “We apologize for getting this story completely wrong.”) It’s phrased like a bland “correction,” but their initial story didn’t need just a “correction;” it was the exact opposite of what actually happened and required a full retraction. For instance, the boys didn’t make offensive racist remarks to anyone, but offensive racist remarks were shouted at them. WaPo’s story was nothing but a lazy regurgitation of a leftist Internet hit job on some innocent kids just because they were wearing MAGA caps and coming from a pro-life rally.

As to WaPo’s weasely claim that the situation was more “complicated” that it first seemed: no, it wasn’t. They reported something they wanted to be true that was the opposite of what actually happened. That’s not “complicated,” it’s just plain old bias. "

https://www.mikehuckabee.com/latest-news?ID=1056A130-8284-4A79-9CC7-4046900BCBA8

Now that the richest man in the world owns WaPo, and he hates Trump and Republicans with a passion, it's hard to find any decent reporting in it.

Jesus at the “bedside” of the aborted child

Imagine if you can. . .it may not be a bed, or a table—might be a medical waste can. The baby might be alive and struggling.  There’s never a medical reason for a 3rd term abortion.  “. . . but the disciples rebuked them.”  Tragically, Jesus has disciples, church members of many denominations and groups from Catholic to Baptist, from Orthodox to Methodist, who are rebuking these children.

“People were bringing children to Jesus that he might touch them,
but the disciples rebuked them.
When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them,
"Let the children come to me; do not prevent them,
for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
Amen, I say to you,
whoever does not accept the Kingdom of God like a child
will not enter it."
Then he embraced the children and blessed them,
placing his hands on them.”

Mark 10:13-16

The Right to Fail—PBS

Pro-Publica and Frontline reporting on moving high functioning mentally ill people out of managed homes to supportive “independent” living. The reporter Joaquin Sapien  focuses on Nestor Bunch who at 52 was living on his own for the first time. He was in and out of supported housing, hospital, had roommates, and a 4 hour a day aide.

The complexity of care—and caring—really surprised me.  The reporter had access to boxes of medical records.  Everything was recorded—successes, failures, medications, roommates.

I’ve seen a lot of criticism from Democrats of Ronald Reagan when he was governor of California for signing the law that closed the institutions for the mentally ill, and they say, no accuse, that he is the reason for California’s terrible homeless problem.  However, it was an idea about “rights” for the mentally ill that came from academics.  So I was shocked to see the same reasoning still applies today, as NYC tries to reduce its population of seriously mentally ill from protective, and even locked, housing for many adults, and turn them lose in the name of “right to fail.”

None of the people in this film appear to be “high functioning” to me, however, I don’t know to whom they are compared. They are desperate, lonely,  afraid, wandering the streets, getting into fights, eating poorly, with no socialization. Nestor Bunch was one of the fortunates in that a friend of his deceased mother still cared and looked out for him through the machinations of the huge bureaucracy.

“People with severe mental illness can be difficult to track: some wind up on the street or in psychiatric hospitals; phone numbers often change. After a series of dead ends, I was elated when I found Bunch — until I realized he could not reliably narrate his own life. As he jumbled the timeline of his addresses and experiences, it became clear he had a traumatic story to tell. It involved finding his first roommate naked and dead, landing in the hospital with a serious injury and being sent to the trash-strewed apartment of another roommate who died.”

https://www.pbs.org/video/right-to-fail-fz7iaq/

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/behind-right-to-fail-a-propublica-frontline-collaboration-to-overcome-roadblocks-and-privacy-restrictions/?

Let’s Talk About the Black Abortion Rate

“As Jason Riley, who is black, tells us, “In New York City, thousands more black babies are aborted each year than born alive.” Only the likes of a Gov. Cuomo or Planned Parenthood/NARAL could calmly brush aside what many black leaders over the years have denounced.

Riley reminds readers of historical truths only a tiny fraction would know:

When the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade in 1973, polling showed that blacks were less likely than whites to support abortion. Sixties-era civil rights activists like Fannie Lou Hamer and Whitney Young had denounced the procedure as a form of genocide. Jesse Jackson called abortion “murder” and once told a black newspaper in Chicago that “we used to look for death from the man in the blue coat and now it comes in a white coat.”

In the intervening decades, those views shifted. Mr. Jackson abandoned the pro-life ship to run for president in 1984, and leaders of black civil-rights organizations today are joined at the hip with abortion-rights proponents such as Planned Parenthood.

The magnitude of the death toll is nothing short of staggering.

According to a city Health Department report released in May, between 2012 and 2016 black mothers terminated 136,426 pregnancies and gave birth to 118,127 babies. By contrast, births far surpassed abortions among whites, Asians and Hispanics.

What about nationally? Riley writes

Nationally, black women terminate pregnancies at far higher rates than other women as well. In 2014, 36% of all abortions were performed on black women, who are just 13% of the female population. The little discussed flip side of “reproductive freedom” is that abortion deaths far exceed those via cancer, violent crime, heart disease, AIDS and accidents.

Think about that. 13% of the female population, 36% of all abortions!

Our single issue focus means we will not explore what Riley sees as the hypocrisy of those who value black lives out of the womb but are silent about the slaughter of black lives in the womb.

What we can say is that every abortion is a failure and a tragedy multiplied on a scale in the black community so vast that it almost defies description.”

https://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/2018/09/why-ppfa-would-never-want-the-black-abortion-rate-explained/

There are two Russia investigations

The one you hear 24/7, and the one which is the U.S. government targeting a U.S. election.

Tom Fitton and Rep. Nunes with Byron York moderator.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU3e4qXy31Q&utm=

Bookworm says

  I always worry I won’t find Stupid Leftists posters, but every week, whether it’s abortion, borders, race, gender, guns, etc. they keep outdoing themselves.

February 28 is Rare Disease Day

Joan writes:

https://rhombencephalosynapsis.org/condition.html

https://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/diseases/6377/erythromelalgia

Only if you’re wanted do you belong to the human race

After weeks of reading all manner of disgusting behavior from the pro-abortion state and federal politicians, I came across this in my OSU mail--an oncofertility conference to save babies and children. There are also people willing to save and raise to adulthood the babies the Democrats and Planned Parenthood want to kill.

It seems they are only humans if someone wants them to be.

"This conference is intended for physicians, nurses and other healthcare providers who treat children, adolescents and young adults with cancer before, during and after treatment: oncologists, obstetricians and gynecologists; urologists, reproductive endocrinologists and infertility specialists; primary care physicians, pediatricians, pediatric and adult endocrinologists, psychologists, social workers; and oncofertility researchers."

Feeling the Bern

"Senator Sanders points to the Scandinavian model as an example of what it means to have health care as a right. Senator Sanders has traveled widely in his life — he found much to praise in the Soviet Union while honeymooning there, and said so — but he is, like many American progressives, almost completely parochial. As is the case with the United Kingdom and much of Europe, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark are in the 21st century markedly different from the countries they were in the 1970s, when Senator Sanders’s awareness of the world seems to have congealed into the impenetrable clot of ignorance on such ghastly display in his current political career."

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/02/bernie-sanders-health-care-rhetoric-rights/?

That's a great turn of phrase, and one I've noticed with some of my friends and acquaintances who seem fascinated, but blind, with socialism of the 70s-- "congealed into the impenetrable clot of ignorance."

I used to translate medical articles from the USSR back in the 1960s when I worked for a professor of sociology--free medical care from feldshers (фельдшер), who'd had 6 weeks of training. Bernie loved the USSR of his youth--maybe that's where he got the idea.

Ingraham interview with Shelby Steele

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5PhTb0ADVQ

Shelby Steele says reparations is a bad deal for black Americans. It feeds on white guilt, and it a step backward.   I tried to find this in text from the Hoover site, but it required access to my data to get into Yahoo, so I had to go for the video.

Democrats play like girls—nasty and mean

Odd, isn't it, that Democrats just have to schedule liar Cohen hearings on the day of historic talks with North Korea? It's just too obvious. They play with middle school girls' rules. No Republican or Democrat president has been able to do anything in 70 years, and they just can't have Trump show them up. We don't know yet if anything can be done about that war so many years ago, the war we didn't win but negotiated a bad truce, so God forbid a non-politician can make a difference. Democrats and Republicans have also been trying to "solve" the illegal immigration problem since Johnson tackled it in the 1960s with laws that weren't followed, just revised, for 50 years, with no successful results. Imagine what Trump might have been able to accomplish had they not blocked him at every turn.

If I’m disappointed, imagine how Catholics must feel!

A big nothingburger.

“The summit’s very title (“The Protection of Minors in the Church”) and agenda limited the focus to the sexual abuse of minors. Not only is the abuse of minors egregious, it is criminal, and must be met with the strongest penalties. However, as the Theodore McCarrick case illustrates, the problem is more widespread than the abuse of minors. His abuse of at least two underage boys was preceded by many complaints. Even more widespread were the rumors of his sexual harassment of seminarians and younger priests. As has been well documented, even though many prelates in this country and in Rome knew of his behavior, there was little correction. Further, the restrictions that were finally placed upon him were largely ignored. His status as an active player in crucial Church matters, including international diplomacy and the advancement of men in the episcopacy, was effectively restored.

A tremendous opportunity to restore credibility to the Church was missed in failing to review and criticize the structures and decisions that allowed Theodore McCarrick to advance, failing to identify and call to account those responsible for it, and failing to discuss specific credible charges related to the overall sexual abuse crisis in any substantial way. . .

A summit purporting to address the sexual abuse of minors that ignores the high correlation between homosexual attraction and sexual abuse by clergy has no more credibility than a summit on lung cancer that ignores the link to smoking. Not only does this glaring omission strain the credibility of the conference, it makes its deliberations and conclusions seem largely irrelevant.”

Msgr. Charles Pope http://www.ncregister.com/blog/msgr-pope/why-the-summit-fell-flat-and-what-might-happen-next

Democrats defeat Born-Alive Infants Protection Act

Remember when their excuses were "clump of cells," "parasite in woman's body," or "product of conception." But this is an actual, alive, human being, not inside the woman's body, and not a clump of cells. There's no denying this is a helpless child. Radical feminist/Marxists have taken over the Democrats. Better to be a basket of deplorables than Democrats going to Hell in a handbasket.

We've been looking for hate crimes in the wrong places. Check out the Senate vote. All 2020 Democrat candidates voted to let children die after birth. Due to the horrible side effects of abortion methods—stabbing, dismemberment--I doubt many survive, but what if one is perfect and only needs to be cleaned up, kept warm and fed.  Can mom just say, Nope, let her starve to death? Sounds like that’s what Democrats intend.

https://www.lifenews.com/2019/02/25/senate-democrats-block-bill-to-stop-infanticide-and-care-for-babies-born-alive-after-abortions/?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/senate-blocks-bill-on-medical-care-for-children-born-alive-after-attempted-abortion/2019/02/25/e5d3d4d8-3924-11e9-a06c-3ec8ed509d15_story.html?

Democrats can't save a single baby born alive after a botched abortion if the mother wants to kill her. Why would you ever trust them with YOUR health care? It began when Obama was an Illinois state senator, the only one in the nation, and look how he took his party down.

"As pro-life Senator Marsha Blackburn wrote in an op-ed shortly after the vote, “It should have been an easy vote for every member of the Senate, but on Monday night, many Democrats demonstrated that their pro-choice stance also requires them to support infanticide. Sadly, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s recent comments advocating infanticide clearly framed the Democrats’ radical agenda. Their push to abort children reveals a hardened inner core that shocks the conscience.”"

We now have a modern, clear understanding of people who own slaves and truly believe humans are personal, disposable property. Then and now, the belief is unshakeable.

Although this bill said nothing about restricting or changing abortion laws, 55% of abortions are for minorities, so we can assume those aborted babies that survive will be a similar percentage. Democrats support and help fund Planned Parenthood which then supports their campaigns, sells baby parts, and puts their clinics either near minority neighborhoods or near college campuses.

AOC filled a vacuum

Tucker Carlson made an interesting observation last night (don't know if it is original with him). For 2 years the Democrats have done nothing but scream impeach and jail the President, leaving a large hole where policy and plans ought to be. Alexandria Cortez jumped in with the "New Green Mess" to fill the vacuum and is dragging her party further to the left and candidates are scrambling to outdo her to get back control. From her posh DC kitchen (in a complex with no set-asides for poor and middle class) she released a video suggesting her generation stop having babies. It's just not fair (to Mother Earth?). Of course, the U.S. birth rate is already below replacement level. That's why we import illegals--so they can have babies who will grow up and support the social safety net, which is up 60% since the beginning of this century.

The baby she suggests you not conceive or abort, just might be the next scientist or politician who solves the climate mystery of why the climate has been changing for millions of years. He or she might be able to avoid the next ice age.

Right here in Ohio, there are crazy folks

'Shoot the president': School cancels assassination party game for kids after public outcry | 18 Feb 2019 | A college running a community arts center in Ohio was forced to stop advertising a party game where kids are instructed to 'eliminate' the president with toy guns, after it sparked national outrage. [If there was national outrage, I didn’t see it in Columbus.]  The game entitled 'President' had been advertised as a part of NERF gun-themed party organized by the Olmsted Performing Arts community center in Berea, a suburb of Cleveland. "There is one president with body guards. Everyone else tries to eliminate or shoot the president," read the description of the game on the center's website, since deleted.

https://fox8.com/2019/02/14/shoot-the-president-party-game-at-local-performing-arts-center-raises-concern-in-community/

There doesn’t seem to be evidence that Democrats in the arts center came up with this “game,” but I can’t imagine that Republicans did.

Baldwin Wallace acquired Olmsted Performing Arts on January 1, 2019.  Of course, an apology was issued to “anyone who was offended.” Here’s my suggestion for an apology:  “BW believes this game is offensive and dangerous, we’ve removed the staffer who planned it and we apologize to all, especially the president and his family.”

Reparations redux

When the topic of reparations comes up, as it seems to when Democrats get frisky, I wonder how that will work.

Approximately, 300,000 Africans were imported to what became the United States by Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and English slavers, who purchased them from Arab slavers who got them from African tribal leaders whose cultures had used slaves as currency for centuries. Sort of messy to know who owes what.

But on top of that, about 1,000,000 Africans come to the USA as eager, hopeful immigrants in a decade, far more than ever came unwillingly in the 18th century. To add to the complexity, a considerable number of slaves either earned or were given freedom and they themselves used and owned slaves. Dr. Gates of PBS and Obama fame estimated the rate of slave ownership was higher among freed blacks than whites in the south, since so few whites were wealthy enough to own even one slave.

Where is the tribunal that is going to sort all that out? It would mean former President Obama would not be eligible since his only American family were white, and his African father and his family were Moslems, perhaps descendants of slavers. But his daughters would be eligible. Kamala Harris the daughter of two immigrants, a Jamaican and an Asian Indian would not be eligible. What about the descendants of the black slave owners. Would they be eligible? 

And how far back do you want to go? The Vikings were cruel slave masters, stealing women and workers both, leaving their culture and seed on every culture they took over. It was a slave economy, just as many areas of Africa and the Middle East. Just look how they got around (based on a cruise map).

NO. HATE CRIMES ARE NOT INCREASING—down in the last decade

NO. Hate crimes are not on the increase, and shame on the MSM for repeating that lie. "Our data sets keep expanding. We have higher numbers of incidents, but we also have more and more police agencies participating in the voluntary reporting system. In 2016, there were 271 more incidents deemed hate crimes than in 2015, with 257 more law enforcement agencies reporting. As I pointed out when those data came out, "the number of hate crime classifications was higher in 2016 than in any of the four preceding years" but "lower than in 2011 and significantly down from 2006-08." There were also fewer victims in 2016: 7,615, down from 9,652 in 2006." You won't get that from CNN.

https://reason.com/blog/2019/02/22/hate-crimes-and-human-trafficking?

Harvard discriminates against Asian Americans

Harvard violates the law by discriminating against Asian Americans.  If unbiased standards were followed their Asian American incoming class would be about 43% instead of 19%.  The Left's desire to balance everything by race doesn't seem to apply to basketball and football, does it.

https://www.prageru.com/video/is-harvard-racist/

Brazilian immigrant attacks man in MAGA hat in Mexican restaurant

President Donald Trump is not a racist, sexist, homophobic xenophobe. That’s the media’s narrative.  He’s protecting our borders, and not ignoring lines in the sand that his predecessor did.    But we have a lot of strung out, on the edge, crazy people in this country.

A Brazilian immigrant attacked a man in a Mexican restaurant who was wearing a MAGA hat and after the police were called, she tried it again.  Admitting she’d had a little to drink, she claimed she was the victim.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/woman-assaults-man-maga-hat?

A recent Republican has been surprised

Heard a black woman, about 60, on the radio this morning. She said no one better give her flak about wearing her MAGA hat. She said Trump was the first Republican she'd ever voted for because the Democrats had made so many promises they couldn’t or wouldn’t keep.  She was just furious and disgusted with the Republicans in Congress. I know, I know. When I changed parties in 2000 I just could not believe the spaghetti spines among the Republican "leaders." Things haven't changed much. Trump stirred a hornets' nest in both parties by shaking up the Washington DC games, but Republicans have never had much stick 'em their bond. John McCain defeated the efforts to repeal Obamacare, one the major reasons Trump was elected. Trump had not been kind to him, and he never forgot it. He put his anger and animosity ahead of his concern for the American people. Democrats did the happy dance. It's amazing what Trump has been able to accomplish without help from his party.

What's in a kiss on the cheek? A lawsuit?

I heard today that a woman is going to sue the President for a misplaced kiss on the cheek. I think they were being introduced.  Not sure of the details. That's a pretty standard greeting these days, especially in the entertainment world (he wasn't yet the president), but there's never anything too minor for which to attack the President. Imagine if all the women Biden has fondled or kissed decided to sue him.  In public and on TV!

About 2 weeks ago I was introduced to a Muslim woman at the gym.  I started to put out my hand, but she said, "This is how we do it," and she kissed me on both cheeks.  I wonder if I should sue her for sexual harassment?

Prescott, Arizona

We're planning a trip to Prescott.

Elizabeth Warren’s minimum wage scam

Looking at the excellent stats in this article, I see I might have been making close to minimum when I worked in high school and saved enough to pay for my first year in college. But it was a gift, not a wage. I wasn't worth it. Someone had to take a chance. And I could get a 25 cent tip for a 10 cent cup of coffee in those days.

"The minimum wage prevents some of the least skilled, least educated, and least experienced workers from participating in the labor market because it discourages employers from taking a chance by hiring them. In other words, workers compete for jobs on the basis of education, skill, experience, and price. Of these factors, the only one on which the lesser-educated, lesser-skilled, and lesser-experienced worker can compete is price."

http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/why-minimum-wage-shouldnt-be-family-wage?

I had many advantages as a low wage teen that others less fortunate might not have. My employers knew my parents; they knew my sisters;  they had known me since I was a toddler; they knew what our family values were, that I had been taught by my parents to be responsible, on time, and how to treat adults; they knew I was an A student (honor roll was published in the town paper) and could probably be trusted at the cash register (they didn't know how bad I was at math); they knew I could walk to work in snow or rain; they knew my school schedule including social events because their son was the same age; they felt a sense of responsibility to the community, their customer case. And I knew there were 10 other teens who wanted that job.

http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/your-first-job-real-costs-minimum-wage

Economic freedom

The U.S. economy is roaring like no other time in recent memory. The job market is hot, unemployment is down to record lows, and small business optimism is soaring. Wages are rising for the first time in two decades, with an overall unemployment rate of 3.8 percent, matching the lowest rate in 50 years. 

https://www.heritage.org/international-economies/commentary/under-trump-us-economic-freedom-rises-significantly

So why are the Democrats so mad? Why are all the 2020 candidates pushing socialism? Well, in my opinion, they hate Trump more than they love the American people.

Smollett, Harris and Lynch, inc.

Sounds like a law firm, but it’s only a conspiracy. Before this hoax, I’d never heard of Jussie Smollett or Empire. Have no idea what it is about.

Jussie Smollett appeared in a documentary "America Divided" as host of a segment on lynching. Kamala Harris sponsored a bill on lynching (this came up in early 20th century sponsored by Republicans when people really were being lynched, but Democrats voted it down). She used it as sort of strange publicity for her campaign, and then was right out of the box to accuse the country and Trump supporters when the Smollett hoax included a noose. It’s sort of odd because she has no ties at all to the “black experience.”  Her parents were both immigrants.

Smollett earlier campaigned for Harris. Maybe he was campaigning for her bill--and her? Collusion? I wondered, but of course, I checked it out first before putting fingers to keyboard. I found out someone had already published this idea on Feb. 18 and it had been tweeted by Tariq Nasheed, a black film producer, on the 17th. Nasheed posted photos of them campaigning together, and even Smollett with the Obamas.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/02/was_kamala_harris_part_of_the_jussie_smollett_hoax.html?

“Up until now, it appeared that politicians such as Harris (and Booker) couldn't have known much about the phony plot and probably just glommed onto the controversy for political advantage the way a lot of politicians do. But Nasheed has pictures of them campaigning together, and even more important, notes that Harris and Booker brought out an anti-lynching bill just coincidentally timed ahead of the attack, as if to ensure passage as the momentum built from public outrage (until the attack was exposed as phony). With Smollett a black and gay supposed victim and everyone slathing sympathy on him, who could refuse to vote for the anti-lynching bill, which just happens to have had some gay language inserted at the last minute? Trump lynchers were simply everywhere, according to the narrative, even in zero degree Chicago cold weather, lurking and looking for someone black and gay to assault and of course it was a national problem just waiting for Harris to pass a law as the person who "fixes problems" which is how she is repeatedly identified herself to voters.”

Poetry and music—how the schools and churches fail us

Although this is a challenge for Catholic schools and churches, it applies to all worship leaders and educators: poetry and music. Even when I was in school 60 years ago, my mother complained that we didn't have enough poetry in our curriculum.

"First, get rid of the lousy poetry and lousy music. Stupidity is always a vice, says Maritain. Nobody says, “It doesn’t matter what movies my child watches, so long as he watches movies,” or, “It doesn’t matter what my husband drinks, so long as he drinks.” Get rid of it. Nobody but the church performers enjoys it anyway. Replace it with real hymns. Don’t think you can get those from the big presses, OCP and GIA and such, because they have mangled the texts and dragged them through the mud. Sing the poems, as they were composed.

Second, return to poetry. The time is short, and the reward immense. Fifty lines of Tennyson can be committed to memory; five hundred pages of Dickens, not so fast. Have every student in your schools learn, say, twenty poems by heart. And their elders, too, might join in – have a Poetry Night in your parish, with the stipulation that every poem be written in meter.

We are suffering from cultural dementia, muddied and dulled by the strokes of the modern. It is time, little by little, for recovery."

https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2019/02/23/recovering-from-cultural-dementia/?

Not being Catholic, or even musical, I didn't know what OCP and GIA were, so I looked it up. The comments from the musical directors are hilarious.

https://forum.musicasacra.com/forum/discussion/8615/what-is-your-favorite-gia-or-ocp-hymnal-/p1

Let’s dump the hate crime category

I'd like to see the whole category of "hate crime" removed from the books. Assault, robbery, murder, mayhem and property crime ought to cover it. What if it's two guys fighting over a girl or a motor cycle and their ethnicities are different--someone's going to determine their mind set and decide it's race and not love?

The video of a white liberal attacking a white conservative on a college campus that's in the news today probably doesn't qualify because both are white males. With intersectionality and trans this and that, it's gotten ridiculous. And it appears to be OK to attack anyone wearing a MAGA hat, even a kid. What if a 1/2 black lesbian who wears a MAGA hat while campaigning for Trump attacks a privileged white Hispanic male who is transitioning so he can be on the girls' track team?

Even the stats about hate crimes being on the increase is questionable (aka fake) since many more law enforcement agencies are reporting who didn't in the past. Plus, of those reported, 50% of the offenders were white and over 25% were black, which are not the demographic make up of the country, and it's not reported when the MSM start giving us that preachy, holier than thou sermon they pass off as news these days.

https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2017

https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-releases-2017-hate-crime-statistics

The Democrats and socialism

When I see AOC's bright red lips I think about fossil fuel products used in lip stick and cosmetics. I think you can buy lipstick without petroleum products, but don't know if you can get that slick, wet, ready for sex look. Also chewing gum, perfume, contact lenses, guitar strings, deodorants and toothpaste. She might want to rethink that green deal if she wants to keep the female vote.  I don’t like people making fun of her eyes, however,  She might have Graves’ Disease.  I wonder if she’s had her thyroid checked.

Kamala Harris, daughter of 2 immigrants—one Jamaican the other Indian--both well educated and upper middle class, claims other American blacks can't succeed because of slavery. They'll need reparations. She's above all that, having received her leg up in politics from her married boyfriend, Willie Brown.

All the socialists running for president in the U.S. are asking for money from capitalist billionaires. Bernie had $6 million in a few hours. What's up? They'll never have to pay those confiscatory taxes the socialists want--that's what lawyers and accountants are for--and they want more regulations which will affect their competition--i.e. the socialists in the Democrat party will help kill off or slow down their competition. These are the same guys who regularly visited Barack Obama who did zip nada for the poor. Helping socialists is just the cost of doing business for the big boys.

Chocolate pudding

I stopped using sugar from the bowl or canister about 2 years ago and changed to local honey. We haven't given up sugar, because we still eat restaurant and store purchased desserts. But today I made chocolate pudding from scratch using honey. It was quite good. Just milk, cornstarch, dark chocolate (cocoa, 100% cacao natural unsweetened), a little sprinkle of salt, honey, vanilla, and I added some butter which wasn't in the recipe. It was very good, more chocolate tasting than the box or store bought.

Boxed dry chocolate pudding mix (both Jello and Godiva) contains: sugar, modified cornstarch, cocoa processed with alkali, sodium phosphate and tetrasodium pyrophosphate (for thickening) contains less than 2% of natural and artificial flavor, salt, artificial color mono- and diglycerides (prevents foaming), red 40, Yellow 5, Blue 1.

Sodium phosphate is a salt, but it is also what is used when preparing for a colonoscopy. Tetrasodium pyrophosphate is used as a buffering agent, an emulsifier, it’s more salt, and is used in toothpaste and cat food but can promote algae growth in water. Yuk. I won't even analyze the dyes, but I can assure you, that by using 100% cacao ( which has to have a lot of processing to make it useable) the dark color was richer than the box mix.

Is Booker buying votes?

"Sen. Cory Booker (D.-N.J.) is proposing a plan—the American Opportunity Accounts Act—that he calculates will provide $46,215 to every 18-year-old in the lowest income bracket by giving them annual subsidies in a federally managed savings account."

This ought to qualify Booker as a Presidential candidate buying votes.

If they are truly low income, and qualify for federal and state benefits, like SNAP, EITC, Section 8, Medicaid, TANF, negative income tax, home energy assistance, school lunch, breakfast and snack, going all the way back to Head Start, SSI, child care, grants and loans for college or trade school, plus about 100 other transfers, $46,000 would probably be a reduction.

Trump drives people mad

"For those whom Trump has driven mad, there is nothing he does that can be understood or appreciated. While we sane people glory in the sunshine of a president who works hard for Americans, who supercharges our economy, who strengthens our borders, who may have sparked peace on the Korean peninsula, who recognizes Iran as a place of terrible evil, and who generally seeks to extend true freedom at home and abroad, those in the grips of Trump Derangement Syndrome are forever mired in a dark, smelly stable, eating dirt." (Bookworm Room, one of the best conservative blogs you'll read)

 http://www.bookwormroom.com/2019/02/19/lgbt-crowd-driven-mad-by-trump-supports-irans-anti-gay-laws/

Time travel in church, “This is my Father’s world.”

The sermon theme this past Sunday was “Drinking Tea,” which doesn’t make a lot of sense, except the idea was to relax from our busy distracted life and take in the beauty and complexity of God’s creation with a cup of tea, or good music, or the smell of frying bacon (yes, Joe actually fried up some bacon during the service). One of the hymns we sang Sunday was, “This is my Father’s world,” and I was immediately transported back in time to the junior choir at the little Lutheran church my family attended (but never joined) 1946-1951 in Forreston, Illinois. Our neighbor in Forreston, Helen Vietmeier invited us to attend  (she died in 2010 and I last saw her at my mother’s funeral in 2000). The church welcomed us warmly and we children participated in everything, although we remained members at our home church in Mt. Morris.

This popular hymn by Maltbie D. Babcock was written in 1901, the year of his death, and wasn’t published as a hymn until later. But it’s probably in most Protestant  hymnals, and by the 1940’s even little kids could understand and gustily belt it out, particularly the “This is my Father’s world” line which is repeated 6 times. Franklin Sheppard adapted Babcock’s poem of 16 verses, to 3 verses of 4 lines each in 1915. So that’s only about 30 years for that hymn to become so popular even little kids could sing it and remember it years later.

Our pastor when I was belting out songs in the junior choir was Rev. Dr. T. B. Hersch (1871-1959) who was older than my grandparents, and was born and raised in Polo, Illinois. He retired to Polo after leaving the Forreston church in 1953 (as seen in the Freeport paper which you can find on the Internet).  I don’t remember him as an inspiring preacher in his black robe and white hair—but then, how much does a 7 year old remember?  Actually, a lot when his wife Alice got ahold of the children during Sunday School or VBS.  She was a dynamo, and you just kept your eyes glued on her and didn’t even whisper when she did those felt board Bible stories, moving Jesus and the sheep around the fields and mountains.  She died in 1970 at Pinecrest in Mt Morris. My mother volunteered there—wondered if she visited her?

If you kill

Duck and cover

There's never been a better, safer or more opportune time in America to be gay, minority or female. But by always screaming racism or homophobia, the left can cover for their real Marxist crimes and their own phobias and fears.

Race of victims and offenders in interracial violent crimes certainly gives lie to the "hate crimes" narrative that media and celebrities promote. Between 2012 and 2015, blacks committed more than 85% of interracial violent victimizations between blacks and whites.

https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/rhovo1215.pdf

So why does the Left continue to promote the Smollett, the Covington Catholic, the Kavanaugh hate narratives when there is no truth, no evidence and they end up with egg on their faces? And it didn't start with Trump Derangement Syndrome--it was rampant in the Obama years, but existed on the campuses before that--even into the 80s and 90s. So they can't use that excuse. The reason is they have no economic plan, no tax plan, no trade plan, no education plan, no national security plan, and nothing good, positive, uplifting, life giving, or patriotic to offer the voters. Just hate, division, anger, mistrust and victimhood. It's never been different for those who follow Marx. No workers or peasants to riot and demand change? No problem. Just bring on the snowflakes and millennials led by near octogenarians.

On pundits, panderers and presidents, guest blogger Michael Smith

"All the pundits and Sunday show hosts are going the "Can you name just one time another president issued a national emergency order like Trump's order?" route.

It is a dishonest question.

Might as well ask, "How many presidents have issued a "Declaration of a National Emergency and Invocation of Emergency Authority Relating to the Regulation of the Anchorage and Movement of Vessels" (Clinton)?

The right question is this, "Is the issuance of a national emergency for the border crisis in accordance with established law and procedure?"

The answer to that question is "yes".

The next question should be, "Have any other presidents moved funds from one department to the other without the authorization of Congress to fund a pet program?"

The answer to that question is also "yes" - Obama did it to fund the provision of Obamacare that compensated insurance companies for losses associated with the law.

I don't like this type of governance - but to try to claim that Trump's declaration is wrong just because it was Trump issuing it is simply wrong. No president needs any act, agreement, permission or definition from Congress or anybody else to issue such an order under this particular law.”

++++++++++

"If the media can't see through hoaxes and misinformation like what BuzzFeed published, that Nathan Phillips perpetrated on the Covington Catholic kids or what Jussie Smollett just did, how likely is it they could spot some Russians trying to interfere with an election?

The freaking Russians and Chinese have the US media right where they want them. If either of these countries were running operations to disrupt the US and sow political discord, just exactly what would they be doing different to what the US media is doing?"

The Jussie Smollett publicity hate crime

I've been watching the Jussie Smollett stories on ABC and Fox and the back tracking by liberals, and also the "yes, but it's a racist society anyway" no matter what happened in Chicago, Trump dog whistles, etc. and therefore it's his fault. However, when whites are attacked by blacks it doesn't get much publicity, but the federal statistics show the RATE is much higher than whites attacking blacks. Is it even called racism or hate crimes when whites are attacked? Where ever this leads, I think it has worked as a publicity ploy, because I'd never heard of him before, and all the TV channels (I assume, although I've only seen 2) are now talking about him, and providing interviews.

St. John’s Bible

And I found in that same 2001 letter with the description of the African travel book the following information:

“On Feb. 21, I attended a lecture at the Faculty Club about the St John's Bible, the first manuscript Bible in about 500 years.  The art work is really magnificent.  A monastery in MN has commissioned it, and the calligrapher lives in England.  Father Hollas had a video showing the artist at work--was absolutely fascinating, and slides of the sketches and mock-ups of several scenes, like the nativity (he calls them the infancy narratives) and the raising of Lazarus.  I was surprised that the new RSV was selected as the version.  I asked one of the librarians about it, knowing he is Catholic, and he claimed complete ignorance of any version.  "Oh, we Catholics don't read the Bible, we just rattle our beads," I think he said.  The December issue of Smithsonian has a cover story on this Bible.  It is projected to take 6 years--and of course you can sponsor a page, but the costs weren't as bad as some I've seen for getting your name on a brick of a building.  I think $1,000 was the price of an un-illuminated page.  $250,000 if you want to sponsor one of the Gospels.”

Well, this sounded interesting! Even 18 years later.  I vaguely remember the event, so I looked it up, and it has a blog and a web page.  I’ll for sure want to find that December 2000 Smithsonian (checked—it’s available for $36.)

Information on the calligrapher, Donald Jackson, scribe to the Queen of England.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTS5m59DPoo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULb9xZuj1bE

The Heritage Edition.
https://blog.saintjohnsbible.org/posts/2019/02/mount-saint-mary-college-heritage-edition/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90togEvOruo  Rev. Eric Hollas, O.S.B., Senior Associate for Arts & Cultural Affairs at Saint John's University. http://stmu.it/15cYKtP  Was apparently the person who gave the presentation that night in February 2001 at the Faculty Club.

White Africans and Black by Caroline Singer and Cyrus Le Roy Baldridge, on my bookshelves

According to a letter I found, I bought this book in 2001 from the wonderful used book store (now closed) Acorn in Grandview because of the beautiful pencil and charcoal drawings. There are no whites in the book so I was a little puzzled by the title—the authors say it’s because all Africa was controlled by whites. Originally written in 1929 and published by The Methodist Book Deport , Cape Coast, Gold Coast,  it is extremely respectful of the beauty and culture of black Africa, but the authors comment on the presence of the Europeans and their culture throughout the book as they travel in Africa for 14 months.  There is an inscription in mine from the original owners: January 1945, Marilyn Phyllis Birch, A memento of our field of foreign service. Daddy and Mother (beautiful script).

One of the first things the authors mention is that photographs do not do justice to the shading and tone of African skin--but their drawings certainly do. The people are all beautifully drawn--very well muscled, graceful, and beautiful. They comment on relations between men and women, slavery (which had been outlawed, but still was obvious), funeral customs, polygamy, religion, the culture of the "Creole" West Indians who had returned to Africa but weren't really African, food, bathing, language, work attitudes.

The illustrator is Cyrus Baldridge, and  his wife, Caroline Singer is the writer. Her writing style is unusual. She uses almost no active verbs, lots of descriptive clauses, and sometimes word repetition, and so her writing develops sort of a calming rhythm. I would love to see something else they've written--and they did a lot of traveling,

“Quiet is the bedroom which adjoins our own, occupied by a swaggering hawk-nosed Kissi, his childlike wife and half a dozen retainers who, though slavery is by law abolished, differ racially from their employer and obey him, without servility, but still as people owned obey.  That the young man is Moslem is evidence not by robes and sandals alone—for many pagans assume this dress without derangement of their inner life—but by his pretty one’s abasement, which has a subtly meretricious quality.  She is demure.  But I think she is so designedly, not unselfconsciously as pagan women are.  It is often stated by the governing whites—despite the missionary’s protest—that any pagan, Moslemized, has made an upward step.  This child, littered with European jewelry of dubious gold, is set apart from other women here by a mincing self-consciousness, equalled only by the preciousness of half-Europeanized women of the larger coast settlements, unduly inflated by newly acquired monogamy, Charleston sandals, and coverings for their upper parts.  A favorite toy, chosen for her charms and not her usefulness, the girl, as if in fearful anticipation of the day those charms may pass, undetected from behind her husband’s back, plunges long glances into the eyes of passing men, searching for reaffirmation of their potency.”

https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/collex/exhibits/cyrus-leroy-baldridge-illustrator-explorer-activist/

If I were collecting books instead of giving them away, this is an illustrator/author I would try to locate.

https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/media/documents/baldridge-C.pdf

A WWI illustration from “ I Was There With the Yanks In France (1920), a book of sketches by the artist Cyrus Leroy Baldridge, who had served as a war correspondent in occupied Belgium and France before America even joined the war. Baldridge later joined the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) and became the chief illustrator for the new Stars and Stripes military newspaper.”  https://library.wustl.edu/wwi-archives-dan-bartletts-books/

The President’s emergency powers

We’re still living under emergency powers put in place by previous presidents.  According to Democrats, only President Trump can't call a national emergency when we are being invaded by thousands every year, a large number who are members of gangs, who are trafficking women and children, who are using children to pose as "family" groups, who are bringing in drugs.

What if they were Russians arriving in San Francisco or New York demanding refugee status for admittance? By the thousands. The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming. Big ships of them because Putin wanted to empty his jails and prison camps.  Every year. Demanding the social safety net originally set up for our poor and unemployed. Wanting all the labels and directions printed in А, Б, В, Г, Д, Е, Ё, Ж, З, И, Й, К, Л, М, Н, О, П, Р, С, Т, У, Ф, Х, Ц, Ч, Ш, Щ, Ъ, Ы, Ь, Э, Ю, Я, and press 2 for Russian? Demanding special sanctuary cities so they can avoid police and prey on Russians who came as legal immigrants and refugees in the 1990s?

What if instead of hundreds crossing our northern border with Canada annually there were thousands and thousands flooding into Minnesota and Washington, working the good tech jobs, or even as baristas, taking over slots in the colleges intended by minority affirmative action for people born here?

Ilhan Omar has shown us one doesn’t have to be born in the U.S. to be in Congress and have an ugly, biased, bigoted Twitter account and try to destroy our ally Israel.

The Dred Scott case

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OML9AVR10PQ

Democrats (7) on the Supreme Court decided Dred Scott wasn't a citizen worthy of rights--just as now Democrat led states are deciding that third trimester unborn babies are not citizens worthy of rights and protection. When their ugly legislation passed, they cheered and lit up buildings. To their credit, those 7 judges didn't say Scott wasn't human—just unfit and inferior—sort of what they say about full term babies.

https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/supremecourt/personality/landmark_dred.html

Unspeakable evil

Harm reduction in San Francisco

Has the world gone crazy? Why do "do-gooders" do so much harm?

"The Department of Public Health distributes 4.45 million needles each year to the city’s 22,000 intravenous drug users. Heroin and prescription opioids are the most injected substances, though use of methamphetamines and Fentanyl is on the rise. It’s true that sterile needles reduce the transmission of blood-borne infections, and injecting narcotics under supervision can lower the risk of overdose and death. But harm reduction goes far beyond promoting these kinds of needle-safety measures. For example, At the Crossroads, a nonprofit, assembled “safe snorting kits” for at-risk and homeless youth. Baggies were filled with straws, chopping mats, plastic razor blades, and instruction sheets. Other groups offer crack-cocaine “safe-smoking” kits. A proposal to open “safe injection” sites, opposed by Jerry Brown, is favored by Governor Gavin Newsom, and is likely to succeed."

 https://www.city-journal.org/san-francisco-drugs-harm-reduction?

Can media survive the Trump presidency?

Journalistic standards were dropping 3-4 decades before Trump won, and the editorial bias was to the left. However, once the print media had to compete with the internet media things really got serious.  The media, both old school and new, are dependent on ads for income.  Sure, some have subscriptions, (one is actually owned by the richest man in the world and could care less about accuracy) but now it's all about the click count or full page ads of faculty names or companies supporting climate scares or fighting the rape culture. If you've noticed, some of the on-line content not only isn't information or commentary, but it's disguised advertising. Pew says newspaper print ad revenue fell by 2/3 between 2006 and 2016. But what brings on the clicks?  Any salacious and twisted story about President Trump.  They helped create his campaign by giving him so much coverage, and now they're still dependent on him while they attempt to destroy him, but in the process use him to fatten their sad bank accounts.

Yes, Trump blasts "fake news" and that gets journalists worked up who then fight back, but unfortunately they don't even see their own biases and some really believe they are being objective and fair. And then there are revelations like those of Andrew McCabe's book which just prove him right again.

Conservatives knew for years before the 2016 election that they weren't being treated fairly, that the intellectual "elites" in the media, academe, DC, the state houses, and entertainment were slamming, ridiculing and dissing them. So it's been a perfect storm--falling advertising revenue, loss of readership by customers who don't trust them (most people don't enjoy being insulted by someone who wants to sell them something), and a President who calls them out on their bias.

I would like to see the old print media survive, and the web media improve, but they've got a few miles to go to win back the country and become solvent again.



"If you’re a working journalist and you believe that Donald J. Trump is a demagogue playing to the nation’s worst racist and nationalistic tendencies, that he cozies up to anti-American dictators and that he would be dangerous with control of the United States nuclear codes, how the heck are you supposed to cover him?

Because if you believe all of those things, you have to throw out the textbook American journalism has been using for the better part of the past half-century, if not longer, and approach it in a way you’ve never approached anything in your career. If you view a Trump presidency as something that’s potentially dangerous, then your reporting is going to reflect that. You would move closer than you’ve ever been to being oppositional. That’s uncomfortable and uncharted territory for every mainstream, nonopinion journalist I’ve ever known, and by normal standards, untenable."  https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/08/business/balance-fairness-and-a-proudly-provocative-presidential-candidate.html

El Paso Rally up close by someone who was there--Dionne

"I live in El Paso, TX - a "blue" city that is over 90% Hispanic population. I went to the rally on Monday. It was amazing. The line stretched literally over 2 miles (I know, I stood in it), people started showing up as early as 7 in the mornings even though it didn't start until 7pm; the venue was full to capacity- I produce live shows at the El Paso County Coliseum so I KNEW when I saw the crowd there was no way they would fit (Coliseum holds 8000; fire department squeezed in 10000). 30k+ watched outside on the Jumbo-tron in the Coliseum parking lots, and a bunch of people were turned away once the parking lot was full so they either went home to watch or stood out on the residential streets that were blocked off - I don't know, I couldn't see anything beyond the parking lot because there were too many people and I'm a shorty. (BTW, there WAS one larger indoor venue that would have been more suited for this and help more people....the University's Don Haskins Center...ask them why they didn't accommodate the President.) 

Anyway, 45k+ people - about 90% of them Hispanic - wearing MAGA hats. Also black, white, LGBTQ, military, even some peaceful mature democrats all in line braving the freezing wind, laughing joking , talking with each other, to see the President. No fighting, no meanness - not even to the few protesters (and I mean FEW--- we didn't really see any until AFTER the rally when we were coming out. I guess they waited until cover of darkness or were just irritated because of Beto's failed "Rally" down the street). Mexican, white, black, gay, young people, old people, military, law enforcement, men , women... all getting along and supporting each other with a shared pride and love of our country without a SINGLE Democratic leader around to "help us get along" or "protect us" from each other..*GASP!!* who'da thought? ? 

I didn't watch the news or the "Media's" version of the rally, but I'm sure it wasn't the picture I just painted. I cant blame them ---it's pretty embarrassing to show visual evidence that you are LOSING the city and demographic you thought you were in control of...I wouldn't show it either if I were them, or I'd definitely dirty it up with some fake stories, fake fights, and maybe only show pictures of the few WHITE people that were there (they made up maybe 5% of the entire crowd) so it would look like a KKK rally."

Trump has been proven right again

 

https://www.dailysignal.com/2019/02/14/senate-panel-may-probe-alleged-plot-to-oust-trump/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiDF0FenOw8

Forget toxic masculinity

2019 may become the year of toxic feminism. We experienced a temper tantrum by the aging Pelosi, the highest elected female in the country, in line for the presidency, refusing Trump his SOTU; then when it finally happens we had to watch a block of white lab coats described variously as abortion assistants to noisy middle school girls' silliness; a Michigan Congress woman called the President a disgusting term; we have Kathy Tran proposing death to fully viable babies in Virginia; and women who cheered late term abortion in New York; and finally yesterday we saw the grossest, most vile behavior of Ilhan Omar in Congress that I've ever seen in my life time, coming on the heels of her anti-Semitism of a few days ago which was defended by another female, Ocasio-Cortez. Time to get the cameras out of these hearing rooms! They are exposing women and are embarrassing 51% of the country.

Joan doesn’t agree with today’s philosophy of reading—guest blogger Joan Turrentine (former teacher)

“Recent educational philosophy has been that it doesn't matter WHAT children read as long as they DO read. I am glad I grew up and went to school in a day when schools believed that it matters WHAT students read. My mind and memory are full of quality literature, classic poetry, thought-provoking stories and poems. I became familiar with and developed a useful and precise vocabulary and a familiarity with proper English language syntax. I observed in countless realistic situations (in reading assignments) how real people act and how people interact with other people and build happy and successful lives. I read the thoughts of some of the greatest thinkers of the past and learned how they organize their thoughts, thereby learning HOW to think and reason. Because of this background, I often read FB posts, have conversations, or read other media and recognize cultural references, recognize faulty/logical reasoning strategies, understand some of human nature.

I feel bad for many of today's elementary school kids who only read about teachers who are aliens, students who are wizards, and other such imaginary life situations. What preparation for real life does that provide? What thought processes does that develop? How does that help them discover their own values in life? And then in post-elementary school they read such dystopian literature as the Hunger Games series, the Unwind series, or numerous other books with unrealistic settings which provide no opportunity for observing how people might handle real life situations and what consequences might be expected to result from actions. There's nothing wrong with any of this literature if students want to read them on their own; but I believe the schools owe them better than that. These students won't be culturally literate as adults - recognizing references to the classic literature, philosophy, or history of the ages. They won't have had the opportunity to develop their own sense of how to live successfully in this world. What they have read will not have helped them develop values to help them live successfully and happily. I so strongly believe that it DOES matter WHAT children read.”

I  agree with Joan’s concern and philosophy, I just don't think I had all that much "quality" reading material--at least my mother used to complain it wasn't as good as what she had in the 1920's.  All I cared about as a child was horse and dog stories. I enjoyed reading from encyclopedias and preferred to write and illustrate my own stories. My grandmother gave us subscriptions to Jack and Jill, hardly sophisticated or difficult information.  We had a lot of magazines and the local newspapers (and maybe one from Chicago). Mom belonged to the “Book of the Month” club, which was definitely considered “low brow,” but I enjoyed looking through her fiction.  I learned the names of the classics, by playing the card game "Authors" , and by high school, the literature text books were just excerpts grouped by era or genre. In college I was a foreign language major, so I had NO American or British literature. I was definitely a forerunner for today's poorly educated students!  Today I belong to a book club, and I’m grateful for my well educated reading friends—but I’m still not educated in the type of literature Joan recommends. And of course, not having grandchildren (she has many), I haven’t even heard of the series she writes about.

Just in time for the Green New Deal

"California’s new governor, the prim and grim Gavin Newsom, announced that the project [bullet train] would be taken off its $650-million-a-month life-support apparatus and euthanized. The end of the project leaves Californians with no way to travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco except a 90-minute, $149 flight." Kevin Williamson, Feb. 13

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/02/california-bullet-train-boondoggle-central-planning/?