Remembering Nine Eleven, 2001

There are 2,977 flags representing the victims of the 9/11 attacks posted on the west lawn on the Ohio Statehouse. When seen from above, the design represents the World Trade Center towers, with a space in the shape of a Pentagon and an open strip representing the field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. 

Elizabeth Warren wants your wealth

The Democrat candidates are "monkey say monkey do" and they climb on the socialism clown wagon daily. O'Rouke wants your 2nd amendment rights destroyed, Elizabeth Warren wants your retirement savings destroyed with her "Accountable Capitalism Act." They all have a blood lust for the unborn and fragile. You need to speak up. Old people don't have income, they have wealth. . . to support them in their old age. Our progressive tax system already takes huge amounts of our money. Congress is profligate spenders and once they get ahold of your pensions, they won't let go.

Seventy-two percent of the value of all domestically held stocks is owned by pension plans, 401(k)s and individual retirement accounts, or held by life insurance companies to fund annuities and death benefits. This wealth accumulated over a lifetime and benefits all Americans. . . 
Socialism always destroys wealth; it doesn’t redistribute it. Unfortunately, this great truth is far from self-evident. Whether current and near-retirees will stand up and fight for their retirement savings will effectively gauge the survival instinct of our country, and our willingness to preserve the economic system that built it.  Phil Gramm, Wall St. Journal. Sept. 10, 2019

Nancy Crist 1927-2019, a good friend to all

Yesterday we said good-bye to Nancy Crist, a dear church friend of many years. Many Bible studies in her home, lots of laughs, many visits in hospital or nursing homes over the years, dinners together, and pick ups at the airport. She was always willing to help and give a hug and an encouraging word. https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dispatch/obituary.aspx… She loved teaching at the deaf school and in church you could often see her signing as she listened to the sermon and hymns. Yes, 92 is a long life, but we also knew her father, a WWI vet and he lived to be over 100 as I recall.

I'm not sure when the photo was taken of our couples group from UALC called SALT, but Nancy and her husband Rod are in the back left, so it's probably about 1992--Bob had hair and I had big hair. What fun we had.

So many in this photo are gone now—only Charlene (center), Bob and I (back right) and Andrea (in front of Bob) are left.

Illinois and Indiana budgets

I'm sure there is more to this story--cartoons and memes never tell the whole story. Perhaps someone from Illinois knows?  Is Illinois dying?  Is it Chicago mismanagement and corruption?

Democrat media gives Trump so much free publicity, just like 2016

Worth reading again. President Trump lives rent free in the heads of the Democrat media. I heard that Trump gets 11x the publicity, all negative, from cable and broadcast news than all the Democrats running against him. Also that he has 94% support from Republicans.

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

Native American speaks out against latest racism, guest blogger, Candace Brown

As a Native American woman I have never seen so many people use race as an excuse to push an agenda. I grew up in a time that racism was actually beginning to be called out and attitudes, stigma, and stereotypes were seen for what they are. We had come so far from the racial separatism from my youth by the time Obama became president. As a young girl, I remember white people refusing to allow classmates to visit my home because I lived on a reservation. One woman I knew drove one hundred miles out of her way in order to avoid going through the reservation, on her way to a large city.
We actually overcame this kind of racism. We learned, we grew, and we became stronger for it. Then Obama happened. In the 8 years he was in office, he destroyed the progress this country had made and set us at odds once again based on skin color. I voted for him his first term, but watched as he took years of knocking down barriers of color and ethnicity to be a country of American people and turned us into a pathetic politically corrupt, victim mentality, shadow of our once great country. I remember hearing over and over his words, “ that is not who WE are” he used us against each other, he turned once strong relationships into victim and perpetrator.

If we do not end this kind of political hate mongering that uses color to justify hate, we are no better than him.

Charges of White Privilege

The charge of “white privilege,” or “White supremacy” hurled at Americans of European and other area countries is a way to shame, bully and induce guilt, whether or not you personally intended it that way. Shaming and bullying are also how abused women, slaves, trafficked children, and elderly are kept quiet. It’s as old as slavery. And Trump voters and conservatives of any stripe are the victims. The Left knows this well—their ideology killed 100 million in the 20^th century, and it didn’t all start with gas chambers, reeducation camps, or storm troopers. Right now, the charges are justifying creating data bases of Trump supporters so they can be publicly shamed or lose their incomes; it justifies Google CEOs for creating winners and losers in elections via social media; it justifies attacking people wearing read hats, with or without MAGA stitching; it justifies 95% of academic faculty being liberal and only those promoted and tenured; it justifies knocking down buildings and statues not just of Confederate generals (all of whom were pardoned by the U.S. government) but founders and current members of Trump cabinet.

I am more concerned about parents dragging children (and some not their own) across thousands of miles in very unsafe conditions subject to weather, assault and separation from grandparents, extended family and home than I am of well run detention centers where they are well fed and housed, and safe from traffickers (which was the intention of that regulation). Millions have been subjected to that illegal border crossing—only hundreds to detention centers, which are quickly emptied as parents’ (or other adults) cases are resolved, most to float out into the general U.S. population. I’m very concerned that U.S. border patrol is babysitting rather than keeping the borders safe for both Americans and Mexicans from all the non-Mexicans, including ISIS fighters, who cross without a problem.

I’m very concerned that the Leftist organizations and politicians have made illegal immigration an issue of race and color (and over 80% are NOT “people of color”) because they know charges of racism turn on the white guilt to shut people up and garner donations from Democrats. We have more children on the streets with brain addled homeless parents than in detention centers, but they would probably be safer, cleaner and better educated if instead of the squalor of San Francisco, they were in an Arizona facility.

Socialism by guest blogger, Michael Smith

"Socialism is like a Ponzi scheme, it only works for the ones at the top and only then if they an keep everyone in the game. The major difference is that where Ponzi schemes depend on greed, socialist regimes depend on coercive force.

Socialists always promise Norway (which is a capitalist country with a massive welfare state funded by oil an gas - not socialist at all) but socialism is not scalable - it doesn't have a volume knob that goes from one to ten, Socialism is binary, it only has an on/off switch. When socialists shoot for Norway, they always wind up with Venezuela."

Pizza for lunch and OSU football

So I picked up a pizza a Walmart.  Wondered what beef patty crumbles were.  Here’s the list. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Marketside-Ultimate-Meat-Pizza-Medium-29-5-oz/366231555

Ingredients:

Crust (Enriched Unbleached Wheat Flour [Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid], Water, Yeast, Palm Oil, Sugar, Contains 2% or Less of: Vegetable Oil[Soybean Oil and/or Olive Pomace Oil and/or Extra Virgin Olive Oil], Salt, Natural Flavor. May Also Contain Acacia Gum, Calcium Sulfate, Ascorbic Acid, and Enzymes), Low Moisture Mozzarella Cheese (Pasteurized Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes), Sauce (Tomato Puree [Water, Tomato Paste], Sugar, Contains 2% or Less of: Spices, Salt, Soybean Oil, Citric Acid, Xanthan Gum, Dehydrated Onion, Garlic Powder), Cooked Italian Sausage (Pork, Spices, Water, Salt, Corn Syrup Solids, Dried Garlic, Paprika, Paprika and Annatto Extract, Sugar, Lemon Juice Powder [Corn Syrup Solids, Lemon Juice Solids, Lemon Oil], Flavoring), Pepperoni, BHA, BHT, with Citric Acid Added to Help Protect Flavor (Pork, Salt, Contains 2% or Less of: Beef, Dextrose, Flavorings, Lactic Acid Starter Culture, Oleoresin of; Paprika, Sodium Nitrite, Spices, Sodium Ascorbate, BHA, BHT, Citric Acid), Sliced Beef Steak, Water and Modified Food Starch Product with Natural Smoke Flavor Added (Beef, Water, Dextrose, Sodium Phosphate, Modified Corn Starch, Salt, Autolyzed Yeast, Hydrolyzed Corn Protein.; Coated with: Dextrose, Salt, Sodium Citrate, Modified Corn Starch, Sodium Diacetate, Natural Flavor, Spices, Garlic Powder, Mustard, Onion Powder, Paprika, Grill Flavor, Natural Smoke Flavor), Cooked Seasoned Beef Topping, BHA, BHT, and Citric Acid Added to Help Protect Flavor (Beef, Water, Salt, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Spices, Dextrose, Sodium Phosphate, Dried Onion, Dried Garlic, Dried Worcestershire Sauce [Distilled Vinegar, Molasses, Corn Syrup, Salt, Caramel Color, Garlic Powder, Sugar, Spices, Tamarind, Natural Flavor], BHA, BHT, Citric Acid), Not Smoked Provolone Cheese (Cultured Pasteurized Milk, Salt, Enzymes), Fully Cooked Beef Patty Crumbles (Beef, Water, Textured Vegetable Protein [Soy Flour, Caramel Color], Salt, Spice, Granulated Onion,; Granulated Garlic), Contains 2% or less of Fully Cooked Bacon Bits (Pork Cured with Water, Salt, Natural Smoke Flavoring, Sodium Phosphate, Sodium Erythorbate, Sodium Nitrite; May Contain Sugar, Brown Sugar), Grated Parmesan Cheese (Parmesan Cheese [Pasteurized Part-Skim Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes], Powdered Cellulose [Anti-Caking Agent]), Grated Romano Cheese (Romano Cheese Made From Cow's Milk [Pasteurized Cow's Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes], Powdered Cellulose [Anti-Caking Agent]), Dehydrated Garlic, Dried Oregano, Dried Parsley.

A list adjustment for Democrats in 2020

We need to adjust the list of campaign promises by Democrat candidates and their supporters:

• Abortion and infanticide for American babies plus black and brown babies in developing countries.
• Dox, threaten, blacklist and bully anyone who votes for or donates to Trump, threaten their livelihood and their children.
• Destroy as many freedoms in the Bill of Rights as possible--religion, speech, guns, and assembly.
• Eliminate borders and citizenship so Democrats can guarantee a "free and fair election."
• Rewrite history so that any invention, literary work, business success, song, building, statue or school that has the name (even on a memorial brick) of an American of western heritage is destroyed, maligned or forgotten.
• Continue to deny that anti-Zionism isn't anti-Semitism.
• Increase taxes to fund more government employees for Climate Change. Assure only the “rich” will be affected—they already pay 95% of the taxes.
• Outlaw red baseball caps.

Do as I say, not as I do

Bahram Arkadi built Lifetime Fitness (about 130 locations) where I have a Silver Sneakers membership and is a multimillionaire. Recently in the magazine "Experiencing Life" he pointed out the root causes of threats to biodiversity: overpopulation and overconsumption. He personally wants for nothing. Has his family and his millions, and he's lecturing the rest of us on birth control and materialism like someone running for president? The U.S. population is already below replacement rate, and his business was built on a never ending hunger and quest to look and feel better that will always sell.

One way to help the environment is to pick up trash on your walks—and you don’t do that in a gym.

A rant about NPR from long time listener

“National Public Radio covers, in the absence of covering the case of the opposite side adequately, and supports the causes of abortion, homosexual, and transgender “rights.” Its editors directly instruct on-air staff how to speak about matters of abortion: reference to “babies” or the “unborn” in the wombs of pregnant women is verboten. As one commentator noted, NPR’s linguistic policing has nothing to do with objectivity; it’s all about shifting public opinion. NPR shoves same-sex “marriage” in our faces, but it lets traditional marriage and other forms of moral restraint fend for themselves. . .

National Public Radio’s coverage of the recent rash of mass murders tends to a mechanical and simplistic “solution”: ban guns. It made a hero of high-school anti-gun activist David Hogg because he agrees with this position. But NPR tells us basically nothing about the familial and sociological backgrounds of the murderers or of those persons and factors directly abetting the murderers: police, school officials, family members and other relations, as shown at times via personal expression on the media.”

Read the whole article in the New Oxford Review. https://www.newoxfordreview.org/documents/why-ive-tuned-out-national-public-radio/#

The Imposter Syndrome

Is there no end to attempts to make women victims? A recent issue of JAMA (August 6, 2019) had an op-ed on "imposter syndrome." I didn't know it had a name, but it's that fear that some very successful people have of being exposed as a fraud--that they shouldn't really be a success despite all the evidence--money, fame, top position, etc. They attribute it to "luck," or timing, or even that they've duped others.

And according to the authors (I think female, although can't tell from the names), this syndrome affects more women in medicine than men, and rather than the person seeking help with their self worth, the world needs to change so women don't perpetuate a cycle of minimizing their ambition and salary expectations. The answer is for health organizations to be more proactive in promoting women and minorities, and rooting out causes of #impostersyndrome because it is only a symptom of the inequality that women and minorities experience.

SMH.

The little Constitution, guest blogger Maryann Leboffe Pinelli

“I carry the Constitution with me, in my car and it’s on my IPAD ... 
I’m a Real Estate Agent. A few years ago I had a younger client looking for a home. In conversation he brought up the 2nd Amendment, there were “No hunting” signs in the area. Now I try and avoid political conversations in business as there’s no way I can deny my beliefs, although am short and polite, so I never start the conversation. Turned out he was a legal gun owner. I go in my car and get out my little booklet, 4”x 6” 36 pages, and this kid was like, wow, that’s it? He had never read it, thought it had to be thousands of pages, with language he’d never be able to get thru. I told him he could have it, but he said no thank you and that was it.

A few months later, at his closing, when we’re walking out, he thanks me, for helping him find his new home, but even more for introducing him the simple but beautiful Written words of the Constitution...said he bought his own and now carry’s it with him, in his car.

It never ceases to amaze me, the simplicity of our Constitution. That Our founding fathers, a group of what today would be “millennials”, from various economic, educational and cultural backgrounds, conceived and wrote such a perfect document for Freedom and human God given rights.

And it never ceases to infuriate me how we have allowed corrupt politicians, justices, judges and liberal academia, chip away at it.
No longer will we survive with sell out career politicians who are weak, easily bought and paid for by the highest bidder, and who do not believe in the Constitution as written.

This was and is President Donald J. Trump’s time to be President. To bring our country back to the core beliefs of our Founding Fathers. I didn’t vote for a “Presidential” puppet, a chameleon who becomes whatever the media and fake polls demand he/she be. I voted For someone who would be fearless, tireless and not intimidated. For someone whose intelligence, instinct and shear determination would be used do what’s right to fight for America and her people. Period.

I was at his inauguration, listening to his speech brought tears to my eyes, as I thought, Finally. Two and a half years in, I can’t believe all he has accomplished, while under 24/7 attack and 90% on his own, with no help from Congress.

Bringing our country back from decades of corruption will not be easy. It will take more than his re-election. It will take “Trumpian” like candidates for us to send to Washington to help him, and will take a 2024 candidate that can be as determined, and strong as him, as possible.”

Overuse of the word CRISIS

What if media, politicians, academics and marketers couldn't use the word "crisis?"  It must be like the word “sale,” because it seems to work.

• "Air quality is quickly becoming a global health crisis, especially in highly urbanized areas."
• " Every year, Ohio’s drug crisis grows."
• "Obesity crisis: 2 billion people now overweight. . ."
• "We don’t have a “gun” crisis in America. We have a crisis of angry, young men."
• "Refugee education in crisis."
• "10 facts about Africa's education crisis."
• "The ocean plastic crisis."
• "Domestic violence crisis text line."
• "Crisis of the nones in church."
• "The American fashion industry is in crisis."
• "At a moment of architectural crisis, Trent university . . . "
• "The [water] crisis in Flint is a result of a failure at all levels of government. "
• "Democrats face identity crisis."
• "Are you ready for the financial crisis of 2019?"
• "Adolescent girls in crisis."
• "There is a gluten crisis hanging over the baking industry as several factors converge in a slow and insidious manner."
• "Crisis management plan for your wedding."
• "There's a global banana crisis."
• "Are we handling the bee crisis wrong?"
• "The coal crisis has hit Powder River Basin."
• "Facebook is facing an existential crisis"
• "The crisis of the Democrats is becoming more evident each week."
• "The border crisis is fracturing the Democrat party."

In lieu of flowers . . .

I did not know this lovely, 100-year old woman, but noticed this in her obituary, and thought it worth sharing: "In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that you “don’t postpone pleasure.” Spend undistracted time with your children, take a walk in the woods with your loved ones, send a birthday card or bake a pie for someone who needs it, and make a toast to enduring friendships, lifelong and beyond. That is what our mom would wish for you."

Another interesting thing about this obituary is that early in her life she lived on Lake Webster in Indiana, and met her first husband in 1949 on the "Dixie," a paddleboat. My husband learned to love vacationing on the lake at Lake Webster where his grandparents had a cottage, and he'd been on the Dixie many times. Who knows, maybe he saw her! 6 degrees of separation?

That pesky male female gap

The Pew Research Center found that 2019 will be the first year in which women will comprise the majority of the college-educated labor force in the United States. Women first received more than half of the bachelor’s degrees awarded in the 1981-82 academic year—almost 40 years ago.  Today they earn about 57% of bachelor’s degrees. The number of college-educated women in the adult population (ages 25 and older) surpassed the number of college-educated men in 2007. Does anyone fret about that imbalance created by loans, scholarships, affirmative action and unfair regulations?

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/20/u-s-women-near-milestone-in-the-college-educated-labor-force/ft_19-06-20_womenlaborforce_women-now-half-of-us-college-educated-labor-force-2/

So why are we still hearing about the “gap,” especially since for about 4 decades the college enrollment rate for females has exceeded males and for the younger demographic there is no gap given the same starting place and position? 

There’s a lot of mischief in gap statistics.  Especially college degrees.  Women, even in the same fields as men, may select different specialties—pediatrics instead of neuroscience, family law instead of corporate law, bibliographer instead of library director, or they may want to be an artist instead of a plumber or electrician. Women may decide to raise their own children and “stop-out” for 5-10 years, reentering the labor market with reduced value to employers.  Married women with husbands of equal education and financial status often have the luxury to leave the medical or law fields to start a business in a completely different direction such as interior design or selling craft items. 

Unfortunately, these “justice” studies rarely compare women with women—female doctors with female pre-school directors, or female TV hosts with female owners of bed and breakfasts, or female chefs with female dishwashers, female traffic court judges with female circuit court judges. Why not compare single women who are heads of household with married women who have no children?  In the universe of women employees there are gaps with men, but there are overlaps also, with low end of the bell curve  the men who clean the offices of  wealthy women politicians like Pelosi and Warren who are sitting at the high end of the bell curve.

What is concerning to me is that college educated women increasingly vote for Democrats, seeing themselves still as needing additional help from the government to manage their lives.

Philomena the movie, HIV and Reagan

This week at Lakeside we have a foreign film series, but these are all in English and two are about international adoptions, Philomena (British) and Lion (Australian).  I’d seen Philomena starring Judi Dench years ago and had forgotten most of it, particularly the sub-plot about the journalist who had lost his career and was more or less forced into writing a “human interest” non-fiction story which later became the book and then the movie. That it’s anti-Catholic is probably no surprise—the Roman Catholic church may be the largest and oldest target for both religious issues and social issues. Atheists, agnostics, and Protestants can all find something to criticize.    It is not just a Christian church—it is the largest social service agency in the world, and has about 26 different branches under its name all over the world each with unique language and culture. In the end, it is Philomena (the woman) who understands forgiveness, not the nuns and certainly not the journalist/author.

But Philomena the movie is also anti-Republican and anti-President Reagan, and that’s par for the course for the Brits who think we should have been happy to remain under the Union Jack.   Philomena’s birth son was adopted by an affluent American couple and grows up to become a valuable member of both the Reagan and Bush I administrations. He dies of AIDS in 1995.  However, he was gay during a time when there was almost no hope for remission from HIV (and 30 years later—it was identified in 1981—there is still no vaccine or cure), so Reagan is blamed for not pushing the federal funding more vigorously in 1986.  That’s absurd.

The U.S. was emerging from the boomer, free-sex and legalized abortion movements of the 1960s and 1970s,  people were demanding privacy in all things sexual and personal, the gay lifestyle was increasingly being recognized for “loving and caring” relationships particularly in literature and the arts, healthy lifestyles and personal responsibility for health advocacy groups were growing.  On top of all that, in the medical field researchers and university faculty were practically assuring us that the era and threat of infectious diseases was over.  STDs were going to be held at bay not by responsible monogamous life styles, but with penicillin. I remember that from the medical journals I was handling in the library.  Infectious disease journals were gathering dust.

President Reagan was blamed for the “gay disease” charge about HIV-AIDS in this movie.  And yet if you read any CDC fact sheet today, virtually all new cases (83%) of HIV are among “men who have sex with men” and that includes bi-sexual men who then infect women.
The recommendations by the USPSTF on screening are in order of importance:

1) Male-to-male sex (every 3 to 6 months screened)
And any risky life style comes next.
2) injection drug use
3) anal intercourse without a condom
4) more than one partner whose HIV status is unknown
5) transactional sex (exchanging sex for drugs)
6) commercial sex trade (prostitution)

So you see, in many cases it is still behavior and personal responsibility, not the federal government, which is your best protection from any sexual disease from syphilis to gonorrhea to AIDS. Don’t get advice on serious health matters from a movie with a political agenda.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG3QP8foCvg  Trailer

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2690288/
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/01/philomena_and_the_magical_sodomite_archetype.html
https://www.thebalance.com/who-funds-biomedical-research-2663193
https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2015/01/29/public-and-scientists-views-on-science-and-society/

Lakeside 2019, winding down, week 11

The Labor Day fireworks will be on Saturday, so we won’t miss them, since we’re usually not here on Labor Day.  There are lots of social activities this week as people who are left wind down from a busy summer. We went to a nice neighborhood brunch on Sunday after dockside service—great waffles made on two very ancient waffle irons topped with real maple syrup and fresh fruit.   I went out for breakfast and lunch on Tuesday. Breakfast with Joan at the Patio Restaurant and lunch at the Lakeside Women’s Club which was a noon potluck of just salads and desserts.  Tonight we’ve invited our neighbor Tom for dinner—pork roast, pea salad, roasted butternut squash, and fresh fruit, then going to another neighbor’s for dessert. Bob has his last Guy’s Club lunch today—they always travel by motor boat to a local restaurant. Thursday is dinner with two other neighbors on Oak Ave.

This week is called Lakeside University with all the hosts/lecturers being Lakeside people or a town near-by.  We had a lecture on Monday by the great granddaughter and her husband of R.E. Olds, of Oldsmobile and yachting fame. They have a cottage here.  Another lecture on Tuesday was by the founder of our sailing club. There is an afternoon foreign films series, and the first two were on adoption themes, Philomena (English) and The Lion (Australian).  Both are outstanding—if you have a chance, be sure to see them. Today I mentioned the films to my neighbor as we walked to the morning program, and she mentioned that she is adopted, and within the last year she found (or was found by) a half-brother.  She said she had a wonderful life with her parents and had never been interested in searching (both films were about the search).

Top Hat the movie with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers was the evening Hoover show on Tuesday—so much more fun with an audience.  Another foreign film today, but I sat through about 30 minutes, and it seemed to be about the frailties of aging, dementia and government bureaucracy when he tries to build a house  (Still Mine), so that didn’t seem entertaining and I left.

Today’s morning lecture was on the American Songbook by our wonderful musical director and vice president for programming, Michael Shirtz.  At Hoover tonight there will be an actual performance by him—he sings and plays piano. 

The lake was wild, windy and nasty on Sunday, but Monday and Tuesday was quite and calm. Monday night’s program, a piano player (boogie woogie) was moved from the gazebo to Hoover due to the weather, and he was very good.

And to top things off, we’re having the carpet cleaned on Friday.  We’ve never done that but since it was installed in 1989, it’s time.

Thoughts on Mother and mothering

Sunday, August 25, was the 85th anniversary of my parents’ wedding. They died in 2000 and 2002, having celebrated together 65 years during the previous August wedding of my sister in 1999.  My dad wasn’t one to keep a diary, but he did jot things down in a little spiral bound notebook later in life, and he noted that on their anniversary in 2000 he took Mother’s ashes on a ride in the country on their 66th.  He never tired of driving the country roads even though he had done that most of his life to earn a living. After they’d both retired, he and Mom would sometimes take Sunday drives around Ogle and Lee counties just recalling the past, or enjoying the changes of seasons, or how the crops were doing, or which farms were being kept up. In fact, even when I was a child, Sunday afternoon “entertainment” might be driving to Iowa to look around. That certainly wouldn't have been my choice with 4 children in the car.

I’d also been thinking about Mom because a very old memory had popped to the surface during one of our Lakeside 2019 classes by Chef Stacy.  It was on home made pasta.  We didn’t eat a lot of pasta when I was growing up—our spaghetti came out of a can and would be for lunch--never dinner. I didn’t learn to appreciate pasta until meeting Bob’s mother, who made fabulous homemade spaghetti, with tossed salad and garlic bread.   But Mom was also trying out new things, and she must have seen an article on making noodles, because we went through a phase when we lived in Forreston of her testing out this new skill.  I remember watching her make it—the recipe is very simple, just flour, water and eggs.  She did her best, but the beef roast and noodles dish was usually a gooey mess.  Dad might have said something about it, and she dropped that experiment forever to disappear from her menus.  Stacy made it look so easy, I may try it, and dedicate the gooey mess to Mom’s memory.

In today’s meditation I read a letter from Concepcion Cabrera de Armida to her son Pancho (nickname for Francisco).  She died in 1937, and was a wife, mother, and writer in Mexico.  She apparently wrote about 65,000 of these little messages.  It reminds me a lot of what my mother would say to her children.

• Avoid the least quarrel and do not stop at any sacrifice to have peace in your home.
• It is better to bend than to break.
• With prudence, education and certain common sense, many troubles can be avoided.
• Oh, my son! Never forget that everything you are, all that you have and the happiness you now enjoy, you owe to the good Jesus who has loved you with such tenderness! From how many dangers he has delivered you!
• Be grateful, my son: recognize with gratitude the fatherly tenderness of God over you and demonstrate your gratitude by your actions, and never be ashamed of being a good Christian.
• Be dignified with everyone but never haughty.
• Keep on being honest under every circumstance.
• Do not soil your soul with business deals that extort your fellowmen.
• May your soul be always clean—poverty does not soil or shame one—and you will be happy.
• May your home, dear Pancho, be a model of Christian homes where the Lord reigns and a worldly atmosphere does not enter; where the peace and happiness that are born from the accomplishment of one’s duty, be settled there.
• Never spend more than you have, not even all that you earn; thrift helps marriages avoid a lot of trouble.
• But do not be avaricious; aim for a happy medium maintaining a decent and fitting social standing, not living in luxury, even if you become rich.
• Let the poor be considered one of your ordinary expenses, and God will not fail you.
• Don’t limit your piety to exterior observance but rather practice the virtues, being patient in adversity, resigned to the adverse events of life, because if we receive from the Lord so many goods, why should we not also receive the sufferings he desires to send us? (Magnificat, vol. 21, no. 6 p. 387-388.)

Loneliness is the worst poverty

The guest pastor this morning quoted Mother Teresa on loneliness being the worst kind of poverty, but when I checked I think he must have paraphrased because I couldn't find the exact one. But I may have found one even better.

"During a speech in 1994 at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C., she said, “I can never forget the experience I had in visiting a home where they kept all these old parents of sons and daughters who had just put them into an institution and forgotten them – maybe. I saw that in that home these old people had everything – good food, comfortable place, television, everything, but everyone was looking toward the door. And I did not see a single one with a smile on the face. I turned to Sister and I asked: “Why do these people who have every comfort here, why are they all looking toward the door? Why are they not smiling?” I am so used to seeing the smiles on our people, even the dying ones’ smile. And Sister said: ‘This is the way it is nearly every day. They are expecting, they are hoping that a son or daughter will come to visit them. They are hurt because they are forgotten.’ And see, this neglect to love brings spiritual poverty… When I pick up a person from the street, hungry, I give him a plate of rice, a piece of bread. But a person who is shut out, who feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person who has been thrown out of society – that spiritual poverty is much harder to overcome.” "

The 2020 election will be stolen

"We won't beat Trump by blaming others and boasting about our own supposed virtue." "We liberals need self-criticism," Ioannis Gatsiounis, WSJ, Aug. 22.

I'm not so sure. I've been watching this virtue signaling (under various names) for 25-30 years, beginning when I was on the faculty   at OSU. Blame and self-righteousness goes a long way in politics. I've yet to hear one word about policy from the opposition that wasn't first built on hate for Trump, then charges of racism or misogyny. Even Jill Biden is campaigning for Joe on that.

• Democrats have created a new race--"people of color" often applied to those of 100% European ancestry with a Spanish surname.
• We've still got think tanks protected by their 501c3 status comparing the salaries of female part time day care workers with male electrical engineers and declaring a gender wage gap and then giving candidates talking points.
• There isn't a shred of scientific evidence that men can become women, but the LGBTQ agenda has been able to undo Title IX and get backing from major corporation who are reluctant to fight back if profit is involved.
• Words have become weaponized to create white supremacism where none exists.
• No one is punished or brought up on hate crime charges for maligning or destroying the businesses of Americans whose ancestors came from Europe.

Democrats plan to steal the 2020 election--probably could save a lot of money in campaigning. And they will do it with the Constitution which allows states to figure out their own electoral votes. Usually Democrats don't like the Constitution when it comes to rights of the unborn, or 2nd amendment or religion, but they'll love it for stealing this election. Not only do Democrat controlled states have an advantage in non-citizen population (which determines the count for the House), but when they control the state, they control how the Electoral College will vote.

Lakeside 2019, Week 10, and Virtual Reality

Friday is a light day for programming at Lakeside; we had a class on organization (clutter) and cooking tips by Stacy Maple, a chef, on alternate Fridays earlier in the season, but today was the Wellness Fair.

I poked around at a few displays—the Methodists are having an apple dumpling fund raiser (have no idea why this is health related, except it’s fine fellowship and we all need friends and service); Magruder Hospital had a display on the danger of falls, but the ladies didn’t know how to keep my husband off the roof; and there were various “eastern” or meditative or movement programs that I don’t do.

I did, however, discover a new health related business by a woman entrepreneur which can assist hospice patients, shut-ins or nursing home residents reduce their pain, recall pleasant memories, and facilitate conversations with loved ones.  It’s called “Immersive cure; virtual reality solutions.”  Using virtual reality therapy it’s a non-pharmacological way to reduce stress, anxiety, depression and pain with a Gear VR Headset. Originally VR was used primarily for entertainment purposes, but in the last decade medical research has proven it effective for other uses.

As I sat in a chair waiting for the headset to be placed I learned that the CEO, Jessica Benson, of Medina, Ohio, had moved around a bit due to her husband’s career and then through a volunteer position at a hospital came up with this idea to provide personalized virtual experiences for people who are facility bound or too frail to travel.  The option (right now I believe there are 6 one of which is veteran travel to monuments) I used was the “Lakeside experience.” With the gentle sounds of Lake Erie and nature sounds I was transported to the front lawn near the Celtic cross and fountain at Hotel Lakeside looking up, down and around, enjoying lake views and watching people strolling, and some plein air artists (filmed in July).

The kit which Ms. Benson provides includes the headset with controller, a smart phone, headphones, an infection control kit, and case for the equipment. She will educate the staff of the organization that purchases her services. She can also personalize this service for other areas and events that would be familiar for the shut-in.

For more information and comments by users, see Immersivecure.com

"Virtual reality and pain management: current trends and future directions"  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3138477/ 

Sickle cell disease. https://www.healio.com/hematology-oncology/hematology/news/online/%7B5ab0e2a2-6198-4b7e-9420-8dcbff9d958b%7D/virtual-reality-helps-reduce-pain-among-patients-with-sickle-cell-disease

 https://interestingengineering.com/virtual-reality-can-help-relieve-severe-pain-in-patients-study-finds

https://www.gamerevolution.com/tech/417593-vr-labor-pain-study-samsung

Lakeside, 2019 Week 10, RV video

https://youtu.be/H69oPSYABDA

This is a lovely video made by a couple who have an RV channel on YouTube.  They did a great story about Lakeside and were here during the Marilyn McCoo-Billy Davis Show.  Street scenes are less populated since most families have gone home for the school year.  More emphasis on the camp ground than most things I see—it’s not easy to get space there.  About 17 minutes.

The worm has turned. Piers Morgan.

PIERS MORGAN: "Populism is rising because liberals have become unbearable. In my core, I'm probably more liberal than not although fundamentally I see myself as a journalist and I like to see both sides and I can argue both sides of all these things, but what's the point of calling yourself a liberal if you don't allow anyone else to have a different view? This snowflake culture that we now operate in, the victimhood culture, the everyone has to think in a certain way, behave a certain way. Everyone has to have a bleeding heart and tell you 20 things that are wrong with them. I just think it is all completely skewed to an environment where everyone is offended by everything and no one is allowed to say a joke.

If you said a joke ten years ago that offended somebody, you can never host the Oscars. So now there's no host for anything. The Emmy's now just said they're not gonna host either, so hosts have gone, and soon, every award winner will go because everyone's a human being and we're all flawed, so no one can win awards anymore because there will be no platform before they even get on the podium, so then no hosts, no stars. Then no one can make any movies because we're all flawed, so no actors, so suddenly, where are we?

The liberals get what they want, which is a humorless void where nothing happens, no one dares do anything or laugh about anything or behave in any way that doesn't suit their rigid way of leading a life. No thanks. So what's happening around the world? Populism is rising because people are fed up with the PC culture. They're fed up with snowflakery, they're fed up with people being offended by everything and they're gravitating towards forceful personalities who go: "This is all nonsense!"

Which, by the way, it is in most cases. So why are we surprised? I'm not surprised. It doesn't mean to say I agree with all of it, but it means I can understand it, and I understand why the liberals, my side, if you like, are getting it so horribly wrong. They just wanna tell people, not just how to lead their lives, but if you don't lead it the way I tell you to it's a kind of version of fascism. If you don't lead the life the way I'm telling you to then I'm going to ruin your life. I'm gonna scream abuse at you. I'm gonna get you fired from your job. I'm gonna get you hounded by your family and friends. I'm gonna make you the most disgusting human being in the world."

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/08/20/piers_morgan_the_left_have_become_unbearable.html

August 20 sunset

Happy Birthday, Stan. 78.

Beth Sibbring photo

    

Lakeside 2019, Week 9, the rest of the story

Before starting on Week 10, first I have to say good-bye to Week 9.  Wonderful closing performance of the Lakeside Symphony Orchestra on Friday, August 16 with Angelin Chang performing Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor by Camille Saint-Saens.  Then after intermission, the LSO performed Symphony no. 1 in C minor by Brahms. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhkuad0gLM4

Friday morning we had our last class on clutter (Organization 101).  One of the best stories was told by one in the audience who had collected elephants and needed to “let it go.”  He had 3,000 of them.  So he took a statue of 4—2 adults, an adolescent and a baby, all connected trunk to tail.  It weighed 1,000 pounds.  He decided to have it made into his grave marker and found a company that would do it!  In life the instructor suggested we all need to learn “Let it Go” whether that be material accumulation or personal grievances.

In the afternoon Gretchen Curtis reviewed Marilla of Green Gables which is a prequel to Anne of Green Gables.  I’d never read the Anne series, but Gretchen always does such a nice job, it didn’t really matter.  Sat with my neighbor Dorothy.

There were several friends from UALC at Lakeside during Week 9, and for the Wednesday night picnic we all gathered at Perry park (east end), along with our neighbors Scott and Carol, to share a huge table.  Shout out to Mary, Carol, Kelly and David, plus 2 of their friends from Westerville.  It was a fun evening of hot dogs, chips, potato salad, baked beans, watermelon and cookies.

I found the morning lectures somewhat disappointing for Week 9.  The speaker was Jack Barlow of Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pa.(Church of the Brethren college).  His conservative  vita looked good, Claremont Graduate School and Carleton College, but he definitely leaned left. He didn't call our Constitution "evolving" or "plastic," but that was the sense I had.  After the Tuesday lecture during the Q & A I raised that issue, and asked him if his students would feel free to disagree (virtually all institutions of high learning weed out conservatives so now there are very few among ranks of faculty, even in religious private institutions). He didn't deny being liberal, but assured the audience it didn't affect his students.  That's odd.  I picked up on it immediately, and if I were a student, I think I'd know how to frame my papers or answers to please a professor.  Anyway, after the lecture there were 5 or 6 people who came up to me an whispered they were so happy I spoke up.  The fact they had to whisper is indicative of the anti-Trump and anti-conservative bias we face here. Then as I headed home, a man caught up with me on Walnut and said he admired me for saying something.  He was not a "Lakesider" as we think of it, and was only in town two days, being a regular at Chautauqua, NY.  He and his wife talked to me for about 10 minutes, saying they were from West Virginia and had been on a very interesting trip including Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, etc., and decided to stop in Lakeside since they'd never heard of it before this trip. He too had lost long time friends and family for being a conservative and voting for Trump.

Monday night we thoroughly enjoyed the silent movie selection "The Kid Brother," (1927) with Harold Lloyd.  The organist was Clark Wilson, and he gave an intro and provided a wonderful background  for the movie.  Tuesday night was the program Bob had been looking forward to--a classical guitarist playing with the Symphony Orchestra--Colin Davin.
https://www.youtube.com/user/colindavinguitar

The opening of Week 9 (Saturday August 10) was Brian Regan, a comedian, and we'd never heard of him, but he's apparently popular on late night TV, because the place was packed with an overflow crowd standing in the back of Hoover.  Very clean, no rough language.  Nothing political.  A great show.

Steve Kings remark on rape and incest

Democrat media are trying to portray Steve King's comment on family trees as excusing rape and incest. Not at all. It's just a fact. History, not emotion, and Democrats hate that. He's simply saying those children are a part of the human race, part of us, regardless of the sins of their mothers and fathers. If you chopped off all those branches in your family tree, you'd have a stump. The current craze for DNA family searches has shown that many people do not have the fathers (usually) or family they imagined. Many family genealogies have "aunts" who were actually the mother, or an uncle, grandfather or cousin who were the father. But there it is--in the census and the insert in the Bible record. I used to be part of an e-mail genealogy group, and was amazed at the stories I read of old family secrets before the DNA tests. . . one I recall was a man impregnating his wife's younger sister and her being hidden, then married off and whisked out of state then languishing in a mental institution and the child given away. Democrats see that as immoral, but not aborting a person who might grow up to be a very ordinary citizen, or a very exceptional scientist is OK.

Civilian populations, particularly women, suffered greatly in wars going back centuries, and in Latin class we translated the "Rape of the Sabine Women." You can call it "abduction," but they helped populate Rome. American Indians did the same thing.  Muslims tried and almost succeeded in taking over Christian Europe, but over time turned whole populations Muslim. Africans were exported all over the world mostly to South America (only 6% came to North America) to be slaves. Or more recently in this century, when many of the young Nigerian Christian school girls were freed from Boko Haram--many were pregnant or carrying toddlers.

Just because we have Planned Parenthood clinics down the street or across town in a black or low income neighborhood, doesn't mean we're free of this. Democrats are the ones saying only certain lives matter--the ones in our party, our victims--not your party or your victims. They are the ones pushing eugenics and selling body parts. Democrats for decades have said most children conceived outside and some inside marriage are not worthy if they are inconvenient, a source of shame or disabled.

Look back a few years, decades or centuries, and you'll find this in your own family tree.

Elizabeth Warren and her wealth, as reported in Wall St. Journal

“Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) likes to talk a lot about an affordability crisis in higher education. Fortunately for Ms. Warren and her husband, there’s no crisis at all for the people who work there.

This week Forbes magazine estimates the net worth of various 2020 presidential candidates. While it’s no surprise that a number of former business and finance executives come to the campaign with sizable fortunes, what’s remarkable is how much wealth is now attainable for those in the allegedly non-profit sector of the U.S economy.

Dan Alexander, Chase Peterson-Withorn and Michela Tindera of Forbes estimate that Sen. Warren and her husband enjoy a net worth of $12 million. According to Forbes:

Teachers aren’t paid so poorly after all—at least not Harvard professors. Warren and her husband, Bruce Mann, both longtime instructors at the university, have built up a small fortune through years of teaching, writing and consulting. Their largest holdings include TIAA and CREF accounts—available to educators and nonprofit employees—worth more than $4 million. One of their best investments has been their home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, purchased in 1995 for $447,000. It’s now worth an estimated $3 million.

The couple purchased the home around the time that Ms. Warren stopped listing herself as a “minority” in the Association of American Law Schools directory. By that time she had won a contested tenure vote from the Harvard Law School faculty and as far as this column can tell she never again called herself “American Indian” in registering with a state bar association. In the years that followed Ms. Warren and her husband achieved healthy levels of wealth and income. According to Forbes, it’s possible that the Warren/Mann household is now worth even more than $12 million:

No one, not even the Democrats who spend the most time bashing Trump for his financial dealings, were willing to release full tax returns, file financial disclosures and answer all of Forbes’ questions about their personal finances. Elizabeth Warren, for example... wouldn’t give guidance on the true value of her husband’s investments, listed on her disclosures with a vague value of “over $1 million.” “

Denigrating one’s own race/culture pays well

White liberal academics can earn more in a day lecturing about their own “white privilege” than the median black household makes in three months, public records obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation and U.S. Census data show.

I noticed this "cottage industry" back in the 1990s. Little workshops, discussion groups, "brown bag lunches" and optional classes making the rounds of college campuses and Christian churches (some of those disguised as attacking poverty). Now it's a massive industry with its own non-profits, bureaucracies, tangled associations for local, state and nation, CEOs, college careers, and required classes. Follow the money. It's the logical and financial outcome of the black studies, women studies, and now gender studies curricula. There was no place/jobs for those graduates, so one was created.

https://themichiganstar.com/2019/07/31/lecturers-earn-6000-per-hour-pushing-white-privilege-to-students/

How contraception works

Understanding abortive contraception

From the beginning, hormonal birth control was based on deception. Hormonal birth control (the Pill, the Minipill, IUD, Norplant, the morning-after-pill, Depo-Provera, RU-486) has always had three possible functions.

The first, often most confused as the only function, is to prevent ovulation. If the first function fails, a possible second function is to thicken the mucus of the cervix so that the sperm cannot reach the egg. The third function, a function which all hormone based contraception has, is to thin the lining of the uterus so that the fertilized egg, the baby, is not able to implant in the uterus lining and is thus aborted (Alcorn 323-326, 332).

In early 1960, both Alan Guttmacher and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists defined conception as the moment of fertilization, or when the egg meets the sperm. This caused a problem because abortion was illegal then, making their pill and the IUD illegal. So in order to make their birth control, or what they falsely called contraception, legal, they altered the definition of conception.

By 1970, both changed their position and claimed that conception begins with fertilization and ends with implantation in the uterus. In other words, it was not a baby until it was implanted into the uterus (Cavanaugh-O’Keefe, The Roots Chapter Eleven).

To this day, America is aborting millions of babies in the name of contraception.

https://www.bound4life.com/history-of-abortion

The Hunt is disgusting

Universal Studios developed a film showing "elites" killing "deplorables." Hmm. Not surprising that the people who think a 9 month human fetus isn't human enough to have rights might come up with an idea to kill people who support Trump. And the release has only been postponed. Remember, these are the people who "believe in science," but can find 40+ genders but no humanity in a baby. These are the people who go before congress and blather about morality and the 2nd amendment or pesticides on apples.

“We stand by our filmmakers and will continue to distribute films in partnership with bold and visionary creators, like those associated with this satirical social thriller, but we understand that now is not the right time to release this film.”

Bold and visionary to kill Trump supporters as though we don't have enough crazies on social media. When is the right time to kill fellow Americans for political reasons?

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/08/universal-studios-cancels-movie-the-hunt-on-killing-trump-supporters-after-president-trump-complains/

Intentions don't bring results

"Conservatives have been saying for years that our inner cities are laboratories where the far-left experiments with policies based on feelings rather than facts. These big-government experiments have ended in failure, harming the very people the far left says it wants to help." Kay Coles James

And I might add, the leftists have been so successful at getting government funding and donations for their "think tanks" and 501-c3 and c4s, they are working their same magic in our upper income suburbs, vacation spots, and churches. Except they don't use the ploy of wanting to help us--but we must help others (as they pass the hat). They fund the marches, the protests and the blocking by Big Tech. Conservatives are doing what they've always done--they go to work, mind their own business, sing in the choir--and then shazam--their town, church and clubs have been taken over by the virtue signalers who say black lives matter and we believe in science (code for climate change).

Lakeside 2019, a great Sunday

A lovely church service on the lakefront, with breakfast at the Patio Restaurant.  Two friends, Mary Shesky and Carol Anderson, from our Church joined us in the afternoon, and Bob was able to participate in the kids sailing program.  Two other friends, the Kullbergs, from church had their grandchildren with them, and they requested "Captain Bob" for their 20 minute ride. In the late afternoon we enjoyed a terrific music group at the Gazebo, a group called "Moment's Notice," who began performing while they were in the Air Force at Wright Patterson (Dayton).  In the evening we enjoyed cake and ice cream with our summer pastor (now retired), Rev. Irwin Jennings and his wife Janet.

I'm feeling a big sluggish this morning--had to sit on a bench and enjoy the sunrise during my morning walk.  Tough, huh?  Too many calories on Sunday.

Taking out the Kullberg grandchildren

Enjoying the concert with Mary and Carol

Concert in the Park, "Moment's Notice"

Bob and Rev. Jennings

The media and the manifesto

The El Paso shooter had many concerns, most aligned with liberal and environmental policies and things promoted by the media, both social and MSM. Pollution, automation, environmental degradation, job losses--and his solution was murder. The manifesto was not inspired by Trump, but by his own demented hate. It was NYT who promoted the lie about Trump. But it's too late--a lie circles the globe before the truth can get its pants on. Or something like that paraphrasing Mark Twain. Progressives are always out of the gate before the sluggish sleepy conservatives in the lie races.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/has-anyone-actually-read-the-el-paso-manifesto#!

If you are familiar with Byron York, you know he’s not a Trump fan.

Older people and protein needs

Today I attended a program on protein at the wellness center at Lakeside and wasn’t satisfied with what I heard.  Most of her references were 15-20 years old. Her citations for RDA were for the “universe” of adults, rather than the elderly, and most attending were over 70.   Here’s my recommendation when googling health information.  Add the letters NCBI to your search.  Here is “elderly protein ncbi”.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4924200/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30036990

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24814383

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4882708/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30037048

Lakeside 2019, Week 8, Thursday offerings

There are so many virtuous and wholesome offerings today.  I could go to a financial seminar, which I suspect will lead us to leaving part of our estate to Lakeside.  Or I could go to an Arbor Day picnic and learn about Lakeside Environment Stewardship Society.   Then there is the gardening program—how to be productive and healthy with a master gardener from Ottawa County. There is a composting seminar.   Then there is a Wellness Seminar about why is protein important in our diets.  The Rhein Center where Bob teaches is having its 20th anniversary celebration this evening. One thing is for sure: we will attend the evening program at Hoover, Ciaran Sheehan, Irish born actor and singer.

Follow the money

The SECOND most important reason for Democrats to demand "Medicare for All" or "single payer" (government) insurance is that $300 Billion exemption employers get for insuring their workers with a quality product tailored to their needs. Democrats believe that exemption is a "loophole" and really belongs to them to pass around to their friends so they can stay in office. The government actually built this odd system after WWII when it imposed controls on wages, and employers added benefits to get the best employees.

https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/how-does-tax-exclusion-employer-sponsored-health-insurance-work

The first reason and biggest is control over your life choices and third is your health data which can be sold to the highest bidder.

Fourth is the victimhood mentality that has been pounded into minds of mush since the 1970s in public schools and higher education. It's a vote getter. It's more apparent in Gen-X and Millennials than Boomers, and almost unknown in my generation. In that mind set, it isn't fair that Whole Foods shoppers have better insurance than Walmart shoppers, even though the WF shopper is a "virtue signaler," better educated and well paid, and looks down on the schlubs who shop at Walmart, clean their homes and keep their toilets and automobiles running. In a "fair" world, everyone would only shop at Walmart and Whole Foods wouldn't exist. Choice wouldn't exist.

The Ferguson effect by Guest Blogger Jeffrey

“After the media manufactured lies about Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, the murder rate in US cities rose immediately. Within days. And it rose steadily for 2 years and is still above the pre-Ferguson level. It rose 2016 was 16.1% higher than 2012 which equates to 2400 extra murders just for 2016. Over the 5 years since Ferguson the total EXTRA murders is about 7,000-8,000. The cops stopped policing and murder soared. Liberal run urban areas, like Chicago, rose by over 70% while other areas were less affected. The rate has dropped again, but not all the way.

The media caused this. The spree shootings are awful but are absolutely dwarfed by the Ferguson Effect which was completely driven by media lies. Left wing policies in general create cities with high murder rates. The media wants to talk about white supremacists. Walk the halls of America's prisons. The murderers and other inmates are not Republicans.

Does the media ever talk about this huge spike in murder that they caused? Do they hold vigils? Do they hold the lies and liars accountable? Do they talk about their lies as a "first amendment loophole" like they talk about the "gun show loophole" (which is another media lie)? Will Gillette ever run a "Be Better" commercial scolding minorities for their murder rates which are many, many times higher than others?

Believe nothing the MSM says. Overall, the murder rate is half what it was at it's peak in the early 80s. Despite high profile crimes, the murder rate among liberal supported demographics is many, many times higher than other groups. "White Supremacist murder" is barely measurable - less than 0.2% of the murders. Spree shootings in general are less than 1%. It's the daily grind in Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit and other liberal run areas that account for more than 50%.”

Lakeside 2019, a quiet but eventful Monday

Last night's programs in Lakeside were wonderful. The growing popularity of "Porch Stories" shows people want to know their neighbors' stories. It's based on the very organic movement called The Moth. https://themoth.org/stories  Two Lakesiders told fascinating tales of events that changed their lives. In summer 2017 a group decided to try the Moth Story format here and arranged for a few porches.  However, as the interest in the group grew, it moved to the Women’s Club, and when it outgrew that, to the Chautauqua Hall in the Fountain Inn. 

Then we walked across the street to Hoover to hear songwriter/musician Marcus Hummon https://www.marcushummon.net/ tell a few tales and sing some of his songs--he's worked with Wynonna Judd (who was here a week ago), Rascal Flatts, Sara Evans and the Dixie Chicks, and he's seen it all. I really chuckled at his stories of "feeling old" as he tries to relate to some of the younger, rising stars.

This week is multi-faith, peace week (name changes from year to year), but studying peace and world religions has never excited me (except when I was college age), so instead we did a tour of the old 1912 school house on 7th (south end).  Until the late 1950’s Lakeside had its own school system, but like many other small towns Lakeside year round residents have been folded into a larger system and are now included in Danbury (Marblehead).  Lakeside’s property taxes are the golden goose for that system since it has so few children.  Their computers should be gold platted.

I thought the building resembled the old elementary school in Mt. Morris that my siblings and I attended in the 40s and 50s, but it’s actually newer. The Mt. Morris building served for over 100 years, and originally was both high school and elementary.  The Lakeside school apparently served 40+ years.  Architecture is similar. The soaring ceilings and enormous windows it could be wonderful when restored.

Trump, Warren and Gun Control

Maybe politicians should stop blaming opponents for the actions of third parties.  Wall St. Journal, August 5

“2020 Democrats lay blame on Trump’s rhetoric for shootings,” reports the Associated Press. Will some 2020 Democrats also end up blaming themselves as more evidence is collected about the shooters in El Paso and Dayton? Strange as it may seem for people not in the business of politics or punditry, it’s popular in these fields to blame ideological rivals for the violent acts of third parties. In remarks today at the White House, President Donald Trump appropriately responded to the violence with expressions of grief, condolences to the families of victims, and thanks for the brave, rapid and accurate response of police officers. Commenting specifically on the violence in Texas, Mr. Trump said: The shooter in El Paso posted a manifesto online consumed by racist hate. In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy. These sinister ideologies must be defeated. Hate has no place in America. Hatred warps the mind, ravages the heart, and devours the soul. We have asked the FBI to identify all further resources they need to investigate and disrupt hate crimes and domestic terrorism — whatever they need. “Trump Condemns White Supremacy but Doesn’t Propose Gun Laws After Shootings,” responded a New York Times headline. The article by Michael Crowley and Maggie Haberman says that “Mr. Trump stopped well short of endorsing the kind of broad gun control measures that activists and Democrats have sought for years, instead falling back on longtime Republican remedies, such as stronger action to address mental illness, violence in the media and violent video games.” To say the very least, it would be premature in the hours after the shooting for anyone to assert that mental illness was a factor in the violence. It should also be noted that Mr. Trump was hardly rejecting other ideas to address gun violence. After describing his own priorities, he said: These are just a few of the areas of cooperation that we can pursue. I am open and ready to listen and discuss all ideas that will actually work and make a very big difference.”

Lakeside 2019, a great August week-end

The weather was fabulous August 3-5.  On Saturday and Sunday there was the sailing regatta, and our neighbor/friend Jack, who is 14, walked (or sailed) away with 3 prizes--Mouse Island, 2nd in lasers, 1st place in sunfish for youth.  Bob went out for doubles with Nancy Brucken, and they came in last, but always the optimist he said, "We were way ahead of those who didn't enter!"

Jack

 

Saturday was the Volunteer Recognition Picnic on the hotel lawn and that night the Symphony with VERB Ballets was stunning.  Bob like the event with flesh colored body suits better than I did.  From where we sat, they appeared to be nude.  The Carmen number was sensuous and flashy, just as you would expect.  How long before the gender police shut these down?

On Sunday morning the weather was perfect for worship on the east side of the pavilion.  After breakfast at the Patio with Nancy and Marilyn, I also went to the worship service in Hoover to hear the pastor of the week, Rev. Becca A. Stevens who manages a ministry in Nashville called Thistle Farms.  It's a refuge and retraining facility for victims of trafficking, violence and addiction.  Her husband provided the special music, and he will be the program on Monday evening.

The Sunday afternoon on the lawn of the hotel and the pavilion has been called the FIRST  Blues, Views and BBQ Festival.  Two different bands, Colin Dussault Blues Project of Cleveland and Sean Carney of Columbus, horse carriage rides, a delicious meal (we didn't do that part, but people said it was fabulous), all with Lake Erie, a wonderful wind and the Regatta.

 

 

 

This morning on my walk along the lakefront I spoke to a number of people, dog walkers, joggers, and workers.  Two men in particular struck me as "not" Lakesiders--they just looked stressed and not friendly.  They seemed to know each other.  I asked one of them about his group (he was wearing a name tag). 

Generosity and Stewardship Conference. 

Save democracy . . . with socialism?

I got an offer to review a book, ". . . the 2020 election is a key moment in the history of American democracy where the United States can choose to correct course, installing a new chief executive and legislators that will defend bedrock democratic ideals and freedoms, or it can travel further down the road of Trumpism . . ."

I wonder what those bedrock democratic ideals and freedoms are? Freedom of religion?  Free speech?  Freedom of assembly?  You can't find them in socialism, the ideology that killed 100,000,000 in the 20th century.

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez wants to destroy the agency that is helping Central American children

Leftist non-profits and Democrats in Congress enable this behavior by assuring illegals that families will not be detained. This is what Democrats call "separation" of families.

"Amilcar Guiza-Reyes, a 51-year old citizen and national of Honduras, who was previously deported in 2013, made an initial appearance in federal court in the Southern District of Texas May 10, charged with 8 USC 1324 alien smuggling for allegedly smuggling a 6-month-old infant across the U.S.-Mexico border.

On May 7, Guiza-Reyes was observed by U.S. Border Patrol wading across the Rio Grande River from Mexico into the U.S. near Hidalgo, Texas, carrying an infant child.

He initially claimed to the U.S. Border Patrol agents that the infant was his son. However, after presenting a fraudulent Honduran birth certificate at the Central Processing Center in McAllen, Texas, he was referred to HSI special agents for interview and further investigation. He later admitted to the HSI special agents that he obtained the child’s fraudulent document to show him as the father and that he intended to use the child to further his unlawful entry in to the U.S." (ICE news release May 16).

https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/fraudulent-family-case-involving-6-month-old-represents-new-level-child-endangerment

What to do with stuff—guest blogger Kathy

“Yesterday I dusted off 20+ year old paintings done by our daughter that she stored here when she moved to Boston. Certainly, she intended to retrieve them one day. Last night I cleaned them off and put on a mini art show. She left without them. Today I put them out for the trash. All but one.

The day before that, she asked me for a dresser. It is a nice solid wood dresser with dove tailed joints that we had rescued from somebody’s ugly blue paint job before she was born. New furniture is junk by comparison. It is also the dresser that housed all her onsies, receiving blankets, booties, and other precious clothing that might still be around the house, waiting for grandchildren that never come. I hesitated about the dresser, but only because I was doing mental gymnastics about clearing it of abandoned items belonging to her brother. Sigh. After thinking a bit, I thought giving it was a good idea. I asked her this morning if she was going to take it and she said no. I did unload an old king sized comforter. Big blanket, small comfort.

I remember being on the receiving end of the stuff belonging to my elders. Lucky for me, grandparents were downsizing at the same time I was settling down. I loved old fashioned things. Most of the furniture is still in daily use at our house and I have some of their valued treasures. I remember another phase of life when my mother made miniscule attempts to unload accumulated property that she thought was too good for the trash. Little by little she tried with mixed success. She couldn’t bring herself to do that one big, emotional purge. One day an old plastic Santa and Reindeer back lit with 60 Watt bulbs showed up. It had been a significant yard ornament purchase in 1954 when they bought their first home. We set it up on our deck while Mom watched, and our little ones enjoyed it that year. Then we put it away until it went in the trash years later. Something of previous value that had aged until it served no purpose.

I have the 60 year old Erector Set that belonged to my brothers. They have sons but she gave it to me. I suspect that they were more hardhearted about it than I was. Now an antique, it never came out of the box in our house. Maybe the Ninja Turtles could have performed heroics against Splinter and Shredder on it, but they never found out. I guess there is still a chance for that, since the 4 turtles and their enemies are all still here too. I did find an unopened pack of #2 pencils 49₵ from Woolworths in the box. The erasers are still pliable and I am sure that these are REAL graphite #2 pencils instead of the odd plastic stuff they use nowadays. You can buy a similar unopened pack on Ebay for 10x the original price. Whew! I should get out my sketch pad again. That’s been in another box for a few years. Well, maybe more than just a few.

Finally, I told my mother no more stuff and I made sure I was busy the day of her moving sale when she pared her belongings down to a precious few to out of the family home. Something tells me I hurt her feelings. She was about the same age as I am now.

Oh well, it’s just stuff. Stuff that keeps memories alive while it harbors the aura of family love for a few more years.

Does anybody want a Sunfish or some windsurfers?”