University of Illinois record enrollment

Congratulations on the record breaking enrollment at U. of Illinois Champaign-Urbana.  https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/802663?  Enrollment was about 20,000 when I started in 1958, and I think the cost was about $1,000 year. It was about a 4 hour drive for my parents who lived in Mt. Morris, and it was up to me to get a ride home for holidays.

I lived in a private dorm owned by the Y right in the middle of the action, McKinley Hall on Wright St.   https://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2003/10/54-how-to-find-roommate-who-doesnt.html   I found a website for the YWCA in C-U down the street from the old McKinley Hall, but now it's just bogged down in day to day SJW missions and intersectional causes. It's actually where I met my cousin Chuck Ballard when we got together so he could give me a ride home. I think he was a senior--and incredibly handsome.

William B. McKinley was an Illinois millionaire, business owner and politician (not the president of the U.S.) and I went to a McKinley Presbyterian church down the street (visited website of the foundation--same SJW), and was sick in the McKinley Hospital now a health center, taught Spanish at Urbana high school that had McKinley Field, and walked on McKinley Avenue. https://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2003/11/67-ghost-of-william-b.html

Like the wealth of many 19th and 20th century millionaires which built so many schools, churches, colleges, orphanages, funded orchestras, etc., today the source is ignored and they don't even mention his name, or capitalism, on their websites

My Sirius 3 month freebie

My new car comes with a 3 month free subscription to Sirius.  I’d really like to try it, but all the ways they have for getting me set up involved a smart phone. I’ve got my ID number but it won’t work.  So when the chat lady signs in I pull the old, “I’m 80 years old and I don’t text” routine.  I also don’t carry my computer in the car with me to follow their over complex on-line instructions.

I need someone’s 12 year old grandchild.

This should be taken care of before you leave the lot.  That’s a tip.

I’m enjoying the keyless entry and start.  Wish I could do that for the front door when I’m carrying in groceries.

Domestic Violence

"On Friday, the president issued the proclamation of October 2019 as National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. In the official statement, he said, “Domestic violence erodes this environment, leaving many Americans in potentially life-threatening situations. As a Nation, we must resolve to have zero tolerance for acts of domestic violence.” He added that, over the past fiscal year, the administration has made $8 billion available to provide aid and service to victims and survivors, “These services assist more than 2 million domestic violence victims annually, helping individuals and families heal from physical and psychological wounds.”

He concluded, “This month, we strengthen our resolve to ensure homes are places of refuge, comfort, and protection — and not places of fear and abuse. We renew our commitment to support and protect victims, hold perpetrators accountable, and prevent violence before it starts. We strive to eliminate domestic violence in all its horrific forms in order to sustain the hope of a better life for victims and to foster safer homes and relationships for all Americans.”" Daily Prayer Briefing.

In 1989 Congress passed Public Law 101-112, officially designating October of that year as National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Such legislation has been passed each year since. Although most of the violence is against women, 1/4 is against men, and somewhere I read that the rate of domestic violence is the highest in lesbian relationships (mainly psychological and verbal). Statistics on this seem quite squishy to me, with "intimate partner" or "dating" apparently folded into "domestic" (which implies sharing a residence). One site pointed out more women were victims of homicide (domestic violence) than all the lives lost by our military in the middle east wars.

Ryan, Romney, Nadler and Schiff 4 peas in a pod

The panic is building in both parties; Trump has completely upset the gentlemen's agreement that was Washington DC. Ryan and Romney are flummoxed. What will be the next impeachment staged play starring the vaudeville team of Nadler and Schiff? Where is the next woman hiding who remembers Kavanaugh from 30 years ago? What will be the next Democrat candidate carrot--free cars for everyone? Two ponies for every child? All high school students get an automatic PHD and guaranteed government think tank job? Free tummy tucks and eye-lid lifts for anyone over 45--why should only the rich benefit?

Quid pro quo or Quid pro Joe?

The “Ukraine Quid Pro Quo Impeachment” story is collapsing so fast that trying to keep up with all the developments is like trying to provide real-time play-by-play of an empty building being imploded with TNT.  Mike Huckabee

It’s fascinating to watch two or three points of view on this.  If you watch Mark Levin or listen to Rush Limbaugh, you’d think all the Democrats are total idiots, scum with nothing to do but set traps.  Then if you catch one of the alphabet broadcasts, or CNN talking heads, they have Trump all but out of office and in jail.  Yet they are all looking at the same documents, watching the same hearings.

 https://www.mikehuckabee.com/latest-news?id=AF4B0305-8E8A-4A2A-BB56-8817F425D8B2&s=TTS7

The new development in this story is that ABC actually retracted their fake news instead of doubling down on it, which puts them a rung above many other media outlets on the journalistic integrity ladder.

 https://www.westernjournal.com/abc-forced-issue-correction-big-ukraine-story-crumbles/

Why Donna left the Democrats—she didn’t—they left her

“Today I was asked why I moved politically, from center left, too hard right. My response was, I didn’t move. Nothing about my political belief system has changed. I still have a live and let live approach to life. I still believe who you sleep with or marry is your own business. I still believe in equality for all. I still believe the 2nd amendment is what levels the playing field and keeps us safe from threats both internal and external. I still have no religious beliefs but aren’t bothered by yours. I still believe social programs are vital but abused. I haven’t changed, they have.

They went from live and let live, to live the way I want you to or not at all. They decided equality isn’t really what they’re asking for now. Equality almost always equals some sort of special treatment they feel they’re owed and rarely has anything to do with equal treatment. They decided that there’s something inherently wrong with me because I was born white and I’m somehow responsible for every evil deed any white person throughout history has ever committed but will receive none of the credit for any of the accomplishments, not that I’d be any more deserving of accolades for someone else Accomplishments then I am for blame for their misdeeds. They have constantly and repeatedly over the years claim they are not trying to take away our guns while trying to take away our guns one baby step at a time. They have become the party of bullying, name-calling, harassment, and absolutely no tolerance for anything that doesn’t fit their agenda.

Nothing about me has changed.”

Cacao vs. cocoa

I ran out of Hersey’s 100% cacao yesterday and when I stopped at Marc’s where I usually shop, it didn’t have any, so I picked up Baker’s 100% cocoa.  Today I looked up the difference, and as I thought the cacao and cocoa aren’t not the same.  It’s in the processing which destroys many of the antioxidants.  Also the cocoa, even dark, has over twice the fat content of the cacao, according the the labels.

https://blog.paleohacks.com/cacao-vs-cocoa/#

So I’ll have to swing by another store and look for the cacao.  But the cocoa, the article says, is better for baking, which I rarely do anymore.

“What Are The Health Benefits Of Raw Cacao?

• Lowers insulin resistance

• Protects your nervous system: Cacao is high in resveratrol, a potent antioxidant also found in red wine, known for its ability to cross your blood-brain barrier to help protect your nervous system

• Shields nerve cells from damage

• Reduces your risk of cardiovascular disease

• Reduces your risk of stroke

• Reduces blood pressure

• Reduces your risk of cardiovascular disease: The antioxidants found in cacao help to maintain healthy levels of Nitric Oxide (NO) in the body. Although NO has heart benefiting qualities, such as relaxing blood vessels and reducing blood pressure, it also produces toxins. The antioxidants in cacao neutralizes these toxins, protecting your heart and preventing against disease.

• Guards against toxins: as a potent antioxidant, cacao can repair the damage caused by free radicals and may reduce the risk of certain cancers. In fact cacao contains far more antioxidants per 100g than acai, goji berries and blueberries. Antioxidants are responsible for 10% of the weight of raw cacao.

• Boosts your mood: cacao can increase levels of certain neurotransmitters that promote a sense of well-being. And the same brain chemical that is released when we experience deep feelings of love – phenylethylamine – is found in chocolate.

• It is rich in minerals: magnesium, iron, potassium, calcium, zinc, copper and manganese.
• https://www.foodmatters.com/article/raw-cacao-vs-cocoa-whats-the-difference

The affordable housing game

The paper reported another real estate sale fee increase (you pay a hefty fee when you sell property based on sale price) to build "affordable housing" in Columbus, Ohio. And if you check the business news for your town, you'll probably see the same thing, different amount, different catchy name or acronym.

I've tracked this ploy for 40 years, under various names at my blog. Even 20 years ago, based on the transfers that went into this, there should have been no unaffordable housing for the workers our booming economy is drawing to central Ohio. Why? Because if you're smart and invest wisely, you move up and sell that house to another family. We bought our first home, a duplex in a shabby neighborhood, for $14,000 in 1962, the renter (now a FB friend, a liberal) paid our mortgage, and 2 years later we "moved up" to a nicer area and our renters paid both mortgages plus the car payment, and we paid back my father from whom we borrowed the down payment.

Many do benefit from "affordable housing" government (local, state, federal) programs. Middle and upper middle class. Developers, builders, sub-contractors, bureaucrats, government employees, banks, non-profits who get the grants, churches, salesmen, and even groups like ACORN who provide the workshops on how to use the money. The article names specific programs and funds. So what happened to "North of Broad," "Crossing at Joyce", "Home Again," "Restore Columbus," and CHIP, to name just a few that a decade ago were the darlings of the housing saviors?

https://www.columbusunderground.com/fee-increase-will-go-to…

https://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2008/11/why-george-bush-isnt-fiscal.html

https://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-need-for-affordable-housing-in.html

There were 160 housing programs in the federal government in 2012. That figure probably hasn't shrunk. I suspect they may have been at the bottom of the 2007-08 housing bubble that burst.

A Protestant tours a Roman Catholic Cathedral

Excellent explanation of what the architecture, art, windows, altar, ambry (where oil is stored), etc. mean. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOlU_4pzft4

FBI Lovebirds play

The play FBI Lovebirds: Undercovers   is a “ dramatized staged reading of text messages between Trump nemesis FBI Agent Peter Strzok and his lover, fellow FBI Agent Lisa Page and their subsequent interrogation by a congressional committee. Dean Cain (Gosnell, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman) and Kristy Swanson (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Pretty in Pink) play the roles of Strzok and Page. The staged reading premiered this summer at a theater in Washington D.C.

Politico called the play “Hamilton for the MAGA crowd.” National Review praised Cain and Swanson’s performances, stating that the play left the D.C. audience “howling.” Townhall also praised the lead actors and stated that FBI Lovebirds: Undercovers is a “hilarious glimpse into DC.” Even Vice News on HBO ran a story about the production, calling it “the most dangerous play in Washington, D.C. . . .

On October 7th at 9PM EST, FBI Lovebirds: Undercovers will be uploaded to YouTube, where millions more can access it and learn the truth behind the Mueller Report. “

Myrna walked away from the Democrat Party in 1988

“I was raised in a Democrat household. We even have pictures of my older sister in diapers with Roosevelt election buttons all over it (1940). That's how strongly my family followed the Democrat Party in the 1940s.

I married my husband in 1965, and he was a Republican, thanks to one of his college professors, who was also a TV news commentator. My father could not understand how a young man, who isn't wealthy, is a Republican. So, for years, I remained a Democrat, even though my husband was a Republican. But I did listen to some of the things my husband said.

Fast forward to 1976. My husband and I became Amway distributors. Amway was a short name for the American Way. Of course we went to rallies and heard both Rich DeVos (Betsy's father in law) and Jay Van Andel. They were Dynamic and inspiring, mostly because they were telling the truth about America, free enterprise, working hard, and lifting up your fellow man, while lifting yourself up at the same time. I had never heard some of those ideas expressed like that before, and they really got into my American heart and mind. I fell in love with the Code of Ethics and Rules of Conduct of that company, which caused me to join, aside from the products and inspiring speeches. That company was a pure American ideal and I loved it. But still, I remained a Democrat.

Now it was 1988, and the Democrat Party had their convention. When I watched the small group bring forth the name of Jesse Jackson, an extortionist, to be their choice for nominee for president, that's when I had had enough. I mentally walked away, physically re-registered as Republican, and have never looked back.

Seeing how the Democrat Party has morphed into what it is today, or actually exposed itself for what it has always been, I believe I did the right thing. I will never go back. “

Whatever happened to MS-13

In early 2018, there were dozens of articles about the dangers of MS-13 in high profile publications. Over a decade before in 2006 it was estimated that each career gang member cost taxpayers $1.7 to $2.3 million in a 10 year period. The New Yorker reported in January 2018, "There are roughly ten thousand MS-13 members in the United States, and some fifty thousand spread throughout Central America, but the gang is diffuse and disorganized, grouped in a loose patchwork of local chapters known as cliques. Its members are ruthless—they rob, extort, and kill—but they have relatively little money to show for all their violence. . ."

When Donald Trump called MS-13 animals, and they were streaming over the border with caravans of illegal immigrants, Democrats were quick to call him a racist, even though the ruthlessness and cruelty of this gang of central American origin had been reported for over 25 years. Even though in 2012 under Obama, it had been labeled by the government as a "transnational criminal organization."  Now I hardly see a single reference to them.

That's how Democrats are chasing reasons to impeach. Run from one Trump imagined travesty to the next. From bombshell to bust, from racist to war monger usually in just a few hours . . .

https://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/Content/Documents/Impact-of-Gangs-on-Communities.pdf

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/former-gang-members-offer-advice-on-how-to-combat-ms-13

Carson on the homeless problem in California

I watched Fox's interview with Ben Carson about the federal government (my tax money) helping out the homeless disaster created by the Democrats with all their building red tape which only helps the wealthy and well-placed. He held up San Diego as a good example with wrap around services. California has one of the largest economies in the WORLD--they can solve this without Florida, Montana and Ohio money just by cleaning up their own local laws. It’s the same reasons their forests and neighborhoods burn.  Environmental wackos, aka climate change alarmists.

“The leadership in San Diego has a grasp of the homelessness situation, which stems in part from rising housing costs,” Carson said. “To reduce homelessness in San Diego, the city has developed a housing plan which takes the appropriate steps to alleviate some of the impediments to the production of affordable housing.”

"Impediments" my granny's bean soup--it's mismanagement and swallowing all those "green" regulations.

https://fox5sandiego.com/2019/09/19/mayor-meets-with-ben-carson-about-homeless-services-funding/

Homocysteine

I wrote about homocysteine in February at this blog.

Today I noticed this after seeing Dr. Bret Scher on a Prager U video. https://lowcarbcardiologist.com/meat-and-homocysteine-irrelevant-or-dangerous/

This video is on how the government made us fat is good. https://www.prageru.com/video/how-the-government-made-you-fat/

Heavy marijuana use provides a lifetime of problems

"Study members with regular cannabis use and persistent dependence experienced downward socioeconomic mobility, more financial difficulties, workplace problems, and relationship conflict in early midlife."

Cerda, M., Moffitt, T.E., Meier, M.H., /Harrington, H. L., Houts, R., Ramrakha, S., Hogan, S., Poulton, R., Caspi, A. "Persistent cannabis dependence and alcohol dependence represent risks for midlife economic and social problems: A longitudinal cohort study" Clinical Psychological Science, 2016 . https://health.ucdavis.edu/newsroom/pdf/2016_APS_Persistent-cannabis-dependence.pdf 

Study done on New Zealand middleclass ages 18-38 in longitudinal study. Dependent cannabis users ended up (at 38) in lower socio-economic rung than parents; non-users ended up higher. Although often they were also alcohol users, cannabis dependent have more financial and workplace problems than alcoholics.

I doubt this study is a surprise to those who have been around heavy marijuana users, but those who push legalization will find reasons to ignore. Easier to control citizens with dumb-downed brains and social status so society can be blamed.

President addresses UN on religious freedom; a first

“The President will call on the international community to take concrete steps to prevent attacks against people on the basis of their religion or beliefs and to ensure the sanctity of houses of worship and all public spaces for all faiths.” https://www.christianpost.com/news/trump-to-give-historic-religious-freedom-speech-at-united-nations-evangelical-leaders-invited.html.   80% of the world lives under religious oppression.

His address concerns all religions, but this is the worst time in history for Christians. "In 2017 Pew released a report showing that the number of countries where Christians fell victim to government restrictions and social hostilities grew from 108 in 2014 to 128 the following year. In its World Watch Monitor Report, covering 2016, Open Doors, an organization supporting persecuted Christians, found that: “More than 200 million Christians in the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian experience persecution because of their faith.” Other sources claimed that the true figure for 2016 may be as high as 600 million.. https://www.churchinneed.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/persecution-1-1.pdf

https://www.newsweek.com/christian-persecution-genocide-worse-ever-770462

As thousands gathered last week to protest a climate model that has been proven false or inadequate for decades, real people were being tortured, turned into refugees and killed for their faith.

This how Facebook works

Q: How many people does it take to change a lightbulb in a Facebook group?

1 to change the light bulb and to post that the light bulb has been changed.

14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could have been changed differently.

7 to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs.

17 purists who use candles and are offended by light bulb discussions.

6 to argue over whether it's 'lightbulb' or 'light bulb'.

Another 6 to condemn those 6 as stupid.

22 to tell THOSE 6 to stop being jerks.

2 industry professionals to inform the group that the proper term is 'lamp'.

15 know-it-alls who claim they were in the industry, and that 'light bulb' is perfectly correct.

49 to post memes and gifs (several are of Michael Jackson eating popcorn with the words added, “I’m just here for the comments.”)

19 to post that this page is not about light bulbs and to please take this discussion to a light bulb page.

11 to defend the posting to this page saying that we all use light bulbs and therefore the posts are relevant here.

24 to discuss the merits of LED/swirly fluorescent light bulbs

44 to claim LED and fluorescent bulbs will kill you.

12 to post F.

8 to ask what F means.

7 to post 'Following' but there's 3 dots at the top right that means you don't have to.

3 to say "can't share"

2 to reply "can't share from a closed group"

36 People to post pics of their own light bulbs.

15 People to post "I can't see S$%^!" and use their own light bulbs.

6 to report the post or PM an admin because someone said "f÷×$"

4 to say "Didn't we go through this already a short time ago?".

13 to say "Do a search on light bulbs before posting questions about light bulbs".

1 to bring politics into the discussion by adding that (insert politician of choice) isn't the brightest bulb. This usually takes place within the first three comments.

50 more to get into personal attacks over their political views.

5 admins to ban the light bulb posters who took it all too seriously.

1 late arrival to comment on the original post 6 months later and start it all over again.

Lots of Bible

I'm in an (older) adult Sunday School class after the 9 a.m. church service at Lytham Rd UALC; we're using "Hebrews (The people's Bible)" by Richard E. Lauersdorf. I'm in an (older) adult Bible study class on Thursday mornings; we're studying Hosea with handouts from Pastor Jeff. I'm in a women's Bible Study group on Saturday morning at Lytham Rd. UALC; we're using "God of Covenant, a study of Genesis 12-50" by Jen Wilkin (Lifeway Press, 2018) and as a couple we're in a SALT (Sharing and Learning Together) group using "Making sense of the Bible; rediscovering the power of scripture today" by Adam Hamilton (Harper, 2014).

Our Sunday School class has an outstanding teacher--Charlie Ollermann--a lawyer who grew up in Nebraska. He manages to keep this class from wandering too far afield. Last week there were 40 in the class, and I brought cookies and they all sang happy birthday to me. The Thursday group is mainly retirees and Pastor Jeff Morlock who is our pastor for seniors always brings up good points. Jeff's wife is also a pastor and has recently taken a position at St. John's Lutheran in Grove City. The Women of the Word on Saturday is a group that has been together perhaps 15 years, and we come and go as our schedule allows. Mary Jo Sullivan's prayers make it worth coming. This fall's offering on Genesis follows the first part, and includes a video. The Lifeway instructor, Jen Wilkin, is excellent. Our SALT group doesn't meet regularly--maybe 10 times a year, so it takes us a while to work through a book, but the Hamilton book is very well written and we're enjoying it.

Town Hall with candidate Bernie

Do the women who ask silly questions at Town Halls know the U.S. birth rate is below replacement rate? So are they asking the candidates to reduce the populations of black and brown countries? Do we have a name for that?

https://dailycaller.com/2019/09/04/bernie-sanders-abortion-climate-change/

A member of the audience asked Socialist Sanders about human population growth during CNN’s climate town hall Wednesday. She specifically asked Sanders whether he would support measures to curb that growth.

My exercise log turned 8,000 today

In late December 2014 I had a check up and the scale at Dr. Bush’s office said 170 (which I call 165 on mine).  So I started a log for riding my exercycle and told myself I’d ride to Jeanne’s home in Indianapolis, about 180 miles and back.  When I met that goal I said how about Debbie’s in California (Bob’s other sister).  Meanwhile I started using my Silver Sneakers membership at the Metro next to Panera’s on Bethel road.  So I recorded miles (and for awhile minutes, but that ended in a few weeks) in a small notebook for which I’d had no use.  Today, on the second notebook I logged in 8,000!  My routine usually is to go to Lifetime Fitness on Henderson Rd near by, but I’m down to about 4 miles (3 on cycle and 1 on treadmill), but if it’s nice I walk maybe a mile outside, and occasionally use the treadmill in my office while watching the news. I’d also been doing a resistance routine and some regular stretching, but when we got back from Lakeside on Labor Day, that sort of dropped off.

Looking back through the first log I see I was far more successful at weight loss in 2015 than in 2019.  After 6 months of logging my miles, I’d lost 30 pounds—obviously I also stuck to my tried and true diet plan of “eat less move move” aka ELMM. I’ve put about 13 back on.
I was working on our Spain travel plans then, both saving money and trying to lose weight for all the walking we’d be doing.  Unfortunately, I developed bursitis and did have to carry a cane much of the time in Spain. To save money, I stopped having my hair colored ($500/year), gave up my morning coffee (about $2/day) at Panera’s, sold a piece of pottery for $500, rolled the change in the piggy bank (about $200) and cashed in some points on our Freedom Card, about $200. Saving money for me is easier than losing weight!

Riitta and I on the stairs in Gaudalest September 2015

April 2015 with new exercise outfit

Doc Martin and Downton Abbey

I thought Doc Martin the series on PBS was over, so I obviously missed season 8 (spring 2019). Now I see it's been cancelled after season 9.  My friend Bev says I can get it at the library.  I think 9 should be on soon.  The U.S. gets these later than U.K.

And then there’s Downton Abbey the movie.  Several Facebook friends have seen it and thought it quite good.  I guess we’ll miss that one too since it seems to be a limited engagement.

Wildhood

I am offered a lot of books to review, and occasionally I accept. If you've been baffled by adolescent behavior--your pupils, your kids, your grandchildren, or even your own if you can remember that far back, this is the book that explains it, and why it's probably necessary. "Wildhood; the epic journey from adolescence to adulthood in humans and other animals," by Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and Kathryn Bowers (Scribner, 2019). I'm assuming that Barbara is the scientist and Kathryn the word magician, because it's both very learned, and easy to read.

Using the lives of four animals, Ursula the penguin, Shrink the hyena, Salt a humpback whale, and Slavc a wolf (plus dozens of examples of other animal species--salmon, bats, gazelles, seals, etc.) they provide a look at everything you see in teenagers from status, to anxiety, to bullying, to risk taking, to privilege to sexual coercion. Is your son living in your basement? If animal parents were that protective, the species wouldn't survive.

"Animals will suffer pain, forgo food, give up sex, and betray others just to ensure they've not left out or driven from a group. You might say that for social animals, status is like gravity. It's powerful and inescapable. It's invisible. It exerts an omnipresent force, and it molds how a creature moves through the world and behaves around others." p. 97

Now, doesn't that sound just like junior high school?

Sneak peek at “A republic, if you can keep it”

It's a wonderful day to sit on the deck with a cuppa and enjoy the blue sky and rustling leaves with a good book. But because it's so lovely, the lawn crew has shown up and there's a very loud mower just a few yards away, so I'm back inside. Even after 18 years here in this delightful spot with mature trees and a creek, I'm still thrilled to have them doing it and not Bob.

I'm loving "A republic, if you can keep it," by Neil Gorsuch. In the introduction he introduces us to his roots and branches, some fascinating people. All of us should have to write a paragraph or two about parents, grandparents, great uncles, etc. and their challenges and contributions so we understand how we got here.

Of his mother (pgs 13-14): "My mother was brilliant and a feminist before feminism. Born in Casper, Wyoming, she graduated from the University of Colorado at 19 and its law school at 22. That was a time when almost no women went to law school. She studied and taught in India as a Fulbright Scholar and went to work as the first female lawyer in the Denver District Attorney's Office. There, she helped start a program to pursue deadbeat dads who had failed to pay child support, long before efforts like that were routine. Her idea of daycare often meant me [Neil] tagging along. She never stopped moving. When she ran for the Colorado state legislature, where she was soon voted the outstanding freshman legislator, she wore out countless pairs of shoes walking the entire district again and again. As kids, we just had to keep up. Later, she served as the first female administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington."

With a mother like that, how could he be anything other than a great lawyer and judge.

720,000,000 million women off to the salt mines

With Trump, we know who's in charge. If Biden were elected, who knows. Did you hear that child care proposal to put 720,000,000 women to work? Yikes. And at a union event.

Let's ignore the number which was more than twice our population, and look at child care tax credits. Currently it's $2,000 and Trump is doubling that for next year. Also, do you really know women who aren't working because of the tax credit? Of course not. The unemployment rate is ridiculously low now, and any qualified parent can name his/her price (his comment was also sexist). There are thousands of doctors, lawyers, pharmacists, teachers and academics who think they are better qualified to raise their children to school age, and that marriage and home are too important to give up for a tax credit. Besides, they want to stay home and listen to the record player.

Hitler and the disabled—the slippery slope of the left

https://www.lifenews.com/2019/09/13/before-the-nazis-killed-jews-they-euthanized-hundreds-of-thousands-of-disabled-people/

The article he refers to appeared in the NYT in 2017, and there's a pay wall, but this is a decent summary--if there can be anything decent about the Nazis. The Democrats, Antifa, BLM, Occupy movement and pink hat Trump haters and Hollywood celebs have cheapened that word and its memories. I had read about this years ago, but many people don't know that methods were tested on the disabled. Germany actually had some outstanding facilities for children and adults with challenges. Imagine the horror of the parents and siblings who came to visit or look for them! Hitler also learned from the Turks who slaughtered many thousands of Armenians. It's the power of the state--National Socialism (aka Nazi)--and it's the very thing President Trump is resisting. But Trump's enemies are clever--they know that most people don't know history, don't know the meaning of words, even, and that the big lie can be repeated and repeated until their minds are mushy. Hitler's socialist model first killed his own citizens before moving beyond the borders.

A nice birthday week

Today my friend of 45 years, Nancy, and I went out for lunch at the OSU Golf Club, and I’d had a hair cut and style with Melissa earlier, so I felt good.  We both had the quiche.  Our condo association had Monday and Tuesday set aside for drive way/street resurfacing, so we’d all been doing a little extra walking, since everyone’s cars were parked in the parking lot of the church next door.  Fortunately, the weather was bright and sunny, and except for wet shoes in the morning, it all went well.

I'd been carrying 2 Barnes & Noble gift cards in my purse for a year, so today I stopped in and purchased, "A Republic, if you can keep it," by Neil Gorsuch, (2019) and "Call sign Chaos" by Jim Mattis, (2019). I rarely buy books, but these looked like keepers. In fact, I think it was Hugh Hewitt who said the Mattis book would still be read 100 years from now. I doubt that, but in today's environment a few months would be good.  So I’m calling them a present to myself, even though I think I got the cards for Mother’s Day.

But the big splurge, not intended for birthday, but coincided is a new car.  We now have a white Chrysler Pacifica Touring L with heated seats and steering wheel and all the latest gadgets for safety and audio.  It’s going to take a while to learn all the new features, like keyless entry and start and the motor turning off at stop signs.

Then Saturday evening we’re going out with our daughter and son-in-law to try a restaurant in Grandview.

Equity for Muslims

I received a notice today that OSU is having a "health equity" lecture on care of Muslim patients. Usually when liberals use the term "equity" they are discussing oppressed or low income groups, but according to Pew Research American Muslims have a higher education level than Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Adventists, Baptists and Catholics, and we're told that education translates to income. So what inequity will be discussed? FGM perhaps? And isn't that a cultural/religious issue? Pork on hospital menus? How women are gowned or how hygiene standards are kept by Muslim staff? I know there are sharia concerns, but that doesn't sound like "equity." Since we have so many foreign and non-Christian medical staff, are there lectures on how to treat Christians? https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/07/creeping_sharia_in_health_care_.html

Pop corn sales

I'm a sucker for a guy in uniform. I just paid $10 for a container of popcorn (2.5 lbs) I didn't need. But the Boy Scout was adorable, well spoken, clear about his product and prices, and the scout leader was standing near buy.  We invited them in, chatted a bit. He was a young boy any parent or scout leader would be proud of.

What is happening in our country?

Driving to the fitness center today I heard a caller to a local radio (610 a.m.) show say she'd hired a teen to do some work (didn't say what--I assume yard work or repair) and discovered he didn't know how to use a ruler. She showed him a ruler and a tape measure, and he didn't know what to do with the numbers. She also said Columbus, OH school board had removed all American flags from classrooms. I'm not in the Columbus district so I’ve never heard.  She said the American Legion and VFW were planning to replace them because no one knew where they had been stored. Her final comment on public education supported by citizens in Columbus was that during the 2016 election cycle neighborhood children told her she shouldn't vote for Trump because their teacher told them they would lose their welfare. I asked about this on Facebook, and one Columbus teacher said she had a flag in her classroom, but another friend had this shocking comment.

Brian responded:  “I posted 57 educational videos to YouTube last month, all videos are for my business and all open with and have thumbnails that have the American Flag on them. We had zero copyright violations, and broke no community standards with content. Our account was shut down permanently they cited the fact the videos all have the American flag on them as hate speech. I appealed the ruling and lost. This is your country in 2019.”

The American flag is hate speech?

Opening the book—sermon series, audio and visual

We’re starting a new sermon series at UALC, called Open Book, an initiative to read and teach through the Bible.  So this Sunday will be Genesis 2.

  However, last Sunday, September 8, a few in-house details needed to be addressed as there are changes in scheduling taking place and worship services are being condensed or merged.  You can not change worship styles even in the same Lutheran congregation without causing some conflicts or hurt feelings.  Last night at dinner in a restaurant  for our church’s art ministry one of the spouses of a member declared how much he dislikes organ music and only enjoys what I call the “clangy bangy service.” (loud guitars, many amplification speakers, quartet leading—X-Alt)  Bill honors God in a different way than the Bruces who like liturgy, hymns, scripture and written prayers.  So Senior Pastor Steve Turnbull at the Lytham Road services (9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.) preached on this. http://www.ualc.org/clientimages/38787/ministry_guide-handout_pdfs/09-08-19_lrsermonnotes.pdf  I’m listening again to the audio, and can tell it wasn’t the 9 a.m., but essentially the same words for the 10:30.  http://tech.ualc.org/mp3/audio/190908STLR.mp3

To prepare for tomorrow’s service (Sunday September 15) I looked at (on-line) the Biblical story of the creation of the earth and Adam and Eve. What is so annoying about listening to it on-line while reading is the advertisements.  First, there was a woman’s blouse flashing on the left in teal and black.  I paused to close it, and it was quiet for a minute, then brought up a stationary ad of a dress, so I closed it.  Then a few seconds later it posted a car advertisement (we were looking at new cars yesterday), so I closed it.  Three interruptions in one Chapter! Cookies left along the way on my computer have told advertisers that a female who is car shopping is now reading Genesis 2.

Also, a professional actor is reading (in the NIV audio by Gateway), and although he has a wonderful voice, after a few sentences they all start to run together, so I find the audio of the reading done by our own layperson more pleasant.  Unfortunately, it isn’t available until the sermon is recorded.  To get around this, I can click on what was being read last week at Mill Run which will be the selection for this week at Lytham. http://tech.ualc.org/mp3/audio/190908ATMR.mp3

These on-line interruptions in my vision are similar to what I experience auditorily in some worship services—loud noises, odd music, abrupt changes, difficulty hearing what is being said due to fluctuations in voices (dropping voice at end of sentence) or people whispering behind me. Aural comprehension has always been a problem for me from the time I was told in school or at home I wasn’t paying attention or I was lazy, to this day when someone asks about a point in a sermon and I don’t recall a word.

Comment on patriotism by Diane McDermott

“Just for the fun of it, I randomly checked the Facebook walls of six left-leaning friends of mine who use the site on a regular basis.

Not one of them mentioned 9/11, in any form.

I usually play this game and see similar reactions on major patriotic holidays as well ... 4th of July, Veterans’ Day, etc, so now apparently you can add 9/11 to that list.

I know it doesn’t really mean a whole lot but, to me, it just reinforces my belief that they have very little love for this country...or at least no desire to openly display it.”

Fifty nine years ago today

 

 

Tonight we're going out for dinner with neighbors Jerry and Joan who will be married 60 years tomorrow.  119 years.

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