The United States of America began in 1776, not 1619

The New York Times has been perpetrating a fraud.

“Gordon Wood, one of the USA’s leading historians of the Revolutionary War, has been sharply critical of 1619’s best known essay (“America Wasn’t a Democracy Until Black Americans Made It One,” by Nikole Hannah-Jones), dismissing Hannah-Jones’s claim that the USA seceded from Britain primarily to protect the institution of slavery as factually inaccurate.
Wood points out that attributing American secession to a desire to protect slavery—rather than (say) taxation without representation, conflicts over French and Indian war debt, or tense armed exchanges like the “Boston Massacre”—“makes the Revolution out to be like the Civil War,” which is “wrong in so many ways.” The eminent historian seems bemused and angered by the decision of the Times to support an arguably questionable scholarly project, saying: “I was surprised by the scope of this thing, [since] it’s going to become the basis for high school education, and has the weight of the New York Times behind it.” Given that the generally reputable Pulitzer Center is already offering a “1619 Project Curriculum” targeted at “all grades,” Dr. Wood’s words of warning ring true.

Similarly, John Oakes, Distinguished Professor of History and Graduate School Humanities Professor at the City University of New York, has been extremely critical of the 1619 Project’s claim that “anti-Black racism runs in the very DNA of this country,” and the project’s explicit attempt to link many Black problems of today (i.e. “mass incarceration”) to historical slavery. As Oakes notes, this is an almost ahistorical view. To people who believe it: “There has been no industrialization. There has been no Great Migration. We’re all in the same boat we were back then.”

https://quillette.com/2020/02/17/sorry-new-york-times-but-america-began-in-1776/

https://1776unites.com/

Update: The 1776 website is so good, I've already written them a fan letter.

Bomb attacks are now common in Sweden

If Trump is a racist for calling out immigrant related crime, why is it the highest in Sweden? https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/10/bomb-attacks-are-now-a-normal-part-of-swedish-life/

In 2019, there were over 230 bombings in Sweden—more than in any other Western country.  Explosions have become normalized.  No other western country is experiencing this. Gang crime is also increasing--nine out of ten perpetrators of Sweden’s gang shootings are either first- or second-generation immigrants. The country has gone from having among the lowest rates of violent crime in western Europe to one of the highest.   Ten years ago this was unheard of.  And sentences for violent crime are very lenient—the kidnapping and violent rape of a child might get a man 4 years.
Swedish leaders are not responding to the crime/assimilation problem.  Patriotism or nationalism are considered dirty words by the leftist governments. Citizens are being told--don't believe your eyes and ears.  Sound familiar?

No go zones are very real in Sweden.  Emergency and transportation and mail services need police escorts before going into certain areas. Sweden is deeply segregated; clan governments predominate in these segregated areas. Governments will not discuss for fear of being called racist.  Sound familiar?

Interview by First Things of Paulina Neuding https://www.firstthings.com/media/sweden-is-on-edge

Dark chocolate cherry trail mix

Dark chocolate is good for you.

Cacao vs. cocoa

Coffee vs. Chocolate
Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup raw almonds
• 3/4 cup raw pecans
• 1 cup pepitas or pumpkin seeds
• 1 cup dried cherries
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips or chunks
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Place nuts and seeds on a baking sheet and toast 5-10 minutes, until they smell fragrant.
• Combine all ingredients, minus the chocolate, in a large bowl.
• Mix well and add chocolate once the nuts have cooled enough.
• Portion into 1/4 cup portions and store in an airtight container.

Download a printable version of this recipe here.

Serving Size:

Makes approximately 16 (1/4 cup) servings

Nutritional Information:

• 155 calories
• 11g fat
• 2g sat fat
• 0g trans fat
• 0mg cholesterol
• 58mg sodium
• 12g carb
• 3g fiber
• 6g sugar
• 4g protein

Astrocytomas—American Cancer Society

There are many types of brain tumors.

Glioma is a general term for tumors that start in glial cells. A number of tumors can be considered gliomas, including:

• Astrocytomas (which include glioblastomas)
• Oligodendrogliomas
• Ependymomas

About 3 out of 10 of all brain tumors are gliomas. Most fast-growing brain tumors are gliomas.

Astrocytomas are tumors that start in glial cells called astrocytes. About 2 out of 10 brain tumors are astrocytomas.

Most astrocytomas can spread widely throughout the brain and blend with the normal brain tissue, which can make them very hard to remove with surgery. Sometimes they spread along the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pathways. It is very rare for them to spread outside of the brain or spinal cord.

Astrocytomas (like other brain tumors) are classified into 4 grades.

• Non-infiltrating (grade I) astrocytomas do not usually grow into nearby tissues and tend to have a good prognosis. These include pilocytic astrocytomas and subependymal giant cell astrocytomas (SEGAs). They are more common in children than in adults.
• Low-grade (grade II) astrocytomas, such as diffuse astrocytomas, tend to be slow growing, but they can grow into nearby areas and can become more aggressive and fast growing over time.
• Anaplastic (grade III) astrocytomas grow more quickly.
• Glioblastomas (grade IV) are the fastest growing. These tumors make up more than half of all gliomas and are the most common malignant brain tumors in adults.

https://www.cancer.org/cancer/brain-spinal-cord-tumors-adults/about/types-of-brain-tumors.html

New discoveries in human body--I always smile at this

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/new-discoveries-in-human-anatomy--67055

I love science articles. Particularly those of "new thinking," or "new discoveries." And then eventually, evolution and not God is credited.

"The brain’s drain
The lymphatic system, a body-wide network of vessels that drains fluids and removes waste from tissues and organs, was long-believed to be absent from the brain. Early reports of lymphatic vessels in the meninges, the membrane coating the brain, date as far back as the 18th century—but these findings were met with skepticism. Only recently has this view been overturned, after a 2015 report of lymphatic vessels in mouse meninges and the 2012 discovery of the so-called glymphatic system, an interconnected network of glial cells that facilitates the circulation of fluid throughout mouse brains. In 2017, neuroimaging work revealed evidence for such lymphatic vessels in human meninges.

Fluid-filled spaces
In 2018, researchers reported that the space between cells was a collagen-lined, fluid-filled network, which they dubbed the interstitium. They proposed that this finding, which emerged from close examinations of tissue from patients’ bile ducts, bladders, digestive tracts, and skin, may help scientists better understand how tumors spread through the body. The team also called the interstitium a newly-discovered organ, but many dismissed this claim. “Most biologists would be reticent to put the moniker of an ‘organ’ on microscopic uneven spaces between tissues that contain fluid,” Anirban Maitra, a pathologist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Center, told The Scientist last year. . .

The fabella makes a comeback
The fabella, a tiny bone located in a tendon behind the knee, is becoming more common in humans, according to a study published last spring. After reviewing 58 studies on fabella prevalence in 27 different countries, researchers reported that people were approximately 3.5 times more likely to have the little bone in 2018 than 1918. The cause of this trend remains an open question, but the authors suggest that changes in muscle mass and bone length—driven by increased diet quality in many parts of the world—could be one explanation."

Imagine that. Diet changes and bone appears.

Ann & Phelim Scoop #30: Cancel Culture On Campus, . . .

• Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/fY9V27SAsFc

Ann and Phelim have a podcast on current topics, and they make films and theater productions using actual news stories or trial records. I supported their film on Dr. Gosnell, the abortion doctor.

“On this week’s episode of The Ann & Phelim Scoop, we recap our recent interview with Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, the psychologist and memory expert who served as an expert witness for the Defense in the Harvey Weinstein trial. Dr. Loftus discussed her work as well as NYU’s cancellation of her scheduled campus lecture - likely in response to her work with the Weinstein team. “

Dr. Loftus Interview 1:33 Hillary Clinton segment 8:13 NYU segment 11:25 FBI Lovebirds at CPAC 13:55 Mark Steyn Dinner 18:00 Fracking Ban 20:15 Cats 27:20

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-02-07/memory-expert-elizabeth-loftus-testifies-for-the-defense-in-harvey-weinstein-trial

“Loftus, a distinguished professor at UC Irvine, has appeared as an expert witness in more than 300 trials and has testified in a number of high-profile sexual misconduct and murder cases, including those of O.J. Simpson, Ted Bundy and the officers accused in the Rodney King beating. She also consulted in the trials of Michael Jackson and Bill Cosby.

She has routinely testified that memories can be transformed and contaminated — and, in some cases, altogether false.”

Coronavirus is novel, but the old fashioned is bad, too

While coronaviruses aren’t new, this particular one (known as 2019-nCoV) is. “We’ve seen coronavirus before, but this is a new version,” Gonsenhauser says. “So any time there’s something new people automatically go to Ebola and the zombie apocalypse, thinking that it’s untreatable and deadly. That’s not what we’re seeing. It’s certainly spreading more rapidly than SARS did, but it’s not more dangerous than other viral strains.”

As U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar stated in a Jan. 28 press briefing: "This is a very fast moving, constantly changing situation,” adding, “but, at this point, Americans should not worry for their own safety."

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/the-flu-has-killed-10000-americans-as-the-world-worries-over-coronavirus-221101770.html

We’ve been sitting in a hospital for 5 days and observing a lot of sick people with relatives and friends coming and going.  Face masks, tissues, gloves, hand sanitizers and signs in Chinese seem to be everywhere.  Still, I see a lot of medical personnel ungloved, perhaps an allergy to the latex?

I’ve been out of the news loop for some time, but I think I heard on a radio news show that 750,000,000 Chinese have been quarantined.  I can’t even imagine that—twice the population of the USA and they are restricted in movement?  I keep wondering—who gets out to repair things that break down?  Who is stocking the stores? Who is doing the transport?

This account, assembling stories from various sources, sounds quite draconian.  Even stories of people be welded inside their apartments. Have no idea if it is authoritative of just click bait. https://www.theorganicprepper.com/quarantine-in-china/

I’ve learned to spell abscess

One of my cardinal rules is don't post about family without permission, but I'm claiming James 1:5, asking for wisdom and in faith receiving it. Our son Phil is in ICU so I'm crowd sourcing prayers for this setback from those who know him and us. Even if you're a total stranger--that's OK. This has nothing to do with his brain cancer, but has resulted from an infected tooth, which created an abscess, swelling and closed his airways. We took him to the ER (local small hospital near his home) on Saturday afternoon and after testing and waiting for a room, he was transferred to St. Ann's in Westerville late in the evening. Sunday morning the hospital chaplain called about 5 a.m. to say he'd been intubated so the four of us went right out. We were with him most of the day, and by late afternoon it looked like the antibiotics were kicking in and he was trying to kick butt for all the indignities of tubes, machines, beeping, noise, mother hover, etc. So that's a good sign. Don't mess with Phil. He can't talk right now, but he can say a lot with a thumbs up or an eye roll every mom knows. As soon as he is strong enough, there will be surgery.

The pastors from his church have visited and had prayers with all of us, and Pastor John said they played his favorites in church where he’s in the praise band.

The truncated Daniel—what a loss for Protestants

This morning in my devotions I was reading the Prayer of Azariah in the book of Daniel.  It is so lovely.  What a shame that Protestants don’t know it except in excerpts of songs and liturgy.  It’s beautiful passage and devotion to read when in the furnace of fire of suffering.

The Orthodox Wiki explains how it is interpreted and used by Orthodox Christians: “The song constitutes a hymn of thanksgiving to God for deliverence from the fiery furnace into which the three young men, Ananias, Azarias and Misael (also known as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego) had been cast by the Persian king Nebuchadnezzar. They were cast into the furnace for refusing to worship a golden idol that Nebuchadnezzar had created. However, an Angel of the Lord entered the furnace and protected the three young men. In liturgical practice, the event is seen to presage the Resurrection of Christ, thus its inclusion in the canon.”

The note in the Roman Catholic Bible reads: * [3:24–90] These verses are additions to the Aramaic text of Daniel, translated from the Greek form of the book. They were probably first composed in Hebrew or Aramaic, but are no longer extant in the original language. The Roman Catholic Church has always regarded them as part of the canonical Scriptures.

Prayer of Azariah.^* 24 They walked about in the flames, singing to God and blessing the Lord. 25 Azariah^* stood up in the midst of the fire and prayed aloud:

26 “Blessed are you, and praiseworthy,

O Lord, the God of our ancestors,

and glorious forever is your name.

27 For you are just in all you have done;

all your deeds are faultless, all your ways right,

and all your judgments proper.

28 You have executed proper judgments

in all that you have brought upon us

and upon Jerusalem, the holy city of our ancestors.

By a proper judgment you have done all this

because of our sins;

29 For we have sinned and transgressed

by departing from you,

and we have done every kind of evil.

30 Your commandments we have not heeded or observed,

nor have we done as you ordered us for our good.

31 Therefore all you have brought upon us,

all you have done to us,

you have done by a proper judgment.

32 You have handed us over to our enemies,

lawless and hateful rebels;

to an unjust king, the worst in all the world.

33 Now we cannot open our mouths;

shame and reproach have come upon us,

your servants, who revere you.

34 For your name’s sake, do not deliver us up forever,

or make void your covenant.

35 Do not take away your mercy from us,

for the sake of Abraham, your beloved,

Isaac your servant, and Israel your holy one,

36 To whom you promised to multiply their offspring

like the stars of heaven,

or the sand on the shore of the sea.

37 For we are reduced, O Lord, beyond any other nation,

brought low everywhere in the world this day

because of our sins.

38 We have in our day no prince, prophet, or leader,

no burnt offering, sacrifice, oblation, or incense,

no place to offer first fruits, to find favor with you.

39 But with contrite heart and humble spirit

let us be received;

As though it were burnt offerings of rams and bulls,

or tens of thousands of fat lambs,

40 So let our sacrifice be in your presence today

and find favor before you;

for those who trust in you cannot be put to shame.

41 And now we follow you with our whole heart,

we fear you and we seek your face.

Do not put us to shame,

42 but deal with us in your kindness and great mercy.

43 Deliver us in accord with your wonders,

and bring glory to your name, O Lord:

44 Let all those be put to shame

who inflict evils on your servants;

Let them be shamed and powerless,

and their strength broken;

45 Let them know that you alone are the Lord God,

glorious over the whole world.”

46 Now the king’s servants who had thrown them in continued to stoke the furnace with naphtha, pitch, tow, and brush. 47The flames rose forty-nine cubits above the furnace, 48and spread out, burning the Chaldeans that it caught around the furnace. 49But the angel of the Lord went down into the furnace with Azariah and his companions, drove the fiery flames out of the furnace, 50and made the inside of the furnace as though a dew-laden breeze were blowing through it. The fire in no way touched them or caused them pain or harm. 51Then these three in the furnace with one voice sang, glorifying and blessing God:

52 “Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our ancestors,

praiseworthy and exalted above all forever;

And blessed is your holy and glorious name,

praiseworthy and exalted above all for all ages.

53 Blessed are you in the temple of your holy glory,

praiseworthy and glorious above all forever.

54 Blessed are you on the throne of your kingdom,

praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.

55 Blessed are you who look into the depths

from your throne upon the cherubim,

praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.

56 Blessed are you in the firmament of heaven,

praiseworthy and glorious forever.

57 Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord,

praise and exalt him above all forever.

58 Angels of the Lord, bless the Lord,

praise and exalt him above all forever.

59 You heavens, bless the Lord, 

praise and exalt him above all forever.^a

60 All you waters above the heavens, bless the Lord,

praise and exalt him above all forever.

61 All you powers, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

62 Sun and moon, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

63 Stars of heaven, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

64 Every shower and dew, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

65 All you winds, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

66 Fire and heat, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

67Cold and chill, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

68Dew and rain, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

69 Frost and chill, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

70 Hoarfrost and snow, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

71 Nights and days, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

72 Light and darkness, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

and clouds, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

74 Let the earth bless the Lord,

praise and exalt him above all forever.

75 Mountains and hills, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

76 Everything growing on earth, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

77 You springs, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

and rivers, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

sea monsters and all water creatures, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

80 All you birds of the air, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

81 All you beasts, wild and tame, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

82 All you mortals, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

83 O Israel, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

84 Priests of the Lord, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

85 Servants of the Lord, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

86 Spirits and souls of the just, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

87 Holy and humble of heart, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

88 Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael, bless the Lord;

praise and exalt him above all forever.

For he has delivered us from Sheol,

and saved us from the power of death;

He has freed us from the raging flame

and delivered us from the fire.

89 Give thanks to the Lord, who is good,

whose mercy endures forever.

90 Bless the God of gods, all you who fear the Lord;

praise and give thanks,

for his mercy endures forever.”

Deliverance from the Furnace.

What has happened to the Democrat party?

“By ceding moral authority to the far left, the Democrats have lost the power to counter bizarre proposals with simple common sense. When a freshman congresswoman proposes a wildly improbable Green New Deal, instead of responding as Democrats of an earlier day would have—“Whaddya, kiddin’ me?”—they now take it seriously and several adopt it. When two other freshman Democrats make anti-Semitic pronouncements, no one in a party overwhelmingly the choice of Jewish voters has the authority to tell them to knock it off. When Democratic presidential candidates propose to provide free health care for all, or eliminate college tuition and college debt, or enlarge and pack the Supreme Court, or eliminate the Electoral College, all this is taken in earnest. And the Democratic Party is being held hostage to identity politics, so that no national ticket can ever again be without a black or female candidate.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-democrats-gave-in-to-radicals-and-gave-up-on-common-sense-11581444825?

Joseph Epstein, Wall Street Journal, Feb. 11, 2020

Kidney Cancer organization honors Ann Hull

Today we are honoring our friend Ann Burkhart Hull, who passed away on Saturday evening after a courageous battle with aggressive kidney cancer. All of us at KidneyCAN send our sincere condolences to Ann's husband Jason and their three children: Ellie, Amy, and Joey.

Ann was a truly special member of our community. We remember her positive spirit and sweet disposition in the face of daunting treatments. She was active in the online SmartPatients group and was known for her kindness and support of other patients as they navigated their own diagnoses and treatments. Ann was an inspiring voice for all of us at our DC Advocacy Days, where she and Jason spoke to congressional representatives about the need for kidney cancer research funding.

Brenda Knapp, KidneyCAN Treasurer and co-founder, writes, “From the first time that I met Ann at a Rock the Cure fundraiser in Virginia Beach, I could see she was a fighter and wanted to make an impact on kidney cancer. I was always impressed by her positive, can-do attitude and her wonderful smile.”

Ann faced her battle with grace. In a recent Facebook post from the hospital, she encouraged us to “Take a minute today to enjoy your view from wherever you may be!” Today, for Ann, we will try to do just that.

The Vindman twins + 70

For those of you rending your clothes over the job transfers of the Vindman brothers--remember Obama may have planted them when he increased the size of the National Security Council staff (not the Council itself). The staff is there for the president, and one of them tried to take over his job responsibilities. We didn’t elect him; foreign policy is the job of the President, not his NSC staff.  So now about 70 of them have been relocated (I would have preferred fired), and the staff is closer to normal size. You've been screaming over growing debt--this would be a great place to start cutting.

At the fitness center

I met a wonderful guy at the gym this morning. Kind, articulate, interesting, athletic and it turns out he was at St. Ann's hospital in the OR when our son had his surgery last October. Small world. The only draw back was we talked for such a long time I peddled for over seven miles instead of my 4 or 5 and now can hardly walk.

Easy cheesy potato gratin

https://www.dairycarrie.com/2019/06/04/easy-and-cheesy-potato-gratin/

She recommends a strong cheese and real cream.  Read the full directions at the link.  Sounds yummy. 

8-12 servings, can pair with ham or bacon

Ingredients

• 5-6 large russet potatoes

• 1 large onion

• 2c heavy cream

• 2Tbs butter, softened

• 2c Gruyere or other strong cheese, shredded

• Optional- ham, cooked Bacon, or other meat

• 1tsp Dried thyme,

• 1tsp Dried rosemary

• 1Tbs minced garlic

• Salt and Pepper

• Directions

• Scrub your potatoes. This dish can be made with skins left on, but you’re welcome to peel them if you like.
• Using a mandolin, slice the potatoes very thin. Not able to see through them thin, but close.
• Slice your onion in long thin strips.
• Place potatoes, onion and garlic in a pot and cover with water. Bring pot to a boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and drain.
• Use butter to grease the bottom and sides of a 9×13 pan.
• Put slices of potato in a single layer in the bottom of the pan and along the sides.
• Going in layers, add onion and optional meat then sprinkle with cheese until you’ve used up all your potato slices. Top with remaining cheese.
• In a small pan, heat cream on medium heat and whisk in seasonings. Stirring regularly let cream thicken slightly, about 10 minutes.
• Pour cream over the top of the potatoes.
• If you are freezing this for later, wrap pan in plastic wrap and place in freezer.
• Otherwise, place uncovered pan in oven heated to 400 degrees. Bake for 30 minutes. Then turn oven to broil for 5 minutes or until cheese on top is brown.
• Let potatoes sit after removing from oven for 20 minutes before serving.

If you freeze this for later, allow the potatoes to thaw completely before following the cooking directions.

Dairy Carrie has a few words for vegan Joaquin

“When you went on to say that we are “more disconnected from the natural world” in the same breath as saying that animals are equal to humans, you lost me. In the natural world where Mother Nature reins supreme, the lion does not see the gazelle as its equal. The lion sees the gazelle as its lunch. The natural world is where predator/prey relationships and the food chain exist. Humans have been eating animal products since the first person realized that meat is tasty and according to McDonald’s, since then billions and billions of burgers have been served. “

https://www.dairycarrie.com/2020/02/10/dear-joaquin/?

In Mayor Pete’s little town

“Had they not been aborted, the 2,411 children whose tiny bodies will be laid to rest on Wednesday would now be in their late teens,” Scheidler said. “They’d be finishing high school, starting college, entering careers, planning for their futures. Instead, they will be buried, nameless and unknown — the only act of justice we can offer them.”

Found in a garage in South Bend, home of Mayor Pete.

https://www.lifenews.com/2020/02/10/2411-aborted-babies-abortionist-hoarded-will-be-buried-wednesday-finally-given-proper-burial/?

Democrats seem to love Hitler

The Democrats love to compare Trump to Hitler--they also did that with Bush in the pre-Obama days of Bush Derangement Syndrome. It's like they never heard of Lenin, Stalin and Mao. And I never saw any reasonable comparison except crowds get excited at big rallies--and they did that for Obama all over the world--even in Germany in the same places they roared for Hitler. But Michael has put it in perspective. They always look for a scapegoat for their own bad behavior.

Michael Smith: . . ."instead of blaming minorities as Hitler did, Democrats blame whites. With Hitler, if you weren't patriotic, you hated Germany - Democrats believe if you are patriotic, you are a racist. Hitler sold the idea that Germany was perfect, the world outside its borders was flawed. Democrats believe the world outside America's borders is perfect, it's America that is flawed. . .

Contemporary Democrats are postmodern fabulists - they make crap up to fit their worldview and when exposed to the facts that prove them wrong, they simply ignore them or make up another fantasy. That's the only way things make sense to them. The other day, I posted the quote from Euripides, to wit: “Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish" and it sure seems there is a lot of that going around."

A Utah voter looks at Mitt Romney, Michael Smith guest blogger

My wife and I volunteered for the 2002 Salt Lake Olympic Winter Games and I got the chance to meet Mitt Romney. I thought he was a genuinely nice guy - but as I look back, I can see his rescue of the Games (and make no mistake, he was a big reason things got back on track) was more about raising his profile for his injection in to politics with his run for the governorship of Massachusetts.

Romney’s impeachment vote wasn’t courageous or virtuous. To do that is casting a vote when something is on the line, either personally or professionally. Neither was the case here. There was no possibility the Democrats were going to get 67 votes to convict and Romney knew he would be lauded for his “courage” by the Democrats and NeverTrumpers, so he took the opportunity to stick it to a political enemy and go down in the history books as the only Senator in history to vote for the conviction of a president from his own party.

Romney became the answer to a Jeopardy question but that’s about all.

Totally expected.

What bothers me more is the type of character one must be possessed by to run into the loving arms of a bunch of character assassins who tried, only eight years ago, to destroy him professionally, politically and personally.

Lest we forget, Romney was attacked for things he allegedly did in high school in 1965, something that the media implied may have led to a guy becoming homosexual and then committing suicide. He was accused by Obama surrogate Stephanie Cutter of literally giving cancer to Joe Soptic’s wife and then cutting off her insurance so she would die. Obama’s first spokesliar, Jay Carney, accused Romney of creating the Benghazi scandal. Romney’s Latter Day Saints religious beliefs were trashed by every major left wing news outlet in the country. The narrative about strapping Bo the family dog to the roof of their station wagon (for the kids out there, this was what we called a SUV back in the day) was the least of what was said.

I get forgiveness – but I don’t get the forgetfulness. Forgiveness does not erase the lengths the people praising Romney in 2020 went in 2012 to erase him as a threat to Obama, and the damage they did in the process.

Something tells me that Mr. Goodhair Nice Guy will say, do or be anything necessary to sit at the lunch table with the cool kids. He just wants to be friends.

Romney isn’t principled, he’s just another Rockefeller Republican who carpetbagged his way back to national politics. Romney is our Frankenstein, my fellow Utahns. We elected him.

Romney and creatures like him are why we got Trump. He creates the stark contrast between the Vichy movement in the GOP and those in the party willing to storm the beaches of Normandy to save Western Civilization.

For that, I owe him my thanks.

Annie’s gone, but we’ll see her again

She was 48 with a husband and children and a large family of parents, brothers and sister, and many nieces and nephews. Her cancer was very advanced when they found it, but she battled far longer than anyone expected.  I’m sad about Annie, I haven't seen a firm confirmation, but I think she died a few hours after her brother arrived yesterday and the whole family gathered in her hospice room. I'm crying, yes, but the sadness is more for us. Our little family. Perhaps that's selfish, but I know her mother would understand.  We’ve wept together. They've had a year more than they thought was possible, and I pray we have that, too. Ann's kids are teens, and sometimes teens need their moms more than babies do who eat sleep and poop as some say. It's such a confusing time in life.

I watched my dad after his mother's funeral (he was 70) and knew then there was never a good time to be an orphan. Not 7 and not 70.  But he was 83 when his sister (my aunt Marion) died and he sobbed and sobbed in the back of the room at the funeral home away from everyone. Big tough Marine. All my high school dates were afraid of him.  He said  because she was the oldest girl, she was the "little mother" of all the other 8. It still makes me cry to think of it; she was always there to welcome me home.

We know we're all in God's care, we're baptized, we've made a personal commitment, but the other side is still scary because we don't know what to expect. Like the baby in the womb--we suspect there's something else, we can hear music, talking, feel movement, we wiggle our toes and touch our nose--but it seems so unrealistic to think there's more than we know floating around with everything taken care of.

There is.

From Here to Eternity

Because it’s been Oscar week, From Here to Eternity movie with Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster was on.  About all I remembered was the memorable beach scene and that it was from the 50s.  I watched a few minutes last night and then turned to something else.

This morning a read a few Amazon book reviews for the 1951 book. Reviewers considered it pretty racy for 1951 but in this era, not so much.  Includes homosexuality and racism and bad language. This reviewer uses the name LEE.

“ I picked up this book knowing very little about James Jones. I'm not sure he'll be one of our enduring writers, and mostly he's known to the current generation, as he was to me, by his film adaptations. I recalled seeing "The Thin Red Line" when it came out. Actually I recalled little more than that, merely that it was a pensive, artsy Malick movie. As for "From Here to Eternity," I recalled the black and white image of the couple rolling in the surf. So I guess I assumed the novel was primarily some sort of love story. It is something much more than that, something unique and important for being a historical document of the peacetime army prior to World War II as much as it is a work of literature. Jones was an expert at creating enduring characters: Prewitt, a private from the Kentucky coal mines; Warden, a staff sergeant; Maggio, a private from New York City; and the women they love, Karen Holmes, the wife of Captain Milt Holmes; and Lorene, a prostitute working in Honolulu. Prewitt ("Prew") is the book's central character. He seems to be the best at whatever he tries, whether it's bugling, boxing, flirting, or soldiering. Despite all these talents, he also has a penchant for self-destruction. He quits the bugle corps and refuses to fight on the boxing squad, which would've made things much easier for him. Eventually he lands in the stockade, where he witnesses the slow disintegration of his friend Maggio (who has also become a prisoner). Jones uses Prew's downward arc, and his eventual love affair with Lorene, as the book's trajectory. Of course, we all know what's about to happen at Pearl Harbor, so the attack looms over everything else in "From Here to Eternity." The manner in which half-drunk, surprised soldiers responded to the attack is certainly worth a read. Apparently Jones' editors cut over a hundred pages from the manuscript due to offensive language, and these pages have since been restored, as they should be. To our contemporary sensibilities, these sections are relatively tame but cumulatively have the effect of showing what these soldiers were truly like. We hear all this stuff about "The Greatest Generation," and the men who fought in WWII are deified. Rightly they should be praised for their bravery and sacrifice, but it was refreshing to find, on reading "From Here to Eternity," that they were humans just like those of any other era. If you put a bunch of men together in a barracks, they are going to fixate on women, alcohol, gambling, etc. So I thought the R-rated material in Jones' book was essential. There was a lot of casual racism, which was hard to stomach, but once again I believe this was authentic to the period. The soldiers were even racist toward the Germans and Jews in their own ranks, and to his credit Jones does try to show the pernicious effects of this. You just have to wade through the racist sections, or through Jones' many attempts at pidgin English, which are of course offensive. My ultimate gripe with "From Here to Eternity" was that the narrative was too loose, the major plot points too few, to support a book of nearly 900 pages. I think the book could have been cut to 400 or 500 pages and been stronger for it. I suppose Jones wanted to turn in a doorstop that would be considered important in the manner of Mailer's "Naked and the Dead," but I think he could've cut a lot of internal monologue and mundane detail. Jones didn't quite know when to end chapters, for example. He also had some stylistic quirks, such as using abbreviations and contractions without punctuation. And so many adverbs! Sometimes the author would use multiple adverbs, and sometimes the same adverb, in a single sentence. That's what his editor should've been cutting. None of the characters emerge from the book unscathed, and they linger with the reader. This book, with its drinking sessions, serial adultery, and weekly trips to the whorehouse, will dispel any wholesome notions of the era of our grandparents. But it is a worthwhile novel for its fascinating, gritty take on the lead-up to combat.”

Monica asked if I wrote it and I responded

I didn't write the Forbes article, but the commentary is all me. My opinion. When it's someone else's opinion, I put it in quotes or link. Like Michael Smith or Michael Rectenwald. It's how I usually write. Get it down, then look up a source that confirms what I think is true. I even wrote that way when publishing was required for promotion and tenure. I'd start with what I knew (or on my office book shelf), then find the sources. Maybe everyone does that, but I did get to Associate Professor. That said, because I read a lot and am a news junky, my opinions are not necessarily original or earth shattering, but a mish-mash of information from multiple sources that has percolated for awhile.

"Data is not information, Information is not knowledge, knowledge is not understanding, and understanding is not wisdom." Clifford Stoll. I had to look it up, but I used to have it posted in my office. Librarians are inundated with data and information and it's good to be reminded that doesn't necessarily mean we understand or are wise.

Presidents who used Saul Alinsky’s style

Saul Alinsky is considered the "Father of Community Organizing;" he was the idol of both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. One of Obama's jobs out of law school was as "community organizer" in Chicago. And yet one of Alinsky’s rules (added to the 1972 edition of Rules for Radicals) is "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." has been mastered by Donald Trump who is a businessman and capitalist, not a politician/Marxist and definitely not a community organizer.

• Make America Great Again.
• Fake news.
• Pencil-neck.
• Low IQ.
• Lock her up.
• Build that wall.
• Twitter. Troll.

He doesn't let up. He rarely picks a fight, but he surely doesn't pass up a challenge. And Democrats who have been stealing our country for 40 years using Alinsky, weep and moan and get moralistic. Alinsky was said to help the poor fight against power and privilege, and now Trump is helping the poor and middle class come into the economy and fight against the power and privilege of the Democrats who are increasingly being eaten alive by the Socialist wing of their party Obama helped build.

Irony.

Hillary and Nancy’s talking points

Hillary Clinton (still making the rounds of the sympathetic talk shows), Nancy Pelosi and all the rest of the Democrats trying to save Obama's legacy continue to repeat erroneously that Trump is just continuing Obama's successes. That's wrong. The recession ended in June 2009 about 5 months after Obama took office. He had nothing to do with it. However, because of imposing more regulations, and taking our tax money to float his ARRA for his supporters, he did slow down the recovery, which toddled along for 7 years before gaining momentum. He did have us in war his whole 8 years, more than GW Bush.

People like me and Bill Gates--people who had investments--saw the recovery quickly because of the stock market. I'm not part of the 1%, but they did terrific under Obama. That didn't help the black teen or the former coal miner working at McDonald's or the retail clerk out of work because the consumer confidence didn't recover.

The Trump recovery is reaching down and pulling up the people who had given up, the people Obama gave up on and who were told things would never be any better than the slow gear on the old rattling truck; the people receiving the "dole" who thought they might never work again.

People are saving, investing and starting new businesses. They are hopeful under Trump--even those who don't like him. Obama never preached recovery, or pride, or happiness or joy.  Sharing public bathrooms with the opposite sex, allowing foreigners assistance for college that Americans can’t get, pushing abortions—how is that hope? Hope for Obama was a campaign slogan and nothing else.

And he was just smart enough to allow fracking because that saved his lunch, economically speaking. He never said America was the best, the greatest, because. . . he was honest and didn't believe it. I had to grit my teeth in November 2016 because Trump wasn't my choice, but I'm so glad he proved me wrong. And proved Obama wrong.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2013/02/12/president-obama-gets-it-fracking-is-awesome/#7325032d425d

479 Eldridge, 43203

When things get too crazy I just browse through the rental and sale prices for real estate on Marketplace. It's a super time waster, and mind relaxer since I'm not in the market to rent or buy.

Just looked at a nice little ca. 1920 2 story with 2 baths with 1038 sf for $875/month.. Yard is small, but dogs OK. Backyard storage unit. Don't see a garage, but there's a drive-way slab behind it. That's good for our weather. I see an AC unit outside that looks new. Wiring updated based on the conduit I see. Wonderful front porch, a bit of a climb from the sidewalk, but the steps look like new concrete. My guess is people enter from the ally in the back rather than park on the street. Has a back porch with extra security enclosure. I think I can see security lighting in the back which has a privacy fence.

First floor looks like hardwood floors, bedrooms carpeted. We used to own a house built in this era, and closets are always small. The photo doesn't show a lot of the kitchen, but the black appliances all match, so it's not copper tone or pink.  Arched doorways on first floor.  The neighborhood doesn't look the best based on school district--it's a clue when they don't list the high school district, but Columbus has some great private and Catholic schools. The owner has put some thought and effort into keeping it up--or maybe it's a recent flip. You'd need a car because the public transportation isn't the best (it rarely is in Columbus).

Oh, and there's a basement, but if you've ever lived in a home built in the early 20th c., you probably won't use it for anything except storage, although when I was a kid, they were great to play in. My brother and I used to roller skate in the basement of the home we had in Forreston.

Nancy Pelosi, Gretchen Whitmer and SOTU by guest blogger Michael Smith

“Pelosi thought she was disrespecting the President by ripping up the SOTU speech in a made for TV moment but what rational people saw was a total disrespect for any success in America that can't be claimed by a Democrat. Perhaps more than any SOTU during my lifetime, this one represented a stark choice between the failed policies of the Democrats and the successes of the President in the face of total resistance, character assassination and constant legal jeopardy for him and his family.

Pelosi showed just what a petty and vindictive party the Democrats have become.

Pelosi's theatrics were followed by a response given by the Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer - who seemed more smiling Disney automaton and Prozac infused Stepford wife than the executive of a state.

Whitmer complained about issues that essentially are local and state problems to fix. She gave examples of individuals doing what the state couldn't (or wouldn't) as examples of successes of the state when every one represented a failure of the state in executing its responsibility to its citizens, She lauded Democrat governors for "action" and providing "free" stuff without recognizing that every single one of those governors, especially Pritzker in Illinois, have introduced massive tax increases to pay for all their "free" stuff.

She was touted as a "rising star" of the Democrats but Whitmer revealed that both she and the Democrat agenda is as thin as a sheet of tissue paper.

The Democrats and their slavish media enablers, to a person, asked America to listen to them and not believe their own eyes about the advances America has made in the past three years. Chuck Schumer made a statement so filled with hate and divorced from reality that it puts his sanity in question.

I made the point that this is all out war from this point on and many said that it already was - but when only one side is firing, it's not war, it's just an attack. The last three years have been little more than a siege for the President. Trump has been biding his time, he will be acquitted today in America's first ever political impeachment, firing the last bullet in the Democrat arsenal.

Now we begin a march toward what the Democrats fear the most, Trump's re-election to a second term when he is free from worry of elections and is free to strike back - and he will.”

Bernie or Pete?

So far based on the bungled Iowa vote, the Democrats can choose between an elderly Socialist with a recent heart attack and an inexperienced, small town mayor whose only claim to fame is who he has sex with. I'm going to say they'll go with Mayor Pete given the Democrats tendency to want to be absolved of all the sins of their past so they can feel self-righteous while harassing Christians. The results will be the same: higher taxes, more regulations, less freedom, and less security.

Pelosi gone viral

“My administration is also defending religious liberty, and that includes the constitutional right to pray in public schools. In America, we do not punish prayer. We do not tear down crosses. We do not ban symbols of faith. We do not muzzle preachers and pastors. In America, we celebrate faith. We cherish religion. We lift our voices in prayer, and we raise our sights to the glory of God!” (President Trump, State of the Union, February 4, 2020)

And that made Nancy Pelosi so unhinged and so angry that her head exploded and she tore up the President's speech. Her tantrum and pettiness, representing her party which has been obsessed for 3 years with impeachment, has gone viral.

On PBS I heard lifelong Democrats say they were leaving the party over her behavior.

Immigration judges—we’re in good shape

We received 28 new immigration judges on Dec. 20, 2019, the highest level in our history--we now have 465 on the bench. I looked through the bios and see 12 of the 28 are female, and based on surnames the ethnicities are 5 Asian, 6 Hispanic and 2 Muslim. Although you never know who has changed a name because of marriage. Because of the lies from the left intended to divide and conquer, there is more diversity here than you would ever see reported in MSM. That said, their biographies are very impressive. Incredibly qualified people. It doesn't look like they were selected by color or sex. I particularly liked the variety their bachelor's degree college--I think we're in good shape.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/executive-office-immigration-review-swear-28-immigration-judges-bringing-judge-corps-highest

Violent Crime statistics—no agreement, but not difficult to find

Violent crime. All the data show violent crime went down after the early 90s--by about half. (Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, 1994) There isn't any agreement on why. Was it Clinton's Crime Bill or the aging of baby boomer males, or the incarceration of so many young black men? In any case, Democrats own it--they controlled all 3 branches in 1994. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2019/05/10/469642/3-ways-1994-crime-bill-continues-hurt-communities-color/

The data also show it bumped up again during the last 2 years of the Obama administration. Again, no answer, but nowhere near the rate of the 80s and 90s. And it is going down again the last 3 years in all categories--murder, rape, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, larceny and arson. https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/preliminary-report/tables/table-3/table-3.xls

Read if for yourselves.

https://www.justice.gov/resources

Rush Limbaugh has advanced lung cancer

I missed the announcement, but heard it later on 98.9 FM. I went back and read his website, and it was quite moving.  He’ll have substitutes but hopes to continue.  Our recent experience with our son and his stage 4 glioblastoma tells us he’ll need all his strength and determination to work on the cancer, the treatment and the side effects, rather than his career.  Rush used to be a cigarette smoker, but quit a number of years ago. He often used the phrase, “My formerly nicotine stained fingers,” when ruffling though his papers.  I pray for a complete recovery. He faces a very rough time.

I did hear an amazing story yesterday on the Rush show while in the car when a child called in and told of a 7 week trip her family took to see all the locations mentioned in the history books he's written for children. Rush was deeply touched by her account, and I’m assuming it was before the announcement since it was shortly after 12 noon when he comes on in Columbus.

https://610wtvn.iheart.com/content/2020-02-03-rush-limbaugh-announces-he-has-advanced-lung-cancer2/

I’m just average—but that’s a lot

"The average internet user now spends 6 hours and 43 minutes online each day. That’s 3 minutes less than this time last year, but still equates to more than 100 days of connected time per internet user, per year. If we allow roughly 8 hours a day for sleep, that means we currently spend more than 40 percent of our waking lives using the internet. "

I'm average.

https://thenextweb.com/podium/2020/01/30/digital-trends-2020-every-single-stat-you-need-to-know-about-the-internet/

Stop treating women like it’s 1975

"You're Invited: Women in Technology Networking Night. Tech Hub’s fourth annual Women in Technology networking night is Feb. 27 at 6 p.m. at the TDAI Ideation Zone (300 Pomerene Hall). "

When I receive messages like this from Ohio State University I do wonder why after almost 50 years of pushing, nudging, cajoling and nagging, we still have to have "women only" events. Don't these people read the statistics about women and graduation rates, business start ups, life expectancy, special laws and set asides, etc.

Even President Trump got on the “women only” bandwagon at the urging of his daughter. In 2017 while the pink hat/hate ladies marched, he passed the "Promoting Women in Entrepreneurship Act," which encourages entrepreneurial programs that recruit and support women, and the "Next Space Pioneers and Innovators and Explorers Act," which directs NASA to encourage women and girls to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics and to pursue careers in aerospace.

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--13 years ago.

Or maybe the diversity and inclusion people just have nothing else to do and have to keep building their empires. Or, maybe it's just another way to recruit women to vote for Democrats . . . keep telling them there's a gap, that they are oppressed, that white men especially are their enemy. Democrats hate happy citizens (usually conservatives)--have to find something awful.

How do you meet new people at 80?

I'm finding that the gym is an easier place to meet people than church. Today I met a retired Army General while riding the exercycle. He was reading a magazine I'd never seen, "Veritas : journal of army special operations history," so I asked him about it. He'd entered the service  as a private right out of high school and retired 37 years later as a General. The military paid for his bachelor’s and two masters degrees. He looked like he was about 30, but I did a little math and figured he had to be at least 55, but was probably older.

Last Friday on the cycle I met a lovely young woman who lives in my old neighborhood and school district, and loves the library, park and pool where I used to hang out. She grew up in San Antonio, lived in New Jersey, and then moved to Columbus with her husband to raise their daughter. And it was a magazine that got us talking that time too, "Experience Life" which is a very nice quality monthly serial published by the owner of Lifetime Fitness. She organizes food tours of Columbus. I didn't know such a job existed and I'm not sure yet what it is.

Twenty minutes on the cycle or treadmill can get you a lot more information than 2 minutes at church coffee time, or a few minutes being introduced during Sunday School.

Why does the Squad fight against ICE?

ICE is the biggest fighter against sex slavery and pedophilia in the world. ICE removed enough opioids coming into the country the past year to kill our entire population twice over. But the "Squad" (all Democrats and supporters of Bernie Sanders for President) wants ICE dismantled. Now why would that be? Why would these four women support such evil crimes against women and children and families? We can't allow our elected officials to bad mouth and disrespect law enforcement. They didn't write the laws; they enforce them.

"HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] arrested 5,750 criminals associated with human smuggling in FY19, a 41 percent increase from FY18..

This increase is attributed in part to the Southwest border initiative to combat fraudulent families and the use of Rapid DNA testing. HSI has dedicated more than 400 personnel to combating this issue and protecting children from being smuggled. HSI is also focused on identifying and stopping TCOs from generating false documents and supporting child smuggling through the use of fraudulent family units."

"HSI seized a record high 12,466 pounds of opioids, a 2,538 pounds increase from FY18.

HSI seized a record high 3,688 pounds of fentanyl, a 950 pound increase from FY18.

HSI made more than 1,900 fentanyl-related arrests, an increase of 175 percent from FY18.

HSI seized 145,117 pounds of methamphetamine in FY19."

https://www.ice.gov/features/HSI-2019

There was a time when this was a bipartisan issue. Now due to the hate Democrats have for the President, only Republicans are protecting women and children of 140 different nationalities, including the unborn.

Coronavirus news in my mail today

Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Saturday approved Department of Defense (DoD) housing at four military bases for 1,000 people who may have to be quarantined as a result of the coronavirus, following the appearance of the eighth confirmed case of the disease in the U.S. Assistant to the Secretary of Defense Jonathan Rath Hoffman made the announcement and said the program is designed for those returning from overseas. Military installations in Colorado, California and Texas were selected to house the evacuees and will help to assist the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) with the operation, if needed. They are the 168th Regiment Regional Training Institute in Fort Carson, Colo.; Travis Air Force Base in California; Lackland Air Force Base in Texas and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in California.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3048518/coronavirus-case-load-and-death-toll-china-rise-epicentre-hubei-province

“As many as 75,815 people in Wuhan may have been infected with the new coronavirus , according to a study by University of Hong Kong scientists.

The research, published in The Lancet on Saturday, is based on the assumption that each infected person could have passed the virus on to 2.68 others. The estimated total was as of Tuesday, it said.”

A group of Brazilians stuck in the Chinese city at the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak has sent President Jair Bolsonaro a video aired Sunday pleading for help to return home.

Reading from a letter dated January 30 from the sprawling eastern city of Wuhan, they told him they were willing to be quarantined when they get back.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3048639/coronavirus-brazilians-wuhan-ask-help-fleeing-wuhan-video

Wuhan has 11,000,000 people and most of us had never heard of it before this virus made it famous.  I looked through trip advisor, and it looks like a gorgeous place with interesting sites.  Who will go there now and how many in the tourism business are out of work?

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g297437-Activities-Wuhan_Hubei.html

Groundhog day, 2020

Buckeye Chuck and Punxsutawney Phil are both predicting an early spring, but it's sunny in Columbus, and if they were here they would see their shadows. According to the tradition, if Phil sees his shadow and returns to his hole, he has predicted six more weeks of winter-like weather. If Phil does not see his shadow, he has predicted an "early spring." The date of Phil's prognostication is known as Groundhog Day in the United States and Canada, and has been celebrated since 1887. I don't know how long Chuck has been doing it.

My library colleague from the 1980s never mentions one of her early library positions which was in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, so maybe it just doesn't seem too glamourous.  But I did check the internet and see she is still researching and writing, and here's a recent story about her mother who was a Code Girl in WWII. https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2019/03/herstory-crowded-wartime-washington-and-the-code-girls-reunion/

Twenty years plus

Earlier in January it occurred to me that I should write something on the 20th anniversary of my mother's death, but the 24th came and went and it wasn't until today when I was looking at my bunny coffee cup which was hers, that I recalled it had been twenty years. She died on the 24th of January 2000, her mother on the 25th of 1963 and her father on the 26th of 1968. The bunny cup has a mommy rabbit and eight little brown and white bunnies, and is my favorite cup.  I use it almost every morning.

Today when photos are a dime a dozen and people just whip out a phone to capture the moment, it seems odd that I don't have a photo of the three of them together, except in larger group pictures, like this one from 1949 in Wilmington, Ohio. Grandpa is between his older sister, Alice (b. 1870), and grandma, and then my mom.  My brother Stan and I are squinting in the sun. I'm wearing my most favorite dress of all time--it's yellow, but only I can tell when I look at the photo.  We were on our way to the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference in Ocean Grove, New Jersey, but stopping along the way to visit and spend the night with relatives. As I found out years later from talking with Mother, this was not a happy trip--my grandparents were trying to find out information on the death of their son who died in 1944 in WWII. My mother who was doing the driving was suffering debilitating headaches and my brother got sick from the heat.  But, being only 10, it all went over my head and I remember the highpoints with relatives, the tourist spots and the ocean.

 Uncle Edwin Jay, who apparently took the photo, was president of Wilmington College from 1915-1927.  (I looked through the website for Wilmington College and found this about his 12 years there: "The so-called "period of expansion" occurred under the leadership of President J. Edwin Jay, under whose tenure Lebanon Normal University merged with Wilmington College and teacher training was introduced into the curriculum.")  I think he probably died in 1964 and may have been 95, but I have no idea what he did between 1927 and 1964. He and I corresponded, and we never discussed his life. If his writings and letters are archived where he taught, there will be a group from a teen-ager in Illinois.

 

Palindrome

Peter Kreeft’s simple thought on choice

"Nancy Reagan was criticized for her simple anti-drug slogan: "Just say no." But there was wisdom there: the wisdom that the heart of any successful program to stop anything must be the simple will to say no. ("Just say no" doesn't mean that nothing else was needed, but that without that simple decision nothing else would work. "Just say no" may not be sufficient but it is necessary.)

Similarly, no program, method, book, teacher, or technique will ever succeed in getting us to start doing anything unless there is first of all that simple, absolute choice to do it. "Just say yes." Peter Kreeft

January 31, on this day in history, 1865 and 1919

This day in history, "January 31, 1865, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery in America. The amendment read, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude…shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” . . .

In 1864, an amendment abolishing slavery passed the U.S. Senate but died in the House as Democrats rallied in the name of states’ rights. The election of 1864 brought Lincoln back to the White House along with significant Republican majorities in both houses, so it appeared the amendment was headed for passage when the new Congress convened in March 1865. Lincoln preferred that the amendment receive bipartisan support–some Democrats indicated support for the measure, but many still resisted. The amendment passed 119 to 56, seven votes above the necessary two-thirds majority. Several Democrats abstained, but the 13th Amendment was sent to the states for ratification, which came in December 6, 1865. With the passage of the amendment, the institution that had indelibly shaped American history was eradicated." https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/today-in-history-january-31/ss-BBZjpd7?

Also on this day in history, January 31, 1919, Jackie Robinson was born in Georgia and he became the first black to break the color barrier in major league baseball in 1947. He was a Republican, and today the media will tell you everything bad about the RNC in those days, but the Democrats were still fighting "inclusion and diversity," and did so for many years. So let's leave it there that they are still rewriting their own poor history.

Slavery has existed from the earliest recorded history and is still a global scourge--estimates of the number of slaves globally today range from around 21 million to 46 million -- labor and sex and even children. This is larger than the 18th century Atlantic slave trade. https://www.antislavery.org/slavery-today/modern-slavery/

We can all be proud that the U.S. opposition to slavery is today bi-partisan. The current legislation began under President Clinton in 2000 and has continued under Bush, Obama, and Trump. This is the 2019 Trafficking in Persons report. https://www.state.gov/reports/2019-trafficking-in-persons-report/
However, reading that report is discouraging.  Less than .03% of the millions of slaves are identified and rescued. If a church spent a year studying the 2019 Trafficking in Persons report of our State Department, it would never run out of material, issues, causes, and places to put their money. And yet we have people trafficked across the border daily.

David and Putin. Giving credit where none is due

Can you explain that? I asked David on Facebook.  “Trump gave Russia codes?  What codes? Something in the KJV?”  All the spying was done during the Obama administration. Trump didn't have any power in 2015 and 2016--only Obama and his FBI had power.

Meanwhile all Trump was doing was listening to the people the Democrats had ignored for years and was filling auditoriums and sports palaces. Trump has the same uncanny gift that Bill Clinton had--he connects with people and makes them feel important.

The pollsters chased the media which said he had no chance of winning any states, meanwhile giving him billions in free publicity by talking about him all the time. Obama/Clinton (Obama 2.0) visited only the states they liked. Obama 2.0 had the support of media, all of academe, all of entertainment like TV and movies, a vast number of the churches, all of big Tech which supported her on the internet, and all the major lobbyists for rich corporations. Clinton was loved by the institutions that hated the little people. She called them deplorables and laughed at them. She still doesn't get it.

The Clinton clique put their arms around the race and sex groups and told everyone who would listen they were powerless victims and lived in a terrible country. Trump went around the country and told Americans they were great people, strong, best in the world. Now, maybe you didn't believe that, the Democrats obviously didn't, but people were hungry to hear some affirmation. And you fell into Clinton's trap and when it was all over you (who didn’t even vote) and millions of embarrassed Democrats looked around for an excuse and gave Russia the credit for Trump's hard work and smarts. You fell for the same lies from the media that millions of others did. And you're still doing it, 3 years later.

I might be over-Bibled

 

This morning I was looking at week 3 of Women of the Word study of Romans; Good News that changes everything by Melissa Spoelstra, Abingdon Women, 2019.  It comes with a DVD with teaching and discussion led by Spoelstra. That group meets on Saturday morning. There are 4 different times during the week this is offered, but I do Saturday 9:15 even though I'm retired because generally there is a core group. And I like the leader, Mary Jo.

On Sunday I'm in the adult Sunday School class at 10:15 at Lytham and we're studying the book of Hebrews using the book Hebrews by Richard E. Lauersdorf, Northwestern Publishing House, 1986. This group is led by a lawyer, Charlie, who is always well prepared. He's an excellent teacher who manages to be patient even with a group of well educated and studied adults, with some big talkers.

On Thursday morning I meet with the retirees and we've just started the book of Luke with Pastor Jeff Morlock.  Once a month this group has a lunch after the study and a guest speaker.  During Advent and Lent we also have a lunch after class and before mid-week worship, open to the whole church.

Our Sunday sermon schedule is a race through the Bible, called Open Book.  We began with Genesis in September and last Sunday the topic was Jesus Heals on the Sabbath and the Gospel reading was Mark 3:1-6.  The pastors rotate.

Our SALT group (Sharing and Learning Together) which is 9 people who are members of UALC (all 9 o'clock service at Lytham Road) who meet together has been reading Making sense of the Bible; rediscovering the power of scripture today, by Adam Hamilton, Harper One, 2014 we meet approximately once a month, but with holidays and illnesses, it's more like 7 times a year.

In the fall the senior pastor Steve Turnbull began an evening study of Ephesians at our Mill Run campus.  I attended that one evening, but it was dark and raining, and I decided I didn't want to attend under those conditions. It will start up again in the spring, but I just don't like going out at night.

About a week ago, someone who's in a group with my husband sent home with him, Finding Jesus in the Old Testament by David Limbaugh, Regnery Publishing, 2017 pb. In hardcover it was titled, The Emmaus Code, 2015. I've only looked at the table of contents, but I enjoy this type of research.

Several years ago I received as a Christmas gift Tried by Fire; the story of Christianiiy's first thousand years by William J. Bennett, Nelson Books, 2016. And I've recently been reading it while on the exercycle, however, it's a fat book and not conducive to cycling and I'm only on p. 19.

And then yesterday, two books arrived that I'd agreed to review and at the time it sounded like a good idea. The beautiful book by Steven Green, Zondervan, 2019, and one which isn't exactly Bible, but issues dealing with the election, God, Trump and the 2020 election, by Stephen E. Strange, Front Line (Charisma House), 2019.

During the week for my daily devotions I use the Catholic serial, Magnificat--just finished January 202, Vol. 21, no. 11. It follows the liturgical calendar for daily mass so there is a theme, a biography of a saint, a meditation on the observation of special days, Old Testament reading, Psalm, Gospel and Epistle, plus hymns and responsive readings.  Not being familiar with the tradition of saints, I read a lot of history. Saints featured in January were those who worked for unity in the church, and the February saints are saints who suffered serious illness, like Blessed Amadeus of Savoy, who suffered attacks of epilepsy (d. 1472).

Working out at Lifetime Fitness

If you’re very able, you can get a disability sticker

My friend Joan added this to her Facebook wall today.  It reminded me of the time years ago I took my librarian colleague Eleanor to get her disability sticker after getting out of rehab when she broke her leg.  It was quite a challenge, and everywhere we parked was almost inaccessible from crumbling concrete, stairs or poor marking. How would a disabled person ever do this without help from an extremely abled companion (usually a daughter).

“I proved NISA  (Nothing Is Simple Anymore) again over the last three weeks. After printing the form myself, delivering it to the doctor’s office for approval, having 4 telephone conversations with doctor’s office and three trips to doctor’s office, visit with the notary at the doctor’s office, and finally a hike to the courthouse (long waits at every stop), three weeks from start to finish, I finally have a disabilities parking permit for Mother. That’s one little job to mark off the list.”

Gun control in Seattle

"Last Wednesday night, right around rush hour, gunfire erupted on a busy Seattle street near a bus stop with numerous commuters and pedestrians nearby. One person was killed and seven were wounded, including a 9-year-old boy. This wasn’t the typical gang fight that erupted deep in a bad neighborhood; it placed numerous commuters in the crossfire. Two Amazon workers were shot."
The three suspects among them had nearly 70 priors. Yes, it was illegal for them to have guns. The very people who want gun control are the ones who think that a system that already fails to confine violent gun felons and gangsters is too punitive.

https://www.conservativereview.com/news/seattle-commuter-shooting-nearly-70-prior-arrests-among-three-suspects/

Reasons to not go to med school

About 2 years ago I signed up for an on-line class on the microbiome through Coursera.  After a few weeks of thinking about billions of microbiota on my skin, hair and in my gut, I was so grossed out, I dropped the course.  But occasionally, I do fall for a good looking blog on the topic, like NextGenMedicine written by a University of Illinois grad, Lucy Mailing.  Now the latest blog edition explains why she isn’t going to go on with her MD as she had originally planned, and has chosen a PostDoc.  What is interesting in today’s edition is she lists all the wrong reasons she originally thought were good reasons, but she’s changed in the gap year.  Most interesting reason not to go to medical school was she had a full ride scholarship and that was influencing her decision.
https://www.ngmedicine.com/why-im-foregoing-med-school-and-starting-a-postdoc/

Look through the slides of a 2019 presentation by Lucy.  “Modulating the gut microbiome for health: Evidence-based testing & therapeutic strategies”
https://www.ngmedicine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Modulating-the-microbiome_AHS19_slides.pdf

Biology in the 2020 campaign

There is one Democrat candidate (Mayor Pete) who has no claim to fame other than the way he has sex with his partner. Another (Warren) is trying to capitalize on the sex issue also by accusing  Christian schools "anti-LGBTQ" if they understand biology.

https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/cnsnewscom-staff/warren-whacks-christian-schools-anti-lgbtq-policies-such-making-boys-use-boys

Diversity is more than appearances

Academe, media and some woke corporations believe that diversity is a matter of skin color or biology. Not so. Sitting next to a rich Nigerian at Yale graduation isn't diversity, and hiring an Asian female retired from the National Guard should not be a check mark for government regulations.
Here's my idea of inclusion, equity and diversity (IED).

• Spend a week or two at Walmart training a new employee who doesn't speak English and uses a wheelchair;
• stand on your feet for 8 hours at a register in a big box store--with any ethnic group;
• attend for a few months a Catholic mass or a Baptist revival with a colleague of that faith family if you're an atheist professor;
• learn to work with the crew and drive one of those huge street sweepers without hitting any cars;
• find someone on your board allergic to dogs and send her out to work at the pet rescue or pound;
• assign your president to the library reference room for weeks to teach the elderly how to use the computer;
• hand the CEO a set of earplugs and send him outside in the wind with the foreign workers to blow leaves for hours;
• drive, park and unload a semi at a dollar store;
• run on concrete floors and retrieve for immediate delivery for a full shift week at an Amazon warehouse;
• or any job that moves you out of your comfort zone and into the real world of work. And then do it over again, and again. That IED.

Finding an old letter—metastatic breast cancer

This is probably a re-run—at least I found it on Facebook and I often double post.  I looked for it because I’ve been cleaning out my desk and found a local’ friend’s letter written from Tennessee after her daughter’s death.  Her daughter was 61 and she was 90.  She didn’t expect to bury her daughter or have to move out of state to settle her estate.  The friend died a few months ago, and although I’m not a hoarder, I did tuck her letter back in the drawer. She was so lonely when she wrote it—had read everything in the house, and couldn’t get a library card because she wasn’t a resident.  She did start the first paragraph with advice I need today. . . “If onlys can ruin your sanity.”
So here’s what I wrote September 27, 2017 in part to warn women about metastatic cancer.

Monday night we had a 90 year old friend, a widow, here for dinner. We had such a nice evening, tinged with sadness. I've told this before, and I'm telling it again because it's so important for women. Metastatic breast cancer.

She's a member of my church, had been living out of state while she settled the estate of her deceased daughter--61--nothing a woman her age would expect to be doing. I remember about 5 years ago her daughter came to Columbus to help her mom recover from a stroke. My friend's daughter had had annual mammograms for years, and nothing was found--probably due to very dense breast tissue and the location of the cancer under her arm. But she did have a lot of pain the last 5 years and was being treated for arthritis. By the time she was properly diagnosed the cancer had metastasized to both hips, her spine, liver and lymph system. This cancer is not curable, and no one dies from cancer that stays in the breast, but if she'd been properly diagnosed 5 years ago, she could possibly be alive. That's not a given, however.  

All women have been educated about detecting breast cancer and screening--in fact, the lion's share of that money you donate and raise in walks, runs, and selling pink stuff, goes for education and not research that could actually save your life. I've looked at several websites about this and personal stories, and this one is pretty clear.

Read the comments https://participatorymedicine.org/journal/perspective/narratives/2013/04/10/metastatic-breast-cancer-lessons-learned-from-my-missed-diagnosis.
The author of this article provided a checklist:
Lessons Learned Checklist:

1. Expect mistakes from your health provider;
2. Ask critical questions at every visit. Take a written list of questions in order of priority. If you get home and realize something is not clear, contact your doctor again;
3. Get a friend or family member to serve as your advocate;
4. Communication between doctors is absolutely critical. If a Radiology report indicates possible metastatic disease or something equally alarming make sure you get a definitive diagnosis. Rule out the worst-case scenarios. Make sure the doctors involved have talked;
5. If you aren’t confident about the doctor’s diagnosis, ask your doctor to review your records with colleagues to see what might have been missed;
6. Get a second opinion;
7. Choose doctors who take time and listen. Ask for a copy of the doctor’s notes to ensure your issues are documented properly. This also ensures the doctor heard what you said;
8. Ask specialists to take a “fresh look” at your case;
9. Make use of hospital patient advocate resources without delay.

Update on our son

On October 1, 2019, our son had several seizures and was diagnosed with glioblastoma.  He has endured a lot in the last four months including side effects from the standard treatment for this disease, surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and steroids to reduce brain swelling.  Thursday he had another MRI and today consulted with his doctor.  He posted the following on Facebook.

"Hi there. MRI shows tumor growth. Docs don’t know if this is actual tumor growth, or scan findings are related to swelling from treatment. I’ll continue current treatment plan for 2 months and re-evaluate. Pray my symptoms subside. Love you all.  .  ."

Post Office adventure

I went to the post office to buy stamps--only one employee, so I waited about 20 minutes. After I made my selection when I got to the counter, my credit card wouldn't work. I had just used it before I got there. The clerk rubbed it, we reinserted, and it still wouldn't work. Then the young woman behind me walked up with one package said she'd pay, and offered her credit card. I was stunned. Was this a TV show? I explained it was $27.50, not just a couple of stamps. She said, that's OK, I'll pay. Then I suggested she buy what she needed, and I'd step aside, and we'd see if the machine would take her card. She did that--for fifteen cents! She had taped the stamps to her package, so had to buy new stamps, but she had too many on the envelop so she only needed 15 cents. So then I tried my card, and the machine worked. Crazy day.

I've paid ahead at the grocery store if someone was short, but never $27.50.

One of the sheets I selected was the post office murals. . . Piggott, AR; Anadarko, OK; Florence, CO; Deming, NM; Rockville, MD. Mt. Morris, IL has a mural, but it didn't make the cut. http://www.wpamurals.com/mtmorris.htm

Another sheet was the Made of Hearts design.  According to the USPO website, “The art for this latest stamp in the LOVE series features horizontal rows of red and pink hearts on a white background.  Toward the center, red hearts in varying sizes replace pink hearts in a formation that creates one large red heart, the focal point of this graphic design.”

My third choice was the Lunar New Year—Year of the Rat.  It looks a lot like a blue cat with a gold crown and tassels on its ears.

The old play book of the Democrats

Sound familiar? Come in at the last minute with a "witness." Kavanaugh wasn't the first, and he won't be the last. It's the Democrat play book. Demand more witnesses. Now they are desperate--have to bring Trump down before the election because they can't win by voting.

"In 1991, President George H.W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. His confirmation hearings would test his character and principles in the crucible of national controversy. Like the Bork hearings in 1987, the Democrats went after Thomas’ record and his jurisprudence, especially natural law theory, but also attacked his character. When that failed, and he was on the verge of being confirmed, a former employee, Anita Hill, came forth to accuse him of sexual harassment. The next few days of televised hearings riveted the nation. Finally, defending himself against relentless attacks by the Democratic Senators on the committee, Thomas accused them of running “a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas.” After wall-to-wall television coverage, according to the national polls, the American people believed Thomas by more than a 2-1 margin. Yet, Thomas was confirmed by the closest margin in history, 52-48."

A Burns Party, January 25

Tonight we attend a Burns supper. Bob will wear his Bruce kilt, and I'll wear one that's close and has more coverage.  I always have to remind him to keep his legs together.  Fortunately, we aren’t having the bad weather that some are getting—just cold and damp.

From Wikipedia: "The first supper was held in memoriam at Burns Cottage by Burns' friends, on 21 July 1801, the fifth anniversary of Robert Burns' death; it has been a regular occurrence ever since. The first still extant Burns Club was founded in Greenock in 1801 by merchants who were born in Ayrshire, some of whom had known Burns. They held the first Burns supper on what they thought was his birthday, 29 January 1802, but in 1803, they discovered the Ayr parish records that noted his date of birth was actually 25 January 1759. Since then, suppers have been held on or about 25 January.

Burns was said to have delivered this grace at a dinner given by the Earl of Selkirk.

Some hae meat an canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
And sae the Lord be thankit.

Donna is a wonderful chef and hostess.  It’s always an interesting group of people and great food.

"Here are some Scots words. You will hear them used all over Scotland. Aboot, bairn, bonnie, brae, cooncil, doun, dreich, faither, fitba, flit, glaikit, gowk, heid, hoose, ken, kirk, laddie, lang, lassie, mither, nane, poke, rare, scunner, speir, stooshie, stramash, threap, wean. People who speak Scots use these words and many other words like them." (Scots Language Centre)

Historic March for Life

Today January 24 marked the 47th annual March for Life to protest the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 legalizing abortion on demand. Republican presidents usually sent someone to represent them to the rally, and last year VP Mike Pence addressed the event in person, while Trump appeared on video. This year, it was Pence who appeared by video and Trump who attended.

Although it's Democrats who claim to support the women and minority issues, half of those who are aborted are female, and about 35% are black. So who cares more? Planned Parenthood which is the biggest killer of life in the U.S. also launders money for Democrat candidates and has pledged $45 million for the 2020 campaign; it supports the candidate and they in turn see that PP continues getting tax money. Cozy deal. The real quid pro quo.

"Last year, lawmakers in New York cheered with delight upon the passage of legislation that would allow the baby to be ripped from the mother’s womb right up until delivery. Then we had the case of the Democrat governor in the state of Virginia. … The governor stated he would execute a baby after birth” (the same guy who wants to save life by taking away 2nd amendment).  https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/01/24/trump-at-march-for-life-unborn-children-never-had-stronger-defender-in-white-house/

Hallmark’s Winter Movie series

In order to avoid anything about the DNC, Democratic National Circus, I decided to continue with Hallmark's winter season, and found "Love in Paradise." Interestingly, the male lead was Luke Perry, probably the scrawniest, inept movie cowboy you'll ever see. He died of a stroke earlier this year at 52 and was originally from Ohio. It was a good story. I'd never seen 90210 so this was the first time to see him.  As lovers go, they were really mismatched.  But she did teach him to ride a horse, drive a truck and mend a fence.

https://www.hallmarkchannel.com/love-in-paradise/cast?

We’d met before, when he was not a happy camper

I'd seen an article in the Columbus Dispatch, and decided to write a note to a doctor who was mentioned as the expert. I've been fiddling with the draft for a week or so, when finally it dawned on me his name sounded familiar. So I did one of those internet people searches where public information is collected on one site, and sure enough, I used to work for his mother. We'd actually met. I had attended his bris, the Jewish ceremony in which a baby boy is circumcised.