Motion is lotion for the joints

I just heard a marathon runner, age 69, who started running because his father died at 55, say that on the radio show, "Doctor, doctor" EWTN. We know that obesity is a big factor in Covid deaths. What about sports? Are marathon runners doing better than joggers? Hockey better than tennis? Swimmers better than bikers? I did find research comparing athletes with couch potatoes in the Covid survival race. I get about 30 minutes a day.

 
Also, I learned that knee injuries are the most common for runners, but runners that land on the mid-foot have half the injuries.

 
Kaiser Permanente (California) did a study including 48,000 of its clients, not by type of sport, but by level of activity. "Even after correcting for all of those characteristics (age, sex, race, smoker, etc) , people who were consistently inactive had a significantly higher risk of hospitalization, ICU admission, and death after getting COVID-19 than those who were active for at least 150 minutes per week. Additionally, those who were active for over 10 minutes per week had some protection against severe illness or death from COVID-19 — though not as much as those who got the full 150 minutes. The highest rates of COVID-19 were among those who were Latinx: 65% compared to 18% (whites), 7% (Blacks), and 6% (Asian or Pacific Islander). It’s worth noting that people who were white were somewhat more likely to meet physical activity guidelines — a discrepancy that should be acknowledged and addressed."

Does exercise help protect against severe COVID-19? - Harvard Health

So my friends (on Medicare), time to check to see if your insurance plan includes Silver Sneakers.

Christmas is coming--advice from Joan

Christmas is coming, so again: if your last name ends in s (or a letter that makes a sibilant sound - x, z, ch, sh) then, to identify your family, add “es” and collectively you are “the Coxes” or “the Adamses” or “the Lopezes”. If your name ends with any other letter (even a “y” or an “e”) then just add an “s”. You are “the Smiths” or “the Prices” or “the Macys”. No apostrophe is used to make plurals of any name. Just a friendly reminder! Class dismissed.

Joan Shaw Turrentine, retired English teacher and pastor's wife, blogging friend since 2003

Exercise and cognitive benefits

FNDC5, Fibronectin type III domain-containing protein 5, the precursor of irisin, is a type I transmembrane glycoprotein that is encoded by the FNDC5 gene. Irisin is a cleaved version of FNDC5, named after the Greek messenger goddess Iris.

 
Researchers found that irisin, an exercise-induced hormone, improves cognitive performance in mice.
The hormone, which is identical in people, could potentially be used to treat cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Hormone links exercise with cognitive benefits | National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Related links:

Exercise-Induced Protein May Reverse Age-Related Cognitive Decline
Exercise and New Nerve Cell Growth in Alzheimer’s Disease
Shivering Triggers Brown Fat to Produce Heat and Burn Calories
Moderate Exercise May Improve Memory in Older Adults
A Well-Aged Mind: Maintaining Your Cognitive Health
Dealing with Dementia: When Thinking and Behavior Decline
Exercise and Physical Activity
Alzheimer’s Disease & Related Dementias

Mean girls--today and 68 years ago

I just watched a Fox News story on the damage social media is doing to young teen girls and their body images. I used to be a young teen girl who hung out with other teens, caring about every word and piece of gossip. We didn't have social media like Instagram or TikTok (the focus of this story). We didn't have personal phones (most of us were on a party line). We didn't have organized sports (against the law in those days). If we took a photo it was on film and it was 2 weeks to get it developed. We all went to church and almost no one had divorced parents. But we still found all the ways to be mean girls and make snide remarks about bodies and tease anyone who didn't fit the mold or current fashion. Can I get an Amen or am I the only one who remembers "the good old days?"

  

Black Lies Matter

“For every Trayvon Martin killed by someone not black [whether white, Asian, or Latino], nine other blacks were murdered by someone black,” wrote John W. Fountain, an award-winning journalist, and professor at Roosevelt University. . . . [Fountain continues,] Imagine Soldier Field . . . filled beyond capacity, brimming with 63,879 young African-American men, ages 18-24—more than U.S. losses in the entire Vietnam conflict. Imagine the University of Michigan’s football stadium—the largest in the U.S.—filled to the limit of 109,901 with black men. Now add 28,233 more—together totaling more than U.S. deaths in World War I. . . . The national tally of black males 14 and older murdered in America over a 30-year period from 1976-2005, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics: 214,661 [roughly 192,000 of which were killed by blacks]. (30)" From Black Lies Matter by Taleeb Starkes, 2016

This book was written before Donald Trump became president, and the point of view and statistics have nothing to do with the current riots and destruction (which were on their way). But it does supply some detail on the narrative that if we just got rid of cops everything hurting or killing blacks would be over. It was building as an issue long before Minneapolis and George Floyd.

 
Most murders are intra-racial, so you could also fill up a few stadiums with whites killed by whites--however, white Americans do not riot when a policeman, black or white, shoots a white criminal resisting arrest when wanted for rape (Blake) or addled by drugs with a long rap sheet and resisting arrest (Floyd).

BLM is a relatively new organization (created by 3 radical feminists when Martin, a black teen, was shot by a neighborhood private security guard who was Hispanic), but has built up its wealth on the efforts of other groups that came before them going back decades.

(written a year ago)

Lunacy on the Left must be attacked with logic and reason

Michael Smith of Utah writes:

"I just can't get past the idea that our most significant problem is the superficiality of our society.
So, few people on either side think deeply about anything before opening their cake holes to illuminate the world with the light of their ignorance.

Last night I read about what Jenn Jackson, a political science professor at Syracuse University, said about 9/11. I understand that the left never misses a chance to crap all over everything, and it is sort of a leftist tradition to pull out the stops on 9/11 anniversaries, but this one was spectacular.

She (I assume her pronoun is "she”) sparked a major uproar after tweeting: "We have to be more honest about what 9/11 was and what it wasn't. It was an attack on the heteropatriarchal capitalistic systems that America relies upon to wrangle other countries into passivity.”

OK.

 
If you have ever spent any time in corporate America – and have been stuck a meeting that was really a portal to PowerPoint Hell, you have heard this kind of statement before. It happens when the presenter: 1) doesn’t know what she is talking about, 2) knows but her data is so weak, he thinks he needs to pump it up with smart sounding words or 3) she is trying to bury the facts in a cacophonous word salad because they do not support her goals.

Those meetings are filled with the unintelligible corporate jargon that qualifies for business newspeak: “The new normal forces us to pivot and circle back to thinking out of the box and creating synergies by listening to thought leaders and being agile in our alignment.”

It is like living in a live action version of a Dilbert cartoon.

Superficial thinking is the order of the day, and this superficiality prevents theoreticians and their audience from thinking past their initial conceptions and applying the bounds of their own theories to, unsurprisingly, their own theories.

For example, any form of Critical Race Theory (LatCRT (Latino/Latina Critical Race Theory), etc.) cannot survive critical examination of itself. For example, LatCRT proposes that people of Spanish extraction were present in North America before White Europeans, so they have a more valid claim to be “Americans” and control America than do whites. They are the “original” Americans.

We are witness to the hyperbolic reasoning of every hysterical “activist”, how every “subjugated class” presumes to claim their little slice of the pie due to some presumed “wrong” done to them by someone, somewhere, at some point in the revisionist version of their history. That’s all the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School, the Derrick Bell version of Critical Race Theory and the LatCRT of Tara J. Yosso are.
I always marvel at both the “reparations” crowd wailing about slavery like only American blacks were subject to that reprehensible institution and the “multitud enojada” (angry mob) of La Raza claiming that the Southwest is really “Azteca” – their “ownership” probably would come as a great surprise to the Apache, Comanche, Havasupai, Hopi, Jemez, Kiowa, Kiowa Apache, Lipan, Maricopa, Mohave, Navaho, Paiute, Papago, Panamint, Pecos, Pima, Pueblo, Shoshoni, Sobaipuri, Tewa Pueblos, Ute, Walapai, Yavapai, Yuma and Zuñi and the Anasazi, who predated all of them.

And the modern proponents of LatCRT never seem to address their own Spanish heritage of conquest and the fact that South America saw more slavery (including black Africans) and genocide that did North America (actually, most of the black Africans from the Atlantic slave trade – 97% - went to South and Latin America, not North America).

The same with slavery – the Critical Race Theorists claim that 1619 is the date white Europeans created slavery in the New World, when, for centuries, the native civilizations of the Western Hemisphere had been taking slaves (usually entire tribes the had defeated in war) for centuries. CRT proponents completely ignore slavery in Africa prior to the beginning of the Atlantic slave trade and the fact that slavery was a common part of the civilizations inhabiting the continent.

All forms of Critical Race Theory deny the existence of the millions of white Americans who are below the poverty line. If the only explanation for the lack of socioeconomic status is race, these people should not exist.

When theoreticians pick a convenient point in history or a convenient action as a basis for their claims, that “theory” is not based in reality.

 
The proponents of these theories know their positions cannot withstand examination under their own rules – that is why the use the Kafkaesque retort that even criticism proves their theories, that for a white person to say they are not a racist just proves they are. It is why Larry Elder, a conservative black man from South Central LA can be labeled, by a major newspaper, as the “black face of white supremacy”.
It is lunacy. Pure, unadulterated insanity.

And yet the people who should know better – academicians, teachers, and scientists – are promoting this idiocy and impregnating our public-school curriculum with it.

People make a mistake by attacking CRT from the perspective of race or social science. Attack it from a logic and reason angle.

 
Saul Alinsky’s Rule #4 destroys all variants of the Derrick Bell form of CRT: "Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.""

Censorship by Big Tech

I have moved this comment of mine from Facebook:

"Democrats and their media buddies continue to blame Republicans for hesitancy to get the jab. Yet they were the ones sowing seeds of doubt about it when Trump was president--not because of science, but because of hate and they wanted to defeat him in the election. 

Also there are two groups that are always featured in low vaccination rates--1) blacks, and 2) health care workers. Democrats love to depict Republicans as knuckle dragging idiots who don't understand science. So what does that say about how Democrats think about blacks and health care workers?"

So, Facebook follows that up with a warning or suggestion about how to find information on the virus or vaccine.

Whether I use Johns Hopkins, Cleveland Clinic, WHO or CDC data, the geniuses at FB use algorithms that flag, target and demote my posts and comments so few will see them. Big Tech in collusion with the Democrat party is denying us access to information.

Mask mandates--do not reduce deaths

In a government study mask mandates did not reduce deaths, patients hospitalized in either intensive care or regular hospital beds or ventilator use nor do mandates reduce number of Covid-19 positive patients.
The study was conducted by scientists from the US Army Institute of Surgical Research and the Brooke Army Medical Center, JBSA Fort Sam Houston, Texas, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland, the Madigan Army Medical Center, Joint Base Lewis McChord, Washington, the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colorado, and the 121st Field Hospital, Camp Humphreys, Republic of Korea.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8395971/

Trust the science. All you need to do is figure out which science pushed by which politician and lobbyist.

Abortion, slavery and the Church

 Except maybe videos of actual legal abortions, you'll probably never see one— the dismemberment, little arms and legs in a basin, scalps being sold to labs, scissors in the brain, etc. Big Tech has decided those are too gruesome and violent. Also, I’m not Catholic, but the Roman Catholic church is a huge target, and if Protestants and Bible churches were smarter, they’d realize they are all being attacked. Child sex abuse is a case in point. More teachers abuse children as do more doctors, than Catholic priests. This was actually studied and published in the 90s. And I don’t mean numbers, because obviously teachers and doctors far outnumber priests and have more access. It’s rate. You might find something in the last section of the paper, but a priest will be on the front page. My blog today concerns the relationship between slavery, abortion and powerful political leaders.

From 1435 to 1890, we have numerous bulls and encyclicals from several popes written to many bishops and the whole Christian faithful condemning both slavery and the slave trade. And guess what? Many powerful and greedy Christians, including some religious orders, ignored the clear message of the church. They followed the ways of the world. Just as Biden and Pelosi are ignoring the clear teaching of the Church on the crime of abortion.

Abortion is treating the unborn, the weakest and most helpless among us, as less than human. Biden is doing that. Slavery has existed from the beginning of time/civilization where the strong had complete control over the weak, to use and abuse their bodies as they wished. The women for sex and men for labor. Sometimes the slavers became the enslaved when someone stronger came along--particularly in Africa--which not only enslaved their neighbors, but then sold them to Europeans and Asians (still do). John Newton who wrote "Amazing Grace" had been a slaver who ended up a slave. With abortion, that doesn't happen --the little body that ends up in the trash doesn't come back to do harm to her oppressors. Justice (and mercy) will wait for Jesus' return.” The Popes and Slavery: Setting the Record Straight | EWTN

Vote Wisely

 

Trump's plans for Afghanistan, August 21, 2017

After commending our brave men and women who have served in our longest war. . .

"My original instinct was to pull out -- and, historically, I like following my instincts. But all my life I've heard that decisions are much different when you sit behind the desk in the Oval Office; in other words, when you're President of the United States. So I studied Afghanistan in great detail and from every conceivable angle. After many meetings, over many months, we held our final meeting last Friday at Camp David, with my Cabinet and generals, to complete our strategy. I arrived at three fundamental conclusions about America’s core interests in Afghanistan.

First, our nation must seek an honorable and enduring outcome worthy of the tremendous sacrifices that have been made, especially the sacrifices of lives. The men and women who serve our nation in combat deserve a plan for victory. They deserve the tools they need, and the trust they have earned, to fight and to win.

Second, the consequences of a rapid exit are both predictable and unacceptable. 9/11, the worst terrorist attack in our history, was planned and directed from Afghanistan because that country was ruled by a government that gave comfort and shelter to terrorists. A hasty withdrawal would create a vacuum that terrorists, including ISIS and al Qaeda, would instantly fill, just as happened before September 11th. 

"And, as we know, in 2011, America hastily and mistakenly withdrew from Iraq. As a result, our hard-won gains slipped back into the hands of terrorist enemies. Our soldiers watched as cities they had fought for, and bled to liberate, and won, were occupied by a terrorist group called ISIS. The vacuum we created by leaving too soon gave safe haven for ISIS to spread, to grow, recruit, and launch attacks. We cannot repeat in Afghanistan the mistake our leaders made in Iraq.

Third and finally, I concluded that the security threats we face in Afghanistan and the broader region are immense. Today, 20 U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations are active in Afghanistan and Pakistan -- the highest concentration in any region anywhere in the world."

How very different was Trump's vision from the cowardly betrayal of the Biden Abandonment. Biden has besmirched the memory of all the soldiers who fought there, following 4 presidents, and allowed Afghanistan to again be the launching place of terrorist attacks.

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/21/trump-afghanistan-speech-text-241882

"But we will no longer use American military might to construct democracies in faraway lands, or try to rebuild other countries in our own image. Those days are now over. Instead, we will work with allies and partners to protect our shared interests. We are not asking others to change their way of life, but to pursue common goals that allow our children to live better and safer lives. This principled realism will guide our decisions moving forward."

But there was no "principled realism" in the Biden's Abandonment. It was shameful, and now he's making mandates about vaccines in order to cover for his ugly behavior. And our children and those in the middle east and Israel will certainly NOT have better and safer lives.

Seeds oils, are they safe

I haven't paid much attention, but there seems to be a war against seed oils (omega-6) What do you think?

Are seed oils (not common until the 20th century) in the processed food industry the biological drivers of modern health problems? https://youtu.be/7kGnfXXIKZM I use butter, peanut oil, coconut oil, and olive oil if I cook from scratch, but the others (seed oils) are in processed food.

This speaker, Dr. Chris Knobbe,  was an ophthalmologist and has switched to nutrition, primarily because of research on macular degeneration.

8 Bad Seed Oils You Should Eliminate From Your Diet | Better Nutrition

"Unlike traditional fats such as olive oil, coconut oil, butter, ghee, and lard, industrial seed oils are a very recent addition to the human diet.

In fact, industrial seed oils, the highly processed oils extracted from soybeans, corn, rapeseed (the source of canola oil), cottonseed, and safflower seeds, were only introduced into the American diet in the early 1900s. How, then, did these oils come to occupy such an influential position not only in the Standard American Diet but in “”Westernized” diets around the world? The story is strange indeed."

From Toxic Waste to “Heart Healthy”: The History of Seed Oils

How Industrial Seed Oils Are Making Us Sick | Chris Kresser

Transition surgery for children is child abuse

How could genital mutilation on a child of healthy organs by a physician and at request of parents NOT be sexual abuse? Call it transition or confirming or affirming, throw in a few thousands hormone blockers, and it is still sexual abuse. If an adult chooses a mastectomy or penile amputation, that's their business. But a child may need the protection of the law. Transgenderism is a hoax, and it's OK if adults want to do it and have other adults changing their pronouns to comply with their confusion.

Texas Agency Rules Gender-Confirming Surgery Form Of Child Abuse – CBS Dallas / Fort Worth (cbslocal.com)

Florida restaurant won't serve Biden supporters

A diner in DeBary, Florida, became popular overnight among residents and the international community after announcing they would no longer serve Biden supporters. They sold out of food the same day and temporarily closed.

I don't think this is a good idea. It's unAmerican to deny service due to politics. However, the owner could serve them a piece of cooked crow with every order.

I was a Veterinary Medicine Librarian at Ohio State, and one time I got a call from a New York Chef wanting to know how to safely bake 4 and 20 blackbirds in a pie. Swear to God, a true story.

Nidal Hasan, a killer, approves of Joe Biden

Former Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Islamic radical who murdered 13 people and wounded more than 30 at Fort Hood in 2009, is now celebrating the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan after President Joe Biden's botched pullout of U.S. forces and lauding the opportunity to install Sharia law in the region. (The Blaze)

I'm sure he's not the only one. And he was a citizen who swore to protect Americans.

Ancestral Health--what is it?

Got me. I saw an article about the Ancestral Health Symposium (9th) held August 12 in California so have been searching for articles (it was sold out). In simple terms, it's probably about eating "natural." Came across something by a diabetes group on Paleo, Primal, real/whole food, keto etc. ways of eating, but nothing substantial. There is also a Vitamin D chapter in this group presenting on protections against SARS (many trials and published papers), Omega-6 group, seed oils, cognitive decline, the hidden health epidemic, the anti-meat ethics, bone health, African traditions, infections and psychiatric disorders, gateway drugs. This Youtube says there are 20 presentations. AHS21 - YouTube

Ivermectin--why are the media destroying its reputation as a miracle drug?

Our major media sources have denied the world knowledge of treatments that could have saved perhaps even the majority of the 641,450 people who died in the U.S. and the nearly 4 million who died elsewhere in the world.  Why?

"It was just another day in the most misleading, murderous coverage of a global issue in modern times, the attempted assassination of poor little ivermectin. Little Ivy, smaller and safer than aspirin and sometimes portrayed as a lovable little blue bird by its worldwide supporters, is the remarkably safe, affordable, FDA-approved, generic, Nobel-Prize winning drug known to doctors as one of the great “wonder drugs” in human history, rivaling penicillin, until it made the mistake of killing both COVID and big pharma profits like nothing known to science ." commenting on a New York Times article. . . 

The doctors’ treatment protocols of safe, FDA-approved drugs, including ivermectin, for COVID prevention, early and late-stage treatment, hospital care, long-haul symptoms and even post-vaccine symptoms, have saved more lives and relieved more misery in the pandemic than any human being can count, and would yet, many scientists believe, restore normal life everywhere if used universally. The rest of the mainstream media has known about these remarkable doctors and this remarkable generic drug that, in tandem with the vaccines already jabbed into billions of arms, and even without mass vaccination according to scientists like m-RNA vaccine technology inventor Dr. Robert Malone, could drive the coronavirus swiftly extinct. But they have simply ignored the story—and called some of the most renowned doctor-researchers on the planet scientific kooks and frauds."

Believe It: A Top Old School Journalist Stands Up for Ivermectin and Free Speech - by Michael Capuzzo - RESCUE with Michael Capuzzo (substack.com)

The Texas case

For you pro-choice Christians all huffy, weepy and hysterical about the Texas jury case involving abortion, how did you feel about the story of baby scalps grafted to the backs of rats, all with your tax money? Were you sickened? Did you say to self, "This is women's health?" Did you excuse those abortions as "for the good of all people this little girl gave her life?"

"In the fall of 2020, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh published a study titled, “Development of humanized mouse and rat models with full-thickness human skin and autologous immune cells.” In studying how organs reacted to pathogens or infections on human skin, researchers grafted “full-thickness human skin” as well as thymuses, livers, and spleens from fetuses onto rodent bodies, creating what they call “humanized rat models.”

https://thefederalist.com/2021/05/07/university-of-pittsburgh-uses-taxpayer-funded-aborted-babies-for-medical-research/

C.S. Lewis on the times we live in

Written by the famed Anglican author C.S. Lewis in 1948. Very applicable to today:

“How are we to live in an atomic age?’ I am tempted to reply: ‘Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of chronic pain, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.’

In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways.

It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.

The first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about death. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.”

Living Bulwark (swordofthespirit.net)

Blogging--a blast from the past

Google sent me a notice that my top achieving blog entries for August were from 2005--Hillary Clinton's recipe for chicken and rice soup, and a story about the son of Richard Thomas (John-boy on the Waltons) and a local girl (Fremont) getting married. I'm so happy I've had the chance to make a difference in this messy world (snark).

Need for vetting of refugees

If Biden hadn't been so cowardly, better vetting would have been done before thousands of Afghans entered the U.S., as Trump demanded. This administration's "word" to properly vet the Afghans fleeing their country, means little. Look at everything Biden promised in August that he flip flopped on.

"An estimated 100 Afghan refugees from Afghanistan to the United States have been flagged for potential ties to terrorist organizations, including the Taliban, according to a new report. Of more than 30,000 evacuees from Afghanistan to the U.S., about 10,000 needed additional screening as of Friday," NBC News reported, citing two sources familiar with evacuation efforts. "And of those about 100 were flagged for possible ties to the Taliban or terror groups." The report stated that two of the flagged Afghans "raised enough concern for additional review" and are being sent to Kosovo for further review amid security concerns."

 One hundred Afghan evacuees flagged for possible terror ties: report | Fox News

Time to turn to therapeutics and get rid of the politics

Almost 5 million people have died in this pandemic world wide, and all are using the same control methods--masks, hand washing, social distancing, business and school closings and vaccines. Perhaps it's time to focus more on therapeutics, and stop shutting down suggestions of treatment, especially early and preventive. It is going to be with us for years and will continue to evolve. We've lost the war, let's not give up the fight by allowing Big Tech, Big Pharma and the Democrat Party to destroy our lives while they pretend to be "saving" us.

I'm no longer elderly, I'm an older adult

 English is flexible and has more words than any other European language. Remember, "The sun never sets on the Union Jack," and the Brits borrowed a lot of words from those they conquered. But government and academe make speech and writing very difficult between going woke and demanding political correctness, plus the old words don't really go away. We still have "handicapped parking" instead of "differently abled parking."  In the 1970s when we visited the Ohio Penitentiary (a term invented by Quakers for penance and reflection about crimes) with our church group we were told that "convict" or "ex-con" or "inmate" were not acceptable. And I'm sure no matter what was OK then, it isn't now.

The CDC doesn't just tackle diseases any more, it polices our language. The trend of adding Person with/of, and twisting words and phrases to say something unpopular less directly, is being carried to the extreme. In 21st century English we must be reminded that everyone is a person (except an unborn child) and groups of persons are people or communities. This has the effect of returning English quickly to its Germanic roots--5-10 words to say something that could be accomplished by adding a prefix or suffix or a simple adjective to a noun. So that garbled phrase must then be shortened to an acronym. Like BIPOC--Black, Indigenous and People of Color, a phrase that includes many who aren't any of those.

Today sexually undecided people don't have "reassignment surgery," but instead it's "affirmation surgery" or "confirmation surgery" or "gender congruence surgery." (And if done on children, I call it sexual abuse, but that's another essay.) Just when I was getting used to being elderly or a senior, I'm now just an "older adult," which is what I'd been calling anyone over 50!

You may no longer be a smoker (wasn't that easy?), but a "person who smokes."

CDC's 'woke' new language guide proposes replacing 'dehumanizing' words like ELDERLY  | Daily Mail Online

It's OK to be angry

It’s Okay to be Angry says Dutch Sheets

"I do not think it appropriate today to release a post that ignores the events of the past couple of weeks. Like many of you, my emotions are pretty raw. Though my faith is strong, still, I’m a mix of anger, grief, sadness, shame, and embarrassment. Faith and hope do not insulate against grief, nor do they demand denial.

I’m angry that my nation is led by weak, unprincipled liars.
I’m angry that the innocent have and will suffer - mercilessly.
I’m angry that brave young women and men pay for the stupidity, arrogance, and selfish ambition of spineless bureaucrats, lying politicians, senile puppets, and woke, incompetent, military leaders.

I grieve, realizing the horror experienced by 80-year-old Americans in Afghanistan who were heartlessly abandoned by their government.
I grieve over mothers and small children beaten by demonized animals as they tried to get to the Kabul airport.
I grieve over busloads of them who were stopped and turned away by the “new and different” Taliban.
I grieve for the pregnant woman kicked in her stomach for trying to flee from our government’s “trusted” new partners.
I grieve over those who made it to the airport gates only to be turned away by our “honorable” military leaders.
I grieve for the 13 young Americans and their families who needlessly lost their lives, as well as for the 150 or so innocent Afghans who were blown to pieces.

I am saddened by all of the above.
I am saddened because I know the suffering isn’t over.
I am saddened because I know none of it was necessary.
And I am saddened that some of my brothers and sisters will be martyred.

I am ashamed and embarrassed for my country.
I am ashamed because we have unprincipled leaders.
I am embarrassed that Americans would give a senile, incompetent liar the most powerful position in the world.
I am embarrassed as our shameless government and military leaders, those responsible for all of this, pat themselves on the back with disgusting self-adulation and sycophancy while the torture and beheadings begin. (We’re not surprised that a nation with our wealth, resources, and a military as dedicated and well-trained as ours can evacuate as many people as they did from Afghanistan in 2 weeks. Stop back-slapping yourselves over this. We’re surprised that you wouldn’t allow this well-trained force to go outside the walls and get the rest! And that you took orders from terrorists.)
I am ashamed and embarrassed that we turned our backs on friends, fellow warriors (then called them cowards), allies, and helpless women and children.
I am embarrassed that many of our leaders who wept and ran in fear on January 6th while their desks were overturned and windows broken - and won’t stop talking about it - can smile and boast as they talk about Afghanistan.

Having dumped my all-too-human emotion on you, I want to leave you with a dose of faith and hope...because I still believe! It is imperative that we not give up or grow cynical. Go ahead and grieve - just as I am - but get up and march on! Use the anger; don’t let it use you. We WILL win.

I believe God is good and will infuse redemption into this evil.
I believe principalities are being judged and will be dislodged by Christ and His church.
I believe many Afghans will turn from Islam and to Christ because of the tragic suffering.
I believe this will spread to other people and nations in the region. I believe the Arab World, the Middle East, and other Muslim nations will receive an earth-shaking revival.
I believe America, too, will experience revival.
I believe the EKKLESIA will accomplish everything Jesus said she would accomplish.
I believe the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

2 Corinthians 4:7-9 says, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels so that the extraordinary greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” (NASB)

“We are like common clay jars that carry this glorious treasure within so that this immeasurable power will be seen as God’s, not ours. Though we experience every kind of pressure, we’re not crushed. At times we don’t know what to do, but quitting is not an option. We are persecuted by others, but God has not forsaken us. We may be knocked down, but not out.” (TPT)

Pray with me:

Father, once again we appeal to You for mercy. We are not asking for what we deserve, we are asking for Your lovingkindness and mercy, which You love to bestow. We plead the precious blood of Jesus over America, asking You to forgive her and restore her fully to your ways and precepts. Revive us; give us Your mercy.

We also ask You for a wind of Your Spirit to blow all across the earth. We ask for this wind to destroy Your enemies and redeem those who are willing to respond to You. Rescue billions of people from sin and darkness. We ask for dreams and visions to be given to those who don’t know You. We ask that angels be sent to show them the truth about Jesus and who He really is. We ask for Jesus to literally appear to many, also.

And we pray for the precious people of Afghanistan. We pray for comfort, deliverance, protection, salvation, and the breaking of the hold of this evil regime. Work miracles to reverse what has occurred there. And for those who are relocated to other nations, may they find Jesus there. We pray these things in Christ’s name. Amen.

Our decree:

We decree that great revival is coming to the people of Afghanistan, and to many others in the Muslim world."

Dutch Sheets, September 1, 2021, Facebook

Guest Blogger, Jeffrey Verasano

Covid is here on Earth to stay. The vaccine may have partially succeeded in reducing morbidity but it has failed at any dream of eradicating the virus like we eradicated smallpox. Delta is partially outside its reach, it doesn't last that long, jabbed people can still transmit, etc. Herd immunity was estimated to be 70% -80% with the alpha variant but with Delta, it's essentially 100%. We have nothing else in the pipeline that can resurrect the idea of herd immunity.

Herd immunity can be put aside as a strategy. It will not happen. 36% of Americans according to the CDC already had covid by May 31st 2021, so it's at least 40% today. All of the remaining ones will encounter the virus just like we all get colds and flu.

You can stop blaming your neighbor because you can get it from someone who is vaccinated and masked. You will get it and it doesn't matter who you get it from. Therefore lockdowns, masks and vaccine passports are essentially pointless. At best they delay the inevitable. And they do so at the price of creating social discord, depression, continued recession, and empowering power-hungry bureaucrats.
Focus on your own health, your weight, your immune strength, take whatever prophylactics you want such as vaccines, ivermectin, vitamin d, etc. These are all about of equal effectiveness. The vaccine is no more so than the others.

The Art of War, Joe Biden's version

 

Visiting Phil's tree in the Memorial Garden

 Several mornings this summer I've walked from our cottage to the Lakeside memorial garden (Chautauqua Park) where our son Phil was interred last August.  He died in April 2020 after a brief battle with glioblastoma which had been found on October 1, 2019 after he had two seizures. I do that for a destination when I walk--it is beautiful, quiet and peaceful with park benches and fountains. I decided to call it Phil's tree, since there is no real grave.  It's a young Oak, surrounded with dwarf Iris, and five magnolia bushes behind the tree. Today I noticed there is a path into the woods to the north that I'd never seen before, so I went from stone and man made memorials, to the deep quiet and the dampness and smells of a forest, almost as dark as dusk although the sun was shining. There were several trails, but I eventually came out at another spot by the shelter where services are held. 

  

 

 

First world problems on a hot Sunday

 The neighbors have invited my husband for a sailboat ride, and now it's starting to thunder.

I told another neighbor I saw his daughter waiting tables at the Patio this morning.  Staffing is so light the "alumni" wait staff from years ago have been called in.  He told me she isn't his daughter, but was friends with his daughter and everyone makes that mistake.

My husband rarely complains about a sermon, but today we had a sweet young thing in her second church and third pregnancy.  It wasn't a bad sermon, but for people in our 80s, it was completely irrelevant.  We're finding that a lot these days.  "How to do it good" sermons and articles just have lost their appeal.

Speaking of that service, Michael Shirtz did a lovely, jazzy contemporary (his own, I think) arrangement of C. Austin Miles' "I come to the garden alone."  We don't hear it much these days, but early in the 20th century it was either loved or hated.  Adeline Jasper sang it at my grandmother's funeral in 1963, not knowing that my grandmother was one of the haters (according to my mother).  She considered it too shmaltzy and danceable for church--as did many others.  But it was a very popular hymn in those days.

Last night's program at the gazebo was breathlessly hot, both in weather and music.  The terrifically talented Chozen-Few from Cleveand played Motown, reggae, pop, jazz, blues and mostly 80s, so the gen-x grannies and over the hill boomers were getting up to dance to prove they've still got the moves. The squirrels in the tall trees surrounding the gazebo were going crazy jumping from limb to limb.  After 1.5 hours we left, and found out today it went on another 30 minutes.  We missed the sunset.

I left my beach towel at the Patio Restaurant this morning--I'd used it to cushion the hard bench in the park at morning worship. So I had to walk back in the heat to retrieve it.

On my way to the store, my neighbor on Oak handed me a sack of homegrown tomatoes while packing up his truck to go back to Dayton.  When I got them home I put two in the sun to ripen a bit.  Now it is cloudy and the sun has disappeared.  Wondering, is it too early for Ida to hit Ohio?  Ike (2008) did a few years back and in Columbus many neighborhoods were without power for days. 

Nap time is beginning earlier and earlier.  Today it was 11 a.m.

A terrible embarrassment--Joe Biden

If Biden had followed President Trump's withdrawal plan, which just about everyone wanted, lives and his own reputation could have been saved. As it is, he's claiming his disaster was Trump's. Ridiculous! He didn't follow ANYTHING Trump had negotiated. It's beginning to look like Biden's handlers (whoever they are, Obama? Susan Rice?) deliberately did this to destroy not only Biden's reputation and install Harris, but to also malign Trump and weaken our nation for China to pick the bones and grab the booty.

Now the military has an excuse to stay and fight again--something most of us didn't want. Biden has threatened the killers with strong words. Big Whoop. Democrats own this. These are the people who impeach for a phone call to another head of state, and yet can stand and stare at a real crime--13 Americans and 95 Afghans dead--and not have a clue. Their only regret is they might loose the 2022 elections.

 
Biden was never the "seasoned" diplomat and voice of reason that the media portrayed in 2020, or an antidote to Trump's tweets to clean out the cesspool. However, the shell of a man we saw in that press conference yesterday can only arouse pity. For him and us.

Biden voters, this is on you!

"For four years, we had a president who, over the course of a single term, managed to undo a great deal of the mischief wrought, and a great many of the mistakes made, by his recent predecessors. Trump revived America’s economy, shored up Americans’ individual liberties, forged several remarkable peace agreements, and greatly strengthened our international position — thus firmly checking the ambitions of our powerful adversaries. 

But, Biden voters, he had a personality that rubbed you the wrong way. He wrote nasty tweets. In the language of TV production, he was too “hot.” You wanted “cool.” The Democrats put up a candidate who was plainly in mental decline. It was obvious every time he spoke. But you didn’t pay terribly close attention to his speeches. The sources from which you get your “news” carefully clipped out all of the bits of his appearances in which his befuddlement was manifest. If you heard someone speak out about his senility, you dismissed the charges out of hand." 

The news media, particularly MSNBC and CNN filtered, edited and snipped the worst of Biden, but you knew, you all knew. They were really covering for you, the Biden Voter. You never even found out about Trump's wonderful successes, but you could see what you were electing. And you were so arrogant about your fellow Americans. Calling us white supremacists if we wanted safe borders, or Nazis if we believe biology, and God forbid, we might listen to or watch a video about saving people sick from Covid. 

Biden Voters. This is on you. https://amgreatness.com/2021/08/24/hey-biden-voters/

Update:  12 U.S. military just killed in a suicide bombing at the airport. 

Bug-out Biden

"At this point, we are left with two questions: Why did Biden do it? And what will happen next? The answer to the first is that, for all his years in government, Biden, unlike Petraeus, has no idea how to take advice. Strong leaders appoint chief lieutenants who know more than they do about a particular area of competence. A good leader takes input from all circles, engages in collaborative discussions, and forms a consensus before reaching a decision. Biden, in his haste to pull out early, showed no willingness to do anything of the sort.

 
And why? Political reasons. For Biden, the prospect of leaving twenty years to the day after 9/11/2001 was perceived to be a coup for the majority of Americans who wanted out, so much so that the public’s short-term memory would overlook the multiple human tragedies occurring nearly fifteen months before the November 2022 congressional elections. "

https://www.hoover.org/research/dire-consequences-afghanistan?

We had a brass duet program in the park--a French horn and Trumpet, husband and wife from the Toledo symphony.  During a Q. & A.  one man in the audience stood up and said in a teary voice,  "I'm so distraught about what is happening in Afghanistan, I wonder if you could play the Star Spangled Banner for our brave troops."  So she did.  It was beautiful.. . and sad.

We will miss Pastor Brodie at UALC

His message: "On Sunday the good people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church in San Diego, CA voted to call me to come and serve as their pastor. I am so honored to have this opportunity and so grateful to Upper Arlington Lutheran Church for the privilege of serving there these last 16 years. My last Sunday at UALC will be September 12 and my first Sunday at STLC will be September 19. Please pray for our family as we begin a season of great change!"

Clean up after Joe Biden--Cartoon

 

The hollow man, Joe Biden

   

Joe Biden Unfit to Lead Nation | National Review

Beltway and Democrat followers of WaPo and Biden

The ignorance and banality I read in the Washington Post comments about Afghanistan and what Biden has done makes me fear for our country. I get the feed on Facebook and see the responses. Let's review.

 
1) Trump had a plan. . .wasn't great, but no one since 2003 had a better one. It was to bring the Taliban to the table and THEN withdraw leaving no military treasure, no Americans and no allies behind. Trump knew Taliban couldn't be trusted to keep the agreement and also committed to blow them to smithereens if they defaulted.

 
2) Biden did the opposite claiming it was all Trump's plan, and therefore his fault. In July Biden said it would be no Saigon--what he gave us was worse, so I suppose he delivered. Biden GAVE the Taliban the whole TABLE.

3) The country, the military, the air force the Taliban didn't have and Billions and Billions of armaments so they can control the middle east including Israel which all Muslims, particularly the fundamentalists wish to destroy were a gift from Biden.

4) Washington Post (mostly the beltway and Democrats) loyalists are so naive and gullible. They've always been so critical of Trump supporters, and now look like toddlers in a race against seasoned Olympians. No Trump supporter, even those who stormed the capitol on January 6, would fall for this.

Duck and cover. Washington Post Biden coverage

Here's how Washington Post describes Biden's Afghanistan fiasco: "The president embraces a cautious worldview that prizes alliances but also narrows the aperture of American influence, with greater attention on domestic concerns." Huh? This isn't just a lap dog media; it's a lap up dog excrement media.

A rose by any other name. . . guest blogger

To the people who want to claim CRT is not being taught in schools: I was a Social Justice mouthpiece for 20 years. A true believer. I’m not some noob you can speak lies to and intimidate. I’ve seen you talk down to parents, condescend to them, bully them, use pseudo-intellectual jargon to tell them they don’t know what they’re talking about. All the academic jargon in the world can’t cover the fact that teaching kids to judge and treat one another differently on the basis of race is wrong.

 The only reason y’all are running scared from CRT now is because the pushback on it has been effective. Same way y’all ran scared from SJW once enough people started correctly identifying it as something bad & racist, like they’re doing with CRT.

You can call it CRT, Intersectionality, Anti-Racism, Social Justice, DEI, and try to play a shell game based on public perception of the different terms but we are coming for ALL of them. There’s not one you can hide behind. So go ahead, call it DEI this time. I don’t care. It’s not actually about Diversity or Inclusion, though it is about Equity.

It’s racism, it’s vile and we will defeat it.

Keri Smith

Why do you still trust the Democrats?

The Democrats, led by Biden/Harris, are depicting Trump supporters as dangerous terrorists. In June they unveiled a 'national strategy for countering domestic terrorism,' i.e., blaming 80 million Trump supporters to keep your eye off the border crisis. Of course, this isn't new. Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters called us terrorists all during the 4 years Trump was trying to drain their swamp. 50% of American voters. Yet they are importing infected border crossers while asking us to mask up and lockdown, and they are abandoning our allies in Afghanistan. They are cooperating, even encouraging, Big Tech to shut us down. Donald Trump can’t use Twitter, but the Taliban can—even bragging about who they are killing and trying to recruit silly minded liberals to their cause. 

Biden's fossil fuel follly

Trump had us oil independent, and now Biden . . . well, you know what he's been doing with the Leftist anti-fossil fuel folk.

"OPEC and its allies, including Russia, believe oil markets do not need more oil than they plan to release in the coming months, despite U.S. pressure to add supplies to check an oil price rise, four sources told Reuters."

OPEC+ Sees No Need to Meet US Call for More (oedigital.com)

"Major U.S. oil industry groups on Monday sued the Biden administration for halting drilling auctions on federal lands and waters this year, arguing the government is required by law to hold regular sales." (Offshore Engineer)

Oil Industry Groups Sue Biden Administration over (oedigital.com)

Preacher of the Week

John Ed Mathison is our preacher of the week at Lakeside. Before retiring at 70, he was senior minister at Frazer Memorial UMC in Montgomery, AL for 36 years. It grew from 400 to 9,000. Now at 83 he has a busy schedule of training ministers and speaking at conferences. Today he mentioned something I know I'd heard before, but he said they surveyed 800 of their new members to find out how they got to the church. 92% were brought by a friend or neighbor. That's probably the case for most churches. https://johnedmathison.org/ He has a blog and a radio spot called "Got a minute" in which he shares his faith and humor for 58 seconds on secular stations.

How Biden defeats the vaccine

A person we care about is in the hospital with Covid.  He began feeling ill on Sunday and Monday night was having trouble breathing, so his wife called the squad.  He's tested positive for Covid, but until then, they had no idea this was the cause.  He's on oxygen, but not a ventilator as I understand it, although his wife can't see him. so we're not positive.  Yes, he and his wife were vaccinated in February.  However, he lives in  a border state where the Biden administration has been making it very easy to non-Americans to cross the border.  Yes, some may be sent back, but according to some reports 40% are testing positive.  Shame on Biden and his duplicity--telling Americans to get vaccinated while shipping in the virus along with the drugs, crime and prostitution. 

Table for two, posted on FB as Ted Nugent

Hello.
Hi, table for two, please.
Sure, and your name.
Jessie.
Great. And do you and your guest have your vaccination cards?
We do. Can you tell us who our server will be?
Um, looks like Brad will be your server tonight.
Great. Can you show us Brad's vaccination card?
Um...
And also, can you provide me with proof that Brad is not a carrier of HIV, Hepatitis A or B, or any other communicable diseases?
Um...
Also, we would prefer not to be served by someone who is on or uses recreational drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, meth, fentanyl, etc, so if you could provide us with Brad's most recent tox screen, that would be great.
Um... Let me get the manager for you.
That would be great, thanks.

Why do we give?

Six years ago I wrote this thought about giving, alms, charity, and mercy and the long term benefits.

"I read the Columbus Catholic Times, a hand off from a family friend. I'm learning a lot. Just this week I noticed a difference in how Catholics and Protestants use the concept of giving. Catholics suggest "works of mercy" or "works of charity," and Protestants say we will change poverty, schooling, politics, the environment, etc. if we just chip in $10 for the food pantry, or a backpack for Highland school child, or cleaning up a town after a flood or tornado. There's a huge difference. We are to give because Jesus gave first, not because we will end poverty (we won't) or make up for the terrible home of a child (we can't). According to Matt. 25, we will meet Jesus in those acts of kindness and service, so we do them without expecting the reward of change. Meeting Jesus is the reward."

Texas takes stand on sexual abuse of children through surgery

One should be an adult before choosing for no medical reason a double mastectomy or penectomy with castration and a lifetime on toxic hormones. In fact, I can't even show you a video of the procedure without first declaring my age to some faceless guard at YouTube! I think the medical team and parents colluding on this should lose their license to practice medicine and to parent. The trans agenda can't even agree on terms--it's no longer a sex change, it's not even sex reassignment, it's gender affirmation. How's that for lipstick on a pig.

Texas determines sex-change surgery for minors is child abuse - TheBlaze

ABA (American Booksellers Association) which is even more liberal than ALA (American Library Association) has profusely apologized for outraging its members by sending out "Irreversible Damage," by Abigail Shrier, an extremely well researched and sensible book which includes the premise that there is a social contagion effect of young girls rushing into invasive transition surgeries and medical interventions for gender dysphoria that they are likely to regret later. Listen up sensible people--there is no honor, no common sense, no tolerance for the truth and certainly no freedom of thought, speech or religion on the Left. 

Just say NO to idiocy.

After Trans Activists Try To Ban Book, It Becomes A Bestseller (thefederalist.com)

My walking routine--no rain today

No one has ever accused me of being an athlete, but I do walk 2 miles every morning along the lake front and maybe another 2-3 miles during the day. Or maybe it's a stroll. However, this morning on my walk I fell in step with a younger woman, about 65 maybe, and she was really stepping. I changed my pace because we live on the same street and it seemed rude to fall down on a park bench to catch my breath. I barely made it to my front porch before I collapsed.

Ike warned us in 1961

When Democrats like Pelosi or Schumer piously mouth the words, "Our Democracy," it's not because they are patriots who are in awe of American exceptionalism or America the leader of the free world. No. They really mean "Our Oligarchy." They definitely don't mean Conservatives, Republicans or Libertarians. Ike warned us about government leaders like them 60 years ago--and at the time I thought only of the military, not being able to see our future relationship and a McCarthy-like control by leftists in Congress and Big Tech, which is bigger and more powerful than the military was in the 1960s. But his warning about government married to private business holds. Corporate power now pulls the strings of government, intent on "transforming" (destroying) our Republic.  When Big Tech has the power to shut down the President of the United States, The Commander in Chief of the military, then it's more powerful than the President or the military. Interpretation: Commander in Chief Clause | The National Constitution Center

 
"President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had come to understand large organizations that feed on government power and dispense vast private benefits, was not shy in warning about the danger they pose to the republic. His warning about the “military-industrial complex” that he knew so well is often misunderstood as a mere caution against militarism. But Ike was making a broader point: Amalgams of public and private power tend to prioritize their corporate interests over the country’s.

That is why Eisenhower cautioned against the power of government-funded expertise. “The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever-present and is gravely to be regarded,” he said, because “public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.” Government money can accredit a self-regarding elite. Because “a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity,” government experts can end up substituting their power for truth. " (We the People Convention) America is now a Classic Oligarchy - Not a Republic! | We the People Convention | wethepeopleconvention.org

  

  

From The Nation, 

August rain showers

 This morning I started out on my 2 mile walk (sort of a loop, and I'm probably exaggerating).  I stopped at a near-by "little library" and selected a book, "Nutribullet. Life changing recipes."  They lie.  I have one and it didn't change my life.  I went back and dropped it on our front porch rather than walk with it, then headed south to Fourth Street.  I'd gone about 3 blocks (stopping at another little library) when I felt a few sprinkles.  So I turned around and walked about a block to the Idlewylde Bed and Breakfast and sat on the porch for awhile.  When it stopped, I decided to go north along the lake, dawdled a while in the Walnut Street business district, and headed for the dock.  The sky over Kelley's Island was purple.  I thought that meant the rain had gone north over the lake.  No.  I waited at the pavilion for the storm to pass along with 3 fishermen and a dog walker I see every morning.

The Lakeside mission is to enrich the quality of life for all people, to foster traditional Christian values and nurture relationships through opportunities for renewal and growth which we call the four pillars--spiritual, intellectual, cultural and physical--while preserving Lakeside's heritage.  For almost 150 years (established as a campground in 1873) Lakeside has welcomed all ages to its beautiful grounds on the shore of Lake Erie, west of Cleveland and east of Toledo, and two and half hours from our home in Columbus. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Paces. Our little town has more than 900 private cottages which we own (lease) with 99 year leases. The non-profit organization, officially called "Lakeside Association" owns more than 50 structures, four major parks, and a large waterfront area for recreational water sports and fishing. There are cottages for rent, bed and breakfasts for brief stays, two hotels, and a campground for seasonal or overnight stays. Our little town is supported in part by assessing the cottage owners and through gate fees for all who enter from approximately Memorial Day to Labor Day. This way all who enter are able to enjoy our many recreational and educational events at the lakefront, the playgrounds and parks, the pool and wellness center, tennis courts, pickleball and shuffleboard courts, education and religious programs and lectures, entertainment in Hoover Auditorium by name performers and local groups, the Steele Memorial Bandstand in the park, and our wonderful Rhein Center for the Living Arts and the beautiful lakefront pavilion (built in 1909 and rebuilt in 1988) for enjoying sunsets and sunrises, concerts and worship. Most of the businesses in Lakeside are seasonal and include restaurants, a real estate and rental office, dress and gift shops, a wonderful book store, ice cream, coffee and carry out spots, and a beauty shop. There are many active organizations and volunteers that support the community from art teachers, to shuttle drivers, to garden helpers, to ushers and greeters. We also have a museum and archives to keep us grounded in our history.  

Our first summer at Lakeside was 1974 when our children, Phoebe and Phil, were 6 and 5 years old. We rented various cottages near the lake until 1988 when we purchased a small, year round house built in 1944 surrounded by wonderful neighbors from around the country. We went from one week rentals, to two weeks, to partial summer to full season Lakesiders after we retired over a 47 year period. Lakeside and the near-by Marblehead Lighthouse have presented many opportunities for subjects to paint as well as a place to teach at the Rhein Center for the Living Arts. 

El Paso, surviving a tragedy

One of the most unfortunate outcomes of the pandemic and lockdown is the division, even hatred, it has generated in our country, churches, and relationships--politically, spiritually, and physically. I appreciated this blog by Carrie Bucalo, who wrote about how El Paso came together to pray and work to heal after a shooting on August 3, 2019 that killed 23 at a Walmart wreaked havoc on the community. I scrolled through about 20-30 articles (mainly on the 2nd anniversary of the tragedy) and found only the usual ramping up of hate, alarm, anger, pleas for more gun control laws, and blame from NYT, LAT, NPR, CNN, and local news. The "never waste a crisis" usual suspects. I didn't browse FB, Twitter or the other cesspools of hate on the internet. It's as though the media can't be sated; it must have more blood to meet the budget and needs of stockholders.

Jesus has a different way.

CITY OF FAITH
by Carrie Bucalo

"There are many things that can weigh a marriage and a family down, but nothing could have prepared us for the day a gunman showed up at our local Walmart and wreaked havoc on our El Paso community. It was our eldest son's birthday, and a miracle, really, that we weren't in that store buying a present the morning the shootings occurred.

Immediately, my husband and I called everyone we knew, and we received phone calls from worried family members and friends all around the world [she's a military wife]. My heart sank when I saw my children's school on national television. It had become the reunification center for all those misplaced by the tragedy. We watched the story unfold from our living room as our school's principal, counselors, and staff worked behind the scenes, attending to the needs of survivors, all the while preparing for the first day of school, just nine days away.

We prayed for the survivors and the victims at Mass the next day, and we attended a city-led prayer vigil. It was amazing to see a city come together like that, and even more amazing to see the smiling faces of our school's principal and teachers on the first day of school. Against all odds, they were there with open arms and open hearts to welcome everyone back. My family is deeply grateful for all of those mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers who didn't let hate paralyze their faith. Their witness is still moving mountains today." Articles (healedbytruth.com)

Using aborted baby parts in medical research

Can you really trust science and scientists? Recent revelations by the Center for Medical Progress show how scientists used scalps from aborted babies to create “humanized” mice and rats to study the human immune system. BREAKING: University of Pittsburgh ADMITS Hearts Beating While Harvesting Aborted Infants’ Kidneys – The Center for Medical Progress I looked through the NIH forms for the grants to use baby parts for medical research and wondered about the long chain of experts, from language to enumeration to composing the agreements between NIH and University of Pittsburgh (and I'm sure many others). If I read this correctly, there is great care in assuring that the lab animals received "humane" care. Too bad the babies didn't.

Government-Funded Researchers Sought Aborted Minorities for Organ Harvesting (freebeacon.com)

NIH reverses Trump-era restrictions on fetal-tissue research (nature.com)

Scientists are Growing Aborted Baby Hair on Lab Rats - The DENISE SIMON EXPERIENCE (founderscode.com)

Here's what it reads like in medical, sanitized, safe jargon (I've removed the footnote numbers, but those lead you to other studies): "Humanized mouse models with human fetal-derived hematopoietic system and autologous lymphoid tissues are well-established. Additionally, full-thickness human fetal skin readily engrafts onto immunodeficient mice and develops into adult-like skin due to its high regenerative capability. Furthermore, human fetal skin exhibits low levels of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) I and II expression, which results in reduced immunogenicity compared to adult skin. Thus, human fetal-derived tissues and cells provide a feasible means to develop a humanized mouse model with autologous human skin and immune system."

For longer term studies, rats are used: "Evidence also suggests that nude rats support engraftment and development of full-thickness neonatal foreskin." https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-71548-z

Fixing little leaks

I cut and pasted this from Joan Shaw Turrentine's post and she got it from the Facebook page “Christians Laughing.”

 
A man was asked to paint a boat. He brought his paint and brushes and began to paint the boat a bright red, as the owner asked him.

While painting, he noticed a small hole in the hull, and quietly repaired it.

When he finished painting, he received his money and left.

The next day, the owner of the boat came to the painter and presented him with a nice check, much higher than the payment for painting.

The painter was surprised and said “You've already paid me for painting the boat Sir!”

“But this is not for the paint job. It's for repairing the hole in the boat.”

“Ah! But it was such a small service... certainly it's not worth paying me such a high amount for something so insignificant.”

“My dear friend, you do not understand. Let me tell you what happened:

“When I asked you to paint the boat, I forgot to mention the hole.

“When the boat dried, my kids took the boat and went on a fishing trip.

“They did not know that there was a hole. I was not at home at that time.

“When I returned and noticed they had taken the boat, I was desperate because I remembered that the boat had a hole.

“Imagine my relief and joy when I saw them returning from fishing.

“Then, I examined the boat and found that you had repaired the hole!

“You see, now, what you did? You saved the life of my children! I do not have enough money to pay your 'small' good deed.”

So no matter who, when or how, continue to help, sustain, wipe tears, listen attentively, and carefully repair all the 'leaks' you find. You never know when one is in need of us, or when God holds a pleasant surprise for us to be helpful and important to someone.

Along the way, you may have repaired numerous 'boat holes' for several people without realizing how many lives you've save. 

Make a difference....be the best you can be ...

Have a blessed day

Judging polices on intentions rather than results

We have so many "feel good" policies that drain us dry, and should be a warning, but our leaders never learn, and perhaps the citizen-voters don't either. Virtually every transfer of wealth program in the War on Poverty failed a the macro level, and struggled at the micro. Like Head Start. The government's own studies at year 50 showed almost no advantaged for the thousands invested in each child. But it feels good, hope never dies, and the program will continue to be a bloated, over-sold, under achieving with good intentions so you can get back to your nice life. These programs make politicians wealthy, they get them reelected. These programs provide millions of jobs for the middle class bureaucrats and their staff who run them, from the grant writers, to suppliers and operators, to social workers to the low income who are hired in to staff them.

This article is 22 years old--but not much has changed. https://fee.org/articles/why-the-war-on-poverty-failed/

I remember the Harrington book that launched LBJ's war. I was so excited we could end poverty in my life time. However, the standard for poverty simply went up to accommodate a perpetual lower class. Then we went to "gap" instead of material wealth. Or looked at ZIP codes. Then we judged all by race, color and ethnicity, not actual need. And in all the administrations since LBJ, only the Trump years made an actual, real dent and improved the lives of millions without robbing Peter to pay Paul. And that was just too scary for leaders of both parties--loss of power, sound the alarms!

The War on Poverty: 50 years of failure | The Heritage Foundation

The War on Poverty After 50 Years | The Heritage Foundation

Homelessness in America: An Overview | The Heritage Foundation

"The welfare state is self-perpetuating. By undermining the social norms necessary for self-reliance, welfare creates a need for even greater assistance in the future. President Obama plans (2014) to spend $13 trillion over the next decade on welfare programs that will discourage work, penalize marriage and undermine self-sufficiency."

And scholars will always disagree. The Accomplishments and Lessons of the War on Poverty | Scholars Strategy Network

Where are the workers?

Yet still Joe Biden pretends he needs to "save" Trump's booming economy with inflationary government goosing.

NFIB Chief Economist William Dunkelberg reports: [From the Wall St. Journal]

Small businesses continue to struggle to find workers to fill open positions. Forty-nine percent (seasonally adjusted) of all owners reported job openings they could not fill in the current period, up 3 points from June and a record high reading. Unfilled job openings have remained far above the 48-year historical average of 22 percent.

Overall, 61 percent reported hiring or trying to hire in July, down 2 points from June. The issue will be whether the supply of labor will cooperate. Owners’ plans to fill open positions remain at high levels, with a seasonally adjusted net 27 percent planning to create new jobs in the next three months, down 1 point from June’s record high reading.

Operating almost like a law of physics, a labor shortage naturally and reliably motivates employers to increase the incentive for employees and potential employees to show up for work. Mr. Dunkelberg reports:

Seasonally adjusted, a net 38 percent reported raising compensation, down 1 point from June’s record high of 39 percent. A net 27 percent plan to raise compensation in the next three months, up 1 point from June and a 48-year record high reading. There is little an owner can do to attract needed employees other than offer higher compensation."  Where Are the Workers? - WSJ

Wall St. Journal, "Where are the workers?" Aug. 5, 2021

Global Economic Intersection Blog | June 2021 Small Business Optimism: Labor Shortage Remains a Challenge for Small Businesses as Inflation Increases | Talkmarkets

Jobs Report and Jobs Data from the NFIB Small Business Research Center | NFIB

TB vaccine is 100 years old--and it's not 100%; and flu season is coming

 Although we have the BCG vaccine for TB, it isn't 100% and other public health measures are necessary to control the disease. Killing nearly 1.5 million people in 2019, it stood as the leading global cause of death from an infectious pathogen, according to the World Health Organization. Do not expect the Covid vaccine to be perfect or 100%.

 Bile and Potatoes, 1921 | The Scientist Magazine® (the-scientist.com)

Although masks don't provide much protection against Covid19, they really help during flu season. I plan to mask up for that. And the flu will probably be baaaack with a vengeance this fall and winter.
"In the United States alone, influenza viruses cause hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and tens of thousands of fatalities each year. During the pandemic, however, a drastic change occurred: there was a precipitous drop in infections with influenza and other respiratory viruses—and in some parts of the world, some of these pathogens are nowhere to be found.

. . . Mask wearing, social distancing, and other restrictions implemented to stave off SARS-CoV-2 are thought to be the primary culprits in the decline in other respiratory pathogens in circulation. As such measures are lifted, though, scientists are expecting the missing viruses to return—and are pondering what will happen when that occurs. " The Pandemic Crushed the Flu--What Happens When It Returns? | The Scientist Magazine® (the-scientist.com)

Who controls the information that is supporting your beliefs and values?

There are many ways to interpret statistics for this lockdown, and this is just one of them--Case Fatality Rate--CFR. It is the political slant of the writer which determines which is selected. I'm a conservative Christian, so CFR supports many of my points. The Case Fatality Rate for the seasonal flu is about .1% to .2%.  That's higher than the CFR for Covid19.  By age, Covid19 looks very bad, unless you realize many or even most, of the people who were/are most at risk (in China it is 20%) are not in the labor force, and not in school. So why were the schools and the economy shut down?⁠

Most of the fatalities had co-morbidities. So why was the health system which managed those diseases for us put in peril? See the other methods at Ourworldindata.org to find the figures that match your level of fear and anxiety, your politics and your list to the left or right so you can be better informed than the Facebook and Google fact checkers and the Washington Post.
⁠
I'm a retired academic librarian (Slavic studies, Latin American studies, agriculture, veterinary medicine over the course of 25 years) and although I've forgotten a lot, I do remember well that to the victor belong the archives. Whoever controls the information controls what you are allowed to know, even in your public library. And keep in mind that public librarians are 223:1, liberal to conservative, higher than the ACLU.   And right now, that is Big Tech. If they can shut down the most powerful man on the globe, the President of the United States, imagine how they can crush us!

Note: Case fatality rate, also called case fatality risk or case fatality ratio, in epidemiology, the proportion of people who die from a specified disease among all individuals diagnosed with the disease over a certain period of time. Case fatality rate typically is used as a measure of disease severity and is often used for prognosis (predicting disease course or outcome), where comparatively high rates are indicative of relatively poor outcomes. It also can be used to evaluate the effect of new treatments, with measures decreasing as treatments improve. Case fatality rates are not constant; they can vary between populations and over time, depending on the interplay between the causative agent of disease, the host, and the environment as well as available treatments and quality of patient care.

Case fatality rate is calculated by dividing the number of deaths from a specified disease over a defined period of time by the number of individuals diagnosed with the disease during that time; the resulting ratio is then multiplied by 100 to yield a percentage. This calculation differs from that used for mortality rate, another measure of death for a given population. Although number of deaths serves as the numerator for both measures, mortality rate is calculated by dividing the number of deaths by the population at risk during a certain time frame. As a true rate, it estimates the risk of dying of a certain disease. Hence, the two measures provide different information. (Britannica)