Don't do what I did. Don't second guess the strange sensation you don't recognize. You aren't a doctor. Just call the squad and let them take you to the Emergency Room at the nearest hospital. It's sure better than waiting in line with all the other sick or injured people for 2 hours. After I made it through the ER (and had a second episode while waiting for a room) I was put in a room and was asked my name and birthday maybe 10 times and looked at fingers, touched my nose and pressed against hands to see my strength. Since it was the day after my birthday, I got many birthday wishes.
I had 2 CT of head/brain without contrast; a CT Angiogram; MRI brain without contrast; MRI brain with Contrast; echocardiogram complete with bubble study and an EKG 12-lead.
TIA Recovery, Tests & Diagnosis | What to Expect After Transient Ischemic Attack (healthgrades.com)
Imaging tests allow your doctor to look for blockages or damage to your brain, carotid arteries (the arteries in your neck that bring blood to your brain), and your heart.
CT (computed tomography or CAT scan) uses special X-ray equipment and a computer program for a more detailed look at your brain and carotid arteries than an X-ray alone would show.
MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) provides a more specialized view of the brain using magnetic waves rather than radiation like X-rays.
Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) is similar to an MRI, but first the doctor injects a dye through an intravenous (IV) line. The doctor watches the dye’s movement on a screen as the dye moves through the blood vessels throughout your body including the brain. . . .
TIA Prognosis and Outcome
A TIA is a medical emergency not because if its symptoms, but because of what a TIA means. Having a TIA is a warning that something is wrong with your vascular system and you are at risk for stroke. Doctors use a risk score—the ABCD2 score—to determine your risk for stroke after TIA. The score takes into account the following:
A: Age: 1 point if you are older than 60 years
B: Blood pressure: 1 point if the systolic (upper) number is higher than 140 or the diastolic (lower) number is higher than 90
C: Clinical features: 1 point if your speech was affected but you don’t have any weakness; 2 points if you have weakness, with or without speech difficulties
D: Duration: 1 point if the duration of the TIA was between 10 to 59 minutes; 2 points if it has been 60 minutes or longer
D: Diabetes: 1 point if you have diabetes
If you score a 6 or 7, there is an 8% risk of a stroke within 48 hours after the TIA. If you have a score of 4 or less, the risk is 1%. It’s important to keep in mind these percentages don’t mean you will have a stroke. They indicate your risk without treatment.
The definition of a TIA emphasizes that it is a transient, or temporary event. Therefore, TIA recovery occurs when the symptoms have gone away completely. If the symptoms do not go away, this is not a TIA, but a stroke.
She thinks she's living in the twilight zone
https://youtu.be/TQIL7bJ51mk?si=vV-uF1Eupab4qi4d
Young woman lists the craziness going on in our times.
Trump, Haitians and Springfield, Ohio
"In 2020, the last full year of the Trump administration,1,207 Haitians were apprehended at the U.S. southern border. Contrast that to the first eight months of 2021 under the Biden administration, when 47,255 Haitians were apprehended. These numbers are staggering and they're getting worse.
Presently, more than 211,000 Haitians have been approved for the Biden administration's Process for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans parole program (CHNV) and have been granted work permits. And under certain legal statuses, the CHNV program allows an immigrant who is already in the U.S. to potentially sponsor another immigrant." (Newsweek, Sept 13, 2024)
According to the Tampa Free Press the DHS is flying them to 50 airports so they are spread over every state. DHS documents say, "All individuals paroled into the United States are, by definition, inadmissible, including those paroled under the CHNV Processes." Florida, Texas, and Georgia are the top spots--Harris needs to turn them blue to create a one-party system so she can destroy the Constitution.
Yours is now a border town. Yours is now a sanctuary city. Your schools and hospitals need ESL teachers, translators and service providers who can speak French, Creole and Spanish. White men need not apply. Open your wallets America, Harris wants your money, your vote and your guns.
Thank you, President Trump, for calling attention to this travesty and taking abuse for the Biden/Harris administration's mishandling and their mistreatment of foreign-born labor trafficking and sex trafficking.
Tuesday, September 24, 2024
Summing up the recent news
Second, the Springfield dog and cat stories are being inflated by Democrats in hopes of discrediting Trump/Vance. Instead of asking why did Harris, the border czar, oversee 20-30,000 immigrants being resettled in a town of 58,000 in rural Ohio overrunning all housing, health and education services, they go for what would be horrifying for all the cat ladies. No compassion for the townspeople or the immigrants. Vance says he received calls from his constituents 2 years ago and npr says he didn't--so who is more reliable? When have the Democrats ever told the truth or the media done an investigation by sending someone in the field?
Third, Jerome Powell Federal Reserve Chairman announced a 50 basis point (50 BP) cut in the federal funds rate on Sept 18. I thought we were told by Biden/Harris campaign that everything in the economy was just wonderful and Americans had never had it so good? Sounds like buying votes to me.
Fourth, Iranian hackers sent Trump campaign information to the Harris campaign. That whizzed past us faster than the latest assassination attempt that has the fingerprints of the Katzenjammer Kids all over it.
Fifth, I was in the hospital with a brain bleed over the week-end and recovery includes reducing stress. I wish the Democrats would cooperate. FaceBook shadow bans me a lot, so you probably won't see this.
Thursday, September 19, 2024
What is wrong with AOC? The pagers.
What is wrong with AOC? Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) spoke out against Israel when the story about the pagers came out. No one even knew the origin. Now it is said it was a shell company that put that package together. Right now, Hezbollah is trying to kill Jews; but they are best known for killing Arabs and Muslims, just different sects. They are an army and a terrorist group. Two months ago they killed a dozen Druze kids on an Israeli soccer field. These are NOT nice people and their cult like mentality make them fearless.
"Hezbollah is a Shiite Muslim political party and militant group based in Lebanon, where its extensive security apparatus, political organization, and social services network have fostered its reputation as “a state within a state.” Founded in the chaos of the fifteen-year Lebanese Civil War, the Iran-backed group is driven by its opposition to Israel and its resistance to Western influence in the Middle East." (Council on Foreign Relations definition)
Right now, they are holding the people of Lebanon hostage. Until recently Lebanon was 40% Christian. Over 100,000 Israelis have had to flee their attacks since Oct. 7. Their agenda is murder and mayhem and they are a front/proxy for Iran. Why should AOC care about them? Fewer were killed or injured (it is said, 2800) than if they had to meet Israel on the battlefield or in the sky. AOC, if she loves them, should be thanking God for as little damage as possible while they have been taken out of the service of Satan. Instead of being afraid of MAGA grandmothers, AOC should be afraid of Iran.
Wednesday, September 18, 2024
The Swifties, do they vote? Teamsters probably do.
Routh and the Haitians and the Media
Tuesday, September 17, 2024
ABC and others--all Democrat all the time
Monday, September 16, 2024
Saying hello and good-bye at the public library
Prescott had a good story going, she's a fine writer, although the CIA is so creepy and the actual story of using a book to destabilize the USSR is true. But she then revealed she really wanted to write about lesbians. I finished the book, but wasn't interested in keeping it, so I gave it to a stranger.
The Democrat media blame Trump for Florida attempt on his life
Yet, a blind, deaf leftist media slavishly bowing to their party of hate continued their brand of virtuous outrage yesterday afternoon reporting the crime as Trump's fault and saying HE needs to tone down the rhetoric. I suppose they mean he shouldn't talk about taxes or inflation or foreign wars or abortion or the border or bringing back jobs to our country that fled to friendlier shores. Then they quickly move on to Springfield, OH and blame Vance for Biden's resettlement of 20-30,000 refugees swamping a small town of 60,000. Those calls to the city government have been recorded and are out there, but the media blame everyone but themselves.
Biden/Harris have made all the USA border states. Socialist equity. Only their families get guards and security gates. Sometimes I hear "how dumb do they think we are," but it should be "how long can they fool Democrats."
Routh said that he was in Ukraine originally to help fight but that ge was 56 years old and had no fighting experience and was subsequently turned down. He said he stayed in Kyiv afterward to promote projects to support the army.
"Plan B was to come here to Kyiv and promote getting more people here," Routh said in the interview. "You know, we need thousands and thousands and thousands of people here fighting with the Ukrainians."
Routh said the world was at a "critical juncture" in the war, which he called a struggle of good versus evil."
Sounds to me like he must have had some money and backing to fly to Europe, live there and without knowing the language or having military experience, he evangelized the war we Americans are paying for. And he was willing to die in order to stop Trump. That's some religion the leftists are preaching.
Friday, September 13, 2024
Springfield, Ohio and adjusting to a population increase
Let's take race and immigration status out of the mix. We have home grown Americans and Canadians who also expand in groups. Anabaptists--or more familiarly, The Amish. The Hutterites. The Mennonites. What if real estate scouts from 2 northern Indiana Amish counties decided to purchase land in central Ohio because their tradition of dividing property among their large families had become too difficult and they needed to spread out. How does an influx of maybe 15 Amish families with 6-10 children who own thousands of acres in a school district or taxing district and who have a different set of values about education or health, or technology impact a near-by small town of 5-10,000 Lutherans, Baptists and Catholics? Small Ohio cities are dealing with something like this when the government and its allies in the non-profit world move in and revise all the unspoken traditions of the community.
Thursday, September 12, 2024
Harris lied, Trump won the debate
"KFile, an investigative outfit at CNN, unearthed a document this week that provides several alarming insights into what the Democratic candidate might actually believe in, including taxpayer-funded sex changes for illegal aliens and federal prisoners, eliminating the Hyde Amendment, statehood for Washington, D.C., decriminalizing crack cocaine for personal use, and cutting Immigration and Customs Enforcement funding.
These revelations, contained within an American Civil Liberties Union questionnaire completed in 2019 by then-Sen. Kamala Harris (Calif.), have renewed concerns about the Democrat's radicalism and even managed to surprise CNN's Erin Burnett. " (The Blaze, Sept 10)
And ACLU has a Harris compilation--a roadmap--which it thinks will further its policies, yet warns about Project 2025 by Heritage Conservatives. Wow. Democrats. I didn't even want to download the document. Too scary for me. It's called "The Harris Memos Compilation."
Now Hugh Hewitt has reversed his opinion about the debate and says he thinks Trump won the debate.
https://youtu.be/HAtHUeH6lr0?si=qW5YnvzDZaI9BFMW
Monday, September 09, 2024
Arguing with AI
Sunday, September 08, 2024
Remember the subprime mortgages? 2008?
This can be figured 2 ways. One is the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990 (FCRA), and the other is based on a measure of fair value. "Using FCRA procedures—the standard way in which costs of credit programs are measured in the federal budget—CBO estimates that new loans and loan guarantees issued in 2025 would cost the federal government $2.4 billion over their lifetime. Using the fair-value approach, which measures the market value of the government’s obligations by accounting for market risk, CBO estimates that those loans and guarantees would have a lifetime cost of $65.2 billion. (Market risk is the component of financial risk that remains even with a well-diversified portfolio; it arises from shifts in macroeconomic conditions, such as productivity and employment, and from changes in expectations about future macroeconomic conditions.)"
Saturday, September 07, 2024
Trump's economic plan and the Reagan movie
We went to see the movie Reagan with a group of like-minded (all conservative Christians) Thursday night. Everyone I'd talked to who had seen it raved about it. One couple in our group saw it twice. It was OK, but then I hadn't seen a first run movie since before Covid, so I'm a little out of the loop on the cost, the sound system that assumes everyone is deaf, and I just had trouble seeing actors playing historical figures of MY lifetime. Although they did a good job of inserting TV news clips. I never voted for Reagan and until I read a book about the President, Pope and Prime Minister (that may not be the exact title) I didn't know much about his contribution to the fall of the USSR. Like many Americans of the last 40 years, I just absorbed the alphabet media ABCBSNBCPBS 3-5 minute assessment of the evening news. I was a Democrat and my workplace (academe) was probably 75% Democrat, so I never heard another view. But also, it seems I'd heard of him all my life. Mt. Morris isn't that far from Dixon, and he was the local guy who went to Hollywood. My father knew him, although Reagan was a few years older, and played college football against him. The "hometown" scenes in the movie were fun to see--Rock River, the Dixon arch and his family home. I would recommend it though, and it's probably close to the history, except it didn't mention the Pope. Of course, all the reviews will be negative. Leopards don't change their spots. Ignore them. The audiences in this town have loved it.
Friday, September 06, 2024
Wednesday, September 04, 2024
Harris' two war dilemma
My question is why do Democrats/leftists seem so interested in some sort of negotiated peace for Israel/Hamas when Hamas and all radical Muslims have declared that Israel has no right to exist, but never even suggest that a third party might work with Russia and Ukraine to save lives and work through territorial disagreements. Neither war is in our best interest.
Does it go back to all those Ukrainian deals made by Biden's son when Joe was vice president? A lot of money changed hands. Or could there be growing anti-Semitism in the U.S., especially in the Biden/Harris administration? And what is the motive of people willing to vote for Harris to extend this mess?
Monday, September 02, 2024
Hollywood likes Trump's polices, but they are queasy about character
And that tells you the depth of hate and fear from Democrats and some Republicans and the source of Trump Derangement Syndrome. It's a war and they are fighting back--they want him destroyed. And a growing number suspect that might include assassination. It's why they call him a threat to democracy--because it's all they've ever known--special interests, regulatory agencies, red tape and bottlenecks, failed trade and security alliances, and a biased, one party media.
Sunday, September 01, 2024
Reading to children
Good-bye Summer
That's what I think on September 1. It's my favorite month, though. It was the start of school (in the old days) and I loved school. It is the month of my birthday and anniversary of our wedding (64 this year). Did you know that Good-bye is a contraction of "God be with you?" Think on that each time you say good-bye. You are blessing them with God's presence and protection. It's the basis of that old hymn, "God be with you till we meet again."
“God Be With You Till We Meet Again”, which was written by Jeremiah Rankin, was simply composed so his church choir could have something to sing when they parted each week. Rankin was the minister for the First Congregational Church in Washington, D.C. and said this about the hymn, “Written…as a Christian goodbye, it was called forth by no person or occasion, but was deliberately composed as a Christian hymn on basis of the etymology of “goodbye,” which is “God be with you.” He got the idea for the first stanza of the song when he saw the dictionary definition of “good-bye” was short for “God be with you.” The song was written in 1882 when Rankin was 54 years old."
Saturday, August 31, 2024
Harris' CNN interview August 29, 2024
"The Inflation Reduction Act amends the non-interference clause by adding an exception that requires the Secretary of HHS to negotiate prices with drug companies for a small number of single-source brand-name drugs or biologics without generic or biosimilar competitors that are covered under Medicare Part D (starting in 2026) and Part B (starting in 2028). Under the new Drug Price Negotiation Program, the number of drugs selected for price negotiation is 10 Part D drugs for 2026, another 15 Part D drugs for 2027, another 15 Part D and Part B drugs for 2028, and another 20 Part D and Part B drugs for 2029 and later years. These drugs will be selected from the 50 drugs with the highest total Medicare Part D spending and the 50 drugs with the highest total Medicare Part B spending. The number of drugs with negotiated prices available will accumulate over time."
What sort of shell game has she added to gaslighting?
Wednesday, August 28, 2024
Kamala vs Kamala campaign ads
Have you seen Trump's Harris vs. Harris campaign ads?
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS, 2024: Everyday prices are too high... Food, rent, gas, back-to-school clothes.
HARRIS, 2023: That is called Bidenomics!
HARRIS, 2024: A loaf of bread costs 50% more... ground beef is up almost 50%... There's not much left at the end of the month.
HARRIS, 2023: Bidenomics is working!
HARRIS, 2024: The price of housing has gone up. It feels so hard to be able to just get ahead.
HARRIS, 2023: We are so proud of Bidenomics!
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2024/08/26/trump_campaign_ad_quotes_harris_on_high_prices_thats_called_bidenomics.html
Robert F. Kennedy Jr,'s speech to support Trump
RFK jr aligns with Trump on many issues like ending the wars, protecting the border, protecting children from chronic diseases; they disagree on many others. Team of Rivals. (Abraham Lincoln). His biggest concern seems to be the health of children, and the rise on chronic health conditions. He often refers to "when my uncle was President" which is about 1960, and an easy figure to remember.
He condemns ultra processed food as the culprit in the shocking statistics on chronic diseases in children. Toxic chemicals he names as the second culprit--hormone disrupters cause girls to reach puberty earlier. Mass poisoning, he says. $4 trillion now on chronic diseases, whereas in 1960 it was zero. 70% of school lunches are processed food--poor have a high burden of chronic diseases. 74% of Americans are obese, he says. Imagine if they all needed Wegovy or Ozempic. A boon for Big Pharma. Or for less money give organic fruits and vegetables to every family. Make Americans Healthy Again.
Put on your big girl pants
The crime scene was swept clean--July 13
"A SWAT counter-sniper who was working the Pennsylvania rally where former President Donald Trump was nearly assassinated last month agreed with Republican lawmakers Monday that an “odd” pattern of evidence-handling had occurred following the deadly shooting.
Washington Regional SWAT counter-sniper Ben Shaffer said it was “absolutely” concerning that the roof of the AGR International building had been quickly scrubbed and gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks’ body disposed of before an official autopsy report could be released."
Tuesday, August 27, 2024
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. talks to Tucker
Fact checkers deny this (I just checked), Annenburg, a far far leftist organization devoted to keeping your right to speech and assembly within "proper" bounds (i.e., supporting Democrats) says so, and then all lackeys comply. The "fact" checker then reports on RFKjr stats, and it looks to me like the researchers don't agree on the percentage (not the idea). Since Kennedy was then a Democrat running without approval of the party because he would draw off votes from Biden, Annenburg had to stomp it out. It's who this "fact" checker is.
Kennedy is still running in 40 states. Biden has now withdrawn his Secret Service protection, which he only got because Trump brought it up at the RNC. It's who they are.
Zuck and Kamala have a lot to answer for
Just one more reason not to trust Harris, especially since she's been wearing her MAGA hat and steal Trump's ideas.
"Zuckerberg said in his damning letter addressed to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) that in 2021, senior officials from the Biden-Harris administration, including the White House, "repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn't agree.""
https://www.theblaze.com/news/mark-zuckerberg-comes-clean-in-damning-letter-about-facebooks-election-interference-and-pandemic-censorship?
Monday, August 26, 2024
What's wrong with Democrats who support Harris?
And don't kid yourself that Harris/Walz are just going after envy vote--want to only tax the rich. It always falls to the Middle class. The poor don't pay taxes, they receive subsidies. The rich have so many tax lawyers they probably won't even notice, especially when they move their assets out of the country. Lots of countries are looking for their money--our government tries to drive them out! It will all fall to the middle class to keep the tax hungry Harris away from the door.
Does anyone with a brain work in the legacy media?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSpGiFqL8_E I think this is episode 193. Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, David Sacks & David Friedberg cover all things economic, tech, political, social & poker.
Saturday, August 24, 2024
Gender affirming care
Humans don't have genders. We each have a biological sex. Nouns have genders. Old English had genders; modern English for the most part does not. There may be a few of us where something went wrong with the design, but we shouldn't aim for the anomaly. There are people born without arms, too.
It's also not care and it's not affirming to create words and phrases that deceive. "Affirming care" is violent and cruel. It is not positive, confirming or expressing agreement.
Friday, August 23, 2024
Praying for the opening of a new business
"Would you all pray for my son Drew today? He is an executive chef of a new restaurant having their grand opening tonight. Pray for their success.
Pray that each of them, especially Drew leading them. We can do all things through Christ who gives us strength. Not all of them are Christians but pray for the salvation of the ones that are to lead the ones that are not. I saw a caring and a love for each other among the servers, cooks and management. Pray for that love to grow.
When we were there for the friends and family, I felt a change in the atmosphere as I entered the restaurant. I could feel a release of the burdens of the day and a relaxation take over. Pray (especially in the times we are in) that the customers receive that same feeling. Pray for favor with God and man for the whole staff.
Pray the Lord be magnified and each person be lifted up! Pray they have a great time serving their customers and enjoying their work! and have fun. It would be an escape for the staff also.
Above all, commit their work to the Lord and they will be established.
Thank you for your prayers. I love you all ...Be blessed, Darlene"
Guttmacher, CDC and Pew
"Christians continue to make up a majority of the U.S. populace, but their share of the adult population is 12 points lower in 2021 than it was in 2011. In addition, the share of U.S. adults who say they pray on a daily basis has been trending downward, as has the share who say religion is “very important” in their lives."
"As of 2021, 21% of U.S. adults describe themselves as Catholic, identical to the Catholic share of the population in 2014."
That means Catholics are holding their own and Protestants are not. Also, it means that lack of religious observances like regular prayer and church attendance are factors in the increasing divisiveness in our society,
Here's another tip about statistics. Researchers rely on the Guttmacher Institute for abortion statistics. It is the research arm of Planned Parenthood. CDC is our government agency that tracks health and the reproductive health of the nation. Although reproduction is the opposite of abortion, that's where to look for abortion statistics. If you read an article about abortion or contraception, there is usually a mix of statistics using both CDC and Guttmacher. Those are the only two the Pew Research articles quote from. Although it's odd, abortion statistics from Pew is classed with religion and assigned to its religious editor. As far as I can determine neither one tracks, records or is concerned about the negative effects of abortion on the health and welfare of women, especially not in the long run. For that you'll need smaller, more female friendly organizations.
I looked up the 2 Pew religion writers/editors and one specialized in American blacks and Muslims and Europeans and the other in Muslims. Do you see any specialization gaps here?
I look at strange things so you don't have to.
Why do Democrats demonize their wealthy donors?
Josh Shapiro
Thursday, August 22, 2024
The one percenters--us
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE 1% ers:
You are the smallest group of children born since the early 1900's.
You are the last generation, climbing out of the depression, who can remember the winds of war and the impact of a world at war that rattled the structure of our daily lives for years.
You are the last to remember ration books for everything from gas to sugar to shoes to stoves.
You saved tin foil and poured fried meat fat into tin cans.
You can remember milk being delivered to your house early in the morning and placed in the "milk box" on the porch.
Discipline was enforced by parents and teachers.
You are the last generation who spent childhood without television; instead, you "imagined" what you heard on the radio.
With no TV, you spent your childhood "playing outside".
There was no Little League.
There was no city playground for kids.
The lack of television in your early years meant that you had little real understanding of what the world was like.
We got "black-and-white" TV in the late 40s that had 3 stations and no remote. (Kids were normally the remote.)
Telephones were one to a house, often shared (party lines), and hung on the wall in the kitchen (no cares about privacy).
Computers were called calculators; they were hand-cranked.
Typewriters were driven by pounding fingers, throwing the carriage, and changing the ribbon.
'INTERNET' and 'GOOGLE' were words that did not exist.
New highways would bring jobs and mobility. Most highways were 2 lanes (no interstates).
You went downtown to shop. You walked to school.
The radio network expanded from 3 stations to thousands.
Your parents were suddenly free from the confines of the depression and the war, and they threw themselves into working hard to make a living for their families.
You weren't neglected, but you weren't today's all-consuming family focus.
They were glad you played by yourselves.
They were busy discovering the postwar world.
You entered a world of overflowing plenty and opportunity; a world where you were welcomed, enjoyed yourselves.
You felt secure in your future, although the depression and poverty were deeply remembered.
Polio was still a crippler. Everyone knew someone who had it.
You came of age in the '50s and '60s.
You are the last generation to experience an interlude when there were no threats to our homeland.
World War 2 was over and the cold war, terrorism, global warming, and perpetual economic insecurity had yet to haunt life.
Only your generation can remember a time after WW2 when our world was secure and full of bright promise and plenty.
You grew up at the best possible time, a time when the world was getting better.
More than 99% of you are retired now, and you should feel privileged to have "lived in the best of times!"
If you have already reached the age of 77 years old, you have outlived 99% of all the other people in the world who were born in this special 16 year time span. You are a 1% 'er"!
* * * * * *
My parents didn't get a TV until they could get color transmission from Rockford, IL--I think it was 1957 and I was already away at college.
No, don't remember Little League, but we had community "commercial leagues" sponsored by local businesses, and the American Legion sponsored teams. There was a Corbett Oil team (my dad sponsored it). For younger kids I think there were "junior" teams. Anyone else remember that?
Yes, I remember party lines. We were 59-L. My older sisters (teens) were telephone operators so we knew the gossip.
Walking to downtown and school was about same distance. Small and smaller towns.
Playgrounds were school grounds. Easy to get to. Also, streets and sidewalks were safe. If you were playing soft ball you'd just yell, CAR.
Not sure our lives overflowed with plenty, but I do remember our first refrigerator which replaced the ice box. Big boxes were fun.
Yes, polio was huge in my memory. Affected family and friends.
I don't recall a time of no international threats. We had duck and cover drills and classroom movies about "the bomb." All the theaters had WWII movies. Plus we had parents who remembered the Depression and lived accordingly.
And, although I never thought much about it at the time, we had pretty clothes. Today's closet for a young girl is full of sweats, T-s, and ugly shoes.
Kamalanomics
Starting with the new policies she announced in a speech last Friday, Boskin explains that Harris wants to give first-time home buyers a $25,000 government check, favors subsidies to developers on low-income housing, and supports price controls on groceries." (Kamalanomics, Hoover Institute)
I wouldn't call those "insights," or "thinking." Give the general home buying public $25,000 to buy a house and all housing prices go up $25,000. That's 5th grade math. Only the free market works--even Communist China learned that when their economy was flailing. Definitely cat-lady economic theory.
Wednesday, August 21, 2024
Rough Sleepers September book club selection
Our book club assignment for September is Rough Sleepers by Tracy Kidder. Here is a summary of a model program from 1985 to the present at its website with a description of the book. Our History | Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (bhchp.org)
"2023: Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People by Tracy Kidder is published. Kidder tells the story of Dr. Jim O’Connell, (Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program) BHCHP’s founding physician and the BHCHP Street Team as they offer medical care and friendship to “rough sleepers”, our patients living on the streets. Tracy Kidder, a Pulitzer prize-winning author followed the Street Team for 5 years resulting in this New York Times bestseller.Rough Sleepers appears on the cover of the New York Times magazine with a 10,000-word author essay by Tracy Kidder and a photo montage of patients cared for by the BHCHP Street Team.
Barbara McInnis House respite program [in 2023] opens the Complex Addiction Treatment (CAT) team specializing in the respite care of people with active SUD using best practices from addiction medicine, harm reduction, and trauma informed models of care. This is a unique model of care: The team’s goals are
Tuesday, August 20, 2024
Let's FACE the double standard about demonstrations
So why are pro-Hamas terrorists allowed to do the same activities on college campuses, major hi-ways, and at the Democratic National Convention. That must be a dilemma for Democrats. Demonstrating in front of an abortion clinic can get you put in jail, but demonstrating that you hate Jews and want to destroy Israel is no big deal.
Pro-life authors I'd like to read--Helen M. Alvaré
Helen M. Alvaré is a renowned Catholic legal scholar and pro-life advocate. She is the Robert A. Levy Endowed Chair in Law and Liberty at Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University, where she teaches Family Law, Law and Religion, and Property Law.
Publications and Expertise
Alvaré publishes extensively on matters concerning marriage, parenting, non-marital households, and the First Amendment religion clauses. Her work has appeared in news outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Huffington Post, and CNN.com, as well as academic journals. She has also authored books and lectured widely on topics related to family, marriage, and religious freedom.
Professional Experience
Prior to joining George Mason University, Alvaré taught at the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America and represented the U.S. bishops’ conference on pro-life issues. She has worked for over a decade in the Catholic Church’s pro-life efforts, lobbying Congress and speaking publicly on issues such as abortion, euthanasia, and capital punishment.
Recent Engagements
In 2024, Alvaré delivered the Tim Fischer Oration on Ethics in Public and Political Life, speaking on the importance of upholding Christian values in public discourse. She has also been recognized for her contributions to the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast and has been honored for her work on pro-life issues and broader public discourse on polarizing social issues.
Social Media
Alvaré is active on Twitter (@AlvareHelen), where she shares her thoughts on law, family, and faith, as well as her experiences as a Catholic scholar and advocate.
Monday, August 19, 2024
How the Greens gaslight us all . . . but especially the poor.
"According to the World Bank, between 1990 and 2019, as emissions surged, the proportion of the world’s population in extreme poverty fell from 38 percent to 8.4 percent. Food production similarly soared from 2000 to 2020, with global primary-crop production rising by 52 percent, meat production by 45 percent, and vegetable oil production by 125 percent. Those figures well outstripped population growth and resulted in the daily caloric intake rising in every region of the globe. At the same time, the real global economy nearly doubled in value."
The usual way of measuring the cost of solar simply ignores its unreliability and tells us the price when the sun is shining. The same is true for wind energy. That does indeed make them slightly cheaper than other electricity sources: 3.6 US¢ per kWh for solar, just ahead of natural gas at 3.8 US¢, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. But if you account for reliability, their real costs explode: in 2022, one peer-reviewed study showed an increase of 11-42 times, making solar by far the most expensive electricity source, followed by wind."
"Smartphones, computers and electric vehicles may be emblems of the modern world, but, says Siddharth Kara, their rechargeable batteries are frequently powered by cobalt mined by workers laboring in slave-like conditions in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Kara, a fellow at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health and at the Kennedy School, has been researching modern-day slavery, human trafficking and child labor for two decades. He says that although the DRC has more cobalt reserves than the rest of the planet combined, there's no such thing as a "clean" supply chain of cobalt from the country. In his new book, Cobalt Red, Kara writes that much of the DRC's cobalt is being extracted by so-called "artisanal" miners — freelance workers who do extremely dangerous labor for the equivalent of just a few dollars a day."
Saturday, August 17, 2024
A Kennedy supports the never primaried candidate
Friday, August 16, 2024
Children and exercise--the gym or outdoors?
No one wants to hear that we knew better in the "old days" but here it is. I hated school PE classes, I admit it. I did avoid all organized summer sports although the town had community leagues. But I certainly had a lot of exercise. Watching a little kid on one of those machines today I recalled:
- climbing trees
- riding horses
- biking on no-speed, manual brake bicycles
- playing hop-scotch
- raking leaves in the fall
- mowing the lawn in the summer
- pulling weeds in the garden in the summer
- digging dandelions in the yard in the spring
- running during recess
- swinging on the monkey bars in the school yard
- roller skating with strap on skates on the sidewalks
- catching tadpoles and frogs in creeks
- playing softball in the street with neighborhood kids
- delivering newspapers on a morning route
- running just because
- and we walked because our mean mothers wouldn't drive us everywhere we wanted to go!
Thursday, August 15, 2024
The White House plan for inflation, health and energy
The Harris Biden plan to reduce government induced inflation is to blame business. They flooded the nation with money long after the Covid crisis receded (in part created by their lockdown and masking policies) with too much money chasing too few goods. Many businesses just closed and some owners who fought back went to jail (especially in Minnesota under Walz who even had a tip line so neighbors could snitch on neighbors). Are they at fault for the policies that ruined them? The "wealthiest Americans" many of whom are backing Harris, can't bail them out with higher taxes. They just move their assets off shore. There's not enough money in their investments, which we need to grow, to reverse the bad monetary policy of the Harris Biden years.
The same WH message says they will take on Big Pharma, the same folks who prevented us from getting treatment for Covid because they could make greater profits with "preventive" measures that didn't work and actually wounded many Americans. Some Americans are still being terrorized by tax supported messages of fear and have submitted to 6 or 7 boosters while still wearing masks in their cars.
The same WH message says Democrats will lower our utility bills, but how will they do that when they intend to destroy fossil fuels in the pie in the sky plan to stop climate change, something that has been going on since the beginning of the record? What do you think is powering those electric vehicles? Coal!
Harris owns this. As vice president she casts the tie breaking vote in the Senate. She voted for those additional IRS agents to stop cheating on tips. Now she's running for cover by laughing and copying Trump's proposal to end taxes on tips.
We need a moderate Republican like Donald Trump in the White House to stop the radical leftist Democrat administration from destroying our economy and our Bill of Rights.
Wednesday, August 14, 2024
Harris and the takeover
Tuesday, August 13, 2024
Pray as though your life depended on it--because it's true
Pray as though our lives depend on God. It has ever and always been so, but some need more evidence. And it is right in front of us.
Saturday, August 10, 2024
Break dancing at the Olympics
Friday, August 09, 2024
Election fraud and Democrats--refresh your memory
Edith Stein, August 9 memorial
The Collect for her memorial in the "Episcopal Book of Common Prayer" reads as follows:
"Pour out your grace upon thy church, O God; that, like your servant Edith Stein, we may always seek what is true, defend what is right, reprove what is evil, and forgive those who sin against us, even as your Son commanded; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit be all honor and glory, now and forever."
Yad Vashem, the memorial to the victims of the Holocaust in Jerusalem, commemorates Edith Stein as a Jewish woman murdered by the Nazis: “Edith Stein was born in Breslau, Germany in 1891. Prior to WWII she lived in Koeln, Germany. Edith was murdered in the Shoah.”
Pope John Paul II canonized her in 1998.
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Let's remember on this day that Nazi (National Socialists) totalitarianism was against Christians as well as Jews. To revere God as higher than the state is a crime in totalitarian societies. Today we need to watch for that evil as the creeping socialism in our own country becomes an open, in-your-face marathon. We see attacks on Jews in our elite universities and the FBI has been found spying on traditional Catholics. Parents lose their rights for fighting against the agenda of radical trans activists who deny God's plan of Creation of male and female.
(Information from Magnificat, August 2023, pp. 117-118 and Praytellblog,com)
Wednesday, August 07, 2024
FACT and Kamala Harris and Walz and born alive
And the record of her running mate, Tim Walz, on abortion and the value of babies born alive after an abortion is even worse.
"Minnesota was the rare state to require such born-alive abortions to be publicly reported, creating a powerful statistic for pro-life and anti-abortion forces to draw upon.
But in 2023, Walz worked with his new Democrat-controlled Legislature to eliminate both the REPORTING requirement and the state’s legal obligation for doctors, nurses and medical professionals to administer LIFE SAVING CARE to infants born alive during an abortion procedure. The governor-turned-vice presidential nominee signed an omnibus bill known as SF2995 that closed one of the few statistical windows on late-term abortions and the possibility that babies born alive were left to die."
Tim Walz Removed Born-Alive Abortion Reporting Requirements (dailysignal.com)
And this is the guy who called Vance weird?
Biden and the Constitution
Tuesday, August 06, 2024
Harris choses the most leftist of the party, Tim Walz
The mayor of Minneapolis failed and the governor of Minnesota failed to get things under control until the rioting spread across the nation, in late May-June, 2020. The senator from California jumped on the defund the police and raised bail for rioters bandwagon. Pennsylvania's governor, Josh Shapiro, most likely lost out because he's a Jew and Kamala, being at the far left of her party, favors the Palestinians.
What a team!
Sunday, August 04, 2024
Semaglutide and weight loss for diabetes or obesity
“The fact that there’s a medically approved prescription for managing weight and staying healthier, in my lifetime, feels like relief, like redemption, like a gift, and not something to hide behind and once again be ridiculed for,” Winfrey stated. “I’m absolutely done with the shaming from other people and particularly myself.”
I wonder if the thin Oprah will be as popular as the fluffy Oprah?
Some researchers question the safety, and others who are not researchers (me) think it's too expensive.
Because it also lowers the risk of some other dangerous health conditions, how much should the taxpayers be chipping in? Ozempic is FDA approved for type 2 diabetes and Wegovy is FDA approved for weight loss with or without diabetes. This matters for insurance, but there is a cost either way. Someone pays. Someone makes a profit.
Remembering how Hormone Replacement Therapy drugs were called a "miracle" about 30 years ago to prevent heart attack, stroke, dementia etc. as well as hot flashes, then were dropped in 2022, I'd be a bit cautious. That's a personal opinion.
Here's a video, useful for its recency with a voice over to help with pronunciation.
Friday, August 02, 2024
What Kamala Harris believes
https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-kamala-harris-believes-c1136006
What Kamala Harris Believes
The Vice President’s political record reveals the views of a California progressive.
Democrats are rapidly unifying behind Kamala Harris as their party nominee, yet the Vice President remains relatively unknown to most Americans. That means it’s important to look at her record to see what she believes.
As VP she’s closely identified with the Biden agenda, for better or worse, and she embraced that record in remarks on Monday. She said President Biden’s first term has “surpassed the legacy” of most Presidents who have served two.
So mark her down as endorsing the spending blowouts that caused inflation, the Green New Deal, entitlement expansions and student loan forgiveness. Until she says otherwise, we should also assume she’s in favor of Mr. Biden’s $5 trillion tax increase in 2025.
The Vice President’s four years as a Senator from California are another window on her worldview. She sponsored a bill to create a $6,000 guaranteed income for families making up to $100,000. Another Harris proposal: A refundable tax credit that would effectively cap rents and utility payments at 30% of income. Liberal economists panned the subsidy because it would drive up rents.
She co-sponsored legislation with Bernie Sanders that would pay tuition at four-year public colleges for students from families making up to $125,000. This is more honest than the Administration’s back-end student loan cancellation. But it would cost $700 billion over a decade and encourage colleges to increase tuition.
Another Bernie mind-meld: Single-payer healthcare. Ms. Harris co-sponsored his Medicare for All legislation paid for by higher income taxes. She tweaked Bernie’s plan when running for President in 2019 by extending the phase-in to 10 years from four and exempting households making less than $100,000 from the “income-based premium.” But it would still put government in charge of all American healthcare over time.
As a San Francisco Democrat, Ms. Harris shares the state’s hostility to fossil fuels. She used her power as California Attorney General to launch an investigation into Exxon Mobil over its carbon emissions. In 2019 she endorsed a nationwide ban on oil and gas fracking, which would cost tens of thousands of jobs and cause power outages like those that often occur in her home state. Expect this to be a GOP talking point in Pennsylvania.
One question to ask is whether the Vice President wants to restructure the Supreme Court. She said in 2019 she was “open” to adding more Justices, but that idea doesn’t poll well. Does she agree with Mr. Biden’s mooted plan to endorse “reforms” to the High Court that would make the Justices subject to Congressional supervision?
Mr. Biden famously put Ms. Harris in charge of border policy, and we know how that has turned out. Rather than push for border policy changes, her first instinct was to blame the rush of migrants on “root causes” in developing countries, including corruption, violence, poverty and “lack of climate adaptation and climate resilience.”
Climate change makes the U.S. border a sieve? Apparently so. “In Honduras, in the wake of hurricanes, we must deliver food, shelter, water and sanitation to the people,” Ms. Harris declared. “And in Guatemala, as farmers endure continuous droughts, we must work with them to plant drought-resistant crops.” These “root causes” take decades to address, and in the meantime she had nothing to say about actual border security.
Ms. Harris’s foreign policy views aren’t well known, or perhaps even well formed, apart from promoting Mr. Biden’s policies. While she has backed the Administration’s military assistance to Ukraine, she has equivocated about support for Israel. In March she chastised Israel for not doing enough to ease a “humanitarian catastrophe.” Leaks to the press say officials at the National Security Council toned down her speech’s criticism of Israel.
She lambasted the Trump Administration for killing Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Gen. Qassem Soleimani, claiming it could lead to bigger war in the Mideast. The killing chastened Iran’s rulers instead, at least until the Biden Administration began to ease sanctions and tried to repeat the 2015 nuclear deal.
It will be especially important for the press to ask Ms. Harris about her national security views. If her handlers control her as much as White House advisers have Mr. Biden, we’ll know they’re afraid that the Vice President might not be able to handle the scrutiny.
A fair conclusion from all of this is that Ms. Harris is a standard California progressive on most issues, often to the left of Mr. Biden. Perhaps as she reintroduces herself to the public in the coming weeks, she will modify some of those views. She would be wise to do so if she wants to win.
Given the rush by Democrats to anoint Ms. Harris as their nominee, the press has a particular obligation to tell the public about who she is and what she really thinks. Does she believe California is a model for the country?

