274 For cancer survivors

I noticed in the paper March 24 that there will be a new magazine in the summer called Heal. It will be free and they expect a circulation of 100,000. It will focus on articles dealing with cancer survivors, post treatment issues, insurance, fear, fatigue, etc. Here is the website for Heal--the editors are looking for stories and advertisers.

When treatment is over, a new life often begins. Being healed is when the spirit and the soul merge with the physical self whether cure has occurred or not. In essence, cure is possible without healing, but healing can happen with or without cure.

And thanks to modern science, many are living years with cancer as a chronic illness. Others reach remission/cure but often fear recurrence.

Heal has a sister publication, Cure, which focuses on research and education. It was launched in 2002.

And let me segue here to my new blog In the Beginning which is about my hobby, collecting premiere and first issue journals and magazines. Nothing makes me more unhappy than to walk up to a news stand, scan the shelves, and find a Vol.1,no.2. I thought that happened this week with LowCarb Living, but I wrote about it anyway because I was preparing something on the obesity epidemic for this blog. Then I did find vol.1.no.1 in my collection. Look at my blog links at the right and you can click on it. I have just a few entries so far, and it is evolving as I go, but it will continue to be about my hobby and the exuberance and hope that goes into a start-up.

273 Free Martha!

Web site for free Martha buttons, including the witch hunt theme.

272 Europeans react to the bombings in Spain

Chuck Bearden has posted a thoughtful comment at www.LISNews.com about the reaction of Europeans about the March 11 bombings in Spain. A librarian, he formerly worked in public and academic libraries, in information technology, and now works in health informatics, according to his bio at that site.

“I would go further and say that 9/11, and Bali, as well as something like Madrid 3/11, would have taken place even if the U.S. hadn't invaded Iraq, or even if Bush hadn't been elected. Of course, the invasion of Iraq necessarily changed the calculations of AQ et al. in their choice of targets. It brought new problems, new demands, new reasons to attack here instead of there, but the first WTC attack, and the USS Cole attack, and the African embassy bombings show us that war was declared years ago.

Until the war on terror is over, the question will never be "Will they attack?" but rather "Where?".”

271 Kerryaoke with the liberal press

Maureen Dowd's journalism style has lent itself to a new noun, Dowdification, coined by James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal. It means, used as noun or verb, the willful omission of one or more words so the meaning of the statement is no longer understood but that the statement suits the needs of the writer in launching an ad hominem attack whether or not the construction is truthful or grammatically complete. Dowdsizing would be a better term, in my opinion.

So I'm coining a new word--Kerryaoke, pronouced "carry-yokey." Karaoke is a Japanese word for a form of entertainment in which patrons take turns singing the lyrics to prerecorded music. Kerryaoke would be the press singing along with John Forbes Kerry, no matter how off key, no matter how "nuanced" his contraditions of his previous stance, no matter how harmful to our battle against terrorism, no matter how many unnamed foreign leaders support him.

I'm relying on Google here to declare myself the first to use this word, Kerryaoke, in this manner. The word exists on the Internet in one record, because there is a guy named Kerry who sings karaoke.

270 Through the eyes of children

This morning our Visual Arts Ministry hung 120 pieces of art of the children of Highland Elementary School in Columbus, OH. We have one of the finest spaces in the Columbus metropolitan area for art, and I'm surprised that artists don't beat down our doors for this kind of gallery space.

Seeing this much kiddy art in such a terrific display can bring tears to the eyes, particularly since these kids don't have a lot of what we think of as advantages in this area. Their parents probably don't drag them to art shows they way we did, or buy them special materials, or enroll them in Saturday art classes at Ohio State.

But the color, shapes, and fantasies just bubble right up and appear in colored pencil, ink, fabric, acrylic, and pastel to illustrate bugs, birds, their neighborhood, flowers, parks, pets, patriotism, automobiles, friends, and just a few things that make you just pause and wonder at the enthusiasm.

If you live in the Columbus, OH metropolitan area, you can see this show at The Church at Mill Run, 3500 Mill Run Drive, Hilliard, OH 43026, upper level. Here's a map.

269 The Constitution

One of the most important things going on in Iraq right now is the hammering out of the constitution. Perhaps this is a good time to look at ours.

Constitution of the United States
Adopted by convention of States, September 17, 1787;
Ratification completed, June 21, 1788

Particularly take a look at the dates, and notice how long it took our forefathers and ancestors (both my German and my Scots-Irish ancestors were in the country before the Revolution, but not part of the process) to get it together after our revolution.

Check it out here at Emory.

Readings and audio for The American Revolution and the Founding of a New Nation, Sunday, June 23, 2002 to Friday, June 28, 2002, Ashland University, Ashland, Ohio, which has numerous free institutes on line with recorded lectures and list of readings.

Ashland University is the home of the Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs which"was established and named in honor of the late Congressman who represented Ohio's 17th Congressional district for 21 years. Representative John Ashbrook was a popular and forceful advocate and spokesman for limited constitutional government and reduced federal spending. That concept was re-emphasized by President Ronald Reagan when he personally dedicated the Center on May 9, 1983."

Among the offerings at the Ashbrook Center are free Saturday seminars for teachers.

268 The Debate

"I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it." --John F. Kerry, explaining his vote for AND against supplemental funds for troops in Iraq -- the same troops he says Mr. Bush sent in "under-equipped." When asked about Kerry's invitation to debate on the issues, George Bush responded, "We'll talk about that when Senator Kerry is finished debating the issues with himself."

Seen at The Federalist Digest, March 19, 2004

267 Men behaving badly

In the Columbus Dispatch columnist Kathleen Parker wrote "People such as [Howard] Stern and [George] Carlin have built careers out of making obscenity funny, that is, if you're emotionally trapped in a 7-year-old boy's psyche." . . .[who] find great hilarity in body functions and are prone to uncontrollable giggles upon hearing vocabulary that refers to human anatomy."

266 Don't do as I say

The early morning customers like to sit around the fireplace, so my chair was only about 6 inches from the young Catholic (uniform) student behind me. I saw him carrying the bracket sheet for the NCAA tournament being held here in Columbus--the March Madness. Soon Mom and Dad joined him at his table. Cozy.

Then I hear Dad say, "Don't be caught at school with that. It's gambling. They'll crucify you." "Is not," young boy said. "What'd ya pay?" said Dad. "inaudible" son's reply. "Why is she doing it?" said Dad. "inaudible" said son. "She barfed in the trash can?" said Dad. "Oh no. A hair on my roll." Obviously, the conversation was drifting away from basketball, perhaps the intention of the young boy. Later I heard Dad advising his son on which team to enter in the brackets.

265 Woman Behaving Badly

Usually it's men who make disgustingly loud noises blowing their noses. At coffee yesterday I observed an overweight but elegantly dressed and made up older woman walk to the center of the room and blow her nose so loudly, so vigorously, I thought the roof would collapse from the air disturbance. Twice. Then she returned to her table, finished her hot chocolate, and walked out into the snow storm to her car, head uncovered, coat open. So, apparently she's not sick, just rude.

264 Don't tell us. . .

Today’s Wall Street Journal (March 16, 2004) letters to the editor column contained a letter from Tim Knowlton in response to the French op ed piece last week, “Are we still all-Americans?”

“Don’t trot out the tired baseless arguments of unilateralist, of “pre-emptive.” There are soldiers from many lands fighting the terrorists in Iraq. Don’t tell us there are not, it would be an insult to their sacrifice. Don’t tell us the United Nations could have helped, because it shrank from its duty all these years. Don’t tell us that negotiating with Saddam, or waiting through another round of inspections, would have kept him from murder and torture. That’s an insult to the millions who have died and suffered under his rule.

And please stop saying that President Bush lied. That insults the memory of those who died horrible deaths from Saddam’s weapons.”

Other writers were less civil, pointing out the French caving in to various brigands and thugs over the years (VietNam, Hitler), . . .the French are back stabbers, . . . carrying water (I.e. oil) for Saddam, . . .and that le Monde is the official left wing mouth piece of the French government.

The on-line version was even more scathing in readers' outrage at Colombani:

Mr. Colombani has the right to his asinine opinion about Mr. Bush's handling of the Iraqi war. Conveniently he forgets or chooses to ignore that his own country, France, was a willing partner of Saddam Hussein. Therefore the need for them to delay and place roadblocks on any attempt that spearheaded by the United States may uncover the extent to which the French had been in Saddam's bed. Oscar H. Atehortua Sr. - Brooklyn, N.Y.

With regard to "containment" vs. "pre-emption," since when did the French contain anything? If they had not been cowering in Paris they could have pre-emptively acted when Hitler defied treaties ending World War I, and we would not still be mourning the 50 million who died as a result of the European community's fetish for negotiation and conciliation. By the way, Hitler violated his treaties fewer times than Saddam did. Michael Becker - Phoenix

263 Sportswriter loves to read

“If Steve Rushin of Sports Illustrated wrote about politics or cosmology instead of about sports, he would be widely recognized for what he is: a superb writer. (For Rushin at book-length, see the witty travelogue Road Swing: One Fan's Journey into the Soul of American Sports, in which he describes a dying television as "a Zenith at its nadir" and compares a golf course in the Pennsylvania hills to "a green silk tie across a rumpled bedspread.") In this week's blog, Nathan Bierma talks with Rushin about reading and writing, sports, and sports writing.” When asked if writing was easy for him, he says:

“I try to follow the rule that the easier something is to read, the harder it was to write, and the harder it is to read the easier it probably was to write.”

. . . “On our family vacations to California when we were kids, I always went to the library, and checked out books on all the places we were going in San Francisco. … My wife [basketball star Rebecca Lobo] and I live in a small townhouse. If we ever get a house, I don't care what it has except a library. I'd like to just sit in a big chair with a goldfish-bowl-sized brandy sifter, and a globe, surrounded by books. We have boxes of books on bookshelves, boxes in our garage. … I was in a used bookstore and picked up a 1200-page biography of Charles Dickens. I will probably finish it in the time it took Dickens to live his actual life, but I will finish it.”

262 Child phobia learned in libraries

I read a number of blogs by librarians, and the experience of working in public libraries seems to make some of them either swear off ever being a parent or desire a child-free environment. Here's an example from The Well Dressed Librarian, a gay, Jewish, cataloguer-wannabe, who blogs about his experiences in library school where he has gone from being a fashion plate cataloguer for an auction house to a lowly page.

I have also come to another realization. I can not stand the sound of children whining or crying. Yesterday, Mother of the Year was in the library with all 5 of her kids. 3 of them were crying, and one was emitting this low, skin crawling whine that would not stop. I wanted to give the kids stickers to make them stop, but realized they were crying because their Mother was forcing them to play computer games that they didn't want to play.

She was making a 3 year old play a game with French and Spanish words. The kid couldn't even read, let alone two foreign tongues. I don't think from what I gathered that she could either. Finally, our very own Kentucky librarian came to the rescue. She explained to the MOTY that the games were too hard, and got them to play something else.

End of crying & whining. For 6 minutes.

Then the MOTY decided it was time to go, only the kids wanted to play more games. So she screamed at them. Then she couldn't find one of her kids. So, she decided to call for her, like she was in a State Park. Multiple times.

Finally they left, and I had one of the worst headaches I can remember. And I have a good memory.

261 Good for a laugh

People become librarians because they know too much. Their knowledge extends beyond mere categories. They cannot be confined to disciplines. Librarians are all-knowing and all-seeing. They bring order to chaos. They bring wisdom and culture to the masses. They preserve every aspect of human knowledge. Librarians rule. And they will kick the crap out of anyone who says otherwise.

From Librarian Avengers, on Why you should worship your librarian.

A reader responds: I have always been an "LL". . . .a Librarian Lover. To me, a Librarian was always a very special person. one who could move silently and swiftly through the stacks to find a particular book. From Aristophenes to Zane Gray, from C S Lewis to Ernest Thompson Seton, my Librarian could find any book I wanted. And even though she would never allow me into the library with my roller skates on, I loved her just the same.

260 Conservative Librarians are Blogging

Jack Stephens blogs at Conservator, Thoughts on Libraries and Freedom. If you aren't familiar with the issues in librarianship, it is possible that your image of a librarian IS conservative. That is usually not the case, especially among academic librarians who probably fall in that 84% of college faculty who voted for Gore in 2000. The leadership of the profession in American Library Association or Medical Library Association or Association of College and Research Libraries is in turn, more liberal than the core membership they represent.

Jack seems to be addressing some of these issues along with Shush, Tomeboy, and The In Season Christian Librarian.

259 Staying informed

In another group there is a woman who works in a library who says she doesn't have time to read the newspaper or watch TV--she gets all her news from NPR while in the car. That's pretty narrow. So I sat down to figure out what I read, watch or listen to on a regular basis--although not cover to cover or word for word.

Newspapers

Wall Street Journal
Columbus Dispatch
USAToday
Upper Arlington News (weekly)


Television
C-Span--especially Book TV
Fox News
ABC Evening news
local TV news

Radio

610 am local radio for drive time (owned by Clear Channel)
1550 am Spanish radio (for shouting out words I occasionally recognize)
104.9 fm Christian radio

On-line Subscriptions

The New York Times Headline stories
The Wall Street Journal Opinion
CNET News
ChemWeb Bulletin
BioMedNet
Medscape Week in Review
Campus Watch
New Republic Online
Books and Culture
GrammarCheck
some gov't committee reports
Around Columbus (things to do)
RootsWeb Review (genealogy)
OSU Today
Refdesk (web sites specializing in extensive topical information)
Food Reflections (Univ. of Nebraska Home Extension)
Boogie Jack (web page construction)

Magazines

Christianity Today
American Artist
Watercolor
Watercolor Magic
Architectural Digest
Wired
Home Magazine
Columbus City Scene
Upper Arlington (monthly)
Columbus Bar Briefs
Crosslinks (my church)
Decision (Billy Graham)
miscellaneous architecture journals

Looking through the list, I am reminded that if I could learn to paint by reading magazines, I wouldn't be blogging.

258 Slow Job Growth

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal today (March 12), economists are puzzled about the reason for the slow job growth. Only 16% of them think offshore jobs are affecting US job growth.

I'm no economist, but I think we need to blame the people who have influenced every cultural, social, economic and educational trend in this country since the end of WWII--The Boomers. You reach a stage in life when you don't need "things" any more, when you aren't buying the latest entertainment gizmo whether it is a something to listen to or to watch or to play with, when you can't bear the thought of one more silly fashion gaffe hanging in your closet, and your 3 year old car looks just like the one on the show room floor. The Baby Boomers are now at that age, and they aren't buying as much as they used to.

The tax refund encouraged a lift in the spending, but a lot of us had what we needed materially, so instead we want to be making a difference in life, and that doesn't mean fingering the merchandise in the mall or kicking the tires at the auto show. Also, the Boomers had smaller families and probably have fewer grandchildren, or had them later, so they aren't even buying in that niche.

I don't want to give up my $5.00 shoes made in China that I bought 3 years ago and still look good as new. If I had had to buy them Made in the USA by a union plant, I wouldn't be able to afford many other things. The global economy helps the third world in ways government foreign aid never could. A low wage here that is scorned is a magnificient sum in some countries and the product comes back here to be distributed, sold and enjoyed by Americans at lower prices. Then we can put that savings into buying a piece of a business through stock.

Some people, like TV evangelists Benny Hinn and Joyce Meyer, want mansions and $100,000 cars and flashy rings, but most of us by 55 have learned money might buy comfort and fame, but it doesn't buy a good marriage, a loving friendship or a sense of purpose.

257 Just walking my dog

“I’m just walking my dog, singing my song, strolling along,” Nellie McKay.

A neighbor described Susan Lindauer, 41, as "a regular American who walks her dog in the mornings and the afternoon." The former journalist and press staff person for several Democratic Congressmen in the 90s has been charged with being an Iraqi spy.

According to an indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Lindauer made multiple visits from October 1999 through March 2002 to the Iraqi Mission to the United Nations in New York.

There is a 1998 deposition on the internet by the Middle East Intelligence Bulletin (2001) of the United States Committee for a Free Lebanon and the Middle East Forum in which she claims to have been the victim of assassination attempts and her home was bugged and there were little red laser lights in her bathroom vent. Yes, indeed. She sounds strange enough to be a spy for $10,000.

256 Free Uncle Remus

A library blog site called "Shush" has an interesting comment about Disney's decision not to re-issue Song of the South for fear of offending African Americans.

Free Uncle Remus!

"The closest thing that I know of in terms of censorship is Walt Disney's refusal to re-release one of their greatest movies, Song of the South. A friend of mine owns a blackmarket copy of this film that they loaned me to watch. Its a terrific story about childhood friends (white boy, black boy, and white girl, how pc can you get?) and their relationship with an old black man, Uncle Remus, who works for the white boy's grandmother. The movie is based on The Tales of Uncle Remus and is set shortly after the Civil War. Uncle Remus is a wise man and meant to be admired and respected in this movie. Walt Disney's decision not make it available for fear of offending the black population is completely inverted because it robs that same people of a strong role model. . . [remarks about American Library Association]

"Free Uncle Remus!"

We took our children to see the re-release of Song of the South back in the late 70s or 80s. I had seen it as a child at a friend's birthday party, and thoroughly enjoyed it as an adult. And I was a liberal back then, very sensitive to PC-isms long before we named it. I found nothing offensive in it. Beautiful color, strong characters, and wonderful songs. For soap opera fans, Ruth Warrick, "Phoebe Tyler" of All my Children has a starring role in this movie. She still sings and has an album. She also dated Liza Minnelli's husband David Gest for some years, although 35 years his senior.

255 Do we want this woman in the White House?

The Cranky Professor referred to The Bleat who linked to the John Kerry for President Blog site, for this ugly story that happened on December 7. I checked the site, and it really is there. Shame on you, Ms. Heinz-Kerry.

“So Teresa Heinz-Kerry passes out buttons that say “Asses of Evil,” with pictures of Bush, Cheney, Rummy and Ashcroft on them. There you have it: the President of the United States is an Evil Ass. I’d love for someone to put this question to Kerry in the debate: Senator Kerry, your wife handed out buttons that called the President an Evil Ass. Do you believe he is Evil, an Ass, or both? And if I may follow up, I’d like to ask if you can possibly imagine Laura Bush doing that. Thank you.”