489 There is no free lunch

Apparently, the Oprah audience who received the new Pontiacs will be paying about $7,000 in taxes. This was reported on both Fox and NBC local last night, but originally recipients were told the taxes were covered.

488 Kemp and Cisneros--What a Team!

"Of all the Cabinet secretaries who have served in recent decades in Washington, none has done more to energize their bureaucracies than Jack Kemp and Henry Cisneros. Running the backwater Department of Housing and Urban Development between 1989 and 1997, Republican Kemp and Democrat Cisneros used their competitive drive and enthusiasm to draw attention to what may well be America's most neglected issue.

Now the two men have teamed to produce an election-season report outlining a housing agenda for the nation - one that could command support in Congress whatever the outcome of the November vote."

I saw them interviewed on Fox News' Cavuto show last night. This quote is from David Broder's column, and the full article is here. He says the 12 point agenda is neither right or left, but good for those who want to build, preserve or rehab affordable housing. Finally. Now let's hope someone in Congress will pay attention.

487 Martha and Teresa

George Washington’s election as President was a disappointment to his wife, according to a web site on the Presidents. She wanted to continue living in quiet retirement at Mount Vernon after the war. Nevertheless, she quickly assumed the role of hostess, and first First Lady.

When Teresa Heinz married John Kerry she said, “I’ll go down the aisle, but I won’t cross the aisle.” (Her first husband, whose name she retains, was a Republican.) She added, according to an article in W (a must-read for fashion, beauty and arts insiders, which I looked at today in the doctor‘s office), “for anyone who loves life the prospect of becoming First Lady was worse than going to a Carmelite convent.”

486 Hurricanes and Politics

I've now heard three things about how the hurricanes in Florida and the southeast might affect the coming elections. The first, which I originally heard on Fox News, was that after natural disasters people are so miserable they'll vote against any incumbant;* second, if Bush had been more aggressive about environmental issues, there wouldn't have been so many hurricanes,** and third, more counties that voted for Bush in 2000 were hit than the Gore counties, so it is punishment from God (a liberal's blog comment).*** I haven't heard it mentioned, but if polling places are damaged or voting machines out of whack, there will be law suits to hold up the results. Although the Haitians have suffered the most casualties, and they won't be voting.

*The now-famous quote that August [1992] from Dade County's emergency operations director, Kate Hale — “Where in the hell is the cavalry on this one? For God's sake, where are they?'' — summed up the frustration that many people in Florida voiced in the days after Andrew hit. (Some of Floridians’ anger was also directed at then-Gov. Lawton Chiles, a Democrat, who delayed asking for federal troops.)MSNBC

**BlameBush!

***Crooked Timber

485 Is this the medical care liberals want for us?

Although I have a degree in Library Science, I never took a "kiddie lit" or young adult lit class, focusing instead on my interests of the 1960s--Soviet studies, Russian literature and cataloging (so much for what you plan for at 24). But I came across a blog today written by a Brit called An Englishman's Castle in which he asks for suggestions for reading for his teen-age son who will be having a replacement cranioplasty and will be hospitalized for awhile.

Then he goes on to the scary part: "his doctor has suggested that he takes his own cup and cutlery in as well as cleaning materials and also to keep a large box of antiseptic wipes by his bed and insist that anyone coming to examine him cleans their hands. I hope he has the balls to do so..."

Even with our system, I remember asking a young medical tech to please wash his hands after he sneezed into them while preparing to examine my eye before the "real" doctor got there. "Oh, it's just allergies," he insisted. But I too insisted, and he reluctantly did as I asked. Some days you gotta have the balls. . .

484 The joy of cartoon memories

Did you have a favorite book at Grandma's house? When visiting my father's parents we cousins could walk to the town movie theater to get away from the boring adult conversation. However, when visiting my maternal grandparents, who lived on a farm, entertainment was a bit more old fashioned--playing in the out buildings, climbing trees, creating villages with a box of wooden blocks, playing the card game "Authors," or looking through dusty, old books. Not a bad way to spend a boring Sunday afternoon.

When my family visited that same farm house, about a decade after my grandparents were gone and my mother had converted the house to a retreat center for church groups and family reunions, my own children entertained themselves with the same activities (no TV). They would reach for a favorite book which was a compilation of cartoons from the late 19th century through the 1940s, Cartoon Cavalcade. It was most likely a People's Book Club selection (like Book of the Month but through Sears). It was my mother's book, and I had spent many hours browsing it when I was little. Many of her books migrated to the farm house to provide just such entertainment for quiet week-ends.

Good cartoons are difficult to create and probably even harder to understand from a distance of 50 years. For that reason I thoroughly enjoyed the wonderful entry at Library Dust for September 19 on H. T. Webster, the creator of the Casper Milquetoast character, whose work is now rarely seen except in libraries' cartoon collections. McGrorty writes:

"Where I will go is out on a limb enough to suggest that Webster is one of the finest cartoonists the country has ever seen in the pages of its newspapers. Cartooning is a difficult line of work. The artist has to create images that will become familiar without going stale over a considerable period of time, and always be amusing: funny, wry, hysterical or any of the other degrees of mirth must be produced with regularity, which effect requires a great understanding of human nature and an evocative power that must be strong but operate with no wires showing. If you do not think this is so, try to sketch the future panels of your favorite strip in your head—just see if you can follow the formula. It is difficult because the cartoon is such a precise balance of things, all familiar and practically sacred to the regular reader—who nevertheless requires frequent shifts in focus and theme upon the established base."

Click over to Library Dust and read some excellent writing about this cartoonist. Then blow the dust off one of your favorite books.

483 Yet another position for Kerry

Last week in the Washington Post Charles Krauthammer wrote, “If the election were held today, John Kerry would lose by between 58 and 100 electoral votes. The reason is simple: the central vulnerability of this president -- the central issue of this campaign -- is the Iraq War. And Mr. Kerry has nothing left to say. Why? Because, until now, he has said everything conceivable regarding Iraq. Having taken every possible position on the war, there is nothing he can now say that is even remotely credible.”

Not so. John Kerry has changed his stance again. He’s taking a very hard line now--sort of sounds more like Howard Dean in the primaries than Dean. I heard the latest version (along with recordings of his previous pro-war positions in 2002 and 2003) on talk radio this morning. I wanted to cite a specific neutral source. I “googled” the phrase, “John Kerry’s latest position Iraq” just now and got over 100,000 matches. Now, there really haven’t been that many, but I’d guess easily 9 or 10.

One Democrat I read today said that finally Kerry had a message that people could understand--it had a subject, verb and predicate. And he laughs at President Bush’s speech?

482 Stars and Stripes in her Eyes

Melanie Phillips has returned to Britian after a brief stay in New York with "stars and stripes in her eyes," she says in the September 15 Jewish Chronicle.

"It’s the sheer energy of the place that strikes you, the sense of can-do, the certainty that people can improve life for themselves and others and that setbacks can be overcome. Serving others is not a chore but a pleasure, because satisfaction is to be gained from making someone’s life that bit easier or nicer. You get the impression that people are glad to be part of the same human race as you.

What a difference from cynical, depressed, defeatist Britain. Yes, the US lacks subtlety; yes, sometimes it’s brutal and primitive (think of its prison system). But that sense of optimism, the belief in the future, is a precious commodity."

A Brit I met at the coffee shop last year said the same thing--and he'd been here for thirty years! He said he noticed the difference immediately.

481 Don't Mess with this Mama!

Lauri homeschools her brood and is proud of it. She home schools because she believes it is the best way for her children to get an excellent education. And she's really irritated that some feminist is questioning her motives.

"The crux of Ms. Boyce's problem with home schooling, I suspect, is the "don't tread on me" American ingenuity that is HS. To HS one has to believe they can educate their children not the state, that they, not the state, know what is best. And most folks do not question the superiority of HS because it is obvious, they question their ability to hs because it takes hard work and dedication. The honest folks state they couldn't do it (HS), the dishonest tell others they shouldn't do it (HS)."

Read her excellent rant here.

Note: I'm trying to update my "blogroll," but after several hours, still can't find the error, so the page may not be working quite right. I'll try later. Right now it is time to go. . . to the library!

480 How Myths about Librarians Get Started

Although I have two shelves of older unanalyzed first issues, I was reading two of my newer titles, Cottage Living and Find! to put in my hobby blog, In the Beginning, which is about first issue magazines. A man I see frequently in the coffee shop stopped at my table.

"You're always reading," he said. "I wish I had more time, I'd read." (This is either a lie or a fantasy told by most non-readers--he probably finds time to do what he really enjoys. Golf. Fishing. Watching TV.)

"I'm a retired librarian--you know, that's all we ever do--just read," I joked.

He asked where I had worked and I told him the Veterinary Medicine Library at Ohio State, and he said he is there frequently in his job as a caterer. He was quite jolly, and I'm sure he believed me that librarians read all day--that's how rumors get started--over coffee and jokes.

479 Christmas is Coming!

Harry and David, L.L. Bean, and Cheryl's Cookies catalogs all arrived last week. Sigh.

478 The Price of Pork

Was it Hurricane Opal or Floyd or both that brought us all those photos of dead pigs floating in flooded fields at those huge hog farms in the south? There’s another kind of rotten pork, and that’s the smelly stuff that gets included in bills intended to help people in the devastated areas. Both parties do it--pork is an equal opportunity diet--and apparently it will be added to hurricane relief in supplemental bills.

“Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today issued a Category 5 warning to taxpayers that members of Congress are preparing to take advantage of the devastation caused by Hurricanes Charley, Frances, and Ivan to fund their own parochial projects. House Appropriations Chairman Bill Young (R-Fla.) will introduce an emergency supplemental bill to help pay for damages caused by the storms, and members are already looking for ways to tack on pork.

“Congress simply has no shame. Knowing that this is most likely the last opportunity to bring home the bacon before the election, members are busy maneuvering behind the scenes to add their pet projects to the emergency supplemental,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said. “Considering the record $422 billion budget deficit this year, loading the bill with pork could be more costly than cleaning up after the three hurricanes.” "

Full comments on this story with other pork classics at this site. The “King of Pork” is Democrat Robert Byrd according the CAGW.

477 The Reunion

Books in my house have conversations with each other and me. They complain that they aren’t happy here at the condo because of the stationary shelving. They have to congregate and socialize with volumes of similar size instead of similar interests--as though our home were some sort of storage facility!

Books aren’t the only physical objects that speak to me. In the morning I take out a china cup decorated with rabbits that belonged to my Mother, and I say, “Hi, Mom, let‘s have tea.” When I need just a little coverage from the fall breezes I slip on Dad’s oversized, shabby, royal blue baseball jacket and say, “Thanks for the protection, Dad.”

Today I’ve planned a reunion for my parents’ bedroom suite from the 1950s. I’m guessing that the pieces have been separated for over 40 years. My father always suffered from painful back spasms and was a restless sleeper who rose before 5 a.m. to go out on his truck. So the earliest bedroom suite I remember is a deep reddish brown, hard rock maple set with twin beds, a dressing table with a mirror, and a five drawer tall bureau. There used to be a dressing table bench, but that seems to have disappeared.

In the 1960s I believe my parents converted to a king size bed and tried several styles, including a waterbed. The twin beds and dressing table went to the farm home of my grandparents which my mother was converting into a religious retreat center. They kept the bureau for their own use. After they gave the farm to my brother in the late 1980s, the beds and dressing table came to us in Columbus, and in a few years they migrated to our second home in Lakeside on Lake Erie.

Mother died in 2000 and Dad in 2002. Because his house was to be sold, children and grandchildren took what they could immediately after the funeral. We could just get the bureau into the back of the SUV. It came to live with us here in the condo guest room, and we brought the dressing table down from the cottage to keep it company. Today my husband and son-in-law are driving to the Lake in the remnants of Hurricane Ivan to bring the beds back to Columbus. Our double bed from the guest room and my daughter’s baby dresser (both green) will settle in at the Lake house to welcome guests there.

The room is freshly painted and matching bedspreads and sheets in moss green and pastels have been purchased. A “South Hannah Avenue” street sign will be attached to the wall. A painting of lilacs similar to those on the bush that decorated our yard on Hannah Avenue will hang in the room, and a 1950s photo of my parents will be on the dresser. Mother liked to read at night so I may put a book or two from the 50s near one of the beds. If my memory has failed here and the set originated in another house in another decade, just don’t tell me. I’m having too much fun planning this reunion.

476 Today's Nest Egg Hasn't Changed Much

Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal had an article about Social Security in which it claims that people didn’t have retirement nest eggs before the 1930s--this apparently written by a young person who believes owning stock is the only way to a sound retirement--therefore Social Security was born. The pre-1930 plan was to own assets and to have adult children to help. Not everyone did, of course, just as today not everyone buys stock or has 401(k)s or IRAs.

Social Security was never intended to be a retirement fund which could support any standard of living above rock bottom. It has been an extremely badly managed government program and will never be as good as privately managed funds because the government has never invested it for growth, but used it for other programs. It is a safety net period, and should be reserved for those who were unable to work to contribute to their own accounts. Today’s workers are paying for my husband’s check--he is not receiving the payout of his efforts.

My husband contributed the maximum every year he worked, and his monthly Social Security is about $1,500. My STRS pension is about the same, and I’m not eligible for the wife’s portion of Social Security. Although it might be possible to live on this, we’d certainly have to slim down somewhere--our auto and house insurance bill came this week and it is over $2,000. Our long-term care insurance is over $3,000 a year. Our annual health insurance I haven’t exactly figured out yet, but even with Medicare, it will be around $5,700 for the two of us. So just our insurance takes close to one-third of our retirement income, and we haven’t even gotten to taxes yet.

Our real estate taxes are over $5,000. Our local income taxes are about $300 a quarter and our federal taxes about $1500 a quarter, plus the $360 annually taken from my pension which I think totals about $7,560. Add to the taxes and insurance, our church tithe of 10% of our gross income, and I think we’re left with less than $100 a month for both of us from our combined pension/social security.

So please, Mr. Young Guy at the Wall Street Journal, don’t tell me retired people today are a lot better off than the 1930s because of Social Security! Fortunately, we do have adult children, and have invested in real estate, just the way our grandparents did.

474 A Car for Dan Rather

The USAToday (4b) has an article on fake, vintage automobiles. The 1972 Oldsmobile 442 is one of the more common fakes. It was (is) a beautiful car. We could have purchased a red convertible 442 in 1985 from a neighbor. I think he wanted $5,000, but I don't remember exactly. It was within the realm of possibility. But I said no--after all, we had a 16 year old son.

"It takes someone with a lot of knowledge to catch a phony," says Dan Mershon of Springfield, OH. He was fooled and sold one--but gave the buyer his money back five years later when the forgery was discovered.

Imagine that. A used car salesman more honest than a TV journalist!

I was a bit puzzled Tuesday when watching coverage of Bush's speech before the National Guard members. I saw coverage on CNN, Fox, ABC, and read the story Wednesday in the Columbus Dispatch, and USAToday. All the news media pointed out that Bush didn't mention the controversy surrounding his time in the Guard. CNN made it the high point of its story, not the speech itself--and replayed it numerous times.

Should he have cast aspersions on Dan Rather's forged documents? Should he have asked why he has called Kerry's service honorable, but Kerry has maligned all the Guard by disparaging Bush's service? Should he have pointed out how all Guard service during Vietnam has been impuned by the Democrats since Dan Quayle was the Vice President?

50,000 Guard and Reservists are on active duty. Every time the Democrats cast doubt on one, they probably send two more to the voting booth for Bush.

473 A teen-ager is a murderer, but a doctor provides a service?

Here in Ohio, a young teen-ager (15) went to jail for murdering her newborn. She says the baby was dead when born and she was frightened and put the body in a trash can.

Jill Stanek says she has talked to hospital staff who say that after “live birth abortions” the still alive, viable baby is put in a biohazard bag and smothered or drowned. This what a nurse told her:

“I saw a lot of babies born alive…. Dr. X said that was a side effect of a medication. They always said to leave the baby alone, and they would stop breathing…. Two hours was the longest I saw a baby live…. One girl was 26-27 weeks….

They put the babies in red biohazard bags when they were still moving… tied the bag up… put them in a biohazard box. The biohazard medical service would pick boxes up Monday and Thursday.

Dr. X would insert the medication and send the women home. They were told to come back the next day.

There was one incident where the woman had the baby while she was waiting at the door for the clinic to open. She got there at 7a. The clinic opened at 8a. She said the baby was born alive. The baby was now dead, and she was holding the baby in a bag. She was bleeding.

I was in the room when Dr. X gave the digoxin to stop that baby’s heartbeat beforehand. [Digoxin is a medication inserted by needle through a mother’s abdomen into a baby’s heart to cause instant cardiac arrest.]

Well, he didn’t have an ultrasound machine that day. He inserted the needle blindly. He said he’d been doing it so many years, he knew the location. But he didn’t actually know if he hit the heart.

I know this nurse Bridget. She was working there when the new doctor held a baby under water in a bucket when she told him the baby was alive. That baby was between 25-26 weeks. Bridget left two months ago because of that.

I left because I got tired of everything going on and the fact Dr. X would coach women into saying they were going to kill themselves if they didn’t abort. Then he said he had a legal right to do it past viability. He did them all the way to 40.” weeks.

Full story here.

471 New Charges Against Bush--He Lied in 1978!

Now there is a new Democratic 527 campaign to say that Bush lied about being in the Air Force, because he was in the Air National Guard. This complaint is about the wording in campaign literature from a 1978 race. Why are the Democratic 527s into this hanging chad mentality? If they are trying to establish a pattern of lies, this is really weak. Kerry’s is much stronger--the pattern, that is.

But if you look at all the papers which have been released, they say he is in the Air Force Reserves AND the Air National Guard. Kerry was in the Naval Reserve, but I’m quite sure I’ve heard him referred to as a Navy officer, and also a solider. His own website calls his records, “Naval Records.” Then if you go to Air Force online magazine and click on “Almanac,” you’ll see all the various parts of the Air Force displayed, and it includes both the Air Force Reserves and the Air National Guard.

Here’s what Jerry Killian wrote about George W. Bush upon promotion to 2nd Lt.

3. Lt Bush is a dynamic outstanding young officer. He clearly stands out as a top notch fighter interceptor pilot. Lt Bush is possessed of sound judgement, yet is a tenacious competitor and an aggressive pilot. He is mature beyond his age and experience level as evidenced by his recent participation in the unit firing deployment. During his deployment, Lt Bush delivered both primary and secondary weapons from the F-102. The tactics and procedures conformed to a test project and were, therefore, more difficult to perform. Lt Bush performed in an outstanding manner, bringing credit to himself and the unit. He also participated in a practice element deployment and practiced simulated weapons delivery on varying geometrics and tactics solutions. Lt Bush’s skills far exceed his contemporaries. He is a natural leader whom his contemporaries look to for leadership. Lt Bush is also a good follower with outstanding disciplinary traits and an impeccable military bearning. He reflects credit upon himself and the Air National Guard. Lt Bush possesses vast potential and should be promoted well ahead of his contemporaries.

Read all the Bush papers at this site.

I don’t believe John Kerry has released all his records, but there are some files about his medals (did you know he had medals?) and requests on his Kerry Edwards Page.

470 The Forgeries--Who Dunnit?

I used to write my library's newsletter in the mid-80s with an old IBM Selectric (possibly early 70s?) and was pretty good at it--had correctible type (a white ribbon) and balls for changing type fonts. It was tricky changing the font, but I learned. Reading this story about the IBM Selectric Composer which may be the only typewriter in the early 70s that could have come close to creating those forged Bush Guard memos, really brought back memories, and reminded me of how grateful I am for word processing and for the 70-80 wpm speed I learned on a typewriter. Even so, no researcher, not even a librarian, could have pulled this together so quickly before Google.

The web site of the Selectric History page has this message:

"Sorry, but due to excessive hits, this page is temporarily out of service.

Please check back after the election.

For those who want my opinion...the documents appear to be done in Word, and then copied repeatedly to make them "fuzzy". They use features that were not available on office typewriters the 1970s, specifically the combination of proportional spacing with superscript font. The IBM Executive has proportional spacing, but used fixed type bars. The Selectric has changeable type elements, but fixed spacing (some models could be selected at 10 or 12 pitch, but that's all). The Selectric Composer was not an office typewriter, but apparently did use proportional spacing. These were very expensive machines, used by printing offices, not administrative offices."

If you are too young to remember electric typewriters or had secretaries to do your typing, you would not want to use even the office model Selectric typewriter today . Photo of type balls in e-bay.

Who created and planted the forgeries? I'm leaning toward the Clinton camp as pulling a scam on CBS. The Republicans wouldn't want to put anything out there that kept up the discussion, even misinformation, about the guard service. Especially the way the media covers things--sometimes when I've heard this story on the radio, the majority of it deals not with the possible scam of CBS, but the content of the memo, even though the report claims to be about the forgery. Some commentators (Juan Williams, for instance) seem to think it is the message, not the forgery, that is important.

The Clintons have apparently successfully unloaded James Carville, a CNN employee, on the Kerry-Edwards campaign, which sets them up for all sorts of problems. Carville is married to Mary Matalin, a Bush advisor, so I suppose he could be just posing as a Kedwards supporter, but it sets the Democrats up for even more accusations of media bias than they already have. Plus, Carville regularly makes a fool of himself in front of millions as a loud mouth, news analyst (entertainer) on cable. He can make Rush Limbaugh look and sound like a mild mannered Episcopalian priest.

The Old Media has tried to disparage the bloggers who uncovered the forgeries. Jonathan Klein of CBS looks down on bloggers: "A guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas." Amy Ridenour says, “Let make sure some of these jammies are pink nighties, so when people in jammies are running rings around his well-dressed ace reporters, Jonny will receive a reminder that not all bloggers are guys." Amy is on my blogroll.