1072 Let my people know

The National Coalition to End Judicial Filibuster. Where do I join? In fact, let's not stop with the judiciary, let's dump the filibuster altogether. Can you think of another organization that uses this? And it is misused by both parties--I'm not pointing fingers at the Democrats, at least not in this paragraph.

There may have been a time when the minority party needed to stall while members waited to hear from their constituencies about an issue or point of law or bill or appointment. But in this day of e-mail, fax and instant messaging? What congressperson doesn't hear immediately from his supporters if s/he is heading in the right direction? What congressperson doesn't have a huge staff, polling and franking privilege.

Whatever the original purpose, it is gone. Now it is just used to wear down the other party. Pictures of cots for Senators is just bizarre. This is a time honored tradition? Ohio's Mike DeWine has joined Voinovich in being a turn coat Republicans. I hope both are defeated in their next attempt at office, whether it's for dog catcher or Senator.

The battle over judgeships during the Bush years demonstrates how desperate the Democrats are to keep the blacks and Hispanics down on the plantation. They can see that they are making a break for it, and find nothing to hold them in their "proper place" (inside the Democratic Party) except talking the other side to death.

1071 What's wrong with this sentence?

Yes, it's a play on words, but read it anyway.

"Lionel Tate, 18, who was freed from prison after being the youngest person in recent history to receive a LIFE SENTENCE [for beating a 6 year old girl to death when he was 12] was arrested after allegedly pulling a gun on a pizza delivery man at a 12 year old friend's apartment and beating up the friend. . . " USAToday May 25, 2005

Mama and those who lobbied for an early release, of course, don't believe he'd do that; and apparently neither did the court system that put him under house arrest and on parole for 10 years after serving very few years of that "life" term (sentenced in 2001).

1070 It's broken zipper season

Last fall I wrote a story/blog, sort of about my life in 1982, based on the events and travels of a pair of khaki slacks that I wore for over 20 years. Then the zipper broke as I was getting ready for a yard sale. It was sort of a strange starting point for a memory, but apparently there are a lot of people like me who have a favorite item of clothing with a broken zipper, because this week, that blog has had 7 or 8 hits after being quiet all winter. People must be unpacking their summer clothes and breaking the zippers with the extra pounds put on during the winter. I feel badly that I'm drawing them in with fantasy and hope of finding a method to get those little teeth back on the track, but as far as I know, slack zippers that are 22 years old, widely traveled and part nylon and part metal are not fixable.

1069 Would you purchase on an appeal to your baser motives?

Of course, but you‘d have to test drive, too. And check with the bank. But auto makers are spending a lot of money on ads (all seen today) to get you to at least consider these models. Some appeal to power, some to a generation, some to childhood rules you want to break, some to prestige, some to “I deserve this” attitude, and some to mid-life crisis--wanting to be wild and crazy when you’re balding with teen-agers that need braces. I didn’t see the “lust and greed” ad today, but I know it’s out there.

Guess which ad goes with the car of your dreams. My favorite ad (although not the car), is definitely #9. It’s edgy--like a Laura Bush joke. Answers at the bottom of the page.

1. Freedom isn’t knowing your limits, but realizing you have none.
2. The luxury vehicle that tows other luxury vehicles away.
3. Moving at the speed of surround sound.
4. Can you resist? Absolutely nothing in moderation.
5. It’s all grown up. Drivers wanted.
6. A luxury car designed to protect you from blending in.
7. However unwarranted, improvements were made.
8. Take everything you know about design and nudge it. Push it. Simplify it. Modernize it. Liberate it.
9. Holds four keisters. Kicks all the rest.
10.Take no prisoners. Well, no more than six.

a. Cadillac SRX
b. Mazda
c. Aston Martin
d. Honda Acura
e. Jaguar XJ
f. Volkswagen Jetta
g. Saab
h. Land Rover
i. Nissan Infiniti
j. Lincoln Mark LT


1-c. 2-j. 3-d. 4-e. 5-f. 6-g. 7-h. 8-i. 9-b. 10-a.

1068 This has a familiar ring to it, doesn't it?

You'd be best served by reading the whole article, reading a more extensive review, or doing your own Google search on this. (Or, read the book!) I'll just lift a few key sentences that caught my eye.

“The New York Times consistently buried news of the Nazi Holocaust in its back pages and downplayed the Jewish identity of the victims, according to the first scholarly study of how the Times covered the Nazi genocide. Buried by The Times: The Holocaust and America's Most Important Newspaper, by Prof. Laurel Leff, has just been published by Cambridge University Press.” Wyman Institute

“Among the book's key findings:

... New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger, an assimilated Jew of German descent, feared that the newspaper would be engaging in special pleading and thus deliberately downplayed news of the Holocaust and the Jewish identity of the victims.

... Holocaust news was consistently relegated to the Times' back pages. Of the 1,186 articles that the Times published during 1939-1945 about Europe's Jews, only 26 (about two percent) of them appeared on the front page, and even those articles "obscured the fact that most of the victims were Jews."

... The Times only rarely published editorials about the annihilation of Europe's Jews, and never ran a lead editorial about the Nazi genocide.

... Because of its importance, the Times helped set the tone for the rest of the media's coverage of Holocaust news; the Times "might have been able to help bring the facts about the extermination of the Jews to public consciousness ... [instead,] the Times helped drown out the last cry from the abyss."

... When the Nazi death camps were liberated, the Times' coverage downplayed the fact that the victims and survivors were overwhelmingly Jews.”

Just as the tragedy and scale of the horrific events in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s were not considered a big story, so the good news coming from Iraq and Afghanistan are not newsworthy and the Palestine/Israel conflict seems to lean in favor of the Palestinians. The column inches devoted to prisoner abuse and a fallen dictator's underwear far exceed any news of the seeds of freedom and democracy struggling to take hold and flower.

1067 Paula said, Just do it

She isn’t bothering with tagging, so here goes. If you want, go ahead.

A) Total number of books I've owned: I have no idea, but it’s probably in the thousands. We’re trying to get back a 36” 7 shelf unit we loaned out a few years back. For years I hung on to practically every textbook I’d owned--gradually with time they’ve slipped out the door to book sales. I have to keep moving them out, usually donating, so I can bring more in, also usually from book sales. Plus, I have many of my grandmother’s and some of my great grandfather’s. Oldest is around 1840, The Economy of Human Life. I still have my first book, The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen, and my first Bible, a Christmas gift from my parents.

B) The last book I bought: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

C) The last book I read: Answer in B, and since I’m leading a discussion on it, I’ll probably keep reading and re-reading.

D) 5 books that mean a lot to me:
Holy Bible, NIV
The Story of English
War Record of Mount Morris
11th edition, Encyclopedia Britannica
How the Irish Saved Civilization

E) Tag five people to do this exercise. If you’ve read this, you’re it.

Blogger is sooo slow tonight, and all the comments are disabled on sites I've visited, so I'm taking a short cut. S'Okay?

1066 Clearing out the Clutter

This morning I cleaned out three closets--just working on the one in my bathroom required rearranging two others. Do you save ribbons, bows and paper from Christmas and holidays? Goodness. I have enough bows to last until 2047! And those cute little gift (reuseable) bags--I had no idea I had so many. Birthdays. St. Pat's Day. Valentine's Day. Christmas. All purpose. I'm guessing I found about 25. And the gift boxes. Did I fear if I bought a piece of jewelry, it would come box-free? I think I had 3 color schemes of boxes from Lazarus, which changed about every 10 years, and now it is Macy's.

I took the largest shopping bag and filled it with dry cleaning bags, bows beyond their life span, beyond safe cosmetics, grocery bags (I must have had 522 small plastic bags awaiting reuse). This bathroom is also my dressing room, so I went through all the unmentionables and sleepwear and tossed anything with tired elastic or which I'll never wear again. I had some small pictures in a box and those got moved to another spot, which means that spot had to be cleaned too. In the guest room closet and chest I rediscovered old greeting cards from a variety of holidays that needed to be corraled, the tape from my wedding, and my sister-in-law's jeans which she left here in 2003. I'd started the day hauling a huge bag of clothes out to the car for our church resale shop, and found another 10 items or so and bagged those too.

When I was finished, I ate lunch and then went through my blogs and cleaned up my recipes into one linked collection, dating it October 1, 2003, which makes my blog look much tidier since I started on October 2. As I find more, I'll make more links, but I don't think I've really posted a lot of recipes. Next I'll link my poetry--there seems to be quite a bit of that here and there.

White House News Photographers' Dinner

Just watched President Bush's slide show live on C-Span. What a hoot. Can't imagine how mad the liberals are going to be. He just can't resist tweaking their blue noses--41, 43, 44, 45, etc. I'm sure the video will be out there on the web soon.

1064 Tagged by Grace

For this one I have to tell 10 things I never done, so here goes.

1. I've never lost any permanent teeth--I even have all my wisdom teeth.
2. I've never tasted beer--have you ever smelled it!
3. I've never been to Europe, but that will change soon.
4. I've never broken a bone.
5. I've never learned to program the VCR and now technology has moved on.
6. I've never painted a ceiling.
7. I've never completed reading the Bible.
8. I've never changed oil in a car.
9. I've never removed the cookies in my computer or the tags on my mattress.
10. I've never ridden in a helicopter.

Now I have to find 5 people to pass this on to. Vox Lauri, Ayekah, Greg S, Matthew and Walt.

1063 Tag you're it. . .If I could be

The game consists of answering five questions and then tagging three blogger friends to answer five questions. I can also add three categories. Vox Lauri has tagged me. The questions she sent are:

If I could be a scientist...
If I could be a farmer...
If I could be a musician...
If I could be a doctor...
If I could be a painter...
If I could be a gardener...
If I could be a missionary...
If I could be a chef...
If I could be an architect...
If I could be a linguist...
If I could be a psychologist...
If I could be a librarian...
If I could be an athlete...
If I could be a lawyer...
If I could be an inn-keeper...
If I could be a professor...
If I could be a writer...
If I could be a llama-rider...
If I could be a bonnie pirate...
If I could be an astronaut...
If I could be a world famous blogger...
If I could be a justice on any one court in the world...
If I could be married to any current famous political figure...
If I could be an Office Supply Salesman...
If I could be a Dog-show judge...
If I could be a Coal Miner...
if i could be a baker...
if i could be a comedian...
if i could be a monk.

My response:

If I could be a musician, I would play piano like my sister who is fabulously talented.
If I could be a dog-show judge, I’d be biased toward Dalmatians.
If I could be a farmer, I wouldn’t use pesticides or herbicides and eat corn on the cob with hot butter and salt in early summer.
If I could be writer, I’d show up at Regis and Kelly, Oprah and the bank while enjoying 67 weeks on the best seller list.
If I could be an Office Supply Saleswoman I’d set up a flashy web site and work from home while I blogged.

And I’m adding,
If I could be a publisher
If I could be a spy
If I could be a greeting card designer

And I'm tagging Karin, Cuppa, Pat in NC.

1062 Preparing for guests

Tomorrow I'm having guests for brunch/lunch. Some women are fastidious housekeepers, some are gourmet cooks and some are fabulous hostesses. I'm none of those, but for a few hours I can fake an average of the three. Maybe I can't be a 10, but I can be a darn good 5. Today I am cleaning and setting the table; yesterday I prepared most of the food. This will allow me to be a good hostess tomorrow and only pay attention to my guests instead of freaking out over water spots on the knife blades or a missing salad plate that's in the dishwasher.

Today I'm dusting everything at eye level, for anyone 5'2" to 5'8". The men don't care, so I'm only measuring the women. I'm really going after the cat hair too. You never know when a guest might have allergies and sneeze all over the end table you just cleaned. Also, I vacuumed the cold air returns. That's something you don't usually look at in your own house, but if you have a pet, your returns probably look like a piece of gray felt. Also, your HVAC will work a lot better.

I'm also really cleaning the bathrooms. Again, only women notice, but I hate going in to freshen up at a dinner party and find dust on the toilet and cobwebs on the mirror. Just makes me a tad suspicious about the food prep area, eh? Do you have Cross and Bible interior doors? Maybe you didn't know they were called that, but I'm married to an architect, and boy are they dust catchers--the doors not the husband. And computer equipment. Yikes. My desk is next to the only downstairs "powder room." Nothing attracks cat hair and dirt more than technology.

One of my guests is a collector--of antiques, seasonal ceramic things, and just about anything historical having to do with cooking. So I gave a swipe across my great-grandmother's "wachamacallit" (I think it was used to punch down rising bread dough) and my grandmother's ceramic butter churn that looks like a small cement mixer. People do like to touch, and I'd be embarrassed if they got dirty fingers (these things are dusted only if company is coming). One guest is a piano teacher, but I gave my piano to my daughter in 1996, so now she is dusting that.

That's enough blogging for now. I have to go poke the artificial day lilies around the patio wall and make a pecan pie. My husband hates them, but they are my favorite, so I only make one when I have guests around to eat at least 60% of it. The other pie is apple--for that, I am unmatched, a complete 10.

1061 Pepsico's gonna pay for this

Have you ever been in a group and noticed someone, usually an outsider, trying too hard to be an insider? That’s what Pepsico’s CFO Indra Nooyi did at Columbia’s Commencement Sunday. She gave the U.S. the finger. Just trying to be one of the good ol' boy blue staters. Suckin up, as it were. And then back peddling when she set even a few liberals, to say nothing of conservatives, back on their heels, she claims her speech was “misconstrued.” In this day of blogging, you’d better be ready to have your text analyzed and your hand gestures videotaped.

The Times of India reports: “She pointed in particular to paragraphs from her speech where she spoke of her fealty to her adopted country. "Although I’m a daughter of India, I’m an American businesswoman. My family and I are citizens of this great country," she said, adding, "This land we call home is a most-loving, and ever-giving nation -- a "promised land" that we love dearly in return. And it represents a true force that – if used for good -- can steady the hand along with global economies and cultures." “

Sweet. But I'm not impressed. Wes Martin, an MBA graduate in the audience reported (at Power Line) that holding up the middle finger "She launched into a diatribe about how the US is seen as the middle finger to the rest of the world. The rest of the world sees us as an overbearing, insensitive and disrespectful nation that gives the middle finger to the rest of the world. According to Ms. Nooyi, we cause the other finger nations to cower under our presence. But it is our responsibility, she continues, to change the current state of world opinion of the US. It is our responsibility to make the other fingers rise in unison with us as we move forward. She then goes on to give a personal anecdote about some disrespectful US business women in an Asian country and how that is typical of Americans overseas. No talk of what the US has done for the world throughout its history. No discussion about the ills that have been cured and the rights that have been wronged by the US. Just how wrong we are for the way we are perceived and how right they are in their own perceptions of the United States."

It’s a shame when a woman and a minority makes it through the glass ceiling only to embarrass herself digitally. Oh well, I needed a reason to stop buying Fritos.

Link to her speech

1060 Got gas?

For high flying frequent flyers.

Seen at Badaunt and My best gadgets.

1059 The Shopping Adventure

A few people are coming for brunch on Sunday so I needed some items and some kitty litter. Only one Kroger, the one south and west of the University carries "our" brand. While noticing the new construction on the campus I got in the wrong lane, and turned down another street, thus taking me past a huge new apartment complex near Krogers that I hadn't seen before. This area when it was on the rural far northwest side of Columbus was settled by African Americans in the late 19th century. Gradually, the white suburbs grew up around it and its little church, and from what I could see, it has now been pretty much obliterated by progress--and they probably got a hefty price for the lots.

That Kroger has also changed since the last time I bought kitty litter. I spent a lot of time just wandering the aisles looking at dishes, small kitchen appliances, and the new book and magazine sections, much fancier than the old ones. It had everything imaginable--even a Starbucks--except the one item I really needed, Half n half. I got so carried away looking at the goodies I also forgot to pick up the white flour for the apple pie.

When I got to the check out I asked for a courtesy card, and was told "We don't do that any more, but you can type in your phone number." "I don't have a Kroger card and don't want one." So I tapped the guy in front of me and asked if he'd slide his card through for me. And he did (he gets the goody points for my purchase). The flustered clerk then told me I wasn't allowed to do that (it was done by then). I told her it still recorded the purchase, so why did it matter. She had no answer, but I think she thought it was cheating. She then told me I could go to the office and get an application, and again I repeated, "But I don't want a Kroger card."

Oh well, I suppose I could try stealing the kitty litter. It might be easier than going through this routine each time. Loyalty cards are the 21st century's wooden nickle. I do let them stamp my coffee card at Panera's, but no one asks me to fill out an application to get it. They sell that information, you know--probably a bigger profit than Half n half.

1058 Reducing Radiation Exposure

“Use of a custom-designed lightweight tungsten-antimony shield during chest computed tomography (CT) examination reduces the radiation dose delivered to female breasts by 43% to 73%, without compromising diagnostic information or image quality, according to the results of a study presented here at the annual meeting of the American Roentgen Ray Society 105th Annual Meeting.”

Story at Medscape.com, now celebrating its 10th anniversary

1057 Flush out the Perps

Library books and some Portage County taxpayers are victims of the stacks urinator in two public libraries. Sounds like a guy thing, although I've seen pictures of women urinating standing up, so you never know. Blake reported this at LISNews.com. This has as much appeal for library users as the unfiltered terminals with porn that librarians seem unable to handle.

What color are you?

you are palegreen #98FB98

Your dominant hue is green. You're logical and steadfast, focused on figuring life out and doing what makes sense. You value being trusted because you know you're taking the time to figure things out and everyone should just follow you. Your saturation level is lower than average - You don't stress out over things and don't understand people who do. Finishing projects may sometimes be a challenge, but you schedule time as you see fit and the important things all happen in the end, even if not everyone sees your grand master plan. Your outlook on life is bright. You see good things in situations where others may not be able to, and it frustrates you to see them get down on everything.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

1055 The next bogus news story

It's just a hunch here, but I'm thinking the next news story proven to be bogus and blown out of proportion (with fewer casualties than the Koran flushing story) will be the one about pushy Christians at the Air Force Academy. It seems to have originated with a female Lutheran Chaplain, if the one I saw on TV is the person referred to here.

"A chaplain at the Air Force Academy has described a "systemic and pervasive" problem of religious proselytizing at the academy and says a religious tolerance program she helped create to deal with the problem was watered down after it was shown to officers, including the major general who is the Air Force's chief chaplain."

I'm a Lutheran (but not pre-natal or sprinkled--I grew up anabaptist and have been immersed) and I know Lutherans are touchy about their wallets and tongue tied about evangelizing. If a Baptist were to breathe a word that he found his relationship with Christ a help in times of stress or battle, a Lutheran might be clueless because that's not "our" terminology. Also, Lutherans believe baptism and communion are sacraments and a means of Grace, but only those two, so that too might cause some disagreements, say over coffee or even in the classroom, with Catholics or other Protestants. Christians can get very heated about this, and feel quite threatened if someone hints their belief system doesn't measure up. And this problem seems to have arisen in the "Respecting the Spiritual Values of all People," class or R.S.V.P, created by Capt. MeLinda Morton. If she attended a Lutheran seminary, she probably skipped the class on "How to share your faith."

But the fact that the New York Times , WaPo, and the Socialist web sites are on this story like ants at a barbeque makes me suspicious that the story is a lot of hot anti-Christian air.

I would have tossed her program just for the cutesy acronym.

1054 Is Poverty Generational--Answering Vox Lauri

In response to my blog about “Easy does it,” the ten easy, personal lifestyle choices of the last 30 years that are causing people in the their 30s and 40s to fall behind their parents’ standard of living, Lauri, a college educated librarian who is the primary support of her family, wrote:

“You made mention of your stable, supportive family that helped you start out in the world, that, as you know, is priceless. Imagine trying to live and pay for your future while going to school. Even a state school can break someone with no funding. Add into that mix kids who have never had squat wanting to fit in with kids who have new clothes and cars, you end up with bankruptcy. And once you are in debt, good luck getting out-- I swear the system is rigged to keep you down. And ironically those who shrug off astronomical interest rates as "punishment for foolishness" well they pay too in taxes to support social service agencies and greater demands on charity.”

Yes, a stable, caring family is a wonderful asset. I can’t tell you how thankful I am that often Dad said, “No,” when I wanted a loan. It caused some hurt feelings and arguments, but “father knew best,” as the saying goes. Also helpful was the fact that in the early 1960s banks would not consider a wife’s income in calculating how much money they’d loan for a mortgage. Tithing our income for church for the last 30 years also had the added benefit of never having any extra cash for eating out or movies. All this worked together to start a pattern for us of never relying on my income until my husband went into business in 1994. And by then the children had left home, the cat died, and I had tenure, benefits and a wonderful career.

Generational poverty is a nice theory, until you really look at the sons and daughters of my generation. Most of my peer group--the educated, upper middle class 4th and 5th percentile group, living in some of the finest suburbs with the best public schools and private schools--have children and grandchildren making many of the “easy choices” I listed, and some will probably never be able to permanently attain their parents’ standard of living until the will is probated. Even if they inherit a generous amount, a life time of bad choices may cause them to squander that. I can’t think of a single family in my social group whose adult children haven’t lived together before marriage, or brought a "before the union" child into the marriage, or experienced falling income from a divorce or two or three, or filed for bankruptcy from extensive consumer credit, or leased too many a new cars, or bought a bigger home they didn’t need, or had problems with alcohol and drugs decimating the family income. Suicides, jail terms, prostitution, gambling and lots of returning prodigals--you name it, and my financially comfortable generation has seen it happen in their families.

The level of CEO salaries, the outsourcing of American jobs, and being a wage “slave,” Lauri’s other points (and I agree CEO’s salaries are way out of line, but we've taxed American businesses into leaving the country) would not have changed any of this spiraling downward creating the income gap between generations. We are still a nation of great opportunity and freedom--but freedom of choice comes with a huge price tag that says "WAIT," and for some that price is just too high and too painful.

Update: Read Walter E. Williams' article on How not to be Poor. A family of four is "poor" by our gov't standards with a household income of $18,810 (2003). Although my 10 easy steps were about a gap developing between generations in the upper percentiles, not poverty per se, it is clear that unmarried parents are the biggest cause of poverty among children, so single parent homes aren't helping the middle class stay afloat either.

1053 Hard to believe where this came from

"The filibuster is an inherently reactionary instrument most famously used to block civil rights legislation for a generation. Democratic senators themselves decried the filibuster not long ago when they were in the majority and President Clinton's judicial nominees were being blocked.

Frist is on the verge of doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. He plans to bring the nomination of Priscilla R. Owen, a Texas Supreme Court justice, before the full Senate today. Democrats have blocked her nomination in the past, and Frist is now threatening to force a change in rules to prohibit filibusters of judicial nominees. That would be a great triumph for the American people. It would be an even greater triumph if the Senate were to destroy the filibuster altogether."

LA Times editorial, May 18, 2005 (unless this is an example of one of those "pharming" tricks).