2331 Ready for prom?

About 20 years ago my brother-in-law's son brought him a little orchid plant in a plastic bag returning from a tour of duty in Korea. It is now doing its twice a year prom dance and this year has 12 blooms. He is a horticulture/hobbyist and has always had a lovely flower garden. At his touch green things and people just flourish. He's also written how-to columns for magazines and has published a book on Purple Martins. Since it is my policy to not mention family members' names (unless I slip) you'll just have to guess whether these orchids are blooming in California, Illinois or Indiana where I have dear hyphenated brothers. According to Robert Louis Dressler, for the orchid family there are 5 subfamilies, 22 tribes, 70 subtribes, about 850 genera and about 20,000 species, so you'll also need to guess about this 20 year old, because I don't know its name.



And then there's my efforts.

orchids

2330 Illegal Immigrant Demonstrations

Does it strike you as odd that students who may be here illegally leave school illegally to demonstrate against a proposed amnesty program that might make them legal? I don't think this is impressing the general American public, even though we are all "children of immigrants" (mine came in the 1600s and 1700s). Body Parts, a blogger from California who is much closer to this than we are (although there were demonstrations here in Columbus, too) had this to say:

Why do they think that non-Mexican Americans will be persuaded of the rightness of their cause when they wave Mexican flags?

If they want immigration from Mexico to be unrestricted so that their relatives and others in Mexico can come to the US to obtain better lives, why do they also carry banners calling for return of the Southwestern US to Mexico? Imposition of the social and economic structure of Mexico on the US would simply reproduce the kind of misery that 40% of Mexicans say they want to escape by moving to the US. Mexico is a de facto caste society, with racially based exclusion of native Americans, ownership of the majority of property and income and control of the government in the hands of a ethnic Spanish-legacy minority, and a nearly impoverished Mestizo middle class living off state bureaucracies. Mexico is a morally, ideologically, and socially failed society. If American students of Mexican descent are so eager to live in such a society, they should go sneak across the border into Mexico and live there.

I dare say.

illegal immigration

2329 Project CALM

Conservation Attention for Libraries of Mississippi is a preservation program developed by a University of Iowa Librarian, Gary Frost. He is restoring and preserving many of the irreplaceable artifacts, photographs and documents from the home (now a museum and library) of Jefferson Davis, the only President of the Confederate States of America. Davis was also a U.S. Senator and Secretary of War. Later this year Frost expects to help restore documents from the Biloxi Public Library also damaged by Katrina. Story here.

HT Rare Book News

Project CALM
Hurricane Katrina
Mississippi libraries

2328 This is a secret?

"It's no secret. On a normal weekday (without prompting from CNN), more than 70,000 distinct visitors come to the FAS web site [Federation of American Scientists Project on Government Secrecy] to view hundreds of thousands of archived documents. Over 11,000 individuals now subscribe to Secrecy News directly, and innumerable others receive it through secondary distribution."

Is this where leakers go to work when they get out of jail?

Some history of secrecy--only 6 p.

A lexicon so you can understand all the secret stuff--unfortunately, its 346 p. It would be really useful if you're writing a novel, or if you are a conspiratist, or a librarian trying to foil the anti-terrorist activities of the government. I learned that PSAs aren't just for prostate cancer, they are Presidential Support Activities. There are so many on-line links to documents about secrecy, this thesis will make your nose itch. I don't think there are any secrets.

2327 Killah must laugh all the way to the bank

supported by all the white kids who take him seriously and make him rich. He got a 4 star review in USAToday today. And he was warmly praised in the NYT Critics' Choice yesterday. And a write up in The New Yorker. The title of the latest album is "Fishscale," the street word for uncut cocaine. Oh! for Old Blue Eyes (whom I didn't particularly like until rap and hip hop started turning up, even in church) and his ties with the mob and the Kennedys. The New Yorker says Killah looks like a cross between Frank Sinatra and a jewel thief. Huh? Here's a toe tapper.

Big heavy pots over hot stoves
Mayonnaise jars and water
With rocks in 'em
Got my whole project outta order

Kilo is a thousand grams
Beige, gold, brown, dirty, fluffy, tan
Extract oil come from Cuban plants."
Aside from the lovely name, Killah, his themes are dealing cocaine, violence in graphic detail, stick-ups gone bad, and general, all around mayhem, like some dirty laundry about getting beaten by his mother. He grew up Dennis Coles on Staten Island. He's even marketed a doll action figure of himself. How cute.

“For those that don’t have no soul, y’all wouldn’t really understand or know where the fuck I’m coming from when I play shit like that,” he said. New Yorker

That'd be me

Ghostface Killah

2326 Buck Owens

Florida Cracker has a nice post about Buck Owens, who I remember only from "Hew Haw" days (which he owned). He died on March 25. Hew Haw was sort of a country parody or take off on the popular Laugh-in, and started as a summer replacement for the Smothers Brothers back in 1968. Well known performers on the show included George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Mickey Gilley, Kitty Wells, Waylon Jennings, Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Dolly Parton, Kenny Price, Kenny Rogers, Freddy Fender, Johnny Cash, Tanya Tucker, Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty, Jerry Clower, Roger Miller, and Loretta Lynn. I enjoyed all the corny regular skits like the barbershop, the hotel clerk, and the jokes in the cornfield. We loved that show at our house--no one sings a love ballad better than Roy Clark. Also, I loved that Lulu--she could sing!

Florida Cracker has some audio and video, plus additional information by Donnah, another one of my linkees, about his background and work ethic in the comments. Ms. Cracker, btw, is a librarian, but I was linking to her long before I found out her secret.

Buck Owens
Hee Haw
Roy Clark

2325 Bushisms

Although I like President Bush, I doubt that when he is 20 years out of office, we'll be passing his clever, flexible, folksy way with words around by e-mail. Actually, in another 20 years we won't have e-mail as we know it, but there will be other ways to gloss over the past. Anyway, I opened my e-mail this morning to a batch of Ronald Reagan quotes. And here they are:

Here's my strategy on the Cold War: We win, they lose."

"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant: It's just that they know so much that isn't so."

"Of the four wars in my lifetime none came about because the U.S. was too strong."

"I have wondered at times about what the Ten Commandment's would have looked like if Moses had run them through the U.S. Congress."

"The taxpayer: That's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination."

"Government is like a baby: An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other."

"If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under."

"The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a government program."

"I've laid down the law, though, to everyone from now on about anything that happens: no matter what time it is, wake me, even if it's in the middle of a Cabinet meeting."

"It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first."

"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."

"Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book."

Two years ago I blogged about a speech he gave as a graduation address in 1957 at Eureka College when his career was pretty much over and he was still in his 40s. Who could have imagined then what was before him.

Monday Memories

Grandma's farm
Did I ever tell you about Sunday night suppers?
Thirty years ago, my children thought eating sandwiches and potato chips for Sunday night supper on trays in the living room was just about the most exciting treat ever! That’s because we didn’t do it very often. Our only TV was in the living room, so they probably watched a Disney show. I was pretty strict about eating together as a family, and even for breakfast, the table was set. By 1976 the lime green shag living room carpet (we didn’t have a family room until 1982) was about four years old, so we probably didn’t do it at all when it was new (and they would have been too small to manage a tray much before that).

When I was a child in the 1950s, Sunday night suppers were special, too. Oh, Mom made wonderful dinners--my mouth waters as I think of it. She’d put the roast in before we went to church or she fixed fried chicken when she got home. The table in the dining room in our house on Hannah Avenue or in our Forreston home would be set with the white linen table cloth and the good white china with a gold rim. Dad would always say the prayer--and I would know the ending if I heard it today, but I‘ve forgotten it now. I’m sure there were mashed potatoes and gravy and vegetables and fruit from the cellar where she kept the home canned items in gleaming glass jars. Even though at the time I didn’t think the clean up and dishes were so great (no one had dishwashers then and she had 3 daughters), I remember that fondly now as a time to chat with Mom.

As good as dinner was at noon, Sunday night with various relatives stopping by was especially nice. Can’t even remember now what we had--maybe sandwiches or left-overs, perhaps a second helping of her fabulous apple pie. But it was casual and relaxed. And occasionally Daddy would disappear and come back with 2 pints of ice cream (we had a refrigerator, but no freezer). We children would just die of excitement and try to guess the flavor until he would get back. Mom would slice the two pints into six even portions and put them into cereal bowls. You wanted it to last as long as possible, but Dad ate quickly and would look in our bowls with his spoon poised and tease, “Do you need any help finishing that?”

Also, I know my Grandmother Mary was without electricity for only a short time after WWII at her farm in Franklin Grove, but I remember Sunday evening suppers in the 1940s of sandwiches on trays by kerosene lamp. Grandma wasn’t much of a cook, but I thought her baloney sandwiches spread thick with butter (we had neither at our house) were a fabulous treat. After a supper of sandwiches, her homemade grape juice from her backyard arbor, and factory canned peaches in dainty little glass dishes, we’d load up the car and start down the gravel lane for home. I’d press my nose against the car window and watch Grandma waving good-bye from the porch silhouetted against the flickering kerosene light in the kitchen.

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2323 Meet Chris White

He's training in NC to go to Afghanistan soon. He'll be blogging about his experiences. He says at his blog:

"Over the course of the next 14 months I will be using this site to capture the story of my adventure into the Panjshir Valley of Northern Afghanistan. . . Shortly after Christmas the Air Force informed me that I was being tasked as the lead Civil Engineer on a Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF).

Our PRT mission is not only the first of it’s kind, but it is also considered to be the most important mission in Afghanistan. Our primary focus will be to help legitimize the central Afghan government by directly supporting the governor of the Panjshir province. Our support will be lived out through various projects to potentially include building schools, roads, hospitals and other facilities, all in an effort to help the local Afghan people reach a quality of living the region hasn’t experienced since the Soviet invasion back in the late 1970’s, which lasted over a decade. There will be other PRT missions just like ours going on throughout Afghanistan. Over 40 other countries are directly supporting these PRT missions."

I'll be watching and praying for Chris.

2322 Another medical service opportunity I'll have to pass up

"Japanese researchers have harvested endometrial stem cells from human menstrual blood. These stem cells have "an extremely higher potential" as a source of cardiomyocytes compared with bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells, they reported at a late-breaker clinical trials session here Sunday at the 55th Scientific Sessions of the American College of Cardiology.

The findings were presented by Dr. Shunichiro Miyoshi on behalf of his colleagues at Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo. The researchers collected menstrual blood from six women and harvested endometrial stem cells."

Seen at Medscape.com which may require registration.

2321 Blog site Housekeeping

I really like the pre-packaged template I use from blogger, but it is fairly common and sometimes I think (after clicking around) I'm back on my page, but I'm on someone else who uses that same parchment and wallpaper look. So I've changed the side margins to reflect my own books. See those tall black leather bound volumes? My favorite books. I inherited 11th, 12th and 13th ed. of Encyclopedia Britannica, and that's what shows in the repeat, plus some of my kitty boxes and other books. Also I went into the help section and figured out how to reverse my archives so the most recent would be on top.

I took a peek at the Truth Laid Bear and discovered I am now #203, although I have no idea what that really means except today Blue Star Chronicles is #67 and Median Sib is #100--they are sisters that I always read along with their sister Joan and cousin Jane (I'd link, but it's been kicking IE out). "The family that blogs together . . . just might have a liberal brother blogger." Lately, I haven't been reading Blue Star Beth as often because she has so many things on it, it takes too much time to load. But that helps stats.
TLB always flat lines me a 71 hits a day, which isn't true. I get several hundred. Last week I was checking my site meter and for some reason last Wednesday I had over 500 page hits, and I think that was my busiest day ever, although I have no idea why. Something must have been in the news that pinged a story in my archives. Since I only track 100 at a time, most of it had scrolled by before I noticed. Thursday Thirteen has definitely caused an uptick in traffic (I started in January), and Monday Memories slightly so. And I swear, at least two out of every hundred are trying to figure out how to fix a broken zipper, a topic from October 2004.

Blog templates
blog statistics

2320 Love and Money

Today's WSJ has and article on nine financial points to consider if you are planning to get married. I'm going to suggest a tenth, or rather a first--talk about religion and faith matters, and factor that into the budget. First of all, it's just plain smart--you can't outgive God. But secondly, it could cause a huge fight in the future if you find out he's a dollar-in-the-plate guy and that was your first clue about his commitment! Thirdly, you might just find out that you don't know each other as well as you thought, and will call the whole thing off!

2. Know your intended's debt load.
3. Know how she uses her credit card--is she charging $1 soft drinks and lattes? Shop aholic?
4. Know your own financial behavior and mistakes--share credit reports with each other. Don't let a bankruptcy or students loans surprise her.
5. Giving up your career? Get a pre-nup. Or at least bring it up for discussion.
6. Talk about your dreams and aspirations.
7. Discuss career expectations. One income after kids? SAHM? Might be a good time to even discuss if you're planning to have a family, wouldn't it?
8. Who will be the gatekeeper and family accounts manager? Know this going in.
9. One checkbook or three?
10. Do you know the lingo--how to discuss finances--the acronyms--401-k, 403-b, IRA, etc. Do you know why paying the minimum balance on the credit card is a disaster for your coming marriage?

You can make it work without any of this--I should know--I've been married 46 years and didn't know zip about finances at 20 when I said "I do." But as we old folks are told each and every day, "It's not the same today."

2319 More ignorance about Christians

Robyn Blumner, a columnist for the St. Petersburg Times, writes from behind a shield of cultural bias about evangelicals today. She's upset that Bush claims ignorance about the various apocalyptic predictions for the Middle East. Well, doh! Who can keep track? If you get 3 Christians together, you'll get at least 2 viewpoints on end times, and the third (that'd be me or the President) will be clueless. (Actually, I won't take the paraphrase of a liberal columnist for anything the President said, but I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt here because she wants so badly to believe it.)

I'm a Christian and I'm not a tribulationist or dispensationalist. I couldn't tell a pre-trib from a mid-trib from a rapture prediction. And millions and millions of committed Christians don't see the modern day political entity called Israel as the one who benefits from all God's promises in the Old Testament. I know this; and I think the President does too. Someday Jesus is coming back. I know that because, like the song says, the Bible tells me so. I'm supposed to be ready and busy, because it could be tomorrow, or it may never happen in my life time (in which case I don't need to worry). I don't need to read the newspaper headlines, the Christian bloggers or the stars to believe this.

She's right that many dispensationalists voted for Bush. Like most of us, Christian or not, they probably couldn't figure out where Kerry stood on anything or stomach abandoning the Iraqis the way his post-Vietnam record (did you know he served?) would predict a similar diaster in this century. However, I'm guessing there's a few more issues conservative Christians have in common with the President other than support for Israel. They may have even hoped he'd keep on task about saving social security and securing the borders. Note to Robyn: brush up on what Christians believe. We're not peas in a pod.

2318 Veggie and fruit plate

There is a Cursillo* Closing at our church tonight and I've been tapped to bring snacks. I always chose a veggie tray, when given a choice although it is a mixed tray of fresh fruits and vegetables. Carrots, celery, cherry tomatoes, white grapes, and 3 different types of apples, sliced. I thought about a fruit dip or some peanuts to sort of jazz it up, but who needs the calories? Not me! Today I had to do the old rubber band through the button hole trick to close my skirt--and I don't know anyone else in the Cursillo community, or even central Ohio, who needs more cookies and brownies. How about your section of the country? Most of the thin people I know have eating disorders or an illness. Or they are under 18. Yesterday we hung an art show. The artist is Greek Orthodox. And of course, it was her name day, so we had to celebrate, right? That means food.

*Cursillo, in case you aren't familiar with the word, is a renewal movement started in Spain by Roman Catholics maybe 60 years ago--means "short course in Christianity." The Columbus Cursillo community is ecumenical, but we aren't supposed to call it Cursillo anymore, since that's for Catholics. So in fact, the vegetable and fruit tray is for Cum Cristo, but because I did my week-end in the late 70s, I still call it Cursillo. But we still sing "DeColores" with gusto and peep like baby chicks and crow like roosters.

Other renewals based on the Cursillo model are: The Episcopal/Anglican Cursillo, The Presbyterian Cursillo, Walk to Emmaus (I think this is Methodist), Via de Christo, Tres Dias, Kairos (for prisoners), Great Banquet, Awakening, Pilgrimage Days with the Lord, Chrysalis, Vida Nueva, Happening, Celebration.

2317 How to blog a better blog

Pilar did a nice Thursday Thirteen on 13 steps to a better blog. Nice job, too.

2316 School uniforms benefit the kids, schools and parents

In today's Columbus Dispatch there was an Op Ed written by a 16 year old girl, Tracy Somers, who attends a Catholic high school where uniforms are required. She defends the uniform policy and thinks her points are valid whether or not the school is religious.

1. Uniforms do not take away one's individuality--if anything, they enhance it.
2. Uniforms do enhance the learning environment. On the occasional "dress down" day, she can see the results of rowdy behavior, slouching, and the time spent admiring each other's outfits instead of paying attention to the task at hand.
3. Students who wear uniforms (which she calls uniformly ugly) learn to ignore outside influences--they help build their pride and self-esteem. (Apparently, people stare at them in public.)
4. Uniforms save her time when preparing for school in the morning.
5. Schools with uniforms rarely report violence.

No, this isn't it; just thought it was a cool way to show your school uniform

While I was reading this op ed, three Future Farmers of America (FFA) came in the coffee shop. Essentially, they wear the same jacket their members wore 50 years ago when I was in high school and it still looks terrific. I stopped and spoke to them--two girls and a boy, and they were pleasant and well spoken. Between the Catholic students and the farm kids, I think the country's in good hands for the future.

school uniforms

You are invited

We're hanging a wonderful art show today by the Columbus Dispatch artist, Evangelia Philippidis. Born in Greece, she includes many Byzantine, ancient Greece and Greek Orthodox motifs and symbols in her work. There is a reception for the artist on Sunday April 2, 2 - 4 p.m. at the Church at Mill Run (Upper Arlington Lutheran Church) in Hilliard, Ohio. The show will run through Thursday, April 27, 2006, and the art is for sale.



Evangelia Philippidis
Columbus, Ohio
Upper Arlington Lutheran Church
Visual Arts Ministry

2314 Myths about the military

It's been awhile since I heard Democrat Charlie Rangle spouting off on Fox about reinstating the draft to make the military more fair. That the military recruits the poor and minority in a disproporationate percentage to their numbers isn't true, and in fact, it is probably less of a path out of poverty than it was for previous generations because today's all volunteer military requires a high education and skill level. You probably saw this piece in November when it first appeared, but it is worth repeating.

"Yes, rural areas and the South produced more soldiers than their percentage of the population would suggest in 2003. Indeed, four rural states - Montana, Alaska, Wyoming and Maine - rank 1-2-3-4 in proportion of their 18-24 populations enlisted in the military. But this isn't news.

Enlistees have always come from rural areas. Yet a new study, reported in The Washington Post earlier this month, suggests that higher enlistment rates in rural counties are new, implying a poorer military. They err by drawing conclusions from a non-random sample of a few counties, a statistically cloaked anecdote. The only accurate way to assess military demographics is to consider all recruits.

If, for example, we consider the education of every recruit, 98% joined with high-school diplomas or better. By comparison, 75% of the general population meets that standard. Among all three-digit ZIP code areas in the USA in 2003 (one can study larger areas by isolating just the first three digits of ZIP codes), not one had a higher graduation rate among civilians than among its recruits.

In fact, since the 9/11 attacks, more volunteers have emerged from the middle and upper classes and fewer from the lowest-income groups. In 1999, both the highest fifth of the nation in income and the lowest fifth were slightly underrepresented among military volunteers. Since 2001, enlistments have increased in the top two-fifths of income levels but have decreased among the lowest fifth.

Allegations that recruiters are disproportionately targeting blacks also don't hold water. First, whites make up 77.4% of the nation's population and 75.8% of its military volunteers, according to our analysis of Department of Defense data.

Second, we explored the 100 three-digit ZIP code areas with the highest concentration of blacks, which range from 24.1% black up to 68.6%. These areas, which account for 14.6% of the adult population, produced 16.6% of recruits in 1999 and only 14.1% in 2003."

Sean M., a commenter at Protein Wisdom has this to say about the war critics' opinion of our troops:

So, let me get this straight...if you support the war but don’t join up with the armed forces to go and fight, lefties scream “CHICKENHAWK!” at you, implying that your lack of military experience invalidates your opinion.

On the other hand, if you’re over there, your opinion on the legitimacy of the war isn’t to be trusted because you’re obviously some sort of moron who couldn’t get a job elsewhere, much less a college education.

HT for both items Yehudit.

2313 Do you have allergies?

A few weeks ago I went out for dinner with my daughter and her husband. While we were browsing the menu she mentioned being allergic to certain items. I was a bit puzzled because she didn't have any allergies growing up in our home in the 70s and 80s. "What are you allergic to?" I asked. "Oh, everything," she replied.

This week Medscape.com reported: "A recent nationwide survey found that more than half (54.6%) of all US citizens test positive to 1 or more allergens, and allergies are the sixth leading cause of chronic disease, with an estimated $18 billion annual healthcare cost. Alarmingly, this statistic is estimated to increase, presenting increasing challenges to patients and physicians alike to its management. Although self-help strategies, such as avoiding the allergen can be helpful, in most cases, this is difficult and inadequate and most sufferers rely on pharmacologic intervention. Because allergic disease in most cases is lifelong, effective management needs to be immediate, efficacious, and long-term. Despite the availability of several pharmacologic options, the effectiveness of current therapies is limited by treatment formulations, frequency of dosage, and side effects, which can have an impact on treatment compliance and overall outcomes."

Thinking back, the only allergy I can recall knowing about when I was a child was that Francine, a classmate, had hay fever and she was miserable certain times of the year. So where did all this come from? The article suggests that 95% of our time is now spent indoors with constant exposure to allergens like pet dander, dust mites, mold spores and cockroach particles.

Well, let's take a look at this--what is indoors with us? When I was a child, most pets lived out of doors, in the basement, or on the porch. I don't think I knew a single person who slept with an animal, unless maybe the hired man on the farm napped in the hay mow. No one had wall to wall carpet, and rugs were periodically moved to the outdoors and beaten and left in the sun. Sheets were washed AND ironed--many with a mangle, which must have killed off a lot of dust mites.

Homes for the most part were not insulated when I was a child. The house we lived in here in Columbus for 34 years (built in 1939) had air space between the outside and inside walls--no insulation--and we had very reasonable heating bills. Air is a good insulator. Now we stuff or blow in all sorts of synthetic material and houses are much tighter. The house can't breathe and neither can you! And speaking of synthetics, we didn't have a lot of that--oh, yes, we wore nylon and rayon occasionally, but rugs and clothing were mainly cotton and wool when I was growing up. Most of that textile material did not come from Asia, South America or China.

Children spent a lot more time out doors 40 or 50 years ago. They weren't sitting in front of the TV or computer with a pet on their laps eating snacks. Also, we just weren't as concerned about cleanliness 40 or 50 years ago. A bath once or twice a week, or washing your hair once a week was considered just about right. That meant you didn't have as much soap and chemical residue on your skin and hair, nor did you smear on lotion to replace lost body moisture. Nobody had a hair dryer to blow dust around. There were no air conditioners were mold would grow and get blown into the house. You didn't have mold growing in the automatic defrost section of the refrigerator, because you only had manual defrost. Oh yes, and most people didn't have clothes dryers which also leak lint and dust into the air of a home and you used laundry soap, not detergents.

No one ate in restaurants except on special occasions, so if we shared germs, it was those to which we had some immunity. We all ate rather plain, homecooked food with very few additives or colors. Deep frying and reusing oil? Maybe if we bought a do-nut from the bakery. We ate meat, but not as much as today, and those animals weren't raised with antibiotics. The eggs and chickens were fresh, free-range for the most part (as a child I even watched them jump around the back yard headless after my dad chopped off their heads).

And everyone seemed to smoke--even up to about 10 years ago. I wonder how many little critters that killed off that we now are allergic to?

Now I'm no tree-hugger who thinks we need to go back to the way things were (and I'm going to a restaurant tonight for our Friday night date), but there are unintended consequences to "progress." $18 billion a year is a lot to sneeze at for "pharmacologic options." Might be smart to put the cat or dog in another room at night, and go outside more often to breath some fresh air. Couldn't hurt.

allergies

2312 Gay adoption

The "experts" have spoken again. It was reported in today's paper that some experts on child welfare have blessed gay adoption.

So how have the experts done in the past on this problem of extra or inconveniently conceived children? Well, in the 17th and 18th century in this country, when the parents died during the crossing from Europe, the children were indentured to strangers to pay off their parents' debt and their own for the passage. Even if they had co-religionists, like the Mennonites, to meet them at the ship, they still became unpaid workers in someone else's household. The experts agreed, it was best all around.

Then in the 19th century some early day social workers for the poor decided that orphan trains would be the best chance for some children to get out of the bad influence of the city. And, maybe they were right. City kids on the wind swept prairies of Kansas or Nebraska, torn away from siblings on the train platform, working behind the horses or cutting sod probably did stand a better chance of reaching adulthood. But my gracious, they must have been terrified and lonely.

In the 20s and 30s of the twentieth century, adoption became a little bit more formal, but if you lived in a small town, many people knew who your mother was and that she "got in trouble" so then you were adopted by that middle-aged couple who "couldn't have any of their own" or a relative. The experts thought that was the best way to handle it. With the Depression, you couldn't be too choosy about who raised the children--everyone had too many mouths to feed.*

Lots of babies of unknown origin appeared during and after WWII and our Asian wars. Movie star adoption was popular, like Michael Reagan, son of President Reagan. Even fake adoptions took place for out of wedlock babies like the daughter of Clark Gable and Loretta Young, Judy Lewis, who actually was "adopted" by her own mother. Experts of that era believed that the stigma of adoption was better than the stigma of legitimacy. Amer-Asian children, some biracial, were sent away from their Korean and Vietnamese mothers and villages to grow up the only Asian person in some small mid-western town.

In the late 50s and early 60s the experts, by this time with Master's in Social Work, decided absolute secrecy was best, so laws were passed in most states to falsify the birth certificates of adopted babies. Even when they became adults they couldn't get their real birth certificate--forever being legally a "baby." Unless they could prove they were Native Americans. Oh yes, the heritage of Indians was more important than Irish or German or English descendant children. You can't deprive an American Indian of his or her tribal rights even if he's only 1/16 or 1/32. But you can deny any Caucasian child of all birth family knowledge about their first degree blood relatives. How's that for turn around is fair play? I'm not sure which expert thought that one up. But they probably were members of whatever "rights" group had the ear of the legislators.

Then when the feminist movement joined hands with the abortionists, we got "open adoption." Supposedly, it should hurt a child less to know that his birth mother knew the past 25 years where he was and who adopted him, but chose never to contact him. Go figure. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't feel really terrific knowing my birth parents knew where I was and decided not to even meet me or thought the occasional photo would do! Open adoption was supposed to cut down on abortions with the logic (probably of a lawyer) that it hurts a woman more to carry a child 9 months and place her for adoption than to abort her and never let her live and just wonder about it the rest of her life. I have no idea really who thought up open adoption (which is sort of a throw back to the early 20th century), but that's what the experts believe. The experts will also tell you it is better to kill a child in utero than to let her face life with a family that can help her with a disability like Downs or club foot. The disability rights people who lead perfectly satisfying lives will tell you that "expert opinion" has absolutely nothing to do with the child's welfare.

When the local supply of infants was dried up by abortions (with the help of experts helping the mommies), other experts turned first to Latin America, then after the collapse of Communism to Russia and the Balkans. Girl babies are not much valued in China and India, so now the experts think raising the only dark skinned or Asian child within a hundred miles won't be noticed or will work out with enough love and support. This form of adoption puts lots of money in the hands of the experts, because only rich Americans can afford to create families this way.

And while I'm on experts, let's not forget all the doctors, lawyers and social workers (notice how these days it takes more and more education to become an expert, but the solutions get more bizarro?) who decided that a child couldn't care less if daddy's sperm came from a sperm bank which paid college students who had good grades, blond hair and blue eyes. Or if mommy was an egg donor or the local rent-a-womb lady. Didn't Woody Allen marry the adopted sister of his own children whom he'd helped raise? I'll bet there was an expert in there saying it was OK. I guess that example should go into the Asian group; nah, works better with bizarro.

Now the experts are even by-passing adoption and/or abortion and going directly to just using up the cells of the embryos of the inconveniently conceived for research. Isn't it just so sweet for the pre-child that he can be useful to society without all that messy living and growing up routine? Some of us can live our whole lives without ever making a contribution to medical science!

Excuse me, I'm gagging at this point. So, the end of the story is I don't trust the "experts" who tell us that gay adoption will help children, or that children don't really need a woman (gay men adopting) or a man (lesbians adopting) in their lives--gender identification and modeling being just more outdated artifacts of another time and different experts.

*I'm leaving out orphanages and children's homes, which considering what followed their closings in the 1960s and 1970s (recommended by the experts), may have been one of the better ideas for stability and care of children without parents.

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