2585 Kroger battles Wal-Mart for food shoppers

according to a story in last week’s paper. I used to be a loyal Kroger shopper--I knew where everything was, I knew the staff, and I knew the specials--then they asked me to start playing games with a little plastic card, Kroger Plus. Well named, because it sure did up the price on everything. Jack it up, then give a special lowered price for using the silly card. They are not rewarding you for shopping there; they are penalizing you with data mining which is very expensive.

The worst thing about the loyalty cards isn’t just the cost increase in every day non-special items (about 49% higher than non-card stores), but the snooping they do on your shopping habits, which in turn “dumbs down” the choices to please the 20% of the customers they figure are making 80% of the purchases. Selling your information instead of food is also now part of the business. And in case you think you’ll just lie on the address and personal information, or borrow a friend's or the card of the person in line with you, some are going to finger scanning. With all the news about data being stolen recently (VA, AIG, Ohio University), you’d better know that a “privacy policy” is your own personal surrender flag.

So now I shop at Meijer’s or a neighborhood non-chain, neither of which use loyalty cards.

Loyalty cards

2584 Sadness mixed with joy and relief

My daughter called about 2 hours ago to tell me that her mother-in-law died early this morning. She had a rare form of dementia and had been in a nursing home for about 18 months. We last visited her in August, and although she was weak, she knew us and could carry on brief conversations. Each time they thought they were losing her, she would rally and return to the world of the living. She had physical problems too which the wonderful staff at the Lutheran Home (I've forgotten the name) controlled completely with proper diet and good nursing care--nothing extraordinary. My son-in-law had gone up Friday night, not because she was any worse, but just because he's such a super sweet guy who was helping out his parents. They were called after midnight because she was "in distress" so his father and brother were with her when she quietly slipped away. Her other three children are making arrangements to come home to Cleveland.

Yet, when a Christian dies, we are comforted by knowing there is more, much more. Mixed with relief because her illness is over, there will be sadness that now there is a hole in the family, among friends and in the church family. She directed a children's choir for many years at her Missouri Synod Lutheran church. She lost both her parents at a very young age, and I know a reunion will be on the agenda.

2583 The importance of a father

Ruth has a lovely message about the importance of fathers, and our heavenly Father. She lost her father at a very young age. She is the mother of several of the bloggers to whom I link. Check here, you will be blessed by her full message.

"The influence of a father cannot be over emphasized. Studies have shown that when a father is missing, absent from the home, there is a hole in the child, especially in a son, that cannot quite be filled

Fortunately, the Bible teaches there is a remedy. Many of the great leaders of past generations have filled this space, this hole left by an absent father with the Heavenly Father. The Psalmist David tells us even if my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take me up. God is able to take all kinds of tragedy and bring about good when we commit our live to him."

2582 Episcopalian sound bites

About 1500 Episcopalians have been in Columbus this week, but you'd think there was only one, the gay Bishop Eugene Robinson. If I heard sound bites from him once, I'll bet I heard ten on our local radio and TV, admonishing others to believe the Bible, not about gender or marriage or judgement for sin, but about love and relationships. Most Anglicans (77 million worldwide) outside the U.S. take the Biblical view that homosexuality is an abomination, but he and a few hundred others have another agenda for their church. Did no one else but Robinson have anything to say?

Because ELCA (Lutheran synod to which I belong) cooperates with the Anglicans on things like disaster relief and social issues, a few years back it was proposed that Lutheran pastors be a part of the "historic episcopate" through the Episcopal hierarchy in order to be ordained. I've checked a few web sites to see if I could figure out where this stands today (it was a late 90s issue), but if there is anything more obfuscating than a federal government document, it is one done by the church where the elephant is just putting his trunk inside the door to see if he'll be invited to sit down.

2581 Environmental issues I believe in

Al Gore is just trying to rebuild his political base. The real action has to take place locally and by American business, not globally by government fiat. My goodness, in 2004 the airborne particulates in Beijing were more than 6 times as high as in New York City. And Ohio used to be under a glacier. So here's what I support, in no particular order:

1. Cleaner burning coal and safer mines.
2. Drilling for oil in Alaska, which is what Alaskans want.
3. Don't allow western and southern states to drain the Great Lakes so they can farm non-agricultural land.
4. Rebuild the barrier islands while restricting coast-line communities--even for the rich. Or the poor.
5. Don't allow mega-Casinos by Indians or Cajuns or Hispanics or the Mafia or people of any special interest in coastal-tourist areas. Work on developing "real" jobs that produce something.
6. Restore the fence rows in the Midwest so the birds can eat the bugs and less pesticide will be needed, plus it is just prettier and more colorful. Encourage living snow fences to protect soil from erosion in winter.
7. Get rid of welfare for farmers (price supports) which encourages mismanagement and misuse of the land and creates ever larger farms.
8. Strict enforcement of keeping out agricultural and waterway pests. (Actually we do a better job of restricting harmful bugs that hurt our economy than we do illegal people who do it by stealth.)
9. More solar power; forget wind turbines--looks ridiculous, kills birds and changes air currents which will have long term bad effects on agriculture.
10. More bicycle paths and set asides for parks. More sidewalks for walking. Discourage culs-de-sac to reduce congestion on feeder roads.
11. Give small, efficient cars a tax break instead of trucks, or eliminate it all together.
12. Reduce the government's dependence on oil by cutting gasoline taxes at the pump.
13. Have Hollywood's falling stars let squatters use their land for gardens for the poor.

I'm sure you have ideas from your industry.

2580 Algore's vision of the future without harmful emissions

Just kidding. These photos of North Korea were taken recently by a Russian web designer. Text has been translated.

HT Purpleslog

2579 Finances, taxes, consumerism and materialism--what I've blogged

This isn't everything, but it may take a while to find them all.

Alternative Minimum Tax Creep
The burden of student loans
Buy real food
Cashing in on going green
Charitable gifts Joe Biden
Charity CEOs’ salaries
College costs
Coupons TT
Debt management groups
Depression, Great
Donating to the United Way

Economy sad stories
Entitlement crisis
Ethanol and the energy crisis
Families in economic statistics
Fannie Mae
Fees, taxes and surcharges on utilities
Food stamps--what they will buy
The free breakfast
Gambling--the house always wins
Household income
Income tax preparation
Index of Economic Freedom
Love and Money
Loyalty card rant

The marriage gap and poverty
Material well-being of Americans
Minimum wage smoke screen
Mortgages and discipline
New face of homelessness
Petroleum based products--it's not just gasoline
Poverty in America
Poverty series, yet another one
Poverty, who helps
Retiree organizations

Retirees, income sources

Send Mom on a cruise
Six figure incomes--I feel their pain
Social Security
Student debt
Student loans
Taxes--Obama's Plan to save the economy
Taxes, Do the Rich pay their fair share
Thrifty food plan

Vacation home taxes
Wal-Mart and Ted Kennedy
Wal-Mart’s low prices help the poor
Wealth distribution
What I know about wealth and poverty
Why coupons don’t save you money
Why librarians salaries are low
Women’s wage myths
Worst Economy in 70 years
Young people in debt

Excerpts
"Liberals don't want the poor to be happy; they want them to be angry and feeling victimized--dependent on the government and Democrats for special programs. Not programs that lift them out of the bottom quintile, mind you, but programs that keep them right there where they belong--as their power base. The left is getting very aggressive with law suits against WalMart--and it's not just their deep pockets they're lusting for, they truly want WalMart to fail. Gimme back my po' folk!." Wal-Mart’s low prices help the poor

"My gripe is simple: Ellie Kay writes a column on finances, and the question she is responding to is about how to save money on food. According to the question, this family of four spends $700 a month on food. So how does Ellie Kay respond? She claims her family saved more than $8,000 last year on food and household goods by using, 1) manufacturers' coupons, 2) double coupons, 3) store coupons, 4) loss leaders, 5) price comps, 6) sales and clearances, and 7) comparison shopping.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. She's dancing with the guy who brung her. The advertisers. Food companies are not in business to give away their products, but she knows that most American shoppers believe they are. She knows that food companies are heavy advertisers in Meredith's publications." Why coupons don’t save you money

"Whenever you hear liberals whining that the rich aren't paying their share, but they will if we just increase taxes (like Friedman talking about raising gasoline taxes to reduce driving, which would probably hurt the poor the most), they ignore that the very wealthy can hire legions of accountants to protect them with all the loopholes Congress writes into the tax law, loopholes none of the the rest of us can qualify for or afford accountants and lawyers to interpret." Retiree organizations

2578 Student debt reply

Jody Minor gives this advice to the student (story in USAToday) at Rutgers who accumulated $116,000 of debt by graduation. "What did I do wrong?" the graduate whined? Mr. Minor supplies the answers in his letter making these points:

1. You didn't have to attend an extremely expensive college.
2. You could have spread your education over more years.
3. You could have worked part time or full time.
4. You could have worked before applying for graduate school.
5. You could have scrimped and saved (like he did).

Incidentally, Mr. Minor's parents' income was too high for him to qualify for government induced debt, so he followed this outline and graduated in 5 years with zero debt.

Friday Family Photo

Even most of my family couldn't tell you how these two photos are related. I'm guessing the b & w is 1940, but I have no idea what the occasion was. The children are my paternal cousins Kirby* and Melvin, Evelyn and Jimmy, my uncles Derril and Gene (my father's brothers), my two sisters, my uncle Ken (dad's brother-in-law) and a family friend who I think was Bud Wilson (I'm sure if Dad were alive he could provide a positive ID). However, my cousin Gayle, who is a maternal cousin, is sitting in the front. So perhaps Mom was babysitting, and maybe she took the picture, because the format size looks like hers--and it was in her box of photos.

But did they all get in that little car? Probably not. I'm thinking it was a family picnic--maybe the annual "Tennessee Reunion"--held at a farm, and the car was just parked along the road.



The second photo shows the children (with spouses) and grandhildren of my two sisters (who are in the b & w photo) almost 60 years later with my Mom in 1999. My niece Karen, who's the family photographer, set it up and then got in the back row.

*More about Kirby and his music career on Monday Memories next week.

2576 Fat Doctor's Scary Story

This is one of the scariest stories I've ever read on a blog. In her defense, I'll add that at 37 she is recovering from a recent stroke.

2575 Yet another poverty series

The Wall Street Journal is running another series on poverty. It is very anecdotal (they all are), but inserts statistics, like how the welfare rolls have fallen from 3.9 million in 1997 to 1.9 million in 2005. Or that 4% of the population was "rich" in 1969 and now 18% are rich. (I think that's supposed to be bad, even though the percentage of poor has also decreased since 1969, and most poor people desire to be rich.) The first installment was on hunger, despite a booming economy, and talked about "food-insecure" households. No mention of the millions of illegals with no education or family assets we're forced to absorb into the economy and government social services at the federal and local levels each year.

"Those who play by the rules ought not to be poor" is one of the most stubborn myths about the poor that I've ever read, but it is pervasive in our culture. I've personally been in four of the five quintiles, and we're moving back down because we are retired and living on pensions. But I think I read a U.S. Census site that provided 48 formulas to figure out if we are poor, so somewhere who knows, despite our wealth, we may be poor.

One hard and fast rule is, that if a woman graduates from high school, doesn't have children until she is 21, and marries the father of her children, she and her children have a very small chance of being poor. Women are in control of the poverty statistics in the United States. But does that mean if she's followed this rule she won't ever be poor? Of course not. What if she marries an alcoholic who's a good daddy, but a terrible employee with a spotty work record? What if she is a heavy smoker and develops a cardiovascular condition before she's 35 incurring big medical debts? What if she is obese, or is a hoarder? What if one of the children has ADHD or is mentally ill and she has to miss a lot of work for school counseling? What if her home was in Katrina's path and was underinsured? What if programs are available for her to better herself, but she as no desire to go to school--maybe she hated school?

Want to know why I was never in the top quintile? No desire. Nope. Not once did I want to put out the kind of effort required to be "rich." Now, maybe if I'd had the desire, and failed, I'd have been disappointed. But I thoroughly enjoyed a career as a librarian, being married to an architect, and those two professions are at the bottom for salaries based on years of education. I suppose one of the richest (in salary) librarians is the Librarian of Congress, and he isn't a real Librarian.

You can't sell newspapers with my life story.

2574 Desperate smoker counts pennies

For 5 days I've craved Frito's Corn Chips. I knew there was a Speedway store close to the church, so when I was on my morning mail run, I stopped and checked my resources. $.74. Safe, I thought--I don't have enough. But then I remembered the mitten (lost the other one) I keep with change for coffee emergencies. I dug around until I found it and took out two quarters. On my return trip, I slipped into a parking place and hurried into the store, found the chips and took them to the check-out. There stood a lady counting out pennies in piles of five from a little lozenge tin and a pack of cigarettes on the counter.

Is this the pot calling the kettle black? At least I had quarters.

2573 Recruiters outnumber students in accounting

This week I'm puppy sitting because Abby, my daughter's Chihuahua has a big stapled incision. She's not happy to be here, and our cat isn't pleased either. BUT--to get to the point, I'd run out of newspapers to put under the "puppy pad," so on my walk yesterday I picked up a June 13, still-in-the-bag, Wall St. Journal, from a neighbor's recycle bin. As I was laying it down this morning I noticed the article "Student shortfall pushes up salaries." Actually, I can't tell if it is advertising or essay, but it quotes some interesting statistics.

Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) has caused firms to expand their audit departments.

SOX compliance is so tough, it is driving people out of the field.

Firms are losing 40% of their partners and senior managers in the "big four".

There's no one to replace them with the experience they need, so salaries are 30% higher than pre-SOX.

2006 base salaries for senior managers in public accounting firms range from $85,000 to $130,000 a year.

In the 1990s, mathematically minded students chose to major in business instead of accounting and headed for dot.com companies.

When Enron unraveled, interest dipped again.

There is now a campaign to interest high school students in this career field.

300 recruiters went to Notre Dame last fall to woo 125 graduates.

Women accountants tend to drop out to start a family around the time they would be up for partnerships, further reducing the pool. So companies are beefing up their services to attract and keep women (i.e., more babies will be left at day-care so mommy can get her partnership).

2572 Fraud proof identity cards

Holman W. Jenkins in yesterday's WSJ proposed a "fraud proof identity card" for ALL workers, not just immigrants. Setting aside all concerns about loss of privacy, 9 year olds would probably learn how to hack it faster than adult criminals, but there is no such thing. Can you imagine the chaos if everytime you moved or changed your phone number you had to go find the right government agency to reprogram your ID card? The government couldn't even issue credit cards to Katrina victims without losing billions to the crooks. And how about that "secure" information that was recently stolen on all veterans and current armed forces members? Whether it was an employee or a burglar who didn't realize what he was stealing, it definitely wasn't in good hands.

Thursday Thirteen

13 things that puzzle me. It's not that I don't KNOW the answers, but I just don't get it. My WHY list is much longer than 13, but I can always do a second edition.

1. Why people ride motorcycles--especially without helmets. Ben's bike and the damaged car

2. Why young women smoke--especially when they see the effects on the saggy, crepy, spotted skin and gravely voices of older women who have smoked over half their lives.
3. Why young people (up to 35) are always in such a hurry when they drive--they have a lot more time left on the clock than the rest of us.
4. Why people throw things out of car windows--pop bottles, dirty diapers, cigarettes, fast food containers.
5. Why women think it is so cool, sexy and attractive to swear, cuss and be loud potty mouths in public or on the internet.
6. Why women think moving in with the boyfriend (or moving him in) will be a sound foundation for marriage.
7. Why college students will go into massive debt for social science degrees, but then want CEO and scientist salaries when they look for jobs.
8. Why city zoning boards, urban planners and developers continue to approve neighborhoods with culs-de-sac (French for bottom of the bag) when they just create more traffic problems on the feeder roads.
9. Why rich people continue to build homes on coasts in hurricane paths and on fault lines.
10. Why the customer who calls is always more important than the customer standing there (me) waiting to check-out.
11. Why the relative/friend/employee who is always late thinks we still believe the excuses.
12. Why people adopt infants and/or give birth after years of trying and immediately both parents go back to work and let someone else raise it.
13. Why pet owners refer to themselves as "mommy" and "daddy" when baby-talking to an animal but won't take the "parental" responsibility to train it.
(If you participate, leave your link in the auto-link and it will post here, but please leave a comment.)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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It's dead, Jim

Checking my blog links. These library blogs are dead, dying, struggling for content, or are totally discouraged. I'll have to think about unlinking.

Distance Education Library
Blonde Librarian
Conservator
Excited utterances--merged into another site
Family Man Librarian--spotty, but has a good excuse
Feel Good Librarian--seems to be posting about once a month
Infinite Library--just plays games
Jay Kegley, no idea what happened to him
Lethal Librarian--not much since March
Right Wing Librarian--only occasionally posts, but there are so few of him, I'll probably keep the link up
Random Thoughts--does a meme on Friday
Sonderman--nothing since December about Google Scholar (the topic)

2569 How to write your Congressional representative about illegal immigration

It's important that you let your Representative know today that the Senate bill, (S. 2611)the largest immigration increase in U.S. history, was rushed and cobbled together in a paltry 500 pages and is a mess. NO bill is better.

"The House may take the unusual step of conducting hearings on the Senate's immigration bill, which includes the opportunity for citizenship for illegal immigrants, before negotiating on final legislation, House Speaker Dennis Hastert said Tuesday.

Hastert's position appeared to reflect a growing sense among some House Republicans that they are better off seeking re-election in November without a new immigration law than with a version that includes parts of the Senate's." Houston Chronicle

1. Make sure to use "The Honorable" before their names--even if you have to choke when you write it. (Senate zip is 20510 and House is 20515), i.e.

The Honorable Deborah Pryce
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

2. Write only your own elected official. If you live in Cleveland or LA, don't write Ms. Pryce. Letters sent to members of Congress for another district will be forwarded to yours "as a courtesy."

3. Identify yourself in the first paragraph, as well as your state and district, city or county where you vote. Please reserve profanity for your blog or the local pols.

4. Identify the bill by number and/or title. Remember, they have been trying to solve this immigration issue since WWII, so it's possible they've forgotten already, or were around in 1986 when they passed the last amnesty legislation which created even more illegals.

5. Be concise and brief. Specific and succinct letters are more persuasive and show respect for the official's time, even though they aren't showing you any. No longer than one typed page. Something longer and more specific than "You F-ing S-O-Bs", however.

6. Support your case. Citing my blog won't do it--200 hits a day hardly makes me an expert. But include relevant facts. No jokes. They've heard them all.

7. No form letters. You don't like them--why should they?

8. Suggest an alternative (like, No bill until you've at least read this one). These guys and gals aren't any more experts on this than you and I, and 30 years of legislation and hand wringing proves it.

9. Sign your name.

10. If you are SOMEBODY, include your title. It won't matter, but if they get to use "Honorable" you'll feel better if you have one too.

Addresses, phone numbers, fax numbers

2568 Thank you, Mr. President

"My message to the enemy is, don't count on us leaving before we succeed," Bush said. I took him along on my walk this morning listening to his address at the press conference after his Iraq trip. Now let the "Kos, Defect and Death" bloggers begin. I'm sure they aren't happy with anything they heard, particularly about how we're not going to abandon the Iraqi people (like we did the Vietnamese).

2567 AMA Panel Says Physicians Cannot Ethically Participate in Prisoner Interrogations

"Helping with interrogations, including the planning of the interrogation or monitoring the prisoner with the "intention of intervening in the process" are actions that are outside the bounds of ethical behavior, CEJA (American Medical Association's Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs) said here Sunday." CHICAGO (Reuters Health) June 12, 2006

Seems it undermines their role as a healer. But it’s OK to abort babies and clone human embryos to reuse body parts for another human being? Ethics councils frolic in strange beds, don‘t they?

2566 The kitchen massacre

Last night I was "inventing" a new dish for supper. It had half a pound of ground sausage, a partial envelope of dry onion soup, some rice, and I was preparing to add a small can of tomato sauce. When I clipped the can opener into the side of the can, the tomato sauce squirted in the air, across the room to the other counter, to the floor and all over the pale cabinetry. I had to get down on my knees so the sunlight could reflect on the marble which is very dark, mottled brown. I got all traces of red mopped up, finished mixing the casserole and then looked at the doorway. Across the room, about 10 ft. was tomato sauce all up and down the louvered doors. I don't know how chain saw murderers ever get the place cleaned up.