Friday Family Photo

More about cousins

These are photos of my son and his cousin Rich, who are about 8 months difference in age, which when they were children made quite a difference in size, but none at all when they grew up--in fact, I think Rich might be a bit taller. Both were almost white blonde as little guys, and now both are very dark. Rich is on the right in the 1973 photo and the left in the adult photo.

Easter 1973

And in 1999

2636 Stop the CCR

The CCR is working with and helping to fund the pro bono lawyers' work at Gitmo which is aiding terrorism.

The paragraph below is my rewrite of one the CCR had on its home page demanding Bush's impeachment (to send to your representative). Obviously, they didn't accept my editing--they're not that liberal! They are wetting their pants and their lips over the Supreme Court decision. I'm thinking their logo has a striking resemblance to a more familiar one with a bit of tweaking and flipping.

"The President of the United States should continue the course to save our country. He should continue the necessary surveillance of finances and communications systems to protect U.S. citizens. He should continue to tell the truth to the American public who are being lied to by anarchists and leftists who hate the U.S. to lead them to victory over terrorism. I urge you to join me and a growing number of your fellow bloggers calling for an investigation into activities of the Center for Constitutional Rights."

2635 The Guantanamo Bay Bar Association

Their pro-bono work is aiding the enemy. So how do these prisoners get a case to go up through the courts with some of the best lawyers in the country? Lawyers you and I couldn't afford? Well, we're paying for it--indirectly because they are being paid huge fees by firms we invest in.

Blogged about this in January. I wrote letters. Did you? Deroy Murdock's original article

It's a recruiting tool for these firms:

From Fredrikson & Byron
Fredrikson & Byron has put together a team of lawyers representing one of the Guantanamo detainees, Ahcene Zemiri. We are working to ensure that he has the opportunity to present the facts of his case to a federal court. Our lawyers worked with the Center for Constitutional Research (“CCR”)**, a non-profit organization based in New York, to arrange for our representation.

Although more than 150 Guantanamo detainees are now represented by counsel from across the country, Fredrikson & Byron remains the only law firm in Minnesota that is representing a detainee. Our habeas petition has become the model petition that CCR provides to other counsel planning to file petitions in their own cases. Individuals who have worked on this case include: Matt Boos, Ingrid Culp, Wade Davis, Jim Dorsey, Emily Duke, Lilhja Emery, Dulce Foster, Roxanne Gangl, Michelle Hanson, Sharen Keehr, Faye Knowles, John Lundquist, Nicole Moen, Debra Schneider, Jessica Sherman, Rhona Shwaid, Asmah Tareen, and Heather Thayer.

Sutherland Asbill & Brennan: "Here are a few highlights of our most recent pro bono work:

In January 2005, John Chandler accepted a challenge from the American College of Trial Lawyers to represent alleged "enemy combatants" detained at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. On February 7, 2005, Sutherland filed a petition for habeas corpus and other relief on behalf of five Yemeni detainees. The petition, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, notes how "[e]ach of the Detained Petitioners is being held virtually incommunicado in military custody at Camp Delta...without basis, without charge, without access to counsel and without being afforded any fair process by which they might challenge their designation and detention." Because the U.S. government prevents lawyers from visiting Guantanamo detainees unless they have a pending case, Sutherland brought these cases through the detainees' relatives, who authorized the filings as "Next Friends" of the petitioners. Sutherland lawyers have since submitted security clearance forms that, once approved, will allow them to visit the detainees."

I wonder if these firms will do pro-bono work for Marines or school children who pray at graduation?

**The CCR is the group that has written a book on how to impeach President Bush.

Guantanamo Bay

Have I got a deal for you

We just toured a duplex owned by a friend, called the Plymouth House at 315 and 317 Sycamore Avenue in Lakeside, OH. Each side sleeps six, (3 bedrooms, 2 baths) and I've given it my personal inspection, and it is clean, clean, clean and beautifully decorated with eclectics and antiques. The kitchens are new, there's a laundry, AC, wireless, and overhead fans for those days when it's not quite hot, but you'd like a little air moving. A fabulous front porch, which every Lakesider knows is a must have.

You can view the details and photos at Lakeside Association Cottage Rentals.

2633 Baby Peeps

When I was a little girl, I lived two houses from a hatchery in Mt. Morris, IL. We children would just walk inside the brick, one-story building and look at and touch the baby chicks. I think my nose was about level with their itty bitty toes.

I suppose I've spent all these years thinking Mt. Morris was the center of chickenhood and hatcheries. And it is sort of, at least in print. Poultry Tribune and Turkey World are published there--or were the last time I looked. Imagine my surprise when I opened the Black Swamp Trader and Gazette and discovered that it was New Washington, OH. The Dutchtown Hatchery Festival in New Washington will have its 2nd Annual Festival on July 7th and 8th, and if I weren't flying to Finland on the 8th, I'd stop by, just for the sights and smells.

It seems that Michael Uhl invented a 200 egg capacity incubator on his family farm in 1885. He and his brothers went on to design and build a 10,000 egg capacity incubator and thus sparked an entire industry. So apparently "factory farms" aren't an invention of the 20th century. People near Croton, OH will be happy to know that.

He also is responsible for creating a system to ship newborn peeps across the nation, which is still used to this day. The World's Poultry Congress, which happened the year I was born, actually toured little New Washington's hatcheries.

Thursday Thirteen

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Thirteen things about your blog: 7 that keep me coming back, 3 that make me pause, and 3 that say good-bye.

Hello, I'm glad you're here says a

1) A beautiful template
2) with easy to read color combinations
3) with few or no wiggles and jiggles
4) and few or no ads
5) and no appeals for money, even for a good cause
6) more text than links
7) with interesting, well-thought out ideas.

Got some extra time on your hands says

8) confusing registration procedures, and hidden comment links
9) three squished columns that overlap
10) teeny, tiny little clicks, blips and flips to turn a page.

So long sister, this blog's not for you says

11) a steady stream of profanity
12) discussion of your sex life--even with your spouse
13) music blaring with the volume button hidden, which starts all over when I try to leave a comment.

<1. Margie Mix 2. Margie Mix 3. Kelly 4. Christine 5. Denise 6. Francesca Gray 7. Red 8. Bj 9. Jennifer, Snapshot 10. mommy@home 11. carmen 12. Katrina 13. Louise 14. Darla
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2631 Why I don't support a flag amendment

This can be handled with local codes or state laws. What I'd like to see is a movement toward decency and common sense on the part of business so people weren't buying towels for the beach that look like flags, or table napkins, or bikinis or jeans. That's the part I find objectionable and which seems to also be protected "speech." We've got hate speech codes and burning codes. Let's use those and get the government back to protecting us from real weirdos.

Bill "The Snitch" Keller

You could burn a thousand flags and not do as much damage as Keller at the New York Times has done. Congress was informed of this security measure and he didn't like it, so although no one elected him, he decided to give secrets to the enemies of the United States, secrets that will help stop the flow of money to terrorists. If bloggers are organizing to pressure advertisers who use that rag, where do I sign up?

Rich Lowry "Government by and for the New York Times
Milblogger "Keller contributes to death of soldiers"
Bill Keller "I leave it to the court of public opinion"
Peter King "charges treason"

Bill Keller
flag amendment
New York Times

Minimum wage

Don Surber parses the minimum wage discussion--concluding that neither the Congress nor the 1% of Americans who earn minimum wage deserve an increase. Read it here. Clear, clean, concise, and using the same template that I do. He writes editorials and a weekly column for the Charleston Daily Mail.

2629 Foodways vs. cuisine

Sigh. There is no American cuisine. Donna Gabaccia has one of the more interesting essays in "Companion to American Immigration" (2006), writing about the diversity of American food (p.443-470). I thought food exchanges were for dieters--but it turns out it is what immigrants do as they trade spaghetti, yams, spices, and pork for what they are used to. I think she is a bit conflicted, however. Next to one of the librarian writers I occasionally read [Hi Walt!], she has more parenthetical qualifiers than corn kernels on a cob at a 4th of July picnic. She has written extensively on this topic, so perhaps one of her other works (which she cites) allows her more leeway.

I've only read about 5 of these essays, skipping to the topics that most interest me, but it's noticeable that if your family did get here before 1850, you are part of the problem. I suspect this is the trend in any textbook prepared by today's scholars. And even if they came during the "mass immigration" of the late 19th and early 20th, if they went from poverty to being fabulously successful, college educated who launched businesses or became CEOs, you are also part of the problem. Mainly because the very subtle undercurrent in this title is that nothing good can come of being a mainstream, native born American.

And pity me and mine! Descriptions for us, our food tastes, our habits that may be rooted in Britain or northern Europe, are noted as 1) culinary nationalism, 2) "Glory, God and Gold," 3) "aping the life of the gentry," 4) "moral rectitude," 5) "established patrinomies" 6) Protestant, 7) mass-produced, 8) white bread, and "religious hostility to alcohol."

Remember the 19th century saloon we learned about in American history class that took the food out of the mouths of children and gave rise to the Hull Houses of the cities? Not to worry. It's all been cleaned up. Now it is just delightful ethnic diversity of foodways. "For the Irish, drinking their own darker brews and whiskies in the equivalent of old world public housesmay have provided a sense of communalism as much as a shared meal of potatoes, porridge, or cabbage."

Well, isn't that a classy spin for falling-down-drunk laborers whose pay never made it home!

2628 Financing Terrorism

It seems the Bush Administration wasn't the first to notice how important money is to terrorists. Other countries figured it out too.

U.S. Congress. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Anti-Terrorism Conventions. 2001.
Sudocs classification number: Y 1. 1/ 6: 107-2
http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS16776
http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS16777 (permanent redirect)
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgibin/
getdoc.cgi?dbname=107_cong_reports&docid=f:er002.107.pdf (PDF
file)
“These two anti-terrorism conventions address two specific aspects of
terrorist conduct: terrorist bombings and the financing of terrorism. Their objective is to require the United States and other States Parties to criminalize such activities and to cooperate with each other in extraditing or prosecuting those suspected of such activities.”

U.S. Congress. House Committee on Financial Services. Financial Anti-
Terrorism Act of 2001: Report together with Dissenting Views. 2001. 121p.
Sudocs classification number: Y 1. 1/ 8: 107-250/ PT.1-
http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS15885
http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS15886 (PDF file)
“To combat the financing of terrorism and other financial crimes.”

U.S. Congress. House Subcommittee on Crime. Implementation of the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings and the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism. 2001. iii, 57p.
Sudocs classification number: Y 4. J 89/ 1: 107/ 46

The intent and provisions of these two treaties, as well as their usefulness
in combating the kind of global terrorism exhibited in the September 11
attacks."

These were looked at via a nice online bibliography about 9/11, which unfortunately, I neglected to record, but I may have found it via GLIN. These documents, or any discussing the need to stop terrorism at the source (money from donors or drug cartels) are not hard to find via Google, but finding them in a bibliography is a nice shortcut. Librarians love bibliographies, indices and other finding tools.

2626 Summer Reading at the Lake

Yes, I'm working my way through "A Companion to American Immigration," which is proving to be much more interesting than the title might suggest. It says a lot about the state of present scholarship on the topic.

For instance--the list of contributors. It is heavily weighted not only with Asian surnames, but also specialists and historians on Asian immigration. In fact, I didn't find any ethnic names for Cuba, Mexico or South America, although there are two Spaniards from the University Autonoma of Barcelona. It strikes me that if it is awkward or slippery to compare the culture of Mexican illegals with that of 18th century British, it probably doesn't make a lot of sense to use the 19th century Chinese railway workers either.

Chapter 21 on food is interesting, not only for the history of food exchanges, but the obligatory use of inflammatory language which populates "survey and studies" scholarship. When European ethic groups in the U.S. are mentioned, the verb of choice is "invade," but when Plains Indians do it to each other's territory, it is a "raid."

And you can almost hear the authoress sigh when she recounts how our fore mothers raised, processed and preserved much of their own monotonous food. I just love it when academics who have probably never broken up a clod of prairie or snapped a bean, can get so sentimental about the back breaking work women used to do over an open fireplace or cook stove.

2625 About those 500 WMD

Ho hum seemed to be the press' response. Here's an interesting observation at Evangelical Outpost by Joe Carter. Sort of what I'd thought even back in 2003. If they'd been found then, the anti-war people would have moved on to something else.

"Opposition to the war has nothing to do with the lack of WMDs. It never did. We could find a nuclear bomb in Uday Hussein’s old apartment and John Kerry would still be gearing up for Winter Soldier II. Unless you dropped your moral compass off the side of a swift boat in Cambodia, it’s easy to see that the world is safer because we secured the one WMD that truly mattered: Saddam Hussein.

More important than the weapons that were found (or that have yet to be found) are the ones that will never be created by Saddam’s regime. Many Americans, however, still suffer from the delusion that the only way that Saddam could have been a significant threat was for him to have possessed stockpiles of WMDs."

2624 And you thought I was kidding about librarians

who want to destroy the United States? They're not about sensible shoes, reading pc books to children or providing unbalanced info. Here. It's a mixture of eastern mysticism and communist activism. So I guess they'll be mellow.

2623 The Gates Buffet Second Team

Malaria eradicated? Sure, just bring back DDT and stop millions from dying right now. Sometimes environmentalists just care too much, they care people right into a terrible death and early grave.

No one has died from exposure to DDT. But millions die every year in the third world from malaria which could be virtually eradicated by DDT spraying of standing water. Until Americans were duped by Rachel Carson's misinformation, good progress was being made against this terrible disease. Since 1972 when the EPA banned its use, millions have died needlessly. This "do-gooder" impulse we Americans have has killed more Africans than the infamous slave trade of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Malaria
warren buffet
Gates Foundation
Charities

2622 Actually, I was folding the laundry

Ex-Liberal probably thinks I spent a lot of time reading one entry of his blog, but the dryer buzzer went off and I went to the basement to gather in the laundry. When I returned, however, he was still worth reading:

"When liberals like [Keith] Olbermann use the First Amendment to undermine our efforts in Iraq, it hits our troops like a roadside bomb. Real patriots can disagree and argue, but they don’t call their Commander-in-Chief a criminal, or the war we are fighting immoral – which is probably why Olbermann’s self-doubt prompted him to lash out. . . "

He also has a good explanation for the difference between liberal and conservative humor.

"Liberal humor relies mostly on anti-Bush haiku and the progressive envelope of sex, drugs, bodily functions, and fart jokes. This is what they call, “Adult Content.” One might argue that Garrison Keillor doesn’t use those devices, but lefties would also describe his audience as mostly “right-wing Christian conservatives.” Garrison won’t degrade his content to “Adult Entertainment” because, 1) he respects his audience and, 2) George Carlin has already cornered the market for prurient theophobic dementia. Like Bill Clinton, liberals love George, but most wouldn’t trust their children or livestock alone with him.

Conservative humor relies on fact-based tragicomedy where conservatives expose the pink underbelly of liberal banality. For example, conservatives laugh at the fact-based anecdotes from the Darwin Awards because hearing about stupid people doing dumb things is very funny. Liberals use the same site to find new friends, new voters, or for instructional purposes. Seinfeld succeeded because liberals thought he was really cool, yada yada, and conservatives enjoyed the addled characters."

Read the Ex-Liberal in Hollywood here.

2621 Bills without borders

Morning Coffee wakes us up with a story from the Dallas Morning News about a plan for Dallas County to bill Mexico and other countries for the medical care of its indigent illegals who reside, work and swamp our social services in the United States. Of course, it won't work, but you've got to make a statement.

Morning Coffee is a part of the Coalition against Illegal Immigration. If you're interested in joining, either as a regular, or a supporter, look at the FAQ.

Speaking of coffee, I've redesigned my coffee blog, Coffee Spills.

Monday Memories

Have I ever told you about the cottages we used to rent?

This week we're at Lakeside, OH, where our family began vacationing in 1974. We've rented some nice and not so nice cottages, and bought our own place in 1988 (see this Monday Memory for that story).

Our first place was on Plum--a four family and really dreary inside and not too clean. Racoons ran up and down the gutter next to our screened window at night--nearly scaring me to death. But it was only $45/week and worth every penny. We spent a lot of time at the beach at East Harbor.

I believe this was the next summer, also a four family and was lakefront, so we had some great views when the storms rolled in. The decor was similar, however, I knew to bring a small vacuum cleaner and a fan. The kids had a great time playing on the rocks and fishing right outside the cottage.

This little cottage on Poplar, the last street on the east side, had a nice kitchen where we could see Lake Erie. There was a hammock on the front porch. We used a photo of the kids in the hammock with our neighbors' dog for our Christmas card that year.

We stayed in both of these, maybe our fourth and fifth summers. The gray one looked adorable on the outside, but the furniture wasn't very comfortable. The beige looked plain, but was very nice inside with great beds. Met lots of neighborhood kids to play with.

Then it was back to the lakefront, just 2 houses from the fourplex where we'd stayed. A duplex and we were upper level. This was the year we brought along one bicycle, which we all shared. Started bringing friends along.

This cottage on Jasmine was the first we rented that had 1.5 bathrooms, and I thought I'd died and gone to heaven! Plus, there was a family next door (who are still there but now with grandchildren) who had a daughter one year old than ours and a son one year younger than ours, so they included our children in family activities--like fishing! This house has been through several color changes since we rented in the 70s and now has vinyl siding and a paved driveway.

This red log cabin, 3 bedroom ranch on Laurel was my very most favorite of all the cottages we rented. I think we had it our last 3 summers for a family rental. Our final Lakeside summer, the kids were sneaking out the windows at night, which sort of took the fun out of being here. The owners sold it and the new owners didn't rent. So I think 1984 was our last time here as a family.

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1. Friday's Child, 2. Libragirl, has no MM today, 3. Reverberate58, 4. Renee 5. Pixie, 6. Lazy Daisy, 7. CrazieQueen, 8. Chelle
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Lakeside, Ohio

2620 Monday at Lake Erie

Gray and overcast. Met a guy at the coffee shop planning to go on a fishing charter today, but watching the skies. My coffee shop reading today.

Can I predict it or what? The announced "exit strategy" is being claimed as a success by Democrats. I knew it! I overheard it on TV--didn't catch who was saying it, but I'm sure it will be a theme. A check of Google brought up all sorts of "exit strategies" and "cut and run" stories from 2005 and 2004, including one quote by John Kerry from 2004, where he said the President shouldn't "cut and run."

"I fear that in the run-up to the 2004 election, the administration is considering what is tantamount to a cut-and-run strategy. Their sudden embrace of accelerated Iraqification and American troop withdrawal dates, without adequate stability, is an invitation to failure. The hard work of rebuilding Iraq must not be dictated by the schedule of the next American election." (From James Taranto's column in WSJ Friday June 23, 2006 via Council on Foreign Relations) Everytime the Dems think they've got Bush figured out, they miss by a mile. So now the drumbeat to investigate the 2004 election results. Why not start with 1960 (JFK) and work forward?

I see Kos followers are called Kossacks and he Kosputin. Not sure which side is charging what. But every link helps him I'm sure, as he is the darling of the MSM. BlueStar Beth is running some great banners about the MSM, and especially the NYT and its jihad against our troops. Stop by and take a look.

Breakfast at The Abigail

The Abigail is two cottages held together with grapevines. My husband loves to eat breakfast here after church.


Here we are on the porch waiting for eggs and pancakes.










Lakeside, Ohio

Cliff notes version of Inconvenient truth

Amy sent me to this parody, but I sort of liked this one. The eye liner graph did it, I think. And the astute analysis.