Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Things I wonder about--the tomato
Every morning I drink 6 oz. of tomato juice with a Tbsp. of vinegar. Very tastey. It's much lower in calories than orange juice and has 90% of the daily requirement for Vit. C, plus a bunch of other good stuff you won't even notice. Cold tomato juice gives me a stomach ache so I buy the little unbrand 6 packs and don't refrigerate them. What puzzles me is why a 1/2 cup of spaghetti sauce or a 1/2 cup of stewed tomatoes is so much lower in percentage of vitamin C. I've read labels of tomato products that have virtually zero vit. C listed.
Does anything smell worse
or give the eye more pleasure than a Ginko tree?Here's a wonderful site to browse Ginko Dreams. Both the agricultural library where I worked for 3.5 years and visited many more, and the veterinary medicine library where I worked for 17 years had lovely tall Ginkos right outside the entrances. The smell when they drop their fruit is like vomit, and the students would track the rotting residue into the library (along with "stuff" from the animal stalls). Ah, the memories make me smile.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
3453 Leaving race behind
Amitai Etzioni doesn't like it when people ask his race, even when the U.S. government asks. He discovered that if he marked a box labeled "other" that he was simply assigned to a racial category. He writes in "Leaving race behind" American Scholar, Spring 2006:"Treating people differently according to their race is as un-American as a hereditary aristocracy, and as American as slavery. . . The national ideal says that all Americans should be able to compete as equals, whatever their background. . . Since the onset of the civil rights movement we have ensconced in law many claims based on race: requirements that a given proportion of public subsidies, loans, job training, educational assistance, and admission slots at choice colleges be set aside for people of color. . . There must be a better way to deal with past and current injustice. And the rapid changes in American demographics call for a reexamination of the place of race in America."
Etzioni notes that Hispanics are now the largest minority group in the U.S. and their population growth, both legal and illegal continues at an explosive pace. In 2003-2005, one of every two people added to America's population was Hispanic, but they may be members of many ethnic and racial groups. Race is biology, but ethnicity is geographic and cultural. By the third generation, 30% of Hispanics and 40% of Asians in the U.S. have married outside their racial or ethnic group. Will the government continue to offer their children special benefits?
Who needs help from the government? In my extended family we have on the one hand well-off, well-educated African American and Hispanic relatives who are married and living a stable, comfortable life style, and on the other, dirt poor, living-on-the-edge, poorly educated white relatives, "shacking up" as we used to say even before we knew poverty and marriage were related. Do you give reparations to the black family (whose ancestors were never part of U.S. slavery)? Do the Hispanics (who don't speak a word of Spanish) get a special deal for a job? Do you just give more money in welfare to the poor family, but no special incentive or slot for college because a middle-class black child got it?
One thing Etzioni doesn't touch on is the race careers--politicians, journalists, social workers and academics whose livihood depends on keeping us a divided nation. A black professor is suing because he didn't get tenure and he's claiming racial bias. But he's also doing stem cell research--adult stem cell, and doesn't believe in embryonic stem cell. Could be something else at work that has nothing to do with race. Did you see the article in the NYT about the woes of the highly educated, wealthy black people who can't find good nannies? Like most of the race-based articles, it was terribly anecdotal, but apparently some east European nannies have actually made a choice of whom they want to work for, and so have some black Americans and Caribbean women. I personally think the only color that matters here is green, and to get a good nanny in NYC you probably have to at least pay $40,000 a year with benefits.
Technorati: affirmative action, Racial Issues
First Italian American Woman in Space Disgrace
They may want to take back this award. She's now been charged with attempted murder, after an earlier kidnapping charge in which she pepper sprayed another woman in the space flight program who was involved with the guy that Nowak wanted for herself (she's married; no one told her you don't get two?) Navy Cmdr. William Oefelein, an unmarried fellow astronaut. When arrested Nowak had a BB gun, a steel mallet, a 4-inch folding knife, rubber tubing, $600 and garbage bags. She had worn diapers so she wouldn't have to stop while racing to get to the airport to confront the other woman. She was wearing a wig--and must have smelled a little funny.OK. So the jokes about PMS are all over the airwaves. But you can't tell me someone in the chain of command didn't know there was a problem, but because she was a woman, they back peddled. I'll bet Oefelein knew she was dangerous, but thought his career was at stake if he said anything. It may have even been consensual--or could have all been in her head. It happens. But who was going to believe the man?
3451 Why aid for economic development fails
and often hurts the very people it tries to help. In the late 1970s I had a wonderful 3.5 year contract as a bibliographer/reference librarian in agricultural economics. More specifically, I was paid by the U.S. Department of State, Agency for International Development, through a grant won by Ohio State University's College of Agriculture, Department of Economics who wanted a librarian to help develop a collection of research about how local, home-grown small grants for credit, not gifts, to people with little or nothing lifted families and villages out of poverty and hunger. To correct a problem created by an earlier group of well-intentioned social scientists in the 1950s-60s post-colonial era, these grants also went to women and to small collectives in rural areas. Perhaps it was credit to buy several sewing machines, or looms, small tools, or a working well for a village which could then sell the water. Savings and investments are concepts totally foreign to many cultures and I don't know the success rate of these programs over the long run. Really, compared to the amounts you think of as "aid," these grants were very small, but they were not Utopian or from the top-down. The aid went to the entrepreneurial and those with a network of family or friends who would use their services. And don't forget those of us along the way who were paying our mortgages, tuition and Lazarus' bills with these grants--we benefited too. It paved my career path for two more contracts, and then a 17 year faculty position in the Veterinary Medicine Library.Western interference in the economies, politics and cultures of third world developing countries has not turned out well. The American left loves to point fingers at Christian missionaries who started hospitals, schools, churches and developed a written language for Africans, Asians, and Islanders, but their footprints are tiny compared to the disaster of foreign aid from Europe and the U.S. The missionaries at least were accountable to God and their denomination; the governments and the U.N. agencies who soaked the guilt-swamped for more money funded various interventions in their societies which were accountable to no one, not even us taxpayers, elevating a class of dictators, bureaucrats and home grown thieves.
For all the statistics and scholarly stuff, check The White Man's Burden; why the West's efforts to aid the rest have done so much ill and so little good, by William Easterly (Penguin Press, 2006) and The Trouble with Africa; why foreign aid isn't working, by Robert Calderisi (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006). Both authors were officials with the World Bank (one for 16 years, the other for 30) and have seen this problem from the inside out. And just to balance out your public library's collection, you might recommend either or both titles, after you've done your own research. [UAPL owns 2 copies of the Easterly title.]
Some reviewers found Easterly's writing style "cynical and breezy" choosing to criticize how he said it--even his chapter headings--rather than what he said. This is a tried and true method to keep people from reading or buying a book. One review of the Calderisi book starts out by comparing the number of people who died in the WTC with the number of Africans who die of AIDS, and how much the EU spends helping its own farmers. This is also a diversionary tactic to not deal with the book in hand. Build a straw book and burn it. Easterly and Calderisi clearly show that aid has not produced the desired results; Africans are now being victimized by their own rather than Europeans. The naysayers will want to kill the messenger and want to do business as usual either from guilt or because they are in the money pipeline.
Monday, February 05, 2007
Monday Memories--Did I ever tell you about Alice?
When my children were pre-schoolers, I met Alice through an open housing human relations group. We were the same age and each had two children about the same ages. We began doing a few things together, like taking the children to lunch, the library, or the park. Our kids even shared chicken pox because I noticed spots on her daughter's face when we were all on a picnic. We browsed craft shops and garage sales, the kids in tow. We both read a lot and kept up a steady stream of conversation. I sketched and painted and she enjoyed crafts. She kept busy and involved, but decided she would pursue an advanced degree. This was in the early years of the women's movement and there was a lot of buzz about the value of being a mother vs making a contribution in the work place. Even I attended some "consciousness raising" groups at the university and felt the pull. It was heady stuff for young mothers whose highlight of the day might be a consult with the pre-school teacher or the dentist. We then began a rather complicated schedule of shared babysitting. She needed my help much more than I needed hers, because I didn't need as much time away from children. There was no time to just do the fun things in our little group of six. I was looking forward to summer when her classes would be over. One day in June she drove up with the children and announced she was leaving her husband. The three of them drove away, the three of us stood in the drive-way and waved good bye. I never saw or heard from her again. It was Father's Day.------
There aren't too many left in the Monday Memories group who post regularly, but it's a convenient way to recall some things of the past, even the less than pleasant ones like this.
There's an age gap in house cleaning!
The over 60 ladies are definitely keeping cleaner homes! But we're even on who has a cleaning service. See the Good Housekeeping Survey. I never leave the house with the bed unmade, although sometimes my husband is still in it when I leave. We learned years ago that it was much for efficient for the last one up to make the bed.HT The Laundress
3448 I'm putting myself first
There's a phrase that makes me gag. I was watching Oprah today while fixing supper (potatoes, onions and carrots with a little olive oil in the oven, and then I'll grill some salmon). She's doing a show on women who don't look their age. It's really amazing what getting them out of jeans and sweats and putting on a little hair color and mascara can do. But one woman came out and they had the photo of her 10 years ago and today on the screen. "What did you do?" asked Oprah. "I decided to put myself first," she said oozing confidence. "How did you do that?" Oprah repeated. "I'm putting myself first," she repeated. I guess if you eat junk food and never exercise, that's putting others first? When I did that I just called it getting careless and eating anything that wasn't nailed down.3447 My very own 12-step program
My girlfriend AZ and I get together on Monday mornings for coffee and she is cleaning out her storage area, returning letters and things, pitching other stuff. We became friends in the late 70s, so she found some of my writings which she returned to me today.It seems I wrote a 12-step program for myself [I have no memory of this] when I was in the midst of the terrible-teen years. I can't be sure this wasn't copied from someone else. Even in those days I was pretty good about adding a citation to the original. So here it is--with some reordering of priorities and eliminating some wordiness for this viewing.
If you're not familiar with the twelve steps concept it revolves around not trying to change other people or blame them for your situation and releasing it to God (or a higher power if you and God are not on speaking terms). I've always said that raising teens is what led me slowly out of the Democratic Party, and although it was probably 15 years down the road from writing this, I see the roots.
1) The only person I can be responsible for is me. I will think, feel, and act in ways that make me and the people around me feel good.
2) I will give up my image of the perfect parent who always knows the right thing to do, who always fixes up or cleans up after everyone.
3) I can't keep my children out of trouble or from being hurt. I release them to God's care.
4) My children have many needs and emotions. I will respect these needs and emotions.
5) I also have my own needs and emotions, and I expect my children to respect them, too.
6) I will do my part to be a responsible parent.
7) I also expect my children to do their part as members of this household and family.
8) I will not be negative or punishing, knowing that everyone likes praise, approval and acceptance, and I will praise any effort they make to be caring, responsible adults.
9) I will be reasonable in my expectations of my children, but I also accept my right and responsibility to set limits on behavior in my home and in my presence.
10) I will not expect perfection of myself or my children and I will be honest about my imperfections and seek only to change myself.
11) I will resist rescuing my children when they get into trouble of their own making. Because I realize that taking responsibility for another person's problems does not help but weakens the person, I will allow my children to experience the natural consequences of their own judgement or behavior.
12) I will resist allowing my children to be dependent on me. When I allow this I encourage resentment from them and self pity and bitterness from myself because we can't meet each other's expectations.
Looking back I'd say it's not particularly useful to even write down expectations for the way others will treat you. That's obviously an area over which you have no control. Nor would I today say I'm going to act a certain way so others will feel good. That's also something over which I had no control. I can't even imagine my mother writing something like this (my dad, maybe). This list has a very strong "yes, but" flavor, don't you think? It's pretty clear when I wrote this I was grabbing back anything I handed over to God. And notice how I listed what behavior would receive praise? I was really into responsibility, wasn't I? The teen years aren't easy--I wasn't very loveable and neither were they, but I'm happy to report that along about age 25 your kids will return to being the fabulous people you envisioned when they were little. May you live through it and thrive for another day!
War time pen pals
Our troops always need mail. I recall reading a letter saved by an elderly relative written by my great uncle, 16 years old, who had lied about his age and enlisted during the Civil War. He was so homesick and desperate for mail. He died of dysentery a few days before the war was over. Now people send e-mail, and I've sent a few myself just to let them know I appreciate them--although I'm not exactly in their age group. I think you'll enjoy this memory of pen pals during WWII by a former soldier. He probably wrote great letters--good practice for his future career as a journalist and a blogger.Sunday, February 04, 2007
You know the Bible 100%!
Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses - you know it all! You are fantastic!
Ultimate Bible Quiz
Create MySpace Quizzes
Not 100%, but some of the questions are pretty easy.
HT Annoyed Librarian.
3444 Laconic t-shirts
Lots of choices, but I sort of liked this one, suitable for writers. I love a good pencil to blame.
Although I liked this one, too "Democrats: the party of premature withdrawal."
Laconic blog
3443 Virginity pledges vs. condom use in adolescents
Why do you suppose some groups, the media especially, are so opposed to teens being instructed that abstinence is a viable alternative in sex education? Never mind, just tuck that thought away for another day and move one to things we do know. Studies do show that parents are in favor of abstinence education. What got the most media
Lower STD rates [25%] is just one among a broad array of positive outcomes associated with virginity pledging. Previous research has shown that, when compared to non-pledgers of similar backgrounds, individuals who have taken a virginity pledge are:
Less likely to have children out-of-wedlock;
Less likely to experience teen pregnancy;
Less likely to give birth as teens or young adults;
Less likely to have sex before age 18; and,
Less likely to engage in non-marital sex as young adults.
In addition, pledgers have far fewer life-time sexual partners than non-pledgers. There are no apparent negatives associated with virginity pledging: while pledgers are less likely to use contraception at initial intercourse, differences in contraceptive use quickly disappear. By young adult years, sexually active pledgers are as likely to use contraception as non-pledgers.
Read it here, "Adolescent Virginity Pledges, Condom Use, and Sexually Transmitted Diseases Among Young Adults" by Robert Rector and Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D., June, 2005.
Although the groups compared did have similar backgrounds, it appeared to me that more non-pledgers were from divorced homes with higher incomes and less religious involvement than the virginity pledge youth. However, whether the differences were statistically signficant enough to satisfy social scientists, I don't know.
And as we all know from life, making a promise doesn't mean keeping a promise.
Here's a good discussion opener for you and your daughter.
technorati: virginity pledges, contraception, condoms, STDs
Poetry Thursday has moved!
Here's the new site; I'll have to change my template link. So here's this week's challenge: "Given all the changes here at Poetry Thursday, we thought change would be a good topic for this week’s (completely and totally optional) idea." That's something to think about. This might be the time to post my shoulder pads poem.All I did was attend a different church service today (we have eleven) and was amazed at the changes I saw. Not sure there's anything in that to write about, but change is always with us, isn't it? I've mentioned it before, but "change" is one of the reasons I retired at 60 instead of 65. I was so tired of the constant changes--the reporting line, the staff, the consortia, the committees, the technology. I thought there must be more to life than learning a new software gimmicks that would be gone in 6 months, or the names of student staff who would only stay a quarter. When you're young--like 18-25 or so--the changes dribble like a soft rain and you hardly notice them. Also, you tend to gloss over them thinking it (the changes) are temporary and eventually things will settle down. Doesn't happen. As you age your mind accumulates and stores all these changes and their warranties and instruction manuals are still on your shelves; they become burdensome.
3440 A proud grandma
A girlfriend (yes, we still say "girl" at our age) showed me the photos of her new grand daughter at about one hour old. She arrived 10 days early, very shortly after her mom's shower. Gorgeous, pink, and chubby with straight black hair and eyes, she is bi-racial, her father a Nigerian and her mother an Irish American. Her skin will darken some as she gets older, but right now she's a match with mom, not dad and because of the way we view people in this country by custom, culture and government edict, she will always be counted as African-American for the census, medical studies, scholarships, school diversity programs and employment opportunities. We have such an established bureaucracy dependent on keeping our citizens divided into groups, she may never in my life time be able to just be who she is.African Americans are now the second largest minority group in the US--Hispanics are first. Many of the U.S. black population, like my friend's son-in-law, are recent arrivals--in fact 8 percent. According to the New York Times (reported at City Journal), more African immigrants have arrived voluntarily since 1990 than the number who once came as slaves. These immigrants, too, have far higher employment and education levels than native-born blacks. Barack Obama's name is out there for President. His father, although never a citizen, was born in Africa, and married an American and Barack was raised in Hawaii. Both his parents had advanced degrees. You can't say anything about his father only seeing him twice or being a Muslim or you are declared a racist, so just go read his autobiography or read a liberal blog which will tell you the same thing, but won't be called racist. Unlike some who have called him "privileged" because of private schooling, I'd say growing up without dad to help you sort through life's problems and hurts removes you from that definition.
Meanwhile, Diddy Daddy dawdles and hasn't married his "long time girlfriend," the mother of his new twin girls (and his older son) and Diddy didn't marry the mother of his oldest son. I feel a poem coming on. . . Poor Diddy's kiddies/Diddy or did he/you be one sad dad/You be P. Diddy. The failure of some highly visible and successful celebrities to become real fathers contributes to the poverty of the women and children left with Uncle Sam by young men who imitate the bling and strut of the diddy daddies of this world.
Technorati: Sean John Combs, P. Diddy, fatherhood, African Americans
Saturday, February 03, 2007
3438 Using Blogger's New Features
I'm starting to get into it now. The photo load is looking different and gives me a tiny view to show it's there (code is much longer, however); I'm loving the new template save feature because it's so fast; the new labeling feature is cool, although it only labels my stuff, so if I want subject headings for my own, I'll have to go back; Cathy tells me the RSS feed for my blog now works; and it's nice to be able to see, from the index, which entries have comments. I'll probably still do technorati tags--not trying any of the others. Who knew so many people wanted to be cataloguers--"A December 2006 survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project has found that 28% of internet users have tagged or categorized content online such as photos, news stories or blog posts. On a typical day online, 7% of internet users say they tag or categorize online content." From DigitalKoans
My first job as a librarian was cataloging Russian books from the PL480 plan. Ah, the machine tractor station romance novels--I wonder if anyone ever read them. I still put things on the conveyor belt at the supermarket by category. Taxables. Dairy. Meat. Fresh produce.
3437 Just the write notebooks
Most of my blog entries are drafted on paper--unless you have written something on your blog that leads me to some research, or I read something in an on-line publication. (Ms. Loyal American Living in Europe [see comments] thinks I live in Iowa and don't read anything--woo, woo, is he wrong not only about me but about how well informed Iowans are!) So I have to have just the right note book and a #2 BIC pencil. I like spiral bound, hard cover, about 5 x 7, wide line. The one I'm using right now has blue paper, and I can't wait to use it up. Hard to read what I wrote. I thought I'd swoon when I saw these nice horse covers at CVS. There were only two, and a Google search indicated the company had been purchased since they were made, and I didn't see them on the web site. So I went to another CVS and found a bunch of them, plus some with a light house for only $2. I didn't really need 4 new notebooks, but with 10 blogs, you never know. One notebook lasts about 8 weeks. So I'm all set till Fall.
The Bruce Angel
I wonder if this guy stole our family angel from the Elwood Cemetery in Indiana.
HT Everton's Genealogy Blog
Technorati: cemetery statues, family history
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
Posts
