What Oscars?

3535 Cuddle time

My favorite time of day.

3534 Gang Green

Who are the worst offenders amongst the greenies? Follow the money. Smell the rotting flesh. Check out CRC's list of the worst environmental groups. What companies are they targeting and what absurd, non-achievable demands are they making?

3533 Why do Republicans try so hard to look stupid?

Laura Ingraham (radio talk show host based in California) sounds like she's living 3 centuries back by trying to equate the HPV vaccine with conservative, Christian values. Did she ever raise a daughter? Was she ever a daughter? Your little virgin sweety pie could have saved herself from birth through age 30 for her future husband because of all your careful upbringing, private schools, Sunday school and VBS, and your selection of her peer group, but you didn't raise the man she will marry! And since women get HPV from men, who are you kidding lady? For some reason she thinks that 6th graders will run out and have sex if they have this vaccine's protection from a cancer they won't get until they are 40, despite what they are taught at home and church, but won't behave that way if they don't have the vaccine, being taught the very same values. Are our values that fragile? Someone in this future couple will have had pre-marital sex. HPV vaccine cannot protect your daughter from pregnancy, or herpes, or syphilis, or any number of STDs--nor can a condom--and the vaccine can't protect her against a broken heart and an unfaithful husband. But for the love of God, give her the protection you can for the cancer!

Then they try to top that stupid behavior by seriously considering Rudy Giuliani or John McCain as presidential candidates for 2008, both unfaithful to their wives and personally not men of good character, instead of Romney because he's (whisper) a Mormon.

3532 Strong willed mother-in-law

Prayer Job Jar I have so many people on my prayer list with really serious, mind numbing problems, I admit I got a bit testy and talked back to the ingrate woman who wrote "Dear Abby" this week about her mother-in-law.

It seems her MIL does her laundry and dishes when she comes over to babysit. She started doing it when the complainer was bedridden and really needed the help, but she just won't stop! Really, what some people call a problem, I can fix in 3 shakes of a lamb's tail. DO THE LAUNDRY AND DISHES BEFORE SHE GETS THERE. Start picking up after yourself so Mama and others won't see your home looking like a cyclone went through as you run off for lunch with your friends, or where ever you're going. If your home looks like a federal disaster zone, don't be surprised when the volunteers show up for cleaning. Or, here's another thought. HIRE SOMEONE TO BABYSIT. Then invite your in-laws over for a non-working time with the kids (she wanted MIL to supervise the kids instead of cleaning up messes).

Now, wasn't that easy?

3531 Horses slaughtered for human consumption

When I was working in the veterinary medicine library in the 90s, I often read the trade newspapers for horse owners. The op-ed and health articles often cautioned readers/owners about selling their "retired" horse to someone they didn't know, because chances were good they would be slaughtered for meat to be sent to Asia and Europe. Over 100,000 American horses were killed in 2006 in the three remaining foreign-owned US slaughterhouses and shipped abroad to Europe and Japan for human consumption. He might come along with a story that he wanted a gentle, older horse for his granddaughter, but that wasn't the fate that awaited the pet of a gullible owner. Amy's story about rescuing Beau and my memory of the efforts being made by horse owners well over 10 years ago to stop this practice caused me to stop at this House Bill, H.R. 503 (report 109-642), to amend the Horse Protection Act, passed last September to "TO PROHIBIT THE SHIPPING, TRANSPORTING, MOVING, DELIVERING, RECEIVING, POSSESSING, PURCHASING, SELLING, OR DONATION OF HORSES AND OTHER EQUINES TO BE SLAUGHTERED FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES." Scroll down to read the amendments, which apparently were defeated, including the one that allowed Native Americans to do what other Americans could not. If I read this correctly, it would be against the law for an owner to sell or donate his horse for this purpose. This is now being reintroduced to the new Congress. (I'll get out of the saddle here because I don't understand how bills work their way through Congress to become law. Wrong version of the bill sent to the Senate.)

According to this website, Illinois is one of the few states where horse slaughter for human consumption is still done.

As much as I hate to see horse slaughter for human consumption, I would hate to see the laws become so restrictive, that disposing of an animal became difficult, and therefore would lead to abuse such as poor health care, food, or being sold to bad people just to get if off your hands. Also, if species-specific legislation outlawing slaughter for human consumption works with horses, you can bet pigs, cattle and chicken supporters will be watching very closely. How to compost a horse.

The ever changing sciences often support Biblical views

Randy Kirk in his blog The truth about everything comments on how science is self-correcting, and often brings us back to the objective truths at the foundation of our Judeo-Christian culture (which even many Christians ignore). Good job, Randy. I don't envy you taking on all those unbelievers, but you seem to be up to the task. I'll send Chuck The Unbelieving Librarian over.

Big Brother

Sometimes he's watching; sometimes he's paying. This item is from my archives. I wrote about my conversation with the young male cashier--a Chinese OSU graduate in engineering. Surprised that he didn't have a job in his field, I'd suggested he send out more resumes, and he responded he was too lazy, and would probably go to grad school instead. I then wrote:

"There is an older brother paying his way, I thought. And if he gets a good job, he'll have to help his younger siblings. It is the Chinese way, and every Chinese student who ever worked for me had that sort of deal, whether the brother was a doctor in the USA or technician in China.

Big brother. So that's where that expression comes from.

This morning I asked my cashier Raiz (Pakistani Muslim) what had become of the "happy bagger," when the turn styles were installed. He was a middle aged, retarded man who was always laughing and smiling and reminding the customers loudly to smile. "Oh, he was fired," he said. "Did he find another job?" I asked, thinking that his talkativeness and his handicap might have made it difficult. "Yes, he did. It took two months but he found a new job and likes it very much."

So a man that couldn't even go to regular public school can find a job and be happy, but an OSU graduate in engineering can't. Interesting."

From Norma's archives.

3528 Browsing in libraries

When I visit a city, I try to make a stop at the public library. Often I can't get inside because I get up too early and am on my way to or from the coffee shop! But today, you can visit some of the most fabulous libraries on line. I keep a link at the left to the New York Public Library. In the early days of my career in the mid-1960s, when libraries were just beginning to figure out how computers could help store and access information, the card catalog of the NYPL had been photocopied and bound into huge volumes. It was a good source for slavic material, as I recall, so I would often take my handful of slips and cards into the huge reference room of the University of Illinois Library (I used to get very light-headed and thought it was excitement but later learned I had atrial fibrillation), write out the transliteration, and search the many possibilities of the authors' names. This was called doing an "authority search," and if you found the author, you made a little check mark. NYPL was considered a reputable authority and we trusted the toiling, underpaid librarians who had worked the decades before us.

February in the United States is called Black History month, and I'm awfully tired of the same old PSAs I've been hearing on the radio. Someone has not put much thought into the historical riches, particularly poetry, literature and music, that are available on-line. ("Hello! There are topics other than slavery and misery to show accomplishments!" she says to the radio.) I went to the NYPL home page and typed in "poet" in the search window, and received a huge number of photographs of African-American and Afro-other literary figures. I looked through the photos and selected this woman, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture:

I then went to Google and looked up her biography and some of her poetry. She had a very interesting life (born to free parents in 1825 and raised by a relative) and received an education far better than most white women of her time. I really enjoyed her poem about Moses, which you can find and read, but she also wrote several novels and this essay was included in a Unitarian sermon source, still worthy of being read today:

True and False Politeness [by F.E.W. Harper]

False politeness can cast a glamour over fashionable follies and popular vices and shrink from uttering unpalatable truths, when truth is needed more than flattery.

True politeness, tender as love and faithful as truth, values intrinsic worth more than artificial surroundings. It will stem the current of the world's disfavor, rather than float ignobly on the tide of popular favor, with the implied disrespect to our common human nature, that it is a flaccid thing to be won by sophistry, and satisfied with shams.

False politeness is an outgrowth from the surface of life. True politeness is the fair outflowing of a kind and thoughtful life, the sweet ripe fruit of a religion which gives to life its best expression and to humanity its crowning glory.

True politeness is broadly inclusive; false politeness narrowly exclusive. …

True politeness has no scornful epithets for classes or races, who, if not organically inferior, have been born under, or environed by inferior conditions. Humanity is God's child, and to fail in true kindness and respect to the least of His "little ones" is to fail in allegiance to Him.

Contemptuous injustice to man is treason to God, and one of the worst forms of infidelity is to praise Christ with our lips and trample on the least of His brethren with our feet,-to talk sweetly of His love, and embitter the lives of others by cold contempt, and cruel scorn.

Beyond the narrow limitations of social lines are humanity's broader interests…

If today you believe that your faith is simple and vision clearer than that of other forms of belief, should not the clasp of your hand be warmer, the earnestness of your soul greater, and the throbbings of your heart quicker to clasp the world in your arms and bring it nearer to the great heart of God and His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ?

3527 The importance of friends

Although it is important to raise a child in a home with married parents who have good values, by the time they get to about 11 or 12, we know from our own experience and various studies that their friends, the peers, take over in the "training and raising." I really enjoyed Hispanic Pundit's story about his two friends Edgar and Sid, his love for them, his respect and treatment of their parents, and his sadness about the turn in their lives. I was left wondering how HP came through that on the other side. I guess he'll have to tell more stories.

One of his readers left the following comment: "My "salvation" in the old neighborhood was to hang out with the Vietnamese immigrants: they all were going to college, so I went too."

Just change a few key phrases

Sometimes, reporting one illegal activity can be a template for another. How is illegally coming across the border taking jobs and services any different than downloading music illegally? The current crack down on both will make the criminals--whether CEOs, workers or college students--think twice.

"Today’s college students have grown up during the rise of illegal peer-to-peer services, and now there is an expectation that music should be free, that it should be available on multiple platforms, and that it should be easily transferred to their preferred portable device, including the iPod. These Internet-savvy consumers do not care for excessive rules being placed around the content they want, and until their needs have been addressed, the challenges of mass adoption will continue for a great many businesses." Cdigix [legal music download service] letter as reported in Chronicle Wired "Why the music died."

Today's Mexican citizens have grown up during the rise of easy access to services and jobs across the border, and now there is an expectation that multiple medical, educational and social services should be available, and that they should easily be transferred to any Mexican national who wants them, including their non-resident relatives. These immigration-savvy illegals do not care for excessive rules being placed on them in various states where they want to be and until their needs have been addressed by a weak Bush administration in league with the labor unions, American businesses and various advocacy groups, the challenges of mass illegal immigration will continue for a great many Americans.

The exclusiveness of being Norma

There are no men named Norma. There are no similar or even fairly similar names to Norma for either men or women. But there are a small number of men named Annie. And a huge number of similar names to Annie for both men (Ernie, Ananias) and women (Alexandrea, Ginny). You're probably thinking, What about Norman, but there are actually some women named Norman; but no men named Norma. So, I'm special.

The popularity of my name peaked in 1931, long before I was born. I think there were some movie stars named Norma (Shearer, Talmadge and the fictional Desmond) and for some reason, mommies want to name their babies after people who can't put three words together unless someone else has written it down for them. Marilyn Monroe didn't like her name and changed it. Maybe she didn't know about those other famous stars named Norma.

I was named by my father, a story my mother often told me when Dad was out of the room and mad at me for something. Apparently, with his third child he decided to try the daddy thing and was bouncing me around when I was an infant, tossed me in the air, and I hit my head on the ceiling light fixture. It was a long time before he picked up a baby again. By the time the great-granddaughters came along, he was getting pretty good at it, although I don't think he ever changed a diaper.

If you are choosing a baby's name and you wish the child to totally confuse future employers and the draft board, pick either Byrd or Kendall, the top two sexually ambiguous names. But if you want your daughter to stand out in a crowd, name her Norma.The special one
To check out your own name, try The Name Playground.

Citizens Against Government Waste

was founded following the lead of President Ronald Reagan in establishing the President’s Private Sector Survey on Cost Control, or the "Grace Commission," after Chairman J. Peter Grace, in 1982. In its more than 20 years of existence, CAGW has grown to include more than one million members who have helped reduce government spending by three-quarters of a billion dollars. The work of CAGW has also identified as much as $200 billion in unrealized one-year savings and more than $1.6 trillion in five-year savings. (Ohio Piglet Book)

Whichever party is in power, is the big offender, so for 2006 it was the Republicans. "The 2006 Congressional Pig Book is the latest installment of Citizens Against Government Waste’s (CAGW) 16-year exposé of pork-barrel spending. This year’s list includes: $13,500,000 for the International Fund for Ireland, which helped finance the World Toilet Summit; $6,435,000 for wood utilization research; $1,000,000 for the Waterfree Urinal Conservation Initiative; and $500,000 for the Sparta Teapot Museum in Sparta, N.C."

Some states have their own Piglet Book. Here is Ohio's for 2006, "The book Columbus doesn't want you to read." Congratulations to Texas, Oklahoma, Indiana, Florida and Georgia for being the states that are the least greedy in bringing home the federal pork. Alaska is number one, and Hawaii number two.

The terrible, sad marriage of Annie and Frank

You never know the tales you'll find when browsing a digitized, obscure record in the New York Public Library! I found Annie's photo in Cabinet Card Portraits in the Collection of Radical Publisher Benjamin R. Tucker. Tucker was publisher of The Radical Review from 1877 to 1878, and the anarchist magazine Liberty from 1881 to 1908. His magazine was the first to publish George Bernard Shaw in the U.S., and to translate Pierre Joseph Proudhon. Tucker also published other works considered radical at the time, such as Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, Tolstoy's Kreutzer Sonata, and Oscar Wilde's Ballad of Reading Gaol. [notes from the catalog record at NYPL]

The Besants
by Norma Bruce
February 23, 2007

Frankie and Annie were married,
Oh Lordy, how they could fight.
Clergy was he, a writer she,
taking her fees was his right.

Frankie preached long dull sermons,
Short stories Annie would write.
Divorce for them was unthinkable--
society and God would smite.

Annie helped farmers to unionize,
Frank to the landlords leaned.
The couple was split by politics,
you’ve probably already gleaned.

"You read too many damn books,"
Frank was known to tell his wife.
He got custody of their children,
And she kept his name for life.

3522 Baldism

Today I was reading the Nov/Dec 2006 issue of Where to Retire and noticed something very odd. Although this magazine is supposed to focus on people over 50, it leaves out bald men. Zip, nada, zilch. What? They don't own property, stock, go fishing or play golf? There were no bald men in the ads--not one, and that's the major part of this very fat journal (over 260 pages). There was a bald man on p. 64 and p. 130 in news stories with candid shots. To the magazine's credit there were also no bad hair pieces or comb overs ala Donald Trump.

Murray had hair the last time I saw him (2002?) and my brother did the last time I saw him (2006), and my neighbor Jerry, and my friend Nancy's husband, but most of the men my age are bald, or so close to it they should just shave what's left. So, let's give a shout out for bald, male models who need the work.

Britney Spears

3521 Friday Family Photo--The story of Beau

A few weeks ago I told you the tragic story of my niece's husband, who manages a ranch in Illinois, developing a terrible infection in his hand when a thorn went through his glove, which required surgery, hospitalization and then physical therapy (still going on). While he was in the hospital, some of the horses got out of the corral before dawn, and two were hit in the road by a passing car, injuring severely the driver and two passengers, killing the one horse outright, and disabling the other. The injured horse was Beau, my niece's special pet, and this is his story.



Beau and Amy saved each others' lives five or six years ago. She was about as down and depressed as a young single mom could be, and he was headed for the slaughter house to become dog food. A girlfriend called her about two horses she heard about and Amy, who surely didn't need another pet to complicate her life (she already had a burro that was stretching her budget), fell in love at first sight. Beau was a young, unbroken stallion--had never worn a saddle or bridle. She got books and read everything she could about gentling and training horses--although I've seen her with animals and personally know she always has had a special knack with them. They spent a lot of time just loving each other, talking about life, sorting through the problems and walking--for miles. People used to ask her how her "dog" was because she wasn't riding him--just walking along with him. He would lay his head on her chest and come when she called his name. Eventually, the riding stage was no big deal because there was such a trust between them.

The night of the accident someone came to the house and told Amy some horses had escaped from the corral and been hit. It was dark so she couldn't see which ones, but in the headlights of the stopped traffic, she could see Beau standing along the road. She'd brought a halter with her, slipped it on his head, which he rested on her just like he always did, and she asked someone standing nearby to hold him while she checked on the other horses. She told him Beau wouldn't go anywhere, that he was gentle, but got a very strange response she didn't understand. Then the vet came up to her as she was about to lead Beau to the barn. The vet stopped her and said that wouldn't be possible, the horse was in shock and critically injured. Just then the traffic from the other direction started to move, and the headlights shone on Beau. She was horrified to see his injuries and knew right away, that he would need to be put down.

Beau will always have a special place in her heart, and I suspect he is irreplaceable even if someday she owns another horse. He came into her life when she rescued him, he then rescued her, worked his equine magic, and moved on.

After Amy told me this story I asked her if she knew that Beau had been her father's nickname when he was a little boy. She didn't.

Pure Evil

Three adults, a dead child and one of the most awful, strangest cases I've ever heard about people who appeared on the surface to be normal, acting out unbelievable evil, has been on the news here in Ohio. Supposedly, the child was developmentally disabled, but I'd say the adult caretakers were definitely at the shallow end of the gene pool! The murder case of Liz Carroll in Cincinnati for killing her foster child, Marcus, by wrapping him in a blanket with duct tape and storing him in a closet while she, her husband and her husband's girlfriend went off to a family reunion for the week-end to leave him to suffocate has been playing out in Cincinnati this week. Today she was sentenced to what seemed to me, not nearly long enough. The girl friend, Amy Baker, who participated in this will apparently go free for turning on her lover/friend, and regain custody of her own children. I assume the husband will come to trial too.

I listened to the summation on the radio today on WLW. It was the most awful thing I'd ever heard. I don't believe in the death penalty, and this case in Ohio didn't even qualify, but I think all three of these people need to be put away forever, and ever. 54 years to life hardly seems adequate given the parole system for good behavior. Poor little guy. His life must have been pretty bad to be taken away from his parents, and then to end his life as someone else's punching bag. How awful for him.

It makes me wonder where were the social workers who placed this child, Butler County Children Services Board and its foster care contractor, Lifeway for Youth? What's their punishment? Where were the neighbors who noticed that all the children--foster and biological--in that family were roaming the neighborhood without supervision. The lady who thought about reporting it but didn't. What about the other girl friends who seemed to float in and out. Did no one notice how strange, weird and evil these people were?

The WLW reporter I heard alluded to something awful about the dog. He actually refused to report it. Yesterday I watched an interview with a humane society employee who said when they get a report about a mistreated pet, there are usually other charges against the owners for domestic violence, child abuse, gun violations, etc. Watch the pets. Save a child.

Trip Tales, Haiti #5

Hugues Bastien has also had a medical clinic built not far from the school. So far, it is not permanently staffed, but medical mission teams are also going there. The day our construction team left for Haiti, we had a medical team returning. Bill, who did all the organizing for the construction group, is married to a nurse, and she returned from Haiti the day he left, and picked up their car at the airport. They are an amazing couple, really committed to the welfare of the people in Ouanaminthe.

Modern medical clinic in Ouanaminthe
Pam, our pastor's wife, teaches Bible at the school, however, she is a trained artist and has done this mural. In Columbus, she had done a number of murals at Highland Elementary School where many of our members volunteer and mentor.
Jesus with the people of Ouanaminthe--you can see the town square in the background of the mural, and the girl is wearing the school's uniform
Friday evening before the team left on Saturday for DR to fly home on Sunday, they had a party for all the school staff and their family members to thank them for the help they'd given the team.
The school choir sang, and that is pastor Dave standing by the stage. Each staff person received a gift bag from the team members--with 1400 students you can see it is a fairly large staff, possibly the 2nd largest employer in the city. In addition to the gift bags, the church also sent down ahead of the team, 200 bicycles to be given to children who didn't have any.
Hugues performing at the party for the staff

Read part #1. Read part #2. Read part #3. Read part #4.

3518 Technological tics

Did you know no one cares enough about Haiti to make a map? You know, the kind that you fold up for the glove compartment and tells you how far you are from the border? My husband wants one. We've checked with all the bookstores in the city and he drove up to the map store in Dublin, which has closed. Then I checked the OSU map library and I think there were 4--3 topographical and 1 satellite. It's not hard to see why. No one goes there, and all the residents are trying to leave. The government is in shambles and it is one of the poorest countries in the world and it has no infrastructure. So, what cartographer/printer would ever try to make money selling a map of Haiti?

So we scanned the teeny tiny one we had in an atlas. But I didn't notice how many megabytes it was and when I clicked on "print" it came up with something like a bazillion, so my poor little printer has grabbed a sheet of paper and is making a clicking noise every 5 minutes or so.

So I'm sitting in the kitchen with the cat, who is watching the snow melt at about the speed of my printer, using the laptop. Also, when I tried to get into my second Blogger account (which hadn't been moved to the new now out of beta blogger) it reminded me to type in my Google account, which I did, and it threw me back to this dashboard where I have 8 blogs instead of the other one where I have 2. Now I can't add anything over there at mmhs1957.

I sure hope it is finished by morning. I have a really great family photo to show you. It's residing on the other computer. It's possible that both contraptions will work at the same time, but I don't want to push it.

Confidential except for. . .

The IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998, the Privacy Act of 1974, and the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980 requires that the IRS ask for information. But first they want me to know why, and who else might see it, and what would happen to me if they didn't receive it.

The IRS has a right to ask and it is mandatory for me to answer this because of the Internal Revenue Code sections 6001, 6011, and 6012(a). But here's my favorite part:

My tax returns are confidential BUT Code section 6103 allows or requires the IRS to give it to a whole bunch of others such as

• Department of Justice
• cities
• states
• DC
• U.S. commonwealths or possessions
• certain foreign governments
• so they can carry out their tax laws.

The IRS may disclose my tax information to obtain information it can't get any other way to the

• Department of Treasury
• its contractors
• other persons as necessary

The IRS can disclose my tax information to

• The Comptroller General of the United States
• the Committees of Congress
• federal, state, and local child support agencies
• other federal agencies concerning entitlement for benefits or repayment of loans
• other countries under a tax treaty
• federal and state agencies to enforce federal nontax criminal laws
• federal law enforcement
• federal intelligence agencies to combat terrorism.

This information is on page 22 of the 35 page instruction booklet for the 1040EZ for filing electronically (so much for paper reduction). But the booklet does not contain any tax forms.

The pie chart on p. 33 says that 37% of the federal income goes for Social Security, Medicare, and support for the disabled and elderly; 20% goes for social programs like Medicaid, food stamps, assistance for the needy, Supplemental security income and related programs like health research and unemployment compensation; 10% goes for physical, human and community development such as agriculture, natural resources, environment, space, energy, science, etc.; and ta-dah, 24% for national defense, veterans and foreign affairs, of which 20% is funding the global war on terror.