3544 The American Dream

Banks have been offering home mortgages to undocumented workers using a taxpayer ID instead of a Social Secuity number, and it's not illegal to do so. You don't have to be an American citizen to own property here. Think about all the rich European rock stars and middle eastern oil magnates who buy multi-million dollar homes that eat up our coastlines and forests so they can drop by a few weeks of the year. They are actually cheap tax shelters because their own property taxes are confiscatory.

Now a new bill has been introduced (H.R. 480) by John T. Doolittle R-CA to amend the Truth in Lending Act to make such mortgages to illegals difficult (I was going to say "illegal" but we know that there is an army of lawyers out there working for advocacy groups that will find the loophole, so I downshifted to "difficult").

When there is a practice or law so clearly working against the average, tax paying, law abiding citizen, I always say the trite and true: FOLLOW THE MONEY. Who benefits when undocumented workers buy homes? MurrayT has a home in Florida and the recent tornado wiped out some of those homes. He says FEMA is trying to find the home owners to give them aid--but they have fled fearing arrest for being in the country illegally and are afraid of the INS. Property owners paying taxes in that county and paying high insurance premiums and the rest of the nation (me) who donate to the very inefficient Homeland Security Department are paying.

But the banks with their fees and the real estate industry (now in sort of a slump) and all their linked industries like home inspectors, title examiners, insurance companies are not innocent. Local taxing districts probably don't care as long as the county or township gets its share. Nor are advocacy groups innocent, like La Raza, who normally would turn up their noses at a so-called American value. But they'll preach it brother, oh yes, "the American dream," how could you deny this to hard, working immigrants? Read their own material. They intend to "retake" the southwestern U.S. which Mexico lost in a 19th century war.

The sovereign Mexican government is the big bandito behind all this. And we have so many trade treaties with Mexico it would be hard to sort through. How about that latest one allowing Mexican truck drivers to deliver Mexican goods within the U.S. when we can't even inspect our own trucking industry. But our banks are doing lunch with their bancos you can be sure. Illegal immigrants sending money home, supporting (destroying?) villages and towns left with no young men, is the second highest source of income in Mexico, with oil being number one and tourism number three. The quasi-American left who will weep bitter tears over the 5% rich in this country who pay most of our taxes (but never enough, right?), have no problem turning a blind eye to the inequities in Mexico with the richest Spanish-Mexicans (they have very restrictive laws regarding citizenship) at the top of the government and industries and the poorest Indian-Mexicans at the bottom. Why should Mexico ever clean up its act and be responsible for its own poor and unemployed and create some upward mobility if we're willing to support them with the jobs and social benefits?

3543 Great Balls of Fire!

as Jerry Lee Lewis would sing. Just go to technorati or Google and type "scrotum + Newbery" and read a few library blogs. The book is totally unsuitable in story line for 4th graders, in my opinion, but what in the world is wrong with a body part?

3542 What about threatening the Veep?

Isn't that against the law? I would think the Huffpo blog would have closed her blood thirsty maniacs down sooner. Some people are so evil.

Why do you blog?

The first four responses were exactly the same as I would write (if anyone asked, but no one did); but after that he, Chris Dillow, lost me in a swirl of music, poetry and English history.

Why do you blog? I'm arrogant enough to think I've got something worth saying, and stupid enough to think anyone cares.

What has been your best blogging experience? The kind words of many good, intelligent people, which I have been too ungracious to properly acknowledge.

What has been your worst blogging experience? Realizing that time and inspiration are negatively correlated.

What would be your main blogging advice to a novice blogger? It's better to be wrong but interesting than right but dull.

He writes Stumbling and Mumbling.

The Librarian

Isn't this a magnificent portrait? The artist Winold Reiss was a well known artist of the early 20th century who "believed that portraits were windows into the souls of his subjects as well as renderings of their faces and forms. Motivated by his big-hearted humanism, Reiss also loved variety and believed that a full appreciation of the universal could only come about through contact with diversity." I don't know if I'm more impressed with her dignity and determination or her clothes. (Librarians definitely led the charge to dress down at work.) He did a series of Negro Women for Survey Graphic, Harlem: Mecca of the New Negro, March 1925. Very interesting articles in this issue, also.

Some fascinating architectural stuff, too, done by Reiss. He was the muralist for the Cincinnati Union Terminal, and many of the murals which depict Cincinnati industries have been moved to the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.

3539 Why it's better to trust the Bible

Bible scholars disgree on a lot of points, like whether a "day" is a literal 24 hours or a couple of million years, or how Old Testament prophecies are fulfilled in the New, or the true meaning of various miracle stories and parables, or how much first century sexuality should carry over to the 21st century. But it's nothing as changeable or as debatable as what you find in scientific, peer-reviewed journals.

I just love to read science literature and blogs. Fascinating stuff. But anytime you hear politicans or non-scientific people (media talking heads and journalists) claiming all disagreement needs to be limited on a particular topic, like global warming or stem-cell research or Alzheimer's treatment, I invite you to read the first 5-10 pages of any issue of Nature. Here's what I noticed today:

• The fat metabolism of Drosophila (fruit fly) is a mystery. . .
  
• They still haven't figured out the influence of genes vs. environment in disease, and some studies are "controversial."
  
• Astronomers' galaxy theories are in need of a new model because of new observational techniques.
  
• "despite intense investigation. . ."
  
• "it is a mystery. . ."
  
• "new techniques reveal. . ."
  
• "will test the hypotheses that . . ."
  
• "previously unknown changes. . . "
  
• "reveal an unexpected connection in. . ."
  
• "more widespread consequences than previously predicted. . . "
  
• "may play a role in climate change (this was not human related). . ."
  
• "long running debate in how . . . "
  
• "the nature of how this works is unclear. . ."
  
• "the reason for this variation has been something of a mystery. . . "
  
• "there is only one fossil of this 150 million year old species available for analysis. . . "
  
• "Even some of the most accomplished scientists are in the dark about the most basic information underpinning their work. . . "
  
• "The plant with the largest flower (a metre across) has no roots, leaves or stems and has no DNA clues on how it is related to other plants. . . "
  
• the question of whether this property plays an active role in tumors has remained under debate. . . "

I rest my case--for the Biblical truths.

3538 Late in life learning

I've learned a few things in retirement that I wish I'd known earlier. a) Always use a non-stick spray when cooking--sauce pans included. Sure makes clean up easy (I use a soybean oil spray). b) Trader Joe's sunblock makes a wonderful hand lotion--has zinc oxide, and their c) shaving cream works wonderfully for washing your face. Leaves your skin soft and smelling yummy. d) I can buy a B width shoe if it has laces or elastic inserts. e) Since I buy 1/2 decaf with 1/2 regular for my morning coffee, it just tastes a lot better if I start with 1/2 cup of regular and leave out the decaf until I'm ready to go (about an hour later). It also stays hot longer if you start with 1/2 cup. f) In the last few months I've learned there is life after peanut butter.

But here's the biggie I learned yesterday. I'm not particularly tall--5'5"--and have short legs. Therefore, PETITE slacks or jeans fit fine in the inseam, but the trunk/waist is completely in the wrong place. Yesterday I noticed a nice pair of Bill Blass jeans on the 75% off rack, but they were a TALL. I've never bought a TALL because I have to shorten even a REGULAR. But the price was a winner (about $6) so I bought them. They fit much better than a REGULAR, which apparently is not the size I should have been buying all these years. I shortened them 3.5" but when I sit down, they stay put.

I hope you've enjoyed this public service announcement.

3537 Speech code?

Barack Obama was in Columbus yesterday. I've been hearing snippets on the radio. Hmmmm. Seems to be a change in his speech--all of a sudden (or maybe not so sudden) he doesn't sound like a young educated white lawyer from Illinois. He sounded like a young Jesse Jackson, who also used to be from Illinois. Kind of reminds me of Edwards in jeans or Kerry in the bunny suit. You need to go with the flow when you're in politics. Read the polls and what the latest focus groups say. Now, the President? He always sounds like a good old boy from Texas and it sure makes his enemies mad. He certainly doesn't respond to polls or he'd know how unhappy conservatives are with him about his border follies.

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.