3560

Ann Coulter

I've never been a fan of Ann Coulter so I hadn't been following her speaking events, but Jon Swift has summarized this last one at CPAC, and it sounds like she's gone round the bend. Other conservatives are obviously tired of her adolescent behavior. Others can make excuses for her, but I won't. It's ugly.

American Mind taking her to the Pat Robertson woodshed: "Ann Coulter used to serve the movement well. She was telegenic, intelligent, and witty. She was also fearless: saying provocative things to inspire deeper thought and cutting through the haze of competing information has its uses. But Coulter’s fearlessness has become an addiction to shock value. She draws attention to herself, rather than placing the spotlight on conservative ideas.

At the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2006, Coulter referred to Iranians as “ragheads.” She is one of the most prominent women in the conservative movement; for her to employ such reckless language reinforces the stereotype that conservatives are racists.

At CPAC 2007 Coulter decided to turn up the volume by referring to John Edwards, a former U.S. Senator and current Presidential candidate, as a “faggot.” Such offensive language–and the cavalier attitude that lies behind it–is intolerable to us. It may be tolerated on liberal websites but not at the nation’s premier conservative gathering."

3559

Robins who winter here

When I was a girl growing up in Illinois, we always watched for the first robins as a sign of spring. Because I see so many robins in central Ohio all year, I thought it was just our more mild climate. When we had that terrible cold snap a few weeks back I was surprised to see so many dead robins in the street. They didn't seem to be able to get out of the way of the cars, and the streets were snow packed so I wasn't sure why they were in the road. Then in today's Columbus Dispatch I noticed an article about robins staying around because of the spread of the honeysuckle bush. Its red berries provide winter food for them when there are no worms or bugs. The plants are foreign to our area (you might call them illegal immigrants who have gotten out of hand) and have killed off some native species. When I checked Google, I see that robins are also wintering in the western suburbs of Chicago, but those may have come south from Wisconsin.

Whatever is keeping them here in the winter--dried fruit and berries from ornamental trees or invasive species--our terrible cold snap must have been too much for them. It either covered up or iced over their food supply or disoriented them enough that they weren't able to fly.

3558

As seen at Joan's blog

She found this meme--so I decided to try it. Tag, you're it.

1. How often do you shave your legs in the winter? (Guys, I'm expecting this to
be zero, but if it's not, don't hold back) It's rare; slacks and age decrease the need.
2. Do you make your bed every day? No, but my husband does. He's the last one up and I'm usually gone by then.
3. Do you floss every day? No--about 4-5 times a week.
4. Do you eat something sweet every day? Yes, if fruit counts.
5. What is the one routine thing you do every day that you wish you didn't have to or could do without? If I had any routines I didn't need, I would have dumped them.
6. Are routines important to you or do they drive you nuts? Yes; No, I like an orderly life.
7. Do you enjoy driving or is it just a necessity to you? Do you always ask two questions in one? I don't like to drive; it is a necessity of urban living. Our city fathers didn't believe in sidewalks. I get sleepy when driving. See #2 above.
8. Do you make your lunch or buy it on most days? I make my lunch every day.
9. If you could change one thing about your appearance what would it be? I'd change all the time I spent worrying about it in the past. It did no good.
10. Do you believe in spirits crossing over? Gracious no. Crossing over where? I'm a Christian; we are Easter people and believe in the resurrection of the body, not disembodied spirits cavorting here and crossing there.
11. Do you love, like, tolerate, dislike or hate your job? I'm retired; but I loved the job I used to have. Except for meetings. Librarians have way too many meetings.
12. How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck would chuck wood? I've never seen a woodchuck chuck anything.
13. Do you watch American Idol? I've never watched an entire show, but have seen some pretty awful auditions.

Joan got it from Irish Church Lady who did it as a Thursday Thirteen.

3557

Up and Running Again

For a week or two, I haven't been able to update two of my blogs, and had developed a queue which I stored at a blog that I had finished in November 2005. But being somewhat forgetful, I discovered today when Blogger finally restored them, that I had written some entries twice. Anyway, the class reunion blog has now been updated with some Girl Scout stuff in February and March, our 8th grade trip to Chicago, and a Christmas party in December. All the stories and photos are from the 1950s, contributed by classmates. As everyone knows from watching Happy Days reruns, the 50s was an era of no problems, Elvis Presley, I like Ike, and all the children were thoughtful, well behaved, and never caused any trouble. Oh yeah! Enjoy.

3556

Talking to a Democrat

There is a talkative mid-life lawyer at the coffee shop who will deign to chat with me, a lowly, female retiree of a different faith and party, if there's no one else for him to talk to at. He's also trying to practice his Russian, so that makes for a pretty small group, plus he thinks all the men there are bigots and idiots (he told me one time) because they're talking sports. Anyway, today I made him the same offer that I did Chuck, as he scarfed down one of their fabulous muffins (he's put on a few pounds this winter). He could have my calories I wasn't using and they wouldn't count on him. He could eat with impunity knowing I wasn't. He didn't understand the Gore carbon footprint/exchange so I tried to explain it. I think his legal mind realized it is a scam, but he right away switched the topic to Gore's movie.

But when I said something about Clinton not signing the Kyoto Treaty, he went ballistic. Thought I'd have to scrape him off the ceiling. "You Republicans blame Clinton for everything!" he bellowed (I think he's a defense attorney and tries intimidation.) The fact that it just happened to be true and that Kyoto hasn't done a thing for those countries that did sign it, and that I had been a Democrat who voted for Clinton, also did little to defuse him. His mouth was like the roaring lion in the book of Daniel (no sinister allusions to Satan here--I know he is a liberal Catholic and has a good heart).

Since I'm probably 15 years older, I did a little history review with him and asked him to cite a single program proposed by the liberals in the last 20-30 years that had been defeated by the conservatives. Couldn't do it of course, because liberals try to put up conservatives, particularly Christian conservatives, as some sort of powerhouse bringing down the government. No one has been a bigger spender on social programs than the Bush administration. Medicare. Biggest gains under Republicans. Illegal immigration. Huge muck job by Republicans--who was president in 1986 for IRCA? Social Security. Reagan was President when I lost mine. Legal abortion. Last time I checked, we're still killing babies--what--25-35 million since Roe v. Wade? If Christian conservatives manage to roll back a week or two in a sparsely populated rural state, the Dems go crazy (oh no, a baby's made it out alive), but the law's still there. DDT. Last time I ran the numbers, we'd killed more Africans with malaria in the last 30 years than died being shipped across the Atlantic as slaves in the 18th century, but not a single bird, let alone human, ever died from spraying DDT on mosquito eggs in standing pools of swamp water. Rich Americans like Bill Gates are using their billions to buy mosquito netting and print brochures instead of reversing that disaster. Clean air laws. We've got bunches of empty factories in Ohio that have no smoke belching from the chimneys--the jobs went first to the southern U.S.A., then to Asia. Women's Rights. Leading cause of poverty in the U.S.A. is unmarried women having sex and babies before finishing school. The poverty gap is no longer racial, it is marital. And Dems have a fainting spell if someone introduces an abstinence program or a chastity pledge.

But he was so old-school-liberal in his views he only was willing to concede that blacks weren't being lynched and had moved a little closer to the front of the bus. Actually, I didn't get to bring up all these points for him--old Democrats wouldn't sit for that. His patronizing attitude for everything the liberals my age accomplished over the years is a real turn off--makes me think that nothing I did or supported for forty years mattered because it is never enough for them until we turn the country over and under.

3555

Bluffton University Tragedy

Last night I watched CBS News (Couric) which I rarely do (please, someone have a heart and move her back to her comfort zone) because I wanted to see an update on the bus tragedy that killed and injured so many Ohio young people. I wasn't terribly familiar with this school near Toledo, and knew little about it. Then I switched to Fox News and saw a totally different report. Yes, they talked about the tragedy, the family, had interviews, etc., but featured the information that Bluffton was a school affiliated with the Mennonite Church. Fox even had footage of the prayer vigil, held BEFORE the team left. Then I realized that often when I request books of a religious nature (not available at my public library because they don't collect in that area, or Ohio State University) they usually come from either Bluffton or Ashland, a Brethren college and seminary.

Almost all colleges in the U.S. founded in the 18th and 19th century were established by Christians. Some long ago left their roots and rootedness, like Harvard and Yale, and some keep the flavor and tone of the denomination with trustee appointments, faculty statements, contributions from churches, but only enroll about 20% of the faithful among their students. This includes Bluffton, Ashland, Wittenburg and Capital(Lutheran). The Columbus Dispatch reported that after the accident phone trees for the 75 Mennonite churches that make of the 11,000 membership of the Ohio Conference of Mennonite Church USA went into action for a prayer line.

I'm not sure why CBS skipped it (or possibly I was out of the room), or why Fox included it. Sure sounds like one was a bit more fair and balanced than the other.

3554

Friday Family Photo--The wedding

This handsome young couple, Edna and Jesse Weybright, were married December 25, 1911. Jesse was the 2nd cousin of my mother and her siblings--which means they had the same great grandfather, who came to Ohio from Pennsylvania around 1803. So the groom is my 2nd cousin once removed. He was about 21 years old here, and my mother hadn't been born yet. We didn’t know any of these people because our branch stayed in Ohio (near Dayton) until about 1894 (some longer), then on to Illinois, and this group moved on to Colorado and the family has been there over 100 years.

Isn’t that just the most wonderful hat you ever saw?

The minutes of our lives

This is the title of a WSJ feature on blogging. I saw it advertised but haven't seen it yet--not sure if it's due Friday or for the week-end edition. Based on the advert:

The Minutes of our Lives
by Norma Bruce
March 2, 2007

No experience is
too personal is
too sacred
not to be shared
immediately.

Chronicling
milestones, meetings,
weddings, births,
divorces and dinners.
Displaying
libraries, bodies,
vacations, toilets,
knowhow and knitters.

Blog and snog
MyFace, MySpace,
MyMoBlo or YouTube,
let's all vlog.

Download, edit,
scan or IM-it;
text-it, phone-it,
block, chop and drop it,
record, tag and
upload your snippet.

No experience is
too personal is
too boring
not to be shared
immediately.

Watching me,
Watching you.

Poetry Thursday #9

This week for Poetry Thursday, we are invited to write about something beautiful without using its name. This feels like it is still in draft stage--changing right up through Wednesday night.


In my unformed thoughts,
in my wildest dreams,
when this mattered
(and it doesn't so much now),
I never expected we’d meet.

You were so distant and aloof,
a prisoner of your past,
corrupt and sinful
(yet charming and alluring),
Did I even want us to meet?

Now that I’ve seen you,
heard your velvet voice,
minor and sad
(but dark eyed and lovely),
I know I’ll never forget us.

Are we allowed to leave a hint? (Очи страстные и прекрасные)

3552

Gore-ge yourself, be my guest

Today I passed up the samples of the peanut butter banana crunch bagel at Panera's (I'm assuming this is in honor of Elvis Presley, but I didn't see a note). So using the theory of carbon credits, you can now eat 200-300 extra calories today because I didn't, and therefore your calories won't count, make you fat, or hurt your heart. Al Gore is doing it the other way around. He's using massive amounts of energy to heat his home and swimming pool, but it is OK because he is rich and "buying" credits to do this from some place that scams tracks the public use of energy. So he's using what someone else isn't or didn't need. I'm not using those calories today, so you can be my guest. And I won't even charge you anything.

3551

Albums, scrapbooks and memories

Last night we searched the nooks and crannies of the house looking for photo cards people send at Christmas and the art cards we save from artistic friends. This turned out to be a much bigger job than we thought--might be a week instead of an evening.



The album in the back holds the work of a number of different artists, several of whom have died since we started the album. Our good friend Erkki Alanen died about 2 years ago--he was from Finland, lived in El Paso, and was a cartoonist, graphic artist, and architect who lived with us in the 1970s.

The album in the foreground is dedicated just to one artist, my college roommate, Dora. She was born in China and her parents immigrated to Brazil to escape the Communists. We both married architects who paint watercolors in retirement, so some of our 40+ years of Christmas cards reflect his art as well as hers. Then a few years ago they became grandparents. Now. . .

We decided to take some of the photo cards (usually family pictures) and add them to the pages with the art work.

Dora and I at the U. of Illinois

A very good buy!

Yesterday I was at the Discovery Shop (American Cancer Society) and noticed a basket of flatware. I couldn't tell exactly what or how many, but for $35 it looked pretty good. So I went home and checked the internet. Then I went back and bought the set to replace my 1960s-1970s stainless purchased with Betty Crocker coupons from cereal boxes and processed foods (something I would never do today). On e-Bay the individual pieces (couldn't find a set) were going for $10-$20, and I think I got 57 pieces, including a cake server, slotted spoon, butter knife, 3 serving spoons, gravy ladle, sugar spoon, etc. There were 16 teaspoons, plus 8 of everything else, soup spoons, salad forks, etc. The pattern is Reed & Barton, 1776, hammered finish and it was an active pattern between 1976-1979, now discontinued. The pieces are heavy and have a much nicer feel than stainless, and are probably worth more than my "good" silver plate, but that pattern will have pride of place since it was a wedding gift.

Serving spoon, $17.50 on e-Bay; I got 3

3549 A common error

Today I was reading a book I keep in the bathroom for just such occasions and came across the sentence, "By applying the techniques we've discussed in this book, I was able to enjoy this bell-weather year." Huh? Does she mean bellwether as in a leading indicator of a future trend, or is she thinking "belle" as in beautiful or pretty. A wether is a castrated male sheep, and a bell was tied around his neck and he led the sheep. So a bellwether is a leader.

This leads me to my favorite (next to the words "snogging" and "Oreo Cowkies") bit of trivia from the Veterinary libary. There are about 55 English words for sheep--not breeds, but words for the ages, sex and use of the animal itself. (Yes, I know I told you this about a month ago.) I can't seem to track down a list but the ones I remember are buck, dam, ewe, ram, wether, hogg, hoggett, lamb and shearling. I'm not sure poll and jumbuck were part of the list although I've seen those words in sheep descriptions. Anyone from Australia or New Zealand out there who can help me out with directions to a list? I know the list was in the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Yearbook, and I've checked the ones on-line, but didn't find it.

Update: Sort of poetic, isn't it?
Buck, dam,
Ewe, ram,
Wether, hogg,
Hoggett, lamb--
Waltz Matilda, waltz!

3548 The lost audition

This is a hoot. It's been around for awhile, but fun.

3546 $6.5 million wrongful death suit for illegals

In September 2004 there was a horrible tragic fire on Columbus' west side in which seven adults, all illegal immigrants and three children, all U.S. citizens died. At least, that's my recollection from the way the story was covered then. At the time we were told that the fire got out of control because the residents were fearful of being discovered, couldn't speak enough English to let 911 know what was wrong, were living several families in one small apartment, and were probably victims of an arsonist, perhaps a rival or disgruntled fellow-immigrant (don't remember if the theory was sex, drugs or bad debts).

Today's report says nothing about that, only that "Columbus lawyers working with colleagues in Texas and Mexico agreed to the terms of a $6.5 million lawsuit" against the property owners and a security firm.

"Most of the 10 people who died had traveled to the United States to work as landscapers. All were killed by burns and carbon-monoxide poisoning as the fire, set in a mattress in a hallway on the lower level, quickly spread and blocked their escape. Apartment owners were aware of an arson fire in the same building 90 days before the fatal fire but failed to increase security, lawyers said."

So who is at fault here? Not the people who smuggled them into the country; not the people who hired them; not the people who supplied false documents; not the other illegals who invited them to live 10 people to an apartment; not the liberals, Hispanic advocacy groups or church groups who do everything to keep them here; not the immigrant men who didn't allow their women outside to learn English; not the Congress who didn't supply the funding to protect the borders; and certainly not the Mexican government who refuses to clean up their mess at home, preferring to drain all it can from our economy. In 2004, our own emergency call service was blamed because they didn't speak enough Spanish and they all had to take crash courses.

No, through the shenanigans of lawyers who get their 1/3 of the settlement and the Mexican government (don't know how much they get, except perhaps they get to tax that portion that goes to Mexican citizens), the security company and the landlord are at fault for not providing enough security.

Several years ago my son lived in a lovely almost new apartment complex on the east side--off street parking, some garages, a pool, party house, gym, great access to major highways and shopping, etc. Young Hispanic men (if there were women we didn't see them) were jammed into some of these apartments, having fights, looking not at all anxious to be noticed outside the building, with a variety of junky cars littering the parking lots. As soon as his one year lease was up, he moved. It was a scary place.

How long will there be landlords willing to invest in Columbus and keep up property if they have to increase security to handle illegals, or be sued for not doing so? How long will we know the problems in these immigrant communities if our newspapers push the details under the rug? How many more children and parents will need to die at the hands of our homegrown enablers?

Global warming, the new bottle stopper

One hundred years ago, according to JAMA's peek into its archives, the general public was believing theories that boric acid as a food preservative and red rubber in bottle stoppers were the cause of increased number of appendicitis. Around that time telephone usage was on the increase, but apparently no one connected that to the rise in appendicitis.

Algore is remodeling a big old house and using a big old jet to fly around to his various treatments for sycophantitis. Seems he can buy carbon credits. That doesn't reduce any carbon in the air--just makes him feel better.

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.