3580 To report abuse

Have you ever thought of picking up the phone when you see this statement on a government publication: "To report fraud, waste, and abuse in Federal programs call. . ." Each year about this time when we get our tax returns from our accountant and will pay her $400 so we can pay the government more of our pension this phrase sticks in my mind (don't bother to tell me to buy brand x tax software or do it myself--she's actually worth every penny, but charges a higher hourly rate than architects). I just can't think of a single Federal or state program where there isn't fraud and waste. Can you? Katrina rebuilding is probably the most pitiful and worst example, but it has just shown us how bad things are when federal money is mismanaged at the local and state level and the people reelect the clowns stealing our tax money. I'm grateful (I think) that we have the GAO to report on such things but when it takes 100-150 pages to report it and no one in Congress does anything, or they pass a new regulation which requires more taxes and more paper, and more review and reports by GAO, I do sometimes think it is part of the problem abuse.

3579

Have schools gone off the deep end on being "safe?"

Glenn Beck interviewed a father, Frank Harmeier, last week whose ten year old son Casey pulled a fire alarm cover off in the hall of the school (Texas) on a dare. When the cover was replaced, the alarm went off. It wasn't one that goes off at the police station, or even the principal's office, but is local for that area so a teacher can be summoned to investigate. When the teacher came (he didn't try to run away--he knew he'd done something wrong), he admitted his crime. Then the police were called, he was arrested and taken to the police station and interrogated for four hours before his parents were called. They are charging him with a felony; the parents are calling it child abuse. And as it turned out, the alarm went off because a school staffer pulled it when she tried to replace the cover. For its mistake, the school hasn't apologized for terrorizing a student, and has only asked that the felony charge be reduced to a misdemeanor. The juvenile authorities, according to Casey's father, wanted the parents to go through a family counseling and parent reeducation (North Vietnam comes to mind, doesn't it), the problem is they ARE counselors, she having given up her job to be a stay at home mom. And the father works in that school district. Series in the Houston Chronicle.

Imagine all this fuss and police involvement with illegals flooding across the border of Texas. Seems like some misplaced power struggles, doesn't it. The reporter following this story has discovered that gum chewing will also result in arrests.

Then in Oregon, "Two McMinnville middle school boys are in Yamhill County Juvenile Detention facing sex abuse charges after school officials said they inappropriately touched classmates.

The 12- and 13-year-old boys’ parents said students were part of a group of boys and girls at Patton Middle School who would spank each other’s backsides as part of a handshake or dance." Story here. Again, the children were arrested and the parents weren't called. What is this, the abortion trend in parent notification?

Kind of makes me glad we're going to our 50th class reunions this summer--you young folks in charge of our institutions are going bonkers. I hate to think what my generation would have been charged with. Eleven year old boys actually thought it was great fun to sneak up behind the girls and snap their bra! Now we've got libraries with really smutty stuff and fighting internet filters while insisting it's about about freedom of information, while 10 year olds are going to jail? The world is upside down.

3578

Pamela Hess, UPI correspondent

Don't miss her interview on C-SPAN talking about what she saw in Iraq. I don't think I've ever seen a reporter cry when talking about what is going on there. She had been there in 2003 and makes some comparisons.

Iraq War

3577

It's naughty to be not nice

DePauw University (Greencastle, IN) has pulled its approval from the Delta Zeta sorority. It seems that 23 of the sisters were asked to take "alumna status" and leave the house because they failed to meet recruiting goals. DZ National's story. The sisters claimed it was because they weren't pretty enough. The photo in the USAToday shows some not unattractive, 20-something ladies with too much mascara and some extra poundage.

Sororities, cliques or social clubs for women (or men) whether in high school, college, or real life aren't designed to include everyone. Their very existence says, "we are somebody," and you aren't. Why is it worse to exclude a woman because she is not attractive than because she isn't a good athlete or a good student? Will black sororities be required to include whites? Will Jewish sororities have to rush Bahai's? Do engineering fraternities have to include thespians?

All 23 of those women when they went through "rush" knew they got in because someone else didn't. They knew that with the next class, they'd be the ones excluding another young woman whose grades would bring the average down, or she drank too much and embarrassed them, or her table manners were poor, or . . . she was homely. Is prettiness more superficial than bad manners or poor grades? I disliked the Greek system from the get-go, and never participated when I was in college. I lived in an independent dorm and loved it. It was the judging and exclusion stuff I disliked. But this is childish! Talk about "in loco parentis!"

Ladies, it's a big bad world out there. Deal with it. Don't be a victim. Don't join the Greek system and then whine about exclusionary behavior like this is all new to you and you just had no idea what was going on.

3576

Advice for the 2008 presidential candidates

While cleaning out some files, I found this one written for the 2004 campaign. No one listened to me then, so I'll give it another shout out. This is for the Democrats or Republicans or Libertarians.

Jobs: Make Cleveland, Detroit, New York, etc. "union-free" areas--no unions in industry, in the schools, or any areas of government, or in non-government associations. Unions are strongest in cities with the most serious poverty problems. Time to run a test and see if there is a cause and effect relationship. Invite industry in. Let in some fresh air. If these cities can turn around in say, a decade, move the system to other cities.

The War: Let the Iraqis have as much time to settle into independence and democracy as the United States did--about 15 years--1775-1789 (I said this in 2004--so knock four years off the remaining time). Remove US troops as quickly as possible without endangering the Iraqi people. Rid America of the "instant solution" mentality (this is now called Murthanizing).

Energy: Allow drilling in Alaska as a trade off for more economizing and more fuel efficiency.

Health care: Introduce more competition, not less. Move away from government interference and control as quickly as possible, so we don’t lose the best system in the world.

Prescription drugs: Reduce the red tape and regulations for drug development to reduce the price of development.

Transportation: Get our passenger rail system going again. Terminals in every major city. Environmentally, it makes a lot more sense and is probably cheaper than messing with forests and farm lands for biofuels and windmills.

Nation building: Make English the official language of the US, but offer many more foreign language options, and make at least one a requirement for graduation from high school.

Terrorism: Secure our borders, improve our airport, train and bus screening. Use profiling to find terrorists.

And I ought to add something about global change.

Require anyone spouting hot air to answer questions from the press and audience. That will cool things down in a hurry.

3575

Compression hose

I've been checking regularly on my daughter, diagnosed with deep vein thombosis (DVT) a week ago. She had three shots in her abdomen to dissolve the clot, and is now on coumadin. She says that although she still has a lot of pain, the compression hose help a lot. Since we're flying to Ireland in the fall, I thought I'd try them. Her vascular surgeon (actually not "hers" specifically, but she has worked with him in his medical practice and he is consulting with her) recommends that everyone wear compression hose for travel--even men. There are medical level and comfort level, so I went to CVS and bought a $15 pair of compression hose designated 8-15 for tired legs. My legs weren't tired, but I am only experimenting, remember.

Before I put them on, both my shoes and the waist band in my slacks fit. Within 2 minutes of putting them on (and that's not easy), the shoes were too big and the waist band too small. It's the first time I've ever had any body part go north instead of south.

Monday Memories--Little Alma Fay

Some time in the 1990s I heard about Alma Fay, baby daughter of my great grandparents, born in Illinois after they left Tennessee. The story I heard from my father is that grand dad, as he called him, sold the little property in Tennessee left to him upon the death of his mother, and had a choice to take his family to either Texas or Illinois where he knew someone in both states. Apparently, the train to Illinois came through Dandridge first so the family got on board, and he and his large family became part of the core group who moved north for new opportunities. Many friends and relatives followed, including my grandfather, his brother and his cousin who married three of grand dad’s daughters, and he'd help each family get established. When the large Tennessee Reunions were held in northern Illinois in the 1920s - 1940s, my family was probably related to most of them. Four babies were born after the move, although I never heard my grandmother mention little Alma (her sister). Uncle Orville told me she was born in 1908, but that’s all I knew. Then a few years ago my friend Sylvia and her husband were cleaning up the cemetery records for Plain View where my great grandparents, grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins and sister are buried, and she sent me a photo with the birth and death dates.

I haven't become inspired by this week's Poetry Thursday topic, a version of the "dictionary game," but I thought I'd write an elegy for baby Alma. It is a word you don't hear often. Stay tuned or come back to visit on Thursday.

Monday memories

3573

Music outside the box

My friend Sharon performs with the trio, Synchronicity--piano, cello and violin. I've long enjoyed her musical talents--she sings in our church choir and teaches piano. The benefit this afternoon was titled "Music Outside the Box" and as narrator she announced that the brother of the violinist Dick Reuning is a professional musician and sent him a box of music he didn't need with pieces for a trio. They were like kids in a candy shop and spent months experimenting and practicing for this performance which had a freewill offering for Lutheran Disaster Response and a team from Gethsemane Lutheran heading for Biloxi, Mississippi. It was really a delightful program with selections from Clementi, Klengel, Gade, Mendelssohn, Loeillet and some lighter pieces based on folk dance traditions.

A week before the performance, the cellist broke a finger! Can you imagine the panic, especially since they'd been preparing music that was a bit different. But they found a freelance cellist, Jane Van Voorhis, to replace Bruce Posey, and although I'm no expert, I think she did a wonderful job. (My mother play cello, and I love that instrument.)

Every community large and small has talented musicians who enrich our lives--they direct and sing in choirs, teach the children, play in the community bands, write and publish music, perform in musicals, stay up late at night and worry that nothing will turn out, and then they do it all over again the next time. To all of you, a huge thank you.

3572

Mismatch: Why our world no longer fits our bodies

The review of this 2006 title in Nature, Feb. 8, 2007, caught my eye because of the 1/3 page photo of an obese guy, remote in one hand, huge bowl of chips in the other, sitting on the edge of his easy chair so his belly could rest on his thighs, bathed in the blue light of the TV, probably watching a sporting event while reliving the memories of the days he could put one foot in front of the other without heavy breathing. According to Michael Sargent, the reviewer who is a developmental biologist at the National Institute for Medical Research in London, authors Gluckman and Hanson believe humans are not adapting in the proper evolutionary way to increased energy dense food and our 21st century sedentary ways. Look at that guy. He has adapted just fine! All that's happened is he's just not "evolving" in the direction biologists had hoped. According to their theories, those species who don't adapt, die off. Aren't we doing just that? No. We just get fatter--and they've been keeping track since our Civil War. But the line that really made me burst into laughter (well, OK, just a smile) was Sargent's: "[I was] horrified by persistent references to the 'design' of organisms--a usage notably obstructive to an understanding of the evolutionary process, the disclaimer notwithstanding." Mr. Sargent, sir, deal with it!

Mismatch: why our world no longer fits our bodies, by Peter Gluckman and Mark Hanson, Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

3571

Move over guys

Here come the ladies(?) you've seen on Dr. Phil and Jerry Springer spilling their guts and glory story. Story at CNET news.

3570

NIMBY

A survey by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, revealed that 95% of the 400 scientists surveyed across a wide range of disciplines agreed that science and technology were important if sustainable solutions were to be developed for the future. However, only 40% said they considered the effect their own work would have on the environment when planning their research because they believed it wasn't relevant to their area of science. Most scientists have no idea what their lab's electricity bill is--the more modern the lab (in Britain), the worse its energy consumption. Ventilation costs to meet health and safety requirements eat up a lot. "Experimenting with efficiency," Nature, Feb. 8, 2007.

Friday Family Photo--Leesburg VA

This photo of my mother, sisters and two nieces was taken in October 1986. Mom would have been 74 that year. She always kept herself in good shape with a healthy diet, a positive attitude, helping others and lots of hard work in her garden and yard, walking and sweating for miles behind a lawn mower. She said it was good for the upper arms and solving the problems of the world. Mom died in 2000. She was a blessing to all who knew her.

I'm a bit fuzzy on the details of the location, but I know one of my nieces either owned or rented a farmhouse near Leesburg and the "ladies of the club" must have had a gathering there. I think another niece took the photo.

Poetry Thursday #10

This week’s (completely and totally optional) idea is simply: Red.

I was really stumped. It's not a favorite color. The word makes me think Communist, blood, anger, flag and . . . walls. The walls of our condo when we bought it. High-end, very expensive, Architectural Digest walls. Orange dining room, brown living room and red family room--each with multiple faux glazes, each with matching ceilings. So here's some silliness; just some fun about seeing red.



Decorator Red
by Norma Bruce
March 5, 2007

"Do the walls have to be so red?"
she said.

Decorators, a team,
had a bad color scheme
a bit off the beam,
'twas sometime before
we opened the door.

They’d toned it down with faux,
a touch of gold, just so.
"Why didn’t they know
it reflected pink
in the bathroom sink?"

"The floral drapes are mauve and peach,"
she’d screech.

"Carpet is green and thick,
hearth is a reddish brick.
I just might get sick--
clashes so with red
now hurting my head."

"These walls drive me wacky,"
he mumbled, "By cracky,
Let's paint them khaki."
"Good-bye to the red,"
she agreed and said.

3567

Magnets to the rear, please

An Iraqi national with a green card living in the U.S. tries to board a plane with a magnet in his "body cavity" and wires, but he's not a threat?

"The man, identified by law enforcement officials as Fadhel al-Maliki, 35, set off an alarm during passenger screening at the airport early on Tuesday morning.

A police bomb squad was called to examine what was deemed a suspicious item found during a body cavity search of the man. Local media reports said a magnet was found in his rectum." Story.

You do wonder what he was trying to attract other than attention. I wouldn't want him on my plane.

3566

We sure do need more legal recreational drugs, don't we?

USG (Undergraduate Student Government) at Ohio State University voted to give $1,000 to Students for Sensible Drug Safety to cover security and safety costs at their annual Hempfest, which "is meant to educate the public on current drug policies and issues."

To draw suck the students in, they have at least 50 musical groups. It's a First Amendment Rights issue said their leader. The group also sponsors a bake sale (brownies perhaps?).

I wonder if a Christian group could get $1,000 from USG, invite bands, set up displays on aborted babies, educate the students about the value of abstinence, pass out literature on legislation, recruit for missions organizations and say it's a First Amendment issue (it is actually, but the left really howls about "separation," although that's not in the Constitution or Bill of Rights). I'm not saying they don't--it's possible they do that at Urbana, which draws about 20,000 students interested in missions, and need the crowd control.

And please. Don't give me that line about the money being needed for security not the event itself. In the past, they had to pay for that too out of the money they raised to support legalization. (What? Druggies and rock bands are rowdy?) If you are an alcoholic, and you've spent half your month's paycheck on your habit, and you come to me for money to buy food because you're hungry and broke and the end of the month, am I buying your food or your alcohol at the beginning of the month?

Story from the Lantern.

3565

Deep Vein Thrombosis

If you see a leg on local TV tonight, it's not Dick Cheney's, it's my daughter's. He flew 25,000 miles; all she did was fly to Florida to give a workshop, a two hour trip. There's apparently a number of myths about DVT, because she and I knew them all--like long flights and older people. But her vascular surgeon who told her she shouldn't have ignored the pain, says the cabin pressure, wearing high heels at the workshop, standing on her feet long hours, then getting back on the plane and not enough hydration, had a lot to do with it. He told her he's had a number of patients in their 30s who travel a lot develop pulmonary embolisms and not survive.

She was taking an antibiotic for a sinus infection, and thought this was why she was having leg pain. Also, because of her thyroid cancer of some years back, she is calcium deficient and gets leg pains from that, so thought maybe she just needed some calcium. Then she caught the flu from her husband and was sick over the week-end, and she works in a doctor's office, so you know how those folks are. By today she knew something was really wrong with her leg, but kept thinking it was a muscle or tendon. She finally agreed to a doppler test because the pain was so bad and her ankle was swelling. She was stunned to hear she had a blood clot moving up into her thigh. Her employer/doctor who does a medical story once a week on WSYX was planning to do a story on Cheney's DVT, so I think the film will be my daughter's leg. She's had a blood thinner directly into her abdomen, so we're praying this will eliminate any immediate danger. She'll be on coumadin for some time.

If you're flying, even short trips, pay attention to any unusual leg pain. FAA Safety brochure.

Update: She has finished the round of shots (extremely painful) and now has to wear compression stockings (ca. $180 a pair) to relieve the swelling, can walk upstairs only once a day, and must keep her leg elevated and do nothing physical for awhile. Her doctor told her that if we fly or even if we're just traveling in a car (men or women), we should wear compression stockings (the non-prescription type that only cost about $50).

3564

Running the Numbers

My New Year's Resolution was to read the Bible through, something I've never done. I'm using the One Year Bible, NIV edition, where you get some OT, NT, Psalms and Proverbs all in one sitting. Genesis is pretty interesting--lots of good stories. Leviticus--well, you can see some general principles about being separate from the culture and not hanging out with the bad guys. But Numbers. Oh My! That's why I'm glad to have Pastor Brad. When he talks about the Book of Numbers he throws in some biscuits and gravy.

3563 Kwitcherbitchin

"I would like to be doing a Judy Dench career. But I'm a black American living in the United States so that's not terribly realistic." WSJ story, March 6, 2007, D6.


Oh, please! Ms. Carroll. You've got a "ring with a piece of ice large enough for a skating rink," four ex-husbands, affairs with David Frost and Sidney Poitier, beautiful grandchildren, a face so classic, plastic and fantastic there's not a wrinkle or line to be seen, you've done broadway, TV and movies, and done it your way, and you grew up in a loving nuclear family with a mom and dad who adored you and supported your career.

Come rain
or come shine,
some folks gotta whine.
No one's too hot
to give librarians a shot,
mega-stars we're not.
It's never enough,
oh, life's so tough,
sure got things rough.
Diahann Carroll,
here's a quarter,
from those in the carrel.

3562

Smoking and movies

No matter what you say about violence, sex and dirty language in movies, they aren't going to kill your children (later in life), but cigarette smoking will. And it is on the increase in movies. Over at Facts and Fears, which warned in an op ed about this a few years back they now report a study published in a pediatric journal:

"A new study appearing in this month's Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine evaluates the relationship between smoking initiation and movie-going habits from a different perspective -- but the results are analogous, to an amazing degree. The authors, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, evaluated 735 youngsters, aged twelve to fourteen, at the beginning of the study, in 2001. One of the key measures they recorded was which of ninety-three popular films they had seen over approximately the past year. Two years later, the researchers re-interviewed the study group to determine how many of them had begun to smoke, and the relationship of smoking to their earlier, self-described moviegoing habits.

White teens who had higher exposures to R-rated movies -- and about two-thirds had such exposures -- had an almost three-fold higher rate of smoking than their peers who had lower or no R-rated movie exposures. (Interestingly, and for no obvious reason, black teens did not have that same increased rate of smoking based upon R-rated movie viewing.) Girls and boys both had higher smoking initiation with increased attendance at R-rated movies.

The authors point out that several other studies -- one of which is the study I discussed in my 2003 op-ed -- have now confirmed that young teen exposure to movies that portray, or are likely to portray, smoking have a significant impact on initiation of smoking by a factor of about three (this degree of elevation was found in all the studies). It should be noted here that approximately 100% of R-rated movies do have smoking scenes."

Personally, I don't know why you are letting your kids see R-rated movies, but maybe you need a heads up here.

3561

Walter Reed Investigation and Shake-up

At first I was shocked. Now I'm just suspicious, very suspicious. Don't we have congressional oversight for this? Why do they need a new hearing? What has that committee been doing? Whenever I've been on a committee we were expected to be doing something besides meet during a crisis. Aren't these the same people who want us all to have national health care supplied and overseen by them? If the medical care is this bad, why would we want that? And what about all those photo ops we've seen of politicians, including the President, with wounded soldiers? Parents and wives. Weren't any of them writing Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton or Deborah Pryce? What about those war protesters (Code Pink?) camped outside Walter Reed? Are they so stupid they would have kept this quiet all these years? Gosh, fire those guys and get some new commies. Is this just one more way to bad mouth the war and embarrass the President? At the expense of our troops and the Iraqi people?