3628

Evangelicals influence on foreign policy

"God’s Country" by Walter Russell Mead was published in the Sept-Oct, v. 85, no. 5, 2006 issue of Foreign Affairs. I think it was intended to reduce the fear among the Democrats about the power of evangelical Christians in the upcoming (then) election. Maybe it worked, or provided clues on how to fake it, because lots of Democratic candidates played the religion card and won after seeing how they lost the values battle in 2004. I personally think it was because so many Republicans bungled it so badly. Even so, it is a very good article and I learned a lot about the role of religion in politics.

When I was a young adult, the only political game for Christians was liberal. I was 34 when I left the liberal church for an evangelical, liturgical church and 60 when I left the Democrats. The two are not mutually exclusive. Mainstream Protestantism which sort of has a "y'all come" attitude toward other faiths, believes a kernel of truth is as good as the whole cob. And if you've studied or even observed religions, they each have some similarities and certain moral tenants on which they agree. The worst sin for a liberal would be--well, calling something a sin because Jesus was a teacher of ethics and morality.

Liberals dominated the U.S. worldview during WWII and the Cold War--although how we stayed so humanistic and optimistic after the Holocaust, and 100 million dead from a century of constant war, I don’t understand. However, church membership meant about as much as belonging to any other social club, so liberals lost their influence. Facing questions about sexuality and abortion, the drug culture, rampant consumerism, soaring divorce rates and growing socialism within our own borders, many American Christians left the liberals and joined one of the two conservative groups--the fundamentalists or the evangelicals.

Mead notes that many non-religious people and secularists tend to confuse the fundamentalists and evangelicals and their role in politics, so here's his score card, and I think it's pretty clear.

"The three contemporary streams of American Protestantism (fundamentalist, liberal, and evangelical) lead to very different ideas about what the country's role in the world should be. In this context, the most important differences have to do with the degree to which each promotes optimism about the possibilities for a stable, peaceful, and enlightened international order and the importance each places on the difference between believers and nonbelievers. In a nutshell, fundamentalists are deeply pessimistic about the prospects for world order and see an unbridgeable divide between believers and nonbelievers. Liberals are optimistic about the prospects for world order and see little difference between Christians and nonbelievers. And evangelicals stand somewhere in between these extremes."

If you've been calling President George W. Bush a fundamentalist, you're just flat out wrong and you need to read this article. Evangelicals believe strongly in responsibility for the world social order, and will cooperate with unbelievers to improve human welfare, which the fundamentalists wouldn't do. But they don't neglect the salvation message of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection for redemption, which the liberals ignore or downplay. Evangelicals are not just limp wrist fundamentalists--they really do see the Christians' role in society very differently. Since the 17th century, there has been a widespread theology that the Jews would return to the Promised Land--that's not unique to our current foreign policy and culture. You'll get nowhere criticising evangelicals or fundamentalists for their support of Israel. Mead writes: "The story of modern Jewry reads like a book in the Bible. . . proof that God exists." Here’s the whole article. It's been archived. You won't regret reading it.

3627

It's not easy being Green

But the money's good. All the architectural journals have been green for years. But there's a lot of disagreements--afterall, just the concept of an architect means someone is building something for someone richer than he is. Green can still mean home theater, heated swimming pool and 3-car garage, just ask Al Gore or John Edwards. Think "P". Politicians. Pile-on. Professionals. Preaching. Petroleum-free. Products. Planning. Protection. Program. Projects. Plants. Positive. Profit. Performance. Productivity. No-Problem. Prove-it.

And Paint. There's a company with "gender neutral" paint colors that are also eco-friendly. YOLO Colorhouse comes in six gender-neutral colors, mildew resistant and scrubbable, inspired by spring flora. And you can reuse and recycle the large poster size swatches by converting them to gift wrap. I didn't look up the prices, www.yolocolorhouse.com but I'm guessing only the rich buy this product, and they probably don't recycle gift wrap.

When we were bottom-quintilists, i.e. poor, we used to use old architectural blueprints as gift wrapping paper--with a little white ribbon it was quite attractive, but I think that process isn't used anymore. Too many chemicals probably. If only someone had thought to promote blueprints as gift wrap.

3626

Do you have a favorite book?

A week ago I was the guest speaker at a young adult women's Bible study (not from my church). Their theme this year is mentoring, so each hostess invites a "mature" friend to speak to their group. After giving my testimony I moved on to evaluating Christian books (I used a Christian publisher, Alternative Medicine by O'Mathuna), and the book in hand (using a Randy Alcorn title, Christian imprint I didn't know by a mainstream publisher). They were a delightful group, sincere and well-read, involved in their families, church and community. Most, but not all, had children. The only people this age I have much contact with are my own children--who don't use libraries and don't attend a church (what we call Chreasters--attend on Christmas and Easter), so I wasn't sure what to expect. When I talked about recommending a title for their public library, which most of them used regularly (some Hilliard, some Columbus, some Dublin), a few expressed surprise that they could recommend a book. Is that a well kept secret? Do library websites and staff not encourage this (mine doesn't, but I thought it was a local "we know best" attitude)?

Then one well-read mama asked me, "What is your favorite book--besides the Bible?" I could definitely feel a blush on that one. Not only am I reading through the One Year NIV for the first time, but I'm somewhat promiscuous when it comes to favorite books--fickle and flitting, rarely reading the entire book. Table of contents, index, bibliography and a few key chapters and I'm out of here. So I mumbled a title I enjoyed two years ago, Wide as the waters by Benson Bobrick (Simon & Schuster, 2001). The sub-title "The story of the English Bible and the revolution it inspired" pretty much describes the theme. The book didn't do that well in sales, because several others with the same thesis appeared at that time, but I definitely think this one does the best job of showing that once the Bible was available in English, reading books of all types increased dramatically. There was an increase in the circulation and production of books (printing by then had been invented). "At the same time, once the people were free to interpret the word of God according to the light of their own understanding, they began to question the authority of all their inherited institutions, which led to reform within the Church." In short, it changed the world politically and socially, as well as spiritually. See author interview here. Another favorite, which I didn't mention, and which I did read cover to cover is The Story of English, a beautifully written and illustrated book that resulted from a TV program by the BBC. I bought it for $1.00 at a book sale, and I'll never let it go.

So if you ever are called on or choose to talk about books, arrive prepared. You might be asked about your favorite book or author.

3625

Less Federal money for housing assistance

That's the story today in the Columbus Dispatch. Licking, Fairfield, and Pickaway Counties are closing their Section 8 housing lists. The paper says the federal funding has dropped. I'm guessing there's more to this story than meets the eye. So I took a look at the law at the HUD site. The formula for FMR (Fair Market Rents) was changed during the Clinton administration--it was too complex for anyone but a government bureaucrat to understand, like what percentage of the people live in a census tract, but I was able to read the date. However, I'm just guessing it has more than a bit to do with what's happening to real estate in those counties. During the last real estate boom, they were hot, hot, hot. Unbelieveable housing development going on with easy access to Columbus via free-ways. I'm thinking some pretty cheap houses and acreage was bought up by developers, and now low income owner occupied housing has been replaced with middle income and upper middle income neighborhoods. Every exit of the free-way has many restaurants, Krogers, Target, Wal-Mart, auto parts, video stores, etc. Every community is trying to pass bond issues for new schools. All these areas need infrastructure--roads, police, fire, water systems, parks, etc. Are rents higher than before? You betcha! It's called progress.

The federal government got in the housing assistance business during the Depression. People were desperate. My parents took in borders to make ends meet and they had jobs. What was unemployment then? 20-30%? Do you think the Congress of the 1930s intended to make this assistance permanent? (Actually, since gov't programs don't ever go away or get smaller, they probably did.) Today, you feel you are borderline poor if you don't have cable, a cell phone, 2 TVs and 2 cars. Maybe sending tax money to Washington so they can send a smidgen back for housing vouchers to live in wealthy counties with an unemployment rate of about 4.5% isn't such a terrific idea.

Can I hear an Amen?

Monday Memories

This is the original high school in Mt. Morris built in 1918. Before that the high school students met in the building that I knew as the elementary school with all the younger students. I remember the layout and classrooms better in the old high school building than the new which we actually started using when I was a freshman. They were located across the street from each other, and we attended a few classes (band and labs I think) in the new building just walking across the street. I don't remember "Study Hall" in the new one, but certainly remember some funny events in the red brick building. And assemblies. We used to have some pretty good programs. And watching the teen lovers in the cars in front of the school as the boyfriends would drop off their girlfriends. It was an interesting, educational lunch time activity. I think that's why I can identify so many old cars. Some time after it was no longer used as a classroom building there was a fire and it burned. Sad ending. I always thought it was a nice looking building.



Monday Memories

3623

Visit to a stinking, smelly town

The rush to biofuels is quite foolish in my opnion because to use an even more precious commodity that none of us can live without--water--plus grain which will raise the price of food for everyone, seems like the epitome of foolishness when stored fuel from vegetation is in the ground in coal and oil. The Greenies aren't interested in saving the planet or even giving us cleaner air--unless they can kill the people in the process so it returns to . . ?

But here's an article by Linda Devore, a local reporter from Fayetteville, Arkansas, who traveled with a group to inspect the successful ethanol plant in Lexington, Nebraska. Her town wants to get on the new cash cow for rural areas. Upon arrival she's almost knocked down by the horrible odor, primarily from the Tyson plant. She writes about the four essential needs for ethanol to work: water, corn, rail and roads.

"The Lexington plant is able to buy all of its corn locally. It comes in by the truck load--about 100 a day--all day long.

Water. Lexington sits on the largest natural aquifer in the United States. They use about a million gallons of water per day and their used water is processed through the city's expanded waste water treatment plant across the road.

Rail. The plant sits within a few hundred yards of the main east-west rail line running through Nebraska, and has built its own rail yard where a couple of dozen tanker cars sit--that is also being expanded.

Roads. Lexington is on I-80 and the industrial park where the plant is located has wide highway roads connecting to I-80 about 2.5 miles away.

The Cornhusker Lexington people were shocked--and remain puzzled throughout the evening--by two things we told them about E85's plans to build a plant in Fayetteville. First of all, they couldn't believe that it would be built so far away from the corn supply used to keep it running continuously 24/7. It was clear that they take great pride in the scheduled arrival of trucks throughout the day--every day--from local corn growers. It is a major logistical concern and critical to the plant's efficient operation.

The other thing that caused them to nearly burst out laughing was E85's plans to build as many as ten ethanol plants at one time. Understanding that the Vogelbusch Technology people from Austria, who also supplied the distilling technology for Lexington, is only the beginning of the plant construction process and project engineering firms must be hired to oversee the process--they will be talking about that one in Lexington for months. They don't believe it can or should be done. They said it can't be done--the resources don't exist and even Frucon--the large project management group that E85 says they will use doesn't have the resources. They found their plant severely strained the resources of their project management people.

More on those conversations later--so much more. But just briefly, when we returned to our hotel that evening and stepped out of the car we had another big surprise. Apparently the meat processing plant was doing their nightly cleanup and had stopped producing awful smells. Instead, we smelled brewery--ethanol. Maybe mixed a little with the other industrial smells of the area--but clearly ethanol. 2.0 miles from the plant site. Air was still--very little wind. 37 degrees--COLD.

Next morning, breakfast at the local diner--spoke with more local residents. A theme developing. Everyone agrees the whole town smells, but as to the ethanol: woman say it STINKS like stale beer and men say it SMELLS like beer. The guys don't think it's so bad. Women like it less."

A million gallons of water a day; a hundred trucks a day--all for a small plant that employs 37 people. We've already got people trying to drain the Great Lakes to supply water for agriculture and drinking in the west. Do we really want biofuels?

NIMBY!

3622

Would you want this on your grave marker?

RIP (if you can)
Michael A. Dolen
Lawyer, Cleveland Council member
Chosen by the Governor of Ohio,
a Methodist minister,
to make gambling more attractive to
the middle class
Actually, almost no one, rich or poor, famous or humble, puts their profession and "accomplishments" on their tombstone. Pastor John writes in this week's Cornerstone newsletter, "When I listen to families talk about their loved one at the time of death, very rarely do I hear about their great wealth, power, or their achievements; I hear about their character."

Ohio started a state lottery in 1974. Many churches fought it--probably even the Methodists, among whom I think our Governor was a pastor at one time. It will help the children, we were told. (Loud guffaws in the wings). So what has happened? It used to be the only game in town for the poor. They made running numbers illegal, so they could only bet with the state. Then all the states around us said, "Hey, that looks like easy money." Kentucky's got its horse race betting, Michigan and Indiana have lotteries, Pennsylvania has racetrack betting and casinos now. Now the state has run out of poor people to fool, so they are going to try to make it more attractive to the middle-class. Yes, that's a quote from why Dohlen was appointed.

We take the poor's money with one hand, then tax the middle-class so we give back some of it, but not enough or as much as they lost. Makes us feel so self-righteous to be able to help not only the children, but the poor (and increasingly they are each other). State lottery--it's a two-fer. But now we'll have to hit up the middle-class double--first take it through gambling, then tax them through higher costs for just about everything. Plus, we get to raise property taxes and send more money to Washington so they can send part of it back, because we never did solve that silly old education problem. Columbus' graduation rate is about 45% and Cleveland's is worse. Imagine that. It's a home grown axis of evil.

Story from the Columbus Dispatch, March 25, 2007

3621

The eagle has landed

Last year a pair of eagles began nesting in an old hawks' nest in the trees along Alum Creek behind the building where our friend and artist Charlie Rowland works. This year, the hawks reclaimed the nest until the eagles returned and chased them off. The hawks don't give up easily and have been trying to dislodge the eagles for a couple of weeks, without success, according to Charlie. Here are some ODNR photos. In one, the hawk has swooped down on the eagle, and the eagle has turned on his back in mid air to flash his talons. The hawks will go up to about 200 ft and then dive on the eagle. Charlie says he's betting on the eagle.

3620

How much did they spend on this study?

A survey of University of Iowa students has confirmed the suspicion that heavy drinking can hurt a college student's grades.

Amazing break through research here.

3618

The unwanted horse

You probably saw the article in your paper, because it was AP (was in the Dispatch today.) Horsetalk says there were gross inaccuracies and that the reporter misquoted its editor (Surprise! The MSM misquotes). The pro-lifer (for horses) folks still don't explain how or who will take care of the 100,000 horses currently slaughtered each year in the United States. It's not exactly like cats and dogs where they wander the streets and are breeding--people buy them, maybe for pleasure or 4-H or show, and then move on to something else. What are they to do with an unwanted 1500 lb. pet that needs food, pasture, housing and veterinary care? I use to own a horse. They are not particularly expensive to buy, but aren't cheap to keep. And I was a typical kid. When I got to high school, I lost interest in my horse and I'm sure my parents were relieved, because they were the ones who had to drive me to the farm where he roamed. Once there I had to catch the bugger, who got wilder each time I rode him. One time I was attacked by his pasture mate, a former police horse who was twice his size. Maybe the AP reporter did misquote them, but I've also heard people from the USDA debating this on agricultural talk radio. And folks, they are worried.

Pet lovers/horse lovers need to be very cautious about joining forces on this issue with animal rightists who I suspect are funding it in part. Their goal is to have NO HUMAN owning an animal for any reason--not as a pet, not as a food source, not for pleasure, and not for labor. Not a bird, not a kitten, not a snake, not a fish. Why? Because we are all equal and they are sentient beings in the thinking of animal rightists (not the same as animal welfare advocates although they cooperate on many issues). They say the problem will work out eventually as the supply of horses drops off when the slaughter houses (all three of them for the entire United States) close down. In the meanwhile, would you shoot your sick horse (it's legal), or a healthy one if you couldn't find a home for it; if you did, how would you bury him, and is it even allowed in your township? If you paid the vet to do what you couldn't, what should she do with the carcass?

3617

Talk the talk of the sub-cultures

Talk the talk by Luc Reid is published by Writer's Digest Books (2006) and is a slang dictionary. The "about the editor" paragraph says Reid is the founder of the neo-pro (?) writers' group Codex which promotes the exchange of information, ideas, and writing wisdom among pro-level writers and other good stuff, and has published in Galaxy Press anthologies. His web site is http://www.lucreid.com.

The book is sort of fun to look through, and makes you realize that no matter how careful you are in using English, you could be offending anyone at any time just because of the huge variety of subcultured words. I think there was a time when a lot of our slang came from the prison population then moved into the main stream via the entertainment world, but obviously there are many sources.

Some of the cultures represented (neither librarians or Christians made the cut because he doesn't cover professions or religions) are:

• Americans in Antarctica
  bag drag - weighing luggage in preparation for flying out
  house mouse - temporary janitorial duty at the station


• Bicyclist and mountain bikers
  Betty - generic name for a female rider
  BSG - bike store guy


• gardeners
  harden off - accustom an indoor plant to the outdoors
  lasagna bed - soil has been piled up on top of the existing ground in layers


• politicians
  big foot - well-known media figure
  bafflegab - speech or statements without clear meaning
  lunch bucket - having to do with working class


• skateboarders
  snake - jump ahead in a queue
  wood-pusher - derogatory name for skateboarders, used most often by rollerbladers

A fun book to browse, and useful for writers of all types especially if they need to sprinkle authentic slang into dialogue.

3616

The new blogger wp template

Because I have 10 blogs, I was one of the last in cyberspace to migrate to the new blogger, but in general I've been pleased. This past week I've lost a few (fabulous, of course) posts even when saving in draft, but photos are way easier and smoother to load. One problem I noticed was that even on the blogs where I didn't have a photo, it turned up, so I had to go into the template and look for the code and delete it. But yesterday, much to my horror, I found out something I didn't know. I DO run the spell check--although it is fairly weak, and doesn't even recognize the word "blog." However, I learned that unlike the old format, it doesn't make the correction unless you go back to the top and click on "resume editing". Yesterday I tried 4 or 5 times to correct "metasticize" to "metastasize". The red changed to green (isn't that cute), but I didn't click on "resume editing," so when I hit "publish," nothing changed. Usually I don't go back and reread if it's already been up for awhile before I notice a misspelled word, so I wonder now how many misspellings I have in old blogs.

Yes, it matters! At least to me.

3615

Global warming and the god complex

This article in Science Daily puzzles me. On the one hand, it says there have been far more drastic changes in temperature in the past in shorter periods of time, but that the current change is happening because of human activity creating greenhouse gases. Huh? Just who was responsible before? If the earth didn't burn to a crisp before, why will it this time?

"Several large international projects have succeeded in drilling ice-cores from the top of the Greenland inland ice through the more than 3 km thick ice sheet. The ice is a frozen archive of the climate of the past, which has been dated back all the way to the previous interglacial Eem-period more than 120.000 years ago.

The ice archive shows that the climate has experienced very severe changes during the glacial period. During the glacial period there were 26 abrupt temperature increases of about 7-10 degrees. These glacial warm periods are named Dansgaard-Oeschger events after the two scientists first observing them.

The global warming we experience presently will cause a temperature increase of perhaps 2-5 degrees in the next century if greenhouse gas emissions continue, researchers claim. This will lead to increased sea levels and more severe weather with terrible consequences. The temperature rise during the glacial period were much larger and happened much faster.

Temperature increased by 10 degrees in less than 50 years with changes to the ocean currents and the whole ecosystem. These changes have caused sea level rises up to perhaps as much as 8 meters and large changes to the vegetation."

The second anniversary: Am I the only one who notices that the same folks who think we pea-brains control the climate are the same ones who thought it was OK to remove food and water from a woman who wasn't sick or dying, just helpless and dependent, and let her starve and dehydrate? Or that it is OK to kill babies because they come at an inconvenient time or have defects and anomalies? Or that it is OK to use human embryos to get grant money for research as long as it is for a worthy cause? Or that it is OK to deprive 3rd world peoples of DDT so that millions of them die, but the bird eggs will be strong? There seems to be a god complex infecting the liberals. And the humility vaccine seems to be in short supply.

3614

My take on the John Edwards' campaign

People who have criticized John and Elizabeth Edwards for their decision to continue in pursuit of the White House are being pilloried in the media. Even the WSJ had nothing but brave, kind thoughts for the family.

My take is this. Blunt and short. For God's sake, woman, you have stage IV cancer--spend the time left with your kids.

In 1963 our oldest son died when he was a year and a half. I knew then that I'd lost the rest of his life. Then a miscarriage; then another boy who died at birth. But it wasn't until we were blessed with a second family in the late 60s and I was a stay-at-home mom (I had worked part days before and he died while I was at work), that I realized I'd lost the few months we did have him by the decisions I'd made about working and going to grad school. Even when we were together as a family, my head was somewhere else frantically trying to juggle a schedule of graduate classes, translating Russian medical newspapers at home, working at the office, and child care. No, this isn't guilt speaking, just experience. I did what I thought was right at the time. I was 23 and just wrong. I've forgiven myself for my warped view of time, but it doesn't change history.

The Edwards have already experienced something that most parents never face. They have outlived one of their sons who died when a teen in an automobile accident. They will never face down that fear--at least I haven't--it colors every thing they do today and seems to have made them a stronger family unit. But their other children lost a brother (2 born after his death), and for the last 2.5 years have probably heard a lot of happy talk from their parents about mommy's illness and how they are winning the fight. Now it has metastasized to her bones. It's treatable, but not curable. Maybe she'll live five years; maybe five months.

(See medical opinion here.)

Elizabeth Edwards

3613

Stretching the Constitution

Daniel Henninger had an op ed about the Bong Hits 4 Jesus case (Morse v. Frederick) coming before the Supreme Court in yesterday's WSJ. He traces the problem of the Supremes inappropriately moving the free speech border to a case in 1969 when during the Vietnam War it ruled that high schoolers could violate school policy and call it "protected speech."

Although the "Bootleggers and Baptists" theory applies primarily to regulation, the concept of two diametrically opposed value systems joining forces for unrelated goals is apparent in this case. Christian groups have filed friend of the court briefs for this pro-drug speech case. Why? So their kids can wear t-shirts proclaiming pro-life and other Christian slogans in school. I don't think the Bloods and the Crips have filed, but they probably could on colors being protected speech. What a can of worms!

What are the unintended consequences of the Supremes throwing local schools overboard, expecting principals to wade to shore in a sea of confusing cases? Rich liberals like Al Gore and Jesse Jackson just sent their kids to private schools (don't know about Jackson's love child), as do conservative Christians, and millions of parents have decided to homeschool their kids rather than have local standards set in Washington.

Story here

Supreme Court, Morse v. Frederick, unintended consequences

3612

Congress continues to try to cripple Bush

Don Surber writes:

"Rather than work on new legislation — fulfill those 100-hour promises of Grandma Pelosi (minimum wage is still $5.15 an hour) — congressional Democrats have decided to spend the next 2 years chasing rabbits down the holes in their quest for the liberal Secular Grail: Watergate.

Today’s scandal is that the Bush administration wants to replace 8 assistant attorney generals. Bush appointed them. He can fire them.

The media — which fails to keep track of that First 100 Hours promise by Pelosi — is (are) eating it up.

The fact is this administration went after Wall Street corruption that the incompetent Janet Reno sat on. The fact is this administration pursued congressional corruption regardless of party.

The fact is these deputies failed to pursue Harry Reid’s purchase and sale of federal lands, failed to track down Philadelphia election fraud and allowed this William Jefferson case to dangle in the wind."

Don Surber here.

This isn't about the firings or even Karl Rove, although the thought has them salivating. It's about getting us defeated and shamed in Iraq.

Poetry Thursday #12

Today's challenge is: "Write a poem motivated by an image — preferably one that is in the form of a photo you can post with your poem. If you don’t have a picture of it, that’s okay. Tell us about the image in the backstory, which you can post before your poem. Or, if you’re really daring, grab your camera and get out there and capture an image and use it as motivation for a poem."

This was written some time ago. I've enjoyed pulling it out and rereading it, and didn't change a word. It was inspired by a very real yellow rose in a real garden on a July day so hot it was breathless, but with a slight breeze. The rose's participation with the two not-meant-to-be lovers, including its dried and desicated end, is all imagination. Or maybe it's a memory--like the rose, I've forgotten. Lamentations might have been a better book in which to place such a flower, but it had too many syllables. It has fabulous phrases and images of bitter tears if you ever need that for a poem. However, isn't the book of Job closer to the symbol of all that can go wrong, will?
















The last rose
by Norma Bruce
July 1997

Yellow rose in the garden
Blushed peach by her cheeks,
Splashed pale with his white passion.

Yellow rose in the sunlight
Fragrant in their hands,
Waving good-byes to July.

Yellow rose in the clippers
Snipped between kisses,
Pricking her finger crimson.

Yellow rose in the crystal
Filled with his hot tears,
Shedding thorns against the glass.

Yellow rose in the Bible
Faded summer joy,
Pressed between pages of Job.

3611

I shouldn't be surprised, but I was

Medical staff need special training to learn to use alcohol hand disinfectants properly. Who knew?

There was an alarming story in the WSJ this morning about antibiotic resistant super bugs (Henry Masur, President of Infectious Diseases Society of America). He said that annually nearly 2 million U.S. patients acquire infections in the hospital and nearly 1 in 10 die, and more than 70% of those infections are resistant to at least one of the drugs used to treat them. We have so over regulated big pharm and the market is so limited, that research on new antibiotics is stalled. In the past 15 years FDA has approved approximately the same number of new antiviral medications that target HIV as it has antibiotics to treat all bacterial infections combined. Yet, thousands and thousands die of resistant strains of bacteria. It's market forces and length of time to get approved. Many, many people with HIV, but limited number in the groups affected by all the different bacteria. Also, there is no political lobby or Hollywood movie stars putting on benefits for the rest of us who develop a raging infection in the hospital.

We're losing more people to this than to HIV. What good will it do the gay guy if you save him from his past only to have him die of a bug that's resistant to antibiotics?

Anyway, back to the hand rubs. I searched Medline for "antibiotics AND resistance" and got something like 35,000 hits, so I reentered the search adding hospitals, and eventually I found this little gem: "Introducing alcohol-based hand rub for hand hygiene: the critical need for training." Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2007; 28(1):50-4.

RESULTS: At baseline, only 31% of Health Care Workers (HCW) used proper technique, yielding a low reducation factor (RF) of 1.4 log(10) colony-forming units (cfu) bacterial count. Training improved HCW compliance to 74% and increased the RF to 2.2 log(10) cfu bacterial count, an increase of almost 50% (P<.001). Several factors, such as applying the proper amount of hand rub, were significantly associated with the increased RF. CONCLUSION: These results demonstrate that education on the proper technique for using hand rub, as outlined in European Norm 1500 (EN 1500), can significantly increase the degree of bacterial killing.

Well, what do you know! Makes me think of kindergarten when we were taught how to wash our hands. Is that still taught in public schools?

Bad bugs need drugs campaign

3610

The anti-Bush obsession at my library

Yesterday I picked up a book about President Bush from the sale truck at my public library branch for $2.00, The Right man; the surprise presidency of George W. Bush, by David Frum, Random House, 2003 (colophon says First Edition, but I know nothing about that sort of thing and don't care). Seems to be in perfect condition with just a tiny coffee stain on the cover. I flipped through it, didn't see anything just awful and ridiculous, so decided to buy it. Then I went to the computer terminal and looked up Bush, George W. (George Walker), 1946- , which had 81 matches. Now that's not all the titles, because catalogers like to add subdivisions and they get pretty silly about it. His ethics--17 titles; his friends and associates, 15 titles; his political and social views, 14 titles. A lot of these overlap, some books get two or three subject headings, especially GWB books, and I didn't want a research project. Besides, I already knew from glancing through the 973 Dewey classification number on the new book shelves, that someone at Upper Arlington Public Library hates and despises the Bush Administration. But 81 titles--I was curious! So I started plodding my way through the excrutiatingly awkward browse feature of this library's on-line catalog. Truly a challenge for this librarian who has been using on-line catalogs since their infancy in the 1970s.

I'm guessing about 10 of the 81 were balanced, fair or just PR titles, including The Right Man. A few were about him as Governor of Texas, some appeared to be more about his family or Karl Rove than him (I'm judging from the photographs on the covers which clutter up the screen--if Bush wasn't cross-eyed, or flap earred, or the word "scandal" or "outrage" wasn't in the title or subtitle, you could sort of figure it out). UAPL LOVES Bob Woodward and Michael Moore. Oh. my. gosh. They must own stock in those men. Woodward's latest book had 15 copies (I noticed the other day they are ALL on the shelf--nothing checked out--just taking up space collecting dust). I think Farenheit 911 had 17 copies (and it has been proven to have so many errors from a number of sources that I'm surprised they hang on to so many copies.)

Anyway, I jotted down the call numbers--and UAPL doesn't mind reusing a call number/author number combination, so don't worry if you see dups. I personally think that is outrageously sloppy, but I know a number of libraries do that now. I noted 51 that I guessed from the title and full record are anti-Bush--and the number of copies. Some I combined that had separate records, like large print, regular print, and audio. But still, even if you figure publishers will turn out more negative than positive titles about a President, does Director Anne Moore (yes, her name) have to buy them all and in so many copies? Whew! What a waste of taxpayer's money. Especially in a community where Republicans outnumber the Democrats. This woman really believes books change lives, and political beliefs.

My library prints full color posters of upcoming events on sheets of paper the size of wall board, but only gives us scrap paper at the terminals.

David Frum's column

George W. Bush
Libraries, librarians

3609

Are you filthy rich?

Like the two bathroom house in the 50s and the three car garage in the 90s, the new status symbol is multiple laundry rooms. Today's WSJ shows a 12,000 sf house on 2 acres in Payson, AZ that has nine(!) combined washers and dryers, a main laundry room and a pet washing station. It's listed at $7.9 million (price includes $1 million of collectibles, 5 classic cars and a stocked wine cellar).

The amount of laundry we generate surprises me, but we have enough clothing and bedding that really, I do laundry only every 10 or 11 days. And the laundry room is in the basement. I incorporate the trips up and down the stairs into my exercise routine. I change the sheets weekly, pillow cases about every 2-3 day; towels get about 3 days use; dish towels about 2 days; bathroom hand towels maybe a week. But yesterday I gathered everything in the closets that was red, rust or fuchsia, and loaded them into cool water. I usually ignore the labels that say "dry clean only," especially if it was made in China and written in Spanish. I can't even remember the last time I had a 100% red load of laundry. I don't wear much clear, deep red--I'm terribly pale, and my husband even moreso, so we go for the warmer tones of rust, peach, coral, etc.

If you flip this, and put a space between the sink and units with counter space, my laundry room looks like this (photo from the internet), installed with the former kitchen cabinets, and it's all behind bi-fold doors, sharing space with the kitty litter unit.
Still, I wonder what rich people do to get their clothes so dirty that they (or their house staff) need so many laundry units, don't you?