3687

Let me spell it out for you

When the year end annual reports drop through the slot I'm always a bit surprised to find out what we own. I love those AFLAC commercials but didn't really know what it is, so was surprised to learn I own it (well, me and a lot of others). Now known by its acronym (and the duck), it used to be American Family Life Assurance Company. It's an insurance company to help workers meet their bills in times of crisis started by the Amos brothers, and I see there is an Amos who is Chairman and CEO.


Anyway, the report explains that the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a safe harbor to encourage companies to provide prospective information, but it has to have meaningful cautionary statements so that investors don't misunderstand that these are projections. So, the report lists the words to watch for in "forward looking statements." I think you'll find this helpful, in case you need to write something forward looking with no guarantees.

• expect
  
• anticipate
  
• believe
  
• goal
  
• objective
  
• may
  
• should
  
• estimate
  
• intends
  
• projects
  
• will
  
• assumes
  
• potential
  
• target

And then there is a long list of events to watch for which could screw up your forward looking words making results different than hoped for. I won't repeat all of them, but they include. . .

• legislative and regulatory developments
  
• changes in U.S. and/or Japanese tax laws or accounting requirements
  
• catastrophic events
  
• general economic conditions in the U.S. and Japan

There. CYA. Done.

3686

McGrorty vs. County of Los Angeles Public Library

Although I've never heard of a person being denied a job in a library because he is a military veteran (we had to give them--especially Vietnam vets--preference when I was interviewing), I suppose that is possible in California where "patriotism" can't even salute the flag and conservatives can be shouted off podiums on campuses. Still, it is one of the oddest employment cases I've read, because usually librarians are very liberal (223:1) and in favor of all the knee deep employment regs that the left uses to keep people out of jobs. Especially if they have one of their own waiting for it. I'm guessing, just from his name, that he's the wrong ethnicity for the positions he wants. Or maybe he's straight. Or not transgendered. Who knows. Maybe he's over 45?

McGrorty is one of the best writers you'll ever find on the internet, no matter the topic. I have no idea what sort of librarian he is, because I'm not sure he's ever been one.

3685

Hamburger Helper

Professor Paul Apostolidis of Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington (isn't that a tongue twister) published an article "Hegemony and Hamburger" in 2005 that points out the obvious--organized labor depends on a ready source of new workers and can manipulate the Mexican immigrant story to its advantage. So while I was googling this academic to see what else he'd written, I discovered he'd published a book in 2000 titled, "Stations of the Cross; Adorno and the Christian Right." Hmmm. Have no idea who Theodor Adorno is (was), but this certainly sounds like a PhD thesis being shopped around for a bookshelf on which to gather dust. So I poked around in some book reviews and read some sections online. It's a "nuanced, dialectical study," apparently linking James Dobson, an American Christian psychologist who has a radio show, to a German anti-semite about whom Adorno wrote in 1943. Nuanced. Well, you bet! Isn't that a word for "no one knows what I'm talking about but me?"

I read Dobson when my kids were little. He was a voice of reason in the midst of all the hysterical academic child writers of the era who appeared on Phil Donahue and Merv Griffin. I was a Democrat at the time and pretty liberal on just about everything. Don't remember when Dobson got political, but I know Phil Donahue threw him in head first by muzzling him on air when he was a guest, and he decided he needed to go on the offensive.

Apostolidis, like many left wing academics, gets his shorts in a knot when Christians speak up about anything. They can't get it figured out that Christians aren't some sort of monolithic block--they can't agree on how or when to baptize, how many days or eons God took to create the world, what exactly did Jesus mean in the parables, or which version of end-times to promote. I've seen Christian websites where they listed all the modern heretics, and I think Billy Graham and James Dobson are both listed.

Apparently the conservative Christians didn't have all the power the U.S. socialist professors thought, because Republicans were roundly defeated in 2006, although I personally think it had nothing to do with religion, unless of course, your religion teaches you to tell the truth and not go on wild spending sprees with other people's money. Republicans were tossed out because they refused to be the conservatives they pretended to be when they ran for office. I'd hardly call George W. Bush a stellar conservative on immigration, would you? The only religious change that came out of that election is that the liberal Democrat candidates worked very hard to sound more interested in family values and the welfare of children. They learned to talk the talk. So if all the liberal posturing and publishing that has poured forth since Bush got in office (most of which is on my public library shelves) did nothing else, it at least was successful in turning the issue upside down, so maybe next time the Democrats will be tossed for pretending to be something they weren't.

At the moment, conservatives do "own" talk radio. But it is a competitive medium and liberals just haven't done well getting their ideas across and attracting sponsors. Liberals don't do well with facts--and feelings do better on TV (like Rosie saying absurd hateful things with a sneer) than on radio which is more a thinking medium. Most of the national conservative talk hosts don't do religion--they may occasionally mention it, but their audience is too varied to risk it. Dr. Laura is a Jew, Glenn Beck is a Mormon, Laura Ingraham is a Catholic (I think), and the other big names I don't know. And Dobson I'd call a pretty small fish in a big pond. Is that nuanced enough?

3684

It keeps the money coming in

Because I worked in academe and was required to publish (actually I liked that part of my job), and purchased for my library publications paid for by government grants and foundations with an axe to grind, I should know better than to be surprised by "research studies." Still, some are so obvious, you just have to hope that the P & T committee saw through them. Here are two, one in the social sciences, one in medicine:

"Who evaluates a presidential candidate by using non-policy campaign messages?" by Marisa Abrajano, Political Research Quarterly, Vol. 58, No. 1 (March 2005): pp. 55-67. Apparently Ms. Abrajano discovered this no-brainer, which will allow her to be cited in the literature. When candidates give out non-policy campaign messages (my brother is married to a Mexican (Bush), or my son was born on Cinco de Mayo (Gore)), the less education the Latino voter has, the more likely he is to fall for it and think favorably of the candidate. Imagine this break through. The candidate needs to give different campaign messages depending on the age, education level, ethnicity, sex, and income level of his audience.

I remember chatting with a salesman in the Chef-o-Nette (my coffee spot) thirty five years ago who was always a snazzy dresser. One day he came in wearing khaki slacks and open collared shirt, but no jacket. "What's up? Got the day off?" I asked. "No, I'm going to my southern Ohio territory today, and you don't want to look like a city slicker with the good-old boys down there. You'd be laughed out of town." See? Didn't even need a government grant or a voter survey--he knew his product and his customer.

But here's my favorite. There's a study in the Archives of General Psychiatry (2004; 61:73-84) which uses PET scans and glucose monitoring to show that methamphetamine users lose their ability to control negative emotions, and so that might be why they are involved in so many serious crimes that involve violence. I'll bet you are surprised by that one, aren't you? Meth users out of control? I'm thinking there are a few cops on the street who could have put this one together without PET scans or glucose monitoring.

One of the big dangers from the meth users is their toxic "footprint." The walls, carpet and drapes of their "labs" are a toxic waste dump for the next tenant. You don't need to be a user in the traditional sense of the word to have your brain damaged. Here's a 59 page guidebook for cleanup (including sheetrock, plaster, counter tops, fabric) from Minnesota.

3683

Mike Bassett wants to give you a house

Mike Bassett owns a supermarket and hardware store where I often shop in the summer near Lakeside, OH. Nice guy--his family has been in the grocery business for over 100 years. He used to own a house on our street. He must be expanding in Bellvue, OH because he owns a very nice home there and will give it away, but you have to move it. I saw the item in the Columbus Dispatch, but when I googled it for a link, I see it was in a lot of papers and on several TV shows--even in Canada. AP must have picked up the story. I couldn't find a photo on the web, but it has 3600 sq. ft., lovely wood work, beveled glass windows, big porch of natural stone and a fireplace. I would judge it to be (from the Dispatch photo) built around 1910-1920 because it sort of has an Arts and Crafts look with maybe a touch of Green and Green or early Frank Lloyd Wright influence. You'd need a really big lot and probably about $80,000 to move it. Bellvue is 45 miles south of Toledo.

3682

Is it safe to let kids read?

We've all heard about librarians who don't want filters to protect children. What about books? Who's watching the publishers? Greg Smith's blog notes that recently he looked through a publisher's catalog at the YA titles and found:

A book on paralysis
A book on death of a parent, alcoholism, and unwanted pregnancy.
A book on death of a parent through cancer
A book on alcoholism
A book on armed assault with a deadly weapon
A book on death of both parents in a car crash
A book on death of both parents in a car crash and an unwanted pregnancy
A book whose catalog copy is vague, but appears to involve at least armed robbery and child abandonment
An historical book on suicide
A contemporary book on suicide
A book on death of a parent and economic hardship
A book on censorship. And sex.
A book on death by accidental shooting (or general stupidity)
A book on child abandonment, alcoholism, and an accident of indeterminate nature (resulting in, possibly, death)
A book on divorce
A book on death of a parent, economic hardship, robbery, and risking death.
Two books on (1960s) sex, drugs, and rock & roll (and therefore, at least metaphorically, death)

I'm glad I read only horse and dog stories when I was a kid (and Laura Ingalls Wilder); a lot of them were sad, but at least they didn't commit suicide or steal.

3681

It works in academe, too

Jared Sandberg in Cubicle Culture (WSJ) today listed a guide for horn tooters, gas bags and self-promoters. I recognized all of them, although I've spent most of my professional life in libraries not in business.

1. Move on to another job before the project fails.

2. Copy the boss with all your e-mails.

3. E-mail late at night to suggest you haven't left work.

4. During meetings, reinforce the boss' position with "Wouldn't you agree that. . . "

5. Cut down your colleagues or competition with, "You're saying what exactly. . . "

6. Wrap a self-serving argument in the flag of moral principle.

7. Be the ventriloquist's dummy, "What a great idea."

8. Speak first and often.

9. Distribute minutes or notes of the meetings, even if you aren't the one appointed.

10. Make the toasts at the office parties and social gatherings.

3680

Here we go again!

We're closing in on the last room of the home we moved into five years ago. The gay decorators who lived here in the 90s were fabulous and successful, I'm sure, but the brown living room, orange dining room, red family room, and dark hunter green and black guest room (all with a faux glaze with ceilings to match the walls) were a bit over the top for us, especially with enough yards of heavy drapes at the windows to canopy Scioto Downs. Now we're about to tackle the master bedroom which is dark blue with a lighter comb glaze, or maybe it is gray with a dark blue glaze.

This is the new bedspread--sort of a blue and creamy ivory and pale green
It's never easy, is it? There are light fixtures that should be replaced, holes in the walls that will need to be patched from the removed drapery rods, a medicine cabinet that must have cost all of $10 when new, and bathroom marble tile that won't exactly work with the paint I've picked out. I'm guessing the patching and light fixtures and new mirror will run us $1,000, and that's before we even buy the primer. To make matters more complicated, the comb faux glaze has a texture that may not cover properly.

When the painter (recommended by a friend) came by to give us an estimate, he brought his tiny, preemy baby (I weighed more than he does when I was born). Originally, he and his wife were in this business together, but now she has a "regular" job and the baby was a surprise. Then the mother-in-law from out of state to help out until July, but she got sick and was hospitalized and is now in a local nursing home.

Goodness. I guess funny wall colors isn't much of a problem to have, is it?

3679

Poverty stories--unintended consequences

The Columbus Dispatch a few weeks ago reported on the front page the sad story of a "Decade of Gains Dissipating." A decade ago the Ohio Supreme Court issued four rulings that the state funding system for schools was unconstitutional, and there were dramatic changes in the Appalachian areas of southern Ohio.

In "Southern Local" new schools replaced the old, the high school was renovated, special teachers were hired, science labs opened, and computers brought in. Graduation rate went from 88% in 1997 to 94% in 2006. Spending went from $4,780 per student 10 years ago to $10,043 today, and teachers with 20 years + an MS are getting $51,686.

Now salaries have been frozen, and special programs are being dropped. What happened? Life. The local property taxes can't keep up with costs, like benefits. The district has many expensive students--two thirds qualify for free breakfast and lunch, one fourth have special needs. Once the children are educated, many move away for better jobs. The young man whose parents brought the law suit against the state went on to college, is married and lives in a city in central Ohio and is considering private school for his kids.

Do these stories help or hurt? I think a 94% graduation rate is pretty spectacular--in fact, 88% is waaaaaaay above Cleveland's and Columbus' graduation rate, which have much higher costs per student, nicer buildings and better paid teachers.

I think we need to send a few administrators to southern Ohio to find out how they are doing a better job with less money and poorer facilities. I think I know the answer. Do you?

3678

Lest we diverge from the evolution party line

The Feb. 15 issue of Nature (445/7129) has an interesting article on the plants native to South Africa's Cape region. There are more than 9,000 plant species, 6,000 found in no other country in the world, and most of those are in the western region. Compare this to the entire area of the British Isles which is home to about 1500 plant species.

There seems to be some fear by the author that a person might conclude such fantastic variety, beauty and diversity were designed by a mind larger and more complex than ours rather than just happening by accident over a few million years. The terms "evolutionary approach," "evolutionary isolation," "evolutionary tree linking," and "bouts of evolution," appeared once; "evolutionary heritage," "evolutionary radiations," "evolutionary tree," and "evolutionary diversity," appeared twice; but the phrase "evolutionary divergence," (which reminds me of idiopathic, meaning "we don't know why this happened") appears 10 times in the article. And it isn't even a very long article!

3677

Maybe it's time to reread

All the King's Men. Sherry at Semicolon is one of my favorite book reviewers. Today she's taken another look at this 1947 novel by Robert Penn Warren whose character Willie Stark appears to be Huey Long, Governor of Louisiana in the 1930s.

"Willie has a gift for making the poor white hicks of rural Louisiana feel as if they’re an important part of the power structure. He’s one of them, he says, a hick, too, raised up by God to lead them on to good roads, decent sanitation, free education, and universal health care. And he’ll pay for it all by taxing the rich. Gee, haven’t we all heard that speech before? Maybe old Huey/Willie has been reincarnated several times since the 1930’s."

Read it here. She hosts an interesting Saturday Review of Books where you can contribute one of your own book reviews from your blog. I don't read enough books to participate, but it sure looks like fun.

3676

Imus or Rappers?

If I had to choose which insults black women more to more people, it would be the black rappers. Black performers making millions from the white kids buying their music regularly demean and objectify black women, calling them stupid Hos. You can dress it up with bling, but it doesn't change the meaning.

African American "leaders" in the media or entertainment world who are acting holier than thou need to make a stop at a music store, or where that filth is sold. I think Don Imus is disgusting and always has been; politicians who make nicey-nice on his show should look for cleaner streets for their soapboxes. Sponsors who have paid him to insult people need to find adults for their marketing departments who have vocabularies beyond four letter words.

"Who ever corrects a mocker invites insult; whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse. Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man and he will love you." Proverbs 9:7-8

3675

Pelosi repeats history

A two-fer--Joe Kennedy and Neville Chamberlain all in one trip. The woman is amazing.

"Pelosi’s willingness to undercut the president and accept the word of the chief of state of a sponsor of terrorism is on a par with the Democrats’ effort to set a timetable for fighting the war in Iraq. It brings to mind the efforts of Joseph P. Kennedy, the founder of the Kennedy dynasty, to appease Adolf Hitler."

“Speaker Pelosi is the Neville Chamberlain of our time,” said Brad Blakeman, a Republican strategist who was an aide in the Bush White House. “Cowering to and appeasing the dictator of a terrorist state was a disgrace to the high office she holds. The Sryians used this visit to validate their bad behavior by propagandizing the whole visit and her anti-war stance.”

Read the full text at American Daughter

Lake Erie Living

A new magazine for my collection of first issues at my other, other, other blog.

3673

Which church father are you?

You’re St. Melito of Sardis! You have a great love of history and liturgy. You’re attached to the traditions of the ancients, yet you recognize that the old world — great as it was — is passing away. You are loyal to the customs of your family, though you do not hesitate to call family members to account for their sins. Find out which Church Father you are at The Way of the Fathers!

3672

Monday memories

Easter memories.

30 years ago
Cheating just a bit here--these memories are from yesterday, Easter Sunday 2007. We all met at church. Usually my children aren't sitting side by side, and I learned in a memory flash back, some things never change. Lots of poking and whispering and giggling. Next year, I separate them! The choir was fabulous and although the sanctuary was packed, communion moved quickly. Pastor Paul suggested, encouraged, reminded us--let there be someone in next year's Easter service who is there because we invited them to church during the year and they met Jesus.

After church we came back to our house where everything was ready for dinner--but needed a little prep. Because of my daughter's DVT, my son was appointed the kitchen helper and she was ordered to the lounge chair to put her legs up. So he was putting the ice in the glasses, and the hot and cold dishes on the table. I kept shooing everyone else out. In a small kitchen, one helper is enough.

Although Ohio's weather didn't cooperate, I had a dinner to welcome warm weather and things to come. We had honey baked ham
(gift of my son-in-law's father)
baked beans
corn on the cob
fresh strawberries
potato salad
relish tray
hot rolls
sugar free pumpkin cheesecake
(from my daughter)
Easter basket for each person
(made by my daughter)

3671

Blogs that make me think

Janeen gave me a thinker's award, and then I'm supposed to list 5 more bloggers that make me think. I didn't know it would be so hard, then I discovered that after I browse through my links, that I often check out their links, and that is the direction from which I learn a lot. My own blog entries usually originate with reading 3 papers and several magazines, then I do the research. I discover many new blogs that way.

Like me, Janeen lives in Ohio and is a Christian--check out the additional 15" of snow they woke up to on Easter morning. Now they have a total of 36". Al Armist Gore is going to stop by and help out with his snow plow. We wish!

So Janeen makes me think about little children and food allergies (my family didn't have any) and how important it is to have a can-do spirit and a sense of humor. If you have allergies, she's got some great recipes.

Another mommy blogger I visit is Dancing Boys Mom--she only had three when I first started reading her blog, now she's expecting number four on the 16th, and I've been following the pregnancy. Originally her due date was the 5th. I think she's a bit uncomfortable. Yes, that'll make you think. She's dealing with celiac disease, something I knew nothing about.

Then there's a bunch of siblings and cousins I like to read, and I'll count this for two: Carol, Beth, Joan and Jane. However, Joan is the one I read most frequently because her website doesn't act up and she likes to write about words and learning.

Lazy Daisy always has wonderful spiritual insights as food for thought. She's a missionary and has beautiful, uplifting entries.

Women are just social beings--can't get around it. They love to visit and exchange recipes and ideas and photographs. Many of my link-to-ladies do memes every day, so I skip over those, and often move on to the medical, legal or political blogs.

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,

2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,

3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote. There are two versions of the award--I'm having so much trouble linking to Janeen this morning, try her site for the other color.

3670

Ugly shoes, ugly feet

Oh goodness. Someone was raving about this site, so I took a peek. $280 for a pair of shoes that don't even come in a narrow width and look like Mary Janes with a heel? No thank you. And ladies, please put on some hose. Your bare naked feet just aren't that pretty. Who told you they were?

3669

Buy a freedom cookie, offend a liberal

Bake sales by student Republican clubs where white males have to pay higher prices than women or minorities can get you in trouble on America's campuses. The left has no sense of humor.

"Nothing makes the campus censors angrier than someone who dares to question race and gender preferences, especially if he uses satire to do it. That’s why the anti-affirmative-action bake sales that conservative students have sponsored at many schools—white male customers can buy cookies for $1, with lower prices for women and various minorities—have provoked such ferocious responses from campus authorities.

Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, provides a typical example. A Republican club there staged a bake sale, and several students then said that they felt offended. This amounted to a powerful argument, since hurt feelings are trump cards in the contemporary campus culture. . . . The College Republicans at Northeastern Illinois University canceled an announced affirmative-action bake sale after the administration threatened punishment. . . the cookie sellers would be violating university rules and that “any disruption of university activities that would be caused by this event is also actionable.” . . . Schools will use almost any tactic to shut the bake sales down. At the University of Washington, the administration said that the sponsor had failed to get a food permit. At Grand Valley, the university counsel argued that the sale of a single cupcake would convert political commentary into forbidden campus commerce. At Texas A&M, the athletics director argued that a satirical bake sale would damage the sports teams by making it harder to recruit minorities."

Read about campus speech codes at the Winter 2007 City Journal.

3668

Children's sports medicine

There was a full page ad for The Children's Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Center in Westerville in today's paper. I didn't even know there was such a specialty. According to the ad, "Sports injuries in children and teens now account for at least 40% of all emergency visits." ALL ER visits or just those by children? It does say ALL, doesn't it? Wow. Maybe organized sports isn't so great for children if so many are being injured. Sounds like bullying on the playground might be safer.

The boy in the picture had a stress fracture in his back from pole vaulting. The ad says this facility has the latest in digial x-ray technology, athletic trainers for rehabilitation and specialists in sports medicine for kids.

I remember when I was getting physical therapy for my rotator cuff injury (lifting and shelving heavy journals as a librarian). Except for the mastectomy patients, just about everyone at the rehab center was hooked on a sports activity of some type. I worked out with football and basketball players and people who competed in triathalons, and women who seemed committed to tearing up their shoulders and elbows in tennis tournaments. I hate to sweat and never really could see the advantages of it. Sort of glad now.

The ad for children's sports injuries is sponsored by McDonald's and Nationwide Insurance. Hmmm.