3808

Get a Chihuahua?

A friend stopped to chat at Panera's and she told me she hadn't been to Bible study recently because she was taking advantage of the good weather to work in her yard (on Saturdays). Part of her yard problem was her dogs. Three Goldens. Big. Dogs. Eat. Poop. "But I feel so safe," she said. Well, Bottom Line Newsletter (Winter 2007) says one of the myths about safety is having a big dog. Most big dogs are not barkers. What is needed are small dogs that make a lot of noise, like Chihuahuas.

I've never known any dog that didn't bark when I walked up to a door. My son's huge (Mom, she's just a puppy) Lab barks. A lot.

3807

The case for vegetarianism

Not that I would, but medically, it makes sense. It's an impressive argument.

Some extremely common conditions in the Western world are relatively uncommon in purely or predominantly vegetarian and fruit-eating societies. These include 1) severe atherosclerosis and its devastating consequences (heart attacks, brain attacks, etc.); 2) systemic hypertension: in societies that eat minuscule amounts of salt, the systemic arterial blood pressure is usually about 90/60 mm Hg, a level near what it is at birth but a level in the Western world often associated with shock; 3) stroke; 4) obesity; 5) diabetes mellitus; 6) some common cancers (colon, breast, prostate gland); 7) constipation, cholecystitis, gallstones, appendicitis, diverticulosis, hemorrhoids, inguinal hernia, varicose veins; 8) renal stones; 9) osteoporosis and osteoarthritis; 10) salmonellosis and trichinosis; and 11) cataracts and macular degeneration. from William C. Roberts, "Facts and ideas from anywhere," Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent). 2007 April; 20(2): 200–208. Also available as Roberts WC. Atherosclerosis: its cause and its prevention. Am J Cardiol. 2006;98(11):1550–1555

3806

Reasons to homeschool

Parents who choose to homeschool put in a lot of work and hours, but I think they get back more than they give. Sherry has a wonderful post about winding down the school year here. She writes one of the best book blogs on the internet. You'll never be sorry you visited.

But the essay on homeschooling by a Catholic mother at First Things really blew me away, Schooling at home by Sally Thomas. Something about her "day in the life" reminded me of my mother and myself--the way we taught while we parented, although neither of us homeschooled. Every moment was a teachable moment. Now when I yearn to hear Mom's voice (she died in 2000), I remember the days as a child wishing she'd just stop explaining, elaborating, using family stories and history, showing me the innards or roots of some animal or plant, how to hold a paint brush, where to put the horse's hock on my drawing, etc. etc. Homeschooling is good for kids, but it's really wonderful for the parent.

3805

Never forgive

The United States forgave Japan's war debts years ago, decades actually. But now Guam wants compensation for the occupation by the Japanese, so where to go, where to go. Why--to Congress for reparations of course. It failed last time, but now we've got Democrats in power.

Guam Delegate Madeleine Bordallo in March introduced the Guam World War II Loyalty Recognition Act, which calls for federal compensation related to the Japanese occupation of Guam between 1941 and 1944.

Bordallo introduced the same bill during her last term, but it failed to pass. Story here.

It was supposed to come up this morning in the House Natural Resources Committee. Oh, that sounds green! Sure to make it this time. Any shade of green as long as it costs money.

Madeleine doesn't look very ethnic Pacific Islander, does she? Her deceased husband was the governor of Guam. Since 1973 Guam has had a non-voting delegate in the House. They do get to vote in committee, however, and she's a member of the committee to which this was proposed.

HT Hoystory

3804

Mort and me

It's phone tag in cyberspace. I occasionally drop by the blog, Octogenarian, written by a retired journalist living the good life as a snowbird in Florida. Mort is a secular Jew who had a fascinating career and is enjoying sharing his memories while upgrading his technical skills. Like me, he does get political. And he's a liberal. Earlier this spring his blogging was a story in the Palm Beach Post which he posted at his blog. I was a bit surprised, knowing all the problems in the world and his vast experience and talent, that what irked him most was "mean-spiritedness and lack of compassion of people, especially those from the religious right." I tried to comment, but the comments had been turned off for that one, so I went to an older entry and commented that compared to some really big problems (and I cited the ones exacerbated by the liberals) this seemed like an odd complaint.

When Mort found my comment he e-mailed me to clarify, which of course I had to answer with even more documentation. However, his e-mail server bounced my message, saying it was for spam abuse. So I had to go back to his blog, leave another message that in addition to facing closed comments, I was now blocked from replying to his e-mail. He has e-mailed me saying he doesn't know why, but of course, I can't respond. Nor can I leave my other e-mail address at his blog, because if I wanted that spread all over the internet, I wouldn't be using Medscape. Here's my comments in response to "mean spirited religious right" (code words for conservative Christians, not conservative Jews or Muslims or Hindus).

I was disappointed to see you set up the strawman "religious right" as what irks you most in life. I'm an evangelical Christian and a Republican, who was a Democrat until age 60. I can't imagine that you search the dial for conservative talk shows, and you certainly can't find conservatives on the network or cable news, unless you are watching the very timid Fox News. I, on the other hand, have almost no access to fairness unless I choose Fox, which sometimes is a bit too entertaining and giggly for my tastes. I read all the major papers, but am subjected to terribly biased opinion posing as news in the NYT, Wapo and WSJ. I don't mind it at all on the OpEd page where it belongs--just don't throw it into the news reporting. Because you are a liberal, I think you see this as "normal" or the way it ought to be because people can't be trusted to judge for themselves.

I believe I saw a survey that journalists were about 12:1 liberal to conservative; but you have nothing on librarians, who are 224:1 liberal to conservative. These are the folks who buy all the anti-Bush and anti-Christian books they can get their hands on, while insisting that another view must make it through the accepted review channels of Publishers Weekly and Library Journal, both owned by the same publisher.

What irks me most isn't left wing harangues, blogs or reporting. That is so much hot air. It's the result of leftist and socialist ideas that make it through congress or into the business world that result in real damage. What irks me is millions of Africans dying of malaria because do-gooders got DDT taken off the market; what irks me is the 60% poverty rate for single women and children when it is only 3% for married women, an almost direct result of militant feminism; what irks me is the head long rush into silly, expensive regulations and crushing business decisions that global warming fundamentalists are trying to impose--it's just a new age religion in different robes; what irks me is journalists who buried on the back pages the Christians who were tortured, mutilated (disemboweled, castrated, throats cut while alive) and murdered by Turkish Muslims, when Muslim terrorists who were "subjected" to wearing women's undergarments made the front pages for weeks and months.

Republicans are weak and disorganized and religious conservatives have all the same problems as anyone else--divorce, obesity, ill health, mortgages, etc. You need to find a bigger, stronger enemy to face down, and unfortunately, I think it is going to be the anti-semitic left wing of your party.

So in an e-mail he clarified it: hate in talk radio seemed to be the culprit. Well, here again, I'm pretty sure Mort doesn't listen to Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity, but I do. And I also read or watch the major media. If you watch CBS, NBC, ABC TV or read NYT, WaPo, WSJ or USAToday, you can't get away from the liberal media. You'd have to look for the conservative media--and talk shows are opinions and don't pretend to be news, balanced or otherwise. The major media vehicles publish opinion as news. That's a HUGE difference.

And I read the web sites like Media Matters, that slices and dices and dispenses the raw meat to the liberals, what they think the talk show hosts are saying. Maybe 2 lines from a 3 hour show. But this I do know. If Rush Limbaugh is a Christian, he never mentions it. Glenn Beck is open about being a Mormon. Michael Medved and Dr. Laura are very open about being observant Jews. Laura Ingraham is very open about being a Catholic. Bill Bennett is some sort of conservative Christan (Southern Baptist?), but I don't know which brand, same with Hugh Hewitt.

Parody and poking fun is not "hate speech," Mort. Pointing out inconsistencies in Michael Fox's ads for political candidates is not "hate"; just because he has a disease doesn't mean he gets a pass to lie. Although I'm sure our Democratic Congress will try to make it so. What Rosie O'Donnell says IS hate speech because you get her words combined with her hate-filled expressions on TV, but if she can find a sponsor for it, let the public decide with their consumer dollars whether to support her hatefulness. Even so, she wasn't removed for her words, but for her demands for more money.

Rush Limbaugh (the non-religious talker) is first of all an entertainer, former disc-jockey, and sportscaster. He uses phrases and voice clips from the people he parodies--like "Barack the magic Negro," a phrase from the left coast LA Times, or the Justice Brothers, sound bites of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton singing duets about victimhoodness. His term "Feminazis" is close--but still no cigar, because it was a term applied many years ago to just a couple of shrill women in the media, who in fact, do support programs and ideas that would probably result in the demise of the male gender if taken seriously. Rush will often just read the words of a liberal columnist or journalist--that's all--just read it aloud. With pauses. Giggles. Sighs. Laughter. Now is that hate speech? One of his favorite phrases is the "drive-by media" (journalists who don't actually listen to him but take pot shots) who use the phrase "mean-spiritedness."

And "lack of compassion?" Mort, there have been so many studies on the generosity of conservative Christians--they far exceed the liberals and humanists, and liberal Christians. Protestant denominations and Catholic orders take Matthew 25 very, very seriously. That is our marching orders, not the belief that we will change the world. That's why humanistic-academic social plans so often fail or make things worse in the long run--they have no roots, no deep source and just enlarge the problems they try to solve. So, here I, the librarian, just have to tell a journalist to go back and review your sources.

A WSJ story about a new test for Down Syndrome ran yesterday. Although it mentioned the number of false positives, it did not say that 90% of women whose babies tested positive for Down Syndrome chose abortion. Now that, Mort, is a liberal slant to a news story. It was what was left out.

But sometimes it is the word choice. White intermarriage. Black miscegenation. Two phrases in the same story about intermarriage of races.

Or how about these.

Global warming. Climate change.

Pro-choice. Anti-choice. Pro-abortion. Anti-life.

Iraq debacle. Iraq conflict.

Right wing conservatives. Democrats.

Lots of ways to slant the news.

3803

God Bless America

‘God Bless America’

We hear George Bush say it regularly; in fact in all our imported US TV and films, the phrase ‘God Bless America’ is a very natural and normal expression in the USA, as well as talking about praying.

The use of God and prayer in public life by public people is a question of your sanity in the UK. The US has a separation of church and state, yet has a very religious society. The UK has a state church, but a very secular society.

But if the UK prime minister used these phrases, there would be outcry; they are inconceivable in public life, except maybe for our Queen. In deed earlier this year Tony Blair in an in-depth and wide ranging interview referred to his belief in God in guiding him, and there was a public outcry, and fear that he was a religious maniac.

Even our Queen, can only make a statement of broad general spirituality, rather than a definite claims of God being for us as a nation, and an appeal to prayer.

There is a voluntary principle in the USA with no tradition of church-state, yet the US is a country that claims ‘One Nation under God’ and that ‘in God we trust’. Whilst 40% claim to attend weekly in the US, with people seemingly anxious to be seen as churchgoing, in the UK the claim for church association is 5-7%. It is 1% in many of our largest towns and cities.

Religion in the UK was imposed until recent times, but we can now choose our religion. In the USA, religion has always been personal choice. I’m not sure if that qualifies us to make any observations, but it might explain some of the ways we see things taking shape in the USA, and I hope help you understand us better." Brian McLaren , a Letter from London

One percent attend church in some of your towns. Who is writing you letters? Sounds like you could use some encouragement and a little Gospel of Jesus Christ. And looks like Americans should never advocate a state church.

3802

The Kansas Tornadoes

Have you seen the photographs of the flattened Greensberg, KS? Then before they could even pull people out of the rubble, some more came through the same area. Fortunately, the people were prepared with a warning system, or there would have been a huge loss of life. But. . .



Did you hear the Kansas Governor, Kathleen Sebelius, thinks that if Bush weren't in office, the National Guard could make this terrible scene better? Better than what? What is left to guard? It amazes me how the Bush Derangement Syndrome blows into town to affect otherwise intelligent, capable people, aka Democrats. Before this silly comment, she'd been a Democratic rising star. Must be burn out.

I looked at the death count--10, for a town of 1,600. Isn't that a higher percentage than New Orleans' Katrina? Does Bush hate white folk? Rural people? He waited 4 or 5 days before going there. Did Kansas have tornadoes before Global Warming?

3801

Porn again Christians?

You can go to this site for all the details and follow the links to come to your own conclusions. I'll just pull out a few. I wouldn't say I've seen porn on Christian blogs and websites, but I have seen some pretty unseemly, sloppy stuff, and I've heard of it creeping into our local churches in careless attempts to be "relevant" in reaching out to unbelievers.

Said [Chris] Rosebrough, "Rupert Murdoch is a born-again Christian and Rick Warren claims to be his pastor. As a Christian, Murdoch is committing an egregious sin by owning, expanding and profiting from pornographic channels and Rick Warren, as his pastor, has a Biblical duty to call Murdoch to repentance and/or put him out of the church."

I didn't know that Murdoch owns Zondervan, the publisher of Warren's best selling Purpose Driven Life. This is sad, sad indeed.

I just scored 100% in that quiz on religion that Newsweek ran about 2 months ago. You don't have to get an A in religion to know in your gut that pornography hurts women and children, hurts marriages, hurts society, grinds the soul and mind into the dirt, and makes mega-millions for the owners and producers. Mixing Christian books into the TV soft porn business? Come on, Pastor Warren, step up [to the collection plate] and do some counseling. I like a good investment portfolio, but there are certain products I won't buy--alcohol, nicotine, and viaticals. But I thought I was pretty safe with Christian books.

3800

Book club selections for 2007-2008

In May our book club meets at Barb's lovely home. It has never looked more lovely that last night--almost like a park with trimmed beds and lovely perennials and potted flowers. Our final and fun selection for our book year was Eat Cake by Jeanne Ray, who published her first novel when she was 60. Then with one minute to lobby our choices, the members offered suggestions for next year's reading, with the absentees sending theirs with another. Here's what we'll be reading, although all of the suggestions sounded terrific.

September: Learning to Bow by Bruce Feiler. My caution would be that this is based on his teaching experience in Japan in 1987-88--20 years ago, and was published in 1991. We probably wouldn't want our culture evaluated by a just-out-of-college, one year visitor's first book.

October: Field work by Mischa Berlinski. A first novel by another American visiting a foreign country. A trained classicist, Berlinski worked as a journalist in Thailand where this story of two clashing American cultures--anthropologist and missionary--takes place.

November: 1776 by David McCullough. This is the title I threw into the mix. McCullough's use of diaries and letters and his ability to weave in the stories of the little people we never heard in our history texts is just awesome. George Washington managed to write almost 950 letters in that year, while running the war campaign.

December: Inside the Kingdom by Carmen Bin Ladin, Osama's sister-in-law (half brothers whose father had 22 wives), affords a peek into her life in Saudi Arabia. From the book jacket cover I thought she might use Michael Jackson's surgeon. Do you see a resemblance?

January: A tree grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith is a 1943 classic that was made into a movie. It will be an interesting comparison with the immigrant life today.

February: We'll be doing something Shakespearean with a special guest, who actually taught my children when they were in elementary school.

March: Digging to America by Anne Tyler is a story about two families who adopt Korean children. Tyler is an excellent writer, popular with women, and I'm sure there will be enough stereotypes to go around.

April: Amazing Grace by Steve Turner, a pop/rock journalist, is the book [or part of it] about the hymn on which the movie was based.

May: I'm proud of you by Tim Madigan, yet another journalist, the story of Mr. Rogers.

Also suggested (but we only choose 9) was Unknown world by E. J. Edwards, Snow falling on Cedars by David Guterson, For the Glory of God by Rodney Stark, and Religious literacy by Stephen Prothero. I scored 100% on .Prothero's quiz, and 71% scored 80 or above

Monday Memories--The Stereopticon

There are so many memories in this photo I almost don't know where to begin. The room is the north living room of what had been my grandmother's house, but which was the house of my daughter's grandmother in 1973, my mother. It is my recollection that my great-grandfather purchased this property when another farmer lost it to debt, maybe in one of the late 19th century panics. He and his son Ira farmed a lot of land in the Franklin Grove-Ashton area of Lee County, Illinois. Ira died from an infected cut finger in 1908 at the Ashton farm. Around that time my grandparents who were living in Wichita, KS, lost their little baby, Oliver, at birth. Grandfather David offered them this farm if they would come back and help--he being about 80. At least that's what I have in my head. Around the same time he made significant gifts to the Brethren Church in Wichita where my grandparents worshiped.

It was an unspectacular, 8 room, boxy farm house. Grandma had it remodeled adding a huge gracious dining room, a second staircase to a lovely bedroom with a canopied balcony, a big airy kitchen with "modern" features like a built in corn cob storage for the blue and black cookstove, manual dishwasher, table with flour bins, a walk-in pantry/storage room, an upstairs servant's bedroom, plus two bathrooms, a dumbwaiter, a generator and a sink at the back door for washing up before entering the house.

By the late 1960s the house had fallen on very hard times and was almost unliveable, and when my grandparents died, my mother went to work to transform it to the house it actually had never been, and it became a family and religious retreat center. One item you can see through the windows are the grape arbors my mother rebuilt and coaxed grapes into growing again. Thus my little family traveled from Ohio and took a week's vacation there for about 10 years.

My daughter is five years old in this July 1973 photo and totally engrossed in the stereopticon my mother and her siblings had used, and which my siblings and cousins had enjoyed on the slow Sunday afternoons we had visited in the 1940s and 1950s. She's lying on the couch that my Grandma bought in the 1950s to update the look--the arms were so wide you didn't even need TV trays (there also was no TV)--with her head on the pillows her grandma made.

The little girl in the photo would still jump into my arms and sit on my hip with her long brown legs almost touching the ground. She has a band-aid on her foot from running barefoot all day, and her golden brown hair had not yet seen a scissors. She's wearing a little green and yellow nightgown I remember well, so I think it was twilight--my kids didn't run around in the morning in night clothes. From the looks of the dirt on her feet, we had probably skipped bathtime, and I'm guessing that under all that thick curly hair was a sweaty, sweet smelling, damp neck--the windows behind her are open to bring in a little air.

Ah, the Monday memories. As I was finishing this, my daughter rushed in the door to use the computer. "Oh mom, do you have a band-aid?"

All aboard the gravey train

I noticed this in the BOMA Newsletter [Building Owners and Managers Association]. This is going to be a very high priced ticket to nowhere:

"Whether or not you trust in the science of global warming and mankind's ability to reverse it, policymakers from both political parties at all levels of government are looking at how to "green" their communities and reduce carbon footprints.

Early in the 110th Congress, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) made it clear that the issue of global warming would be a legislative priority. "Scientific evidence suggests that, to prevent the most severe effects of global warming, we will need to cut global greenhouse-gas emissions roughly in half from today's levels by 2050," Pelosi stated in her opening remarks at a February hearing of the House Science and Technology Committee. Speaker Pelosi went on to say that the committees with jurisdiction over energy, environment, and technology policy have been asked to report legislation on these issues by June in hopes of having "legislation that will be a starting point on global warming and energy independence through the committees by July 4 so that, this year, Independence Day is also Energy Independence Day."

To accomplish this task, Speaker Pelosi has created a Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, which will develop policy and strategy recommendations. Already, several bills have been introduced in the House and Senate, and several more are anticipated, including ones by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair John Dingell (D-MI) and Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

One of the issues that BOMA Intl. will closely watch is whether a carbon "cap and trade" program will be included in any legislation that is enacted. This approach, which would cap greenhouse-gas emissions and permit emitters - such as utilities and industrial customers - to trade carbon allowances, is strongly supported by many Democrats in Congress, but not by President Bush. However, support for this type of approach has gained some followers from business. In January, 10 major corporations and four environmental groups came together to form the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP). The groups, which include DuPont, PG&E, BP America Corp., and the World Resources Institute, are calling for mandatory carbon reductions from major emitters, including commercial buildings."

Note: that is "grave" as in tomb, not the sauce.

3797

France's new leader

My horse didn't win in the Derby (Street Scene won), and I wasn't even thinking of offering an opinion on France's race. I'm mean, I didn't want the leftist lady to win, but secretly I thought she would. Often countries do vote themselves into total loss of freedom. Anyway, Sarkozy won. I'll say this, France can put forward some good looking candidates. Both.

I know you knew that, but this is a log so I need to keep up. Seems he wants to save France for the French. What a concept.

3796

Training ground for biased big media?

The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper is one of the hundreds (maybe thousands) of struggling free circs, those piles of newsprint and skinny magazines you see in the lobbies of coffee shops, shopping centers and libraries. Technically, they offer an alternative, but if they become successful, a bigger paper usually buys them. I hear they pay well, and the slant is, well, very, very one way or the other. The Stranger is left, although I've only read one article. It's anti-religious right. Yawn. That's like an elephant being afraid of a mouse. There is not a single leftist program proposed since FDR that hasn't succeeded. Conservatives, at best, toss an occasional banana peel, and a baby might make it out alive in the Dakotas that otherwise would have been thrown in a trash can.

The article that was sent to me is "Cross Purposes" by Erica C. Barnett. For some reason she thinks it is sad that Seattle's old line, dying liberal churches are shrinking and becoming irrelevant. When we joined UALC [it's a conservative congregation within a liberal denomination] in 1976 our pastor had formerly been a Lutheran pastor in the northwest--can't remember if it was Oregon or Washington. But I remember him saying that the mountains were white capped from all the letters of transfer that never made it. That means, for you non-Christian readers, when people headed west, they left their relgion back in the east or midwest and started worshiping Mother Nature. If they needed a little familiarity for a wedding and cozy pot lucks, they could always join the Unitarians. So I don't know where Erica's been hanging out, but it ain't church.

So she writes a lengthy story about the "new conservatives." But she has a very odd hitch in her gitalong. Seems to really focus on externals, hoping I think, to turn off . . . who, exactly? In describing the people she's afraid of (i.e. conservative Christians) seen at two different gatherings, tiny Church on the Hill, and big Mars Hill:

T-shirts and jeans
overalls and sweats
casual sportswear
bearded guy in sweats
blond man in sneakers and faded blue jeans
brown long-sleeved t-shirt
thrown-together, house-party-ish scene
heavily gelled hair [preacher]
sloppy, untucked dress shirt
wooden bead necklace
trendy wide-strapped brown leather watch
girls in glittering half-sweaters
sloppy emo boys with tattooed arms
disheveled hair
pregnant women in stylishly expensive maternity jeans
loud and a bit slovenly [preacher]
Jimmy Kimmel-esque comedian [preacher]

I haven't seen that much fashion description except in my own complaints about what people wear to church these days.

When describing the liberal Mainline Methodists in Ballard, WA she says. . . not much about their appearance, but does cite their criticisms of the new kids on the church block, and they have a serious case of edifice envy.

"Very much your father's conservatism"
"women are the nurturers who should go home and have babies"
"negative, almost misogynistic view of women"
"emergent or emerging" [these are 2 different terms, but she doesn't distinguish]
"They've built a show that attracts masses of people. That legitimates it"
"it's possible they are simply not paying attention"
"an astonishing number believe in reincarnation, which is not a Christian doctrine"
"we're in a time when people pick and choose what they want from their religious experience"
"appeal to people who think we live in apocalyptic times"
"creates a system where people can have a feeling of control"
"they see themselves as cutting edge, whereas mainline churches are struggling to keep their doors open"
"theology of fear"
"they're cool and they can go out into the world"
"they'll outgrow it"

Oddly (or, not so odd since she wants a job with a "real" paper), Erica sees the mainline church goers (most with gray hair and canes), as more tolerant and diverse because there is a sprinkling of gay couples, and some female pastors. She thinks it is quite OK for the Methodist pastor to be preaching on the "evil empire" the U.S. is becoming with obscene tax-cutting, but not OK for the Mars Hill guy who's preaching that the suburbs have just as much evil as the city. She calls the conservatives intolerant with retrograde political leanings (she only sites homosexuality and women as evidence of "retrograde"), and apocalyptic, rebelling against the pop culture while appropriating its language and styles.

Yes, Erica's looking for a job with a playa.

Who makes Don Imus look like a choir boy?

Michael McGee Sr. Oh please, Lord, let him be a race, nationality, religion and party we've never heard of. We've got enough problems in the media.

Word inflation

Or is it word deflation? I like Staples. Shop there for my paper and computer needs. Yesterday I needed ink. Took in my little cartridges for the discount. Folded inside my receipt (which I just looked at) is an ad that says, "Salvation from PC frustration. See an associate for assistance." That's a stronger altar call than we get at church!

My candidate has a plan

All the others want is a vacation.

[from Taranto's column] The Associated press asked the candidates for president what they would most like to have if stranded on a desert island. Here are the responses:

Joe Biden, Dennis Kucinich, Duncan Hunter and Mitt Romney said they'd bring their wives. (Notably, Hillary Clinton did not say she'd bring her husband.)

Mrs. Clinton, John Edwards, Barack Obama and John McCain all said books. Rudy Giuliani said "books and music."

Chris Dodd said "coffee with cream and sugar."

Sam Brownback said a tarp.

Mike Huckabee said a "laptop with satellite reception."

Tom Tancredo said a boat.

Bill Richardson said "BlackBerry and a Davidoff cigar."

Buy Jinky's book

Here's a photo of Jinky and his "mom." First he had a blog, now a book. It's a bit racy for me--after all he's a Hollywood dog--but some of my readers, especially dog lovers who want to help a good cause, will love it.



My other blogs about Jinky.

3790

The spread of poverty

I've often said that the way middle class families lived in the 60s and 70s would be considered poverty today--one car, 1.5 baths, 3 bedrooms, no AC, no dishwasher, one TV--and of course, no cable, no cellphones, no computers, etc. But I didn't expect the Census Bureau to agree with me.

"Forty-three percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.

Eighty two percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, 35 years ago, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning. Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 30 percent own two or more cars.
Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions; Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception; Seventy-three percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a more than a third have an automatic dishwasher."

Instead of broadening the base of poverty (to induce guilt, get more votes and more taxes), it would be better to focus on the really destitute. TCS Daily article.

3789

It's a horserace

Tiago
Among the Republican field I will support Mike Huckabee or Mitt Romney or Tom Tancredo. I have no interest in McCain, Rudy or Newt; they haven't treated their wives and ex-wives well. Maybe that's why they play it fast and loose on abortion? Some of the candidates I've never heard of.

For the 133rd Derby, I think at Donna and David's party Saturday night I'll go for Tiago, 15:1. He won at the Santa Anita Derby. His jockey rode Giacomo to victory, and John Shirreffs is the trainer. He is owned by Mr. and Mrs. Jerome Moss. There are no good stories this year--no female jockeys, no blind or deaf horses, no murky backgrounds among the owners--or if there are, it's so common the reporters are ignoring it. I had to find the list on page 6 of the sports section this morning.

Would you like a cute Chihuahua?

No, not my grand-puppy, but one at this Chi Rescue. Look at that talented pup who walks on his two front legs. Jinky, the Hollywood dog, is out advertising his book, making a case for rescued dogs. He's led a pretty fabulous life, first blogging which is how I met him, and now as a celebrity author. You'll fall in love with the Lambster, an abused Bichon, that Jinky writes about.