3904

Contact your Senator and Member of Congress

Here's a handy link provided by the WaPo which will tell you how often your guy misses votes (John McCain ought to be ashamed of himself!), and how they voted. Also links to their e-mail, and you still need to be writing about the immigration/amnesty plan. I've written Rep. Pryce and Sen. Voinovich (R-Ohio) saying I'm against amnesty for people who entered the country illegally to work, attend school or have babies. I know there are other reasons, but that should cover most of them. We know President Bush isn't going to back down, so you've got to contact your representatives and senators. Don't forget; do it today If we can't control our own borders, we sure can't do it in the middle east.

3903

It's probably easier, faster, and cheaper to hire an illegal

I'm trying out my new toolbar from the National Science Digital Library using the keyword "immigration," so after a bad link to the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services, I came across the list of instructions, guidelines and regulations for the Office of Business Liaison. I read somewhere that government regulations cost each household $8,000 a year (don't quote me--it's just a vague nightmare). So this is part of that. It says the form hasn't been revised since 1991, but later says it might be available in 2005. Isn't this 2007? How long since this page has been revised, I wonder? I don't envy employers trying to do the right thing, do you?

Office of Business Liaison
The primary function of the Office of Business Liaison (OBL) is to educate the United States business community on employment, business, investment, training, and employer education-related immigration issues. We have a home page for this Office, which writes Employer Information Bulletins published on our website.

OBL is receiving inquiries regarding a revised Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification. Please be aware that a revised Form I-9 has not yet been released to the public. The current version of the Form I-9 and the Handbook for Employers, M-274, are dated November 21, 1991.

Both the Form I-9 and Handbook are undergoing revisions to reflect subsequent changes in U.S. immigration law and procedure. A revised Form I-9 may become available in 2005. However, a release date has not been determined. USCIS will conduct outreach and make education materials available to employers when a revised Form I-9 is available.

The Form I-9 can be downloaded from this Web site (see the Related Link). Additionally, for the most current information on the Form I-9, please review the OBL Employer Information Bulletins. These Bulletins are designed to educate employers on employment-related immigration matters. For questions or more information, please call the toll-free Employer Business Investor and School Services Hotline (EBISS) at 1-800-357-2099.

3902

What he saw in Iraq

In the WSJ yesterday (6-15-07) Joe Lieberman tells "What I saw in Iraq." You remember that Joe was abandoned by his party when he chose to support Bush on the war, but he won reelection anyway. I'm not sure what happened to his committee status. But I think he reports things we won't see in the regular news sources. It helps to have been there, I suppose, rather than sit in air conditioned studios and opine or read what someone else wrote.

90% of suicide bombings are the work of non-Iraqi, al-Qaeda terrorists

al-Qaeda's leaders say Iraq is the central front of their global war against the U.S.

al-Qaeda wants to use the Sunni-Shia bloodshed to collapse the Iraqi government and radicalize the region (it has certainly worked with the American leftists)

Iran is doing everything in its power to drive us out of the region

al-Qaeda has shifted its focus because the surge is successful, not because it isn't. Democrats have it backwards.

Why do Democrats and some wimp-Republicans want a failed state in the middle east brought down by al-Qaeda and Iran?

3901

On my Bookshelves

I know this will be a big shock to my regular readers, but I have a new blog, On my bookshelves. So far, I'm just rearranging or moving things. There are many ways to organize your own library on the internet, but I didn't want to learn one more program.

3900

Who buys the food in your household?

Kellogg's is going to stop marketing to children under 12. Excuse me? They never sold a thing to my kids when I was in charge of my kitchen table. I didn't take them to the store--hey, it was my only time to be alone! I've never stood in a check out line with a 10 year old holding the check book or credit card with promises to pay off with their earned income.

It's the parents responsibility to choose the food, pay for it, prepare it and serve it.

Disclaimer: No matter how healthy your little family eats (fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy products, whole grains, etc.), once they are on their own and start eating with friends as teens, all health benefits are off the table. Literally. They will joyfully chose junk. Both of my children are good cooks, one is even a gardener who gives me fresh produce in the summer and bakes home made bread, and the other tries Martha's recipes and sets a fabulous holiday table, but there were many years as young adults that they violated everything they learned at home about good nutrition.

You don't need legislation or law suits by special interest groups like Center for Science in the Public Interest who need to find a steady supply of victims to maintain an income stream. Parents with young children just need some common sense, a back bone, and a book or two from the public library. They also need to send the kids outside to play more often and turn off the TV and computer.

BTW, yesterday I ate a bowl of Kellogg's Raisin Bran for breakfast. I was hungry the entire day.

Friday Family Photo

This photo of my brother was taken just about four years ago, June 2003, in our cottage at Lakeside, OH. The photo has been scanned from an album, so is a bit fuzzy. I wasn't blogging then (started in October 2003), but I did write letters, otherwise I probably wouldn't remember the details of his visit.

He is a stockbroker and lives in Florida, but has many clients in the midwest, and at that time, one was in Columbus. He needed to visit her and had planned to come alone, but his wife's father was in the hospital in Detroit, so they decided to come together (driving) and she would fly back to Florida from there as he continued on to Illinois to visit other family and clients. When they got to Columbus on Friday, my husband had already left for the lake on Wednesday. I broiled steaks, fixed corn on the cob (which my husband hates), salad and fruit and we had a lovely dinner on the deck--one of the prettiest evenings of the year. He met with his client that evening and on Saturday morning we all started out for Lakeside. The trip took longer than usual because I was navigating, and we were chatting, so we missed the turn on Rt. 4. Instead of 2.5 hours, it took almost 4. We walked around the town, went out to eat at Abigail's, and then my husband rented a golf cart and we drove around looking at the different homes and remodeled cottages he had designed or worked on. We actually have a map and a "tour" t-shirt of my husband's projects.

At Lakeside, which is a Chautuaqua community, the "week" starts on Saturday afternoon, so the big program is Saturday evening. The program that Saturday night at the auditorium was Red Hot and Blue, a group of three men and three women from Branson, Missouri singing and dancing to the songs of the 1930s-1960s. Very high energy and nice costumes. On Sunday morning we had breaksfast at the Patio, after which they continued on to Detroit to visit my SIL's dad.

It was a very nice visit, and if he's reading this, "Hope you'll come back soon, little brother!"

3898

Joe Klein is just wrong about where the venom originates

In my opinion, left wing bloggers are the most vicious and much more plentiful, so Klein is giving them a pass when he writes for Time about his critics on the left that, "Some of this is understandable: the left-liberals in the blogosphere are merely aping the odious, disdainful—and politically successful—tone that right-wing radio talk-show hosts like Rush Limbaugh pioneered." They aren't aping, Joe, they aren't imitating; they invented the sneer, smear and shout campaigns. Or are you too young to remember the 60s? I've never heard Rush or Hannity or Laura or Malkin say anything as vicious as what I can read on any leftist blog--or particularly their commenters. They have way more class than the left--for starters, they provide information instead of name calling.

And if I were a hard hitting, commie blogger, I sure wouldn't appreciate being compared to Rush Limbaugh as my inspiration!

3897

The Correct Thing

I have a book from my grandparents' library titled, "The Correct Thing in Good Society," by Florence Howe Hall (Boston: Page Company, 1902). It also gives advice on what is not correct. For instance, if you are providing a luncheon for your lady friends, it is not the correct thing

for the butler to wear evening dress

for the hostess to be disappointed or troubled if her guests fail to do justice to an elaborate lunch, since "dieting" has become so general that it bids fair to overthrow the elaborate and indigestible ladies' lunch

to talk gossip or scandal at a ladies' luncheon

to serve chocolate alone after an elaborate luncheon

to omit providing each guest with a silver butter knife

for guests to "grab, gobble and go," taking leave before the luncheon is over

for the guests to carry off the decorations.

I've let my butler go--just too many slip ups at my luncheons, like forgetting the butter knives.

3896

Thursday Thirteen--Out damn'd spot, out I say

Thirteen things about spots in Norma's world

1) Lady Macbeth was hallucinating when she said that, but I wasn't. There definitely were rust-colored spots on the front of the on-sale, pale yellow, pants suit that fit me perfectly.

2) It sort of looked like small drops of blood! Just like Shakespeare!

3) A friend was in the store at the same time and I showed it to her. She suggested Tide to Go--said she'd had good luck with it.

4) I reluctantly put the suit back, but that day I bought the little instant stain remover that looks like a pen and is small enough to sit on the bottom of your purse and sneak back into the dressing room.

5) I returned to the store, went into the dressing room and applied a little to the smallest, least noticeable spot. Wow. It disappeared, and left no outline on the fabric!

6) I took the suit to the cash register along with a moss green blouse with yellow petal appliques.

7) The first time I wore it (pale yellow) I brushed up against something and got a much larger spot on the knee. I sat down with my little Tide to Go, and poof it was gone.

8) For several weeks I've had my eye on a pair of brown stacked heels at Meijer's. They were on a mark-down table because (I think) the right shoe had some really odd spots on the leather--maybe a mold.

9) Each week I looked at them when I shopped for groceries. I had the exact pair in black and they are the most comfortable shoes I own.

10) So yesterday I dug around in the laundry room and found some brown shoe polish. I put a small amount on a piece of cloth, put that inside a plastic bag which I placed in my purse and went back to the store.

11) The table had been moved and at first I thought the shoes were gone, but after walking around awhile, I found them. I slipped the piece of cloth out of my purse and wiped it on the spots. They did not disappear, but they did blend into the texture.

12) Because I had shopped there the day before, I had a coupon for shoes and jewelry (not cat litter which I really needed or a digital camera that I really wanted). So I bought the shoes that fit and look nice (and shiny) for $5.40.

13) Shoe polish doesn't come off your fingers quite so easily, so I probably looked like I'd just changed a diaper when I got to the check out, but I keep alcohol gel hand cleaner in the car, and that took care of my newest spots!

3895

New notebook

Today was new notebook day. I don't know if I have the nerve to record everything I didn't blog about since May 4 like I did last year here (44 items).

Still, sometimes I wonder . . .

44) Poetry editor of JAMA is Charlene Breedlove--she published a poem by Joannie Strangeland. Am I the only one who finds that funny? Pseudonyms?

3894

Tom Tancredo (R) on Amnesty Bill

"The President continues to ignore the will of the American people," said Tancredo. "He simply cannot accept the fact that Americans are not interested in rewarding illegal aliens with a $2.5 trillion blanket amnesty."

President Bush, who boasted Monday to reporters that he would see them "at the bill signing," has made his amnesty proposal granting a pathway to citizenship to some 12 to 20 million illegal aliens in the United States his top domestic priority.

"It's time the administration to put an end to this tired old ‘Groundhog Day’ routine and shelve this misguided amnesty plan once and for all," Tancredo concluded, "It's time for them to start enforcing our laws." Tancredo's press release.

Non-Mexicans heading for our border. They'd be arrested if caught in Mexico.
The sad thing is Bush is losing his base; the people who supported him on Iraq are realizing he has no intention of protecting our own country. I don't want to see the Iraqi people massacred the way we allowed the Communists to do when we pulled out turned tail and fled VietNam, but neither do I want thugs, crooks, terrorists, welfare sops and all the relatives of our current crop of millions of illegals flooding over the border, many of whom are just using Mexico as a funnel to get in. I also don't think we should continue to prop up a corrupt, bad Mexican government who refuses to build up its own economy. I don't know a single conservative or Republican who supports Bush on this, but most did support him on Iraq.

I think we need to go back 40+ years and look at the racist ideas of the Johnson administration and why they thought our racial mix in those days was so awful and needed to be changed. The 1986 IRCA compounded the problem. Strengthening an already bad, unenforceable immigration policy is making the bad worse.

3893

When the left is right

It's not often I have an opportunity to agree with Al Sharpton or Michael Moore, but those two were recently right on something. Sharpton is making the rounds complaining that celebrities get a better deal in sentencing and jail time than the poor (I would add the middle class to that, because I wouldn't get Paris' treatment), and Michael Moore admitted on TV that after making Sicko, he decided he needed to be more careful about his own health, and has started eating fruits and vegetables and exercising. It also appeared to me that he got a haircut, which tremendously improved his appearance.

3892

There's more of us than you think

"Gov. Mike Huckabee was right: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." So was Sam Brownback, Tom Tancredo and Duncan Hunter who also had the courage to raise their hands for creation in the presidential debates.

And now a new USA Today/Gallup Poll has found two-thirds of Americans agree. And those who believe creationism is "definitely true" more than double those who believe strongly in evolution." Janet Folger

3891

Somehow, I'm not surprised

"BIOFUELS--DOE Lacks a Strategic Approach to Coordinate Increasing Production with Infrastructure Development and Vehicle Needs." And that's just the title.

3890

What do socially responsible librarians talk about?

Certainly not libraries.

Darfur
Rachel Carson
Hunger, homelessness and poverty
Global warming
feminism
gay, lesbian, transexual, bisexual issues
Katherine de la Pena McCook lifetime award (you'd have to be there)
flogging books by their members, like Library Juice
fixing media bias (on the right)
Pastor's [sic] for Peace
alternative media
free speech buffet

And you thought all librarians did was read while wearing sensible shoes, shushing and unjamming the printer!

3889

A Line in the Sand

There is an important report available on the internet titled, "Line in the Sand; Confronting the Threat at the Southwest Border," prepared by the Majority Staff of the House Committee on Homeland Security, Subcommittee on Investigations, Michael T. McCaul, Chairman.(2007?) It concludes that in order to stop the criminal activity at the border, we need:

Greater control of the border can be achieved by:

• enhancing Border Patrol resources, including expanding agent training capacity, and technical surveillance abilities;

• constructing physical barriers in vulnerable and high-threat areas;

• implementing state-of-the-art technology, cameras, sensors, radar, satellite, and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to ensure maximum coverage of the Nation's Southwest border;

• making permanent the "catch and return" policy;

• expanding the use of the expedited removal policy;

• establishing additional detention bed space;

• improving partnerships and information sharing among Federal, State, and local law enforcement;

• building a secure interoperable communications network for Border Patrol and state and local law enforcement;

• mandating a comprehensive risk assessment of all Southwest border Ports of Entry and international land borders to prevent the entry of terrorist and weapons of mass destruction;

• promoting both international and domestic policies that will deter further illegal entry into the United States; and

• enhancing intelligence capabilities and information sharing with our Mexican counterparts and improving cooperation with the Mexican government to eradicate the Cartels.

Achieve some of these goals, Mr. President, and then maybe we can talk about reforming our immigration policies. Show us you are as serious at home as you are in Iraq.

3888

Glamorous professions

Photography always sounded sort of glamorous to me until I read the breakdown of hours, requirements, salary and benefits in today's WSJ. Remember, the average school teacher earns more than $34/hour.

Who, on average, is better paid--public school teachers or architects? How about teachers or economists? You might be surprised to learn that public school teachers are better paid than these and many other professionals. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, public school teachers earned $34.06 per hour in 2005, 36% more than the hourly wage of the average white-collar worker and 11% more than the average professional specialty or technical worker.

According to this article, event photographers earn between $10-25 an hour as stringers. Now that's next to awful, don't you think? And the requirements sound a bit demanding to me, although what do I know--I was just a librarian who sat around all day and read books. An event photographer might spend as much time in editing, correcting and production as shooting the event; might have to invest $10,000 in equipment; probably misses all the important holidays with his/her family; and has a physically demanding routine dragging around all that equipment and doing set-ups.

Now, the pluses are you get to attend some interesting events and might see celebrities. You can't pay the rent or utilities by sighting Michael Jackson or Paris Hilton once a year.

Might be smarter to become a teacher, retire early, and take up photography on the side.

3887

Strangers chatting in the park

We stopped our walk (going opposite directions) to watch the children in organized play. We were amazed to see a group of very little boys in matching, over sized t-shirts--maybe 3 or 4 years old--being led by men also in matching t-shirts and caps in something that resembled drop the handkerchief. Some mothers had sought out shady spots in which to park the strollers with younger children. At first I thought it might be an early VBS group or a day-care center on an outing. Then I realized all the leaders were men, so they probably weren't fathers, day-care workers, or VBS volunteers. It began to dawn on me that this was a city parks program, and these were probably paid high school or college age staff.

"I wonder when these children get a chance to just be kids and not have adults organizing their play time?"

"I don't know, but I think they are too young to understand competition or soccer."

And we continued on our way, getting our exercise the old fashioned, fuddy-duddy way, pondering the ways of the young who had none of our advantages of hindsight. The little boys joyfully followed their leaders in pied piper fashion.

3886

FDR's dismal record

When I was in high school and college, we were taught that FDR was practically the savior of our nation. All sorts of socialist programs were instituted, but we were told they were all for our own good, even the ones that failed. My mother and father never agreed on the worth of his presidency and programs and their entire lives cancelled each others votes. Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson are the three legs of the tippy stool of socialism we deal with today.

Today's WSJ reviews The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes (HarperCollins, 2007). "Roosevelt's dismal performance in the 1930s would not prevent him from becoming the most popular sitting president in American history," the reviewer writes.




From the left, he is viewed as

an inspirational leader who offered hope and

a wager of battles against evil capitalists

His critics on the right see the era of FDR differently

his policies prolonged the miseries of the Great Depression

he left behind the hard-working, middle class citizen

did far more damage than Hoover, who himself was a poor president

was soft on the cruelties and economic failures of the Soviet Union

developed a class-war rhetoric still in use today.

It will be interesting to see if my public library can find a way to purchase this title not friendly to an icon of the left. Publisher's Weekly, bible of all public librarians, includes in its review the usual put-downs : "breezy narrative," "tells an old story," "plausible history," but does concede that it is an even-tempered corrective to the unbalanced stories of this era. Since it just came out in June, it's probably not yet on order at public libraries. I'll try OhioLink in a few weeks.

Monday Memories of Memories

The Tech Reunion

The Committee for the Reunion did a fabulous job. From the nametags, to the dinner to the visit to the campus, it all ran smoothly, and we saw lots of old friends and heard many, "Do you remember when we. . ." I do wonder though what's happening to the classes behind us. There was no 25th or 40th for those classes, even though the other years we've attended there have been. Where are the classes of 1967, or 1972 or 1977?

For some reason, we don't have a copy of my husband's senior picture--red hair and sparkling green eyes.

These two friends hadn't seen each other since 1960, and without an announcement, probably couldn't have found each other at the dinner. My husband became an architect and Ron (on the right) became a very successful commercial artist. Now in retirement, they are both painters.

My new Tech friend Barb (on the right) who loves RV-ing, seeing the country, and reads my blog! Check out her reunion site for more photos and memories.

The Tech campus has 76 acres with many new buildings since the 1950s, but this landmark is called Stuart Hall, opened in 1940, named for the first principal. The first students arrived September 11, 1912 and classes began 5 days later.


My husband earned a letter in track and cross country. It is one of the few schools in the country where you could run cross country and not leave the campus.

The class gathered on the steps of the Arsenal Building for their class photo. There were more people at the evening event, and some here that didn't come to the dinner. If I'd been in charge, of course, I'd have asked all the ladies to put aside their purses and papers, and tell everyone to take off their sun glasses. However, no one appointed me to problem solve for the class photo. The Arsenal Building stored military supplies during the Civil War, and today has administrative offices.

The Awards Ceremony was held in Anderson Auditorium (1975), and the Alumni Choir sang below an American flag with 34 stars (found in the attic of one of the buildings).

Three members of The Slobs (social club) standing on the second floor of The Barracks, which at one time was under the command of the U.S. government (which owned the entire site). It was the building in which these guys had ROTC. One of The Slobs, Scott, brought his mom to the Alumni awards ceremony and lunch--a Tech grad of 75 years ago. And she's still beautiful!
Good-bye Tech. Maybe we'll see you 5 years for the 100th anniversary of your founding.