4187

Is it too much to ask

for something of substance from the Washington Post? Is it all Op Ed, Whimsy and Hokey-Smokey? I just read (I think you need to be registered):

An Exit Toward Soul-Searching
As Bush Staffers Leave, Questions About Legacy Abound

By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 7, 2007; Page A01

What a bunch of nothing! Why do "journalists" pretend to get inside people's heads? Too lazy to research? Need some inches to get paid? What a sorry, sorry profession.

Senator Clinton's connections

If you want to know what the country could be like with Senator Clinton as President Clinton II, just google Governor Granholm of Michigan. The whole country could be more taxed to death than it already is. The Christian Right spokesmen who are trying to drum up support for a third party candidate that isn't divorced, pro-choice, Mormon or in recovery from cancer, needs to think about Granholm and then Perot. It was not Democrats who elected Bill Clinton, it was Republicans jumping ship because they said the first Bush lied about raising taxes. Well duh. That's what pols do. Get over it.

But if you want to know Senator Clinton's connection with Media Matters, which does her bidding in stopping freedom of speech read this. So you've got a Democratic candidate who will raise your taxes so you can have the quality of care that Medicaid recipients get, and then shut your mouth so you can't complain about it. What a combination.

The unread books list

A strange list indeed. I have no idea why this would matter. These are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing's users. LibraryThing is that thing I said I didn't use in my TT. So, people own these books, but many sit unread on their shelves.

Instructions: Bold what you have read, italicize books you’ve started but couldn’t finish, and strike through books you hated. Add an asterisk* to those you’ve read more than once. Underline those on your tbr list. Then copy this to your own blog, and you have a prepared topic! I got this from Cathy Knits.

Jonathan Strange & M. Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One hundred years of solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi: a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
A Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveller’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A heartbreaking work of staggering genius
Atlas shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury tales
The Historian
A portrait of the artist as a young man
Love in the time of cholera
Brave new world
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A clockwork orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One flew over the cuckoo’s nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels (Read assigned sections in high school)
Les misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The curious incident of the dog in the night-time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes
The God of Small Things
A people’s history of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A confederacy of dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The unbearable lightness of being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood
White teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

The only titles on my TBR list are Clarence Thomas' new autobiography, My grandfather's son, and Laura Ingraham's Power to the People. I'll probably review them later. Interesting stuff, some a little hard to believe.

4183

For the veterans who protest the war

I completely support your right to do so; this is the kind of freedom we're fighting for there. People in muslim controlled dictatorships certainly don't have this right. Don't let any lying senator try to shut you down they way they're going after Rush Limbaugh.

At the same time, it's possible your high school social studies classes were a bit light in the loafers and only included information about evil businesses or government abuses. Here's an older item from my blog about a veteran, Eli, who lived in my home town:

I had looked up this battle because in reading War Record of Mount Morris I noticed a WWII veteran from our town, Eli Raney, I considered "old" when I was young (although truthfully, I thought anyone over 25 was old). Born in 1892, he was 50 when he reenlisted during WWII and he served 14 months in frontline construction in New Guinea and the Philippines. So I flipped to the back of the book for his WWI service and see that he was a member of Company D, of the 104th infantry, and arrived in France in August 1918, just in time to be in this battle [the battle of Saint-Mihiel in September in which 7,000 men were lost, and went down in the history books as "a morale boost" but not a big battle]. He was not among the wounded, but was wounded in the Argonne campaign."

4182

Friday Family Photo

I've been looking for a reason to post this, and I realized while sorting through some photos yesterday that these were taken in 1987 and 2007. The first is my mother and her sister, Muriel, taken at the home where they grew up. We'd had some sort of family gathering, an impromptu reunion with relatives from both sides of the family. That was my first summer as an empty nester and I really enjoyed being back in the "nest" myself. The second was taken this summer. Mom died in 2000; Muriel is now nearly 91 and is the youngest and only surviving grandchild of the folks I'll show you next week. She's enjoying the Fourth of July parade with her daughter in the second photo.

Thirteen things about Norma's blogging

Photo from http://www.messiahinternationalministries.org/
1) This week is my fourth blogiversary. I started blogging on October 2, 2003, and then that just didn’t look tidy, so I "back-filled" October 1 and use that date to collect certain themes as I went along, family stories, poetry, etc. I have 11 blogs using blogger.com and one on another server.

2) Collecting My Thoughts. This is the primary blog (you’re reading it) and it can include just about anything. One time I wrote a TT on 13 topics at this blog. There are probably more. This is also where a year ago I wrote 13 things I was going to do to lose my blogging weight gain.

3) My second blog was about church activities. I've actually changed its URL and title, Church of the Acronym. A former minister decided we should be known by our acronym, UALC, because denominational names like Lutheran, Baptist, Presbyterian, had fallen out of favor in manuals for mega-churches, now I think mega-churches are falling out of favor, so we're Lutherans again. This blog gets neglected. I link to a number of Christian and religious blogs. Some are just awesome. Mine isn't very spiritual; no gentle meditations.

4) My third blog was the log I write in at a library collective. The owner used to be a librarian at OSU. This wouldn't be of interest to anyone, probably not even a librarian because the young folks sure don't want to hear from a retiree, but it does help me keep up on the new, techie toys that enchant librarians. Also, I think it is difficult to navigate. I have a huge number of links to librarian blogs over on the left (no pun), but that just scratches the surface. Librarians are crazy about blogging.

5) I'm thinking the next one was for my hobby. I had great plans for this--tracking my premiere issue collection. I enjoy rereading it, but not updating it because it. . . is like work. In the Beginning sounds religious, but it is about first issues of magazines and what causes people to go into this business (most fail). Although I'm dreadfully behind in updating, I just can't resist buying a new title. It's especially fun when I know the person on the cover!

6) I go out for coffee every morning about 6 a.m., visiting a variety of local stores during the week, so I decided to write about what I see and overhear there, calling it Coffee Spills. I learn so much at the coffee shop, talk to a lot of people, and see some odd things; I really could update this every day, but I don't.


7) I write a lot on health, and one of the big health issues right now is obesity and how it relates to general well being. I tend to be pretty practical--eat less move more, or ELMM is my plan. If you've ever heard the news or stepped on a scale, you know that information is always flip-flopping on this, so that was sort of my theme when I started, i.e., the craziness. But it has evolved to general information. Most of good health is about lifestyle.

8) One day I came across a drawer of sewing patterns and thought it might be fun to match them with photos and family stories. I wasn't much of a seamstress, so I limited myself to one month of blogging. Because I mention aprons (I think), this blog still gets about 30 look-sees a week, even though I haven't updated it in 2 years. It's called Memory Patterns, has 75 entries and was terrific fun to write.


9) Somewhere along the way I was invited to join a walking group--I think it was the Easter season of 2006. We just kept walking after Easter. Cathy organized it, as I recall, and she was one of my Christian lady links. Now it is called Exercising through the Church Year.

10) I love the great American success story--like the Russian immigrant who founded Google, and believe it is our country's strongest value. Millions want to come here--no one tries to immigrate to Communist countries, unless they just accidentally step over the border. So I am outraged at Mexican leaders and La Raza's behavior--and our own President's lackadaisical attitude about the terrorist possibilities of millions streaming in, so I created another blog, Illegals Today. It really swims against the torrent of multicultural and diversity propaganda we get everyday from our media, politicians, educators and clergy.

11) My high school class was having its 50th reunion, so I decided to create a blog to capture some memories, hoping others would help. That wasn't my most successful writing adventure--I think only four people helped. But I do get nice e-mails from classmates I wouldn't have otherwise heard from.

12) Then it seemed time to create something about maturity and retirement, so Growth Industry came out of that idea. I'm pretty far behind in updating that one too. The last time was August. Sometimes I forget it is there.

13) The most recent one was On my bookshelves. I looked at those library control software things, but they had no appeal. I didn't really care to see if 1,000 other people had the same book. I really wanted it for my own use--some titles I don't keep very long, others I've had forever. Some are friends, others relatives, some drop-ins.


Thursday Thirteen

Some children are more equal than others

The 1978 Federal Indian Child Welfare Act, was intended to prevent Indian children from being separated from their culture, and requires state foster care agencies to contact the child’s tribe when the child is put into state custody, allowing the tribe to intervene. Isn't it a shame that Hmong or Chinese or African or Irish or Slovakian children are born to people with no "culture" and no "tribe" [extended family] to intervene on their behalf?

Phony senatorial outrage

ABC News recently broadcast a report on phony soldiers, including Jesse MacBeth. Is Salazar going to vote to censure ABC News? Daily Sentinel story here. Of course not. This is all about stopping talk radio and freedom of speech and thought. ABC is no threat to that!

A transcript of the call from Limbaugh’s show on Sept. 26 had this conversation with a caller to his show:

Caller: “No, it’s not. And what’s really funny is they never talk to real soldiers. They pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and spout to the media.”

Limbaugh: “The phony soldiers.”

Caller: “Phony soldiers. If you talk to any real soldier and they’re proud to serve, they want to be over in Iraq. They understand their sacrifice, and they’re willing to sacrifice for the country.”

Limbaugh, later in the broadcast, said Jesse MacBeth was one of the “phony soldiers.”

Caught with their pants down and gums flapping, the Dems are saying now, "Well, he used the plural--and Jesse is only one." Like there aren't others?

I watched O'Reilly interview one of the vets against the war last night--I think Wesley Clark the former Republican funds the group. The guy made complete sense and he stuck to his guns no matter how O'Reilly tried to get him off track to condemn some liberal who had made stupid statements that weren't ambiguous, and were in print. The vet said, "Instead of talking about the war, the senators are talking about people talking about the war." You are so right, young man, and thank you for your service (assuming you are a real veteran who fought in Iraq, but with the people funding you, it's hard to tell.)

4178

The baby boondoggle

"Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that every child born in the United States should get a $5,000 "baby bond" from the government to help pay for future costs of college or buying a home." FoxNews.

Hugh Hewitt said today, "Hillary Clinton is not a liberal; she's not a progressive; she is a radical." She's also got a loose screw. First she and other feminists encourage women to abort some 30 million babies in the past 3 decades; now she's going to pay them (the ones whose mothers didn't abort) to have babies? How split brained is that? Where is marriage in this equation? Unmarried women having babies is the primary reason for the poverty of children in the USA. Would this $5,000 be in addition to welfare and WIC? Can the illegal immigrant parents borrow it for legal fees? Would Congress get to borrow it for other uses until the kid is college age--sort of like a pre-social security fund? What if the kid doesn't want to go to college or buy a house? Would a houseboat or travel trailer do?

How many votes will Hillary buy with this ploy?

4177

Such a precocious child

"Growing up in hardworking northwestern Wisconsin, David Obey leaned Republican early on, even supporting Sen. Joe McCarthy, before he turned Democratic." It must have been awfully early on, like before he could shave. He's my age. McCarthy died in 1957. I believe the voting age was 21 back then.

Democrats have either long noses, or short memories. Like Senator Tom Harkin accusing Rush Limbaugh of not supporting the troops by calling some phony soldiers, well, phony soldiers (they didn't serve and told outrageous lies and there has been legal action against them which was reported in the news). Senator Harkin. Isn't he the guy who lied about his combat service in Vietnam and his handicapped brother? I guess he forgot he didn't serve there, or that his brother was retired, not fired. And then there's the phony angst of Harry Reid, old white flag Harry. Just rips your heart out, doesn't it? Do these Senators have so much time to waste on condemning Rush for what he didn't say? And accusing him on the floor of the Senate of using drugs?



This whole campaign against O'Reilly, Rush and talk radio, funded and fueled by the arm of the Clintons, Media Matters, sure does have a McCarthy ring to it, though, doesn't it? I do seem to remember old Joe--we talked about him in history class. A sign of things to come if she gets elected?

Update: I didn't see this in time to include it, but Byron York comments on the McCarthyism tactics of the left of trying to stop a person's livelihood: "when Limbaugh talked about "phony soldiers," he was referring to phony soldiers--that is, to men like Jesse Macbeth, an "antiwar" activist who claimed to have served in Iraq, received a Purple Heart and killed innocent civilians, when in fact the Army discharged him before he even completed basic training.

If Democrats want to support the phony troops, it is their right to do so. But when they try to interfere with Limbaugh's livelihood, that amounts to an effort at creating a McCarthy-style blacklist.

The Fox report says that 41 Democratic senators signed this letter, which means that 9 or 10 did not (depending on how you count Joe Lieberman). Will they speak out against their colleagues' intimidation efforts? And where are the Republicans in all this? With the Democratic Party increasingly in thrall to hate groups like MoveOn and Media Matters, America urgently needs politicians of either party with the courage to take a stand for decency."

James Taranto noted the similarities prefacing it with, "In recent weeks we've seen how the MoveOn.org Democrats have aped the tactics of Joe McCarthy, including character assassination of military officials and childish wordplay on people's names ("Senator Half Bright"; "General Betray Us"). Oct.3, Best of the Web.

More on this topic of fake vs phony:TNR and Weekly Standard battle over fake military stories.
Media get caught by faked military records.
Fake photos of the war.
Fake reporter who is fake Marine revealed on Daily Kos (did Senate investigate Kos for these charges against the military?)

4176

Just bought two best sellers

They aren't in the library. Clarence Thomas' My Grandfather's Son is on order at the Upper Arlington Public Library, and has 8 holds from people who want to read it; Laura Ingraham's Power to the People has one copy, checked out, and 6 holds. However, if I wanted to read about Katie the real story there are 3 copies, all available; and Maureen Dowd's Are men necessary? has 3 copies, all available, plus one for sale for $2 on the Friends shelf (hard cover, book jacket, looks unused). There were 2 DVD sets of the first 6 episodes of "30 Days." I checked Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus--they seemed to have been alerted that there might be an interest in the Thomas book, and they had circulating copies (all checked out) with multiple holds.

When I asked the tattooed, earstudded clerk at the store for the Ingraham book, he didn't seem to know of it, and looked it up on the computer. He found it, and led me to the back of the store, to a bottom shelf in the history section. "Isn't this an odd place for a #1 title?" I asked. "Oh, it's probably up front; I just didn't want to look for it," he groused. Then I asked for the Thomas book. He turned on his heel and nearly ran to the front of the store and pointed. And there it was; under the table in plain view. How could I have missed it? With my two books in hand, I carefully looked at all the tables. Laura wasn't there.

However, both rang up for 30% off even though there was no sticker on her book.

If you live in Columbus and want to read one of these, let me know. It will be a long wait for the library to take action. You know it is BBW and they are probably busy dealing with cranky conservatives.

4175

Columbus Fall Art Shows

Sunday we enjoyed a trip to German Village (restored area of Columbus, OH) to see the Fall Show of the Central Ohio Watercolor Society at Caterina LTD, 571 South Third St., Columbus. If you're looking for a delightful outing with friends, go out for lunch at any of the wonderful restaurants in that area, shop for Christmas gifts at Caterina (dishes from Poland, Italy and France), and enjoy the show on the second and third floors.







I love this pottery made and painted in Poland. Each mug is different, and there were several styles of bowls and casseroles, all with lovely designs. These were $12 each--more than I usually pay for a mug, but I have some in the cupboard that are nearly 50 years old and cost $.10. Run the average.

Then as you drive home, swing by the Caspian II Building at 3518 Riverside Drive in Upper Arlington, south of the Nottingham Road Stoplight. The Upper Arlington Art League has its fall show there. My husband has 2 paintings in the COWS show and 3 in the UAAL show.

By the way, the Upper Arlington Art League helped get the hugely successful community Labor Day Art Show off the ground. In 1966 this show started as an art exhibit for local artists near the Miller Park Library with about a dozen artists. Don Dodrill got the ball rolling and then founded the art league. I think my husband and I may have been some of the first members (although I don't belong anymore). Then when the show outgrew that space, it moved to Jones Middle School for a few years, then up to the city building on Kenney Road, across from the OSU golf course. Now it is held in a city park and attracts tens of thousands (I blogged about it here). As it grew, the UAAL developed a kids' art tent and helped with events as well as many members entering and selling their works in the show. All of this was eventually taken over by the city. UAAL is the only group of amateur and professional artists based in UA, although many of their members are also participating in COWS, Dublin and Worthington groups.

Many of the founders of UAAL are still in the group, and of course, they are now in their 60s, 70s and 80s. The city has a gallery in its city/municipal building, called the "Concourse Gallery." The Cultural Arts Commission has now decided that the UAAL isn't good enough to have shows in their gallery. Shame, shame on you, UA, for living up to your reputation as just a bit hoity-toity and stuck up, for not respecting your elders, and being clueless about your own history!

4174

What's between the lines on your resume?

Joann S. Lublin's column on resumes in the WSJ yesterday mentioned that employment seekers are being taught how to cover up or hide

imprisonment
cancer
alcoholism
drugs
spousal abuse
lack of a high school degree

Even in the early 1990s at Ohio State, we weren't allowed to ask if the candidate had an arrest or conviction because that was considered discriminatory against minority males.

We weren't supposed to notice if she was pale as a ghost, weighed about 100 lbs, had no hair, and looked like she couldn't lift a heavy journal

We weren't allowed to ask how she would navigate our narrow, pre-1950 stacks in her wheelchair.

If he held the application one inch from his face, we weren't to ponder how he would fill out the hand written time sheets for our student staff, or check their accuracy if a student did it for him.

If his skin was leathery and tan with sunny high lights in his hair and his most recent job in a library was 20 years ago shelving books at Capital University, we were not to assume he didn't desperately want a career change from riding mowers for the grounds department.

We weren't supposed to tell a PhD candidate in Asian literature she was over qualified for a serials check-in job, even if we knew she'd die of boredom before the first paycheck.

We weren't supposed to notice that a candidate was 7 months pregnant and had formula spit up on her shoulder.

I suspect more rules for interviewing have been added in the last 15 years.

Health insurance for children

David Brooks on Sept. 28 had an Op Ed in the NYT about the phony pain Congress suffers when speaking of our debt. "The U.S. government has $43 trillion in unfunded liabilities, or $350,000 for every taxpayer," he writes. Congress has a Mardis Gras-tomorrow will never come mentality.

These habits infect everything they touch, even a straightforward and successful program like the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or S-chip. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the number of uninsured children has been declining steadily for years. It shouldn’t be that costly or hard to insure the ones that are left.

And yet because S-chip is a product of the current climate, the expansion plan in Congress has all sorts of corruptions and dishonesties built in. First, it perpetuates a smoke screen of obfuscation between who pays and who chooses. States have an incentive to ramp up benefits because they know that most of the cost will be borne by taxpayers somewhere else. Second, it entices children out of private and into public insurance, even though after 2012 it cannot cover the cost.

I have little sympathy for smokers, but I do admit, I don't know any college-educated, well-off smokers. They've sucked it in, endured the headaches and quit. The smokers I do know are blue collar folks--retail, hospitality, auto repair, clerical, factory, construction. So Brooks zeros in on the wealth transfer that will have to take place for this entitlement.

The S-chip bill takes money from these relatively poor, politically immobilized people and shifts it to those making up to $62,000 a year. Nobody is raising a tax on wine consumption or gasoline consumption to pay for this benefit. Instead, Congress is taxing the weakest possible group [lower income smokers] in order to shift benefits to others, some of whom are middle class.

Have you ever noticed that if a government program is successful and begins to eliminate the problem it was set out to solve, Congress will expand it out of fear of losing a piece of the action?

More stuff, more stress

A few years ago, a well-heeled girlfriend told me that her 80-something mother was living in a tiny trailer in Arizona with a minimum amount of furnishings. She'd told her family, "When I die, just push it over the cliff." She wasn't poor; but she'd learned what most of us do after awhile--your possessions own you, not the other way around. In an article, about "Stressed out Moms" Ingrid Schlueter writes,

One factor seems to be expectations going into marriage. Newlyweds of my parents’ generation had very modest expectations financially. My parents started out in a basement apartment in Des Moines, Iowa that didn’t have much in the way of amenities. They graduated to a studio apartment later and then to a three bedroom flat where my brother, sister and I spent our early childhood years. From there it was a very simple, three-bedroom Milwaukee bungalow. No family room, one bathroom, old, basic kitchen and bath. The carpet when we moved in was the original and that goes for the linoleum as well. Mom made it all comfortable and homey, and we kids didn’t know that we lacked a thing. That’s where my parents lived until I was married.

Today, few newlyweds start out this way. Home ownership is seen as essential for many, even if it requires both husband and wife to work outside the home. It’s a dangerous way to begin because once the couple starts relying on two incomes to live, it is very hard to stop when a baby comes. Then the couple begins the stressed out years of trying to find and pay for exorbitant childcare, while strangers get the privilege of caring for their baby. Add a couple more children to the picture, and you have a lot of outgo for that same two-income couple and the race to meet all the demands begins."

That's exactly the same thing our Irish bus driver John (50 and the father of 5) said about the younger Irish generation setting up homes and getting mortgages. It's not a local problem.

4171

High level pharmaceutical decisions

What I would ask a librarian. Are there committees at pharmaceutical companies to decide which syllable and how many get the accent?

rosiglitazone (pronounced row sih GLIH ta zone)

Thiazolidinedione: (Pronounced THIGH-ah-ZO-li-deen-DYE-own.

It would sound and flow better if the final -ne were its own, stand alone syllable, don't you think?

The new polyester pants suit

I remember when my mother's generation (they were college age in the early 1930s) discovered the pastel polyester pants suit in the late 60s and early 70s. I'd seen her age group in slacks only in the garden--and here they were blooming like a bed of bright flowers. They could finally get in and out of the car gracefully (remember skirts were extremely short back then--not great for chubby or vein lined legs) and accommodate an expanding waistline. Yes, the rising of the mini-skirt put millions of older women into pants suits. I eventually succumbed and bought some myself--pale green, bright fuchsia, and yellow polka-dot. Oh, I felt quite smart--and comfortable.

Now it's khaki Capris, low sling-back sandals with a tiny heel, and fashion T's with just a little decollete to tease. The new polyester pants suit for the working Mom in her 40s-50s. I see so many women dressed like this at Panera's where they stop by for coffee and bagels to take into the office, that it makes me wonder if they called each other first and asked, "Whacha wearing today?"

On October 1, WSJ reported [paraphrased here]:

After years of fashion shows inspired by homeless people and biker chicks [Dior] promises to focus on grown-ups--prim, pricey and sophisticated.

I won't hold my breath for Columbus' Capri-wearing Mamas.

Movie making and politics

There's always been a bond between film makers and politicians. Both get rich and powerful by preaching; but you feel a little jerked around if you grew up with the films of the 40s and 50s, or watch them on TNT or AMC, and compare them to 21st century garbage. Last week Kyle Smith in the WSJ asked, "What's come over liberals?" He says their Bush-era movies are muddled, condescending, violent, vigilante, with trash talking points and weak plots with the usual predictables. Seeing a pro-American film in a theater today is as likely as seeing a pro-Stalin film in the 1950s, says Smith.

I'd just call it the "Law and Order" template; the little screen leading the way.

Bad guys (gang) are white.
Good cops are black.
Saintly friend (minor role) is black.
Real villan is white business man (if they use the L & O template, could also be clergy or husband of the female victim).
Behind the crime there is never personal responsibility
Give the "hero" or "heroine" amnesia or victimhood so they can become a killing machine but still spout leftist propaganda.
Important talking points:

acceptance or glorification of gays
unprepared military
whimpy or non-existant clergy
blame the Jews or
life in the mean streets of Mega-metropolis

To an apple

Oh Fuji, and Gala
Sweet Braeburn and Granny,
I'll return in the winter,
But for now, I will stray.

Be still my heart,
rejoice my taste buds.
It is the season
of the glorious Honey Crisp.

4167

Is this a bribe?

While the Ohio State University Libraries main library is closed (for another 2 years, at least), its temporary location on Ackerman Road is much closer to me, but not particularly convenient if you are actually attending or teaching classes there. I noticed this in the campus online version of OSUToday:

University Libraries is accepting proposals for the 2008 Course Enhancement Grant program. Grants of $2,000 will be given to instructors for the enhancement of courses by substantially integrating library resources and services. The deadline for proposals is Friday (11/2) for courses to be taught during Winter or Spring quarters 2008."

Do bus route maps to find the relocated collections count?