What will HillaryCare do about this?

The big killers of Americans these days are our personal habits, choices and tastes. Smoking, drinking, over eating, over sitting. Will Hillary insist we mend our ways in order to reduce government health care costs after she extends it to all?

"Asian-American women have a life expectancy of almost 87 years; African-American men, 69 years. We have these facts on the authority of Eight Americas, a 2006 study by number crunchers at Harvard’s School of Public Health. Women in Stearns County, Minnesota, live about 22 years longer than men in southwest South Dakota, and 33 years longer than Native American men in six of that state’s counties. The gap between the highest and lowest life expectancies for U.S. race-county combinations is over 35 years. Some race-sex-county groups typically die in their nineties, others in their fifties. Some are healthier than the norm in Iceland, Europe, and Japan, others sicker than Nicaragua and Uzbekistan.

Factoring out wealth, race, and access to health insurance doesn’t eliminate most of these disparities. Low-income whites die four years sooner in Appalachia and the Mississippi Valley than they do farther north. The healthiest whites are low-income residents of the rural Northern Plains states. In the West, American Indians who remain on the reservation die much sooner than whites.

What accounts for these cavernous differences? Harvard dares to name six leading “risk factors” for the population as a whole—alcohol, tobacco, obesity, high blood pressure, cholesterol, and glucose—and reports that these factors correlate strongly with the spread in life expectancy across its Eight Americas. One of the study’s authors ventured to suggest, albeit only in an interview, that where you live may point, in turn, to ancestry, diet, exercise, and occupation." Article in City Journal

4209

Al Gore and the piece prize

The Canadian Press reports:

“Former U.S. vice-president Al Gore and the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change jointly won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their efforts to spread awareness of man-made climate change and to lay the foundations for fighting it.

Gore, who won an Academy Award earlier this year for his film on global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth," had been widely tipped to win the prize.

He said that global warming was not a political issue but a worldwide crisis.”

Al Gore is a big fan of Rachel Carson, who whipped up another crisis 40 years ago--the long term effects of DDT on the environment. The woman has probably killed more Africans than the 17th and 18th century slave trade. Today malaria infects between 300 million and 500 million people annually, killing as many 2.7 million of them." Before Silent Spring, malaria was on the run. The debilitating effects of this disease help keep Africa in poverty.

"Without this book, the environmental movement might have been long delayed or never have developed at all," declared then-Vice President Albert Gore in his introduction to the 1994 edition of Silent Spring. The foreword to the 25th anniversary edition accurately declared, "It led to environmental legislation at every level of government." Now Gore can guarantee that the poor of the third world will never be competitive or catch up by keeping them barefoot but green. American businesses jumped on the green bus, they're rolling and are already making huge profits--how will Africa and Asia ever compete?

That Rachel Carson didn’t tell the truth about cancer in children (rate has not changed over many decades, but other deaths (polio, pneumonia, birth defects) went down skewing comparisons with other illnesses like cancer) is probably not her fault. She wasn’t a trained scientist. And neither is Al. Environmentalists don’t want to see that the EPA banning DDT killed or disabled millions of Africans--for what? So church groups can donate insecticide treated nets (would you sleep under one?) and wear orange t-shirts with slogans.



And now we have Growbal Warming.

See Silent Spring turns 40

4208

The Bush Tax Cuts

I disagree with Mr. Bush on a lot, but every time I go to a nice store or do some traveling, I whisper quietly, "Thanks, big guy. You might not be able to string two sentences together, but you know how to help retirees."

Most retirees if they planned well and listened to all the scare stories 30 years ago about how there wouldn't be Social Security by the time we retired, have a nest egg (private investments) a 403-b, or 401-k, or IRAs, annuities, or some other vehicle other than a passbook savings account. Our economy would probably have taken much longer to recover after the bubble burst in early 2000, and then sunk after 9/11 if not for the Bush tax cuts.

But the GAP ("getting all pissed") people are unhappy. GAPists don't care how good I have it or if I worked hard, led a quiet life and saved my pennies; if it's better than someone else, if there is an identifiable gap between my pension and that of a homeless guy who drank away his income, then life isn't fair.

This morning there was a news story (not an editorial) in the Wall St. Journal about the income inequality gap by Greg Ip. This gap is very distressing for liberals (as are health gaps, education gaps, leisure gaps, everything except the marriage gap, which alone can account for a lot of poverty). The 1% wealthiest of all tax filers earned 21.2% of all income [notice the word "earned" because I don't think Ip did]. Now that is a whopping .4% more than in 2000. Yes, it took that long for this "rising inequality" to show up on the graphs, but this causes much hand wringing.

Never mind that much of this gain resulted from technological changes that benefits the smart and well educated more than the less skilled, or that a lot of it is by gains of entertainers, celebs and sports figures, the darlings of the left. And what's really ugly (Ip doesn't use this word)? More than twice as many Wall Street professionals are in the top .5% of all earners than there are executives from non-financial companies. The writer claims that this gap is fueling anxiety among American workers. Are retirees anxious that Wall Street is doing well? Not likely. Our pensions and investments are the silent guest living in our homes--who doesn't eat, make noise, tease the cat, or change the channel--just hands over his paycheck to help with expenses.

Remember the hated Bush tax cuts? The poor got bigger tax cuts than the rich (although for some, something from nothing still results in zero--millions pay no taxes at all). At the bottom, the tax rate fell to 3% from 4.6% under Clinton. At the top the 1% richest folks' tax rate (what they paid) went from 37% under Clinton to 39% under Bush, according to author Greg Ip.

Why are the liberals so unhappy? Seems as though taxes actually fell for the rich despite the tax rate increase. (He includes no information on whether taxes actually fell for the poor--again, it's hard to subtract from zero). So now, the actual gap is widening. With the boomers coming up to the retirement trough, you'd better hope those rich folks keep paying their big taxes because they are covering for the folks at the bottom to say nothing of paying the salaries of armies of government workers.

4207

The Hush Rush Senators and the Fairness Doctrine

You'll find an interesting history of the Fairness Doctrine over at The Volokh Conspiracy. It's fascinating that Democrats in the 1960s were so fearful of free speech (I was a passionate Democrat then, but didn't know about this), even the snippets of outrageous speech that few bothered to listen to (like some fundamentalist radio preachers squawking in the middle of the night--there was no talk radio or news analysis at the time). Silencing Rush Limbaugh by threatening Clear Channel or censoring him on the floor of the Senate for calling a phony soldier a phony soldier is just a tiny part in the plan to reinstate the "Fairness Doctrine." I think I would call it "kill the media doctrine" because high tech communication has made the doctrine obsolete. Now we have so many other ways to get news. Many of these talk shows are wealthy enough to just use other methods and by-pass radio or TV altogether.

Who are the smug beltway buffoons who say there are only two sides (Republicans and/or Democrats, liberals and/or conservatives)? What about the Libertarians, the Socialists, the Communists, the anarchists, the academics, the ethnics, the retirees, the labor unions, the Muslims, the Jews, the Dispensationalists, the polygamists, the reparationists, the radical environmentalists, the man-boy love association and vegans for chicken rights? What if the news story had to present EVERY viewpoint of what to do with unwanted or disabled horses--even the Japanese who eat them and the children who hug them?

I get e-mail news stories daily from groups that hate both Bush and Rush, but some are right wing. . . way right of both men. They doubt Bush's religious faith, they think he's giving the country to the Mexican government, buying up land to make another hi-way to Canada to sell us out, and that his family is in one big business cabal with the Clintons. They think Rush is a traitor because he used the ACLU in fighting charges of prescription drug abuse and leaking his medical records and are horrified by his marriage track record.

I also get e-mail from that bald, skinny elfish-looking guy married to Mary Matalin, whose name escapes me at the moment explaining how the DNC is going to take advantage of every misstep the RNC makes. And during a run-up to an election, any election, will our local school board candidates be able to discuss issues without including the views of every homeschooling parent who pulled her children out of public school 5 years ago, and will the Obama people have to side-step Clinton's ties with Hsu because she would be required to come back with his time spent in a Muslim village? Does a Chinese money source trump an Indonesian terrorist connection in the Fairness Doctrine, or are they equal, fair and balanced?

I really think the broadcast media--ABC, NBC, CBS--better stomp on George Soros and Hilliary Clinton before this goes any further, or they might find themselves having to parse every syllable and minute and go back to having Katie interview Britney for safe news. Oops. Maybe not. She'd have to give K-Fed equal time, and then the babies. . . and on and on. Meanwhile, advertisers will look elsewhere, and the entire media industry would collapse. Which would make George Soros the only winner in this contest.

Pay attention to the man behind the curtain pulling the strings

4206

Thursday 13--what I do now I didn't do then

Carol at her blog had written a letter to herself of 10 years ago--the Carol of 1997; I couldn't think of anything for 1997, or 1987, so I dropped back to 1977. The children were 9 and 10, I was working a few hours a day in the main library at Ohio State, we'd joined a new and thriving church the year before. My parents and grandparents were alive, as were all my siblings. If it weren't for the fashions, it was a nice, pleasant decade. So what do I do now, I didn't do then?

1. I make lists. I resisted this for years--and still rarely do it, but if there is a time crunch, I do make a list. I didn't even make a list for groceries, most of the time in the 70s. I just kept a typed list in my purse (same list every week) and could remember what we did and didn't have. Whatever automatic list maker I had in my head, got all filled up.

2. I belong to a book club now--joined in 2000, and the group is in its 26th year. However, I think I read less, but I do have more variety because on my own I rarely read fiction or mysteries.

3. I'm more proactive about my health, but still hate to exercise.

4. I occasionally have a glass of red wine--didn't drink at all until after my heart ablation in 2002, and still have never tasted beer (I think it smells like something has been left in the laundry basket).

5. I wear glasses now--prescription. I think I purchased reading glasses at a drugstore in the late 70s or early 80s, but didn't get into daily wear until 1993.

6. I travel outside the country now, but for years travel meant driving with 2 kids in the back seat (Mahhhhhaaaam, she's looking at me!) to visit relatives in Indiana and Illinos. Actually, in 1978 we did drive to Florida. Boy, is that a treat with squirmy, quarreling kids.

River cruise Germany and Austria, 2005
7. I spend more money on myself now than I did in the 70s.

8. Now my kids can cook for me, instead of the other way around. That's really great, and they both seem to enjoy entertaining.

Christmas at our son's home, 2006
9. I control more electronic gadgets in a day than what I would do in a year in 1977--digital camera, scanner, printer, 2 computers, email, blogging, cd player, DVD and VCR, several remotes, microwave, etc. Not into I-podding, blackberry, cell phones or MP3-ing. We have 6 TVs--we had one in 1977. The little photograph printer I bought this summer is still in the box, however, and I haven't connected my new mouse.

10. I pay more attention to political, national and international news, and read several newspapers, business and medical journals, but pay less attention to what's happening locally with the schools and city, and only read the local paper a few times a week.

11. I write more--I always wrote a lot (letters, essays, work related things)--a few hours a week, but now it is several hours a day.

12. I drive an older car now--in 1977 I had a 1976 Buick; now I drive a 6 year old van. Of course, I kept that Buick until 1985--tip for you parents: old sedans are great for teenagers.

13. I eat out more--it's a social thing, and there are many more restaurants to tempt us than 30 years ago. I go out earlier now for coffee--used to wait until the kids were in school, now I'm often the first customer.

Thursday Thirteen

The name meme

I saw this over at Jane's and thought it looked like fun.

When I'm famous, my name will be......

1. ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) Lassie Caravan

2. GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) Moosetrack Thumbprint

3. “FLY Girl” NAME:(first initial of first name, first three letters of last name) N-Bru

4. DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) Coral Pinto

5. SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) Joyce Rockford

6. STAR WARS NAME: (first 3 letters of last name, first 2 letters of first) Bruno

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink) The Blue Coffee

8. NASCAR NAME: (first names of grandfathers) Charlie Joe

9. STRIPPER NAME: (favorite perfume. favorite candy) Summer Shower Peanut Butter Cup, or just "B Cup" for short

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names) Inez William

11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME:(5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter) Michael Madison

12. SPY NAME/BOND GIRL: (favorite season/holiday, flower) Autumn Rose

13. CARTOON NAME:(favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”) Apple Shoozie

14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree) Honey Crisp Sycamore

15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”) The Writing Cloud Tour

4205

Food allergies

No one in my family has them--can't even think of anyone at the cousin level. Nor do I remember this when I was a child. But your heart has to ache for Janeen and her kids, and what she deals with keeping them safe. It's a very educational blog and I'm sure she helps many by sharing her experiences.

4204

Chicken and salmonella

The news was full of some Salmonella stories this morning--pot pies, I think. Chicken just must be cooked thoroughly before you eat it. Same with giving uncooked meat to your pets. They all have it. Kill it!

"The company reminds consumers that these products are not ready-to-eat, and must always be thoroughly cooked as instructed on the packages," the company said in a statement on its Web site. "The cooking instructions for these products are specifically designed to eliminate the presence of common pathogens found in many uncooked products."

The pot pies in question have the code P-9 printed on the side of the package, ConAgra said." CNN

I served chicken cordon bleu (swiss or Provolone and ham rolled inside chicken breast) the other night, with cooked carrots and fresh greens salad, banana nut muffin with sugar free Cool Whip. Yummy. However, I did purchase the chicken roll ups at Fresh Market, which is the next best thing to having a chef drop by at dinner time. The instructions said, "Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 20 minutes wrapped loosely with foil. Uncover and bake approximately 15 more minutes. I added 5 minutes, and still think it should have been more, because my husband's portion was just slightly pink. Next time. . . I'll adjust the cooking time and also split the portions. My husband complained that they were too large. Hmm. I had no problem at all.

4203

Ambushing the Acting Architect

When you get two e-mails on the same "have you heard of this terrible deed" story, you have to take a second look (I usually delete them). Most often the stories are written by the netroots (progressives and liberals suffering from Bush Derangement Syndrome) or the wingnuts (nutty conservatives looking for conspiracies). When it's about an architect, I indeed look into it.

The story going around at the speed of light is that the Acting Architect of the Capitol has deleted or removed God and religious references on official certificates and documents. Why an architect decides, I have no idea. I'm my husband's staff (letters, specs, forms, billing) and I read all his newsletters and magazines. I've never believed English was an architect's strength. Now if you google this topic, the language will be a bit more hysterical. But there does seem to be something to it.

First, who is he and what has he done to create such outrage? Stephen T. Ayers is a Bush appointee, a veteran and a degreed and certified architect serving until they find the "real" architect. The Architect retired earlier this year and the AIA has been unhappy because the word is out that this plum appointment wasn't even going to be an architect (the Librarian of Congress isn't a librarian, for instance, and the Secretary of Education may not be a teacher). "In March 2006, following a rigorous interview process before a selection panel comprised of the Chief Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives, the Comptroller General, Senate Sergeant at Arms, and senior AOC officials, Mr. Ayers was selected as the Deputy Architect/COO. In this role, he oversees approximately 2,200 employees and manages the day-to-day operations of the Agency." AOC site

Second, at least one leg of this story is planted firmly in Ohio. A story appeared in the Dayton Daily News about a teenage Eagle Scout trying to do something nice for his grandfather:

The inscription on the certificate accompanying the flag that had flown over the United States Capitol was supposed to be a personal message from 17-year-old Andrew Larochelle to his grandfather, a veteran and a devout Catholic.

Andrew requested the certificate say, "This flag was flown in honor of Marcel Larochelle, my grandfather, for his dedication and love of God, Country and family."

But, the Acting Architect of the Capitol, Stephen T. Ayers, censored "God" from the request.

"I was completely shocked at the way things played out ... faith is very important to our entire family," Andrew said.

Andrew, who will be honored today for his 11-year effort to become an Eagle Scout, plans to present the flag to his grandfather during that ceremony.

"A lot of what I learned about faith comes from him," Andrew said. "I never expected such controversy over getting my Eagle Scout rank."

The flag request was made by Andrew's father, Paul Larochelle, through the office of U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, who on Saturday gave the family another certificate, written just as they requested.

"Our Nation's Capitol contains many religious references including "In God We Trust" inscribed in both the House and State chambers," Turner wrote in a letter of complaint to President Bush. "The architect's policy is in direct conflict with his charge as well as the scope of his office and brings into question his ability to preserve a building containing many national religious symbols."

Turner said Bush is currently in the process of appointing a new Architect of the Capitol.

So, two Western Republicans, Tancredo and Musgrave, both from Colorado and conservative Christians, are leading the charge to reverse his unpopular decision by the acting architect, according to the Denver Post.

Federal officials should allow the word "God" to appear on certificates accompanying American flags sent from the U.S. Capitol to members of the public, two Colorado lawmakers said this week.

Reps. Marilyn Musgrave and Tom Tancredo joined several other Republicans in sending a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi requesting she end a policy of the Architect of the Capitol that prevents the certificates from including religious expressions.

"This officially sanctioned hostility against religion flies in the face of the constitutionally guaranteed right to the free exercise of religion," Tancredo said. "This misguided and contradictory political correctness has got to come to an end."

Let's see if this can get resolved before all the Christmas vs. Holiday hysteria swings into action. I know that Harry "Hush Rush" Reid is good at parsing sentences and looking for hidden meanings.

Banned Books Week

BBW is over for another year (wasn't that the name of a magazine for large women?). Banned books goes on all year at my library because banning begins at selection by the staff, not complaints from the patron. Today, I picked up a magazine, AudioFile June July 2007. Glancing through it, I noticed it had a religious section, so I decided to see if my public library had any of the religious audiobooks reviewed in the issue. The first one I tried was a James Dobson, Focus on the Family issue. Didn't surprise me that they didn't have it. Even though his company produces top-notch audio and video, he is politically a conservative--an anathema at this tax supported, public library**. So I read the review of R.C. Sproul's audio book The Holiness of God read by Grover Gardner (6.5 hours, unabridged). Reviewer noted that the print version published 20 years ago had become a standard work, and that the audio did justice "to a deep work on a subject often taken for granted."

I bring up the catalog again (which doesn't work well and is an aggravation) and punch in "Sproul, R.C." One item--a contribution to a King James Bible version. A search of Amazon.com brings up over 200 titles, because Sproul, a Presbyterian, is extremely prolific (note: his son uses "R.C. Sproul, Jr," although they don't have the same name). Although he focuses on theological themes, he has also written for children and youth, and I think has tried his hand at fiction. He has written books on home schooling, cultural issues, biography, Bible studies, The Westminster Confession, marriage, apologetics, the reformation, death, and the life of Jesus. He is a well known as a Christian author, teacher and speaker. There are a few duplicates on the Amazon listing--some titles are published both in Spanish and English; several have audio; some are both paperback and hard cover.

However, I counted 46 distinct titles with publication dates between 2000 and 2008 (it's possible some could be his son's--hard to tell). Forty-six titles in eight years, and Upper Arlington Public Library couldn't find a spot on the shelf or in the budget for even one! Richard Dawkins, the non-religious bigot who sees religion as a human construct and the source of much evil in the world is much more acceptable at UAPL. His Blind watchmaker has 3 copies; The God delusion has 7 print copies and one audio.

And this, dear readers, is what I call banned books.
------------------

** If you check the UAPL catalog by publisher, you will find Focus on the Family, all from the early to mid-1990s--the library staff was a bit less "focused" and rigid in those days.

If you believe this

My blog is worth $413,243.28.
How much is your blog worth?

I have some CO2 credits to sell you.

God and Hillary Clinton

First, let me say that I think candidates for office, whether city council or the presidency of the United States, should be allowed to speak at any forum, even if it is the pulpit of a church. Americans learn democracy in the committees and congregational votes of their churches and synagogues. Black Americans have a long tradition of this--and according to the polls, it hasn't hurt their faith one bit. Second, some Christians are terrible hypocrites about this. Here in Columbus we had a group gang of 31 smug, self-righteous, mainline preachers trying to take the tax exempt status from World Harvest (which draws much bigger crowds than they do) during the 2006 election cycle. Third, I haven't read this book--and probably won't since I'm not a Hillary fan. Still, it's an important topic. Faith does shape one's politics.

I listened to an author interview; he has written other "God and. . ." books. (Here is another interview, but not the one I heard and it addresses different issues.) He said that George W. Bush spoke at a church 3 times in his first 3 years in office, all at memorial services. Hillary Clinton spoke 6 times in churches on one election day (her senate run in New York). Yet she is the one who says she won't "wear her religion on her sleeve" (audience applause) because that would be Pharisaical. She gave many "Why I am a Methodist" speeches when the folks in Arkansas were a bit doubtful about the young couple living in the governor's mansion in the 80s.

If this book is as carefully researched as the author claims, and is accurate just on this "sleeve" issue, Senator Clinton will continue to set up a straw man to divide Christian loyalties to meet her own political goals.

My opinion. Christ taught nothing new about moral and ethical behavior. Our faith is not about what to do, but about who we believe in. So Matthew 25, where Christians are commanded to help the poor, sick and imprisoned is a basic religious tenet for both Christians and Jews. The Gospel of Matthew is a very Jewish book drawing heavily on the Old Testament.

Main line Protestants have no problem using this text to decide that it is the government which needs to do it with everyone's tax dollar, not just the taxes of Christians and Jews. However, the same group is quite vocal about not teaching Creation, the theological bedrock of both faiths in that it deals with God's sovereignty and how death entered the world. They ridicule conservative Christians and side with atheists, agnostics and humanists. They are vocal about blessing gay marriage, even to splitting their denomination, using every passage about marital love in the Bible. They are silent about the killing of the helpless unborn, except to mouth platitudes about "choice," and "saving the poor or deformed from a life of pain."

Today I saw a letter to the editor in WSJ which voiced concern that the Christian right was taking the reins of the Republican party (a very common complaint). Again, I ask all Christians, liberal and conservative to please show me where Christians are having any influence at all in education, economics, politics, entertainment or academe. I wish it were true, but I don't see it. Twice in 60 years we've had a Republican Congress with a Republican President. Show me a single government program or boondoggle that was turned back, slowed down or reversed by conservative Christians.

The Jena six

I hope I've got this wrong, but did I hear that an aging pop stud with an appelation disorder has come out with a protest song about the Jena Six? Well, you gotta do what you gotta do to stay in the spot light.

Meet my friend, Mr. JAM. He's actually been to Jena and spent some time there. Go to his blog and check out a few details. While you're there, check out his excellent photographs.

4198

Why liberals are afraid of Clarence Thomas

He's written an autobiography titled, "My grandfather's son," and liberals are squealing and denigrating again. They used to just condemn his qualifications; now it's his emotional state. It's not just because he's an uppity black man who isn't grateful for all they've done (the whites). It's not just because he's got black skin and Negroid features (the Civil Rights leaders who grew up with the brown paper sack rule of acceptable appearance). It's not just because he complains about rich feminists hunting for more shackles and glass ceilings (as black women were still scrubbing floors). No. He stomps all over and rips up their favorite playgrounds giving them no place to hang out. So I suppose they have a right to pout and bully him, and call him too angry or disturbed to be on the bench. But, as John Yoo points out in today's WSJ, "Clarence Thomas is a black man with a much greater range of personal experience than most of the upper-class liberals who take pot shots at him."

And if he's too angry,

does that include the other angry people who came out of the Civil Rights movement of the 60s and 70s?

Or who left the church because of its inaction on race issues?

Or who used company rest rooms with racial slurs on the walls?

Or who saw the futility in the black power movement after a brief, heady flirtation?

Or who dabbled in leftist politics in the 70s and found it empty rhetoric?

Or who disappointed and argued with his parents about his political views and life choices and lives with regrets?

Or who had to learn to speak standard English and give up his distinct (and ridiculed) childhood dialect?

Or who says a degree from Yale is worth about 15 cents in the real world if you are black?

Or who believes busing poor black kids to poor white schools did nothing for educating children?

Or who saves a complimentary letter to reread from time to time as an affirmation of his beliefs?

Or who believes criminals need to be tried by juries, not judges?

Or who went the lonely route and voted for Ronald Reagan, turning away from government engineering of social problems?

Now, for conservatives who read this book: they may wonder as I did, why he didn't know until joining the Department of Education that busing was never about education for disadvantaged black children, it was always about neighborhood integration and the real estate market. They may be puzzled that he knew so little about black on black crime when he began working in Missouri. They may wonder why he would stay eight years with the EEOC--did he think he was God, because if it was as bad as he said, that would be its only salvation. Why he didn't get rid of Anita Hill sooner if he knew she was trouble. Did the first Bush ever take his advice on black appointments?

I found the inefficiency and relationships between the various federal agencies and departments discouraging--I think more could have been said. More solutions offered. (Although as a Supreme, he probably has areas on which he isn't allowed to comment.) If it were me, I would have had a few regrets about that, too. Also, for this reader, many of his insights, sounded more like hindsight.

Still, it's well worth reading.

Jesse Peterson is looking for a few good (white) men. I wish him luck.

Time to think about flu shots and pneumonia vaccine

It's been so hot (in the midwest), you've probably not thought much about flu season or pneumonia. Most of the churches and many of the large supermarkets around here are offering flu shots for older and at risk people. I know there are those who think vaccines are part of some sort of conspiracy cabal (just who this bad element conspiring to kill us with vaccines is, I'm not sure--but I think they drink the Kool-Aid with the Princess Diana conspiracy folks). With the bad news about hospital acquired infections, I would think you would want something preventative to keep you or your elderly parents out. Maybe they won't die of pneumonia, but they might acquire something else really ugly.

"Among patients hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia, those who had previously received the pneumococcal vaccine had a lower risk of death and admission to the intensive care unit than patients who were not vaccinated, according to a report in the Oct. 8 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine 2007; 167(18):1938-1943, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Streptococcus pneumoniae, one of the causes of pneumonia--23-valent polysaccharide pneumococcal vaccine (PPV)--has been available since 1983. Most guidelines recommend PPV for those at high risk of developing pneumonia, including older adults and nursing home residents."

In this study of nearly 3,500 patients in Canada, "22 percent had been vaccinated with PPV, and 624 died or were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). Those who had been vaccinated with PPV were less likely to die or be admitted to the ICU than those who had not been vaccinated (10 percent vs. 21 percent). This finding was mostly a result of lower ICU admissions--less than 1 percent of those vaccinated were admitted to the ICU, compared with 13 percent of those who were not vaccinated. Results were similar when the researchers looked only at patients older than 65 or those living in nursing homes--groups for whom universal PPV vaccination is recommended." [from Newswire via JAMA ]

I want to look like a high school cheerleader again

This reality show on CMT started up yesterday and I watched a bit. I was never a cheerleader, wasn't athletic, nor did I envy them, but I think they contributed a lot to the fun of the football and basketball games. Watch this. One woman said, "No one but my husband has said I'm pretty in a long time." Well, who else matters?

One of my cousins I met this year through an internet genealogy site used to be a Denver Broncos cheerleader, if I remember correctly. Is that football? I saw four or five former cheerleaders this summer at our reunion (2 from our class and 2 from the class after us and maybe one from my husband's class), and they still have the nice personalities and perky spirits that supported the teams and worked up the crowds.

A relief from the heat

This evening a cool front should move in and move our heat. . . to the east. I'm sure this is a relief to the global warming folks too, because none of the October heat records were posted after 1963, and that's a bit of an embarrassment, I suppose. Well, if you worship man's control of nature, that is. Now we've had a string of really hot days which will bump up the average. For the first week of October, the former records for our area were set in 1952 (89), 1919 (88), 1953 (89), 1959 (89), 1951 (90), 1963 (86) and 1941 (88). And remember, in those days, no one had air conditioning, so it must have been pretty uncomfortable on those record setting days.

I am the Lord, and there is no other.
I form the light and create darkness,
I bring prosperity and create disaster;
I, the Lord, do all these things.

You heavens above, rain down righteousness;
let the clouds shower it down.
Let the earth open wide,
let salvation spring up,
let righteousness grow with it;
I, the Lord, have created it.
Isaiah 45:6b-8

4194

BARF

As seen at Medscape.com continuing education unit on zoonotic diseases (requires registration):

The current trend for "natural diets" has led some owners to provide their dogs with a "bones and raw food diet (BARF)." The diet often consists of whole raw chicken mixed with vegetables. A recent study found that 80% of dogs fed this diet shed Salmonella in their stool. Another source of Salmonella for dogs and, subsequently, human infections has been processed pig ear treats.

Hmm, as they say, "everything but the squeal," but I don't think I'd buy that "treat."

4193

Repost my triggers

This morning I went back to my Thursday Thirteen where I posted my 13 food triggers. It was September 28 of last year, and we'd just returned from California. I stepped on the scales and saw 150 lbs and decided it was time to change my ways. Unlike a lot of women who claim ignorance on why they gain weight, I knew exactly what the reason was. I was eating more and moving less. I'd gotten broad band and it was. . . broadening. It took 6 months, but I got back to 130 lbs and size 8.

When I returned from Ireland on the 19th, I'd bumped up about 2.5 lbs, but you should see the wonderful food we had! After a week or so, it went back down, but now it's up 3. So this morning I reviewed the list, and I was violating 10 of the 13 triggers, and at the grocery store this morning I kicked in another (avoid the snack food aisles at the store). So I've posted them on my printer shelf, and on the inside door of the pantry.

For example, one big food trigger is pizza of any type, but especially pepperoni with double cheese. I think I've had that 4 times in the last 3 weeks. Friday night we ate at Sloopy's in Lakeside--I had a personal size pizza, and my husband had a sub which came with chips. Chips are also on my food trigger list. Not only did I eat my own pizza, my hand kept sneaking under his arm for his chips, and I also had chips on Saturday at the town's Fall Festival lunch. I've been sneaking peanut butter, and the other day I got a package of crackers out of the cupboard intended for my husband who has actually lost weight since he took up sailing. Ice cream isn't even on the list, but I've been eating it, too.

Yes, indeedy,
I'm gettin' needy
It all looks yummy
to my tummy
don't need no snacks
in my slacks
so it's no more chips,
no more slips,
no more trips
(goes to my hips)
or double cheese
if you please.

4192

Wild Horses

couldn't keep me from buying this little box I didn't need. I much prefer rectangular boxes, bigger boxes, that will actually hold something. But I couldn't resist. The others in this display were round; totally useless now that I don't wear hats. So I bought the square box, 4 3/4" interior dimension, lid 5 1/4". It won't even hold a jewel box for a cd, which measures 4 7/8".