Keith Kerr, gay activist

Is there anyone out there who thinks CNN, and particularly Anderson Cooper, didn't know that General Keith Kerr was at the debates to try to embarrass the Republicans about a Clinton presidency regulation called "Don't ask, don't tell." And isn't it a bit disingenuous when obviously, he got to the top of the heap by NOT revealing his homosexuality while he was on his way to general? Gay men must be the only minority (about 1%) who are also the wealthiest, best educated, most insured, most politically active, most mobile, most represented far beyond their numbers in every area of the arts, entertainment and literature, but who still want to be considered victims. Anderson Cooper is our next Dan Rather. Says he just had no idea.

Black sweater fashion showdown

Today's WSJ featured a story about a $99.50 black sweater from Land's End (owned by Sears) up against a $950 black sweater from Bruno Cucinelli. Both were made of cashmere from Mongolian goats in China, but the "cheap" one was made in China and the expensive one in Italy. The writer said the Land's End was a bit stiff and wrinkled easily, but the Italian sweater had to be returned to the store for repairs because something started to unravel. The $950 sweater was made in a 17th century castle by workers who get a 90 minute lunch or a free 3-course meal at work cooked by local women. So when rich, limosine liberals buy a sweater from Cucinelli, they can rest assured that the hand work was truly done by hand, and no 3rd world worker was allowed to improve himself on her dollar.

I'll have to check the label on my black mock-turtleneck bought on sale 2 years ago at Meijer's for $5.00. That leaves me a little to drop in the collection plate rather than wearing my wealth (or pension check). And it hasn't wrinkled or unraveled.

Country Music

Over at America Matters, there's a good post on country music.

I had the opportunity once again with my family to visit Branson Mo. over the Thanksgiving Holiday. Sure it's a heavily traveled tourist town. But the vibe and feel of the town is what got me. I was re-invigorated by the end of our three day stay. Every show we saw proudly spoke of God and honored our Veterans. Every shop we went to had a patriotic theme. This town wears their love of God and America on its sleeve. This invigorating vibe was every where. I loved it and I feel all is well in America because of it. There is a lot to say about our folks who make up our small towns and who make country music. They are grounded and as real as it gets.

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Biting the hands that rescued you

If there's anything more pugnacious than on-line squabbling among Christians, it's the on-line pot shots by members of the adoption triad. Yesterday I was reading an interesting article at the NYT blog Relative Choices about adoption--it was a reunion story between a birth mother (a writer/journalist) who never had another child and her PhD bi-racial daughter, who didn't have a good adoptive mother, but has been quite successful and well-adjusted. Without the birth and adoption, neither would probably be where they are today (in my opinion) and both had overcome personal adversity. Still, it's a nice reunion story--many aren't.

Also at this blog there are some writers and commenters who are the younger group of international adoptees (so their birth mothers are not represented). Some have returned to their country of origin to look around. Unlike the thoughtful responders from the 1950s and 1960s who did the best they could given the mores of the time, these adoptees are subtly militant. Others from the late 80s born or birthing in a totally different era aren't the least impressed with "openness" or "family building." Nor do any seem pro-life, assuming I suppose if they'd been scraped into a garbage pail they would have been saved the horrific fate of being a well-off American. Some are journalists by profession and have definitely benefited from the anti-Wal-Mart, anti-capitalist, anti-Western culture atmosphere of their college training. They seem so mired in ennui that their "culture" or history or language (or their birth parents) were ripped from their tiny little fists in those delivery rooms and orphanages.

Who said life was fair? I grew up with married parents, 3 siblings, 6 grandparents, a good school system that offered neither art nor foreign language with its caring teachers, and with friends who pretty much looked and acted like me. There are others who grew up with many more advantages materially, but some with less familially. Some people struggle to come to the USA, others need to flee to Canada or France while they still can and leave the rest of us alone to enjoy our miserable existence.

Wansink new director

Brian Wansink, Director of the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell, is now Executive director of the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion. He studies environmental factors that push Americans to overeat. "No one goes to bed skinny and wakes up fat," he says. I'm not sure exactly what it means, but it sure is true!

What is the best way to mindlessly change behavior? Simply and metaphorically, we need to put the serving bowl back by the stove. Smaller plates. Taller, skinnier glasses. That's what we want to go for. Things they don't have to think about. It's not about educating people. Part of it relates to economics, I don't mean dollars and cents. I mean the economics of cognitive effort and the economics of physical effort. Here's an example. We eat a lot less of the Oreos that come in mini-packs of 2 or 3 because there's a little cognitive cost and a little physical cost to opening another little package. We have to pause and think. From a Wired interview

I've noticed that. If I leave a serving dish on the table, I'll dip in for another helping even if I'm not hungry. If I just left it on the stove, I wouldn't even think about it.

A Quiz for Idiots

I saw this in a local publication, so you can substitute "your state" for the word Ohio except for #9. Ohio is the birthplace of many presidents and movie stars, so you should try that one. You'll probably be able to do most of these even if you don't live in the United States.

Quiz for Idiots

Okay, here it is by popular demand, our first annual Quiz for Idiots. Fasten your seat belts and here we go!

1. What is the capital of the U.S.A.?

2. What is the capital of Canada?

3. What century is this?

4. Who is the governor of [your state]Ohio?

5. Who are the two U.S. senators from [your state] Ohio?

6. What county is Columbus in?

7. What planet do we live on?

8. Who is the Vice-president of the United States?

9. Name five states that abut Ohio.

10. What is the capital of Mexico?

Quiz Answers below

1. Washington, D.C.
2. Ottawa
3. Twenty-first
4. Ted Strickland, Democrat
5. Sherrod Brown (D), George Voinovich (R)
6. Franklin
7. Earth
8. Dick Cheney
9. Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, West Virginia
10. Mexico City (in Spanish: Ciudad de México, México, D.F. or simply México)

HT Short North Gazette, before the last election.

"Fatherhood changed him"

Just not enough to marry his girlfriend of seven years, the mother of his 18 month old daughter. Yes, the intruder that shot him in the bedroom of his $900,000 home inflicting a fatal wound created a terrible tragedy for his family and his teammates, but let's not laud Sean Taylor's parenting, any more than his past scrapes with the law and fights off the football field. Although his daughter will probably not grow up in poverty, most children whose mothers don't marry the father of their children do. It's the number one cause of poverty in America. And he was a powerful role model. This tragedy has multiple threads--let's not get them tangled.

Perhaps I've watched too much Law and Order, or episodes of the Closer, but burglars don't look for people in home invasions, they try to avoid them. And there are easier places for a revenge killing if this was related to his previous problems with "bad guys."

The Night Before Christmas parodies

This week a friend sent me an up-to-date parody of the Night Before Christmas, one of the politically correct versions. As I was checking for parodies (this poem has inspired hundreds--I remember we had one for McKinley Hall at the University of Illinois for Christmas 1959), I really enjoyed this one at a site for parodies.

A more spiritual version of the famous Christmas story
By: Sister St. Thomas, B.N.D. de N

Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the town,
St. Joseph was searching, walking up roads and down;
Our Lady was waiting, so meek and so mild,
While Joseph was seeking a place for the Child.

The children were nestled, each snug in their beds,
The grown-ups wouldn't bother, there's no room they said;
When even the innkeeper sent them away,
Joseph was wondering, where they would stay.

He thought of the caves in the side of the hills,
Lets go there said Mary, it's silent and still;
The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow,
Made pathways of light for their tired feet to go.

And there in a cave, in a cradle of hay,
Our Savior was born on that first Christmas Day!
The Father was watching in heaven above,
He sent for His angels, His couriers of love.

More rapid than eagles God's bright angels came;
Rejoicing and eager as each heard his name;
Come Power, Come Cherubs, Come Virtues, Come Raphael,
Come Thrones and Dominions, come Michael and Gabriel.

Now fly to the Earth, where My poor people live,
Announce the glad tiding My Son comes to give;
The Shepherds were watching their flocks on this night,
And saw in the heavens and unearthly light.

The Angels assured them, they'd nothing to fear,
It's Christmas they said, the Savior is here!
They hastened to find Him, and stood at the door,
Till Mary invited them in to adore.

He was swaddled in bands from His head to His feet,
Never did the Shepherds see a baby so sweet!
He spoke not a word, but the shepherds all knew,
He was telling them secrets and blessing them too.

Then softly they left Him, The Babe in the hay,
And rejoiced with great joy on that first Christmas Day;
Mary heard them exclaim as they walked up the hill,
Glory to God in the Highest, Peace to men of good will!
You'll find parodies silly and serious and even in Spanglish here.

Free speech in Canada is on the way out

Is this the direction the U.S. is moving? In Canada you can not only get in trouble for "hate speech," (just like here), but you also can't call someone "an enemy of free speech." Now that's hateful! Read about it at Volokh Conspiracy.

The court is insisting that Canadians' speech not only follows the government-approved ideology on the topic of race, ethnicity, and religion (an ideology that I agree with, but that I don't think should be legally coerced). It is also insisting that Canadians' speech follows the government-approved ideology and terminology on the topic of free speech itself.

What's for dinner?

I'm about turkey'd to death. I fix myself grilled veggies for lunch (today's choice was onions, black beans, red bell peppers, turnip greens and shredded carrots), but while my husband was fixing his turkey sandwich, I snitched a few pieces. We've had either turkey or ham every day since last Thursday. Today I threw out the beef and gravy and the rice with cheese and sausage that were last week's leftovers which had been pushed to the back and forgotten. So tonight we're having Maryland style crab cakes (Trader Joe), baked sweet potatoes, green peas, tossed salad, and fresh strawberries. Have you finished up or frozen the Thanksgiving left overs at your house?

Bush's Legacy

Early this morning on CBS News I heard two women discussing Bush's desire for a legacy, thus the recent Israeli-Palestinian summit. It was innocuous and bubble-headed even for women who read others' text for a living. I couldn't see the TV, but the "expert" had an annoying voice best for print journalism. I don't think he's seeking a legacy; we'll hope he will not be as interferring as Carter and Clinton as a former president, but be a gentleman like his father.

Here's my ten suggestions for a Bush legacy, in order of importance, five positive, five negative.

1) The appointment of two outstanding judges to the Supreme Court, Roberts and Alito. This will extend many years and perhaps be able to return the Supreme Court to its original intention, moving it away from creating law. Kennedy, his father's appointment after the Bork nomination failed, was a tremendous disappointment for conservatives, so it is possible that with time, this one won't be in number one place, but for now, that's where I'd place it for long term impact.

2) The tax cuts and overseeing the most robust economy in the history of this nation I'd place second. Facing my retirement in 2000 dependent on the health of the stock market, I was watching my accounts stagnate, and then tumble after 9/11. Right now the economy is softening and Democrats are making all the wrong moves, especially for retirees (look out boomers) mainly because they use taxes to punish, not to move the country forward.

3) Getting us back on our feet after 9/11. Although I didn't dislike Al Gore and wouldn't have been upset if he'd been President (my first election as a Republican), it is still hard to imagine his taking charge after that disaster. For awhile it looked like there might even be a resurgence of patriotism and love of country, but that quickly faded as the Bush hatred over the lost election of 2000 continued to fester and eat away at the reasoning faculties of otherwise sensible people.

4) Freeing more women in Afghanistan in the 21st century than Abraham Lincoln did slaves in the USA in the 19th century. We don't know yet the full consequences of this, because women were quite advanced in this country before it was stolen from them by the Taliban, and the climb back up will require a lot of will. American feminists have ignored this achievement rather than give Bush the credit.

5) Leading the country into an unpopular, controversial war with the support and backing of both parties, including some of the same senators who later reversed their decision. That Bush held strong and refused to abandon the Iraqi people the way Nixon did the Vietnamese is a huge legacy, especially for those he saved from the blood bath had he caved into demands for pull-outs and withdrawals from his enemies.

And on the negative side of the legacy ledger.

1) Offended his supporters and party by nominating a weak Supreme Court candidate (White House counsel Harriet Miers) and by attempting to partner with the Democrats on an amnesty bill for illegal immigrants. These two actions also hurt any Republicans who supported him on other issues.

2) Not being able to corral his stampeding RINOs and missing the opportunity to reform Social Security by taking total control back from the government to allow investment in personal accounts.

3) Standing firm in his resolve that all societies deserve and desire a democracy. Perhaps only history will decide this one, but you've got to admit trying to jump start a 7th century mentality and push or drag it into the 21st century, is a tough row to hoe.

4) The biggest tax spender on education ever to enter the White House, crafting a program with Ted Kennedy's help. Did he tell us during the 2000 campaign that he wanted to be the "education president?" Earmarks (pork) and wasted foreign aid--but that's more congressional, and something we've just come to expect from our government, isn't it? This and the next one have made him an anathema to many conservatives.

5) Expanding medical care to a government drug program with Ted Kennedy, thus laying the ground work for the Democrats to make it even worse and more expensive. I think government-doled, rock-bottom health care for every household earning less than $1 million is a real possibility after 2008. Those making over a million will still be able to purchase first class care like they do in socialist countries.

We have these drivers in Ohio, too

Crazy Aunt Purl writes a humorous but "hurt-so-bad" blog, and has turned it into a book. She's divorced (the story's in her book), has lots of cats, and knits. On her way to Thanksgiving dinner with her grandmother and parents, she encounters a drunk driver trying to kill a lot of people; she called 911, but was kept on hold for 20 minutes, and finally had to exit the freeway.



Driving with your middle finger wagging is usually a pretty good breathalizer.

This is from her archives, Jan. 31, 2005. Someone should recommend this as a hymn for divorced people (I've reformated).

"When my husband left me,
and a variety of other really bad things
began to happen in succession
my landlord put the condo up for sale!
my car stolen from the subway station!
Mr. X goes to Italy without me!
moving costs me almost $1000!
clearly, I have pissed off the gods!

I finally decided to give up
on keeping up appearances.
I gained a few pounds.
I smoked in public.
I told the pizza guy that my husband had left me.
I was a little crazy
in those first few months,
I admit.

Eventually, I figured out
that my goal was
to simply live out loud.
Lie less.
"No, actually, my sex life isn't fulfilling."
"To be honest, I am not everyone and I do not love Raymond."
"Actually, I hate sushi."
"Yeah, I'm older than Sanskrit. What is your point?"

The unintended consequences of pro-active medical care

Name the disease or condition, and early diagnosis and treatment can reduce poor outcomes. Who knows what could happen in health care if patients heeded the advice on diet, exercise and smoking? Yes, who knows. Actually, we do know. Longer life resulting in higher Medicare and Medicaid costs further down the road. Another outcome we know about because it has already happened, is fewer primary care physicians. The expanding menu of interventions, screening tests, vaccines and devices has dramatically increased the work of patient care for all medical specialties, but particularly the guy who's going to make the decision when you complain of feeling poorly, according to JAMA Commentary, November 21, Vol. 298, no. 19.

"Providing all recommended preventive services to a panel of 2500 patients could require up to 7.5 hours a day of physician time; generalists report that roughly 4 separate problems are addressed at each office visit for those older than 65, and even more for those with chronic illnesses such as diabetes," writes John D. Goodson.

The workload is overwhelming and the reimbursement levels for primary care physicians favor the interventions and more expensive care which in turn passes the patient on to specialists. Now, if you were in med school (or paying for your child to go to med school), looking down the road at even more interference by the federal government, and higher insurance costs, would you choose family medicine or pediatrics, or would you head for the safer and richer green pastures of a specialty? Goodson reports that first-year internal medicine residents who express an interest in general internal medicine are less than 20%, but only about half of those will remain committed to this area.

Goodson goes on to recommend higher compensation by the CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services), the federal agency that determines how doctors will be paid. If this problem isn't corrected, a large portion of the population will lose access to personal care (or any care). Imagine. The government creates a problem with layers of bureaucracy and regulations (low reimubursement for general care) and is then expected to fix it (with more layers, studies, panels and commissions).

The perfect storm of immigrants flooding the country needing massive social services, to mix with a growing cloud of aging baby boomers who demand only the best. Katrina anyone?

Head injuries in sports

The Columbus Dispatch recently published the winning photos in its photo contest--semifinalist photo is 2 little boys colliding in a soccer game. They had on nifty uniforms, special shoes and knee socks--and no helmets or head protection. In his book Making a good brain great, Daniel G. Amen, MD writes:

"A concussion or mild "traumatic brain injury" (TBI) is far more than just a bump on the head. According to the American Academy of Neurology, "There is no such thing as a minor concussion." A study from UCLA found that "the level of brain glucose use in people who suffered mild concussions was similar to that in comatose, severely brain-injured patients. . . Even mild head injuries result in major changes to the brain's metabolism and could make victims susceptible to more serious damage from a repeated blow."

Dr. Amen advises parents to never let their child knock the soccer ball with his head--heading drills, in which a child's head is knocked repeatedly, are of greater concern to pediatricians than is the occasional head-punt in a game. A study of adult soccer players found 81% had impairment of attention, concentration, memory, and judgment when compared to non-players of similar age and circumstances. He says football players are struck in the head 30-50 times per game and regularly endure blows similar to those experienced in car crashes.

Dr. Amen, who has seen over 30,000 brain scans, says: "I would not let my children hit a soccer ball with their heads, play tackle football, or snowboard without a helmet. I encourage my own kids to play tennis, golf, table tennis, and track. Your brain matters. Respect and protect it."

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Deer season opens today

November 26 is the first day of deer hunting season in Ohio, when approximately 400,000 hunters will kill about 120,000 deer. It will contribute $266 million to the state's economy. Toledo Blade story. Deer contribute to their own demise too--the does live twice as long as the bucks, who get in fights and kill each other (it's a guy thing). More deer are killed in accidents with fences than are taken legally by hunters, and feral dogs kill many thousands. Deer vehicle collision (DVC) will also take a lot of lives, some of them human. Three years ago I wrote about seeing 13 dead deer on the interstate medium between the west side of Columbus and the first exit at Richmond, Indiana. The 13th we saw killed by the semi truck in front of us. It was just awful. I've seen the figure half a million a year, but haven't seen the source of the statistic. Doug at Coffee Swirls writes about hitting a deer in Iowa, which has one of the highest DVC rates, with a repair estimate of $4800.

Tom Brokaw doesn't get it

Tom Brokaw's new book, Boom, examines the influence the baby boomers have had on our society and culture, and he includes a wide variety of well-known and non-celebrity persons born in that era. Listening to him being interviewed on Laura Ingraham this morning and then reading some excerpts from the web, I was left with the impression conservatives know a lot more about how liberals think and react than the other way around. (Just as a quick aside: the only way they know how to have an interesting conservative character on a TV series is to afflict him with dementia--Boston Legal.) Laura pointed out that the single most important boomer to impact our culture, love him or hate him, is Rush Limbaugh, who got a quick mention in a section about drugs and not the media (I'm assuming his prescription drug addiction). Brokaw defended himself, not by addressing Rush's influence on millions, but by decrying the influence of talk radio in general--that it isn't balanced, and Rush mocks people. The Democrats when in power, will continue to harp on that.

He doesn't get it. Rush (and Medved, and Hewitt, and Ingraham, etc.) ARE the balance. The radio airways are open to the liberals, but they haven't succeeded in drawing an audience that will hold the sponsors. People don't listen to talk radio because there is nothing else--they listen because they want to hear another view that they can't get on broadcast news and cable news, where liberals have a lock. During one of the news breaks on a conservative show, I get to hear Anderson Cooper, a Vanderbilt/Whitney descendant, go on and on about global warming (guilt?). Many conservatives interview people who disagree with them, and usually make them look weak. Laura nailed Tom on this point, and he wandered off into the swamp of "we're never going to resolve this. . . .so why belabor the point."

Here's something else he doesn't quite grasp--the women's movement. In writing about the women's movement that evolved at the same time his daughters were growing up, he says, "One of our daughters is now a physician; another is a vice president of a major entertainment company; and the third is a clinical therapist. They place no limits on their ambitions, but for them, those ambitions also have had to fit within the context of having children. For all the gains made by women, and the recognition within society of how important that is to a healthy body politic, we have not satisfactorily resolved the workplace consequences of having children."

Why not say, "We have not satisfactorily resolved the family and parenting consequences created by women going off to work 10-12 hours a day."

The clutter challenge

A friend and I are challenging each other to remove some of the clutter from our homes and lives. We both have a problem clearing books and magazines--we like to send them on to a second life away from us. The following list has now gone to the garage; they are inside boxes that I have taped shut. If I peek, I might be talked out of it. The next step is to get them into the van, then off to the Friends of the Library book sale.

In general, there are two categories: computer books that are too old to be useful, and books on the craft of or compilations of the short story. I did a lot of writing of fiction in the early 90s. It was great fun, and I enjoy going back and reading them today (especially since I don't remember how they end!). However, I never did follow the experts' instructions, and barely opened the books (all bought used). Here's my good-bye blog.

How computers work, by Ron White, 1993.
PC Novice Guide to computing basics, 1996.
PC Novice guide to the Internet, 1996.
Handbook of short story writing, 1970.
Beginning writer's answer book, rev. 1987.
Handbook of short story writing, vol. 2, 1988.
Children's writer's word book. 1992.
Ways of reading; an anthology for writers. 4th ed. 1996.
This is my best, Whit Burnett ed. 1942.
Prize stories 1983 O. Henry awards.
Short stories from the New Yorker, c. 1940.
Great expectations, by Dickens, pb 2nd ed. 1948, 1972.
Kiplinger's retire and thrive, 1995.
Testimonies, a novel. Patrick O'Brian, c 1952, pb ed. 1995.

While I was selecting the books, I also cleaned out tons of paper that I'd printed from the internet--there was a whole shopping bag, much of it over 10 years old. Over the past week I also cleaned some bathroom vanity drawers, four drawers in the kitchen, two under-cabinets in my office, cleared out and stored elsewhere my old notebooks and publications, took a load of winter clothes to church for the Hilltop Clothes Closet, and cleaned out one drawer of my desk.

So what's cluttering up your life that could go into storage?

The winning posters

Check out the winners here. I thought "Fear" was pretty classy; the one of the candidates in Hawaiian shirts, probably the funniest.

Mrs. Clinton's experience vs. Mr. Obama's appeal to diversity

Hillary Clinton's experience

First lady of Arkansas
First lady of the United States
Attorney who crafted the Whitewater deal
Organized party faithful to take over U.S. health care in the 1990s
Covered up her husband's assaults on women
U.S. Senator (moved from Arkansas to NY to do this) who supported the war in Iraq
Wears "Shoes and Socks," Hsu and Berger
Oldest of the Democratic front runners

Mr. Obama's appeal for white, "color-blind" progressives

White, Kansasan mother
Raised by white grandparents in Hawaii
Doesn't look or talk like Jesse and the guys
Indonesian step-father
No track record to be criticized on anything
Attended Columbia and Harvard
Member of United Church of Christ, main line liberal Protestant church
Strong, family values to match the conservatives claim to this territory
U.S. Senator from Illinois who wasn't in office for the 2003 Iraq vote, so he's clear to assume the finger pointing position
Youngest of the Democratic front runners

Ready for Christmas

My son-in-law and his father decorated the house and yard, and my daughter got out the creche and the Christmas dishes--and even managed to slip out for a little "black Friday" shopping. Then we enjoyed an evening of football and left overs. Lenox is retiring this pattern of the crèche, China Jewels, so I asked if I could buy a small item (the hen and rooster are about $30--within my price range), but she said if it wasn't in the original story, she wasn't collecting it.






The silver tea/coffee set in her cabinet was our wedding gift (1960), but it spent a lot of time in a box. Looks much nicer at her house.