Party on for the party

According to the NYT which was sniffing out how campaigns were spending their money, for Hillary

"Nearly $100,000 went for party platters and groceries before the Iowa caucuses, even though the partying mood evaporated quickly. Rooms at the Bellagio luxury hotel in Las Vegas consumed more than $25,000; the Four Seasons, another $5,000. And top consultants collected about $5 million in January, a month of crucial expenses and tough fund-raising."

That's got to make the little party faithfuls who've been sending in their checks from Social Security of $25 or $30 feel a bit sick. $11,000 for pizza in just January?

And then I read. . .what made the big donors angry. I know they've got money to burn, but they want results.

The firm that includes Mark Penn, Mrs. Clinton's chief strategist and pollster, and his team collected $3.8 million for fees and expenses in January; in total, including what the campaign still owes, the firm has billed more than $10 million for consulting, direct mail and other services, an amount other Democratic strategists who are not affiliated with either campaign called stunning.

Rich pols in both parties just have no concept of how the rest of us live, do they? Think of that next time she gets teary over the plight of the working family.

Story link.

County seats of Ohio

When you don't grow up in a state, these things don't come naturally. So here is a map of the counties with their county seats. I've been here 40 years now, it's time for me to know that Port Clinton is the county seat of Ottawa County where we have a second home, and that Sandusky isn't in Sandusky County, nor is Upper Sandusky, Ottawa isn't in Ottawa County, and Urbana is the county seat of Champaign County (I wonder if homesick Ohioans settled in central Illinois?). Now that I've joined the State of Ohio Blogger Alliance, I'd better know some of these county issues.

TB--Technology Burnout

I think I have it. Last night I reloaded the software on my HP laptop for the 4th or 5th time in a year--I've learned not to keep valuable files on it. But the cd burner works, which doesn't on my old PC. My new PC is in the guest room still boxed up--I bought it before Christmas. Not only will I have to learn Vista, but some of my favorite programs will not work, because they are generations old as software counts its age. My A-fib kicks in just contemplating moving from my old Family Tree Maker to the new version. What if I lose a great great grandparent in the transition? That cute little photo printer I wrote about last July? Still in the box.

My husband wants to show his photos of Haiti to the children at Highland school where he helps in the math/science class. This preciptated the great CD hunt for the photos from last year; then looking at the disc someone else made because that's all we could find; which meant a hunt for our old DVD player (got a new one at Christmas from our daughter), thinking our disc might be in it; and sorting through various untitled discs in my office; and finding the new mouse that doesn't work with anything. Once I got the laptop up and running, we inserted various discs and I taught him how to look at those files and tediously move 167 photos into a new folder I'd created on the laptop--truly you don't want to subject 4th graders to 700 photos, some (many) badly composed. Whoever had made the disc we were viewing had folders within folders within folders, plus had misspelled Ouanaminthe on everything (used a Q in stead of an O, and it doesn't really matter, it's just annoying--and I often misspell it too--think "Juana").

All this leads up to Walt's 100th edition of Cites & Insights. Although he is writing for the library crowd, both the IT people and librarians (he's IT), he covers a lot of territory that I think is useful for people like me--teetering on the edge of insanity over technology changes and frustrations. His style of writing is so much like mine I often resolve to change after I read an issue--adverbosity, side bars, parentheticals, interesting asides, philosophical insights, etc., but he is left of center and I am right of center. He pretty much stays out of politics in his professional writing, so that part doesn't matter much. Being a reformed liberal, I notice it, however. Even after reading his assessment on the paper/print costs of various printers, I printed the whole issue and plan to enjoy it this morning at the coffee shop. If I can get there. We had an ice storm last night. Thanks, Walt, and congratulations on your 100th issue. I need you more every day!

Change: coins of a low denomination

Democratic Debate. Austin, Feb. 21, 2008

unified to bring about changes in this country.

we now have an opportunity to potentially change the relationship between the United States and Cuba after over half a century.

solid agenda for moving change forward in the next presidency.

And it is my strong belief that the changes are only going to come about if we're able to form a working coalition for change

And that's a policy that I'm going to change when I'm president of the United States. [outreach to Mexico]

I do think there is a fundamental difference between us [Clinton and Obama] in terms of how change comes about

I've been talking about making sure that we change our tax code so that working families actually get relief.

and so my plan was pretty good. It's not as good now, but my plan hasn't changed. The politics have changed a little bit.

the American people have to be involved and educated about how this change is going to be brought about.

but if we don't change how the politics is working in Washington,

and that's what I intend to change when I am president of the United States of America.

Channeling FDR

The U.S. could have been out of the Great Depression by 1933, saving our parents and grandparents much grief. When you look at our recovery compared to Canada’s or some of the European nations, you see how FDR’s diddling and fiddling, setting up an alphabet soup of agencies to bring business under the heavy hand of the federal government, practically destroyed the country. The war didn't save us economically--we were pulling out of the FDR quagmire by 1941--but it took his eye off the ball, and he had to put his energies elsewhere. The rhetoric I hear today from Hillabama sounds like they’ve been channeling his speeches and ideas from the 1930s.

“Roosevelt’s death on April 12, 1945, removed from the presidency an enormously shrewd and resourceful leader who had for the past decade expressed a hostility bordering on hatred for investors as a class. Many business people, among others, had feared that FDR harbored dictatorial ambition; some believed that he ultimately did exercise arbitrary power in some if not all areas—for instance, his unconstitutional “destroyer deal” of 1940 in which, without congressional approval, he gave away fifty warships of the U.S. Navy to a foreign power. His demise must have enhanced the confidence many investors felt in the future security of their remaining private property rights.”

"Regime uncertainty: Why the Great Depression lasted so long and why prosperity resumed after the War,” by Robert Higgs, Independent Review, vol. 1, no. 4, Spring 1997, pp. 561-590. Here.

Obama

A warehouse full of abandoned hope

If you don't like Bush's NCLB, maybe you'll prefer what the Democrats have done in Detroit? This story about education in Detroit at Sweet Juniper (HT Blake at LIS.com) turned my stomach. Somebody's taxes paid for this. Yours and mine.

"This is a building where our deeply-troubled public school system once stored its supplies, and then one day apparently walked away from it all, allowing everything to go to waste. The interior has been ravaged by fires and the supplies that haven't burned have been subjected to 20 years of Michigan weather. To walk around this building transcends the sort of typical ruin-fetishism and "sadness" some get from a beautiful abandoned building. This city's school district is so impoverished that students are not allowed to take their textbooks home to do homework, and many of its administrators are so corrupt that every few months the newspapers have a field day with their scandals, sweetheart-deals, and expensive trips made at the expense of a population of children who can no longer rely on a public education to help lift them from the cycle of violence and poverty that has made Detroit the most dangerous city in America. To walk through this ruin, more than any other, I think, is to obliquely experience the real tragedy of this city; not some sentimental tragedy of brick and plaster, but one of people.

Pallet after pallet of mid-1980s Houghton-Mifflin textbooks, still unwrapped in their original packaging, seem more telling of our failures than any vacant edifice. The floor is littered with flash cards, workbooks, art paper, pencils, scissors, maps, deflated footballs and frozen tennis balls, reel-to-reel tapes. Almost anything you can think of used in the education of a child during the 1980s is there, much of it charred or rotted beyond recognition. Mushrooms thrive in the damp ashes of workbooks. Ailanthus altissima, the "ghetto palm" grows in a soil made by thousands of books that have burned, and in the pulp of rotted English Textbooks. Everything of any real value has been looted. All that's left is an overwhelming sense of knowledge unlearned and untapped potential. It is almost impossible not to see all this and make some connection between the needless waste of all these educational supplies and the needless loss of so many lives in this city to poverty and violence, though the reality of why these supplies were never used is unclear. In some breathtakingly-beautiful expression of hope, an anonymous graffiti artist has painted a phoenix-like book rising from the ashes of the third floor."

The writer claims not to know why these supplies were never used. Isn't that odd? Pork is pork, whether it's New Orleans levees or Detroit's schools or a bridge to nowhere in Alaska, and somewhere on a dusty shelf there is a book with a list of the guilty who promised the children of Detroit they'd bring home the bacon. The writer seems to have made it out alive with excellent communications skills, so let's hope there were others. You just won't believe the photographs.

If there's a huge, crumbling American city with corrupt government and do-nothing state reps in DC that is controlled by the Republican machine, I have forgotten the name. But maybe in Detroit they "have hope" for "a change" sometime in "the future." Maybe they're swooning over Obama if they've forgotten their history.

Someone thinks an MLS matters

While browsing through the University of Illinois Library School (not called that anymore--maybe never was) announcements I noticed that on Feb. 27 there would be a talk by Rya Ben-Shir, MLS, Senior Manager, Intelligencenter, Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc. Deerfield, Illinois on why she and Takeda Pharmaceuticals insist on MLS/MLIS prepared librarians for all of their librarian positions. How novel. Illinois didn't choose an MLS trained librarian as their Dean, John Unsworth,--they went for high tech--and Ohio State's Library Director, Joe Branin, is moving that direction by proposing the MLS be removed as a requirement for professional positions. I think we could see the writing on the wall when a number of years ago, they added “be willing to obtain an MLS within two years” so they could attract some skills or ethnic groups to round out the technical and affirmative action requirements. Often that was stop gap, with the new hires moving on quickly, because then they had both the MLS and the desired status that other institutions were wanting. ALA is no help. It pokes its leftist nose into every little cranny of political and navel gazing movement, leaving librarians to struggle on their own with low salaries, failing bond issues, and a professional leadership always chasing the talent brass ring of other professions. It wouldn't surprise me if ALA takes pride in the fact that beginning librarians, with advanced degrees, probably qualify for government earned income relief, government health insurance for their children and school lunch programs.

When two college kids invented a better way a mere decade ago to find and serve up information (Google), and librarians oo'd and ah'd, dithered and quivered over digital rights, and then went on with business as usual to save the world through socialist politics and local lyceums, our fate was sealed. And they, idealist entrepreneurs, became millionaires many times over. We should have stuck with our knitting.

Meet our newest pastor

Eric Waters. Here's his first sermon at the X-Alt service at Lytham Rd., UALC (Upper Arlington Lutheran Church which has 3 campuses) and it's on God's wrath. http://tech.ualc.org/mp3/audio/080217EWLRX.mp3 Listen carefully as he reads God's word to the Romans. He's not reading. He speaks the scripture from memory, and it makes a huge difference as you watch him, because he's also performing it with facial expression and hand movements. But before you get the good news, you need the bad news. So it's a good introduction not only to him, but to the gospel. His speech pattern, you'll notice, is not midwestern--he's come to us from Fargo, ND but grew up in New York state. However, he was a Russian major in college, worked for awhile in Siberia, and I think I detect that in the up and down, the flow, the staccato. See what you think.

Isn't this backwards?

According to a story at The Kept Up Librarian

The University of Oklahoma is hoping to keep more high-achieving upperclassmen living on campus by giving them cash rebates for good grades. President David Boren said OU would be the first in the Big 12 to reward on-campus students for high grade-point averages. The initiative, called the OU Academic Success Rebate Program, will reward upper-class and graduate students living in OU Traditions Square or the residence halls beginning this fall. Read more at:
http://newsok.com/article/3204456/1202968564

I thought you got the best results by rewarding the low achievers, taking the money from the high achievers by raising their fees and driving them off campus, or better yet, out of state. That's how the Hillabama Democrats would do it.

The Democrats and taxing the rich

The campaign ads display Hillabama pulling out all the old, old class rhetoric from the 60s--I guess they don't realize all those spoiled, struggling boomers the lefties romanced back then are now well-heeled 60 year olds. They were in control of Congress for so many years, I wonder why all of society's problems weren't fixed? Yes, they will stop those tax breaks for the rich. Drum roll. Women faint. Men swoon. Businesses and corporations leave for friendlier climes.

The Democrats created the Alternative Minimum Tax in 1969, but due to bipartisan neglect neither party has fixed it. It's a mess of unintended consequences--known as the "stealth tax." It was originally set up to punish 19,000 very successful, wealthy Americans who weren't paying taxes (millions at the bottom don't pay taxes because people at the top pay for them, but that's OK--that's fair). The AMT was not set up to account for inflation, so now it scams many who are not even close to wealthy by today's standards, and if you're subject to it, you can't deduct your state and local taxes. The AMT wasn't even set up to get revenue--it was some bureaucrat's idea of "fair," and it never even achieved that! It's a boon for the tax preparers, though; that's one industry our government constantly helps out--compliance costs the US taxpayer millions and millions and many hours that could be used productively in something else. Now with the bipartisan ennui, they are raking in so much money, they're afraid to drop it, so they make temporary fixes and patches. Twenty six million Americans will be snagged by the AMT for 2008 according to today's paper*, up from 4 million for 2007 and 2006.

And how about that wonderful, bipartisan stimulus package? Those who contribute the most to the economy and pay the most taxes will get nothing back. The $112 billion in "stimulus" is phased out for individuals paying taxes on incomes over $75,000, or jointly on $150,000. How's that for fair?

Nor will there be "debt relief" for those who were sensible and played by the sound rules of 20% down, fixed rate mortgages, and a budgeted percentage of their income for housing. They'll be bailing out the neighbors who went for no money down, false documents and the adjusted rates, which if they had read the contract, always go up. They have no choice but to send more money to Washington, because if they don't, the neighborhood will go. What Suckers! But Hillabama to the rescue. They'll fix it--by making the honest guy pay.

*Although I don't have a link to the article I read on the AMT, here is one very similar.

obama

Three Word Wednesday

Bone has posted for 3WW

Punch
T-shirt
Unravel

for us to play with this week. Before I checked the clues, I was sorting laundry, and again thinking about how I could turn the old t-shirts from VBS, traveling, library conferences and organizations into a quilt. My mom used to cut t-shirts into strips and crochet the fabric into rugs, but quilting them saves the event or organization, and thus your memories. I've got San Antonio, Seattle and Shedd's Museum. I've got a "I heart my library," and Walk with Majors. I've got a Lakeside Ohio tour of my husband's projects. I've got dogs, horses and kitties. So here's my little poem. The photo is from Goose tracks and she will quilt t-shirts supplied by you for a fee, if you're not crafty or don't have the time.

Punch up the memories,
unravel the past,
cut up those t-shirts,
the first and the last

Arrange the design
and a contrasting thread,
make a new coverlet
to place on the bed.

Men's fashion

At the coffee shop this morning I consulted with one of the regulars, a man who formerly managed a men's store, about this photo. I'm not up on floral ties--at least not since I used to make neckties for my husband back in the early 1970s. And I think he took a few resembling this with him on the Haiti mission and left them there.

This photo is in the March 2008 Architectural Digest in a double page layout featuring a yellow sports car in front of a stone mansion (or it could be that stone house in Attica, Ohio). This photo nips off the top of the model's head a little. My consultant shook his head and said, "No, blue with a small print would work." I went all through the Lauren web page looking for this photo, finding instead the same model in the same suit with a blue tie. Finally, I located it in a style guide. The model has a nose like a hockey player, and that makes his face interesting and less effeminate. The slickered hair and large lapels give him a sense of history--1930s or 40s. He's the most featured model at that web site. And I don't think the point of the right lapel sticking up above the shoulder line is an oversight. . . it seems to be purposeful to draw your eye there to linger for awhile. And yet, the leaf of the flower is perfectly centered in the knot of the tie. The model's eyes repeat the color scheme and the horizontal white chair back peeking over his left shoulder is repeated in the white hanky.

A man dressed like this . . .well, anyway, it is a very purposeful, artistic composition.

House cleaning tips

I'm now officially an S.O.B. Yes, I've joined the State of Ohio Blogger Alliance. I looked through a few of the sites, read some good ones and decided to join. I had a little trouble with the code, but you can find it down the left side, somewhere below medical and before the 50+ folks.

Today I ran clear water through my little 3 cup coffee maker. I always go out for coffee--in fact, I'm known for my bad coffee. But I made coffee for my dinner party Friday night and this morning for my husband (I usually bring it home, but forgot). Everyone commented on how good the coffee was. Now that I've cleaned the pot, I've probably removed whatever was causing that.

The clothes my husband brought home from the Haiti mission trip were really dirty. He unpacked in the laundry room and put everything in sorted piles, and then cleaned the suitcases. Haiti is very dusty and dirty because over the years the people have cut down all the trees for fuel and cooking. When I went down to load the laundry this morning, I discovered the cat had thrown up a hair ball and last night's supper in the shirt pile. Oh well, saved the carpet.

I heard a laundry tip on the radio a few months ago that really seems to work. Wash your whites with bleach in COLD water instead of hot. The bleach works more effectively. I was skeptical, but I think I'm a believer.

Omama. I have change, hope and a future.

The future of hope

In the Baker's Dictionary of Christian Ethics, (1973) Hope is defined as

"the conviction that God will judge the evil of the world and create a new heaven and a new earth with righteousness. The Old Testament prophets tell us that the whole of history is divinely ordered, and interpreted even the most hopeless hours in the light of the coming victory of God. A new age will replace the present one and end all woe and sin."

I suspect that isn't the direction Barry and Mama Obama are taking us.

"The New Testament takes up the theme of the Old Testament idea, but elucidates, sharpens, and specifies it at the same time."

Is this where Obama comes in?

"Jesus through his life, suffering, death, and resurrection laid the basis for that final intervention of God in history and human experience. Christian hope is concerned with the future of every human being, but it does not end there. The overarching concern encompasses the new humanity or Christ's church."

So the hope is the Kingdom of God? Seems to be some disagreement even among Christians about "what is our hope?"

"The theologians of hope want to rewrite theology in terms of categories of change--a total restructuring takes place where God is seen as part of the changing process."

Hmm. Did this guy write Obama's theme speeches? Hope, future, change? This might be the most religious guy we've ever had running for the White House! Oh, wait.

"As promised in the Scriptures, [hope is] demonstrated in the resurrection of God's Son, and experienced by Christians in the past and present."

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

Obama

4645

Cite your sources!

There's a full page ad in the paper today from the State of New York Commissioner of Health addressed to Disney, GE, News Corp., Sony, Time Warner and Viacom.

"The science is clear: exposure to smoking in movies is the single most powerful pro-tobacco influence on children today, accounting for the recruitment of half of all new adolescent smokers."

No one is more anti-tobacco than I am, but for statements like that, I'd like to see some sources. It sounds like big government trying to push aside the influence of parenting, church, school, social network, and the non-Hollywood arts industry. I went on-line and looked at various studies (CDC, BMJ) read through the summaries, then the corrections, then the citations where authors were often citing themselves (bad form), and I even came across one that said that although incidence of smoking in movies was going down, smoking was going up! And yet the letter claims,

"Tobacco imagery delivers nearly 200,000 U.S. adolescents into tobacco addition each year."

I think, if I read correctly, that for a certain percentage of young teens who try smoking, many have seen a movie in the past year where actors were smoking. I don't know how many who try smoking after seeing an R movie (and where are their parents?) have also been taken to concerts, art museums, plays, library story hours, school lyceums, sporting events and school parties. Do they want to buy a hockey stick or a box of watercolors? I hope they've adjusted for other influences. I suspect that the first cigarette needs to be reinforced by some other type of influence--either genetic predisposition, family members who smoke, or peer acceptance or all three. My son, who is trying to stop his 20+ year addiction, says he was hooked after the first cigarette because he liked how it made him feel. Then smoking behavior was reinforced at school, which at that time allowed it on campus. I tried smoking in junior high, and again in college. It didn't do a thing for me, tasted awful and made my clothes and hair stink, plus I had disapproval from friends, so what would be the point? Smoking was probably in every movie I'd ever seen in the 1950s and 60s and when I was in high school, I saw several movies a week. And they really made it look glamorous and fun in those days. Obesity is passing tobacco as a health problem. Especially in childhood. Next: no movies showing restaurants, eating or snacking. No previews announcing food in the lobby. No popcorn allowed.

So guys, if the science is clear, make your citations clear also.

Michelle Obama helps John McCain

Michelle Obama who probably is wealthier and has more education than 90% of the the US population is so distraught about how awful it is to be an American lawyer, educated at Ivy League prestigious universities, married to a Senator, that her speech has really invigorated the right to come out for McCain.

“For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country,” she told a Milwaukee crowd, “because it feels like hope is making a comeback.”

If this is the "hope" and the "future" and the "change" that her husband represents, we'd better start looking for the good old days, because this woman is totally self-absorbed, spoiled and stuck-on-stupid. Yes, Michelle, you have convinced me. I'll hold my nose and vote for McCain rather than someone whose knowledge of politics and history extends to the tip of her pretty nose and sound of her mellifluous voice.

I'm beginning to think that both Hillary and Obama need to deep six their spouses until after the election. With supporters like this, they won't need enemies.

Home from Haiti

My husband has returned from a mission trip to Haiti. He loves the people, even though it is a bit of a culture shock going in and coming home. This year he was more prepared, mentally and physically. He worked on some construction projects building covers for medical equipment for the clinic and taught a class in architectural drawing to 12th graders. They loved it, and so did he. These kids are so bright and motivated, he says it is a real pleasure to work with them.

This is a photo of the Ouanaminthe Airport, and he did NOT fly in here (thank goodness!) The team flew into the Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, and were picked up by our pastor, Dave Mann, in a school bus for a 4.5 ride to the border city of Dajabon. Because the border is closed by the time they get there, they spend the night in a hotel, and continue on in the morning, but it's only about 10 more minutes. They get there in time for church. You can fly from the capital, Port-au-Prince, to the Ouanaminthe airport in about 30 minutes, but it would be about 11 hours (bad roads) by bus, so that's why they fly into Santo Domingo. Both countries are on the same island. The standard of living, the infrastructure, the industry, and the greenery of the countryside are night and day, and they are divided by a river named Massacre.

Please don't squeeze. . .

Meredith Whipple of Columbus, Ohio, had a letter in the paper (USA Today):

"When I see a political leader relying on the Word of God to solve the nation's problems, I begin to question whether he or she has a real strategy in place."

When I see a political leader relying on the Word of God I will be in a state of shock, because I've never seen it. Black or white, Democrat or Republican, male or female, Jew or Gentile, gay or straight, Red or Blue state, fat or thin, Berkeley or Boise, I just have never seen a leader of this nation from zoning board to the White House, rely on the Word of God. Sprinkling a few god words in a speech during campaign season to warm the hearts of the voters doesn't qualify, Ms. Whipple.

Lose 5 lbs. by Easter

10 lbs. by Memorial Day. That was the story in USAToday this morning. So that's 5 weeks, or a pound a week. There were some interesting suggestions--in addition to more veggies and fruit, portion control, etc., which I hope we all know by now.

Put magazines with covers of fit people on your coffee table.

Hang a summer outfit where you can see it.

Decrease or eliminate fruit juice and sugary drinks, as well as alcohol and coffee dessert drinks.

Sit down at the table to eat.

One pound of fat contains about 3,500 calories, so to lose one pound a week, you should eat 500 fewer calories each day. That probably means my husband will need to finish the chocolate peanut butter pie that's in the frig.

Colorful food tend to be more nutrient dense--blueberries, broccoli, peppers, etc. Remember, mother always said to eat all the colors. That's probably not dark chocolate candy, or golden corn chips.

If you drink a glass of water before a meal, you'll feel more full.

Before you go for seconds, wait 10 minutes; your body will probably tell you that you're already full. Of course, in some homes, everyone will have left the kitchen or cleared the table if you wait ten minutes. Everyone is in such a hurry!

Wear a pedometer. 1000 steps is 1/2 mile. 10 flights of stairs is one mile.

Eat real food. Take the word "snack" right out of your vocabulary. Think about it. A snack usually increases your hunger, not decreases it. It's a set up--don't go down that aisle, don't try that recipe. It's a trick. And a billion dollar business.

See www.smallstep.gov for more tips.

Can you define a "living wage?"

Or, how about an "American working family?" These terms are pandering policy pablum. It's like trying to figure out the word, "uninsured." It's nailing Jello to the wall.

Let's begin with two classic cases--both single moms with 2 children. Melanie had a significant other she met in college, but they never married, and he's wandered off the reservation looking for more significance. Her first pregnancy stopped her education, and besides, she liked staying home with cute babies. She doesn't know where the SO is, so there's no child support. She's working at Wendy's for $7.00 an hour--$14,800/year. She's not unhappy; she likes the work--has flexible hours, regular customers she knows by face and order, and can walk to work, although she has a "beater" car. She's a whiz at e-Bay and picks up a little cash by hitting the garage sales on her day off. She's worked at a dry-cleaners but the fumes bothered her, and at Tim Horton's, but the scheduling didn't suit, and has waitressed at family restaurants like Applebee's and Bag of Nails earning more, but she likes the management here. She occasionally dates the men she meets on the other side of the counter.

Then there's Tanika. She's divorced and her husband has decided to find himself in the entertainment world, but borrows more money than he sends. He drinks or smokes what is left after he's paid under the table at various clubs when his group performs. Each time she talks to him, he's just about to land the big break. Tanika's no dummy. She's always been told that education is the key to a better life. With help from her parents and various scholarships, and some state aid, she has finally completed the Kent State program in Library Science. Although she's relieved to have landed a job in the public library of a nice suburb of Columbus for $16.40 an hour in a tight job market, she does have to work some evenings and occasional week-ends, and has no flexibility to trade hours. Also, she's got some whopping school debts to repay, and she's maxed out several credit cards. Her dad keeps her car repaired and running. Her mom invites her and the kids over for dinner often, and babysits when Tanika works evenings and week-ends. The library is so busy, she knows none of the people who pass through. Social life is zilch, nada, nyet and she's too pooped to even take the kids to the pool. Her day off is a school day, so she volunteers at the Lutheran Food Pantry.

As you might have surmised, Melanie is better off than Tanika, plus she could have the satisfaction of knowing she is keeping a small army of government workers busy!

She is eligible for a piece of the Earned Income Tax Credit ($40+ billion), which is a cash supplement to wages of the "working poor," and at her income that's an additional $4,536 a year.

At various times she has received help from Temporary Assistance to Needy Families because of the dead-beat dad thing until her eligibility ran out. Between jobs, she stayed on unemployment benefits as long as she could--one time almost 3 years. Although she much prefers working, she never felt a sitter did as good a job with the kids as she could do herself.

She receives a housing voucher ($16 billion), which is much more pleasant than having to live in "the projects," and although there are others in her complex--actually many--no one seems to notice. In fact, she and Tanika's family don't live far from each other and the kids play together at the pool.

In addition to food stamps, which add about $100 a week to her grocery budget* ($35 billion through USDA), her children are eligible for the National Student Lunch Program, the Breakfast Program, the after school snack program, and the summer lunch program--plus she gets her own meals at Wendy's. In fact, they're all packing on a few extra pounds--no one is going hungry, that's for sure. The NSL and SBP (from the Ohio Department of Education via the USDA) also provide these services to runaways, homeless and migrant children, but Melanie is a pretty stable gal with good values, she's "always paid her own way," so there's not much danger of that. If she runs out towards the end of the month because the cable bill was due, she can get 3 days of food at the Lutheran Food Pantry.

Melanie would have to pay a pretty high co-pay for company health benefits, so she keeps passing on that during sign up periods, but she's eligible for SCHIP (as is Tanika who is making under $40,000 but has never applied**), and it provides some coverage like dental, prescription and special lab work she couldn't get through an employers' health program.

A few months ago Melanie's boyfriend got religion and called her, wanting to do right by her and the children and make it all legal--white dress, church, flowers, etc. But she turned him down. Even if he got a job at another Wendy's their combined income would throw off her eligibility, and financially, her kids would much much worse off. She's happy where she is--who needs to marry?

Melanie and Tanika are fictitious; the programs are not.

*In Ohio a family of three would be eligible for about $100 a week in food stamps, the gross eligibility being $21,600 of family income.

**An October 2007 study found that 68.7 percent of newly uninsured children were in families whose incomes were 200 percent of the federal poverty level or higher.