Thursday Thirteen--Our life in verse

You younger parents are learning as you go along that nature seems to have a lot more to do with your children's behavior than nurture. All the books you've read; all the programs you've tried; the special diets and home schooling; all your plans to mold and form the next generation. Then junior picks up a dolly and uses it like a toy gun, toys you've abolutely forbidden, or sissy wants frilly dresses, heels and make-up instead of the sweat pants, earth shoes and natural look you love to wear. We've all been through it, and in the long run they will grow up to be the person that popped out of the womb, formed by God, with personality, talents, physical appearance and intelligence all in place. So here's my verse of 12 things I think I know and then the 13th, for sure. There are more, but this is about doing 13 of something, right?

Nature vs. nurture
Our life in verse

On Abington we once did dwell
34 years my children will tell,
Where life’s events we did behold
Collecting memories now worth gold.

They said I was the mom most mean
that even our food was boring and lean.
I do admit I was often too strict,
but a few family values appeared to stick.

Smile, be pleasant and polite,
Don’t in public look a sight.
Be honest, the weaker one defend.
Work hard and don’t the rules you bend.

Use good grammar when you speak,
Go to an art show for a treat.
Take care of your parents and your pets
On everything else, I’ll hold my bets.

Thursday Thirteen

Luther on marriage and the parents

On February 29 I wrote about what Luther said about who was allowed to marry and what were marriage impediments. His words certainly don't have the authority of scripture, but he uses scripture in deciding questions. In another tract, probably written in 1524 he discusses the parents' role in a child's marriage.

He had pointed out that no where in Scripture is there a case where an engagement was entered into without the parents' consent, expressed or implied. He also noted that parents' didn't have the authority to forbid a child to marry, but should never force a marriage. He said that if the parents broke up two who were in love, the grief would be brief, but if they forced two who didn't love to marry, the grief would be an eternal hell and a lifetime of misery.

Luther writes that in all of Scripture "we find not a single example of two young people entering into an engagement of their own accord. Instead, it is everywhere written of the parents, "Give husbands to your daughters and wives to your sons," Jeremiah 29; and Moses says in Exodus 21, "If a father gives a wife to his son,", etc. Thus, Isaac and Jacob took wives at the behest of their parents, Genesis 24. From this the custom has spread throughout the world that weddings and the establishment of new households are celebrated publicly with festivity and rejoicing."

There are probably groups that follow this pattern today--where the parents choose or approve the mate--but I'm not familiar with them. I do hear Christians saying, "we need to have a Biblical lifestyle or world view," but I doubt they would go this far. What do churches preach and teach about marriage these days? Also, in another volume of Luther he did complain that in former times children showed more respect and obedience than today (the 1500s).

Three Word Wednesday, #76 for March 5

Today Bone has given us

Rest
Sidewalk
Twice

to think about for 3WW. This is a true story-poem. And this could be any one of the little boys who rode their trikes past my house--I used them all. Although only one sang.

When we would meet
our boundaries were Main
and Hitt Street.
We’d ride your tricycle
twice around and back again,
over the bumpy sidewalk,
you peddling and me hanging on.
Then I would peddle
bumping my knees
and you would rest,
sometimes singing me a song.
Wasn’t life simple and sweet
when we were little on Main
and Hitt Street?

The genealogy prayer list

My prayer job jar gets a lot of hits. Here's another list I've been using recently. I participate in a genealogy listserv for the Brethren--Church of the Brethren, Brethren Church, Old German Baptist Brethren, Brethren in Christ, Dunker Brethren, etc. That group is celebrating the 300th anniversary in 2008 of its founding members rebaptizing themselves (that's what anabaptist means) and coming together as a group, first going to Holland from Germany, then on to the United States. So as I do my prayer walk I go through the list in my mind:

Grandchild of my maternal great grandparents (Jacob and Nancy Weybright) and grandchild of my paternal great, great grandparents (James and Elizabeth Williford)--these ladies are 91 and 93, and still Brethren as were their parents, grandparents and great grandparents, and are members of the same church, although they aren't related to each other; one is my father's aunt (although born later), the other my mother's sister. Then I move on to the grandchildren of my paternal great grandparents--these are my father's siblings and their first cousins and their spouses and a few are Brethren. Then the grandchildren of my paternal grandparents who were Brethren and my maternal grandparents who were Brethren--that would be my siblings and my first cousins and spouses. And then the grandchildren of my parents--my nieces and nephews, my children and spouses. I think Dad's grandma had 12 children and Dad's mother had 9. I don't think there are any in the current generation (my parents' and their siblings' grandchildren) who are Brethren.

So by the time I work through the list, my time is about up!

Hillary takes Ohio

We had a big discussion at the coffee shop this morning. There would probably be law suits and disenfranchisement charges if we still had a Republican Secretary of State, but we don't. Obama wanted polling places kept open in those counties he had the strongest turn out--Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati--our big three. Weather got bad; ran out of some ballots, etc. He was turned down, and being as far behind as he was, I don't think anyone's brought out the legal beagles. But if it had been 50.5% to 49.5%? Probably still would have found a way to blame Republicans!

One coffee shop friend thought maybe Governor Strickland might be her choice for veep. I hadn't thought of that, but he'd be a good choice. Like Obama, he has no record on anything. He's a former Methodist minister. And he doesn't have any big city machine backing him.

When I was walking at the UALC Mill Run church I saw the polling results taped to the door, like a very long grocery receipt, signed by the election judges. Is that the law? Normally, at UALC we don't have bad door hygiene--which is a term for taping posters and notices on glass doors like they were bulletin boards. Bulletin boards cost $15; doors, thousands. So I looked at it. 305 Democrats voted, 170 Republicans, and 22 non-party. Hillary got 164 and McCain 87. Seems like a pretty poor turn out--I don't think that is a Democrat area, however, most Republicans figured it didn't pay to come out to vote, but there were other issues--like a bond.

Ability to generate buzz and excitement while maintaining order

And you thought librarians were dull! That's a line from a job description for a gaming librarian. This job is in River Grove, Illinois. I didn't know kids needed a librarian to show them how to do this stuff. Actually they don't. Libraries do this for the same reasons they show movies, offer concerts, have Halloween parties, and rent gardening tools. They need bodies in the building to tick off statistics so they can get money to do the things they are supposed to do like collect, preserve and circulate information.

HT Annoyed Librarian

The Chinese tooth fairy has struck

I hate loyalty schemes--don't use coupons, sweepstakes, mileage points, or a plastic loyalty card if I can help it. Staples has the only loyalty card worth bothering with--you actually can get their products or $$ off your next purchase at the copy shop. But somehow, my husband has a rewards scheme attached to his gasoline purchases. One day I found a small box under a bush in the yard--apparently it was intended for the mail box, but didn't quite get there. I forget what was in it--something really tacky in bright paper. Then a few more things started arriving like a lighted magnifying glass that doesn't even work as well as my 2003 eye glasses and a bulky 100% PVC credit card holder and wallet with a handy dandy calculator inside. All made in China. All trinkets useful only for today's consumer who thinks that we need to be rewarded for shopping. But today's prize. Well, it's really special. A genuine Orbiter Hands Free Can Opener.



Cooking hint: I was preparing a roast for supper, and ladies, pour cream of mushroom soup over a roast and it will be wonderfully tender with lots of gravy and no lumps, 2 hours at 325. So I decided to open the can with my new Orbiter. I put that baby down on the can and pressed the button. Nothing. Pressed it again. Nothing. Then again and WOW it just took off. I removed my hand (was afraid it'd get eaten) and it worked all by itself. In fact, it wouldn't quit. Around and around. I could see parts of the can we're being cut off. I picked it up and pulled it off the can, but that little sucker just kept on working, around and around, mushroom soup going everywhere. I grabbed it and punched the button on the underside, but it kept going. So I just put it down and watched it struggle, gasping, until it finally stopped.

The instructions with Orbiter say to prevent food borne illnesses I need to clean the blade after each use, and never with a solvent or detergent. But I should remove the batteries first. Then following the enclosed diagram I can remove the blade and clean it with a slightly damp cloth, dry it and replace the blade door. Now, I shouldn't leave it in sunlight, or in a hot humid place, nor should I immerse it in water or other liquids. When I'm done using it, I should remove the batteries, if it will be awhile. But I'm to keep the batteries away from children because they might swallow them. The instructions are also in Spanish and French.

I've been using the same hand-held can opener for about 30 years. Seems to work OK and occasionally I clean it when it gets really gunky. I don't think it is in any danger from this sleek, younger model.

Pieces of string too short to use

There's a story, apocryphal most likely, that when cleaning out the home of an elderly deceased woman, her family found a large ball of string labelled, "pieces of string too short to use." So here's a few pieces too short to use:

1. Hillary's "shared prosperity" theme. I doubt that she will share hers.

2. If you're overweight, are you wasting energy fretting about the chemicals in your dry cleaning? Which is more likely to hurt you over the long run?

3. The decline of the angry left? I think they are just keeping them under wraps for this campaign so they don't get a repeat of 2004.

4. Would you want your address to be on "Landfill Road." I saw one. Still, we have a Cemetery Rd nearby.

5. Google makes bundles of money for the government (taxed profits, taxed wages, taxed businesses that advertise there, taxes on new businesses that have developed) and libraries take money from the government. But Google has revolutionized how people seek, store and use information.

6. Why do the AFT and NEA hate vouchers and school choice? Why wouldn't teachers' unions want children to have the best that's out there?

7. Men trade 45% more than women when investing in stock.

8. Women pull ahead in the longevity race around age 13. At birth, the boys are numerically way ahead. God must have known. . . about risk. See #7.

9. Hundreds of thousands of sexual predators are at-large within the U.S., and law enforcement has the evidence to locate, arrest and prosecute them, but officials estimate they are able to investigate less than 2 percent of known child exploitation offenders, due to lack of resources, primarily personnel.

10. Unionized cleaning people in NYC make $20+/hour with full benefits. Think of that the next time you feel undervalued when you clean.

11. Didn't I tell you? "It's a lying, cheating, dirty business," says
Chris Balsiger who ran the nation's biggest clearinghouse of discount coupons redeemed by consumers at supermarkets.

12. John Erickson, chairman of Erickson Retirement Communities and developer of continuing care communities, is investing in Retirement Living TV, a cable network.

13. Charles Barkley, the basketball player, believes that people who express beliefs on behavior and life style different than what he believes are being judgemental, but he isn't. Must go with the name "Chuck."

14. Socially conscious Vermonters are willing to emit carbon to drive to tax-free New Hampshire to buy at WalMart and other big box stores. Same with the folks in Santa Cruz, CA who keep WalMart, Costco and Target out of their city, and raise local prices.

15. In Massachusetts, people with high deductible health insurance were forced to switch to more expensive policies to meet the state requirements.

16. Save a life. Donate to a Pregnancy Health Center.

17. Patients who go into cardiac arrest while in the hospital are more likely to die if it occurs after 11 p.m.

18. HIPAA is hopeless. I called the pharmacy to get a printout of our prescription costs. They would mail our records to me, but if I picked them up, I had to bring my husband and ID.

19. Reed Elsevier buys Choice Point Inc., the largest seller of personal data, and is selling its trade magazine division, including Publisher's Weekly. What must privacy conscious librarians think?

20. How many women control anything in Hollywood? I'm guessing it is far less than in the board rooms of conservative businesses.

21. Government affirmative action programs haven't given women and minorities a long term boost. They are hired and held hostage in HR positions or promoted to positions to fill quotas they weren't qualified for and then can't move forward on merit.

22. Bailing out by the government of those facing foreclosure will just postpone the agony--especially if they had poor credit, no savings, and spent beyond their means before applying for a subprime loan. Not everyone should be a home owner.

23. Airlines are not hospitals. The relatives of an obese woman, 44 years old, with heart disease and diabetes who was treated within minutes by staff and passengers who were doctors using oxygen and defibrillators, are suing the airlines. No one wins but the lawyers.

24. Daylight Savings Time actually uses more energy, according to a recent study based on Indiana's experience.

25. Unclaimed tax refunds from the IRS totaled 2.2 billion for 2003. Too late now.

26. 84% of Americans believe that cheating on your taxes even a little is unacceptable. Isn't that about the same as the number who believe in God?

27. I saw an ad selling an Ethics/Faith Company reporting the original investors made 700% return on their investment. Does that sound ethical to you?

28. The Turkish Airlines is looking for someone to supply them with jet fuel. Submit your bid by March 11.

29. Michelle Obama had some nice educational advantages, but most importantly, she had what divides the rich and middle class African Americans from the poor. Married parents and a strong nuclear family. 70% of black children do not have a father in the home.

30. Just in time for Hillary's election campaign, Bill has apologized to the black community for rejecting the 1995 Commission on Sentencing recommendation that the 100:1 disparity for drug sentencing for crack and powder cocaine be removed. This is probably the #1 reason there are so many black men in prison--see #29.

Why our college faculties are so liberal

It may not be what it seems. Some campus faculty are 100% liberal/progressive; the least liberal might be 80%! For my field, library science, it is so out of wack we fall off the edge and make the ACLU look like the John Birch Society. A new study looks at the various strawmen that both liberals and conservatives build to explain why liberals are more likely go on for the doctorate (the license to drive on the big time campuses), than conservatives. It isn't grade point. Moderates score lower than either liberals or conservatives, who score about the same. It isn't a hostile environment on campus (that would have been my guess as the number one reason). It seems to be based on ideas and ideals based on differing personality traits.

"Instead they hypothesized that the bulk of the ideological imbalance in academia is the result of differing personality traits. And so the scholars picked four traits -- the importance placed on raising a family, making money, contributing original work to a particular field and developing a meaningful philosophy of life -- and matched them up with students' political self-definitions. "Ideology," they wisely write, "represents far more than a collection of abstract political values." Liberalism, they found, "is more closely associated with a desire for excitement, an interest in creative outlets and an aversion to a structured work environment. Conservatives express far greater interest in financial success and stronger desires to raise families."

Yes, that makes a lot of sense. Conservatives keep the economy running, providing the taxes for the sandboxes of the liberals. I wonder if they've looked at the relationship between liberals' desire for risk and other harmful behaviors like gambling, drug use, promiscuity, living with diseased and dying trees in the forest rather than removing the fire hazard, building on fault lines and on coastal hurricane zones, and riding a bicycle to work on busy hi-ways. Story here; the report is for the American Enterprise Institute by Matthew Woessner of Penn State, Harrisburg (the conservative), and his wife, April Kelly-Woessner (the liberal), of Elizabethtown College -- called "Left Pipeline: Why Conservatives Don't Get Doctorates."

Texas and Ohio, Clinton and Obama

I just shake my head in disbelief when I see these ads. I finally told my husband he had to hit the mute button. I couldn't stand it. Why is it the President's responsibility to improve Ohio's economy? Especially when many of our jobs aren't going to China or Mexico (as the ads imply), but just going to other states? In defense of our new Democratic governor, 'taint his fault either--he hasn't been around long enough to screw things up (a former Methodist minister with a good heart and pious thoughts). But we have many large and medium sized cities in Ohio--all controlled by Democrats--Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati, to name just three, with Akron, Youngstown, Dayton and Toledo following along. To watch the Hillobama ads, you'd think the steel mills closed under Bush! Here's some details from today's WSJ:

"Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, a Democrat who supports Mrs. Clinton, blames his state's problems on President Bush. But Ohio's economy has been struggling for years, and most of its wounds are self-inflicted. Ohio now ranks 47th out of 50 in economic competitiveness, according to the American Legislative Exchange Council. Ohio politicians deplore plant closings even as they impose the third highest corporate income tax in the country (10.5%) and the sixth highest personal income tax (8.87%). A common joke is that Ohio lays out the red carpet for companies -- when they leave the state. By contrast, Texas has no income tax, a huge competitive advantage."

What do Obama and Clinton both suggest? More taxes on the rich, the source of investment, and on business. Way to go, guys. Hit us again! But Democrats fall for that every time. Every time. If the economy sucks, tax it. If it's in the death throes, tax it. If businesses are fleeing, tax them. Make it totally impossible--turn them all into lil' New Orleans helpless in the face of the winds of change and the rising tides of helplessness.

The article hints at, but doesn't nail down the problem. Unions. Stikes have killed small towns in Illinois, and big cities in Ohio. The guys at the top just move on; the little guys and the service industries and small businesses that grew up around the industry that the unions killed just have to suffer and look for hand-outs from Washington.

"Ohio's most crippling handicap may be that its politicians -- and thus its employers -- are still in the grip of such industrial unions as the United Auto Workers. Ohio is a "closed shop" state, which means workers can be forced to join a union whether they wish to or not. Many companies -- especially foreign-owned -- say they will not even consider such locations for new sites. States with "right to work" laws that make union organizing more difficult had twice the job growth of Ohio and other forced union states from 1995-2005, according to the National Institute for Labor Relations."

Hillobama rides into town on the white horse ass and the crowds part and faint and think someone will rescue them. But after they grab the vote, they'll be gone and the plants will still be closed. Short of throwing the remote at the TV, what's a voter to do?

The MCC Mailing list

It's a lot easier getting on a mailing list than getting off. After the Tsunami, I sent relief money to the Mennonites, people I figured could be trusted to run a program economically and see that it got to the places that needed it most. Years ago I'd done some research and they seemed to have the lowest overhead, with the most dollars going to the neediest. Later, I found out that their money was co-mingled with a larger church organization, one that never presents Christ as an alternative. Forget rice-Christians! There'd be no Christian propaganda handed out with their food and blankets.

But the Common Place magazine, a bi-monthly that reports on the activities of the Mennonite Central Committee, sponsored by Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churchs in Canada and the USA, just keeps coming. I suppose I could e-mail them and ask to be taken off the list--after all, I want my funds to go to people who will preach, not just demonstrate, the good news of Jesus.

The latest issue reports that MCC is planning to grow its educational sponsorship program from $1.5 million a year to $5 million a year by 2017. Why? To help "children develop a sense of identity and history and thereby enables them to engage the stories and histories of others." Isn't that odd? Not so they can earn a living, or enjoy good literature, or read the instructions on their medicine, or read the Bible, but so that can "engage the stories and histories of others." Then further gooble-de-gook--education will enable children to "uncover the questions" and will happen "where love and curiosity are present." Huh?

From that, he's on to educating girls because they stay in the community and become leaders. I worked in the agriculture library in the 1970s on a government grant and the U.S. AID believed the same thing, so they were focusing small credit grants and water projects on the women, who were the farmers and gatherers. The men just waged war, hunted and watched the women work. I'm not sure what happened to those Department of State programs I helped with 30 years ago, but Africa is still terribly poor and the only countries moving ahead are those that have been able to attract investment and create stable governments, avoiding hand-outs.

Maybe the Mennonites have another magazine for the U.S., but I didn't see a single story here about the United States. I guess we've got poverty licked with all our government programs (actually, that's close to the truth). This issue includes Yasir and Kawthar Abed in northern Iraq; Amira Slawa whose father was slain by Iraqi police in 1987; Puja Rana in Kolkata, India; Priya Bhadani and her family in Kolkata, displaced 15 years ago; Ayesha Kader who works in an MCC office in Kolkata; Ismael Ramiro Cucul Rax of Guatemala who is in a Saturday school sponsored by MCC; and then shorter blurbs about school kits, puppets, scholarships, Hurricane Felix relief, farmers in Zimbabwe, ex-offenders in Saskatoon, suffering in Colombia because of a local war, helping children in North Korea with food shipments (note: the Communist government of N. Korea has killed millions of its own citizens by starvation, and now western countries and Christian programs are bailing them out); a garage sale in Winnepeg to pay for scholarships for children in India; and a Mennonite living in a seminary owned by the Chaldean Church in Iraq.

According to Matt 25, these people are Jesus, and so it is a wonderful privilege to serve Him (them). But then who will be Jesus for them? The Beatitudes are not a list of rules and guidelines for Christians to follow concerning the poor and down trodden. They are an announcement, based on the OT book of Isaiah, of who Jesus is. I didn't see a word about Jesus Christ in the entire issue.

Sleeping with cats

Actually, I only sleep with one cat, and she has certain habits. In the evening, she will only sleep on my husband's thighs in his lounge chair. Yes, she'll move if she has to, but then she's right back. I'm not 18" away on the couch, but it has to be his legs or nothing. If he's in Haiti, she'll sleep on me, but I don't watch much TV.

Then about 11 p.m. it's my legs, on the bed spread, never under it. But if I wake up about 3 a.m. and can't sleep because she's been rattling the window blinds, I get up and go to the guest room. She follows, thinking, hoping it might be time for breakfast. I'm all settled in, the TV on quietly picking up one of the few channels I can get in that room with no cable. Then THUMP. She's in bed with me. This time, she wants to be under the covers, kneading my tummy 'til we both go to sleep. It's the only time she wants to be under the covers. As soon as I move or roll over, she jumps out.

But this morning there was a mishap. As she struggled to get out of the covers, she landed on my face. I raised my arm to protect myself and she dug in her back claws (no claws on the front which makes a cat's balance unstable). Wow, did that hurt. She got me on my lower lip which started to bleed. So it was into the bathroom to mop up. She looked embarrassed. She didn't mean it. I overslept until 5:45.

A poem for today's dilemma

From a story I heard at the coffee shop today.

Health Insurance Woes

Look at me strut
and show off my stuff.
Can you see my thong?
It's not so tough.

I can barely move--
my jeans are so tight,
And guys look at me so,
now, that just ain't right!

At the top of my grade
and the job is secure,
three kids and a guy,
my home life is sure.

Except for my shape--
He wants implants for me!
Would S-CHIP cover it?
I think I'll go see.

I thought it was a cheap shot lie

Those right wing talk show hosts--at it again, misreading or misquoting, I thought. No woman with an Ivy League college degree and big bucks income would be advising other women to go into "the helping professions," not with feminists and progressives whining about the lack of women in the board rooms of America! But there it was, in Byron York's column. Michelle Obama speaking to my fellow Ohioans, telling them not to strive, not to be proud, not to struggle, not to become wealthy or even middle class, but to become--government workers. Weeee! Then you can qualify for SCHIP and EITC--if you're really lucky, maybe you can sign up for free lunches and breakfasts for your kids! Oh, for shame, Michelle.

"A former attorney with the white-shoe Chicago firm of Sidley & Austin, Obama explains that she and her husband made the choice to give up lucrative jobs in favor of community service. “We left corporate America, which is a lot of what we’re asking young people to do,” she tells the women. “Don’t go into corporate America. You know, become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse. Those are the careers that we need, and we’re encouraging our young people to do that. But if you make that choice, as we did, to move out of the money-making industry into the helping industry, then your salaries respond.” Faced with that reality, she adds, “many of our bright stars are going into corporate law or hedge-fund management.”

What she doesn’t mention is that the helping industry has treated her pretty well. In 2006, the Chicago Tribune reported that Mrs. Obama’s compensation at the University of Chicago Hospital, where she is a vice president for community affairs, jumped from $121,910 in 2004, just before her husband was elected to the Senate, to $316,962 in 2005, just after he took office. And that does not count the money Mrs. Obama receives from serving on corporate boards. She would have been O.K. even without Jack’s magic beans.

This was apparently a carefully worded slam at Hillary's daughter, near as I can tell, because the Obamain couple certainly aren't poorly paid government workers, unless being a Senator and a veep at a hospital count.

If you want to make your life count, get that top flight job--make the 6 figure income, then take a buy out or retire at 55. Then do the service opportunity you've always dreamed of, or set up a foundation. Don't spend your best years tied up with government red tape, driving druggies to the food pantries supported by the USDA so farmers can over produce, cleaning up feces in the parks inhabited by homeless who've been turned out of their safe institutions by earlier do-gooder theories, don't put your life in danger with vile students that the school administrators have decided are safe to transfer to your classroom from an even worse school, don't become a paper shuffler with tenure and civil service protection. Work someplace that has competition and standards, that will demand the best of you, challenge your mind. Earn a decent living and if you want to live modestly, donate to a program that is entirely out of bounds for the government--like saving abandoned animals or babies about to be aborted or become a safety net for your parents.

Don't ever, ever listen to a rich woman saying you shouldn't be rich like her!

Heeding the warnings

Driving to the bank this morning after my walk, I pushed the radio buttons and got that monotonous recorded weather channel. Storm warnings. Flooding. But the sun is shining and it's a delightful spring day. Snow. Sleet. Ice. Flooding. Starting tonight. It's already in Indiana. Make appropriate preparations now for those of you in [three] Ohio counties.

I glanced in my rear view mirror and the woman driving the small red Ford truck was puffing away on her cigarette like a hungry baby at the breast. I'd just cleaned my back window on the van and I could see her pasty, pale skin, wrinkles and slack skinned face--puff, puff. Her male passenger looked worse--he was obese, with jowls hanging over his coat collar, and even more pale. In Ohio, we know what pale in March means--it's been a long, dark winter. But these folks were sickly pale, not Ohio-winter-pale. Cigarette, oxygen deprived pale. She's read the warnings; she's heard the warnings; at least one loved one, and maybe 20, have told her to quit. She's looked in the mirror and it's told her to quit. She knows the only cigarette that works is the first one--the rest are just habit.

Heeding warnings. Flooding or smoking. Who listens? "It will never happen to me" plays much louder.

4688

George W. Bush is right about a lot of things

Not that right is popular. Not that right doesn't bring unintended consequences. Not that right will unite the people. He's definitely right about these--either morally, spiritually, politically or economically--but not all for each. In no particular order.

1. George W. Bush is right to keep his very talented, beautiful, smart, librarian wife at his side, in the sidelines, and in the bleachers cheering him on, supporting him, but not making policy. I like Laura Bush a lot; I didn't vote for her. I didn't even realize how important this was to me until I've watched Bill Clinton and Michelle Obama in the current campaign. Way too much focus on them and what they say and think. And Hillary Clinton, too, when she was First Lady is probably the best reason for the spouse to stay by the president's side and not under foot. Part of the hostility toward her from conservatives and libertarians is the way she tried to take over important segments of the economy when she had no elected office, nor ever had one. Her "35 years" experience mantra includes her years as a President's wife and a Governor's wife. That makes her as big a cheat as her husband in my mind.

2. George Bush was the right man to lead us calmly out of the chaos that followed 9/11. In my life time, I'll probably not see two stronger leaders in a crisis than George W. Bush and Rudy Giuliani.

3. George Bush was right to cut taxes to release money for investing in the U.S. economy, thereby helping American workers and the global economy both, strengthening us all around. The cut in taxes put many Americans to work, and also brought increased revenue into the coffers of the federal government--which may or may not be positive considering our Congress will spend all it gets. But it is a far superior plan than punishing success and driving our investment money overseas so foreign workers benefit.

4. George Bush was right to veto the huge SCHIP increases last fall, leaving the dismantling of private health insurance to be on the conscience of the Democrats. The 1997 SCHIP was Hillary's plan to begin with and she will see to it, either as a senator or president, that we all come under the government's thumb, that all but the richest in society, or our highest level government officials, will have low level, dumbed down universal care.

5. He was right to invade Iraq and remove Saddam from power and to free millions of Afghans from the control of the Al-Qaeda. We won the war, but huge mistakes were made on the clean up. The biggest mistake was not securing the borders, something Americans aren't very good at. Also, although it was not his fault, he listened to the intelligence gathered in the previous administration about WMD accepting the wholehearted but duplicitous support of the likes of Kennedy and Edwards, Kerry and Clinton. He was mistaken that they would keep their word the way he does. He cannot be moved once he sets a course; they waffle, blow in the wind, and melt in the heat of unhappy supporters. Huge mistake to trust them.

6. Bush was never better than in his choices of John Roberts and Samuel Alito for Supreme Court. I'm still wondering if that misstep of nominating Harriet Miers was just a tease--to show he could nominate a woman knowing she couldn't be confirmed. It's not in the same category of turning over policy to your wife, but it lost him a lot of friends among Republicans who questioned his sanity! These two men, along with Clarence Thomas, are our best chance of keeping a tricameral federal government, instead of a court that makes laws, a president who keeps his wife happy dabbling in policy while he fondles female staff, and a Congress that just passes out the bacon slabs to each other, crossing the aisle with a wink and a handshake. If you think Bush has too much power, ask yourself why Hillary with "35 years experience" or Obama with the power of his charming personality, will fix it if not by usurping more power from the other branches?

7. George Bush was right about stem cell research. By forcing researchers to go back to the lab and look beyond using human embryonic stem cells of 4-5 day old embryos (pre-born human beings), he rescued our nation from a worse ethical dilemma and battle than abortion and slavery, earlier versions of devaluing life in our history. Embryonic stem cell research was never illegal, but he forced the researchers to look beyond the American people for the money--and private sources wanted to see results--but there were none. Many millions of lives will be saved because GWB stood fast.

8. Morally, he was right to be concerned about our schools failing so many of our children, leaving millions of kids behind and unable to function in our technological society. The results from NCLB haven't been great, in my opinion because the federal government's hold on education was way too big to begin with. It should not be allowed to reach into the classroom and tell a student how to behave or a teacher to teach. But that certainly didn't start with Bush. He took on the teachers' unions, even though they didn't have the answers either. Standards weren't being met. Crummy teachers and awful school administrators had protection. Well, being morally right, but wrong in outcome gets a president no friends, plus he's spent more on education than any president before him and still the kids are failing. Indirectly, he's proven once again that more money isn't the answer.

9. Morally, he was right to care that millions are in our country illegally taking jobs from Americans, weakening our neighbors to the south, and experience personal suffering. Trying to fix the horrible 1986 law that allowed this with bits and patches just isn't practical--it was a social experiment of the 1960s gone bad--the belief that too many Europeans and white people were immigrating and we needed more brown, black and Asian to be "fair." Plus it cost him the support at the grass roots--those Americans who do not think La Raza should come here and take back 4 or 5 states because they don't like the outcome of the 19th century Mexican War. That's history. The backing of big unions and big business really make this amnesty issue look messy for Bush, and it didn't win any friends among the Democrats. Playing fast and loose with core beliefs in a mish-mash of bipartisanship never helps either side.

10. Morally and spiritually, he was right to want to reach out to Democrats to unite the people and heal all the hostility of the Clinton years in the 1990s. We hear Obama preaching the same sermon. But that's another thing that won't happen in my life time. George W. Bush is not a true conservative, but he is a Republican, and so on both sides of the aisle, he's got problems. He's bitterly hated and opposed because of the 2000 election and no amount of good ole boy glad handing will change that. Cowboy, that's a tough dogie to rope.

11. Economically and morally, he was right to try to fix Social Security, even as his own party gave him little support and caused his good intentions to fail. All the successful retirees I know have a combination of the plans he wanted--403-b, 401-K, IRA, and private investments. Government employees have such a plan. Unfortunately, leaders of both parties fought him on this and I'm left to believe that they have a vested interest in keeping a large part of the elderly population poor and dependent on government handouts. It buys votes, is the only explanation I can come up with.

I tried to make this a tidy list of 10, but George has just done too many things right in his 7 years as president.

Grain into gas tanks

for the global warming hoax, the unintended consequences. WaPo reports: "Soaring Food Prices Putting U.S. Emergency Aid in Peril: The U.S. government's humanitarian relief agency will significantly scale back emergency food aid to some of the world's poorest countries this year because of soaring global food prices."

Does AD/HD really exist as a disorder?

It's been a busy day. I walked about 45 minutes inside the church for exercise, then walked through an exhibit in the narthex of an organization for people interested in AD/HD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and learning problems, then went to women's Bible Study (Jennifer Rothschild), then helped a friend with her MS Walkathon mailing, adhering labels, stuffing envelopes, sorting zip codes and stuff. In my walk through the narthex I looked at some of the vendors materials and picked up some reading material. I also noticed that about 99% of the people attending and the vendors were women, although supposedly most of the people with this disorder are males.

I'm concerned that what is probably fairly normal little boy or male adolescent behavior, at least at the milder end, is labeled, pathologized, medicated, and sometime criminalized. I picked up a free issue of Attention, December 2007, published by an organization called CHADD, Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder. Leafing through it, I see that AD/HD has become a big business in the last 20 years. Here's the advertising I saw: many colleges and special schools; the drug Concerta; the drug Vyvanse; a study funded by the government to see if there are specific genes that contribute to AD/HD; special summer camps for AD/HD kids; transitional curricula for getting into college; boarding schools; nutritional supplements; numerous appeals to send money to or join CHADD, which has special VISA cards, vehicle donation, workplace donations through United Way, a discount medical insurance card, estate planning and a corporate contribution program; special toys for LD kids; and special watches for behavior modification and self-monitoring for medication.

There was an article on having a proactive strategy to deal with difficult behavior, such as each parent having a role, establishing a daily routine, teaching organizational skills, and clearly communicating your expectations and being consistent. Fine. I have no problems with those. But the #1 strategy? Well, the author called it "Maintaining a disability perspective,"--in other words, seeing that your child has a legitimate medical condition that undermines self control. The worst article was "The price we all pay," with the most outlandish statistics I've ever seen in my life, none with citations. Would you believe that incarceration costs due to AD/HD (40% of the prison population) cost over $16 TRILLION just for the AD/HD prisoners. That's so bizarre, I can't even imagine it got past the editors.

"Signs of [ADHD] may be minimal or absent when the person is under very strict control, is in a novel setting, is engaged in especially interesting activities, is in a one-to-one situation, or while the person experiences frequent rewards for appropriate behavior" (DSM-IV, p. 79). How many diseases or conditions--like depression or diabetes, OCD or cystic fibrosis--go away or are controled with attention from someone else? Is drugging children worth it, if keeping them busy with interesting things or other rewards work too?

We are pathologizing our children--especially little boys. Send them outside to play; get them a rowing machine for raining days. Turn off the TV. Hire someone to teach them tennis or horseback riding. Give them interesting and exciting things to do--like work. If medication is necessary, have something prescribed for you.

Update: I e-mailed the editor with a list of questions and received a reply: "That $16 trillion figure was the author’s mistake, and we regret that the error was not caught prior to publication. Please see the correction of that figure, which was published in the February 2008 issue of the magazine." She also said that references for the article are in the on-line version. That's really poor form, in my opinion. If they are printed with the article, it is much easier for the reader to spot the mistake. If I hadn't just read the Pew article, I probably would have skipped over it. But at least she responded. When I published in library journals in the 90s, the editors selected and checked, and the peer reviewers checked, and then I had to check the galleys.

An economist looks at illegal drug costs

Boston University Economist Jeffrey Miron argues on University of California TV that legalizing drugs would lower the crime rate, cut the demand for guns, reduce the spread of AIDS and improve race relations in this address to the UCSD Economics Roundtable. Series: Economics Roundtable [Public Affairs] Take a look and see if you think this makes sense. The speech was given in April 2000. So some of the figures may be out of date. The incarceration rate is probably higher.

He is not a boring speaker, however, if you prefer to read high lights from his book, check here.

Record high ratio of adults in prison in today's USAToday.

Not an urban legend, unfortunately

Guest blogger today is my high school classmate Jon (without an h as he always reminds me). He sent along this sad, sad story via e-mail about "dusting" written by a Cleveland area father/police officer whose son died as a result of inhaling a product, Dust Off, the father purchased to clean his computers. It's been going around the internet since 2005 according to Snopes.com, a web site that checks out these stories, and it gives additional information.

"First, I'm going to tell you a little about me and my family. My
name is Jeff. I am a Police Officer for a city which is known nationwide for its crime rate. We have a lot of gangs and drugs. At one point we were #2 in the nation in homicides per capita. I also have a police K-9 named Thor. He was certified in drugs and general duty. He retired at 3 years old because he was shot in the line of duty. He lives with us now and I still train with him because he likes it. I always liked the fact that there was no way to bring drugs into my house. Thor wouldn't allow it. He would tell on you. The reason I say this is so you understand that I know about drugs.

I have taught in schools about drugs. My wife asks all our kids at least once a week if they used any drugs. Makes them promise they won't.

I like building computers occasionally and started building a new one in February 2005. I also was working on some of my older computers. They were full of dust so on one of my trips to the computer store I bought a 3 pack of DUST OFF. Dust Off is a can of compressed air to blow dust off a computer. A few weeks later when I went to use one of them they were all used. I talked to my kids and my two sons both said they had used them on their computer and messing around with them. I yelled at them for wasting the 10 dollars I paid for them.

On February 28 I went back to the computer store. They didn't have the 3 pack which I had bought on sale so I bought a single jumbo can of Dust Off. I went home and set it down beside my computer. On March 1st, I left for work at 10 PM. Just before midnight my wife went down and kissed Kyle goodnight. At 5:30 am the next morning Kathy went downstairs to wake Kyle up for school, before she left for work. He was propped up in bed with his legs crossed and his head leaning over. She called to him a few times to get up. He didn't move. He would sometimes tease her like this and pretend he fell back asleep. He was never easy to get up. She went in and shook his arm. He fell over. He was pale white and had the straw from the Dust Off can coming out of his mouth. He had the new can of Dust Off in his hands. Kyle was dead.

I am a police officer and I had never heard of this. My wife is a nurse and she had never heard of this. We later found out from the coroner, after the autopsy, that only the propellant from the can of Dust off was in his system. No other drugs. Kyle had died between midnight and 1 AM. I found out that using Dust Off is being done mostly by kids ages 9 through 15. They even have a name for it. It's called dusting. A take off from the Dust Off name. It gives them a slight high for about 10 seconds. It makes them dizzy. A boy who lives down the street from us showed Kyle how to do this about a month before. Kyle showed his best friend. Told him it was cool and it couldn't hurt you. It's just compressed air. It can't hurt you. His best friend said no.

Kyle was wrong. It's not just compressed air. It also contains a propellant called R2. It's a refrigerant like what is used in your refrigerator. It is a heavy gas, heavier than air. When you inhale it, it fills your lungs and keeps the good air, with oxygen, out that's why you feel dizzy, buzzed. It decreases the oxygen to your brain, to your heart. Kyle was right. It can't hurt you. IT KILLS YOU!

The horrible part about this is there is no warning. There is no level that kills you. It's not cumulative or an overdose; it can just go randomly, terribly wrong. Roll the dice and if your number comes up you die. IT'S NOT AN OVERDOSE. It's Russian Roulette. You don't die later. Or not feel good and say I've had too much. You usually die as you're breathing it in, if not you die within 2 seconds of finishing 'the hit.' That's why the straw was still in Kyle's mouth when he died. Why his eyes were still open.

The experts want to call this huffing. The kids don't believe its huffing. As adults we tend to lump many things together. But it doesn't fit here. And that's why it's more accepted. There is no chemical reaction, no strong odor. It doesn't follow the huffing signals. Kyle complained a few days before he died of his tongue hurting. It probably did. The propellant causes frostbite. If I had only known. It's easy to say hey, it's my life and I'll do what I want. But it isn't. Others are always affected. This has forever changed our family's life. I have a hole in my heart and soul that can never be fixed. The pain is so immense I can't describe it. There's nowhere to run from it. I cry all the time and I don't ever cry. I do what I'm supposed to do but I don't really care. My kids are messed up. One won't talk about it. The other will only sleep in our room at night. And my wife, I can't even describe how bad she is taking this. I thought we were safe because of Thor. I thought we were safe because we knew about drugs and talked to our kids about them.

After Kyle died another story came out. A probation Officer went to the school system next to ours to speak with a student. While there he found a student using Dust Off in the bathroom. This student told him about another student who also had some in his locker. This is a rather affluent school system. They will tell you they don't have a drug problem there. They don't even have a Dare or plus program there. So rather than tell everyone about this 'new' way of getting high they found, they hid it.

The probation officer told the media after Kyle's death and they, the school, then admitted to it. I know that if they would have told the media and I had heard, it wouldn't have been in my house.

We need to get this out of our homes and school computer labs. Using Dust Off isn't new and some 'professionals' do know about. It just isn't talked about much, except by the kids. They all seem to know about it.

April 2nd was 1 month since Kyle died. April 5th would have been his 15th birthday. And every weekday I catch myself sitting on the living room couch at 2:30 in the afternoon and waiting to see him get off the bus. I know Kyle is in heaven but I can't help but wonder if I died and went to Hell.

Jeff Williams
Cleveland, Ohio"

Scary stuff! I remember about 25 years ago our neighbor's son who was regularly picked up by his father and step-mother at our neighbor's house, died on one of these visits from inhaling refrigerant and never came home to his mother. I think his father was a distributor and never realized his son and friends were experimenting until it was too late. Before talking about drugs, I think parents need to first tell their kids that everything they hear from their friends about sex or drugs or alcohol or cigarettes or driving a car is probably a lie. Tell them around age three. Then go from there.