Vespers, prayer and bratwurst

Until Molly Ziegler in WSJ covered the problems concerning a radio show cancelation at the LC-MS owned station, Issues, etc., I had never heard of this controversy. I did have to chuckle that concerned Lutherans are gathering for prayer and bratwurst to chew on the problem and solutions.

Interview with Molly Ziegler Hemingway on Issues, Etc.

Hillary H. Hoover

I'd planned to write an entry that the economic solutions that Miz Hillary is recommending were what President Herbert Hoover cooked up to fix the 1929 slump. It didn't work for him, and then FDR made it even worse, plunging the country further into depression. A true bipartisan mess. Well, this blogger already said it with links, so I'll refer you to Music City Oracle.

Hillobama must be products of the public schools. They don't know what happened in the 1930s with the economy, the 1950s in Korea (how our negotiated settlement of that war led to the deaths of millions of North Koreans by slavery and starvation), or the 1970s in VietNam (when millions of our allies were either sent to reeducation camps or murdered because of our abandoning them) and now they want that for the Iraqi people; they don't even see their current campaign and party problems as the outcome of their plantation mentality and gender gerrymandering.

Stuckert on race

I watched a program the other day where the topic, "What is race," was presented to teenagers. One question they were asked was, "What is the race of Barack Obama." I wondered that when I saw photos of him next to Jeremiah Wright, who appears to be whiter than I am (I'm German and Scots-Irish ancestry). The light skinned Wright made a reputation and followers with hate speech against whites; Obama, the darker one, was raised in Hawaii by white grandparents.

If research published in the Ohio Journal of Science 50 years ago is credible, then Obama apparently isn't the first African American who might become President of the United States. We've probably already had a few, if Robert P. Stuckert's research is correct (because the research was done in the 1950s, the immigration statistics or assumptions about Europeans made in his article would no longer be correct). I tracked the piece forward and see that Time Magazine picked it up in June 1958, and then others cited this work (usually not the original journal article, which probably wasn't held in many libraries, but others who had cited it) in the 1960s and 1970s and later. After leaving Ohio State, Stuckert later became Professor of Sociology of Berea College, 1975-1992, and also wrote on blacks in Appalachia.

Here's what he said in that 1958 article to point out that the idea held in the 1950s of racial purity was a myth. It was just recently added to Knowledge Bank at OSU.

"The data presented in this study indicate that the popular belief in the non-African background of white persons is invalid. Over 28 million white persons are descendants of persons of African origin. Furthermore, the majority of the persons with African ancestry are classified as white."

In 1950 he estimated that 21% of white people had African ancestry and 73% of American blacks had non-African ancestry.

The citation is, "African Ancestry of the White American population," by Robert P. Stuckert, Ohio Journal of Science, 58(3):155, May 1958. It was a revision of a paper given a year earlier.

Columbus Colored Pencil Guild Spring Show

The Visual Arts Ministry of Upper Arlington Lutheran Church (located in UA, Hilliard, and Columbus, Ohio) is pleased to present for the first time the artists of the Columbus Colored Pencil Guild. Their Spring Show will be at The Church at Mill Run, 3500 Mill Run Dr., Hilliard, OH 43026, 2nd floor gallery, between March 29 and May 8, 2008.

Formed in 2001, the CCPG meets monthly at the High Road Gallery, 12 East Stafford Avenue, Worthington, Ohio, the 2nd Monday, 7-9 p.m. They have teaching sessions and members share their work. New members are always welcome and there is no membership fee. If you've been looking for a way to express your artistic talent that won't require a huge investment in supplies, why not contact them? I bought a little pack of paper and pencils at Marc's today for $.99--just to doodle. The show is small, but mighty with cats and kittens, roses and lilies.

Also at the Church at Mill Run,

you'll find the work of photographer, Rick Buchanan, hanging in Library Lane (first floor, turn right as you go in the front doors). Rick's photography show hung at UALC, 2300 Lytham Road, Upper Arlington, in February and March. VAM has recently been using this space for smaller shows, and will continue to seek out artists looking for for show space (UALC doesn't take a commission and has the best space in town). You can contact VAM (call the church 614-451-3736). Our guidelines and show information are on the church web page, and we do follow them.

Also hanging in Library Lane

is the drawing by Lee Sattler, whose ballpoint pen art appears in the film "Dash," recently produced for submission to the 168 Hour Film Project. Lee attends UALC on the Hilltop and also appears in the film as do many other church members. The world premiere of the film, "Dash" will be held Saturday April 19, 2008, 7:30pm at the Church at Mill Run, 3500 Mill Run Drive, Columbus, OH 43026.

The final show

of this season will be the Upper Arlington Art League Spring Show, May 10-June 12, 2008, then we put the hanging system away for the summer (and for VBS). We are currently scheduling for 2009.

Why I worry about the Boomers

God bless 'em, are they ready? Ready for retirement? That story this week in the WSJ was really outrageous. Jennifer Levitz opened with a story of a 59 year old who is "postponing" his retirement. Then she moves to a liberal economist who says what is happening today hasn't happened since the Great Depression. Oh really? That was before my time, but I did hear a few stories from my parents, and grandparents, and it's insulting to their memory and struggles to be whining like this. According to the article, their homes are worth less (than when, a year ago?) and their stocks are worth less (than last quarter?) so that makes it worse than the Great Depression. With all the information available in books and on the internet, do these people never look at charts?

She also wrote about Ellen Minter, 57, who had a 6 figure income before retiring--she probably made more in a year than I did in a decade. She and hubby sold their San Francisco home and bought real estate in California wine country; he retired and then their portfolio started to collapse. He's looking for work again. Why, unless you are a boomer for whom the waters have always parted, would you think the good times would always roll? If they were willing to cut back I'm guessing they could still make it, but high living is addictive--isn't it?

I retired at age 60, but I wouldn't have even considered it if a very unusual thing hadn't happened. My mother-in-law died. Now, she was in her 80s and had been in poor health at least 20 years, so that part wasn't a huge surprise. She had outlived her husband (who wasn't ill) who had retired (actually was pushed out) and moved his pension into a privately controlled account, so she got it all at a time when the stock market was on its way up. Shortly before she died, it was on its way down again, and we were going to start dipping into her principle to pay for her nursing home care. Her three children shared her estate equally, which included the primary residence and some property in Florida. Never in a million years would we have expected a dime from my husband's parents. We invested the money and I decided the income plus my pension just about matched my income if I continued to work. Now, obviously, we'd have a lot more if I'd continued working and banking that, but for what? What if I'd died or became ill at 64? Who wants to die at the reference desk answering questions about Cushings Disease in dogs or cryptorchid horses? Time is money, and I'm a millionaire if minutes count.

In 1999 and 2000, while I was still working, my 403b had three bad, bad quarters, and had really flattened after a very nice run up in the 90s. There was a technology bubble that burst. From 2001-2007, I had three bad quarters. Probably the biggest run up in history. But what did we hear from the media and the Democrats? We were told we were in the worst economy since the Great Depression. We may actually be on the cusp of a recession, and why shouldn't we? Smart people and dumb people both made bad choices on real estate investing.

But the boomers have a lot of years left to live in retirement. I hope they breathe deeply and put away a little for a rainy, down down day, because there will be more. They will further be hurt if they elect a Democrat who promises to raise taxes, tries to destroy businesses and jobs with global warming scares, and won't make us energy independent.

A sign of the times

I noticed an engagement announcement in the paper today that had seven parents mentioned for the young woman and man who will be getting married in June. And I have seen eight.

VA healthcare providers

are entitled to immunity from medical malpractice claims as provided by the Federal Tort Claims Act according to an employment ad in JAMA.

$15,568 a year

is the personal cost of obesity, including medications and food according the Helmuth Billy--but he's got a dog in this fight since he's a gastric banding advocate and that's about what the operation costs. Noted in WSJ 3-31.

My heart breaks for Ellen Minter

who at age 57 retired and is barely scraping by on her portfolio after years with a 6 figure income and real estate in California wine country. She's sold her Chanel suits on e-Bay and her convertible and is just going to ride out these tough economic times, according to a WSJ tear jerker yesterday.

God in the classroom?

At another blog I saw someone speculating on those pathetic third graders who were plotting against their teacher--something about "that's what you get when you take God out of the classroom." Wasn't that in the 1950s that Madelaine Murray O'Hare brought her law suit to stop prayer? I think God's been gone from the schools for some time, and in many communities he was never too welcome.

Can churches end poverty?

Maybe--if they toughen their message on chastity and marriage instead of having conferences and meetings about it. In 1970, 71% of all U.S. households were 2 parent families compared to 51% in 2007. Larry Elder says the 38 most important words about poverty are: “Finish high school, marry before having a child, and produce the child after the age of twenty." Only 8 percent of families who do this are poor; 79 percent of those who fail to do this are poor.

The Bureau of Labor Chart

showing restaurant growth corresponding to the increase of women working outside the home since the 70s seems to parallel the climb in obesity.

The Ohio Historical Society

is scaling back its Archives hours from 3 days a week to 2 days because of a 2% budget cut. Ohio spends less on its Archives than any other state. Something doesn't sound right in this story which appeared in the Dispatch.

Guess which state

ranks no. 1 in the nation for technology in schools.

Give up?

Sure surprised me.

Limbaugh's silliness

His "operation chaos" is silly, and so is his claim "it's working." If the Democrats are going to fail, let them fall on their swords of divisiveness, poor planning, sense of self-importance and the American people wising up to their thinly veiled socialist rhetoric. He's always saying his listeners aren't mind-numbed robots, so let's assume they won't do anything stupid he suggests. McCain, on the other hand, is actively soliciting lukewarm Democrats to vote for him and offending Republicans by ignoring most conservative principles. This is really a strange election. Is it possible we have 3 Democrats running? A socialist, a liberal and a moderate?

By the way, I heard another reason to support McCain the other day--the third. It might be the last chance to elect someone from the generation born before the Boomers, like 1930-1945. (I think he was born in 1937.) That group hasn't had anyone in the White House. Bill Clinton and George W Bush are boomers. Reagan, Carter, Bush I, Kennedy and Johnson are/were Greatest Generation, all WWII vets. So that's three: national security, Supreme Court appointments, and his generation's place in history. Sigh. Any other ideas? Help me out here.

Update: Two more opinions at Thinklings on Rush's silliness:it's unchristian and unpatriotic, demeaning our vote.

The grocery cart chart

in today's WSJ showed how food costs have jumped since the Democrats took back Congress in 2006. The change in consumer price index for food at home shows 2006 at below 1% and Feb. 2008 at 5.1%. Ouch.

Actually, I don't blame the Democrats specifically, but I do blame them generally because of their liberal policies, and Republicans RINOS helped. George Bush may be a Republican, but fiscally he isn't conservative.

1) Hostility to big retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, Costco, etc. at the local level which drives up costs for the poor and deprives them of jobs. Wal-Mart brings down prices in the area.

2) Hostility to drilling for oil and development of new refineries. This keeps us dependent on foreign oil and raises our food costs (transportation).

3) Deeply held, fundamentalist faith that man controls the climate. Regulations put in place by fear of global warming (while China and India do nothing) are promoting changes to less efficient and not yet highly developed biomass fuels.

4) Scare mongering by the main stream, liberal press even when we were experiencing the best economic upswing since the post WWII years.

5) Victimization and dependency building of minorities and lower income workers, increasing their need for government intervention, such as the latest housing problems when the meaning of "Adjustable Rate" came as a huge shock to home owners with no equity.

6) The threat of higher taxes, which both Democratic candidates are promising, has really cooled interest in investing just as boomers begin their retirement years. Hillobama makes rich people and corporations who produce goods and services out to be demons and bad guys while they and their families live luxuriously and send their children to private school. Even Mrs. Obama who earns a 6 figure income encouraged low income women in Zanesville, Ohio not to dream or aspire to a better life but to choose a service (less than $40,000) career.

But back to the grocery cart. When Kroger started its "loyalty card" program about 8 years ago, they lost me as a loyal customer. Loyalty plans are just a fancy name for couponing, and I refuse to play games with my food. (The original coupon was a wooden nickle.) So I switched to Meijer's, a nice medium sized Midwestern chain that doesn't use loyalty cards and gimmicks to save the consumer money. However, the nearest one is over 5 miles from here, so I've been trying out Marc's on Henderson Road. It is a small Ohio chain, and looks pretty low end when you first walk in with crowded aisles and check out counters that don't move. But I've been pleased with their organic selection, meat and fresh produce. Also, I'm less tempted to stroll through the household section and add to my food bill by picking up things I don't really need.

4744 I'm no math whiz

Are these statements true? Mickey, a high school friend of my husband, sent them along. (People who e-mail my husband don't know he doesn't use the computer and that I read his e-mail first.)

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

The cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: $ 16,400

The percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28%, but the percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%

Q. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter 'A'? A. One thousand

Interesting.

4743

Liberal Christians who speak in tongues

The editorial last week in our SNP (neighborhood) papers by Lyndsey Teter was titled "Can Columbus churches unite to end poverty?" made me think of Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth (ca. 53 A.D.). Corinth was a wealthy city with a global commerce and a flourishing art center. I don't think the tiny Christian church necessarily participated in or built that wealth, but the Christians were exposed to it and suffered under its pagan influence, much like Christians today suffer and scatter under the influences of our hyper-sexualized, hyper-materialistic culture. It's hard to always know what local problems he was addressing since we don't have their letter to him, but we know this--pride in certain types of gifts and behavior when they gathered for worship was one of them, and Paul addresses this in Chapter 14.

Ms. Teeter first tells us that Columbus churches of various traditions will join for a revival on April 16 and set their faces to fight poverty in a "justice revival." It is being led by Jim Wallis of Sojourners, who "has come to represent the Christian left, a counter to right-wing pastors such as Rod Parsley of World Harvest Church. . ." [if there is a pastor representing liberal churches who are silent on the Gospel, she doesn't provide a name]. After 3 days of praise and worship, the Christians will fan out to do service projects. So far, I'm underwhelmed because every Christian I know, liberal and conservative, mentors, or visits the sick and elderly, or works with Habitat, or Big Brothers, or Kairos Prison Ministry, etc.

Then she continues: ". . .getting left-leaning and right-leaning Christians united under one banner may be its larger accomplishment. . . half in the pews believe fearlessly protecting the unborn and the sanctity of marriage are tops on the agenda, while the tree-hugging hippy Christians like myself think leaders have alienated potential church-goers by pushing those two issues to the surface. Improving the social conditions of people in this world ought to be far more important, we say."

This is a well-meaning liberal Christian "speaking in tongues," code for all the social justice language and meaningless programming we've come to expect from guilt ridden Christians who struggle with having more when some have less. Read her words carefully (and she's far more accurate than most journalists). Her error is this: Conservative churches are the ones growing; studies show conservative Christians are the ones that give sacrificially. Not only do they give to their own churches to support staff and programs, but they also are more motivated to give to non-religious, helping organizations like United Way and Red Cross. As individuals, they have left the seeker status and have moved on to response mode.

What I remember most from my years in the liberal church is that everyone was always looking for the TRUTH and never hearing it from the pulpit or in Sunday School or small social groups. So they would join Vaud-Villities or run for breast cancer or jingle a pail for Charity Newsies and hope that counted for something. They were like starving little chicks, peeping and pecking away at the rocks of government programs, pebbles of good works and gravel of mystical seances, while the beckoning plump mother hen with the Gospel clucked and called from nearby.

What makes her think that Christians of all stripes are not speaking to each other unless an outsider from DC brings us together? I regularly meet with other Christians who are pro-choice and believe in evolution. Their beliefs do not represent mine, nor mine theirs. I get e-mails about end-times and the rapture, and special healing and herbal recipes, also from well-meaning Christians.

Yet Lyndsey Teter says potential church-goers are being pushed away by stances [of conservatives] on gay marriage, abortion and euthanasia. Where? Membership and growth figures prove her wrong. Why not point out the potential church-goers who are put off by what they hear and find in liberal churches? It's terribly hard for a church to grow if it has no message except commissioning a task force to end hunger or hymns to a clean environment and a Mother-Father primal parent [God]. Potential members can join a non-profit or NGO and keep Sunday open for leisure and sports if that's the extent of the message.

In their zeal to "get along" or "make a difference," conservative churches often wander away from their core truth, the message of God's redemption plan for mankind, believing and preaching it as a good starting point instead of the whole point. I hope this event is not a sign that this is happening in Columbus to some of our larger, more dynamic evangelical churches.

Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air. . . Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, try to excel in gifts that build up the church."

Challenging the common view

The press release from the National Science Foundation didn't raise eyebrows in this household:

"New research suggests political freedom and geographic factors contribute significantly to causes of terrorism, challenging the common view that terrorism is rooted in poverty."

I am tired of poverty or the "wealth gap" being the dead horse constantly flogged by academics and politicians so they can line their own pockets with government grants. Everything from obesity to learning disabilities to the digital divide is blamed on poverty, to say nothing of terrorism domestic and international, as though the non-poor never have social, spiritual, psychological, political or economic struggles.

The NSF has an annual budget of almost $6 billion to research these things. And it took them this long to figure this out? Who says people with money don't have problems?

Don't judge Obama by his pastor!

Conservative media are having a blast rerunning video of Jeremiah Wright's racist sermons and repeating the story that Barack Obama should have done something about his pastor. There may be 50 reasons to not vote for Obama, but his pastor isn't one of them. People who say this don't understand the structure of Protestant churches. First of all, if you criticise the pastor, the assistant pastor, the Sunday School staff, the organist, or even the janitor, you will be told nicely, and with love, that there are other churches (probably 5,000 denominations) which can meet your needs and perhaps it's time for you to go look at the alternatives. Second, for millions of Christians, their church is their home base, their family in a society where the nearest relative might be 500miles away, or friends live on the other side of the city, 45 minutes away. Third, many Christians are "Chreasters"--they attend only on the big holidays, and sermons at Christmas and Easter are usually standard fare. Where would they go where they would agree with everything? Especially Obama. He was not a Christian before meeting Rev. Wright. He was raised in the home of his white secular grandparents. How would he know what he might hear elsewhere in another black church after he'd given up a mentor and his church family?

If people have asked why Chelsea Clinton didn't stop her mother from lying about Bosnian snipers, I haven't seen it discussed. But the dynamics are similar. She loves her mother and respects her, warts and all. They've been through a lot together. Where is she going to find another family who will give her the visibility and power few women her age have? She knows her mother was lying about having war experience; she knows her father is a philandering liar. Where is she going to get another family if she turns her back on them because of their lies?

4740

Poor, lonesome, soundless letter "C"

Lately I've been reading William Tyndale's New Testament, it's excellent introduction by Priscilla Martin, and Tyndale's introduction and prologues to the NT books (1534, based on the 1938 ed). It's amazingly easy to read--large parts of the King James Version are based on this translation. Getting the Bible into the language of the English people was the dream he died for (he was strangled and his body burned). Anyway, one speech form that hasn't been modernized in this 1534 translation is the use of -eth and -th at the end of verbs. No one knows what 15th and 16th century English sounded like--we have no recordings. And there are those who think the -th and -eth were actually prounced not with a lisp, but a hiss, as an "S." And if you've ever tried it, it makes reading those older English Bibles much easier. Many more people heard the word than read the word in those days. The KJV was meant for the ear. "For God so loveth the world, that he hath given his only son, that none that believe in him should perish, but should have everlasting life."

That lead me to thinking about the letter "C" which has no sound of its own in English, but which is essential in so many words. It is either an "S" or a "K" or is combined with a consonant "H" to be hard or soft ch or sh. Sometimes a C with a T has an SH sound--but it might have the same sound combined with an I. Sometimes it is just completely ignored, as the first C in SCIENCE. I've blogged about this letter before, as in "concrete cellar chute."


Our sermon series right now is on "Faith Training," and today's sermon by Buff Delcamp was on the word "run." These are the "C" words I noted during the service:

race
face
grace
church -- Russian has one letter for the CH sound, Ч ч
come
cross
coast
command
confidence
accepted -- this word has both the k sound and the s sound
acclamation --this word has two k sounds, side by side
challenge
peace,
picture
resurrection
choir
sanctuary
precious
Nicene Creed

Tyndale's translation changed the politics of England (yes, I know why Henry VIII left the Catholic church) with just a few words. He used the Greek manuscripts instead of the Latin Vulgate (Wycliff used that 2 centuries earlier) in his translation. This means that PENANCE became REPENTANCE (Mark 1:1-3), and CHARITY became LOVE (1 Corinthians 13). Ecclesia was translated CONGREGATION instead of CHURCH. This undercut the power of the Catholic church even without the doctrine of justification which was the big issue among the German Lutherans.

Isn't language interesting. And if you depend on a translation that is either a paraphrase, or is burdening you with 16th century English, then Tyndale died for nothing! He was a stickler for accuracy, beauty and sound.

Think local, act short term

You'll do far more good. Sixteen year olds are just not going to get turned on to a project to help their grandchild inherit a better earth. On our way to Worthington last night to have dinner with our friends Wes and Sue, we were stopped at a light at 315 and North Broadway. What a mess. There is trash--bottles, bags, old political signs, posters, grocery sacks, newspapers--embedded in all the branches and grasses, smashed up against the wire fences, and strewn along the easements and berms. I'm not sure if this is a county problem or a city problem, but I know it is a local problem. Everytime a piece of paper breaks loose from a garbage truck bin, it collects itself with other trash along a fence row. Everytime a wise guy tosses a beer bottle from the car window, he's invading my space. All the schools have community service requirements "to incorporate classroom skills with the real world." A few stints of cleaning up these areas instead of the cushy inside jobs at the senior center or the local library would probably teach teens a lesson they'd never forget. Litter hurts.

Night Terrors

On radio and TV, at 3 a.m. the weirdos come out to spread lies, terrors, fears and falsehoods. The radio guys are not quite as well funded as public TV so they just report on outer space aliens, faces in syrup on pancakes, and major government plots. The stuff that shows up on your tax supported public TV channels is a lot more anti-capitalist, anti-American and more subtly about government plots. They can make Jeremiah Wright (Obama's pastor who preaches black liberation theology) look like a beginner, but with less shouting.

This morning on WOSU-TV about 3:30 a.m. I came across "Unnatural causes: Is inequality making us sick," by California Newsreel--your source for "social justice." The title is a no brainer--of course they think inequality makes people sick. There was no discussion--it was incredibly lop sided. I don't know if Heritage Foundation puts out films on health, but if it does WOSU should provide equal time. In the few minutes I watched this propaganda, there was no information on wealth and class mobility (I've been in 4 of the 5 quintiles), or the wealth of households which have married parents compared to those that don't, or the fact that in Western countries with a base of socialized medicine, wealth will still buy a person a level of care (and speed) that the lowest paid subsidized worker can't have (we have friends in Finland and have seen this). We have many levels of government health care in the U.S., Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, the VA health care system, and the people who use it most effectively also use their private wealth just as in Canada, England, France, Finland, etc.

Every socialist, well-dressed think-tank CEO, consulted for this film from Warren Buffett to lobbyist, black, brown or white, was himself well-off--it was everyone else (oddly enough only since the 80s--hmmm, must be a clue) who was hurting. That's how they make their income (except Buffett whose wealth has softened his brain). No mention of the damage to the health and welfare of children that moving masses of women into the labor force since the early 1970s has done. Or the damage done to children who are scraped from the womb into garbage pails and never have an opportunity to earn any income at all. Most poor children don't have married parents. That's their gap. No, these folks want more money for daycare to push more children out of the home. And more power for government run schools (while they send their children to private schools). If only there were less of an income gap they say, there would be better health all around--i.e., redistribute middle class wealth into government grants for various pork infested programs. Maybe that will bail Arnold and California out of their spiraling debt?

After you get safe water, which we've had since the early 20th century, good health is primarily genetic and behavioral--remove the genes you inherited and your bad eating habits, your smoking and drinking, and see what this looks like. But don't compare the U.S. to countries that haven't become the home of immigrants from every continent's gene pool for 500 years.

I've composed a song just for California Newsreel to use in its trailers after viewing its list of high priced titles. Haven't got a tune yet.

California Newsreel Theme song

Oh sing along, along with me
about a socialist choppy sea
in which we all can drown drown
equally and all around 'round.

Oh, fiddle-dee-dee,
but not for me
I'm way too smart
for my good heart.

It's for you, it's for you
Your taxes, not just a few
Gimme, gimme oh let me see
The first cut will come to me!

Refrain:
Gimme, gimme oh let me see
The first cut will come to me!

Friday Family Photo 1968

Forty years ago, February 1968, I took my baby daughter to the Ohio State University Libraries catalog department, where I'd been a Slavic cataloger, to show her off. I had resigned when she arrived and didn't return to work for 9 years. Looking at this photo, what I find so remarkable is not how gorgeous she was, or that my winter coat had fur cuffs and collar, but how dressed up we all were. It almost looks like a party, but I had simply dropped by to let them see her. In those days, women library staff didn't wear slacks to work, and jeans were unthinkable. Look at that! High heels, jewelry--that's amazing. As skirts got shorter and shorter in the late 60s and early 70s, making it impossible to be graceful or comfortable, women welcomed the pants suit, and haven't looked back! And we did a lot of walking in those days--everything you did at your desk had to be checked and double checked in various printed sources or the card catalog. Looks like we stayed trim. The main building, Thompson Library on Neil Avenue, is closed now for remodeling, but at that time the catalog department was on the first floor approximately where the offices of the reference department staff were a few years back (technical services were in the basement since the mid-70s.)

If her lips are moving

Whether it is about her pre-Bush belief in the threat of WMD and Saddam Hussein, or dodging sniper fire in Bosnia, or the right wing conspiracy to bring down Bill with LIES about his sex life, or her financial scare stories about all the industries she currently denounces, you can't believe her. And the media mavens let us know what they think of truth (all quotes in today's USAToday) It's just not a big deal.

AP writer Ron Fournier: "over compensating"

Boston Globe, Joan Vennochi: "selective memory syndrome"

Slate, John Dickerson: "we should stop pouncing on every little thing"

David Brooks: "The candidates are sniping and we have to endure. . ."

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Cynthia Tucker: "snarling and vicious smears"

Update 3-29: Peggy Noonan thinks the press and some supporters might finally be wise to her.

4735

If I were younger

I'd buy a house. The bargains right now are fabulous compared to 3 or 4 years ago when buyers were bidding up the seller's price. And 20 years ago? My goodness! We got a mortgage at 10.5% and were happy to get it. We checked at our local bank this week about some property we plan to sell, and the rates for either conventional or FHA were 5.75%. That's lower than we paid in 1962 when we bought our first home, a duplex in Champaign, Illinois. We were in the bottom quintile, the down payment was a gift from my father, he took the 2nd mortgage so we paid on two mortgages (renters paid one), and we lived on the first floor and rented the second floor. Being a landlord is a huge hassle, particularly when you are 22 years old, but that rent put us where we are today. When we sold the house on land contract upon moving to Columbus in 1967, the mortgage payment also covered our car loan. Then it turned out the bank had made an error in calculating the principle, so we got a little unexpected cash bonus when the new owner finally paid it off. Young people today have many more options, but they complain more and are less willing to sacrifice. (My parents thought the same of us because they were young adults during the Great Depression.) One option that we didn't have, which was a blessing, was that banks would not consider a wife's income in figuring what you could pay. So many people have lived to the max the last 30 years that when the economy "hits a rough patch" as it will do in cycles, they have no resources.



By the time this photo was taken, the house had been painted charcoal grey, my husband had installed a separate door for the tenants, put a wall between the stairs and our apartment, and built a wall through the upstairs kitchen to create a small second bedroom. He also remodeled our kitchen, divided our dining room so we would have two bedrooms, and built a linen closet in the bathroom. He was quite handy with a limited set of tools. The basement had a dirt floor, so on damp days it could be creepy with crawly things. There was no garage, and although that looks like grass, I think it was mainly weeds. That's my mother's car on the gravel driveway from the brick street, but eventually we bought that too.

What are you waiting for? Here's some bargains I saw in today's paper: In Chicago, on north Astor you can get a Gold Coast penthouse with 10' ceilings, living room, dining room, 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths for $1,150,000. Fabulous location. If I could choose anyplace in the world to live (and had my children near by) it would be Chicago.

In West Virginia there are some bargain homesites at New River Gorge for $60,000. The only interesting property I saw in Ohio in the WSJ was an auction for 2-3 acres near Hinkley (isn't that where the buzzards fly to?) with wooded, scenic ravines. But there are great properties all over central Ohio.

Another one under the bus?

First Granny, now Tony. Does anyone in Obama's campaign like Jews? Tony McPeak's anti-Israel, anti-Jewish "comments are worse than McCarthyism [of which he accused the Clintons]. They reflect the views of Reverend Wright and other Obama advisers who believe that Israel is just a problem to be solved, not an ally to support.

McPeak is not the only member of the Obama campaign who holds such twisted views. Others such as Robert Malley or Zbigniew Brzezinski have found themselves downgraded to "informal" advisers as their anti-Israel views are made public. Samantha Powers was dismissed for calling Hillary a monster, not for sharing McPeak's belief in the malign omnipotence of the "Israel lobby."" American Spectator