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Visual pollution

Most people recognize this kind of pollution

as seen from the north side of our Mill Run UALC campus
but they'll walk right by this disaster sitting in our front yard on the south side of the church.
Let's not put in place environmental solutions that cause more problems at the local, national or global level.

From Petrarch: "It occurred to me to look into my copy of St. Augustine's Confessions. . . where I first fixed my eyes it was written: “And men go abroad to admire the heights of mountains, the mighty waves of the sea, the broad tides of rivers, the compass of the ocean, and the circuits of the stars, yet pass over the mystery of themselves without a thought.” "

From the Brazil [Portuguese] journal Cad Saude Publica Nov-Dec 2002: "Interviewees defined garbage as anything useless and considered it a problem whenever it accumulated in the surroundings producing a bad smell or visual pollution, attracted animals, caused disease in children or adults, or was shifted from the individual to the collective/institutional sphere of action to solve the problem."

Update: One commenter asked if I had picked up the trash I photographed (in the park that adjoins our church property), and the answer is YES! I took a plastic bag with me, and one of those long grab hooks and cleaned up quite a bit that I could reach--I also do that along Kenny Road because people throw things out of cars, and along Turkey Run. I hope someone else will remove the UALC VBS signs at the street intersections on public land. They are a safety hazard.

Oops of the day

When I left the house this morning, I picked up the bag of scooped, smelly kitty litter to deposit in the trash can. But when I opened the car, I still had it with me. Oops.

I was looking at a blog today that had a big clickable photo on the side column entitled: Astrology photo of the Day. That's odd, I thought. I clicked on it and Yes, it was Astronomy photo of the Day. Oops.

Orlando repackages its bakery overages under the word "Oops," and I saw them at Marc's today. Got 6 huge freshly baked sandwich buns for $1.00.

The polls have closed in Indiana, but a judge has ordered them to stay open in the Chicago suburban area of northern Indiana--Obama territory. Oops.

Marc Dann hasn't resigned, that I know of, but the Ohio Dem webpage has removed his name. Oops.

Dinner on the deck

What a gorgeous day! The photo is April 2006, but it looks much the same today. 79 degrees this evening. We had dinner on the deck--roast pork, brown rice with mushrooms and onions, peas, and sugar free chocolate cookies and ice cream. We saw yellow warblers, robins, cardinals, mallards and a hawk. Usually a few bees try to join in, but this evening they were out chasing their own dreams. Our neighbor was planting flowers down by the creek.

I think our nearest tree, a locust that shades the patio and the deck, is about to give up. It's probably about 35 years old, and we can see that about 1/3 is not leafing out this spring. Most of our neighbors have taken theirs out and replanted. But you sure hate to lose a mature tree even one that is messy in the fall. Storms moving in tomorrow--the forecast is for 2-3 inches of rain on Thursday. Well, it was nice while it lasted.

Fixing up the United Nations building

One thing we can do in the United States to improve skylines (visual pollution), meet energy regulations (green goals) and politics (Marxist doublespeak) is knock down the UN building instead of restoring and repairing it. The building (in New York) is aging--it's now about 60 years old--and although in Europe that wouldn't mean much, in the United States, it doesn't meet code. I visited it in 1954 or 55, I think, with a Church of the Brethren youth seminar group. That's back when the youth were going to save the world. Dag Hammarskjold was told he had won election to Secretary-General on April 1st, 1953, and his first reaction was it was an April Fool's joke because he didn't know he was a candidate. It was and still is a joke. But the joke is on us. The organization is worthless and is a hole into which pour money.

Fixing a 60 year old building to bring it up to current standards? Keep in mind by the time you have to pay off all the crooks, the cost overruns should double or triple this figure.

"The contract for construction management was awarded to Skanska USA Building Inc. in October 2007. Under the accelerated strategy, the entire project would be completed within five years, so that construction costs ($195.4 million), as well as the swing space cost estimates, would be reduced. This led ACABQ to recommend on 18 October the approval of the accelerated strategy and the appropriation of $992.8 million for the biennium 2008–2009 budget." UN Chronicle

The US contribution to the UN budget is 22%. "The US budget is determined by Congress after the president makes initial requests. The Bush administration, for example, requested $1.26 billion for mandatory contributions to the UN, UN agencies and other international organizations for the Fiscal Year 2007 (October 1, 2006 to September 30, 2007). Included in this request was $422.7 million for the UN regular budget and $1.13 billion in peacekeeping dues." Fact sheet

Green Continuing Ed

I don't know what you have in your profession, but I must see dozens of this type of continuing ed, workshop, conference, and license points stuff every month addressed to my husband (who doesn't do e-mail). This one is from the US Green Building Council. For a lot of bucks, they'll keep architects, engineers and builders up to the minute, month after month, class upon class, on how to market their company as a greenie.

Go Dann Go!

Ohio's Attorney General is refusing to resign. He says he's rolling up his sleeves, zipping up his pants, and now he's ready to do the work of the people (Democrats ought to ban that phrase from their guide book for political hacks). Ohioans haven't had an impeachment since 1808--200 years. Our guys don't even know how to do it! Wonder what this will cost the taxpayers in lawyer fees? So the Democrats, the guys who wet themselves over former Governor Taft's unreported golf outings, are pulling out all the stops, pressuring him to resign. Things are so murky in the OAG's office that they definitely don't want a public trial bringing up all the dirt. Short of calling in the Clintons to knee-cap him, I don't know what else they can do.

Go Dann Go
by Norma Bruce

You're so defiant
You're not compliant
with standards and oaths
You're such an oaf
Go Dann Go!

You're ready to joust
Strickland wants to oust
from his party with pleas
and he's won't say please
Go Dann Go!

From 1808
to 2008
and now we've got Dann
who's everygirl's man.
Go Dann Go!

My Bob Taft poem

Book Club selections for 2008-2009

Last night our book club (now in its 26th year) met to discuss "Inside the Kingdom; my life in Saudi Arabia" by Carmen bin Ladin (Warner Books, 2004). Several of our members have been missionaries or have traveled extensively, so we had an interesting fashion show and delicious treats to reflect the theme.

We voted to start our meetings at 7 p.m. to get us home a little earlier (a quarter of a century ago most members were still putting children to bed), and at least for January and February, 2009, the meeting will be in a church lounge just to see if we like that, and if it will help in finding locations in the dark and snow! Changing the day of the month and from evening to afternoon didn't fly. All meetings are the first Monday, except September and January, when they are second Monday.

We also selected our titles for 2008-2009. A very strong field of 15 titles was voted on and the winners are:

September: Faith Club--3 women talk about their faith, what they learn about themselves and each other, non-fiction

October: The shack by William P. Young. This is an allegory, and we were warned that this book is so good, "You will read this, even if you don't read it now."

November: The Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi. A Sudanese woman, formerly an emigre to the Netherlands, now living in the U.S. "A good follow-up on lives of Muslim women to the bin Ladin book," said a member.

December: Once upon a town by Bob Green. A story about the little town of North Platte, Nebraska, that fed 6 million GIs during WWII. Easy to read for a busy month.

January: Educating Alice by Alice Steinbach. Reporter for Baltimore Sun talks about what she learns on assignments. Travel and diary.

February: Blood of the Prodigal by P. Gaus. Our mystery genre reader recommends a mystery about the old order Amish by an Ohio author. She said it isn't the strongest in the series, but it's the first and that's a good place to start.

March: Shaping of a life by Phyllis Tickle. Devotional material especially for women--growth and transformation. Some heard her at the Faith writers conference.

April: Two old women by Velma Wallis. Story of two Alaskan Athabascan women left behind so the rest of the tribe could survive. But they don't die. . .

May: Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. This will be our "classic" for the year--or a 2-fer, because some times we read a children's book. Two members actually recommended this. May is the meeting where we will select the next year's titles, and we'll meet at my place with Marcy being co-hostess. I'll add the other locations when I update.

We also had some terrific titles recommended that didn't make the cut, but I'll add them so you know your colleagues have found them enjoyable.

Three cups of tea, non-fiction; King Leopold's ghost, history; Gilead, contemplative; 90 minutes to heaven, autobiography; To kill a mockingbird, classic; Autobiography of Henry VIII, really fat novel.

How your body works

This is fun, animated and informative. "Getting Older"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23958246/

Subtle deficits in memory begin in the 40s; nerve clls for hearing don't regenerate; body fat doubles between 25 and 75. . . fun stuff.

Derek Jeter is boring

he says in an interview for Players Club magazine, my newest premiere issue featured at my hobby bloggy In the Beginning. He stays home and watches movies, and he'd like to get married and start a family. You may never read this article--it's a niche publication--intended only for athletes. Also, the magazine will have a shorter than usual life span. Lenny Dykstra, the founder of the magazine intended to help athletes with their wealth, is suing and being sued by his publisher, Doubledown Media.

Mandates driving up health insurance costs

As a state senator in Illinois, Barack Obama "voted to require that dental anesthesia be covered by every health plan for difficult medical cases. Today, the requirement is one of 43 mandates imposed by Illinois on health insurance, according to the Illinois Division of Insurance. Other mandates require coverage of infertility treatments, drug rehab, "personal injuries" incurred while intoxicated, and other forms of care.

By my count, during Mr. Obama's tenure in the state Senate, 18 different laws came up for a vote and passed that imposed new mandates on private health insurance. Mr. Obama voted for all of them." “Obama's Health Care Record” By Scott Gottlieb

Some bloggers

really have the touch. I was glancing through "Stuff White People Like," or something like that, and found some really interesting. . . stuff. Like 200-500 commenters on posts that don't say much, but are well written. I have no idea who writes it--white, black or brown, team or individual, male, female or transitioned, employed, on-the-dole or retired, rural, ex-pat or urban. The posts I read where intelligent, witty, observant, well constructed and illustrated. Whoever does it has a good eye, sharp wit, and writing skills that should demand a good salary. The website, however, can't handle traffic. I went upstairs, sorted the laundry, then went to the basement and loaded the washing machine; I fiddled with the dial on the radio to get Rush; reheated my coffee; made some notes on paper; all while waiting for the "about" page to load. No thanks. That's why I'm not linking.

Spring 2008 at Lakeside

Lakeside was a hopping place this past week-end--must have been a lot of boards and committees meeting, despite the heavy rains. We bought gas in Bucyrus at $3.46, compared to $3.65 in Columbus, and I picked up my Saturday coffee on the way in saving a 15 mile round trip and $.50 on the coffee. But our best way to make up for the higher cost of this trip over Spring 2007 was enjoying our first dinner at Evelyn's, spending about $14 less than our usual Friday night date in Columbus. That's the new name of the Abigail Tea Room, a Lakeside gathering place for over 50 years. Apparently everyone else had the same idea, because by 6 p.m. on Friday there was a line standing on the porch waiting to get in. What fabulous food! We started the season with perch sandwiches, not unusual for a restaurant on Lake Erie, but there were many wonderful items. We particularly enjoyed the warm, fresh baked potato chips, and the salads with crisp fresh ingredients, and the freshly baked, warm bread and rolls. Yes, the prices are a bit higher, but everything was so fresh and delicious. The new owners are Mary Martin and Peg Walsh, and if I heard the story correctly, they fell in love with Lakeside on their first visit, and Abigail's had just gone up for sale. According to their flyer, their mom, mother of 10, was a terrific cook, so some of the items I'm guessing reflect that love and interest. The adjoined cottages that make up the restaurant will remain this season, but I believe there are plans to separate them, using the one on the north as a residence, and rebuilding the other for the restaurant.

Other changes I noticed: the house across the street from Evelyn's, which I think used to be called Knight's Rest or something like that, is now a shrimp/coral color instead of white. I see there is an efficiency for rent for $395 a week. Couldn't read the price on the larger apartment. I think it is owner occupied, with two rental spaces. There was no shortage of cottages being fixed up. Jan's on Oak Avenue and Second is finally almost finished (huge problems with her first contractor), but painted a surprise robin egg blue--at least a surprise to my husband (her architect) who had selected a very different color scheme.

I stopped on Second to say Hello to Marilyn at her new location for Marilyn's Too. Last year she lost her lease, and had combined her two stores. This one has sweaters and carpets, some angels, Christian gifts, stationery. I stepped over the carpenter tools and new front door and took a peek inside. This shop is next door to Coffee and Cream.

And Third Street will certainly be more pleasant now that the couple who own Toys on Third and Home on Third have purchased the huge lodging at the corner of Third and Maple that had all the porches closed in to create more rooms, and it looked like an ugly box filled with old couches. It is being beautifully restored working from old photographs.

The Greening of the Rich

Andie MacDowell (movie star, 50) is taking a page from the home and gardening handbook of Al Gore and John Edwards, trading her 2.5 acre lot in the Blue Ridge Mountains (354 homesites) for one 3.5 acres. This way she can have a pasture and barn and more sq. ft. than she can possibly use. Of course, it wouldn't be Hollywood if it weren't eco-friendly. . . with riding trails and a golf course designed by Arnold Palmer. Seen at "Private Properties" in WSJ, but is also at Ecorazzi which seems to track this behavior by celebrities.

My great grandfather used to own land in the Smokies area (Dandridge), but sold it for a chance to make a living for his large family in Illinois. Back then (very early 20th century) it was just a hard scrabble living trying to farm on the sides of mountains. The story I was told, which might be apocryphal, was that he knew someone in Texas and someone in Illinois, but the train to Illinois came first.

The browning of green

"Kyoto has emerged as the single biggest threat to the global environment. Thanks to Kyoto, we are seeing a revival of megadams that threaten to destroy many of the world’s remaining river valleys, we are seeing a renaissance of nuclear power, which remains a costly and dangerous technology, we are seeing our foodlands turned into fuel lands, and people in the Third World rioting because they can’t afford the doubling of grain prices that has resulted."

Many scientists "who didn’t toe the government line lost their funding, were drummed out of their jobs, found it impossible to publish in crucial journals, discovered that they were pariahs in their academic departments, or were exposed to furious criticism in the press of a sort most research scientists will never encounter, including being compared to Holocaust Deniers by quite mainstream-media figures like Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes. That is certainly quite enough persecution to have a chilling effect on debate." Read the rest of the interview with the author of The Deniers.

Ohio's Attorney General is

Disgusting! His behavior, his apology, and his refusal to resign! This guy is unbelievable--or worse--maybe he's too believable. He's a man of the day--the rules are for everyone else, but not him, especially politicians. Marc Dann, it's time to get out of Dodge and let our former-pastor-Governor who ran on Christian values 2006, appoint someone who knows what an oath and vow mean, to say nothing of the laws about sex with your staff.

Is it only the Republican gay public servants who are held accountable? This is a heck of a lot more serious than text messaging house pages or a wide stance in the men's rest room! His office is described as a regular "animal house" by state employees.

Dispatch editorial: Scram Dann

The more things change. . .

This morning while waiting for my husband to finish his meeting, I opened the Wall St. Journal before using it to wrap the pizza to help keep it cold for the trip home from Lakeside. The articles included

soaring gasoline prices

food price inflation

consensus of 55 economists for gloomy report

Olympic athlete training was helped by new technology

newly started security firm in Iraq was struggling to find enough employees

Hollywood celebrities, joined at the hip with the Democrats, were reliving 1968 glory days in this election cycle

But wait! The date on the paper which I'd pulled out of the kitchen cabinet was August 13, 2004!

Gas prices and leisure activities

We're heading for Lake Erie today--yard work and spring house cleaning are on the agenda for our summer home. Gasoline is about 75 cents higher than the last time I went, and it takes about 10 gallons, so that's an additional $7.50 just this year, and maybe $10.00 more than last year at this time. That's about the cost of half a medium pizza in Columbus (if we were going to order one, which we won't), or a pack and a half of cigarettes (if we were smokers, but we're not), or 1/3 of our Friday night date at the Bucket (which we'll not be doing), or a little more than the cost of a new first issue for my hobby (of which there aren't many right now), or 1/3 the cost of a new best seller at the book store (wait for the library copy), or two Starbuck lattes (which we don't drink). I'll easily make up the difference if I just stay out of the Port Clinton Wal-Mart, or buy only the item I need (that wonderful Watkins skin product that I can only find there). So, it's not hard to make up the difference.

Here's the rub. For every item, meal or book we don't buy to make up for gasoline, that difference impacts the bus boy at the restaurant we don't go to, or the clerk in the coffee shop who didn't serve us, or the shelf stocker at the super market because we didn't select. We are a consumer society, and so when we stop buying to save money, which everyone can do, someone is hurt further down the line.

When you change the buying habits of a nation, the world has to change also. It's the reason why the price of rice, which is not a biofuel, goes up when environmentalists push the federal government to promote corn in our gas tanks instead of our processed food. It's a boon for farmers and Con-Agra, but causes food riots in Haiti and Egypt. People who would be buying wheat or corn, now grown on acreage that use to grow wheat, switch to rice, and the price of rice soars.

How do they find these financial wizards?

WaPo, in alerting us all to higher prices, lists the dire circumstances of people who must have flunked high school consumer ed.

Tracy and her partner also stopped buying the cereals they like in favor of whatever was on sale; stopped picking up convenient single-size packs of juice, water or crackers; and, in order to save gas, stopped going to multiple stores. "I find the whole thing a huge hassle, but I've reached a tipping point," said Tracy, a government human resources specialist who is pregnant with her second child. "Clearly, I'm not unable to feed my family. But I just can't feed my family the way I'd like to feed them." via Taranto who quoted WaPo

1. She's pregnant with her second child, but has a "partner" not a husband. Statistically, children raised by women who haven't married the child's father have a much greater chance of being poor.

2. She's been driving around to multiple stores rather than shopping in one place. Shopping was something to do rather than having a purpose.

3. She's been purchasing single serving items rather than managing her time and resources and doing some of the labor herself.

And Tracy, this government worker--who supposedly is high enough up to be called a "specialist," whines that this is the way she really wants to feed her family--by providing them the most expensive, empty calories she can find. Her preferred methods have never been good ways to shop--pick up any magazine sold at the check out and they explain it.

Food in the United States is still a tremendous bargain--it's been artificially low due to welfare--welfare for farmers. You don't need 23 types of crackers--maybe you don't need crackers at all. You don't need a strawberry latte--you can probably make it through the day with a plain, old cup of coffee at a fraction the cost and calories. You certainly don't save money in the long run by clipping coupons! You can get 10 lbs of potatoes for under $5 instead of buying 6 oz. of desiccated, dried and cheesed potatoes for $2.50 + a 50 cents off coupon. Shop the walls; buy fresh and add your own labor. Buying organic is nice, but considering all the really bad stuff your kid will eat when he can make his own choices, it's a bit over the top when prices are high. Eat out just once a week instead of 3 or 4, which is the average for working women.

I've served people at the Food Pantry that seem to know more about nutrition and how to feed a family than Tracy, interviewed for WaPo's clipping and scrimping story.

Minimum wage and unemployment

Both are up. We knew that would happen because the history of minimum wage shows that employers, especially the smaller ones, will eliminate positions filled by the marginally useful employee in order to pay for the increase for the more useful employee. Besides, it was a safe campaign promise in 2006. Only about 10 states weren't paying more than the federally mandated minimum. The minimum wage now is $5.85, but in Alaska it's $7.15, in San Francisco $9.36, in Ohio $7.00, and in Washington, $8.07.

Read what Amy has to say about the relationship.

What minimum wage buys is more votes. First, tell low income people that your party is their only hope; then when they buy into that, make sure they stay poor.

4810

Hot on the trail of grant money

“The future of humanity and the quality of our daily lives necessitate a deeper understanding of Earth’s climate system, which sustains all life and is now threatened and compromised by human activities (population growth, economic development and unsustainable resource use).” Executive Summary Proposal for a $12 million Climate, Water and Carbon Program (CWC) at Ohio State University (dated 2006, but now approved and funded). On the web page, it says they want to find out why there is “rapid” climate change, so maybe they threw that word WHY in there to cover all their bases just in case it's the sun or weather patterns. Could there be a possibility that humans aren’t causing it? And if so, how would you get money for funding a new program if you didn’t comply with scientific orthodoxy that already has a “consensus” on the cause and effect of the problem? I thought it strange that the research is going to be on Mt. Kilimanjaro, when most of Ohio used to be under a glacier, and some of Ohio's climate changed quite rapidly, as did Europe's and Greenland's. And imagine the carbon footprint those faculty and grad students will make flying back and forth to Africa!

Click over to “Is it Hot In Here?” to watch the lecture of Dr. Jay W. Richards of the Acton Institute on April 17, 2008. He explores the biblical foundations for our stewardship over the environment and its importance in the debate on Global Warming. He also discusses the mainstream views on Global Warming and answers four of the main questions concerning global climate change:

1. Is the earth warming?
   
2. Are we causing it?
   
3. If the earth is warming and we are causing it, is that bad?
   
4. Would the advised policies make any difference?

Dr. Richards notes that if all the countries could manage to comply with the Kyoto Protocol, the reduction in temperature would be so small as to be unmeasurable, and would cost $50 trillion--to accomplish nothing. He poses the question--is there a better way to serve the poor and mankind with that money? Clean water, perhaps? He reminds us that the climate has been warming since 1850 (cooling since 1998), but not since 1000, and for awhile in the 1970s there was a consensus on global cooling. He agrees that concentrations of C02 is going up, but we don't know why--it increases as the temperature increases, but temps go up first. He also ponders: Do we know what the optimum climate is? Why do we think what we've experienced in our lifetimes is what is best in the future, when it wasn't that way in the past? Since the CWC appears to actually be concerned about water quality (I'm glad someone is), perhaps they need to also take on a few economists--I didn't see any on the list of cooperating faculty looking for grant money, but they could be there.

And what about President Bush's new goals for 2050? According to Steven Hayward in Monday's WSJ, "the average residence in the U.S. uses about 10,500 kilowatt hours of electricity and emits 11.4 tons of CO2 per year. [To meet the adjusted goals,] the average household emissions will have to fall to no more than 1.5 tons per year. In our current electricity infrastructure, this would mean using no more than about 2,500 KwH per year." This is not enough to run the computers and lights for the CWC program at Ohio State. "The clear implication is that we shall have to replace virtually the entire fossil fuel electricity infrastructure over the next four decades with CO2-free sources – a multitrillion dollar proposition, if it can be done at all."

Oh yes, Dr. Richards says that predicitions of global disasters are always wrong, and if I heard him correctly, he also includes in that various predicitions of end-times by Christians.