Columbus Kids Perform at Capitol Theater

My husband is a mentor at Highland Elementary School and this year has helped in the science and math class. All the mentors were invited to see the children perform at the Capitol Theatre in the Riffe Building downtown. He said six schools from Columbus and one from Hilliard were included. The student bodies were distinguished by different color t-shirts. The theater was jammed with parents and relatives.

From a news release: "About 400 fourth and fifth grade students from six Columbus city schools and one Hilliard city school will perform as the culmination of BalletMet’s Momentum, a yearlong in-school program of BalletMet’s Department of Education. The event is free and open to the public.

All fourth or fifth grade students in the participating schools—Clinton, East Pilgrim, Highland, Literature Based at Hubbard, Leawood, Oakmont elementary schools and Hilliard’s Ridgewood Elementary school—take part in a weekly dance class during the school day as part of their curriculum. All lessons include an academic component, integrating Ohio Department of Education content standards. Also, participants get the unique opportunity to perform on stage for a live audience."

He said the performance was outstanding as the children reenacted the history of Ohio, from our 8 presidents to the underground railroad to the rock and roll Hall of Fame. Ballet Met also performed. It was a great finale to a fun year working with the children.

Upper Arlington Lutheran Church a few years ago took in as its third campus, Hilltop Lutheran, a church with a great physical plant but shrinking congregation, which gave us a presence on the west side and an opportunity for urban service. Many of our members volunteer at that school and the Sunday service numbers are growing.

Cooking from scratch saves money

And still does.

More about coupons, sweepstakes, refunding, over-lays, price increases. Everything except loyalty cards and internet coupons, which didn't exist in 1982.

Sept. 29, 1982, Columbus Dispatch

The new face of homelessness

is a woman driving and sleeping in her SUV. If you believe CNN news. I stopped to watch a feature about the plight of women in Santa Barbara or one of those upscale California coastal communities who were sleeping and living in their vans and SUVs. Their city had an ordinance about that, but had made a concession and opened a city parking lot 7 p.m.-7 a.m. where they could be reasonably safe. The info-babe interviewed two of them. As I recall, one had a job, but had lost her condo in foreclosure. Her daughter was staying with friends.

There were two huge holes (or more since I didn't see the whole thing) in the story. First, the economy has gone south since Democrats have taken over Congress with their big anti-Bush "we need to have change" push, but the implication is always that all problems reside in Bush's hip pocket. Second, one woman had at least 2 very large dogs in her SUV--either Goldens or Labs, and the other woman had 4 cats. Now pets are OK in your own property, but many, many landlords and agents will not accept pets. So even if you love your pets, even if you think they are your children, whose responsibility is it that you're sleeping in a van with dogs if you can't make other arrangements after losing your home?

This is the kind of inanity that passes for serious journalism--that even walking through the room and seeing 30 seconds of the story, I can figure out that much.

So I checked Google. The 67 year old with the 2 large dogs has 3 adult children and lost her job as a loan processor, but gets SS and works for $8/hr. One could live modestly in Columbus, Ohio on that, or probably even in rural California. However, on the left coast, most communities have ordinances to protect the environment and green spaces that have the unintended (or intended) consequence of keeping out the poor and working class folks. They usually don't allow the big box stores either that provide food and goods at a reasonable price for low income people. Now that she's "retired," she really can't expect to live there. She apparently never saved privately for her retirement, isn't married and isn't welcome to live with her adult children. There are 49 other states (well, except maybe Oregon and Wisconsin which are just as liberal) who will be happy to have her and where she can live with her pets, but she just may have to give up those beautiful ocean views and her unhelpful children.

A plan to save us

Paul D. Ryan's plan to save us from the looming entitlement crisis is so sound and so sensible, you know before you get to the last paragraphs that Democrats won't support it. Remember how they said in 2006 they had a plan? (Hope? Change?) Ha. The economy has plummeted since they took back Congress and scared everyone with their hot air, hair brained ideas to punish the successful and abandon our allies.

Ryan's plan requires a sense of personal responsibility, the federal government getting off our backs and to stop using our "trust" fund for other programs, the states reassuming some tasks they've let go, a more fair tax plan, and long range planning. These elements are really lacking in the general population, so it will be a tough sell. Millions have grown up wanting someone else to be in charge of their health, their education, their personal relationships and their pensions. Ryan suggests

universal health coverage . . .shifting the ownership of health coverage from the government and employers to individuals, providing a refundable tax credit – $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families – to purchase coverage

. . . modernizing Medicaid by giving states maximum flexibility to tailor their Medicaid programs to the specific needs of their populations

providing workers under 55 the option of investing over one-third of their current Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts

simplifing the tax codes rates and eliminating capital gains tax to stimulate investment(don't we hear that every 4 years?)

Sigh. But oh, we can dream.

Financial scare stories

When someone like Michelle Obama whines about being required to pay back the cost of her Ivy League education which has landed her a darn good paycheck on a non-profit board, I want to ask why she didn't just go to a state college or university. She still could have been a 2-fer and gotten special grants and loans but would have had much less to pay off.

USAToday ran an article last week on a 49 year old living in a million dollar California home with at least 15 years left until her retirement whining about her 401-K being down 4% and the dropping real estate values in her Redlands, CA neighborhood. Today it's a 30 year old married Bryan Short, merger and acquisitions lawyer scraping by required to pay back the college loans that got him this great job in one of the most expensive cities in the country. Do these journalists (who probably are free-lancers and making a fraction of the income of these whiners) ever want to kick them in the knee? Surely they didn't go looking for these stories!!

But the biggest lie in these financial stories is that Gen-X (1965-1980) and Gen-Y folks won't ever do as well as their parents. This is always quoted from left of center think tanks who testify before Congress on why there needs to be more government assistance. That's nonsense. All they have to do is live the way we did when we were in our 30s. Then a middle class standard of living was much simpler than today. Smaller homes, fewer cars, fewer toys. We had no cable bills, no broad band, no gaming devices, no cell phone bills and if we went out to eat it was on Sunday morning for eggs and toast, or Friday night for a pizza. We vacationed at my mother's farm one week and used the other week (after he got 2) to fix up the house. At our house we had one car and Mom stayed home, so there were no child care bills. If Bryan and his wife tried living at the very comfortable standard of living we had 35 years ago, they might be surprised how quickly they'd whittle down those college loans and credit card bills.

And that household income these journalists report? A lot of us in the 1960s and 1970s, if we were white collar workers, purchased our own life and health insurance with after tax income, had minimal if any benefits for vacation and sick leave, and had no retirement plan at all. Benefits were for factory workers and union members. And why they think it's better that a company, which could go under or be merged, hold on to the employee's pension rather than her owning a self-directed 401-k or 403-b is a mystery to me.

Oh yes, Ms. O'Shaughnessy, you forgot to mention that in the 1960s and 1970s, hardly anyone except celebrities and hippies lived together before marriage, and we also got married younger with fewer years to rack up bills traveling the world and having a blast. Most of us didn't have college loans to pay back because we didn't borrow money to live grandly while in college.

See also:
The burden of student loans
The working family
Material well being of Americans
How to spend your way into foreclosure
My story doesn't sell newspapers
Six figure incomes--I feel their pain
Young people in debt

Knocking down a straw man

Straw man n (ca. 1900) a weak or imaginery opposition (as an argument or adversary) set up only to be easily confuted.

I saw this flat out lie in an annoucement about a program being offered Thursday for students at Ohio State.

"Racism, sexism and ageism have all been at the forefront of the 2008 Election."

The forefront? Who are they kidding? Naive students who don't know any better, never read the newspaper or unplog their I-pod, that's who. The rest of us know better. The whole nation has been tippy toeing around these three issues (even though I did see a comedy show on cable ridiculing John McCain's age and you can find outrageous slander on the Daily Kos, all written by the left about their own).

I'm 68. I believe Obama, a mixed race American (white mother, African father, raised by white grandparents), is a marxist keeping company with strange and evil cronies, many Communists; I believe Hillary Clinton, a white woman age 60, a former first lady of the nation (God bless her for her service), a New York carpetbagger, is a Socialist; and I believe John McCain, a white man age 72, who left his wife for a younger, richer woman, is a RINO who has sucked up to the main stream media and independents and is now about to get stabbed in the back by the people he tried to placate. Does that mean I'm a racist, a sexist, or an ageist?

You can tell liberals set up this OSU discussion program. I don't plan to attend, but I think I know what will happen. It will turn into an Obama rally. Conservatives don't talk that way. They don't like to mush people together in little groups and then turn them against each other.

Conservatives believe that if a black candidate talks about raising our taxes until our investments are destroyed, regulating what car we can drive, wants judges who will make the constitution their personal playground of their own values and beliefs and waffles on what he said about concessions to militant Moslems who want to destroy our ally Israel, that he's not a good guy to put in the White House. We have a lot of history books (at least those published before the early 90s) that tell about what happens with appeasement--either pre-WWII with the Germans or post-WWII with the Soviets, or with North Korea to close out the Korean War, or even the worse course which was to run off whimpering the way we did in Vietnam. Millions died from our "talks and concessions."

And if a white woman is trying to sneak her husband in for a third term on her petticoat tails and wants to destroy the health care system, she's not going to be my choice for the first woman to lead the country. We only have to go north of the border or watch the rich rulers from socialist countries fly in on their private jets for complex and swift medical care to know we don't want her.

If the decorated 72 year old Vietnam veteran who bravely served his country even as a POW can't figure out how to secure our own borders, or that the global warmists are hucksters bent on destroying our economy, God Bless him for his bravery 35 years ago, but he's not my man regardless of what he says about Iraq.

How colds affect the economy

This is our Friday Night Date restaurant; but we are not in a rut. Sometimes we go to the one in Worthington or Dublin.
Actually, this is just one man's cold. My husband's. He was sniffly all week, so we didn't go out to eat at the Rusty Bucket. He got a little sad, so I said I'd go get a pizza. Instead of getting our usual take-out from Iacono's (medium pepperoni with extra cheese) which has gone up to $14.50 because of the greenies burning corn for fuel, I drove over to Marc's and picked up a frozen large pep for $5.50. It was OK, but nothing to blog home about. Both Rusty Bucket and/or Iacono's lost on that deal, but also the waiter we would have tipped. Even Cheryl's Cookies missed a sale because sometimes we stop there on our way out and I get a yummy chocolate peanut butter brownie.

Then Sunday, I suggested he stay home from church. I sat with Joyce, whose husband Bill also had a cold and stayed home. But she told me about her neighbor who is recommending ZiCam, the kind you dab on your nose. He's had great success, she said. So today while I was at Marc's I bought some ZiCam, and while I was browsing the shelves, I also picked up a new cold product from Alka-Seltzer Plus Immunity Complex that I hadn't seen before. Whatever money we saved by not going out Friday night, then buying a cheap pizza, was definitely used up buying cold meds. I don't think any of them really help, but you feel good doing something, don't you?

Speaking of greenies, one of the reasons they want to knock down your commercial building and start over is to lower the occurrence of 4 of the most common respiratory illnesses which account for 176 million days of lost work each year. "Improvements in green design and construction will create a 9-20% reduction in cases of the common cold, translating to 16 to 37 million fewer cases annually." Well gosh, think of all the people in the OTC business they will put out of work. (These stats, if you choose to believe them, are not mine--they come from a left coast think tank via Buildings magazine, May 2008, p. 32.)

It's EMS Week

It used to be (in the old days of the 1970s or 1980s) that if you did a good job, you got something called a paycheck. If not, a pink slip. Then came the merit raises, and the occasional departmental party hosted by the boss or pot-luck which were supposed to cover it. But today's gen-x and gen-y workers need so many hugs and warm fuzzies, that entire businesses have grown up to create appreciation gifts and events. I noticed this item in the OSU Medical College newsletter.

"May 18-24 is National Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Week. OSUMC will provide refreshments and information to EMS crews at both emergency departments, deliver gifts to fire departments and provide educational seminars throughout the week. Look for our "Thank you, EMS" billboards around town and join us in thanking EMS for the lifesaving work they provide."

When I retired in 2000, I had FIVE retirement parties, one in the vet library, one in the main library, two in restaurants and one at the faculty club. The university must have either been very happy to see me go, or very sad.

What they're saying about me in Spanish

"Este blog ocupa la posición 2529 de los 51382 blogs indexados en Bloguzz. En English está en el puesto 1536 de un total de 23477 blogs. Está perdiendo capacidad de generar buzz en los últimos días.
Su nivel de influencia absoluta es del 47%, es un blog influyente en la blogosfera. Es uno de los mejores blogs en English." My Spanish is a bit rusty, but I think they're saying I be big, important blog, but recently I've been losing my influence. Ha. What influence? (I'm actually bigger in some other markets, like Truth Laid Bear). So why so few comments? Do I really have the last word? I also receive spam in Russian, and that too makes me feel important. Yeah.

If I had $542 to spend at the grocery store

with or without food stamps ($542 a month for a family of 4 earning $26,856 per year), here's what I could get in Columbus, Ohio, shopping at a store within 2 miles of my home that doesn't require a loyalty card. Then I would have about $282 left over for the rest of the month. Everyone has something in the frig or cupboards, and I'm assuming catsup, mustard, margarine, and pickles are residing in mine. Indeed, I probably need to look at the expiration dates! I also seem to have an awful lot of rice and canned beans and miscellaneous canned fruits. And I've got frozen peas and corn in the freezer because I use them when I don't have fresh. But if I had to buy smart and buy cheap, I'd go for real food. And I wouldn't confuse shampoo and toilet paper with food--which is what many journalists do when they write about soaring food prices.

The quantity listed here is a bit unrealistic for my small condo kitchen, but it could be done in 2-3 trips to the store over 2 weeks, and without purchasing too many perishable items in quantity. Apples, cabbage, potatoes, carrots and onions last a long time--asparagus and bananas don't. And you'd need a decent size freezer compartment to hold the meat.

I often buy marked down meat on Monday, but didn't see any today, so these prices are from the flyer. This list also contains things I rarely buy like spare ribs and bacon--but they were on special this week, and bacon can go a long way in flavoring other items or as a garnish for salads. Also, I rarely bake anymore. I just put the flour and sugar down just in case Mom's watching from heaven.

Dairy
2 gallons milk (6.00)
3 (24 oz) real cheese (9.60)
3 doz eggs (6.00)

Fruits and Vegetables
16 lbs potatoes (5.00)
3 lbs cabbage (1.50)
3 lbs tomatoes (4.50)
10 lbs apples (Braeburn)(13.90)
10 lbs peaches (14.90)
4 cartons orange juice (10.00)
3 lb carrots (1.00)
2 cantaloupe (4.00)
8 corn on cob (2.00)
3 lbs asparagus (5.00)
bag of onions(3.00)
2 cukes, seedless (2.50)
5 lbs bananas (2.50)
seedless grapes (3.00)
asparagus 3 lb (5.40)
green salad mix (3.00)
broccoli (1.00)
cauliflower (1.00)

Meat
Brats (2 lbs) (6.00)
5 lb chicken breast boneless 2.29/lb (11.45)
bacon (2 lbs) (4.00)
ground chuck 5 lb (7.50)
3 lbs hot dogs (5.00)
10 lb boneless ham (11.90)
10 lb spare ribs (9.90)
8 lb hamburger (frozen patties)(11.90)
canned tuna 24 oz (3.00)
fresh fish 3 lb. (21.00)

baking, condiments, semi-processed
raisins 24 oz (2.50)
peanut butter 16 oz (2.00)
Miracle Whip 32 oz (2.50)
jam or jelly 32 oz (2.70)
broth for soup 2 cans (1.60)
pasta 5 lb (4.00)
salad dressing(1.50)
olive oil l lb (5.00)
shortening 3 lb. (2.50)
10 lb Flour (5.00)
10 lb sugar (4.00)
walnuts l lb. (6.00)
green olives, large jar, salad (3.00)
coffee 39 oz (6.90)
oatmeal, old fashioned, lg. (3.00)

Treats
Ice Cream (3.00)
Cool Whip (1.25)
popcorn (jar or bag, not mw) (2.00)
peanuts dry roasted, jar (3.00)

TIP: A potato combined with milk (or cheese) is nutritionally a near perfect food. And very cheap. 8 lbs of potatoes will cost you about the same as 10 oz. of potato chips which have no nutritional value at all.

My blog on the thrifty plan.

The Thrifty Plan and me in 1982.

The green clergy

If environmentalism is a throw back to the pantheism the Christian missionaries faced down after Pentecost, the new age religion that has been growing like a destructive mold on our college campuses since the 1960s, the robes of its well organized clergy are "green." My husband's professional architectural, engineering and construction magazines and e-zines are so loaded with this religious hype and jargon it is astounding. Here are a few quotes from the latest issue of Buildings. (The editor says that readers of Buildings are the key decision makers in the commercial and institutional buildings market, and although that may just be trade hype, these same ideas are reflected in all building related materials and publications, but especially in the college courses. If he chose to, my husband could do nothing but attend professional credit classes on this stuff.)

Being green is more than just a practice, however, it's a process, a culture, and a belief system. "Green," "environmental" and "sustainable" are more than just labels. They're practices that include every aspect of business: invention, definition, construction, production, and the ultimate disposal of the product. . . The green trend continues to grow exponentially. . . the greatest impact that green building can have in the commercial arena is on a company's most valuable resource: its people. (long list here of all the health advantages, especially respiratory illnesses) Then it turns to the other green--money. "It's hard to understand why any business or consumer would be hesitant about going green. An investment in commercial green practices is ultimately returned in the long run. . ." p. 32, May 2008

Wow. What a market. Land in most cities has become very dear--let's just grab some neighborhoods, declare our right to do this so "the people" will have better air circulation and lower density, and build something new and green. Let's promote it as more healthy, something that will emit less CO2. Then let's forbid cars or tax them into disuse, get rid of those smelly buses and install a trolley line.

Some 19th century buildings might be saved if they can be declared historic, but look out 20th century! This means tearing down or rezoning just about everything built in the 1970s and 1980s, not that this would be a huge loss from an aesthetic viewpoint, but most of these were designed for what were current ideas at that time about energy (air tight), and they caused huge problems for air circulation and hazardous materials. They will also be extremely difficult to carry to the dump, because of all the new green regulations. And the stuff with asbestos or lead paint? We've been tearing those down for years creating jobs for lawyers and regulatory agencies, not to mention haulers and dump truck operators. There will be litigation, more regulation and in general, only the largest and wealthiest builders and developers will survive, more low income people will be pushed out of their homes and jobs, and in general, red tape will become green.

Americans are losing their representative form of government to regulatory agencies. The latest polar bear scam is just one of the more glamorous, well publicized examples. There are thousands and thousands of green candles being lit down the road as this religion converts more and more sensible, thinking people into mindless believers. I'm not sure what the bread and wine will be, but it will have a green tinge.

Mother's Day Corsage

Not many women wear corsages on Mother's Day anymore. Mine held up well enough to wear it a second time, the next Sunday, May 18. A gift from my daughter and son-in-law. I love gardenias.

Reviewing responsibilities

I spent a lot of time looking at videos and photos from China. Back to back with the Burmese disaster, much of which could have been avoided if its government had heeded days of warnings from other entities, the death, destruction and homelessness is almost beyond belief. Millions and millions of homes and businesses and schools gone. Regardless of those who want to make this a religious issue, global warmist fundies (man made), or an end times issue (God's punishment), it might be a good time to look through the Code of Federal Regulations FEMA section so it is clear in your mind where our first line of defense is for natural disasters. Don't look to the White House; look to your Governor.

Requests for technical assistance under section 201(b) of the Act shall be made by the Governor or his/her designated representative to the Regional Director.

(a) The request for technical assistance shall indicate as specifically as possible the objectives, nature, and duration of the requested assistance; the recipient agency or organization within the State; the State official responsible for utilizing such assistance; the manner in which such assistance is to be utilized; and any other information needed for a full understanding of the need for such requested assistance.

(b) The request for assistance requires participation by the State in the technical assistance process. As part of its request for such assistance, the State shall agree to facilitate coordination among FEMA, local governments, State agencies and the businesses and industries in need of assistance in the areas of disaster preparedness and mitigation.

[54 FR 2129, Jan. 19, 1989]

The Governor has to be familiar with the procedure, and then act. This didn't happen in the Katrina Hurricane. Both the Governor and the Mayor failed their people. What's going on in those affected states now--aside from these same inept officials scamming the rest of us for aid money? Are they sitting back waiting for the next disaster, or do they have a plan?

And while you're at it, do your part. Get the trash in your local area off the road sides and out of culverts so the water can flow. Don't dump your leaves and clippings into the streams to clog up storm drains and creeks and rivers downstream. You might think you're saving pick up and disposal costs, but you may pay big time down the road. Here in Ohio we're about six inches over normal rainfall. The sun is shining at the moment, but the streets and lawns are wet.

My peanut butter nightmare story

In my No Free Lunch newsletter, #13, (see the previous entry on the background of that newsletter) I wrote about my peanut butter fears. It sounds a bit like today's gasoline stories, so I thought I'd share it. I was actually discussing concentration in the food industry and reported that in 1963 the 50 largest companies accounted for 42% of all food manufacturers' assets, and by 1978 it was 63.7%, and that by 2000 it could be 100% (as reported in "The U.S. food and tobacco manufacturing industries," 1980). Here was my nightmare scenario in 1981

"I don't have a crystal ball and I'm certainly no economist, but as someone who has been eating peanut butter on toast for breakfast since 1945, I'd like to share a fear of mine with you.

There was a terrible drought in the summer of 1980--bad year for many crops, particularly peanuts. If you can get peanut butter at all, you're paying dearly for it. Peanut butter is a product that can be simply made (grind up, add salt, pack in jars) by a small company and can be marketed locally because of its wide appeal. If a national firm comes out with a $1.00 off coupon on their brand of peanut butter, the smaller firms will probably be out of business in a short time. And the American shopper will fall for it, because she thinks a coupon is saving her money.

And then, my nightmare continues, OPEC countries begin buying up acreages in the south that produce our peanuts, and decide to invest some of their oil earnings in the food conglomerates that produce our peanut butter.

Soon foreign investments are in control, and cutting back on what they'll let us buy, and American shoppers are lining up at the grocery store at 5 a.m. to get a scoop of peanut butter for breakfast."

See how worrying about tomorrow spoils today? I'm still eating peanut butter, but that last paragraph does remind me of the gasoline problem. We have no control over the source of our oil, but need it for breakfast, lunch, dinner and everything else. I also didn't remember this drought, I think because we had such a bad heat wave and drought around here in 1988. So I looked it up, and here's what I found in the Monthly Weather Review, v. 109, #10 (Oct 1981)

Economic losses during the hot, dry summer of 1980 were estimated at $16 billion. Despite these substantial economic losses, analyses of historical (1895–1980) monthly temperature and precipitation data across the 48 contiguous United States indicate that conditions could easily have been worse. Much more hostile conditions have existed in the past, particularly during the 1930's and the 1950's. However, the summer of 1980 does stand out from the past two decades as an extreme anomaly across the southern and southeastern United States.

Wasn't this during the time when we were warned about the coming new ice age? Well, at least this can't be blamed on President Bush.

The government's thrifty plan for food

Food stamps are issued based on the USDA's calculation of what a family of four with an annual income of $26,856 would need to eat nutritiously. AP writers, like the one who misled you all in the Tribune's May 16 article (Columbus Dispatch May 17) on Chicagoans using food stamps, say this can't be done with today's rising prices. Hogwash.

First of all, any family of 4 can eat on that plan even without food stamps, and the stamps will get them $542 worth of food a month. Buried at the bottom of the article (which is where truth is always found in an AP story, if it's there at all) is the crux of the matter: "carts filled with soda pop, bags of cookies, potato chips" because its cheaper for low income people to feed their families bad food than good food. Lie upon lie! Get this journalist to a library, or at least show him how to Google a dot gov site. Then have him walk the aisles of any supermarket with $500 in his hand and have him purchase ONLY real food--flour, sugar, shortening, apples, potatoes, tomatoes, rice, beans, oatmeal, peanut butter, milk, eggs, etc.; he'll be be stunned at how much food he can buy.

In the early 1980s I was writing about food budgets, coupons, sweepstakes, and other ways to play with your food, just as I do today in my blog, but using an electric typewriter, a bottle of white-out, research in the OSU Agriculture Library, and a photocopy machine to issue my own newsletter, No Free Lunch. I was interviewed on a local TV talk show, spoke to women's book clubs, a faculty lunch group at OSU, and I was featured in the local suburban newspaper. However, because my theme was in some ways anti-business and chiding the consumer for poor planning, I was not in great demand as a speaker or writer. You can't tell business that their methods are suspect and consumers that they are not behaving rationally and expect to be popular!

I was just as opinionated then as a liberal Democrat as I am today as a conservative Republican. I wrote a lot about how government and food conglomerates worked together to confuse or hurt the consumer and put the local food companies at a disadvantage (and I hadn't heard of a Wal-Mart). Actually, I still feel that way, but now wonder why Democrats continue to lull voters into thinking even more government control of their lives and wallets is beneficial. And I see how increased regulation of business hurts the little guy, and especially the poor.

In issue 8 of No Free Lunch I wrote about how the government determines the Food Stamp benefits and then I compared that to my own food purchases. I was a SAHM (I think I worked three hours a day at OSU on a temp contract), with 2 elementary school aged children, living in an upper middle class suburban neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. Here's what I wrote (all figures based on food costs in 1980, almost 30 years ago):

"Benefits on which the Food Stamp Program are based are adjusted to changes not in the Consumer Price Index, but in the cost of the "Thrifty Food Plan."

In January 1980 this plan allowed $49.60 for 2 parents and 2 elementary shcool aged children per week. My own food bill at that time was about $45 per week, including paper products and non-food items, not included in the government's Thrifty Food Plan.

How can my food bill be lower than "thrifty?" First, I don't use the menu on which the government's plan is based. A second consideration is "economy of size" (a misuse of the term)--my husband and I are not big people, so we don't require as much food as larger people.

I don't do any of the usual things promoted as cost saving--I don't comparison shop, I don't shop at a major food chain, and I try not to use coupons and refund schemes. I avoid highly promoted, expensive new products.

I do buy a higher proportion of my food fresh and unprocessed than the average shopper, and I contribute my own labor (which is not taxable). I do not buy prepared desserts and snacks, and that was the big jump in food expendistures in the last 15 years. We drink orange juice and egg nog instead of soft drinks. A garden or a freezer would help, but I'm satisfied that food in America is a very good buy."

So what does the AP writer in today's paper say about Food Stamps and the Thrifty Plan? Here it is, full of half-truths, myths, and gotcha's. The truth is our government has been crippling poor people for generations now with the best of intentions. Enmeshed with subsidized housing, government funded school breakfasts, lunches and after school snacks, summer lunch programs, food stamps, SCHIP health plans, church food pantries (almost all getting government grants to purchase food to give away) combined with an education system that expects failure, little or nothing from the students or parents, unmarried families (that's a huge penalty for the poor), and more and more "green" regulations that the poor can't even use or which will destroy their neighborhoods for redevelopment. How in the world do these people ever hope to climb out of this government made mess?

What using less than the thrifty plan looked like in 1981

NARAL supports killing babies

Why would these women be surprised and outraged that NARAL aborts the Clinton campaign as it hops a ride on the Obama bandwagon?

"NARAL blogs are being overwhelmed, and many state affiliates are angry at the national group’s decision [to go with Obama].

Emily’s List is furious. And Martha Burke, former chair of the National Council of Women’s Organizations, tells Stein she is “disappointed”: “It feels like they are abandoning a known ally for a less committed candidate because they want to jump on a bandwagon. I think the pro-choice community should stick by a woman who has stuck by them.”" Huffington Post

Why call it Burma?

According to the State Department, the official name of the country hit by a disastrous cyclone last week is "Burma."

The Union of Burma (or Myanmar as it is called by the ruling junta) consists of 14 states and divisions. Administrative control is exercised from the central government through a system of subordinate executive bodies and regional military commanders.

Power is centered on the ruling junta--the State Peace and Development Council, or SPDC--which maintains strict authoritarian rule over the people of Burma. The Prime Minister is appointed directly by the SPDC. Control is maintained through intimidation, the strict censuring of information, repression of individual rights, and suppression of ethnic minority groups.

The SPDC continues its harsh rule and systematic human rights abuses today, and insists that any future political transition be negotiated on its terms. It proclaimed a seven-step roadmap to democracy beginning with a National Convention process, purportedly to develop a new constitution and pave the way for national elections. However the regime restricts public input and debate and handpicks the delegates, effectively excluding pro-democracy supporters.

Although the SPDC changed the name of the country to "Myanmar," the democratically elected but never convened Parliament of 1990 does not recognize the name change, and the democratic opposition continues to use the name "Burma." Due to consistent support for the democratically elected leaders, the U.S. Government likewise uses "Burma."

So there you have it. The liberals will call this junta run, unrecognized, rogue government Myanmar, and the conservatives will call it Burma. Regardless of what you call them, the Burmans, Shans, Karens, Rohingya, Arakanese, Kachins, Chins, Mons, non-indigenous Indians and Chinese, and many smaller indigenous ethnic groups are dying by the thousands because of the inaction of their government.

Update about that cyclone: "Citing the deadly Burmese storm and recent storms in China and Bangladesh, [Al Gore] declared on National Public Radio: "We're seeing consequences that scientists have long predicted might be associated with continued global warming." There's just one problem -- it's not clear there's any link between climate change and hurricane numbers or intensity. The number of big storms has been falling, not rising." Best of the Web, Joseph Sternberg, May 12

Feast in a Flash Falls Flat

This must be why a lot of "new" time saving recipes don't appeal to me: "Caramel Apple Burritos" for dessert. (p. 11, Quick Cooking Annual, 2002) You need 3 large tart apples, peeled and sliced, 10 caramels, and 5 flour tortillas, warmed. You peel and slice the apples, cook them, add the caramels and put that on the warmed tortilla, rebaptize it a burrito, fold and serve. Call me crazy, but a burrito instead of a wonderful flaky pie crust drooling and oozing apple juices smelling of cinnamon and nutmeg? With a dollup of ice cream or whipping cream? Thanks, but no thanks.

You make a delicious apple dumpling the same way you make a delicious apple pie--my Mom could make these blind folded.

A terrific crust (2 cups of flour, 2/3 cup of shortening, 1 teaspoon of salt, 5-6 tablespoons of water, lightly mixed and rolled out) cut into squares, a little thicker than if going into a pie tin

a halved or quartered, peeled apple on each square

covered with a bit of sugar/flour/cinnamon mix

bring up the edges of the square and seal in the middle

brush it up with a bit of milk to make it brown

bake at 425 for 15 minutes and reduce the temp to 350 for 30-40 minutes

get to work on the rest of the meal while it bakes, and call one of the girls in to set the table.

At our house they were served warm in a bowl with milk on top. (About the same number of calories, but a heaven's width difference in taste and tactile satisfaction.)

Although I've lots of memories of Mother with her rolling pin, I have no photos. This one was taken about 25 years ago when we lived on Abington Road. Friday Family Photo.

Really big price

Over $33 million for Benefits Supervisor Sleeping. Realism is coming back in a really big way.

Grow up, Mr. Obama

This speech was about Israel, now 60 years old. Stop trying to crash the party. Your whining and hiding behind your supporters' skirts and Soros' money are really irritating. Your tantrum is an embarrassment. Run a FIND check on that 5 page speech. You aren't in it, neither is Democrat, neither is candidate, nor any mention of our campaign. Your political views and values have excluded you.

"Ultimately, to prevail in this struggle, we must offer an alternative to the ideology of the extremists by extending our vision of justice and tolerance, freedom and hope. These values are the self-evident right of all people, of all religions, in all of the world because they are a gift from Almighty God. Securing these rights is also the surest way to secure peace. Leaders who are accountable to their people will not pursue endless confrontation and bloodshed. Young people with a place in their society and a voice in their future are less likely to search for meaning in radicalism. And societies where citizens can express their conscience and worship their God will not export violence, they will be partners for peace."

President Bush has never backed down on his belief that democracy is the best system--for everyone. You might disagree, some in his own party do too. You might call it cowboy diplomacy, but as Daniel Henniger pointed out today in the WSJ, even when the democracy isn't very good or stumbles, it's way ahead of what the people in Burma and China have as we see their totalitarian, marxist governments turning down aid.

Instead of looking for yourself in the "some" comments, why not find yourself in the "we" comments? Tell us exactly what you think of democracy and the value of every man, woman, and child. Are you picking on the word "some" because you don't see yourself in the "we?"

"We believe in the matchless value of every man, woman, and child. So we insist that the people of Israel have the right to a decent, normal, and peaceful life, just like the citizens of every other nation.

We believe that democracy is the only way to ensure human rights. So we consider it a source of shame that the United Nations routinely passes more human rights resolutions against the freest democracy in the Middle East than any other nation in the world.

We believe that religious liberty is fundamental to civilized society. So we condemn anti-Semitism in all forms – whether by those who openly question Israel's right to exist, or by others who quietly excuse them.

We believe that free people should strive and sacrifice for peace. So we applaud the courageous choices Israel's leaders have made. We also believe that nations have a right to defend themselves and that no nation should ever be forced to negotiate with killers pledged to its destruction.

We believe that targeting innocent lives to achieve political objectives is always and everywhere wrong. So we stand together against terror and extremism, and we will never let down our guard or lose our resolve." Bush speech

Update: Michelle Malkin writes: "He could be talking about Jimmy Carter, Cindy Sheehan, the White Flag Democrat leaders in the House and Senate, or hell, his own State Department," I wrote, but concluded that “if the shoe fits,” Obama should wear it and stop whining.

Today, the White House says Bush was talking about That ’70s Appeaser, Jimmy Carter, not the Messiah.

Doesn’t matter who exactly Bush had in mind. The shoe still fits Obama’s delicate foot, but he refuses to slide into the glass slipper of appeasement and own it." There's more.

Update 2: Heard on the radio today (paraphrase) and I don't recall where: "for a guy who sat in the pew for 20 years and didn't hear the racist, anti-American sermons of Rev. Wright, he sure didn't have trouble hearing his own name which was never used in the President's speech."

Update 3: "It was remarkable to see Barack Obama’s hysterical diatribe in response to a speech in which his name wasn’t even mentioned. These are serious issues that deserve a serious debate, not the same tired partisan rants we heard today from Senator Obama. Senator Obama has pledged to unconditionally meet with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — who pledges to wipe Israel off the map, denies the Holocaust, sponsors terrorists, arms America’s enemies in Iraq and pursues nuclear weapons. What would Senator Obama talk about with such a man? It would be a wonderful thing if we lived in a world where we don’t have enemies. But that is not the world we live in, and until Senator Obama understands that, the American people have every reason to doubt whether he has the strength, judgment and determination to keep us safe.” —Tucker Bounds, spokesman John McCain 2008 via the Page

Update 4: Neo-Neocon "It has now become a low blow to strike any blow at Obama. It has now become officially an “attack” to campaign at all against him—or even to suggest opposition to something he may have done or may have said, whether you mention him or not.

Case in point: President Bush is not allowed to allude to appeasement as a bad thing without Obama (and many Democrats) getting into an outraged hissy fit about it."

Update 5: "But it's also possible that Obama & Co. are sincere--that when they hear the president talking about countenancing hatred, appeasing terrorists and breaking ties with Israel, they think: He's talking about us!" James Taranto, Best of the web, May 16

Update 6: " Since the end of 2002, the Democrats have turned hard to the left on foreign policy, with Lieberman a rare dissenting voice. The Connecticut senator praised President Bush for his Knesset speech last week, and said that Bush's criticism of those who advocate appeasement applies to Obama, whether the president meant it to or not." James Taranto, Best of the web, May 19