The Bride's Bible

Maybe it didn't last. Why would anyone not keep this? I found this (17 x 12.9 cm), 96 pg, Tyndale House book in the freebie box. The intention of the publisher was someone, maybe the mother-in-law or a bridesmaid, was to present it as gift for a bride. It's not really a Bible, but a selection of verses from a variety of translations with a lovely reproduction of a painting. Brides used to carry a small white Bible under their bouquet, but I don't know if that is still the custom. I don't have a white Bible, so I don't think I did this; it sticks in my mind I carried my mother's Bible. Anyway, I sat down and read it this morning during my devotions, and it's a lovely selection to be read any time. Paintings are wonderful too.

Each man should have his own wife, and each woman should have her own husband. The husband should not deprive his wife of sexual intimacy, which is her right as a married woman, nor should the wife deprive her husband.

The wife gives authority over her body to her husband, and the husband also gives authority over his body to his wife.

So do not deprive each other of sexual relations. The only exception to this rule would be the agreement of both husband and wife to refrain from sexual intimacy for a limited time, so that they can give themselves more completely to prayer. 1 Corinthians 7:2-5 (NLT)

Seems pretty clear in Corinthians, doesn't it? Same sex, there is no marriage. No marriage, there is no sex. No marriage, there is no reason to feel deprived. Sex is important, but only if you're married.

Ladies, as Dr. Laura used to say, you're not engaged if you don't have a ring and a date. Don't settle for being a live-in cook, laundress, companion and go-fer. Women who aren't married to their children's father are a major cause of poverty in the United States. Virtually all—-92%--of children whose families make over $75,000 are living with both parents. On the other end of the income scale, the situation is reversed: only about 20% of kids in families earning under $15,000 live with both parents.

Beyond tacky

"Gennifer Flowers and Paula Jones are offering Internet viewers the lurid details of encounters they claim they had with former President Clinton _ for $1.99 a pop." My news page.

Obama's plan for the economy

We'll be hearing a lot about the economy from Obama. Being a Democrat, he'll of course propose new taxes while rescinding the Bush tax cuts. Being a Marxist, he'll aim high (or is that low?). Marxists as you'll recall if you were schooled before 1990 (when they disappeared from every country outside the Americas and from our school books), believe there are only exploiters (capitalists) and the exploited (workers). You can view a tape of Obama's pastor if you're fuzzy on the details--Black Liberation Theology is Marxism in black face. So in a country where most people aspire to be either rich capitalists after their college daze, or taken care of after their drug haze, and there is virtually no poverty, just a gap between the bottom quintile and the top quintile, the Marxists may be entering the golden age. An age when the government will finally succeed in destroying private property, marriage, unborn babies, religion, and national borders. (We've actually got a good head start on this, so it shouldn't take much.) It didn't work in poor, uneducated countries across the pond, so maybe it will in one of the most successful and richest. It could even be Obama's secret weapon to fight illegal immigration! Who would want to come here if it's more of what they left?

It's really going to help a lot to tax the oil companies' profits and take away their tax incentives instead of deregulating, which would allow for drilling or refineries. Money in alternatives? I'm sure of it, and so are they! They're smarter than our Congress so I'm guessing they're just waiting until Congress sweetens the deal after show and tell. I'm looking forward to that wind driven car going 5 mph between battery plug-ins. And all those products we use made of petroleum--I guess we'll cut down all the trees, or make them out of cotton, or wool or dirt. Those of you sweltering on the east coast right now, get used to it. AC will definitely be out. . . except for government officials, former veeps from TN and NC senators in giant houses.

The Taxman Rap

More new taxes
to buy axes
for our backses
and our neckses

for our gases
and our classes
(just the riches'
and the niches.)

Yo! Obama
Go! Oh mama
You our Papa
You Messiah.

Obama can
He is the man
He do the plan
He be the taxman.

Beyond my tech skills

I took on one of those handy-dandy, newer blogger templates awhile back, and recently decided to update my photo. I have searched that template high and low, and can only find a command "remove photo." There's no preview on that page, so if I remove it, is there a way to add a new one? A neighbor took a photo of me at a party Saturday night and e-mailed it. I cropped it, and dropped it into an "oil paint" thingy (great for removing wrinkles, eye bags, etc. for a paint by number look). I could write to blogger.com but I usually get an automated reply. Oh wait! I just had an idea. If I go to one of my other blogs, one that hasn't been gussied up with new fangled widgets and gidgets, maybe I can add it there. They all use the same photo central. If this photo magically appears in the upper left hand corner, you know there's a reason to hang on to the oldies but goodies.

Update: Didn't work that way, but when you click on Remove Photo, it then supplies the option to browse your photo cache or the internet for the appropriate photo. I don't think these instructions as intuitive, but then, not as bad as Microsoft's START command to turn off your computer.

What next? Private health care?

The Senate is going to privatize its dining service because it's losing so much money AND the food isn't too good.

"Year after year, decade upon decade, the U.S. Senate's network of restaurants has lost staggering amounts of money -- more than $18 million since 1993, according to one report, and an estimated $2 million this year alone, according to another." Washington Post

OST--Obama sans telepromter

We've listened to George Bush give a few great speeches in eight years, and probably a hundred really awful ones. But he also can laugh at himself. I don't think Obama, who stammers, stutters and halts without a speech writer, will allow it. You'll be a racist if you even think he can't string a few words together. We may never know what he wanted to say about asthma.

All bases are covered

by GW--global warmists. I was looking at a methane graph I have in one of my older blogs that links back to a global warming alarmist site (you wouldn't believe the amount of methane that termites produce!) Indiana has had some flooding--so has Ohio and Wisconsin. They've got it covered. Too much rain, not enough rain; too hot, too cold; long Spring; short Spring; mild winter, blizzard conditions; tornadoes, hurricanes, cyclones; new bugs, disappearance of old bugs. Yes, it's all caused by global warming. Nothing ever changed in the earth's climate before the industrial revolution. Ice didn't melt; swamps didn't dry up; species didn't disappear. Don't you feel so . . . so, powerful? Important? I can save Mother Earth by changing my shopping habits and buying a car that burns corn. My heart pits another patter.

Save the Seneca County Courthouse!

AIA Columbus invites you on June 22nd to come to Tiffin, Ohio. [from the newsletter]

The Seneca County Courthouse was designed by Elijah E. Myers in 1884. He designed the Michigan, Texas, and Colorado State capitols as well as the Utah territorial capitol. Seneca county’s courthouse is particularly distinctive in that it had such a well known architect do this in rural Ohio.

None of the studies have indicated it would be more expensive to rehab, and with the rising costs the past two years, it’s a safe bet “new” will cost more. Particularly since the commissioners turned down $2 million from Governor Strickland to go towards restoration.

The battle to save the courthouse is in its last days and weeks, and AIA Columbus is encouraging people who care about architecture to meet in Tiffin on Sunday June 22, to take a stand and say NO--Speakers at 2:30, "This Place Matters," Photo at 3:00,
On the Seneca Courthouse Lawn. It’s a good building and they oppose it being put into any landfill. See Heritage Ohio for more information and photos.

They might want to change that caption

When my server's homepage comes up with the news of the day, there are rotating photos with links, one on the left, one on the right, and usually it is clear that one links to the photo story, one to the next story. Sometimes I click on the story I want to read, but nothing happens. Just now when I logged on, the photo was a horse with his tongue extended being warmly hugged by a man in a tuxedo. The link on the right read: "Gay bishop gets married."

The problem with economic squeeze stories

There was another "economic squeeze" story in USAToday today. I think every reporter must be required to write at least one of these per year. I've been reading newspapers regularly for at least 40 years, and I don't ever remember NOT reading that the "American dream is out of reach," or that "the current generation will not be able to do as well as their parents." Even the USAToday story was unable to make its own statistics match up with its doom and gloom story. 65% of those interviewed expected much better, somewhat better or the same in 2008 compared to 62% expecting better in five years. Huh? But you can't get in print or testify before Congress by claiming everything is fine.

My parents were 40 in 1953; we were 40 in 1979; my kids in 2008. What's different in these three generations is the degree of "stuff," age of marriage and age of retirement. By stuff, I mean things my parents considered unnecessary or luxuries--air conditioning, a second car, a second or third bathroom, vacations, a larger home, hobbies like music or golf, and pass times like eating out. Even TV was considered unnecessary by my parents, well after most families had at least one. And cable came really late. I have six TVs. Even as a bride in 1960 I could see the difference between my in-laws and parents caused by their lifestyle, which for my in-laws included cigarettes and alcohol, an expense my parents didn't have. That was money that could go for something else. On the other hand, we spend about $2000 a year just eating out with friends, something my parents never did, and my in-laws only rarely. And most Americans eat out more than we do.

I married younger and accumulated more stuff than my parents; my children have more stuff and married later than me. Comparing generations is looking at apples and oranges, particularly retirement age. By choice, Dad worked well into his 80s. By choice, I retired at 60. Think if I'd had 25 more years to save, spend or invest. By choice, my parents went to college, unusual for their generation; we went to college, common for my generation; my children didn't, very unusual for their generation.

The biggest problem, as I see it, is use of the term "average family" and "working family" in statistics. How many unmarried women with children were in the workplace 35 years ago? How many today? And yet, a single mom without a college degree with 3 children is a family of four, as is a married man and woman, both college educated, with 2 children. Today we have a marriage gap. Government programs, college professors of women's studies and social work, church staff, political lobbyists and foundation think tanks depend on that gap for their livelihood.

Then let's track those children of the two parent families of the 1980s, not only do they have two college educated parents with an economic advantage, but they have the advantage of a father in the home, and as the women-to-work movement increased, many children even had dad as a primary care-giver, if not a 50% care-giver. (All promoted by the feminists, by the way.) Then as those children become adults, they are more likely to have support for education, assistance for home buying, a network with other families of similar values, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist or a PhD in Social Work to see what happens to home life and income in subsequent generations. Wake up Congress and Poverty Pimps. You are part of the problem as seen in this recent testimony! Notice the fuzzy use of the word "family" not once but seven times.

"As America has grown richer, inequality has increased. In 1979, the average income of the richest 5 percent of families was 11 times that of families in the bottom 20 percent. Today, the richest 5 percent of families enjoys an average income nearly 22 times that of families in the lowest quintile. Together, the top 5 percent of families receives more income than all of the families in the bottom 40 percent combined – 21 percent of total family income compared with 14 percent." Eileen Appelbaum, testimony before the Committee on Education and Labor

Europeans much prefer Obama

was the WSJ headline. What's not to like? The USA has been steadily tracking downward since we elected (well, not me, but you) a Democratic Congress in 2006. Everyone, especially investors, knows that with Obama in office the Bush tax cuts will be rescinded and taxes will be raised; more liberals will be elected to the courts; nothing will be done about the AMT; the borders will become more porous flooding our social service agencies; less hope for anything that resembles the strong, resilient America of the past; more built-in helplessness for workers which is sure to open avenues for workers in other countries. This scares off venture capital which will probably go to Asia or Europe. We haven't been well liked in Europe for many years, long before Bush--everyone wants the Big Guy to fail--it's sort of human nature. And without the threat of the USSR, the USA was the only one left to hate. I think Europeans are rubbing their hands with glee and hope we fail big time. Obama's just the man to help that along. But I hope Europeans remember that as retired and middle class Americans get poorer under Obama, they will be traveling less and purchasing less also.

I remember when

we stopped at farm markets because it was cheaper to buy local, as well as fresher. Maybe the corn or tomatoes had been picked that day and was someone's 4-H project. The food wasn't covered with wax to preserve it; it wasn't a variety bred to be hard and tough to withstand thousands of miles of shipping; it hadn't been covered with pesticides; it wasn't tasteless from being over fertilized. Before Kenny Road became so developed, there was a wonderful outdoor market called "Kern's" That has apparently changed.

"New research suggests that the average supermarket shopper is willing to pay a premium price for locally produced foods, providing some farmers an attractive option to enter a niche market that could boost their revenues. The OSU study also showed that shoppers at farm markets are willing to pay almost twice as much extra as retail grocery shoppers for the same locally produced foods. Co-authors of the study are Marvin Batte, the Fred N. VanBuren professor of agricultural, environmental and development economics at Ohio State; graduate student Kim Darby; outreach program leader Stan Ernst; and Brian Roe, OSU professor of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics." OSU News

If "local" is just another marketing scheme, I think I'll save on gas and just head for Marc's or Meijer's. At least if you're preparing food for only two, frozen will probably be "fresher" in terms of nutrient value than buying fresh. A few days in the frig will destroy much of what you went to that little market for, to say nothing of what riding around in your hot car did while you did the rest of your shopping.

Speaking of corn. I saw an article about summer jobs for kids in Friday's USAToday. CEOs told about their earliest paid jobs. Diane Irvine 49, CEO of online fine jewelry retailer Blue Nile detasseled corn at age 14. That was my first "real" (non-babysitting, non-paper route) job too. I even wrote a poem about detasseling corn. Maybe I just haven't had enough crummy jobs in my life, but I'd put detasseling right at the top of truly awful.

Modified photo

More on the baby boomers' dilemmas

Victor Davis Hanson has a list.

"The current debate about energy in the United States has devolved into doing the same old thing — consume, don't produce and complain — while somehow expecting different results. Congress talks endlessly about the bright future of wind, solar and new fuels, while it stops us from getting through the messy present by utilizing abundant coal, shale and tar sands; nuclear power; and oil still untapped in Alaska and off our coasts."

And then there's the housing market, the war (which was overwhelmingly supported in the beginning), and Social Security.

"There are never bad and worse choices, but only a Never Never Land of good and even-better alternatives. Housing not only has to stay affordable for buyers, but also must appreciate in value to give instant equity to those who have just become owners.

When things don't go well, we always blame someone else. Why drill off Santa Barbara or Alaska when we can sue those terrible Saudis for not putting more oil platforms in their Persian Gulf?"

VDH Private Papers

Energy bandits and energy boosters

When I first glanced through Laura Stack's "The Exhaustion Cure" on the new book shelf at UAPL, I thought it was just another exercise book, then I read a few items, and thought it was just common sense writ large, but now that I've taken a closer look (it sat on a chair for a few days), I see she's a gal after my own heart--she's just fascinated with how we all use our time. She's made it her career; I never wanted to be that busy.

Now, I never allow myself to get as busy as some of the folks she writes to and about, but I've often observed here and in my real life, that all the verbs we use with time we use with money--we spend it, save it, invest it, squander it and cherish it. And because I'm retired and have virtually complete control over my time, I'm a millionaire--or because of inflation, a billionaire. That's not to say I haven't made some poor investments in the past 8 years. Next to religion, politics, or sports, almost nothing will start an argument quicker than a reference to how I use my time. If I mention that I'm not busy, either people look at me like I arrived from another planet, or that I've just said something against the American flag.

I really like the "energy bandits" concept--a pithy description of the time waster, routine or person who's sapping the life out of you. It's fairly easy for me to avoid those people who just drain all the joy from life, but I remember, I remember. However, she has some excellent things to say about computer use that can benefit how I use my time. She also has a blog that I think I'll add to my links.

If you've ever participated in a 12-step program for alcoholism, co-dependency, weight loss, etc. you'll recognize most of the points in Chapten Ten on Attitude--specifically "Stinking thinking." Stop negative thoughts in their tracks; stop worrying; the damage done by anger; dealing with emotions. Good stuff. Good reminders.

Obama's brand of Marxism

Kinder and gentler, or just as venal? Gerald Horne, in a maudlin, almost breathless self-congratulatory speech (you can almost hear the champagne corks a popping) about how wonderful it was that the Communist Party of the USA archives were now married to New York University, a speech in which he refers to the Soviet Union (which stole the property of and then killed or imprisoned millions and millions of Ukrainians, East Europeans, Russians and Asians) as "a supposed 'Evil Empire'," that the U.S. has had an infestation of anti-Sovietism, and William Safire was a hack journalist (must have been anti-CPUSA), concluding with all sorts of future predictions which will prove what wonderful folks the defeated communists were, includes a fond recollection of our future president and his communist mentor, known as "Frank" in his memoir.

When these sources are explored, I think scholars of the future will be struck by, for example, the response in Honolulu when tens of thousands of workers went on strike when labor and CP leaders were convicted of Smith Act violations in 1953 – a response totally unlike the response on the mainland. Of course 98% of these workers were of Asian-Pacific ancestry, which suggests that scholars have also been derelict in analyzing why these workers were less anti-communist than their Euro-American counterparts. In any case, deploring these convictions in Hawaii was an African-American poet and journalist by the name of Frank Marshall Davis, who was certainly in the orbit of the CP – if not a member – and who was born in Kansas and spent a good deal of his adult life in Chicago, before decamping to Honolulu in 1948 at the suggestion of his good friend Paul Robeson. Eventually, he befriended another family – a Euro-American family – that had migrated to Honolulu from Kansas and a young woman from this family eventually had a child with a young student from Kenya East Africa who goes by the name of Barack Obama, who retracing the steps of Davis eventually decamped to Chicago. In his best selling memoir ‘Dreams of my Father’, the author speaks warmly of an older black poet, he identifies simply as "Frank" as being a decisive influence in helping him to find his present identity as an African-American, a people who have been the least anticommunist and the most left-leaning of any constituency in this nation – though you would never know it from reading so-called left journals of opinion. At some point in the future, a teacher will add to her syllabus Barack’s memoir and instruct her students to read it alongside Frank Marshall Davis’ equally affecting memoir, "Living the Blues" and when that day comes, I’m sure a future student will not only examine critically the Frankenstein monsters that US imperialism created in order to subdue Communist parties but will also be moved to come to this historic and wonderful archive in order to gain insight on what has befallen this complex and intriguing planet on which we reside.

One mentor does not a Marxist make. But add all the others filling the empty Obama suit--a brief review on how they've all worked together to get him where he is, Cornel West, William Ayers, Charles Ogletree, Frank Davis, Saul Alinsky, Laurence Tribe, Tony Rezko, Cass Sunstein, Rashid Khalidi, and others. Didn't your mother tell you that you'd be known by the company you kept, to pick your friends carefully?

"When I visited Obama's church, still under the directorship of Jeremiah Wright, I came away with far more questions than answers, and one thing leading to another, have spent the last several months trying to fathom how Marxist political philosophy wound up emblazoned with a cross and a pulpit, and pretending to rely on the Bible for its authority.

It is somewhat difficult to imagine a more contorted blasphemy, with the single possible exception of Hitler himself claiming to be acting by divine decree in the interests of Christianity. Which is precisely what Hitler did do, while hoodwinking the German people into electing him Chancellor."

. . . "Understanding that black liberation theology is Marxism dressed up to look like Christianity helps explain why there is no conflict between Cone's "Christianity" and Farrakhan's "Nation of Islam." They are two prophets in the same philosophical (Marxist) pod, merely using different religions as backdrops for their black-power aims."Obama, Black Liberation Theology, and Karl Marx

And just old fashion Chicago corruption: "Mr. Obama has yet to answer a lot of questions about his relationship with Mr. Rezko or his business partner, Iraqi-British billionaire Nadhmi Auchi. He claims the Rezko case simply highlights the need for more campaign finance reform laws. Yesterday, he issued a statement adding that the man convicted in a Chicago courtroom "isn't the Tony Rezko I knew." Hmmm... But Mr. Obama knew him as a close friend and ally for over 20 years as Mr. Rezko rose to become Illinois's top political fixer. Exactly which Tony Rezko did Mr. Obama know?" John Fund.

More campaign reform? You mean like McCain's? What about personal responsibility? 20 years, and he didn't know Rev. Wright. 20 years, and he didn't know Father Foolagain. 20 years and he didn't know Tony Rezko. His friends and supporters better be wearing ID badges so he can recognize them.

It was you and me who put America's first Marxist in the White House

As I caught Obama's reference to his second term, even before he's been elected, and heard the cheers from his fans, I wondered what the USA would be like after 8 years of Obama and his leftist backers. First, he'll run for a 3rd and then 4th term, either through his wife, or by undoing the Constitutional amendment by packing the court with revisionist judges; he'll kill talk radio for sure--Oh they hate it that people can get a view other than the government sponsored media; I think home schooling will be outlawed (regulated out of existence)--can't have anyone doing better than government's children--it's not fair to children who have parents who aren't committed to education (government officials' children will still be allowed to attend snooty private schools); although the blogosphere is already controlled by the leftists, I think he'll institute a special license and requirement for people to use the internet, and anyone without his administration's approval will find their applications not meeting the standard; I don't own a gun, but in 8 years, neither will anyone else except criminals and government officials; we'll not only have abortion legal, as we do now, but encouraged by edict and peer pressure; churches won't be allowed to speak about sexual morality or the sanctity of marriage--it will be a hate crime like in Canada and Europe; our military will be so weak as to be non-existent--not just underfunded, but who from America's solid, middle class families want a Marxist as their commander in chief; rich greenies like John Edwards and Al Gore will be allowed to keep their huge homes and SUVs and private planes, but the rest of us will all need to sacrifice, probably freezing in the longer winters we'll be experiencing; to keep the weakened Americans happy, Obama will work with Hollywood to be sure we get at least 8 hours a day of "reality celebrity TV," sort of American Idol on speed--the other 16 hours will be sports; the constitution will be so shredded and our lower courts so packed with raving loonies, it probably won't make much difference if something gets to the highest court in the land; and the founding fathers and mothers of this country--even our own parents and grandparents--will be rolling over in their graves, hoping the resurrection comes soon, because we sure made a mess of things.

Now, I'm saying WE, because you supported him and I did nothing to stop him. Same difference.

A hot job

Returning from the coffee shop this morning, I found this couple scraping paint at the Maxwell Bed and Breakfast on Walnut. I think this house is about 125 years old, and it's always fun to see the folks chatting on the porch enjoying their morning coffee and new friends. It's across the street from the auditorium, so they can sit on the porch and enjoy the music if they don't want to walk across the street.

The ladder didn't quite reach the overhang, so he was scraping with his arms above his head and his head down while she held the ladder. Hope they make it!

The most precious new house in Lakeside

Not quite finished, but it is a winner. Across the street from a woods, this house is 23'4" wide. Our lots are narrow, and they have set-back and coverage requirements. The overhangs take 16" and that has to be included in the coverage as well as deck and patio and driveway. Each lot has to have space for 2 cars. Quite a challenge! But my husband was up for it--and this brought him out of retirement. He fell in love with Lakeside in 1974, and wants it to keep its beauty and nostalgic feel. Every house he's done here has been a different style, and the ones he's remodeled have been made more handsome than they ever had been in their ugly, pimply youth, having been through a variety of makeovers in the 1930s-1960s from jalousie windows to aluminum siding to picture windows overwhelming the size.




I've been through it, and the floor plan is fabulous with a first floor master + bath, laundry room and pantry storage, living and dining room oriented to the woodsy view, fireplace, front porch for chatting with the neighbors, full basement, 3 bedrooms, bath and loft up stairs. Lots of light in every room. I want it!

The list grows

of what you can't ask Obama. Not his friends. Not his father. Not his faith. Not his drug use. Not his inexperience. Not his non-votes. Not his non-bills. Not his ties with 60s terrorists. Not his knowledge of history or geography. Now you can't ask about rumors of a tape of his wife getting down and dirty about what she really thinks of whites. Actually, I read about this tape (or DVD) at a Hillary supporter page. It may be a rumor, or a hope, put out by the Hillary people, or it may be what she is using to nail him to get the VP spot. If the tape exists, someone else probably has a copy. It was quite complete, and not particularly outlandish, given what she has said on the campaign trail, and what she's been hearing at the church she's been attending (and she apparently listened). It was only up a few notches in tone, hostility and shrillness. If it's out there, the Clintons have it, and know how to use it.

"Sen. Barack Obama on Thursday batted down rumors circulating on the Internet and mentioned on some cable news shows of the existence of a video of his wife using a derogatory term for white people, and criticized a reporter for asking him about the rumor, which has not a shred of evidence to support it."

Can we ask him about plagiarism? Today Rush played one of his famous "montages" of Cuomo giving a 1984 speech with inserts from Obama's speech (I assume it's the most recent one). Cadence, words, rhythm, theme--it was amazing. But Cuomo said it better.