Visiting the lower forty eight

Tundra Medicine has some interesting observations on visiting the lower 48 and returning home to the wide open spaces of Alaska.

"Trips to the lower 48 are a huge culture shock to me. I wrote about it last year after my trip to Alabama. This year felt much the same. There is such an incredible density of people everywhere; parking lots are crowded, freeways are packed with (mostly new) cars, restaurants are full, and everyone seems to be in such a hurry. Billboards are everywhere, yelling consume! Consume! Consume! And people are rushing to do it at a breathtaking rate.

There is so little wilderness anywhere. Even driving through the countryside, the land is fenced, tilled, cultivated. Roads are paved, lawns are manicured, everything is just so. The evidence of human occupation is practically inescapable, and that is what feels so different from Alaska.

Here we have pockets of civilization amid a gazillion miles of untouched wilderness. Here I don’t feel constantly squeezed by the joint pressures of population and consumer culture. Life down there feels to me like living in a pressure cooker. If you’ve never known anything else, then it seems normal, but the longer you’re away from it, the harder it is to go back into it."

I've felt that similar "consume" message whenever we've visited California, and then in a year or two, we have it all here. I remember walking through shopping centers in California in 1976 staring like I was a visitor from another country, but we soon had all the same stuff in the midwest. Alaska is different and I'm sure a resident would miss the wide open spaces (you feel like a gnat in the ocean), but when we were in Fairbanks, we didn't think it was that different, except for the flowers everywhere and it was quite warm.

Gas pump ambush interview

Don't you love it when the local news folk interview people at the gas pumps? Oh, the stories you hear. Two days ago, the story was about "stacations," or staying close to home, but with a twist. The father of four being interviewed said that because of the gas prices, he couldn't take his children to King's Island this summer. What? The admission price for a family of 6 must be about $160, parking $10, then the food and drinks could easily rack up another $60-75. King's Island is about 200 miles round trip from here, and gas is about $1 more per gallon than last summer. He had a full-size van at the pump. Do the math, Dad. The price of gas over and above what you paid for last year's trip is the cheap part. You're building memories.

Today in Columbus, gas is $3.86 (Speedway, Mill Run).

Pandering to the voters--The Windfall Profits Tax

Don't be fooled by Obama's threats. And I can't say McCain's doing much better on this issue (how does a gallon of beer compare in cost to a gallon of gas?). Or those Republicans who fell in place with their Democrat buddies in Congress. We the people own the oil companies.

Here's what Robert J. Shapiro (Clinton Secretary of Commerce) had to say about the ownership of 98.5% of oil company shares: "The data show that ownership of industry shares is broadly middle class, with the majority of industry shares held by institutional investors, often on behalf of millions of Americans through mutual funds, pension funds and individual retirement accounts."

"Almost 43 percent of oil and natural gas company shares are owned by mutual funds and asset management companies that have mutual funds. Mutual funds manage accounts for 55 million U.S. households with a median income of $68,700.

Twenty seven percent of shares are owned by other institutional investors like pension funds. In 2004, more than 2,600 pension funds run by federal, state and local governments held almost $64 billion in shares of U.S. oil and natural gas companies. These funds represent the major retirement security for the nation's current and retired soldiers, teachers, and police and fire personnel at every level of government.

Fourteen percent of shares are held in IRA and other personal retirement accounts. Forty five million U.S. households have IRA and other personal retirement accounts, with an average account value of just over $22,000." From Neal Boortz column, June 11

Health care scams and scares

What happens when medical science conquers a serious, deadly disease--like eliminating small pox or polio through vaccination, or TB through sanitation, or malaria through DDT (although it's now back again due to environmentalists)? People live longer. And they develop chronic diseases that don't kill them quickly, but just linger and require constant treatment.

But you would think all the treatment and drugs for chronic conditions like cancer, diabetes and hypertension were bad.

"The prevalence of chronic illnesses in the United States is projected to increase, from 133 million persons in 2005 to 171 million in 2030. Health care spending accounts for 16% of GDP and may rise to 25% by 2025." (JAMA May 28, 2008 p. 2437).

This is followed by a lengthy, gloomy list of how chronic illness is eroding corporate profits, threatening Medicare, state budgets, pensions, health insurance, etc. So did they think when they saved a child from a fatal illness through screening at birth that he wouldn't grow up to use more health care than if he died? The man who loses a lung to cancer, may just live to die of heart disease. Duh? What were they thinking?

Do you know what they propose? Well, currently chronic diseases consume 75% of health care expenditures, so we'll go after the risk factors--the big four being smoking, diet, exercise and alcohol--and then up the screening, and, and. . .I guess no one ever dies of old age or kidney or heart failure or AIDS or Alzheimer's or cancer (which most people get eventually even if they don't smoke and run marathons til they're 90). With only one or two workers per retiree paying into social security, and Obama running corporations out of the country with higher taxes, it ought to be fun at the other end.

There are good-to-great reasons to behave responsibly and live healthy--you'll enjoy life much more and be of greater service to your fellow man. But having the government and "independent" regulatory agencies invading every cavity and organ of my body and life, sticking nutrition statistics in my face at McDonald's, obsessing over BMIs of toddlers, running wellness campaigns that no one pays attention to? No thanks.

Buy real food; fix it at home; then go for a walk and breathe some fresh air. Toss the cigarettes; limit your alcohol and listen to the friends who are concerned. Take that money and open a savings account. Honor the marriage bed. Laugh at yourself. Listen to some good music that isn't too loud. Take in an art show once a month. Go to church. Tithe your income. Own a pet.

There. We can probably get that all on one 8 x 10 poster. If the government would just listen to me, I could save our country billions.

Read what Junk Food Science has to say on childhood obesity private and public dollars and programs.

Post election blues in 2004

Looking back at the mourning on November 4, 2004, I wrote:

"This morning CNN is covering at great length the absurd coverage of far left newspapers in Britain, like the Guardian which tried to influence the vote in Clark County, Ohio and called (jokingly, they said) for Bush's assassination. One paper pondered how 60,000,000 people (51% of the voters) could be so dumb. I think I can see through CNN's little game here. And they practically have a catch in their collective throats when they rerun Kerry's concession speech. Now the news babe (looks like a model) is whining that the media get blamed, when all she wants to do is give us information--this after she expressed her own disbelief at the number who said they thought Bush could unite the country (a CNN poll)."

Thank goodness Kerry didn't turn into a Gore, although we've still got Kucinich, perhaps the biggest and sorest loser of all time.

4950 Debt Soaked Economic Slump

is the phrase used in the WSJ article today about debt management groups, from 12 step programs to websites, to church classes. The problem I have with that phrase is all the people in the article were in deep trouble with debt long before the current slump. In fact, their problem with debt--spiritual and psychological--fed on the boom times we've just been through. It's the bubbles and booms that often lead people to debt, not the low times. Like Shawanda Green, 26. Her income is $82,000 a year, but she liked to buy $400 boots and she had a parasitic boyfriend who ate up all her food. He like quality and quantity. Richard Rice, 37, with an income of $70,000 has a credit card debt of $20,000. Michael Wagner at 34 had a silver BMW and $25,000 in credit card debt. He started to do better, then got a new girlfriend who was a spender, and went right back in the hole. They didn't get into this mess because of high gas prices and a mortgage crisis. Listen carefully to how financial sob stories are presented. Do they really have anything to do with the state of the economy?

So the solutions presented were: eat at home; dump the spend thrift boyfriend/girlfriend; don't file for bankruptcy--pay your debts; establish a savings account; cut up your credit cards. I'm guessing their mom or dad told them the same thing, but sometimes you need group support or a web site to do the right thing.

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?"

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