We're in good hands

If Lakeside's young people are any indication, our nation is in good hands--or will be in 10-20 years. And our schools are perhaps doing a better job than nay sayers report. I'm in a fiction class at the Rhein Center this week and most of the class is about ages 12-15. There's only one other adult. These beautiful kids are incredibly articulate, motivated, aware, and fabulous writers. I was stunned. I'm definitely the slacker in the group when it comes to writing. I didn't meet any young people like this among my children's classmates in the 1980s (and Upper Arlington has one of the best school systems in the state), none in my generation, and none in my parents'. They are better than most of the fiction bloggers twice their age with college courses that I've read. Some of my "classmates" have been writing seriously and energetically half their lives. Admittedly, that's not a lot of years on my calendar, but it's huge on theirs. Even taking into consideration that maybe it's typical for teens to exaggerate a bit--28 novels and published poetry (which one girl reported)? True, she admitted that the novels weren't finished or polished, but when I was her age I was writing a short paragraph once or twice a week to "Dear Diary." And supportive! I think they've all been in critique classes before--they listen attentively and find something good in each piece when we share. They know the vocabulary of writing and how to use it. And when I say they are beautiful, I include physical beauty as well. Yet, most report being on the outside among their peers. Some of that I'm sure is the normal teenage angst where you ardently believe everyone else has it together, but also people who go on to become novelists, artists and screen writers probably do have a different emotional stair to climb. They are definitely on their way.

This is the Rhein Center's 10th year of offering classes. Established in a dilapitated, boarded up building in memory of C. Kirk Rhein, Jr., a son and grandson of Lakesiders lost in TWA Flight 800, it is now a pleasant, busy, humming hive of laughter and effort. I'm sure it's a joy every day to family members to see this building so well used.

In the afternoon I'm in a flower painting watercolor class. I rarely do flowers, although I have tried. I learned a new technique, and if you get even one "take away" from either a class or a sermon, it's a good day. One of my classmates is in my husband's perspective drawing class in the morning. She was so excited about it--gives me something to think about, she said. Whatever! Figuring out perspective is just frustrating for me.

Then in the evening Sue and I went to the movie theater in Lakeside (the only one in the county) to see "The Visitor," a very low key, but touching and timely film about personal loss, friendship and illegal immigration. Well worth seeing if it comes to your area. The NYT review is good, if somewhat nit-picky (but that's what they are paid to do), and this one really over reaches, as though those of us who are insulted and dismayed by an immigration law, first established by liberals in the 60s "to be fair" by limiting whites and westerners, have no heart or soul. Nonsense in wasted pixels.

The low down on the uptick in AIDS

The newest JAMA isn’t available to me yet, but for the typical New York Times hysterical editorializing of health information news, see yesterday’s paper. I read about the "big government cover up" (subtext: it’s all Bush’s fault) story at the coffee shop this morning.

Opening paragraph: “The AIDs epidemic in the U.S. is about 40% worse than the government has reported.”

First of all, there is no epidemic in the U.S. AIDs or HIV affect a tiny percentage of the population--mostly promiscuous, young, risk-taking gay men and IV drug users. Studies as early as 15 years ago in public health journals showed that after all the valiant efforts of the gay community to clean up their behavior or die (and many of them did both), the younger gay men rushed right back to the bath houses and sex without condoms once the drug cocktails became effective in extending their lives, but they also spread the disease and picked up other STDs which lowered their resistance. You don’t find out the role of gay men in this story until about paragraph 15 (53% of new infections are in young gay men, an extremely small demographic).

Second, you find out if you read far enough, more accurate measures account for the increase changing the results and numbers. There’s no government plot folks, move along. The CDC, which did the most recent study and all the previous studies, IS THE GOVERNMENT (think FEMA with a little black bag and clip boards) .

Third, the author of the NYT article attempts to hint at a conspiracy to keep this quiet because 2 peer review journals returned it when it came out in October 2007. That’s not the least bit unusual--I used to be a peer reviewer. Often they are sent back because the statistics or procedures are not clearly explained, they exceed the word limit, the citations are incorrect, or the data false or misleading. The redo improves the piece. That JAMA will report it is also not unusual--its editorial policies are about as liberal as the NYT. It was embargoed so it could be presented at a conference, but someone violated that--all in the public’s best interest, of course (sarcasm alert).

Fourth, in true NYT fashion, President Bush is faulted for the billions spent on AIDS in foreign countries, rather than attacking the epidemic at home. The guy just can't win.

Fifth, here’s the best line in the article. Someone in CDC is quoted as saying “We’re not effectively reaching men who have sex with men and African Americans to lower their risk.” Yeah, like no gay man knows that gay bars and bath houses and downlow (closeted homosexual) with the ladies is risky behavior. And I just know that gay teens and 20-somethings would most certainly stop having sex if CDC just put out enough posters, TV ads and brochures. Just the way the government has successfully controlled smoking and obesity.

Giving up on plastic

The other day I heard some kids chanting while biking up our street--“paper, plastic, Styrofoam.” I have no idea if this was some counting game they’d learned in a social studies class--a PC, 21st century “one potato, two potato. . .”--or if they just like the rhythm. A British blogger is recording his daily effort to live without plastic--not cutting up his credit card, but rejecting anything served or stored in plastic, and it’s harder than he thought. Even the loose fruit at the market he learns was shipped in huge containers of plastic to protect it--maybe more than those packaged fruits.

Glance around your house today, you'll see the problem. Looking around my living room, porch and kitchen here at Lakeside, I have some sympathy. It’s hard to live without plastic. After supper, I tossed out the plastic container and lid from the deli for the chicken salad; my Sunday coffee came in paper but has a plastic lid; I’m storing tomorrow’s coffee in a one quart plastic container; I made it with my new $14 Mr. Coffee machine, most of which is plastic; the shelves on the door of the 5 year old refrigerator are plastic, as are the drawers--I have 2 extra drawers taken from the 1960s model it replaced and they are metal; all the left overs and fresh stuff are stored in plastic containers or bags; the cord to my digital camera is stored in a plastic bag, as is the camera (plastic case) when it’s in my purse; my favorite #2 BIC (and I must have 50 of them) are plastic “mechanical pencils;" the basket on my 40 year old bike is plastic, the seat is plastic and I have it covered with a plastic grocery bag in case it rains; the bag from the optometrist for my new plastic frame glasses is plastic as is the bottle of lens cleaner; the cover on the 20 year old TV is plastic painted to look like wood; the flashlight under the TV stand is plastic; the jewel case for the several CDs on my desk are plastic; one of our porch wicker chairs isn’t wicker at all--it’s woven plastic to look like wicker and wears much better than the real stuff; the spiral binder on my blogging notebook is plastic and the cover clear acrylic (a plastic); over on my bookshelf many of my books have plastic spirals; all the pill bottles on the kitchen counter are plastic; the counter top is Formica--a plastic laminate; the kitchen trash can is plastic with a plastic bag inside ; the bag where I put the glass bottles and plastic containers for taking to a recycling location is plastic; our 10 year old outside trash containers which replaced the dented and abused metal cans are plastic; when I go to the Farmer’s Market and select lovely locally grown fruits and vegetables from the farmers’ wagons, the growers dump them into reused plastic bags; the kitty litter box is plastic and I scoop the poop into plastic grocery bags with a plastic slotted tool; my 20 year old dish drainer and dish pan are plastic as are all the containers of soap and cleaners under the sink which probably has some plastic pipes; I have a few colorful plastic drinking “glasses” and dishes in the cupboards; the doggie gate for our “grand puppy” which keeps her from pestering our cat is plastic; the cat’s feeding dishes are plastic--50 year old melamine; the night lights in all the rooms are plastic as are the wall covers for the outlets; our mini-blinds are plastic; the hand lotions and all my cosmetics are in plastic bottles; my computer case is plastic as is the mouse; the surge protector for my computer is plastic; my printer is plastic; the cover on the thermostat is plastic; the elaborate frame around a grandfather’s baby photo (ca. 1875) is probably celluloid, an early form of plastic; my white athletic shoes which look like leather are really plastic as are the tips of the cotton shoe strings; the buttons on my blouse are plastic (my slacks are so old that the zipper is metal, but most these days are plastic).

Environmentalists are really sort of snobs, aren‘t they? Especially the American and European e-nuts and greenies who jet around and want you to drive a little electric car so third world citizens will stay simple, culturally pure and starving. I’m a strong believer in recycling--it’s economical, saves resources, and creates jobs. However today's environmental movement is about 95% political and 5% spiritual. A huge power grab. Plastics have obviously enabled the ordinary person like me to live or buy the way only the wealthy could afford 40 or 50 or 100 years ago. Americans have lifted entire countries out of poverty by buying plastic doo-dads we really don't need in a global market. Buying locally grown produce and carrying it home in a cloth bag in the natural wicker bicycle basket to be stored in a cool root cellar or wind powered refrigerator, or growing your own, is fine if you live in rural California, or for 3 summer months in Ohio, but that’s a pretty restricted diet for most of us. People who can live without plastics probably have servants, or a 2nd world life style.

Also, is it just me misremembering, or weren't the environmentalists of the 1970s telling us to use plastic bags to save the trees and disposable diapers to save on water and utilities?

Don't Drink the Cool-Aid

says Seth, one of the Fat Triplets, who appears to be a Libertarian and a conservative Christian. He says his brother Scott, also an FT, is a huge Obama supporter, so he is going to look at, not his charisma, but his policies.

What kinds of laws would he pass if his party is given complete control of congress?

How will he re-shape America?

What does he believe about the role of government?

"I think that an objective analysis of his speeches, voting record, and past policy initiatives will reveal Barack Obama to not be left-of-center (as my brother believes) but to be FAR-LEFT. You may ask, FAR-LEFT of what? What will form a baseline standard for evaluating his policies? Relative-to-what do I consider Barack to be on the FAR-LEFT.

And my answer, put simply, is the constitution. The REAL Contract With America that should form the basis of ALL political discourse and policy building is the constitution. Every elected official swears to uphold it. . . . I believe that what Obama has in mind for the country is extreme. I hope to show, by constitutional standards, that on the issues in which he should want an assertion of government power (the protecting of innocent human life) that Obama is on the extreme WRONG end of the spectrum. And that on issues in which he should desire a shrinking of government and infringement of federal power into our daily lives, Obama is, again, on the extreme WRONG end of the spectrum." And he promises to tell us more.

Obama needs help

says David Gergen on ABC's This Week (Sunday chat show) because McCain finally burst his balloon. Imagine. The world sees him for what he is, a good looking story teller with no substance and no experience who can excite the crowds, and now that he isn't soaring in the polls, it's because McCain is taking the low road? He had all the press all the time, all over Europe and the mid-east, and McCain gets snarky about his celebrity status, and now Gergen is panicked.

Our house guest

Wanna play?
I'm sure glad we don't have a 44 lb cat like the one that's been on the news lately. Our cat and our daughter's dog together weigh about 11 lbs., but there's lots of hissing and growling going on. Yes, we're puppy sitting for the next week while our kids are in Colorado. I have a long list of requirements, including snacks of yogurt and treats of fresh green beans. Our cat doesn't snack--that's why she weighs 7 lbs instead of 44.

Don't even think about it

She didn't die without a verb

You may recall (or not) I've written a poem about the obituaries--and how sad it is that some die without a verb. Pastor Petersen at Redeemer Lutheran in Fort Wayne knows his scripture and his verb phrases

". . . reported that Vivian has been relieved of this life's burdens and gone early to the reward of faith in Jesus Christ. She has come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord."

It doesn't mean her parents aren't grieving. I have two sons buried in Illinois; wish I'd known then what I know now. But the resurrection is coming.

Defeating Islamic terrorism

Iraq the Model blog says

Terrorism cannot be defeated by killing Bin Laden or even killing every single existing member of Al-Qaeda, especially considering the decentralized structure of terrorist organizations. Terrorism can be defeated by offering a model for a bright future that gives people who have suffered for so long hope and saves them from despair.

Iraq is now closer than ever to becoming this model, and victory in this chapter of the war is within hand…unless Obama succeeds in ending the war his way.

Other Obama Posts at Collecting my thoughtsOn abortion
Windfall Profits Tax
Speeches without Teleprompter
Obama and new taxes
Europeans prefer Obama
Obama's marxism
Don't ask, don't gossip
The real hope and change
Listening to Obama, a poem
Hymn for the Obama campaign
The isms in this campaign
Obama and the Israel tantrum
Obama's Illinois record
Speechifying
The Obamas and the poor
Who's next under the Obama bus?

with contributions by Sununu.

Who needs art classes?

I saw this fun add-on at Cathy's site.

You submit a photo to any one of many possibilities at PhotoFunia--billboards, t-shirts, appliances, and there you are!

This week at Lakeside there are two art classes (one for portraits) and two writing classes being offered that I might consider. My husband is also teaching, but his classes are too hard! I don't write well on assignment, and my last portrait effort certainly wasn't as good as this little computer trickster.

Not me, Michelle

"Every woman I know, regardless of race, education, income, background, is struggling every day to keep her head above water. We've been told we can have it all, but lose ourselves in the process." Michelle Obama

Not me, Michelle. But she said, every woman she knows, and I'm old enough to be her mother and I'm not a wealthy lawyer in a high profile life. (Obama's numbers are going up now that she's back in the closet.) That "we can have it all" was a message the feminists, progressives, humanists and liberals promoted almost 40+ years ago; now it's just a straw-woman to knock down in the ladies' magazines, one more thing for women to whine about. No one gives it serious consideration these days. I was a liberal back in the 1970s, but I knew better even then. Yes, you can have it all, just not all at the same time.

My husband has been on two mission trips to Haiti and is going back again in November. He says he's never met such happy people, yet they have nothing by our standards--not a road system, not clean water, not utilities, not sanitation, and certainly not a working government. It takes confiscatory taxes and gives nothing in return. Not even promises of hope and change. When you place your faith in careers, government bureaucracy, relationships, consumer goods or even your own power to make everything work your way, you're bound to be disappointed.

Carville on the 2004 loss

I saw this at The Chief Source, a Democrat blog, in November 2004.

MR. CARVILLE: The purpose of a political party in a democracy is to win elections. We're not doing that well enough, and I think that we can't deny that the problem exists. I think we have to confront the problem. And by and large, our message has been we can manage problems, while the Republicans, although they will say we can solve problems, they produce a narrative. We produce a litany. They say, "I'm going to protect you from the terrorists in Tehran and the homos in Hollywood." We say, "We're for clean air, better schools, more health care." And so there's a Republican narrative, a story, and there's a Democratic litany. And, you know, at a point, you look at 45 Senate seats, you look at a lost presidential election, and you say, "We have to rethink this thing." I really believe that.

MR. RUSSERT: But you're suggesting the Democrats lost, that George Bush didn't win.

MR. CARVILLE: Well, I'm suggesting--look, I said both. I gave him enormous credit. I said it was the signature political achievement of my life, but it wasn't just this election--and I think it's an election that people wanted change. I think if we had produced--the party itself--I just don't want to focus on Senator Kerry or his campaign. This is not the first election that we've lost. There's--something is setting in here.

Now, having said that, my friends caution me, and they're right. I mean, 48 percent--I mean, we're not starting in terms of shambles here, but I think this is a message to the Democratic Party: We need to produce a narrative. We need to be more about solving problems as opposed to managing them, and I think it's going to be interesting to see how it comes out.

Now it's the Republicans saying we're for clean air, better schools, and more health care, and the Democrats are for hope and change. They've switched focuses. Democrats decided they don't win with Hollywood and have gone to church. Republicans decided to go to warm and fuzzy specifics that sound good and offer nothing. It worked. Carville is one smart guy (he married a Republican). At that time (November 2004), Obama was preferred by 3% of Democrats, Hillary Clinton by 25%.

I watched all those weepy Democrats and sad faced media-folk in the post 2004 election analyses. They really focused on religion and cultivating the grass roots as the keys to winning (so long Hollywood celebs--see you after the election). And it worked--at least in Ohio--in 2006. We elected a former Methodist minister as our next governor. Very pious man, nice looking, good machine. But it really grates on my nerves to see him in ads for the state lottery.

Evangelicals have helped. The "emergent church" movement has decided the message of the cross isn't nearly as much fun as social feel-good topics and flashy worship services with loud music. So we can't give the Democrats all the credit.

Lakeside 2008 Sound of Music

Our local community theater group performed Sound of Music this past week. I didn't go--I heard it was about 3 hours; see my item on arthritis! However, did you know Maria von Trapp is 93 and still playing music? She visited her home town recently. Story here.

SiteMeter and blogspot having a problem

Imagine my surprise when IE said it wouldn't open my blog! I refuse to do any add-ons since the laptop is so touchy, so I didn't want to try Firefox. So I poked around on the various discussion lists and someone said SiteMeter was the problem. I really hesitated to pull it, because I really like that system (it's free and easy for non-techies like me), but oh well. ZIP, now I seem to be working again.

Arthur and me

There’s a joke going around since before my grandmother’s day about going out with Arthur--i.e. arthritis. The last time I chatted with my nice doctor, who increasingly has moved into management and can’t take on new patients (sorry), I told him about the aches I have in my legs and hip joints especially first thing in the morning, or after vigorous exercise. It goes away, but if I‘ve done much walking on Tuesday, especially on hard surfaces like concrete sidewalks or mall walking, Wednesday morning I‘m a bit unsteady. When I stand up to leave during intermission (here at Lakeside), I’m almost out of the auditorium before my gait is normal. So even a few minutes of sitting creates an ache similar to 30 minutes of brisk walking. He didn’t seem too concerned, but said it was arthritis and recommended glucosamine chondroitin (3 weeks before you notice any change, he said) or some pain medications.

So I’ve been doing a bit of research on the internet (PubMed, Medscape, Google Scholar), looking at 1) physical problems that aggravate the joints, 2) affects of mild exercise, 3) interventions like acupuncture or supplements for osteoarthritis, 4) and the possibility of orthotics. The pain I experience is actually very familiar--I remember it as young as age 12 when repetitive motion like ballroom dancing or horse back riding would create that same ache after only a few minutes. So I’m guessing something is out of alignment and it gets worse as I age. I’ve learned that any type of aerobic dance exercise, although great fun and a good cardio workout, will really set in motion a pain sequence. Some years ago my doctor recommended trying acupuncture for hip pain, and I did--only 2 or 3 sessions. Whatever it did, either reducing inflammation or interrupting pain messages to the brain, a few sessions worked for many months. So I’m definitely taking another look at that research.

Because of our aging population, this is a rich vein for researchers. If you don’t have arthritis now, just wait a few years. The mine field in working through medical research is “the gap.” If you go to any web page of the NIH or health foundation, you see there are vast amounts of grant money if you want to research the gap in care, treatment, or diagnosis between races, income groups, genders, education, etc. Now all I have to do is find the researcher looking for ME--white, healthy, well-educated, normal BMI, married, suburban and retired.

Right now I’m looking through the research of Brian C. Focht, an assistant professor in the College of Public Health at Ohio State. Here’s why. Assistant professors are hungry for grants and publications, because that’s how you get ahead in academe--they need to be cutting edge and find their niche**; the College of Public Health used to be the School of Public Health, so it is eager to establish itself (recently got a mega grant from NIH to do all that “gap” research--our tax dollar at work); and OSU is right next door, so it’s easy to check things out if a new study is gearing up and they are looking for me.

Millions are being invested in "lifestyle" research. It's not just the women's magazines--the government is eager to get you coming and going and control everything that goes in your mouth, nose or other orifices. That's why I liked the results of this one.

“Exercise + dietary weight loss results in improved mobility-related self efficacy; changes in these task-specific control beliefs and self-reported pain serve as independent partial mediators of the beneficial effect of exercise + dietary weight loss on stair-climb performance.” “Exercise, self-efficacy, and mobility performance in overweight and obese older adults with knee osteoarthritis,” Brian C. Focht and others, Arthritis Care and Research, 53:5; 659-665.

It seems this group did better than the “healthy lifestyle” control group. I love it when my own “eat less, move more” plan comes out on top, and doesn’t cost a thing.

Another article I read, also about knees, not hips, described mild exercise as slow walking. So I’ve slowed down, and right away I can tell the impact on the hip joints has lessened. Seems simple, but so much in exercise stresses cardio, that sometimes we forget those other muscles and joints have needs too.

Johns Hopkins Health Alerts--Arthritis

**Barack Obama, who spent 12 years teaching at the University of Chicago Law School and didn't publish a single paper, is the exception (according to the NYT, July 30). Some folks get a different set of rules.

Polls show Americans quickly forget who supported the surge

"A new poll from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press shows the American public increasingly concerned about rising energy and food costs. The national survey, conducted July 23-27 among 1,503 adults, shows Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) did not gain significantly from his trip to the Middle East and Europe last week. The survey indicates voters are split on which candidate is better on foreign policy. 43 percent listed McCain, while 42 percent named Obama.

48 percent of voters still view Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) as more capable than Obama of defending the country against a terrorist attack, but that lead has narrowed in the last month. In June, 55 percent selected McCain as better on terrorism. On Iraq, McCain has a slim 44 percent lead over Obama’s 41 percent." from Campaign Blog, Council on Foreign Relations

What sort of change?

Just because it appears in a newspaper letters column doesn’t guarantee its authenticity, but most editors require some sort of authentication, so it‘s got a bit more veracity than a forwarded 100-times anonymous e-mail. But it's still just one man's opinion on change. This one I checked--a letter to the editor of the Richmond Times (VA) on July 7. You can read the whole thing. The Cuban American writer states he’s now been in the U.S. for forty years, but he remembers a young leader in the late 1950s who promised change and they all, particularly the press, put their faith in him. He continues. . .

"But nobody asked about the change, so by the time the executioner's guns went silent the people's guns had been taken away. By the time everyone was equal, they were equally poor, hungry, and oppressed. By the time everyone received their free education it was worth nothing. By the time the press noticed, it was too late, because they were now working for him. By the time the change was finally implemented Cuba had been knocked down a couple of notches to Third-World status. By the time the change was over more than a million people had taken to boats, rafts, and inner tubes. You can call those who made it ashore anywhere else in the world the most fortunate Cubans. And now I'm back to the beginning of my story.

Luckily, we would never fall in America for a young leader who promised change without asking, what change? How will you carry it out? What will it cost America?

Would we?

Manuel Alvarez Jr., Sandy Hook."

Digital repositories

". . . the digital collections that libraries, museums and archives create with great effort and expense are not always well-indexed by Web search engines, thus decreasing the potential use and impact of those digital resources. OAIster, a "union catalog of digital resources" developed at the University of Michigan, provides access to over 16 million digital resources by harvesting OAI metadata from over 1000 repositories worldwide. About 45% of this material, the authors determine, is also indexed by Google, leaving the remaining 55% "hidden" in the deep web, unindexed by Web search engines." Hagedorn, Kat, and Joshua Santelli. "Google Still Not Indexing Hidden Web URLs" D-Lib Magazine 14(7/8)(July/August 2008)

No surprise to me. Hidden probably because librarians had little to say in the design, from the looks of it. I’ve never seen anything more poorly indexed than OSU’s Knowledge Bank. Some items look like they were retrieved from the circular file or store room by the secretary and then scanned and cataloged by the lowest paid, newest hire in the department--sometimes no title page, no date of publication, no thought to subject terms or even the official name of the Department. And really folks, a lot of “senior thesis papers“ need to be tossed in a box and stored at their parents, not indexed on the internet where a junior high kid or left wing blogger can find it.

Here lies the problem (from an October 2007 presentation) in my opinion. Keep in mind that a "community" is any division or department within the Ohio State University.

KB Community & Collection Policies

A Knowledge Bank Community has the right to:
• decide policy regarding content to be submitted
• decide who may submit content
• limit access to content
• customize interfaces to community content

You can search by author, title, subject, "community," or date. There is no search for "creator," or "publisher," even though that information appears in whatever main page you bring up. In a database by and about OSU, I'd expect more than five entries to come up for the author, "Ohio. . .", but that was it. As subject, however, Ohio State University brings up 11. Adding subdivisions, there are probably hundreds, including Ohio State Univerity--Libraries, and Ohio State University Libraries, and library and libraries. But to actually find documents created, sponsored, published or about Ohio State University Libraries and its faculty, you'd have to search "community," and sorry, but that's not what comes to mind when I think of a university department. If in desperation you try a general search on the word Ohio, you'll get thousands, including "front matter," and "back matter," of scanned journals with the word Ohio in the title.

If other repositories created with dspace with our tax money “with great effort and expense” are this poor, why should Google have to rescue it with private money?

Covert Radio

I'm having an interesting time working through David's links (Heretical Librarian), and this morning tuned into Covert Radio, via The Long War Journal link, a real relief from listening to the Cleveland corruption and Toledo's crime wave stories (I'm on Lake Erie).

"Brett Winterble joins Tim Lynch from VSSA, Bill Roggio from the Long War Journal and Amy Sun from the FAB LAB, from MIT. Brett interviews Tim Lynch from VSSA, a contractor working in Afghanistan, about the current situation there. Also on the line was Amy Sun from the FAB Lab at MIT, Amy is working on a ground breaking new project to help redevelop Afghanistan's infrastructure. Bill Roggio from Long War Journal also joins in to talk about his take on the latest reports on ISI involvement with AQ and the TalibanPlus reaction to the latest report from RAND."

I had never heard of an MIT FAB Lab (2,000 tons of equipment in the middle of nowhere), but Amy (an engineer) is certainly excited about it. I've also enjoyed reading some foreign newspapers on-line; I'd almost forgotten, if I ever knew, what non-editorialized "news" looked like. You don't have to slog your way to paragraph 11 to get to the point.

One of the Taliban pro-jihad poems distributed as a ring tone for cell phones — “Death is a gift,” on Al Emarah — included the phrase, “I will not kiss the hand of Laura Bush.” Perfect for the ALA anarchists. Seen at Covert Radio blog.

As mentioned before, my laptop isn't very stable. I haven't reloaded the software since October. I hope I've discovered the trick--I've stopped updating or adding anything that it didn't come with. This seems to interfere with some adobe documents and pod-casts, but this one comes through fine.

A second income? Think again

If Mr. Obama wants to raise your taxes, but still encourage marriage, the greatest non-government, anti-poverty program we have, he should first read the Smart Money article on what that second income really costs.

"After you subtract what you'll owe the feds, your city and state, Social Security and Medicare, you may end up bringing home 60% or less of your spouse's new salary. And if the first spouse already earns a healthy income and you live in a high-tax state, the government pickpockets could easily hit you up for 50%."

But it gets worse; read on.

Two things aren't mentioned in the article. First, the illusion that you actually have that second salary, so you spend accordingly. There's no calculator that can factor in pipe dreams. If your spouse went to work really understanding she'd have less than 1/2 of that $40,000, maybe you'd think twice before buying new toys, or trading up on a higher mortgage and you'd use it to pay down debt or save. Second, keep in mind that if your spouse is in the education field or contributes to a public employees plan, all that money taken out for Social Security is for nothing if they have a state retirement plan. Neither your spouse nor you will see that when you retire. Our federal employees and military can double-dip, but not teachers. The RINOs refused to help Bush fix SS, so now it will be up to the next guy, or the next or the next.

Keep in mind also that no one has fixed the AGI--and Mr. Obama is eyeing you like the fatted lamb; he thinks you're "rich" and can pay more taxes. Remember, the middle class pays; the rich hire accountants and lawyers to hide their wealth.

Also not mentioned in the Smart Money worksheet because it's about as popular as telling someone to stop smoking, a church tithe (start with 10% and work up) on that spousal income is a good way to stay out of debt, but you need to take it off the top so you don't think you have it to spend.

Unfortunately, articles like this do not reduce taxes, they just encourage people to not marry.

Fewer homeless

“The U.S. had 12% fewer homeless last year than in 2005, and the greatest decline occurred among those who chronically live on the streets or in emergency shelters, according to a federal report to be released Tuesday.” USAToday reports (HT Black and Right) Homeless advocates, liberals, progressives, etc. are not happy about this. Chronic homelessness especially is down, and this could put these guys out of work! It’s a huge report--144 pp. Read it if you dare.