Faith and the American Presidency

How much do you know (or can you guess) about the American Presidents and their faith? This is a multiple choice quiz which gives you a better score than fill in the blank, which I would have flunked. As it is, I got 15 out of 20 correct. That's not a terrific score for someone who enjoys reading biographies of presidents.

Sarah Palin’s Christian testimony

You’ve heard Obama and McCain interviewed by Rick Warren, and maybe you heard a CNN reporter giving snippets and declaring them scary. Here’s a recording of her testimony in her words. If you don't want to hear the ads and a telephone interview with a woman who was at the Republican convention, start about 1/3 into the tape. It lasts about 14 minutes and she is speaking to a particular graduating group and there were special guests in the audience. According to the host, the site at the church got so many hits, it brought down their server, but someone had captured it. It is going around the internet, and I'm sure for non-Christians not accustomed to the language, certain phrases will sound very foreign. I've heard many similar send offs (although not from our governor). The pastor talks about Alaska being a refuge state "in the last days." Although I'm not a dispensationalist and have never heard this particular point, I don't think it hurts one bit to live your life as though Jesus were coming back this afternoon. I think Martin Luther said something similar, as did St. Paul.

Update: Today I was reading Martin Luther's letter that accompanied his translation (?)/commentary of the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament. He was so convinced that they were in the last days and the Lord was coming back, he wasn't sure it was worth it to get the book into German so the ordinary person could read it. When I find it again, I'll post, but it was very interesting. A letter to John Frederic, I think. Anyway, CNN needs to upgrade its understanding of Christian eschatology.

The tale of two women

Kinky Friedman says the tale of two women is about the one McCain picked and the one Obama didn't. Agreed. If Obama had chosen Hillary, he would be unbeatable. I wasn't supporting Hillary (especially since Bill was part of the package), but the snub of her and her followers was huge. Now . . . we'll just have to see, but it looks like he might lose.

Their love is here to stay

Richard at 3 Score and 10 tells about his wife's illness, cancelled cruise plans, and a bad insurance package that ripped them off. But here was the silver lining, I thought.

"I mentioned a long time ago that when she was in the hospital in Finland, unconscious, I sat beside her every day and sang to her. (Lots of songs, but always including Our Love is Here to Stay by George and Ira Gershwin, it was "our song" when we were courting, and I sang it to her at our wedding reception) Now we sit together every night, after we have prayer, and sing "Its very clear, our love is here to stay, Not for a year but ever and a day". Now, we sing it together, usually adding some Finnish songs including Hosianna Davidin Poika (Hosanna to the Son of David). No matter how lousy the day has been, I feel better after that."

Sniff.

Black raspberries might fight colon cancer

Ohio State professor of public health Gary Stoner has co-authored a study that reports black raspberries are rich in several substances thought to have cancer-preventing properties. Of course, you’d need to eat about 4 bowls of berries a day to get the benefits. Story here. I wonder if . . .



Right now in the freezer we have Pierre's Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip, but I can't find a picture or mention of it on their home page.

Listening to lies about the economy

CNN had extensive coverage of Biden banging the drum for a depression, and the sooner the better. Yes, he actually was doing that even when the August 2008 report read thusly:

Real median household income in the United States climbed 1.3 percent between 2006 and 2007, reaching $50,233, according to a report released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. This is the third annual increase in real median household income.

Meanwhile, the nation’s official poverty rate in 2007 was 12.5 percent, not statistically different from 2006. There were 37.3 million people in poverty in 2007, up from 36.5 million in 2006. The number of people without health insurance coverage declined from 47 million (15.8 percent) in 2006 to 45.7 million (15.3 percent) in 2007.

However, I went in an looked at the 2007 Census report and was charmed to see what I realized my last few years of working. We were in a recession in 1999 and 2000; then the 9/11 attacks took place in 2001, we went to war, and although the economy struggled, Bush took on the burst bubble from Clinton, as the next president will take on this burst bubble. (U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 1968 to 2008 Annual Social and Economic Supplements., p. 5)

Household income is going to continue to go down, Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama--hello! Have you heard? Baby Boomers are retiring! They certainly aren't poor, but they aren't living on salaries, but on investments, that item Obama wants to tax more (i.e., the rich). They aren't buying high end consumer goods; they aren't buying new houses; they don't need new clothes and new cars. I bought my van in 2002, I love it, and see no reason to trade. My income (a pension check) is about 1/3 of my (fabulous) salary. They're taking money out of the country and spending it in Europe and Asia.

And we continue to import poor people to flood our social services at the bottom. Neither McCain nor Obama have a plan to stop a huge economic and social problem created by bad legislation in the 1960s when socialist brain surgeons decided the country was too white and too European.

Change? Hope? You bet. And you'd better hope someone is paying attention to demographics, or you'll be as famous as FDR following Hoover, dragging us down, and down and down for a full decade.

Watching CNN

election coverage is just sputtering amazing! I've never seen so many sour faces and lame excuses as I have today watching CNN's stunned disbelief (still) about the McCain Palin ticket. This is not a gang I usually watch. If they weren't so pathetic, I'd laugh. As it is, I'm just smiling. Next: an expose of her church. Hmmm. Now why would they be looking there? I don't think they'll find another Jeremiah, but whoever they find, I'm sure they'll build a story. She worshipped at a (whisper) pentecostal church!!!! Spiritual quicksand, I believe were the words. How judgemental. They speak in (whisper) tongues!!! OMG! (So do Lutherans in my church.) And now she attends a Bible Church (independent, non-denominational). Now they are parsing her words about prayer.

I've now had this program (Blitzer?) on for over 30 minutes, and it's been one big bash-fest of McCain-Palin, from quoting Democrats to each other. Ooops. Now interviewing a former aide, Meg Stapleton--and Blitzer is trying to refute what she is saying, and he is trying to paint Palin as a flip flopper. Stapleton makes a statement; Blitzer restates it--wrong. The man looks like a hired hit man for Obama.

The baby and the former POW

Have a little baby and a candidate ever shared the spotlight at a presidential convention? If Sarah and Todd Palin never do another good thing in their lives, they have probably saved more than a few babies from distruction just by showing him off and calling him perfection. They've called attention, or the media have, to the awful news that over ninety percent of these little ones are being aborted after testing reveals their situation. But to have him on stage with a man who also survived when others wanted him dead and broken. That is just a perfect image of this passage in Isaiah 46 where God says false gods like Bel and Nebo are burdensome and unable to rescue:

Listen to me, O house of Jacob,
all you who remain of the house of Israel,
You whom I have upheld since you were conceived,
and have carried since your birth.
Even to your old age and gray hairs
I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
I will sustain you and I will rescue you.

Wellness Programs

This is going to sound petty, but I’ll write it anyway. Do highly educated people with fabulous health benefits need to be enticed into using both their brains and their benefits with “wellness” forums, freebies and football cheerleaders? What ever happened to common sense and self-interest? These people actually do pay for all their benefits--their salaries are reduced to compensate, but I think if they received the money in their paychecks then had to purchase the benefits from a list and see the money decrease, they’d be less likely to have a need to be cajoled and bribed into using them.

“Sponsored by the [Ohio State University] Faculty and Staff Wellness Program, the University Staff Advisory Committee, Your Plan for Health and the Department of Recreation Sports, you can visit more than 100 exhibitors and health care professionionals [sic]; grab a free lunch; obtain various health screenings; and cheer with the Buckeye players, band, cheerleaders and Brutus Buckeye. Be sure to get your free biometric screening to complete your Personal Health Assessment (visit http://yourplanforhealth.com/pha.html to reserve a time). You also can purchase fresh produce from a farmer's market, learn how to "go green," and sample goodies from a healthy cooking demonstration.”

Has anything changed in fifty years?

The Anti-capitalistic Bias of American Intellectuals
Ludwig von Mises, The Anti-capitalist Mentality, [1956]
edited and with a preface by Bettina Bien Greaves (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2006).
CHAPTER 1: The Social Characteristics of Capitalism and the Psychological Causes of Its Vilification
"The anti-capitalistic bias of the intellectuals is a phenomenon not limited to one or a few countries only. But it is more general and more bitter in the United States than it is in the European countries. To explain this rather surprising fact one must deal with what one calls “society” or, in French, also le monde.

In Europe “society” includes all those eminent in any sphere of activity. Statesmen and parliamentary leaders, the heads of the various departments of the civil service, publishers and editors of the main newspapers and magazines, prominent writers, scientists, artists, actors, musicians, engineers, lawyers and physicians form together with outstanding businessmen and scions of aristocratic and patrician families what is considered the good society. They come into contact with one another at dinner and tea parties, charity balls and bazaars, at first-nights, and varnishing-days; they frequent the same restaurants, hotels and resorts. When they meet, they take their pleasure in conversation about intellectual matters, a mode of social intercourse first developed in Italy of the Renaissance, perfected in the Parisian salons and later imitated by the “society” of all important cities of Western and Central Europe. New ideas and ideologies find their response in these social gatherings before they begin to influence broader circles. One cannot deal with the history of the fine arts and literature in the nineteenth century without analyzing the role “society” played in encouraging or discouraging their protagonists.

Access to European society is open to everybody who has distinguished himself in any field. It may be easier to people of noble ancestry and great wealth than to commoners with modest incomes. But neither riches nor titles can give to a member of this set the rank and prestige that is the reward of great personal distinction. The stars of the Parisian salons are not the millionaires, but the members of the Académie Française. The intellectuals prevail and the others feign at least a lively interest in intellectual concerns.

Society in this sense is foreign to the American scene. What is called “society” in the United States almost exclusively consists of the richest families. There is little social intercourse between the successful businessmen and the nation’s eminent authors, artists and scientists. Those listed in the Social Register do not meet socially the molders of public opinion and the harbingers of the ideas that will determine the future of the nation. Most of the “socialites” are not interested in books and ideas. When they meet and do not play cards, they gossip about persons and talk more about sports than about cultural matters. But even those who are not averse to reading, consider writers, scientists and artists as people with whom they do not want to consort. An almost unsurmountable gulf separates “society” from the intellectuals.

It is possible to explain the emergence of this situation historically. But such an explanation does not alter the facts. Neither can it remove or alleviate the resentment with which the intellectuals react to the contempt in which they are held by the members of “society.” American authors or scientists are prone to consider the wealthy businessman as a barbarian, as a man exclusively intent upon making money. The professor despises the alumni who are more interested in the university’s football team than in its scholastic achievements. He feels insulted if he learns that the coach gets a higher salary than an eminent professor of philosophy. The men whose research has given rise to new methods of production hate the businessmen who are merely interested in the cash value of their research work. It is very significant that such a large number of American research physicists sympathize with socialism or communism. As they are ignorant of economics and realize that the university teachers of economics are also opposed to what they disparagingly call the profit system, no other attitude can be expected from them.

If a group of people secludes itself from the rest of the nation, especially also from its intellectual leaders, in the way American “socialites” do, they unavoidably become the target of rather hostile criticisms on the part of those whom they keep out of their own circles. The exclusivism practiced by the American rich has made them in a certain sense outcasts. They may take a vain pride in their own distinction. What they fail to see is that their self-chosen segregation isolates them and kindles animosities which make the intellectuals inclined to favor anti-capitalistic policies."


Accessed from http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/1889/109991 on 2008-09-07
This material is put online to further the educational goals of Liberty Fund, Inc. Unless otherwise stated in the Copyright Information section above, this material may be used freely for educational and academic purposes. It may not be used in any way for profit.

The only change since 1956 I see is that now librarians, Hollywood/ TV celebrities, and rock stars see themselves as "the molders of public opinion and the harbingers of the ideas for the future," and have become anti-capitalistic. They support for the most part, Barack Obama over John McCain, both wealthy non-intellectuals, with well placed friends in the business world.

McCain Street in Ohio

Lots of things puzzle me about politics. This is a big one. Why are Democrats and media complaining that Palin is being kept under wraps? What do those two owe the press? Or hostile Democrats? Since Thursday McCain and Palin have been in Wisconsin, Michigan, New Mexico and, now back to Ohio where he made the announcement--was it just a week and a half ago?
What: McCain Street USA Rally in Lebanon, OH on September 9th

When: September 9, 2008 7:00AM

Where: Outside of The Golden Lamb
27 S. Broadway
Lebanon, OH

Core Values and Principles of Free Enterprise

The Cline Center for Democracy at the University of Illinois is named for one of its very successful graduates, Richard G. Cline and his wife, Carole J. Cline. It has four programs, and I was only looking at the objectives of this one, the Program in Democratic Governance and Societal Welfare. The first objective is to conduct a program of research that refines our understanding of (1) the relative benefits of democracy for societal welfare, (2) how democracies can best be structured and supplemented to enhance human well-being, and (3) how best to achieve optimal institutional arrangements in diverse democratic societies.

From there I looked at how The Cline Center scholars see free enterprise and social welfare. We know what Marxists and Socialists and Progressives want (redistribution of all resources which will be under the control of government for all citizens except the party faithful, who get more; see here for definitions and explanations), but what about the rest of us, especially Christians? None of these economic systems are specifically Christian or non-Christian because all are grounded in material, not spiritual matters.

- Free enterprise conceptions of welfare are grounded in materialism, the satisfaction of material wants and needs, and the promotion of material progress. Correspondingly, the acquisition and holding of property is at the heart of this value. Also related to the materialistic foundations of free enterprise is that social welfare is conceived of in terms of improvements in the level of material well-being of individuals. Therefore, when free enterprise proponents gauge its impact on societal welfare, they examine its impact on levels of wealth, as opposed to, for example, the distribution of material wealth. Equality of opportunity is valued, not equality of condition.

A second value is individualism. Thus, a high premium is placed on a core set of individual freedoms and liberties. This core set of values includes the choice of employment; the use of various forms of property as one sees fit; and the unencumbered enjoyment of the benefits that accrue from fruits of one’s labor or utilization of one’s property. The idea of “individualism” also encompasses the value of individual initiative, entrepreneurship, and the importance of the profit motive or the individual pursuit of self-interest. Free enterprise theory maintains that it is through these mechanisms that free enterprise economies provide for societal welfare. However, to achieve these ends free economies must function in an environment of free and fair competition.

I agree with Mr. Obama!

Catching the ABC interview this morning, I found one thing on which we agree. It is offensive, very offensive, for some Christians to question his faith. He's offended, and so am I. I don't like it at all when "holier than thou" Christians question why I'm not a dispensationalist, or why I'm a 6 day creationist, or why I don't support the death penalty based on my faith. Who are you to judge? Jesus' work on the Cross on our behalf is about salvation, not about agreeing on the theological details. Jesus was apolitical, and the only stake he has in this election is how Christians behave themselves. It's ugly all around.

Have you ever read his testimony? I'd match it against most members in any one of the mainline Protestant churches and many evangelical. (I saw it at a UCC site.) Whenever I meet a new person at my church, the chances are 99.9% that they aren't a convert, they are a transfer. We Christians are making little impact because we just keep trading off our members. We are to be presenting our testimony not to amuse ourselves or increase memberships, but to make converts. If you don't like that, take it up with Jesus Christ.

Mr. Obama and Mr. Jindal are both the face of America, one whose father and extended family was/is Muslim and the other whose family is/was Hindu. Both are converts to Christianity and have achieved political power in our times that almost couldn't have been believed 10 years ago. I side with Jindal on his conservative politics, but I'm thrilled both are going to be in heaven with me. I'm in this for the long haul, not for November 2008. There will be no political rancor there; only worship.

Fay, Gustav, Hannah, Ike and Jeri

Poor Haiti! Probably the poorest country in our hemisphere and it's been hit by some bad hurricanes this late summer. And now Jeri. Oh, she's not a hurricane. She's Jeri Platt, a Columbus Methodist who has been on many mission trips to Haiti, and she's a fabulous watercolor artist. The Visual Arts Ministry hung a show of her wonderful paintings of the Haitian people at the Church at Mill Run, 3500 Mill Run Drive, Hilliard, OH 43026. There will be a reception for the artist next Sunday afternoon, 2-4 p.m. The show is on the second floor in the main corridor, September 6-October 16, 2008.

Update: We went over to Mill Run after the first service at Lytham to see how it looked (We were out of town when it was hung). I think there are 24 paintings, and they are just wonderful. NOTHING IS FOR SALE! She uses her art to tell the story of Haiti and Christian missions. But if they were for sale, I'd be in line.

Absentee and recounts

It could get messy. If the election is close, if there are recounts, there will be howls, protests, and conspiracy theories, to say nothing of sex, lies and video tape and the main stream media pushing for their guy. Here's how a U. of I. professor of political science, Brian Gaines, sees it:

The extremely tight 2000 election, and resulting dispute over the Florida recount, raised some uncomfortable questions about the U.S. voting system. Have we adequately addressed those concerns? Are there other potential issues or controversies waiting in the wings in the event of another close contest?

"Unfortunately, there's no such thing as a fool-proof electoral system. Blunders and fraud can creep into many different stages, from ballot design, to eligibility screening, to tabulation. Recounts often reveal serious problems. New Mexico's handling of the 2000 presidential election was a shambles, but the state was spared scrutiny because all eyes were on Florida. Washington state had an orderly, uncontroversial recount in its U.S. Senate race that year. The secretary of state crowed that his state managed recounts properly, so watching them was "like watching grass grow." Four years later, his successor oversaw a tumultuous triple recount in which new, previously overlooked ballots emerged late in the process, reversing the outcome. I'll hope for a controversy-free election, but if it is as close as I expect, there will probably be serious problems somewhere. Personally, I worry about the huge growth of absentee voting. Hardly anyone ever points out that absentee ballots defy modern practice by not being secret. Secret ballots emerged in the 19th century as the main device to prevent vote buying and intimidation of voters. We've quietly rolled back that reform in the interest of boosting turnout, on the assumption that decentralized, non-secret ballots are secure. I'm not confident that's right, and I expect a blow up over systematic abuse of absentee ballots by some campaign one of these days."

Then add all the motor-voter, convict voting rights (Democrats want these votes) and soldiers stationed abroad (Republicans want these included), the elder vote who wants to vote at home, all the questioned residency of college students voting for the first time, and we may not know for months who the next president is. These folks don't necessarily turn up in the polls we are reading day to day. The fact that these aren't "secret" will probably be an issue to keep lawyers employed for months, if one party or the other makes an issue. Also, we can expect to see dead people voting again in certain large blue cities as well as large turnouts of confused voters who can't read or figure out the ballots and so someone will demand a recount. Not the whole state, but just certain precincts or counties with identifiable blocks of voters. When it rains or gets cold in Ohio in November (that's a lot, folks), or when the lines are long and the polls close, or if certain people feel intimidated because of the neighborhood or the church where they vote, of if the community organizers from ACORN messed up, or the media talking heads guess it wrong too early, it will be the Republicans fault. About that, I have little doubt.

David Axelrod makes Karl Rove look like Snow White

So says one reader of this BusinessWeek article about the brains behind the Obama campaign, David Axelrod.

David Axelrod has long been known for his political magic. Through his AKP&D Message & Media consultancy, the campaign veteran has advised a succession of Democratic candidates since 1985, and he's now chief strategist for Senator Barack Obama's bid for President. But on the down low, Axelrod moonlights in the private sector.

From the same River North address, Axelrod operates a second business, ASK Public Strategies, that discreetly plots strategy and advertising campaigns for corporate clients to tilt public opinion their way.

And maybe it was a joke, but another reader left a comment asking for "a great infumercial telling what a community organizer is."

More scarce than a banned book?

The Obama nation; leftist politics and the cult of personality is a very scarce book in Ohio libraries, one of the most critical states in the election. At UAPL, there have been 18 requests for the one title that is circulating, and as near as I can tell from the record, there are 2 more copies in various stages of slowly, slowly dressing and primping to come out of the backroom and basement. God forbid that a library director or collection head should ever anticipate a need based on the cultural and social make-up of the community who pays her salary!

Not much chance that these requests will be filled before the election, is there? Also, hundreds, maybe thousands of regular readers are like me and just don't place a hold when they see the line--it's no different than the line at the restaurant or bank. You just leave. But librarians have their rules. Yes, indeedy. 1) buy slowly when you have the magic number of requests you can't fill; and 2)quickly swamp your shelves with anti-Bush books, even the most obscure and non-reviewed.

Cuyahoga County Public Library (suburbs of Cleveland) has 31 copies, none of them available; Columbus Public Library owns 56 copies with 148 requests. Ohio State has zero copies, but that doesn't surprise me. I mean, young people don't vote, right? It tends to a 100 or so scholarly titles like Bush's brain, All the President's spin, and Bushwacked plus two titles on impeaching him in the Law Library and eleven lauditory titles about Obama.

Banned Books Week (BBW), sponsored by the useless American Library Association which has never been able to get librarians a middle-class wage, is coming up--last week in September. Remember, folks. It all starts with what isn't purchased, not with complaints from the library users. Librarians politically are more liberal than the ACLU, Hollywood, and MoveOn dot org combined. For every registered Republican librarian, there are 223 Democrat librarians to out-buy them. Library purchases are critical to the success of a title. The chances of a conservative book getting to the new bookshelves are slim to none unless you request it. And even then, the chances aren't good. Librarians would rather be left behind than choose right.

What some people say

Some say Sarah Palin doesn’t have enough experience to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. Others say Obama has no experience to be the heartbeat of the presidency. She at least probably won’t make this mistake, having been in the executive office of our largest state. This was mentioned by Paul Feldman, a WSJ reader.

In his speech last week “he listed lots of “I will” statements but most of those things are prerogatives of the Congress, not the president.”

Maybe if he’d spent more time in the Senate and less on the road running to leave that job, he’d know that?

An Ohio Democrat, Kathy Dunn, says there’s no comparison between Hillary and Sarah. Agreed! Governor Palin got where she is without riding her husband’s coat tails, she’s not a lawyer, didn’t go to a private girl’s school, and wouldn’t have carpetbagged her way into office, as Hillary did in 2000 looking for an open Senate seat since there wasn‘t one in Arkansas.

Al Hubbard says that Americans are wiser than they are given credit.

“They seem to know that if you restrict supply and tax production, prices go up.”

But Al, that gives Washington more reasons to bail out the voters to build a bigger, more helpless base!

Ellen Goodman compared Bristol Palin to Jamie Lynn Spears and calls Sarah Palin a bridge to nowhere. If both teens had been pro-abortion and acted on those values, Goodman would have been applauding.

Does Ellen know Biden and Obama both voted for “the bridge to nowhere.” Governor Palin stopped them.


" ’I kissed a girl and I liked it;’ Then I went to Hell" is a church sign in Columbus referring to a tune by Katy Perry about lesbian love. Equality Ohio has identified 300 churches in Ohio that welcome gays. Must be a part of that whopping 8% of the population that belongs to Main Line protestant denominations. Nothing is killing Protestantism like the incessant pressure from liberal members to ordain and marry gays. My church welcomes gays too--and the divorced and shacking up, and the embezzlers and wife beaters, and the druggies and alcoholics, the gossips and snipers. God doesn’t grade on a curve, but gays will need to go elsewhere to marry. I’m sure there are ELCA pastors in Ohio who will violate their ordination oath, or whatever that is called--or do violence to the meaning of marriage in scripture. But it won’t happen at UALC (3 campuses, new service times).

Not even Bill Ayers, Obama’s mentor, used this excuse

Two men charged with the beating death of a homeless man with a baseball bat to the head repeatedly, say they “never meant any serious harm.” Contrast this lame excuse with Bill Ayers saying his bombing of the capital didn’t do enough (as reported in the New York Times on Sept. 11, 2001) “I wish we’d done more,” he complained.

84.7% of the U.S. population is covered by health insurance, which obviously is no guarantee that you’ll survive a trip to the hospital. 2,000,000 people acquire bacterial infections in U.S. hospitals each year, and 90,000 of those patients die as a result. (Seen in WSJ )

I see that Chicago children are boycotting their schools this week. A little help from a community organizer, I suspect, because usually children don't think these things up. What happened to all those millions that Bill Ayers poured into Obama’s career to look into the school problems in Chicago? Wasn’t anything corrected during Obama‘s leadership from 1995-1999 of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, and sitting on the Board of CAC until 2001?

Equal pay for equal work? Is that tired canard coming up again? Yes, ladies when you also relocate as often as men, publish as much as men, join as many organizations, play as much golf (yuk) with your enemies and friends, and learn to negotiate your FIRST salary (on which all else builds), and don't stop out for 4 or 5 years, then we’ll talk equal work.

In March 2005, what about unequal pay among women workers of different ethnicity?: "A white woman with a bachelor's degree typically earned nearly $37,800 in 2003, compared with nearly $43,700 for a college-educated Asian woman and $41,100 for a college-educated black woman, according to data being released Monday by the Census Bureau. Hispanic women took home slightly less at $37,600 a year."

Did you hear that John Edwards is charging more now for speaking engagements than before the scandal. Well, he does have an ill wife and three frightened children to support. Speaking of multiple homes. . .

That tingly guy, Chris Matthews on August 10 (video) "called the question, “What has he done?”, a show-stopper. No one could point to a single effective action Obama has taken to cross the aisle, while everyone acknowledged that John McCain has taken actual risks to do so. David Brooks tells the room that Republican Senators and staffers insist that Hillary Clinton works across the aisle and keeps communication open, but Obama has never bothered to do that, and both Democrats and Republicans on the Hill agree on his arrogance." from Hot Air. So why is Obama and staff outraged to be the butt of do-nothing jokes at the Republican Convention?

Would you hire this candidate?

At AIA Archiblog Nick Ruehl, an architect and mayor, was blogging about what he saw and heard at the conventions, and compared the candidates’ speeches to how architects try to sell themselves to potential clients.

"We are constantly trying to find folks who will vote for us. We (or our marketers) write all kinds of words and phrases that try to explain who we are, what we will do, how we will do it, and what we’ve done it in the past. We add our best graphics, shake and bake and put it out there for all to see. When we make it through to the interview shortlist, we refine our message, dress the part, and make the pitch.

How does that selection committee make a decision? Based on some rational, objective, weighted criteria that flows through a spreadsheet to a final score? Based on our relationship that we have developed with the prospective client? Based on the network of relationships that our prospective client has with our current or past clients? Style? Attitude? Our past work?"

. . . "the election will ultimately be won on which candidate is trusted most by the voters. I said that I believed people hire their architect because they trust him. Joe was quick to say that he would hire an architect for his home because the architect is more creative than he. He would look at the architect’s past work, check references, and see if the architect performed relative to schedule. He really placed a high priority on creativity.

As we drilled down a little more, I asked him if he thought it was important that the architect he would hire reflected the client’s spirit or his own? He talked about needs (space) and then continued on with comments about volume, light, exterior connection, interior design, etc. I then asked him if he would hire an architect that he didn’t trust to reflect his spirit. His eyebrows rose again.

So, whom do you trust to be America’s lead architect for the next 4 years?”

I’ve seen a lot of marketing in my 48 year connection on the sidelines of architecture. As a sole practitioner since 1994, my husband did almost no marketing (we paid for a yellow pages one line entry), it was all done word of mouth, people seeing the finished product and liking it, reputation, showing up at the selection process, his honesty and trustworthiness, and working with a younger developer early on who had promise and more connections to the building industry. His final (we think) home in Lakeside is getting so much attention for a beautiful, spacious design on a tiny lot (33'), that he's getting calls to come out of retirement. In fact, I remember when that client called two years ago--I first told her he had retired, but I passed her phone number on to my husband. She had seen another house he'd done. Fortunately, she was more desperate for a good architect, than he was for retirement.

When my husband was a partner in a larger firm, one of his partners responsibilities was to beat the bushes for “votes,” and he worked his network of social organizations like symphony, arts memberships, clubs, temple, churches, former clients and family contacts (he had several generations of family in Columbus and his father had also been an architect). What Ruehl doesn't mention (maybe because he isn't old enough), eventually that type of marketing winds down--everyone in your network is probably your age, unless you have a huge marketing arm (my husband's former firm probably only had 20 employees). Everyone, even architects, run after the "youth vote," which is why there are so many forgettable, awful boxes and baubles sitting around our cities and vacation communities passing for good design.

So I'd look at past work. That's why Mr. Ruehl, I'm by passing the flash and clever marketing and voting for past record and yes, how he touched my spirit. McCain's speech was not highly rated Thursday night, and he followed a line up of some of the worst speakers in the Republican party. But I have a confession. I hate campaign speeches, and Governor Palin's and John McCain's were the first convention acceptance speeches I'd ever watched since 1956 when I knew I was going to write a school paper on it (my parents didn't have TV--don't remember where I watched it).

McCain and I don't agree on immigration and the global warming hype, but his speech Thursday at the convention was the first time I'd ever actually listened to him, consequently there wasn't "too much Vietnam," as some have complained. (My children are 40 and Vietnam was ancient history to them in school; I'm sure they couldn't place it on a time line of the 20th century.) I was deeply moved by his account of how he had changed from a self-centered, risk-taking fly boy into a man who was broken, but saved by his love for country and his comrades who helped him survive torture, unset bones, and starvation. It wasn't his description of torture, because he barely touched that. It was the remarkable change in him. I've never been asked to risk anything, have never encountered any of the sacrifices he's made. Maybe that's why he touched my spirit.

I want someone better than me to lead the country. Obama's not that person. Obama's just a younger, smart alecky me. I'm voting McCain, not because of Sarah Palin, although she's the reason I tuned in, but because he touched my spirit.

Same ol', same ol'

Obama's education plan is business as usual says World Magazine. Just more billions thrown at even younger children.

Since Congress passed the first Elementary and Secondary Schools Act in 1965, every president has offered his signature education proposal. Carter promised to establish a federal Department of Education (and did); Reagan threatened to abolish the same (and didn't). Bush I had his Goals 2000, Clinton his Improving America's Schools act, Bush II his No Child Left Behind. Education reform has become such a fixture of the campaign season no one seems to wonder why education still needs reforming—didn't we already do that? In government bureaucracies, "reform" usually means something other than reform. Obama's plan is no exception.