Obama's people create jobs

"Washington trash trucks hauled away at least 130 tons of garbage after the inauguration of President Obama, with more to go. National Park Service workers picked up almost 100 tons on the Mall and near the White House. "

Yes, right on the heels of that inspiring rhetoric on the 20th, Obama's followers were busy creating jobs . . . for sanitary engineers. No volunteers, please. Pros (i.e., union jobs and civil service) were needed for this massive clean up on the mall after the inauguration. I don't know what happened to all the global goodness-me people who could have handed out canvas tote bags with the Obama logo in order for his fans to take their trash home to their own neighborhoods--or at least to the nearest trash container. One hundred and thirty tons!

Today's Obama Prayer
Father God, in the name
of your Son Jesus,
I pray for President Obama.
Increase his faith,
Help him remember his charge
and his heritage.
Pull him into Your Word
where he will find truth and righteousness.
Amen

MLKing the memory

Milking the memory of a Civil Rights leader and taking credit for service already in place, the media and Democrats too young to remember the 80s and 90s, seem to forget a service day designated on August 23, 1994 by President Clinton as "The King Holiday and Service Act", a challenge in 1988 by Bush I for all Americans to be points of light, and memorializing September 11 as a service day (see MyGoodDeed.org, which looks like it is being folded into Obamanation and will probably lose its 9/11 roots) in memory of those lost in the terrorist attact. In fact, as early as 1980, black pastors were concerned that the King holiday was becoming an "idle day" and might reduce some mischief if kids did service.

"Iowa’s Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration coincided with the National Day of Service called for by President Obama to honor the legacy of Dr. King. Across the nation, thousands of volunteers – including the President, Vice President, and their families – joined together to improve the lives of their fellow Americans. This theme was echoed in the President’s Inaugural Address yesterday, where he called on Americans to serve their country during these challenging times." Link to Governor's site [huge Obama supporter].

This has all the authenticity of sending a president to the grocery store to "experience " the rising cost of food. It is not "volunteering" or service when your president, whether Bush, Clinton or Obama, governor, boss, or school superintendent tell you to do it, "or else". And Obama is VERY serious about your doing service--and I'm guessing he'll decide whether your current activity is worthy. Volunteering at the Pregnancy Distress Center probably won't qualify because you'd be saving the unborn.

Millions of Americans volunteer everyday in organizations from A to Z (Amazing Grace Day Camp, City Vision, Clothes Closet, Faith Mission, Food pantries, Habitat for Humanity, health centers and hospitals, Make a Wish, prisons, resettling refugees, classroom tutors, adult language instruction, pregnancy centers, nursing homes, hot meals for shut-ins, survivors of AIDS assistance and care, wigs for cancer patients, and on and on). As far as I know, no one tracks the actual hours, but if they did, they'd see Americans don't need top down pressure to help their neighbors. I don't remember this excitement from the left or the media when service to community was called a "thousand points of light."

And there is another tradition. And that’s the idea of community -- a beautiful word with a big meaning; though liberal democrats have an odd view of it. They see "community" as a limited cluster of interest groups, locked in odd conformity. And in this view, the country waits passive while Washington sets the rules.

But that's not what community means -- not to me.

For we’re a nation of community; of thousands and tens of thousands of ethnic, religious, social, business, labor union, neighborhood, regional and other organizations, all of them varied, voluntary and unique.

This is America: the Knights of Columbus, the Grange, Hadassah, the Disabled American Veterans, the Order of Ahepa, the Business and Professional Women of America, the union hall, the Bible study group, LULAC, "Holy Name" -- a brilliant diversity spread like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky." GHW Bush, August 18, 1988

In fact, did they even notice that in 1994 it actually became a day of service? Or that 9/11 is a day of service? Iowa's governor is pretty young--maybe he doesn't remember or never noticed the service opportunities in Iowa B.O., Before Obama.

Did real people suggest these?

Not to be cranky, but. . . (when someone says that, they are about to be cranky). When I read through "100 idea starters for outreach that any church, any size" could do, I had a few questions. First of all, unless you live in an unincorporated town of 273, most towns and cities have codes and standards, even for good deeds. Secondly, some of these require so much preplanning and follow through, I wondered if the "idea" person had ever chaired anything or tried to organize volunteers. Keep in mind, that the intention is to proselytize or evangelize, depending on your point of view. That's what outreach is, regardless of what you call it. For instance,

FRONTING LIBRARY FINES
"Leave $20 at the library to cover fines for the next several people who come in "overdue." Leave connection cards (that's like a business card with a church's name, address and maybe a Bible verse) in the envelope, telling people why their fine was paid." Hello! Libraries are very busy places--especially during economic downturns; they cannot proselitize; you do people no favors by encouraging careless behavior. I can barely get my library to even purchase a Christian book let alone hand out material for me.

CARING FOR MILITARY WIVES
"Say thanks and support the women behind the men serving in the military by offering free childcare and a child-free breakfast. Give spa gift baskets filled with candles, lotions, shampoo and conditioner and other fun items like chocolate, phone cards and coffee or tea." Oh. My. Goodness. There are many, many women in the military, and I think the kiddoes are with grandma or daddy! Do you have any idea how long it takes to run all your volunteers through the guidelines, child safety, and security checks (link to our church web site for security) for working with children? I could go for phone cards for military families, but unless you've got a batch of volunteers already fully vetted to work with children, this one won't fly. And make sure your insurance is paid up.

PARENTING HOW-TOS
"Identify times in your community when kids are busy with activities and parents wait for them, like soccer practice. Then offer seminars at those times to help moms and dads improve their parenting skills." Where? In the parking lot? If the parents have paid their money and signed the kids up, and are appearing at practice, they could already be pretty good parents. Plus, they should be there cheering them on, or helping the coaches. Just take a thermos of coffee along and join them as an interested friend--don't try to organize them.

CHAPLAINS IN UNEXPECTED PLACES
"Identify retired pastors or qualified lay leadership in your church or area, and post them as chaplains in an airport, a business, a hospital, a fire department a coffee shop or even a laundromat." I hardly know what to make of this one. We use retired pastors in our church--lots of them; they are paid to preach, visit the sick, teach Bible study classes, and be the "ordained" person on duty when a lay person is acting as a pastor. You just can't waltz into a hospital and say, "Hello, I'm a pastor, can I visit someone?" Oh, and I can just imagine the complaints the manager of a coffee shop will get if you hang out there and tell people about Jesus. I see Bible study groups in every coffee shop I've ever visited (except Starbucks in California), but they aren't advising or proselytising.

BEAUTIFY THE NEIGHBORHOOD
"Ask hair stylists to bring their own equipment, including chairs and styling tools, to the church and serve those in your community who can't afford a professional haircut." This one baffles me. It probably violates most health and business codes in even tiny towns, plus, styling tools have to be sanitized, and where are you going to get the sinks that fit those chairs, assuming you can move them? Crazy!! If you think you know someone who would enjoy a visit to a barber or a beautician--pick them up, take them there, wait for them, and pay for it. And don't forget the tip.

And there are about 90 more where these came from.

Cleaning the office

Some dusting and a box of books ready to go out the door. You may remember the cat was inspecting my bookshelves and found them a mess.



It still looks cluttered, but much better.

A few notes on decor. The small chair with the wicker seat was my great-grandmother's, recaned by my mother. I think there are four of them--three here and one at my aunt's. The little writing desk was probably one of the first purchases of my husband's grandparents when they got married about 100 years ago. It has very delicate inlaid wood designs of flowers, but something leaky was set on top, and it's damaged. You might think we are into antiques, but not really. It's just that when you inherit them, what are you going to do? They all have stories!

In the photo of the shelves there's a little hand painted figurine on the middle top shelf. That was done by me in the 1940s in Forreston. There was a woman who had a little craft shop in her home and you could make plaster figurines from her molds and she also had all the paints and finishes. It was a very popular craft as I recall--even my mother made some. It's standing between a stack of Human Life Review, still just as accurate and truthful as when published, and Biblio, a nice journal about books that folded too soon (1999?).

One of the items I tucked away is the photo of my grandmother's grandparents Williford wedding photo (Tennessee, 1868). I didn't have it in a frame and it was starting to curl. They probably never had another photo taken. Need to take care of that. And all those spiral bound pages, 3rd shelf middle? Blogs, printed. Mine.

As technology goes, you can still see a few of the "antiques" like a cordless answering phone that's probably 10-15 years old, and a cd player/radio about 15 years old.

Today's new word is RECTITUDE

Today's is another good, solid lofty word you probably don't use in everyday conversation or correspondence. The piece I was reading was 100 years old. It comes from the Latin word rectus meaning straight or right, like rectangle. However, rectitude implies motives and judgement. It means strict observance of standards of integrity. Correctness of judgement. Rectitude is in such short supply, I can't even imagine using it. I'm not sure this is a word we would toss around the halls of Congress or the White House.

And now for today's prayer for President Obama, based on Psalm 62. The Psalms are great for Presidents; the book of Job instructive for pantheists who think they control the climate.

In God alone is our hope.
Jesus is our only fortress and rock,
and he is unchanging.
Whether high born or low born
our leaders are nothing without the Lord.
Make our President strong
so he won't be injured in falls from lofty places
where worshipers have put him in place of God. Amen
A grandmother told me this. Her grandson, attending a Lutheran pre-school in another city, watched the inauguration on Tuesday (most schools at all levels did this--we also did it when I was in grade school). He told his mother when he got home that "someone just like God was going to take care of them and nothing bad would happen."

Mystery visitors come to your church

Columbus used to have 2 newspapers, the Dispatch and the Citizen-Journal. I think it was the CJ that had a reporter who visited churches and then reported on the service and how he was treated. There are web sites that still do this--some quite humorous. Outreach magazine's final article is usually based on that. A recent issue had a mystery visitor who was not only not a Christian, but was a Muslim. Still, if I had visited "one of the top five fastest growing churches in America" that she did, I think my reaction would have been similar. The number one defining reason people chose a church is the worship style, i.e., the music. And it's probably the number one reason they leave. I have on occasion actually had to leave the building in order to protect my ears! Here's what this young Muslim woman wrote:

"The band looked like modern, alternative artists. There were guitars, bass, drums and keyboards, with words displayed on the screen. I felt a bit awkward singing along, as alternative music seems hard to sing along with."

Amen to that. Also very repetitious. We were at an event last night where I recognized the music, but thought it so boring my ears would bleed. It's not that it was loud. I think we've used it during cool-down in exercise class. One of the largest, most popular churches in Columbus uses this style. Then she described the message she heard:

"[it was] about getting baptized and the feelings you have before taking this step. The speaker was on the screen; he was not actually there. I found this impersonal. Several other movie clips were used throughout, and Bible verses were referenced. The message was not especially applicable to me as a Muslim, but I could see how it would apply to a Christian."

Not to this Christian. I just love sermons on baptism if there is a strong gospel message, and maybe an actual baptism--but feelings while being baptized? Not so much. I was about 12 and much concerned about what I would look like while wet and choking. Then she continues about the setting

"It was different for me that men and women were together because Muslims meet in separate areas of the mosque. Intermingling between sexes is frowned upon in my culture, especially in a religious setting. You could not talk to the speaker. No one came to talk to me. There was a small statement in the bulletin about a tent where first-time guests could receive a free gift, but I did not see this notice until after I came home. People seemed nice, but no one, except for the greeters at the entrance, acknowledged my presence. I wouldn't go back because it wasn't my idea of worship. I respect everyone there, but it really just wasn't for me."

In every Christian sanctuary or fellowship hall there is behavior that if off-putting for the stranger, especially the noise and talking during the prelude of traditional services. Still, if you are a visitor, you need to be respectful, as this woman was, of another's culture. We attended a tiny Lutheran church a few years back and a toddler was running up and down the aisles squealing, much to the delight of the members, but we were a little surprised. It turned out he was the pastor's son, and different members would just pick him up and kiss him and pass him along to the next parishioner. Once we understood, it was sort of sweet. Being a print person, I'm always reading the literature, and mentally composing a letter to their communications staff on how I would do it differently to help the visitor in their midst (an address of the church would really help, and it's shocking how often this is left off).

Our multi-campus church has three locations and nine services. I try to be friendly and welcoming, but often find out I have welcomed someone who joined 10 years ago, and just got up early that Sunday. Still, it's good practice.

In any case, it doesn't sound like this non-Christian heard the gospel--but then, neither did the members. And it's so important to remind the "regulars" why they have made the effort to gather and praise God.

Happy Birthday Robert Burns

We're going to a Robert Burns birthday party tonight. He was born on January 25, 1759 and after his death on July 21, 1796, Burns admirers have been celebrating each year at or around his birth date with "Burns Suppers". We're fortunate in that one of Columbus' finest host and hostess have invited us to enjoy a Burns Supper at their home.

My husband and I both have surnames that travelled with invaders to Britain during the Norman invasion in 1066, which means our origins were French, then into Scotland, but with so much mixing and matching over the centuries, especially in the British Isles, who knows really? We are both 8th or 9th generation Americans, with families that originally settled in Pennsylvania after getting off the boat before the Revolution, then traveling further west and south in the next generations and intermarrying with boatloads of Germans, some of whom kept their language for almost 100 years. Lots of Presbyterians in our family trees. . . his more recently than mine.

Churches in Scotland are celebrating according to Christianity today.

Churches join Burns celebrations by Anne Thomas Posted: Sunday, January 25, 2009 Around 10,000 people are expected to gather in the Scottish town of Dumfries on Sunday to mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of national bard Robert Burns. According to Scotland on Sunday, the crowds will be carrying several thousand handmade lanterns through the town, past Burns’ house and the place of his burial at St Michael's Churchyard, before gathering at the River Nith to see the torching of a 15m wooden model of Tam O’Shanter atop his horse. Church groups, Scouts, Brownies, Boys Brigades, Guides and other community groups have been running lantern workshops over the last few months for members of the public to come and make their own lanterns for the procession, reports Scotland on Sunday. Two specially commissioned stained glass windows, one of Burns and the other of his wife Jean Armour, will be unveiled at St Michael’s Church earlier in the day. The occasion will also see the unveiling of a life-sized bust of Burns, gifted to the church by the World Burns Federation. Although Burns was born in a small stone cottage in Alloway, he spent much of his life in Dumfries and died there in 1796 at the age of 38. His most famous works include Tam O’Shanter, Auld Lang Syne, and My Luve is Like a Red, Red Rose. Burns Suppers, held each year on or around the bard’s birthday, are taking place around the world this weekend to commemorate the bard’s life and works, continuing on a tradition of more than 200 years. A special evening service will be held in his honour in Westminster Abbey in London, where a white marble bust of Burns is positioned on the wall of Poets’ Corner. The service, held in association with the Burns Club of London, will be led by the Rev Graeme Napier and include recitations of Burns’ verse as well as solo performances from the canon of his songs.

Update on menu:

New jobs? Don't count on it

Can't imagine that anyone is surprised that the "stimulus" is a political grab for power; here's point 6 of Jan. 24's Morning Bell from the Heritage Foundation.

"While President Obama has said the stimulus could create as many as 3 million jobs, Speaker Pelosi said yesterday that 4 million jobs will be created or saved. Yet, when pressed by Congressman Camp (R-MI) this week, Tax Committee Staffer Thomas Barthold could only shrug and admit that they had no estimates that any jobs or economic growth would be created by this legislation. [There's a video of this, but I haven't been able to view it.]

Some legislators are beginning to catch on to the left's game. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) says he opposes the Medicaid bailout "because some governors would use the money to mask poor decisions in other portions of their budgets." Rep. Heath Shuler (D-TN) claims "he is concerned about returning fiscal responsibility to Washington" and says the stimulus bill "can’t be the pet projects of the House and Senate."

It's time to wake up. This stimulus bill is nothing but the permanent implementation of the pet projects of the House and Senate. And that is exactly why Speaker Pelosi doesn't want you to know what's in it, and certainly doesn't want it to be debated. "We're on our timetable." she said unapologetically yesterday. There is nothing temporary about any of the spending increases in this bill. They are all designed to make the American people more dependent on the federal government. And there is nothing stimulating about that. Let's hope they get on the timetable of the American people before it is too late."

It was a much kinder, gentler inauguration than the last two

Comments a James Taranto reader: "The Mall was a lot friendlier this week than during the past two inaugurations, so I did an anecdotal survey. Turns out most of my conservative friends who went to the last two Bush inaugurations (and are still in D.C.) also went to Obama's inauguration and were there chanting for the new president too. Because my friends were there cheering and decked out in red, white and blue (which liberals can now be seen wearing again), everyone thought they fit right in.
Contrast that to 2001, when they had to tolerate screaming liberals protesting Bush's "selection" by the Supreme Court's "partisan decision to place him in the White House," and 2005, when they had to put up with the CodePink and MoveOn.org protests.

When you cast it in that light, of course the atmosphere this week was nicer! Of course there were fewer people being divisive!"

So it was the polite, well behaved conservatives who made the Mall in Washington a pleasant place to be on January 20. Amazing! How different than the treatment of Bush.

Move along folks, no Obama cells were used

The headlines in the Dispatch certainly have an Obamarvelous ring, "U.S. OKs testing stem-cell use in paraplegics." But as I've noted many times, there was no restriction on stem cell research in the U.S., only on new lines using government money to harvest the embryos from the cottage industry of womb gardens.

Geron Corp. of Menlo Park still has to jump through the hoops of safety and efficacy of our federal government to launch the injection of stem cells into humans instead of lab animals (where they have more hoops due to animal rightists who care more about animals than embryos or fetuses of the human variety).

Dr. Thomas Okarma (total compensation about $2,500,000) says Obama's election has nothing to do with this stem cell research--the project has always been eligible for federal funding. Still, the company has spent at least $100 million of its own money, and I'm sure that if they are successful, they plan to recoup every penny. The study involves people treated within 14 days of their injury. Story in the WSJ.

Here's a little Obamadvance info for you on stem cells:

"Obama recently promised to lift former President Bush's ban on stem cell research. If signed into law, this controversial area of science will present the law community with a new challenge. Intellectual property lawyer Kent Cheng, a partner in the firm of Cohen Pontani Lieberman & Pavane, told Forbes that the ban lifting would provide more government funding to stem cell research. He added that this would give the government more control over who owns patents and would help bring products to market faster than if they were controlled by a corporation." Forbes

Sort of sounds like dual standards, doesn't it? Never let it be said that biopharm could benefit from its years of research. But it will mean full employment for lawyers, both private and federal.

The Rebel side of Heaven

He's good enough to make it without the bathroom images, but I guess that draws in the middle school crowd. His real name is Sean Scolnick from Pennsylvania--sounds like a few Irish and Serb coal miners in his family tree. (Yes, coal was good enough for the nation's immigrants, but today isn't green enough.) Now he's Langhorne Slim, and I saw him at Eamonn Fitzgerald's blog. Click and listen; you won't be sorry.



Not to over-spiritualize his song, but we're all rebels, all sinners, so in a way, we're all going to the Rebel side of Heaven, but only if our ticket was paid for by someone else. I just liked his music.

If Congress approves Timothy Geithner

they prove what a phony President Obama is (I prayed for him this morning; did you?*). They won't need to wait 100 days, which is around the time we would expect to find out he has feet of clay in that mouth with a golden tongue. There aren't enough Republicans to stop this ridiculous slap in the face of honest Americans who struggle with that bizarre tome called the tax code every April, or quarterly the way this financial wizard nominated for the Obama cabinet refused to do, people who spend hundreds of dollars and even more hours wrestling with obscure phrases and filling in little lines, "if line 457d is less than the sum of P and Q of line 560, then go back and refigure line 30z and start over."

If they approve tax cheat Geithner, Congress confirms that nothing Obama has said about "change" is true, except that he will continue to push the envelop on ethics and morality, not just in matters of life and death of fetuses and embryos, but in matters of personal behavior.

* Heavenly father, be the father he never had. Lay your hand on him and guide him into righteousness, respect and obedience to your holy word, into a knowledge of history and a new found humility. Protect him, his family, staff and our nation from the terrorists within and outside our country's borders. In the holy name of Jesus, Amen.

Some of us meekly comply, others just cheat their way to the top.

Today's new word is SELFSAME

Whether this is British English, or just old fashioned, I rarely come across SELFSAME unless reading something old--in this case, G. Campbell Morgan, a famous expository preacher in England over 100 years ago. As long as I don't stumble while reading, I'd just move on. This time I stopped.

"In the early Bible history the throne is unnamed, but it is always there. In the early movements chronicled for us I find men in relation to the throne, submissive, at peace; in rebellion against the throne, disturbed. The throne of God is everywhere. I come at last to the point where the chosen people make their great mistake, and I hear God's explanation of it, "They have rejected me, that I should not be King over them." I come further on until I find this SELFSAME chosen people in the midst of circumstances full of terror. . . "

My big dining room dictionary has several pages for "self" as a noun, adjective, pre-fix, suffix, and a list of hundreds of words, both hyphenated and joined thereof, from self-abandon to self-wrought. SELFSAME seems to mean "exactly the same," or "precisely the same"--probably with a touch of irony or criticism in Morgan's voice, since these 10 volumes (The Westminster Pulpit) are taken from his sermons preached over a 13 year period at Westminster Chapel in London. 2,500 people were showing up to hear him preach on Sunday, so Friday night Bible classes were added and week after week, with notebooks and Bibles in hand, 1,500-1,700 people would show up on Friday night from throughout London.

SELF is one of those very busy, horrid little English words that must give second language people fits. You can say, "payable to self," in correspondence or on a check, or you can make a dress with a "self belt," although few women are sewing dresses these days, and if they are, they are probably using elastic, not the same fabric to cover a stiff material for a belt. You can say, "my own dear self" and your native born neighbor will know what you mean (although you'd sound a bit quaint), but your neighbor born in Turkey might think you somewhat egotistical to be speaking so lavishly. Then there is "self-rising flour," which really isn't because baking powder has been added to it, so there's some cheating going on, just as in "self-made man" because no one is. God was always there, from conception to life outside the womb, to self-diapering stage at the end and all the stages inbetween.

Another January 20 insult from Obama

"We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost."

President Bush saved our country from the ethical morass of harvesting human embryos for stem cell research. The breakthrough of 2008 might have never come if government money had been used for embryo farming and more demands for embryos. Under Obama, we can be assured of far less respect for human life and fewer ethical concerns at the beginning and at the end, especially with his promise of FOCA.

Scientific Breakthroughs, December 30, 2008 at America.gov reporting Science, magazine article.

"In a triumph of molecular magic, scientists took skin cells from adults suffering from a range of genetic diseases and transformed them into stem cells that could be used to test potential treatments or replace damaged cells in patients.

In its December 19, 2008 issue, Science magazine, one of the world’s most prominent scientific journals, hailed this and related advances as the breakthrough of the year, first on a list of the top 10 scientific advances of 2008.

“When Science's writers and editors set out to pick this year's biggest advances, we looked for research that answers major questions about how the universe works and that paves the way for future discoveries,” deputy news editor Robert Coontz said in a December 18 statement. “Our top choice, cellular reprogramming, opened a new field of biology almost overnight and holds out hope of life-saving medical advances.”
Before scientists developed methods to reprogram cells, isolating stem cells from people required harvesting them from human embryos, an ethically controversial procedure. Several countries, including the United States, restricted the technique, thereby hampering stem cell research. [This is incorrect--the research was never restricted--only the government funding beyond certain cell lines. Private research was always an option for any company wanting to put up the money and the USA produced far more research and papers on stem cell research even with limited cell lines than any other country.]

Normally, a mature cell maintains its identity for life — skin cells do not transform into brain cells, muscle cells do not become liver cells. In 2006, researchers turned on four genes in cells from a mouse’s tail and found that the cells had been “reprogrammed” into stem cells — immature cells that have the potential to mature into a variety of different cell types.

Cultured in a dish, stem cells can be incubated with chemical cocktails to coax them to mature into different cell types, including those found in the liver, muscle and brain.

This year’s breakthrough in cellular reprogramming allows researchers to generate new stem cell lines from people with genetic diseases."

President Bush's malaria initiative

If you click on the link to the White House to learn about President Bush’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), a U.S. government initiative designed to cut malaria deaths in half in target countries in sub-Saharan Africa, you'll get the Obama White House and no information--or it is buried in another topic. It was announced on June 30, 2005, when President Bush pledged to increase U.S. funding of malaria prevention and treatment in sub-Saharan Africa by more than $1.2 billion over 5 years. The five years isn't up yet, so there's no telling where the money went. All White House links were changed by January 20, 2009, so if you linked there for information or data or speeches, I doubt that the links are archived. Worldwide, malaria causes around 350 to 500 million illnesses and more than one million deaths annually, but it is particularly devastating in Africa, where it kills an African child every 30 seconds.

Environmentalists in their eagerness to save bird eggs based on the tales (Silent Spring) of a non-scientist, have killed more Africans than Atlantic slave trade. Bush's efforts can't undo the hasty removal of DDT before an alternative could be found, but they can help. The money, our money, provides for technical and programmatic strategies, training and supervision of health workers, laboratories, communications, monitoring and evaluation, and surveillance systems as well as house spraying and bed nets. Of course, killing the mosquito eggs would have been better and cheaper, but lives will be saved--eventually.

In Africa, at least one million children under-5 die each year from malaria. The President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), a five-year, $1.2 billion program, announced by President George W. Bush in June 2005, aims to cut malaria deaths by 50 percent in 15 of the hardest-hit African countries. Photo gallery

I doubt that this link will be available long. Laura Bush's efforts for malaria victims are still on America.gov, but will probably disappear. Each first lady choses her own defining activity. Remember Lady Bird's beautification projects--and billboards just got larger? Digital history is very iffy--regardless of who's in power. It takes a long time to burn a library, but digital archives can be wiped out with a computer stroke. And even paper archives can be stuffed into socks and stolen. I wonder if President Bush will ever get the credit he deserves? Or if the program will be continued?

The War against Universal Pre-School

has already been lost, so don't even enlist. I was browsing some articles on the internet, and the other side is so well-funded that if you care about anything else in life, you'll need to rethink your priorities. I'm not even going to give you the links. Trust me on this one, or do your own google work.

When "Head Start" got going about 50 years ago for poor families it created an image that some kids might get ahead of others if you just did the right things early enough. Teach some colors, how to paste and draw, some social skills, and perhaps it won't matter that mom's on drugs, or dad deserted the family. So middle-class parents (like me) rushed to the challenge--and they put their kids in programs too, thus moving them ahead of the low-income kids who didn't have an enriched home environment, good health care and nutrition, college educated parents, and a father in the home. Or--and I'm just guessing here--that's the excuse for Head Start children (government pre-schools) not making up the difference when they are matched to middle-class and wealthy kids who attended private pre-schools PLUS had all the family advantages. I know my children attended pre-school in the 1970s, but I'm sure no one had heard of it in the 1940s, or if they did they called it grandma's house or babysitting. I taught them to read and count because I think their pre-school emphasized social skills, sitting still for story time, and not throwing fire trucks at each other.

Speaking of which. Today I was putting away exercise equipment in a room full of pre-pre-schoolers (under age 3) and their parents. I noticed a foster child, and not because he was black, but because he was the only one not using the toys "appropriately"--he was throwing them across the room (had a great arm, too). The other toddlers just worked and played around him very intent on whatever they'd chosen--sandbox skills, riding tricycles, crawling through tunnels, sitting on daddy's lap, etc. When I was using the rest room, the little one in the next stall asked her mommy if she could watch me. And mommy was there to explain manners and rest room behavior. Not all little girls get that sort of one-on-one discussion with their mothers about using public toilets--toilet paper, hand washing, manners, etc. The difference between what I saw and day-care is that there were probably two children for every adult, and it only lasts 2 hours--the parents, not paid aides, were doing the supervising.

Back to the war you missed. The education system is salivating--it enlisted years ago in this war and is extremely well trained to combat any argument you may have. Pre-schools have a patch work of standards by city and state for buildings, curricula, teachers, aides, safety, play time, unions--I mean, can you see the economic opportunities here for colleges of education, the building trades, the regulatory agencies? My head just swims with visions of dollars in chubby little fists. Convincing people that a child's mind and behavior are completely malleable with just 20-30 hours a week away from mom, grandma and the hood, and that the payback to the government will be enormous when they don't go to prison, shouldn't be any more difficult than convincing them we control the climate. If we just spend enough money. . . Whoopee. It's worth a chunk of that stimulus, right? After all, stingy old Bush was only spending $7 billion a year on pre-schoolers--Obama and the teachers unions who supported him can do better than that.

So what if the research is totally shaky and biased? (No research denying the value of universal pre-school will ever see the light of day in peer reviewed education journals which are totally dependent on federal money from the editors' salaries to the grants for research to the professors' tenure track requirements to the library subscriptions to the license for digitizing the information in huge databanks).

Although the little squirts do have to be born first before we enroll them in pre-school. Maybe that's the angle we should take? Pit FOCA and the feminists against the universal early childhood education movement.

The closing of Gitmo

Oh, weren't they jubilant yesterday. The War on Terror is over--with a stroke of the pen. Now we're safe again--the rest of the Muslim world will fall at the feet of a convert to Christianity. Let them build high security prisons in the districts of Murtha and Pelosi, Pennsylvania and California, and park the terrorists there. Wait, make that just California. Western Pennsylvania is too close to Ohio. They shouldn't be put in U.S. prisons, military or general population, because they are so dangerous, both to the prison staff and the other prisoners. Plus, do you really want them recruiting among the prison population? Well, sure, some of you do, but what about the nearly 48% who didn't vote for Obama or only voted for his color and not his policies?

We used to visit prisoners in the old Ohio Penitentiary in downtown Columbus (now torn down). Even good old boys from southern Ohio can make weapons out of anything. Imagine what an al-Qaeda boy could do.

Louis Pepe is sounding the alarm because his attacker used the same type of container to blind him with a mixture of Tabasco sauce and pepper before plunging a sharpened comb through his eye into his brain.

"I thought for sure, after what happened to me, they wouldn't allow them to have the same things," Pepe said from a wheelchair in his Brooklyn apartment.

Michelle Malkin says: "King of Pork John Murtha, the 19-term Democratic congressman from western Pennsylvania, now wants to welcome a flood of Guantanamo Bay jihadis into his district. I don’t want to hear a single word of protestation from the constituents who put this money-grubbing, security-undermining fool back into office. As you vote, so shall you reap." Link

Every profession wants a piece of the bailout and stimulus plan

The building industry is just one of them, but never you mind, peek under the covers of your own profession and you'll find a group thrusting and sweating with a calculator trying to figure out how they can rape the tax payer.

"To revitalize the building sector, which accounts for about one in every 10 dollars of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product, the AIA has developed the Rebuild and Renew Plan, which details its recommendations for the allocation of funds in President Obama’s economic recovery plan. The AIA is calling on the new administration and Congress to create policies that ensure these monies are spent on the planning, design, and construction of energy-efficient, sustainable buildings and healthy communities that are advantageous for both the environment and economy." AIArchitect This Week, 1-26-09

Hellooo out there! Did no one study American History? FDR lead us through a full decade of the Great Depression (yes, it began under Hoover, who like Bush also tried tinkling on the economy to get it to bloom). The poor and low income suffered the most under FDR's plans because the percentage of tax burden on the creators of wealth falls most heavily on the poor. Under FDR Americans began a slide into government nannyism that continues to this day, in thought, word and deed. Boomers have never known anything else than Uncle Sam as a cruel step-father and/or sugar daddy. Forgive us, Lord, may we not be lead into the temptation of hand-outs, bail-outs, and more welfare for business, banks, and farmers than we already have.

745 Euros is a lot of dollars!

But the book, either e-copy or print copy, The World Medical Markets Fact Book 2008, will answer

- Which country spends most on medical devices in terms of per capita GDP?
- Which medical markets are growing the fastest?
- How does the Brazilian market compare with Mexico and Argentina in terms of total health expenditure?
- What demographic development is affecting the market in Latvia and Estonia?
- What will the per capita spend on medical devices be in 2013 in South Korea and Thailand?

And it's already a year out of date (published May 2008). I guess information really doesn't want to be free. At least not if there is medical grant money going to libraries and research companies. Maybe some of the stimulus money?

In the new era of hope and change

will liberals be more generous and sacrificial? I thought some of the campaign and inaugural remarks were insulting. I'm not ashamed of my country; I'm not looking forward to the government redistributing more of my income. But that seems to be the theme. Conservatives have always been more generous than liberals, so when I read this stuff "new era of responsibility," or "change has come to America," "expanding and improving volunteer opportunities," and "call upon all of our citizens to serve one another" I wonder if he missed d'Tocqueville in history class. I doubt that he has a clue what is going on beyond the beltway.

In May of last year, the Gallup polling organization asked 1,200 American adults about their giving patterns. People who called themselves "conservative" or "very conservative" made up 42% of the population surveyed, but gave 56% of the total charitable donations. In contrast, "liberal" or "very liberal" respondents were 29% of those polled but gave just 7% of donations.

These disparities were not due to differences in income. People who said they were "very conservative" gave 4.5% of their income to charity, on average; "conservatives" gave 3.6%; "moderates" gave 3%; "liberals" gave 1.5%; and "very liberal" folks gave 1.2%.

Full article by Arthur C. Brooks. We all saw the pittance that Joe Biden and Al Gore gave to charity, and the Obamas only stepped up to the collection plate when he started running for office. We've been tithing our income for over 30 years (yes, even when we were Democrats), and it's embarrassing that we give more than world leaders at a fraction of the income--not percentage, but actual dollars.

And the hype about how "finally" things are going to get done. Wow--has Oprah and her buddies in the media looked at how the Bush administration threw money at social problems? It was my main complaint about his years in office--he not only outspent the Democrats but there were fried chittlins and little oversight on everything being handed out, particularly to non-profits and faith-based groups, which only weakened them. If Barney Frank had help bringing down the housing industry, it was from all the grants given to ineffective groups that were profligate spenders bleating about the right of the low-income worker to an overpriced mortgage they couldn't afford. And now those same groups have their hands out asking for money to run foreclosure counseling programs.