Speaking of prayer

There is a newsletter for parents called theParentLink that comes from the Erie Christian Fellowship in Pennsylvania. There were three prayer requests in a side box, one reading, "Ask God to help your children embrace and celebrate people's differences." (The theme for February seems to be diversity.) Since most adults don't do that, it might be more honest to say, "help me embrace and celebrate people's differences." But that aside, what do you think of using the word "celebrate" in this way? I know, I know. I'm being picky, but that poor word has practically been destroyed by the touchy, feely, gushy language of multiculturalism and diversity, which in fact is a very divisive movement, in calling on people to recognize their differences rather than their similarities and commonalities. The dictionary meaning of "celebrate" has some meat on its bones. ". . . to observe a holiday, perform a religious ceremony, or take part in a festival. To observe a notable occasion with festivities." It's a nice 15th century word meaning to honor with solemn ceremonies or deviation from routine.

If you'll ignore my chin hair and wrinkles, I'll avert my eyes at your tattoo and nose stud. Let's not celebrate our age differences, let's serve God together.

A prayer for the President

Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus who died for all, I ask you to hear my prayer for the president. I read that he got very angry with people over the failures in the stimulus package. That's certainly understandable, and I'm angry too. Remind me and him that we can take our anger to you--you are a great big God as the children's song says, and you can handle our tiny, weak fists beating the air over things that are out of control. Your word is so clear; we are not righteous. Only you are. Be with those for whom this face of anger is a new thing. Forgive them for making the President, or any king or dictator or despot or official, more than a mere mortal who has flaws and makes mistakes just like the rest of us. As it says in your holy practical book of James, may we, the president and I, be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. Yes, Lord, that would be good. And thank you for that good word. Amen

Today's new word is DEFENESTRATION

Even in context, I couldn't figure this one out. “That's Wednesday of this week--i.e., roughly 24 hours after the defenestration of Nancy Killefer and Tom Daschle. Possibly Solis will skate by on the theory that the Killefer Standard does not apply to spouses." It means the act of throwing a person or thing out through, or by way of a window. It comes from the Latin de + fenestra, meaning window. The Defenestration of Prague in 1419 was throwing the burgomaster and others from the windows of city hall onto the spears of those below.

February 7 is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

"Blacks are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS. While making up only 13 percent of the U.S. population, they account for more than 49 percent of AIDS cases. AIDS is now the leading cause of death for Black women ages 25 to 34, and the second leading cause of death for Black men ages 35 to 44." Link to CDC site

MSM is reported in MMWR. That's the problem with acronyms. MSM can mean mainstream media or men having sex with men.

There’s an article in the Feb. 6, 2009 MMWR on the increase of HIV among gay and bisexual young black men. It’s a fairly small study done in Jackson, Mississippi, but I’ve seen very similar ones for other areas of the country. Men having sex with men, younger men with older men, anal intercourse, multiple partners, are primarily the causes of HIV/AIDS. It’s not a national epidemic--it’s a very specific disease caused by very specific behavior. Between that and abortion, blacks are destroying their families. Yes, women do get AIDS, but primarily from their men who don’t admit to their infidelities or sexual taste for men. I have no idea why it’s so high among black men, but I’m really tired of reading that homophobia and poverty are the problem, but that's the best way to get the grant money for these studies.

“Reducing HIV transmission among young black MSM is challenging because of many factors, including sexual network patterns, sexual partnering with older men, high prevalence of STDs, lack of awareness of one's HIV status, homophobia, HIV-related stigma and discrimination, and socioeconomic issues. CDC's Heightened National Response to the HIV/AIDS Crisis among African Americans aims to reduce HIV/AIDS in this population by expanding the reach of prevention services, increasing opportunities for diagnosis and treatment, developing new prevention interventions, and mobilizing broader community action. In the United States, reducing the toll of HIV/AIDS on young black MSM will require a combination of strategies, including culturally specific behavioral interventions, expanded testing programs, and comprehensive campaigns to combat stigma.”

Homophobia and no meaningful paycheck don't cause a man to have anal intercourse with another man, and then go home and crawl in bed with his girl friend. Sorry, I just don’t buy it. You could eliminate every last vestige of dislike or fear of homosexuality, you could give every gay man a middle class income, and HIV/AIDS will not go away as long has men continue to have sex with men and bring the disease home to their wives and girlfriends. Ask any rich man who's had several young male partners this past year. Ask the widow of the artist, professor or musician who cared for him as he wasted away when there was no one else.

Is this the change we were promised?

Have you seen the fawning press stories about Obama's apology for "messing up?" The media threatened and whined for 6 years that Bush should apologize for freeing the Iraqi people even with the bad intelligence he inherited on WMD from the previous administration. But oh by golly, here was Obama apologizing within the first 2 weeks for doing something stupid--appointing Daschle on the heels of Geithner. Oh, he's just so wonderful. He admitted to a mistake! Now if he'd just admit the stimulus package is a total failure and will plunge us even deeper into economic chaos.

"The Daschle affair was more serious because his offense involved more than taxes. As Michael Kinsley once observed, in Washington the real scandal isn't what's illegal, but what's legal. Not paying taxes is one thing. But what made this case intolerable was the perfectly legal dealings that amassed Daschle $5.2 million in just two years.

He'd been getting $1 million per year from a law firm. But he's not a lawyer, nor a registered lobbyist. You don't get paid this kind of money to instruct partners on the Senate markup process. You get it for picking up the phone and peddling influence.

At least Tim Geithner, the tax-challenged Treasury secretary, had been working for years as a humble international civil servant earning non-stratospheric wages. Daschle, who had made another cool million a year (plus chauffeur and Caddy) for unspecified services to a pal's private equity firm, represented everything Obama said he'd come to Washington to upend.

And yet more damaging to Obama's image than all the hypocrisies in the appointment process is his signature bill: the stimulus package. He inexplicably delegated the writing to Nancy Pelosi and the barons of the House. The product, which inevitably carries Obama's name, was not just bad, not just flawed, but a legislative abomination.

It's not just pages and pages of special-interest tax breaks, giveaways and protections, one of which would set off a ruinous Smoot-Hawley trade war. It's not just the waste, such as the $88.6 million for new construction for Milwaukee Public Schools, which, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, have shrinking enrollment, 15 vacant schools and, quite logically, no plans for new construction." Charles Krauthammer, continue reading Link

Tougher government regulation

The Bernie Madoff case is a good reason you shouldn't have crooks setting the rules. Link.

"Bernard Madoff was the former chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange and a respected figure on Wall Street for nearly half-a-century. For decades, his firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, had been one of the top market makers on Wall Street. In Washington, regulators had sought his advice on any number of regulatory issues over the years.In 2000 he served on a government committee established to protect investors by ensuring accurate and full public disclosure of information to them. In an old video of Madoff that’s come to light, he tells an audience it’s tough to skirt the law.

BERNARD MADOFF: In today’s regulatory environment, it’s virtually impossible to violate rules. And this is something that the public really doesn’t understand. And if you read things in the newspaper and you see somebody, you know, violate a rule, you say, well, you know, they’re always doing this. But it’s impossible for you to go—for a violation to go undetected, certainly not for a considerable period of time."

Madoff Swindle might give some children a chance at life

"By swindling clients out of up to $50 billion, hedge fund manager Bernard L. Madoff has caused at least two left-wing charitable foundations to fold. Through his Social Security-like Ponzi scheme that paid older investors with funds from newer investors, liberal Madoff, a heavy donor to Democratic candidates, has caused the collapse of the Picower Foundation and the JEHT Foundation. Picower gave generously to NARAL, Planned Parenthood, Southern Poverty Law Center, and ACORN affiliate Project Vote. JEHT gave big to the ACLU and its foundation, the Center for Constitutional Rights, ACORN affiliate American Institute for Social Justice, and the Tides Foundation and its affiliates."

But. . . there will be bailouts for those supporting Democratic causes, such as abortion. Welfare for charities.

"Independent Sector, a coalition of liberal charities and foundations, wants to cash in on Washington’s bailout fever, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reports. "There’s simply not enough cash to respond to the amount of the needs," said Diana Aviv, president of the group. "The demand is much greater and the dollars that are secured from traditional sources are shrinking." Call it charity welfare. If you don’t dig deeply enough into your pockets for charity, the government will force you to, or at least that’s what Aviv wants." Capital Research Center

Dear President Obama

When I found out you had paid your parking tickets from 1989-1990 when you were a graduate student at Harvard in 2007, I decided it was time to pay my Ohio State University Libraries over-due book fines. Who knows, I might be tapped to be someone important in the future. So today I went to the Ackerman Road location (temporary home while the Main Library is being rebuilt /restored/ revitalized). After asking directions twice (I don't pay my bills on-line like you did--it's a generational thing), I finally found a nice lady who said she could help me pay my fine. I gave her my name, and there it was on her computer. $16.00 for 3 fines, one of which just happened last week. The other two I had no idea how old, but from before I retired, so I thought maybe the late 1990s.

I wrote her a check, she printed out the information, took it to a copy machine to copy the check, then gave me a copy of the bill. It's not that we weren't hi-tech in the old days nine years ago, but for some reason I was really surprised to see how much detail there was. I had no idea what had been overdue--maybe it's on my accessible record and I never noticed. When I saw the titles (1999 and 2000, so the fines were from 2000) I only remembered "Horse heaven," by Jane Smiley. I was the veterinary medicine librarian, you see, so I suppose I thought a novel about horse racing would be interesting. But it wasn't, and I think I only read about two chapters, until I forgot about it and it went over due. Truth be told, Mr. President, I really don't care much for fiction.

The second was one about which I have no memory at all but I'm assuming it was non-fiction, Anthony Arthur's "The Tailor-King," an account of the 16th-century takeover by Anabaptists of the city of Münster and its rapid descent into despotism and anarchy. Oh my! I can see why Martin Luther was so unhappy with the Anabaptists--the 16th century guys were certainly not the pacifist Mennonites and Brethren I grew up knowing! This guy ended up with 16 wives, one of whom he beheaded!!

"It says much about this strange young man's personality and character that he could so effectively turn his mentor's disaster into his own triumph. Of all the qualities that the preceding episode reveals about Jan van Leyden - ingenuity, imagination, timing - the one that stands out most is his intuitive mastery of what would later, in our own century, be called the technique of the big lie. Told with sincerity to a people anxious for reassurance, deriving from some source beyond and greater than its speaker, the big lie is so outrageously improbable that no one could possibly make it up. Therefore, it must be true." (p. 73)

Although some of this does have a familiar ring to it, doesn't it? The part about the big lie so outrageous and the people being so gullible.

But I was just thinking--I mean about the detail in my book fine information after all these years that even I had forgotten. You said you didn't remember you had fines, until the Boston Globe reporters began sniffing around asking questions. (This was back when they were tight with Hillary.) It was really smart of your advisers to get those tickets off the books before the Clintons even realized that you really were serious about becoming President of the United States. I don't know how a poor grad student in 1989 was able to even afford a car in Boston, but the ticket records would have had your DL number, the auto registration, whose house you were parked in front of, how many times it happened, and any other registered autos who were ticketed around the same time. Considering the hay the anti-Bush crowd tried to harvest over an old DUI, this could have gotten nastier than the certificate of live birth or the transcripts from Columbia and Harvard that have disappeared down the rabbit hole.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know I'm one of the many you've inspired to do the right thing. Also, I respect you for not pulling any strings to just make those parking tickets go away. Tim Geithner probably would have. Watch your back with that guy.

Friday Family Photo--1975

"Unfortunately, we need a recession," writes Jim Manzi, noting that we can't borrow our way out of debt. "Americans are going to live in smaller houses, drive older cars, vacation nearer to home and have less expensive digital camcorders than they expect."

You mean like the 1970s when we lived on one income in a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath home, managing with one car, a vacation to my parents' farm in Illinois, an instamatic camera, and "gaming" was racing toads in Aunt Muriel's drive-way?

How to thrive in a bad economy

And I didn't see a word about going for the green. How refreshing and innovative! This architectural firm in Memphis has "work on the boards" because of its can do attitude, excellent care of its clients, careful managing of its assets--people, equipment and cash, its flexibility and common sense. Story here.

You look just like your mother

When my college roommate met me at the Seattle airport in 1996 after many years of not being together, I said to her, "You look just like your mother," and she said to me, "And you look like yours." Both our mothers were younger (mid to late 30s) when we first met, so that shows you how "elderly" mid-life adults look to children. Reading G. Campbell Morgan this morning made me realize how much we Americans look like our mother, England. He is preaching from that passage in Amos, which is a powerful word from God to the people of Israel of that time, but resonates down through the centuries to all peoples, Amos 8:11-13. Amos tells of a famine not of bread, but of the word of the Lord, a famine that will hit the young and healthy the hardest. And so a hundred years ago, early in the 20th century, Morgan is preaching on this passage to Londoners, citizens of the most powerful country in the world. The sun had not yet set on the Union Jack when he said this--the tiny island still ruled India and much of Africa, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and parts of Asia and the annihilation of generations of its sons in WWI and WWII was yet to come

"The prophet of today will see quite clearly the cruelty of Russia, the frivolity of France, the rationalism of Germany, the civic corruption of America. But the prophet cannot forget the relation of privilege and responsibility, and he cannot forget the fiery, burning, searching words of his Lord, that it is to be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for the cities that heard his voice. . . Russia will have a far better chance in the final judgment of the nations than England, because England has had infinitely more light. . . we are living in the midst of a great famine, not of bread, but of the Word of God, what is this famine? It is a curse upon our idolatries. . . The curses of God are the harvests of man's own wrongdoing.

If we have lost our sense of the Word, and
our love for the Word, and
our confidence in the Word, and
our appreciation of the Word,
why is it?
It is God's judgement, but it is an effect following a cause. . .

So Morgan challenges the people of England to first give up the idolatry, then turn to the Word, and then there will be no famine.

The other morning I heard Father John Corapi on EWTN speaking on the culture of death and anti-life forces in America say we Americans have been "educated into embicility" and we are "slaves to our culture." Physical poverty is a terrible thing to see, he said, but if we had eyes to see the spiritual misery of our nation, we would die of fright.

Notable Quotables of 2008

Everyone in the world probably laughed at, not with, Chris Matthew's tingly leg for Obama, so he got the big one at the award ceremony of the 21 awards for the year's worst reporting, but some others are just as hilarious. Since I have a gag reflex at most of the prime time "news" reporting, I've missed most of these. Two I enjoyed in the reruns

The Obamagasm Award
Some princes are born in palaces. Some are born in mangers. But a few are born in the imagination, out of scraps of history and hope....Barack Hussein Obama did not win because of the color of his skin. Nor did he win in spite of it. He won because at a very dangerous moment in the life of a still young country, more people than have ever spoken before came together to try to save it. And that was a victory all its own.”
— Time’s Nancy Gibbs, Nov. 17 cover story. [65 points]

From Camelot to Obamalot Award
“Today, the audacity of hope had its rendezvous with destiny. No mere endorsement this, more like a political anointment from the Kennedys, merging ideals from two different eras....Obama is now an adopted son of Camelot. His candidacy blessed not just by the Lion of the Senate, patriarch of the clan, but by JFK’s daughter.”
— ABC’s David Wright on Nightline, Jan. 28. [55 points]

As we used to say in the olden days, "Gag me with a spoon." Reading through these awards, and the runners-up, you see the days of the free press are over. As awful as the constant Bush bashing was, this is much worse for the country. He could handle it; I'm not sure Obama can.

Does Associated Press do this to Obama speech when he talks black?

"If I were giving advice to myself back on the day my candidacy was announced, I'd say, 'Tell the campaign that you'll be callin' some of the shots. Don't just assume that they know you well enough to make all your decisions for ya," Palin said.

That Obama is 1/2 European-American and was raised as a white is rarely mentioned, but a black linquist certainly noticed it, McWhorter. So when he speaks "black" it is a language he learned as an adult, and doesn't sound authentic. But even then, I haven't seen AP being meticulous in recording how he speaks "street" or "church." (Now that he's in office, I rarely hear it.)

I say "ya" and "Warshington." But the MSM tries to make Palin look like a dope. The people trust her a lot more than the NYT or Washington Post. The article headline was "Palin Rails Against 'Anonymous, Pathetic Bloggers'", but they could have made her sports comment the headline, or that she played trombone (you gotta love that).

Update: Excellent article at Commentary on the elitism vs. populism in the Sarah Palin love her or hate her story:

"This form of intellectual elitism is actually fairly new in America, though it has been a dominant feature of European society since World War II. It is not as exclusive or as anti-democratic as cultural elitism is in other countries, because entry to the American intellectual elite is, in principle, open to all who pursue it. And pursuing it is not as difficult as it once was, at least for the middle class. Indeed, most of this elite’s prominent members hail from middle-class origins and not from traditional bastions of American privilege and wealth. They can speak of growing up in Scranton, even as they raise their noses at dirty coal and hunting season."

Geithner's a pox on Obama's House

Another appointee in trouble for taxes.

"Labor Secretary nominee Hilda Solis became the latest Cabinet nominee to face questions about unpaid taxes Thursday as a Senate panel abruptly postponed a scheduled vote on her confirmation.

The postponement came after revelations that Solis' husband settled tax liens on his California auto repair business this week that had been outstanding for as long as 16 years." CNS News

Didn't she have to sign his tax returns? Different standard for Hispanics? I think until Obama releases Geithner from his "one and only" status as the guy who can save us, he'll continue to attract people who have "forgotten" to pay their taxes. "Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., says lawmakers are committed to giving Solis "the fair and thorough consideration that she deserves.” " Yes, and she's definitely lacking and deserves the door--out.

Someone's trying to scare you

Pass it on. Don't be a victim of Al Gore's snow job.

Pork is turning green for education

"Both the House and Senate versions of the [American Recovery and Reinvestment Act] bill include a multi-billion dollar ($14 billion in the House and $16 billion in the Senate) provision for modernizing public schools (including charter schools) with technology upgrades and energy efficiency improvements. Unfortunately, religious and independent schools are EXCLUDED from this provision, even though a companion provision relating to higher education includes religious and independent colleges and universities." Council for American Private Education

I've seen all the pleas to architects (my husband's e-newsletters) to rally around every green project because it's big bucks for the building trades (everything in the package is turning a magic green), so this one is a plea to private religious educators to get in the fray. I disagree that stimulus money should go to religious schools. No matter what shade of green.

Dirty Harry brings home the bacon

"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is leading the fight to push President Barack Obama's economic-stimulus plan through the chamber by week's end. He's also working to make sure that his home state of Nevada benefits from the nearly $900 billion plan. . .

Dozens of other senators have sought to add their own measures to the stimulus plan.

Last week, Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas failed to win approval for an extension of tax incentives for her home-state timber industry. On Tuesday, California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer failed to win a majority for a provision backed by Silicon Valley high-technology firms and home-state drug companies that would have allowed them to bring overseas profits back to the U.S. at reduced tax rates.

On Wednesday, Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.) fought to change the way transportation funds are doled out in a way that could benefit home-state interests. New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer this week sent a news release to constituents outlining his plan to direct millions in new federal funds to public-transportation projects in New York City. And Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson angled to include tax incentives for citrus growers." WSJ
Hope and Change.
Change and Hope.
Hoping for change.
Changing the hope.

How's that release program working for you?

"Saudi Arabia said Wednesday that 11 men released from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay are now on the kingdom's most-wanted list despite having attended its touted extremist rehabilitation program.

President Barack Obama has signed an executive order closing the detention center at the naval base in Cuba, leaving countries scrambling over what to do with released detainees.

Saudi Arabia and terror experts defended the program for terror suspects, saying it is largely effective. The Pentagon has said it's unlikely to change its policy on prisoner transfers to the kingdom."

Apparently, Mr. Obama sees some good in closing Gitmo. Wasn't it just around 11 Saudi guys who flew the planes on 9/11 looking for martyrdom? After they lose the excess pounds they gained on Gitmo from the good food and free legal advice in the "rehab" program, they're good to go. And how many of the freed detainees are going to want to go home if they face a "touted extremist rehabilitation program." Send them to Canada. Most of the American leftist movie stars who threatened to go there in 2004 if Bush won went back on their promises. So there should be welcoming arms there. Or maybe George Soros has an island somewhere with a mansion.

Faith based initiatives are in for a jolt

Hate to say I told you so, but I told you so. Obama's "common ground" initiative doesn't broaden the base, it narrows it. The new regs will be so sticky, so complex and expensive, to say nothing of forcing Christians to deny the Great Commandment of Christ (which many were doing anyway without help from Obama), that most small ministries won't be able to participate, and only the most liberal, largest most non-evangelical quasi-Christian and Warrenized churches will dabble in government grants. That means more grant money for the ACORNies, pantheistic warmists, and Muslim groups, which of course in the name of diversity, won't be held to the same standard as evangelical Christians.

However, it was a bad idea for churches to become so dependent on government money, and in effect, become an arm of the federal government in housing programs and food distribution plans (my church does both, maybe more). Folks, it's time to get back to saving the world for Jesus instead of the USDA, HHS and HUD.

The eight babies blindfold

Both conservative and liberal talking heads, bloggers and comics are beating this one to death. I'm guessing the "sperm donor" and the "doctor" are one and the same for all her babies. I can't believe the conservatives calling for special laws. Just how often does some dysfunctional woman do this that it needs legislation that isn't already on the books?

But in the few minutes the media spend to update their outrage, twice that many anchor babies will be born in California. Then with Congress's "new" open borders and family values shtick, those babies' grandparents, siblings and aunties will be urged to come and sup at the table of the rich Americans. You know them. The ones who won't do the construction jobs, the restaurant jobs, the retail jobs, the trucking jobs so we've got to import workers. At least these 14 babies' relatives say they are returning to Iraq, or where ever they came from. The Democrats want two things out of this border mess--enough gardners, maids and laborers for their private vineyards and estates, and enough voters to keep them in office.