Friday Family Photo--Biggie

Sunday I was moving winter coats to storage when I pulled out a forgotten maroon, hand-knit, zip front sweater in a dry cleaner bag that had belonged to my husband's grandfather, Stanley, or Biggie as he was known to his grandchildren. I think I have the story straight when I say that the oldest grandchild, whose name is Norma Lou, gave him that nickname. Probably because she was little and he was "big." She was raised by her grandparents; her cousins, my husband and his sister, visited on week-ends. These three little ones were all children of divorce, so Biggie was the one monumental and consistent male figure in their lives. Yes, he was BIG. The whole family always called them "Neno and Biggie," and so did I (although I never knew his grandfather).

I decided to take the sweater out of the bag and check for moth holes because it is 100% wool and probably close to 90-100 years old. It was made at a time when knitting or sewing for the family was just a feature of the homemaker's life, a necessity rather than a "craft." (Neno had been a police woman before marriage.) I had a vague recollection of my husband wearing it on very cold days back in the 70s (when all the talk was about global cooling and we couldn't keep our house warm enough), and I think I used to occasionally wear it to work in the 80s because we couldn't control the air conditioning in Sisson Hall. Frankly, I'm not sure either one of us could get this sweater zipped today. And no, the dry cleaners didn't shrink it. It would definitely be an XXS in either a men's or women's size.

The item on the sweater is Biggie's gold pocket watch, and we don't have much else that belonged to him. When I asked my husband where it was, he couldn't remember, but then found it in the first box he checked--along with the silver cuff links we bought our son for his wedding or graduation--don't recall which--and a few other odd items.) The photo below is Biggie, Neno and brother Jimmy, and was probably taken about 1948.





There seems to be a strong family resemblance--photo of my husband at about the same age in 2003.

Ed Asner--a very hate filled man

My little converter box here at the lakehouse works great--except I get programs I'd never watch at home. This morning in the background (can't see the TV from this angle) I can hear Tavis Smiley interviewing Ed Asner who is spewing the most hateful, anti-American drivel I've ever heard from the Hollywood left. It's enough to make you stop watching old re-runs. This man desperately needs to retire.

Here’s what the Waxman-Markey energy bill will do for you

“Nothing. Zip. Zero. Zilch. There are no benefits for the American people in the Waxman-Markey energy tax bill. Whenever defenders of the free market point out how much an energy tax will cost the economy, the enviro-left always tries to change the subject to “the cost of inaction.” But here is the dirty little secret about Waxman-Markey: it does nothing to prevent global warming/climate change whatever you want to call it. And that is before House Democrats gutted the bill.” Heritage.org Indeed, in a Congress full of downright scary people, thieves, murderers, adulterers, and brain dead, Henry Waxman reigns supreme.

Here are the numbers. My detractors always want the facts, not the unintended consequences, not the run up to the War on the Economy by smart investors and CEOs who were ducking for cover hiding their assets in foreign countries as soon as an Obama presidency was on the horizon, while contributing to his campaign. Not an historical survey of the Kulaks loss of property and life by Stalinists. OK, here they are. Here’s what higher prices on everything for the sake of a global warming myth looks like. Waxman's energy bill will mean the loss of your job (especially if you are paid on local tax money such as a teacher, librarian, policeman, street sweeper, dog catcher, etc.)

By the year 2050, the “clean” version reduces projected global temperatures by 0.044ºC (or ~3% less than the rise without the legislation), the “dirty” version gets you about half of that, or 0.022ºC (~1.5% less), and the “dirtier” version saves half of that again, or 0.011ºC (<1% less). By century’s end, you don’t do much better–the temperature reduction amounts to, respectively, 0.112ºC (0.20ºF), 0.046ºC (0.08ºF), and 0.013ºC (0.02ºF).

They only crunched the job loss numbers on the clean version and found it would reduce aggregate gross domestic product (GDP) by $7.4 trillion by 2035 and destroy 844,000 jobs annually. Maybe on your planet that sounds like a worthwhile trade, but not on mine!

Burying the lede

It probably pained the NYT to even report on the foiled terrorist plot against two Jewish synagogues, but since they were in New York, it is sort of local news. They didn't mention until the end that all those arrested in the year long investigation were Muslims. And of course, Chuck Schumer (D-NY) calls them unsophisticated. That should be a comfort if it is your family that is blown up. According to James Taranto's column, May 21, in WSJ:

At the end of the ninth paragraph comes the revelation that the suspects "are all Muslim, a law enforcement official said."

According to Rod Dreher of BeliefNet.com, "This is what is called 'burying the lede.' Some editor in that newsroom found this to be an inconvenient truth, and tried to hide it. You can practically hear the Times cringing when it has to disclose this fact, which most fair-minded readers would find rather pertinent."

According to the NY Daily News:

Among those arrested was [James] Cromitie, of Newburgh, who is the son of an Afghan immigrant and his African-American wife. Cromitie, who also called himself Abdul Rahman, has served a long stretch in prison.
David Williams, Onta Williams and Leguerre Payen - his alleged henchmen - were busted with him. Cromitie allegedly recruited them at the Newburgh mosque.

Cheney, a man who will protect us

from enemies without and within. It was shocking to hear Obama, as a first act of his presidency, criticize the former administration like he was some third world potentate ready to throw his opponents in prison. Then when he also threatened the people in the administration who kept us safe for 7 years, it was time for an answer. Al Gore brags that he kept quiet for 2 years before criticizing Bush for using the security developed on his watch--Obama/Biden couldn't wait even 2 weeks. They are lackeys for the leftist who got them elected.

" When President Obama makes wise decisions, as I believe he has done in some respects on Afghanistan, and in reversing his plan to release incendiary photos, he deserves our support. And when he faults or mischaracterizes the national security decisions we made in the Bush years, he deserves an answer. The point is not to look backward. Now and for years to come, a lot rides on our President’s understanding of the security policies that preceded him. And whatever choices he makes concerning the defense of this country, those choices should not be based on slogans and campaign rhetoric, but on a truthful telling of history." . . .

"To make certain our nation country never again faced such a day of horror, we developed a comprehensive strategy, beginning with far greater homeland security to make the United States a harder target. But since wars cannot be won on the defensive, we moved decisively against the terrorists in their hideouts and sanctuaries, and committed to using every asset to take down their networks. We decided, as well, to confront the regimes that sponsored terrorists, and to go after those who provide sanctuary, funding, and weapons to enemies of the United States. We turned special attention to regimes that had the capacity to build weapons of mass destruction, and might transfer such weapons to terrorists.

We did all of these things, and with bipartisan support put all these policies in place. It has resulted in serious blows against enemy operations … the take-down of the A.Q. Khan network … and the dismantling of Libya’s nuclear program. It’s required the commitment of many thousands of troops in two theaters of war, with high points and some low points in both Iraq and Afghanistan – and at every turn, the people of our military carried the heaviest burden. Well over seven years into the effort, one thing we know is that the enemy has spent most of this time on the defensive – and every attempt to strike inside the United States has failed." The Cheney Speech on national security

And they didn't even mention Ohio State

Even Library Journal doesn't call OSUL a "research library."

If this were Jeopardy, the answer might read: “This academic tool has been around for 500 years, but is slowly being replaced by its electronic counterpart.”

Can you guess the question?

There’s no Daily Double involved, but if you asked, “What is a book?” you’re right.

Is this an overstatement? Maybe yes, maybe no.

Take a look at these facts, and you be the judge:

Princeton, Case Western, Reed, Darden School at the University of Virginia, Pace and Arizona State are partnering with Amazon to try out the Kindle e-book reader on their students.

Missouri School of Journalism students will be required to buy an iPhone or iPod this fall, so they can electronically download course material.

Columbia University added four times the number of electronic books to its collection this past year compared to traditional books.

While 99% of individual buyers still purchase traditional books, it seems the move of higher ed institutions toward e-books is picking up speed.Read whole story at Higher Ed Morning.

The speech Notre Dame grads didn't get to hear

Here's a graduation address that could have inspired them to go forward and be their best, given to 2009 graduates of University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, Texas, May 9, 2009 by the Most Rev. José H. Gomez, S.T.D., Archbishop of San Antonio.

Now the world you are entering into, dear graduates, sees things very differently. In fact, our society today is a lot like Pontius Pilate—it doesn’t recognize the truth. It doesn’t believe there can even be any one truth. Our culture believes instead that there are many truths—as many different truths as there are individuals, and that it’s wrong to try to decide or judge among these competing “truths.”

This sounds like a very fair and reasonable way to live in a free society where there are many different religions, lifestyles, and points of view. But in practice: when nothing is true, everything is permitted.

When the only truth is that there is no truth, then we end up with what Pope Benedict has called the “dictatorship of relativism.” What’s right or wrong, true or false, good or evil, is decided by majority vote or imposed by powerful special interests. As a result of this dictatorship of relativism, our society not only allows evils such as abortion, it also protects them under law.

ConservativeHQ.com Poll

91% of Conservatives believe Obama is a Socialist, Marxist, Communist or Fascist. On-line polls are certainly not fair, balanced or authoritative. Only the people who use a particular site get to vote. Sort of like the newspaper polls from NYT or LAT and their "sources" and anecdotal evidence.

During the Bush years, the people who didn't like him screamed Nazi or Hitler because yelling "communist" would have been a compliment. But there is a very fine line between National Socialism (Nazi Germany and Italy) and Marxist Communism (USSR or China variety. The Bush haters claim it's the war--"Bush lied people died." He brought out the ladies in pink who joined forces with the greenies. Bush didn't go to war, Congress did, read the Constitution, and they were using all the evidence they had been hearing and voting on from the previous administration. There was actually great bipartisanship in 2002 and 2003--Kerry, Edwards, Kennedy, et al were all for the war and believed the intelligence about WMD. Bush was fairly elected, not with the popular vote, which he didn't win in 2000, but the electoral system which provides smaller states with a say. The county in question was heavily minority--so Democrats claimed they didn't know how to vote. They were confused. Well, whose fault was that with a Democrat machine in place? The Supreme Court didn't put him in office as the Bush-Deranged claim--it ruled on a state law of Florida. And the Bush-Deniers refused to see what was coming down the road, when the hanging chads in Florida were all swept up. Examination of all the close votes in other states--say, in Illinois where the dead Chicago democrats reappear like zombies to vote and who are probably happily receiving their stimulus checks even today. After all, they are the ones who chose Kennedy over Nixon back in 1960. If Nixon had done the right thing--demanded the same kind of endless recount Gore got--he could have saved JFK's life, but then, who would have made all those conspiracy movies?

Kris over Adam

Idol isn't a show I follow--but you can't open your on-line page or a newspaper without seeing that Kris won. I mean, this is terribly important to millions of Americans, and maybe Europeans too. It's certainly more important than the War on the Economy, which no one seems to care about except people losing their livelihood. This is the gladiator game put on for the public to keep them happy and thinking they are voting about something. Something that matters. Like no performer was ever able to make it before this type of prearranged showcasing.

Anyway, I've never heard either one of them sing, but seeing the photos, I think I would have gone for Kris. I don't mind make-up--eyeshadow, lip rouge, etc.--and earrings and tight leather on the girls--but on the boys, it's just a bit too carnal.

Q. Who is not eligible for this [$250 Social Security] payment?

We are going around and around on whether I should cash the $250 "stimulus" check. I say no, my husband says yes. The government doesn't care if they sent it, only that you spent it when it wasn't yours.

A. In most cases, the following individuals will not receive the one-time payment:
Anyone living outside of the United States or its territories;
Individuals who no longer are lawfully present in the United States;
Individuals whose benefits have been suspended under the law for giving false or misleading statements;
Social Security beneficiaries who are minor children;
SSI beneficiaries who receive benefits at a reduced rate of $30 because they live in a medical treatment facility (such as a nursing home or hospital) and Medicaid pays over 50% of the cost of their care;
Individuals only entitled to Medicare and not to Social Security or SSI benefits; and
Prisoners, fugitive felons, and probation and parole violators.

I am entitled to Medicare, not to Social Security. What would you do?

I'm going to miss newspapers

On a good day, I can read the Columbus Dispatch, USA Today and WSJ in just a few minutes. The advertising is disappearing at a fast clip, and that's what keeps the printing presses rolling (do they still roll, or has that changed too?).

It's ironic that the hostile-to-business, hate-the-capitalists-media are digging their own graves. Once they are all on-line, they'll be easier to shut down completely by the man they all supported to exercise the biggest hatchet job on freedom ever recorded. And then that record will be buried, too.

Sweetie, honey, dearie, babe

My father called me "Baby" even in my 60s. I didn't mind at all, even though I knew I wasn't a baby. He wasn't belittling me and that was also about as affectionate as he got. However, when I was a little girl I can remember watching the blood rise in my mother's face if we were in a dress shop and the saleswoman called her "Honey," or "Dearie." Usually, Mom's fingers clutching her purse would start to twitch (a bad sign) and that was the end of that store for that day, regardless of the need. The other day I overheard a young, accomplished, educated woman say, "The little girl who works for us had her baby and will soon be back at work." If a man had said that about a female employee it would have raised eyebrows, or even caused disciplinary action. Women often use the phrase, "little girl," or just "girl" as a term of endearment, but it can also describe a woman in a lower social status, the same way men use the term.

I'm not saying it's in the same category as a hip hop artist using "nigga" or "Ho," but I think we're in the ballpark.

More Than 700 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global

Scientists Continue to Debunk “Consensus” in 2008 and 2009. You are going to be heavily taxed and perhaps your job destroyed on faulty, bogus "scientific" claims about the dangers of C02. Read this Senate report before you accept a word of Obama's threats to destroy more of the American automobile industry and tax Americans with an additional $1300 per car.

“Creating an ideology pegged to carbon dioxide is a dangerous nonsense…The present alarm on climate change is an instrument of social control, a pretext for major businesses and political battle. It became an ideology, which is concerning.” Environmental Scientist Professor Delgado Domingos of Portugal, the founder of the Numerical Weather Forecast group, has more than 150 published articles.

“It is a blatant lie put forth in the media that makes it seem there is only a fringe of scientists who don’t buy into anthropogenic global warming.” U.S Government Atmospheric Scientist Stanley B. Goldenberg of the Hurricane Research Division of NOAA.

“For how many years must the planet cool before we begin to understand that the planet is not warming? For how many years must cooling go on?" - Geologist Dr. David Gee the chairman of the science committee of the 2008 International Geological Congress who has authored 130 plus peer reviewed papers, and is currently at Uppsala University in Sweden.

“There are simple facts in such abundance that the media never reports. When the media lambastes a great (skeptical) scientist and brave patriot, Jack Schmitt, a geologist, astronaut and former senator for apostasy, you know that it isn't science they're talking about, but agendas. Schmitt knows more about the Earth and its environment than all the staff at The New Mexican put together. Listen to a proven scientist,” Geologist Dr. Seymour Merrin, a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and a research scientist.

. . . and many others. We are being deceived for a social agenda.

Following the FDR rise to fame

Edging us closer and closer to a Depression through government interference in the markets

Notice what happened in July 2008 when the nation's and global investors woke up and realized Obama would be the next President.

The coming threat to religious liberties

". . . in a society that redefines marriage to include same–sex unions, those who continue to believe marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman can expect to face three types of burdens.

First, institutions that support the traditional understanding of marriage may be denied access to several types of government benefits, and individ­uals who work in the public sector may face cen­sorship, disciplinary action, and even loss of employment.

Second, those who support the traditional understanding of marriage will be subject to even greater civil liability under nondiscrimination laws that prohibit private discrimination based on sexual orientation, marital status, and gender.

Third, the existence of nondiscrimination laws, combined with state administrative policies, can invite private forms of discrimination against religious individuals who believe that marriage involves a man and a woman and foster a climate of contempt for the public expression of their views."

Same–Sex Marriage and the Threat to Religious Liberty by Thomas M. Messner

Rip and Read

Now when I hear news stories like this, it means so much more--we were in the Holy Land in March.

"Pope Benedict XVI prayed at Christianity's holiest site on Friday as he wrapped up a Holy Land tour in which he pleaded for Palestinians and stirred criticism he lacked remorse over the Holocaust. In the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, . . "

The problem was the young woman reading the news on the radio pronouced Sepulcher as ska-PAL-ter. Yes, Church of the Holy skaPALter. Reminds me of when he first became Pope and there were people who didn't know how to read Roman Numerals. Poor guy was all over the place--13th, 14th, 17th.

Cat Yodeling

After she finishes her breakfast (1/3 can 9 Lives), my cat walks into the living room with a loud yowl or two. Sometimes she races up and down the stairs, too. But only after breakfast. Also, she can hear cheese. If you open the frig for an apple, she doesn't stir from her nap, but if you pull out a package of cheese, she's right there. Usually, she says nothing when kissed or pestered.

No torture necessary for Ol' Joe to blab secrets

Some in the media are saying no big deal. Probably the same who screamed bloody murder on the Valerie Plame blame game, when everyone already knew who she was. But for Biden to reveal the secret hiding place for the second in command. Well, that's almost as scary as contemplating the third in command, the liar, liar pants-on-fire, Pelosi. Even the most die hard conservative needs to pray for Obama's continued good health.

"Joe Biden, the gaffe prone Vice President, has revealed the secret location of the Vice Presidential bunker. The Vice Presidential bunker has been revealed to be located under the Naval Observatory where Vice Presidents reside.

The gaffe was reported by Newsweek's liberal correspondent Eleanor Cliff. Vice President Joe Biden apparently gave a detailed account of being taken on a tour of the Vice Presidential bunker by a Naval officer

Joe Biden's Bunker Blunder to his dinner companions at the Gridiron Dinner, a Washington soiree attended by print journalists.

Thus far Vice President Joe Biden's various gaffes have been amusing at best, embarrassing at worse. But the location of the Vice Presidential bunker, designed to help the Vice President and his staff ride out an attack, is classified information. The idea that Vice President Joe Biden is so unable to govern his tongue that he would blurt out classified information to a table full of reporters should be a cause for concern." AC Content

Does he drink a lot? Off his meds? And are reporters supposed to always report what they know?

Applying the Golden Rule to Abortion

Obama's speech writers just amaze me--the twisting and distorting of the English language is just stunning. I was driving home from the coffee shop this morning and wasn't fast enough to push the button when the news clip of Obama's speech at Notre Dame came on and I caught his recitation of the number of religions that cling to the Golden Rule, "Do unto others. . . " In the context of abortion it was such a distortion of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, etc. I was afraid I might cause an accident. I'm not sure there is a major religion that gives this one a pass.

... the law that binds people of all faiths and no faith together. It is no coincidence that it exists in Christianity and Judaism; in Islam and Hinduism; in Buddhism and humanism. It is, of course, the Golden Rule - the call to treat one another as we wish to be treated. The call to love. To serve. To do what we can to make a difference in the lives of those with whom we share the same brief moment on this Earth.

Some people's moments are a bit briefer than others, it seems.


Just what is the "Golden Rule?" Usually it's a reference to Jesus' statement in Matthew 7:12/Luke 6:31. "So whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them; for this is the law and the prophets." Who in the world wishes death and dismemberment on himself?

Confucius' negative slant was "What you do not like if done to yourself, do not to others," and Isocrates said, "Do not do to others that at which you would be angry if you suffered it from others." Rabbi Hillel said, "Whatsoever you would that men should not do to you, do not that to them" and it appears in Leviticus 19:18.

For Christians, however, Jesus takes it to an understanding of the highest good, for the self and for others. He is calling us to anticipate the well-being of another--and in the context of the speech a very helpless "other." I'm often shocked when liberals, progressives, marxists and feministas will claim that the aborted child would have lived a life of poverty, pain, or disease and therefore the abortion is an act of mercy and good. Really? You mean the 40 or 50 million abortions since Roe v. Wade was all about malformed or poor children, and not malformed values and self-centered fears? I only know a few mothers who have aborted their babies, and it was with deep regret, and it certainly wasn't because of poverty or disease or mental retardation. Carrying the child to term and placing it with an adoptive family certainly would have been an option.

If death were such a great solution for poverty, why in the world are we putting all this time, money and effort into poverty programs (especially those that don't work--like the government handouts). Just kill the poor people when we know for sure they aren't viable tax payers, if that's your motivation! And you guys try to make Republicans look bad just because they suggest a welfare to work program. Talk about screwed up values!

The Obama administration has gone to a great deal of effort to destroy the livelihood of many well-off, well-educated, talented people--for no reason other than they were rich people who supplied jobs and investment opportunities for others. So if they kill off the potentially poor before they are born, and the unacceptably rich after they are successful, who will they come for next. You?

What Joe Branin said two years ago about Thompson Library

Last week I parked at the Vet Med campus and walked to Bricker Hall to participate in a tiny, and probably useless protest, about saving books. It was a beautiful day and I stopped to stare at and photograph the RPAC, a gimungous building with flashy, reflective pink glass and covered walkways devoted to recreation and physical fitness. Joe Branin, the director of OSUL was at the protest with his professional marketing hand-out and his dusted off fund raising bon mots used hundreds of times to sway the press and TV reporters. If ever a man could out-nuance President Obama on the golden rule and abortion, it would be Joe on the value and usefulness of the physical book, on a actual shelf, inside a bricks and mortar building. So I was interested to read what he said two years ago in an interview with Library Journal.

[After a bit of wandering, the reporter finally gets to it] What’s it like running one of the nation’s top public university libraries while simultaneously tearing it down, setting up interim space and services, and managing one of the state’s largest construction projects? “I still spend most of my time directing the library system,” OSU director Joe Branin insists, giving his staff praise for their hard work. But let’s not mince words: this massive project will define Branin’s tenure at OSU, and he is clearly proud of and invested in it. “We expect the library to be a major gathering place for faculty and students, because of its architectural beauty but also its functionality as a learning and research center,” he says.

“I’ll also continue looking for new ways we can reach out to the larger Ohio community, and make the Thompson a resource not just for the university but for learners and scholars around the state and the whole country.” Part of achieving that mission is not to be limited by space or formats. “Flexibility has been a key design principle for us,” Branin explains. “So we can modify the building as we see formats of information and use patterns change.” The new Thompson library, he stresses, will use space and technology together to offer new opportunities as well as preserving the best of traditional library service, including, of course, books. “Print resources will continue to be a significant presence, and special collections will be highlighted in ways that have never been possible.”

I've moved, withdrawn and disposed of thousands of books in my library career and I think I know how to measure and count; there's no way that a million + volumes are going back, nor is there room for growth without pulling out thousands more.

Notice, LJ never refers to OSUL as a "research library."

Joe's next and probably last job is to develop a completely digital library for the Saudis. Maybe by the time he's finished, Saudi women will be allowed to drive. After all, by the 1980s, most were allowed to attend school.