Obama finally issues statement about Pvt. Long's death

According to LaShawn Barber, the President, after days of silence, finally commented on the death of one of his soldiers.

"Two days after military recruiter Private William Long’s murder (as opposed to hours after abortionist George Tiller’s murder on a Sunday, no less) by a Muslim convert, President Barack Obama finally released a statement, though it’s not posted on the White House web site yet (as of 9:26 a.m. PT):

“I am deeply saddened by this senseless act of violence against two brave young soldiers who were doing their part to strengthen our armed forces and keep our country safe. I would like to wish Quinton Ezeagwula a speedy recovery, and to offer my condolences and prayers to William Long’s family as they mourn the loss of their son.” (Source)

Obama’s statement about Tiller:

“I am shocked and outraged by the murder of Dr. George Tiller as he attended church services this morning. However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence.”

Nothing about how he has contributed to the anti-military hysteria and this act by a Muslim convert with his ridiculous stance on investigating torture and waterboarding and tearing down all Bush accomplished. But it's OK to criticize the pro-life movement and blame them for the violence of one person.

Conservatives who don't get it

When I listen to Rush or Hannity or read Karl Rove or Victor Davis Hanson, sometimes I just shake my head. They are speaking/writing as though Obama really intends to save the country instead of destroy it. They ponder the stupid, idiotic, unpatriotic things he is doing and wonder why he thinks they will work. He's not stupid, gentlemen, and those things like the apology tours or taking over car companies only look dumb if you still believe he has any intention of being a real president. Haven't you ever known anyone whose job it was to fire all his co-workers after a merger, and then finally lock up the empty store and walk out with his paycheck?

Hanson (a classicist and a farmer) begins an excellent story of his relationship with a very difficult neighbor over water rights with a note about the trillions and trillions of national debt Obama is ringing up and how there aren't enough "rich" to tax, so that will leave it to the rest of us to bail him out. He closes with

"Obama will come to his senses with his ‘Bush did it’, reset button, moral equivalency, soaring hope and change, with these apologies to Europeans, his Arab world Sermons on the Mount to Al Arabiya, in Turkey, in Cairo, etc., his touchy-feely videos to Iran, his “we are all victims of racism” sops to Ortega, Chavez, and Morales. It is only a matter of when, under what conditions, how high the price we must pay, and whether we lose the farm before he gains wisdom about the tragic universe in which we live." VDH June 5

No, he won't "come to his senses," and it isn't just a matter of time, because he hasn't lost them and there is no more time. He is doing exactly what he planned to do, just a little faster than we all expected.

Is WaPo reporter complicit in blaming U.S.?

So it was the fault of President Carter and all those nasty capitalists of the 1970s that these coddled, wealthy, ungrateful people were spies for Communist Cuba?

"What Walter Kendall Myers kept hidden, according to documents unsealed in court Friday, was a deep and long-standing anger toward his country, an anger that allegedly made him willing to spy for Cuba for three decades.

"I have become so bitter these past few months. Watching the evening news is a radicalizing experience," he wrote in his diary in 1978, referring to what he described as greedy U.S. oil companies, inadequate health care and "the utter complacency of the oppressed" in America. On a trip to Cuba, federal law enforcement officials said in legal filings, Myers found a new inspiration: the communist revolution.

Myers, 72, and his wife, Gwendolyn, 71, pleaded not guilty Friday to charges of conspiracy, being agents of a foreign government and wire fraud. Their arrest left friends and former colleagues slack-jawed, unable to square the man depicted in the indictment with the witty intellectual with a prep-school background they knew. Washington Post in a much too sympathetic story for my tastes by Mary Beth Sheridan

Don't you wonder about wealthy people, children of privilege and elitist educations (like our first couple) deciding that everyone should be poor like the Cubans? What kind of guilt does that?

The author of this piece apparently was really stunned 4 years ago when through her "embedded" experience with the military she discovered such shocking things about our soldiers--they were decent, patriotic, and non brainwashed. Imagine.

"First of all, she said she was "overwhelmed by the military," but she did learn by being embedded that members of our armed forces were not "blood-thirsty maniacs." Yes, she really did say that.

In fact, she said, they were "really decent people." And even "sweet." Of course, after being shot at they were eager to shoot back — a military attitude that seemed to surprise her.

She also reported that when she asked soldiers why were they in Iraq, every single one told her, "to help the Iraqi people." Again she was surprised that the military could create such a unity of purpose even though, she said, she didn't see any "brainwashing" going on. She also noted that many soldiers had no opinion about the war. They had gone where they were ordered to go, like all good soldiers. Such an attitude seemed to dazzle her as well.

She didn't have anything much to say about "reporters as citizens," but clearly she appeared to be one citizen who had very little familiarity with, or understanding of, or even quite possibly respect for the military before her tour of duty. In a way, it is kind of sad that only after some first-hand experience did she learn what most American citizens believe: that American soldiers are "decent people." And that it is those soldiers, not our journalists, after all, who protect our freedom of the press." Reporters as citizens

Filling in

Today I made broccoli soup for lunch. But I didn't quite have enough broccoli to satisfy my tastes, so I dug around in the veggy drawer and there was about a quarter of a head of limp cabbage, so I chopped it up and tossed it into the chicken broth with the onions and potatoes. Tasted fine--maybe even better than usual. We had home made blueberry pie with that. And that's another filling in story.

Yesterday I was taking one of my barefoot walks and noticed a group of people, adults and children, down by the creek on the east side of our property. And I use the term "our" loosely since we live in a gorgeous grove of trees surrounded by a sweet little creek owned by an association of 30 residental condominiums in five buildings. If this community were to be built today instead of 1977, the builder would have tried to cram 60 units or more in the same space. When I got to this group, I saw they were building a bridge across the creek. I asked what they were doing, and the man told me building a bridge for the children to cross the creek. "Maybe you should check with our association before you continue," I said. "This is our property and if your children get hurt playing here, we'd be held responsible." The little boy, maybe 10 years old, said, "Oh we cross here all the time; it would be safer to have the bridge." "Maybe you could play on your side of the creek," I observed (their home and property could buy and sell mine several times). "Why don't you talk to our condo president," I said to dad, and I gave him his name. I returned to our unit and called him; the family continued building the bridge (and I use that term loosely--it was two timbers stuck inside four cement blocks wedged into the ground with short planks between the timbers).

Later I looked out and two couples (one the president) were standing down there. Apparently, they'd come to an agreement with the family not to proceed until it could be brought to the association meeting this month. We had missed our Friday night date, so I invited the two couples to go to the Rusty Bucket with us and to stop by after the restaurant for blueberry pie which I'd just taken out of the oven after my walk.

When I made the pie I was using the first decently priced blueberries I'd seen this spring--2 pints for $4.00. But you do get what you pay for and they were a bit scrawny and I must have pulled off 20-30 stems and thrown out some squished berries. So when I sprinkled them with Splenda, flour and cinnamon, they looked a bit shy of a full pie. So I looked in the frig and found some strawberries about a week past prime, sliced them up and tossed them in with the blueberries, although not sure how that would turn out. Actually, if I hadn't announced to my four guests last night that there were strawberries in the blueberry pie, they would have never known, because they just turned purple and blended right in. So if you're ever a little short, think cabbage with the broccoli and strawberries with the blueberries.

About that little law suit attraction--the bridge. I really hope the bridge idea gets voted down. You hate to ruin a little guy's fun, but there's a good reason why by age 13, little girls outnumber little boys (boys start life with a numerical advantage of about 106 to our 100). Boys/men are risk takers. I raised a son, and had many trips to the ER. This moves them way out in front in law, politics, economics, science and inventions of all types and fills up our prisons, but it shortens their lives. When we get a big rain, that sleepy little creek becomes a raging torrent, up over the banks by about 6 feet. Not only would the water sweep children off that flimsy bridge who snuck out of the house to get a closer look, but it would act as a dam stopping everything that Turkey Run Creek would pick up as it moved through the golf course, and roared under Kenny Road onto our property, further flooding our lawn, and possibly the lower level of the units. Many serious floods in Ohio have been nothing more than sleepy creeks that got dammed up during storms by building debris floating down from construction sites, couches from someone's yard back in the hills, and a few tires from the farmers' fields.

Look who’s bringing change from the top down now

"In the 13 years between Obama's return to Chicago from law school and his Senate campaign, he was deeply involved with the city's constellation of community-organizing groups. He wrote about the subject. He attended organizing seminars. He served on the boards of foundations that support community organizing. He taught Alinsky's concepts and methods in workshops [a Chicago Marxist who advised his followers to go after the middle class because the poor have no power, Saul Alinksy died in 1972] . When he first ran for office in 1996, he pledged to bring the spirit of community organizing to his job in the state Senate. And, after he was elected to the U.S. Senate, his wife, Michelle, told a reporter, "Barack is not a politician first and foremost. He's a community activist exploring the viability of politics to make change." Recalling her remark in 2005, Obama wrote, "I take that observation as a compliment."

And he also said, "Change won't come from the top, . . . Change will come from a mobilized grass roots." From The Agitator

But look who’s at the top now, asking all of us to change for his vision of what’s right socially, economically and politically. He even tries to change history. Yes, this is definitely change from the top down.

The Obamas date night

I think it's wonderful that the President and First Lady take a night off for a date and go to fabulous places.

The couple did not take the large 747 to New York, but flew a much smaller C-20 (G3). The press pool flew in a separate plane, identified by the military as a G5, followed by a staff in a third plane (G3). White House staff said the smaller planes were more fuel efficient.

AF-1 landed at Kennedy Airport. Marine One flew them over the Brooklyn Bridge to Lower Manhattan.

The motorcade made its way over to West Street, banged a right on a cobblestone Clarkson, then on to Carmine. They ended up at 6th and Washington place.

The first couple dined at Bluehill Restaurant where reservations are reportedly hard to get. The restaurant features "locally grown fare" and has it's own farm in upstate new York.

The first couple arrived at the Belasco theater on West 44th Street, where they will see "Joe Turner's Come and Gone." ABC News Blog

However, now that he is a CEO and head of the union and major stockholder of two automobile companies telling us all what we can drive, how far, and how many miles per gallon, and whether executives can use their private jets to attend meetings, and what their pay scale should be, shouldn't he be setting a better example? Shouldn't the Obamas have to scale it back a bit; aren't they asking EVERYONE to sacrifice for the children and grandchildren? Are there no nice restaurants or good theater in D.C.? And how much does that truck garden produce cost by the time the "truck" brings the produce from upstate NY at current gasoline prices? Is the restaurant owner driving a hybrid with the radishes, onions and potatoes in the back seat in canvas bags? What would the Car Czar and the Pay Czar say about the Obamas' misuse of valuable resources?

We will have our Friday night date tonight (Saturday) at Rusty Bucket--and every week that we can, driving our wonderful Dodge van and Ford SUV while we are still allowed to own American full size cars.

ABC did hold seats for the View ladies on Amtrak

Scott Baker at Breitbart TV did some investigating to check on the "outrage" because Barbara Walters and Whoopee Goldberg called Glenn Beck a sack of Dog Poop on national television.

Glenn Beck, his wife and friends, took Amtrak to the Correspondents Dinner in Washington, D.C. When they boarded they found a conference table on the train and were told those seats are reserved. It turns out Walters and Goldberg of the View got on and took the table, and Glenn joked about it on his radio show--I heard him. And although I almost never watch the View, I must have had it on at the cottage the day he was their guest victim, and heard these women literally boil him in oil for lying. No Salem witch trial could have been more vicious. Well, (HT Maggie's Notebook) they were the ones lying, and you can follow the story of the lies and hilarity at Breitbart TV about the 7 minute View Ambush. Although, it's quite possible that the ladies of the View have been celebrities for so long that they don’t realize that not everyone gets the kind of treatment they received on Amtrak. And they took 7 minutes of their show to call Glenn a liar. But he didn’t lie--they did. Do you suppose they will ever apologize? Of course not. It really isn’t about Glenn Beck, but about the Media being able to lie about conservatives--who's to stop them?

Scott's original show which he refers to in the interview with Beck.

In 2003 we rode the Southwest Chief from Chicago to LA, stopping several days in Flagstaff to visit the Grand Canyon.

The firing of Jackie Norris

Obama's teleprompter suggested it was because Michelle was getting such low-level events (elementary school graduations), but in Iowa, well, this snark was suggested, "I guess it’s possible that Norris was the one who urged Michelle to wear those $800 ugly ass shoes to a homeless shelter, and encourage the First Couple to go out on date nights that cost the taxpayers $250k a pop, while everyone else is struggling to make ends meet." Iowa Republican Whatever the reason for the change, we sure know it wasn't the one given by Norris! I'm with Michelle on this one. Maybe they just didn't get along. I've heard some of the ridiculous things she's said about . . . well, just about everything. . . and quite possibly Jackie noticed too. Iowa helped put the Obamas in the White House, but like their religion, their memory and loyalty leaves much to be desired.

John Stewart calls Harry Truman a war criminal

Oh, these liberals. They are so screwed up. See this excellent film at Pajamas TV.

What will you do with your "stimulus" check?

According to the AARP web site:

"More than 52 million Social Security beneficiaries will today (May 7) begin receiving an extra $250 payment, as part of the effort to reinvigorate the American economy and boost consumer spending. The additional bonus check, which also will be sent to older veterans and railroad retirees, is part of the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act—the so-called stimulus package—passed by Congress and signed by President Obama on Feb. 17.

You won’t have to file any forms to get the money. Payments will show up through May as an extra check or an automatic bank deposit, depending on how you receive your benefits. Couples who are eligible will receive a total of $500.

A spokesman for Social Security says those who usually get their benefit checks during the first week of the month will be the first to receive their additional payment, which could be as early as today.

No one knows yet what recipients will really do with their $250, but that hasn’t stopped the Social Security Administration from asking. On April 9, the SSA posed the question on its website. So far, more than 4,000 people have responded. Their answers suggest that recipients are likely to go out and spend their windfall—exactly what the plan’s architects hoped for."

If you read my blog, you know I've been debating whether to even cash mine--I really can find no evidence in any of the government sites or government media that I am eligible. I don't receive SS, not on my own work account, and not on my husband's, because I receive a state teacher's pension. Back in the 1980s receiving both was declared double dipping--but only for teachers and state civil servants--private pensions weren't affected (but just you wait--I'm sure you too will be asked to save the system). So we called our accountant, and she didn't know either, but there was something new, that I hadn't seen. Apparently at one site, it is reported that people receiving FEDERAL pensions (but not SS) were eligible for the stimulus check. So we're extrapolating from that comment that STATE pensions also apply (civil service, teachers, etc.) Our accountant did say, however, that it is virtually impossible to give back a check from the government, even if they were wrong to send it.

OK, now what to do with it. I'd hoped to donate the entire amount to an organization that doesn't take government grants--so that wouldn't be most church run social services. So I was thinking our *local pregnancy distress center, PDHC--maybe a donation to honor the service of Pvt. William Long, whose death has been covered up by the hoopla over the murder of George Tiller, a man who killed thousands of babies through out his career. President Obama has not commented on Long's death by a Muslim terrorist, but expressed great concern over Tiller's death, which shows who his supporters are. But then last night's Channel 10 news reported that many Southern Ohio food pantries have closed, and they're sending our mobile Lutheran Food Pantry Truck once a week to help some of the smaller cities, like Ironton, which used to be a thriving town. The food banks, which depend on government surplus, warehouses, food processing plants and buy outs are stretched pretty far, and church members are taking up the slack. So I may divide my check by purchasing food for the food pantry to feed the children already here, and donating the remainder to save the children not born yet.

*Other cities in Ohio

This looks much harder than blogging

But maybe I should try it. My New Year's Resolution to get back to painting lasted about 3 weeks. Peter Yesis is painting a 30 day, self-portrait challenge. He's got a few more days to go and is reall bored. He even painted a portrait of his feet! Go to the left column of the blog for the thumbnails.

The Voca People

do a pretty good overview of the music I remember the last 50 years. "The Voca people are 8 friendly aliens from the planet Voca, a musical planet that has no verbal communication but use vocal expressions only. They have heard the music from earth for decades now and with their imitation abilities they have decided to pay a one evening tribute to humanity and to perform the songs they love as musical- gratitude." Actually, they are Israelis. Remember them, President Obama?



HT Lady Light who also sent me this one for Cotton Eyed Joe--which will really perk you up if you’re down!

EFCA; Free or Forced Choice?

What ever happened to the secret ballot? What else should we let unions destroy? How many more businesses do you want to have micromanaged by Washington? Let’s intimidate the worker and owner alike! What a concept!

Many conservatives believe “Employee 'Forced' Choice Act (EFCA) is legislation that would severely damage small businesses and eliminate worker freedoms leading to job loss and increased unemployment. EFCA would open workers up to intimidation and allow a government arbitrator to mandate contacts without the consent of employer or employee."

You’ll only get the union views from the Obamedia, so here's the other side.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce describes three provisions of the bill, each of which is unacceptable:

* Elimination of Secret Ballot: This legislation mandates that a union be recognized if a majority of employees in a designated bargaining unit sign authorization cards. This is the provision from which the nickname for the bill, "card check," comes. If this provision is enacted, the current system where a federally supervised election process with secret ballots determines whether employees will have a union in their workplace would be effectively eliminated.

* Writing contracts through government imposed arbitration: The second provision would result in contracts being written by federal arbitrators instead of the process of collective bargaining and negotiating.

* Unreasonable and one-sided penalty expansion: Finally, the Employee Free Choice Act imposes dramatic new penalties on employers for violations of the National Labor Relations Act, but not a single new penalty on unions or labor organizers. Read the full explanation of their objections here.

“This legislation — the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) — would hurt both workers and businesspeople, and it is not the type of legislation we need if this nation’s economy is to make a timely recovery.

While it may be convenient to paint a picture of business owners and workers having contradictory interests, the current economic situation illustrates how shallow that thinking is. When businesses fail, workers lose their jobs. And when workers aren’t treated well, businesses do not thrive. The interests of workers and business owners are not in conflict — they coincide.

The centerpiece of EFCA is the weakening of workers’ ability to vote by secret ballot on whether or not a union should be formed, by allowing unions to replace these elections with a public card check system. When workers are forced to declare their allegiance to a union in the open, they are far more subject to intimidation and coercion.” Doug Wheeler

“Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, a state business association with nearly 4,000 members, reports that about 70 percent of state respondents to a survey conducted May 17 oppose ending the current secret ballot system. The study was sponsored by the Economic Freedom Alliance, a vocal opponent of the measure.

"The business community is united like never before in opposition to this legislation," said James Buchen, WMC vice president, in a statement. "Wisconsin businesses need to continue to fight this legislation because organized labor isn't going to stop." More than 300 Wisconsin businesses - including several in west-central Wisconsin - signed a letter to Congress in opposition to the legislation.” Leader-Telegram (WI), June 3, 2009

HT Maggie Thurber

Half a page on George Tiller

nothing on Pvt. William Long. WSJ, June 4, 2009. What media bias?

Well, at least one of the paragraphs described the gruesome details of late term abortions. There possibly are people who are unaware of the brutality of the procedures. Why Tiller's "preferred" method was considered good for the mother, I have no idea. I suspect it was just easier for him. His method wasn't to stab the baby in the skull and then dismember it after it was dead (Obama is the only elected politician who has said that's O.K. to my knowledge). *SCOTUS upheld the ban on late term abortion procedure known as "partial-birth abortion." Tiller preferred a lethal injection into the baby--sort like the death penalty they use for condemned murderers who've gone through years of appeals and which bring out the crowds for candle light vigils. After the injection which kills the baby the mother goes back to her motel room to wait to go into labor, and in a few days returns to the clinic for the still birth. If this was an agonizing decision, as the proponents claim, even though Down Syndrome or a heart condition or a tumor aren't fatal diseases for either mother or child, it has to be a terribly uncomfortable wait, knowing you will give birth to a dead baby, especially if initially the pregnancy was a source of joy. Do you go sit by the pool? Read a novel? Watch reality TV? And since Tiller performed abortions at a clinic and not a hospital, I don't know what he did if there were complications like hemorrhaging.

*Here's what happened:

"The Supreme Court handed a victory to the Bush administration and abortion opponents on Wednesday with its decision to uphold a 2003 federal law that bans partial birth abortions.

The decision enforces the law that prohibits the procedure of partially extracting a fetus 20 weeks or older intact from a woman's uterus and then crushing or cutting its skull before it is fully delivered.

"This is the most significant upholding of any restriction on abortion ever by the Supreme Court," said Stephen Wermiel, who teaches constitutional law at American University." FoxNews, April 18, 2007

If this was a "victory" for Bush, it's right up there with him freeing millions of women from the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Bare foot walking, pt. 3

When I was a student at the University of Illinois I used to pass two disabled students at lunch time--I think it was in Lincoln Hall (now closed for renovation). I believe one may have been blind and in a wheelchair and the other had no arms. The U. of I. was a forerunner in services for the disabled, beginning I believe with disabled veterans after WWII. The armless man would push/guide the wheelchair with his pelvis, and ate his lunch using his feet as his hands. He was quite limber, as was I at age 19, and his toes functioned as fingers. Blind students attending college didn't surprise me because my grandmother was blind and I'd seen her do many remarkable things that sighted people didn't or couldn't, including distinguishing her many grandchildren by voice (she often mistook me for my sister, but so did sighted people). But I'd never seen someone hold a sandwich with his toes. (Don't know who prepared his sack lunch.) At that time I could pick up objects with my toes, I know, because I tried it after seeing him. But walking barefoot the last few days I discovered that the joints in my toes no longer are flexible--at all. I have no idea when this ended, because I so rarely go barefoot, I haven't tried to move anything with my toes in probably 40 years.

I suspect that a healthy, limber foot should be able to pick up objects. Aren't joints supposed to move? What do you think?

Today I wore hose on my barefoot walk. The temperature has dropped about 30 degrees and we've had a lot of rain, so I thought I'd just check this out rather than not do it at all. It works fine (assuming you aren't planning to use those hose for anything else) and washing your feet afterwards is much easier because anything that sticks, is probably on the hose. Not sure why, but I found the wet grass less slippery. I thought it would be the other way.

When walking barefoot in the grass you certainly see and hear and feel more of nature, even listening to Luther's Catechism on CD. A multi-sensory experience, this barefoot walking.

Give us this day our daily bread And let us all be clothed and fed. Save us from hardship, war, and strife; In plague and famine, spare our life, That we in honest peace may live, To care and greed no entrance give.

Luther wrote his small catechism in 1529, but this hymn of the Lord's Prayer in catechetical form was 1539. The tune on the CD is not the one Luther wrote.

The Obama Car

"Incredibly “green,” this car runs on hot air and broken promises. It has three wheels that speed the vehicle through tight left turns. It comes complete with two Teleprompters programmed to help the occupants talk their way out of any violations. Built by union labor with full benefits, its base price is only $83,000, but low government financing is available for any payment requested. Subsidized insurance available." From Polipundit, HT Taxmanblog.

Not to worry--it's just Karl Marx!

Well, that's comforting.

. . . the bankruptcy filings of General Motors and Chrysler, and the transfer of stock ownership from the firms' long-suffering shareholders to the government and unions, communists of the world can rejoice. The workers are now, finally, significant owners of the means of production. The United Auto Workers control about 65 percent of Chrysler and 17.5 percent of General Motors."

So Daniel Gross of Slate says it's no big deal. No Mr. Gross, it's not what you think--that maybe unionists will start thinking like owners. We've zipped right over socialism and communism in four months and landed on National Socialism, i.e., Nazi, for short. That's not when the government owns the means of production, but when it through a charismatic leader controls the owners of production and has them--the press, the church, the military, academe and the unions--in a choke hold and scared to death to speak up. The power grab in the past four months has been stunning; we haven't seen anything like it since the 1930s.

I've heard and read some very naive conservatives discussing the elections of 2010--that Obama will then have to face the growing opposition from those liberals with buyer's remorse who've realized "hope and change" was just a catchy slogan and the conservatives who've finally gotten a grip. Sorry. I don't believe it. By 2010 he'll own the state governments, beginning with California, through bail-outs. By then, all opposition communication channels from radio to TV to newspapers to the pulpit to the internet to satellite will be gone, silenced by "regulation," hate speech laws, and fines for carbon footprints.

How to kill a red state

There are lots of ways a Democratic president can punish a traditionally conservative state.

1) Destroy the coal industry

2) Destroy the auto industry

3) Use their own tax money to relocate an industry that's been here for 125 years.

"Prompting protests from Ohio officials, a Georgia city has asked the federal government for money from the $787 billion stimulus package to help finance the transfer of NCR Corp. from Dayton to Georgia.

Although Columbus, Ga., Mayor Jim Wetherington said he does not know if the federal government will approve his request, he wants stimulus money to help refurbish a 340,000 square foot facility and construct a 100,000 square foot building for NCR to make ATMs." Columbus Dispatch.

So much for keeping "American jobs" at home. Just move them around with their own tax money.

Orange Health Alert by Norma

Last week I checked out a book from the local library called "Food Cures," published by Reader's Digest. The cover says, "fight disease with your fork." You wouldn't be allowed to say that on an actual food product by law, but you can say anything in a book title, even if it's false. In fact, if you open that book, there's not a single study cited.

But there are five things you can do that may help you live a longer life--and I've mentioned them many times.

1) You can't beat good genes. That's still the number one factor in good health and a long life, and you didn't have a thing to do with it. If you're still alive tomorrow, give thanks for your biological parents and grandparents who gave you a good start. My mother died in her 88th year, her brother at 99, her father at 94, and her sister is still going at 92. Dad died at 89, his father at 92, and his grandfather was 88 in 1950 when he died, and one of his daughters is still going at 92.

2) Don't smoke.

3) Drink alcohol only in moderation, and if you think a 6 pack after work is moderation, you need to relearn the meaning of the word. You're using Obamath.

4) Reduce your calories.

5) Get some regular exercise.

There are several to compete for the next five, and I'll just mention some I've noticed recently among my friends who are over sixty.

Bicycling doesn't seem real smart to me, even with a helmet. Motorcycles almost look safer.

Stay off ladders whether cutting tree limbs, cleaning gutters or painting the house. My husband who got 1-5 right, is really bad about this one.

Only the marriage bed is undefiled, as the Bible says. Think of the diseases and heartache you can avoid.

If your doctor can't be bothered to return your calls (or your wife's calls), you need to get a different doctor.

Colon cancer can be prevented through testing--and I think it's the only cancer that can--it's called a colonoscopy, and if polyps are found, they can be removed before they turn into cancer. Don't bother with the FOBT--by the time it finds anything it's probably too late--that's why they're cheap.

If you use sun screen because you're in the sun a lot, don't forget to increase your vitamin D, which your bones need to fight osteoporosis; broken bones kill a lot of us old folks, especially fair skinned women like me.

Remember to get your flu shots--ordinary flu kills a lot more people than swine flu.

Unless you or your spouse have allergies, get a pet. They'll add laughter and comfort to your life, and you may even need to take them out for a walk.

Terminally stupid

A judge has tossed a California woman’s would-be class action lawsuit finding that a reasonable consumer would not expect the brightly colored balls in Cap'n Crunch to be actual berries. Per Kevin Underhill, Lowering the Bar: “Plaintiff did not explain why she could not reasonably have figured this out at any point during the four years she alleged she bought Cap’n Crunch with Crunchberries in reliance on defendant’s fraud.” And could the Plaintiff's name really be Sugawara? Sounds a lot like a child trying to say, "sugar water." Listen (read) carefully. Fruit Loops do not contain fruit; Crunchberries are not real berries.

HT Underlawyered, always a great read in blogdom.