Ouch! That was painful

Obama's news conference was on cable at the coffee shop, in all its stammering, disjointed glory. Where is that fabulous, mellifluous orator we were promised? The story about his father coming to the U.S. from Kenya 50 years ago was told twice--I don't know if the teleprompter burped--I don't think he was using it--but possibly he was. He compared the economies of South Korea and Kenya rambling around about hunger (but not his relatives, he assured us). He tried to address why Kenya, which used to be ahead of S. Korea, had fallen so far behind. Well, Mr. President, let me offer an opinion. Kenya got its "freedom" from Britain, and through tribal warfare and political corruption (after the death of Kenyatta in 1978) destroyed much of its culture and economy, which was more free market than marxist.** England and France have poured a lot of pounds and francs and euros into those former colonies and in turn, the leaders have done little to improve either their economy, health, or education system. Those who could get out, like Obama Sr., did so, fleeing either to the British Isles or the U.S. And then there's the malaria problem. Western environmentalists, waving the Rachel Carson banner, have killed or disabled millions and millions of Africans in the last 30 years. By removing DDT before there was a suitable replacement or public health standards in place, or even decent governments, westerners have killed more Africans than were lost in the 17th and 18th slave trade.

Maybe inflicting Obama on us to destroy our economy is the revenge of Africa.
----------------
**"Kenya's first president, Jomo Kenyatta, adopted policies that improved the overall economy and land distribution, while allowing white colonial residents to retain property rights. Particularly after Kenya became a one-party state in 1969, elite members of the president's Kikuyu ethnic group received preferential treatment in the distribution of wealth, land, and offices, and corruption flourished. Under Kenyatta's successor, who took power in 1978, the economy deteriorated. Once one of Africa's economic success stories, Kenya fell into poverty. In 2006, with a growing population of nearly 35 million, Kenya had a nominal GDP of just $21 billion and a nominal GNI per capita of $580, ranked 175th in the world. Adjusted for PPP, the GNI per capita was $1,300, or 185th in the world. While the National Rainbow Coalition in 2002 drove the ruling party from power for the first time since independence, the new government's steps to improve economic performance and decrease corruption became entangled in a political conflict over changes to the constitution aimed at curtailing executive power." from Democracy Web

Final day of class--Friday family photo

My husband teaches Perspective Drawing and Watercolor at the Rhein Center for two different weeks (M-F). He likes to get the morning slots (9:30-11:30) so he can sail in the afternoon. Today is the final day of the second week of classes when the students grab their boards, pencils and erasers and go outside, spread around the grounds, and actually draw a real subject.

I don't know if all the instructors prepare as much as he does, but he is meticulous, focused and mentally thinks it all through ahead of time. Except that one day. He forgot his markers (demos on a white board) and I had to rush up there on my 40 year old bicycle. Last night he was putting some final touches on a demo painting the entire class did-one point perspective with shade and shadow--and cutting some mats. All paintings improve about 30% if you put a nice mat around them. And if you have a fabulous painting and a poorly cut, dirty, or too small mat, you subtract about that much.


I think he added an Amish buggy with a reflector (required by law in Ohio) on this one after I took the photo. Notice that kitchen table? Several years ago when we were both painting, I decided it was just too much mess in the kitchen and fixed up each bedroom with a small corner with room for supplies and good light. I think I used mine once or twice, and his is a catch-all for his class supplies. So we still use the kitchen table.


This is a student from the first week drawing one of the favorites of the class for a two point perspective.

A global crime we really can do something about

As you know if you read this blog, I’m not a true believer in “Human Induced Climate Change.” In fact, I think much of HICC aka Global Warming is just so much hooey and pantheistic drivel which is intended to bring down capitalism and destroy a Judeo-Christian ethic. Currently, every hurricane, tsunami, tornado or blizzard gets thrown in the mix. I’m sitting here where a glacier passed through not too many thousands of years ago, on land that used to be covered by Lake Erie, and let me tell you, I thank God it warmed up! However, there are some global scourges we can do something about, and slavery is one of them.

From Books and Culture:

“Human trafficking is the fastest-growing global crime. The US State Department reports that 800,000 people are trafficked across borders each year. And the total profits of these horrendous crimes are second only to the trafficking of drugs.

How can this be? And more importantly, how can we help?

This eye-opening and challenging book, Stop the Traffik explores trafficking stories that are both horribly familiar and uncomfortably close to home. Authors Steve Chalke and Cherie Blair trace the scale of these terrible crimes and show us what ordinary people can do to Stop the Traffik—and change the world.”

You might have to give up chocolate! Certifying that chocolate is slave-free could make it quite expensive. You might even have to step out of and break the chain that ridicules and sexualizes children--like the network that pays David Letterman.

"TRAFFICKING IS...
to be deceived or taken against your will, bought, sold and transported into slavery for sexual exploitation, sweat shops, child brides, circuses, sacrificial worship, forced begging, sale of human organs, farm labour, domestic servitude."

I'm shocked! Shocked!

Not only is it slow, paltry and ineffective, it's being doled out on the reward system. USAToday reports today: "Billions of dollars in federal aid delivered directly to the local level to help revive the economy have gone overwhelmingly to places that supported President Obama in last year's presidential election.

That aid — about $17 billion — is the first piece of the administration's massive stimulus package that can be tracked locally. Much of it has followed a well-worn path to places that regularly collect a bigger share of federal grants and contracts, guided by formulas that have been in place for decades and leave little room for manipulation."

So does this mean that Democratic districts are in worse shape because they've relied on government hand outs for so long?

HT PUMA

Why do feminists hate Sarah Palin?

This feminist, Reclusive Leftist, attempts to figure it out. Concludes Palin is the designated hate receptacle. And when I checked, she had 486 comments.

Apparently most feminists — at least the ones online — are content to just take the word of the frat boys at DailyKos or the psycho-sexists at Huffington Post. That amazes me. Aren’t you even interested in who she really is? I want to ask. She’s only the second woman on a presidential ticket in our whole fricking history!

But even weirder is what happens when you try to replace the myths with the truth. If you explain, “no, she didn’t charge rape victims,” your feminist interlocutor will come back with something else: “she’s abstinence-only!” No, you say, she’s not; and then the person comes back with, “she’s a creationist!” and so on. “She’s an uneducated moron!” Actually, Sarah Palin is not dumb at all, and based on her interviews and comments, I’d say she has a greater knowledge of evolution, global warming, and the Wisconsin glaciation in Alaska than the average citizen.

But after you’ve had a few of these myth-dispelling conversations, you start to realize that it doesn’t matter. These people don’t hate Palin because of the lies; the lies exist to justify the hate. That’s why they keep reaching and reaching for something else, until they finally get to “she winked on TV!” (And by the way: I’ve been winked at my whole life by my grandmother, aunts, and great-aunts. Who knew it was such a despicable act?)

. . . Her speech [at the Republican Convention] also delivered some welcome punctures to the national gasbag known as Obama. And that’s another thing: it has not escaped my attention that many of the things Palin is accused of, falsely, are actually true of Obama. This is a guy who, as a U.S. senator from Illinois, didn’t even know which Senate committees he was on or which states bordered his own. (And don’t even get me started on Joe “The Talking Donkey” Biden, who thinks FDR was president during the stock market crash and that people watched TV in those days.) I’m not saying Obama’s a moron, but he’s sure as hell no genius." Read the whole thought at Reclusive Leftist and take a look at the nearly 500 comments.

Some really interesting comments:

“Perhaps what I have found viscerally most offensive about the attacks on her are the blogs and distorted photos of that baby. That he is not her natural child. That she has the nerve to give birth to a special needs child. This goes beyond sexism to something very sick in the blogosphere/MSM where such vileness can be spewed. Perhaps we are analogous to the end of the Roman Empire–any sort of spectacle to amuse and keep the masses entertained.”

“There have been 50 million abortions since 1973. That is a lot of women who have lost their children. I’m sure a lot of women are fine with it. But I know there are a lot of women out there who are suffering greatly with guilt and remorse. But feminists aren’t allowed to feel guilty about it. Because they got to choose, god damn it.”

“What has occurred to me is that the way the media and the DC elite have been so condescending is really a reflection of how they really feel about all of us out here in the real world…they think of all of us exactly the way they talk about her…and we are beneath their contempt.” [This has always been my theory--Norma]

“Various “feminists” didn’t want to vote for a woman. They didn’t vote for HRC in the primary, and pretended to think, or convinced themselves they thought, she was a racist who hoped Obama would be assassinated. This didn’t exactly bear up to reasoned analysis. Another more effective mechanism was to decide Obama was the second coming — so who could vote for a mere woman, over that?”

“Palin-hate includes an unhealthy dose of classism as well. She isn’t just a woman, she is a working class woman, a red neck woman, white trash. I know Americans don’t have a class system (they say) but there it is. The other thing is that feminism seems to have enabled women not to become powerful *as women* but to identify with and behave like men. So feminists pile on the misogynist, abusive, slanderous hatred along with the boys as a sign of their equality with them.”

HT Deb

New dining spot in Lakeside

Today we joined Wes and Sue, Jim and Marion at the new al fresco dining room at the Hotel Lakeside which opened Monday. It is located in the new courtyard area with a sidewalk accessible from Maple Avenue. Weather permitting, it will be open Monday through Friday 11:30 - 2 for lunch and 5:30 - 8.

Look who's being blamed!

"Painful but inevitable Social Security and Medicare reforms will be difficult to sell because years of partisan wrangling have clouded the public’s grasp of the programs’ dire financial problems, a former government economic adviser warns." You and I have a poor grasp of the financial problems. It's not that our Congresses and numerous Presidents for the last 40 years have failed, regardless of party, economic growth or national security. From U of I "Inside Illinois." In my opinion, health insurance should have never been tied to employment, should have always been required like auto insurance as a personal responsibility, and government sponsored only for the indigent, disabled, high risk and truly poor. It couldn't have been any more expensive, and we might have avoided this ridiculous political football, now too hot and too big to move. More incentives should have been in place for private investment in retirement, with far more warnings that SS would not, nor was it ever intended, to be the sole source of retirement funding.

I'll save the reminder that we aborted the future workers and safety net, on which both of these systems depend.

Exploring English Sonnets at Lakeside

Everyone enjoyed the sonnets of Shakespeare, Spenser, Donne, Wordsworth, Milton, Wyatt and Labe taught by Steve Ricard, a high school teacher from Perrysville.

Volcano mulching--how to kill a tree

Here at Lakeside we have a number of "healthy living" activities and organizations, from our now twice weekly locally grown farmers' market, to a no-smoking ordinance to recycling, to tree walks, bird watching events, early a.m. exercise class, posted activities for joggers in the park land at the south end, and health and wellness week. At one of the lectures sponsored by LESS (Lakeside Environment Something? Something?) I learned about the care and preservation of our trees, many of which are invasive, like the Norway Maple, some with Emerald Ash Borer, and many over 100 years old. It's there I first heard about "volcano mulching," or piling mulch so deep around a young tree, that you eventually kill it with your kindness and concern.

1. Don't fall into the trap of the dreaded "mulch volcano," especially with young trees.

You've probably seen mulch volcanoes on people's lawns. Folks build circular raised beds around their trees, then fill the raised beds with wood-chip mulch. The mulch gets steeper and steeper the closer it gets to the tree, which shoots out of the hole at the end like a lava eruption! In a typical mulch volcano, the mulch may be 2" high at the perimeter and 6" high up close to the trunk.

There are several problems with mulch volcanoes:
Water runs off the sides of the mulch volcano and away from a young tree's base (which is where all its roots are, for now), thus depriving it of water.

6" of mulch is too deep. Much water that would otherwise reach the tree's roots gets trapped in the mulch.

Excessive tree mulching invites rodent pests and diseases.
Excessive tree mulching can even suffocate roots.

2. Don't mound up dirt or mulch around the trunks of trees.

Piling up mulch against tree trunks can cause harm to your trees: it invites diseases and rodent pests. If you are mulching around a tree, start tapering the height of the mulch down when you get to within about 1' of the trunk, leaving the base of the tree free of mulch. It would even be better to have to weed this 1' than to risk damage to your tree, wouldn't it? About landscaping

Every year there are more and more rules at Lakeside--most positive and for the good of the larger community; barking dogs; hours construction can take place; proper disposal of plastic, paper and metal; building codes for cottages; coverage of buildings on lots; number of parking places required for each cottage; no smoking; no alcohol; no parking on certain streets; quiet zones after 10 p.m.; and so on.

So I am very puzzled that if volcano mulching is known to be harmful to trees, why the Association can't explain that to its landscaping crew, because almost every young tree I see (usually a memoral plaque near-by) has heaps of mulch that will eventually cause the roots to girdle, or rodents to chew, or bark to rot. This would seem to be easier to control than calories, exercise or smoking.



Our speaker on tree care told us to think do-nut instead of volcano.

The rule is simple. Never let mulch around the base of a small tree touch the bark of the tree. The circle of mulch can be three to four inches deep, but in the middle of the circle the trunk is kept bare. The mulch layer should start about 6 inches from the trunk. We want doughnuts not mountains.

This is not new information. It has been general knowledge among reputable tree care professionals for 25 years. The tree care companies that make mulch mountains are just plain ignorant and apparently don’t spend much effort to learn the right methods for mulching small trees. Homeowners see these mulch mountains and figure if the professionals make mulch mountains, maybe I should do the same. The Yardner

Biden comes around to Palin's view

According to James Taranto [July 7, WSJ], the Israel viewpoint for which Palin was attacked and ridiculed during the recent campaign, is now that of the current administration, via Joe Biden.

"Over the weekend, as we noted yesterday, Vice President Biden said that if Israel decides it needs to take military action against the Iranian nuclear-weapons program, the U.S. will not "dictate" otherwise. A reader points out that Sarah Palin, who ran against Biden in last year's election, said much the same thing in a September interview with ABC's Charlie Gibson:

Gibson: What if Israel decided it felt threatened and needed to take out the Iranian nuclear facilities?
Palin: Well, first, we are friends with Israel and I don't think that we should second-guess the measures that Israel has to take to defend themselves and for their security.
Gibson: So if we wouldn't second-guess it and they decided they needed to do it because Iran was an existential threat, we would cooperative or agree with that.
Palin: I don't think we can second-guess what Israel has to do to secure its nation.
Gibson: So if it felt necessary, if it felt the need to defend itself by taking out Iranian nuclear facilities, that would be all right.
Palin: We cannot second-guess the steps that Israel has to take to defend itself.
Palin reiterated the point in a later interview with CBS's Katie Couric."

Reviewing Charlie's interview I wonder if he would have been so intent on tripping up a male ethnic Democrat running for president, or if race trumps gender in the diversity wars. The male dominated, owned and controlled media were certainly intent on assuring that no woman occupy the White House except as First Lady. Taranto goes on to point out that for this steady hand and unwillingness to cave, she was called stupid, robotic, repeating pro-Israel buzz words, and a puppet of the pro-Jewish Cabal. But those same critics, supporters of the Obama-Biden dog and pony apology tour, are saying Biden's response is subtle--most Americans aren't smart enough to even understand--or that he doesn't reflect Obama's thinking, or they just don't say anything in the range of stupid or robotic. Ah, freedom of the press. We folks enjoying democracy are certainly lucky we don't have a media that parrot the party in power.

Our trip to Mulberry Creek Herb Farm

The Lakeside Herb class had a delightful trip to Mulberry Creek Herb Farm in Huron, Ohio owned by Karen and Mark Langan. Not only was the weather perfect--70s and sunny--but the hosts were great fun and very educational, with a lunch for our group that was delicious as well as healthful and nutritious.

Karen has degrees in Agricultural Research and Greenhouse Production from Ohio State University's Agricultural Technical Institute and over 20 years experience working in horticulture. Mark has a degree in ornamental horticulture from Washington State University and has been working in the horticulture field since he was a teenager. Karen and Mark also teach classes at their herb farm on a variety of herbal topics, including organic gardening, aromatherapy, herbal crafts and herbal cooking. Karen and Mark are business members of The Herb Society of America. They also have a successful mail order business, but have decided that after 11 years they will discontinue that. Too bad--the catalog is delightful--great explanations, color photos, and tasty recipes. Karen says they are too large for pencil and paper orders, and too small to computerize. She likes to have a personal relationship with her customers and not get too big.

The annual herb festival draws nearly 2,000 herb enthusiasts. In 2008 the theme was Tuscany and this year (June 27-28) it was Ireland. There were workshops on Irish soda bread, Celtic traditions and Faery Lore, traditional Irish cooking, the Irish potato, with a menu by their caterer to match.

Mark first introduced us to his miniature plants used for railroad gardens--a feature that is very popular with men, and apparently America's newest hot hobby. There is even a magazine, Garden Railways. They have more than 300 varieties. Then Karen took over and explained the care and uses of many varieties, including companion planting which puts plants together that work well together. I'll never be a gardener, but this visit might encourage me to get a bit more adventurous in using herbs in cooking.

The railroad with the miniature plants. The train is barely visible behind the fence but was moving right along.

Mark explained that mint needs to be planted in 5 gal. buckets with 3" of exposed rim above ground or it will spread and take over your yard--or a small town.

Karen explains how to do companion planting and has our full attention.

This little Irish shed had succulents planted on the roof.

A celtic cross, I'm not sure if it is always here, or is for this year's theme.




We had such a good thyme!

For a very special treat

drop by Sherry's blog, Semicolon, and view her 100 favorite hymns project. She invited different bloggers to submit their own favorites, then she researched and wrote about them. I think I sent her a list. She has video, recollections of her own, the lyrics, the melody, well, the works. What a wonderful contribution to the blogosphere.

I used to have an entire link section on book reviewers and that's where Sherry resided on this page, but apparently on my last template upgrade, it fell off. Oh my. I hate it when that happens, don't you?

Why would the White House need a blog?

They've got ABC, NCB, CBS, CNN, WaPo, NYT and WSJ pulling out all the stops and spreading the news about how great the admin is! Talk about overkill!

I love this photo of the two biggest economic screwups side by side in modern history. Ben and Barry I Scream.

Facebook vs. Google

I'm a big Google fan. The story of its founders is the American dream. I remember exactly where I was (at my desk at work) when the TN vet-ag librarian told me about it. I use it constantly. Facebook. Oh, not so much. Yes, I'm aware of it, but can't think of any reason to join. Sounds too much like junior high school--friends, constantly gossiping, not going out side the group, etc. Not for this gal. Although I have used it from time to time to track down people--like the teenage piano teacher I had when I was 6 years old.

Wired is in my first issues collection (my hobby), and I still subscribe because 1) it's incredibly cheap, and 2) I can read it in the car or coffee shop much easier than reading it online. The Facebook article in the July 2009 issue is something you all should read, whether you're in an online community that uses real identities and data, or you are a fan of Google for going outside your comfort zone for information.

Facebook has a 4 step plan to dominate the internet, 1) Build critical mass (200 million members who contribute 4 billion pieces of information every month; 2) Redefine search (members will turn to friends); 3) Colonize the Web (10,000 partner sites); 4) Sell targeted ads everywhere (from the data you've contributed which will target you for ads). And then when the government takes over like it did GM and Chrysler? Shazaam.

The Library on Mulberry Street

McGraw Hill’s Construction video library for Architectural Record has some fascinating projects (some really ugly, but most not so much)--over 100--I really enjoyed this one about a library on Mulberry Street where Rogers Marvel Architects inserted a grand stair into an old loft floor, allowing light to penetrate into two subterranean levels.

Dinner at the White House--a Parable

is zipping around the internet, and if you're on anyone's list, you either have or will receive it. I got a copy from Murray, and looked it up. It was written by Richard Gleaves on June 26 at Rebirth of Reason, and by now has probably been read by millions. I glanced through several versions, and some resenders are modifying it slightly, so it's best to go to the source.

"Once upon a time, I was invited to the White House for a private dinner with the President. I am a respected businessman, with a factory that produces memory chips for computers and portable electronics. There was some talk that my industry was being scrutinized by the administration, but I paid it no mind. I live in a free country. There's nothing that the government can do to me if I've broken no laws. My wealth was earned honestly, and an invitation to dinner with an American President is an honor." Read the rest

I also looked through some of the comments on sites where it has been reposted; Obama supporters hate it of course, his detractors say it doesn't go far enough. One even said it doesn't fit the definition of a parable because it is true--it is happening.

100 Best Blogs for School Librarians

Never pass up a list--and this one is really a good one, although why I'm on the list, I have no idea. I do occasionally blog memories about libraries, odd reference questions (how to bake blackbirds in a pie, how to get the flesh off road kill for a science project, etc.), or criticism of crazy things going on these days (16 copies of an anti-Bush book in the UAPL), but I'm totally out of the loop on the technology end of things, being somewhat a print on paper person myself. But it's still an interesting list, useful and well thought out. Librarians love lists. Actually, bloggers do too.

Health Maintenance class at Lakeside

Although I don't think I heard anything new about the importance of a colonoscopy, screening for osteoporosis or the value of exercise, Dr. John Weigand's talk was informative and entertaining. He noted that by 2025 over 62,000,000 persons in the U.S. will be over 65. The risk of osteoporosis is high, particularly for white women, so screening should start around age 60. Dr. Weigand recommends 1000-1500 mg/day of calcium--not sure I get that much, and also Vitamin D, perhaps 1000-2000 units a day. He also said 10-15 minutes a day in the sun would help without being a skin cancer danger (without sun screen, which blocks vitamin D). A t-score of a negative 2.5 is osteoporosis. He suggested we go to FRAX to get a 10 year risk of a hip fracture or major osteoporotic event. The good news about exercise is that even the oldest of the old benefit from a supervised program of high-intensity resistance training and weights; that aeroblic exercise helps brain synapses and possibly promotes the development of new neurons from adult stem cells.

And in the Sonnets class earlier in the day we looked at Shakespeare's Sonnet 73, which certainly seems to fit:

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou seest the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire
Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by.
This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

Retiring my Palin-Jindal pin

If she can't stand the heat and won't complete the term she was elected to, I don't want her for President of the U.S. She may have good reasons--and family and harassment from the press would certainly be enough--but that won't go away for an even tougher office and scrutiny. She is now the gal the press, both liberal and conservative, love to hate. Best would have been to get back to the job of being governor.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announced Friday that she was resigning her office later this month, a stunning decision that could free her to run for president more easily but also raises questions about her political standing at home.

Palin disclosed the surprise news Friday afternoon from her home in Wasilla with her husband, Todd, and Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, who the governor said would take over the state on Saturday, July 25. http://www.politico.com/

I doubt that she will even be useful stumping for other candidates and issues. She was even roundly criticized by the press for supporting an autism fund raising effort. They can make 'em, like Obama, or break 'em.

Tonight's pot luck--onion pie?

Looking through my new yard sale cookbook and the cupboards and the calendar, I see that Onion Pie might be a possibility for tonight's potluck at Juliann's house for this week's Rhein Center instructors.

The usual pie crust instructions for a one crust pie (I'll use my own). Bake 10 minutes and remember to prick the crust before baking.

"For the filling, fry 4 strips of finely diced bacon until done. Drain, and in the bacon fat cook, until they are transparent 2 large onions that have been diced very fine. Drain off fat, and mix bacon and onions with 1 egg and 1 egg yolk, previously beaten, a scant 1/2 cup sour cream, salt and pepper, some chopped chives and a sprinkling of caraway seeds. Pour into crust and bake at 350 until the filling is firm, about 20 or 25 minutes. This should be eaten warm, cut into narrow wedges that can be taken up with the hand." p. 137 "The wonderful world of cooking," (1956).

For another version with some cheese and advice try Taste and Tell.