ACORN and SEIU thugs allowed to disrupt the Town Hall meetings

Intimidation. Crowding out the opposition. Disruption. Shouting. Oh well. It’s just those nasty old Republican agitators and tea party nazis trying to exercise their freedom of speech guaranteed by our representative system of government. You remember--the one that we were trying to foist on all those poor, uninformed developing countries.

St. Louis town hall meeting via Breitbart

Gateway Pundit: "Rep. Russ Carnahan held a secret press conference this morning to discuss the town hall meeting last night where tea party taxpayers were locked out, union thugs were let in and conservative blacks had their heads kicked in. St. Louis radio giant Jamie Allman found out where Carnahan was holding his meeting even though he was not sent the information and showed up to ask the Missouri Congressman a few questions." See video here.

Town Halls are misreported

“As he entered the auditorium of the Mardela Middle and High School on Tuesday, a surprised Frank Kratovil waded through a sea of constituents. The first-term Democratic congressman had been told by aides that maybe two or three dozen residents would attend the “Congress in Your Corner” town-hall event in this Eastern Shore town of about 360 people. Instead, more than 250 people showed up.

The crowd repeatedly burst into wild cheering, but not for Mr. Kratovil. The cheers were for residents who gave the congressman a piece of their mind over what’s happening in Washington.” WSJ Max Schulz

And if you’re like me, you wonder why a “town hall” is held in a “town” of 360 residents. I doubt that my rep will take a chance--she squeaked through on several recounts to take a seat from the Republicans. Why stir the waters by bringing concerned voters together? But then, I’m at peaceful, relaxed Lakeside during August, and I have no idea where she is spending her vacation. She would probably prefer hiding to appearing before worried elders.

The Obamedia, of course, is misreporting as usual, just as they did the earlier "tea parties." They’ve sold their souls, and the ink is indelible and long dry on the agreement. Max continues:

“On July 31, MSNBC’s Richard Wolffe tried to buck up spooked Democrats by claiming, “Those angry protestors who will disrupt your attempts to talk to your voters—and trust us they will—are being coordinated and coached by industry-funded right wing operatives. Their stated goal will be to rattle you, not to have an intelligent debate. And there’s a good chance they don’t even live in your district.” . . . But the discontent is neither faked nor staged by the GOP. At the Mardela Springs event I attended, the parking lot was filled with Maryland license plates, the speakers made references to local areas and events, and everyone of the several people I spoke with lived in the congressman’s district. They were just upset and worried that the reforms Democrats were bent on enacting would hurt the economy and their ability to get the health care they needed.”

I wonder if anyone remembers this is the boomer generation who took to the streets about the VietNam War, and what happened to Johnson?

Twitter and Facebook

I don’t do either one, so I didn’t know they’d been hacked in a battle between Russia and Georgia. Story here at Technology News.

“It appears that the outage suffered by Twitter and technical problems affecting other social networks were the result of a denial of service attack targeting a single blogger, an activist who intended to commemorate the anniversary of last year's battle between Russia and Georgia. The sites have mostly recovered, but the attack underscores the ability of hackers to clog communication channels, given the proper resources.”

Makes you wonder what pro-Obama hackers can do to those sites that disagree with the health plan. And of course, a hacker isn’t needed to silence talk radio, only the “fairness doctrine.” After all, we shouldn’t have anyone out there sharing the broadcast opportunities with the government approved media that have shivers up the leg when experiencing the true believer spirit.

This will go nowhere

No matter what is discovered about Obama's true place of birth, the findings can go nowhere, because there's no way to remove him now that he's in office. You have to have an impeachable offense. I suggest that every person who ever runs for President in the future needs to supply a valid birth certificate acceptable to the other parties. College records and military records should be valid and accessible, too.

Thousands, maybe millions of Americans have phony, just-as-if birth certificates. They are called adoptees. Someone will need to clean that up. Someone will need to make that rule about an American mother's residency requirement for citizenship retroactive, because I think the law has been changed, but if it's a state law, maybe not. Thousands of Americans live abroad and give birth--some never come back and hate the United States. Why should their children be called Americans and not Israelis, or Poles, or Turks, or Germans?

The Michigan Townhalls

This morning I've been listening to a Detroit local talk show (WJR), Frank Beckman, and the discussion is the various townhall formats held by Michigan representatives, Thaddeus McCotter (R) and John Dingell (D). McCotter really sounded more concerned about disruptions than hearing out his constituency. If I were a Republican living in his district, I'd give him the boot just based on the interview I heard this morning. And of course, being from Michigan he loves the cash for clunkers program, even though the sales seem to be helping the foreign car dealers more. (It's really a hurt-the-poor, green-go plan in my opinion, not a stimulus bill.) McCotter decided on a telephone townhall--wimp out. Dingell actually appeared at one, but apparently was more interested in listening to himself rather than the people who showed up. One woman caller said the only organized group she saw at the townhall were the pro-ObamaCare, Dingell people, and everyone else was polite and patient, with the exception of one man whose child had CP, and he was very concerned about losing his private insurance. Dingell was evasive, and noted that an amendment had been added to cover his situation. It was obvious to the callers to the show, and the host, that the bill has many modifications since they first tried to ram it through--so what's the rush? Why, if a very small percentage of poor AMERICANS, do not currently have insurance (they all have access), what's the rush?

This has been answered many times, in many ways by Democrats, from Obama on down through his former Clinton staffers who remember what happened in the 90s when people had an opportunity for input.

"Ram it,
jam it,
scam it,
don't let'em slam it
while the President's numbers
are high.
Of course, Obama's numbers are falling fast as Americans smell another high priced clunker like cap and trade rattling down the Obama pot hole scarred, torn up, out of date road to socialism which will continue to eat away at the prosperity of the middle-class.

Dr. Donald Palmisano of Protect Patient Rights and formerly head of the AMA was also interviewed. Maybe "Anonymous" True Believer in Obama needs to go to that web site, instead of this one?

Celebrating our 20th anniversary

Twenty years ago Roger and Judi were new homeowners in Lakeside, and so were we, although we'd rented for many years. Roger and I met at another coffee site in Lakeside, and this year are claiming a 20 year drinking relationship. We each could blame the other in those early days for President Clinton. I voted for him, and Roger put him over the top by voting for Perot.

Roger and Judi now live in Georgia, but still try to come "home" for a week or two and are big boosters of Lakeside.

Lakeside Cottage Architecture pt. 8

These are NOT Ross Hips

The Ross Hips, pt. 3
The Ross Hips, pt. 2
The Ross Hips, pt. 1


This large gracious hip roof cottage has been in the Brucken family for many years. Back in the mid-1970s our children played together when we rented a 19th century style cottage on 2nd. Although it shares a parking access court with all the Ross Hips that face Perry Park, it was not built and owned by W.D. Ross. However, it does have two "sisters" facing Central Park which in the last decade were extensively updated and remodeled (3rd floor living area added). Bob tells me that he used to be able to walk in those two middle cottages in this photo and know exactly where every door, window and electric outlet was, because the three sister homes had identical plans.

Walking at sunrise

This photo is not this morning--I think it was 2 days ago. It was a cloudy morning with the sun just peaking over the horizon. I wanted to get a photo of the freighter over at Marblehead, Ohio which takes ore from the quarry. There's much less traffic this summer as the economy hurts even the traffic here that fed so many industries.

The rip rap you see is not "native" to Lakeside, but was brought in from the quarry about 20 years ago because the lake was rising and covering the natural flat rocks on which you could easily walk out into the lake. You can't fool Mother Nature and the lake then receded, and many of the man-made protections and ideas in Ohio, New York, Michigan and Canada just made the shoreline worse, and many beaches were destroyed. Listen up Algorites. It's interesting what is considered "native stone" around here. I inquired about some beautifully random stones, pink, white, black and gray, used for fireplaces and foundations and was told it was not "native," but had been brought here from Canada maybe 8,000 years ago by the glacier that once covered much of Ohio. Sounds quite native to me!

This morning's sunrise was incredible. I haven't missed a sunrise this summer during the time we're at the lake. One morning I carried an umbrella, but it only misted. This morning the cloud formation was incredible. I never actually saw the sun, only the orange, pink, fuchsia, cobalt and gray backing up a huge cloud that looked like the old fashioned ships that used to sail the Great Lakes. Then when I turned back west, there was the full moon brilliant above the trees. It was just incredible.

Yesterday I did 2 walks along the lakefront, one at dawn and one at noon (very brisk walking with a younger friend), plus the back and forth to various places. So I'm guessing 5 to 6 miles. If I could discipline myself to stay out of my husband's stash of crackers and cheese and cookies, I'd be in a lot better shape than the shape I'm in.

What government health care looks like in the USA

A pediatric ophthalmologist writes:

"I have taken care of Medicaid patients for 35 years while representing the only pediatric ophthalmology group left in Atlanta, Georgia that accepts Medicaid. For example, in the past 6 months I have cared for three young children on Medicaid who had corneal ulcers. This is a potentially blinding situation because if the cornea perforates from the infection, almost surely blindness will occur. In all three cases the antibiotic needed for the eradication of the infection was not on the approved Medicaid list.

Each time I was told to fax Medicaid for the approval forms, which I did. Within 48 hours the form came back to me which was sent in immediately via fax, and I was told that I would have my answer in 10 days. Of course by then each child would have been blind in the eye.

Each time the request came back denied. All three times I personally provided the antibiotic for each patient which was not on the Medicaid approved list. Get the point -- rationing of care."

That's what you have when you wait for the government to act on a physician's request--blind children.

Read more of his experience at, ObamaCare and me.

And for us older folks he writes

"Twenty years ago, ophthalmologists were paid $1800 for a cataract surgery and today $500. This is a 73% decrease in our fees. I do not know of many jobs in America that have seen this sort of lowering of fees.

But there is more to the story than just the lower fees. When I came to Atlanta, there was a well known ophthalmologist that charged $2500 for a cataract surgery as he felt he was the best. He had a terrific reputation and in fact I had my mother's bilateral cataracts operated on by him with a wonderful result. She is now 94 and has 20/20 vision in both eyes. People would pay his $2500 fee.

However, then the government came in and said that any doctor that does Medicare work cannot accept more than the going rate (now $500) or he or she would be severely fined. This put an end to his charging $2500. The government said it was illegal to accept more than the government-allowed rate."

He says we're being lied to about the poor and uninsured, and he should know. A top neurosurgeon in his hospital has left the field at age 52--49% of children under the age of 16 in the state of Georgia are on Medicaid, so he felt he just could not stand working with the bureaucracy anymore. It wasn't treating the poor--it was dealing with the government.

"We are being lied to about the uninsured. They are getting care. I operate at least 2 illegal immigrants each month who pay me nothing, and the children's hospital at which I operate charges them nothing also.This is true not only on Atlanta, but of every community in America.

The bottom line is that I urge all of you to contact your congresswomen and congressmen and senators to defeat this bill. I promise you that you will not like rationing of your own health."

Read the entire article (and "anonymous" can go there and argue with his life experience).

Save your money

Some say Lakeside isn't what it used to be--that would be true about movies, which are now first run and cost $6.00. We have the only movie theater in Ottawa County, and movies like the one we saw last night probably led to the decline of Hollywood. I wasn't expecting a great work of art or drama when we decided to see "My life in ruins," with Nia Vardalos (My big fat Greek wedding). Maybe a good laugh, chick flick. But I also didn't expect one of the worst movies I've seen in years, worse even than that one with Rene Zellwiggle where she's the hot shot CEO who moves from Miami to Minnesota and doesn't even own a coat and falls in love with the union boss. In this one, the college professor tour guide falls in love with the hairy bus driver named Poopy Cockus or something like that. All sorts of middle school bathroom jokes. Stupid tourists who would rather shop than look at ruins, Australians no one can understand, and Canadians who riot when mistaken for U.S. citizens. Very little good footage of ruins. However, the air conditioner in the theater is so loud it did occasionally drown out the bad dialog.

Is it so hard to make a movie about a woman college graduate who's too dumb to come in from the rain, who doesn't need to be rescued by a big, hairy guy, a black or Hispanic maid, or her sick kid?

Go flag yourself

This e-mail suggests that we all comply with the President's request that we spy on each other and turn in our on-line neighbors.

All Leftists and terrorists have one thing in common: You can scream at 'em, you can argue with 'em, you can chase 'em and you can even shoot 'em. But for God's sake, just don't laugh at 'em.

Well, considering the White House's brazen request for American citizens to "flag" other American citizens by turning their HealthCare content into the White House Dissent Management Bureau via flag@whitehouse.gov, this brownshirt tactic needs to be laughed at.

How: Turn yourselves in. All of us and everyone we know. Report yourselves to the White House Dissent Management Czar - and in such volume - as to make a mockery of the entire sleazy endeavor.

Think of it as reporting yourself to the local PD for speeding. We'd all be emailing about 5 times per day. Well, every time you have a thought on HealthCare, much less write or speak about it, send the contents of the thoughts/words/conversation to flag@WhiteHouse.gov .

Operation Go Flag Yourself!

What a great idea--seen at Brutally Honest.

Update: NYT reports: “Due to privacy concerns, federal agencies since June 2000 [i.e. primarily the Bush administration] have been prohibited from using many such Web-tracking technologies, particularly persistent cookies, unless an agency head decreed a compelling need.

But the Obama administration is keen to modernize federal agency sites and . . . it sees the old cookie policy as out of date, now that cookies are mainstream and more accepted, and a barrier to adding user-friendly features, analyzing what content is most valuable to citizens and figuring out how to make improvements.

Yet, the cookie issue remains a hot-button one for many citizens and Internet-privacy advocates who believe that in a free society the state should not track citizens accessing public information. “

White House revisits cookies, Aug. 5.

Get in line, America

Republican Study Comm, July 16, 2009 (114 Republicans). Chairman Tom Price of Georgia admonishes the Democrat government-takeover of health care. He says Republicans were shut out by Pelosi from any meaningful discussion or bipartisanship.

CBS interview with Price.

Site meter jumps

My site meter that records hits jumped about 40 a day here recently. The two bigggies? HR 3200 and cottage cheese. The house bill I can understand, but cottage cheese? Has there been a big story about it recently?

Our high (herb) tea

The members of our herb class led by Jan Hilty had a wonderful tea at the hotel today. We each brought a dessert, or tea sandwiches, or nuts/candy and enjoyed a wonderful herb tea, either hot or cold. The hotel dining room isn't being used as a restaurant any more and it was really fun to be there. These days it is used primarily for receptions and events, but those of us who remember Sunday dinner there or special occasions really miss it. Some of us wore hats for the occasion.

Watercolor class with Bob Moyer

Here's last week's art class results, minus one, which has already been folded and put away and I'll use the back! One is OK for framing, one for back of the closet, and one to think about.

Polls and disinformation

Polls from National Public Radio, Wall Street Journal/NBC News, The Washington Post, Gallup, and Pew all show that the American people do not support President Barack Obama’s health care plan . . . Linda Douglass complains about "disinformation." (That's journalism-speak for lies).

"Americans deserve an honest debate about health care. President Obama, Barney Frank, and Jan Schakowsky cannot all be right. Either the President is wrong when he says his plan will not lead to government run health care, or Frank and Schakowsky are spreading disinformation when they tell their single payer advocate base that it will." Heritage Foundation, Morning Bell, Wed. Aug 5, 2009

Six months in Bible Lands by A.D. Wenger

This is one of the titles in my bag of books ($1.00) from the Women Club's Sunday. Because we recently returned from "Bible lands" I picked it up. What fun to read, and I'm still in Europe. He actually traveled for 14 months in 1899 and 1900.

Wengers are in my family tree, so I first looked up Amos Daniel Wenger on the internet, and learned through a genealogy that he is a descendant of Christian Wenger, not Hans and Hannah Wenger, my guys. Although it's not mentioned in the book, I learned that his wife of one year had died in 1898 and in January 1899 he began this around-the-world trip returning in 1900, to recover from his grief. He edited his notes with research about the areas, and published the book in 1902 (by then he had remarried and eventually had 8 children).

Today I was reading about his visit to the Cologne Cathedral. The amazing sites in Europe didn't impress him, although he mentioned them. As a Mennonite, he held to their basic values of the simple life and care for the poor and less fortunate. In England he notes the vast gap between the rich and poor in London; in Paris he is appalled by the promiscuity and fast life; in Holland (homeland of Menno Simons from whom they take their name) he is very disappointed by the Mennonite leaders he found who had been influenced by higher criticism and were living a very different life culture than those in the U.S. I know I'm making him sound like a crank, but his observations actually sound very fresh, 110 years later!

He relates the legend of the architect of Cologne Cathedral, and why no one knows his name. This gave me a chuckle because I'm researching homes here in Lakeside and no one here knows the names of the architects, builders or stone masons of 100 or 50 years ago.

"Just put your signature to this little bond," said the devil, "and the plan is yours." "Sign!" insisted satan.

When the bond was signed satan said: "Now, Mr. Architect, I have made a fair contract with you. You have sold your soul for fame,--a bauble, a worthless fancy, an immaterial substance. You are not the first fool, albeit, who has made such a barter; hell is lathed and plastered with the souls of ambitious idiots like you. Go, present your plan to the bishop; he will accept it and you will be famous."

Wenger says his name was carved on a stone that was worked in the wall. The building took from 1248 to 1880 to complete.

When I looked the legend up in Google, I found every version is different, but always the architect was frustrated with coming up with a good design, so he sold his soul to the devil! In one version, he has a church relic to fight Satan, who then declared that his punishment for going back on the agreement is to remain an unknown. In a Frank Leslie Monthly version, the grieving architect fearing hell wanders into the mountains where he meets a hermit priest who absolves him, but he has to choose between his soul and fame, so he chooses his soul.

This is a lot of book for ten cents. According to a description on the internet that matches the one in my hand (it's in very good condition), it's worth about $14.00.

Now they've changed their tune

When Obama was mobbed by adoring fans in 2008, many bussed in by ACORN and out of stater party volunteers, the Democrats were just thrilled. The media swooned. Ah. Grass roots. The little guy was finally speaking up. Wonderful ground swell of support. Oooo. Ahhhh. It just felt so good to assauge the guilt.

A year later. The American people are finding out that who you hang with is who you are. Ayers. Wright. It's the Alinsky Baedeker 2.0.

Now when people turn out to protest his health care plan, and shout down their lily livered congressional representatives, they are "mobs", and the town hall is the town "hell." They are "right-wing extremists" sent by the Republican party. They are "birthers" and racists. But many voted for him! They are finding out that what he said about destroying our health care system when he was an Illinois senator is what he still believes. These are people who seem to have actually read HR 3200! They don't like it one bit. You start denying some boomer his hip replacement because of his life expectancy or tell him to run it past a committee in Washington and he just might hit you with his cane. Or run you down with her golf cart.

Isn't it just amazing how the worm turns?

Cash for clunkers scam

First, it's for the auto industry. We now own it--so we're just pouring more tax money into a product we, the company, are pushing.

Second, it's payback for the unions, so they can keep their workers and pensioners happy.

Third, there's no way that program is out of money. There haven't been that many deals made--crunch the numbers. This is marketing hype so more people will rush to the dealer.

Fourth, the people who got stopped by the paper work or a "standard" that said their 20 year old clunker was getting 20 mpg not 18, probably stopped and looked around the showroom at a new car.

Fifth, if their car didn't qualify, they'll be pushed into a new car with a loan, because this program is taking driveable older cars off the road.

Sixth, even if you want a used car, one with better mileage, you won't be able to find one, because they are being snapped up for the next deal.

Seventh, there's very little savings in either gasoline or the environment. People with older, second or beater cars, are not using them as much as their newer, more efficient cars. How many people do you know on a limited budget hop in the car for a road trip to Texas or Alaska?

Eighth, people with less efficient SUVs are buying newer, more efficient SUVs. They are still energy hogs.

Ninth, there's a cost to buying a new car, and a cost to destroying one that is already on the road, in the garage, driveable and useful.

Tenth, many dealers are out of inventory and making no sales at all until they get the next batch. So how's that working for the employees?

Do you have grandchildren?

I don't. This one's for you.