Eddie from Ohio

Our guest this past week-end was wearing an "Eddie from Ohio" t-shirt, and when I inquired he told me it was the name of a singing group they follow, not a person. Great sounds. I'd never heard of them.

Billoblog is back and posting

I don't know a single medical professional at any level, from doctor to nurse to office manager to medical flight owner, who thinks Obamacare is anything but a huge disaster for American health. Here's Bill's point of view. MD from Vanderbilt. Met him online about 1995. He was rather quiet for awhile, but seems to have caught a second wind.

"The Obamafascists are appalled, simply appalled, that people are asking questions and speaking up. The Great Community Organizer and his folk are now calling community organizing “political terrorism,” and beating up people who speak. Establishing tyranny is such hard work. And the little people just won’t shut up.

But some folk are saying that all of this is a good thing. Americans need to be reminded of the threat of soft despotism, and we’ve elected the man to do it.

Read the Steyn’s review."

"The all-pervasive micro-regulatory state “enervates,” but nicely, gradually, so after a while you don’t even notice. And in exchange for liberty it offers security: the “right” to health care; the “right” to housing; the “right” to a job—although who needs that once you’ve got all the others? The proposed European Constitution extends the laundry list: the constitutional right to clean water and environmental protection. Every right you could ever want, except the right to be free from undue intrusions by the state."

Sharia Law in the U.S. (Michigan)

A group of Americans at an Arab festival are assaulted, even though the booth invited them to ask questions after they were handed a pamphlet about Islam. They had already cleared their right to have a camera with the local police, but goons wearing "security" shirts assaulted them. Lessons from the Obamacare goons? Seems Islam is not quite so "peaceful" if you can't even ask a few questions when invited.



HT Bev

And now for an alternative view, the intention of the founders and promoters of the festival.

Along the lakefront, past and present

This morning it was about 6 a.m. when I started out--just a little daylight--for my morning walk. I scan our driveway and the streets pretty carefully. Skunks. In the dimness I can usually tell the two feral calico cats who stay fat and sassy on donations and small rodents from the skunk that lives under our neighbor’s porch. She comes out in the early morning hours to look for garbage that the renters have carelessly left in trash bags. I see the skunk scurrying across the road and wait. This has so many current political implications, that I think you know where I would go if I wanted to discuss health care scams in this post. In this light and distance, it is difficult to tell the smelly skunk from the wild domestic cats, except by the faint scent and past experience. The cats will come close, but run away if you try to get too friendly.

I had been hearing sirens for about 15 minutes, so I stop and ask the gateman if he knows what had happened. We have an excellent volunteer fire department here--usually you first hear the police siren, then the squad and fire trucks as the loyal, hard working locals are called to duty and many have sirens on their cars as they rush to the scene of the accident or fire. Noisy, but necessary. Again, I think of the political analogy of ordinary citizens called out of their sleep to sound the alarms that there’s been something really awful happening. This gate opens about 6 a.m., but he’s usually early. We all have plastic ID cards now. People who complain that “Lakeside isn’t what it used to be,” just might mean they can’t sneak in on someone else’s gate pass. Ah, another analogy.

Along the lakefront at the bottom of our street I see the 80-something kayaker I’ve seen every morning this summer. We’ve had delightfully cool weather all summer, and most days the lake is calm, but even on the mornings it isn’t, he stays in the protected area and pursues his course. He wears a tiny life preserver that I assume inflates if he needs it and a jacket. He is slightly stooped, but otherwise seems in excellent health--has benefited all his life from our excellent health care system, particularly public health measures (much of government health is good), from the pure drinking water, to quarantines for communicable diseases like TB and polio, to the invention of antibiotics, to vaccines, and possibly joint replacements, stints or organ transplants, so that he can enjoy a fruitful old age. There are some, usually gen-xers who don’t know him, or even their own grandparents, who think his good health and activity level are too expensive. But, this isn’t a political post, just thoughts along the lakefront.

This morning I don’t see the Canada geese that I saw last week. Then a flock of 28-30 were floating on the water, dipping their heads to pick up small items. One kept calling out to the laggards, who were floating along behind the main group maybe by a half mile. He was very bossy, but obviously they weren’t paying attention and needed someone or something to warn them of predators and people.

I pass a number of joggers who appear to only do this on vacation. My back has been bothering me since Friday, so I’m more in a strolling mode. One fellow quite trim is setting a good pace, and has a black brace on one knee. I see him later lying in the street stretching his legs to his chest--I suspect watching him limp which he wasn’t doing on the lakefront, that he has misjudged his fitness level. Another young man huffs and puffs his way past me. He is wearing a bandanna head band, cut off sleeve t-shirt and has many tattoos. Maybe this is what people mean when they say Lakeside isn’t what it used to be? I know I see young moms pushing babies in strollers with all the safety features looking like small Conestoga wagons that used to cross the prairies, moms with studs in their noses and tongues and tattoos on their arms. Truly, it is a bit of a culture shock, and I do wonder what it is about Lakeside they wish to expose their children to. Maybe they are here to visit grandparents, living on pensions, investments and Medicare, waiting for the cottage to be handed down to the next generation?

I pass a cottage we stayed in when our children were small--there’s a little boy about 6 or 7 doing trampoline jumps on the bunks on the porch that faces the lakefront. His shouts of glee can be heard by all the cottages close by. All the windows are open to catch the lake breezes, and apparently, he’s up and ready to go. Oh, I do remember those days! These days at least one or two rooms of even the oldest cottages have a window air conditioner, but this sleeping porch is open. Before the current administration’s love affair with cap and tax and environmentalist wackos, Ohio was a great producer of electricity. We do have our wind power advocates, usually with connections to the same owners of the coal fired product. People don’t become rich by being stupid or a-political! All with strong links in Washington, regardless of the party in “power.” Although they don’t want those ugly windmills in their line of view just as they didn’t have to look at the smoke stacks, either.

After 2 miles, I stop at the hotel to use the restroom, and decide to go back and do the lakefront over. It promises to be hot and muggy today, and this might be the coolest time to walk. I chat a minute with the night clerk, who will later be greeting me at the coffee shop. She graduated from college over the week-end and says she will return home and look for companies that might need some part-time help with a translator. Doesn’t sound eager to launch a career, and I suppose with the economy floundering with no change in sight for years, it’s not a bad plan. But if I had college loans, or were the parent who sacrificed, I’d be concerned by this. It’s a different generation than that which graduated in the early 80s after the big Carter recession after which the Reagan tax relief provided real hope and change.

The lakefront--past and present--and political.

Fred gets shouted down by leftists

But then it's Madison, Wisconsin, what can we expect but rude behavior? Check out this taxpayers' rally.

The failed experiment

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.