Brother Wenger finds medical care 110 years ago

A.D. (Amos Daniel) Wenger's 14 month trip around the world, with "Six months in Bible Lands," the title of his 1902 book has been a fascinating read. A widowed Mennonite evangelist and teacher, he relates everything he sees to scripture, theology, and modern (19th century) times. He must have been in extremely good condition, because although there was good train service in those days, probably better than today, for any distance they used a carriage, donkey, or went on foot. He believed in nonresistance, so wouldn't arm himself or hire armed guides. And it was very dangerous territory with many robberies and assaults. Sometimes he appears to be traveling alone except for his guides, other times he mentions people he meets--Europeans and Americans, some with children--and they go in groups. Since about 3/4 of our group got sick in March 2009, I did wonder about their medical care. On p. 332 he mentions it, and develops a sermon of sorts:

"Thinking there was a bug in my left ear I crossed the valley to the English Ophthalmic Hospital a short distance southwest of Jerusalem. The examination revealed the fact that I had taken a severe cold.

At this hospital as well as at several others in the city a great many persons are treated for diseases of the eye. In our country the proportion of blind is only about one in a thousand while in Palestin and Egypt there is one to every hundred. It seems to me that the dust, the rapid changes of temperature between day and night and the glare of the brilliant sun from the white limestone rocks and stones in all parts of the country have something to do with causing eye diseases and blindness; but the chief cause of the spread of eye disease is very likely through the medium of flies. Apparently, mothers never brush the pests from the faces of their babies and it is quite common to see the flies clinging in half dozens round the eyes of the children. Mothrs allow this when the babes are yet helpless in order to keep off the "evil eye." Thus the children become habituated to it in infance and do not resent it when they grow older. The diseases are spread by the insects carrying infection on their feet from one child to another. . .

Blindness is mentioned so many times in the Scriptures that we must conclude it was very prevalent in Bible times, especially in the time of Christ. (notes John 5:3, Luke 7:21) Everyone who will not see it to his best interests to prepare for a home in glory is awfully blind, but the case is not beyond the healing power of the great Physician, whenever employed..."

Here he notes a visit to some German colonists living near the hospital, members of a religious order called Templars, who do not believe in Jesus Christ, although they give him honor. He is grieved that some Mennonites from Germany and Russia have united with them, and tries to turn them from their error. From there he visits a leper's hospital built and maintained by the Moravians. He describes their hideous conditions, limbs rotting, and body sores. He thinks if marriage could be prevented the disease would be reduced, but many lepers refused to live at the hospital and preferred to beg on the streets, where their pitiful condition could support several people. Again, A.D. quotes the appropriate passages about lepers.

"Leprosy is a most striking type of the more deadly leprosy of sin. Often the children of leprous parents are just as pretty and as healthy looking as other children, but by and by some of the signs indicated in the 13th chapter of Leviticus make their appearance. There is no escape from it, every child born of such parents must fall a victime to the dread disease. It is just so with sin. . . The Lord alone can heal the leprosy of the soul. He who cleansed the leper with a word can forgive sin and save the soul. All are invited to come and be healed of the leprosy that eats as doth a canker and mars the beauty and loveliness of the soul." (p. 337-8)

As I noted before, I have been impressed with his readability--and he can even spell ophthalmic, one of the few words in English that has the "phth" and is even misspelled in medical journals! He's a lot easier to read than William Dean Howells, a prominent 19th century American writer just a few years his senior.

Liberals boycott Whole Foods: ABC

"The myth about liberals being tolerant and open-minded, respecting everyone's views was busted once again recently. Last week John Mackey, CEO of heaven on earth for organic , natural fiber wearing, earth worshippers, Whole Foods, wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal advocating "The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare" which consisted of "Eight things we can do to improve health care without adding to the deficit." Needless to say, not one of the eight things demanded the government supply it or taxing the evil rich to pay for it.

Spitting up their expensive artisanal, pesticide free bean sprouts and ruining the planet by traveling further, some tolerant (not!), open-minded (definitely not!) liberals have reacted to such apostasy by boycotting the stores according to Emily Friedman of ABC News." Story here.

You know, that's not a myth; it's a fairy tale. There's a difference. A myth has supernatural beings and heroes in the background somewhere. A moral grounding. A fairy tale is about tiny, immature, troll-like beings who can be very spooky when they break up town hall meetings, leave comments at blogs, or pretend to be Republicans.

Mackey does an excellent job of outlining changes that reduce or destroy the need for Obamacare--increase competition, reduce government mandates, reform Medicare, change the tax laws, etc. That's enough to get his company boycotted. I'm not sure if he's being branded a racist. . . yet. But that will come, I'm sure.

Then he wanders off the reservation claiming eating better (his product) is our health induced salvation, can reverse disease. I'd have to disagree, at least if you're talking health care dollars. As individuals, we can certainly improve the years we're given with good nutrition, no tobacco, and exercise, but we will still grow old, we will have auto and home accidents, there will be wars and pestilence, antibiotics will fail, and we will still have to daily live with our genes (my grandfathers lived into their 90s, but not my grandmothers who fed them). And if you live a more active and healthier life in your 70s and 80s, you just might have a very expensive, extended old age. You can stop smoking today and in 20 years still find yourself with cancer or COPD.

Michael Vick and punishment for crimes

The animal rights people are out for blood--blood and a pound of flesh of a human, an athlete, an African American, a celebrity, a rich guy. Not only has Michael Vick received far more punishment, jail time and faster justice than athletes who beat up girl friends and wives, but now they want to take what's left of his sorry career, too. After a good part of my professional life in the agriculture and veterinary libraries of Ohio State--where I collected their publications--I'm not surprised, and yet I am. Animal rightists baffle me (don't confuse with animal welfare). People who go all soft and quivery over cruel and despicable actions toward animals, who liberate research lab rats who could save the lives of children and pets, who think your pet dalmation has the same rights as you and therefore you can't own him, don't bat an eye lash at chopping up an 8 month old human fetus in the name of choice, or depriving millions of African children of protection from malaria with DDT in the name of saving the environment.

What's wrong with this picture?

Just about everything.

To begin with, my materials. I was using cheap colored pencils on paper that wasn't appropriate for this medium, so the colors didn't blend. I didn't have a good range of colors to use. Almost nothing dark. Using colored pencil is becoming extremely popular because they aren't messy or toxic, and good for on location work. However, I've never seen how it is done.

In art, even if it's practice, use the best quality materials you can afford. Skip the "student" grade. These were materials used at the art center pulled from a box, not my own. My husband, who has sold 7 paintings this summer, is using some of the brushes he bought for college art class 50 years ago (it was a requirement for architects, but it was almost another 20 years before he took up painting as a hobby). A good watercolor brush can cost $50.

Second, either this duck is terribly fat, or I've misplaced him (Mallard) in the water. If you're going to put animals in paintings, they need to have the appropriate weight, shape and shadow.

Third, I was working from a tiny (about 2 x 2") black and white sketch, then realized I needed to know his color markings, so I used Google to find a photo. Probably should have started with a photo instead of a tiny drawing.

Fourth, here's the biggest, and I knew it the minute I drew it. The sun. When you stand on the dock, pier or shore facing a rising or setting sun, the reflection in the water is not going to angle away from you. It looks like this reflection of the sun over Lake Erie taken this morning about 7:30.



I drew this Mallard for "Intensive Drawing" class, and because I'd just seen a family of 12 on my walk. Our 22 year old instructor wanted 140 drawings; I finished 56 and thought that was pretty darn good for an old lady. I even drew 55 and 56 last night in the living room--my cat's head and a floor lamp. But there is a sense in which this really does work. The more you draw the better you get--just like tennis, golf, sewing, writing, exercising, knitting, etc. Practice may not make perfect, but it does move you along.

And now they gather and groove at Tea Parties and Obamacare Town Halls

Woodstock. 40 years later. The boomers can get real mad at you when you try to take something away from them, like drugs (the helpful kind), hip replacements, valve repairs, prostate exams, colonoscopies, MRIs, heart monitors, AIDS cocktails, flu vaccines, radiographs, echo cardiograms, insulin, Lipotor, etc. It's nice that recent research continues to find the long term benefits of aspirin, but "take one and call me later," is just not going to fly with this group. They are not their parents' elder generation!

YUP pulls images of Muhammad

Yale University Press has banned images of Muhammad in a new book, according to a story in the New York Times by Patricia Cohen. Wouldn't it be a pleasant world if our academic reservations and colonies were so discreet and careful about observing the sensitivities of the other children of Abraham, the Jews and Christians?

"The book’s author, Jytte Klausen, a Danish-born professor of politics at Brandeis University, in Waltham, Mass., reluctantly accepted Yale University Press’s decision not to publish the cartoons. But she was disturbed by the withdrawal of the other representations of Muhammad. All of those images are widely available, Ms. Klausen said by telephone, adding that “Muslim friends, leaders and activists thought that the incident was misunderstood, so the cartoons needed to be reprinted so we could have a discussion about it.” The book is due out in November."

But then, I haven't seen many NYT reporters or owners or editors beheaded by Christians or Jews recently, either. Fear, even third or fourth hand, can help in making many decisions about life or death, advertising, editorial content, profit etc.

Tracking down your Tea Party friends

So who are you going to trust? I have no idea, but here's a suggestion. Go click on the side bar ads (on the left side, sorry) for the Sept. 12 March on Washington. All sorts of political and non-profits I've never heard of. Not as many as the progressives, leftists, marxists and socialists have, but there's a good start of grass roots conservatism. Some for sure on the President's snitch list. Read their "about us" on their web pages and figure out who does the funding.

Smart Girl Politics, for instance, began with a blog. "Smart Girl Politics, SGP, started as a blog in July of 2008. In November of 2008, Stacy Mott, Founder and President of SGP, placed a help wanted ad on her blog asking for conservative women to join her in a new conservative women’s movement. Within a week, she had 60 emails from women who wanted to get involved.

Once the group made the decision to remain with the name that started it all, Smart Girl Politics, they grabbed the name in every form they could find on the internet. Finally, a home was found on their community website www.smartgirlpolitics.ning.com where one of the fastest growing and hottest organizations on the internet began to take shape. Many of the women in leadership positions for SGP were some of those first to respond to the ad, including Co-Founder and Executive Director, Teri Christoph."

So far, their primary acticity seems to be fund raising and making press releases. It costs money to have an Executive Director.

When Fancy Nancy favored disruptions

When they were against President Bush.

"January 17, 2006: "So I thank all of you who have spoken out for your courage, your point of view. All of it. Your advocacy is very American and very important."



Now they are Nazis.

Brother Wenger explains how to bargain in the Middle East

6 months in Bible Lands

A.D. Wenger grows wiser by experience as the Mennonite evangelist travels through the middle east. He has several close calls, but always maintains his dignity and nonresistant stance, but not always his money. Everything he writes about is analyzed either from the teachings of Jesus, or stories from the Old Testament. When Abraham sought a suitable burial site for his wife Sarah, A.D. explains how it is done even thousands of years later. It made me remember our encounter with the camel jockey in Egypt who stole our 50 euros (I grabbed it back).

"To one who has witnessed how how bargains are now made in Palestine, it is exceedingly interesting to read the 23rd chapter of Genesis and observe the manner of the bargain when Abraham bought the Cave of Machpelah.

Whenever you wish to buy anything and ask the price of the article the owner first praises you. He calls you master, lord, prince and other like names and says that he is your servant and will gladly give you anything in his possession. If you want to buy a piece of goods worth fifty dollars he will tell you just to take it, he will charge you nothing. Even the carriage drivers will do likewise and offer to take you anywhere for othing and with the greatest of pleasure.

All this is a mere form of words preliminary to a sharp bargain. (Reminds me of our Congress.) The merchant would soon stop you if you should start away with his goods. The carriage driver would take you, but would charge you 3 or 4 prices afterward. Every time the price should be fixed beforehand. Finally you succeed in getting a price named which he will claim is so low that he is almost giving you the goods or hauling you for nothing as the case may be, but in reality is from two to five times the actual worth. The purchaser begins by offering a very small sum and then raises the offer as the dealer lowers the price. After much time and many words have been wasted they finish the bargain."

He goes on (p. 317) to explain how Abraham bought the cave from Ephron the Hittite. Abraham did not drive a hard bargain Brother A.D. says because he was in deep sorrow, but the price was agreed upon before burial.

You can forget local control

Take a look at the proposed "green codes" of the building trades, and note they are to be "international." When I see the struggle we have here at tiny Lakeside with issues of private (but poor) taste, preservation, dues, taxes, and costs, I really wonder what you can do with an international building code for sustainability, except keep the 3rd world from developing, and the developed world in complete chaos.

When passed by the International Code Council (ICC) through its consensus process and adopted by code jurisdictions, such a code would make sustainable design a mandatory practice, not a suggested alternative. . .

Through the working document, the Sustainable Building Technology Committee (SBTC) and participants have been looking at codes and rating systems in Europe, Australia, and the United States. “The strength of the finished code will be in its unity,” Green says. “It will give architects, states, and municipalities one single tool in the I-Codes they need to guide sustainable development.”

The National Association of Governors (NGA), as part of its comprehensive national Energy Conservation and Improved Energy Efficiency policy, adopted in July the promotion of carbon neutral new and renovated buildings by 2030, a commitment proposed by the American Institute of Architects. Maybe ALA should follow. That's a lot of hot air. Or AMA. Or AARP.

Once we get all these oldsters to stop breathing (not really, even greenies know that is carbon neutral), eating meat and burning fossil fuel or using plastic or modern technology, maybe then we can reach the carbon neutral state so longed for by people whose religion believes Mother Nature has too much flatulence.

A child upstages the President

Damon is a cute little guy interviewing President Obama, his dream, on all the major networks this morning, but I changed channels after about 20 seconds. Same old, same old. The President blaming someone else, never his own generation or group, instead of inspiring a child to greatness. Here we are in 2009 with two minorities (and four Catholics?) on the highest court in the land, a biracial, out of wedlock son of a Kenyan in the White House, and all the President can do is dump on the American culture when a child asks him about poverty in his school district. Can you imagine Justice Clarence Thomas responding as Obama did? But it was Thomas who really experienced poverty. Obama was the proverbial silver-spoon-rich kid whose own children have always attended private schools. Compared to Thomas who was raised on a share cropper’s farm by his grandparents, he knows nothing about which he speaks from personal experience. Justice Sotomayor may call herself a wise Latina, but even she’s a born in the city, raised in the projects by an educated mother, child who despite what she sees as racism and discrimination, has managed also to make her way to the top. Democrats never see this as a success story--they seem to be embarrassed that America is the land of opportunity and are currently engaged in a war to bring everyone down to the projects-level standard of living.

Obama could have begun his halting and stammering (where is the teleprompter?) with pointing out to this smart, gutsy child, that he was well on his way like Thomas and Sotomayor, but instead, chose his words to remind everyone, not that we’ve come a long way, but that we have even further to go.

Thanks for nothing, O Great One.

Traveling the Holy Land with AD Wenger

As I noted 2 weeks ago, I bought a book recently for ten cents, “Six months in Bible Lands” by Amos Daniel Wenger (doesn't seem to be one of "my" Wengers), an account of his 14 months traveling through Europe, the Holy Land, and Asia in 1899-1900. Because we were on a “Steps of Paul” tour in March 2009, in Ireland and Italy in 2007 and 2008, in Finland and Russia in 2006, and Germany and Austria in 2005, many of his stops and descriptions whether of cathedrals in Europe or the waters of the Jordan are quite vivid, even though he experienced them 110 years ago.

My questions to AD and travelers of the 1890s are quite practical: first of all toilets, then shoes, clothing, traveling companions, arrangements for money and translators, food, medical care, suitcases, etc. But just as we know that there used to be a two-story outhouse attached to the hotel here at Lakeside (for men only) a hundred years ago, there is no photo of it in existence, because those necessities were just a way of life, and usually not recorded in guide books. So we are left to wonder what the women used, or who were the poor servant staff who emptied chamber pots from the hotel rooms of 19th century Methodists.

In our diversity-obsessed and PC academic culture, some academics or liberal Christians might find his descriptions of the people he meets and cultures he experiences “ethnocentric” or “xenophobic,” but I found his honesty and true compassion and love quite refreshing. When he sees a fierce, dark skinned, armed Bedouin he mentions his fear, but also is firm in his unwillingness to arm himself or even travel with an armed guard, because he is a “nonresistant” Mennonite. He thinks that nonresistant missionaries (I don’t think he uses the word pacifist) who hire armed guards are hypocrites. When he sees women doing the work of pack animals, he mentions how much better off and respected are women in America. When he observes lascivious, drunk women on the train in France, he makes note. When he compares the differences among the Turks (area was controlled by the Ottoman Empire), the Arabs, the native Palestinian tribes, Druses, native Christian groups, Palestinian Jews, European Jews and various European and American travelers either guides or missionaries who live and work there, it is with the eye of a Christian, American Mennonite evangelist who believes the living water of the gospel of Jesus more important than digging a local well for fresh water and moving on. And he is quite distressed and saves his harshest words for squabbling Christian sects.

He observes the irony and pain, as did we, of the various Christian sects--Armenians, Greeks, Roman Catholics and others--sharing worship space in churches build over holy places, such as the Church of the Holy Sepulcre, and the Church of the nativity in Bethlehem. These places then and now are controlled by Moslems, and they, not the Christians who squabble and refuse to worship together, keep the peace. When AD was at these sites, he was told of killings and fightings among the Christians going back to the times of the Crusades, and he grieves that this is such a poor witness to both Jews and Moslems. I'm sure the Mennonites' squabbles back home over whether to use a pulpit or table, or whether Sunday Schools are an evil concession to the larger culture, paled by comparison, because he never mentions them.

His experience inside these holy shrines sounds very similar to ours. For instance, in Bethlehem:

“We went beneath the floor of the church into a chamber in the natural rock. A silver star is pointed out as the place of the birth, and a stone manger is shown, but it seems painful to see it all so changed and embellished by the hands of idolizing sects. It seems more painful however that the Christianity of the land has so degenerated since the Pentecostal shower of heavenly grace that Mohammedan soldiers must be kept on the spot to keep peace among the Christians--to keep even priests from flying at each other’s throats.” (p. 122)

Of course, you don’t have to read far into Paul’s letters to the New Testament churches to see the first thing Christians did was to start creating factions and disagreements, even in the first century. There is a 2,000 year history of squabbling over baptism, food, times of worship, end times prophecies, which holy days to observe, whether to marry or tarry, etc. And dear brother Wenger spends more than a few pages showing his readers why the Mennonites have the proper way to use water in baptism, using Scripture, archeology and his own observations.

The Obamacare Dog and Pony Show

We need a lot of pooper scoopers to keep up with the Obama machine the last few days. For awhile he seemed to be sleep walking, letting his underlings handle it. But once Sarah Palin weighed in, WOW, he and millions of Democrats rushed to the rescue of the beaten and bloody health care bill. Misnamed, "America’s Affordable Health Choices Act" (HR 3200) Health Care Blog:

"As more Americans delve into the disturbing details of the nationalized health care plan that the current administration is rushing through Congress, our collective jaw is dropping, and we’re saying not just no, but hell no.

The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

Health care by definition involves life and death decisions. Human rights and human dignity must be at the center of any health care discussion.

Rep. Michele Bachmann highlighted the Orwellian thinking of the president’s health care advisor, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the brother of the White House chief of staff, in a floor speech to the House of Representatives. I commend her for being a voice for the most precious members of our society, our children and our seniors.

We must step up and engage in this most crucial debate. Nationalizing our health care system is a point of no return for government interference in the lives of its citizens. If we go down this path, there will be no turning back. Ronald Reagan once wrote, “Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.” Let’s stop and think and make our voices heard before it’s too late."

- Sarah Palin

You may not like her, you may be afraid of strong women who don't ride their husband's coat tails, but Sarah Palin speaks for millions on this issue. As the mother of a special needs child I'm sure she'd opt for the government plan if she thought he'd be better served. But in the back of her mind is probably that pro-choice president and the 93% death rate of pre-born babies with Down Syndrome. Why would he feel any different about those who got out alive? I've read Dr. Emmanuel's stuff, and he's one scary dude, brother of Obama's chief advisor.

Will the real Obama please stand up?

No, I'm not referring to his birth place, Kenya or Hawaii, to a teen-age mother. Birthers are wasting their time. Now this on the other hand--Single payer health insurance.

Obama in 2003: ‘I Happen to be a Proponent of a Single-Payer Universal Health Care Plan;' Obama in 2009: ‘I Have Not Said That I Was a Single-Payer Supporter’.

Dodge. Word games.

In 2003, Illinois state Sen. Barack Obama received a big round of applause for telling a gathering of the AFL-CIO, “I happen to be a proponent of single-payer, universal health care plan.”

This week, speaking at a town hall gathering in Portsmouth, N.H., President Obama said, “I have not said that I was a single-payer supporter because, frankly, we historically have had a employer-based system in this country with private insurers, and for us to transition to a system like that I believe would be too disruptive. CNSNews.com

And then in a Philadelphia Town Hall, the goons didn't get the President's latest lie.

"WHAT DO WE WANT?"
"SINGLE-PAYER!!"
"WHEN DO WE WANT IT?"
"NOW!!"
“Toward the front of the line, that's where I saw the most venom and vitriol. That's where the hardcore socialists were, the people who would gladly destroy the ingenuity and innovation inherent in our health care system for the sake of "social justice." Many, it seemed, were college students. Most, it was apparent, came in groups. I counted two people in ACORN shirts, one of which was getting an earful from an event attendee who came to protest the health care reform legislation.” Stranger in a strange land

Yes, that group was in Columbus, Ohio, in October and November--the “college students” and ACORN, innocently registering to vote, and our Secretary of State, an old softy, and a Democrat, did nothing. I think she said there wasn't time.

Biofuels consume a lot of water and hurt the environment

Now what will the Green-goes do?

"Production of bioethanol as an alternative to fossil fuels could have a much greater detrimental impact on the environment than previously thought, according to a new study from Sangwon Suh and colleagues in the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, at the University of Minnesota. Writing in Environmental Science & Technology, the team explain how bioethanol production may consume up to three times more water than earlier estimates suggested. Previous studies estimated that a gallon of corn-based bioethanol used between 263 and 784 gallons of water from farm to fuel pump. Suh's team determined that these estimates do not take into account the significant variation in regional irrigation practices. . . The results also show that as the ethanol industry expands to areas that apply more irrigated water than others, consumptive water appropriation by bioethanol in the U.S. has increased 246% from 1.9 to 6.1 trillion liters between 2005 and 2008, whereas U.S. bioethanol production has increased only 133% from 15 to 34 billion liters during the same period." Environ. Sci. Technol., 2009, 43 (8), pp 2688–2692.

Let's use the decayed plant and animal resources we already have--petroleum, coal, and natural gas. If nothing else, putting corn in gas tanks when there are hungry people should give greenies pause. We can probably live without oil; but not without water.

What are they drinking in Michigan?

Water directly from the Great Lakes? Unfiltered or non-purified? First John Dingell likens his constituents who came to the townhalls to the KKK, concerned loyal Americans who see Obama's grab for a huge sector of the economy and the pending loss of their medical choices, and now Debbie Stabenow (or Stabemlater perhaps) thinks turbulence when she flies is due to global warming. How do these people get elected year after year? Only Democrats know.

Via Morning Bell: In an interview with the Detroit News, Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow said, "Climate change is very real. Global warming creates volatility and I feel it when I’m flying. The storms are more volatile."

Thousands of feet of the Wisconsin ice sheet that once covered more than half of the North American Continent including Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and down into Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio weren't melted by the hot air of Democrats plugging global warming, but I'll bet it could have been.

Communist Party wants you Democrats to take to the streets

"Within our country, the Obamajority is needed to take to the streets in support of health care with a public option paid for by reversing the obscene tax giveaways to the super rich during the Bush years. If health care reform fails, it will be a giant step backwards for the Obama administration and for working people, the labor movement, African American, Latino, Asian-Pacific Island communities, women and youth on every issue including the economy, peace and democracy. . . .

This fight for health care is a fight for the ability to win on every other issue starting with Employee Free Choice and all the way to state budget priorities. It is a fight for unity against the ultra-right. What happens at the grassroots will in large part decide what happens in Congress. Now is the time for the Obamajority to act." Communist Party USA (CPUSA)

Notice the links to all the other take-over plans. Yes, indeed, he is a Marxist.

What does HR 3200 actually say in our language

John David Lewis of Duke University isn't a lawyer or doctor, but he has analyzed the bill and put parts of it into our English.

The Health Care Bill: What HR 3200, "America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009," by John David Lewis, August 6, 2009

He addresses rationing, punishment of people who don't join the plan, what is acceptable coverage, will it destroy private health insurance, does it redistribute wealth (i.e., does it punish the successful), does the government set the fees, will the government be able to investigate the citizens, will the health czar and his/her cronies be exempt from court review (my wording, not his).

It also appears at Objective Standard, a journal of culture and politics. My friendly troll might click/hop on over there and take a look, since she seems unable to understand the government legalese in the bill and thinks that Medicare isn't struggling and Medicaid broke, so therefore we should do more of the same but for everyone, not just elders and the poor.

Walking the lakefront, week 8

The summer population is thinning--the average age it going up, perhaps. But then maybe there are more people with pre-schoolers, now that so many school age children have gone home. I've been watching some cross-country teams running the streets at dawn. Yesterday I passed a 70-something man on my walk along the lakefront. Later on my return I saw him settled into a park bench on the hotel lawn. Just then, a girls' cross country coach decided to bring her team to the lawn for sprints and squats, or whatever it's called. Here were these willowy and gorgeous young women prancing within 2 ft. of the older gentleman. I thought he'd move. He didn't. But he was smiling big.

Although they say obesity in children is on the increase, I know there were no girl athletes this thin when I was in high school 50 years ago. They certainly didn't look anorexic, however, there was no fat anywhere on these young ladies. I think there is tremendous pressure on female athletes to remain thin. The swimmers, basketball and softball players seem to be stocky and muscled, but the track, cross country, and gymnists will probably pack a few pounds when they get to college. I wasn't even an athlete and I managed to add 20 lbs my freshman year.

Today I walked behind the men's team (don't know if they are the same school, but probably are). One has been lagging behind each time I've seen them. He's certainly not over weight, but is the only one with a jiggle of fat above his waistline. Perhaps he's just joined the team, or had a growth spurt that has spread his weight around his frame. When my husband lettered in cross country in high school (enrollment 4,000+) he weighed about 125 lbs. at 5'9". Even into the 1970s I could buy some of his clothes in the boys department with a waist about 28". He still only weighs about 155, but I doubt he could run more than 2 blocks today. Imagine picking up a sack that weighs 30 lbs and trying to run!

This week I met the new owner of a home that my husband designed on Cherry Ave. a few years back. They only live about an hour from Lakeside, so it is easy to get here even for a short visit. They just love their cottage. I told her a little about what it looked like before an experienced architect who loves Lakeside got a hold of it, and she was amazed. She's never even seen a photo, nor had she met the previous owners. She began searching for a home when they sold almost as fast as they came on the market, but one day a realtor called and said "I think I have something." Of course, it was 2008 and the market was starting to go soft. I think it was only listed 3 days before they made their offer. The former owners live in a Chicago suburb and the trip to Lakeside was getting burdensome.

Other events this week is today's herb class on the lakefront, the topic is Lemongrass. The seminars are for "Interfaith" week, and there's nothing of interest to me on that list--although Eugene Swanger on Friday should be good. (Strong Lutheran with expertise on eastern faiths.) Yesterday I wasn't feeling well after my walk, so I didn't do the Tuesday bird watch. Debbie Boone's concert Saturday night was just fabulous. I can't remember when I've heard such a voice or seen such a professional performance. It was a tribute to her mother-in-law, Rosemary Clooney. Also did some Red Foley pieces, her grandfather. Her father, of course, is Pat Boone, but she didn't perform any of his hits.

I'm in an "intensive drawing" class this week, and am supposed to complete at least 12 drawings a day. Doubt if I'll get that much done; the instructor left early on Monday, and wasn't there on Tuesday, nor were the four other students from Monday! Here's one of my efforts--this one's for you Lynne, since you asked.

Oregon’s Right to Die Law

Obama says this new plan won’t have a “death panel.” We have nothing to fear. If it can happen in Oregon, it can happen in Ohio or Illinois. The Chilling Truth

"One of the great concerns about Oregon is the suggestion that the very existence of the right-to-die law means the state's health system now has less of an incentive to provide terminally-ill people with proper care.

It is something that came to blight 64-year-old Barbara Wagner's last days.

Diagnosed with lung cancer in 2005, the former bus driver vowed to fight the disease so she could spend as long as possible with her family.

Even after her doctor warned last year that she had less than six months left, she refused to give up, pinning all her hopes on a new life-prolonging treatment.

But her request, at the beginning of last year, for the £2,500-a-month drug was refused by Oregon's state-run health plan as being too expensive. Instead, she was offered lethal medication to end her life.

'It was horrible,' Barbara told reporters. 'I got a letter in the mail that basically said if you want to take the pills we will help you get them from a doctor and we will stand there and watch you die - but we won't give you the medicine to live.

'I told them: "Who do you think you are to say that you will pay for my dying, but you won't pay for me to possibly live longer?"

'I am opposed to the assisted suicide law. I haven't considered it, even at my lowest ebb.'

Hearing of her plight, pharmaceutical company Genentech decided to give her the drug, Tarceva, free for one year. Barbara died in October last year and her family believes the added stress of her brush with the state hastened her end.

'She felt totally betrayed,' her ex-husband Dennis, 65, said this week. 'It comes down to the buck. It's not about compassion and understanding. The bottom line is that it is all about money and Barbara fell into the middle of it.'"