We were certainly well fed

While I was at the Midwest Birding Symposium eating almost every meal out, my husband was at the Cum Cristo center downtown where wonderful volunteers were preparing delicious, love-filled meals for the men. Mary and I ate two meals at the Coffee and Cream shop, which provided a buffet breakfast and lunch (maybe supper, but we had other plans). On Friday we had a fabulous salad with tomato bisque soup, dessert and drink for $6.95, and on Saturday an even more fabulous salad with baked potato soup, croissant, dessert and drink.



Then as I was going through the vendors' booths on Saturday, I just couldn't resist "Mealtime Magic from Magee Marsh," a cookbook put together by the Friends of Magee Marsh (Oak Harbor, Ottawa County) located on the shore of Lake Erie with 2,000 acres of wetlands and a migratory bird center. It's a real birding hotspot, but I've never been there. Next year I'll put it on my to-do list. The Friends apparently get together for some good eatin pot lucks, and decided to do a cookbook in 2008.



So today I made a sausage zucchini casserole from p. 70. I made one small revision that I hope won't matter--I used some dried bread for the crust instead of a can of crescent rolls. It uses, besides sausage and grated zucchini, onion, eggs, cheddar cheese and lots and lots of herbs (that's the quantity it specifies, "lots"). It's in the frig and I'll put it in the oven at 350 for 20-25 minutes about 5:30 p.m.

Checking Obama's facts on the fact checkers

Maggie Thurber has an excellent response to the Toledo Blade interview with Barack Obama, who complains that the blogosphere has no fact checkers like newspapers. (You watch--this is going to be the basis for his regulators coming down hard on bloggers and anyone who isn't with the Obamedia.) Ha! says Maggie--we ARE the fact checkers:

"It was the blogosphere that fact-checked and exposed the faked memos about George W. Bush's National Guard service which was reported by Dan Rather and later became known as Rathergate.

It's been bloggers and Glenn Beck who've exposed the extreme positions of the various czars appointed by Obama. And there are terrific websites that focus on investigative reporting. One of them, Texas Watchdog, not only 'watches' government, but helps train bloggers and reporters so they can learn how to "uncover waste, fraud and corruption in state and local governments."

One reason many newspapers are seeing a decline in circulation and many television news networks see their numbers falling is because of this very 'fact.' They've stopped 'reporting' and started spending too much time 'putting stories in context' for us - telling us what we should think about events rather than reporting the facts so we can decide on our own. As a result, people have turned to other outlets, like blogs, for additional information so they can make an informed decision and not rely upon some talking head reading from a teleprompter." Stop by and read her whole article

Does this sound like blackmail?

"The swine flu pandemic could kill millions and cause anarchy in the world's poorest nations unless £900m can be raised from rich countries to pay for vaccines and antiviral medicines, says a UN report leaked to the Observer."

Last week-end while volunteering at the Midwest Bird Symposium I was chatting with a school principal, also a volunteer. With nothing much to talk about except our duties and how difficult it was to wear the latex gloves, I asked how her school was preparing for the H1N1 virus. She began to rant and rave--thought it was all a plot to cover the disastrous health care take over. And the plan, which I won't divulge, did sound a bit invasive. Too bad they don't let school principals and teachers do the sensible thing about head lice.

But back to blackmail. The aid that has gone to "poorest" countries by governments, churches and NGOs could long ago have floated them out of poverty, but why should those countries build roads, provide fresh water, drain swamps, improve their economies and elect honest leaders, if France, England or the US continue to bail them out? Even President Obama's father's home village is waiting for a bailout, and his own family still lives in poverty.

Now it's an I-TOP

I'd seen several references to a Canadian study about the increased risk to future pregnancies for women who'd had an abortion. I finally tracked down the journal, the BJOG.

Guess what? It's an I-TOP, an induced termination of pregnancy! "Induced termination of pregnancy and low birthweight and preterm birth: a systematic review and meta-analyses," PS Shah, J Zao on behalf of Knowledge Synthesis Group of Determinants of preterm/LBW births, BJOB, Sept. 16, 2009

Main results Thirty-seven studies of low–moderate risk of bias were included. A history of one I-TOP was associated with increased unadjusted odds of LBW (OR 1.35, 95% CI 1.20–1.52) and PT (OR 1.36, 95% CI 1.24–1.50), but not SGA (OR 0.87, 95% CI 0.69–1.09). A history of more than one I-TOP was associated with LBW (OR 1.72, 95% CI 1.45–2.04) and PT (OR 1.93, 95% CI 1.28–2.71). Meta-analyses of adjusted risk estimates confirmed these findings.

Conclusions A previous I-TOP is associated with a significantly increased risk of LBW and PT but not SGA. The risk increased as the number of I-TOP increased.

And although I don't know why, breast cancer rate is higher among women who've had an I-TOP as is the risk of death. Studies done in Finland and California showed much higher post abortion death rate when compared to either women who carried to term or who were never pregnant.

President Ben Franklin was my favorite

From our most prestigious and expensive public university.

If you loved your wife

While I was volunteering at the Midwest Birding Symposium and learning from Jim McCormac about how a drop of water in Lake Superior makes it to the Atlantic Ocean, my husband was the assistant rector at a Cum Cristo (Cursillo) week-end. He's been on so many Cursillo, Cum Cristo, Renewal, and Emmaus Walk week-ends, I've lost count. Maybe I'm crazy but I think he usually says, "This one was the best." But he did tell me about one guy we've known about 35 years who used to be a member of our church. His wife died of cancer some years ago and he has remarried, and I think things are fine, although we were never close, so I really don't know.

Anyway, he was periodically stepping outside for a smoke. Before they all went home, my husband said to him, "You don't love your wife." Obviously shocked, the man asked what he meant. "If you loved your wife, you wouldn't want her to be left alone and grieving after you die of cancer. You've been through this--how can you want this for her?" Then he sympathized and told him about my dad--who quit smoking when he was 39 and said it was 20 years before he stopped wanting a cigarette (he lived to be 89). He says the guy said he'd think about it.

That's pretty bold for a guy as quiet as my husband, but then he told me he'd done that before, and the guy actually did quit cold turkey.

Cursillo isn't about saving anyone for Jesus, because usually they are already Christians; but it couldn't hurt to save a physical life too, and save a wife and children from grieving an early loss.

Reform won't work without support of the American people

When Rep. Patrick McHenry held his townhall meetings this year, almost 5,000 people attended compared to fewer than 300 last year.

“There was consensus on a few of the major issues.

• The stimulus has been an expensive failure. It was a missed opportunity to create much-needed jobs.
  
  
• The bailouts were an enormous injustice to taxpayers by forcing them to reward the self-inflicted failures of Wall Street.
  
  
• If cap-and-trade passes the Senate, the middle class will pay a huge price in lost jobs and higher energy costs. . .
  
  
• By far, the hottest topic was health care.”

Read more at Roll Call

This, not racism, Mr. Carter, is the cause of Obama's dropping poll numbers and the building distrust.

Visiting the Lincoln Theater in Columbus

On September 10 we had the opportunity to tour the newly renovated and reopened (May 2009) Lincoln Theater on Long Street with the Conestoga group from the Ohio Historical Society. It is very impressive and the new jazz academy is really stunning with private studios, special classes with guest artists, and the high tech equipment. The ballroom is one of the prettiest I've seen and I'm sure will be a coveted site for wedding receptions and gala events. It is hoped that the Lincoln will help restore the economy of the once thriving African American cultural community on the east side.


This was the original entrance with the restored marque, but the new entrance/lobby/ticket area has been moved to a newly constructed addition because the lobby was too small. But behind the doors is a board room, and the renovated movie projector, pieces of which were found in the basement.



This plaque is in the new lobby.


The original decor was an Egyptian motif, and that has been beautifully recreated.

Two musicians performing across the street.

If you have time, pause to enjoy this video introduced by our mayor with a little history of the area and how the renovation came to be. It's about 9 minutes.

Naming birds

When your wealth of bird knowledge is being able to tell a robin from a blue jay from a cardinal, there is lots to learn at a birding conference like the Midwest Birding Symposium held at Lakeside September 17-20. I'll begin with a snippet of trivia that I picked up by attending some of the programs when I wasn't volunteering (I was the early a.m. shift at the gate, and the dinner crew on Friday).

Scott Weidensaul gave a fascinating short history of birding on Friday night with wonderful photos. I never even saw him look at his notes and he must have included hundreds of details covering about that many years. One interesting thing he told us was that generally, birds that were named early in our country's history have common, descriptive names--red wing blackbirds, black throated blue warblers, barn swallow, etc. Ordinary people named them based on their observations. But as the population moved west and explorers and scientists named them, the birds began to get names of people--family, friends, mentors, and politicians.

Lucy was the name of John James Audubon's wife, but he never named a bird for her. However, Lucy's Warbler is named for Lucy Baird, who was herself named for Lucy Audubon. So, indirectly, Lucy Audubon got her bird.

I also learned that a "big sit" is when people gather in a particular spot and count species they see. This "big sit" at Lakeside I believe counted 27. Also, I'd assumed "shore birds" meant what we have in and around Ottawa County, birds that like the shore, but that's not what they are. Shore birds are sandpipers and plovers, but not gulls and ducks.

I really enjoyed the vendors' displays in South Auditorium and the Rhein Center and I got a lot of freebies. I had no idea that bird watching was so high tech. Nor did I know the Amish sold binoculars! Apparently birding is quite popular with the Amish. The prices were out of this world. Also at this event, people donated their old binoculars (I think there were hundreds) and then these are redistributed to birding groups in poor countries.

Oh yes, and because the Caspian Tern was our poster bird and the logo on our caps, I can now tell a tern from a gull. They are hard to miss up on Lake Erie--really big, with bright red bills that point downward and they float around and then dive bomb into the water and come up with a fish. They breed on 5 continents and in 70 countries, so they really span the globe.

Jane Alexander was one of the Saturday evening speakers, and I think she said there were 80-90 million birders in the U.S. but that seems a bit high--wouldn't that be almost a third of the population? However many, it's a lot--and as near as I could tell from the advertising, you could be attending a symposium, conference or festival every day, and still not see it all. There's even a guy in the Ohio Army National Guard who is helping Iraqis with their bird books and equipment.

The Symposium will be back at Lakeside in two years, so if you're a Lakesider, or enjoy that area, keep an eye open for this event. We had a great time.

The blitz

"Republicans maintained today that the president should reconsider his plans and start the health-care debate anew.

"Winning is stopping, starting again and getting it right,'' Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnelll, (R-Ky.) said today on CNN.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele suggested that the president's round of network interviews today hadn't amounted to much.

"I thought the president said a lot without saying anything,'' Steele said on CBS' Face the Nation. "There was nothing that moved the needle on this debate... This is not very helpful to the president right now.... It may have been nice to do the interviews, but I don't think it advanced the debate on health care that much.''"
The Swamp

Can you believe he's still blaming other people for his failings, for his extremism, for his planned deficits, for his mismatched appointments, his creepy associations--and especially the news coverage which is almost 99% pro-Obama 24/7?

"Unfortunately, we've got... a 24-hour news cycle where what gets you on the news is controversy,'' he told NBC's David Gregory. "What gets you on the news is the extreme statement. The easiest way to get 15 minutes on the news, or your 15 minutes of fame, is to be rude.''

One news channel (Fox) covered the Tea Parties, Townhalls, and March on Washington and Obama goes all quivery and teary.

Loyalty cards--invasive and expensive

A friend and I had a "discussion" about loyalty cards today. Actually, it was pretty darn close to an argument. I don't use loyalty cards or coupons at the grocery store; I don't play games with my food. And that's what it is--a game to convince the consumer she's getting something for nothing, that retailers are just in business to please you and give their products away. Whether it's the wooden nickle, the green stamp, the sweepstakes game, the paper coupons in the size of a dollar, or the plastic loyalty card that looks like a credit card, the intent is to get you to buy. What I find so insidious about the loyalty card is not just that they can find out what you buy--they could do that without your personal information. It's that your personal information is sold, and that's more lucrative than knowing 1500 boxes of Betty Crocker 14 oz. mashed potato flakes sold on Nov. 20 in the Main St. store (except to Mrs. Bruce who bought 5 lbs of real potatoes for the same price) or 700 cans of Stokley's green beans without salt. Kroger is part owner of a data mining company. I don't even like it when the register at Meijer's (which doesn't use a loyalty card) spits out coupons for competing products based on what I just bought. I pass them to the person behind me. If you think you are being "rewarded" for loyalty or for purchsing brand x, you need to go back to home economics class or psych class and read up on behavior modification. All that nonsense about it being just like the personal service you used to get 40 years ago at the corner grocery is just that--nonsense. Loyalty plans are a huge industry with its own press releases, and that's most of the sources you'll find on the internet, or in newspapers, which are quite dependent on the advertising revenue from the stores using the loyalty plans. I am not in any way saying this is a bad business--but it is a business and their bottom line, not your feeling warm and fuzzy, is what matters.

Obviously, my friend who will travel around to various stores to take advantage of the coupons sent to her based her buying habits or specials and loss leaders, didn't see it my way. We just changed the subject. Here's a recent item from another blog.

"Today’s loyalty card programs are not designed to reward the faithful — they are designed to help retailers gather incredible amounts of data about their customers. They use the data for supply chain management, for marketing and to figure out ways to change customer behavior. A loyalty card program is expensive to run. It requires a lot of storage for all that data and sophisticated data mining tools to pour through the raw data and turn it into useful information." IT Knowledge

It must be terribly hard for a new product to make its way onto the shelves, even if it is fabulous. For now, I'll continue to shop at stores that don't want to follow me home and peek in my pantry.

Midwest Birding Symposium

What an eventful week-end. We left Thursday for Lakeside and returned on Sunday. We had a great time volunteering and were thrilled to attend some of the lectures by top birding experts. I know a whole lot more than I knew before, and will be blogging about it--after I catch up on groceries, sleep and unpacking.

As we were leaving the grounds this morning Mary said, "What's that?" And we said in unison, "A buzzard!" Now that was unexpected!

Valerie Jarrett, Obama's BFF

Both the left and right acknowledge her role. But this story lays it out and connects all the dots. She's affluent, well connected, far left and a slum lord. Her parents were friends with Bill Ayers' parents and her family tree is very--way out. Her mentor and buddy is Marilyn Katz, part of the 1968 SDS group and what they evolved to. No one gets to Obama without going through Valerie.

Don't miss Scott Baker and Liz Stephans interview with the author which will peel off the layers of Obama's tight circle of Communist friends, pampered radicals, racist and elistist advisers.

HT G & B

PJTV: The Power & Danger of Iconography

HT Murray

Performing a Mitzvah

There were some interesting letters to the WSJ in response to the opinion piece (Norman Podhoretz) on 9-11 which urged liberal Jews to "break free of the liberalism to which they have remained in thrall long past the point where it has served either their interests or their ideals." The writers responded about God's command for good works or mitzvah. Liberal Christians as well as Jews need to listen up here, because oddly enough, some Christians seem to think Jesus invented "good works" as the sum total of his ministry when in fact, nothing he said about how you treat your fellow man was new--he was reciting his religion--Judaism. As Podhoretz points out in his article

"Most American Jews sincerely believe that their liberalism, together with their commitment to the Democratic Party as its main political vehicle, stems from the teachings of Judaism and reflects the heritage of "Jewish values." But if this theory were valid, the Orthodox would be the most liberal sector of the Jewish community. After all, it is they who are most familiar with the Jewish religious tradition and who shape their lives around its commandments.

Yet the Orthodox enclaves are the only Jewish neighborhoods where Republican candidates get any votes to speak of. Even more telling is that on every single cultural issue, the Orthodox oppose the politically correct liberal positions taken by most other American Jews precisely because these positions conflict with Jewish law. To cite just a few examples: Jewish law permits abortion only to protect the life of the mother; it forbids sex between men; and it prohibits suicide (except when the only alternatives are forced conversion or incest)."

Yes, liberal Christians have the same viewpoint--they see the Democratic party as their vehicle to achieve their goals. (And to be fair, conservatives often see the Republican party that way although they are much more suspicious of government.) The readers wrote

"One cannot perform a mitzvah by having the government take one person's property and give it to another."

"There is no argument in the Torah that requires all people to be materially equal."

"The Torah demands personal responsibility from all Jews at whatever station they hold in life."

"The highest form of charity is giving a person independence (work) so that he or she will not have to depend on charity."

"Over the past 150 years classical liberalism and free-market capitalism revolutionized economies and did more to improve the conditions of the poor than any other competing system."

"No where does the Bible instruct us to tax others and rely on government to feed the hungry and clothe the naked."

Amen and amen.

Murray reports on 9/12, pt. 3

Observations on visiting Washington D.C.--trash and restrooms

1. The city of Washington provided very little aid to accommodate the marchers. For instance, there were no trash cans anywhere all the way up Pennsylvania Ave. I didn't see any until we got to the park area at the National Mall. In spite of this, it was reported that the Marchers, to their credit, left the city pretty much the way they found it. By comparison, at Obama's inauguration, the city was pretty well trashed. From what I could tell the only thing the city provided was police attention. Of course they could always explain it away with budget problems. LOL

2. There were no signs or indication of restrooms not even in the Metro terminals. Now I know that the sponsors of the March should have had a plan for this but still I would think the city has encountered this type of activity enough times to in being prepared. There were reports of 30 port-a-potties stationed at the National Mall area but I didn't see them. It's part of the reason this old man left when he did! If you ever take the Metro in Washington DC, prepare yourself as there are no restrooms at the terminals.

Mary Travers dies

Two years ago I said I hoped the remark Mary Travers of Peter Paul and Mary had made about a Republican bone marrow donor was an urban legend. But according to the USAToday, it wasn't. Let's assume it was her disease speaking; or a very wry sense of humor intended to please her faithful fans.

My, hasn't it been a tough year for entertainers?

Who's lying?

"Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) says there is evidence the government is not truthful about publicly funded healthcare for illegal immigrants.

Read the document

Since Joe Wilson's outburst, they've been scrambling to get this clarified and downplayed. I don't trust them. Hispanic groups of US citizens (and some not citizens) want them included. Let them create a foundation and provide aid.

Democrats don't want an apology. They want a side show

A message from Michael Steele:

"In another stunning example of hypocrisy, congressional Democrats wasted taxpayers' time and resources on a legislative measure to censure Congressman Joe Wilson so they don't have to talk about their exceedingly unpopular health care plan.

If we are going to march Members down to the well of the House to apologize, Joe Wilson is going to have to get in line behind Nancy Pelosi, who attacked the intelligence community who protects us, Charlie Rangel who cheated on his taxes, Jack Murtha - a walking scandal, and we all know how the Democratic leadership tried to protect convicted felon William Jefferson.

• First, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) accuses the CIA of lying though an intelligence report indicates that she was briefed on the use of harsh interrogation tactics in 2002; contradicting her previous statements.
  
• Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) is under investigation for misusing rent controlled properties, avoiding taxes, and using U.S. government letterhead to raise money.
  
• Reps. John Murtha (D-PA) and Peter Visclosky (D-IN) have been linked to lobbying firm PMA, which has been raided twice by FBI agents.
  
• Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY) has refused to subpoena Countrywide Mortgage documents to investigate possible sweetheart loans; Towns received two loans from Countrywide.
  
• Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) forced aides to perform personal tasks against ethics rules and had them work on "several local and state campaigns including his wife's failed bid for a seat in the state senate."
  
• Heard any apologies from these people? Where are the outcries of the Democrat leadership?"

Will Jimmy Carter call Michael Steele a racist because he's pointed out some crimes of black Democrats, or is he protected from the confusion and babble of the former President because he is an African American?

China in 1925

This summer at Lakeside I heard an excellent sports and religion lecture on the life of Eric Liddell (Chariots of Fire), who was born in China, educated in Scotland where he achieved Olympic fame, and who died in China in 1945 in a Japanese prison camp during WWII. This week I've been reading "Eric Liddell; something greater than gold" by Janet and Geoff Benge, part of a very well written series for middle school. I thought their brief summary of the China he returned to in 1925 was one of the better ones I've read. And since China now owns us (our debt) and their national memory may be better than ours, maybe we need a refresher.

"Eric's father had written that there were basically three groups involved in the struggle. There were the local warlords, the Nationalists, or the Kuomintang, as they called themselves, and a new group, the Communists, who patterned themselves after the Bolsheviks, who had seized power in Russia and transformed that country into the Soviet Union. The Kuomintang was the largest and most powerful group and found most of its support in the cities. It was also recognized as the rightful government of China, though it by no means controlled the country. The Communists were a small but growing group, and most of their support came from the rural areas in the south of China.

As these different factions fought for control in various regions, it was not uncommon for some villages to change hands between a warlord, the Communists, and the Nationalists five or six times a year. Each time an army passed through a village, the village's occupants had their homes robbed and their food supplies stolen. When an army marched through the countryside, it would steal crops from the field and trample those not ready to harvest so that the other groups couldn't get their hands on them. This in turn had led to famine.

Apart from the fighting itself, China's other enemy was foreign influence. The people of China had been humiliated by the British during the First Opium War of 1839-42. China had many goods that Great Britain wanted to trade for, but the Chinese wanted nothing except silver from the British in return. When the British tried to force opium on the Chinese instead of silver as payment for the goods they wanted, the emperor had refused. He ordered all opium destroyed. This in turn angered the British, who began a war with China. The British easily won, and China was forced to sign a treaty to end the war. Not only did the treaty allow the British to import opium into China, but it also opened up a number of coastal cities where foreigners could live and trade. The treaty left the Chinese people feeling weak, powerless, and very angry.

Once China had been weakened, its neighbor, Japan, saw a great opportunity to expand. In the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95, China had lost control of Taiwan completely as well as most of its influence over the Korean Peninsula.

In 1914, three years after the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, WWI began in Europe. China eventually sided with the Allies (Great Britain, France and Russia) against Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In joining with the Allies, China had hoped to be taken seriously as a nation and gain some respect as a country when the war was over. However, things did not work out that way.

At the Treaty of Versailles, which officially ended WWI, the Allies completely ignored China's demand that in return for fighting in the war, foreign powers should pull out of the country and leave China to govern herself.

The people of China were furious at this result. They felt they had been betrayed by the Allies. This in turn, led to even more bitterness towards foreigners than had existed before the war. To the Chinese, foreigners along with their ways of doing things were symbols of China's humiliation.

It was to this China that Eric Liddell, now 23, would be returning. . . "

And as always, because I'm a librarian, I remind you that to the victor belongs the archives.