The H1N1 vaccine

"A recent poll by Consumer Reports found that two-thirds of parents plan to delay or skip getting their children the H1N1 shot altogether.

Some believe the vaccine was rushed and not adequately tested. Others just don’t trust flu shots in general and avoid them each winter like the plague.

But government officials say those concerns are irrational. H1N1 flu has hit children particularly hard — 36 youths in the U.S. had died from it through August — so they are advising parents very strongly to do what's best for their kids and get them vaccinated." Fox News

There's an easy way to reassure the public. The HHS and CDC families get it first. If all goes well, it's probably OK.

WSJ reported that state and local budget cuts coupled with limits on who can administer the vaccine would hamstring the delivery of the vaccines, even if you convince people to get it. Manufacturers are still in production, and it has been rushed to market.

But never mind. Rahm Emanuel assures us they'll never waste a crisis, so it's all for the good.

Update: Carol's granddaughter has cancer. She wants everyone to get the vaccine. Read why.

Don't they have insurance?

I was reading a blogger today who was enjoying Britain's health system and couldn't imagine why Americans didn't want it. Maybe it's these stats:

"According to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development data, there were 26.6 MRI machines in the U.S. per million people in 2004. In Canada, there were 4.9 such devices, while Britain enjoyed 5. For every 100,000 Americans, 2006 saw 436.8 receive angioplasties. Among Canadians, that figure was 135.9, while only 93.2 Britons per 100,000 got that cardiac procedure.

Maybe that’s why, among American men, heart-attack deaths in 2004 stood at 53.8 per 100,000. In Canada, 58.3 men per 100,000 died of cardiac arrest, while coronaries buried 69.5 of every 100,000 British males.

The fatality rate for breast cancer, according to the National Center for Policy Analysis and Lancet Oncology, is 25 percent in the U.S., 28 percent in Canada, and 46 percent in Great Britain.

Among those diagnosed with prostate cancer, 19 percent die of the disease in America. In Canada, 25 percent of such patients succumb to this disease. And in Great Britain — an Anglophone NATO member and America’s closest ally — prostate cancer kills 57 percent of those who contract it. That is triple the American fatality rate." Deroy Murdock

In comparing life expectancy you need to start at about age 40--that's when we start falling apart, and that's when you need decent medical care.

A Bill Ayers theory

Ann Althouse has a plausible theory on why Bill Ayers would admit to authoring Obama's book, Dreams from my father. Wanting to get back in the news would get my vote. Getting back at Obama who has been a big disappointment to the far left would come in second. But Marxists lie, so who would believe him? I'll let this one pass.

How we came to own Government Motors

"Autos are an industry that, for decades, has not been able to rationally restructure itself to provide a competitive return to investors. Politicians won't allow it. They wouldn't permit the necessary short-term job loss. The result, finally, is what we see today: a global auto sector increasingly dependent on taxpayer subsides." Holman W. Jenkins on the UAW and Nummi

The crooks are getting lazy--going after Medicare

And these crooks are not in Congress. This is just old fashion street crime. Kelly Kennedy of Associated Press has gone all Glenn Beck on us and is actually reporting with a front page story (in the Columbus Dispatch) on Medicare fraud. Now if Medicare is so expensive, poorly managed and there is crime and fraud, and it is government health care for a very small percentage of the American public, why not clean it up first to demonstrate the government can take on a bigger job--that of insuring all of us?

"Lured by easier money and shorter prison sentences, Mafia figures and other violent criminals are increasingly moving into Medicare fraud and spilling blood over what was once a white-collar crime.

Around the nation, federal investigators have been threatened, an informant's body was found riddled with bullets, and a woman was discovered dead in a pharmacy under investigation, her throat slit with a piece of broken toilet seat.

For criminals, Medicare schemes offer a greater payoff and carry much shorter prison sentences than offenses such as drug trafficking or robbery." Google News

To answer my own question. Obama's take over of the health care system has nothing to do with cost, improving coverage, or reducing waste. It's all about power. More for him, less for us.

Congress catching on about czars

OK. So they are finally noticing the power grab of the executive branch from the legislative. It's been a small drip; now it's a flood. Joe Markman of McClatchy Newspapers reports (story varies somewhat depending on which paper you read) that members of both parties realize the appointments circumvent their authority. A panel of experts brought in to testify can find no legal issues--it apparently began with FDR. But the issue isn't dead. Time to again alert your representatives and senators that we still want to be represented.

In a letter sent to the president this week, Sen. Susan Collins (R- Maine) and five other Republican lawmakers criticized the administration for encroaching on Congress's authority in establishing too many far-reaching czars.

Collins identified 18 positions created by President Obama which "may be undermining the constitutional oversight responsibilities of Congress." The letter asks Obama to respond with information about each position, including the administration's vetting process and whether the officials will be available to appear before Congress. . .

Democrats have also questioned the use of czars. On Tuesday, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) raised concerns in a letter to Obama. And Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) had sent a similar letter earlier this year, noting that czars in past administrations had "rarely" testified before congressional committees "and often shield the information and decision-making process behind the assertion of executive privilege."

Saturn's "new" ring

"Scientists at NASA have discovered a nearly invisible ring around Saturn -- one so large that it would take 1 billion Earths to fill it." CNN technology.

Who knows why it took so long to find it. These stories always strengthen my belief that the Genesis record is true and completely trustworthy, and decreases my confidence that pea-brained experts and politicans have any clue what to do about controlling climate. Look what tiny little "Phoebe" was able to do--with no visible industry or cities or capitalists in sight.

"Phoebe, a Saturnian satellite measuring only 214 kilometres (133 miles) across, probably provides the record-breaking tenuous circle of dusty and icy debris, they report on Thursday in Nature, the weekly British science journal." Canada.com

Way to go, Anne!

A joyful place in which to kill babies

I get most of my green schemes and screams from my husband's architectural, urban planning and construction e-newsletters. But not usually items on abortion. This morning, my two interests came together in this handsome video of the Planned Parenthood Golden Gate and interview with Anne Fougeron, architect, and Dian Harrison, of PPGG. I was going to ridicule the "joyful" nature comment, attractive, artistic jars filled with condoms, and the architect's sense of bonding with the "mission" of the client. But then when I researched it, I found Jill Stanek had already done the research on this organization, and that Dian Harrison had been the model for a PPGG cartoon featuring violence against pro-lifers.

Host shouts down guest on MSNBC

So much for thugery.

Listen up, you overweight couch potatoes who voted for Obama

"Wednesday, the Senate Finance Committee approved a healthcare reform amendment that would penalize employees who are not following “healthy lifestyles” and participating in wellness programs. Employers will be allowed to raise healthcare premiums by as much as 50 percent for workers who are fat, smoke, don’t exercise, are noncompliant with preventive care, and not meeting certain health measures, such as lower cholesterol levels." Read the full story at Sandy's Junkfood Science.

Guess which insurer denies the most claims?

The government.

"The Medicare denial rate found in the study was, on a weighted average basis, roughly 1.7 times that of all of the private carriers combined (99,025 divided by 2,447,216 is 4.05%; 6.85% divided by 4.05% =1.69)." Read the whole article here. The research used the AMA's 2008 report.

There's a solution for everything

HT Ann Althouse

The door swings both ways Bertha!

"[Bertha] Lewis said many conservatives have used the videos to act on a longstanding grudge against Acorn. “I think you make some powerful enemies…when you organize poor people to have power,” she said. Washington Wire, WSJ The left gets very nervous when their schemes to keep the poor in their grasp is loosened, and they'll come out with all guns firing, even in no firearms cities. The most recent example of McCarthyism we have has been during the Obama Congress when they hauled people in to ridicule and threaten them for doing their jobs and making too much money. Bertha says ACORN can survive without government grants, and I say good for you. Go for it! I think all non-profits, right, left, center, and religious, ought to stop taking government money to run day care centers, foreclosure workshops, AIDS clinics, women empowerment programs, children's sporting events, "think tanks," tutoring for immigrants, races for disease of the week, and any number of do-gooder programs that are politically or religiously slanted and ultimately dance to the government's wishes. Let's get the government out of our cupboards, churches, sporting events, and arts organizations and make those boards, trustees and CEOs earn their own money and stop using ours.

COWS Fall Festival of Paintings

Sunday afternoon we went down to German Village to enjoy the opening of the Central Ohio Watercolor Society Fall Festival of Paintings. It is a lovely show, in a delightful environment--Caterina Ltd., which sells French, German, Italian and other European ceramics and linens.



The COWS show is on the third floor. On the second floor is a show by a photographer, Debbie Rosenfeld, who worked in the World Trade Center until 9/11. She and her husband started their lives over here in Columbus and I thought her use of black and white with some color was quite stunning.

Caterina is a wonderful place to beginning your early Christmas shopping, either selecting from their quality pieces of hand painted items (I have some Polish hand painted coffee cups I purchased there last year, and when I have my morning coffee I apologize to Poland), their nativity scenes, or the art from individual local artists and groups.

On writing memories

I don't do as much as I used to--hard to do it without involving other people whose memories differ, and also there just wasn't that much going on in my life--married to the same guy for 49 years, lived here for 42 years, not many hobbies, most really big questions are settled, career moves and events are becoming a bit dim and more removed from the high tech environment of today. I have 40 years of letters to my parents, but really, they were just early unformed blogs. But. . . today. . . a comment.

About 3 years ago I did a Monday Memories about Heritage Lake, Indiana, and today got a nostalgic response. That’s one of the nice things about blogging. You never know who is going to find the entry or when. Other oldies that seem to get a lot of interest are boy paper dolls, Roger Vernam, children’s book illustrator, Halls of Ivy (the song and radio show), the Cimarron toilets, and of course, the old stand-by fixing a broken zipper. Last night at book club someone told me she'd flagged one of my blogs about my mother (a letter she wrote to a friend as a teen-ager when the family had gone west), and when the flag box filled up she finally read it and enjoyed it. From that she got to my sewing patterns blog, which is basically all memories since I no longer sew.

I don’t know what affect having no labeling will have on people finding me by accident through Google or Yahoo. For a long time, Blogger didn’t have a label function, and now it does, and suddenly without warning they’ve imposed a limit of 2000 labels. So unless I want to go back and delete labels, I can’t use that feature.

Label: blogging, memories

Gaspard, ACORN and the Big Reveal

Move that BUS!

"With the revelation that White House Director of Political Affairs, Patrick Gaspard, has close ties to Bertha Lewis and to ACORN, Matthew Vadum and Erick Erickson appear to be onto something significant. While the Gaspard matter needs further investigation before we form any hard conclusions, it certainly seems to confirm that President Obama’s ties to a whole series of ACORN-controlled organizations are neither minor nor by any means long-past. In fact, making use of what Erickson and Vadum have discovered about Gaspard, we can trace these links still further." Please leave rude and disbeliving comments at NRO The Corner

Politico, the blog for gob-smacked Obamatites, doesn't like the research of Matthew Vadum, but I think he's one of the best on the internet. He's a senior editor at Capital Research Center, a Washington, D.C. think tank that studies the politics of philanthropy. When you follow the money, you just never know what will turn up. Here's a good one on ACORN's lawyer. Here's the memo he mentions.


Note: Label in blogger is currently not working.
Labels: Patrick Gaspard, ACORN, Capital Research Center,

Funny moment during a sad event

My husband and I were drafted into ushering at a funeral the other night at our church. The congregation was going to be asked to sing (some rather unsingable tunes as it turned out), so the pastor asked us to suggest that people sit near the front, close to the family members. My husband speaks softly, and to be kind, sometimes I can't understand him. He said to one couple, 70-ish, "We're requesting that you sit near the front." "What'd he say?" the husband whispered to the wife, and she responded, "He said crazy people should sit near the front." I overheard this and saw her rolling her eyes, so I darted up the aisle and repeated the correct instructions.

Ohio Pro-Life event

"Many local churches and anti-abortion groups will take part in Life Chain events on Sunday, Oct. 4.

Supporters will line up along East Stroop Road in Kettering from 2 to 3:30 p.m. and form a line nearly 2 ½ miles in length.

This national, annual event draws 1,800 people from more than 70 area churches and organizations in the Miami Valley each year." Dayton Daily News

A sadness too big to measure

I was delighted to run into my old art class buddy at the book shop today. The class dissolved about 3 years ago, and so the three of us who used to go to lunch together, or enjoy an occasional afternoon movie or art show, had lost touch. After the hug--No, she wasn't painting anymore, Yes, her husband was doing better, and did I know her 52 year old daughter died this summer. I almost couldn't catch my breath. They were preparing to go spend a few days with her, to provide transportation to and from surgery, and keep her company, and then got the call. Irregular heart rate--I think she'd been scheduled for an ablation. My friend had returned to the central Ohio area over 30 years ago to care for her own mother, and I think she had some comfort as she entered her 80s that her daughter was just in the next state. Now it's the numbing grief plus the insecurity. All the whys and what ifs. They will be moving to Pennsylvania to be nearer their son.

Fast and fluttery are more serious than slow. If like me, you've always had an irregular heart rate (shortness of breath, fatigue, dizziness and lightheadedness), and you've learned to live with it, or just wait till it goes away, it's not a heart attack you need to fear, but a stroke. I'm always surprised when I read that A-fib is not life threatening; it certainly was for my friend's daughter. When the rhythym is restored and the electrical charge reconnects, there may be a clot waiting to be pushed through.

This chance encounter today was a kick in the pants for me to have mine checked again. Technically, my ablation didn't work--all the pulmonary veins around my heart had been doing it wrong so long, they just ignored the fact that the extra circuit was dead and gone. It's time to stick that 30-day monitor back on. Yuk.

Do what you can; let God do what you can't

That's what Blake Haxton said, a Freshman at OSU this fall who had both legs amputated in the spring.

Blake Haxton's story is amazing. In the spring his legs were amputated to save him from necrotizing fasciitis (flesh eating bacteria); he was not expected to live. His doctor said he'd never seen anyone that sick who had survived. Although the Haxtons were not members of our church, many days our whole community was praying for him and his family because teens in our community knew him through school and sports. His father has a journal at The Caring Bridge, and on Sept. 23 reported that Blake had entered OSU as a Freshman. The faith of the family has been an inspiration to all.

I haven't been able to embed it, but here's an Interview with Blake's Dad.