Would you call this a hate crime?

"Richmond, California (CNN) -- Investigators say as many as 20 people were involved in or stood and watched the gang rape of a 15-year-old girl outside a California high school homecoming dance Saturday night.

Police posted a $20,000 reward Tuesday for anyone who comes to them with information that helps arrest and convict those involved in what authorities describe as a 2½-hour assault on the Richmond High School campus in suburban San Francisco."

I only ask if it's a hate crime, because we know unless she's a lesbian, it won't be called that. Singling out some forms of evil as "hate" because the victims are members of a specific, protected group is just dumb and intended to increase tensions between groups. I don't know if the victim was black, white or Hispanic (the two female friends of the victim who spoke at a news conference about it were white), but we know if she were an African American and the attackers white, it would be called a hate crime. I think the "boys" are all Hispanic and black (some have been identified and charged as adults; photos showed relatives).

Update: "As horrendous as the allegations against the young men are, there is an even greater shock in revelation that the multiple raping took place outside, in an open area, with at least a dozen onlookers and an untold number of people passing by. Because the gang rape of the 15-year-old girl outside Richmond High School wasn't just the fevered sexual attacks of young men, it was a time-consuming two-and-a-half-hour ordeal where they beat, brutalized, raped, and even robbed the victim. And not one among them bothered to call the police or inform someone in authority.

Not one.

But they did find time to go in and out of the homecoming dance, according to Melissa McEwan at Shakesville, taking place at the time and inform others, who came out and watched and/or participated as well. It was not until after the incident ended, when someone overheard others talking about it, that a phone call was made to Richmond Police that something had occurred." AC Content

Counting on igorance

Dan Kennedy in Dumb and Dumber by Choice begins by pointing out that reading is down 20% in the last 25 years and that 40 million Americans don't read, can't read or won't read, and that most of the people who voted for Obama didn't read his books in which he outlined his socialist beliefs and anti-American plans. Nor does Congress read it's own legislation before it votes.

"This past week, some clowns in Congress proposed a tax credit of up to $3,500 a year for pet owners. It was reported as something amusing by the media. But is it funny – or frightening? Doesn’t it speak to the confidence our Royalty in Washington has about the ignorance and stupidity of the peons they rule? As does Obama’s proposed $250.00 bribe to seniors, the asinine contention that they will magically take $500-billion from Medicare without cutting the benefits it delivers, the even more asinine assertion that the near trillion dollar costs of the new socialized medicine plan will be offset by savings from stopping fraud and waste in the already existent, smaller socialized health care plan. These are all the very same kind of insults to intelligence.

All these insults display the same run-amok arrogance. The same power mad abuse of authority. The same contempt for you and me. They have decided that more than enough of us are ignorant idiots, easily pacified with empty promises and a piece of candy, happy to be done with all responsibility to think, busied with funny videos on YouTube and 146-character Tweets and X-Box and ordering complicated drinks at Starbucks. They know that five times as many people watch the climactic episodes of “American Idol” than watch TV news programs, let alone read a newspaper and news magazines. They know that more people participate in fantasy football leagues on one Sunday than watch “Meet the Press” in a year of Sundays. They are certain of – and rely on – the growing ignorance of the American public."

The $8,000 fraud for beginners

And it wasn't entrapment. It's as though the government really intended the $8,000 housing credit to be so easy to steal. Not since we saw Katrina "victims" shopping at high end stores for designer purses have we seen such chaos in a government program. According to testimony:

• 19,000 filers for the $8,000 tax credit hadn't purchased a home
  
• 74,000 filers (for $500 million in credits) weren't first time buyers
  
• The refundable tax credit was even for those who don't pay any taxes
  
• Required very little documentation
  
• 53 of the criminal filers were IRS employees [following in Geithner's footsteps?]
  
• Congress plans to extend this abusive, wasteful, chaotic plan. . .because?
  
• It costs $1 billion a month, $15 billion so far this year
  
• It drives capital into homes instead of other investments which could help restore the economy
  
• It hasn't boosted sales--most of the buyers (the honest ones) would have bought a home anyway
  
• It delays housing prices returning to "normal"

See today's Wall Street Journal for confirmation.

Oh, and that IRS employee story? Broken by Fox Business channel.

Write what you know

And David Myers certainly knows about prisons--he worked in corrections for 30 years. He and his daughter Elise have authored his second title for Arcadia Press, Central Ohio's Historic Prisons. Here’s the story.

We spent a lot of time in Ohio prisons back in the 70s, following a friend around for visiting hours on Sunday afternoons when our children were small. Most recently we added a fourth to our list when we participated in a closing ceremony at Marion for Kairos.

The Myers family belongs to UALC, and is active in many arts projects and local theater, Dave having written a history of the local music scene, Columbus; the musical crossroads.

Do you really want to invite Chicago in when you’re viewing Picasso and Matisse?

“James Cuno, president and director of the Art Institute of Chicago, walks us through the Museum's Renzo Piano-designed Modern Wing. He explains how the addition, a "luminous box" that opened in May, creates optimal conditions for viewing art.”

I like the old Museum. I prefer that museum design not distract from the art. Don’t care much for scrims, flying carpets and curtain walls. Let’s see if this holds up for a hundred years.

The photo album

Last night I e-mailed a photographer from Wisconsin asking permission to use his photo as a reference for a painting, and he graciously responded OK (very interesting photos from all over the world). Then I decided I needed a special folder for this, because I ask and then forget where I saved them. When I changed computers about a year ago, my e-mail didn't transfer. Sooo....one thing led to another and I started moving other files--it began to take on a life of its own--like when I clean my real office. Then I came across this story, written in November 2004 for NaNoWrMo. When I write fiction, I have no middle or ending in mind, only the first sentence, so I wrote what came to mind, saved it, and didn't reopen it for five years. At this point, the inspiration is gone, but here it is.

Paula Bearfoot. I knew her the minute I saw the old photos glued to the page of the crumbling scrapbook laid out on the table at the reunion. I’d seen her photo a few times back in 1959, and the scrapbook was from the 50s--the kind with the ugly black paper. Something like a shoestring provided the flimsy binding.

How prissy the girls all looked then in black and white glossies, caught and preserved by a little Brownie Kodak. Neat, straight, pencil thin wool skirts, a short sleeve sweater with stitching on the sleeves, a white collar “dickey,” and white anklets in saddle shoes. What pride they took in their appearance. Oh, the wasted hours in front of the mirror. Leafing through the album, I realized somewhat belatedly that teen-agers weren’t fat then, they didn’t wear jeans when trying to impress guys, and they wore way too much lipstick. I looked around the room. Times had certainly changed. Fat mamas, all. Pale lips. At least no jeans.

P-B they called her. With a name like Bearfoot, she probably got a lot of questions. I mean, I would’ve asked--if I’d known her. What do you suppose she answered? Did she make up something clever or tell the truth? Did anyone ever hear the truth from PB? She was my husband's steady. Even at the reunion, he heard of yet another guy who had dated “his” girl. Even after 40 years, I felt just a little sorry for him.

No one had seen her since college. No one knew where her family had moved. Did she even finish college? Occasionally, letters were read at these every decade affairs. No one seemed to remember exactly what they said when I inquired, discreetly of course. She was a social worker. She was a lawyer. She was a secretary. She’d never married. She married three times. Her step-daughter was in the Clinton administration. Her sister had drowned in Hawaii. She lived in Maine. She lived in Arizona. The stories were told in such an off-hand, quasi-authoritative way, I just gave up.

The guy who owned the photo album looked carefully at her pictures. “I think I dated her,” he said, “or maybe her sister. June? Julie?” (371 words)

And that's all I wrote. NaNoWrMo should have been a natural for me, but it means writing on command (it's sort of a contest to write a novel in one month), and nothing will kill my inspiration like someone telling what, when, where or how to write.

The Grayson Cavuto interview March 31

I'm glad Cavuto replayed this one tonight. When I saw Grayson do his "Republicans want you to die" shtick for all the world to see, I thought, "Where have I seen this clown before?" Because Cavuto held his feet to the fire asking for specifics on salary caps (which he could not supply) he called Cavuto rude. No wonder Washington doesn't like Fox commentators--they ask those tough questions.

89% of Americans are satisfied with their health care

That was the findings of a study done by ABC News/USA Today/Kaiser Family Foundation poll in September 2006. Obama assured Americans that if they liked their health insurance, they could keep it, and as we've watched these huge, multiple bills overwhelm the legislators and the public's ability to understand, we've learned that there's no way that can happen. Either we'll be taxed more if the plan we like is better or covers more than someone else's, or our employer will drop our plan because something cheaper is available from the government. The latest ploy from Reid is for states to "opt out" of the public option. Oh yes, calling it something other than public option is also a plan (Pelosi).

Let's take another look at that 2006 poll, and ponder why health care "reform" became number one on Obama's agenda, so important that he even had to put our troops in danger in a war that he said was more important than Iraq (during his campaign). Why was it so urgent when 89% of the people were happy with their health care, and even 70% of the uninsured were satisfied with their health care and nothing would happen for four years?

A survey conducted jointly by the Kaiser Family Foundation, ABC News and USA Today, released in October 2006, found that 89 percent of Americans were satisfied with their own personal medical care, but only 44 percent were satisfied with the overall quality of the American medical system. . . .

Those with recent serious health problems, possibly the people with the best knowledge of how health care is working, were generally the most satisfied. Ninety-three percent of insured Americans who had recently suffered a serious illness were satisfied with their health care. So were 95 percent of those who suffered from chronic illness. . . .

70 percent of the uninsured who indicated their level of satisfaction said they were either "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with their health care, and only 17.5 percent said they were "very dissatisfied." . . .

"It is a common finding in public opinion research," Henry Aaron, a senior fellow for economic studies at the Brookings Institution, told FOXNews.com. "People are satisfied in the small, but dissatisfied in the large. People are satisfied with their child's teachers or school, but dissatisfied with schools generally.... They are satisfied with their doctor or their last visit to the hospital, but they are dissatisfied with what they perceive is happening with medical care as a whole. This finding is just one additional example." . . .

A majority of the uninsured are not desperately poor; about 60 percent of them have personal incomes over $50,000 per year and pay out of their own pockets when necessary, rather than paying for insurance. Others manage to obtain care at highly discounted rates as charity cases.

But there are two other reasons why most uninsured are satisfied: About 14 million of the "uninsured" qualify for Medicaid, and pre-existing conditions do not exclude people from joining the government program. As a result, many who are eligible for Medicaid wait until they need care to register, so they are effectively insured at all times even when they are not formally enrolled in the program.

In addition, once those who are already effectively covered by Medicaid are excluded, nearly 70 percent of the remaining uninsured are without insurance for less than four months. The large majority may be uninsured for such short periods of time that being uninsured is never relevant for their ability to get health care. Summary here.

His reasons for "reforming" the health care that most of us are happy with, even the uninsured, are his own.

1) He wants, needs and craves, a signature event for his first year--a bauble for his first Christmas in the White House.

2) It's a critical step in taking all other freedoms away from the American people, particularly the massive computerization of records that he wants. It will make the Patriot Act look like a drop in the ocean.

3) It's a huge industry--something like 1/6th of the economy, $2.2 trillion in 2007. It will only temporarily satisfy his voracious quest for power, however.

4) Socialized medicine is the hallmark of all socialist countries--he can't drag us kicking and screaming in that direction without that notch on his belt and he can't be a global leader/czar/dictator without proof he's up to the challenge.

The updated enemy list--Glenn Beck

There's a not-so-scary, but very long hit piece on an associate of Glenn Beck in the Washington Post today. Isn't it amazing. Afghanistan and Pakistan Muslims are killing each other at an alarming rate, Obama fiddles or plays golf and jets around the country doing a little of this, a little of that preparing for the 2012 and 2016 campaign, and Jason Horowitz consumes time, money, trees and pixels, talking about a former disc jockey's PR person. Beck has offended the Obama White House by asking questions Horowitz should have asked, pointing out the Marxists on staff, the regulator czars, and the "fundamental transformation" Obama promised us days before his inauguration. But instead of doing his job, he does the bidding of the White House to look for dirt about Beck. You can almost see Axelrod snarling--"I don't care if you have to go through his grade school transcripts. Find me something I can use!" I looked through the Horowitz article, and it's about as alarming as the Carville marriage--a liberal and conservative cooperating. The leftist media, steadily losing in readership, subscriptions, and viewership, have tried attacking Beck from every possible angle--his religion, his addictions, his family, his sponsors (which weasled out under pressure from leftist pressure groups), so now it's moving on to any one close to him. Look out, Stu.

Thomas Sowell--would you have believed it a year ago?

"Just one year ago, would you have believed that an unelected government official, not even a Cabinet member confirmed by the Senate but simply one of the many "czars" appointed by the president, could arbitrarily cut the pay of executives in private businesses by 50% or 90%?" Actually, I was calling him a Marxist long before last October, so I'm not surprised with anything except the speed of the collapse. And that so many of you who voted for Obama continue to wear blinders. Read the rest of his column.

Norma's plan for wealth and security--at your expense

This may look a little ragged---I sketched it out in about 10 minutes at the coffee shop this morning and I only have a little time before I leave for exercise class, but here's a reasonable draft. If you follow this, you'll be set for life with a very comfortable income with lots of perks, plus you'll feel so good about doing good.

1) Bring together a group of like minded friends--in your home would be best--for coffee and dessert.

2) Present a "problem" or "need"--could be anything you've noticed and tsk tsk'd about.

Maybe water use on the OSU golf course

wild life in the creek that runs through the neighborhood

non-native species, birds or plants, taking habitat and changing the ecology

roaming homeless people who show up in the community riding the bus from down town

no afterschool social programs or latch key for autistic children

be creative!

3) Everyone shares their "rolodex"--who we know, our neighbors, friends, members of city council, members of the state legislature or regulatory boards, boards of directors of non-profits, boards of trustees at the university and colleges we attended, department chairs at OSU, members of local Chamber, Rotary, Lions, etc.

4) Plan a fund raiser--maybe a silent auction, a "run for awareness," or a tent at a larger community festival, art show, or school event. This not only raises money but broadens your base of support--you need more people to feel invested emotionally and mentally in your plan.

5) Write your mission and vision statement/plan; open a bank account; rent a P.O. box for an address; appoint officers. I, of course, will be at the top. Find recognizable names and appoint a board that won't have to do anything except have their names displayed. Make sure one of your volunteers is a lawyer. You'll need a charter and organizing document. Apply for 501 C 3 non-profit status for your organization (charity, scientific, save animals, etc.). After you get this, it's doubtful anyone will check on you in the future, unless you do something screwy, like appear on the Glenn Beck show or dance nude in front of the city building.

6) Apply for grants from local foundations. Grant writing is an art--so you'll want to find a member in your group that has some experience in this. I used to do this, but it was years ago, so you won't ask me.

7) Using that small amount of grant money you can do a marketing campaign, pay for a professionally designed web "presence" and offer one or two educational events (again, this isn't for information, but for broadening your base of support). Get your little group on facebook and Twitter. Blog it to death. So far, you've not saved a single bird, or drop of water, or plant, but it takes a lot of money and time to gear up for the big reveal.

8) Reevaluate your mission, members and message. Redesign to become "green,", "sustainable," or "eco-something." No matter what your original concern was, this step is absolutely critical for further funding.

If you chose wildlife, you can expand to deer killed on the interstate, and you know what that means--big bad SUVs and semi's slurping up petroleum products shipped here from the middle east making us oil dependent so we need more wind mills to save the deer and stop the war in the middle east. See how easy it is to grow?

If you chose afterschool programs for autistic children, you can branch into investigations of products, healthy foods, anti-vaccine campaigns, or any of the larger health care concerns. There are lots of people on this band wagon, so it's a little dicey--not as safe as energy needs.

9) Apply for major funding and gifts--national foundations (there are thousands of these set up by rich entreprenuers to protect their wealth and run 2 generations later by feel-good, guilt-ridden descendants), state grants (which come from and are laundered from the federal) and federal grants when you're ready. There are thousands--most with very little oversight until the next administration comes in, so now's a good time.

10) Put me (or you) and your BBF BFF (a BBF was a local hamburger) on salary--nothing flashy--maybe $75-80,000 a year with full benefits. This is all covered in the 501 C 3 instructions. You don't want to raise any red flags. But make it comfortable. It's the perks that come from the travel to conferences and meetings in exotic locales, the schmoozing with other movers and shakers, and all those great connections for home loans, investment opportunities and good deals at wholesale that really make this job pay.

I don't want you to think I was smart enough to think this up on my own. No, I just read an interesting history of a non-profit in their latest annual report, and this is how the Ohio Housing Trust Fund went from a rag tag group of volunteers with no budget 20 years ago to a constitutionally backed budget of $56 million in the 2008-2009 Ohio Biennium Budget. Or you can follow and back track any group linked to Fannie Mae, whose front man is Barnie Frank. Just now I googled, "affordable house" + Fannie Mae + grants and found an amazing group of attractive annual reports. Go to it--I have to run to class.

CNU--Another non-profit seeking to change you

The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization is the leading organization promoting walkable, neighborhood-based development as an alternative to sprawl. Not the nanny state exactly, but certainly one of the nagger earth groups. Many of these same building and design career groups gave us urban sprawl and mile after mile of cul-du-sacs and congested feeder roads 30-50 years ago. Now they’re unhappy with it, want you to move back down town, and walk every where. Good luck!

"CNU takes a proactive, multi-disciplinary approach to restoring our communities. Members are the life of the organization – they are the planners, developers, architects, engineers, public officials, investors, and community activists who create and influence our built environment, transforming growth patterns from the inside out, and making it easier for people to live healthy lives. Whether it's bringing restorative plans to hurricane-battered communities in the Gulf Coast, turning dying malls into vibrant mixed-use neighborhoods, or reconnecting isolated public housing projects to the surrounding fabric, new urbanists are providing leadership in community building.

Our relationship with our members allows us to do more than just talk about the problems of the built environment. Together, we are creating tools that make it easier to put New Urbanism into practice around the world.

CNU advocates the restructuring of public policy and development practices to support the restoration of existing urban centers and towns within coherent metropolitan regions. We stand for the reconfiguration of sprawling suburbs into communities of real neighborhoods and diverse districts, the conservation of natural environments, and the preservation of our built legacy.

Rebuilding neighborhoods, cities, and regions is profoundly interdisciplinary. We believe that community, economics, environment, health and design need to be addressed simultaneously through urban design and planning."

Oh, and it is also an international movement and very, very green--asking for lots and lots of money from the government (that's your tax money) to tear down, and start over.

Key words to look for in this movement are: sustainable, targeted, mixed use, proximity, access, mixed income, self-sufficiency, community, transect-zones, pedestrian friendly, green-space, job-creation, transportation reform, housing mix, smart growth, street design alternatives, low-carbon--think a 1930s movie about a fantasy 19th century city--no cars, happy people chatting on street corners, and ordering from the butcher personally. Or the setting for the Huxtable townhouse on the Bill Cosby TV show in the mid-1980s.

Just remember, these are the people who just 25-30 years ago brought us urban centers that looked like cereal boxes in a row, empty pedestrian malls in cities to bring shoppers down town, shops and boutiques in renovated factories, and here in Columbus, we got the fabulous City Center, just about 20 years ago which is now slated for demolition. Here in suburban Upper Arlington we've got one of these "mixed-use" complexes about 2 miles down the road that looks totally inappropriate, with about 10% occupancy because of the recession, across from a mall that they are bulldozing and rebuilding.

Obscene profits of health insurance companies?

President Obama, July 22: "Now, you know, there had been reports just over the last couple of days of insurance companies making record profits. Right now, at the time when everybody’s getting hammered, they’re making record profits and premiums are going up."

Speaker of the House, Pelosi, July 27: “I’m very pleased that our Chair of our Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and member of the leadership will be talking too about the immoral profits being made by the insurance industry and how those profits have increased in the Bush years. We all believe in the profit motive; we all want to reward success. But having that success come at the expense of America’s working families — have that success come by withholding care, when a person becomes ill, is just not right and we’re going to take this issue in a new direction."

Don't you just want to weep over those immoral, record profits--and yet they are 86th measured by profit margin. There are 85 industries more profitable than Health Care Plans (includes Cigna, Aetna, WellPoint, HealthSpring, etc.). So who will they go after next? The brewery business? #1 is Brewers at 25.9%--no wonder Obama tried to cover his mistakes by inviting the guys over for a beer. #15 is railroads. #31 at 7.1 is cleaning products! Auto parts stores is 5.8 for slot 53--not even close to health insurance. Hospitals are #77. August 12, Carpe Diem

Fox News Ratings Soar After Snub From Obama

After Anita Dunn went after Fox News (and her admiration for Mao was revealed), the ratings on Fox soared. The top 11 shows are on the Fox News Channel. Why do you suppose that is? For starters, they present more than 24/7 ONO, the Obama News Only (pronounced Oh No!). In fact, with their commentators, there are usually 2, 3, or 4 points of views. But liberals are so ga-ga over their gotta-get-over-the-guilt candidate (who just keeps campaigning), they think anyone who questions him or his programs must be evil and shut down. The same people who went bonkers over the Patriot Act (which was bipartisan and intended for terrorists) have no problem at all shutting down a news agency and sending out thought police under the guise of "hate speech" regulations.

HT Silicon Alley Insider

President Obama wants to hear from you

Really. He said so many times. Not all blacks voted for him. Not all gays are liberals. Not all women are feminists. Not all Hispancis crossed the border in this century. Not everyone at the tea parties were Republican retirees. He says you should speak out, you should effect change, so JUST DO IT!!

Here are the president's words, and a link where you can go to write a letter to your local papers (based on your zip code) so you don't have to reenter the information several times.

“I have always said that I don’t think that the LGBT [insert your group here] community should take its cues from me or some political leader in terms of what they think is right for them. Real change comes from the bottom up, not the top down. As your President, I will fight to make LGBT equality a reality at the federal level. But it is the LGBT community [insert your name, family, group, church here] that has to decide what is in their best interest, and to help make it happen by engaging actively with the political process.”
Barack Obama, April 30, 2008


"This is what change looks like when it happens from the bottom up. And in this election, your voices will be heard.

Because at a time when so many people are struggling to keep up with soaring costs in a sluggish economy, we know that the status quo in Washington just won’t do. Not this time. Not this year. We can’t keep playing the same Washington game with the same Washington players and expect a different result – because it’s a game that ordinary Americans are losing….

The politics of hope does not mean hoping things come easy. Because nothing worthwhile in this country has ever happened unless somebody, somewhere stood up when it was hard; stood up when they were told – no you can’t, and said yes we can."
Barack Obama, February 13, 2008


". . . it’s so important that you continue to speak out, that you continue to set an example, that you continue to pressure leaders — including me — and to make the case all across America.
Barack Obama, October 10, 2009

Let's take him at his word. He wants us to speak up, stand up, demand no more same old, same old, from corrupt, pork crazed, deficit deranged politicians!

Then go to this link, it's extremely easy to fill out your message to your local papers, (it's Obama's own website) and be clear, specific and polite.

Here's mine--and I think I clicked on the Columbus Dispatch, WSJ and USAToday. Whether their editors are honoring these, I don't know. But it certainly is easier than contacting each one and trying to figure out different templates. It has a preview before you send, with an easy editing feature. Of course, Obama will have your home address and e-mail, . . . but oh well, did you think he wouldn't know?

Easy solutions for fixing health care [subject line you fill in]

[Message] Our system will work much better if competition across state lines is included in the plan. Once we eliminate the fraud from Medicare and Medicaid we will have a template for reform; but let's not add to that plate until we've cleaned it up. People in this country illegally are breaking the law and should not be eligible for any plan, not employers, not public option. The government should not be silencing people who have alternative views any more than it should be taking over private businesses and running them. And that includes insurance companies, car companies, banks, small businesses, large businesses. That's statism, and it's not the hope and change Americans voted for. Also, Democrats and Republicans both seem much too cozy with lawyers and don't want to consider tort reform. Why is that?

Also, legislators who have broken laws--ethics or tax--should be excluded from the process until they are cleared.

Only about 10% of our citizens are without health care in any given week/month. That's probably about the number who also want vaccines. When we get the vaccine campaigns correct without fear, scare tactics and declared national emergencies, maybe we can move to larger targets.

A generation that applauds for death panels

Last night Glenn Beck looked into the camera (wearing glasses) and reminded us there is a generational divide in support of the take over of America's health system, of the generation that is supporting the President's health plan. They applauded Robert Reich in 2007 when he spoke at Berkeley about how elders were not going to be treated because it is too expensive. Beck read to us a letter from a reader of Time magazine about their cover story on him. It truly was chilling.

"I had to wait through eight years of an administration that brought this country to the brink. Frankowski should sit down quietly while the rest of us get to the task of cleaning up Bush's mess. Besides, this health-care debate isn't about those over 30; it's about the millions of uninsured, recently graduated young people saddled with loans we can't imagine paying off, who are sick and tired of living in an abyss created by our elders' stupidity. Obama would be smart to focus on college towns. Step aside, grandma. We want health care and we want it now."

Today I came across a blog, SanityRanch.com no longer active, where the last item written Aug. 22, 2008, was this:

I just received my eldest daughter’s senior year yearbook from Pomona High School, Arvada CO. I am at the moment shaking as I write this post. The yearbook, cover to cover, bears a font which would be perfect on a slasher-flick poster. It’s a Halloween font, with every single letter dripping black blood. Every page, every header, and to cap it off every single child’s name in the baby picture section. MY child’s name, right there above her angelic smiling toddler face, dripping black blood.

This is the result of a generation of children raised with time-outs. This is the result of a teenaged yearbook staff allowed to run the entire process without adult supervision. This is the result of a generation of kids being raised in what has been described as a culture of death. Names above baby pictures, dripping blood.

The kind of thing people like Michael Schiavo, and nearly the entire nation of Denmark and the state of Oregon, might just approve of.

Traumatized, shocked, appalled. And thinking quite seriously if litigation.

My daughter’s senior memories, dripping black blood.

Long before Glenn Beck was even at Fox, she certainly knew about this generational divide.

Is it H1N1, just regular flu or a cold?

There are reports that any flu patient seen by a hospital or doctor is being reported as having H1N1, which could account for the numbers in the latest crisis the government is promoting. A few days ago CBS reported in a month's long investigation, state-by-state results of tests for H1N1 found that most cases were negative. (Remember, never waste a crisis--Rahm Emanuel) Although why, during the health care push Obama would want to emphasize how ineffective and chaotic this drive to get people vaccinated is, I can't imagine. If they can't handle this, how will they handle 300 million? In Columbus, you can't even get the regular vaccine, and people stand in line for hours on a rumor for H1N1. Anyway, I looked it up, and maybe this is just another urban legend, but here's what I found, and I think I've read this before.

"H1N1 is a type of viruses, comprising dozens different strains. No specific strain was ever shown to be the cause of this particular new swine flu, chiefly because it was never shown to be present in all the cases, then or now. But from the outset, the national media was counting all these numbers as cases of the disease even there was no verifiable method for specifically identifying the disease. Without a screening test, the cases were being diagnosed by symptoms only. This is precisely what happened with the nonexistent Avian flu of 4 years ago. [5] If we're diagnosing by symptoms only, then any case of any flu can be counted. And that's exactly what has happening here all along with swine flu."

No longer than these vaccines have had to be developed and the short time to be proven effective, we're essentially testing them on children! Another doctor says there has been no testing since July--so why are these being counted as H1N1 if no one knows?

The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

Will Obama attack them too, or are they protected from his anger and ire because of their Spanish surnames? The web site of the El Paso Chamber (all in English, incidentally). According to today's WSJ wealthy Mexicans are migrating to El Paso in the largest number since the revolution of 1910. Link. Murder has exploded in Juarez, now at 300 a month (Isn't that more than Iraq and Afghanistan?). Even the non-rich need body guards to stay in business, so they are moving to El Paso.

Cindy Ramos-Davidson, chief executive of the El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said her staff was swamped with requests from Juárez businesspeople wanting to settle in El Paso. They started more than 200 companies in the 12 months ended July 31, a 40% jump from the same period last year.

WalMart believes Moms don't watch Beck

On October 9 I wrote to Eduardo Castro-Wright of Walmart in Bentonville, AR about pulling advertising from Glenn Beck because of pressure from groups like Color of Change and MoveOn.org. I pointed out that they need a capitalist country if they are going to succeed and advertising with Beck, an old fashioned "muckraker" will help restore our economy (even though he's not a journalist--most of them are either dead or cowed into submission by pressure from special interest groups or the White House). Even though there is a black man in the White House, we Americans are being insulted and called racists by the leftist and marxist groups that support him. So when Obama showed he was one of them--prejudging an entire segment of the country in the Gates incident--Beck called him on it.

Do you know what Walmart wrote back? In an unsigned letter some department called "Executive Communications" wrote a reply very condescending to women, addressing me as "Dear Norma," about my "reaching out to us."

"Our ads are targeted at moms, and fundamentally these ads are about saving people money so they can live better. We buy advertising on shows that run the spectrum politically and socially because we want to be on the programs moms are watching. As our core customer, she is "the boss." At the same time, we want to make sure our commercials don't appear in programs that detract from the message we are trying to deliver."

Wow. Apparently they haven't read any of the conservative, politically astute mommy bloggers that I read. Ladies, I think you have your work cut out for you. Walmart thinks you're not interested in the future of the country. And just where is that "spectrum" of different political and social ideas? Even the comedy and drama series are getting their talking points from the White House. Are the moms only watching football? Gambling? Food channel? Those are the only shows I can think of whose outcomes haven't been influenced by the White House directives to continue campaigning for Obama's take over of health care and the global warming myths.

Also, there's a grammatical error in the first paragraph, but I won't embarrass them by pointing it out on my blog. Also, they seem to think Glenn Beck is a cable "news" show--another mistake. Opinion disguised as news is what Katie Couric and the New York Times do.

Rosie's done one thing right

Her chair. I saw a photo of her today in USAToday doing her Sirius XM radio show on satellite. It appears she's sitting in an Aeron Herman Miller chair. Oh, how I miss mine.

She's irreverent, irrelevant and irritating, but she loves Obama so she won't get get hassled for her opinion by the White House, which only complains about right wing opinions and tries to close them down. She'll probably have Anita Dunn, the Mao-admirer who told high school kids he was an example of choosing your own path in life (not mentioning he was responsible for the deaths of 70 million.) Maybe they could discuss body disposal.