Laughing at the left

'Taint funny, though. Just a few examples here.

"They believe we can spend our way out of debt.

They believe people who have never run a business can run a business better than people who have spent their whole lives running businesses.

They believe that teenage girls who aren't allowed to get even minor cosmetic surgery without a parent's permission should nevertheless be able to procure an abortion without a parent's permission.

They believe it is unconstitutional for a legislature to mention Jesus but perfectly okay to mention Allah.

They believe explicit words in the Constitution protecting contracts, and gun ownership rights, and property rights against government seizure, are to be ignored; but that wholly invented "rights" that cannot be found in any words of the Constitution, but that merely "extend" from "emanations" from "penumbras" of other judicially created "rights," are somehow sacrosanct and essential parts of the Constitution."

No, not funny. And he goes on and on.

Nelson caves

"Sen. Ben Nelson has said he would support the health care bill, all but ensuring that Sen. Harry Reid will be able to secure the 60 votes he needs to set up final passage on Christmas Eve." American Spectator

Blackmail, corruption, bribery (he also gets more Medicaid money), deceit, lies, Chicago thugery, and God know what else--oh yes, no Christmas recess if you don't fall in line. Well, at least the air force base is safe. What a backbone.

Update: There is a rally in Omaha, Nebraska Sunday Dec. 20 demanding Senator Nelson switch his vote back to NO. The rally will be held at the Omaha Music Hall, 17th and Capitol. Doors open at 2 PM. Rally starts at 3 PM. Other participants besides Mike Huckabee will include Congressman Terry, Auditor Foley, Senators McCoy, Fulton, Krist, Price and Lautenbaugh.

Are we at the end of a natural warming period

There are two strong memories from my childhood: the snow was very deep and we were at war most of the time. I was born at the end of a warming blip that had existed during most of the the lifetime of my parents (1916-1940) which was part of a larger trend that began around 1850 after a cold period of several centuries. Whereas their formative years contained memories of dust storms, shriveled crops and nights so hot in Illinois they couldn't breathe, I remember giant snow drifts and winters that seemed to last forever followed by warm, idyllic and pleasant summers. Of course, I was shorter then, so it wasn't that tough to say it was up to my waist. However, another warming blip began in the 1970s, and I can remember driving to Illinois in the winter with our children and not seeing a snowflake. I still remember the summer of 1988--it was so dry and hot in Ohio, the Bruces broke down and bought an air conditioner for our Columbus house, and took a lake cruise to get out of the heat of Lakeside. Now things seem to be getting cooler again with lots of ragged, wild weather around the edges. I wouldn't even think of driving to Illinois in the winter now--the last five years where I grew up have been brutal with deep snow. Here in temperate mid-Ohio we muddle through gray winters as we always have with one or two blizzards a year and then weeks of melting snow drifts. This morning I woke up to the sound of snow plows, but didn't recognize the noise. We may get 2-4" as the northeast is pummeled.

The other memory--that of war--is a reminder that we need to be vigilant. Hitler was marching through Poland (Polenfeldzug) when I was born. I believe our President was trying to work out some sort of "accord." During my youth and right up to the collapse of the USSR, some version of socialism has been the enemy of our republican form of government--either the National Socialism of Hitler, or the Communism of Lenin/Stalin/Mao--both of which chewed up most of Europe and Asia. The other, centuries old absolute loyalty to a monarch, was Japan, now a democracy. This is another thing that is cyclical. Our ignorance and forgetfulness. Socialism doesn't need armored tanks anymore.

Sports and Greed

Recent events in science, politics, national security and the economy have caused many of us to completely lose faith in our so called “free and independent press,” because broadcast and print journalists carried the water for Obama in 2007-2008, downplayed the pinholes in the expanding housing bubble when there was still time to do something, research institutions and gatekeepers of the peer review sources manipulated data and blacklisted colleagues for the sake of government grants and personal gain in science, and cable, new media “fact checkers” and news aggregators played up every mistake of the military during the Bush years while ignoring the big picture with an end result of helping our enemies. The final straw has been the Tiger Woods story, at least for me. Yesterday I was reading How Tiger Protected his Image, in the WSJ. As I tried to work my way through the convoluted, complex story of Tiger’s deal with Golf Digest, I stumbled over many other media sources--Conde Nast, Tiger Woods’ own foundation, American Media, Inc., The National Enquirer, Men’s Fitness, News of the World, News Corp., Woods’ handlers, representatives, photographers, Laveley & Singer law firm in LA, spokespeople, editors, Media Industry Newsletter, and finally (but not the first) the hapless, untipped waitress in the church parking lot and her family.

And no, this isn’t just a story about sex, or even possible redemption, which for some reason many Christian writers are playing up. It’s a story about a systemic problem--greed. When his wife or babies test positive for an STD, then maybe we can say it’s about infidelity and sex, but in the meantime, the sports and information industries have some explaining to do their values.

Obama has led us off the cliff

We've all been wondering--why are they doing this to us?

"This week the president told the nation that we are "on the precipice" of passing historic health care legislation. He could not have chosen a better word, because that's what a majority of readers -- and the American public -- believe: that we're about to plunge into a health care system that is more expensive and offers lower-quality care than what we have now." Byron York

HT Murray

Why I believe in global warming

"The Earth has recently been warming. This is beyond doubt. It has warmed slowly and erratically for a total of about 0.8 degrees C since 1850. It had one surge of warming from 1850 to 1870 and another from 1916 to 1940. The official thermometers suggest the net warming since 1940 is only about 0.3 degrees C. If we correct the thermometer records for the effects of growing urban heat islands, for widespread intensification of land use, and for the recently documented cooling of the Antarctic continent over the past thirty years, the net warming since 1940 would be even less.

Physical evidence from around the world tells us that human-emitted CO2 has played only a minor role in the planet's recent temperature increases. Instead, the mild warming seems to be mostly due to the natural 1,500-year climate cycle (plus or minus 500 years) that goes back at least one million years." (p. 6, Singer and Avery, 2008)

You don't have to read very far into the book Unstoppable Global Warming to see how much and how long we've been manipulated to be fearful and loathing of a natural cycle, or how politicians on the right and left both could take advantage of this. It's not a long book; you don't have to give up believing in global warming. An open mind is all you need--and just a suspicion that man doesn't control the climate but that he does have the capability and technology to relieve the suffering, poverty and pollution he has caused.

Read it for yourself. I'd hate to think Americans are repeating the story of the Vikings who sailed from Iceland to Greenland around 985 finding green pastures and a wonderful, productive land to colonize, only to be starved and frozen out 400 years later when the weather patterns changed, as they had been doing regularly. Now we have technology and science on our side. Or do we?

Let's consider the motivation of the AGW scare mongers. The big three of all ages comes to mind: wealth, power and religion.


Welcome home from the Global Warming conference, Mr. President.

How the government can make you an outlaw

Wendy Williams of Massachusetts writes in the Wall Street Journal

My husband retired from IBM about a decade ago, and as we aren't old enough for Medicare we still buy our health insurance through the company. But IBM, with its typical courtesy, informed us recently that we will be fined by the state.

Why? Because Massachusetts requires every resident to have health insurance, and this year, without informing us directly, the state had changed the rules in a way that made our bare-bones policy no longer acceptable. Unless we ponied up for a pricier policy we neither need nor want—or enrolled in a government-sponsored insurance plan—we would have to pay $1,000 each year to the state.

My husband's response was muted; I was shaking mad. We hadn't imposed our health-care costs on anyone else, yet we were being fined ("taxed" was the word the letter used).

We've spent much of our lives putting away what money we could for retirement. We always intended to be self-sufficient. We've paid off the mortgage on our home, don't carry credit-card debt, and have savings in case of an emergency. We also have a regular monthly income of about $3,000, which includes an IBM pension. My husband, 61, earns a little money on the side, sometimes working as an electronics consultant on renewable energy projects. I'm 58 and make some money writing science books. We are not wealthy, but we aren't a risk of becoming a burden on society either. How did we become outlaws?

Read more how what was supposed to save the middle class from the costs of the uninsured ended up costing every one more and offering less. But then, have you ever known the state or federal government to take over a private industry and then save you money? Wendy concludes, "The mandate in Massachusetts was sold as something that wouldn't penalize people like my husband and me. But those political promises were only good for as long as it took to get the mandate enacted into law." And that's exactly what will happen with Obamacare, which at this time, no one even knows how it reads or what it is, not even the sponsors. "Getterdone--we'll hope 'n change it later" is Reid and Pelosi's motto.

HT Bob C.

EPA targets wrong enemy

We've known for half a century or more that our biggest health problems are self induced--misused sexuality, legal drugs we take voluntarily like cigarettes and alcohol, and overeating. Our personal habits are difficult for the government to control, although it does take a regulatory stance, primarily through taxes, when companies make huge profits from our bad behavior (the diet industry is huge, the "health food" industry massive, smoking cessation remedies are covered by government health plans with little proof they work, big pharma has made a fortune from AIDS and STDs. Now EPA is going after those evil toxins, not for our health, but to kill more industries and put more people out of work.

Despite the ongoing epidemics of cigarette-related disease, novel influenza and obesity, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson is focusing on a very different set of purported health risks: deadly toxins and chemicals in "our bodies." This effort will do nothing to promote public health while raising needless anxiety and spurring expensive, useless regulation and litigation. . .

Administrator Jackson's program is amazingly unscientific--even for the EPA. Since the EPA addresses "risks" that are too small to be measured, and thus not amenable to quantification, they have resorted to ignoring benefits [of chemicals] and assessing only hazards. . .

Even the American Chemistry Council has signed on to EPA's new crusade--squirming to avoid the heavy penalties for non-compliance. Too bad ACC thereby implies that its member companies' products have been poisoning our kids all these years. That isn't the case; nonetheless they now want to be perceived as very sorry, eager to mend their ways and thankful for the EPA's help.

Full story at Forbes.com

What has been accomplished at Hopenchangen?

First, and most importantly, it's another stage for our President who holds the record for a president spending the most time outside the country. I think because he really dislikes America.

Second, an opportunity for Kleptocracies to rattle their sabres.


Third, an excuse to burn fossil fuel and make huge carbon footprints before they outlaw jets, automobiles, and speaking out, all of which emit huge amounts of CO2.

Fourth, a fun time for marxist/socialist/progressive protesters, who all thought their grandparents had all the fun in the 1960s and a free night in jail.

Fifth, Hugo Chavez got a megaphone for Karl Marx.

Sixth, Glenn Beck got to joke about how to pronounce Copenhagen, driving Media Matters crazy because those people are humorless.

Seventh, yet another pulpit for the non-debater, Al "The science is settled" Gore.

Eighth, chance for greenies to attack a polar bear.



Ninth, not to forget why this happened, it showed how bankrupt, silly and meaningless all the climate change hoopla really is, and that it's just another wealth transfer to the pockets of dictators while keeping the poor in desperate poverty in third world countries.

Tenth, and finally, Hopenchangen, by showing the violence and thieving motives of the left really made the tea party people who have been meeting around the country planning to take their country back look even more sensible, well-behaved, strong, intelligent and patriotic.

Our Christmas gift, a new TV

Maybe I'll just put a bow on the new Town and Country minivan we bought 3 weeks ago. We've started (a bit late) researching a 32" flat screen TV for the living room, and by the time our daughter got done explaining LED, LCD and plasma screens, HD, USB ports, resolutions, etc. plus the costs of the various box options from Time-Warner, our eyes had glazed over and our enthusiasm for today's shopping trip to Best Buy had waned. Any suggestions? So far we've compared (on line) Vizio, Sony, Insignia, and Panasonic. The living room set is ca. 1994, the family room ca. 1985. I truly doubt that we can expect that type of longevity from the new models. And you know what? With wearing glasses I hate and falling asleep in the middle of the programs, I'm not sure it matters. Also, we've been told by the cable company that our wiring is bad, but that we have to hire someone to redo it.

I'll accept recommendations and cautions, but no scolding for being lazy slugs who don't like to shop.

Update: We looked at all of them and selected the Sony Bravio 32L5000 and bought the 4 year extended warranty, which usually we don't. However, the life expectancy of today's models aren't even close to our old "fat" models--we have 3 TVs of various sizes from the 1980s, and one from the early 90s. The clerk said 6-8 years for this one. They'll fix it if one or two pixels go bad whereas the company warranty requires much more. We've been less fortunate with the VCR and disc players. We rarely use them and they seem to be a waste of time for us (one was actually stolen in a home burglary in the mid-80s) and then the technology changes. And we still have to call our daughter for instructions each time we turn it on.

Still blaming Bush!

Only now it's his absence! E.J. Dionne Jr. just can't accept the fact that the health bill is just down and dirty awful. Now it's that the Dems don't have their nemesis and hatred to energize and unite them. Mr. Dionne, there's no there there. This is old, rehashed FDR, early 20th century stuff that has driven Europe to its knees. You've elected a Chicago thug-marxist. Don't be fooled by the Wall Street fat cats he hangs with. Marxists don't mind making oodles of money--they're crooks for goodness sake. The American people don't want this socialist stuff. Stop blaming Bush! Obama never intended to restore the economy, only to destroy it.

"For his part, Obama has not appreciated until recently how closely he has been tied to Wall Street and the banks. He has been too reluctant to underscore how much of Washington's dysfunction has been pushed to new levels by the Republican Party's decision to grind the Senate to a halt. He has tried to make clear the size of the mess he inherited from Bush, but has not sold the country on the extent to which he has begun to clean it up.

Americans may not be sold on anything until unemployment starts dropping. Even then, Democrats will have a tough time making the sale if the process that produced the health-care bill comes to define the image of how they govern the country. Democrats have every right to blame Bush for the fix we're in. They can't blame him for the problems they're creating for themselves."

Friday Family Photo--college 1958

In 1958 I tranferred from Manchester College in Indiana to the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana to study Russian and Spanish. It didn't hurt that my high school boyfriend studying engineering was also there. However, that didn't last, but there was a young man from Indiana living about a mile from my dorm, McKinley Hall (owned by the YWCA) in Armory House (privately owned) who was studying architecture. Our first date was for the St. Pat's Ball in 1959. These photos were taken the first day of classes 1958 in the dorm room my husband shared with Lou Wozniak. This was truly Mr. Neat living with Mr. Clean. Looking at these photos I'm guessing there wasn't a pencil or hair out of place. He was about 25 lbs lighter, solid muscle (cross country runner) and had curly red hair.

The ghost of capitalism stalked the Copenhagen scam

That's a loose translation of Chavez' speech.

From the Australian: "Then President Chavez brought the house down.

When he said the process in Copenhagen was “not democratic, it is not inclusive, but isn’t that the reality of our world, the world is really and imperial dictatorship…down with imperial dictatorships” he got a rousing round of applause.

When he said there was a “silent and terrible ghost in the room” and that ghost was called capitalism, the applause was deafening.

But then he wound up to his grand conclusion – 20 minutes after his 5 minute speaking time was supposed to have ended and after quoting everyone from Karl Marx to Jesus Christ - “our revolution seeks to help all people…socialism, the other ghost that is probably wandering around this room, that’s the way to save the planet, capitalism is the road to hell....let’s fight against capitalism and make it obey us.” He won a standing ovation."

Well, if those applauding the demise of our economy want that climate blackmail money, they better hope capitalism isn't a ghost just yet, or they won't get a dime of the billions Hillary has promised them. Marxism is a broke, busted bamboozle that murders its own citizens in every country where it's been tried--maybe 100 million in the 20th century counting China, USSR, Vietnam and North Korea. If Chavez thinks Karl Marx is so great, and capitalism so bad, let him get help and pay offs from Cuba. They're close by. He probably didn't get points ridiculing his buddy, Obama, over the Nobel prize.

However, in a way I have to say that Ahmadinejad and Chavez do have a point. We had it all, and threw it away in our last election by choosing a marxist thug to run a quasi-capitalist economy sinking deep into deficit territory through 70 years of wealth transfers. How smart was that?

Where's our moral right to tell any country how to run its affairs, its industry or its military?

• We have the technology to clean up pollution and to help our neighbors to the south and in Africa both, but not if we let our federal government continue to destroy private business, initiative and free markets. Not if we destroy our fossil fuel industries.
  
  
• We have free elections which Venezuelans and Iranians can only dream about and which would give Chavez and Ahmadinejad nightmares. Yet we reelect the Barney Franks and Harry Reids and wonder why we're in a mess with the White House controlling the Congress.
  
  
• We stay home from the polls and don't object when the left goes to court to aid illegals and the non-registered who were denied the vote.
  
  
• Our president gives away like it was nothing one of our most precious rights--trial by jury--to admitted terrorists who should have been tried by the military tribunals set up by law.
  
  
• We have freedom of religion guaranteed by our Constitution, yet we're fast placing legal muzzles on preachers in the name of gay rights, and our mainline churches are ripping their Bibles to shreds.
  
  
• We're infantilizing huge segments of our population, check any city--Detroit, New Orleans, Cleveland--overrun by helpless poor, and its been run for decades by Democrats, keeping them forever at the bottom, discouraging hope and progress until it's time to vote.

Yes, who do we think we are giving green advice!

Who is behind all this, asks guest blogger Murray

Time Magazine's missed opportunity--photo of the fed up American patriot in Washington DC.
If you’re tired of bad news, I’ll give you some more. I believe we have a behind the scenes enemy with an agenda to destroy our economy--an enemy who has placed Barack Obama in office and is now using him and our legislators to destroy our great country from within. Who, I don’t know, perhaps some form of a secret society. However, if you review the last several years, it leaves little doubt regarding the possibility. This enemy has developed a strategy over many years to create a massive crisis for our great country to bring it down.

Bush and the Republicans were demonized to the point that the people began to hate them. It's still being done every day. If you back a Democrat or Obama into a corner, they start playing the “Blame Bush Game” because they have no other excuse or answer to justify their destruction. I was no Bush fan. I believe that the Bush administration did a lot of things wrong, but the Democrats played a huge role in the downturn of our economy and promoted the excessive spending DURING the Bush Administration and then later turned up the volume as they came into power. They now all deny their participation. Going backwards and blaming Bush solves NOTHING!

Why do I think there is an enemy group behind the scenes? Could one man be this bad all the time all by himself?

1 We have a President who came out of nowhere, who has a questionable background and associations with known communists and who continues those relationships.
2 . . . who signs unread bills laden with PORK after promising to end PORK barrel spending.
3 . . . who constantly blames the previous administration for our economic crisis.
4 . . . who builds his administration with liars, tax cheats and communists.
5 . . . who encourages bribery as a tool to get votes for his agendas.
6 . . . who stymies us with "political correctness".
7 . . . who thinks terrorists and war prisoners should be treated like citizens.
8 . . . who refuses to try to win the wars, puts out timelines for withdrawals and shares our war plans with the enemy.
9 . . . who travels abroad and downplays our great country's past role in the world.
10 . . . who has professed to be Muslim.
11 . . . who has agendas that promise to economically destroy our country.
12 . . . who claims to have created 600,000 jobs when in reality we lost 7 million more.
13 . . . who promotes and finances the activities of SEIU and ACORN and they him.
14 . . . who ignores our Constitution and allows others to do the same in the name of change.
15 . . . who TOTALLY ignores the very citizens that he pledged to work for while they try in every way just to get him to listen to them.
16 . . . who turns a blind eye to illegal immigration.
17. . . who demonizes and attacks anyone who is critical of his actions.
18 . . . who feels the need to constantly campaign to sell his agendas. (While I'm typing this I just seen on TV that Obama is at Home Depot today selling HIS "cash for caulkers" tax credit which is on its 2nd round, but with a new name.)
19. . . who promises us one thing (transparency, for instance) and then does the opposite and lies to the taxpaying citizens on a daily basis.
20. . . who has promoted various hoaxes like Global Warming, Swine Flu, gate crashers, slap the bad guy CEOs hearings, etc., to distract from the damage his administration is trying to accomplish.

All presidents have used some of these tactics and misused their power from time to time, but a watchdog press has been on duty to warn us. Today’s MSM, the mainstream media, are also being controlled by someone. In the past, there has been no group powerful enough to completely control the news. The politicians aren't organized or smart enough. Now there no longer exists any investigative reporting among them. There are only a few outlets for the "behind the scenes" stories that expose what is really happening in our government and to our economy. One being Fox News. ABC, CBS, NBC, all fail to report the facts regarding the destruction taking place every day. All you get from them is a high profile personality with daily drivel. They accept Obama's deception.

The enemy knew there was no way our great country could be taken by force so the way to put it down was the economy. Obama was selected to orchestrate and direct this destruction. They wanted a person that could appear to ride in on his white horse and "save" us from the evil doings of that nasty Bush Administration. The enemy picked a person that could "sell" himself and their agendas. The Democrats were so power hungry that they easily went along with Obamanomics. Besides, it allowed them ample PORK for reelection.

So where are we now and what do we do? Well, if you consider yourself a grass roots taxpayer, middle class or over 65, you're pretty much screwed. Obama, the MSM and the Democrats refuse to listen to the masses. You can call all of them, write to them, e-mail them, march against them and they refuse to respond. The polls all show the masses are not pleased, but the polls get ignored. The grass rooters can say they will just vote them out of office, but the first opportunity isn't until November 2010. While were waiting for that date they are burying us with political correctness, debt., taking away our freedoms, destroying our healthcare, raising our taxes, indoctrinating our children, destroying Social Security and Medicare, devaluing the dollar and expanding their power over us.

Now if you don't think those actions will economically destroy this great country then continue to sit back and relax. Or if you don't think this is what's going on, you could get a job with the MSM and hope you will be able to look your children and grand children in the eye 5 years from now. The unions and community organizers will be doing the same thing in 2010 they did for Obama. They will be hauling anyone that breathes to the polls and falsify registration wherever possible for a Democratic incumbent. Both the Senate and the House voted unanimously to cease funding ACORN but Obama never signed the bill plus a Federal judge in a district court has ruled it UNCONSTITUTIONAL. Also, only about one third of the stimulus money has been spent at this time and that will be released in time for the next election to buy House votes.

Unstoppable global warming

It's waiting for pick-up after I do my mail-run today. There are probably used copies available for sale, but I like to use the public library when I can, since so many of the books I want to read it doesn't buy.

Author: Singer, S. Fred (Siegfried Fred), 1924-
Title: Unstoppable global warming : every 1,500 years / S. Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery.
Call Number: 363.73874 Si, 2008 c. 1
Item Class: 28 Day Circ 10 Cent Fine 1002145441
Hold Expiration Date: 26-DEC-2009
Pickup Location Name: (20000) Lane Road

From the Amazon review: "Since the 1,500 year cycle was discovered in the early 1980's it's general characteristics have been confirmed by measurements in: tree rings (living, preserved and fossilized), pollen, coral, glaciers, boreholes, stalagmites, tree lines, and sea sediments. The most recent cycles have been recorded in human history with forced migrations, starvation, and disease during the cold portion of the cycle and greater population, expanded farm land, greater crop variety, and extra building during the warm portion.

The causes of the 1,500 year cycle are not well understood although 600 of them have been identified in the last million years. This permits us to be relatively confident that we have been moving into the warm phase of the cycle for the last 150 years. It also suggests that we may have one or two degrees more warming if we are to get to the typical high of the warm phase."

If believing that man controls the climate is part of your humanist based religion and it gives you comfort and makes you feel powerful, you probably wouldn't consider reading a broad overview or even entertain the thought that you are probably sitting on a spot formerly covered by a glacier. So, go look somewhere else for comfort.

Visit a Nursing Home Week in Ohio

It's official. Our governor wants us to visit a nursing home this week.

"The department [of aging] created "Visit a Nursing Home Week" to encourage people to look at nursing home residents not as patients with conditions that need care, but as individuals with thoughts and feelings, some of them isolated from the ones they love, who might appreciate some fellowship, particularly during the holidays. With the help of the Office of the State Long-term Care Ombudsman, the department also encourages facilities to design special events during the week to welcome visitors.

"Many nursing home residents have family and friends who visit them regularly," said Strickland. "Others seldom have visitors and some have no one to visit them. Visitors help residents stay connected to the world around them and give them a sense of friendship and belonging. And that's why this week is so important.""

In the 80s when I returned to Illinois to visit my parents, I'd usually drive to Oregon and visit my grandparents at the nursing home. Anyone would have taken in grandma (despite what you read, most frail elderly are cared for by relatives), but grandpa had dementia, and after 70 years of marriage, she thought it best to go with him.

I don't know any churches who don't have volunteers who regularly visit nursing home residents. All levels of government in developing their social programs take their ideas from the churches, whether it's the penitentiaries or the Peace Corps or universities and colleges. In fact, the volunteers are essential for keeping staff and management on their toes because they might notice things (sores, urinary tract infections, missing glasses, wrong dentures, etc.) that staff miss, although it is usually a family member who spots this first. One time when I was volunteering with Kay, a member of our church who'd had an aneurysm at 18, I heard something that sounded like a bird chirping in the next room. Thinking there might be a trapped animal, I went to investigate. It was an elderly woman left alone strangling in the restraints of her wheelchair. I desperately tried to free her, but couldn't lift her, so I ran to get help. The staff didn't seem any too concerned and just ambled down the hall.

But if you do visit, you need a special heart. Ignore the odors; ignore their desire that you be someone else, perhaps long deceased; ignore your own frailties. Also ignore their forgetfulness that makes them believe and say, "no one comes to visit." You probably passed their daughter or spouse or niece in the hall, and they've already forgotten. Twenty-five years ago, I never heard anyone crying out for "daddy," it was always "mommy." Maybe that will be different 20-30 years from now.

When I was in elementary school, one big event of the season was walking over to "the Brethren old folks home" (now Pinecrest, with apartments, duplexes, nursing care and dementia care) to sing Christmas carols. My friend Lynne includes that in her Christmas story at the class reunion blog.

Jane Hamsher's attack on Hadassah Lieberman

Kathleen Parker at WaPo writes about Jane Hamsher’s attack on Mrs. Lieberman, but never calls her out as a leftist radical. Even "progressive," a much too gentle word for her, isn't used. What’s the deal? Parker blames the “new Media,” and the internet, and defines the attack as “anti-feminist” calling Hamsher a “political activist.” Huh? That’s like calling a terrorist a freedom fighter.

Let’s move on to Breitbart’s Big Hollywood for the real Hamsher story.

After cutting her teeth in the business by producing what many feel is the most offensive and degrading main-stream film of the past twenty years (and, some would say, screwing Quentin Tarantino in the process) Hamsher seems to have finally found her calling as a more abrasive, and dangerous version of Arianna Huffington. With her oddly named blog FireDogLake (named after her three favorite things, sitting by the fire with her dog watching Lakers games) she has created a left-wing haven for bloggers not merely content with attacking their opponents with words, but with some serious action.

Hamsher’s latest foray into the realm of on-line coercion is her latest call to arms is against Hadassah Lieberman, wife of Sen. Joe Lieberman (I, CT). Mrs. Lieberman’s crime? She is the wife of a Senator who has proclaimed his opposition to Obama Care. Hamsher is targeting Susan G. Komen for the cure, a breast cancer charity that Mrs. Lieberman serves as Global Ambassador for. . . through her blog and her tangled web of PACs and non-profits she foments rage and builds momentum and loyalty from extremists who read her pages and then targets those readers on behalf of candidates and authors/film makers who are looking to sell to that demographic.

Hamsher's blog is really ugly, and not afraid of telling off the White House. And apparently, she also used to be Andy Stern's (SEIU) girlfriend (isn't there a huge age gap or is he not aging gracefully?), or still is--didn't bother to go that far. That's how she went from just ordinary leftist wet behind the ears to raging, anti-semitic, racist, obscene, violent radical.

Medical slang and acronyms

Some of these are really awful, or disrespectful, or unbelievably gross. Link. A selection:

AALFD - Another A**hole Looking For Drugs

ALS - Absolute Loss of Sanity (nutcase)

BFH - Brat From Hell (usually accompanied by PFH - Parent(s) from Hell)

Blamestorming - apportioning of blame for mistakes, usually to any locum or lowliest medic in sight

Brothelizer test - microbiology test (on swab or sample) requested by the Genito-Urinary Clinic or STD clinic to check for sexually transmitted diseases. A positive test result means the patient has "failed the brothelizer test".

Coffee and a Newspaper - Patient is Constipated (i.e. long time sitting on toilet with drink and reading matter)

COSMONAUT - Cat Owner, Smells, Made Of Nuts And Used Tampons ("mad cat lady" with poor hygiene and body odour)

D&D - Divorced and Desperate (middle aged female who visits doctor weekly just for male attention) Also Death and Donuts--the night shift

Doc In A Box - a small clinic/health centre, with ever-changing staff.

Donorcycle - motorbike: the biggest cause of donated organs! (hence reckless motorcyclists are known as Organ Donors and rainy days are Donation Days)

Dunlap Syndrome - belly done lapped over the waistband; obese (spare tyre, Dunlop being a brand of tire)

FORD - Found On Road Dead

GOLP - Generalised Old Lady Pains

GPH - Goddamns Per Hour

Improving His Claim - Victim of minor accident, needs no treatment but wants something to support his insurance/legal claim.

Janitor's fracture - a fracture so obvious that a janitor (cleaner) could diagnose it

LFTWM - Looking for 3 Wise Men (applied to young pregnant females who deny having had intercourse)

Lipstick Sign - if a female patient is well enough to put on, she is well enough to be discharged

MGM syndrome - Faker putting on a real good show

OFIGATOOS - One Foot In the Grave And The Other One Slipping

Please Optimize Medical Treatment - don't call us until you've done your job first

Pumpkin Positive - a penlight shone into the patient's mouth/ear would encounter a brain so small that the whole head would light up

Qwertyitis - what a doctor suffers from when he spends more time on a computer than with actual patients

Scumdex - 1 pt for every tattoo, extra piercing, IVDU scar, etc. The higher the scumdex, the greater the likelihood of survival.

Twelve other reasons to stop smoking

Besides the obvious one, death. The list is in the November 14, 2008 US News and World Report. I came across it today looking for the success rate of cessation programs, either medication and/or counseling. I wanted to know this because of the billions the government spends on that through Medicare and Medicaid, and the only former smokers I know who kicked the habit for good, did it without either. Like my Dad, who quit at about 39 when he started coughing up blood (died at 88), and my father-in-law (died at 92) who quit cold turkey around 50 when he reached for that 3rd pack of the day the first time.

So here are 12 other reasons. Link.

1. It fogs the mind. . . smoking in middle age is linked to memory problems and to a slide in reasoning abilities . . elderly smokers face a heightened risk of dementia and cognitive decline, compared with lifelong nonsmokers.

2. It may bring on diabetes. . . current smokers have a 44 percent greater chance of developing type 2 diabetes than nonsmokers do, and the risk was strongest for those with the heaviest habit, who clocked 20 or more cigarettes per day.

3. It invites infections. . . there are very strong data showing that the risk of infection by pneumonia-causing bacteria is substantially greater for smokers than for nonsmokers. . . research suggests that smoking may interfere with immunity, compromising people's ability to fight infections. . . children exposed to secondhand smoke at home during early infancy (especially those born prematurely or with a low birth weight) are more prone to a throng of severe illnesses.

4. It may stultify a sex life. . . Smokers are more apt to experience erectile dysfunction than nonsmokers are, and this risk climbs as the number of cigarettes smoked increases.

5. It may lead to wrinkles...everywhere. . . including the inner arm and perhaps the buttocks.

6. It may hasten menopause. . . chemicals in cigarette smoke can hurry menopause by killing off egg cells made by ovaries, thereby dwindling the egg cell reserve.

7. It may dull vision. Several studies have found a robust link between smoking and eye disease . . . active smokers may face two to three times the risk for developing the disease experienced by those who have never smoked.

8. It hurts bones. Smoking weakens the body's scaffolding and is a serious risk factor for osteoporosis . . . Smokers may also experience slower healing of broken bones and wounded tissues than do nonsmokers.

9. It may injure the insides. . . heartburn, peptic ulcers, and possibly gallstones, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. . . elevated risk of developing Crohn's disease.

10. It may stifle sleep. . . smokers are four times more likely to get nonrestorative sleep than those who don't smoke, and researchers deemed nicotine the likely culprit.

11. It shaves years—and quality— off life. Men who have never smoked live on average 10 years longer than their peers who smoke heavily.

12. Tobacco use and smoking have been linked to much more than lung cancer. . . Lung and bronchial cancer topped the list, naturally, but other types included stomach, pancreatic, kidney, urinary bladder, and cervical cancer.

Extortion, threats, and corruption in the White House

Offutt Airforce Base is being threatened with the BRAC list (closure) if Ben Nelson (D-NE) doesn't fall in line. Michael Goldfarb, the Weekly Standard. That's thousands of jobs--a lot more than the piddling few Illinois will get with transferring prisoners from Gitmo. I'm still trying to find this story somewhere other than the blogosphere. Not that our media is so great about telling us what's going on with the stinks-to-the-heavens in this administration, but this is our security he's threatening, if that is true.

This is a bigger problem than just passing health care. The Democrats, who now have nothing at all to show for this ridiculous bill that's been gutted except a notch in the gun belt of the president, are risking our security. It's going to raise costs, cause rationing, lower the level of care, and there will still be millions of uninsured. It's about power. "Offutt is the headquarters for US Strategic Command, the successor to Strategic Air Command, and not by accident. STRATCOM was located in the middle of the country for strategic reasons."

It's the Chicago way.