Gays in the military and other hot, hot issues

Some of my views aren't shared with other Conservatives; that's because we don't have to march lock step like the Liberals. For instance, I think Ohio's drug sentencing laws are too harsh; I think there is an advantage to medical marijuana over more harmful "legal" drugs and it should be legally prescribed by doctors; and I think gays should be allowed to serve openly in the military. But the rules will need to be just as strict for men who sexually and verbally harass men as they are for men who harass women. If a gay soldier causes a problem within the unit in which he/she serves, he's history. If a straight soldier can't accept that a gay guy will be watching his back, he's history. And none of that nonsense about victim perception. Let's not have careers and reputations ruined by hearsay and innuendo. The idea that today's young adults can't serve together in the military despite differences in sexual orientation when they've been taught nothing else but acceptance and kum-ba-yah since pre-school would mean an absolute failure of our school system. I may have my doubts about the reading and 'rithmatic, but they usually get the warm fuzzies right.

Brown, Becker and Card-check

“By being sworn in today, a week earlier than planned, Senator-elect Scott Brown has put himself in a position to help fellow Republicans scuttle a hotly disputed Obama administration nomination to the National Labor Relations Board next week.

A vote to appoint the prominent [SEIU, AFL-CIO] lawyer, Craig Becker, appears to be the only one in coming days in which Brown’s early arrival could make a crucial difference by giving Republicans their 41st vote in the Senate, allowing them to deploy the filibuster to block the nomination.” Boston Globe.

“Critics fear Becker would come to the board with a mission to implement the Employee Free Choice Act, using the board's regulatory powers to achieve in what Congress has not been able to do through legislation.

Unions favor the Employee Free Choice Act, which would substitute a "card check" procedure for secret balloting on union representation. Opponents say the card check approach would make it easier for union organizers to coerce employees into voting for union representation because the open process of checking to see if employees have signed union cards would replace voting in secret.

The U.S. Chamber of Congress, which represents more than three million businesses, had urged the Senate committee to reject Becker. The recommendation is only the third time in more than 30 years that the Chamber has opposed a nominee to the NLRB.” Dow Jones

"In a letter to key senators, the Society for Human Resource Management and 22 other organizations ask legislators to reject the nomination of Craig Becker for a seat on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Becker was nominated by President Barack Obama to the five-member board in 2009 and again in early 2010, after the Senate rejected the nomination. He has been criticized by some business and employer organizations because of writings that suggest that he would take an active role in increasing the power of labor unions on the NLRB, possibly bypassing the legislative process. Becker serves as counsel to two organized labor groups—the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the AFL-CIO—and has taught and practiced labor law for more than two decades. He helped draft the proposed Employee Free Choice Act, which would give workers the choice of how they would want to vote for union representation—by a card-check process or a secret-ballot election." SHRM

Rush, Rahm and the R-word

Media Matters and lefty journalists fall for Rush's phony outrage every time! I think it's just a way for all concerned to boost their ratings and then they all go out for a beer and chuckle at all their listeners/readers who flush and rage.

Yesterday Rush had a longer than necessary monologue about Rahm Emanuel calling members of his own party F-ing Retards. Well, as you can imagine, this didn't go over well with people who look out for our citizens with special needs--people who have a bully pulpit and a personal interest like Sarah Palin who's youngest child has Down's Syndrome. But, as usual, Rush just couldn't let it go and went on and on, using the R-word, stopping to say it was Rahm's term, not his. Nevertheless, now the lefties say Palin should smack Rush around for using "retard" even though he was clearly referring to Rahm. So today, he's on it again, this time with the number of times "retarded" is used in the current health care legislation (I'd wondered about that myself) and Obama's use of the word in his autobiography. For some reason, Rahm promised he will get the offending word removed from all legislation.

I don't know how old Emanuel is, but I first noticed "retard" being used casually as a joking pejorative and put down in the early 80s. Kids have been saying it for years. And I agree with Governor Palin, that no public official would be shouting "nigger" at people he disagreed with, and it's time for Emanuel to clean up his language. Also, I've long believed that men that scream "fuck" as a verb, adjective and adverb, are doing so to intimidate women, not men. Nothing about the F bomb though in the media outrage. That's apparently OK.

Rahm Emanuel is known as having the biggest, meanest, filthiest garbage mouth in government. Someone should wash his mouth out with soap and not just for being out of step with current acceptable language.

How to talk good while navel gazing and finger wagging

Be sure to read the comments. Link.

Champions for Life

101,603 people were in attendance at the SuperBowl game in 1987 and it is estimated that another 87.1 million watched. Maybe you were one of them.

Champions For Life from American Life League on Vimeo.

NFL Stars and Athletes For Life Mark Bavaro, George Martin, Phil McConkey, Phil Simms, Chris Godfrey, and Jim Burt are true champions in promoting the Culture of Life.

Footage from Superbowl 21
Date Played: January 25, 1987
Teams: New York Giants vs. Denver Broncos
Winner: GIANTS
Final Score: 39-20
Location: Pasadena, California

You lie--again

Organizing for Obama has changed its name. It's now Organizing for America. Since it is an organization to re-elect the President, I don't understand the name change. This isn't for America; that's a lie. He launched his presidency going after socializing health care, cap and trade, and major butt and cheek kissing and bowing, instead of rolling up his sleeves and restoring the economy the only way that works--letting business get down to the business of America--capitalism. Instead, he grew the government. He's increased government jobs more in one year than Bush did in eight--and Bush was the all-time big spender on social programs until he turned the White House over to Obama.

"Organizing for America, the successor organization to Obama for America, is building on the movement that elected President Obama by empowering communities across the country to bring about our agenda of change."

I'm sure children will be suckered into "volunteering" for America through this organization.

Evolving online business, from books to writing

Today I stopped by an online book selling business blog (the blog was about the business which was at another site) that I sort of enjoyed, and discovered the owner had discontinued that effort, but is now writing for other online businesses. She'd become successful enough at finding and selling books, that she had begun to outsource, which cut into her profits and her fun. Story here. Now she's created a new site for her new business as a copywriter.

Are you looking at retirement homes?

We're not, but we thoroughly enjoyed visiting the new Willow Brook at Delaware Run in Delaware, Ohio yesterday. If you or your parents are at a stage where you're starting to think about this, I'd certainly schedule a visit. We visited our former neighbors, had a personal tour with them, and ate in the lovely dining room, The Water's Edge Restaurant, which incidentally has a French chef and is open to the public. The food was as good or better than any restaurant I've enjoyed recently.

Although this is not my favorite architectural style, nothing has been overlooked on the inside for tasteful decor and comfort of the residents. This facility just opened, so these owners/residents got to pick cabinet finishes, and extra features. A number of residents already had plans for the Erickson facility in Hilliard that went into bankruptcy, so there were some last minutes changes, and fortunately they got their money back. As I understand the plans, the area you see in this photo will eventually have buildings all around the little lake. Our friends' apartment faces the highway and a residential neighborhood (not all that close), which they just love because there is so much to look at from their large windows or balcony. They have an alcove in the living room which accomodates their grand piano--so you can see these are not small units.

At this time Willow Brook has 1 and 2 bedroom apartments and twin singles, and our friends also had a study so they were using the 2nd bedroom as a TV room. On the 3rd floor they have vaulted ceilings with gives a nice feeling of openess. There is an assisted care wing and a "memory care" wing on the first floor. There's a lovely library in the balcony area over the lobby, and we stopped by and chatted with the volunteers who were working to get the shelves stocked under the supervision of a retired librarian. There's an artists' workshop, an underground garage, exercise facilities with the latest in equipment, a chapel (not much there yet except chairs despite all the retired preachers), and a very large activity/banquet room.

We met a number of the pleasant staff including Larry Harris, CEO, and the chef, and some of the residents, many retired pastors and professors and business people. Willow Brook is part of Christian Communities (Church of Christ). There is also a Willow Brook Christian Village (about 20 years old) and Willow Brook Christian Home (skilled nursing and rehab).

So if you're starting to look, or you have a parent thinking of moving closer to the children, this facility is about a 45 minute drive from Arlington if you use Rt 33 and about 35 using Rt 315 (we tried both). Delaware is a college town with a nice business district--however, I'm sure there are so many activities planned for the residents they don't have much time to take in the local sights. We heard only two very mild complaints from two couples we know there--they haven't found a local church and haven't changed doctors, dentists, hair dressers, etc., and are still driving back to Columbus.

Added a new widget--a Google search for my blogs

Trying to remember what is where in my twelve blogs is a bit of a challenge. Each blog has a little search window at the top, and that is useful, and I can go into edit and look at all my subject headings (tags). However, while poking around the widgets I found I could the Google search. At first, I couldn't figure out what it would do, but I added it anyway (it shows at the bottom of this page). With this search feature, I can search any topic I may have written about, for instance "Lutheran" that I may have posted here or at one of my other blogs. Try it with "Mt. Morris" and quite a bit comes up.

Sally Jenkins on the Tebow Super Bowl Ad

It's easier to just provide a link rather than copy the whole thing (which is probably in violation of copyright). But Sally Jenkins, Sports writer for WaPo, is one tough dude!

"I'm pro-choice, and Tebow clearly is not. But based on what I've heard in the past week, I'll take his side against the group-think, elitism and condescension of the "National Organization of Fewer and Fewer Women All The Time." For one thing, Tebow seems smarter than they do.

Tebow's 30-second ad hasn't even run yet, but it already has provoked "The National Organization for Women Who Only Think Like Us" to reveal something important about themselves: They aren't actually "pro-choice" so much as they are pro-abortion. Pam Tebow has a genuine pro-choice story to tell. She got pregnant in 1987, post-Roe v. Wade, and while on a Christian mission in the Philippines, she contracted a tropical ailment. Doctors advised her the pregnancy could be dangerous, but she exercised her freedom of choice and now, 20-some years later, the outcome of that choice is her beauteous Heisman Trophy winner son, a chaste, proselytizing evangelical.

Pam Tebow and her son feel good enough about that choice to want to tell people about it. Only, NOW says they shouldn't be allowed to. Apparently NOW feels this commercial is an inappropriate message for America to see for 30 seconds, but women in bikinis selling beer is the right one. I would like to meet the genius at NOW who made that decision. On second thought, no, I wouldn't. . . If the pro-choice stance is so precarious that a story about someone who chose to carry a risky pregnancy to term undermines it, then CBS is not the problem." Read the whole thing.

Remember the Sears catalog in the outhouse?

It's back!

The mighty queens of Freeville

Our bookclub meets tonight and we will be enjoying together a great read--The Mighty Queens of Freeville by Amy Dickinson. Amy replaced Ann Landers as "Ask Amy"--and after giving advice to others based on experience and small town values, she collected the snippets and pieces of her own life and put them in this delightful book. Although each chapter has a theme and could stand alone, Amy wanders in and out of her marriage, divorce, her parents' divorce, child rearing, location, age, church, house and career but manages to hold it all together. It's an adventure just following her train of thought.

I just clicked over and looked at her Feb. 1 "Ask Amy" column. Yup. Women are still dumb, after all these years. And I don't mean Amy. They still move in with a boyfriend when they have a primary responsibility to a child; they still can't come up with a put down for a fresh, married man. Don't want to lose the friendship. Duh! Doubt that is his concern.

Read the book. I recommend it. You don't have to be divorced or a single parent to get a lot out of it, but if you are, you'll love it even more.

Herb Garden Ciabatta

Click to enlarge so you can read the recipe.
From the article, "Bread for the soul" by Lisa Kingsley and Wanda J. Ventling, Lily; beautiful living through faith, Spring 2006, pp.86-93.

Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty." John 6:35 (NIV)

Notice the Italian parsley has the symbol of the Trinity, unlike the more familiar curly parsley.

Looking for Lily

It seems that Lily never made it, poor thing. Lily; beautiful living through faith is a magazine in my premiere issues collection. For some reason, I didn't code the template of that blog to alert me when there were comments. Maybe I figured no one would comment? Anyway, that entry has had more comments than any other because people are looking for it. Because I need to start cleaning out (I should write a Thursday Thirteen meme on my odd ball collections, some of which have only 2 pieces)--and my first issue hobby which used to fit in the back of a closet until the mid-80s, is totally out of control. So the most persistent one will get it. She e-mailed and left a Facebook comment, plus a comment at the blog. The problem with sorting and arranging them either by size or topic is I always open one up and start to read.

Knowing it would be leaving me soon, I decided to reread Lily (I usually don't read my first issues, just examine them for bibliographic data and research the provenance a bit). There's a very nice story about Laurie Smith, one of the TLC channel decorators. So I blogged about that at my faith blog, Church of the Acronym. She compares the goal of home decorating with that of maintaining and enhancing the soul. There's a yummy bread recipe I might copy, too.

Ellie Light meet H. L. Harris

Ellie Light (I first heard this on radio and thought it was "L.A. Light") is now claiming to be a Californian--a guy--who sent letters to the editors of many major newspapers in the U.S. supporting Obamacare--42 newspapers in 18 states, as well as Politico. Here's the Cleveland Plain Dealer story. Who knows. Maybe this guy is just trying to cash in on Ellie's fame and mystery. However, it happened 100 years ago too, according to the Jan. 6 issue of JAMA, which always has a "JAMA 100 Years Ago" feature in each issue.

"Many and devious are the ways by which those who would "doctor" our food attempt to create public sentiment in favor of chemical preservatives. During the last few months a harmless looking letter signed "H.L. Harris" has appeared in the newspapers of those cities and towns in which deaths from ptomain poisoning have recently been chronicled. This letter--we use the singular advisedly--does not vary in its wording in different papers, except for the opening sentnence. . . Not only in the form of letters do we find these much-reiterated sentiments of Mr. Harris. Overworked editors occasionally use them en bloc to fill a gaping void on the editorial page." (Reports an incident in the Alliance, Ohio Review, Dec. 4, 1909.)

It seems that H.L. Harris was an advocate of using boron compounds as food preservatives, and it turned out he worked for the Pacific Coast Borax Company and sometimes used the name H.H. Langdon. He referred to himself as a food expert, but seemed to have only one topic--attacking pure-food legislation. Harris-Langdon differed from Ellie Light in that he focused on and fooled smaller town newspaper editors. 100 years ago there was no way for small town editors to check these things. Not so today. With Google, there's no excuse for editors, with their leftist bias and custom of carrying Obama no matter what, to not do a bit of checking when something seems "too good to be true." I do it with viral messages sent to me, and I'm just a blogger. Give those unpaid college interns something to do.

If you play you pay--Infections of Leisure

When I was a librarian at Ohio State's Veterinary Medicine library, I would buy textbooks for our reserve collection. Many academic libraries don't--in some fields like education or history that could break the bank. However, there's nothing like a good, solid, frequently revised and updated textbook to save you hours of time both in research and reading. What you'll find in chapter bibliographies, notes and illustrations could save you hours of searching on-line databases or poking around in Google, plus there's been expert editorial review for quality. Let's face it, most of us aren't writing or reading for publication but for information.

I won't request the 4th ed. of Infections of Leisure from my public library--I know what the response will be--you have an OSU address, get it from them. Well, no library in OhioLink has a copy; OSU has the 3rd (2004), parts of which have been digitized. Maybe it's in the pipeline, or maybe it's just the old librarian's prejudice against textbooks in their collections. But read this MD reviewer in the Jan. 6, 2010 JAMA:

"As one who has completed an infectious diseases followship, I was astounded by the amount of new material I learned from this book--even gleaning one particularly salient fact from a table comparing infections acquired from hamsters, gerbils, and guinea pigs."

So what are infections of leisure? For a huge number of us that means our pets--dogs, cats, birds, horses, rodents. Or even our neighbors' pets who are burying their feces in our garden, or dropping them where birds can help spread the problem. For others it is combining the ancient practice of tattooing and body piercing with 21st century pathogens or cruise ship travel. Titles of the 19 chapters are:

At the shore / Mark A Clemence and Richard L Guerrant
Freshwater : from lakes to hot tubs / Bertha S Ayi and David Dworzack
The camper's uninvited guests / Gordon E Schutze and Richard F Jacobs
Infections in the garden / Burke A Cunha and Diane H Johnson
With man's best friend / Julie M Collins and Bennett Lorber
Around cats / Ellie J C Goldstein and Craig E Greene
Feathered friends / Matthew E Levison
Less common house pets / Bruno B Chomel
With man's worst friend : the rat / James G Fox
Closed due to rabies / Jesse D Blanton and John W Krebs
Sports : the infectious hazards / Arezou Minooee, Leland S Rickman, and Geeta Gupta
Traveling abroad / Martin S Wolfe
From boudoir to bordello : sexually transmitted diseases and travel / Jonathan M Zenilman
Infections from body piercing and tattoos / Mukesh Patel and C Glenn Cobbs
Infectious diseases at high altitude / Buddha Basnyat, Thomas A Cumbo, and Robert Edelman
Infectious risks of air travel / Alexandra Mangili and Mark Gendreau
Perils of the petting zoo / John R Dunn and Frederick J Angulo
Infections on cruise ships / Vivek Kak
Exotic and trendy cuisine / Jeffrey K Griffiths

Humans are surprisingly smug about being able to control the planet or finding miniscule dangerous amounts of a chemical in processed food. Yet they can't control their own dangerous personal behaviors like oral/anal sex or cleaning up after their pets. We'd rather pass legislation costing billions but remain ignorant of many novel pathogens that jump from animal to man which we encounter every day--an area we could control. Maybe the library could buy one less book on global warming.

If you're interested, I've seen book sites selling this book for anything from $66 to $150. So shop around.

O wert thou in the cauld blast

Tonight we're going to a Robert Burns dinner, and the hosts provide the food and the guests the entertainment. I will be reading this poem/song. He wrote it during his final illness for Jessy Lewars who helped the Burns family during his illness and his wife's confinement. The melody most commonly used for this song is by Mendelssohn, but I won't sing it, for which everyone will be grateful. I used to be a soprano. Now I have 4 notes--but they aren't all in a row.

O wert thou in the cauld blast,
On yonder lea, on yonder lea,
My plaidie to the angry airt,
I'd shelter thee, I'd shelter thee;
Or did Misfortune's bitter storms
Around thee blaw, around thee blaw,
Thy bield should be my bosom,
To share it a', to share it a'.

Or were I in the wildest waste,
Sae black and bare, sae black and bare,
The desert were a Paradise,
If thou wert there, if thou wert there;
Or were I Monarch o' the globe,
Wi' thee to reign, wi' thee to reign,
The brightest jewel in my Crown
Wad be my Queen, wad be my Queen.

cauld = cold
lea = grassland
plaide = length of tartan cloth
airt = direction
aroond = around
blaw = blow
bield = shelter

In writing about Bobby Burns, Elbert Hubbard says (1916), "Poetry and love-making should be carried on with caution: they form a terrific tax on life's forces. Most poets die young, not because the gods especially love them, but because life is a bank-account, and to wipe out your balance is to have your checks protested. The excesses of youth are drafts payable at maturity. Chatterton dead at eighteen, Keats at twenty-six, Shelley at thirty-three, Byron at thirty-six, Poe at forty, and Burns at thirty-seven, are the rule. When drafts made by the men mentioned became due, there was no balance to their credit and Charon beckoned. Most life-insurance companies now ask the applicant this question, "Do you write poetry to excess?" " Link.

Another Obama scandal--mirandizing Abdulmutallab

"We have since learned that the decision to Mirandize Abdulmutallab had been made without the knowledge of or consultation with (1) the secretary of defense, (2) the secretary of homeland security, (3) the director of the FBI, (4) the director of the National Counterterrorism Center or (5) the director of national intelligence (DNI).

The Justice Department acted not just unilaterally but unaccountably. Obama's own DNI said that Abdulmutallab should have been interrogated by the HIG, the administration's new High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group.

Perhaps you hadn't heard the term. Well, in the very first week of his presidency, Obama abolished by executive order the Bush-Cheney interrogation procedures and pledged to study a substitute mechanism. In August, the administration announced the establishment of the HIG, housed in the FBI but overseen by the National Security Council." Read Krauthammer's column

It was like Christmas!

First, the Christmas flower (amaryllis) from brother Rick and sister Kate bloomed. My, how magnificent! Cute pot too. Then Joan sent a check for $34 to buy my 1979 Lady Clairol make-up mirror. God knows, I don't need it--it's too late! It will probably cost half that to mail it, but I've found a box and wrapping paper. Lynne, a Watkins salesperson in Nebraska, sent me my 3 Lemon Cream Shea Butter in a JAR, plus 3 darling little samples, one being peppermint foot cream--never heard of such a luxury. Last week I got my once a year letter from my college roommate who put me in touch with a mutual friend, Denise from Forreston, I'd met when I was 6 and she was 3, and she mailed me a stack of photographs. What a joy to see her and her siblings after all these years, and actually she doesn't look much different from the only other photo I had of her in a snow suit with Santa Claus.

But that means the clutter is starting to build on my desk again, and I haven't yet cleaned out the box.

[The two paintings on the easel are my husband's of our trips to Jerusalem (2009) and Ireland (2007); he's president this year of the Central Ohio Watercolor Society.]

Would you invite this scold to your next get-together?

"It’s all well and good that President Obama wants to meet with Republicans — giving the appearance of reaching out — but when it’s mainly to “chastise” them for opposing his programs, as the AP is reporting after his session at the House Republicans’ retreat in Baltimore today, it’s little but a continuation of the lecture he gave to Congress, the Supreme Court, and even the American people on Wednesday evening. “I am not an ideologue,” he’s reported to have said. Yet it appears that he rejected the Republicans’ proposals for a different approach to health care, a line-item veto for spending bills, and across-the-board tax cuts." Roger Pilon

I disagree Mr. Pilon. The appearance of reaching out means nothing--especially not "well and good." This man never grew up, never learned to accept responsibility or hard knocks. Not only is he the biggest narcissist we've ever elected--and that quality is probably essential to some degree for any pol--(is the count in on the first person singular used in that speech?)--he's the biggest scold, finger wagger, and head swirler/twirler with flaming eyes I've ever seen. He's just scary to watch with or without sound. Imagine scolding Congress before a TV audience when they are your team, and correcting the Supreme Court so everyone can see your speech writer didn't do his research.

The man never learned any manners and his managers are in chaos trying to figure out what they want him to be.