And what do you talk about with your friends, Donna?

Donna Butts is executive director of Generations United which according to her letter to President Obama in 2008 has 4 priority areas: "maximizing tax dollars through intergenerational shared sites and resources; supporting intergenerational caregiving and family structures; engaging children, youth and older adults as resources to communities and families; providing access to quality health care coverage for all people in the U.S." Just off the top of my head after 5 minutes research, I'd say GU is one of thousands of non-profits which exist to get grants from the government and other non-profits (foundations, churches, etc.) to provide a living for their staff. (Most churches have provided for this since the beginning of the first century A.D.) And although they might not be living with their parents or children, I know very few boomers who aren't pitching in to either help their parents or their adult children and grandchildren.

However, I just want to draw attention to a quote of Donna Butts which appeared in papers today in heralding the Pew Research report about multigenerational households on the increase (they are no where near as common as 1940, but up a little between 2007 and 2009).

"All they (older people) do is talk about who died, what hurts, and what medication they're on." It's not that she's incorrect. I'm 70, and I've learned a lot about recovering from mastectomies, stroke, laproscopic robotic surgery, bronchitis, and pulled muscles just from listening to people over 45. And I've regaled a few with my story of sleeping on airport floors sicker than I've ever been in 2009. But I've also heard about apps for my I-Touch, volunteer opportunities, Twitter and Facebook, free concerts, 9-12 political events, the best travel deals and new restaurants to try.

And Donna--have you ever stood in line behind a group of teen-age girls and overheard the fascinating topics they discuss? 1) boys, 2) texting, 3) boys, 4) clothes, 5) boys. Or how about that group of millennials who were at the next table where we ate last week, meeting after work to unwind? 1) Unintelligible screeching, 2) Ear splitting howls, 3)Oh. My. God. 4) Dirty joke, 5) Workplace gossip. Or a Jane Austen fan club? Or BMW owners? Or generation 2 point 0 anything?

People talk about what they know and experience--at any time in life. If you're not into motorcycle cross country trips or saving dolphins, you'll probably be bored. Donna may talk about generation research to anyone who will listen, regardless of age.

The Health-Care Wars Are Only Beginning

"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi believes ObamaCare would have a more congenial fate—that it will become as popular as Social Security and Medicare with voters. She's kidding herself. Social Security and Medicare were popular from the start and passed with bipartisan support. ObamaCare is unpopular and partisan. It's extremely controversial. Its passage is far more likely to spark a political explosion than a wave of acceptance." Fred Barnes

Fred Barnes: The Health-Care Wars Are Only Beginning - WSJ.com

SS and Medicare like many government programs started small, became bloated and over extended, always with the intention of government controlling our lives. They have contributed to our enormous health care bills, and are the weak, crumbling foundation for Obamacare.

Mia Farrow writes from Chad

You can read today's editorial in the Wall Street Journal by Mia Farrow here, dated March 16, 2010. It's short and simple, but a cause she is quite passionate about, and unlike some celebrities who seem to have the knack of touching down with hurricanes and earthquakes, she has stayed with this one.

She calls Chad "desolate and powerfully beautiful." I suspect she admires their simple and primitive culture--certainly different from her own. But it's that culture which is starving those babies and children staring back at us from her web page. Their leader is 90 years old; their development minimal to non-existent. No big carbon footprint here--not even green technology. Nothing. And they are dying. And if a few are saved with infant formula, what about next year and the next? Will they be struck down with malaria or some other vector borne disease that Western environmentalists won't let them fight with pesticides?

She says, "The numbers of starving children far exceed the capacity of Unicef's emergency feeding center. Cases of formula and life-saving nutrients are arriving, but many children are already too weak to swallow. The Chadian government must urgently take action, along with the World Food Program and other relief agencies before it is too late." Unfortunately, corrupt African governments combined with 50 years of guilt-ridden Western hand-outs and food programs have destroyed the local economies--especially the farmers and small businesses. Who can compete with free food or free clothing, so the land goes untended, and the cycle is repeated. We're already hearing about this in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where the food donations for the desperate and battered people are destroying the little food stands that support families.

I certainly don't have the answer--but neither do UNICEF and the World Food Program and the clutch of non-profits and Christian agencies who have served in these areas for half a century.

A letter to Senator Brown

Murray received a funds appeal from Senator Scott Brown. So did I. I think I scribbled across mine and mailed it back, something to the effect that I wasn't pleased with his first vote, but I'd wait and see. Murray actually sent him a letter which he's allowing me to reprint here (under U.S. copyright law, he owns the content, not Sen. Brown)

March 17, 2010

Senator Brown:

I received your letter today thanking me for my contribution to your successful victory in the Massachusetts Senate race. You need to understand that my contribution, among thousands of others, was for a specific purpose. Thankfully, that purpose was realized.

"We The People" need your help to not only stop Obamacare but to stop the recklessness that's taking place every day with our legislators. This means Obamanomics needs to be stopped in its tracks. As I write, Obama is readying himself to sign the just passed $18 billion stimulus/jobs/hire bill while he has $500 billion of the stimulus left yet to spend. You know. . . the billions that we needed quickly a year ago for "shovel ready" jobs. You voted for the stimulus/jobs/hire bill while it was $15 billion and watched it grow to $18 billion practically overnight. I guess that's strike one on you!

Anyway, if you help the taxpayers of this country during your next year by stopping the spending frenzy, government's takeover of anything else, cap & trade and raising taxes, then I'll consider helping you extend your political career along with many of the other taxpayers. I'll be holding on to your request for donations until then.

Please help this great country survive.

Murray

Good job, Murray. Couldn't have said it better myself!

Slaughter the Senate Bill

House Rules Committee Chair Louise Slaughter (D-NY) wrote this about the Senate health plan--the only plan we have at the moment and which they are planning to "deem as" passed without voting on it (that's even worse than the Obama Senate record of voting present so he wouldn't have to commit):

Under the Senate plan, millions of Americans will be forced into private insurance company plans, which will be subsidized by taxpayers. That alternative will do almost nothing to reform health care but will be a windfall for insurance companies. ... Supporters of the weak Senate bill say "just pass it -- any bill is better than no bill."

I strongly disagree -- a conference report is unlikely to sufficiently bridge the gap between these two very different bills. It's time that we draw the line on this weak bill and ask the Senate to go back to the drawing board. The American people deserve at least that.

Also, when Obama was in Ohio this week I'm pretty sure he promised his teensy-weeny audience (before I could switch channels) that they could have the same plan that Congress has! Well, folks, Congress gets to choose from a variety of private health plans and get to keep it after they leave Congress. Where will their Cadillac plans be after Obama destroys the private carriers?

The only reason left to pass this bill (reconcile, slaughter, deem) is to save Obama's reputation so he can move on to grab even more of the economy. Many Americans are talking recalling their representatives or voting them out of office, forgetting that Congress has made itself irrelevant--Obama just goes around them.

Morning Bell: There Is No Bill But the Senate Bill

What may be the saddest war song ever

Today my husband played the 3 cd set of "The Dubliners; Ireland's No. 1 Folk Group" in exercise class. Irish songs are minor key and very sad. Our "cool down" song must be the world's saddest war song. It's about the Irish-Australian soldiers who returned from WWI, a war when losing 7-8,000 men in one battle over several days wasn't unusual. And even so, more American soldiers died of the flu than from the war. Here's just part of it:

They collected the wounded, the crippled, the maimed
And they shipped us back home to Australia
The armless, the legless, the blind and the insane
Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla
And when the ship pulled into Circular Quay
I looked at the place where me legs used to be
And thank Christ there was no one there waiting for me
To grieve and to mourn and to pity

And the Band played Waltzing Matilda
When they carried us down the gangway
Oh nobody cheered, they just stood there and stared
Then they turned all their faces away

Now every April I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me
I see my old comrades, how proudly they march
Renewing their dreams of past glories
I see the old men all tired, stiff and worn
Those weary old heroes of a forgotten war
And the young people ask "What are they marching for?"
And I ask myself the same question.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Of course, today "everyone is Irish," but some of us really can trace our ancestors across the pond to Ireland. Mine beat the crowd of the famine ships of the 19th century and crossed in the 1730s, signing on to fight in the American Revolution against their hated British rulers, stopping a generation or two in Pennsylvania and Virginia, and then moving on to Tennessee, with later generations leaving Appalachia for Illinois, Texas and California as various misfortunes gave them a push to seek a better land and life. After 7 or 8 generations in the U.S., my German-English and Scots-Irish bloodlines got together in an outdoor farmhouse wedding in August 1934, and the rest is my history, as we say.

At the coffee shop I was refilling my cup and next to me was a young man with a blinking St. Pat's pin on his baseball cap (hate to see people wearing those inside). "Any Irish in your genealogy?" I asked. He said he didn't think so but wasn't sure (most 20-somethings don't know much about genealogy, so it really wasn't a fair question). "My mom's Hungarian-German, but my dad's adopted, so we don't know anything about his family." I didn't pursue that story line--after all, we are total strangers, and for all I know his parents could be divorced or deceased. But here's my opinion.

If his grandparents were willing to adopt his father, a life changing event for him over which he had no control, then it's perfectly OK for his dad to "adopt" his ancestors from his adoptive parents' genealogy. Over this he does have a choice. It's not fair that the state of Ohio still has laws hiding his father's past, but there are a few things his father does control, and that's to climb that family tree with all its roots and branches, his grandparents, great-grandparents, great-greats, cousins, nephews, nieces and so forth.

Capitalist and Populist Architecture--Eero Saarinen

Eero Saarinen's father, Eliel Saarinen, was a prominent architect in Finland. We visited several of his sites in 2006. In 1923, when Eero was 13, the family moved to the United States where Eero became one of the most prominent architects of the 1950s. We've also visited some of his sites, the closest to us being Columbus, Indiana. But you may have been in the TWA terminal, or seen the John Deere building in Moline, IL. The video continues with other topics, you may have to search for the Saarinen piece, which today is at the beginning, but who knows tomorrow? Or you can click on the link.



Exhibition Tour: Eero Saarinen

Repealing Obamacare Will Be Easier If Congress Skirts Normal Process

On the road for his “Courage and Consequence” book tour, Rove chatted with The Heritage Foundation about Obamacare, his defense of President George W. Bush’s conservatism, the growth of Tea Parties and anger toward government spending.

Karl Rove: Repealing Obamacare Will Be Easier If Congress Skirts Normal Process | The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.

Everyone Shouldn’t Go To College

About four years ago I blogged about the cost of a college education, private vs. public, and whether some college bound young people might be financially better off not to attend college. I followed up that link today looking at a 2008 update of the information. It contained information not in that first report (if you invest the money you would have spent on a child's education, the life time (40 years) average of earnings is higher than attending college, and a public school education is a better deal in life time earnings that a private school).

REEF » Everyone Shouldn’t Go To College

What the recession has done to this mix, I have no idea. The REEF website doesn't appear to be current.

Update: I found Michael Robertson who authored REEF material at another website. Robertson knows a bit about education and making money--he invented the MP3 player.

Michael Steele is leader of the GOP

"Why do the Dems need to "Clarence Thomas" the Man of Steele? Because whenever a man of color, especially an African American man, a black conservative begins to advance in the GOP he has to be taken down. He becomes a demonstration that it’s "Cool to be in the GOP". He lets the black community witness it’s okay to be conservative. In fact, he’s saying, "You should be proud of it and don’t be bashful about letting your conservative political leanings be known". The Dems can’t let the other slaves see that a single one escaped! They have to bring him down so that another example is put into the eyesight and psyche of the black voter that they possess. Politically-free "coon"? Not permissible!

The Dems have to "Clarence Thomas" the Man of Steele because he is the real deal. He can go toe-to-toe with Obama intellectually and orally. Coupled with shredding the perception that the GOP is the "white party", the Dems know that the plantation is about to be burned down. Add to these direct factors the additional factor of organizations like RagingElephants.org rising up all around the political landscape like mushrooms in the night, and in an attempt to play effective defense, they go on the play-dirty offensive and call Limbaugh the leader of the GOP and not the duly elected leader of the party, Steele. Basic fascist political tactics of defining your political opponent when you’re backed up in the corner and about to get your brains smashed in!" CLAVER T. KAMAU-IMANI, Host: "The Christian Politician" Radio Show, Founder/Chairman of RagingElephants.org
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxU76t5wI84

Just don't call it "health" care

No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, let’s not call this current Washington battle “health“ care. ObamaCare is technically about insurance, but more accurately it‘s about a government take over of the economy. We Americans already have health insurance for the poor, and health care for everyone, in case you’re reading this in Europe. In fact, one of the programs for the poor, SCHIP, will cover children up to the age of 28 whose parents have incomes up to $70,000 depending on the state (350% of poverty level). I should be so poor (our income is about $34,000)--but I digress.

If you want to know what government health insurance and government health care look or feel like, please read, “HIV Clinic” an essay by Eric P. Walker, in the March 3, 2010 issue of JAMA. The patient described therein has both health insurance (provided by the government for the poor) and health care (a clinic for the poor in her neighborhood).

According to Walker who is a physician’s assistant, the patient comes to the clinic for a prescription for pain but has to walk to the pharmacy to fill it, because her bus pass voucher has expired. There is no one to provide her private transportation (later in the essay you learn she is married to a creep who stole her pain medication). On the way to the clinic she bought a package of crackers at a gas station because she hadn’t eaten since yesterday. She can’t have surgery for her pain because she doesn’t have a stable address which the hospital, following government insurance regulations, requires for a patient to be discharged.

So let’s just stop right there Mr. Walker. First, you say you work in an HIV clinic, so I’m assuming she has been diagnosed and is receiving the drug cocktail that will extend her life. There are two primary ways for women to get HIV--1) having sex with a man who had sex with an infected man, or 2) through IV drug use. In my opinion, men who have sex with men and bring home STDs and AIDS and/or abuse their wives and girlfriends are a much bigger health problem for poor women than private insurance company CEOs who serve the middle class or Cadillac insurance for the wealthy and union members. When will those men be called before Congress and shamed?

Second, let’s think about all the unintended consequences of good intentions that have been building up dating back before you were born. Since that great leap forward known as the War on Poverty--programs that have contributed to her secondary conditions not related to HIV or her health. There is no pharmacy in her neighborhood to fill her prescription and probably no supermarkets or grocery stores where she can buy nutritious food. Democrats and Progressives control all major cities in the United States--Detroit, Chicago, LA, NOLA, Cleveland, etc. They first drove out all the small businesses through regulation, taxes, or pushing legislation for their inner-belts and highways taking land and homes through eminent domain. They railed against mom and pop stores and Asian shopkeepers that were charging “too much” for goods and service, compared to larger stores. Then they marched against any superstores moving in insisting they be unionized, after which they moved on to friendlier suburbs offering tax breaks. Currently in the name of saving the planet they are working through a variety of programs called cap and trade and sustainable agriculture to take away the stop and shop gas stations (remember Mr. Walker, gasoline is bad; processed food is bad) in poor neighborhoods, so soon that HIV patient probably won’t even be able to buy crackers in her neighborhood as she walks to the clinic to pick up her prescription which can‘t be filled locally.

Third, her central city community is fortunately served by public transportation which is tax subsidized by the suburbanite voters who moved away 30 years ago. Because she’s poor, she has a voucher for a bus pass. That’s got to be a Catch-22 nightmare only a bureaucrat with a social work degree could come up with. Does she have to go to a government agency in another neighborhood or city building and sit and wait to pay for the pass with her voucher issued by a different bureaucracy? It is dated, and it has expired. It’s not unreasonable to imagine that she would need to take the bus to the same office to apply for the voucher, but with no mail box, she might be turned down. It would be a good guess that the government didn’t give her a taxi voucher, or a handicapped van voucher, either because, 1) the bureaucrats decided she wasn’t that sick (years ago when she signed on for the alphabet soup of programs), or 2) because no thinking taxi or van driver would go into her crime ridden neighborhood which went down hill when all the businesses and home owners were driven out by do-gooders, or 3) they need to support the city transit system rather than a private company or small business like a one-man cab company.

Dear naive ObamaCare supporter: nothing in this so-called "health care bill" being pushed by Pelosi, Obama and Reid will help this woman. She already has government health insurance, and she’s still infected, still in pain, still denied necessary surgery, still homeless, still married to a creep, and still a victim of all the progressive politicians who destroyed her neighborhood 40 years ago.

And you want this for the rest of us?

Do it for the children and their children--guest blogger Murray

"OK folks, the Democrats are putting forward the BIG PUSH this week. More arm twisting, bribes, lies and special deals. The Tea Party and Patriot groups will be in D.C. the morning of March 16 to get IN their representatives' faces about the ugly healthcare bill by sitting in their offices. Let's get together and help. Please call or e-mail every legislator you can between now and 3/16 to help to push back.

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

http://www.congressmerge.com/onlinedb/

If you need some encouragement click here:
http://www.usdebtclock.org/

You can do this. I'm calling on you to STAND UP and defend yourself on behalf of your children and grandchildren."

Murray

Christians expelled from Village of Hope in Morocco

One of the missions that our church supports is Village of Hope in Morocco.
Now the Christians there have been accused of proselytizing and have had to leave. What appears here is the official statement, and this is the link that our church website points to. We know God is in control, but for many of these children, these are the only parents they've ever known.

"The parents of VOH want to clearly state their love for the Kingdom and people of Morocco and fear this act by the authorities will cause long term damage to the excellent reputation of Morocco. Morocco is viewed by the West as a moderate and safe Islamic state with an ever improving response to social issues. The King has been a driving force behind so much positive reform and he is to be honoured for all he has done for the betterment of his people. However, actions like this are only likely to tarnish Morocco's image and have a detrimental effect on inward investment, foreign aid and tourism. If a perception grows that non-Islamic guests in Morocco and foreign led organisations are being targeted then we fear for the damage that could be caused. Key relationships with the EU and other trading partners and supporters of Morocco could be affected unless a negotiated settlement can be seen to take place. VOH, through its international investors, have pumped Millions of Moroccan dirham into infrastructure, care of children, employment of Moroccans and the local economy only to have it taken away in a matter of hours. What signal does this send to others looking to support the development of Morocco either through trade, aid or simply as a tourist.

The parents only want to be reunited with their children. Every single set of parents would return to Morocco to continue with the care of the children and continue to live under the law and authority of the State. Equally, the parents would be willing to negotiate for the release of the children into their care to the parent’s country of origin. As parents, we plead with the Moroccan authorities to open a dialogue with us as to the future well being and care of our children." Village of Hope Ain Leuh Morocco

Proselytism is defined as distributing literature of any kind (this includes Bibles and videos as well as tracts) or discussing the gospel with an intention to persuade. Did you know that our U.S. government has the same rule for churches using government grants to feed and house the poor? Even when that program is provided from within a church building? We live in a "free" country, but churches have made some very uncomfortable (in my opinion) agreements to not evangelize, not to even distribute literature, in exchange for serving the poor (see Matthew 25) with government funds in a variety of ways (not in Matthew 25).

Edy's Slow Churned Snack Size Cups

Speak for yourself, Rick! He says he prefers a 4 oz serving rather than 6 oz. Not me. If these wonderful little snack cups were 4 oz, I'd eat two! Six oz. is just about right. We've tried the coffee, mint choc chip, vanilla bean and chocolate. They are 5/$5 at Meijers. Also, this is 1/2 the fat. Fat free ice cream might as well be frozen skim milk in terms of satisfying a craving, don't you think? Remember the little cups of ice cream we got as kids with photos of movie stars on the inside cover?

Edy's Slow Churned Snack Size Cups

Now, a Chicken in Black - New York Times

Oh yuk! Really looks unappetizing. Black chicken skin and legs. And the bird is so pretty.

Now, a Chicken in Black - New York Times

Career Management Inventory

Do you keep books in the bathroom? The other day my husband suggested I needed to change the books in my bathroom (which he occasionally uses). Books that sit on the toilet tank are seen more by men than by women, if you get my drift. I thought it was funny. But I did take a look at the titles again, and decided to keep them all. One title is "No more blue Mondays; four keys to finding fulfillment at work" by Robin A. Sheerer. I don't know how long I've had it or why I bought it (used book for $1.00) because I'm retired. As I leafed through it, though, I found an interesting survey to help someone unhappy at work. So I took it--based on what I remembered of my last position ca. 1999-2000. Interestingly, it didn't cover anything I didn't like about those last two years--planning a new library for the veterinary college. I guess I didn't see those interminable hours of looking at electrical and plumbing sheets, choosing furniture and shelving, and attending endless meetings seeing my space cut as part of "my job." Questions 47-59 were on personal appearance, which sort of surprised me (I didn't copy the last page but it was teeth, weight, exercise, etc.) I gave myself a green star for true, lime green for mostly true, and red for needed a lot of work (hate to set goals). I'm a bit obsessive about time, so I gave myself 2 stars for being on time. In fact, when I was the chair of a committee, we didn't wait for the slug-a-beds.

Click to enlarge so you can read the print (pages were gray).

The Taxman Rap

I first posted this on June 10, 2008. Since tax time is nearing at the same time that we're experiencing unprecedented consumption of our taxes for clunkers, bank bailouts, buying up GM, modifying mortgages, sinking money down green holes, and taking over the health care segment of the economy (because the government has managed Medicaid, Medicare, SCHIP, SNAP, WIC, VA etc. so wonderfully well) I'm reposting my Taxman Rap.
The Taxman Rap

More new taxes
to buy axes
for our backses
and our neckses

for our gases
and our classes
(just the riches'
and the niches.)

Yo! Obama
Go! Oh mama
You our Papa
You Messiah.

Obama can
He is the man
He do the plan
He be the taxman.

It's new notebook time

I've loved my Barnes and Noble lined 6 x 9 journal, with a sewn binding and a cover photo by Mark Barrett. He must be one of the most fabulous equine photographers in the world. I began this notebook on November 1, All Saints Day, and today turned over the last sheet.

Stock Horse Photography Library

The dangers of ISM--1948 cartoon

Everything is still true today.

Can be downloaded from Internet Archive. Comments are rather amusing and naive at that site.