Media coverage of the Congressional threats

If you want to know why the news coverage (not the editorial page) of the Wall Street Journal has a reputation for being the most liberal newspaper in the country, just read journalist Naftali Bendavid's account of . . . just about anything political. Today's piece on the charges being thrown back and forth about threats is a good example.

"Democrats seized on the reported violence to portray opponents as irresponsible. Republicans condemning the acts, charged Democrats with trying to make political hay."

I'd say that's true--but words matter. Notice, she doesn't say who the irresponsible opponents are. We're left to conclude they are Republicans, which is exactly what the Democrats have said, with zero proof--some even demanding apologies. Naftali is much smoother than crazy Chris Matthews--after all, she did a puff piece book on Rahm Emanuel and was given access to the insider's view. If you look back at what she wrote in July 2009 about the 52 Democrats opposing Obamacare, you would think they had no power to hold up this bill if not for Republicans.

You have to get to paragraph nine of Naftali's article today to learn that the Democrats have not just charged "opponents," but their Republican collegues specifically and not the progressives, socialists, or Communists who believe they had been betrayed by the Democrats with a weak bill giving concessions to insurance companies and lobbyists.

Democrats and their supporting actors in the press do not put the various crazies we've seen since Obama took office--Amy the Professorial Shooter, Stark the suicide pilot, Hasan the military doctor, or Awlaki the American Muslim cleric in their column of extremists. Oh goodness No. That wouldn't be good journalism. Wouldn't be prudent. But let a white haired, 80 year old, Tea Party participant give them the finger and they rush into the streets screaming "stranger danger" and then spend days rehashing it with Chris Matthews.

The truth is, just in case you are in the information cave called broadcast news, we have well-trained FBI and police to investigate threats of violence. Reporters and Congressmen should not be deciding who threatened whom. A nasty fax, a brick through a window and a shot fired are at opposite ends of the voilence spectrum, and so far, the Republican side of Congress is in more danger.

Movie Fans Study Films for Flaws

And I thought my crabby, nitpicking commenter (180 visits) was bad! These people make a life of finding mistakes in movies. I occasionally see an obvious movie gaff as big as Joe Biden's mouth, but I don't think I'd watch Jaws that often, or Pirates.

Movie Fans Study Films for Flaws - WSJ.com

Three years ago, a joke

Glenn Beck made a joke about the Titanic when he was on CNN. James Cameron has never forgiven him. Cried all the way to the bank. How high school musical.

Where was the outrage?

In February, a CNN analyst and a Huffington Post writer advocated violence against Republicans and his own party (go gangsta i.e., breaking knee caps, etc.) for opposing Obamacare and appointments even though they had no power. Don't think it got much coverage. Imagine if that had been Rush Limbaugh? Perhaps the MSM were too busy trying to blame Tea Partiers for the guy who flew his plane (turns out he was a registered Democrat) into an IRS building and a looney-tunes professor who shot up her department to notice what their side was doing (she was a liberal through and through). Now some deranged idiots at that same level of talent and smarts are either threatening or pretending to threaten members of Congress, and the Washington Post (today's afternoon edition) is only mentioning the Democrats, even though two of the people threatened were Republicans, and they didn't worry a bit when Karl Rove got threats.

It is the left that is notorious for violence in political demonstrations. Look how they tried to stir up trouble among students a few weeks ago about tuition raises. Glenn Beck made a very interesting observation on his show last night. Now that the Weathermen, SDS types and Alinskyites have oozed their way to the top levels of government and are now "The Man," they have to put down the opposition at the grass roots in the same manner as they were treated in the 60s and 70s. However, the tea partiers aren't violent, so they have to stir the pot and work people up--or even fake it.

"What you need to do is collapse it from the inside. You need to get as many people from the welfare rolls onto it and collapse. But remember that there needs to be a framework that it collapses into. What that means is you must have power. It's not enough to be out on the streets. You must be Richard Nixon. You must have radicals at the top. . . Van Jones said. . . I am willing to drop the radical pose for the radical ends."

Some topics for Glenn Beck

We really enjoy sitting down together at 5 p.m. and watching Glenn Beck. Those of you who only get snippets through the George Soros funded Media Matters and other filters (Glenn usually greets their snoops as the "unemployed hippy-dippy dudes sitting in mom's basement" screening and reporting back to the watchdog agency) are missing some great history lessons and reading lists. He's probably done more for libraries and Amazon than any other author/host because he reads so much, and those titles fly to the top of the best seller list, faster than an Oprah Book Club selection. He even suggests going back and reading original sources--marxist, socialist, founding fathers, etc., something dear to this researcher's heart. Beck's film documentaries are stunning. I studied Russian history (19th and 20th century) back in college in the 50s and 60s and saw newsreels of the decimation of the Ukrainian farmers, the forced collectivization and starvation and the millions murdered in China's revolution. Some of the footage in his documentaries certainly ring more true, even with the dramatic voice overs, than watching a Katie Couric or Charlie Rose. That said, there are other topics I'd like to see on his programs.

1. There have been some really fabulous federal government programs that benefited millions of Americans and grew the economy. It would not be a violation of his core values and beliefs to mention

• the national park system
  
  
• the homestead acts and land giveaways
  
  
• the interstate highway system
  
  
• the land giveaways to the railroad barons who opened millions of jobs and opportunities for immigrants and city bound poor
  
  
• various public health advancements like clean water, polio vaccination, meat inspection, flour and milk enrichment, compulsory TB testing
  
  
• the Army Corps of Engineers and flood control
  
  
• mining rights to energy developers which revolutionized our industries
  
  
• compulsory education
  
  
• land grant colleges and universities.

Glenn. Here's a tip from a librarian and history buff. The founders are interesting, but a lot has happened since the American Revolution. Also, you like to talk about your Democrat grandfather. Didn't he tell you not to throw the baby out with the bath water?

2. Glenn has recently stepped on a real hornets nest--he's taken on the liberal church--more specifically the way "liberation theology" has infiltrated the pastors and pulpits, and "social justice" themes have replaced the gospel of Jesus Christ. Glenn is absolutely correct that Jesus not once asked the Roman government to feed the poor or visit the sick or set the slave free. What Glenn is missing in these mini-sermons is that in the United States, the Christian church was at the forefront of social change, long before the federal government got in that game. In fact, the government has usurped and co-opted the churches and made them just another non-profit employee of the government through tax grants for feeding programs, summer camps, pre-schools, prisoner reentry programs and housing renovation in poor neighborhoods while at the same time telling churches they can't preach the gospel or hand out printed material because they are taking government money to do their jobs!

• The great religious awakenings of the 18th and 19th centuries were followed by great fervor for combating sin and a movement toward greater personal responsibility all because of renewed faith in God, not the government
  
  
• Sunday schools were begun by "church ladies" so that children working in factories could get an education--this is the foundation of the public school movement
  
  
• the big three social movements of the 19th century, abolition of slavery, temperance, and woman's rights, were all Christian movements with women doing the heavy lifting; the woman's rights movement of the 19th century was not the feminist movement of today; it was faith-based action
  
  
• the Lyceum and Chautauqua movements of the 18th and 19th centuries were the originators of self-improvement movements and adult education--both were begun and funded by concerned citizens, not the government
  
  
• a less punitive justice system in the form of penitentiaries (penitent) rather than debtor's prison or corporal punishment was pioneered by the Quakers
  
  
• the spread of printed materials to an expanding reading public went viral through church printing presses--Methodists, Lutherans, Baptists, Congregationalists, etc. During war time soldiers were given free reading material and libraries by both the Protestant and Catholic presses
  
  
• medical care for the wounded during the Revolutionary and Civil Wars was led by bands of committed Christian men and women with nuns and priests working all sides of the conflict
  
  
• churches pioneered stewardship of the earth and the humane treatment of animals, long before the government thought to regulate it (19th century agricultural journals--take a look)
  
  
• it was the church groups that met the immigrant ships of their own ethnic groups and helped them resettle and learn the language, customs, and establish businesses
  
  
• after WWII pacifist denominations created a volunteer rebuilding program for Europe, which later the government used as a model for the Peace Corp and Vista.

Glenn. Here's the bigger story--bigger than liberation theology--many church members don't know their own history, let alone the Bible, and they don't realize they were the source, not the result, of these programs.

The Security of Your medical records

Your medical records weren't secure when they were paper; and they are even less so in electronic form. Any shred of privacy disappeared with HIPAA (1996, 2002). I've lost count of the number of times I've sat waiting in an exam room of a specialty clinic with the previous patient's information (including SS#) on the screen, or the name of the customer on the clip board with the number of the prescription at the pharmacy pick-up counter window. Read the small print in those privacy notices--it simply tells you who will see it--and that usually includes just about everyone you don't already know. "The HIPAA Privacy Rule allows a covered health care provider to use or disclose protected health information (other than psychotherapy notes), including family history information, for treatment, payment, and health care operation purposes without obtaining the individual’s written authorization or other agreement." (FAQ, HHS.gov)

President Obama said in his 2009 speech that electronic records for all, "will cut waste, eliminate red tape and reduce the need to repeat expensive medical tests [and] save lives by reducing the deadly but preventable medical errors that pervade our health-care system."

Nice for them. Not so nice for us, says this psychiatrist. And if you've read up on medical errors, you see that a simple 2 minute check list, if followed, can reduce many of them. She suspects (and she's been treating people for 35 years) that once patients understand that a vast audience beyond their doctor can see this at the touch of a keystroke, they'll be less forthright and honest about what to put in the record. Consent, she says, must be built into the electronic records system. Patients should be able to decide who sees their records.

"A 2009 poll conducted for National Public Radio, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health asked if people were confident their medical records would remain confidential if they were stored electronically and could be shared online. Fifty nine percent responded they were not confident."

Sounds good, but I think that genie popped out of the bottle years ago. Even in the 80s before any of this was possible I read stories of the information that insurance companies kept in databases, and how they traded that information with other companies, therefore a missed DUI or a "forgotten" treatment for depression somehow managed to catch up even after the life or health policy was approved. A "Do not Disclose" request doesn't mean no one sees it. And for those who think having the government in charge of this information means everything will be fair, just, and work on your behalf, I give you the new IRS agents who will be in charge of seeing that it all works on the government's behalf.

Deborah Peel: Your Medical Records Aren't Secure - WSJ.com

That's No Angry Mob, That's My Mom

Haven't read the book, but I love the title. Librarians are 223:1 liberal to conservative--probably won't be in my public library. "A full-throated defense of Tea Partiers and shows just how right conservatives have been on healthcare reform, the stimulus package, cap-and-trade, cash for clunkers, and more."

Book Details - That's No Angry Mob, That's My Mom

$10 billion for 165,000 new IRS agents

The IRS is the "enforcer" of the new health care mandates. It will have the power to

"monitor individuals and businesses’ health insurance statuses through the mandatory reporting the bill requires. Under the law, every individual and most businesses are required to report to the IRS, on their tax returns, whether they have purchased or provided the required level of coverage and disclose to the IRS which months, if any, in which they failed to do so.

Using this information, the IRS would then determine whether an employer or individual falls under the mandate, which contains exceptions for religious conscience, hardship, incarcerated persons, and members of Indian tribes.

If either an individual or a business has failed to comply with this mandate for any month out of the year, they are required to pay a separate tax to the IRS. For individuals this is a maximum of $750 per person (up to $2,250 per household) and $750 per uncovered employee for businesses. Article here.

Ways and means report

Illegal immigrants are exempt from all the taxes and penalties in this law.

Reach deadline at risk

Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemical Substances (Reach).

And after the deadline, then what? I'm assuming that once the chemicals are registered with the required safety information THEN they will be withdrawn because they will be declared unsafe. That might be why some are still not registered. Also, in the EU, not all are using English, so those safety and substance requirements are a bit dicey. Lots of really fun acronyms in this article.

Reach deadline at risk

Americans are in for a big shock

when they see how much "free" government health care is going to cost them. After the band has stopped playing, the balloons have popped, and Obama has moved on to amnesty for illegals and higher taxes on CO2.

We are pensioners--Social Security for my husband and STRS for me (I'm not eligible for SS spousal benefit because of my teacher's pension). Our "health" expenses in 2009--insurance, drugs, dental, medical, etc. (we have vision insurance but neither of us used it) ran to about $11,000. How can that be when we have the premiere government health plan--Medicare? According to the Pelosi-Obama-Reid-Con (PORC) health care will be free for all!

We paid for it through payroll deductions while we were employed; we pay for the plan again quarterly (for me) or through deductions in the SS (for him). Then we each have to buy a supplemental plan (different companies) to cover the things that Medicare doesn't. Then we pay out of pocket for the rest that neither Medicare nor the supplement cover, like vaccinations for shingles or H1N1. Neither one of us was sick or hospitalized in 2009. My husband had a few "preventive" measures like some suspicious skin spots removed. But Obama assures us that prevention is going to save us money, so that's OK (it's never actually been proven because careful people then live longer and pay for more health care down the road). Does anyone think that we'll ever see that $2500-$3000 reduction Obama is promising each household/family? Or will it just keep going up, up and away through higher taxes and higher premiums?

Fun to read--Men are from Mars, etc.

This came from Rusty, who has a nice jazz radio program on KAMU-fm in College Station on Friday afternoons and whom I didn't know in high school. It's probably an urban legend, but I got a big laugh.

Here's a prime example of "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus" offered by an English professor from the University of Colorado for an actual class assignment:

The professor told his class: "Today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story. The process is simple. Each person will pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right. As homework tonight, one of you will write the first paragraph of a short story. You will e-mail your partner that paragraph and send a copy to me.

"The partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story and send it back, also sending a copy to me. The first person will then add a third paragraph, and so on back-and-forth.

"Remember to re-read what has been written each time in order to keep the story coherent. There is to be absolutely NO talking outside of the e-mails, and anything you wish to say must be written in the e-mail.

"The story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached."

The following was actually turned in by two of his English students:

THE STORY:

(first paragraph by Rebecca)

At first, Laurie couldn't decide which kind of tea she wanted. The chamomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy evenings at home, now reminded her too much of Carl, who once said, in happier times, that he liked chamomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs, keep her mind off Carl. His possessiveness was suffocating, and if she thought about him too much her asthma started acting up again. So chamomile was out of the question.

(second paragraph by Bill)

Meanwhile, Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron now in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important things to think about than the neuroses of an air-headed asthmatic bimbo named Laurie with whom he had spent one sweaty night over a year ago. "A.S. Harris to Geostation 17," he said into his transgalactic communicator. "Polar orbit established. No sign of resistance so far..." But before he could sign off a bluish particle beam flashed out of nowhere and blasted a hole through his ship's cargo bay. The jolt from the direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and across the cockpit.

(Rebecca)

He bumped his head and died almost immediately, but not before he felt one last pang of regret for psychically brutalizing the one woman who had ever had feelings for him. Soon afterwards, Earth stopped its pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Skylon 4. "Congress Passes Law Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel," Laurie read in her newspaper one morning. The news simultaneously excited her and bored her. She stared out the window, dreaming of her youth, when the days had passed unhurriedly and carefree, with no newspaper to read, no television to distract her from her sense of innocent wonder at all the beautiful things around her.

"Why must one lose one's innocence to become a woman?" she pondered wistfully.

(Bill)

Little did she know, but she had less than 10 seconds to live. Thousands of miles above the city, the Anu'udrian mothership launched the first of its lithium fusion missiles. The dimwitted wimpy peaceniks who pushed the Unilateral Aerospace disarmament Treaty through the congress had left Earth a defenseless target for the hostile alien empires who were determined to destroy the human race. Within two hours after the passage of the treaty the Anu'udrian ships were on course for Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverize the entire planet. With no one to stop them, they swiftly initiated their diabolical plan. The lithium fusion missile entered the atmosphere unimpeded. The President, in his top-secret mobile submarine headquarters on the ocean floor off the coast of Guam, felt the inconceivably massive explosion, which vaporized poor, stupid Laurie.

(Rebecca)

This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My writing partner is a violent, chauvinistic semi-literate adolescent.

(Bill)

Yeah? Well, my writing partner is a self-centered tedious neurotic whose attempts at writing are the literary equivalent of Valium.

Oh, shall I have chamomile tea? Or shall I have some other sort of F---ING TEA??? Oh no, what am I to do? I'm an air headed bimbo who reads too many Danielle Steele novels!

(Rebecca)

A$$h@le.

(Bill)

B*tch!

(Rebecca)

F*** YOU - YOU NEANDERTHAL!!

(Bill)

In your dreams, Ho. Go drink some tea.

(TEACHER)

A+ - I really liked this one.

Religious Colleges should be allowed to follow their beliefs

even at sporting events. Goshen College, where my sister attended in the 1950s, is about 50 miles from Manchester, a Church of the Brethren college I attended. We shared a car (ca. 1951 Packard) to get back and forth to our parents' home in northern Illinois. Both colleges are picture post-card perfect, midwestern liberal arts schools. Goshen was recently in the news because a parent from a competing school athletic team complained that the Star Spangled Banner wasn't sung or played at athletic events at Goshen. I believe a compromise has been reached by using an instrumental version.

However, I was surprised to read in the paper that Goshen was still 55% Mennonite in student body. Mennonites along with the Quakers and Brethren are one of three historic peace denominations in the United States. In my family database I have many Mennonites and Brethren, and a few Quakers since they tended to hang out together in the 18th and 19th centuries. Are the rest of us really in danger of losing something if a few college students don't want to sing about an 1812 battle in a voice range that is almost impossible to reach and which celebrities regularly slaughter at base ball games?

Manchester's Brethren roots, on the other hand, are hard to find on the college web site. They are mentioned in the history section. Of the 10 or so MC web pages I searched with the "find" feature, Jesus' name appeared once. Environmentalism and religious pluralism are much bigger than Jesus at Manchester if pixels mean anything. At the About page the following values are listed: learning; faith; service; integrity; diversity; and community. It was hard to tell if there is any viable connection (other than funding support) from Church of the Brethren.

Anyway, I think little Goshen should stick to its guns--uh, um, its beliefs.

Fed Loses Secrecy Suit, Considering Options

The Federal Reserve lost an appeal March 19 in a bid to keep hidden the details of its estimated $2 trillion in bailouts to bankers around the world, prompting celebration among anti-Fed campaigners and promises of a continued fight from the banking cartel.


Read the story here

Iranian and Chinese funds support Obama

Hassan Nemazee was a prominent Democratic party fund-raiser. He pleaded guilty last Thursday to stealing hundreds of millions of dollars to buy property in Westchester County, donate to charity and give money to political campaigns. He was a national finance chairman for Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign before raising more than $500,000 for Barack Obama's campaign after the Democratic National Convention in August 2008. Mr. Nemazee was charged with bank fraud on Aug. 25, 2009.

This Business Week account doesn't discuss his funding of the Obama campaign. Can you imagine this slipping through if it were Bush?

Iranian and Chinese funds support Obama, Biden, Clinton and Kerry

Conestoga Spring Soiree

Soiree. Doesn't that sound classy? Well, it was a lovely event, and I learned a lot of history. Conestoga is sort of a "friends" group of the Ohio Historical Society. We do really interesting things and once a year there is a fund raiser. This year it was at the Bricker-Doody House in Upper Arlington. I've driven past that house for 40+ years, so it was fun to get a peek inside, and to also learn the history of John Bricker, former Ohio Governor and Senator. He was Attorney General from 1933-37, Governor, 1939-1945, and in 1944 he was the Republican nominee for Vice President on Thomas E. Dewey ticket.

A reenactor performed as Senator William E. Jenner of Indiana, reminiscing about his days in the Senate with Bricker from the perspective of 1980 looking back on their careers (Bricker died in 1986, Jenner in 1985). It was fascinating. Also two of Gov. Bricker's grandchildren shared memories of staying in the house when they were children.

The home has been beautifully restored and expanded, and it was so nice of the Doody family to share it with us for a good cause.

January 21, 2009--On this day

President Obama should have hit the floor running to fix the economy. Instead we got apology tours, unspent and poorly planned ARRA funds for businesses and districts that don't exist, inexplicable loitering, dithering and floundering over military requests instead of decisive action, bailouts of auto companies to save the unions, and months and months and months of boring, repetitious campaign speeches on "fixing" health care where he lied and obfuscated through his teeth and teleprompter. This man doesn't understand basic math. Can he add 65 to 1945 and figure out the Boomers are going to be collecting Social Security? That pensions are invested in private companies? Can he do the math on what a national unemployment rate of between 9-10% (but locally much, much higher--18-19%) does to tax revenue at the state and local level, to say nothing of the federal?

So he's got less, owes more, and like a hoarder applying for another credit card from China, decides that fixing something that wasn't broken is more important than saving the economy. Why? I don't think it's "legacy." It's way beyond that. He's a marxist; wants to destroy our market economy. He needs passionately to dismantle it. It's all he knows; all he's been taught from the beginning of his sad, stunted life. We're seeing him take it down, piece by piece.

FDR abolished benefits for American veterans as an economy measure

Maybe that's why all those WWI veterans' photos and stories in Life and Look are so awful! Go to a library and see for yourself! Look what FDR did to the veterans--those guys who survived the enormous battles in France that took thousands of lives, who survived gassing and the flu pandemic. And it could happen again if you give a President too many powers like FDR had during the Depression to "restore" the economy.

Veterans Administration Created

President Hoover, in his 1929 State of the Union message, proposed consolidating agencies administering veterans benefits. The following year Congress created the Veterans Administration by uniting three bureaus - the previously independent Veterans' Bureau, the Bureau of Pensions and the National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. President Hoover signed the executive order establishing the VA on July 21, 1930. Hines, who had served since 1923 as director of the Veterans' Bureau, was named the first administrator of the agency.

The new agency was responsible for medical services for war veterans; disability compensation and allowances for World War I veterans; life insurance; bonus certificates; retirement payments for emergency officers; Army and Navy pensions; and retirement payments for civilian employees. During the next decade, from 1931 to 1941, VA hospitals would increase from 64 to 91, and the number of beds would rise from 33,669 to 61,849.

In March 1933, President Roosevelt persuaded Congress to pass the "Economy Act." A response to the Great Depression, the measure included a repeal of all previous laws granting benefits for veterans of the Spanish-American War and all subsequent conflicts and periods of peacetime service.

It also gave the President authority to issue new veterans benefits. Roosevelt then promulgated regulations that radically reduced veterans benefits. When the President's authority to establish benefits by executive order expired in 1935, Congress reenacted most of the laws that had been in effect earlier."

You can read about this at the History of the VA.

Another fragile group FDR's new tax programs (tripled during the Depression) nearly destroyed was African Americans--one of his "new deals" threw half a million blacks out of work by raising wages above market levels and allowing union goons to organize by going after employees and employers alike with violence. Has a familiar ring, doesn't it?

Media focus is on racial slurs at tea party

Not on dirty trick tactics, bribes and pay-offs of our President and his Chicago goons. No one even knows if the slurs came from participants concerned about the slide into socialism or if they were Moveonover plants. Does it matter? Does the press ever report the obscene swearing and cussing when the left demonstrates? (BTW, weren't they having a war protest the same day? I didn't see any coverage.) The media doesn't investigate slurs when they are made against Conservatives--like when Fancy Nancy called them Astroturf or the sexual pejoratives. Or when the President the last few days of his recent campaigning threw out all the charges we've made, but didn't deny them? Racial slurs are never appropriate whether coming from the left or right. But the other side sure gets its dander up when they find minorites jumping the fence of the left-owned plantations.

I'm still looking for the men/media who can stop referring to women, even Tiger's lady friends, as bimbos, hotties, and words a real lady would never tolerate. 51.7% of us are female; 80% are white; 12.8% of us are over 65. If it's slurs you want to stop, let's spread the wealth of respect.

Country of Origin Labeling--COOL

I ALWAYS look for country of origin on packaged and fresh food. The 2009 7 CFR Part 60 and Part 65 obviously doesn't cover everything, like the "distributed by" note on the Trail's End Mix Gourmet Blend that was dropped off at my door today to promote Scouting. Not a word on the package about country of origin--raisins, cranberries, nuts, sugar. It should be my choice to purchase food grown in countries without the protections afforded us by the USDA. I never buy anything that will go on my skin or in my mouth that was made or created or grown in China--including toothpaste, hand lotion, etc. Look what the did to our pets; to their own infant formula. For other Asian nations, I'll decide on a case by case basis--like tuna or mushrooms. You really have to read the small print at Trader Joe's. Safe food is something the U.S. does well--and if the USDA would get out of the mortgage business (no money down, 100% financing) it would have more money to hire more inspectors.

Agricultural Marketing Service - Country of Origin Labeling

Sauerkraut-Raisin Drops

I saw this recipe at a defunct food blog. The writer said she'd never tried her grandmother's recipe because sauerkraut made her gag. I rushed right to the kitchen to make a batch, but discovered I was out of sauerkraut. Sigh. Maybe next week. My mouth is watering, so I ate some Girl Scout cookies instead. Not the same.

Sauerkraut-Raisin Drops

3/4 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 8-ounce can sauerkraut, drained
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup raisins

In mixer bowl, beat the 3/4 cup butter and brown sugar till fluffy. Add egg, milk and the teaspoon of vanilla. Beat till fluffy. Rinse sauerkraut, drain. Stir sauerkraut into creamed mixture. Stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Mix dry ingredients into batter. Stir in the raisins. Drop from a teaspoon onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Cool.

Do not frost.

Update: Made these on the 23rd. Really yummy. Can't taste the sauerkraut. However, it's hard to find an 8 oz. can of sauerkraut.