Planes will start flying again; stupidy will linger

The same people who were hysterical over the cost of "Bush's Wars" are oddly silent on the cost of "Obama's Wars," both the ones in the middle east and the one on our economy. These are often the same people who believe passionately in anthropogenic global warming (AGW), even though they've just had a brilliant display of how little we control and how commerce and climate can both cool with just a few burps of a volcano through a glacier. For some reason they are willing to spend mega-trillions attempting to control the climate at some unknown future date by a degree or two, when a few hundred million could insure every African would have safe water and control malaria in this decade.

Do people actually fall for these e-mail scams?

Yes, they do. I must get 10 or so a week through my university account and if no one answered the door, they'd stop sending them. Road Runner (my other account) seems to have a better screening device. Something for nothing must be the name of the game on the receiver's end. Here's one of today's which goes on to request all my personal identifying information so large sums can be credited to my bank account.

"Your contact / Your Payment File was given to this office in respect of your total inherited/10.5M British Pounds (TEN Million, Five Hundred Thousand British Pounds Sterling owed to you which you have Failed to claim because of either non-compliance of official processes or Because of your not believing reality of your genuine payment.

We wish to bring to you the solution to this problem. Right now we have arranged your payment through our Swift Card Payment Centers, That is the latest instruction from Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS)."

Usually I delete without opening. Today I looked at it and wondered who are the "something for nothing" wannabees that fall for this?

American independents and moderates are probably too well educated and savvy to fall for THIS scheme, but they sure bought into "hope and change" without any investigation of the current president's qualifications, background or communist cronies. If every registered Democrat and African-American of either party had voted for Obama, that still wouldn't have put him in the White House. No, it took all those people who put their investigative powers on the shelf, who were angry with Bush because of wars on two fronts, ridiculous spending on domestic programs, or because they thought he talked funny--those are the people who opened the alluring package and thought, here's a chance for something different. What they now have are Obama's wars on two fronts, double the ridiculous spending in one year that Bush ran up in eight, and a President that talks funny when not on the teleprompter.

Gee guys, thanks a bunch.

Coffee Frappe

I don't care for cold coffee, and rarely make coffee at home, but this one I might try. It's from my new Desperate Housewives Cookbook, p. 200.

If you have left over coffee, pour it into ice cube trays and freeze. Transfer the frozen cubes to a sealable bag and keep in the freezer.

3 coffee ice cubes
1/2 cup milk (or soy milk or skim milk)
1/4 cup reduced-fat evaporated milk
1 packet artificial sweetener or 1 tablespoon superfine sugar

Combine all the ingredients in a blender and run at high speed until smooth. Pour into a tall chilled glass.

The story in the book is that Lynette seems to have a caffeine addiction.

Items too short for a blog

Today I replaced my 50 year old glass measuring cups and 2 qt. casserole. I couldn't read the marks on the cups, and the lid broke about 40 years ago for the casserole. Unless they break, these will probably last the rest of my life.

My husband thinks my smocked, loose t-shirt looks like a maternity top, but pregnant women these days wear tight form fitting body shirts. Besides, at 70, I doubt that I'm confusing anyone.

The cat is coughing, snorting, gagging and sneezing less--down to about once a day--so should I risk not getting a refill of the antibiotic?

Can I finish reading Dearest Friend; a life of Abigail Adams in time to recommend it for the 2010-2011 reading cycle? It's a rule--we can't recommend a book unless we've read it.

It really irritates me that I can't find Palmolive hand soap anywhere. It's probably still made, but I haven't seen it in years. It's far superior to all the other green bar soaps. Meijer's used to have a knock off, but can't even get that.

A friend of mine has written a book about our home town, and I'm really learning a lot. I've bought 2 more copies to give my siblings.

I don't like this month's book selection, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I suppose I shouldn't read it in the evening. I think I have Sundowner's.

Good news about vitamin supplements, especially calcium, decreasing the breast cancer risk. And only 4 years after they warned us they might increase the risk of cancer. I love research, don't you?

There's a guy on death row here in Ohio fighting execution because he says he has allergies to the injection material. So. . . what's the worst that could happen? He might die?

It appears I've sold my one little piece of Teco for $500. I had a blog entry about it. I went online and looked at another piece at Treadway in Cincinnati, about twice the size and a bit more complex. It was $74,000. We plan to use the money for Haiti.

Abigail's Tea Room at Lakeside was auctioned Saturday. Cold, windy day. We loved going there the last 30 years or so (until 2008). Very sad day for all of us. The Association didn't get it.

I've volunteered to help with English conversation class at our church, but orientation has been cancelled for the third week. Maybe I'll start in the fall. Hardly seems worth it for the spring since we're gone in the summer.

Got a wonderful new notebook for blogging. More expensive than I usually pay, but more pages. "Ebony and Ivory" by Drew Strouble.

The seven syllable volcano

A new burst of ash yesterday has halted the return to service of some European airports according to the NYT. Nasty stuff. Millions lost in commerce and leisure industries. Thousands of people stranded or inconvenienced. Ash and lava and poisonous gases in the air people breathe. Britain is sending ships to rescue its 150,000 citizens stranded abroad. Just imagine what volcanic ash clouds perhaps from a Pacific Island would do in the long run to wind turbines in the prairies, or solar panels on desert rooftops, and the nuclear plants sprinkled around the midwest--those energy sources so touted by the environmentalists as superior to fossil fuel. Talk all you want about "locally grown" or "sustainable," but block the sun for a growing season with an ash cloud in California and you'd find out quickly just what "food insecurity" really means. True, that nasty stuff in the clouds can shut down airports because jet fuel engines don't like it either, and there's no way to safely circulate the air, but other forms of heating and cooling that stored the sun's energy eons ago through rotting vegetation and animal matter aren't as affected. It's almost as if God is sending a reminder that he is still in charge and the cult of AGW better hang up its robes.

Job 38
4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone,
7 when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

8 “Or who shut in the sea with doors
when it burst out from the womb,
9 when I made clouds its garment
and thick darkness its swaddling band,
10 and prescribed limits for it
and set bars and doors,
11 and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?

Why Men's Friendships Are Different

"Studies show that in their late 20s and 30s, women have a harder time staying in touch with old friends. Those are the years when they're busy starting careers and raising children, so they don't have time to gather for reunions. Money is tighter, too. But around age 40, women start reconnecting. Before the 1990s, researchers assumed this was because they had more time for friendship in their 40s, as their children became self-sufficient. But now researchers consider this middle-aged focus on friendship to be a life stage; as women plan the next chapter of their lives, they turn to friends for guidance and empathy.

Men, meanwhile, tend to build friendships until about age 30, but there's often a falloff after that. Among the reasons: Their friendships are more apt to be hurt by geographical moves and differences in career trajectories. Recent studies, however, are now finding that men in their late 40s are turning to what Dr. Grief calls "rusted" friends—longtime pals they knew when they were younger. The Internet is making it easier for them to make contact with one another."

Why Men's Friendships Are Different - WSJ.com

The front fell off

Abortionist Loses License for Killing the Wrong Twin

Didn't Obama warn us, when trumpeting his health care take over, that evil doctors make mistakes, and perform unnecessary procedures? Lookee here. The guy aborted the wrong baby! He left the one that had Down Syndrome. Obama was right!

Abortionist Loses License for Killing the Wrong Twin » First Thoughts | A First Things Blog

Clinton blames peaceful protesters not his actions at Waco for Oklahoma City

It's the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombings when Timothy McVeigh, a wacko enraged by the Waco incident two years before, decided to kill the way the government under Janet Reno had killed at Waco. Now Clinton chooses the anniversary of the Murrah Building bombing to absolve himself of any blame and to caution today's peaceful protestors. It's either convoluted thinking, or just thinking like a Democrat.

With the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing approaching, former President Bill Clinton on Thursday drew parallels between the antigovernment tone that preceded that devastating attack and the political tumult of today, saying government critics must be mindful that angry words can stir violent actions.

Recalling ’95 Bombing, Clinton Sees Parallels - NYTimes.com

The Clintons and our current President all participated in not-so-peaceful protests; in fact, Obama's friend Bill Ayers who helped launch his career in Chicago is a domestic terrorist who bombed buildings in the 60s, and his UCC Chicago pastor preached inflamatory, racist, and anti-semitic sermons, but he stayed in the church year after year. So why can one group listen to all this anti-government language, but others can not? What are they afraid of? That it might work? A conservative takeover? Why wasn't Clinton chastising the SEIU protestors who actually got arrested in their protests on Tax Day?

Cleaning up the cat hair

On the one hand, we have more time these days, and on the other, I seem to be less interested in cleaning. But we were going out Friday night with relatively new friends--my husband knows her through their artsy groupsy stuff and their common interest in Haiti. So we went out to eat at our favorite spot, with plans to come back here for dessert and to watch a DVD my husband had made of his last trip to Haiti. Having company is the best reason I know to clean--sometimes I'll invite someone just for that incentive. The plant we got for Valentine's Day had died (I forgot to water it), so that was probably my last big event. And we have a small cat--she's under 7 lbs, but loses about 10 lbs. of hair a week. So I really went over the furniture with my wide 2" painter's tape so they wouldn't go home covered with hair.

As I said, we really didn't know these people well. I had no idea they had seven dogs--six Goldens and one Lab. All house pets. I guess I needn't have worried about a little cat hair.

A fun cookbook--Desperate Housewives

Yesterday at Marc's I found this cookbook for $2.00. I glanced through it wondering why in the world I needed yet another cookbook I probably wouldn't use, and then saw two pudding recipes! That's all it took.

I think I've only seen this show once, but I think I got a hint of the story line by following the different chapters with the characters and their recipes in this 2007 title.

Bree: Basil Purée Soup, Braised Duck, and Chicken Cutlets Saltimbocca. Lynette: French Toast for Breakfast (or Dinner) with Blueberry Syrup; Warm Turkey, Muenster, and Coleslaw Wraps; and Potato Casserole. Susan: a Salad of Roasted Peppers, Fresh Mozzarella, and Arugula; Foolproof Macaroni and Cheese; Chocolate Butterscotch Bars; and Garlic Mashed Potatoes. Gabrielle: Shrimp with Chorizo and Red Pepper, Guacamole with Warm Chips, and Pineapple-Peach Smoothies. Edie: Oysters Poached in Champagne and Cream, Sausage Puttanesca, and Ambrosia.

Then there's also recipes by the neighbors like Mike, Felicia and Mrs. Huber. The formatting is elegant, the text delightful, and the recipes look devine. The recipes are by Christopher Styler and the text by Scott S. Tobis. The final section tells how food is presented on TV by April Falzone Garen, a food stylist, and Melody Miller-Melton, the property master. And for the character (Susan) who is a bad cook, they actually have to simulate poorly prepared or burned food!

For those of you who live in towns that don't have a Marc's, well, too bad. It's such a fun store.

How to raise taxes on everyone--

particularly those making less than $250,000 a year--one of the many, many campaign promises Obama intends to break. The first tax on the poor he imposed was the cigarette tax. The European style value-added-tax is really an oxymoron, of course, because it doesn't add a thing--it just hides it. It's not the same as a flat tax, or a fair tax that conservatives and libertarians are suggesting as a replacement for the income tax, the death tax, or the capital gains tax. We get to keep all those and add more with a VAT. It just takes your money and creates another fund for government to waste. It's a tax at every stage of the production process.

And of course, it's all George W. Bush's fault. If it hadn't been for his tax cuts pulling us out of the last recession, there wouldn't have been huge sums of tax money funnelled into the government coffers creating a lust for more programs from both parties. . . Well, whatever the reason we need this, it certainly couldn't be Obama doubling the deficit or his hasty, ill-thought out health care take-over.

Did you hear him ridiculing the peaceful Tea Party gatherings on Tax Day? (But not the SEIU protesters who actually got arrested?) He can't imagine why they aren't grateful to have the future of their children and grandchildren stolen. Such ingrates!! Sixty-two percent of Americans call themselves conservatives. Some of them helped elect him. No more. Let the liberals act like the long abused wife who is afraid to stand up and say NO. I think conservatives have learned a lesson.

Obama insiders buzz over possible Value-Added Tax

How important are small businesses?

Today my husband attended an all day continuing education program to keep up his architectural license--got 4 credits and lunch. He saw a lot of guys he knew when he was a partner in a small firm (Feinknopf, Macioce, Schappa). They were all out of work. A "small business" is one with fewer than 500 employees. Architectural firms usually run about 15-20 if they are "big." The big firms are scrambling and eating up the smaller jobs they used to ignore just to keep their staff. Most small businesses are unincorporated, so business income is treated as personal income. This means Obama's plan to tax the high income earners (the top 1% pay 71% of the taxes) hit small businesses the hardest. So while 47% of Americans are paying nothing or getting big tax credits once a year on government payday, they are are helping to kill small businesses which are what usually lead the way out of recession.

How important are small businesses to the U.S. economy?

Small firms:
• Represent 99.7% of all employer firms.
• Employ just over half of all private sector employees.
• Pay 44% of total U.S. private payroll.
• Have generated 64% of net new jobs over the past 15 years.
• Create more than half of the nonfarm private gross domestic
product (GDP).
• Hire 40% of high tech workers (such as scientists, engineers, and computer programmers).
• Are 52% home-based and 2% franchises.
• Made up 97.3% of all identified exporters and produced 30.2% of the known export value in FY 2007.
• Produce 13 times more patents per employee than large patenting firms; these patents are twice as likely as large firm patents to be among the one percent most cited.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census and International Trade Admin.; Advocacy-funded research by Kathryn Kobe, 2007 (www.sba.gov/advo/research/rs299tot.pdf) and CHI Research, 2003 (www.sba.gov/advo/research/rs225tot.pdf); U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Did you ever ask yourself in 2008 just what Obama wanted to transform this country into?

Thank you, Uihlein family

At lunch today I read through the most interesting catalog (I am usually reading something)--Uline Spring/Summer 2010 [interactive]. If you ever need to ship, store, wrap, tape, strap, preserve, label, mail or secure something, this is the company for you! Somewhere I noticed that "Uline" is the phonetic spelling of the family name, "Uihlein" and that there are real people standing behind and in the warehouses of these products.

Liz Uihlein addresses the "made in China" problem:

". . . About 20% of what we sell today comes from Asia. This has never bothered me in the past. We all know that many products are not made in the U.S. anymore. What bothers me enormously is American jobs. During most of Uline's history we have scrambled to hire enough people. We learned how to do job fairs. We spent a ton of money on Monster and other career sites. But that was then and this is now.

And so, in this catalog, we've worked hard with some American firms to get a product that's made here versus being made in China. . . [costs more]

It would be nice if the Commerce Department or some government agency would put out some positive news on what can be made right here in the U.S. If we all think and talk about it, maybe we can do better. Also, the playing field is not level; a tennis court is. Personally, I am an American first. I care about American jobs."

Well, Liz, I'm not from the government, but here's 3 cheers for your excellent catalog, products, and your desire to keep Americans employed. The variety is breathtaking, the layout is outstanding, and the indexing excellent.

Also, all that packaging stuff sold at the U.S. postal branches? Where are those made? Just asking.

Icelandic volcano is shutting down air travel

Yes, I can see why the airline industry is concerned about the Iceland volcano affecting air quality and vision. But what about the long term affects? Remember the little ice age? Millions of Europeans froze or starved to death when the climate changed--it got colder because of the amount of ash in the air. And here we've been shutting down or over regulating the very industries that could help us if this were to happen again. Ah, the wisdom of Big Brother.

Icelandic volcano is shutting down European airspace : The Airline Zone

My caballo is prettier

Their "caballo" (art horse)


My caballo (horse art)

From Dick Blick web catalog

"Made of oak and handcrafted in the USA, the Caballo is a bench and an easel in one. It folds easily for travel or storage — its attached wheels and poly straps make it easy to move anywhere.

When you're ready to paint, just unfold the Caballo, and you've got an instant studio space complete with a place to sit, a supply drawer, a storage compartment, and a sturdy easel for sketching or painting.

Perfect for working on location, it's also a great space saving solution for anyone who has to share "studio space" with the rest of the family."

Why bother?

When I find an important library, depository, repository or archive website (almost always academic) with broken or inaccurate links, I often look for the "contact us" link and notify them. Often, that link is broken. Silly me, I keep looking--click, click, sigh, click. (I don't swear.) When someone gets back to me I'm asked, where is this link, I can't find it. I e-mail back. They (usually he) reply that it's not their fault, they are underfunded, or they just have too much to do to add dates to research or clean up broken links, yada, yada.

Now we know why the college kids that invented Google and Facebook are billionaires, and librarians are among the lowest paid civil servants.

Sugar free desserts

Jello-sugar free pudding snacks are creamy, low calorie, low fat and very tasty. There’s almost no down side--until you read the ingredients and can’t pronounce some of them. Definitely better living through chemistry. Also, I don’t think coconut and palm oils are good for your body, swallowed or spread on your skin.

INGREDIENTS:
Water, xylitol, modified food starch, cocoa processed with alkali, milk protein concentrate, contains less than 1% of hydrogenated vegetable oil (coconut and palm kernel oils), salt, sodium stearoyl lactylate (for smooth texture), sodium alginate, sucralose and acesulfame potassium (sweeteners), natural and artificial flavor, artificial color.

My husband eats one or two puddings a day, so I’ve been experimenting with homemade pudding--again. I used to always serve home cooked puddings, but got out of the habit as the processed products improved in texture and taste. Here’s what I tried recently, called interestingly enough, “Homemade Vanilla Pudding.” Pretty simple list of ingredients. 2 cups milk, ½ cup white sugar, 3 tablespoons cornstarch, ¼ teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and 1 tablespoon butter. (See allrecipes.com)

But of course, I changed it. The first time I added two eggs, changed the sugar to Splenda, added lemon juice and used 2% milk and only a dash of salt. Then to make it fluffy, I added sugar free Cool Whip. So by the time I was finished and it was in a pie shell, all I had done was reduce the cost, not the strange ingredients.

Yesterday I made it pretty much as the recipe card said, but still used Splenda instead of sugar (sorry, Gayle). It looked a little wimpy and pale, so I added a few tablespoons of sugar free strawberry jelly. It has a nice texture, color and taste, and if I’d had fresh strawberries I would have used that instead.

I’ll keep trying. Besides, for some reason I have 3 boxes of corn starch in the cupboard.

Hank Johnson fears Guam might tip over

No wonder Congress has fallen so far in the polls, even lower than the President. This man was certainly wasting everyone's time. I'm surprised Admiral Robert Willard, who commands the Navy's Pacific Fleet, didn't laugh out loud.

A fortune to elect Obama--Andy Stern

Yes, it was expensive, but [Andy] "Stern’s access to President Obama has already paid huge dividends including: an $862 billion stimulus that prevented states from having to cut-back government union jobs or wages; $2.5 trillion in new government health care spending, much of which will go to unionized health care providers; and the appointment of SEIU associate general counsel Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board. The NYT describes the SEIU under Stern’s tenure as “the nation’s most politically active union, with 1.9 million members.” The marriage of politics to union organizing has been great for SEIU membership, making it the fastest-growing union in America.

But what has been great for SEIU’s membership rolls has not been good for the SEIU’s bottom line. Growing union membership through politics is expensive. The Wall Street Journal reports that as recently as 2002, total SEIU liabilities were about $8 million. But by 2008, the union owed more than $156 million, a 30% increase over the $120 million it owed in 2007. And make no mistake, lobbying government is where Stern believes the future of SEIU is. After President Obama’s election, SEIU fired 75 national field staff and organizers so that the SEIU could “reallocate resources … to lobbying and communications in Washington.”

Morning Bell: Andy Stern’s America

Unions kill private sector jobs, have a history of corruption, and their pensions are underfunded. Where else to go but to the people for bailouts? Stern might be retiring, but he's not going away. Maybe a Czar? Supreme Court?

And of course, you've heard about racism in the rank and file, haven't you? Nasty stuff.