Gisele Explains Mandatory Breastfeeding Comments

Well, she sure got her name out there, didn't she? Nothing like making a really stupid statement, declaring it should be the law, and then saying it's just a personal opinion. Did she have an opinion on breast feeding before she had a baby? Maybe not. Hopefully she'll do early weaning--a 3 year old attached to mom's chest is a bit over the top. At least she provided a little relief from the non-stop Clinton wedding coverage. If I never see that dress again, or see George Stephanopulos swoon over the dance again, I will be grateful.

My grandmother breastfed all nine of her babies, and thought anyone who didn't bottle feed if she could was crazy. In her case, breastfeeding was practical and safe (she was blind), but I doubt if it was convenient.

Gisele Explains Mandatory Breastfeeding Comments | NBC Los Angeles

"Mission Accomplished:" President Obama's Iraq Withdrawal Speech

He's been claiming mission accomplished on the economy off and on since he entered office, but this one was reminiscent of Bush's speech early in the Iraq War. What makes this one different is he can only keep this "campaign promise" because Bush's surge worked, and Democrats fought it, including Senator Obama. Also, the war had quieted down so much because of the surge that even in 2008 you rarely heard Obama bring it up. It was a non-issue by the time he was getting close to the White House. And if Democrats had gotten on board and hadn't given aid and comfort to the enemy, we probably would have been out years ago.

President Obama's Iraq Withdrawal Speech: 'Mission Accomplished 2'?

From Bush's speech: Admiral Kelly, Captain Card, officers and sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln, my fellow Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country. In this battle, we have fought for the cause of liberty, and for the peace of the world. Our nation and our coalition are proud of this accomplishment — yet it is you, the members of the United States military, who achieved it. Your courage — your willingness to face danger for your country and for each other — made this day possible. Because of you, our nation is more secure. Because of you, the tyrant has fallen, and Iraq is free.

Obama will not exactly be "withdrawing" all troops, 50,000 are staying. I guess war is over when the guy in power says so, . . . unless the guy is President Bush.

Week seven at Lakeside

This week I'm taking two very different art classes. The first offered by Rusty Levenson is on art conservation. I've taken this class before, but it's so interesting and her clients and projects change, so it's always interesting. A background in chemistry and art history are essential, as well as the patience to go through apprenticeship, internship and possibly a residency requirement. But the perks--traveling around the world and meeting fascinating people--are good.

The second class I'm taking at the Rhein Center is Portrait Sketching. In any art class I take, I'm usually the best on Monday, but the same on Friday and everyone else has passed me up. But today there was a woman in the class who could have been teaching. She was fantastic. Maybe that means I can be better on Friday?

We had some great music over the week-end. The American Tenors sang Friday night to a very appreciative audience, and Pointe of Departure Ballet with the Lakeside Symphony performed on Saturday. On Sunday we had the big Hotel Lakeside Ice Cream Social and enjoyed the music of the Genoa American Legion Band. My husband helped with the Kids' Sail program, and 126 children participated, which I think is a record. The weather was perfect for sailing.

The Mouse Island sail boat race was Saturday, and my husband's sailing partner of a few years back, Grace, took first place. She's now 20. Today was the Lakeside Triathalon, and I saw the runners going past our cottage. I think biking and sailing was also involved.

I took the Friday tree walk again--took it last year. I always learn a lot. I think there's a few trees we'll be saying "good-bye" to soon--like the ash trees which are slowing succumbing to the emerald ash borrer, which arrived in Michigan in 2002, and a lot of our silver maples are nearing 70 or 80 years old, and they do not enjoy a long life although they grow quickly and create shade.

Who murdered the vets?

Yesterday at the Women's Club book sale for 50 cents I picked up a signed copy of "The Key West Reader: The best of Key West's Writers 1830-1990." Published in 1989, and edited by George Murphy a resident and writer of Key West. It's a very interesting collection by known and unknown (to me) American writers, such as John James Audubon, Robert Frost, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, and John Hersey.

I've never been particularly fond of Hemingway's fiction, but the non-fiction accounts of the Labor Day 1935 hurricane (category 5) that killed over 400 people in an area with a population of a thousand or so in this book are stunning. Every governor and city mayor of the gulf states should be required to read this. If Louisiana's state and local officials knew this story and how bad FDR looked for sending unemployed and mentally addled WWI veterans to their certain death in a hurricane, maybe the outcome of Katrina would have been different. Or not. Hemingway disliked FDR intensely, so Democrats probably don't read him. This is from HNN account:

"Shortly after the natural disaster had occurred, writer Ernest Hemingway was contacted by the editors of New Masses to write an account of the storm from an insider's perspective. Hemingway's response was the article, "Who Murdered the Vets?: A First-Hand Report on the Florida Hurricane," published September 17, 1935, just weeks after the event. Although billed as a personal account, in reality it was an outraged demand for accountability for the needless death of the veterans. A hostile tone was established within the first few lines. "Whom did they annoy and to whom was their possible presences a political danger?" Hemingway asked. "Who sent them down to the Florida Keys and left them there in hurricane months?" Hemingway presented the veterans not merely as murdered but almost as though they had been assassinated for someone's personal political gain or simply that they were disposed of as an unnecessary burden to the public after courageously serving their country.

The left will always blame Bush for damages and deaths during Hurricane Katrina because they can't face up to the Democratic controlled administrations of Kathleen Blanco, the governor of Louisiana, and Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans, who were in charge of the first line of defense. Presidents through FEMA then send in aid. Like FEMA hasn't done for the people of Ohio after its June tornado which destroyed a town (too white, too rural and too small to matter). Here's some background on the veterans from the Veterans' Memorial page:

"Unemployed WW-I veterans staged hunger marches and demonstrations in several cities, but the most famous was the Bonus Expeditionary Force in Washington, D.C., in June, 1932. A WW-I bonus law was passed in 1922, but vetoed by the President. In 1924, Congress overrode the presidential veto and gave every veteran a certificate payable in 1945. The nation entered the depression and in 1931 the vets demanded to be paid the bonus early. In June, 1932, about 15,000 veterans descended on Washington to convince the Senate to pass the bill. They were unsuccessful and finally President Hoover chased the "bonus marchers" out of Washington with bayonets and tear gas. Some say this action "put Roosevelt in the White House." Anyway, FERA was created in May, 1933 and various work programs and camps were established throughout the country. The events leading to the presence of the veterans in the Matecumbe work camps followed this scenario."

Reminds me of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study

One of the most famous violations of human rights is the U.S. government's Public Health Service study of poor black men infected with syphilis which went on for 40 years and the researchers continued to study the effects of the disease even after penicillin was invented which could have cured them.

Now, fast forward from 1972 to 1993, to another deadly disease, and a "data set" made up this time primarily of poor black women. The WIHS, Women's Interagency HIV Study, (pronouced WISE) has resulted in 440 published research papers with a data base that can be mined for many more to determine the affects of HIV on (poor minority) women.

The population of 2625 women is 60% black and 27% Hispanic; less than 1/3 are employed; 2/3 report a history of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse. These women have a high smoking rate, high crack cocaine use, high alcohol and illegal substance abuse rate; they have numerous co-morbidities not realted to HIV such as cardiovascular disease, liver disease, cancers, cognitive disorders, and depression.

I've poured through the report, both as summarized in the July 21 issue of JAMA and the on-line site, and the newsletters (most very dated and containing recipes and weight tips on portion control) the participants receive. Through anti-retroviral drugs AIDS is no longer a fatal disease. This clinical study does not treat the women; it refers them for treatment. It offers them money for participation, child care for attending, transportation help, workshops, phone call reminders, and for a select few, a seat on the advisory board.

Well, whoop! Double whoop! Pardon me if I'm not impressed. If all participants were handed the pills and medical staff watched them take it (they do this in methadone clinics), and they were then in remission (there is no cure, but there is life extension), where would the studies be? Instead of being an HIV/AIDS study, and I think the women originally believed they would be treated, not just studied, it has become a data set for researchers (just like the Tuskegee study) for studying poverty, substance abuse, child rearing, and other diseases that may put these women at risk. It's also a study on why people may not follow doctor's orders or follow through on drug therapy--but at the cost of their own lives.

My question is this: How did a disease that began in a tiny demographic made up of privileged white men with higher than average education and income, become the scourge of the poor and black? Why, with 12% of the population, are blacks so affected, and black women? Ten years ago you could talk about "down low" sex, the practice of gay black men bringing the disease home to the wife/girlfriend and then to the children. But these days, that has become politically incorrect to even raise the issue. So you're left to your own devices by this study, JAMA (the American Medical Association's journal) the Gay and Lesbian Alliance, NPR, and any broadcast media, because they certainly won't tell you the truth.

Women's Interagency HIV Study

Current Cites: July 2010--20th anniversary

Although the editor makes a bit of fun with this, I always enjoy keeping up with the library stuff with "Current Cites." Just one of the many excellent publications that appear in my mailbox regularly--others include home extension from Nebraska, book reviews from Christianity Today, a genealogy newsletter, Glenn Beck's newsletter, American Spectator, WSJ snippets, Heritage Foundation, American Chemical Society, Nature magazine, Thyroid newsletter, and something on computer technology.

". . . unrestrained, unmuzzled, and unrepentant. Shield your inbox, throw up a filter, and otherwise gird your computer to resist our continuing assault, as we fully intend to sow the seeds of "current awareness" -- or more accurately our very much mistaken interpretation of such -- far and wide for many a decade more." Roy Tennant

Current Cites: July 2010

Made in the USA?

What if the environmentalists, greenies, sustainable eaters and tree-huggers got serious about "made in the USA" while they are saving the world?  These examples are for a very small town.  Here at Lakeside we have an active, but growing group called LESS, Lakeside Environmental Stewardship Society which sponsors programs on improving the community's impact on the environment and makes recommendations.  Some of their ideas are good, some not so good. Our Chautauqua seminars have a strong environmental component.

Today I paid $80.00 for three books about Ohio birds and wildlife.  They are wonderful books, I like the author (who lives near me), and they are a terrific asset to my collection, but all were printed in China.  We have a terrific farmer's market in Lakeside--the Association sells green canvass type shopping bags with its logo, made in China, of course.  There is a big push on here to change to CFL electric bulbs--to use less electricity.  However, most brands are made in China and we still have no really safe way to dispose of them.

 The not so good are the required huge bright blue recyclable containers which sit in the street sometimes for 48 hours, and even when put away are an eyesore. Because many of the cottages are rented, and these containers are only picked up on Friday, someone leaving on Sunday or Monday will roll them to the street to wait several days for pick up, and then there's no one around to put them away.  Sometimes on my Sunday morning walk I may roll 5 or 6 of these containers back to the house or drive-way. Because of our tiny lots, there really is no way to hide them.

HIV/AIDS JAMA special issue

JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) periodically has a topic specific issue, and July 21, Vol. 304, no.3, was on HIV/AIDS. Not everyone reads medical literature, but if you happen to pick up this title which is held by many public libraries, turn to p. 364, "JAMA Patient Page" first. HIV is a virus that causes a disease, AIDS, and it is primarily but not exclusively, a disease of gay men and IV drug users. Women get it from their male gay spouses and gay boyfriends (don't play games with terms like bi-sexual). Women can then pass it on to other men who are not gay, and to their children during pregnancy and nursing. And even then, that's a very small percentage; most transmission is through gay men. So that's where prevention should start, but that's not the emphasis in this journal because it is not culturally sensitive to expect people to change destructive behavior, unless it is smoking, drinking, overeating, not exercising, not recycling or wife beating. Even though gay sex has caused a world wide epidemic, after a push in the 1980s for closing of bath houses and spreading condoms and mouth dams around, the main stream medical people are too feaful to say, "Stop it."

The patient page clearly says, "Women with HIV infection can transmit the virus to their babies during pregnancy or delivery or through their breast milk."  It says nothing  "clear" about gay sex and the transmission of disease, and instead tip toes through "bodily fluids, including semen, " using condoms, and not having sexual contact with infected persons, including oral, anal or vaginal.

Call it anything you want, but it's still a tax increase

We got this from AIA today--just one of the many sneaky increases all businesses and private individuals will be getting in 2011 and 2012. This administration is a disaster, folks. Now I ask you, what business doesn't spend more than $600 to purchase goods and services? Obama says he wants to help small business, but he does everything he can to thwart them because he knows they are the backbone of a market, entrepreneurial economy. Even Apple and Microsoft were once small. No one goes into business to fail.

Effective 2012, architecture firms and other small businesses may be hit with a dramatic and unnecessary increase in paperwork and tax forms. If the current law takes effect, any company that makes payments of $600 or more to purchase goods or services from any vendor will be required to file a 1099 MISC tax form to report the transaction. In short, your business will need to complete this form for virtually every service or piece of equipment it purchases. Many firms, especially small businesses, will suffer disproportionately under these rules. But now we have a chance to stop this law from taking effect. Sen. Mike Johanns (R-NE) has offered an amendment to a small business bill, which is currently being debated in the Senate, that would repeal this requirement. The amendment could be subject to a vote as early as today, July 28. We urge you to contact your Senators and tell them to repeal the 1099 paperwork requirement.

Schedel Arboretum and Gardens, Elmore, Ohio

If you are visiting northwestern Ohio (or Lakeside) and would like to take a side trip, don't miss Schedel Arboretum and Gardens in Elmore, "America's hometown." Our Wednesday Herb Class from Lakeside went this morning, toured the gardens, had lunch and visited the gift shop, and everyone was ecstatic with the beauty and variety, and many were making plans to visit again.

A tornado ripped through the gardens in 1992, but they made lemonade from lemons, and used the open spaces created by the downed trees to plant flower gardens, whereas before it had been primarily trees, shrubs and bushes. They also lost 10 acres when the state took it for the interstate, but were able to obtain certain concessions which created the lakes. Even so, the noise from the freeway is ever present.

Schedel Arboretum and Gardens--the sculptures

There are many sculptures in the Schedel gardens that are part of the permanent collection, but many others by various artists are for sale. They really enhance the natural beauty.

Marblehead, Ohio Rock of Ages--Historic Inn

If you need a BIG place for a reunion or a church group, this would be the place. Today at lunch I sat with the owner. I was so impressed with her personality and love for her Inn, I decided to take a peek on the internet, although I was pretty sure I knew which house in Marblehead it was. They have done a fabulous job (based on the photos) with the upgrades. She says they book year around--in the fall and winter it is usually local church and hobby groups, and in the summer, family events. If you want to be by the water, and be close enough to Lakeside to take in all the cultural advantages of a Chautauqua season, this would be for you.

Marblehead, Ohio vacation rental by owner: 13 bedroom House rental that sleeps 36. Rock of Ages, Historic, Lakefront--Great for Reunions!

Every night the same conversation

At our summer home on Lake Erie in Lakeside, Ohio, we wash and dry the dishes together. At home we have a dishwasher. This is such a pleasant, companionable task we often say we'll do it in Columbus, but we never do. And as he washes, and I dry, my husband says the same thing every evening, "How can two people create all these dirty dishes and silverware?" So I go through it piece by piece--this fork was used for cat food, this spoon was for the Cool Whip, this spoon served the main dish, this one the vegetables. It's like talking to a toddler who asks "why," you explain, and he then says, "but why?"

Tomorrow the herb class is going on a field trip to Schedel Arboretum and Gardens in Elmore, Ohio. We'll have a guided tour and a box lunch. Our hostess is Carolyn Swanger. We met Gene and Carolyn Swanger a number of years ago when they bought a cottage at Lakeside and then needed an architect to make it fit their family's needs. He's faculty emeritus at Wittenburg, just some of the many wonderful people we've met here.

Each Wednesday there's a picnic in the park, but so far we haven't attended. There always seems to be something else, and tomorrow will be no different. After a box lunch I don't think I need hot dogs for dinner.

Nomad reviewed at Books and Culture

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is not a Christian, but in her new book about adjusting to life in America, Nomad, she writes:

Christian leaders now wasting precious time and resources on a futile exercise of interfaith dialogue with … self-appointed leaders of Islam should redirect their efforts to converting as many Muslims as possible to Christianity, introducing them to a God who rejects Holy War and who has sent his son to die for all sinners out of love for mankind.

Unfortunately, many Christian churches have been on a passionate hunt for social justice, or environmental justice, or economic justice, and have completely forgotten about the great commission, which will lead people to God's justice. If she's looking to "moderate" Christians, those she says don't accept the Bible as God's written word for us in these days, she's in for a disappointment.

Nomad | Books and Culture

E.J. Dionne certainly got this one wrong

The Obama crowd wasn't cowering before anyone--certainly not Fox News which didn't break the story. Certainly not Glenn Beck who defended Sherrod for the shabby way she was fired. The home team bench is so light (i.e. white) in the Obama White House they didn't even recognize the Sherrod name, didn't realize until after she was fired that she was married to a Civil Rights "hero." Nor did they even bother to give the woman a fair inquiry or check out the story that was going around the internet. Sorry Mr. Dionne, you're calling the wrong people wrong. Obama didn't act hastily because of right-wing propaganda--Shirley Sherrod really did give a full speech that insulted many of us--you can go on-line and read it--but she was fired because that's just what leftists do. Sometime they eat their own. You could be next.

Let's face it, Mr. Dionne. Fox is cleaning your bosses' clocks and you're worried. They have better coverage, more diversity, more topics, and better looking female talking heads. So what to do, what to do. Oh--let's call them names. That works!

E.J. Dionne Jr. - Enough right-wing propaganda

New notebook time!

The one on the left is the new one--designed by Legacy Publishing Group, Carol Rowan artist. The used up one is called Pattern Play, designed by Jaqueline Savage McFee for Carolina Pad and Paper.  Both, of course, made in China, but "created" and sold by U.S. companies.  Pattern Play has a nice feature of dividers with envelopes--I have another one in a slightly different pattern, but thought I'd switch to a floral theme.

People at the coffee shop think I'm journaling, and I am, sort of, but it usually ends up on one of my 12 blogs.

The Plain Dealer forms partnership with PolitiFact Ohio to help readers separate political fact from fiction

That's going to be hard to do--separate fact from fiction--because the editor of PolitiFact is an editor for the Cleveland Plain Dealer which owns Cleveland.com. It's all in selection of the facts to be analyzed. Does the conservative say something that seems soft on porn and the liberal forget a minor rule in registering something. Hardly the same story impact. I can say it's a fact that Jesus rose from the dead, and you can say it's a fact that it's recorded that way by his followers who wanted to see what they thought they saw. Totally different take--same "fact." Recently, a reader rejected the abortion statistics (50 million since legalization) cited by the National Right to Life because she is a liberal. NRL used statistics from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) of the federal government. It also reported that abortions are way down compared to the 1970s. So are those stats biased too, or is the reader by refusing a source because of its pro-life stance? I know the Cleveland PD has a political slant, both in its news stories, its editorial pages, and the letters from readers selected for publication. It's a private company and has a right to do that. But I have the right to be skeptical.

The Plain Dealer forms partnership with PolitiFact Ohio to help readers separate political fact from fiction | cleveland.com

Throwing Others Under the Bus Over Race

Apparently, looking at the Sherrod speech in its entirety, she called pretty much everyone who doesn't agree with Obama a racist. Those of us who don't like socialism/marxism are lumped with the people who enslaved African Americans (but if you go way back that would be other Africans and Arabs who rounded them up and sold them to Europeans). So who is the name caller? I still think the villain in this is the President who without checking the facts (a bad habit of his) had her fired, then had to blame others in his apologies. Does this man ever accept blame for his own mistakes?

She said: "So that's when they made black people servants for life. That's when they put laws in place forbidding them (i.e., blacks and whites) to marry each other. That's when they created the racism that we know of today. They did it to keep us divided. And ... it started working so well they said, 'Gosh, looks like we've come upon something here that could last generations.' And here we are, over 400 years later, and it's still working." McCarthy goes on to quote Sherrod apparently addressing the motives of some of Obamacare's opponents. She said: "I haven't seen such a mean-spirited people as I've seen lately over this issue of health care. Some of the racism we thought was buried. Didn't it surface? Now, we endured eight years of the Bushes, and we didn't do the stuff these Republicans are doing because you have a black president."

Has anyone told her it was a Democratic president who set up the Jim Crow laws, that the KKK helped Robert Byrd get elected, and that Democratic administrations are keeping blacks in poverty through block grants and food stamps in every major city of the U.S.?

Throwing Others Under the Bus Over Race - HUMAN EVENTS

Ms. Sherrod's Speech Was Most Certainly Not About Transcending Racism - Andy McCarthy - The Corner on National Review Online

And you can go to the NAACP site and read her entire speech and be hit up for money.

Video on lack of leadership

The hasty firing of Shirley Sherrod shows the WH can move quickly when it wants to.

Changes, changes

Blogger has changed its design template and Cutest Blog on the Block has apparently discontinued the skin that I loved. Sigh. Then nothing would work without upgrading my Internet Explorer. With a lot of blogs, that's a lot of changes for this old lady.