Ben Stein's gas station attendant

"On the way home, I stopped to get gasoline. The Hispanic attendant, whom I have known for many years, wanted to talk to me about the mosque in New York.

"We have to wake up," he said. "Those people want to hurt us. Then they want to build a mosque. Why? To hurt us more? And how come Obama always takes the side of the people who hate us? Isn't this his country, too? What's wrong with him? Doesn't he know he's an American? Or what is he? This country has to wake up and get rid of Obama."

I nodded. "I agree," I said.

The man shook his head. "This country has to wake up," he said again. "We elected Obama. We made a big mistake. Now we have to fix it. Stop him, then get someone else in there. Someone who is an American. Someone who works for us, not our enemies. "

He shook his head and walked away and I drove home to write about him."

Civil War Week--another great success

Monday the 7th Civil War Week at Lakeside set a new record--the Green Room in the Fountain Inn was packed with 126 and the day's programs recorded a record of 530 in attendance. Bob Bridges of Los Angeles, a screenwriter who has led battleground tours at Manassass, Antietam, Gettysburg, Richmond, Petersburg, and Appomattox, was terrific for the three presentations I heard Monday through Wednesday. He had us on the edge of our seats as Booth carried out his terrible deed at the theater in April 1865, climaxed at noon by the blasting at the quarry.

On Thursday I heard two wonderful book reviews/dramatic readings, the first from "Red Badge of Courage" by Professor of English Emeritus (Kenyon) Perry Lentz. I don't recall ever having an English prof that riveting! Now I'll have to reread the book. Also on Thursday was Mel Maurer's review of "The Widow of the South." This would be an excellent book for any book club looking for selections for next year. I'll certainly read it and suggest it to my group.
Book Review - The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks

Today I'll go back for Mel Maurer's account of the Battle of Franklin, which ended the South's chances for victory, and was also the setting for the Widow book by Robert Hicks.

The Hoover programming this week has been great too. Saturday evening we enjoyed "Frank Sinatra" by Steve Lippia--not necessarily related to the Civil War, but still a wonderful choice for this older crowd gathered for a week of history. We thoroughly enjoyed the Lisa Biales Trio on Tuesday evening. I think it's one of the few Hoover programs where I didn't leave early. I found her voice just lovely and crystal clear, with violinist (fiddle) Doug Hamilton, and cellist Michael Ronstadt (nephew of Linda) who did things with the cello I'd never heard. Wednesday was Al Batt, humorist, who told low key funny stories and childhood memories, many of which we could relate to who grew up in the rural midwest--like Sunday afternoon drives in the family car. Thursday night was the Saxton's Cornet Band an ensemble that reorganized a Civil War era group in 1989.

On the way out of Hoover last night (about 2/3 is about all I can manage without falling asleep) I saw an elderly woman fall as she headed for the water fountain. I knelt beside her to see if I could help, but I couldn't get her up--she was speaking and said she needed to take her pill. She was about my size and weight and I was afraid we'd both fall if I tried to get her up, so I pulled a chair over (no one else was in the lobby, which is unusual). Finally, two other women came out, and together the three of us got her into the chair. She said her husband was in the audience, so I went back into the darkened area, and saw a man I knew was usually with his wife and went to him and asked if his wife was here. He said she'd gone out to get a drink, so I asked him to come with me. I'd found the right guy, first try, in the dark.
He went to get their car and the three of us helped her down the steps, put her in the car, and fastened her seat belt. They live at the retirement home right outside the Lakeside gates. She refused an offer to call the squad, since apparently this has happened before. My last words to her were to call her doctor about that medication that was supposed to be helping her balance.

Not a big deal as mishaps go, but Wednesday evening we again went to the Family Picnic at Perry Park, and joined 6 friends at a picnic table instead of sitting in the chairs we brought. I got bitten by something, and have welts all over my feet and legs that seem to be spreading. Driving me crazy with itching! I thought I would get through the summer with no bites. I guess cool weather brought them out.

Restoring honor event exposes hate on the left--Guest Blogger Murray

On Aug. 28 Glenn Beck will be hosting a rally at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC promoting "Restoring Honor". This promises to be a historic event. One which the MSM and the Obama Administration will do everything in their power to discredit and associate it with racism and violence. The MSM, without knowing exactly what will be taking place, has already indicated the intention is to stir up the anger towards our government. They have falsely implied the Tea Party movement is part of this rally. There will be many Tea Party people there, however it's all Beck's doing. This is all about "Restoring Honor" to ourselves and our great country. There will be no signs allowed and Beck says bring the children.

Like I said, this will be historic. It will be big. It will upset the Progressive/ Liberal/ Left-Wingers to the point that they will do anything to disrupt the rally. Look for SEIU or ACORN to attempt to create a disturbance. We should all be there. Why aren't we?

Murray

The cabbie attack -- a hate crime?

This morning I watched back to back stories on ABC about vicious attacks. The one, a New York middle-eastern cabbie was slashed by a young white guy. It was labeled a hate crime because of ethnicities, with possible links (no proof except the time frame and the mind of the reporter) to the mosque story. The other was about a white guy in prison, a drifter, for a possible 20-30 murders of young girls, with rape and kidnapping. No hate crime charge was mentioned. It's always open season on women, whether in reporting crime, making movies, or writing novels; the men who kill them randomly, or just because, are never accused of a hate crime, unless the women are lesbians. And the husband who shot his wife in the face destroying it (face transplant story)? He only got 7 years--no hate crime.

And that serial slasher of black men whose attacks were labelled hate crimes? As soon as they found out he was an Israeli national, all talk of hate crimes disappeared from the coverage.

Let's strike hate crimes and hate speech from the books. They are ridiculous. They certainly don't help the victims.

The cabby attack - NYPOST.com

Update: Buried deep in the NYT account of the cabbie attack is the information that the attacker worked with a PRO-MOSQUE peace and justice Christian group.

"Mr. Enright is also a volunteer with Intersections International, an initiative of the Collegiate Churches of New York that promotes justice and faith across religions and cultures. The organization, which covered part of Mr. Enright's travel expenses to Afghanistan, has been a staunch supporter of the Islamic center near ground zero. Mr. Enright volunteered with the group's veteran-civilian dialogue project. Joseph Ward III, the director of communications for Intersections, said that if Mr. Enright had been involved in a hate crime, it ran "counter to everything Intersections stands for" and was shocking."

Is it possible that people make decisions to be evil independent of ethnicity, culture, gender, sexuality, economic status, age, and religion? Who knew? God. Read Genesis, where it all began.

Shirley Sherrod, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack go over 'Lessons Learned'

It is shocking that a federal employee would have been fired on such flimsy evidence as Shirley Sherrod, and just as shocking that she is blaming an internet viral video for her temporary problems with "racism" and plans to sue. Since when can news media not take something out of context. Gosh, the whole coverage of Sarah Palin by the MSM would have gone to court. Sherrod was apparently reinstated because of her position and spouse in the civil rights organizations (Obama being a newbie and Vilsack being white apparently didn't recognize their names), but further investigation needs to be done on that Pigford settlement she's in line to get from the government. From "Lessons Learned" it appears someone has reviewed Employment Basics 101.

Shirley Sherrod, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack go over 'Lessons Learned'

Happy Anniversary, Jean and Steve

Last year I picked up at a yard sale an autographed copy of "The Wonderful World of Cooking," a collection of recipes arranged by growing season by Edward Harris Heth (1956) for $1.00. Inside was an invoice from Tom Jacks Florists of Milwaukee, for Jean Winzenburg and Steve Treacy, and the date in the front of the book, from the Florist, was August 26, 1961. I don't know if Jean and Steve made it 49 years, but if they did, my best to you, because I'm certainly enjoying the book. I blogged about the tasty contents here.

Today I found additional information at another blog about the author--almost wish I hadn't. Both Heth and his partner Bill committed suicide in the 1960s.

[She] found a feature article on the life and times of Ed Heth, "Wisconsin's Finest Food Writer." Heth was born in 1909 in Wisconsin, the only child of a dissolute gambler. He led a glamorous writing life in New York until poor health forced him home in the 40s. He settled down into a country house on a hill, living amongst the friends and neighbors who populate The Wonderful World. His partner through it all was a ceramicist named Bill Chancey. The two lived together openly, surely making them the first gay couple in the tiny town of Wales, Wisconsin to do so. The town embraced the pair, the article quoting one woman's take on the situation: "I remember people saying they were very interesting people and Wales always felt very honored to have them in the community."

If all this sounds too good to be true for rural, pre-Stonewall America, well, turns out it was. In 1960 Heth and Chancey's house burnt down to the ground after a lightning strike. They began work on a new house, but a year later as it neared completion, Bill Chancey was found in his car with the engine on and the garage door closed. Heth tried to keep writing, even starting work on a novel, but in 1963 he fatally overdosed on painkillers. The two men are buried side by side on a sunny slope in Wisconsin's Welsh Hills. But The Wonderful World of Cooking — long out of print — is alive and vibrant, an incredible document of a man's love for his home and the food it gives him. Link. Photo from that blog--mine doesn't have a cover.

Jihadist ideology can't be soft peddled by progressives, history shows

Obama's lectures about tolerance and understanding are indistinquishable from those of 1938. We will pay the price again. The Cordoba Mosque funded by foreign money with an Iman who says we deserved 9/11 attacks is not needed; it is a symbol of their power and distain for us. It is planting a flag on the soil of the defeated. Where is the tolerance on the Muslim side--do they get sermons from their leaders on love and understanding of the Jews and Christians? We have an America-loathing coward in the White House who feels morally superior to the rest of us.

Oprah, the stem cell debate is dead

In this video from Oprah.com, Dr. Oz explains to Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson’s Disease, and Oprah, why the debate about embryonic stem cells in research and medical advancement is dead. It was already dead when President Obama announced on March 9, 2009, that he was lifting the government ban on funding additional embryonic stem cell lines research. Why would he do that? Are his health advisers so naïve? Or is it because most Americans still think “embryonic” when they hear “stem cell” and he thought he could fool them? With adult stem cells, no embryos need to be killed; no toxic regimen of rejection drugs is needed for your own cells. The government doesn't need to take over women’s wombs for research. Adult stem cell is the way to go. Thank you, President Bush, for drawing the line 8 years before Obama told this lie, the beginning of his many lies about health and medicine.

http://www.oprah.com/health/Dr-Oz-on-the-Medical-Benefits-of-Stem-Cells-Video

From Obama’s speech, March 9, 2009

“Today, with the Executive Order I am about to sign, we will bring the change that so many scientists and researchers; doctors and innovators; patients and loved ones have hoped for, and fought for, these past eight years: we will lift the ban on federal funding for promising embryonic stem cell research. We will vigorously support scientists who pursue this research. And we will aim for America to lead the world in the discoveries it one day may yield.”

Why would Obama do this? Lack of respect for life, ignorance or pure political gain? Whichever, it was an immoral act, not the first and not the last of his medical lies.

Federal court case--backs down Obama's funding of March 2009. If you read the comments from readers at the various sites reporting yesterday's decision, it is clear that most people (referring to Republicans as knuckle dragging morons) don't realize that successful stem cell cures are only from adult cells, not embryonic stem cells, from which not a single cure has ever been developed.

Many More Now Following Mosque Controversy

Call me crazy, but it was our President's careless comments a little over a week ago (on a Friday when he thought no one would notice) that increased the volume about the ground zero, Cordoba mosque. More Americans are hearing about it, more Americans don't like it, and more Americans are doubting that we have a president who is one of us. And this week he worshipped at our Lady of the Links. He thinks it would be disruptive to appear at a church service, although all other American presidents managed it. Doesn't mind disrupting the golf games of unbelievers.

Many More Now Following Mosque Controversy – And Don’t Like It - Rasmussen Reports™

Tammy Bruce gives Daisy Kahn some facts

"What Daisy Khan [on ABC News’ “This Week,”] doesn’t seem to understand is that perhaps this isn’t about Muslims at all, but about Americans protecting and defending a site that is now precious to us. The malignant Narcissism of these people is astounding and so encompassing they, like the Obama admin in fact, cannot see beyond their own self-obsession. Little Daisy is loathsome–we didn’t start this, they did. We didn’t choose the location, they did. And the gall to claim opposition to the GZ mosque is “metastasized antisemitism” is the same as our own government calling Tea Party Patriots Nazis, UnAmerican, and the Mob. They’re all the same. There’s only one group of people who were mass murdered on 911 and that was Americans, not Muslims. And there has been only one group continuing to implement mass murder since then–Muslims. And there is one country that still calls for the mass extinction of Jews in the world, and it’s a Muslim country.

As Khan and her gang point fingers at Americans, another little reminder–since 9/11 we didn’t set out to annihilate Muslims around the world–we set out to free them. Thousands more Americans have died voluntarily serving in our military knowing they would be sent to the front line and whom ultimately liberated 53 million Muslims. And this detestable woman and her parasitic husband call us names as they decry that we haven’t gotten over 9/11 yet.

I’m convinced this mosque was Obama’s idea. The notion of it and its location. I think he knows he’ll be a one-term president and wants as much destruction to the American psyche as possible. The legacy this man is now establishing is a continuation of the terrorism unleashed in the 90s and defined by 9/11.

So do not blink, keep the pressure on the stop this atrocity at Ground Zero and . . .

Remember in November."

Tammy Bruce


Jihad Watch

One-sided Amanpour

New York Post

Week 10 Lakeside 2010

Here we are at the end of the summer--every morning on my walk along the lake I see the sun moving south. Saturday night we enjoyed the songs of Frank Sinatra performed by Steve Lippia and his "big band" sound. It was really popular with the audience, whose average age rises as the summer closes out. Some cool weather returned with a clearing rain and we were finally able to have a meal on our deck.

Week 10 is Civil War week, and I always learn a lot. Isn't it amazing that people are still researching this and finding new things to talk about! I plan to attend the 10:30 presentations by Bob Bridges. Monday: John Brown, Robert E. Lee and the coming of the Civil War; Tuesday: Ulysses Grant, Jefferson Davis and the course of the War; Wednesday: Abraham Lincoln and the End of the War. Also the Thursday 3:30 book review, "The Widow of the South" by Robert Hicks, and the Friday 10:30 Battle of Franklin with Mel Maurer. Tennessee is the area where my Corbett and Ballard families lived, and had many families divided by loyalties to both sides.

Wednesday evening if the weather holds we hope to do another Picnic in the Park. My husband enjoyed John Salamon's piano at Steele Memorial last evening, and we'll probably take in a few shows at Hoover--a jazz trio on Tuesday, humorist on Wednesday, a Civil War era band on Thursday, and a Christian singer on Friday. Last Friday night we said farewell to the Lakeside symphony for this season.

And to think this was written a year ago! It's only gotten worse

This piece was written before the enormously unpopular healthcare bill passed, against the wishes of 70% of Americans; before all the evidence was in on the failure of ARRA; before the military commander meltdown when we found out what they really think of him; before he drug his feet on the Gulf clean up and worsened the economy; before we learned from CBO and other economist left and right that his policies have failed; before it was clear he would never own up to his own decisions and would always blame Bush, or white people, or dumb Americans; before he and his wife took ridiculously (and separate) expensive vacations while urging others to conserve resources; before his dumb statements about the mosque that he later tried to walk back; and before the radical marxists who funded and supported him in 2008 left him high and dry.

"No narrative. Obama doesn't have a narrative. No, not a narrative about himself. He has a self-narrative, much of it fabricated, cleverly disguised or written by someone else. But this self-narrative is isolated and doesn't connect with us. He doesn't have an American narrative that draws upon the rest of us. All successful presidents have a narrative about the American character that intersects with their own where they display a command of history and reveal an authenticity at the core of their personality that resonates in a positive endearing way with the majority of Americans. We admire those presidents whose narratives not only touch our own, but who seem stronger, wiser, and smarter than we are. Presidents we admire are aspirational peers, even those whose politics don't align exactly with our own: Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Harry Truman, Ike, Reagan.

But not this president. It's not so much that he's a phony, knows nothing about economics, is historically illiterate, and woefully small minded for the size of the task-- all contributory of course. It's that he's not one of us. And whatever he is, his profile is fuzzy and devoid of content, like a cardboard cutout made from delaminated corrugated paper. Moreover, he doesn't command our respect and is unable to appeal to our own common sense. His notions of right and wrong are repugnant and how things work just don't add up. They are not existential. His descriptions of the world we live in don't make sense and don't correspond with our experience."

Read the entire account of Another Failed Presidency by Gregory Hunt.

Cordoba mosque protest rally Sunday near Ground Zero

I was watching the national ABC News about the mosque controversy. I really think the media is ginning up the hate by not acknowledging what the protests are really about. There are hundreds of mosques in New York, and there is no objection to them. When broadcast news reports on this, they barely report the horrific events of 9/11. So people need to look elsewhere for information. Like the Internet.

Cordoba mosque protest rally Sunday near Ground Zero | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment

Fighting hate can be very profitable--don't be conned

“The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) recalls an observation about the Holy Roman Empire, i.e., it was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire. Aside from its location in Alabama, the SPLC is about as southern as William Tecumseh Sherman. It has little to do with assisting poor people and much to do with enriching its already well-heeled directors. And as for law, its strident advocacy on behalf of illegal aliens suggests that the rule of law is not exactly one of its top priorities.”

“The SPLC serves as a cash machine for Morris Dees and his close associates. Building upon the George McGovern presidential campaign contributors lists, Dees has become one of the most successful direct mail fundraisers in history. Easily scared leftists have contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to the SPLC and it now has a fat endowment. Various Charity Watch Lists, such as that of the Colorado Secretary of State, recognize the SPLC as among the most dubious non-profit organizations currently soliciting funds.”

Read more at Fighting Hate for Profit

Could you use $19 a year to buy at a Farmer's Market?

Well, that's part of one of the government's wasteful projects--$123 billion a year on programs that have no positive impact on the target population. Take at look at PART's Expect More. I just picked one at random--the USDA "Senior and Woman, Infants and Children Farmer's market." In 2006 the Bush administration found it (useless) providing $19.00 per person per year. But in 2010, under Obama, it's still spending, providing jobs for government bureaucrats, and that wonderful food from a farmer's market--if you can get there. I checked Ohio--it's getting $1,779,625--your state may be different.

Do you think we could just buy these people an automobile and let them drive to a supermarket. Oh wait--we took the used cars off the road so the middle class could buy hybrids.

What's in a name? The Cordoba Institute

The Cordoba Institute is in over under around and through the plans to build a mosque at the site of Ground Zero, where a group of Islamic fanatics bombed the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Presidents Bush and Obama assure us that Moslems are peaceful, loyal Americans, and we should not fear them. If so, why when they could build a "cultural center" and mosque anywhere, do they chose this site? This is about symbols, not reliious freedom guaranteed by our Constitution. This is about rubbing the face of America in Islamic mud going back centuries.

"The historic city of Cordoba, Spain was originally Christian, but was overtaken by Islamic marauders and turned into an Islamic stronghold in the 8th century CE. The Islamic seizure of Cordoba began in the year 711 CE by Berber tribesmen who had recently converted to Islam. They crossed the 14 mile stretch of ocean between North Africa and Europe into what was then called Al-Andalus, which is now modern day Spain.Grand Cordoba became home to what was known as the "Caliphate," an Islamic political paradigm wherein the leader is regarded as a direct successor of the founder of Islam, Muhammad (570 - 632 CE). Emir Abd ar-Rahman I--who arrived from Damascus, Syria--took control of Al-Andalus. It was under the rule of he and his descendants that the Caliphate reached its peak based at Cordoba. Under various successors, there was always a part of Spain which remained under Islamic control until the year 1492.To radical Muslims of today, few symbols are as resonant as the downfall of the Caliphate at Cordoba, Al-Andalus. In the same way that Americans remember their defeat at the Alamo and use its name as a rallying cry in battle; Cordoba, Al-Andalus is a rallying cry for Islam."

Continue reading Shelomo Alfassa

Jim Wallis Admits to Soros Funding

The "peace and justice" Christians really mean, "Piece and Just us." Jim Wallis, one of Obama's spiritual advisors who is critical of just about everything Christian in America, has admitted to Soros funding. Well, it's no surprise, since Soros has been behind the Obama White House from the beginning and Wallis has been so critical of anyone who questions Obama's motives and political beliefs. Christians like Wallis have been perverting the Gospel and Jesus' words for 40 years and following the Marxist trail of crumbs into new bondage.

Further investigation of Wallis and his organization is warranted.

Wallis Admits to Soros Funding | Politics | Christianity Today

We are now alone

Last Saturday and Sunday we had guests from California, Columbus, and Indianapolis, with 14 around the dinner table Saturday evening (in the cottage we had rented across the street since ours is tiny). It was a fabulous celebration on Sunday with our Bruce relatives and Lakeside friends for our 50th wedding anniversary (which we will celebrate again in Columbus in September and Mt. Morris in October). After most went home we spent the week biking, walking, attending the evening programs at Hoover, and had a picnic in Perry Park with other Lakesiders.

Mister Bruce -- all of them


Sharing family photos


The cottage we rented for 9 extra family (plus 2 at our house and 1 in the Fountain Inn)


The sibs biking around Lakeside looking at the cottages and burning off the extra calories we were consuming


Eating breakfast at the Patio Restaurant with Bob and Jean

Just which religion does Obama profess?

Why do the MSM persist in blaming the right for suspicion about Obama’s religion? He reported his Muslim background in his books (father, step-father, extended family, siblings), he‘s the one who is soft on Islamic terrorism and praises Muslims' intentions. The MSM reporters and talking heads (like Carville) are the ones bringing it up--"it continues to haunt the President" says this morning's ABC story. Like this NYT op-ed by Edward N. Luttwak in May 2008. I've always thought he was in far more danger from Muslim fanatics for his conversion to Christianity than he was from any "persistent rumors" from the right. Muslims in modern times have a long history of killing aspostates and infidels.

"As the son of the Muslim father, Senator Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood. It makes no difference that, as Senator Obama has written, his father said he renounced his religion. Likewise, under Muslim law based on the Koran his mother’s Christian background is irrelevant.

Of course, as most Americans understand it, Senator Obama is not a Muslim. He chose to become a Christian, and indeed has written convincingly to explain how he arrived at his choice and how important his Christian faith is to him.

His conversion, however, was a crime in Muslim eyes; it is “irtidad” or “ridda,” usually translated from the Arabic as “apostasy,” but with connotations of rebellion and treason. Indeed, it is the worst of all crimes that a Muslim can commit, worse than murder (which the victim’s family may choose to forgive).

With few exceptions, the jurists of all Sunni and Shiite schools prescribe execution for all adults who leave the faith not under duress; the recommended punishment is beheading at the hands of a cleric, although in recent years there have been both stonings and hangings. (Some may point to cases in which lesser punishments were ordered — as with some Egyptian intellectuals who have been punished for writings that were construed as apostasy — but those were really instances of supposed heresy, not explicitly declared apostasy as in Senator Obama’s case.)"

I’ve read Obama’s Christian testimony, published when he was running for Senate. In his conversion story he has praised at various times two very anti-American, anti-mainstream Christian pastors, one Catholic and one UCC, as his spiritual mentors and close friends. No one should be surprised that with his own words and behaviors and close associates, many Americans now believe he is if not a closet Muslim, at least not a Christian that most would recognize.


President Apostate? - New York Times

Temporary hiatus

My laptop has failed so I'm writing from a neighbor's home. No more blogging for awhile. But it was a great party Sunday at the pavilion, and all family arrived safely and we're having a great time.