Thursday, October 14, 2010
Tiresome political ads
Until the White House began directly taking over various segments of the economy with czars and new laws since January 2009, the government had little to no say in whether a company went global. Business in a market economy is about profit--they need to pay back their investors and their stockholders. Period. The benefits to the government and society should stem from that, not from the government stealing from the owners.
US midterm elections: Volatile forces shape US vote
This editorial in Nature reflects the continuing support among academics and eggheads for the failed Obama administration. They've still got the guilt glitter in their eyes and are seeing Obama through rose colored hopey changey glasses.
- "In the face of fiscal constraints to come, making decisions on where to cut and how that will affect our research and innovation effort is a very serious issue," says Anne Solomon, a senior adviser on science and technology at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, a think tank based in Washington DC. An issue paper co-authored this year by Solomon calls for a "science and technology-enhanced Congress", in which legislators are broadly knowledgeable about science and have better access to technical expertise on the complex issues they face — from energy policy, to education, to economic and security matters. In fact, the opposite is likely to be true of the next Congress.
- "Nature editors use weasel words and constructions that they would scarcely countenance in something placed rather deeper inside the covers of the magazine.
The fighting is now "hyper-partisan" (with no reference or supporting evidence--maybe a Lexis-Nexis comparison?) compared with past US elections. This makes progress "virtually" impossible so that "Voters on all sides sense that too many privileged Americans, including the politicians for whom they end up casting their ballots, are engaged in reckless behaviour that leaves a mess behind." Really? You've got some parsed polling data to support this assertion somewhere?"
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
EPA Funnels Taxpayer Money to Dozens of Liberal Community Activist Groups
educate senior citizens on climate change
community bike rides
increase awareness about the dangers of sun and heat exposure
investigate the environmental impact of practices such as idling automobiles and buses at school entrances
Kinda makes me wonder what they were doing before the money infusion.
EPA Funnels Taxpayer Money to Dozens of Liberal Community Activist Groups | CNSnews.com
Private vs Public School teachers assessment of their schools
•While just under half (45 percent) of public school teachers say social studies is considered an absolutely essential subject area in their district, two out of three private school teachers (68 percent) say this is true for them.
•Private school teachers are almost twice as likely to report having a great deal of control over what topics they choose to cover and how quickly or slowly they move through the curriculum (86 percent versus 45 percent).
•Private school teachers report significantly higher levels of confidence that most students in their high schools learn what they are supposed to before they graduate. This confidence differential is especially stark on items pertaining to the implicit curriculum, such as teaching good work habits and respect for authority. For example:
- ◦"To have good work habits such as being timely, persistent, and hardworking" garners 31 percent "very confident" responses among private school teachers, compared with 6 percent among public.
◦"To be tolerant of people and groups who are different from themselves" garners 43 percent "very confident" among private, compared with 19 percent among public.
- ◦Their high school has a community-service requirement for graduation (82 percent versus 37 percent).
◦Their administration maintains a school atmosphere where adults are respected (88 percent versus 65 percent).
◦Their high school encourages involvement in student government and other issues-oriented clubs (91 percent versus 73 percent).
Komen for the Cure Donated $7.5M to Planned Parenthood Abortion Biz in 2009
That's despite a wealth of research over decades showing an average increased risk of about 40 percent for women having abortions compared to those who carry their pregnancy to term.
But the contributions Komen affiliates make to Planned Parenthood, which does more than 25 percent of all abortions in the United States and aggressively promotes abortion abroad, provide another sources of frustration for pro-life people who otherwise would support the group."
The excuse that this money goes to poor women without insurance for mammograms is pretty lame. That just means it frees up more of PP other money for abortions!
Komen for the Cure Donated $7.5M to Planned Parenthood Abortion Biz in 2009
Congressional staff gain from trading in stocks overseen by employers
- "Unlike many Executive Branch employees, lawmakers and aides don't have restrictions on their stock holdings and ownership interests in companies they oversee. Congressional rules say that requiring employees to do so could "insulate a legislator from the personal and economic interests that his or her constituency, or society in general, has in governmental decisions and policy."
An analysis of financial-disclosure forms for 2008 and 2009 compiled by the website LegiStorm shows that several hundred congressional aides bought or sold stocks. At least 72 traded the stocks of companies their bosses write laws for."
While the rest of us piddle around in 4-5% gains, they're doing 90%+, but hey--no conflict; husbands and wives don't even discuss what's going on--the money just keeps on rolling in. And if you believe that. . .
Obama and Palin 10th Cousins
But POTUS Barack Obama is the 7th cousin 3 times removed of Warren Buffett and 10th cousin of Sarah Palin and 11th cousin of George W. Bush (and all the other Bushes are assorted cousins, too). Rush Limbaugh is his 10th cousin once removed as is his brother David. The ancestor he shares with Buffett was a slave owner who came to the continent in the 16th century. No word on whether his Kenyan ancestors helped round up fellow Africans to sell to the European slave traders.
Obama and Palin: Cousins? - NATASHA LENNARD | POLITICO CLICK
I used to think it was really odd that people took photos of grave markers, but now I do it. I was able to walk through the back yard while visiting in Mt. Morris, stroll through the school track field to Plainview cemetery and visit "the old folks at home (with Jesus)" to spend some quiet time with them. Someday at the resurrection we'll all be together again.
Great grandparents who were born in Tennessee, but lived most of their lives in Illinois
Cousin Phil, grandson of the above, and his wife who were killed in an auto accident near Oregon, IL.
Little Alma Fay, my grandmother's sister who died in 1908 as a baby, first child born after they came to Illinois.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Driving with the radio
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Night Time is the Right Time--the Huxtable family
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
Obama loves a teachable moment
Obama's Reading List
- "Bush read 95 books in 2006 alone. In 2007, he read 51 books and as of last week, he had read 40 in 2008. . . [Karl] Rove appreciates that he's written a caricature-buster. "In the 35 years I've known George W. Bush, he's always had a book nearby," he writes. "He plays up being a good ol' boy from Midland, Texas, but he was a history major at Yale and graduated from Harvard Business School. You don't make it through either unless you are a reader.""
Hip-Hop. Jay-Z, little Nas and Lil Wayne, to name three. Rapping about pornography and drugs, violence and murder, and of course, dissing women.
But yes, bloggers say Obama does read. (I googled it), although not as much or as widely as Bush. He can list his favorites (including his own titles) and his current reads, which don't overly impress me, but hey, it's better than my TBR list. But I refuse to listen to music that disses women and for a wife and 2 daughters, it's not a good idea for him either.
Thomas Chatterton Williams wrote Losing my Cool about how reading helped him escape many of the negative aspects of black culture.
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
The Kirwin Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
Some samples, just in case anything were resolved, to continue the employment of the staff:
- Social justice issues are never static and new challenges and issues are constantly emerging [so we can keep our grant money flowing?].
In addition to our core research areas, the Institute has several emerging research initiatives that are responsive to new issues that have profound impacts on racial and ethnic groups. . . Our work operates on the premise that opportunities exist in a complex web of interdependent factors, and that to alleviate inequities in any single area, we must first consider the entire structure that supports these inequities. [We're on a roll--let's see how far we can go with this web!]
Inequality has a geographic footprint. We have pioneered the use of maps to communicate the history and presence of discriminatory and exclusionary policies that spatially segregate people [Let's draw in academics from geography and urban planning.]
Cal baseball's demise is Title IX fallout
According to Saving Sports, a blog devoted to Title IX:
- Five teams eliminated at Cal. Baseball, Men's and Women's Gymnastics and Women's Lacrosse will be eliminated at the end of the season. Men's rugby, the only varsity program in the entire country, will be downgraded to "varsity club" status -- which in essence is an accounting device to get the team's players off the books to help with Title IX enforcement.
Cal baseball's demise shocks big-league alums
As seen on TV--terrorists for global warming
I guess it's true--you can't fix stupid. It's called the 10:10 campaign.
Whatever happened to Shirley Sherrod?
Some new regulations came out of this, and number one is, well, I'm flummoxed that it wasn't in place: "1.) The department should follow existing resignation protocol and review all relevant facts before making a decision." I mean, even political appointees deserve some fair play.
Helping Wisconsin stay competitive in the global market
But what about Rondole Cheese? Here's what I found out and have pieced together in a few minutes.
- At around the turn of the 20th century, three cheese factories were established in Wisconsin's rural North Central region--the Hamburg Cheese Manufacturing Co., the Cornbelt Cheese Factory and the Riverside Cheese Factory. These were known for producing outstanding bulk cheeses.
As these factories were handed down through generations of family ownership, competition became increasingly fierce, but not from one another. Family-run cheese companies were under pressure from cooperatives and large processors that had taken cheese production to new levels. Modern manufacturing facilities, huge investments in research and development, and even larger investments in marketing and distribution were challenging the capabilities of many family-operated companies.
In 1969, in an effort to remain competitive, Hamburg, Cornbelt and Riverside merged to create Wisconsin River Valley Cheese Inc. The new concern constructed a manufacturing plant on 80 acres in central Wisconsin, where production would continue on the high-quality cheese products for which the three predecessor companies had become known. Production began in 1970, but just two years later, Wisconsin River Valley Cheese was purchased by Connecticut-based Anco International. In 1974, the company was renamed InoFoods and the Rondele brand was born.
In 1974, InoFoods introduced its first product, a soft spreadable gourmet cheese named Rondele. Soon after its introduction, Rondele began competing favorably against the European imports that had long dominated the spreadable category. Kraft acquired InoFoods in 1990 making enhancements to the production facility, but in 1996, its focus on gourmet cheeses changed and sold InoFoods to Vermont-based Waterbury Specialty Foods.
Waterbury's interests were then acquired by the independent Rondele Specialty Foods, which re-established the product line, refocused distribution and initiated manufacturing initiatives, while driving brand equity. Facilitator Capital Fund, a Wisconsin-based private equity fund, and a group of private investors acquired rondelé in 1998. In late 2004 Lactalis USA, a subsidiary of Groupe Lactalis, the world's 8th largest dairy manufacturer, which included President’s brand, acquired Rondole Specialty foods.
In August 2010 it was announced that Lactalis American Group, which operates manufacturing plants south of Merrill and in Belmont, Wisconsin, received $57,000 in Dairy Manufacturing Facility Investment credits for the $2.7 million expansion at both locations.
- “Agriculture and dairy are the backbone of Wisconsin’s economy – contributing more than 10 percent of the jobs in Wisconsin and about $59 billion to our economy every year,” Governor Doyle said. “The Dairy Manufacturing Facility Investment Tax Credits we are announcing today are helping Lactalis stay competitive on the global market, so that it can continue to thrive and support jobs here in Wisconsin.”
Sunday, October 03, 2010
To support breast cancer research--the pink glove dance
When you donate for any disease cause, just be sure it really is for research and that the sponsoring agent isn't taking a huge cut. Education and information is nice, it's important, but it doesn't cure anyone.
Not even close
Tides supported One Nation rally, October 2, 2010
The One Nation Working Together demand more rally on October 2, had both required attendance and paid transportation and it couldn't even come close to Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor Rally on August 28, 2010. This is an aerial shot--you could have flown in a few Tea Party rallies and still had plenty of room. Obama just can't draw a crowd anymore, and besides, he left town.
Sweden's Political Landscape: In Muslim Neighborhoods, Firemen and Emergency Workers Refuse to Enter Without Police Protection
- "During the last several decades, massive immigration-flows to Sweden have transformed the country to the point where immigrants, many of whom refuse to learn Swedish and integrate into Swedish society, now make up almost 20% of the country's total population. Of the 9.4 million Swedes, roughly 1.5 million are foreign-born. In addition, there are an estimated 1 million children of immigrants, 100,000 illegal immigrants, and 50,000 more asylum-seekers awaiting clearance. Further, about 100,000 additional immigrants enter the country each year.
In Malmö, Sweden's third-largest city, almost 40% of the population is foreign; and some immigrant neighborhoods in the city have unemployment rates exceeding 60%. In Malmö's mostly Muslim Rosengard neighborhood, fire and emergency workers refuse to enter without police protection. An immigrant-fuelled crime wave affects one of every three Malmö families each year, while the number of rapes has tripled in 20 years.
Highlighting the increasing assertiveness of Sweden's Muslim community, the Muslim Council of Sweden recently dispatched letters to each of the major political parties in Sweden demanding special legislation for Muslims in Sweden. The demands included: the right to specific Islamic holidays; special public financing for the building of mosques; a demand that all divorces between Muslim couples be approved by an Imam; and that Imams should be allowed to teach Islam to Muslim children in public schools."
Sweden's Political Landscape: In Muslim Neighborhoods, Firemen and Emergency Workers Refuse to Enter Without Police Protection :: Hudson New York



