Thursday, October 14, 2010

Dueling books about Obama's father and surrogate father

Which is it? Is he a hack Marxist because of Barack Obama, Sr. who hated the British colonial system in Kenya so he became a Communist or because his white grandfather Stanley Dunham introduced him to a buddy-dad in Hawaii also a Communist party member, Frank Marshall Davis who coached him to hate all things American? Which ever, the books of Dinesh D'Souza and Paul Kengor came out on the same day.

The American Spectator : Obama's Surrogate Anti-Colonial Father

More insanity from Chris "leg tingle" Matthews

Is this man crazy? Open mouth spew garbage?

"CHRIS MATTHEWS: Okay let’s talk about what the message to a lot of the people was. The message coming out of the Tea Party people, and lot of them are good people, is every man for himself, basically. “No more taxes, no more government, no more everything. No more safety net. No more health care for everybody. Everybody just get out there, make your buck, save it, screw the government, move on.” Right?"

Not once has a Tea Party ever said every man for himself. It's always been help your neighbor--don't ask the government to take your money to do it for you!

The miners were fortunate enough to have a strong leader, someone along the lines of our own founders! A man with a vision, charisma, and a goal--to get his men out alive. Plus it was 75% American technology and 25% Chilean guts that got them out!

Gracious goodness God almighty, please someone give that man a clue, or else he'll cost even more American jobs--his own!

Trucks Encircle ABC, CBS, NBC, Challenge ‘Liberal’ Media to ‘Tell The Truth’

"Four billboard trucks bearing the message “Stop the Liberal Bias, Tell the Truth!” began circling the Manhattan headquarters of ABC, CBS, NBC, and the New York Times on Friday. The trucks will do so for eight hours every weekday for the next four weeks as part of a campaign run by the Media Research Center, a watchdog group that analyzes the media for liberal bias."

Trucks Encircle ABC, CBS, NBC, Challenge ‘Liberal’ Media to ‘Tell The Truth’ | CNSnews.com


From Breitbart.com

I'm guessing someone will get them on EPA violations for polluting the air more than the media does.

Obama White House vs Chamber of Commerce

I've never donated to the Chamber of Commerce, but I will now. Obama's attacks (can you prove they aren't taking foreign money) is just one more way to try to destroy our economy since he knows most new jobs come from small business, and they tend to be Chamber members. And does he include the Black Chamber of Commerce in this smear?

Obama White House vs Chamber of Commerce – A New Low of Fear & Smear » Right Pundits

Copy of the Chamber's response at NYT.

Those libs and dems who are "deeply troubled" that the Chamber has foreign members, didn't care a twitting twitter over the foreign money that poured into Obama's 2008 campaign against Hillary.

Cole's survivors angry over case

"The 10th anniversary of the bombing of the USS Cole on Tuesday conjured up painful memories for the families of the 17 Navy sailors who died in the terrorist attack, but it also revealed simmering anger at the Obama administration over the lack of concrete progress in bringing an alleged perpetrator to justice."

Cole's survivors angry over case | POLITICO 44

Tiresome political ads

As noted earlier, on our trip to Illinois and Indiana this past week, we heard a lot of political ads on the radio--most for candidates and issues we knew nothing about. But here's a refrain I just don't understand, and it seems to sprout (excuse mixing my idioms) at all levels of government. Republicans ship jobs overseas. Really? I thought it was unions and over regulation from everything to emissions to pollution to green space to finances that did that. And if a business moves from Mt. Morris to Rockford or to Missouri or Florida, it might as well be overseas for all the good it does for your local economy. (You can get a good deal on the beautiful and historically significant "Old Sandstone" in Mt. Morris, former home of Watt Publishing which has moved down the road to Rockford.)

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

A new angle to smear the Tea Party candidates and conservative Republicans--anti-science! Whoop! Now which threatens real scientific research more, back breaking deficits and killing the golden tax goose (a thriving market economy which brings in more tax dollars), or Tea Party candidates? Obama worsened the gulf oil spill mess by destroying more jobs and shipping money and jobs to Mexico and Brazil so they can mess up the oceans with drilling.

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.
Obama's promise to "restore science to its rightful place" was no promise at all--it was just one more whiny childish slam at George W. Bush, and I'm surprised the editors of Nature fell for it. And hopping on the embryonic stem cell band wagon? Oh please! Is that the best you have to offer? This piece resembles the new WH charges about the Chamber of Commerce--just accusations, no facts. I concur with the reader who left this comment:
    "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?"

US midterm elections: Volatile forces shape US vote : Nature News

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

EPA Funnels Taxpayer Money to Dozens of Liberal Community Activist Groups

An Acorn by any other name is still a nut. Community activist groups, ah, let me count the ways they can spend our money. The $2 million EPA will send out in environmental justice grants will probably go to pay more salary and administrative costs. Spread among 76 groups that's just "get out the vote" money.

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

Public school teachers have unions and all the perks. They are well paid and have terrific pensions awaiting them after 30 years, some in their 50s, young enough to start a new career or go back and teach. You can check at Buckeye Institute for your district (in Ohio). [I checked someone who teaches half time for $43,000 for 184 days, and her life time pension (based on 18 years average) is worth $638,400 at this point.] However, private school teachers seem to have in their schools more of what we want for our public schools according to a new AEI study on civics and citizenship.

•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.

•Private school teachers are also more likely to report an overall more positive school atmosphere for conveying the importance of citizenship:
    ◦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

"The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation has long denied that abortion plays any role in elevating the risk for women of contracting the deadly disease.

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

The Wall Street Journal on October 11 looked at congressional financial disclosures and found 72 staffers of both Republicans and Democrats who held shares in companies overseen by the staffers' 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."
Congressional Staffers Gain From Trading in Stocks - WSJ.com
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

I guess it's nothing to blog or brag about that while in Illinois in the parking lot of the Mexican restaurant I ran into my first cousin once removed, Margaret, her daughter, Sharlein who is my second cousin (we share great-grandparents Leanor and William Ballard), and her son Bryan and wife, my second cousin once removed, and his daughter, my (?) second cousin twice removed. I've checked my database and I don't have their names, but Bryan is 30 and this was the first time we'd met.

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

On long trips like the 9.5 hours to northern Illinois I like to listen to a.m. radio. We like our favorite talk shows, but there's a time change to account for, so we have to listen through all the drive time chatter about traffic, whether it's in Chicago or St. Louis or Indianapolis. I think music on the radio is being wiped clear by people using i-pods, because I really didn't find much. And the political ads--they were excruciating. Not only have we already voted (mail in), but we didn't know any of the names or issues. They all sound alike--everyone running against candidate so-and-so is crooked, or let someone out of jail, or has taken special interest money, or shipped jobs off shore. I did find a familiar Cincinnati voice, Mike McConnell, but he was on a Chicago station--WGN. He's got an incredible voice and style. . . but didn't seem as loosey goosey as his former gig. And the women! Oh my, oh my. Such nasel, whiney, harsh voices. Found very few I could listen to more than a few minutes. And twirling the dial, I decided no one sounds better or is more talented than our own Bob Connors, right here in Columbus WTVN 610.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Night Time is the Right Time--the Huxtable family

October 10, 1985, the Huxtable family entertained Cliff's parents with lip-synching the Ray Charles classic, "Night Time Is the Right Time." Episode #27. Never was another consistently good show on TV for the whole family. Loved the clothes.

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Obama loves a teachable moment

". . . and there’s no better one than Obamacare’s six month anniversary (September 23). Pay attention, class: The central piece of Barack Obama’s presidency is a law that was passed by a narrow partisan margin over a public outcry—a law that increases dependency on government and will do untold damage to American health care. Repeal of that law will presumably require a Republican president in addition to a Republican Congress, so the homework assignment for 2013 is tough but worthwhile. Repeat after us: Don’t let Obamacare reach its third birthday." Matthew Continetti

Obama's Reading List

Where is it? The media ridiculed President Bush for being such a dunce--until they learned about his reading list which was primarily history, biography and political science, but included Camus. Then the non-reading reporters chastized him for not reading topics more liberal, or not a different title by an author. Here's the stunned Richard Cohen of WaPo:
    "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.""
So today we get "Obama's Rap Palatte " and Thomas Chatterton Williams questions why he's being praised for his "updated" selection, referring back to a Rolling Stones article, although even 2008 articles featured his i-pod so he'd appear "with-it."

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

I've been looking through the programming, publications and propaganda put out by the Kirwin Institute here at Ohio State University in Columbus and find nothing but hopelessness, divisiveness, anger, and hatred. Why are we employing people to constantly be stirring the pot? Were there not enough academics in the Black Studies, Women Studies, Social Work, Public Health, etc. departments to do this? I read one heart breaking piece on the black women, forgotten, being pulled out of the Anthony Sowell property in Cleveland a year ago. No mention that the killer was a black man--just condemnation of a racist society that cares so little when a black woman disappears. No mention that a few had never been reported missing by their families.


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.]

You get the idea. This is a funding scheme that will never end.

Cal baseball's demise is Title IX fallout

This is happening because of Title IX, but that isn't mentioned in the article.

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


Children are executed in a British global warming terror commercial which has to be the most evil, most cause-defeating ad ever created. After 2 children do not agree with the teacher to encourage their families to reduce their carbon footprint, they are blown up, splattering the other children with body parts. Hard to imagine any ad agency this stupid. It's British, not USA, but the hard sell for global warming is about the same.

I guess it's true--you can't fix stupid.  It's called the 10:10 campaign.

Whatever happened to Shirley Sherrod?

Is her 15 minutes of fame over? The last news I can find about her is dated August 24 and she'd turned down a new job at the USDA and was going to lie low for awhile. I don't know if Obama ever apologized to her or not, but I doubt that firing her was Vilsack's idea. As it turned out, or turned up after her name kept appearing, she and her husband were involved in some payout from the government that needed further investigation, so I think she's smart to disappear for awhile. And consult with her lawyer.

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.