Odd things our government does

Did you know that African Americans are at a higher risk for glaucoma than whites, Asians or Hispanics? And did you know the government includes them in Medicare for glaucoma screening at age 50, but not the rest of us, even though anyone can get glaucoma, and in numbers, more whites are affected than blacks? Oh well. I was listening to a public service announcement on the radio this morning and almost couldn't believe my ears. So I looked it up--several times.

Also on the page where I was reading about this, ophthalmologist was misspelled. So I searched through the documents until I found a contact link--almost everything was phone numbers, even though I was using the web--until I finally found something, so I wrote:

You have misspelled ophthalmologist at a page on glaucoma screening https://www.cms.gov/GlaucomaScreening/ The phth only appears in a few words in English, but on a government web site, it should be spelled correctly.

106 ways to show love

A guy named Vince writes an advice and review column for romance writers and readers. This one is pretty good--106 ways to show (not tell) people (your characters in a story) are falling in love. There's a few (26-28) I don't care for and I think he meant have patience instead of have patients, but it's a very good list about showing love. My husband of 50 years would get an A if this were a test.

Catching up on this and that

I found some narrow leg, boot cut Chico's jeans at the Discovery Shop for $7.50 yesterday. Very comfortable, but I'd never pay $70.00 for them new, and these look like they've never been worn or washed. A tad long, so I wear my boot scooting heels with them.

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My husband had a few spots removed by the dermatologist--one about which I've been nagging him for a long time. However, they were not dangerous or even suspicious so the procedure was "cosmetic" and will not be covered by insurance.

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A friend went to the ER with symptoms similar to a heart attack, but it wasn't, it was his gallbladder, and he will have surgery sometime soon. But in the process of testing him for everything, a dangerous condition very rare, and unknown to him, was found and will be treated with medication (but not cured or removed). So perhaps the incident was a God thing?

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While at the Discovery Shop I found a review journal for $3, hard cover, on a topic a friend needs. I've never seen a title like this as a used book, and I've only known for 5 days that she could benefit from this very narrow field of knowledge. Another God thing?

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My husband has just made a young bride and groom very happy with the gift of a fabulous watercolor of the old Abigail Tea Room in Lakeside, Ohio. They've had the spot picked out to hang it for some time (married in April), but had been busy. He was just about to put it in a show in which case it wouldn't have been available. Aother God thing?

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I'm having the best time volunteering as a conversation partner with a young woman who needs practice with English. She's been in the U.S. for over 6 years and her children all speak English. It's such fun to talk to her and to practice works like Mass a chu setts and Penn syl van i a. She says she likes me as her partner because I speak distinctly and she can understand me. Also, I love to explain things, like the fact that a C has no sound of its own. Cat is kat; century is sen shur i.

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Tomorrow our Lytham Road Traditional service communities of Upper Arlington Lutheran Church (we have 9 communities based on worship style) are having a brunch at 9:30. I've decided to make peach cobbler--I have a peach that needs to be used up, and a large can of peach pie filling. Yum.

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When I was in Mt. Morris last Saturday I had a chance to visit the home we lived in from 1951-1958. Although I was 18+ when my parents moved, it did seem smaller. My mother worked so hard to remodel it and make it lovely for us, so what fun to see some of her handi-work still there--like this bookshelf unit disguising the radiator in the living room.

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Although I went to the cemetery last week and visited some of "the old folks at home with Jesus,"--great grandparents, great aunts and uncles, grandparents, sister, cousins--I also found some live ones in the parking lot of the Mexican restaurant. I met my 2nd cousin Sharlein, whom I probably only saw a few times when she was a little girl, her son Bryan, my 2nd cousin once removed, and his wife and adorable baby daughter, 2nd cousin twice removed. So I've added a few names to my Family Tree Maker 2008 (which I hate--liked the older 7.0 version). Also found on Facebook my first cousins once removed Lorrie and Jodie (grand daughters of my Uncle John), although I haven't made a connection yet. Also I've been friended on Facebook by a high school girl friend of my son, Kristina, who is a dead ringer for my daughter and reconnected with her step-father Dermot of whom I'd lost track in his world travels.

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We're half way through October and the colors are brilliant and the rains gentle--a perfect color combination or red, yellow, orange, burgundy and green.

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I've started Condoleeza Rice's new autobiography, Extraordinary, ordinary people. Only into it by 2 chapters, but it promises to be a great read. I like her writing style--spare but descriptive. The account of racism, prejudice and Jim Crow laws (put in place by Democratic "progressives") she writes about in the 1950s south is harsh, but she doesn't portray herself or her family as victims, and she isn't a whiner. Of her parents she says, "Every night I begin my prayers saying, "Lord, I can never thank you enough for the parents you gave me." Amen, sister!

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Tried 3 new (to me) restaurants when I visited Mt. Morris last week. La Vigna is on Daysville Road near Oregon, and over the last 65+ years I've been down that road to "the farm" I've seen a lot of establishments in that location. Very good Italian food. Then my classmates from high school met for lunch at the Pinecricker Inn in Polo--before everyone slipped away we took photos on an unseasonably hot day. A Pinecricker is someone who lived in the area of Pine Creek, near the White Pines State Park. My father grew up in that area and attended Polo High School.

Crime and fatherless homes are directly related

Heather McDonald in City Journal reports on what has happened in Chicago since the September 2009 death of  16-year-old Derrion Albert, when his attack was caught on video and spread across the internet.  The federal government and social workers responded as they've learned to do with a $40 million dollar federal grant for "at risk males."  But that's not what they need.  They need married fathers. Since Albert’s death, 78 more youth under the age of 19 have been killed in Chicago, overwhelmingly in black-on-black shootings.

In every American city, the disproportionate black-illegitimacy rate is matched only by the disproportionate black crime rate. In Chicago, blacks, at least 35 percent of the population, commit 76 percent of all homicides; whites, about 28 percent of the population, commit 4 percent. In New York City, blacks, 24 percent of the population, commit 80 percent of all shootings; whites, 35 percent of the population, commit less than 2 percent of all shootings. The black illegitimacy rate in New York is over 78 percent; the white illegitimacy rate in the city is 7 percent. The national rate of homicide commission for black males between the ages of 14 and 17 is ten times higher than that of “whites,” into which category the federal government puts the vast majority of Hispanics.

Of all the problems we face as a nation, this one seem insoluable to me. I certainly don't think the government can change this, but it sure did help create it, beginning with Johnson's War on Poverty which is when the out of wedlock birth rate began to soar for both blacks and whites. Slight reversal with the 1996 Welfare Reform (begun in 1994) intended to strengthen families and marriage, but was maligned by the press as "War on Welfare Mothers." It had a side affect of reducing illegal immigration and did increase marriage, resulting in more children living with their fathers. Gradually, other federal and state programs were added back in like SCHIP. It did result in reducing case loads for agencies and possibly some lost jobs or transfers.

White House claims it met stimulus goal of 70% spent by Sept. 30

But no one knows how, unless they really goosed it that last month, because they weren't even close. For now, "if they said, it happend" is the rule of this administration. Here's one agency that didn't get its spent--Department of Homeland Security, one that you would think (if you thought like a conservative) would have no problem.

"•The Department of Homeland Security has spent less than $500 million of its $2.8 billion allocation. When the stimulus bill was passed, the CBO estimated that Homeland Security would spend more than $1 billion by now. The slow spending comes from nearly every part of the agency. For example, Customs and Border Protection has paid out less than $50 million, even though it was authorized to spend $680 million to modernize ports of entry and deploy other border technology. That program was halted briefly last fall as news media and members of Congress questioned the plan to modernize little-used border stations in Montana and North Dakota instead of busy crossings along the southwest border." Link

So some alert news media noticed the ND stations weren't as big a risk as Arizona and NM. Who knew!

Tony's Ready to Move the Party from Las Vegas to Los Angeles with the purchase of a Hollywood Hills Vacation Home

I love to watch HGTV--programs are "reality shows" just a tad unreal if you've ever owned, remodeled or purchased a house, but they are fast paced, well-produced, and the advertising is appropriate for the programming. Some times I yell at the set--especially when a young woman is buying a home and planning to be a landlord to her boyfriend of 3 years. Oh lordy lady, how dumb can you get? If you break up, you may not be able to move him out of the house without legal action.

But last night they had the story of Tony Chau of Las Vegas on House Hunters buying a second home in Hollywood. He is a Vietnamese immigrant (name sounds Chinese to me, but there are Chinese families living in Vietnam, called Hoa ), but came to the USA at age 10 and is now 26 and a millionaire. He has some sort of marketing company on the internet. He was house hunting with his decorator who has done several houses for him. What he ended up with was fabulous--and we heard several times during the program how much he likes to party. Well, maybe so, but I do like success stories about immigrants because they are visible, physical evidence that America is still the land of opportunity and dreams if you want to work hard and have a marketable skill.

Tony's Ready to Move the Party from Las Vegas to Los Angeles with the purchase of a Hollywood Hills Vacation Home : House Hunters : Home & Garden Television

What dreams are made of--or fairy tales

Oh wow! A drastic one-year reduction in drop outs in the Columbus Public Schools "defies the odds for an urban school district." Well, why not--the Columbus Dispatch Jennifer Smith Richards didn't peek under the book covers. I'm sure it makes Columbus Superintendent Gene Harris look fabulous.

However, the drop is because of social promotion**. No one fails in elementary school in CPS. Also, a student isn't a "drop out" if he transfers--he's not tracked, and he may never return to school. In some schools serving low-income one parent families, moving on is a family tradition. That probably takes care of quite a few right there.

So that dumps unprepared students into the high school where there is no social promotion. But not to worry--instead of social promotion, they just don't flunk anyone. A student can remain a 9th grader for four years***, passing into Algebra II with DD or FF earned in Algebra I. The graduation rate is figured on students who actually enter the senior year--and since a 4th year 9th grader isn't technically senior, he doesn't graduate and isn't counted. Tricky business, isn't it.

So why is someone who flunked Algebra I taking Algebra II sitting in class with your kid who is good at math? First, because CPS doesn't have honors classes--that would be "tracking." Tsk, tsk. Second, our last 2 governors (Republican an...d Democrat) believed every child should be in a college prep curriculum. This has decimated the track for vocational education. As the current generation of people in the trades retire, more jobs will be sent out of state because many of the Ohio h.s. graduates who do make it are flunking in college after 1 semester.

The Columbus Dispatch could do some investigative reporting so the people will be informed, vote out the politicians who put this system in place and then blame the administrators, who blame the classroom teacher for a kid who'se been lost since third grade.

Every school district in the state calculates drop outs and graduation rates differently. Your mileage will differ with your school and the years your child attended. If you live in Columbus I think home schooling, a private or public charter school, or a church school would be a good alternative if you can afford it.

Teachers are extremely well paid--that's no longer a problem. The problem is they are well paid prisoners in their own system with their hands tied. It's the children who suffer, then our cities, and then our state, because what state can remain competitive in a system like this?

City schools see big cut in dropouts | The Columbus Dispatch

** Social promotion is the practice of passing students along from grade to grade with their peers even if the students have not satisfied academic requirements or met performance standards at key grades. It is called "social" promotion because it is often carried out in the perceived interest of a student's social and psychological well-being. Most schools won't admit the extent of this practice, according to what I've read.

***Repeating a class or "retention" is considered a negative experience, so the poor kid is just moved to the next level of difficulty, but not promoted a grade. Make-up classes are offered, but not required, and may be computer classes, which would require more discipline and effort than a regular class.

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

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.

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.