Zombie payments

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has just released a new report on the payments by the U.S. government to over 250,000 deceased individuals--$1.1 Billion of that was to farmers. The title is Federal Programs to Die for. This is a decade long report, so it spans both the Bush and Obama administrations, however, the failure belongs to Congress which has oversite over these Agencies which have misspent the money.

"Since 2000, the known cost of these payments to over 250,000 deceased individuals has topped $1 billion, according to a review of government audits and reports by the Government Accountability Office, inspectors general, and Congress itself. This is likely only a small picture of a much larger problem. Among the agencies making payments to the deceased:

• The Social Security Administration sent $18 million in stimulus funds to 71,688 dead people and $40.3 million in questionable benefit payments to 1,760 dead people.

• The Department of Health and Human Services sent 11,000 dead people $3.9 million in assistance to pay heating and cooling costs.

• The Department of Agriculture sent $1.1 billion in farming subsidies to deceased farmers.

• The Department of Housing and Urban Development overseeing local agencies knowingly distributed $15.2 million in housing subsidies to 3,995 households with at least one deceased person.

• Medicaid paid over $700,000 in claims for prescriptions for controlled substances written for over 1,800 deceased patients and prescriptions for controlled substances written by 1,200 deceased doctors.

• Medicare paid as much as $92 million in claims for medical supplies prescribed by dead doctors and $8.2 million for medical supplies prescribed for dead patients.

• Congress has established HIV/AIDS funding distribution based on historic numbers of deceased HIV/AIDS patients, while many individuals living with AIDS desperately wait for medical care."

Since almost 72,000 deceased individuals got the $250 stimulus check through the Social Security Administration, I guess I shouldn't worry that I got one, even though I don't get a Social Security check.

The Cat Club Register of 100 years ago

The National Library of Agriculture has a digital archive of fascinating publications--The Cat Club Register, is one of them. I've chosen my cats' creative, interesting names from horse registries, because they seem to have all the great names. But 100 years ago, there were some good ones for cats:

The Prince of Orange

Oliver Woolleepug

and Tortietumtee, a tortoiseshell female whose sire was unknown, but her mommy, who was out catting around, was named Toddiegoloddie

In this archive I also found a 1942 typed report of a government lab attempting to create rubber from the goldenrod plant--this was an invention of Thomas Edison who had used this process to create tires for his friend Henry Ford's Model T. He had turned it over to the U.S. government in 1930, which did nothing about it until it was desperate for rubber during WWII.

This one, Small gardens for small folks, 1912, is really precious. The author, Edith Loring Fullerton, uses photos of her own children, and it was published by W. Atlee Burpee for distribution by the USDA.

Thomas Friedman's predictable election rant

Who is Friedman kidding by blaming Republicans (and indirectly the Tea Party supporters and candidates who are the only life in this current campaign) for our economic mess? Democrats have been in control of Congress for the last four years (and most of my life time), so let's plot a graph. They are in charge of all the major cities; they've pushed all the major social legislation since FDR's New Deal and the Johnson War on Poverty, which statistically he is showing has failed, and under their President Barack Obama, have spent more money with fewer results than any administration in our history. And then with Katie Couric and Barack Obama, he blames the great unwashed, the vast fly-over couch potatoes and gun clingers watching TV evangelists, for the mess instead of the well-heeled, well- educated, beltway revolving door lobbies, and Ivy League crowd that have gotten us here with misguided, incredibly expensive social engineering.

Thanks, Mr. Friedman, for your usual, insightful drivel.

Thomas Friedman: Election rhetoric shows you can't keep a bad idea down | Viewpoints, Outlook | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Video Shows MoveOn.org Activist

Have you seen the video of the "stomping?" Someone wrestled a woman in disguise to the ground who was lunging at Rand Paul. Another person, Tim Proffit, held her down by placing his foot on her shoulder. No one stomped her head. Don't you wish someone would have wrestled Sirhan Sirhan to the ground before he shot Bobby Kennedy? How about the instructions we get these days about being the first line of attack in tackling terrorists on the plane? Go for it! So how is anyone suppose to guess an agitator's intentions, especially since she was in a rather obvious disguise? Now it turns out there is new video which shows her to be a liar, too, about where she was and what she was doing. The video shows that Valle reached in the candidate’s window with her “RepubliCorp” sign and shoved it in his face. It was the people who nabbed her who told the man to back off and got the police. Lauren Valle is a professional agitator for MoveOn.org.

The American Spectator : AmSpecBlog : New Video Shows MoveOn.org Activist Lunging at Rand Paul's Vehicle

Law and Order and the Soda Police

Yes, this is the bias that drove me crazy about Law and Order--any version of it. The criminal was never a minority, or the homeless person, or the career criminal scum bag--the criminal was usually, 1) a religious, pious person, 2) the spouse, 3) a policeman or a judge or 4) a family member. Ripped from the headlines--oh yeah!

[Law and Order: SUV, Oct. 13] "Not only is she [the dead victim] guilty of killing children with soda, she’s also guilty of building gyms for underprivileged communities in her corporation’s name. Good thing she’s dead! In true Law & Order form, the episode has a (predictable) twist: it seems that Lindsay wasn’t killed for her soda-peddling after all, but over a personal grudge. Yet the real message of the episode is clear: soda is the new tobacco. It’s the monster in the closet; it’s coming for your children; and it’s to blame for whatever’s wrong with your life.

ObamaTV on NBC: ‘Law & Order: Soda Police’

Most ridiculous scare tactics

Today I heard a leftist radio commentary tying Timothy McVeigh not only to the Republicans but to the Tea Party (which isn't a party, no one is registered, and no one is in charge). McVeigh wasn't a Republican. He also wasn't a Christian, as Juan Williams suggested in his own misguided defense of himself for being fired for saying something about Muslims. McVeigh was a crazy agnostic who hated the United States of America. Then the appeal was for Sarah Palin to take charge of all these right wing crazies so we could avoid another Oklahoma City--like they care. But if he were a Christian right wing political crazy, he was caught and executed pretty darn fast. That's more than we can say about captured jihadists. Even mentioning their religion can get you fired.

Come on guys. Get a grip. Point A will never get to point B if you jump to X Y and Z.

Chevron ads

A few years ago, the Chevron ads were trying to tell us how beautiful it is that we have abundant supplies of natural energy. Now they are trying to tell us how green they are. I sort of like this ad, and I think we could all really be inspired by the words . . . saw it in the Wall Street Journal.

"Something's got to be done.

So we're going to do it."

Actually, oil, coal and natural gas are beautiful . . . put there by God through decayed vegetation for use later by the people he created. In God's economy nothing is wasted--not even dead plants. If you've ever created a mulch bed to put on your organic garden, it's the same principle.

The interesting thing about rich corporations is that they didn't get that way by hiring dumb people or designing and selling stupid ads. Chevron and all the other petroleum giants are heavy into wind, biofuels, carbon exchanges, and anything else that can be marketed as "green."

All our energy is still going to be controlled by the same global entities. When the EPA puts the Ohio coal miners out of work, you can be sure that the stockholders won't be hurt all that much, although the businesses in Ohio certainly will be. These companies have huge lobbies that control the regulations, and those regulations will always take advantage of the smaller companies--even those worth billions. The more companies, local or state, or national, that a global entity can put out of business through higher taxes and more regulations, the better for them. That's why you often see giant corporations supporting Democratic candidates. Follow the money.

Ophthalmologist

On October 17 I notified the CMS that it had misspelled ophthalmologist on the web page about glaucoma. No one replied, and it hasn't been corrected as of today (October 27, 2010). I guess they are too busy planning the next Obamacare bill.

https://www.cms.gov/GlaucomaScreening/

Mixed Findings in Study of Vegetables and Breast Cancer Risk

Speaking of burst health bubbles--vegetables/fruit intake apparently has no association with overall breast cancer risk.

"High vegetable consumption is associated with a significantly lower risk for estrogen receptor-negative/progesterone receptor-negative (ER-/PR-) breast cancer in black women, according to results from the Black Women's Health Study reported online October 11 in the American Journal of Epidemiology. However, there was no association of total fruit/vegetable intake with overall breast cancer risk, and the investigators suggest that their significantly positive finding of a lower risk for ER-/PR- breast cancer could possibly be due to chance as a result of multiple comparisons."

Mixed Findings in Study of Vegetables and Breast Cancer Risk

Everyone seems to be looking for that big vitamin C/scurvey or clean water/cholera or hand washing/infection break through. Don't smoke. Eat all the colors, exercise, and do a lot of your own food prep. It may not cure your ailments, but you'll look and feel better. Then stop the government nanny state mentality and don't let your city council or the federal government tell you what you can and can't eat.

Out of the darkness with a smile

Two weeks ago the world watched and waited while 33 coal miners were brought up out of a dark cave. As they emerged one by one, they had big smiles on their faces, they were praising God and hugging friends and family. A few days ago my Aunt Betty, 78, was also released from a dark cave--Alzheimer's Disease. I'm sure she was greeted by her Lord and Savior and her friends and relatives, and she had that gorgeous smile we all remember and probably was telling a joke and looking for her golf clubs. We'll all miss you Betty, and we rejoice with you in your release and homecoming!

Why Most Published Research Findings Are False

The current issue of Atlantic has an article by David H. Freedman, "Lies, damned lies, and medical science." It's primarily about the work of one man, John Ioannidis (pronounced yo-NEE-dees). I had just been reading a current issue of JAMA about the ongoing controversy about HRT for women experiencing hot flashes during menopause. "Estrogen Plus progestin and breast cancer incidence and mortality in postmenopausal women" JAMA p. 1684, Oct. 30, 2010. Truly, you could get whip lash trying to follow this! In the early 90s, I remember a nurse friend of mine saying that HRT was practically the magic bullet for women--benefitted the heart, controlled osteoporosis and could fight Alzheimer's. There was, even then, some concern about elevated estrogen levels and breast cancer, but heart disease is a bigger killer of women than breast cancer, and osteoporosis kills many older women in falls and deforms their bodies worse than a lost breast, and Alzheimer's? That is a frightening disease.

In 2002, the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) was stopped early because of evidence that estrogen/progestin (made from horse urine) was increasing the risk of breast cancer AND myocardial infarction AND risk of stroke and pulmonary embolism. Big oops, right? And while reading this I started to jot down other big oops we've heard over the years like Vitamin E, fish oil, Fosamax, and drink 8 glasses of water a day.

One ongoing medical/social controversy is DDT. Millions and millions of Africans have died since U.S. environmentalists in the 70s scared it off the market. The research is terribly contradictory, but facts are facts--millions of people, mostly children, who would have been alive are dead or injured for life. There could have been something done that reached a middle ground before the parasties were again allowed free rein to multiply to a trillion cells in a few days and consume half a person's volume of blood. Folks, this is an excruciating way to die! All for thin shells of birds.

Then when I met AZ for coffee she gave me a copy of Freedman's article. It seems it is based primarily on the 2005 article that John Ioannidis published in Public Library of Science: Medicine. Ioannidis has recently been appointed to Stanford Prevention Research Center.

PLoS Medicine: Why Most Published Research Findings Are False

Good writing of dirty stories?

I think I'll pass.

Samuel Steward [OSU alum] became a tattoo artist, a gay porn writer, a researcher with Alfred Kinsey on his landmark sex project, a friend of Gertrude Stein and other modernist writers, and the lover of Rudolph Valentino, Thornton Wilder, and Rock Hudson, to name just a few."

No, considering the amount of disease and grief that promiscuous gay sex has brought to modern life, I don't think I'll attend Justin Spring's lecture.

Wexner Center for the Arts: Public Programs - Writer's Reading / Justin Spring on / In Search of Samuel Steward: Rediscovering an OSU Professor Turned Sexual Revolutionary

From PW publicity at Amazon.com: "Life in the closet proves boisterous indeed in this biography of an iconic figure of the pre-Stonewall gay demimonde. Steward (1909–1993) was an English professor, a novelist who wrote both well-received literary fiction and gay porn, a confidant of Gertrude Stein and Thornton Wilder, a furtive but exuberant erotic adventurer whose taste for sailors, rough trade, and violent sadomasochism endeared him to sex researcher Alfred Kinsey; later in life, he became Phil Sparrow, official tattoo artist of the Oakland, Calif., Hell's Angels. Spring (Paul Cadmus) fleshes out this colorful story by quoting copiously from his subject's highly literate journals and sex diaries—his Stud File contained entries on trysts with everyone from Rudolph Valentino to Rock Hudson—which afford an unabashed account of Steward's erotic picaresque and the yearnings that drove it. (His swerve from academia into tattooing, with its mix of physical pain and proximity to nubile male flesh, was essentially a fetish turned into a business.) Spring's sympathetic and entertaining story of a life registers the limitations imposed on homosexuals by a repressive society, but also celebrates the creativity and daring with which Steward tested them."

Residential Knowledge Community

As a librarian, I've been called a lot of things (never over-paid, though)--information specialist, database architect, knowledge manager, associate professor, department head, etc. So I'm used to odd titles. Architects? Not so much. So "residential knowledge community" was new to me. Apparently means those careers and professions that design and build homes suitable for living and lasting longer than a generation.

Here's the assessment of David Andreozzi of Rhode Island, and interestingly enough, this was exactly how I've felt about architecture the last 40 years--especially Frank Lloyd Wright in the early 20th century and the 80s guy who designed the Wexner Center on the OSU campus, Peter Eisenman:

"A century long love affair with modernity combined with a desire to create star architects have morphed our profession into celebrating architecture, that at times goes so for to the extreme that it begins to ignore building codes, fails to adequately satisfy program requirements, and encourages state of the art experimentation over proven technology, in order to proclaim invention over creating architecture. We live in a time of starchitects that design sculpture with secondary program placed upon it, and we all celebrate this as good. It can be argued that our current paradigm actually discriminates against history, environmental scale, and individual culture in architecture in whole."

To say nothing of on-going costs! Eisenman's design won out in a competition and has locked Ohio into a perpetual repair program due to the design which has cost us millions more. The building is dysfunctional and disorienting to the senses. Entire foundations exist to do nothing but restore Wright's buildings which ignored everything then known about environmental damage and we're paying for it now as buildings fall apart and anyone over 5'5" feels squashed walking through one of his homes.

More on Vivian Schiller firing Juan Williams at NPR

"Schiller, a former New York Times executive, is one of a few dozen power players working with the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and a leftist group called Free Press to ‘reinvent journalism.’ That’s how the FTC describes it. The FCC calls what they are doing the ‘Future of Journalism.’ Free Press, a think tank funded by leftist billionaire George Soros, among others, calls it ‘the new public media.’" Link

So the next time NPR asks you for money during one of the excutiatingly boring fund raisers, just say you gave with your taxes. If you google "NPR Project Argo" you'll see there is no need for your subscription, nor your taxes. NPR's doing just fine in the money department. The government owns the health industry, automobile industry and is soon to take over much of energy, so why not media?

Florence van Erb Left Wall Street for a Non-Profit Career with Making Mothers Matter

It's easier to make an impact resolving societal injustices if you skip the social work or education degree, do something to create wealth, then switch careers or retire, and put your money and your business experience to work. Florence von Erb has an MBA and a successful Wall Street career and now saves women involved in international prostitution. Yesterday on our local NPR station I heard a program about prostitution in Franklin County and a program to redirect their lives. Also the man said they expect a large increase in prostitution when the new casino opens. See what we get when we want easy money?

Florence van Erb Left Wall Street for a Non-Profit Career with Making Mothers Matter - WSJ. Magazine - WSJ

Let's not get theological . . .

A lesbian Lutheran pastor is proud of her role in "ending discrimination" against non-celibate homosexual pastors in her church.

See my church blog.

How we got here--2006-2010

800 rooms in Mumbai

Yes, that's probably a record for a presidential visit. Despite his bowing and scraping, I suspect President Barack Obama is viewed as an infidel, and thus worthy of being taken out by some jihadist who'd like martyrdom status for the next life. (Muslims have a works based system for eternal life; Christians are saved by grace.) So frankly, I think he needs all those rooms for his security forces and maybe decoys. Although I don't understand the need to visit the red light district. Don't we have plenty of that in the USA?

Barack Obama's Indian delegation 'books 800 rooms in Mumbai' - Telegraph

Aren't you proud to be an American?

Sarah Palin appeared at a Tea Party gathering in Arizona today. She encouraged the crowd to vote. Trig seems to enjoy politics just as much as his Mom, and clapped when she said "Aren't you proud to be an American?"

Photos from Yahoo.

The liberal no-nothings chastised her for the 1773--thinking it should have been 1776. But 1773 was the Tea Party, not the revolution. Something to think about--not only do the libs support aborting little guys like Trig, but they know nothing about our history.

Reporting the news without the facts

I just watched a video of a Professor of Political Science of Iowa State University called Dr. Politics and he was commenting on the firing of Juan Williams by NPR. He got so many of the actual facts and details wrong, I won't even link to him. What's the point, when you have an obviously liberal commentator in fly over country who hasn't even watched the tape of the exchange of Juan Williams with Bill O'Reilly?

He thought the problem was that an NPR employee was even appearing on Fox. Well, where else will they be able to find a liberal point of view to be fair and balanced? With one of their competitors? Technically, NPR belongs to we the people, right? And isn't Fox people? Fox pays NPR's salaries, building costs, equipment and utilities through the funnelling of money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (15% from feds, but it's actually higher if you figure out all the tax breaks to foundations and members to contribute) to the local stations (who don't have to follow any of the rules the other commercial stations do), which then pay NPR for their own programming. It's called laundering federal grant money.

Hey, Dr. Politics. Do your homework!

Plus, he never even took off his dark glasses for the little rant. I don't like it when they interview bumble bees.