A simple plan with great benefits

A Columbus school teacher told me that his school has gone to separate lunch hours for boys and girls. "Wow," I said, "What's next? Uniforms?" "I wish," he said.

He says the discipline problems and fights have gone way down. I'm not surprised, but I don't blame the guys, I blame the girls (I be one, you know).

My epiphany was a little late in coming. About 10 years ago we were waiting for our food at the Old Bag of Nails a pub in Tremont Center, our Friday night date spot before we shifted to the Rusty Bucket in the Lane Avenue Center. There was a non-stop noisy table next to us. Much screeching, whooping and screaming--about 6-8 30-something adult women, and two guys younger. It was probably an after work get-together to celebrate something. The 2 guys left for a few moments, either to smoke or to get away from the incessant chattering magpies. The minute they were out of earshot the women settled down. They began quietly discussing things important to them--children, husbands, boyfriends, hopes, dreams--whatever, it was all in hushed tones. Girl talk, not performing for the guys.

I'm all in favor of genderizing the lunch hours in high schools. With separate classes for boys and girls, the girls would do much better, and finally, some of the boys would begin to shine.

Retracted autism study an 'elaborate fraud,' BMJ

The man who brought back measles.

Retracted autism study an 'elaborate fraud,' British journal finds - CNN.com

"An investigation published by the British medical journal BMJ concludes the study's author, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, misrepresented or altered the medical histories of all 12 of the patients whose cases formed the basis of the 1998 study -- and that there was "no doubt" Wakefield was responsible."

And like the global warming hoax folks who were found out earlier in the year, he's whining that he's been misrepresented in the press. Restarting measles is pretty serious too, as well as panicking millions of families.

But only 12 patients? That's an awfully small study.

Deacquisitioning

Librarians who buy materials for libraries are doing the task called "acquisition." When they decide to get rid of that which they previously bought, stored and used, it's called "deacquisition," (aka deselection or weeding). There are guidelines, and the suggestion is to begin with 200-300 items.

So that's what we're doing to get ready for the new storage in the garage. I told my husband this was backward--and I've weeded many a collection. First you weed, then you decide how much shelving you need. If you move it, it will stay.

I've found a number of usable but useless things--like dirty canvas book bags. Absolutely nothing wrong with them but they can't be cleaned. A under the bed storage box (cardboard) still in the wrapper--possibly 20 years old--most people use plastic now. A piece of carpet in case something awful ever happened to the bedroom and we needed just that size.

Tinicum unsurprised by airport decision but still may fight it

Our tax dollars have been going to improve the homes in Tinicum to make them more sound proof with new windows, doors, AC, and electric upgrades, and now that same government wants to buy 72 of them and knock them down to make room for airport expansion to the tune of $5.2 billion. I think eminent domain laws have completely gotten out of control. The law suit by the city of Tinicum is also paid for with tax dollars, maybe not mine, but it's wasteful considering it's unnecessary.

Tinicum unsurprised by airport decision but still may fight it | Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/05/2011

Why would you want more of a failed system?

According to JAMA, "the frail elderly in the United States receive services that are fragmented, incomplete, inefficient, and ineffective." All of these people are using Medicare, or Medicaid, or both (known as dual eligibles). That's 21% of the Medicare population. If our government is doing such a lousy job with this population group which can't speak for itself, why do we want Obamacare, which is working toward a single payer, universal system for every citizen?

Jam it through before the Republicans see it--Obama signs $1.4 billion food safety bill

"The Food Safety Modernization Act, is estimated to require $1.4 billion in new funds over five years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That cost was causing some Republicans, emboldened by GOP gains in November and increased public concern over deficit spending, to question whether the investment is worth the cost." The Packer

Usually I don't use a wiki to look for stats, but this one of foodborne illnesses will have to do because I seem to only be getting 1999 stats. For a country that won't raise the legal driving age which could save thousands of lives a year both of teen agers and their passengers, parents and siblings riding in the car, it seems like a lot of money for hospitalizations from food poisoning and almost no deaths. The CDC claims our food supply is 99.999% safe. Many people die from hospitalizations alone so I think it's a toss up, based on my food poisoning experience of several years ago (food purchased in Europe, but hospitalized in Columbus). This law doesn't cover meat, eggs or poultry and will just add reams of regulation and headaches for producers and raise the cost of our food. Will they add that to the $1.4 Billion? Probably not. And support from the industry? Well, why not? Like most government regulation, it knocks out the competition.

“While it’s a great re-election tool to terrify people into thinking that the food they’re eating is unsafe and unsanitary, and if not for the wonderful nanny-state politicians we’d be getting sick after every meal, the system we have is doing a darn good job,” Rep. Jack Kingston.

Obama signs bill boosting food inspections, oversight and allowing mandatory recalls - latimes.com

'Saving' the Housing Market - Thomas Sowell

"We hear all sorts of sad stories about people whose homes are "under water" or who are facing foreclosure. But why should our attention be arbitrarily focused on these particular people, rather than on the many other people who would benefit from being able to buy those same houses, if the prices came down? The government is artificially keeping the prices up with subsidies and with pressures on lenders to accommodate the current occupants. . .

Rescuing particular people at the expense of other people-- whether the others are taxpayers, savers or prospective home buyers-- produces votes. It also produces dependency on government, which is good for politicians, but bad for society."

'Saving' the Housing Market - Opinion - PatriotPost.US

Privatize the Welfare State

This article was published about 5 years ago during the boom years of Bush. Nothing much has changed except the dollars--there would be more now even though nearly $13 billion was being spent for Administration for Children and Families alone, the HHS agency highlighted in the opening paragraph. Before Obama's big spending, there was Bush.

Even though Head Start has never in 40+ years shown any lasting improvement in gains in math or motivation to learn among low income and deprived children.

Even though states and municipalities pile more billions on top of the federal dollars.

Even though non-profits and private foundations also fund or support similar welfare type programs that are failing with federal tax dollars.

But if there is hope, if there are models of success and change, you'll find them in the private sector.

Article | Privatize the Welfare State

However, in 2010, Mrs. Obama's Let's Move program through ACF is going to finance grocery stores close to where poor people live. Nice idea, however, if those stores were viable, don't you think Kroger or Marc's would be there in a minute? American businessmen aren't stupid. And if a Wal-Mart tries to move in, you can expect violent protests from the greenies.

My plan of providing van service to near by supermarkets is much cheaper and more effective.

A cemetery where your tax dollars are buried

Have you ever visited Cyber Cemetery in Texas? What an amazing place. It's where old government reports go to be forgotten and die.

There are some very interesting reports buried alive in this cemetery. And we paid for them. There's probably no greater waste of time and money than being appointed to a government task force. Before I realized that the report had to have been completed according to its charge or law, I looked for Obamacare (zero) and then tried Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (zero). There is a Citizens' Health Care Working Group Final Recommendations dated 2006 commissioned in 2005. Could be a blue print for the overblown, bloated Obamacare 2,300 page bill that no one in Congress read but passed in March 2010.

The 2001 Social Security Commission, a big issue for President Bush, has many buried reports in this cemetery. The 9/11 attacks sort of bumped that off the domestic agenda.

Then after browsing by date, I saw that there was only one report completed in 2009. Considering the number of programs, regulations, and committee reports railroaded through the Obama Administration I thought that a bit light, but perhaps the librarians are behind in their cataloging. Need some ARRA money, maybe.

That final report was the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act and because none of the links did anything but loop and lie, I went into the WaPo archives which announced it's final report. It seems that 60,500 (approximate number) men are raped in prison each year, some on very short mild sentences and very young, but who are so traumatized they don't report it. Happens in the homosexual community too, but again, most male on male rapes are not reported.

So it appears that something else needs to come out of the closet, gay violence. For every gay man who is harrassed, teased, or taunted as reported in the media, there must be hundreds who are physically and sexually assaulted by other gays with no consequences and no publicity.

It's going around--a joke about depression

This has been making the rounds at least since August, but I just got it today from Bill.

WHY I AM DEPRESSED......

Over five thousand years ago, Moses said to the children of Israel, "Pick up your shovels, mount your asses and camels, and I will lead you to the Promised Land."

Nearly 75 years ago (when Welfare was introduced) Roosevelt said, "Lay down your shovels, sit on your asses, and light up a Camel, this is the Promised Land."

Now Obama has stolen your shovel, taxed your asses, raised the price of Camels, and mortgaged the Promised Land!

I was so depressed last night thinking about Health Care Plans, the economy, the wars, lost jobs, savings, Social Security, retirement funds, etc. . . I called Lifeline.

Got a call center in Pakistan. I told them I was suicidal.

They got all excited and asked if I could drive a truck.

Addressing the authors of Addressing food insecurity

This is the letter I wrote to the authors of "Addressing Food Insecurity; Freedom from Want, Freedom From Fear," JAMA, Dec. 1, 2010, Vol 304, No. 21, pp. 2405-06. They press all the hot buttons--a reference to FDR, the vision of hungry children, statistics pulled from the air, and citing the American Dietetic Association, and the United Nations declaration of human rights, but not the real causes of hunger.

Dr. Samuel Bitton, MD
Cohen Children's Medical Center of NY

Dr. Jesse Roth, MD
Feinstein Institute for Medical Research

of The North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in New Hyde Park and Manhasset, New York

Dear Doctors Bitton and Roth:

"Food insecurity" is a buzz word I wish the government hadn't developed (2006) to expand the definition of hunger to include reduced quality, variety, or desirability of diet or a disrupted eating pattern. Also, your launch paragraph's reference to FDR who lengthened the Great Depression with numerous social programs (now being imitated by President Obama in a variety of take-overs, stimulus packages and bail-outs), is telling. His "freedom from fear" has expanded to Americans fearing the expansion of our government with little hope of being freed from that fear.

But let's address hunger. The number one cause for poverty and hunger among children is their unmarried mother who hasn't completed her education before having babies. Or you could put the responsibility on men instead of women--lack of the biological father in the home--serial boyfriends and sugar daddies don't count, nor does Uncle Sam as a step-father. Keep in mind, this term was developed during the boom economy when the USDA was running out of truly hungry people! Now with government extended unemployment, there are people in food lines who never expected to be there. Then if we look at other causes of low income which could result in "reduced quality, variety and desirability" of the diet, you'll see that the graph for income pretty closely overlays the graph for IQ. Unless you plan to physically remove all children from households where the parents range below a certain IQ level, I think you'll need to rethink your plan to have doctors screen for the "negative health consequences" of nutritionally poor choices.

We could save billions of USDA dollars a year with a simple accessible van service (staffed by the people we remove from USDA SNAP positions) to drive people without transportation to a super market. We don't need elaborate systems of farmers' markets brought into the inner city, or even more school feeding programs. Many people of limited means simply can't get to a well stocked grocery to buy basic goods--10 lbs of potatoes, peppers, green beans, a gallon or two of milk, bread, flour, sugar, fruit juice, eggs, etc. Have you ever tried lugging home a gallon of milk on a bus? I know my plan would cause a lot of unemployment in the USDA funded programs both government and non-profit who live on ever-expanding government grants, but maybe they could go back to college and become doctors.

Food insecurity--a buzz word for government waste

The December 1, 2010 JAMA has a commentary by two MDs on "Addressing food insecurity; freedom from want, freedom from fear," beginning with an appeal of the four freedoms of Franklin Roosevelt (4 term president who extended the Great Depression and took us into WWII). The four freedoms were made famous by Norman Rockwell's paintings for Saturday Evening Post in 1943. The authors, with no citation and apparently very young, claim that the number of underfed Americans, aka "food insecurity," is on the increase.* Let's set aside for a moment that term, which is so squishy it might as well be a pool of quicksand. Two of the four freedoms, freedom from hunger and freedom from fear, if they haven't been achieved through the market, will never be achieved under our present hyper-regulated economy.

First, "hunger" must continue in order to support a massive government bureaucracy that was created at the end of WWII to maintain prices for farmers who had geared up to support the war effort. Before that, hunger was very much a local problem handled at the town and county level or by charitable organizations. Second, FDR's interference in the economy in the 1930s, beginning with extending some of Hoover's social policies, made the Great Depression worse. It's bizarre that Bernanke and Obama and their economic clutch of advisors think more of a bad thing is better, and they are just continuing a failed solution that didn't work then, and won't work now. Third, we'll hardly get rid of fear because over half of the American public fears the encroaching, nanny state government, most specifically losing their representation in Congress to either an over-bearing law making Supreme Court, or an overarching Presidency who just appoints whoevery he wants without confirmation or election to put in place a wide variety of regulations affecting the environment, the economy, the education system, the health-care system, or social behavior. Now that is REAL FEAR! It's much more substantial than lack of calories or fresh fruits and vegetables.

I have some Great Depression balanced and nutritious ideas for today's "food insecure."  First, eat at home; second, learn some basic cook skills.

Red beans and rice

navy beans cooked all day with a soup bone

Macaroni and cheese

Scalloped potatoes

Cooked oatmeal with raisins

Bread pudding

Water instead of soft drinks

A mess of greens--collard, turnip, kale, etc. as a side dish

**This term was introduced in 2006 by the USDA to indicate reduced quality, variety, or desirability of diet, or disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake. No hunger is necessary for this term to apply.

What Muslims in Britain are saying about killing Christians in Egypt

At least 21 people attending a Christian Mass were killed and 79 injured when a bomb exploded outside an Alexandria church in the first hour of the New Year, Egyptian officials said.

The blast struck Coptic worshipers as they exited the Qidiseen, or saints, church just after a New Year's Eve Mass in the eastern section of Alexandria, the ancient city along Egypt's Mediterranean coast. LA Times

This ain't pretty, folks. Hold your nose. Link.

copts are a disgusting people who worship a skinny anonymous jew nailed to a cross

May Allah guide all those whom we have failed to convert the last 1400 years or have them all kill each other for us or make the Muslims do it with valid excuse ameen, and may Allah protect the weak amongst the muslims.

Christmas and Western Civilization -- what it really means

Christmas does a lot for the non-Christian, too, and it's not just a boost to the economy or lovely art and music.

"The celebration of Christmas has been a powerful teacher of the dignity of the human person. For Christians, Christmas is the feast of the Incarnation—the celebration of the moment when God became a man in order to live among men. It shows that God thought of human beings as worthy of being saved, and that he sought to save them by taking on humanity in a perfected form, thus opening the way to their own perfection. Christian belief in the Incarnation is thus inseparable from belief in the objective, and even transcendent, value of the human race as a whole, and of each human person as an individual.

Belief in the Incarnation further implies a certain egalitarianism that has also been important to Western Civilization. According to Christian teaching, all are sinners, and none can claim to be fundamentally superior to others in this important respect. Conversely, and more positively, God wanted to save all people, of all ranks, from their sins and to open the way to a lofty destiny for them all. Thus the Christian understanding of the Incarnation has been important in fostering the West’s sense that, whatever social order may require in terms of hierarchy and rank, there is an irreducible moral equality of all human beings: all are owed a certain respect, even the lowliest among us."

Christmas and Western Civilization « Public Discourse

Basic Economics--Thomas Sowell

No charts, graphs, and just plain English. New revised edition. How is wealth created? (Hint: not by government). The housing bust began the current melt down. Politicians created this by interferring and changing the rules (more home ownership, more affordable housing). Stimulus and bailouts in both the Bush and Obama administrations created boondoggles and didn't help the economy. Lending went down when money was given to banks. GM bailout? Bernanke's QE-2 (printing money)? What was he thinking? Bush tax cuts extension are an acknowledgement by Obama that his policies have failed--that cuts are superior to handing out money for stimulating the economy. All spending begins in the House--Clinton had a Republican Congress, so he can't take any credit for that era's tax policy or deficit reduction. 17% of GDP to health care. Americans chose much of that spending, so how can the government say it's wrong for us to have less waiting time, nicer hospitals, and more available drugs? We pay more and get more says Sowell--it's that simple. People buy what they want. If you're a Swede and you want more or better or faster, you can leave the country to get it, but you won't get it there. About 50% of our health care is already socialized--Medicare, Medicaid, S-CHIP--is this a good system or is there corruption and graft that could be reduced?

Watch the interview with Thomas Sowell.

Toxic reusable bags

My primary concern about all these "reusable bags" was they all bear the "Made in China" tag, and I thought it really strange with all the hullabalu about the environment why the greenies thought China's coal fired factories were so much cleaner than ours. It didn't occur to me that they might have toxic material, but why not after toxic paint on toys and toxic ingredients in pet food? A true greenie would sew her own from cotton grown in the USA. Plus these things can get really scummy after a few uses especially if the meat or dairy leaks.

Shoppers shrug off fears about toxic reusable bags | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment

Global warming causes blizzards theory of book sales

"In the two months, in just two months President Bush's “Decision Points” memoir has sold almost as many copies as President Clinton’s “My Life” sold in two years." What has happened she asks Alex Pareene, of Salone.

Unfortunately, Norah O'Donnell of MSNBC is interviewing an idiot who apparently doesn't realize that Amazon and B&N were selling books online in 2004. And he apparently can't grasp that President Obama has made the patriotic Bush look extremely good for Americans hungering for a few crumbs of approval.

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2011/01/01/msnbc-bushs-book-popular-because-he-was-so-hated#ixzz19oCgF5xC

Happy New Year 1884

This is the cover of my grandmother's scrapbook--and I'm guessing the date, 1884, was fairly close to the time she started it. I've often wondered if the Studebaker Brothers were distributing some advertising material in preparation for buying up the Mt. Morris College Buildings. The following account is from the Brethren Encyclopedia, 1983.

"By 1883, Mount Morris [College] had entered a very difficult period. Leadership of the college was crippled by [President] Stein's sudden departure and [D.L.]Miller's lack of academic training. The college also faced a financial crisis, one which was so critical that negotiations were begun for the sale of the property to the Studebaker wagon manufacturing company. However, this move created concern and anger among students and the citizens of the town, resulting in the boards search for a president and another financial commitment to assure the college's future. J.G. Royer, superintendent of schools at Monticello, Indiana and founder of the Burnett's Creek Normal School, came to Mount Morris, invested heavily of his own funds in the college, and accepted the presidency of the institution. He served for the next twenty years as president of Mount Morris College and placed it on a firm foundation."

Mt. Morris the town (college closed in 1932) needs such a financial angel to rescue it today.

Is it you or is it WalMart?

Twenty two million Americans have diabetes. Logan Co. WV has the highest rate of type 2 diabetes in the country and their WalMart sells more snack cakes than any WalMart in the World! Whose responsibility is it to consume fewer snack cakes for this at risk population group? The people purchasing and eating or the WalMart stocking and selling?

If you are a liberal (why are you reading this blog) you probably change the question to something about should WalMart be allowed to shut down Mom and Pop stores, or does WalMart cover its part time employees with insurance. If you're a conservative, you just say, it's the individual's responsibility to control her diet.

But to complicate this even further, worldwide 330 million people have diabetes, and most don't live anywhere near a WalMart. So whose fault is that?

Shopping when she had no money

I was at Macy's today to exchange a gift. Because I needed to try on the dress after the clerk determined the price, I lost my place in line. When I came back I was behind a woman with 8-10 garments--sweaters, tops and whatever you call the long thingy you wear over leggings. Her total came to about $100, which I would say was a great deal considering the quantity she bought. "I don't think I've ever bought that much at one time," I commented to her. She laughed. "You should see what I buy when I have money!" She gave me her card--she was a real estate agent. Wish I could see what she was going to take out of her closet.