The Bucket List

A high school friend has told me that Lakeside is on her "bucket list." So I've sent her the schedule for this coming summer, which is now just 4 months away. Here's the schedule, but it couldn't possibly tell you all there is to do there--art classes, lectures, movies, live entertainment, bird walks, shuffleboard, tennis, swimming, boating, people watching and lake enjoying.

Danny and Phil

August sunrise

Shuffleboard in Central Park

Why no comments about the Obama interview with O'Reilly?

I don't like the way O'Reilly conducts his interviews and I don't like the way the interviewees, whether Obama or some other government official, never answer the questions. Each has his own agenda. Also, Obama's mannerisms, words and stammering bother me. Like the White House comments right now on Egypt. The WH has waffled more than John Kerry on this, and flip flopped more than an Egyptian sandal. For a guy who doesn't even like or respect our military, of which he is the commander and chief, he sure is expecting a lot from theirs. He sounds like he's campaigning.

Got gas?

Gasoline prices in Columbus, Ohio for the last 6 years.

Will Egypt's army take control?

"CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's military announced on national television that it stepped in to “safeguard the country” and assured protesters that President Hosni Mubarak will meet their demands in the strongest indication yet that the longtime leader has lost power. In Washington, the CIA chief said there was a “strong likelihood” Mr. Mubarak will step down Thursday.

State TV said Mr. Mubarak will speak to the nation Thursday night from his palace in Cairo.

The military‘s dramatic announcement showed that the military was taking control after 17 days of protests demanding Mr. Mubarak‘s immediate ouster spiraled out of control.

Footage on state TV showed Defense Minster Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi chairing the military‘s supreme council, with around two dozen top stern-faced army officers, seated around a table. Not at the meeting were Mr. Mubarak, the military commander in chief, or his vice president Omar Suleiman, a former army general and intelligence chief named to his post after the protests erupted Jan. 25.

That could be a sign that Mr. Suleiman, as well, was being pushed out of power."

Egypt army takes control, signals Mubarak on way out - Washington Times

History of Prostitution

Before I pass along this interesting reprint (1937, Eugenics Society) of a 19th c. book, I'll copy a few sentences.

"It has been well observed that a people's virtue or vice does not consist in the arithmetical increase or decrease of immoral actions, but in the prevailing sentiment of an age or people, which condemns or approves them." Russia, p. 262

The author had just summarized how late Russia had entered the modern era, and how in the Elizabethan age of England the Czar of Muscovy was considered a barbarian. Maybe he's not saying we get the government and culture and values we deserve, but I think that sentence could apply to our current age.

"The Watul, or Gipsy tribe of Kashmir is remarkable for many lovely women, who are taught to please the taste of the voluptuary. They sing licentious songs in an amorous tone, dance in a lascivious measure, dress in a peculaiarly fascinating manner, and seduce by the very expression of their countenances. . . and have been known to amass large sums of money." Semi-civilized nations, p. 420

My, doesn't that sound like the movie star gossip rags I browsed while waiting in the grocery store line yesterday. When the author gets to New York in his survey, he divides its prostitution into five grades, the first being the wealthy kept women of wealthy men; then those in comfortable brothels run by former prostitutes; then on to the immigrant women with poor English, the Irish below the German; and the fourth group he calls repulsive refuse, diseased and drunk with vagrants for clients. The last group are even more wretched, and have no shelter, are starving, drunk, and begging for a glass of gin. The author describes them as the outcasts of society, and the direction those in the higher classes are moving.

Good Samaritan saves a tire

At church Sunday, someone took the time to write out a note and slip it under the windshield wiper of my husband's car, "low tire." This nice person wasn't counting on the way my husband processes information. All he saw was a restaurant check (other side) and he put it in the car thinking it was from me (this baffles me, since this isn't how we communicate). Last evening he brings the "restaurant check" to me and asks what I want done with it. I looked at it and didn't recognize the name of the restaurant, so I asked him where it came from, and he said it was on his windshield. So, being a clever investigative librarian, I turned it over and saw the note. "Someone has left you a note. Do you have a low tire?" "Don't think so, but I'll go look." He came back in the house and confirmed that yes, one tire was very low. He'd already made a number of errands that day. So today he took his SUV to our son at Jack Maxton, who found all four were low, but one was really low.

Thanks, who ever you are, for saving a tire or preventing an accident.

Closet cleaning tip

I saw a way to trim your closets: turn all of your clothes hangers around, then turn them back when you wear an item. If the item is never warn in a season, (year), consider discarding.

I don't need that trick. I can tell by looking in the closet what hasn't been worn, and there are several reasons: 1) Doesn't fit; 2) isn't comfortable; 3) it's not attractive on me; 3) it needs to be ironed, and if I wear it, I'll have to iron it.

So this morning, 6 nice cotton blend blouses are leaving the house. All have enough cotton in them that I spray starch and iron and look rumpled 10 minutes after I wear them, so I tend to choose something else. Four light weight cotton jackets--one is ugly, one wrinkles, one is uncomfortable and one doesn't fit. Also a fancy 2 piece blouse that I've worn for winter dress-up events, but it's actually too sheer to be comfortable in any weather. A kitty vest that I really like, but is about 12 years old.

This jacket is leaving home.

Confused, bothered and befuddled — Everyday Math

Since I don't have grandchildren, I'm not really up on what children are learning in school these days. The closest I came to any gossip was several years ago when my husband complained about an elementary science/math class in which he volunteered on the Hilltop (low income). Even the teacher couldn't figure out the problems and asked him for help. It was his last year to volunteer--it was like watch child cruelty. Then a few weeks ago I was in the middle of a discussion (I was just listening) of a mom, a teen-ager, and a software writer who were discussing something called "spiraling" and "Chicago Math" aka "Everyday math." The 10th grader was obviously a bright young lady, but she had decided to avoid all routes to what might have been a promising career in science, which she loved, because of the way math was taught. She never could get that "a-ha" feeling of accomplishment and feel comfortable moving to the next concept. She was planning on a career in literature, she told me. So I looked it up--Chicago Math (University of Chicago) or EM, Everyday Math. As one who was never really strong in math, but have found it useful to know the multiplication tables, how to divide, know what a percentage means and calculate my grocery bill as things pass through the clerks hands, I think this sounds absolutely awful. Sort of like those awful story problems in third grade--if a train is going 15 mph, and a donkey runs along side, how long before it gets to Chicago. Sounds like some egg heads have hijacked our math classes so the Japanese, Chinese and Indians can get hired on emergency visas 10 years from now.

Confused, bothered and befuddled — Joanne Jacobs

If you've never heard of EM or Chicago Math, view this YouTube, and you be. . . stunned.

Dietary Guidelines Call for More Exercise, Less Food

Just to look at me, you probably wouldn't notice I've lost 80 lbs. Yes, 20 lbs. in 1960, 20 lbs in 1983, 20 lbs in 1993 and 20 lbs in 2006. Same 20 lbs each time. And by the miracle of the fashion industry I weigh 10 lbs more in 2011 but am 2 dress sizes smaller. Who knew?

The new guidelines don't look all that different than the 2005 guidelines. Maybe they are pushing more exercise? Anyone can lose weight. All diets work. It's keeping it off that's the problem. But I will admit that the weight I lost in 1983 stayed off the longest, because it was through aerobics, and not by dieting. Whatever crosses the lips and tongue eventually has to be atoned for in energy use. The 20 lbs I lost in 2006, which was by eating healthier--more fruits and vegetables, and saying no to desserts, French fries, pizza, and salty snacks--began creeping back in the fall of 2007 when we went to Ireland, and were eating lots of wonderful food 3 times a day on a Illini Alumni Tour. Then the Italy Tour in 2008 pretty much restored everything I'd lost in 2006. My goodness that Italian food is good.

Some people say they just don't know why they gain weight. I know exactly why. Today, instead of 5 vegetables which I would have eaten 4 years ago for lunch when I was losing weight while eating healthier, I had a sandwich with meat and cheese, some chips, and a few pieces of dark chocolate.

Dietary Guidelines Call for More Exercise, Less Food - WSJ.com

The Oct. 27, 2010 JAMA featured several articles on obesity and testing interventions on class II and class III obesity. This study included commercial weight loss programs. It seems to be a rather successful weight loss with follow up after 2 years. Unfortunately, there was no significant effect on cardiopulmonary fitness, cholesterol levels, physical or mental quality of life, or depression. There was a reduction in C-reactive protein levels and improvement in leptin levels.

The greatest obesity problem in the U.S. is among African American women, of whom about 28% are obese, much higher than black men or white women of Hispanics. And would you believe they are pondering whether there is a biological factor?

"The degree of adiposity associated with a given level of BMI varies by age, sex, and racial and ethnic group.​ Relative to white men and women at the same BMI level, black men and women tend to have higher lean mass and lower fat mass.​ The relative, although not absolute, health risks associated with a given BMI level may be lower for blacks than for whites. Asian populations tend to have higher body fat percentages at a given BMI level and possible higher risks; however, this theory has been disputed.​ Considerable discussion has addressed the public health and policy issues of using different BMI cutoff points for different ethnic groups that have different relationships with BMI, body fat, and health risks." Katherine M. Flegal, Prevalence and Trends in Obesity Among US Adults, 1999-2008. JAMA. 2010;303(3):235-241.

Why the privileged left the "Workers' Paradise"

"In January 2010, my father went to hear a talk by Boris Gulko, a Russian Jewish chess grandmaster who had won the USSR championship in 1977 and later emigrated to the United States, eventually winning the US championship as well. Knowing my interest in chess history, my father asked whether I had any questions I wanted him to pose to Gulko. One of my proposed questions was why Gulko had decided to leave the Soviet Union. My father said that this was a stupid question. The answer was too obvious.

Nonetheless, I persisted in urging him to ask it. After all, Gulko had been a privileged member of the Soviet elite who had every reason not to risk those privileges.

Gulko’s answer to my question was a telling one. He said that he did not want to be a “slave” anymore. Despite his relatively privileged status, he could no longer tolerate life under the control of a totalitarian state that, among other things, could take away all his privileges at any time.

Like most Soviet Jews, Gulko had experienced plenty of anti-Semitism. But it was not so much the special oppression of the Jews that led him to emigrate, but the generalized oppression he endured along with all the other citizens of Lenin’s Workers’ Paradise. My parents’ motives for leaving were in many ways similar to Gulko’s. They too were fleeing communism as much or more so than anti-Semitism. Only their decision was easier than his, since they didn’t have as much to lose."
Ilya Somin Memoirs

Somin's story of his family's coming to the USA when he was 5 knowing no English is very interesting. You can hear him debate the constitutionality of Obamacare here.

The 1099 Repudiation

During the debate on healthcare PPACA (pee pee and caca) virtually everyone alarmed by the taking over of our choices pointed out the problems with the 1099. Why didn't Democrats see it then? Because they are sheep, milling around, bleating, running away from the herd dog trying desperately to keep them from going over the cliff. The 1099 form would have been one more way to destroy American small business--they can't fool me--the big corporations wouldn't have batted an eyelash and would have passed the costs along to the consumer as they gobbled up smaller companies.

"Democrats now claim that the infamous 1099 business reporting mandate that the Senate repealed this week was an accident, as if they were as surprised as everyone else to learn that this destructive provision had crept by itself into law. The truth is that the 1099 rule emerged from the same core ideology as ObamaCare, and its overwhelming repudiation by Democrats may be an important inflection point in the health-care debate."

Review Outlook: The 1099 Repudiation - WSJ.com

Light Rail and Sustainability--what does sustainable mean?

Does it mean, it works if the government throws enough money at it?

"Let me present one fact, from Federal Transit Administration’s 2009 survey of public transit authorities, whose data is linked in various ways here. Or you can download the summary spreadsheet here. For all US light rail systems in total:

User fares paid per passenger-mile: $0.18

Total cost per passenger-mile: $2.22

Taxpayer subsidy per passenger-mile: $2.04

Since I live in Phoenix and the Phoenix light rail system seems to get particular praise as a “success” from light rail supporters, here are the Phoenix light rail numbers;

User fares paid per passenger-mile: $0.07

Total cost per passenger-mile: $3.89

Taxpayer subsidy per passenger-mile: $3.82

So there, folks, is your sustainable technology. As I have written before about sustainability, “I do not think that word means what you think it means.” "

Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » Light Rail and Sustainability

Not sure I'm reading the spread sheet correctly, but it looks like one line of light rail in Seattle has a fare of $.15 and a subsidy of $20.52. Seattle also has a trolly system called SLUT (South Lake Urban Transit) that is the most expensive in country--or was that the world?

'String Him Up' (Justice Thomas) and his wife too

Isn't it some sort of hate crime to threaten a black man with death by lynching? Isn't it a crime to threaten a Supreme Court Judge? This Common Cause group, rallying to bring down capitalism, sure sound like a scary group. I wonder if Janet Napolitano knows about them?

'String Him Up' - WSJ.com

"Common Cause is a nonpartisan, nonprofit advocacy organization founded in 1970 by John Gardner as a vehicle for citizens to [destroy capitalism and] make their voices heard in the political process [by threats, intimidation and lies] and to hold their elected leaders [but not Democrats or Socialists] accountable to the public interest." Web Site with my editorial remarks

Should Islam Be Classified as a Religion?

"Concerning the definition of religion for First Amendment purposes, many factors need to be taken into account and compared with the Judeo-Christian religious tradition for which the First Amendment was intended. Religion as we have known it has been good for society. It has nurtured morality, strengthened the family, fostered public service and encouraged social harmony. Islam, on the other hand, is self-segregating, fosters ideas of Muslim supremacy and thereby sows seeds of social discord. Even its tradition of charitable giving is solely for the benefit of fellow Muslims and it utterly destroys the family through its adoption of polygamy.

In addition, Islam is the only religion that requires territorial sovereignty – its laws are laws of the land rather than laws of the heart as we are accustomed to finding in religion. In the Western tradition, legality and morality are two different things. In Islam, they are one and the same. And as Muslims press for their laws to become laws of the land, especially by suppressing criticism of Islam, the clash between these two systems of thought will intensify.

There is, however, a current of modern thought seeking to elevate a laudable personal virtue, that of tolerance, over the greater principle of justice. Is it just to tolerate polygamy in the name of religious freedom? The Supreme Court unanimously ruled in 1878, Reynolds v. United States, it is not. Is it just to tolerate the unequal right to inheritance for women? Is it just to tolerate forced marriage? Is it just to tolerate antisemitism? Is it just to tolerate the preaching of hatred toward non-Muslims? Is it just to tolerate the teaching that Muslims are superior to non-Muslims and that men are superior to women? Is it just to tolerate a parallel legal system based on inequality? There are things that our society cannot tolerate and expect to survive. Justice must take its rightful place above tolerance.

If Islam could be reclassified as primarily a social and political ideology, then the Western world would have a powerful tool with which to deal with its spread and could begin the process of containment in the same way the West contained communism, which in the end, seems to be the only realistic option before us with regard to Islam."

Read more: Should Islam Be Classified as a Religion? > Rebecca Bynum

Who says we're spending too much on health care?

Both Democrats and Republicans say the ever rising cost of health care is unsustainable. Republicans want sensible cuts, less regulation, tort reform, more competition across state lines, and less graft and corruption to lower our costs; Democrats are aiming at single payer--i.e., government pays all, which will raise the cost for everyone through higher taxes, just not at the doctor's office.

But who decided we pay too much? Have you looked at what the "average" household unit pays for health care compared to other items in our budget? 5.7% or $2,853, is what the household unit of 2.5 people with a gross income of $63,091 pays for health care. That household, imaginery as it is, pays 6.9% of its spendable income on household funishings, supplies and operations. Who in the government is demanding that Obama pay for your next couch or dining room suite? That household is paying 6.5% for vehicle purchases, and 17.6% total for transportation. Except for the recent cash for clunkers, when the government paid people to take out new car loans and destroy the only cars poor people could afford, we don't hear the government demanding that Honda and Toyota lower their prices or give away their products.

We pay 12.4% of our spendable income on food--7% at home and 5.4% away from home. I doubt that Obama is going to suggest that all the employed women quit and start cooking more at home so they won't be taking the kids to restaurants--or maybe he will if it's McDonald's. And entertainment, if you toss in cigarettes and alcohol is higher than healthcare at 7%.

So the next time you hear a reporter whether CNN or Fox, or a politician, left or right, moan about the rising costs of health care, ask him about the mortgage on his house, or the loan on his car, or what restaurant she's stopping at after work.

Taxes cost us 14.8% of the average paycheck, not household unit, much more than healthcare, and it will be going up as healthcare costs get buried in every additional piece of paper and rule change the government will throw at us with PPACA.

It just could be, health care is the biggest bargain in our budget.

Consumer unit

Paycheck percentage for taxes

Suspend Obamacare Rules Until SCOTUS Decision

"in the spirit of recent discussion about bipartisan initiatives to root out counterproductive regulations harming the economy, here’s a suggestion. Until the Supreme Court issues a ruling, the Obama administration should suspend enforcement of the regulations from the Affordable Care Act that have proved to be the most burdensome to doctors, entrepreneurs, consumers, and savers and investors." John Berlau, Money News, Feb. 2, 2011

Read more: Suspend Obamacare Rules Until SCOTUS Decision

Bed Bugs | University of Kentucky Entomology

Just received an invitation to attend a meeting on bed bugs at OSU, with dinner afterwards. Think I'll pass. But reading through this very long and detailed explanation from the UK entomology dept., I see that only DDT takes care of the problem--no amount of cleaning or low level pesticide seems to do the trick. However, the fact sheet doesn't recommend DDT--of course not.

Bed Bugs | University of Kentucky Entomology

And for a very biased, but unhelpful Newsweek account, read this.

Immelt’s appointment has labor leaders concerned

I need to stock up on incandescent light bulbs. Soon you won't be able to buy them. The last U.S. plant has closed (Winchester, VA). I hate those squirrely thingies. It takes about 4 to make the same amount of light as one regular. Obama talks out of both sides of his mouth--says Republicans ship jobs to China. What? So what is Immelt doing? Shipping jobs to China with Obama's blessings.

Immelt’s appointment has labor leaders concerned - Jobs & Hire

Current Drug Shortages--Some hospitals are in tough shape

What's behind this? Seems to be a much bigger problem than 2007 and 2008. Is it the impending doom of Obamacare? Years of over regulation? Loss of profit by the manufacturers, who afterall, aren't in this as volunteers or church ladies.

"The supply of these drugs has tightened in recent years as the generic-drug industry has consolidated, with many of the drugs now made by just one or two companies. In many cases patents have long expired and the original brand-name drug is no longer being produced.

Federal regulators have also stepped up enforcement of quality standards, limiting the ability of large manufacturers to ramp up production.

The drugs—typically used in hospitals and outpatient clinics—often require complex manufacturing processes with long lead times. Because factories produce many kinds of medicines, companies say they can't easily make more of one without creating a shortage in another.

The Food and Drug Administration reported a record 178 drug shortages in 2010, up from 157 the year earlier and 55 five years ago"

Drug Shortages Distress Hospitals - WSJ.com

The Reality of Drug Shortages — The Case of the Injectable Agent Propofol | Health Policy and Reform

Read list of Drug Shortages > Current Drug Shortages

Old Bag Of Nails in Tremont Center

When we lived on Abington, we were one of Old Bag's most loyal customers when it opened. We have a tradition of a Friday night date. But some time during 2003, I think, it changed the menu and took off two of our favorites. We met Bill and Joyce there (although we'd been attending the same church for years) and started going out together. After the menu change we four moved on over to Rusty Bucket on Lane. Don't mess with the favorites.

Tremont Center - Old Bag Of Nails