SunChips' compostable bags get quieter

In a world of chaos and intractible problems, it's nice to know that sometimes there is a solution to . . . noisy snack bags.

SunChips' compostable bags get quieter | Drug Store News

Are they paid for recruiting for the government programs

I noticed this disclaimer on a private, non-governmental website encouraging people to sign up for government benefits. There are two ways (alluded to in the message) to make money doing this: 1) either the government reimburses them for the referrals, or 2) they resell the information collected from those who inquire.

"FamilyFinancialHelpUsa.net is not a government agency and is in no way affiliated with any government agency. This is not an application for Food Stamps, LIHEAP or HUD Public Housing. We are a private organization. We use the information you provide to connect you to the correct site to apply for food stamps, LIHEAP and HUD Public Housing in your state. Additionally we will give you the opportunity to participate in private offers that we believe may benefit you through email. We will also provide you with ways to get other free things that may interest and help your family after entering the site. You are not required to participate in these offers or buy anything to get access to your free financial aid and other free help for the family. Please support our sponsors who keep this site free."

Inspiring story by Jewish Ethiopian Immigrant to Israel

Hope and Change--it's not just a political slogan

Hope and Change is the message of the New Testament, and it was stolen by the Obama campaign because the clever marketing firm that ran the campaign knew the familiarity and the challenge of it have a comfortable, familiar ring, even if the candidate was preaching political concepts unacceptable to most Americans--concepts that have failed in every country they've been tried. "Hope and change" (the slogan) is also an underlying desire of youth--in my generation it was the 18-23 year old's mantra, but since adolescence has been lengthened since the mid-60s, so has young adulthood, and now it's the 20-30 year olds who yearn to make changes in the world and believe they are the generation to do it. Constant, unremitting change (they are fuzzy on this but it includes risk taking, hedonism/slackerism, entertainment and sports) is in fact their hope as they postpone marriage, family and career.

Paul lists seven questions in Romans 8.31-39

31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[k] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We have our only HOPE in Jesus Christ, and yes, because our lives will CHANGE, we CHANGE the world.

Do be fooled or misled by political slogans. Jesus didn't come to change political systems, or to be a humanist mystery called "peace and justice." He's not a member of any nation or political party. He's Lord and Savior of the universe, The Word of God, the Alpha and Omega, and he's Hope and Change.

In yesterday's sermon John Stolzenbach said he uses this passage from Romans at every funeral. Yes, it's truly amazing in listing changes and hope. "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Life here is full of changes--don't leave home without hope.

A New Newt - Gingrich Tries to Reconnect With America

I don't care what he converts to or how many films he makes about a pope, I certainly hope Republicans aren't fooled again by nominating an unelectable candidate. Maybe the current Mrs. Newt believes him, but I don't.

A New Newt - Gingrich Tries to Reconnect With America - NYTimes.com

FBI File: However bad you thought Ted Kennedy was, he was worse!

Mayrantandrave has an interesting story about this sad, old man when he was young, frisky, interviewing Communists, and renting a brothel.

FBI File: Ted Kennedy and the Santiago Brothel « Mayrant&rave

There's a reason my parents left the farm

Barbara Kingsolver, author of Animal, vegetable, miracle (HarperCollins, 2007) our March book selection for book club is an excellent writer. But I could do without the preachy lectures. I've known for years, and so have our churches and government, that there is more than enough food grown in the world for everyone to be not just nourished, but fat! Growing it isn't the problem--it's the political systems that control and distribute it that fail. That was well publicized 40-50 years ago. And our own USA government through the U.S. Department of Agriculture has some pretty misguided regulations and policies itself.

So, despite her interesting experiment as Tiger Mom of the homestead, our personal food choices really don't make much difference, except for our own health. If I were to choose to eat 24/7 at McDonald's it doesn't change a Haitian dictator's behavior. Today I was reading an article from a Lutheran magazine from 1991, 20 years ago, about Haiti, and I might as well have been reading today's newspaper. The American food industry and our personal food choices (the only part of this we do control) will not give the Somalians a viable representative government, nor stop the Chinese government's policy of one child. We could ban petroleum products and industries tomorrow, and it would not feed one starving African child or free one Thai child prostitute. This is the 21st version of "clean your plate there are starving children in China" which some of us heard as children.

Kingsolver says it was a family decision to take a food sabbatical, to eat deliberately, to shop the local food landscape of Southern Appalachians. My first thought was, "they grow wheat and oats in southern Appalachia? And why should she be able to freeze her rhubarb to eat in the winter, if I can't buy pay some one to grow and freeze it commercially to eat in the winter?

If you"put the kitchen back in the center of the American diet," you put women back in the kitchen too. They won't be medical researchers, or astronauts, or academicians, or retail clerks, or factory assembly line workers, or restaurant chefs, or plumbers, or accountants if they are spending 2 hours a day finding and delivering fresh, locally grown food, and another 2 hours preparing it--milling, grinding, setting aside to rise, peeling, stewing, sanitizing, preserving--and then maybe mulching or plowing or sowing or harvesting in the hours left. But that's what women did for thousands of years while the men went out and slaughtered animals for meat or each other to protect the fields and families at home. I'm only at about page 60, but not sure I have the time (a week) to devote to this.

I'd already decided to skip the parts by Steven L. Hopp, but at p. 54 I found "profit driven, mechanized food industry," and wondered if Mrs. Kingsolver had hand copied her manuscripts, bound them in calf leather from her farm and distributed them in pony driven carts for only a dozen or so people to read.

Why it's called the Massacre River

My husband is still hoping for a mission trip to Haiti this year--now probably postponed to April. The Massacre River separates Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Why the unusual name? In today's letter, Pam Mann, a missionary/teacher in Ouanaminthe from Upper Arlington Lutheran Church writes:

". . . Why the river's name was changed to Massacre. Before the arrival of Christopher Columbus, the indigenous Taino and Arawak people called the river Guatapana. However, in 1936, the centuries-old name was changed. Dominican Dictator Trujillo ordered the genocide of all blacks living in the DR who could not pronounce the Spanish verb, pereir, “to perish”. Spanish r's are tricky for Haitians as are English r's. In a few days time, an estimated 25,000 were slaughtered by machete, knives or bullets. Haitians fleeing to their homeland were tracked down and butchered by machetes when the bullets ran out. The waters of the Guatapana River ran red with Haitian blood and a horrified nation renamed it.

False claim of hurting the middle class

Stimulus money was used to pay off the public unions’ benefit packages in many states to balance the budget and kicked the problem down the road to Walker of Wisconsin and Kasich of Ohio and other Republicans who ran on this issue. There is no stimulus money left (can I say we told you so?) and states can't print money like Washington. So what do the unions do? They trot out that dog and pony show about hurting the middle class. Today's Columbus Dispatch says:

"Not only are the public-sector workers affected by Senate Bill 5 not representative of the majority of Ohio's middle class, but the comfortable wages, automatic raises, benefits, pensions, job protections, sick-day payouts and negotiating power enjoyed by many of these public-sector workers comes at the expense of the vast majority of Ohio's middle-class taxpayers. Most of these taxpayers have nothing remotely like these benefits nor the economic security that the public sector takes for granted and regards as a right."

Editorial: False claim | The Columbus Dispatch

Not only that, but we (not-in-the-unions) are your bosses, Mr. Fat Cat Union Boss! Let's get rid of public unions. All of them.

I recommend this blogger--May Rant and Rave

This one about Fancy Nancy revising her own commendation by the DNC is really good. You perhaps thought I was single focused and tough--hey--I'm a napping pussycat compared to Mayrant.

Why we call them union thugs

In your face, know your place in Wisconsin harassing Walker supporters.

HT May Rant and Rave

Is there Fast Food in Iraq?

MMWR report in JAMA

Of the resettled Iraqi refugees (San Diego) over 18, 24.6% were classified as obese, and 64.3% of those over 65 were hypertensive.

You'll need aerobic exercise to benefit your brain

In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study, "scientists started with 120 elderly volunteers who were relatively inactive but did not have dementia. Half were randomly assigned to begin walking 40 minutes a day, three days a week for a year while the remainder only stretched and performed toning exercises for the same time period. After 12 months, the group that walked showed an average 2% growth in the hippocampus compared with when they began, while the control groups suffered a more than 1% shrinkage in the same region compared with when the study started.

“If you estimate the change at an individual level,” says study co-author Arthur Kramer of the University of Illinois, “a yearlong exercise program can turn back the clock about two years with respect to the volume of the hippocampus.” "

"Exercise training increases size of hippocampus and improves memory, "
PNAS 2011 108 (7) 3017-3022; published ahead of print January 31, 2011

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2011/01/31/want-to-improve-your-memory-take-a-walk/#ixzz1Euftky36

Expensive lunch, but interesting Christian missionaries

Today I attended a luncheon and information session sponsored by the Fellowship of Christian Faculty and Staff at the Faculty Club on the Ohio State campus. The topic was human trafficking, aka slavery. Yes, it's still a big business--bigger than the transatlantic slave trade of the 18th century . . . estimates run to 12.7 million people, and some figures are higher. It's very lucrative--humans can be resold many times. And about two million of them are children. 46% of "johns" (male customers) would knowingly buy sex from a minor according to a survey of perverts. That's why, I suppose, the Planned Parenthood abortion clinics don't report their underage clients--they're in on it, as undercover videos have shown.

The speakers were Joe Chongsiriwatana, a former software engineer, who will be representing ZOE International Ministries in Thailand. Joe and his wife Yumi met and married at Ohio State, recently lived in San Francisco raising their 3 children, and have been called by God to minister to children in Chiang Mai, Thailand, children either who have been sold into prostitution and have been picked up by the police and brought to the facility, or those about to be sold by their parents.

The other speaker was Connie Anderson, Director of Justice Ministries, for the Great Lakes area of Intervarsity. She talked about a few local programs and ministries for victims of prostitution and trafficking, like Price of Life, DOMA International and Gracehaven Shelter and CORRC. She commented that the problem is so huge you don't know where to start, so she suggested (with a slide of a snow covered mountain) that we kick a few rocks to start an avalanche.

IJM - Reality of Human Trafficking from International Justice Mission on Vimeo.

But what irritates me is what I had to pay for parking. $5 for a salad bar isn't excessive, but $6.00 for 2.5 hours of parking is. All the parking lots and garages on the OSU campus have changed in recent years--I can't even remember the last time I was there. When I got to the gate I saw the sign "no key cards until 4 p.m." and the price sign I saw was $2 for 3 hours, but that apparently was for evening. So it was an $11.00 salad.

No wonder "children" are insured to age 26

Poor things. Look how they dress!

Blogrolling is gone

I'd noticed my blogrolling lists windows had been blank for some time, so I went in to look at it and discovered the service no longer exists. It apparently became infected with malware and the owner decided to take it down. So I've deleted. It was a useful aggregator. I was on Over 50 Bloggers, State of Ohio Bloggers and Bear Flag League (California) bloggers. Unfortunately, I had removed the direct links to the bloggers I really liked. Unintended consequences to getting too techie.

Why should we believe him on other health and life issues?

During the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama consistently misrepresented his position on the "born alive" abortion issue. That he is strongly pro-choice was never an issue. He's in the bag with Democrats on that one. All of George Bush's protections for unborn life and embryonic stem cell research (my reason for changing my party affiliation in 2000) have pretty much been rolled back. But Obama was so far over the cliff on the born alive issue (a baby born alive is killed outside the womb), that even strong pro-choicers like Catholic Nancy Pelosi couldn't support that method. Then he lied about it. It was two and a half years ago, but as health care issues keep coming up, and he needs to clarify his position on everything from Muslim countries' riots to war in Afghanistan, to prisoners at Gitmo, to unions destroying state budgets, I have to ask, why should we believe anything he says?

One of these things is not like the others

Didn't Sesame Street have a song like that?

One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?

The CDC calls the following 5 items, "high-value prevention services" which can save 100,000 lives each year.

1. Smoking cessation assistance
   
2. colorectal cancer screening
   
3. breast cancer screening
   
4. annual influenza immunization
   
5. daily aspirin to prevent heart disease.

Three quarters of former smokers quit on their own. And I don't know anyone who successfully, permanently stopped smoking with a government sponsored workshop, phone call counseling, nasal spray or a drug patch. Do you? The studies only have a few months or a year follow-up, but somehow the drug companies have got that one included in many government programs.

But I have heard of other uses for the nicotine patch I might consider--like improving memory in older persons. Now that I could get into.

Only the aspirin and the immunization are actually preventative. Two of these are screening for what you already have or will have. Breast cancer screening can find a lump--but doesn't prevent it. Colonoscopies can spot trouble spots that will become cancer but aren't there yet.

Kline: Morrison thwarted his abortion clinic case

Because Phillip Kline is/was a Republican pro-life attorney general, I suspect he will be found guilty of ethics charges. This is a tangled case, but we do know 164 girls under the age of 15 (78 in one year) had abortions with Planned Parenthood owned clinics and Dr. Tiller, the Kansas Killer of the pre-born, clinics. Paul Morrison is the Democrat (link to 2005 story) who replaced Kline and the charges of child rape went away (near as I can tell). If you interpret this story and testimony differently, please comment. If you want to argue the merits of abortion or underage sex, don't bother. You'll be deleted if you try to put that trash on my blog.

Kline: Morrison thwarted his abortion clinic case | CJOnline.com

Doctors who wrote "passes for teachers skipping classes," will probably not see any charges. Ethics violations are sweet at the feet of the DNC and Obama's reelection committee.

More Civility by Obama minions

"On Feb. 13, just the other side of the news cycle, a post on "Organizing for America," the website for the president's campaign arm, urged progressives to protest a proposal from Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker to reform public-employee benefits and limit collective-bargaining rights. The message, from Organizing for America's regional director for Wisconsin, began this way: "We've got a fight on our hands and it's personal."

Stephen Hayes: So Much for a 'More Civil' Public Discourse - WSJ.com