Don't send me money

Today I received an e-mail from a Facebook friend asking for money--she was stranded in England. Of course, it was a scam, and I had heard of this one, so I notified the group of which we are members. She wasn't even aware of it, but is taking steps to correct it.

So, if you get an e-mail from me asking you to send money, don't do it. I would never ask, plus after getting deathly ill on my last two transatlantic flights, I don't plan any trips across the pond.

Michigan Boosts Power to Intervene in Cities - WSJ.com

"DETROIT—Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed into law a measure that broadens state powers to intervene in the finances and governance of struggling municipalities and school districts, giving these local bodies a stronger hand in renegotiating labor contracts.

The law also requires local government to send financial projections to Lansing, the capital, which could lead to the state stepping in earlier in hopes of averting a crisis."

Michigan Boosts Power to Intervene in Cities - WSJ.com

Democrats are of course objecting. Public employees have 3 forms of representation--their unions, their Democrats, and their elected representatives. The people who pay their salaries and benefits have only elected representatives, who need to be very, very strong.

Radical Carol Browner Energy Czar--where did she go?

Yes, I know she's under the bus with Van Jones, but he got a really cool gig and gets to do a lot of speaking engagements--I think he's sort of a rock star of the left (and very good looking and a better speaker than Obama). Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt. Does she get a tour and a cushy job at a socialist think tank?

Radical Carol Browner created oil spill lies,False drilling memos « SHAWSBLOG

And now from the middle.

And now equal coverage from the left.

The most recent item I can find on Browner is that she was supposed to be the speaker at Berea College on March 3. The press release of Feb. 28 said she was [still] White House coordinator [czar] of energy and climate policy for the Obama administration, but in the description of her duties, only her past "accomplishments" were mentioned--Clinton, Albright, Gore and hiking in the Everglades as a child. It was a free event and she must have been one of the headliners when she got the gig. Next week the Berea College Country Dancers perform at 8 p.m. in Old Seabury Gym.

Rand Paul accuses Democrats of being anti-choice--particularly about toilets

His toilets don't work and he can't find a decent light bulb and Democrats are shipping jobs overseas with their energy regulations. They are anti-choice--putting people out of business or fining them with their efficiency standards. Appalling and hypocritical, he says, you are busy-bodies. Besides these toilets have to be flushed multiple times to even work. Amen, brother!

NPR and the Democrats

Republicans aren't stupid. If they thought for a minute that funding NPR would represent their viewpoint even once in awhile, there's no way they would defund it. But of course, if you've ever listened for any period of time to NPR or watched PBS television you'll see the reason--that is, if you are conservative. Liberals don't see it, which is why President Obama is opposing H.R. 1076. It has nothing to do with rural areas, which in case Obama hasn't noticed, seem to be well served by many forms of media. When I visit Mt. Morris, Illinois, 100 miles west of Chicago with a population about 2,500 and decreasing after the closing of several important industries, I can get AM and FM radio and broadcast and cable stations from Chicago, Rockford, Freeport, DeKalb, Sterling, etc. and probably some Wisconsin stations if I tried--ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, Fox and the internet with its vast array of programing.

"The Administration strongly opposes House passage of H.R. 1076, which would unacceptably prohibit Federal funding of National Public Radio (NPR) and the use of Federal funds by public radio stations to acquire radio content. As part of the President’s commitment to cut spending, the President’s Budget proposed targeted reductions in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which provides a small amount of funding for NPR, and the Administration has expressed openness to other spending reductions that are reasonable. However, CPB serves an important public purpose in supporting public radio, television, and related online and mobile services. The vast majority of CPB’s funding for public radio goes to more than 700 stations across the country, many of them local stations serving communities that rely on them for access to news and public safety information. Undercutting funding for these radio stations, notably ones in rural areas where such outlets are already scarce, would result in communities losing valuable programming, and some stations could be forced to shut down altogether." Link

No it has nothing to do with rural areas, and everything to do with another mouthpiece for Obama's hope and chains. He's got millions for his next campaign chest, so I really don't think this is a problem. Just advertise on the "new" public radio which won't be taxpayer supported and let the choir listen.

Pine Ridge Reservation Wind Power FM Radio KILI

Printed prayers

The older I get, the more I appreciate a well written prayer. Yes, written, as in published. I find prayer books very useful, and enjoy the little short prayers included in the daily meditation booklets I use from Concordia. Usually, they contain passages of scripture or basic theological concepts. Today I came across a published prayer for Christians on strike in the 1957 My Prayer Book by Concordia Publishing House (Lutheran). In quoting I've somewhat modernized the pronouns thee and thou. Somehow, I don't think workers in King James era were going on strike.

"Owing to disagreements between my labor union and my employer, I am now on strike and out of work. I know you love all, and it is your will that I love all men as brothers. Therefore help me, my fellow workers, and my employer to overcome all selfishness and pride and to seek a fair solution of our difficulties. . .

Protect the property of strikers and employers during the conferences between them. Give our employer a sympathetic understanding of the problems and needs of his workers. Likewise give me and the other workers a proper insight into the problems and resources of our employer, that we may not ask more than is reasonable. Prevent bitterness and strife, and where ungodly strife is present, grant your healing and peace. Guide the negotiations toward an early agreement whereby both employer and worker may profit. May fairness and justice prevail for all concerned. . .

Give your blessing to honest labor everywhere that the needs of mankind may be supplied and that your kingdom may flourish; through Jesus Christ. Amen."

In 1957 there were no unions representing government employees--it was practically unthinkable. Wisconsin, the "progressive" state, was the first to allow state employees to bargain with their employers. In 1957, both public and private workers knew the basics of negotiating and that if you negotiate with yourself, you, not your neighbor [employer], always are the winner because of self-interest. It's like going into a ballgame where the final score is already determined. Home team wins every time. Public sector unions are negotiating with "self," i.e., the workers' union representatives are negotiating with the workers' elected representatives, and often with their own political party representatives [Democrats]. Therefore, this 1957 prayer sounds archaic--from a long distant past--and it is.

There is no "justice to prevail" at the state houses of Ohio or Wisconsin or New Jersey where one group of workers doesn't pay for their benefits at the expense of another group of workers who pay the salaries of the other group. A public sector worker employed for 35 years will pull out thousands of dollars more a year in her retirement check than a private sector worker who worked 50 years to receive Social Security. The school teacher who retires at 55 may get $80,000 a year (or more), and the real estate broker or small businessman who can't retire until 66 will get $28,400. And the businessman has contributed more! Both have elected representatives, but one has double the representation.

The disgraceful behavior of the Wisconsin teachers (and their friends)

So you thought the Communist/Islam link was just a parnoid threat by Glenn Beck? How do you like the Cairo to Madison link?

How Poverty won the War on Poverty--duplication, waste, poor planning and lobbying Congress

Community Action Agencies are local groups who get their funding from The Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) which is federal tax money. They were first incorporated 47 years ago with the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964--the so-called War on Poverty.

This "war" has provided a steady stream of income for well paid middle class government workers and employees of non-profits, but hasn’t done much for the poor of Ohio even with half a billion a year. If you have the patience for the paperwork, you can set one up yourself and become a staff of one and recruit volunteers from your church. If you don't wish to work with the poor directly, organize an association of agencies and providers and lobby your city or state governments for a budget line. Or become a workshop provider for other agencies--show them how to use Twitter, Facebook and Blogging to recruit clients or make nice Power Point presentations. Do sensitivity training. The money's there.

There are tremendous duplication and few measures of success or accountability. Remember, the half a billion a year that Ohio agencies get doesn’t include all the other programs like SNAP (former food stamps) or TANF (former AFDC), Medicaid, or WIC or home weatherization or school feeding programs. That’s not home foreclosure workshops or programs for zero percent mortgages.

Vast amounts of money are funneled to local nonprofits whose purpose is to reduce poverty and to help low-income people become self-sufficient. Church groups can get this money as long as they just perform social acts and don't do anything religious, like tell their clients about Jesus. There are more than 1,100 Community Action Agencies in the United States and there are 50 Community Action Agencies in Ohio, “with every county receiving service. During the last program year, they administered $523,407,248 in resources aimed at alleviating the problems of poverty in Ohio's Communities.” (http://www.development.ohio.gov/community/ocs/cacs.htm )

Half a billion a year should be able to solve a lot of problems, wouldn’t you think? Apparently not, because the agencies were doing so poorly they needed a huge influx of temporary ARRA funding to stay afloat. (Example of application) The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was signed into law by President Obama on February 17th, 2009 and was supposed to be “a down payment on addressing long-neglected challenges so our country can thrive in the 21st century.” A down payment? Neglected? We’ve been addressing those challenges for 47 years, and it’s not like there were no state and local programs before 1964 which addressed poverty.

There are loud cries of alarm coming from the CAAs that receive CSBG funding right now because the Obama administration is looking at cutting some duplication in the block grants (not to worry--right now there’s no budget at all). All the CAA websites say pretty much the same thing--WE ARE DOING ESSENTIAL WORK FOR THE POOR!!!

It’s time to take the federal budget apart, agency by agency, bureaucrat by bureaucrat, nonprofit by nonprofit. And let’s begin with the bloated Block Grants’ overlapping programs and their 1100 Community Action Agencies. They don’t seem to be meeting their goals and mission statements if after almost half a century they they only morph and expand. Examples of mission statements:

http://www.impactca.org/ -- “provides a comprehensive array of services that enables struggling families to find jobs, maintain affordable housing and get on the road to becoming active, contributing, tax-paying citizens.” (Don't use these folks for computer training--still offering Windows XP).

http://www.leadscaa.org -- “is a private non-profit corporation that provides immediate assistance and lasting solutions for people in need”

http://www.tricountycls.com/index.htm “helps people find jobs, get educated and become financially secure”

http://www.lccaa.net/default.aspx “committed to improving the social well-being, economic capacity and opportunities for low- to moderate-income individuals and families.”

What is wrong with Republicans?

How can they possibly be taking Donald Trump seriously? Questioning Obama's birth will get him what--1% of the votes he needs? And Newt Gingrich? These men are moral midgets. How many marriages did the Pope have to annul for Gingrich? Let's find candidates with fewer personal problems. Those always become the focus, and Republicans just don't have the smarts or the knee cappers that the Democrats have when it comes to cover ups. We've got some great talent--stop with the preeners and pretty boys. We've got Bobby Jindal, Paul Ryan, Michele Bachman, Chris Christie--even Walker of Wisconsin seems to have some potential--at least he knows how to stand up to unions. But let's stay away from the thrice married and I don't care how much money they have. They're more useful to us as tax payers and cheerleaders for good candidates.

Trump Raises Birther Questions

The No-Fly Zone vote

No more wars to keep Muslims from killing each other. All we do is install new despots and they hate us. Stay out of Libya.

Update: Sounds like Obama is taking us to war. Or at least the stand-in President Hillary Clinton is.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says enforcing a no-fly zone in Libya would require bombing raids - one of several options being debated by the UN Security Council. Clinton made the comments while visiting neighboring Tunisia - where she met aid workers who have been helping refugees from Libya. NPR

The adrenaline rush and Lara Logan

Two things came to mind when I read this story (op-ed really) about Lara Logan's assault in Egypt and her "come-back kid" attitude. The fearless reporter had only hesitated a bit after becoming a mother (after a tabloid type scrutiny of her love life and behavior).

"Surrounded by a frenzied mob in Tahrir Square, she was separated from her crew, severely beaten and sexually assaulted. Logan was saved by a group of Egyptian women and nearly two dozen soldiers who pulled her to safety. She promptly flew home and was hospitalized for days.

"Lara is utterly fearless," says veteran newsman Bob Schieffer. "She just has guts and courage under fire." He called her ordeal "just awful." CBS and Logan decided to make the sexual assault public last week after learning an Australian journalist was on to the story."The Price Lara Logan Paid in Egypt - The Daily Beast

When I was working in the veterinary library at Ohio State I learned that of all dairy cattle breeds, Holsteins grieved the least when separated from their babies--an emotional trauma even for a momma bovine which causes the milk to dry up. (The veal industry is what happens to the male calves removed from the cow's side and natural mothering instinct.) In Lara's case, not even a sweet, beautiful, healthy baby dependent on her for love and security could cause her to turn her back. She apparently didn't have the same emotional wiring that other women have who have chosen to stay home and raise their families.

And second, years ago when I was attending Al-Anon, learning the 12 steps and listening to other survivors' stories, I learned that there are people addicted to the risk taking behavior of others, and many of them are women married to alcoholics. This just horrified me--I'll go to great lengths to avoid the "thrill of a risk" like riding a motorcycle without a helmet or bungee jumping off bridges or mountain climbing on icy cliffs or even riding a Ferris wheel. But for some, it is a drug they desperately need to stay feel alive.

Combine those two and you have a woman who will return to the battle front to stand in front of cameras (and wave to her babies being cuddled by nannies or grandma who may or may not care by that time).

One out of Four

One of every four workers was out of a job at the height of the Great Depression (1933) which ran from 1929 to 1941. But not my parents. They both graduated from high school in May 1930 and started at the same college that September (having met the summer of 1930 on a blind date). During their school days Mom worked in the college library and Dad worked in a local restaurant. When the college closed Dad worked at the printing plant and on the neighbors' farms and Mom worked as a domestic until she too could find work at the plant. Both U.S. presidents of this awful period threw money at the problem--first Hoover then Roosevelt to no avail. Both prices and tax rates soared. "We the people" have been left with the residue of broken social programs and burdensome regulations and bureaucracies which were expanded beyond anything Roosevelt could have imagined Americans would tolerate by President Johnson in the 1960s (all of which I thought were wonderful then because I believed they would end poverty). And what may be worse, we've elected men and women who actually think a decade plus of those policies worked! If first it fails, do more of the same. The poor of the United States are rich in material goods beyond anything a well-off family in the 1920s could have imagined, but not because of government programs--houses with bathrooms, electricity, automobiles, telephones, closets full of clothes, freezers, refrigerators, insulation in the walls and paved roads for our cars. But in values and common sense we seem to have become impoverished by layer after layer of government programs and safety nets. We are a naive, ungrateful people and have made mud pies from the tears and hard work of our parents and grandparents.

How do you home school a kid this smart?

Evan O'Dorney has won the National Spelling Bee, a gold medal at an international math Olympiad, and the Intel Science Talent Search's $100,000 top prize. And he's no slouch in his spare time either--a black belt in tae kwon do, and studies piano performance and composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

"Evan says the person who's had the most influence on his scientific career is his mother, Jennifer, who home-schools him. His dad, Michael, is a BART operator."

Danville's Evan O'Dorney wins Intel Science Talent Search - San Jose Mercury News

HT Joanne Jacobs

Washington Post Apologizes For 'Substantial' Plagiarism In Two Stories

Borrowed? Ten out of 15 paragraphs in two articles? I wonder if Pulitzer Prize winner Sari Horwitz, who is from Arizona, has read the new White House White paper on intellectual property on increasing the prison terms? I think that came out today and it looks pretty grim and over reaching.

Washington Post Apologizes For 'Substantial' Plagiarism In Two Stories

Why are they demonizing the Koch brothers

When you see the Socialist/Communist/Progressives waving their posters at the various rallies, like Madison, or Washington in October, you always see something about the Koch brothers being behind some vast right wing conspiracy. I have no idea who they are or what they do, but progressives just turn purple at the mention of their name, kind of like Halliburton (in which so many liberals are invested) and so I noticed this item at Volokh.

David Bernstein writes "Let’s review: It seems undisputed that the Kochs total spending on political and ideological causes is somewhere around 10–15 million dollars per year. How big a role does this money play in the American political system? Let’s start with ideological/intellectual causes. The liberal Ford Foundation spends over $400 million a year. The liberal MacArthur Foundation spends about $140 million a year. Liberal billionaire George Soros spends about $150 million a year. Liberals control the vast majority of academic positions in almost every humanities and social science department in every major university in the country, with total budgets in the tens of billions.

Even in the libertarians’ tiny corner of the ideological universe, 10 million dollars would only keep the Cato Institute running from January to April this year, and leave nothing left for any other libertarian cause or organization. So the idea that the Kochs are having some huge influence on American politics through their ideological philanthropy is grossly exaggerated, at best.

Even more absurd is the notion that the Kochs’ political contributions are distorting American politics. The Obama campaign spent hundreds of million of dollars on the 2008 election. The 2010 midterm elections cost about $4 billion. The Koch’s relative spending is like pissing in an ocean. Such spending, of course, can under the right conditions win an interest group some narrow favors, but that’s a far cry from suggesting that it can buy “a great deal of influence over the political system” in general.

No, the reason that some liberals have latched on to the Kochs as their bogeymen is that this is what demagogic political propagandists due to win support from their base. They find a mysterious, ominous-sounding (billionaires! who sell oil!–what could raise greater suspicions on the Left?) villain on whom to blame their troubles, and rouse the passions of the partisans of their sides. As these things go, the Kochs are a more innocuous villain than, say, the “Likudnik” bogeymen of the mid-2000s, or Pat Robertson’s “secular humanists who support a New World Order” of the 1990s, but it’s all the same phenomenon."

The Volokh Conspiracy » Jonathan Chait Completely Misses the Point
I figured as much. The libs are upset that George Soros who supports hundreds of leftist causes and church groups gets such bad publicity from the right, so they had to find somebody on the right who contributes to politics, but they are a drop in the bucket compared to the left's deep pockets.

Questions and Answers about Potassium Iodide (KI)

For some reason, there are talking heads and reporters accusing the Surgeon General Regina Benjamin of being irresponsible in her suggestions about Potassium Iodide. Sounds like she's up on things to me. KI should be used only under instruction from local health authorities and it's really not her responsibility to know that Californians were panicking--at least in my opinion. There's enough going wrong in the Obamadmin without making things up to criticize.
Thyroid.org: Questions and Answers about Potassium Iodide (KI)

Ohio's House Bill 63--to save children

"(COLUMBUS, OH) - Ohio Right to Life's H.B. 63, the Judicial Bypass legislation, was voted out of the House of Representatives yesterday with an overwhelming 64 to 33 bipartisan vote - nearly three quarters of the members of the house. This pro-life legislation now heads to the Ohio Senate for additional hearings.

"Ohioans know that parental consent laws save lives," said Mike Gonidakis, Executive Director for Ohio Right to Life. "We are trying very hard to preserve parents' ability to help their daughters when they are confronted with the challenges of teenage pregnancy. A recent study proved that responsible parental consent laws reduce the minor abortion rate by 18.7 percent."

Current Ohio law states that parental consent is required before a minor can obtain an abortion, but a loophole exists which allows judges to bypass parental involvement and allow a minor to obtain an abortion. H.B. 63, which is sponsored by Rep. Ron Young (R-Leroy) and Rep. Lynn Slaby (R-Copley), puts an end to this "rubber-stamp" judicial approval. On behalf of all pro-life Ohioans, we would like to thank Representatives Young and Slaby, along with Speaker of the House Bill Batchelder for his support and leadership by passing pro-life legislation.

Ohio Bill to Strengthen Parental Consent on Abortion Passes | LifeNews.com

No Bureaucrat Left Behind

Or is that the Behind of Left Bureaucrats?

"NCLB [No Child Left Behind] is actually the eighth reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). Passed as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty, this first federal intervention into what was originally a state responsibility included just five titles in 32 pages. The effect of the ESEA was felt quickly across the country—but not by the nation’s school children: after passage of ESEA, state education bureaucracies doubled in just five years. Now NCLB spans more the 50 programs, 10 titles, and 600 pages. The bureaucrats are winning."
Morning Bell: No Bureaucrat Left Behind | The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.

Billions and billions have been spent the last almost 50 years on "The War on Poverty," and yet to hear Democrats moan about food insecurity, wage gaps, education wastelands, food deserts, minorities in prison populations, Head Starts that need a kick-start, and dying cities (all controlled by Democratic administrations), the war was lost after the first decade of infusing money. It's America's 50 year war, and we're still losing because the generals and majors are designing, manufacturing, and distributing failed weapons for the boots on the ground.

In Egypt's Tahrir Square, women attacked at rally on International Women's Day - CSMonitor.com

After George W. Bush freed the women of Iraq and Afghanistan, I believe a number of women ran in democratic elections for office and won. So what's wrong in Egypt that women are being attacked on International Women's Day and told to go home and wash clothes? (Actually, the guys in the picture look like they could use a shower and change of clothes.) Maybe President Obama, who was so bold in speaking out on behalf of unions in Madison, should say something just as bold about the rights of women in Egypt? But, maybe they couldn't reach him on the golf course.

Women attacked in Egypt

The core and the crust of leadership

No one in our media bothered to check out Barack Obama's facts and story he supplied them in two books--but this German leader's thesis is bogus and he loses his job. All of Obama is bogus according to Cashill's book--Bill Ayers was the author, not just a ghost writer, of Obama's books. He even included a relationship with a young woman in the Obama book that was really Ayer's. Cashill is an editor; he says no one who is a poor writer at 21 turns into a good writer at 33 unless he's been writing regularly, and Obama didn't. All evidence (and it's very little) of his writing before his books shows someone who couldn't pass 8th grade English. So where did all this talent come from that just wowed the critics? From buddy Bill Ayers. These things are not that difficult to uncover. Never mind a birth certificate--how about a little paragraph checking and an SAT score. But the Germans?

"Two weeks ago, the charismatic German politician and heir-apparent to Chancellor Angela Merkel, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, resigned as minister of defense. It had come to light that his doctoral dissertation was adorned with more than 300 instances of plagiarism. A spectacular leadership failure to be sure, but why? A simple way to think about leadership is to divide it into two parts — a core and a crust. The distinction gives us a clearer eye. The core represents those things that are indispensable, while the crust those things that are important. What then goes in the core? And what goes in the crust?"

The core and the crust of leadership | Deseret News

Yes, what goes on at the core?