At least the President knows how to dress

Tuesday night I served supper at the homeless shelter. The women there were better dressed than the first family women who seemed to be making a fashion statement, but in translation it just came off sloppy and messy.

Geraldine Ferraro dead at 75

A great lady--I enjoyed her appearances and viewpoints as a Fox commentator. Her last TV appearance on Fox was with Sarah Palin after the November election. The only two top ticket females in our history--together--watch the video. They were both very gracious.

The Federal Reserve

A friend at the coffee shop alerted me that Glenn Beck would be covering the Federal Reserve on his program tonight. So I guess that means we'll be late for our Friday night date. Even if you can't stand him, this would be a good thing for you to know. The Federal Reserve is not a government agency, but a private for profit bank. The Federal government only recommends the chairman--and that's Ben Bernanke, who seems to have more power than Barack Obama and also served "under" George W. Bush.

"On Friday 2011 March 25, the entire Glenn Beck show will be devoted to an exposé of the Federal Reserve. I was invited to be a guest on the program and, when it was taped last Tuesday, I was amazed to find that Beck, not only has read the book but praised it highly. In fact, almost his entire opening monologue was based on the information and, in some cases, the very same phrases used in the book and in my lectures. I was delighted to know that someone, either Beck or his researchers, had spent a great deal of time studying The Creature from Jekyll Island. But what is even more encouraging is that several million viewers will be exposed to an hour of economic and monetary truth. This will bring us a giant step closer to actually slaying the Creature." G. Edward Griffin

Thanks, but no thanks

This came today. "As your family tree grows, you need software that will grow with it. In Family Tree Maker 2011 you'll find the features and tools you need to define complex relationships, organize your family history and design beautiful family trees and posters." I am so, so sorry I ever upgraded to 2008. The 6th ed. of Broderbund (1999) was wonderful, and I really miss its flexibility which apparently was turned in for more splashy graphics capability.

On the Ancestry.com site there is an explanation dated 2002 about when the software was sold to Riverdeep, so it's been passed around, like a cheap date, but in my opinion, many of the useful features have been lost.

"Broderbund produced Family Tree Maker for several years. Late in 1999, Broderbund’s owners at that time, Mattel, decided to spin off the genealogy software division to create an independent company called Genealogy.com which, in turn, was later acquired by A&E Television Networks early in 2001 (see my article for details). As part of the Mattel spin-off, Genealogy.com does all software development and also sells the software via the Web and by mail order. Broderbund retained exclusive rights to sell Family Tree Maker in retail stores, such as at Costco, CompUSA, etc.

The relationship apparently does not change with the new owners: Genealogy.com will continue to develop the software and sell it via direct sales channels while Riverdeep will sell it into retail outlets."

George W. Bush thought he was helping the Iraqi people (and he did)

In Afganistan, Bush freed more women than Lincoln did slaves--but did you hear any applause from NOW?

But that didn't carry any weight with his detractors, the howling Democrats, even the ones like Ms. Clinton, Kerry and Edwards who warned us about WMD. But especially Senators Barack Obama and Joe Biden were critical of Bush's motives of wanting democracy for Iraqis. Now with calls to return that ridiculous Nobel award for peace (when he hadn't done anything), Obama denies the conflictin a CNN interview,

He says the United States is involved in attacking Libya to help the Libyans. “I think the American people don’t see any contradiction in somebody who cares about peace also wanting to make sure that people aren’t butchered because of a dictator who wants to cling to power,” he said.

Both Obama and Bush have misjudged these people--they definitely aren't ready for western style freedoms, particularly where women are concerned.

Samantha Power, the power behind the Gaddafi strike?

They are the glam couple of the Obama Administration--and I don't mean Michelle and Barack. Cass and Samantha (and baby makes three). He left his main squeeze (Martha Nussbaum) in Chicago for the Harvard Professor (much, much younger than his "partner" Martha) he met in the Obama campaign in 2008.

"Most of the commentary on Libya has focused on the tension between Obama’s apparent desire to displace Qaddafi and his reluctance to admit to it. But the chief reason for this intervention is the one that’s staring us in the face. Obama dithered when it was simply a matter of replacing Qaddafi, yet quickly acted when slaughter in Benghazi became the issue. What Samantha Power and her supporters want is to solidify the principle of “responsibility to protect” in international law. That requires a “pure” case of intervention on humanitarian grounds. Power’s agenda would explain why Obama acted when he acted, and why the public rationale for action has not included regime change.

Yet Obama has so far been reluctant to fully explain any of this to either Congress or the American public, perhaps because he realizes that the ideological basis of his actions would not be popular if openly admitted. If Obama were a different sort of president, we would have all heard about “responsibility to protect” long ago. The country would have thoroughly debated Power’s ideas, and the public would have quickly recognized the core motives of the president’s actions in Libya."

President Reticent - By Stanley Kurtz - The Corner - National Review Online

Mrs. Sunstein is very anti-Israel. I wonder if he is?

Samantha Power Sunstein's ties to George Soros who funds her Responsibility to Protect organization.

3 to 4.3 Billion Barrels of Technically Recoverable Oil Assessed in North Dakota and Montana’s Bakken Formation—25 Times More Than 1995 Estimate—USGS

This report by the US Geological Survey is from April 2008, but the oil hasn't gone away. It came through on an e-mail, so I decided to take a look--and yes, the report is at the U.S.G.S. web page.

"North Dakota and Montana have an estimated 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in an area known as the Bakken Formation.

A U.S. Geological Survey assessment, released April 10, shows a 25-fold increase in the amount of oil that can be recovered compared to the agency's 1995 estimate of 151 million barrels of oil."

USGS Release: 3 to 4.3 Billion Barrels of Technically Recoverable Oil Assessed in North Dakota and Montana’s Bakken Formation—25 Times More Than 1995 Estimate— (4/10/2008 2:25:36 PM)

It really is strange that U.S. environmentalists have such a stranglehold on leaders of both parties, because the shutting down of our energy supplies and regulating it out of business, certainly isn't unique to this administration. It forces us to buy foreign supplies--where we have no control over the environmental conditions--involves us in foreign wars with Muslims, and sends our President to Brazil to offer them to drill where he says we can't. It would seem that the long term goal is to destroy both the U.S. and the environment, so obviously they are not interested in "Mother Earth."

However, depending on which version of the e-mail you get, the number of barrels keeps expanding as it is passed along (as does our use for oil), so it's best to go to the website to read the article. And new sources are being found all the time. What doesn't expand is our government's willingness to pursue it. We just pay others to pollute.

Detroit's Liberal Nightmare

"What happens when a city buys the liberal dream hook, line and sinker? Just take a look at the City of Detroit. The once-great city lost 237,493 residents over the last decade according to the 2010 Census, bringing it to 713,777 – a population plunge of 25%. That's its lowest population since 1910, and it marks the city's fall from a 1950s peak of two million, over 60%. And that’s just the people who can afford to leave."

Detroit's Liberal Nightmare | The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.

Other articles by Mike Brownfield

And look at what Hiroshima, which we destroyed in 1945, was able to accomplish by embracing the free markets in about the same period of time, compared to Detroit which took the "easy" progressive road. And now Obama and the Democrats want that for the whole nation. Looks like they will get it too, with the help of the union thugs, socialists and Muslims mixing it up in Madison and Columbus.

Glenn Reynolds law: "The government decides to try to increase the middle class by subsidizing things that middle class people have: If middle-class people go to college and own homes, then surely if more people go to college and own homes, we’ll have more middle-class people. But homeownership and college aren’t causes of middle-class status, they’re markers for possessing the kinds of traits — self-discipline, the ability to defer gratification, etc. — that let you enter, and stay, in the middle class. Subsidizing the markers doesn’t produce the traits; if anything, it undermines them." via Belmont Club

Or maybe it was Union greed?

RealClearMarkets - Who, or What, Killed Detroit? Union Greed

Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey

Could two of the wealthiest Americans, neither of whom finished college and began working at their current career when very young--one black, one white, one female, the other male--have ever made it with the advice, encouragement and assistance of the Office of Financial Empowerment of New York City. OK--that's probably not fair. Could anyone, who is never reminded to get a job, or to save and invest, or to plan for retirement, or to even pay their bills on time, have even climbed out of poverty with the help of the Office of Financial Empowerment? If you liberals are advocating closing the gap between rich and poor, maybe you should look at the agencies that keep people poor?

I glanced through the on-line dictionary. Phishing and payday loan were defined, but not paycheck or salary. It does no good to build on a weak foundation.

Jon Stewart gets it once in awhile

The Daily Show - Odyssey Dawn - Unconstitutional War
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Now who could be in charge of this mess in Libya?

Westerncanadian says: "Besides America, there are competent fighting men and women in Britain, France, Canada and Poland. How they must cringe with embarrassment at being involved in this comedy of errors.

Apart from the Tent Flap Wiper (Khadafi), the villain of this piece must be whomever convinced the gang to go into this with no clear objective, no command structure, no timetable and no laundry ticket.

It has to be someone who has never run a project that did more than talk about things; has never run a private business where your own house is the collateral for the bank and a bunch of families depend on the business; has never taken success or fail decisions on the ground, alone; and who thinks that he is a genius Messiah, unaccountable and blameless simply because he exists. Someone who upon hearing “two fish in a tank; one says ‘ I’ll drive, you man the guns”, would think it was some kind of fishy military training.

Now who could that be? The Sopranos of Europe aside, we keep coming back to the same World Class Ninny. This is getting downright depressing."

http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2011/03/22/laundering-a-war/#comment-150471

Obama squanders America's legacy

Obama the internationalist--and not even a very good one, at that.

"How painfully and awkwardly Mr. Obama steps forward and timidly flexes the mighty sword that was bequeathed to him. Even his most uninspired and uninspiring predecessors at least understood they had inherited an American legacy that was the gleaming beacon of freedom and humanity around the globe."

HURT: Obama squanders America's legacy - Washington Times

Union boss goes off at meeting, prison guards say - Washington Times

They thought it was a Charlie Sheen moment when the union boss exploded when questioned about tactics and benefits of membership.

Union boss goes off at meeting, prison guards say - Washington Times

Over 6,000 hits and chocolate too

I've been blogging since October 2003--not sure how many posts--the count says 8,829 Posts (just for this blog), but I have deleted quite a few. I've maxed out labels at 5,000 and occasionally go in and delete some old ones used only once so I can add something more current.

Blogger dot com has a new (to me) stats feature, and today I looked at it and discovered that just three posts account for over 6,000 hits to my blog (which right now has about 410,000). These are the guys and dolls paper dolls (have no idea why this is so popular, but guy paper dolls must be fairly rare); the Morganthau quote post on the failures of FDR's Great Despression programs; and finally, the HGTV show on Tony, the Chinese-Vietnamese immigrant millionaire moving to Los Angeles. A very distant fourth, I'm happy to say, is the page that lists my poetry. And then there's the sock puppet or troll that likes to visit under various names and argue with me about my religion and values, the latest being at the one and only post I did on Glee, and I was quoting someone else's blog. Hate to scare away a "valuable" stat, but she needs to get a life.

I gave up Facebook for Lent--call it a Facebook Fast. It's much easier than blogging and therefore a bigger time waster. My neighbor Jerry gave up chocolate for Lent. He had to go home to walk his dog today, so I had his lunch on our tour. Fabulous chocolate dessert--so rich I couldn't finish it. Thank you, Jerry. You can post on Facebook for me, since I ate your lunch.

Freedom of speech in the country that owns our debt

And don't you dare quote Shakespeare!

China Phone Censorship | China Dropped Call | Protest | Mediaite

Housing's Meltdown Continues - Seeking Alpha

It grieves me to see how much the building professions, especially architecture with which I'm most familiar, are as bound to the government largesse as much as any public employee union or academe. Some get it, some don't. Here's one who does, and it mirrors the gloomy discussions my husband heard recently at continuing education event.

"Dousing the markets with easy money, containing toxic “assets” through the suspension of “mark-to-market” accounting, propping up besieged mortgage security markets, rescuing “underwater” households, securing the foundations of teetering financial institutions through direct-inject recapitalization … try as they might, the Feds were unable to prevent the continued meltdown of the nation’s housing markets. It’s a sad day for those policy junkies who believe that government meddling is the solution to all the “evils” that nature stirs up."

Read the rest here. Housing's Meltdown Continues - Seeking Alpha

One World Government Obama

"Where did Mr. Obama get the authority to commit United States forces to war in Libya? There was no declaration of war. There was no authorizing resolution by Congress allowing money to be spent on a war against Col. Gaddafi. As far as I know, there was no meeting of Mr. Obama and top leaders of Congress to discuss the subject in even rough form, let alone detail. There was no lengthy buildup in which the Congress was "allowed" to express the people's opinion on whether we want to be in a third concurrent war."

The American Spectator : One World Government Obama

All this does is weaken the United States so that enemies from within can take us down even further. So, for Obama, this makes perfect sense. It's a two-fer. He gets to act like be the despot he is by ignoring Congress, while making it even harder to get us out of Afghanistan and Iraq, so he can point more fingers at Bush and say, "he did it."

Interesting perspective on the size of Japan

Today I'm finally reshelving the books on the newly painted bookshelves. I came across a title I'd forgotten--I don't think it is a family book. I may have picked it up at a yard sale. "New World Horizons; geography for the air age," edited by Chester H. Lawrence, Maps by Ray Ramsey. (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1942).

The foreward notes that since the United States entered a global war (in those days everyone knew which war you were discussing) they had struggled a bit with geography."Mandalay, Java, Egypt, Archangel, Hawaii, and countless other names have been stripped of their veils of romance and glamor, and stand revealed as geographical realities possessing vital and strategic importance. Screaming newspaper headlines and verbose radio commentators have made the man in the street aware of the existence of these major centers of world conflict. . . " P. 9

This then was a geography for the millions, not the school child. The map of Japan gives me a much better idea of why life is going on as usual in some parts of Japan, while others suffer terribly. From north to south, it is the distance from Labrador in Canada to the southernmost point of Mexico, and east to west, the distrance from New York to Omaha, a sea area of millions of square miles.

And mine has a very good, in tact dust cover, so I figure it's worth about $25.00. The paper is in very good condition--and just about as old as I am.

"If the belief that the Western Hemisphere is safe from military attack is illusionary, so is the theory that it is economically self-sufficient." p. 28

And then sadly: "The United States got a greater fortune from nature than any other country of the world. It has forty percent of the known supply of coal. It pipes two-thirds of the world's oil. Iron is abundant, and furthermore, much of it is close to the surface where it can be mined easily. It has more zinc and lead than any other country . . ." p. 34. Of course, we don't have much dysprosium, gadolinium, and praseodymium--the rare earth elements for computers, cell phones and green technology--and we've regulated our own industries to death. Now China has what we need, sold for a dear price. Thank you, environmentalists.

A subtle way to support the unions

My local library, Upper Arlington Public Library, does have a number of copies of the movie/video "Waiting for Superman," however, there are 63 on the waiting list for the DVD and 21 for the Blue Ray.

Waiting for ‘Superman’, director Davis Guggenheim’s blockbuster 2010 documentary film about American schooling, concludes in dramatic fashion with the camera panning the anxious faces of students and their parents. The families, wrought with emotion, are awaiting the results of a lottery that will decide whether they receive a coveted place at a public charter school. When the results are announced the lottery winners—charter schools have more applicants than places available—are overjoyed. Those who lose are devastated." Charter Schools and Government Pensions

Money matters in foreplay

"John J. Sweeney, longtime labor leader and president emeritus of the AFL-CIO, on February 15 became a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom alongside such luminaries as poet Maya Angelou and former president George H.W. Bush. That Sweeney would receive any medal with the word “freedom” in the title, let alone the nation’s highest civilian honor, is laughable, considering that he is a leader of a labor movement that has championed legislation restricting freedoms, like Obamacare and card check. But then, back in the 2008 presidential campaign the AFL-CIO endorsed Obama and pledged to deploy $53.4 million to secure his election. That’ll buy you a “Medal of Freedom.” " Capital Research Center, Labor Notes, March 2011