Socialists aren't happy with Obama and the Democrats either

Although I think they're wrong to distrust the success of this President, whom they helped elect, it's nice to see that conservatives, libertarians, and the hard right aren't the only ones unhappy with Barack Obama.

"DON’T TRUST THE DEMOCRATS – NOT A ONE. Especially the progressive Democrats.

Millions believed Barack Obama’s campaign pledge to create a humane, affordable and inclusive health care system and rein in the copious abuses of the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. On the campaign trail, Obama proclaimed these corporations were greedy and more concerned about profits and patents than the needs of patients. Some thought because Obama was a former supporter of a single-payer system, he might just enact it when he won the Whitehouse. How wrong they were.

No one could have predicted how much influence and control over health care reform President Obama would give to the very corporate interests killing and bankrupting the American people, and who just a few months earlier, had fiercely attacked and called out by name. No one could have predicted the scale and scope of the sell out. It is truly astounding given the soaring rhetoric of before and the cruel and sleazy reality of now."

Helen Redmond: Beware the Progressive Democrat

Did you know--the 2010 census

Of the 51 metropolitan areas that have more than 1 million residents, only three—Boston, Providence, and Oklahoma City—saw their core cities grow faster than their suburbs. City Journal

Three cups of BS

Our book club did this title--Three cups of tea--but I didn't attend that one. I really hate to see this type of scam--people donated to his schools in good faith. Why does no one blow the whistle on these groups?

Why do women let gay designers dress them like sexless rag dolls?

Not sure but I think this is Dree Hemingway. It certainly does nothing for the dress. That looks like a toilet stall pose by a woman who's had too much to drink. Is that toilet paper in her hand or a diploma?

Join the Tea Party, Murray sez

Both parties have failed us, according to Murray, a semi-regular contributor to this blog. Our only hope now is the Tea Party, he told me in an e-mail. He's even mad at Michelle Bachmann (I still have confidence in her).

It represents the only viable chance to stop the bleeding and institute real positive change for our country. I know it's tough to abandon the party of your choice but I think if you are honest with yourself when considering what's going on and listen to the deception and lies, you'll realize both the Democrats and Republicans have failed us miserably. It's so important to get involved now. Join or donate to your nearest Tea Party for the solutions. It will be tough to overcome the billion dollars that Obama will more than likely raise. He spent his first two years selling Obamacare and campaigning worldwide.He will be spending the next two years campaigning for re-election and ticking you off.
Of course there's the chance you want more of the same but I don't think so. But that's just what you will get if you keep playing the Democrat vs. Republican game. It's time to kick butt.

Maybe so, Murray, but remember third party Ross Perot who put Clinton in office by draining away almost 20 million Republican votes from Bush I? Obama intends to destroy the country by collapsing it from within--not so sure even a lily livered RINO wants that!

Monday Memories--Our wedding party

On the average, probably not too bad.

I was looking at this photo of our wedding party--a very low budget wedding, September 11, 1960. Our best man, Tom--married 50 years this June; our maid of honor, JoElla--48 years; our usher Dick, 50 years; the bride and groom, 50+ years; our usher, Scot--married 4 times, at least (we see him at class reunions); our mystery usher--don't remember his name nor what became of him (not sure we ever saw him after the wedding).

Update: Extensive research (reading the newspaper article about our wedding, and checking the Tech Cannon 1957) reveals the mystery guy is James Schafer, but I still know nothing about him.

Did you know--ACORN

"Senior ACORN executives Amy Adele Busefink and Christopher Howell Edwards were convicted of providing cash bonuses to voter-registration canvassers for exceeding daily registration quotas. Campaign workers received cash if they registered 21 voters or more. Fittingly, the Las Vegas-based program was called Blackjack." Matthew Vadum

Last year, ACORN settled a racketeering lawsuit in Ohio out of court and agreed to leave the state. In the settlement with the Buckeye Institute’s 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, ACORN agreed to “cease all Ohio activity” and surrender all its state business licenses.

An oxymoron--paid volunteers

A better deal than Americorps! That only pays a stipend and qualifies you to be a "public servant" to repay your college debt. Charity for Debt might pay off your college loans at up to $20 an hour for your "volunteering." Plus, if you join Americorps to pay off your college loans you might get stuck recruiting people for food stamps.

We need a new name for this feel good enterprise (Charity for Debt is a "non-profit," but I don't know if it receives government grants for its own staffing and programs). Look. It's not charity if you're working off your debt. In the 17th century we settled a lot of the east coast with people working off debt--it was called indentured servitude. Some people worked off their trans-Atlantic passage. And you're not volunteering if you get your debt reduced for each hour you work. Oh, and it's tax free pay so an hour of work may go 30% further in "volunteering."

I can't balance my check book, but I know that much about how the non-profits (and the government) spin. I've also been a volunteer.

Andrew Breitbart introduces Sarah Palin

Andrew Breitbart calls out Trumka and other lefties, unionists and community organizers April 16 in Madison for what they are--divisive, angry, rude and haters. The Tea Party, on the other hand, has been the most peaceful, clean-up-after-themselves protest group in the history of America, he says. They were gathered to protest high taxes. (Is it 102 days we work for the government?) When you see and hear the leftists screaming and yelling at anyone who disagrees with them, you realize that Obama's Arizona sermon on civility was verbal foreplay for the left and tossing his hat in the ring for the next campaign (when isn't he campaigning?). "Lack of civility" is their code phrase for "we hate the Tea Party."

I think Breitbart's "go to hell" directive is probably accurate in geography, and is language they can understand. And don't you love how the pundits are shocked, just shocked, at language they hear everyday at the office and on TV . . . anything but the issues is good fodder. And Sarah gives it to the GOP for their wimp factor on the budget and urges them to fight like a girl.

"We didn’t elect you just to rearrange the deck chairs on a sinking Titanic," Palin said during a rally in front of the Wisconsin statehouse in Madison. "What we need from you, GOP, is to fight." Pointing to the national champion University of Wisconsin women's hockey team, Palin said the GOP could learn from its resolve and “needs to learn how to fight like a girl."

Did you know--HIV and TB

Tuberculosis is the number one killer of people with HIV? IDSA News.

It's the week-end

Busy Friday. At least for me, because I usually don't plan much. Attended a lecture at the Faculty Club at Ohio State by Loren Haarsma of Calvin College, on "Is Faith the opposite of Reason?" [No, irrationality is the opposite of reason, and unbelief is the opposite of faith.] I parked at the vet college, and since it was a beautiful day, walked the 20 minutes to my destination, giving both my body and mind some good exercise.

In the evening we had our date night at the Worthington Rusty Bucket with Wes and Sue, and then back to their lovely condo in southern Delaware county for strawberries and angel food cake. Lovely evening and we always enjoy getting together with fellow Lakesiders

Today I joined with women from my Saturday Bible study group to walk for MS at the Columbus Zoo. There was a huge crowd, with many teams. Also could see many participants with canes and walkers and wheelchairs who are afflicted with this terrible disease. One gal took a photo with her cell phone, but doesn't know how to send it, so it may or may not get added to this blog. Our team's name was "Overcomers" for Jim Manos [totals not in yet], but we were also walking for Jackie's husband--she's part of our group. I'm not sure why but certain areas of the country have more MS than others, and Columbus is one of them. Panera's was very generous and provided with a really nice snack at the end of the walk--love those Asiago bagels!

This afternoon we went to the Mill Run Tavern movie theater (the theater has been there a long time, but I think the food service is new) to see Atlas Shrugged. It's a good thing I keep up on politics and governmental economic mischief with my blog, or I might have been a little confused. The bad guys have such great lines in this movie, just like our elected officials and some corporations on the government dole. It's only part 1, so we'll have to wait and see what happens. The book was written in 1957, but the plot of the film takes place just about 4 years from now. I can't say it was great film making, but the actors did an adequate job--didn't recognize anyone. Ayn Rand was a libertarian and an atheist, so Christian conservatives won't like a lot about this film. I do think it shows the direction we're heading with more and more government regulation and distribution of wealth (except the truly wealthy get to keep theirs).

Tomorrow is a joyous day, being Palm Sunday--but we all know Friday's next and then Sunday's coming. And actually that's good news too--in fact, that's what it's all about, for Christians. Tomorrow night we're getting together with our couples group from church to hear about a mission trip to Romania.

Did you know--health statistics

Persons were considered uninsured [in a MMWR article] if they did not have private health insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, Children's Health Insurance Program insurance a state-sponsored or other government-sponsored health plan, or a military plan, or if they had a plan that covered only one type of coverage or had only Indian Health Service coverage. If they were uninsured for any period of time, even if only 1 day, during the year they were considered "uninsured."

You need fossil fuels for wind energy

Shhh. Wind Turbines are Fossil Fuels. | Institute for Energy Research

Time's Nearly Up for Elizabeth Warren

Czarina Elizabeth may be in trouble with her schedule to get this nonsense up and ready, but be assured, the concept will stay. And even if she's bumped, like Van Jones, she will be in the wings, because it is ideology, not the economy, not love of country, not even what's best for all nations, that matters to our president.

Elizabeth Warren is the architect behind the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the new agency created to police many financial products, including mortgages, and a centerpiece of the Administration's reform efforts. Opposition from Wall Street, Republicans, and some moderate Democrats prevented the Harvard law professor and longtime critic of the banking sector from being nominated to head the bureau after its creation last year. Instead, President Barack Obama appointed Warren as a special adviser in September and asked her to prepare the bureau for its July 21 launch. The move was seen by her supporters as a chance for Warren to placate her critics and clear the way for an eventual nomination.

Six months later, she's not on target, and Obama is looking at replacements. Probably it takes some business or management experience to tackle this job--ya think?

Time's Nearly Up for Elizabeth Warren - BusinessWeek

VIP Tickets to Emanuel’s Inauguration: $50,000

Some mayors take their oath of office at City Hall or in their chambers and then go to work. Not Rahm Emanuel. He's the second Chicago thug to throw his Democrat hat in the ring and he's doing it by charging $50,000 a head to attend his inauguration. He of the foulest mouth with a reputation as a knee capper, who slid between the lines of the rules for residency in Chicago to be its mayor, has bigger plans, I'm sure. And it wouldn't surprise me at all if he didn't stab his old boss Obama in the back to grab 2012.

VIP Tickets to Emanuel’s Inauguration: $50,000

Did you know. . . pay equity

"In a 2010 study of single, childless urban workers between the ages of 22 and 30, the research firm Reach Advisors found that women earned an average of 8% more than their male counterparts." Carrie Lukas: There is no male-female wage gap.

Democrats lie about Ryan's plan, and don't even blush

Tonight on Fox I watched a Democrat being interviewed about the lack of specificity in Obama's budget speech, and instead of answering about Obama, he chose to attack Republicans, and even then had no specifics except they want to destroy Medicare. Huh?

Wall Street Journal has unpacked the Democrats' criticism of Ryan's plan, which many people really like, even though he doesn't provide any specific tax cuts. And no, unlike Obama, he doesn't suggest raising taxes during a recession (which technically is over, aren't you glad?)

Here are some highlights, but read the whole editorial.

Federal deficits have increased 259% over the last three years and the Ryan budget starts to repair the damage. It would bring next year's deficit below $1 trillion, down from estimates of roughly $1.6 trillion for 2011. . .

Mr. Ryan proposes smaller deficits for the next 10 years, falling to 1.6% of GDP in 2021 versus 4.9% for the White House. According to CBO, debt held by the public falls to 67.5% of the economy a decade from now from about 69% today, while it rises to 87.4% in Mr. Obama's version. . .

Mr. Ryan's plan [called premium support] is that it offers the true health-care reform that Mr. Obama promised but which vanished in the political drive to put 30 million more Americans on the government rolls. Economists from the center-left to center-right have been recommending premium support for decades, and it was first proposed by Stanford's Alain Enthoven in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1978.

Some version has since been endorsed by everyone from President Clinton's 1999 Medicare commission, chaired by Democrat John Breaux, to Bob Dole and Tom Daschle in 2009. Another iteration was floated this week by a group of Nobel laureates including Ned Phelps, Vernon Smith and George Akerlof.

Heritage says that one of the key provisions of Ryan's plan is eliminating Fannie and Fred.

Ryan's Roadmap

Until recently, Americans were known and admired everywhere for their hopeful determination to assume responsibility for the quality of their own lives; to rely on their own work and initiative; and to improve opportunities for their children to prosper in the future. But over time, Americans have been lured into viewing government – more than themselves, their families, their communities, their faith – as their main source of support; they have been drawn toward depending on the public sector for growing shares of their material and personal well-being. The trend drains individual initiative and personal responsibility. It creates an aversion to risk, sapping the entrepreneurial spirit necessary for growth, innovation, and prosperity. In turn, it subtly and gradually suffocates the creative potential for prosperity.

I am John Galt

Atlas Shrugged is coming to a theater near you (ca. 277 screens)--or at least, me. Atlas Shrugged the Movie will be shown at the Movie Tavern, Mill Run Shopping Center in Hilliard, Ohio, 3773 Ridge Mill Dr., April 15-April 21, showings at 10:45 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 7:20 p.m. and 10:15 p.m. (Dates and times could change, www.movietavern.com) Movie Tavern is a restaurant/theatre serving food and drink, so you can make it a date night or book club event. The book was written in 1957, but is relevant to today's political and economic realities.

Read a review of book theme and why Conservatives didn't like Rand when she was alive in WSJ. Donald L. Luskin: Remembering the Real Ayn Rand - WSJ.com

When Rand created the character of Wesley Mouch, it's as though she was anticipating Barney Frank (D., Mass). Mouch is the economic czar in "Atlas Shrugged" whose every move weakens the economy, which in turn gives him the excuse to demand broader powers. Mr. Frank steered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to disaster with mandates for more lending to low-income borrowers. After Fannie and Freddie collapsed under the weight of their subprime mortgage books, Mr. Frank proclaimed last year: "The way to cure that is to give us more authority." Mouch couldn't have said it better himself.

But it's a misreading of "Atlas" to claim that it is simply an antigovernment tract or an uncritical celebration of big business. In fact, the real villain of "Atlas" is a big businessman, railroad CEO James Taggart, whose crony capitalism does more to bring down the economy than all of Mouch's regulations. With Taggart, Rand was anticipating figures like Angelo Mozilo, the CEO of Countrywide Financial, the subprime lender that proved to be a toxic mortgage factory. Like Taggart, Mr. Mozilo engineered government subsidies for his company in the name of noble-sounding virtues like home ownership for all.

To be seen

It wasn't about the workout, which was probably great cardio. It was to be seen. When she's jogging through a busy intersection, dodging cars and trucks, weaving around traffic wearing this

on the bottom and even less on the top, then she's not fooling anyone.

We have several parks within a mile or two of Henderson and Reed, a corner with two busy gas stations and two shopping centers--she could have driven there and had a safe, healthy, exhilerating run without putting herself or others in danger. But who would be there to see her except ladies on a stroll or pushing baby buggies.

Children, wanted and unwanted

It's a great imponderable. My faith and church informs me that God loves all his children, from conception to old age death, both those who know him and those who don't, the ones with blessings and the ones without. For now, I'll just have to trust that, because I don't always see it working in real time and place.

I'm thinking about little three year old Zack (not his real name) who is actually wanted by two different foster families who have been sharing custody of him for a year and a half. The original foster family who raised Zack from birth have negotiated every legal delay and trick to keep him, and although they signed off from the beginning on plans to adopt him (were told this was not an option), it is obviously their goal. The other foster family, which immediately stepped up to the plate when the state discovered it even existed (months after his birth), is Zack's uncle and his wife, who also raised his half sibling. Zack's birth parents are totally incapable of caring for child (although they have visitation rights) both by behavior and intelligence--the mother being mentally challenged and the father being the boyfriend of her mother (grandmother of the child--remember the movie "Precious?") who took advantage of the woman's low intelligence and had sex with her. So here's a little guy loved too much by people who are asking the court to split him down the middle. On the sidelines, I'm left to ponder what motivates people to even agree to raise a child of such doubtful intellectual heritage and future possibilities and problems--but I'm glad there are people willing to take such risks. That's a risk God takes with us, and one we don't see that often at our level. Both a stranger and a relative took him in and want him, and are now fighting over him with lawyers, judges, guardian ad litem, social workers and child psychologists in pitched battle over a little guy who is happy and well adjusted with both families.

The other special group of children God loves are those with Down and Fragile X syndromes. If you keep up with news from the pro-life community, or have followed the vilification of Sarah Palin and her Down Syndrome child born shortly before she was selected by McCain as a running mate in 2008, you know that over 90% of the children are now aborted after pregnancy testing reveals their condition. This has all sorts of ramifications for other families with mentally challenged children, because these families were strong backers of special health benefits, legislation and schooling for their children. They are now out of the advocacy business. But recently a mouse model in which the critical gene is knocked out has been developed that allows researchers to probe the synapses of brain neurons. Even later in life, mice with Down syndrome or fragile X syndrome (FXS) that are given targeted treatment can experience improvements in cognitive function. Findings from such animal studies have paved the way to human trials. And things are moving rather quickly. There is hope on the horizon that there will be therapeutics developed to help those with the most severe symptoms of stereotypic behavior, hyperactivity and inappropriate speech (Sci Transl Med. 2001:3[64] 64ral).

Other drugs are also being tested that show improved cognition in mouse models. One little mouse model, Ts65Dn, has been particularly useful in testing for memory deficits. This is wonderful news--but comes much too late for so many children killed before they saw the light of day. I wish all children, challenged or blessed with good health, could be as loved as little Trig Palin.

If the therapies under study for FXS and Down syndrome prove effective, the approach may have implications for other developmental disorders that involve invtellectual impairment or autism-like symptoms, or even more common disorders like Alzheimer Disease. The brain is more plastic than ever before imagined. (Summary of material from JAMA Jan. 26, 2011)