A beautiful day in the neighborhood

Today I began the morning with a 7 a.m. prayer time in the sanctuary, then church at 8:15 at Lytham Road, then over to Mill Run where I attended the 9:30 service, the coffee chat time with friends, then took dinner to my friend Eleanor who lives near by MR. Home then for a nap, and at 4 p.m. attended the spring concert by the choir and hand bell choir at Lytham Road.

Putting a stop to my student loan calls

Lately, we've been getting robo calls about student loans. We don't have any, of course. Neither one of us ever borrowed money from the federal government to attend college. In fact, the Department of Education didn't exist when we were in college--it's a boondoggle of a more recent era--Carter, I believe.

So I looked them up, but didn't find a way to send an e-mail without providing all sorts of personal information. These days you don't even know if a website is for real and might be stealing your information. So I phoned instead, and the first thing when I got through press one for English, and thank you for waiting all lines are busy now, was a request for my social security number and zip code, which I provided. Then the nice young lady told me I wasn't in her database. So I told her that was why I was calling. When I gave her my husband's name, she said it was him and not me they were trying to reach. I told her he was 73 and also had never had a college loan (have you noticed how college costs have increased with the availability of loans?)

So she assured me the calls would stop. I think there's an angry, stood up first wife trying to find this same guy who's delinquent on his student loan.

The price of pop corn

I finally saw The King's Speech at the $1 theater yesterday afternoon. What a terrific movie. But why is a small popcorn $5.25 if the ticket to get in is $1.50? So I passed on that treat. Didn't I read that theaters make more on food than on tickets?

Even at home I've gone to popping up a few tablespoons in a pan rather than doing the prepackaged in the microwave. Cheaper and fewer unknown, unpronounceable elements. It's the difference between a minute and 3 minutes.

So I asked Google--why does movie popcorn cost so much? And Stanford University has researched this:

Research from Stanford Graduate School of Business and the University of California, Santa Cruz suggests that there is a method to theaters’ madness—and one that in fact benefits the viewing public. By charging high prices on concessions, exhibition houses are able to keep ticket prices lower, which allows more people to enjoy the silver-screen experience.

So I guess it's OK--I can enjoy a cheap movie because some people don't care if they pay $5-$7 for pop corn. It seems that the big buyers of popcorn will come to see anything--it's those of us who only go to the movies occasionally and are more discriminating about the movies, that refuse to pay those outrageous prices. Also, if I'd gone to the movie with a group, rather than alone, statistically, there was a better chance I'd buy food.

Who knew?

Also, some people don't care about the calories. Popcorn is really a low calorie snack, unless you eat a large movie container with butter, which racks up to about 1200 calories. The Nannies are urging labeling of buttered popcorn at movies, as though the general public can't tell it has more calories than carrot and celery sticks (which would make too much noise in a theater, betcha).

Anyway, a great move, and I'm glad I went, with or without popcorn. Go see it if you haven't. It's more fun in a theate than at home on the couch.

I love a bargain

This morning I visited the new Volunteers of America Thrift Store on Henderson Road. I found a nice t-shirt from Talbot's and in walking to the back of the store to look at books, I found a pair of slacks that matched the t-shirt (things are arranged by color in this store). The book I bought is Gutenberg's Gift by Nancy Willard, illustrated by Bryan Leister. But the "paper engineer" is Bruce Foster. Here's a video of him explaining the book process.

History lessons for liberals

Who is teaching history to those under 50? Like President Obama? George Will points out some glaring deficiencies in the understanding of our country--even by our President who seems to believe that historically, Texas was a Republican state and that "fundamentally" means anything Obmama wants it to mean.

Liberals think Medicare and Social Security as they exist are “fundamental” to the nation’s identity. But liberals think the Constitution — which the Framers meant to be fundamental, meaning constituting, law — should be construed as a “living” document, continually evolving to take different meanings under whatever liberals consider new social imperatives.

History lessons for Obama and other liberals - The Washington Post

Hispandering--Obama on the campaign trail with amnesty

Amnesty: IRCA was its name during the Reagan years. Republicans rose up against President Bush when he tried it--and his was a bid for Hispanic votes too.

On November 6, 1986, after thirty-four years with no new major immigration legislation and a six-year effort to send an acceptable bill through both houses of Congress, the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA; PL 99-603) was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. IRCA tried to resolve the following problems:

•Jobs lost by citizens and taken by illegal aliens, with resulting lower wages paid to illegal aliens
•Costs of services and welfare for illegal aliens and their low tax payments
•Exploitation of illegal aliens
•Social fragmentation of local communities
•The need to reestablish the power of law and the principle of U.S. sovereignty

To control illegal immigration IRCA adopted three major strategies:

•Legalization of a portion of the undocumented population (aliens in the country without legal papers), thereby reducing the number of aliens illegally resident in the United States
•Sanctions against employers who knowingly hired illegal aliens
•Additional border enforcement to impede further unlawful entries

Read more:

So did IRCA work? No, especially not the improved border patrol that was promised. But through familial chains (each amnestied family member bringing in other family members--parents, aunts, uncles, siblings, etc.), it exacerbated the problem. So instead of 3 million, we have 11 million, although no one knows for sure. The media will only report the sob stories of children brought into the country and now graduating from high school with the U.S. the only country they have known. Hispanics (a made up word) now outnumber African Americans as our largest minority, and their leaders are becoming more militant and anarchist each day, wiping out the gains made by other minorities.

LA RAZA DEMANDS oBAMA'S HEALTH REFORM PLAN COVER ILLEGAL ALIENS

Rep. Gutierrez Demands Amnesty Through Executive Order Will Obama comply with his demands? - Yahoo! Answers

Radical California Latino Lawmaker Pushes Amnesty, and Freebies for Illegal Aliens | UNCOVERAGE.net

Complete text of President Obama’s immigration speech in El Paso | Texas on the Potomac | a Chron.com blog

The speech of the President in El Paso in tone and text, was one of the worst I've ever heard--sarcastic, whiny, insulting, and degrading to all.

Just as we have hard ship cases on other laws, for instance for refugees, I'm sure something can be done here--take some of the legal resources currently used by Holder and Obama to take apart our system, and focus them on anchor baby high school graduates who are at risk of having their parents deported.

I'm all for immigration--my ancestors were immigrants in the 1730s. There were rules and procedures then, too. Had to swear allegiance to the King of England. But no more amnesty for those who came here illegally, or were brought in illegally by coyotes, their own parents, some trafficking in persons plan or the Mexican mafia drug cartel. Let Mexico clean up its own country, close its own poverty gap, and arrest its own criminals. The stipends that U.S. illegals send home is floating Mexico's economy, delaying its economic growth.

Mexico's immigration and citizenship rules are much stricter than the U.S. Let's take a look at how they do it.

Income sources for wealthy retirees

The problem with Obama's desire to raise taxes is it is a job killer and a way to punish the successful--the dream of all socialists/marxists who want the power of the purse over everyone, not just the poor. I've never been in the top quintile of income, but I have roamed around the other four. And I've had a good life. The bottom quintile was when I was a married college student in 1961 living in an apartment with no car, and a job translating Russian medical journals, warming up baby bottles and changing diapers, and using a wringer washer 3 flights down that took quarters. The fourth quintile was when we were "DINKS" double-income-no-kids after the children left home in the late 80s, early 90s when I was an Associate Professor and my husband was a partner in a small architectural firm. Now we're both retired, and probably hovering between second and third.

But there are definitely wealthy retirees. Among people in the highest quintile who are technically "retired," 43.7% of their income comes from wages, salaries and self employment. Only 18.7% of their income in that group comes from private pensions, IRAs, annuities, etc. So when Obama is successful in raising taxes by scolding Americans about being stingy and greedy, this is the group who can afford to just stop earning income. That means zip, nada zilch to your state government coffers too. Now that's a huge problem, because unlike the feds, the state governments can't just print more money. They are obligated by law to stay on budget. Raising taxes collects less money for the government--especially from rich people who either can take their business off shore, hire a smart tax lawyer or just stop earning until somebody wises up after the next election.

But it's also a big problem for the government to be taking in a lot as it did during the Bush tax cut years, because politicians, whether Democrat or Republican, just salivate when they see those numbers, so instead of paying down the debt, they just increase the government programs.

Source for figures (not opinion) "Income of the Aged Chartbook, 2008," issued by the Social Security Administration, although I can't find a picture that exactly matches those--this one is close.

Detroit is Functionally Illiterate

Over 50 years of Democrats' stranglehold on the city, and 47% of adults in Detroit are illiterate. That means they can't read, or don't care about the report that says "Detroit spent $15,945 per pupil for the 2010-2011 school year. By comparison, the average per pupil expenditure during the 2007-2008 school year nationally was $10,259."

And look folks, it's certainly not the Teachers' fault--and their union will tell you so.

"The Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT), however, is adamant that the problem actually lies with the city’s failure to effectively enforce school attendance.

“I don’t think that that the teachers’ union has a responsibility for making sure that adults can read,” DFT president Keith Johnson told TheDC."

Detroit | Functionally Illiterate | National Institute for Literacy | The Daily Caller

The Report

Conspiracy Theories by Cass Sunstein, Adrian Vermeule

Media Matters thinks it's a Glenn Beck conspiracy theory to believe Cass Sunstein is dangerous. He is an Obama czar married to one of Obama's top advisors, Samantha Power (he dumped his live-in Chicago lawyer girl friend of many years who helped his career and who believed his drivel that marriage wasn't for him to marry and procreate with the half-his-age, sexy babe). She's the one who advised Obama about Libya. Now, how is that working out? So what are we to make of Sunstein's theories on conspiracy theories--that the federal government needs to infiltrate groups and put a stop to them with misinformation and co-option? Does Donald Trump come to mind? Read his paper and see if you aren't worried that he has both Obama's large ears. His and Samantha's.

SSRN-Conspiracy Theories by Cass Sunstein, Adrian Vermeule

Threats against trains in the U.S.

I'm a little surprised that the threats against trains by al-qaeda haven't been taken more seriously. I haven't been on Amtrack since 2003, but because they come into the central city of every major metropolitan area, and there was nothing in the way of security checks that I could see in Chicago or LA, at least not like the airports, it would seem to be prudent to heed their warnings. Maybe things have changed in 7 years.

Evidence collected from Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan indicates that Al Qaeda considered launching a terrorist strike against America's rail system, U.S. officials said Thursday, though there was no sign of concrete plans to carry out an attack.

The plot was "aspirational," said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information.

Al Qaeda plot: Osama bin Laden raid reveals evidence of terrorist plot against U.S. rail system - Los Angeles Times

Ohio Alerted Of al-Qaeda Railroad Threat | WBNS-10TV, Central Ohio News

A rather odd, quiet Mother's Day

On April 30 I began having back spasms after a little weed pulling at our lake home. I didn't feel much until I sat down on our soft couch and tried to get up. It was the worst I've ever had--like labor pains only in my back. I've never been this old or this heavy, so I suspect that might have something to do with it. But by Tuesday after ice packs, Advil and switching to a heating pad, I was able to get around. By Friday I was able to drive, and we had plans for church with our daughter, and then lunch at our son's home in Canal Winchester. On Saturday I began having some vertigo and thought I might have the flu, but took some Dramamine (for my ears and motion sickness) and cancelled the holiday plans. Because I wasn't going to do anything that required sitting or moving around, my husband headed for the lake to mow the lawn and do general yard clean up because he's heading for Haiti soon and won't be able to get to it. So. . . I spent Mother's Day alone, in a back brace, but with my new and wonderful . . ThermiPaq which my daughter gave me as a Mother's Day gift, beautifully wrapped with a card. You can either put them (she gave me 2, one large, one small) in the freezer for icing an injury, or the microwave for stiffness, cramps or muscle pain. Love it! I think this is a practical gift, and one I'll continue to use.

I did go to exercise class today, but mainly walked for 45 minutes rather than do the weight lifting and crunches. Baby steps, baby steps. Easy does it.

Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti: Bin Laden's trusted courier Asharq Alawsat Newspaper (English)

According to Noman Bin Osman: "Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, the Al Qaeda courier who unwittingly led US intelligence to Bin Laden's hideout, was a man of Pakistani descent born in Kuwait, . . . a trusted aide and confidant of a number of senior Al Qaeda leadership, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Farah al-Libi, and Abdul Hadi al-Iraqi. . . and he and his brother were killed in the US attack on the Bin Laden residential compound in the affluent town of Abbottabad in Pakistan. . . . He was "transferring messages between Osama Bin Laden and senior Al Qaeda leadership located throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan." More.

Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti: Bin Laden's trusted courier Asharq Alawsat Newspaper (English)

College Assistance Migrant Program (Camp) -College Grants In Ohio

I hope this is a machine translation from Spanish into English. If not, the writer needs to return to 5th grade immediately and see if he can pass English composition.

"While looking around the Internet, I decided to see the Ohio factor of Education online to muse what kind of attainments and grant programs that the state education agency offered considering its high drill graduates, and I came up with approximately five scholarships offered at the Ohio element of Education’s website. The official website address is located at ode.state.oh.us, where you obligation also obtain information on grants that are offered through the Ohio measure of Education for continuing education, adult education, besides college grants in Ohio."

College Assistance Migrant Program (Camp) -College Grants In Ohio | currencytradingtoday.com

These scholarships are only for agricultural workers (migrants), so I think that eliminates landscapers, fry cooks, roofers, and day care workers. And probably legal residents and citizens.

Time to Celebrate?

"No doubt, very few of those who voted for Barack Obama in 2008 anticipated that the high point of his administration would be the extra-judicial killing of a terrorist leader by a team of Navy SEALs. This, as our involvement in Iraq winds down on the Bush administration's timetable, the war in Afghanistan has been stepped up, and a third conflict in Libya has been commenced. But for the Democrats, any port in a storm: they are happy to celebrate victories wherever they can find them."

Power Line - Time to Celebrate?

New photo for ALA's banned book week (BBW)

Eventually, when the noise dies down about the May 1 killing of Osama bin Laden, and leftists and anarchists in ALA get some composure, maybe they could use this photo in their next BBW poster?

Banned books are not banned at all, so it is a big hoax--maybe to draw people to the American Library Association site, or to make librarians look good, protecting your freedoms. Frankly, I complained about the children's librarian reading aloud "Little Black Sambo" at UAPL when my children were little back in the 1970s. Wouldn't you? According to library stats, a complaint equals a ban. Everything from Huckleberry Finn to Harry Potter are on the ALA's list--and when was the last time you couldn't get them from a public library? And just try to get the "young adult" title about a transgendered werewolf 12 year old who murders her/his step mother because she turned down oral sex. It won't happen--i.e., it won't be removed from the shelf. But it might make the list!

Banned Books Week doesn't roll around until the fall, but stay alert. I'm sure they will have resurrected OBL by then, and the U.S. will be the worst of the worst for taking out this murderer, not just of Americans, but of thousands of Muslims also.

Of course, not buying Christian or Conservative titles is definitely NOT BANNING. I've been told that, too. It just means not many people want to read them. Just remember this tip. Banning begins with the book budget, not with your complaints.

Healthcare Costlier All Around for Afib Patients - in Clinical Context, Strokes from MedPage Today

I had no idea that A-fib was so expensive! Atrial fibrillation patients are generally sicker than those who don't have atrial fibrillation which apparently accounts for the higher costs. According to this article

Treating patients with atrial fibrillation costs the U.S. an estimated $26 billion more per year than treating patients who don't have the condition, researchers reported after extrapolating 2008 data for 2010.

Total direct medical costs were estimated to be 73% higher in atrial fibrillation patients than in matched control subjects, representing a net incremental cost of $8,705 per patient per year, according to Michael H. Kim, MD, from Northwestern University in Chicago, and colleagues.

The estimated annual cost included $6 billion related directly to atrial fibrillation, $9.9 billion for cardiovascular risk factors or disease, and $10.1 billion for noncardiovascular medical problems, according to the study published online in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

Medical News: Healthcare Costlier All Around for Afib Patients - in Clinical Context, Strokes from MedPage Today

Torturing the Truth at Duke Divinity

You really wonder why this guy doesn't find a country and university cushy position more to his liking. He thinks it's torture of a different kind to live and work here! Poor cry baby. I wonder what the women in his life think about women's freedom under Sharia law?

"Being a Muslim in the United States is another form of torture, a psychological torture, an emotional torture, and it's just getting worse," [Abdulla Antepli first Muslim chaplin at Duke University] he declared at the "Toward a Moral Consensus against Torture" conference at Duke University on March 25-26. The conference attracted approximately 100 left-wing academics, theologians, and members of the local activist community for some old-fashioned America-bashing.

Antepli revealed that this so-called "torture" is not the result of overt acts directed at him, but comes from his perception that many Americans are antagonistic to Muslims and expect Muslims "to prove our loyalty to this land." Such demands to "prove that we belong" stem from a "great level of arrogance," he added.

Antepli's condemnation of America did not stop there. He claimed that our government's use of torture (if that is what we have indeed been doing) is merely a "symptom of a larger pathological issue." American society, he contended, has been suffering from a "psychological, spiritual, moral disease."

No mention was made about how Islamic societies compare in this regard. If America is a "sick" society -- and Islamic societies are healthy -- then why are Muslims flocking to our shores in large numbers?

American Thinker: Torturing the Truth at Duke Divinity

How have Christians fared in Turkey? Turkey is the birthplace and home of Christianity, the ecumentical councils where the faith was hammered out, home of the Revelations John received from Christ, location of the largest Christian church in the ancient world, now converted to a mosque. When we visited the ruins in Turkey our guide reported less than 1% of the population are Christians and they are tightly controlled.

Yes, this cleric does indeed know how to torture the truth, and shame on Duke for hiring him to preach his blather and nastiness to minds of mush. But Duke Divinity School was founded by the United Methodists who have seriously strayed since the glory days of Wesley and the Great Awakenings in the United States. Duke needs an "awakening."

Let's add wife and child abuse to bin Laden's list of crimes

One of the versions that has come out about the May 1 raid is that one of his favorite wives was with him, that he married her when she was 15 (had to divorce one of the others) and that she hadn't left the compound in 6 years. Sounds like a Muslim to me!

"A wise friend of mine once opined that Islam's entire quarrel with the West rests on its fear that Western values will undermine Islam's control over its women and, with that, its control over the men who benefit from a system that subjugates one half of the population to the control of the other half. There's a great deal of truth in that observation.

Unlike most other conflicts, Islam's quarrel with the West does not revolve around borders, water supplies, or economic control over assets. Instead, it focuses on culture -- and the heart of the Islamic cultural difference with the West, at least in the Muslim mind, is Islam's statist determination to erase a woman's individuality through control over her sexuality.

In the Muslim world, women are viewed as temptresses, and men as feeble creatures incapable of resisting feminine wiles. The only way to control the anarchy that this perceived sexual imbalance creates is for the State -- and remember that Islam and the State are indistinguishable from each other -- to exert total dominion over the women within its reach.

The best way to regulate women is to remove them entirely from view. Islam has traditionally relied upon harems to isolate women from view (and, not coincidentally, from the body politic). This practice is still used in Saudi Arabia, where women may not leave the home unless they are accompanied by a male family member."

And then on to Leftist values and sexuality in the same Bookworm essay:

"The relentless Leftist obsession with homosexuality and variations on traditional sexual gender roles is deeply embedded in the Obama administration. Last year, a vigilant blogger exposed the fact that Kevin Jennings, Obama's "Safe Schools Czar," as part of his leadership role in the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network ("GLSEN"), aggressively promoted child pornography in the classroom. GLSEN's actions had nothing to do with creating a safe, non-discriminatory environment for young people with different sexual orientations and everything to do with using the government (i.e., public schools) to inculcate in children the notion that their bodies have no boundaries. A body with no boundaries, of course, is a body that can easily be decoupled from the individual's control and then ceded to the state."

American Thinker: Sex and State Power

Obama killed Osama and we got the 72 versions

That I saw on a t-shirt (on-line), so I can't credit--didn't notice who was selling it. But the versions we've been getting from the White House came from a reader JJ at Bookworm, a conservative site.

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1) There was a firefight.
2) There was no firefight.
3) Bin Laden was “resisting.”
4) Bin Laden wasn’t armed. (Makes the concept of “resisting” interesting.)
[4.a) And the newest one: the SEALS thought bin Laden was reaching for a weapon.]
5) He used his wife as a shield.
6) His wife was killed too.
7) He didn’t use his wife as a shield. She ran at a SEAL who shot her in the leg, but she’s fine.
8 ) Some other woman — the maid? — was used as a shield. By somebody. Downstairs.
9) That other woman — downstairs — was killed.
10) Maybe not. She was killed unless she wasn’t — and who was she, anyway?
11) Bin Laden’s son was killed.
12) Unless it was some other guy.
13) Bin Laden’s daughter saw him get killed. She’s undoubtedly traumatized, poor dear.
14) They were going to capture Bin Laden until the problem with the helicopter, which was:

A) It had mechanical trouble
B) It did a hard landing
C) It crashed
D) It clipped a wall with a tail rotor, effectively a crash

15.) They were never going to try to capture him; it was always a kill mission.
16.) No, it wasn’t.
17) The chopper blew up.
18) The SEALs blew it up.
19.) Panetta said yesterday the world needed proof and the photo would be released.
20.) Obama said today in an interview he taped with Steve Kroft for “60 Minutes” to be broadcast Sunday that it won’t be released. It’s too gruesome, would offend Muslim sensibilities (something he worries about a lot — I personally do not give a warm fart on a wet Wednesday about Muslim sensibilities), and how would Americans feel if Muslims released pictures of dead Americans?
21.) Kroft — who’s not a total idiot — pointed out that ever since “Black Hawk Down” days, Muslims have been doing precisely that, filming American bodies being dragged through the streets, filming Daniel Pearl’s head being cut off, filming any and everything.
22) Obama gets pissed at CBS, the tape gets cleaned up, that question disappears. (Inside info.)
23.) We got a “treasure trove” of stuff from hard drives, etc.
24.) There were no phone lines, and no internet access at the “mansion,” they didn’t even have TV — what “treasure trove?”
25.) There is obviously in the pictures of the place a large satellite dish. I guess they used it for making salads.
26.) And now, just today: apparently the idea was to capture him, but only if he was naked. There was a suspicion he might be wearing a suicide bomber type explosive vest, or belt. So if he’s not naked and you can’t see if he has a vest on or not – shoot him.

The idiot Carney — they actually managed to find someone who makes Gibbs look good — is currently twisting himself into knots trying to explain why the photograph that the whole world was expecting isn’t going to be released. (Obviously the thing to do is get Trump on the case, he’ll force Obama to release it.)

The military did great, the administration — or whatever that bunch is, kind of like “The Little Rascals” — have managed to turn it into spaghetti. The story has changed so many times in the course of a mere three days it’s a joke — the world would be better off if Panetta had left the little shitwit on the golf course.

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You've got to feel just a little bit sorry for Carney. I'll bet Gibbsy is soooo glad to have left that job! And don't you just love the photoshopped version of the Fergie daughter hat?

Dear 16 year old me

May is Melanoma Awareness Month and The David Cornfield Melanoma Fund (DCMF) has starting the month off with a powerful new awareness video.

The video, titled "Dear 16-year-old Me", was created to promote awareness and education of this potentially fatal disease, particularly among teenagers and young adults.

The video features real Canadians and Americans talking to their 16-year-old selves, warning them about sun-safety.

Send it to a teenager who loves the sun.