Dan Quayle right again--Single Moms at Midlife have more health problems

Remember Dan Quayle--how he was ridiculed for taking on the Murphy Brown single mom story line about 20 years ago? Oh, the press had a ball with that--said he was too dumb to know she was fiction. Then a few years later, the research shows that despite the income and social class of the mother, children of single mothers didn't thrive as well as children in two parent homes with a mom and a dad. It turns out that Uncle Sam can't be a step-father--even for those kids who don't need any financial assistance and have educated moms.

According to a growing body of social-scientific evidence, children in families disrupted by divorce and out-of-wedlock birth do worse than children in intact families on several measures of well-being. Children in single-parent families are six times as likely to be poor. They are also likely to stay poor longer. Twenty-two percent of children in one-parent families will experience poverty during childhood for seven years or more, as compared with only two percent of children in two parent families. A 1988 survey by the National Center for Health Statistics found that children in single-parent families are two to three times as likely as children in two-parent families to have emotional and behavioral problems. They are also more likely to drop out of high school, to get pregnant as teenagers, to abuse drugs, and to be in trouble with the law. Compared with children in intact families, children from disrupted families are at a much higher risk for physical or sexual abuse. Link to Barbara Dafoe Whitehead's article.

This study done at OSU shows that later marriage doesn't reverse some of the negative health affects of single motherhood. It "was beyond the scope of this study to determine why unwed mothers in general had poorer health than others. But other research suggests it may be related to the high levels of stress and the poor economic conditions faced by single moms." Or maybe women who don't take care of their bodies when it comes to sex, don't take care of it in other ways?

Single Moms Entering Midlife May Lead To Public Health Crisis

Seems God was on to something when he created marriage for man and woman.

Monday Memories--John Stolzenbach

John is retiring and Sunday June 26 will be his last Sunday to preach at Lytham Road campus of UALC where he pastors the two traditional services. When we began attending UALC we met John and Sue in the new member's class. They had started attending at the invitation of his brother Jim (now deceased), and we came because I had attended a women's event at UALC and met a number of women who formerly had been members of the church we were attending. Four couples in that class formed a small group Bible study, and four years later John who was a school teacher when we met him, became a Lutheran pastor. There are several fare-well events for John, and there will be another one on June 26. We attended one on May 26.

John's special gift from the Lord is a Servant's heart for the hurting Servants--like those grieving, divorced, addiction/recovery. He sees the many funerals he does as an opportunity to reach the lost as well as the family. He's also known for his sense of humor. After our daughter's wedding a Jewish friend said, "I don't think I ever had such a good time at a Christian wedding."

Our Savior, the Democrats | The Weekly Standard

"How does Wallis—the old Students for a Democratic Society agitator who touted the Vietcong in the 1970s and the Sandinistas in the 1980s, who denounced welfare reform in the 1990s as a betrayal of the poor, and whose funding by George Soros was exposed last year—enlist Catholic bishops and mainstream evangelicals in his endless political campaigns?"

Jesus can forgive the SDS stupidity, and he died for Wallis' sins against the poor and lying about Soros funding, but enlisting Christian leaders for a "circle of protection" around federal programs that primarily line the pockets of the well heeled government staff? Um, no. Even Jesus has his limits.

Our Savior, the Democrats | The Weekly Standard

Palin’s End Run

Canada Free Press: "The mainstream media have indignantly reported on Governor Sarah Palin’s barnstorming “One Nation” bus tour across the Eastern United States with sputtering speculation, crafty criticism, risible ridicule, and, as usual, insufficient insight. The reason for the media apoplexy is simple. Palin is the first potential national candidate to successfully demonstrate that today’s news organizations are yesterday’s news."

But that's not all. She's a woman who didn't ride into town on her husband or father's coattails, and the media just can't or won't accept that. They are very 20th century.
Palin’s End Run

School Application Criticized For Birth Questions

What is going on in California? Limits to the number of straight guys (2) on a soft-ball team and the judge says it's OK. Anti-semitism reeks in the anti-circumcision literature. Now a school asking for birthing delivery information?

School Application Criticized For Birth Questions « CBS Sacramento

81% of US Mosques Promote Jihad

"The minarets are our bayonets, the domes our helmets, the mosques our barracks and the faithful our army." Turkish nationalist poet Ziya Gokalp, 1912

Interesting survey which includes extensive links to sources on how American Moslems perceive themselves in a non-Islamic culture.

81% of US Mosques Promote Jihad

I didn't have a recipe, but. . .

I decided make mushroom soup. I knew I didn't have all the exotic ingredients chefs call for, but I did have chicken broth, olive oil, onions, celery, some butter and flour and ordinary not-so-wild mushrooms. Then as I was tasting it I thought, Hmm, a little wine might pep this up. But all I had was Merlot. After a few tablespoons I could see we would have pink soup, so I stopped there. However, a few hours later, it's just a nice taupe. I don't think it makes much difference in the flavor. I checked my blog and the last time I used beef broth and did use Merlot, but since it was darker, you couldn't see the color.

Unintended consequences again--hookworm

It seems a little might be good for you.

The Smart Set: Take Two Hookworms and Call Me in the Morning - May 6, 2011

Why we need legal immigrants

This morning I was shopping at a small center near Kenney Road and Old Henderson Road, the northern boundary for Upper Arlington, an up-scale suburb of Columbus, Ohio, where I live. As I looked around the stores, I decided over 50% are probably owned by immigrants. There were 4 or 5 hair and nail salons with English names, but Asian writing on the windows; a Turkish bakery; a Thai restaurant; an Indian restaurant; a belly dancing studio; a martial arts studio, a photography studio and some others I couldn't identify.

Owning your own home is not "the American dream," that's shelter and a hole in the financial boat, but owning your own business with the chance to become wealthy or have something to pass on to your children has been a dream of just about every immigrant group that has come by ship or plane, or on foot. I think Americans are sitting on their hands and wallets waiting for the government to do something about the economy, but immigrants are not waiting. They've escaped dictators, Communists, Socialists and anarchists. They've struggled and sacrificed and are willing to work 18 hour days, 7 days a week just for the opportunity to be in business.

I welcome these immigrants to my neighborhood.

Misquoting Republicans is a cottage industry for the media

Sarah Palin never said she could see Russia from her house. So who did say it?

It was actually comedian Tina Fey, who was impersonating Ms. Palin on Saturday Night Live who uttered this line that is now widely attributed to the former Alaska governor.

The basis for this line comes from a September 2008 interview with ABC News's Charles Gibson, who asked Palin what insights she had from her state being so close to Russia. She responded: "They're our next-door neighbors, and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska." Christian Science Monitor

But never mind the truth--ridiculing Republicans, especially if they are women, gets more sales.

The same article, however, really splits hairs about Al Gore's famous, "I invented the Internet." He used the word "created." Well, that's a short stretch isn't it?

Thousands of drug offenders will return to the old neighborhood early

What is Obama smoking? asks WSJ commentator. Would you want your neighborhood terrorized this way? Leftists think they do blacks (50% of the victims) a favor by releases black prisoners. Fewer policemen, more ex-cons--now that's not a good equation for black neighborhoods.

John Edwards charged with using campaign money to hide affair

. . . I was a creep, "but I did not break the law." Oh, come on John. How can anyone believe you about anything? You lied to your wife, your staff, your mistress, your children, your volunteers, to the American people. And to think you thought you could be the President of the United States. Your narcissism and delusion exceeds that of our current President.

John Edwards charged with using campaign money to hide affair | World news | The Guardian

A bad apple

This morning when I sliced the gorgeous, shiny red Braeburn apple for my breakfast, it turned out to be brown on the inside. No indication when I looked it over at the store and put it in the bag. Kind of like Rob Bell, a popular Christian preacher in the "emerging" tradition.

When you open up his teaching/
preaching/ books, the latest being "Love Wins" you'll find the shiny red part, i.e. God is love, in great shape and quite attractive. However, everything else--theology, church history, exegesis, eschatology, Christology, and Jesus is . . . well, brown and tasteless, with a slight whiff of mold--going back to at least 19th century universalism, and maybe to various heresies over 2,000 years.

If you are in an emergent church, head for the nearest exit, regardless of how friendly the congregation or engaging the pastor. They are playground Christians, and it's the historic meaning of words they are playing with.

See Kevin DeYoung's review of this book--it's excellent and thorough written with tough love. Also, be sure to read the nearly thousand comments: an engaging, popular preacher [Bell] also wins--people don't want the truth of Scripture. But as DeYoung notes, "The emerging church is not an evangelistic strategy. It is the last rung for evangelicals falling off the ladder into liberalism or unbelief."

Dumb and dumber jogger

A lady jogger appeared from nowhere crossing McCoy Road in Upper Arlington (35 mph, 4 lanes) in front of me. I braked. Thinking she must be heading for the sidewalk, I watched in the mirror, but she continued to run against traffic in the street--pushing a one-seat jogging stroller with 2 children, a toddler and an infant. With the canopy down, she can't even see the kids. If you jog, concentrate on the jogging; if you're watching children, do that. Don't multitask at the risk of your children's lives, or causing an accident crossing busy streets.

I wonder if it was the same gal, but with more clothes on? Same neighborhood, same coloring, similar build.

What becomes of electronic waste?

Today I control more electronic gadgets in a day in my own house than what I would do in a year in 1977 when I returned to work in a high tech computerized library at a university of 50,000. Three digital cameras (there's a 4th in a drawer), a video camera, 3 scanners, 2 printers, 2 computers (a 3rd not connected), 2 email accounts, a phone/fax, a cable network, a wireless network, a copier (2 if you count the one in the scanner), 12 blogs with the information stored off-site, Facebook account, 3 cd players, DVD player and VCR, 6 or more remotes, microwave, various digital clocks that blink and flip if the power goes off, an i-pod, 2 cell phones one with a camera, and 3 cordless phones one with an answering machine. We have 6 TVs (4 cable connected, 2 with antennas). We also have 6 radios in the house, but the one with batteries which would be useful in a storm I can't find. In 1977 we had one TV and one telephone and maybe 2 radios. If we had batteries, they were in the car or flashlight.

In 1957, the year I graduated from high school, my parents had electric clocks with moving hands, maybe 3 radios, but no TV, or AC or even an electric fan in the house. Only children rode bicycles. The U.S. mail was delivered twice a day by mailmen who walked, we received 2 newspapers at the door, and one local weekly, plus numerous magazine subscriptions. Thirty five or 55 years ago, the American family had a much smaller footprint, even with a car that only got 11 miles/gallon, but I don't know very many greenies who would give up their computers, cell phones, or cameras. Do you?

Our kitchen clock when I was growing up.



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Your home is shelter, not a retirement nest egg or a bank or a tax shelter

"Since the housing market began to turn in 2007, Washington has tried to keep prices from falling with every policy gimmick known to politics: Foreclosure mitigation, more guarantees from the FHA, higher guarantee thresholds from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Fed purchase of mortgage assets, and the $8,000 home buyer's tax credit promoted by the White House and Georgia Republican Senator Johnny Isakson.

Their main result, other than subsidizing some Americans at the expense of others, has been to sustain the housing recession over a longer period of time. The price decline would have been sharper without them, but the recovery would have happened sooner." Review & Outlook, WSJ, June 2, 2011

Investigators Track Osama bin Laden's Couriers

Interesting verbs in this article: channels of inquiry; probe; detained for questioning; pursue connections; under scrutiny. If you had to be interrogated about terrorist connections with the couriers for bin Laden, Abrar and Ibrahim Said Ahmad (killed in the raid), which would be more harsh, the Pakistanis or the Americans?

Investigators Track Osama bin Laden's Couriers - WSJ.com

Chicken Littleism: More Weather Deaths?

The warmist mongerers are at it again. They claim deaths from weather caused by fossil fuels are on the increase. Really?

The annual number of deaths caused by tornadoes, floods and hurricanes, of course, varies. For example, the number of persons killed by these weather events in 1972 was 703 while the number killed in 1988 was 72. But amid this variance is a clear trend: The number of weather-related fatalities, especially since 1980, has dropped dramatically.

For the 30-year span of 1980-2009, the average annual number of Americans killed by tornadoes, floods and hurricanes was 194—fully one-third fewer deaths each year than during the 1940-1979 period. The average annual number of deaths for the years 1980-2009 falls even further, to 160 from 194, if we exclude the deaths attributed to Hurricane Katrina, most of which were caused by a levee that breached on the day after the storm struck land.

This decline in the absolute number of deaths caused by tornadoes, floods and hurricanes is even more impressive considering that the population of the United States more than doubled over these years—to 308 million in 2010 from 132 million in 1940.

And I guess death from heat exhaustion in the summer from lack of electricity for fans and AC or pneumonia and colds in the winter from lack of heat don't count.

Donald Boudreaux: More Weather Deaths? Wanna Bet? - WSJ.com

Duke University Lacrosse players rape case redux

Usually, I don't cite Wikipedia, but this case has so many links and details, it's the only reasonable thing to do. The Duke University Lacrosse players rape charges by a stripper, Crystal Magnum.

If ever there has been a gender/race/class case where educated, informed liberals, both academics and journalists, behaved this badly, I've missed it. Anyway, Crystal Magnum continued to get in trouble with men, and now is behind bars for murder, having stabbed her boyfriend in April, and he died a few weeks later. Before that she had been in jail for arson. And I don't think the Gang of 88, the Duke Faculty who sign and published a letter against the team, ever recanted or apologized. That's racism run amok.

There are probably people who continue to pay the high tuition costs of Duke, but if I were a parent, I wouldn't even consider letting my child step foot on the campus. The behavior of Duke's faculty, those tenured hoodlums, is the flip side of lynching in the days of Jim Crow, and white men just aren't safe in that atmosphere.

45 Seconds: Memoirs of an ER Doctor from May 22, 2011

A doctor on duty when the tornado hit the hospital in Joplin describes his experience of treating patients with no pain meds, no electricity, no equipment and leaking methane.

"“Like a bomb went off” — That’s the only way that I can describe what we saw next. Patients were coming into the ED in droves. It was absolute, utter chaos. They were limping, bleeding, crying, terrified, with debris and glass sticking out of them, just thankful to be alive. The floor was covered with about 3 inches of water. There was no power, not even backup generators, rendering it completely dark and eerie in the ED. The frightening aroma of methane gas leaking from the broken gas lines permeated the air — we knew, but did not dare mention aloud, what that meant. I redoubled my pace."

45 Seconds: Memoirs of an ER Doctor from May 22, 2011 « The Central Line