Who's the bigger hypcrite?

Bob Conners on WTVN this morning interviewed a woman named Heather about some awards for really "bad-for-you" restaurant food, where a serving might have enough sugar and cholesterol for 3 days, and enough calories to fuel you for an entire day. I was waiting for one more nanny-state recommendation like eating green or planting a garden, but then she surprised me with her own hypocrisy. She put herself through graduate studies in nutrition by working at the Cheesecake Factory (and she was bold enough to claim you could eat healthy there if you reduced your portions, which of course no one does. You don't go to the Cheesecake Factory for a low-calorie, healthy meal.) She said her customers always looked a bit shame faced when she told them what she was studying, because they knew without being told, that they weren't eating right.

This is a different case, but I can recall NOT applying for the Women's Studies Library position at Ohio State University back in the 80s because I knew, 1) I would be required to buy, disseminate and distribute materials that violated my personal ethics, and that, 2) I wouldn't be able to do a good job for the people who needed that library for their research because of my own beliefs. Sure, I could've slipped in a title or two with a Christian viewpoint, but who would be fooled by that?

Everyone makes choices, Heather. You could've worked in the Human Ecology library and made less, but with a clear conscience.

2012: The End of the World As We Know It

"Like a replicating amoeba, America is pulling apart into two separate cultures. One is strongly committed to the birth of an even more robust, pro-growth, entrepreneurial capitalism. The other thinks Che Guevara and Karl Marx had important social insights relevant to America today, and wants to follow the path of Juan Peron 's Argentina, if not Hugo Chavez's Venezuela. This is the stark choice facing the American people in 2012." Read the rest: The American Spectator : 2012: The End of the World As We Know It

It's just too darn hot

Ella Fitzgerald sang that, and probably the lyrics are too racy to post, so I won't.

I walked for 10 minutes at 7:30 and at 8:45 went out for another 20 minutes. I stepped aside for the joggers, not out of respect because truly I think they are crazy, but because I didn't want to be splatter with sweat!

It's in the 90's here in Columbus with a heat index over 100, but there has been plenty of rain. That keeps things lush and green, but a bit like being in a steam bath. The Nationwide PGA tournament is going on across the street--I think it would be awfully hot on the golf course. Lots of trucks, toilets and traffic for tournaments this big.

Yesterday on my way to get my hair cut I was driving along Rt. 33 and noticed a change in the road crews from 2 or 3 years ago. Remember all those jobs Americans wouldn't do at 4.5% unemployment? At 9.2% they are doing them quite nicely. The crews are older, lighter and taller. (Although I wish they'd wear safety goggles when using tree chippers.) There could be two things happening: Mexican workers have gone home, or even the state is checking for illegal documents and complying with the law.

Didn't see any women. During the blush years of the feminism of the 70s, you saw women trying everything from carpentry to road work to truck deliveries. If they stayed with it, they probably got promoted to a desk job, and younger women decided they'd try something cooler and more attractive even if the pay and perks weren't that great.

Right here in Ohio--O’Keefe’s latest sting target: Medicaid bureaucrats

The Ohio Medicaid female employees assisting these "Russian drug dealers" seem to have passed their customer/client workshops with flying colors. They are helpful and friendly, assuring them that Medicaid workers won't look for drugs, and offering advice on Planned Parenthood services for abortions for their underage "sisters" who "do favors" for customers. To me this is a bigger problem than the ACORN videos (which apparently these women never watched since they got so little coverage on the main stream media) in which illegals were being helped. The "Russian" even calls back to thank them and assure them nothing like this sort of help would be offered in Russia. I bet not.

O’Keefe’s latest sting target: Medicaid bureaucrats « Hot Air

In the video, the men explain to Ohio Medicaid workers that they are Russian immigrants who sell illegal drugs, drive a modified McLaren F1 sports car with a gold-coated engine, and use their underage sisters to perform sexual favors in exchange for drugs.
In response, Ohio employees tasked with disbursing federal Medicaid dollars are shown coaching the men through the process of applying for benefits. “If it’s not something registered here, maybe I just wouldn’t mention it,” a Franklin County Medicaid officer named Traci Daniels tells the men, when asked whether they should mention owning a vehicle that retails for nearly $1 million, as they apply for government aid designed to help poor people. “Not that I can say that. You didn’t hear that from me. But, that would right there, that would throw him off. He would be immediately not qualified.”

The Association between Penis Size and Sexual Health among Men Who Have Sex with Men

I found 251 matches on Google for this author and the grant number "t32 da07233" that supported this and other non-essential sex research. I suspect most gay men know the answers to his questions, and if there's a way to be paid for sex and not be a pimp or prostitute, Mr. Grov has apparently found it. As our Congress and President spar between the teams of "revenue" (increased taxes) and reduced spending (cuts), I hope they consider that we are overloaded with frivolous wasteful government jobs that pay the mortgage for one employee but don't benefit the public.

The Association between Penis Size and Sexual Health among Men Who Have Sex with Men

Now with a title like this, we'll see how good my filter and spam catcher is.

At the bus stop on Kenny Road

The group waiting at the suburban bus stop on Kenny Road was the picture of American diversity. We don't have very good public transportation in Columbus, so I'm guessing this bus was going somewhere near the OSU campus or downtown. Without my naming gender or ethnicity, I'll just say that some were listening to music nodding their heads (at least you don't need boomboxes anymore), some were talking animatedly with their hands, one was leaning out into the street to see where the bus was, and one was sitting on the ground quietly reading a book--a real book, a print on paper book.

The one reading a book was Asian--don't know if he was Japanese or Chinese or Indonesian or Korean. But I think he is a good example of why Asian immigrants do so well in the United States. There are only 20,000 genes in the human body, and all groups are 99.9% the same in make-up, but there seems to be something about the free market and the mix if genes in Asians that works very effectively. Maybe the ones wanting hand-outs and government control of their lives stayed in the old country, I don't know, but when I look around my neighborhood, there is no shortage of small, family run businesses owned by Asian immigrants.

Where Are All the New Jobs?

Given all the uncertainty and the oppressive regulations currently in effect with promises of more to come, would you expand your business or start a new business?

Where Are All the New Jobs? | John Goodman's Health Policy Blog | NCPA.org

Another Obama Lie Exposed: 85% of Bush Tax Cuts Went to Middle Class, Not the Rich

Well, maybe "a lie" is a bit harsh. He thinks the middle class is wealthy and they should give more money to the government to run his new and extended programs, or to help the economy emplode. It's not a lie if you think like a liar! Since half the people don't pay federal taxes, don't the rest by definition have to be "the rich?"



From CNN, Dec. 10. 2010

Bush tax cuts: $544.3 billion. The package would extend the Bush tax cuts for everyone for two years.

The bulk of that cost -- $463 billion -- is for the extension of cuts for families making less than $250,000, including two years of relief for 2010 and 2011 for the middle class from the Alternative Minimum Tax.

The rest -- $81.5 billion -- is attributable to the extension of cuts that apply to the highest income families.

The cost of extending all the tax cuts over 10 years would have been $3.7 trillion.

Another Obama Lie Exposed: 85% of Bush Tax Cuts Went to Middle Class, Not the Rich (Video) | The Gateway Pundit

JAMA: State Should Seize Fat Children from Parents

I haven't seen the July 13 issue of JAMA yet, but it contains an opinion piece that suggests obese children might need to be removed from their parents' home. Yes, and that's because the state has done such a wonderful job in those areas already assigned to it.

Jonathan Bean, who I believe teaches at Ohio State, writes: "Disclosure: I was a “super-obese” teenager at 320 lbs. My brothers were normal weight. My parents urged me to limit my diet but I ate secretly. Then, on my own, I lost 140 lbs in a single year and have kept if off for 28 years (I’m 10 lb over my 21 year old weight). That was my decision. Imagine if the know-it-alls in DCFS had put me in foster care, supervised by my new rotating parents and caring social workers. Yes, children, this is our Brave New World fast in the making."

JAMA: State Should Seize Fat Children from Parents | The Beacon

I think they are panicking because childhood obesity has leveled off in the last decade, and they fear a funding source might be drying up. Maybe you should write the author and give him a piece of your mind. Sounds like he needs it. David S. Ludwig, MD, PhD, Children's Hospital, 300 Longwood Ave, Boston, MA 02115. (david.ludwig@childrens.harvard.edu).

The thinking poem

If you're black
are you cutting him slack?

If you're brown
are you hanging around?

If you're rainbow
do you think he's slow?

If you're white
do you think he's your knight?

If you're taupe
do you think he's a dope?

If you're green
do you think he's a dream?

If you're a liar
do you think he's on fire?

If you're thinking
what I'm thinking
you think he's stinking.

Project Gunrunner and Fast and Furious--Obama's Watergate?

"After watching this [C-SPAN] video, the reasons behind David Ogden’s resignation [from DoJ] after working for Attorney General Eric Holder for less than a year, appear clear: He wanted to reduce his chances of becoming the “fall guy” for the Obama Administration after news of this doomed-from-the-start gun-running operation became public."

» Project Gunrunner Tied Directly to President Obama - Big Government

Something borrowed

Let's see a movie.

OK. What's on?

There's a Kate Hudson movie at the dollar theater. You know how you love Kate Hudson.

Who's Kate Hudson?

Why the Arabic World Turned Away from Science

"To anyone familiar with this Golden Age, roughly spanning the eighth through the thirteenth centuries a.d., the disparity between the intellectual achievements of the Middle East then and now — particularly relative to the rest of the world — is staggering indeed. In his 2002 book What Went Wrong?, historian Bernard Lewis notes that “for many centuries the world of Islam was in the forefront of human civilization and achievement.” “Nothing in Europe,” notes Jamil Ragep, a professor of the history of science at the University of Oklahoma, “could hold a candle to what was going on in the Islamic world until about 1600.” Algebra, algorithm, alchemy, alcohol, alkali, nadir, zenith, coffee, and lemon: these words all derive from Arabic, reflecting Islam’s contribution to the West.

Today, however, the spirit of science in the Muslim world is as dry as the desert."


The New Atlantis » Why the Arabic World Turned Away from Science

It's amazing what a little rain can do

It's very dry and crispy in northern Ohio, so it is a treat to see all the green around Columbus. Our complex has well water sprinkler system, but the whole metropolitan area has had more rain than the Toledo area. Still we expect some heat build up, so after church I put on some walking shoes, a sleeveless denim dress, and walked for about 15 minutes. It's not as much as I get at the lake where I walk everywhere, but it sooths the conscience.

Some of our neighbors still haven't discovered that now that we have sidewalks, they are expected to take care of the area they can't see from their yard (huge bushes to hide the street). Weeds, grass clippings, and branches from the bushes are making the walk a bit hazardous. 1195 Kingsdale Terrace has a lovely house and yard, but I wish they'd step around the corner and see what we see. 'Taint purty.

Had to go to Caribou this morning since Panera's opens late. I noticed that there's a bulletin board for customers to post their "goals." Some are really funny, but pathetic too, because they are so unrealistic and vague ("change the world"), there's no way to get there from here. I've written before about the best book I ever read on the topic of planning is "Stop setting goals." Worth another look:

The book I'd been waiting for my whole life I didn't read until the first official day of my retirement (Oct. 1, 2000). Its title grabbed me and I knew it was written for me: "STOP SETTING GOALS" by Bob Biehl (Nashville: Moorings, 1995).

The premise is that some people are energized by achieving goals they have set, and others (a higher percentage) are energized by identifying and solving problems. And it isn't semantics. To ask problem solvers to set goals puts knots in their stomachs and interferes with their natural gifts. To ask goal setters to work on a problem puts them in a foul mood because they think "negative" when they hear "problem."

Problem solvers see goal setters as sort of pie-in-the sky, never-finish-anything types, and goal setters see problem solvers as negative nay-sayers. Bigotry, in both directions.

I'm willing to bet that most librarians are problem solvers and that's why they chose the field. I used to be in Slavic Studies. In my own mind, I thought the Soviet Union collapsed from pathologically terminal five year plans--too much goal setting and not enough problem solving.

Biehl poses an interesting question that works for both groups. "What three things can we do in the next 90 days to make a 50% difference (by the end of this year, by the end of the decade, by the end of my life). It makes no difference if you say, "what three goals can we reach" or "what three problems can we solve," because either personality can get a handle on this question.

I was challenged during my last year at work to stop using the word "problem" and replace it with "challenge" or "opportunity." It was a good time to retire. It took away all motivation for showing up at work for a darn good problem solver.

Call his bluff - Charles Krauthammer

These are the days I'm ashamed I registered as a Republican in 2000. These guys/gals have no spine. Boehner said getting Obama to commit to something and stick with it is like trying to nail Jello, but the Republicans are the bowl of Jello, sweet, low fat, and completely useless. They are up against a liar, a cheat, a swiveling socialist head that speaks out of any hole that's open, and all they can do is worry that they'll look bad in November 2012 when he tries to blame them for his failures. His own party can't trust; why should Republicans?

He won’t sign anything less, he warns, asking, “If not now, when?” How about last December, when he ignored his own debt commission’s recommendations? How about February, when he presented a budget that increases debt by $10 trillion over the next decade? How about April, when he sought a debt-ceiling increase with zero debt reduction attached

Call his bluff - The Washington Post

Thursday Thirteen -- Comparing Grandmothers

13 things about my grandmothers that make them different than today’s grandmothers

We are at Lakeside on Lake Erie, a summer Chautauqua community, where I have noticed big differences between today’s solicitous, attentive grandmothers and those no nonsense, sensibly shod ladies of the 1940s and 1950s when I was spending time with grandmothers. One of my grandmothers was born in 1876 (a centennial baby), and the other in 1896 (a turn of the century baby). So even they were a world apart in life style and experiences. Altogether, I had six grandparents (2 sets of grandparents, 1 great-grandparent couple), and loved them all, and have many fond memories of spending a lot of time with them, but. . .

My paternal grandparents, great-grandparents and Uncle and aunt and their baby, 1935

1. I never saw either of my grandmothers in slacks, let alone jeans, shorts or a swim suit.

2. I never saw either of my grandmothers on a bicycle. Can’t even picture it!

3. I never saw either grandmother drive a car, although I know one did when she was young and middle age (one was blind, the other had mild strokes in her 60s). I also never saw them ride a horse either, but I know they both did--one even rode a horse to church with several children aboard.

4. My grandmothers never read to me.

5. My grandmothers never supervised crafts for me or played games with me or took me swimming, because that’s what cousins and older sisters were for in those days.

6. My grandmothers never had house pets--there might be a cat or dog around, but it lived outside where it could earn its keep.

7. Neither of my grandmothers was a particularly fine cook--if we ate well at their homes it was a holiday and the younger generation of aunties or daughters supplied the food. Both kept gardens and canned.

8. I never ate in a restaurant with my grandmothers when I was a child, nor did they buy me huge helpings of ice cream I couldn‘t finish.

9. My grandmothers never wore make-up--or even wedding rings as I recall.

10. Neither of my grandmothers cared much about house cleaning or yard work.

11. When they were my age (now) both my grandmothers were in business--one managed several farms, the other a small call-in service to pick up and remove dead animals.

12. Neither was the huggy, smoochy type, but both knew how to soothe a crying baby.

13. Both were married over 60 years, one over 70.

The Elder Justice Act

The new Elder Justice Act (EJA) is a part of Obamacare (PPACA). There were already two acts (Older American Act and Violence Against Women Act) and seven federal agencies spending $651 million in 2009 to protect older Americans under President Bush. EJA authorized $777 million over 4 years, which is pennies for an increase, especially to cover the goals spread over 50 states and hundreds of agencies. But it plays well for votes. Massive government programs often start small. The reasoning of the two authors from Chicago(XinQi Dong, and Melissa A. Simon received 3 grants to write the article I read in JAMA, one from the bailout) is that the current acts and appropriations did not protect older adults, therefore more money for the same failed programs was needed.

The key, gold plated, diamond encrusted words here that will create a never ending income stream for lawyers, doctors, academicians, advocates, workshop providers, community organizers, nursing home administrators, care givers, accountants, physical therapists and broadband providers are

Grants
Incentives
Staffing
Electronic records
Collect
Disseminate data
Sponsor and support training programs
Hearings, conferences to set research priorities

I defend her right to burgers and fries

It's not often I defend Mrs. Obama--only in 2 areas--as a fine example for other young women in marriage and family (i.e., she married the father of her children) and in her desire to see a healthier America (even if I don't always support her methods like that garden someone else has to take care of). All First Ladies seem to come under attack--they (the opposition) were merciless with Hilary Clinton and Nancy Reagan. They even picked on Mary Lincoln. Lady Bird wanted to beautify the country and campaigned against bill boards and she succeeded. Helen Taft wanted to beautify Washington, D.C. with better parks and she succeeded. So Michelle Obama wants us not to be so fat.

Meanwhile, yesterday she ate a 1700 calorie lunch (burger fries shake) and the conservative bloggers and talkers are going crazy. Lighten up. Criticize her politics--that's bad enough. However, diabetes and high blood pressure are serious and even more deadly in the black community. We all pay for that in loss of lives, and in our own insurance costs, whether it's Obamacare or one of the Blues.

Also, every dieter knows an occasional pig-out helps the cause.

Sudan leader's hat tip to Bush

When we visited Ireland in 2007 we found that Bill Clinton was beloved by the Irish for brokering the peace. George W. Bush right now is much loved in South Sudan for the same reason. (Although I don't think Obama mentioned it Saturday, the day of the big Reveal.) And obviously, Politico, a left source, is pretty snarky about it too in this article. But it will be up to the people of South Sudan to make this work. Right now they really don't have much understanding about what a "country" is, at least not in the sense the Irish did. But they do want to be able to harvest their crops, marry, have families and visit relatives without being slaughtered by Arab Muslims.

Sudan leader's hat tip to Bush - Reid J. Epstein - POLITICO.com

The Omaha anecdote and the Obama antidote

"The Omaha Public Schools used more than $130,000 in federal stimulus dollars to buy each teacher, administrator and staff member a manual on how to become more culturally sensitive. . . ." The book is infused with the usual hate and diversity drivel about America--and we paid for 8,000 copies.

James Taranto reports today that Clinton asked for a stimulus package in 1993 of 16 billion when unemployment was 7.3, and Congress didn't approve and 12 months later unemployment was 6.5. The economy recovered without massive infusion of federal money. Obama asked for 800 billion when unemployment was 7.6, got it, and the economy tanked and unemployment rose to 10.2.

Liberals believe government programs fail because they aren't big enough. It's the classic plan of doing more that fails. Really? How about a nice big tax increase, that should do it. How big did the stimulus need to be in order to really tank the economy into a real Depression--which actually we haven't avoided yet.