Steve Jobs 1955-2011

Jobs was born out of wedlock to two graduate students, and was adopted by an Armenian-American couple rather than aborted or raised by a single mom. Armenians (Christians) themselves had been slaughtered by the Turks (Moslems) and some escaped to the U.S. His birthfather was a Syrian immigrant. How the threads of ethnicity and history are woven in the United States where freedom to live and explore and invent come together!

As Jobs' life was slipping away this week, thousands of ungrateful, whiny, manipulated college students, using his inventions which made him incredibly wealthy--with more cash than our government--protested in "Occupy Wall Street" on the streets of New York and campuses all around the very country and values that gave him that opportunity. They want "redistribution" (aka communism) of other people's wealth, whereas Steve Jobs dropped out of college and went out and created wealth and jobs. Maybe we need a few drop-outs from that "Occupy Wall Street" crowd to go out and do some real work like cashiering or flipping burgers and put their faculty in the unemployment lines.

Steve Jobs, brilliant entrepreneur, however, was a moral midget and cad himself. He had an out of wedlock daughter with his high school girl friend and denied paternity for years, so his daughter was raised with the help of his fellow Californians on welfare. His birth parents later married (after his adoption) and he has a full sister, but he steadfastly refused to even meet with his birthfather. And I don't think it was the money. So in addition to being extremely talented, wealthy, and a cad, he was also hard hearted and unforgiving to the end.

http://www.minyanville.com/special-features/articles/lisa-brennan-jobs-business-icons-rich/8/31/2010/id/29768

Democrats Anonymous

The first step is admitting you have a problem. . .

The redistribution rants

Harry Reid wants more taxes from millionaires and billionaires which won't create jobs, but it will make the great unwashed, sniveling whiners picketing on Wall Street happy. Obviously, these Occupy Wall Street antics don't help Obama's phony plea for more jobs (aka campaign 2012), so we know their intention is to bring the economy to a halt--with the President's help. It's too bad these gullible students didn't take more Russian Soviet history--the first to the barricades are the first to be put on trial by their fellow revolutionaries, imprisoned and killed.

The autum leaves--taking a break from blogging

Next time, I'll try to not get the trash container in the view.

Was an American citizen deprived of due process?

According to government reports and news sources from around the world, the well-known American-born radical Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awlaki was killed in Yemen on Friday, September 30, 2011, along with American jihadi propagandist Samir Khan. This report is designed to provide background on al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the organization al-Awlaki headed, and the influence he and Khan had on global terrorism. The report includes information on:

-Terrorist activity by al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula and al-Qa'ida in Yemen;
-Terrorism by the larger al-Qa'ida network;
-Anwar al-Awlaki's involvement with terrorists targeting the United States; and
-al-Awlaki's rise as an English-language jihadi propagandist.

Anwar al-Awlaki was a leader of the al-Qa’ida (AQ)-affiliated group based in Yemen, known as AQAP. Samir Khan was the editor of AQAP’s English-language publication, Inspire.

Read more here.

Van Jones Warns Of A Progressive "October Offensive" Against Tea Party

Isn't it interesting that with college students tearing up the streets of New York, getting arrested, being cheered on and rallied by the likes of Susan Sarandon, Cornell West, and Michael Moore, there are those out there, like former Obama staffer Van Jones, who see the Tea Party as a threat to their own take over of the United States? Amazing times we live in.

And if you're a Democrat who's been grumbling in the background about the Tea Party without knowing a thing about what they stand for (smaller government, less taxation), you're aiding this insanity. Obama came out for his buddy Prof. Gates in Boston in 2009 against the police who were investigating a break-in, and I suppose Van Jones is hoping for more of the same.

Around here Tea Parties have wild, crazy gatherings in Unitarian churches and public libraries. Not exactly Moore and Sarandon's hangouts.

Van Jones Warns Of A Progressive "October Offensive" Against Tea Party | RealClearPolitics

Texting while driving--ban it!

Yesterday on TV I watched a rally at the statehouse about H.B. 99--to ban texting while driving. I learned there's even an app for cell phones that will disable it while driving. Many people spoke at this rally, but none was more effective than Tina Yanssen who tearfully told the story of her dad's death in 2010.

Tina Yanssen's father was killed by a 19 year old neighbor texting while driving. It's already illegal in many cities, but wasn't in their rural Ohio area. Her dad had lost 165 lbs by walking after being told at Disney he was too big to go on the rides with his grandchildren. He lost the weight, but had postponed a trip with the grandkids to FL to attend his mother's funeral, but ended up at his own. He was 55.

At the time of his death, he wore a fluorescent green shirt with stripes of reflective tape. He walked along the side of rural Middletown Road, facing oncoming traffic. . . Another Unity Road resident, Whitney Yaeger, 19, was on Middletown Road that morning too. As she was driving — she would later tell an Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper — she was texting on her phone.

". . . she didn’t hit him, she ran over him,” Yanssens charges. “She left tire tracks up his right leg, across his pelvis and up his right arm. He didn’t stand a chance because she fractured his pelvis, pulverized multiple major branches of his right femoral artery, and bruised over 25 percent of his liver.”

He died early that afternoon in St. Elizabeth Health Center.

I googled the case to see what became of Yaeger, but without a texting law, this wasn't even "reckless driving" but a misdemeanor. Yaeger thinks even a misdemeanor charge with 6 mo. jail time is too severe for killing Muslovski, so she has chosen to go to trial.

http://www.vindy.com/news/2011/aug/29/coming-to-grips-with-the-dangers-of-dist/

Whether you're a pedestrian or a driver, if you see no hands on the wheel and eyes looking down, get out of the way--a driving texter is worse than drunk--at least drunks usually have their eyes open.

Money woes for the Obama campaign?

Saw this in James Taranto's WSJ column--he's on the e-mail list:

The Great Deflation also seems to be hitting the president's campaign treasury. The emails used to ask for $5, so the request for $3 amounts to 40% off. At this rate, pretty soon Obama will be asking for change rather than promising it.

For bigger donors, discounts run as deep as 75%. Next week in St. Louis, Obama speaks to Generation 44, an organization of supporters who aren't as young as they used to be. "The group has a limited number of $1,000 tickets available for $250," KSDK-TV reports.

Blighted property in Columbus, Ohio

Tonight I clicked through to channel 2 "Just the Facts" (local issues) and came across a program on how the city deals with blighted property. You wouldn't think that would be too fascinating, but it was well done. The narrator/host, Columbus City Attorney Richard Pheiffer was on Myrtle Avenue, which had some very nice homes, and some homes that were boarded up and overgrown with weeds and hazards. Nice trees. So I googled it, and although I don't have a photo of the house he was explaining, I do have the page. The house was built around 1910, as was the first home we bought in 1962 in Champaign, IL for $14,000. This house is for sale for $15,500, and of course, needs a lot of work, but so did ours. What was remarkable was Pfeiffer's explanation of how difficult it is for the city to track down an owner (a real person to talk to) since many are owned by a limited liability company (LLC) to even serve if taxes are in arrears or the building unsafe.

Newt 'n me

I was a big fan of Newt before I was ever a Republican--I liked his American history tapes. Not anymore.

The Tea Party over on Facebook asked in an opinion poll:Aside from who you favor for president, who do you think has the most knowledge, experience and history...
And then Newt was the runaway choice, because yes, he does have knowledge, experience and history. A history as a philandering womanizer, and sorry bubba, we've been that route in the 90s. Now I know that will eliminate a lot of candidates, but if your wife can't trust you, why should I? Why should the British or the Turks?

And when these politicians drag the Roman Catholic church through this annulment muck, I loose respect for everyone involved, including Callista, 23 years his junior, a former staffer with whom he had an affair while married, and Newt's current wife. They were both adults, they knew what they were doing, so let them be grown up about it and live with the results. Just don't ask me to participate.

Holding Obama's Party Accountable

Peter Ferrara is Senior Fellow at the Carleson Center for Public Policy, Director of Entitlement and Budget Policy for the Heartland Institute, and General Counsel of the American Civil Rights Union. He thinks Obama has reshaped the Democratic Party, making it weaker; but I think he has reshaped the Republican party even more, and until it can gather a little strength from have all its RINOs kneecapped by the Tea Party, I would get too confident.

The American Spectator : Holding Obama's Party Accountable

Safer sex vs. safe sex

I noticed in the JAMA article about topics doctors need to cover to prepare for barriers that LGBT patients face, safer sex was on the list. Wasn't familiar with that, so I googled it.

It's another term in our ever changing lexicon. It is now used instead of "safe sex."

"When people speak of "safe sex" today, they are referring to abstinence. Abstaining from sex and sexual play is the only sure method to avoid catching an STD and to prevent an unplanned pregnancy. Although it may not prevent a pregnancy, having sex within a committed, monogamous, long-term relationship with someone who has tested free of any STDs is also generally considered to be safe sex."

Actually, because an inflected comparative such as "safer" or "handsomer" or "brighter," would mean "more than safe," or handsome or bright, the term "safer sex" to mean something less safe than no sex (abstinence), really makes no sense at all. This might be difficult to understand for a non-native speaker--or even a native speaker!

The World from Berlin: Obama's Euro-Crisis Lecture Is 'Pitiful and Sad'

I learned in college 50 years ago that Europeans looked down on Americans (except to take our money), and they HATE advice.

The World from Berlin: Obama's Euro-Crisis Lecture Is 'Pitiful and Sad' - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

Catching up with my Glenn Beck notes

For less than $1.00 a week, we're watching Glenn Beck on the internet. It sort of looks like his old show on Fox News, but longer with more audience participation, and probably fewer commercials. I don't know that he needs commercials as much as before (leftist groups were threatening advertisers) because he's made a huge bundle by offering subscriptions-- 230,000 paying subscribers even before the launch. That eclipsed the viewership for the Oprah Winfrey Network.

Some things are the same--the chalk board, a monologue (although much longer), religious leaders as guests, discussions with authors, an audience of intelligent viewers, but there are some new things like some attempts at comedy by other actors, and his own news organization presenting news stories. Sounds like he's got some great opportunities for interns and journalists who want to work 12-14 hour days and do "real investigative journalism." It was one of his people who followed up on the Wall Street protestor/law student Robert Stephens who turned out to be the son of wealthy Minnesotans who actually hadn't lost their home as he announced to the world. Because he was black (in my opinion), the lefties ran with the story without checking it.

Other stories this past week noted along the way:

Big story on history of unions and corruption; billions in tax money going to the unions; you can't be forced to join a union, but you can be forced to pay their dues; top 2 visitors at the White House are union thugs Trumka (AFL-CIO) charged in the death of Eddie York a non-union contractor and Andy Stern (SEIU); create a crisis and collapse the economy is Stephen Lerner's mantra; the unions, not the students, are coordinating the violence on Wall Street right now.

Glenn was in Israel in August for a very successful show--and at the ned of these 2 hour segments, there's often a clip from that event; tonight in response to a student who said he was having problems doing a topic on Israel because of the liberal professors Glenn said, "The Gates of hell open up if you support Israel; he also told students not to accept the revisionist term "anti-zionist" or "anti-Isarel," because they are, in fact, anti-Jew, anti-Semite; a Fatwa, which GB considers a death threat, has been issued on a Muslim who appeared with Glenn Beck in Israel.

Glenn said he knows what's wrong with his generation, and asked the student audience what's wrong with their generation. They are afraid to speak up and don't do any research; even if teachers' lectures are OK the bibliographies are biased and one-sided; one student of economics had to read Paul Krugman's book (he thinks Keynes saved capitalism); another said a good friend had told him that Karl Marx invented capitalism (and this is a college student!); Glenn interviewed the head of the diversity bake sale which is in the news right now (based prices of their baked goods on customers' race and gender).

Speaking of race and gender, I've noticed that GBTV has many minority and female researchers, camera staff and reporters--I haven't seen that on network or cable TV.

One day he had sort of a history lesson on Frederick Douglass, black abolitionist of the 19th century. Said Douglas understood the 3/5 clause--that there would have been no United States or eventual abolition without it because the South would have counted every slave in the census; Douglass was at first critical of Lincoln, but they became friends; the word SLAVERY didn't appear in the U.S. Constitution, but was in the Conferate States constitution--in fact was required for admission; he was the only man at a women's rights meeting in 1895, the year he died.

One of Glenn's frequent themes is the peril of National Socialism, aka Nazism. He spent a lot of time discussing how naive academia was in the 1930s catching on. He says progressive are always on the wrong side of dictators when it comes to Hitler, Mussolini, and Mao. Harvard welcomed Nazi representatives and in the 1990s the Black Muslims called Jews "blood suckers." GB says, don't wait for progressives to change. The first place in Germany that anti-semitism became acceptable was the university campuses. There are workshops for anti-Jews at UC Irvine (I haven't checked that) and UC Berkeley encourages conservatives NOT to sign up for anti-Israel courses.

A 50s kind of guy

A friend from high school sent a message asking how I could spend so much time on Face Book and still have time to do all the chores a wife is supposed to do. Now there's a real 50s kind of guy! God love him!

Do I detect some redundancy?

Or is it a religious or caste thing?

"The Central Ohio American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin and the Association of Indian Physicians of Ohio will hold a fundraising gala on Saturday, October 15 at 6 p.m. at the Easton Hilton Hotel to benefit the opening of the India Gateway."

Coverage of LGBT related topics in medical schools

Medical schools are being pressured to include more course work in an already jammed curriculum to address LGBT barriers to good health. The list of 16 topics includes: sexual orientation; HIV; gender identity; sexually transmitted infections; safer (not safe) sex; disorders of sex development; barriers to care; mental health issues; LGBT adolescents; coming out; unhealthy relationships--intimate partner violence; substance use; chronic disease risk; sex-reassignment surgery; body image; transitioning.

Gays and Lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered folks are an extremely small percentage of the general population, but because of my profession, I may know more LGBT persons than most. With the exception of two or three who died rather young before the drug cocktails that are now available for AIDS, those I knew were/are in monogamous relationships, well educated, economically high in the quintile chart, and pleasant, hard working co-workers. Their health problems, I assumed, included things like COPD (too much smoking), obesity related problems (too many pot-lucks and too much eating out), and various familial diseases like cancer, arthritis, and depression. I can only hope they can find a good doctor who has spent enough time studying and treating non-gay related problems.

How long before this list (published in JAMA, Sept 7, 2011) is considered insulting inducing cognitive dissonance and stereotypical and homophobic attitudes among medical staff?

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender–Related Content in Undergraduate Medical Education, September 7, 2011, Obedin-Maliver et al. 306 (9): 971 — JAMA

MSNBC labels AP ‘inherently racist’ for accurate translation of Obama speech

I call this the Don Imus rule of journalism. A bi-racial President who learned to talk black as an adult can try to jive the Black Caucus, but Associated Press is racist if it records the mess he made of it.

During his speech, Obama attempted to fool the black audience into thinking he was one of them and not a paid teleprompter reader for Wall Street by dropping the g’s at the end of his words.

“Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes,” Obama lectured the audience. “Shake it off. Stop complainin’. Stop grumblin’. Stop cryin’. We are going to press on. We have work to do.”

However, after the Associated Press accurately transcribed Obama’s dropped g’s, MSNBC aired a debate segment asking whether the decision not to “clean up” Obama’s words was “racist”.

MSNBC labels AP ‘inherently racist’ for accurate translation of Obama speech « InvestmentWatch – The best source of news, analysis, and intelligent discussion

Myths vs. Truth about Issue 2 in Ohio

Vote YES on ISSUE 2.

Issue 2 would not cut salaries or benefits for any government employee. Employees would simply be asked to pay a modest share of their benefits, just like employees in the private sector do.

It does not eliminate collective bargaining. The new law states the same as the old law: "Public employees have the right to… bargain collectively with their public employers to determine wages, hours, terms and conditions of employment." The only difference is that Issue 2 helps to better define what those "terms and conditions" are. Since the old law was passed nearly 30 years ago, government employee unions have successfully expanded the definition to include a laundry list of costly perks and fringe benefits that taxpayers can no longer afford.

Issue 2 only affects government employees who pay less than 15 percent of their taxpayer-funded health care premium. The new law requires all government employees to pay at least 15 percent. That's hardly unfair when private sector workers are being asked to pay an average of 31 percent.

Government employees will still get a very generous pension benefit – an annual payment that averages their three highest annual salaries. That's a pretty nice deal, when many private sector workers get no retirement benefit at all. State Issue 2 only ends a practice where some government union contracts require taxpayers to pick up the tab for BOTH the employer AND employee shares of a required pension contribution.

Myths vs. Truth | Building a Better Ohio

Law students chokes on his silver spoon

The first arrest came shortly after noon near the stock exchange. Several blocks away, another protester, who identified himself as Robert Stephens, was arrested after kneeling in the middle of the street outside the Chase Bank building.

"That's the bank that took my mother's home," said Stephens, a law student, before being handcuffed. . . Reuters

Poor helpless, poverty stricken law student Robert Stephens, graduated from Carleton College (average cost: $42,942/year) in 2010 and now studies law at The George Washington University Law School (average cost: $70,449/year).. . He was at the Wicked Wall Street Occupy/Demonstrate against the banks saying the bank had ruined his parents' lives.

It's all bogus, but he's had his 10 minutes of fame on the liberal new media sites, his face zipping around the internet in minutes. His Dad is a PhD, with 2 masters, his Mom who has a Master's earns mega bucks, plus county property records & taxpayer services office reveal that the Stephens family home is not in foreclosure, that property taxes had been paid in full and the remaining balance on their mortgage for the half-million dollar home is less than one year’s worth of tuition+fees at their son’s law school. You gotta love the way the left manipulates the media and then wonder why there's no way to make their case, other than lying.

Daily Kos got punked, and it couldn't have happened to a group more gullible.

Liberal law students chokes on silver spoon