Slow to the gate--Ohio State students

Being a university town (Ohio State has about 50,000 students on one campus) I thought our students would be louder and rowdier about the Occupy thing, and then did finally hear that yesterday they were going to march from the campus to the state house.

Then today I read a notice about a lecture on medical disparities in the conference theater in the spiffy new $100 million union named for U.S. Bank, so I looked that up. U.S. Bank has $1.1 billion in deposits in central Ohio in 46 branches, and in exchange for the bank’s $1.05 million donation, the Minneapolis-based bank signed on for a 25-year naming rights deal to the 2,500-square-foot conference theater in the Ohio Union. Think of all the classroom buildings, theaters, playing fields, streets, parking lots, auditoriums, museums and schools that will need to give back money, if the Occupy whiners are successful in completely demonizing the banks. After all, it wouldn't be fair for some schools and cities to have the funds and not others.

Or, what if students just said NO to credit cards and used only checks or cash for their campus expenses? They could probably save even more if they said NO to beer and pizza!!!

Democrats and the Teachers' unions--Illinois

Although this story is from the Rockford Register Star in Illinois, it's business as usual for teachers' unions. Most teachers are Republicans, but they are forced to contributed to Democratic causes, candidates and scams through their unions. In Ohio, you can't teach if you don't pay union dues, although there's no compulsory membership. They just want your money. To stop these abuses so that school boards can negotiate what's best for the children, not the union officials, vote YES on ISSUE 2.

Two lobbyists with no teaching experience will be allowed to count past years as union employees toward state teacher pensions after substitute teaching for only one day in 2007, according to a published report today.

The Illinois Federation of Teachers' political director, Steven Preckwinkle, and another union lobbyist, David Piccioli, took advantage of legislation allowing union officials to get into the teacher pension fund and count previous years as union workers after quickly obtaining teaching certificates and conducting classroom work before the legislation was signed into law in 2007, according to a Chicago Tribune and WGN-TV investigation published today.

According to the report, Preckwinkle, 59, could collect $2.8 million by the time he's 78. Piccioli, 61, could receive around $1.1 million by age 78.

Illinois lobbyists qualify for pensions after 1 day subbing - Rockford, IL - Rockford Register Star

He wants to see less of me

After my physical, my doctor nicely told me he'd like to see less of me--meaning I need to lose some weight. Our exercise class is going to keep track of calories for one week. I don't like to commit to long term (except marriage), but for one week I can do. I found a nice Daily Food Diary on the internet, and photocopied it. A number of them required saving and unzipping, and those never seems to work for me. This one just opened, and I printed it.

Is Granny Headed to the Ice Floe?

"Just because CLASS has been dismissed, however, doesn’t mean the threat has gone away. In fact, in a very real sense, Medicaid itself is a stealth CLASS program. Technically, seniors can qualify for government provision under Medicaid only if they impoverish themselves by “spending down” their assets. However, an entire cottage industry of lawyers is now helping seniors protect their assets and still get Medicaid long-term care coverage. Long-term care is the fastest growing expense in the Medicaid program. As 78 million baby boomers reach the age of 65 at a rate of 10,000 per day, expect them to take full advantage of the legal opportunities to obtain Medicaid benefits at taxpayer expense."

Is Granny Headed to the Ice Floe? | John Goodman's Health Policy Blog | NCPA.org

Monday Memories--Posting bond to get married in early 19th century in Tennessee

Charles A. Sherrill, Tenn. State Library & Archives; has furnished the following information on this subject according to his understanding of the material he has read at the TNGenWEb Project.

"The groom had to assure the State that he was able to be legally married (was not already married to someone else, under age, or ineligible because of close blood relationship, etc.)

This assurance was given in the form of a bond for a certain amount of money. The friend or relative signed as the groom's security on the bond, commonly known as becoming a bondsman.

If indeed the groom had been sued for violating the marriage contract, the bondsman would have had to pay any legal damages if the groom defaulted.
No money actually changed hands at the time the bond was issued. This bonding procedure was used across Tennessee and in other southern states in the 19th century.

It's a good thing no money actually changed hands--I doubt that James or John (Polly's brother) could have come up with $1250.

Mary "Polly" Gresham Corbett died in 1884 at age 96. Two of her brothers married two of James' sisters, Martha and Polly. As near as I can tell from the records handed down, James Corbett and his siblings were 2nd generation Americans, and their father, an Irish immigrant, fought in the Revolutionary War, and received a pension. Although in the 19th century they all lived in Tennessee, originally they lived in North Carolina, the western part of which became eastern Tennessee.

There's still time to volunteer for the final harvest

The Community Garden at Upper Arlington Lutheran Church on the south side of the Mill Run campus has harvested almost 7,000 pounds of produce, and has some more harvesting to do. The food goes to Lutheran Social Services, Hilliard Summer Free Lunch program, Hilltop Lutheran and the Mid-Ohio Food bank. Tomatoes, greens, zucchini, squah, turnips onions, peas, beans, kohlrabi, cucumbers, peppers and garlic. UALC is in the NW suburban area of Columbus, Ohio.

UALC will be contributing $150,000 for a new church (North American Lutheran Church synod) plant on the east side of Columbus.

New discipleship group starts October 24

Event: "Faith of our Fathers" Discipleship Group

Description: Education, worship and discussion based on materials surrounding the Christian heritage of the USA

Start Date: Oct 24, 2011

Weekly: Monday Evenings through December

Room: 2031/32 or 3002/04, but look on lobby sign room could change without notice

Event Starts: 7:00 pm, Event Ends: 8:30 pm

Location: UALC, The Church at Mill Run - 3500 Mill Run Drive, Hilliard, OH

The spectacle on Wall Street

"From one perspective, this spectacle [Occupy Wall Street] of febrile mental paralysis is simply sad: The New York Times, The New Yorker: they’ve always listed left, but not always looney left. What a falling off there’s been!" . . .

"The 53 percent who actually work and pay income taxes represent a large slice of the putative 99-percent the children downtown are skirling about. Not many of those taxpayers, I reckon, are amused by the congeries of anti-American, anti-capitalistic nonsense that is emanating from Zuccotti Park. And it is worth noting that the anxious carnival spirit that has been coursing through the park has a tenuous hold on the proceedings. Already, widespread theft has instilled a certain grumbling wariness into the populace. It’s hard fighting against the evils of private property when some unfranchised redistributionist collars your laptop or makes off with your wallet."

Roger Kimball

Why I'll never be a fashionista

Kate Bosworth as seen at The Adorned Precedent. Everything I have that looks like this has been stuffed in the back of the rag bag for years. I've seen 2 years olds with better fashion sense. But I'm a librarian. What do we know about fashion?

The Organizers vs. the Organized in Zuccotti Park

You can laugh at the OWS group, but really, they sound so . . .I don't know. . . human and flawed, just like the rest of us. And it's the reason the "commons" idea didn't work in 3rd grade when the teacher assigned you to working groups, and why it didn't work in the 70s with the feminist communes, and why it's not working in Zuccotti park. When self-interest is allowed, the whole group advances. When you pretend everything is fair and equal and start taking money to be sure it will be, all hell breaks lose.

The drummers claim that the finance working group even levied a percussion tax of sorts, taking up to half of the $150-300 a day that the drum circle was receiving in tips. “Now they have over $500,000 from all sorts of places,” said Engelerdt. “We’re like, what’s going on here? They’re like the banks we’re protesting."

All belongings and money in the park are supposed to be held in common, but property rights reared their capitalistic head when facilitators went to clean up the park, which was looking more like a shantytown than usual after several days of wind and rain. The local community board was due to send in an inspector, so the facilitators and cleaners started moving tarps, bags, and personal belongings into a big pile in order to clean the park.

The Organizers vs. the Organized in Zuccotti Park -- Daily Intel

Should Americans Support the Tea Party or Occupy Wall Street? @PolicyMic | Tom Palmer

The Tea Party has a coherent message: Stop the bailouts, stop the cronyism, and stop swindling today’s voters with empty promises and sinking future generations under mountains of debt…

What caused the crisis, the indebtedness, the unemployment, the stagnation? The culprits are state agencies and enterprises, including our Federal Reserve…

The Occupiers have the wrong address. The subprime crisis was designed in Washington, not New York…

Should Americans Support the Tea Party or Occupy Wall Street? @PolicyMic | Tom Palmer

But Occupiers want to blame the Jews--so it has to be Wall Street Bankers.

Occupiers and blaming the Jews

"For almost 200 years, blaming the world's economic woes on the Rothschilds, Wall Street, or Jewish bankers has been "the socialism of fools" - and the mother's milk of demagogues, from Hitler to Henry Ford to the bloggers who insist Goldman Sachs' Zionist high command engineered the financial collapse. If the occupiers want mainstream credibility, they must distance themselves from the crackpots and hate-mongers who seem to think the detested "1 percent" is synonymous with Jews.

Second, while the tea partyers place themselves in a tradition of American protest dating to the Founding Fathers, the occupiers ought to take a more critical look at their own identification with the Arab Spring. Six months ago, who didn't applaud the young Egyptians using social media to topple a geriatric dictatorship? But now, who isn't having sobering second thoughts?"

Occupiers must face the fringe - Philly.com

Seriously out of practice

We're having guests for dinner this evening--small group from church, small menu--soup and salad. I'm so out of practice. Maybe we need to join one of those non-gourmet dinner clubs. These days I mostly stove-top grill or microwave leftovers. The oven might be turned on once a week. Desserts are too tempting, so if we need one, I buy it. It's a good reason to clean the house.

Scratch days are long gone here

A fall treat--Dairymens Eggnog

"Pumpkin pie spice eggnog" is back in the dairy case. Boy! Is that good in coffee! I usually cut it with some milk, but it's still delicious.

Dairymens is a Cleveland company with quite a history. I buy it at Marc's, but don't recall seeing it anywhere else.

Project 21 Black Conservatives

Just in case you thought Herman Cain was lone voice speaking as a black conservative.

Project 21 is an initiative of The National Center for Public Policy Research to promote the views of African-Americans whose entrepreneurial spirit, dedication to family and commitment to individual responsibility has not traditionally been echoed by the nation's civil rights establishment. Maybe you need a speaker?

Project 21 Black Conservatives

Canada ranks No. 1 in “Best Countries for Business”

"Canada ranks No. 1 in our [Forbes] annual look at the Best Countries for Business. While the U.S. is paralyzed by fears of a double-dip recession and Europe struggles with sovereign debt issues, Canada’s economy has held up better than most. The $1.6 trillion economy is the ninth biggest in the world and grew 3.1% last year. It is expected to expand 2.4% in 2011, according to the Royal Bank of Canada. . .

What hurts the U.S. is its heavy tax burden. This year it surpassed Japan to have the highest corporate tax rate among developed countries. The U.S. also gets dinged for a poor showing on monetary freedom as measured by the Heritage Foundation. Heritage gauges price stability and price controls and the U.S. ranks No. 50 out of 134 countries."

The Best Countries For Business - Forbes

Instead of liberal celebs threatening to relocate to Canada, maybe we'll see American entrepreneurs go there. It's closer than China, safer than Mexico. For starting a new business, the U.S. ranks #13 (New Zealand is #1).

RMIT--The Richest Man in Town

The total wealth of America's RMITs (some are women) is $355 billion.

• These 100 people employ more than 91% of Americans.

• All of the fortunes are self-made.

• Only one of them is a professional manager as opposed to a company founder.

• Less than 10% of them have taken their company public.

• Eighty-one percent of RMITs are doing business in their hometown.


Who Are the Richest People in Town? - BusinessWeek

To paraphrase an anarchist--Benjamin Tucker*

This blog is written to suit Norma, not its readers. She hopes that what suits her will suit them; but, if not, it will make no difference. No reader, subscriber, or body of subscribers, will be allowed to govern her course, dictate her policy, prescribe her methods, or choose her topics. Collecting My Thoughts is published for the very definite purpose of advocating certain ideas, such as faith in Jesus Christ, the free market, conservatism, education, recent medical and technological break-throughs, pro-family issues like not killing the unborn, family memories, and public policy; no claim will be admitted, on any pretext of freedom of speech, to waste its limited space or Norma's time in hindering the attainment of that object. Norma is not afraid of discussion, or even an argument, and shall do what she can to make room for short, serious, and well-considered objection to her views, but intolerance of Christians, Christiphobia, church bashing, blasphemy, name calling, bullying, and long boring essays on atheism should be posted on the reader's own blog. Also, since Norma in an earlier career translated Soviet medical material heavily laced with Marxism, she probably knows more than the reader about the joys of attaining socialist goals, so don't bother cluttering with that clap-trap either. As a former humanist, a career public employee (although not a union member), a librarian and a 40 year registered Democrat, there are few arguments from the other side or from the basement archives Norma hasn't heard.

*Tucker wrote a journal called Liberty in the 19th c.

Uncertainty holds back economic recovery

Politicians, policy experts and business leaders gathered in September to try to make sense of the economy and what the government is doing about it. I noticed this panel and the burden our non-elected appointees and czars are imposing on the economy. Small businesses, particularly, can't keep up with the rules, or even hire the staff to wade through them to be in compliance, so why hire or expand, even if you have the money or credit? We were discussing the business climate with a retired friend last night who has passed his firm on to his sons (who divided it), and they no longer have permanent workers, everything is contracted. The complexity of running a small business is overwhelming them. This is why stiffer regulations are supported by some very large firms--puts the competition out of business.

"The next panel “The Uncertain Environment and what it Means for American Business” was led by Bob Norton, chief income tax officer for Vertex Inc. Panelists included David A. Heywood, vice president, tax and general counsel, Lockheed Martin Corp.; Hal S. Jones, senior vice president and CFO, The Washington Post Co.; Michael Kenny, CFO, Panduit Corp.; and Cathy Santoro, vice president, finance and assistant treasurer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Norton listed areas that are replete with uncertainty on many fronts. Among them: global economy, geo-political sea changes, technology revolution, security (cyber and other) and regulation. He also provided statistics to reinforce reasons why businesses are facing uncertainty. For example, federal agencies issued 3,573 final rules in 2010, while Congress enacted 217 bills into law. The result of this, he added, is that ”significant law-making power is being delegated more and more to unelected bureaucrats;” the number of pages in the Federal Register last year topped 81,405; and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act requires 11 new federal agencies tasked with creating 235 rulemaking provisions – 100 rules by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alone.

Jones said that two-thirds of The Washington Post Co.’s revenue comes from education and training, and that this year more than 400 pages of new regulations have been issued related to education. Dealing with so many new rules has caused the company to hold back on hiring, marketing, planning or expanding. The company is willing to comply with the rules, he said, but not knowing what they are is causing the business to stay on hold.

Kenny expressed concern about tax reform and stated he favors business tax reform – not corporate tax reform. (With more than 90 percent of U.S. businesses operating as pass-through private companies, thus taxed at the individual rate, just doing corporate tax reform won’t help these private companies.) He also noted concern for companies that are not large enough to stay abreast of the constant flurry of new rules and laws, not a issue for his company, but a real challenge for untold others."

FEI

Does Obama get the credit for killing Qaddafi?

Ilya Somin: Ilya Somin's response to 'Credit due Obama for Qadhafi death?' - The Arena | POLITICO.COM

President Obama deserves credit for facilitating the overthrow of a brutal dictator at little immediate cost to the United States. Republican critics were wrong to claim that this result could only be achieved with a much larger commitment of U.S. forces.

On the other hand, it is far from clear whether the new regime in Libya will be any better than the old. The new Libyan government includes many different groups, including an influential radical Islamist faction..... If radical Islamists do take over Libya, the result could well be a regime that is just as oppressive as Gadhafi’s and much more hostile to American interests.

The United States may also pay a price for violating our 2003 agreement with Libya, under which Gadhafi agreed to stop supporting terrorism and give up his nuclear program in exchange for the US and Britain implicitly committing themselves to not seeking his overthrow....

Obviously, Gadhafi deserved to be overthrown. He certainly had no “right” to tyrannize over the people of Libya. But, after seeing what happened to him, other dictatorships such as Iran may be less willing to sign similar deals....

Finally, by going to war without congressional authorization, the president violated both the Constitution and the 1973 War Powers Act. Then-Senator Barack Obama got it right back in 2007, when he wrote that “[t]he president does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.”

So stay tuned for the unintended consequences.

Update: LA Times--not real pleased and pointing out it's not going to help him much with his friends or enemies. This year, he has sent U.S. troops into action on land or in the skies of seven countries on two continents. More serious, in my opinion, is his encouragement of "Arab Spring" which is bring out of the wooodwork a whole new batch of bad guys.