Monday Memories--Christmas 2011

It was a quiet Christmas. Dinner here on Christmas Eve, then church at 9 p.m. at UALC Lytham Rd. Christmas day services we served communion, and then went to Phil's home to have dinner and open gifts.
However, Phil had helped select my gift for my husband, a guitar, so that one was opened on Christmas Eve. He then got a beginner's book and DVD "how to" from Phil on Christmas Day. And the new setting for my e-mail won't allow it to accept the photos from my son's cell phone--back to the drawing board.

Christmas Eve Menu: Standing rib roast, twice baked potatoes; baked chicken thighs with mustard sauce, potato salad; tossed salad greens; mixed fruit; steamed carrots with a touch of honey; rolls and Asiago cheese bread; freshly cooked cranberries a top pound cake with real whipped cream; Merlot.

Lovely cello music

My mother played the cello--not often, and probably not well, although she did play in the Dixon orchestra back in the 1920s (I don't know that it was called that, only that she went to Dixon to do it.) One of her brothers played the saxaphone, and one the violin. When I see the cello get a chance to do something other than support others in the orchestra, I always listen, and think about Mom. Some time in the 1950s my sister Carol got the saxaphone, and my cousin Sharon (on dad's side) the violin. And Mom continued to play the cello every now and then.

My nephew Chris Rees, a freshman in college (grandson of my sister Carol, son of Cindy) now is quite a cellist and plays in groups (not in this video, though), and he posted this lovely piece on Facebook, so I'm sharing. Love the cello!

Entertaining--it's not for the old and forgetful

There will only be five of us for dinner tonight, but I've already thrown out the vegetables and run the dishwasher twice. I changed my meat choice, so now I have two kinds of potatoes. As I recall, my son-in-law doesn't like his food to "touch," which means mixed anything usually is put on his plate, but just moved around. I left my Christmas dishes in the box this year, and am using my good china, and my grandmother's dessert dishes, but I'm leaving Mom's goblets in the case. Too much work to wash. The first table cloth I pulled out didn't fit the table--I'd forgotten; which means it will never be used again and I think I've had it 30 years. I bought a special bread at Panera's this morning, but left it on the counter when I got a coffee refill, and had to go back to get it. But, I did have to clean a bit, and that's always a good thing, and a good reason to entertain.

I whipped up the potatoes (to reheat later) with my little Sunbeam mixer, which was a wedding gift, so it's 51 years old. The cord is stiff, it falls out of its connection, it trips the outlet switch, and the beaters fall out about every 45 seconds. But how many more years will I be making cakes or whipping potatoes, so I don't replace it. Besides, at this stage, it would be like kicking out a member of the family.

I'm not a coupon user, but in the fall I had one for a free cone at Graeter's Ice Cream, so we went in, and while there "bought" a book of coupons to support cancer research, figuring we'd use it. We haven't. So I looked at it yesterday. $2 off an ice cream pie. Hmm. That sounded good until I looked it up. $26, so with the coupon plus the tax, you'd still have a dessert that is at least $2.50 a serving. That's more than making an entire (box) cake with (store bought) icing. So I looked through the book and see that with a $15 purchase, you get a free pint of ice cream (which I think is about $4.00); so it would make more sense to buy the pie and get the free pint (black raspberry chocolate is awesome). Or skip the whole thing and make dessert at home as a reminder that companies don't stay in business to give away their products with coupons. They do it because it is profitable. That's a very difficult concept for the American consumer. I AM the Columbus anti-coupon queen, even when I've paid for the coupons.

Have a blessed and holy day celebrating our Savior's birth.

Paul, please run for President!

Paul Ryan has old-fashioned goals, says Real Clear Markets.com, like saving America from fiscal bankruptcy, economic stagnation, and a European-style entitlement state.

Paul Ryan's old fasioned American vision

In a White House meeting this year, Ryan's superior knowledge of health care baffled Obama and left him speechless. And the serious Ryan budget, which lowers spending by $6.2 trillion and reduces deficits by $4.4 trillion over ten years, totally outflanked the White House. It embarrassingly exposed the Obama administration's flimsy and inconsequential 2012 budget, which even rejected the findings of Obama's own Bowles-Simpson fiscal commission. (Another Oval Office embarrassment.)

And when Ryan unveiled his first Medicare-reform package, which featured patient-centered consumer choice and market competition, the White House went nuts. Team Obama whipped up a Mediscare panic, resorting to a fictional caricature of Ryan forcing old ladies off a cliff. But the charge that the Ryan plan "ends Medicare" couldn't be further from the truth. The website PolitiFact labeled this "the lie of the year."

Ryan later amended his Medicare reform to keep the existing system as an option, and bolstered it with a menu of market-based private insurance plans to promote cost-cutting choice and competition. But he did so with the bipartisan support of Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon. How did the White House react? It went rhetorically ballistic, although it couldn't put together a serious response.

Josh gets second on x-factor

Imagine what a hair cut and new pair of jeans could have done for him. Yes, "being real" has a lot of appeal, but his audience does have to look at him.

Christian colleges mandated to offer "plan B" abortion in health care

On Wednesday, Colorado Christian University became the first interdenominational Christian college to join Belmont Abbey College, a Catholic college in North Carolina in filing a lawsuit over the regulation that requires employers' health insurance plans to provide free contraception, including Plan B, and sterilization under their group health plan.

As a Christian college, CCU teaches the sanctity of life at all stages, and that abortions are against God’s law.

Read the story here.

Something good is happening in Kansas

The tone of this article isn't positive--after all it comes from the Washington Post.

In the past year, three state agencies [in Kansas] have been abolished and 2,050 jobs have been cut. Funding for schools, social services and the arts have been slashed. The new Republican governor [Sam Brownback] rejected a $31.5 million federal grant for a new health-insurance exchange because he opposes President Obama’s health-care law. And that’s just the small stuff. . .

The governor has said his main concerns are creating jobs, cutting taxes and bringing new businesses to the state, which has been losing population to domestic migration over the past decade and ranks near the bottom in private-sector job creation.

“We cannot continue on this path and hope we can move forward and win the future,” he said in the Wichita speech . “It won’t work. We have to change course, and we’re going to have to be aggressive about it or we are doomed to a slow decline.”

The story here.

NASA has confirmed that its Kepler mission has discovered planets roughly the size of the Earth outside of the Solar System.

Whenever I read of new discoveries in the solar system I think of Psalm 19. "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the end of the world."

The heavens are declaring, proclaiming, speaking, displaying--but there are a lot of people not listening.

Lewison family faith

Listening to the local Catholic radio I hear many things that are unfamiliar, or I think were settled in the 16th century reformation--at least for those who began following the teachings of Luther and Calvin. Purgatory; Worship of Mary and the saints (and please don't tell me it's not "worship" because they are praying to them--I hear them); Obligations; Miracles at shrines; Indulgences. And so forth.

That said, it would seem that proper theology doesn't mean much. I heard this morning an amazing story of faith on Women of Grace hosted by Johnnette Benkovic, and whether it is Jesus, Mary, the saints or all combined, it is undergirding this family.

A woman, Mary Lewison, called the show I was listening to earlier in the year--February possibly--to discuss the death of her 18 year old son who was killed when his truck was hit by a train. The moderater had also lost a son, so the two had had a long talk on the air. This week the woman sent the moderator an article about the family to catch up, which Johnnette then read on the show this morning.

After the death of her 18 year old, 4 of the 5 surviving children in the family were in two different automobile accidents, 2 serious enough to be hospitalized. Then the woman's husband had a heart attack when he was in a different state, and got to the ER within minutes of death--the doctor called it a "widow-maker," and she became his care-giver; when she thought nothing else could happen to her family, the woman was fired from her job for missing so much work during her husband's 4 month recovery!

She has not lost her faith in Jesus. Broadcast is here for December 21, 2011.

Religious gobble-de-gook

clap·trap (kl p tr p ). n. Pretentious, insincere, or empty language

San Francisco Theological Seminary (Presbyterian) and the Graduate Theological Union, a hodge podge of Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Baptist, UCC, Disciples, UMC, Unitarian and others are going to tell black Baptist women . . .

“Given the realities of sexism in a post modern world and the continued undermining of a womanist theology, this symposium acknowledges that leadership roles in ministry are often fraught with subtle and overt politics of exclusion and the realism of marginalization based on sexism,” Taylor said. “The old traditional ecclesiastical institution is becoming an endangered and extinct institution if the culture continues to imprison the gifts and creativity of seminary trained women while preserving sexism, homophobia and other primitive practices.”

No pizza tonight

I was sure hungry for a pizza. I mentioned it to my husband, and he had his taste buds set. But I had a colonoscopy today and they told me to be careful about what I ate. So I'm fixing mac and cheese, I'll skip the cole slaw, but probably have the applesauce.

Colonoscopies are very important--they are the only test that can prevent cancer, but the preparation is certainly unpleasant. So is listening to the doctor and nurse discuss the movies they've seen during the procedure. My mother, my paternal grandmother and my father's sister all had colon cancer, so despite the unpleasantness, it's an important preventative step.

I was a bit groggy when I got home--not much sleep last night--and I slept for 3 hours.

The nurse also warned me to stay off Facebook and the Blog. Apparently some people can't be trusted even after a mild anesthetic.

Still, pizza sure sounded good.

Why has Los Angeles lost its mojo?

We've seen the Democrat political machine kill or disable many of American's most vibrant cities. And now its Los Angeles's turn, although it took longer because of its dispersed center.

"A big reason is a decline in the power and mettle of the city's once-vibrant business community. Between the late 1980s and the end of the millennium, many of L.A.'s largest and most influential firms—ARCO, Security Pacific, First Interstate, Union Oil, Sun America—disappeared in a host of mergers that saw their management shift to cities like London, New York and San Francisco. . . controlled by a machine of labor and the political leadership of the Latino community, the mayor is a former labor organizer. . . strangling regulations backed by a powerful and wealthy environmental movement. . . even liberal Democrats are catching on." The environmentalists are killing the port business, the generator of blue collar labor, and thus the unions have to expand into the once vibrant Latino small business sector.

How Los Angeles lost its mojo

Who are the Occupiers? Market research reveals

Frontier Lab used serious market research techniques to study and report on the motives of the Occupist protestors. If you are a conservative and a Christian, nothing in this report will surprise you. If you are a liberal, you will criticize it, sit on the fence, claim "they had a point," and deny that the research was properly done. But both sides will recognize the Occupists' need to belong to something--anything--to enhance their sense of self-worth and its leadership arising from the professional left.

"What did Frontier Lab discover? First, that many of the rank-and-file occupiers feel isolated in their lives, and appear to lack basic community ties such as are provided by participation in clubs, churches, and strong families. Indeed, much of the report could have come from the early chapters of Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone. They thus attach to their political causes with something like a religious fervor. For many, a commitment to “social justice” is “not the end, but rather a means to an inflated sense of self and purpose in their own lives.” Crucially, involvement with others who agree with them provides an “overwhelming feeling of being part of a family.” I noticed this on my first trip down to Zuccotti Park, when I saw a telling sign adorning the entrance to the tent city: “For the first time in my life, I feel at home.” On subsequent visits I was struck by the importance of the commune to the project. As much as anything else, vast swathes of occupiers were simply looking for a new club. This group, Frontier Lab dubs the “Communitarians.”

The second group, which to all intents and purposes forms the leadership, is less existentially lost, and derives its fulfillment from the “prestige,” “validation,” and “control” afforded by the movement’s coverage in the media. Frontier Lab calls this group the “Professionals.” Its members fill the ranks of the professional Left and boast long histories of attending and organizing protests. For them, indignation is quotidian, “community action” is a career, and they feel “validated by the fame and attention” and “rewarded for their life choices.” Unlike the Communitarians, the Professionals actually want tangible change, or a “win,” but politics is still playing second fiddle to self. There is nothing spontaneous or organic about the movements they lead. They are waiting for the revolution and hope to be in its vanguard. Their careers depend upon it."

The Occupiers and OWS analyzed

Trading Christmas with Faith Ford

Hallmark Channel has been running Christmas movies for weeks. They are light, happy, predictable heart string tuggers. I watched Faith Ford in Trading Christmas, a romantic comedy about a man and woman who trade homes for the holidays, and she meets his brother and he meets her best friend, and well, the rest is all about falling in love. I think they get repeated, so if you missed it, check the listings.

It’s also fun, once in a while, to watch a movie where we meet no bad people. The only two unpleasant characters here never show up on screen. We only hear about them, and from what we hear, we don’t dislike them as much as feel sorry for them, because we know what their selfishness will make them miss.

If you’re watching “Trading Christmas” and you get a vague feeling you’ve seen it before, it’s possible you have. Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet made a movie called “The Holiday” in 2006 that followed pretty much the same blueprint.

I love foodie blogs

I rarely cook these days--two and too. Two people. Too many calories.
But I love to read food blogs. Smitten Kitchen. Enjoy.

Women in technology

It's biology. I'd noticed that there hadn't been much of an increase in female faces and names in article I see about technology--especially the business end of it. I suspected it had something to do with babies--and this writer thinks so too.

Having children instead of startups

And this is why women don’t have startups: children. It’s not a complicated answer. It’s a sort of throw-back-to-the-50’s answer. You could argue the merits of this, but you could not argue the merits of this with any woman who has kids and has a startup.

There’s a reason that women start more businesses than men, but women only get 3% of the funding that men do. The reason is that women want a lifestyle business. Women want to control their time, control their work, to be flexible for their kids. This seems reasonable: Women start more lifestyle businesses and men start more venture-funded businesses. This does not, on face value, seem inherently problematic.

But wait, let’s ask why so many men with kids are doing startups? Why aren’t they with their kids? A startup is like six full-time jobs. Where does that leave the kids? We use social service funding to tell impoverished families that it’s important for dads to spend time with their kids. But what about startup founders? Is it okay for them to leave their kids in favor of 100-hour weeks? For many founders, their startup is their child.

Madison Rising denied a permit

The tents are gone, but dozens of Occupy Wall Streeters still swarm Zuccotti during the day. [Conservative band] Madison Rising’s manager and organizer, Richard Mgrdechian, says the band had hoped to give Downtown a “Take Back Wall Street” concert, something “pro-American and pro-capitalist.” A chance to say “thank you to the firemen for all you’ve put up with, thank you to the police for all you’ve put up with.”

Read more:

Luckily for the fledgling band, some places have been more welcoming than Zuccotti and the left-blogosphere. They were the headlining act at the Oct. 8 “We Stand with Gibson” concert in Nashville, honoring the Gibson Guitar company during its battle with environmental regulators over using rare woods in its guitar fingerboards.

By picking causes like that, they may not get invited to many Manhattan cocktail parties, but you’ll likely hear them at a few Tea Parties.

Questions in the Bible

The first recorded question in the Bible comes from Satan (in the form of a serpent) which was, "Indeed, has God said. . .?" (Did God really say. . .Yea, has God said. . . )

Since Adam and Eve fell for that clever ruse, the second question recorded was from God, "Where are you?"

And upon rereading this very carefully today, I see that God, when giving them (Adam) instructions on how to take care of everything he had created he said, "but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die." It was Satan that told Eve she would be like God if she knew good from evil, and we've been dealing with that lie ever since.

Turkey

Did you know that a 4-ounce serving of turkey breast contains only 1 gram of fat and is the leanest type of meat you can include in your diet? Health newsletter

Yes, and that's why it is so tasteless and needs mustard, mayo or butter on the sandwich.

Humanism has more rules than God!

We are SO advanced, aren't we? We like to think in the 21st century our American life style is based on more freedom than the past--that we aren't bound by so many stuffy rules or finger wagging moralizing. We are just so evolved! HA! We might as well go back to wearing hats and gloves and leave the voting to the men folk.

When people felt undergirded by God's law, precepts, statutes and commands--one, two or three centuries ago--they had far more freedom than today when humanism and all its grandbaby systems rule the day--new age religions, socialism, environmentalism, Agenda 21 goals, thousands of rules and regulations for business, educators with hands tied so a 3rd grader doesn't smell a peanut or get bullied on the playground or doesn't know how to put on a condom, and employees can file a complaint if a supervisor says, "Merry Christmas," or compliments her appearance. But women have "choice."

In our focus on the victims, the whiners and the objectors, if a pastor preaches about marriage between a man and woman, he's homophobic or insulting single moms. If you live in the country enjoying a few acres, someone will try to regulate you to save Mother Earth by moving to multi-story housing and taking the bus to work. And God forbid if your BMI is a little high--you'll have the federal government asking for your tax money to correct everyone else's weight and install a farmer's market in your neighborhood! Movies and TV can make a fortune for their investors on wardrobe malfunctions, sloppy sex with any gender, and anything goes vocal screaching, but don't you put a nativity scene in the public square.

Humanism in all its forms puts us under pressure to redeem ourselves, and since the beginning of time, since God asked Adam and Eve, "Where are you?" we've just been making up more rules--and lies.