Live simply that others may simply live

Saint Elizabeth Anne Seton was an Anglican with a large family who converted to Roman Catholicism after her husband's death. She founded the Sisters of Charity in the United States. This quote on living simply was featured today. I don't believe this.

Living simply has its own rewards, but it is always relative. Compared to some of our neighbors in our condo complex, we live simply. I am buying coffee in the morning for $.95 instead of $1.89 and putting the difference in our Haiti fund, but I could make it at home for five cents and put $2 in the kitty instead of one. A friend returned from India last Friday. She said the poverty was so appalling she could think of nothing but getting home to a shower and non-spicy food. She was so grateful for what we have!

Nothing is a more oppresive slave master than materialism and always wanting more stuff. Maybe we're not those hoarders like we see on reality TV, but our belongings own us. But there's no way that the stuff I don't lavish on myself makes it to a victim of the Haitian earthquake or the child of a low caste family that cleans latrines in India. Even if I were to take the money I saved and send it to a trusted NGO or Christian charity, there are just too many salaries to be paid and too many palms to be greased. What changes the lives of people is honest governments and solid infrastructures. Dictators will take your donation for an improved well and if there are no roads and no working trucks, the foodstuffs will be eaten by rats before it is ever unloaded at the dock or airport.

You do what you can because it is the right thing to do, not because you will change someone else's life. Look through Matthew 25 and what Jesus says about the poor, the imprisoned, the thirsty, the ill. He never promises a changed world; only a changed you.

Running on his record--Obama

Obama can't be blamed for Europe's very serious economic crisis--they are socialists and they did it to themselves. I do blame him for his promises during the 2008 campaign, which so frightened America's business community, particularly smaller businesses, that you could see them shuttering their plans for expansion, hiring and investment as soon as he was chosen the Democrat candidate in July 2008. Add to that the hostile take over of Congress by the Democrats in January 2007, and we had 2 full years of weak investments and tightening of belts before he ever took office. The crazy mortgage crisis was bi-partisan--putting people into mortgages who couldn't afford them benefitted banks and politicians like Frank and Pelosi, and utopian fantasies that the left has saddled us with since the 19th century and can be credited to Carter, Clinton and Bush, not Obama.

Obama is a progressive (the popular word), a socialist (not so popular) which is just the foundation for communism, the word that's never spoken because it's so old fashioned and discredited these days. He hasn't been in power long enough to be blamed for everything that's wrong in Washington, but look at his Illinois record, his Senate record, his associates and his appointments, and you see a pattern; you see basic values (the government is the solution to everything) and crony capitalism. Philosophically and economically, he's the love child of Saul Alinsky and George Soros. In a way, it's unfair to make him run on his record, but he's the one who elevated the blame game to Super Bowl proportions, who never takes responsibility, who saddled business with an unworkable health bill that no one read, who's such a narcissist he actually thinks he's the 4th best President in our history!!!! He puts himself above Washington, Jefferson and Adams. OMG!! The man has a lose screw and even his most devout supporters realize this now. He can't be trusted with the economy.

What do Catholics believe happened at the Cross and Resurrection?

On the way home from the coffee shop this morning I was listening to a discussion of death and judgement by two Catholics. Frankly, I can't imagine why Catholics even talk about Jesus--the Christian life and faith seem to be one of pleading, pleasing, payment and purgatory. I'm not sure what they think happened on the cross, but whatever it was, it wasn't good enough to have the assurance in this life of eternal life. There is a rule for absolutely everything, and the church has written and defined the rule based on the flimsiest scriptural evidence.

A New Year's Thought

"We have only one life to live, only one. Think of this for a moment. Here we are in this world of time making the journey of life. Each day we are farther from the cradle and nearer the grave. Solemn thought. See the mighty concourse of human lives; hear their heavy tread in their onward march. Some are just beginning life's journey; some are midway up the hill, some have reached the top, and some are midway down the western slope. But where are we all going? Listen, and you will hear but one answer—"Eternity." Beyond the fading, dying gleams of the sunset of life lies a boundless, endless ocean called Eternity. Thitherward you and I are daily traveling."

Preface How to Live a Holy Life by James Orr (1844-1913)

I stood beside the open sea;
The ships went sailing by;
The wind blew softly o'er the lea;
The sun had cloudless sky.
Some ships sailed eastward, some sailed west,
Some north, some southward trend.
How can ships sail this way and that?
But one way blows the wind.
An old sea-captain made reply
(His locks with salt-spray wet):
"'Tis not the wind decides the course;
'Tis way the sails are set."

(Some sources attributed this poem to Edna Wheeler Wilcox, but hers is different but similar, and Orr died before hers is dated)

Case 39-2011 — A Woman in Her 90s with Unilateral Ptosis

Until I read this article in the Dec. 22, 2011 New England Journal of Medicine I didn't know what ptosis was--it means drooping eyelid. What interested me about this story was that the patient who woke up one morning with a drooping eyelid was in her 90s. She was living independently, and walking 50-60 minutes a day, but she also had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, osteoporosis, and a number of ailments known to the elderly plus a pace maker put in 5 years earlier. She was taking a long list of medications plus vitamins. Then she was started down a long road of tests, more medications, hospitalizations and rehabilitations for 8 weeks. Several CT scans, fluid restriction, lab tests, physical tests, ECG, chest radiographs, special diets (she was having difficulty swallowing), supplemental oxygen, a neck collar (for muscle weakness), intravenous administration of 5 drugs and 2 more with a nebulizer. Mercifully, after eight weeks of being a lab animal, she and her family decided for comfort measures only, and she died in 3 days.

After ruling out various things with the CT the doctors had pretty much settled on myasthenia gravis with a thymoma (tumor) which was confirmed in the autopsy. I read a few articles on the internet and thought her symptoms (even with no tests) sounded like MG. There's even a blood test for it, but I didn't see where she had that one--but maybe I missed it in the long list of other tests. There is no indication in the article if all this was done because she insisted, or whether doctors just keep going until they run out of options.

Surely, there must have been a better way for her to spend the last eight weeks of her life. I don't think we want death panels set up by the government deciding our fate, but would it have been unethical for someone to have had a talk with her about how she wanted to live her final days?

Don't throw away the stems. . .

"We all know broccoli is good for us, but did you know that the different parts of the broccoli plant make their own distinctive contributions to its overall nutritional value? Broccoli stems have a wonderful mild sweet flavor and are much higher in fiber than the florets; they are renown for the amount of extra fiber they can add to your diet. While the florets contain more beta-carotene than the stalks, the leaves actually are a richer source of beta-carotene than either the stems or florets. And remember when selecting broccoli florets that the dark green, bluish-green, or purplish-green color contain higher concentrations of beta-carotene than pale green or yellowish-green florets."

World's Healthiest Foods Newsletter, George Mateljan Foundation

"Place broccoli in a plastic bag, removing as much of the air from the bag as possible. Store in the refrigerator where it will keep for 10 days. Do not wash broccoli before storing because exposure to water encourages spoilage. Partial heads of broccoli should be placed in a well-sealed container or plastic bag and refrigerated. Since the vitamin C content starts to quickly degrade once broccoli has been cut, it is best to use it within a couple of days. Broccoli that has been blanched and then frozen can stay up to a year. Leftover cooked broccoli should be placed in tightly covered container and stored in the refrigerator where it will keep for a few days."

Glad to see that about purplish-green--I always thought that meant there were bugs.

Update: I was so inspired by this entry, I had broccoli and little cut up Hillshire Farms Cheddar 'lil Smokies.

On reading Hegel and Marx

After struggling through Julie's manuscript to Chapter 8 (she's writing a book), I've decided that if you read and understand nothing but 18th and 19th century philosophers, historians, theologians, and educators--looking back to who influenced them and forward to whom they influenced in the 20th century--you'd pretty well understand the mess we're in today and the causes of WWI and WWII, and the pervasive weakness in the churches who subscribe to "social justice," which sets them up to be helpless to confront Islamists. Not sure who the big name thinkers of the 20th-21st centuries are, but they mostly seem to be scientists and not people in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Yesterday as I noted below, I was reading ScienceHeroes website about the 2 guys who invented chemical fertilizer in 1909--credited with "saving or creating" 3 billion lives.

Anyway, we got to all the 'isms of today--progressivism, liberalism, communism, materialism, environmentalism, Darwinism, multiculturalism, fascism, fundamentalism, conservatism--with the help of Kant, Fiehte, Schelling, Schleiermacher, Hegel, Strauss, Nietzsche, Feuerbach, Marx, Darwin and Dewey. What is it about the Germans. . .

Jalen Rose Leadership Academy

This is an inspiring story of a famous athlete returning home to save the children by starting a charter school.

Every weekday, 120 high-school freshmen from these neighborhoods attend Mr. Rose's academy, some arriving after two bus trips and all before 7:30 a.m. Located in a former public school building, the school has spartan facilities—a science lab with almost no equipment, cracked windows—and few modern frills, though every student is given a computer. . .

Mr. Rose plans to start with this freshman class and add a new grade each year until there are some 500 kids in grades 9-12. "This is college prep. We expect 90% to 100% to go on to college"—no mean feat when many students are entering ninth grade with only fourth-grade levels of reading and math proficiency. . . .

At the Leadership Academy, "we have a 20-to-1 student teacher ratio and 10-to-1 in math and English. We want to invest in every young man or woman who comes here." That means tailoring achievement standards for every student. "There may be a kid reading at a fourth-grade level [when he enters ninth grade] who when he graduates is reading at a tenth-grade level. That's a victory."

His school also doesn't have tenure for teachers. "I hate tenure. Tenure allows teachers to put their feet up on the desk and possibly have a job forever. That's why I got turned on to charter schools. It's a business model. Every employee and every teacher will be monitored by performance."

The Weekend Interview with Jalen Rose: From the Fab Five to the Three Rs - WSJ.com

30-40% of the world’s population would not be alive without their invention.

"Humankind is largely fed by food grown with synthetic chemical fertilizer. Because synthetic fertilizer requires a plentiful supply of nitrogen, inventing a process to fix it in ammonia was daunting. Attempts were made for over 100 years. Then in 1909 Fritz Haber, a German chemist, solved the problem in principal. In 1910, Carl Bosch, pioneering new engineering methods, commercialized the process. Known as the Haber-Bosch Process, it is now responsible for growing about half of the world’s food. It was one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century. Without it, 30-40% of the world’s population would not be alive."

Science Heros

Unfortunately, it's what they did AFTER this invention that is controversial. They participated in chemical warfare development which killed over 1.3 million people in WWI. Compare that to almost 3 billion lives saved with the fertilizer.

Quietly bringing in New Year 2012

A very lovely New Year's Eve. First we attended a wonderful jazz concert at UALC which featured the works of Henry Mancini--always a nice walk down memory lane since he did so many movie and TV themes. Then a worship service with communion led by Pastors Dan Clark and Brodie Taphorn. We saw many friends from years ago that we miss now that there are three campuses.

Then we came home, put on some quiet music, had dinner, and I set out the little cardboard mailbox with all the Christmas, Thanksgiving, and New Year cards and letters and we took turns reading through them aloud--it took about 90 minutes. We had, of course, read them when they came through the mail slot or were handed to us, but this time we actually discussed them and noted things we'd missed. Usually I tape the return address to the card if the names are rather common or duplicative, but I missed one. Neither of us seem to know which "Jim and Becky" sent that card. . .

Wayne and Marie (housemate from the U. of I. in the 1950s) still get the prize for most travels and activities, but I think Marilyn Ford won for biggest family photo--almost 40 children and grandchildren in her photo. I got out the church directory from 1978 and she and Jack had 4 children in that photo. Gayle's Thanksgiving letter usually leads the pack, and we think there will be a few yet to come this week. My brother called instead of sending a card--they've gone to e-mail, which is difficult since my husband doesn't do computer stuff. We really treasure the hand made and artistic efforts--we seem to know a lot of artists. I didn't do a Christmas letter this year--maybe this will inspire me. . .

Week-end plans to bring in the New Year 2012

It's the end of the year. Not to be original, but time sure flies. Tonight we're going out with Ron and Jane to celebrate their 55th wedding anniversary. I'm thinking of baking a cake and then coming back here after the Rusty Bucket--but maybe if I wait the urge and ambition will go away. We met when we were all members of First Community Church in 1968. The guys met in a men's breakfast group, Jane and I met at a funeral, and the guys still see each other weekly for a Wednesday morning group which Ron teaches.

Then tomorrow evening we're going to the New Year's Eve Jazz Concert and Worship at the Mill Run campus of Upper Arlington Lutheran Church at 5:30, then worship and communion at 6:00. Sunday there is a reduction in the number of services because of Saturday worship so we'll go at 10 a.m.

Always take off your apron before photographs

Blogger's stats

I've recently switched over to a new Blogger template, and although it takes some getting used to (I guess they have to have something for the younger employees to do), I am paying more attention to the stats feature. Today for the first time I looked at country of origin for my visitors (for December 2011).

USA -- 1,789
France -- 283
Russia -- 152
Switzerland
and Germany -- 101 each
U.K. -- 81
Taiwan -- 71
Canada -- 68
India -- 50
Turkey -- 19

Of course, my all time big winner is a HGTV story on Tony Chau moving to Las Vegas. 534 page views since Oct. 15, 2010. So many people want to get rich on the internet.

Civil dialogue

Some readers of blogs say anything. I saw this at Frugal Cafe. A Blogger shouldn't have to explain how to be polite and non-threatening to commenters, but this is the world we live in.

Because of the onslaught of attacking comments against Sarah Palin and/or her children (often with the F-word or other vulgarities) , anti-Palin comments are no longer accepted for posting. Don't waste your time trying. There are plenty of liberal blogs and Obama-run media articles out there bashing Palin... post your hate-driven criticisms on one of those sites. My blog, my rules.

The 1% today were the 99% yesterday

Mobility is the unique feature of our economy and culture. That's why people want to come here. The Occupiers are not only wrong, but they dumb, uninformed and anti-American.

Holder needs to go

The empirical evidence shows that voter ID laws do not suppress minority voting. In Georgia, black voter turnout for the 2006 midterm elections was 42.9%. After Georgia passed its photo ID, black turnout in the 2010 midterm rose to 50.4%. Black voter turnout also rose in Indiana and Mississippi after enactment of their voter ID laws.

IHOP makes the Wastebook 2011

A DC development corp builds an IHOP in Columbia Heights (DC) with federal subsidy ($765,828) and gets listed in Coburn's Wastebook 2011. Leftists go crazy because it's mentioned on Fox and in Coburn's list, and insist it isn't yuppieville. So I looked at real estate in the area. 1 bdrm $2,160, 2 bdrm $3,050, average salary $65,231. That would buy a few pancakes for government workers, wouldn't it? But so what? Why do we need to subsidize IHOP? Or rather, why are we subsidizing a development corporation with a 40 year federal/local back patting, wallet padding scheme?

Anacostia Economic Development Corporation

Looking through Anacostia's timeline, I see that 40 years ago it did help the neighborhood by assisting small business in the community--hat store, hardware store, shoe store, funeral home, supermarket, furniture store, drapery store, etc. But the big money was in Title VII CDC, and it moved on. Looks like some lottery, gaming, and cable--then apartment development, then a for-profit subsidiary, more real estate development and shopping centers, relocation of some government office buildings and post office. Wheeeee! Why does this company still need the government to make a profit and payroll? And of course, former DC Mayor Marion Barry is involved.

Really--do browse the Wastebook 2011. It is fascinating.

Hoosiers didn't need guardians in 1947

This floats around a number of conservative blogs citing on-line newsletter Foundation for Economic Freedom, but I also found it in a book, Contemporary American Federalism, by Joseph Zimmerman (SUNY Press, 2008), a preview of which was in Google, but not the section with the footnote which cited the source. I hope it is real, because on the Internet if something sounds too good to be true, you're usually right to be suspicious. In any case, our states, like our citizens are so accustomed to being on the dole, this would be tough to pass today. "Being fooled," of course, refers to many of FDR's programs during the Great Depression. And as single moms have learned since the mid-60s, Uncle Sam is not a good step-father.

House Concurrent Resolution No. 2 of the 85th General Assembly of the State of Indiana, passed by that state’s House and Senate in January 1947.

"Indiana needs no guardian and intends to have none. We Hoosiers—like the people of our sister states—were fooled for quite a spell with the magician’s trick that a dollar taxed out of our pockets and sent to Washington will be bigger when it comes back to us. We have taken a good look at said dollar. We find that it lost weight in its journey to Washington and back. The political brokerage of the bureaucrats has been deducted. We have decided that there is no such thing as ‘federal’ aid. We know that there is no wealth to tax that is not already within the boundaries of the 48 states.

So we propose henceforward to tax ourselves and take care of ourselves. We are fed up with subsidies, doles and paternalism. We are no one’s stepchild. We have grown up. We serve notice that we will resist Washington, D.C. adopting us."

Happy Days are Here Again

Ronald Clark, a blogger and retired systems engineer for the Navy from Indianapolis, Indiana writes:

Back when the depression was going and America was suffering badly, Franklin D. Roosevelt mounted a Presidential campaign that featured the song, "Happy Days Are Here Again" with vague promises of a transformation of America into a place where the Government would take care of the people. He was elected with "Happy Days Are Here Again" ringing in everyone's hearts and ears. This was the start of real socialism in America and if you are so inclined to research the era, you will discover everything that FDR did during his years as President, made the depression and suffering much worse. The depression was a once-in-a lifetime opportunity (never let a crisis go to waste) to gain power for the Federal Government to implement policy that would never be accepted during normal times. His nanny Government also was responsible for extending the depression in America while the rest of the world recovered quite rapidly.

In other words, it was WWII that ended the American depression, not the entitlement, utopian policies of FDR. There is even strong evidence that FDR made decisions that forced the US into war in order to recover from the depression with his socialism policies firmly in place.

I know, not pretty, but mostly true.

The "Happy Days Are Here Again" theme during the FDR era is the same utopian Flim Flam that people ate up then and is the same as is the "Hope and Change" utopian nonsense that gullible people are gobbling up today and believe the Government can create jobs and take care of them. The point being, that the same disastrous results are occurring as in FDR's day and one must wonder if all of these unnecessary wars nowadays are an attempt to recover as FDR used WWII to recover. (Sorry, the wars nowadays are not big enough to effect the desired change.)

There really is no free lunch, someone must pay and we are now paying with our treasure, freedoms and jobs.

Happy Days

Original recording used in the 1930 MGM film Chasing Rainbows and recorded by Leo Reisman with vocals by Lou Levin.

You do the math--Obama's economy

The ravages of the Obama economy now mean that more Americans live under the federal poverty line than at any time in U.S. history since records have been kept. Under President Barack Obama, every fifth child in America now lives in poverty.

The Democrats took over the government not in January 2009 with Obama's election, but in January 2007, with control of the Senate and House. They destroyed, with Senator Obama's help, a good economy with a 4+ unemployment rate, but put Barney Frank in charge of an important finance committtee, and let Fannie and Fred continue their bad subprime loans.

It's the math, stupid

Cozy Scandinavian Apartment Showcasing Inspiring Details

Ignore nor this tiny, aneseptic apartment in Sweden. I'm just testing my blogger button.

Cozy Scandinavian Apartment Showcasing Inspiring Details | Freshome