AIDS memorial--Why?

"A design that calls for a grove of trees reflected infinitely by 12-foot-long mirrors was selected today for New York’s first large-scale AIDS memorial."

The AIDS Memorial Park organization, Architectural Record, and Architizer have announced the winner of a competition to design a memorial for victims of AIDS and an education center in Manhattan’s West Village. Studio a+i of Brooklyn, N.Y. won the blind competition with a plan to surround an existing triangular park with mirrored walls and a grove of white birch trees. Architectural Digest, Jan. 30, 2012

Why do we memorialize this particular disease's victims, a disease which is mostly self-inflicted through promiscuous, indiscriminate sex and multiple partners? We don't memorialize death by smoking, drinking or over-eating, or driving too fast, or not exercising. Where is the memorial to those who have died from malaria because environmentalists pulled DDT from the market? Where is the memorial for 50 million dead American babies?

Men who have sex with men--MSM account for nearly half of the approximately 1.2 million people living with HIV in the United States (49%, or an estimated 580,000 total persons).

MSM account for more than half of all new HIV infections in the United States each year (61%, or an estimated 29,300 infections).

While CDC estimates that only 4 percent of men in the United States are MSM, the rate of new HIV diagnoses among MSM in the United States is more than 44 times that of other men (range: 522 – 989 per 100,000 MSM vs. 12 per 100,000 other men). CDC Fact Sheet

Happy Birthday Jacob Duche', first chaplain

Jacob Duche' was born January 31, 1738. He was pastor of Christ Church in Philadelphia. As recorded in the Journals of the Continental Congress, their first official act after receiving news that British troops had attacked Boston was to request that Rev. Jacob Duche' open Congress in prayer:

"Tuesday, September 6, 1774. Resolved, That the Rev. Mr. Duche' be desired to open the Congress tomorrow morning with prayers, at the Carpenter's Hall, at 9 o'clock."

On September 7, 1774, Rev. Mr. Duche' arrived at Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, and read Psalm 35, which the Anglican Common Prayer Book had as the Psalter for that day:

"Plead my cause, Oh, Lord, with them that strive with me, fight against them that fight against me. Take hold of buckler and shield, and rise up for my help. Draw also the spear and the battle-axe to meet those who pursue me; Say to my soul, 'I am your salvation.' Let those be ashamed and dishonored who seek my life; Let those be turned back and humiliated who devise evil against me."

After reading the prescribed prayer for the day, Rev. Duche' proceeded to pray extemporaneously:

"Be Thou present, O God of Wisdom, and direct the counsel of this Honorable Assembly; enable them to settle all things on the best and surest foundations; that the scene of blood may be speedily closed; that Order, Harmony and Peace may be effectually restored, and that Truth and Justice, Religion and Piety, prevail and flourish among the people...

Preserve the health of their bodies, and the vigor of their minds, shower down on them, and the millions they here represent, such temporal Blessings as Thou seest expedient for them in this world, and crown them with everlasting Glory in the world to come. All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, Thy Son and our Saviour, Amen."

American minute

The assault on the First Amendment through Obamacare

The President has taken on the 77 million Catholics of the United States. Why in an election year would he do this? It's not like a drone that can selectively take out a single enemy in a foreign country. This "enemy" is the church, all Christians, and this is the United States. And the church is big--next to government, it's the biggest, richest entity in the world. Why would he do this? Bishop Campbell of Columbus--a version of this letter was read across the nation this past Sunday in every Catholic parish--called for civil disobedience. But just because we're not Catholics, it doesn't mean we aren't affected. I don't think Obama is stupid; I think he's sly. He wants a confrontation, an excuse to quash the church. Who else can speak truth to power but the church? In the days of the monarchies the clergy who spoke against the king was sent to the tower or the gallows. Our Constitution and Bill of Rights was written by Christians to prevent that by keeping the government out of the churches.

It’s not what you and I as Lutheran or Methodist or even the Catholic in the pew believe about birth control pills. It’s what the Catholic church teaches about contraception and abortion based on its searching the Scriptures, tradition going back to Peter, and historic teachings about the significance of life. We (you and I) don’t have a say in those teachings and beliefs anymore than Obama does, because this is protected by the first amendment. It's the first amendment that protects all our churches, even little old 50,000 membership in Church of the Brethren, from interference by the state. It's the reason there was massive exodus from Europe as Protestants and Catholics alike suffered under the whims of various monarchs. And until Obamacare, those beliefs about life taught by the Catholic church were also protected by this president who made numerous promises to Catholic institutions who insure both Catholics and non-Catholics, that he would respect their beliefs if they would support his plan to take over the healthcare industry. They did; he didn't.

I also don’t believe in purgatory or 7 sacraments, but I believe the Roman Catholic church has a right to teach, believe, and act on those beliefs. Just as I believe it has a right not to pay for contraceptives or abortions of employees or clients in its hospitals and universities, its social service agencies and its elementary schools, its job training programs and its food pantries, its low income housing complexes, its adoption agencies and nursing homes. On the near horizon under Obamacare, we will come to a point when insurance plans under government mandate will be weeding out the disabled as not worthy of care, or the expense, just as now 93% of unborn children with Down Syndrome are "weeded." If you don’t believe it, please do more research into the articles written by some of Obama's Czars, advisers and "bioethicists." It will be the Catholic Church, not your Democratic party or Republican party, and certainly not President Obama, who will be guarding the door for you.

Finger pointing is now racist

Last Thursday after Jan Brewer, governor of Arizona, said Welcome to the President, he attacked her for what she'd written in her book. The two had words, the big guy started it, but the libs are going crazy over finger pointing photo. Apparently, when a white governor does it, it's racist, but when a black President does it, it's just righteous.

More on the auto bailout

"U.S. Treasury Department boosted its estimate of government losses in the $85 billion auto bailout by $170 million.

In the government's latest report to Congress this month, the Treasury upped its estimate to $23.77 billion, up from $23.6 billion.

Last fall, the government dramatically boosted its forecast of losses on the rescues of General Motors Co., Chrysler Group LLC and their finance units from $14 billion to $23.6 billion.

Much of the increase in losses is due to the sharp decline of GM's stock price over the last six months.

GM was trading at noon today at $24.24. It's down 35 percent over its 52-week-high of $37.23, but the Detroit automaker has rebounded from a low set last year of $19.05.

The Treasury, [that's us, folks] which initially held a 61 percent majority stake in GM, now holds a 26.5 percent share, or 500 million shares in GM. To break even, the government would need to average $53 per share for its remaining stake."

Detroit News

Why is Obama uniting Catholics?

It’s darn near impossible to unite this country’s 77 million liberal and conservative Catholics, but Obama has done this with his mandate through HHS that Catholic health care institutions and colleges (and other religious groups, mostly Christian) must provide contraception and abortifacients (also Plan B, morning after, etc.) in their insurance plans. We’re not stupid, sir. We know requiring them to perform abortions will be the next step—we’ve been watching how liberals do this inch by inch since by the yard it’s hard. And then it will be no prayers in the hospitals because it might offend their non-Christian patients!

Three years ago the liberal Catholics were all kissy face at Notre Dame with him as he assured his Catholic hosts that he would do nothing but respect their religious beliefs. He used the event to promote embryonic stem cell research, even though adult stem cell was the big news in medicine without a single success for embryonic. He used it as an opportunity to thumb his nose at the pro-life movement. Liberals let it slide—they had his promises about their precious institutional authority. Big Whoop! Then the Supreme Court, even with his liberal appointees decided 9-0 in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, that religious institutions have rights, too. The justices ruled that religious workers may not sue on the basis of job discrimination if it’s in the best interest of that institution that they not be employed. (The end result of going the other way would be Christian churches could be required to hire Muslims, and conservatives and Catholics forced to hire women pastors.) The knives have come out.

President Obama isn’t responsible for the declining membership of the churches—that’s been going on since the 60s—and the church has no one but itself to blame for catering to the culture and ignoring the gospel--but he seems to hope to be the one to make the church as helpless and weak as it is in Europe. Now with the rest of us, the liberal Catholics have had to wise up.

From the beginning of his candidacy, I have defended Obama as a Christian. I said he was a convert, not a Muslim; I read his testimony given at a UCC conference long before he became a candidate. It sounded heart felt and authentic. I said he can’t be held accountable for the sins of Rev. Wright. But as pointed out in the Gospel of Luke, even the demons know Jesus is the Christ—they knew before the general public did--they just don’t worship him. This action of the Obama Administration in an election year is so bizarre, so antagonistic to the largest Christian group in America, that it’s hard to any longer cling to this fragile evidence that he has any intention other than destroying Christianity.

Not only is he uniting Catholics, but conservative fundamentalist Christians are with them who’ve probably never stepped inside a Catholic church, and will be joining them in legal cases. So why would he do this, unite Christians against him, in an election year? Is the cost of law suits going to take money away from conservatives running against him? Will it divert attention, even temporarily, about his reelection? Have you got an explanation?

Addiction to pain killers

Overdoses from prescription pain killers result in 40+ deaths a day and 1.2 million emergency room visits a year, a 98.4% increase since 2004. Sales of opiods in 2010 were 4X more than 1999. Unlike users of illegal drugs, these addicted people usually aren't injecting, they are employed, and they have family support. But as with users of illegal drugs, short term treatment isn't very successful. JAMA, Jan. 4, 2012.

Just a wild guess here--I'm not a researcher or doctor--but it would seem that addiction can happen without poverty and societal breakdown (numbers are higher than for cocaine and heroin). It happens even with excellent health insurance. So when creating new government programs to help the addicted- low income, I hope someone looks at this report. Addiction to prescribed drugs according to this report also varies by state--so look for older people with a lot of surgical procedures for knees, hips, back, cancer, etc., to account for an increase as the population ages. States like Florida and New Mexico have a greater problem with this than Illinois and Nebraska. Also, what year was it the drug plan for Medicare kicked in?

Crawling bots

Instead of being "crawled" by Google which allows my blog to be found by others, I've picked up a bot called "Performance Systems International." I don't know what it does, but it definitely bumps the Google crawler.

Celebrities visit the Villages in Florida

It seems the celebrities and political candidates love The Villages, a retirement community of 85,000 residents located 20 miles south of Ocala, Florida on route 441 with a total of 504 holes of golf. Murray recently sent his e-mail list this item about their visitors. "In the past 2 years we've had Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck (twice), Bill O'Rielly, and Sean Hannity visiting us. This week we had Rick Santorum and John McCain with Newt Gingrich tomorrow and Mitt Romney Monday. Also the Tea Party Express bus will be here tomorrow." In fact, he adds, they've even had Occupiers show up to protest.

"One thing you can be sure of and that would be Obama will NOT be coming to The Villages. He already knows that The Villages special interest group is not potential supporters. They consist of the old and wise. He avoids these people plus most of the middle class that he's trying to screw and doing a dam good job of it!"

Pushing the broken, 3 wheel Obama bus over the finish line

"Former presidential candidate Herman Cain has endorsed Newt Gingrich for president. Cain joined Gingrich at a Republican Party dinner in West Palm Beach, Fla., Saturday night to make the surprise announcement.

Cain urged his supporters, tea party members and other conservatives to back the only true conservative in the race, Newt Gingrich." Newsmax source

Google's new privacy rules, March 1, 2012

Google has many products and over 60 privacy policies. It is going to standardize them to create a "beautifully simple and intuitive experience" based on five principles. The "information" referred to in the principles is what we the users have provided the company and what it has collected about us in the years we've been using Google--which is a lot, by the way.

1. Use information to provide our users with valuable products and services.
2. Develop products that reflect strong privacy standards and practices.
3. Make the collection of personal information transparent.
4. Give users meaningful choices to protect their privacy.
5. Be a responsible steward of the information we hold.

For instance, Google tracks every search I make using its search engine--I do use some other products, but rarely. Yesterday I read a number of articles in print/on-line newspapers--I can either look at my search history provided by Microsoft or click on a Google feature that will tell me the top 8 sites I visited recently including Facebook, my blog, my site meter, articles about Charles Murray, articles in a Tea Party aggregator of news stories, Glenn Beck TV, electronic health records, and something about the welfare state. This tab is color coded to tell me how actively I've been searching those topics. I can click to the next page, which suggests that since I read the New York Times, perhaps I'd like to visit some other newspapers (I'm pretty sure I visit WaPo more often than NYT, but perhaps the origin of the article is what is counted).

I certainly don't keep my politics a secret since I hit a lot of hot button topics here, but just what does "responsible steward" mean when a huge mega-corporation lobbies and donates heavily to political candidates, has recently lost a court case brought by the government and been fined for illegal activity (pharmacy ads), and it carefully tracks every possible angle I research? I also search a lot of religious and theology sites--is that algorithm suppressed? Is it stewardship of their resources or my privacy that matters? (I know the answer to that!) They do, after all, have a responsibility to their stockholders and employees, their "owners." The fact that I can click on a tab and see just what Google is tracking about me I suppose meets principle 3, transparency.

Always keep in mind that Google is not your servant, slave, or employee--it is a highly sophisticated tool that exists only to sell a product/products to keep its investors happy and well paid. You only have to read to learn this, but because it does such a good job, you can be lulled into believing "Google is your friend."

Knowing a little bit about you can help make Google products better, both for you and for others. By understanding your preferences we can ensure that we give you the search results that you’re looking for, and by analyzing the search logs of millions of users in aggregate, we can continually improve our search algorithm, develop new features, keep our systems secure and even predict the next flu outbreak.

The Obama Generation

The mainstream press on the drug PC

When I first read the story in the Washington Post today of Brittany Norwood brutally murdering her co-worker Jayna Murray in a Yoga store of Bethesda, MD of all things, I thought two things immediately: 1) Yoga--that eastern religion that’s supposed to bring peace? and 2) how can any woman stab another 331 times, then stage her own assault to deflect the guilt, and not have some prior warning that she was evil to the core?

I read the whole thing, and saw the photos of Jayna’s family (for awhile I thought the photo of Jayna's mother was actually a photo of Brittany the killer so I thought the perp was a white woman) without any knowledge that Brittany was black and Jayna was white. If it had been reversed, if the victim was black and the killer white, do you suppose any reader of the Washington Post could have come across that story and not known that?

Another item in this case not reported in WaPo is that the employees of an Apple store next door could hear the screams of the victim, and did nothing.

The mainstream press on the drug PC.

Come on IN!

Let's hope Illinois and Michigan wake up soon. It's not that far a move for business, or for people who want to work without being coerced into joining oppressive, outdated unions.

"The Indiana State House on a 54-44 vote today passed House Bill 1001, paving the way to make Indiana the 23rd right-to-work state in the nation. The vote took place after House Democrats finally attended session Wednesday afternoon, ending their work stoppage over the issue.

Under the legislation, unions would be barred from collecting mandatory representation fees.

HB 1001 will now be sent to the Indiana Senate. If the Senate passes the bill without amendment, it would go the the desk of Gov. Mitch Daniels as quickly as this week. Earlier this week the Senate passed its own right-to-work bill, SB 269, which is currently residing in the House."

CapCon story

Decrease honors courses to increase Advanced Placement for minorities

Fairfax, VA had decreased its honors courses in high school in order to push minorities into enrolling in the more difficult Advanced Placement courses. That seems counter productive to me. What about minority and non-minority students who aren't ready for Advanced Placement? Wasn't this policy hurting them in order to reach some imagined administrative goal for a small minority of blacks and Latinos (higher percentage in AP) which probably gets the superintendent a prize? Apparently parents felt as I do.

"Honors-level courses are a middle track between standard-level and college-level Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate classes. The school system began phasing out some honors courses several years ago to encourage students — especially low-income, black and Latino students — to choose more rigorous courses.

That appears to have made a difference. The number of students taking AP and IB tests has risen somewhat, and so has the proportion of black and Latino test-takers.

But eliminating honors courses provoked criticism from some parents, who argued that it forced students to decide between standard-level courses that are too easy and college-level courses that are overly demanding."

The school board voted 11-1 to add back in five additional honors courses in the fall. Don't you just hate it when kids are the lab animals in social engineering theories?
Washington Post story

Laptops and sperm count in men

On someone's Face Book page I saw a photo of a lecture hall where everyone had a laptop on knees or lap. I was pretty sure I'd seen something years ago about heat killing sperm or reducing sperm count. I know my laptop can create heat even through a thick pillow on my thighs, so I looked it up. Here's what was at the bottom (no pun intended) of advice on taking a laptop to college classes.

Guys: if you put the laptop on your lap, please also be aware that the increased temperature can reduce your fertility. The effect is not so strong that you can count laptop use as a contraceptive, but it’s something to think about. You might also think about the effect of elevated temperature on spontaneous mutation rate in those little gamete vehicles you have on board.

How bundling helps the bundlers as well as the candidate

Obama has used 357 bundlers in 6 months during the current campaign. 81 of the bundlers work at law firms--what a surprise there. He’s raised 56 million. Bundlers often receive special treatment because of their ability to raise big money. Obama, in fact, elevated some two dozen bundlers from his last campaign to serve as ambassadors during his first year in office.

Ron Paul has used zero; Mitt Romney eight. However, no one is actually required to say how many, so we only know what’s been offered--and that includes the Obama campaign. Obama provides the information because he sponsored legislation on it when he was a Senator (it failed).

Open Secrets Blog

The six agency consolidation

Remember the big deal Obama made about asking for power to consolidate executive agencies? Big Whoop!

The savings, as reported in NYT, is $3 billion and change over 10 years. . . 2/3 of one day’s interest on the national debt.

But it gets better. No one will loose his job. It will all come through retirements. (We’ll still be paying the benefits, however, which I’m sure are very generous.)

So this is Obama's version of a smaller government. Was this gratuitous slop for his followers and the press, or what?

Obama cuts the government

Newt and Bill

Who you going out with tonight?

"Newt and Bill, as 1960s generation self-promoters, share the same duplicity, ostentatious braininess, a propensity for endless scrapes with propriety and the law. They are tireless hustlers."

American Spectator

The generic candidate

According to a Fox News report this morning, Mitt Romney more closely resembles the "generic candidate" who can beat Barack Obama.

Good.