Dog and Pony Show--a Supreme and a McFaul guy

Ruth Bader Ginsberg tells Egypt our Constitution is old and shouldn't be their model--after all, in the U.S. the citizen is higher than the government and the Constitution is actually written to protect the citizen from the government. Plus, and she didn't say this or even think it, if you have our Constitution, people will be always crossing your borders attempting to get away from their own governments.

Wrote [John] Hayward of Ginsburg’s advice: “The last thing an Egyptian populace struggling for freedom from the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood needs to hear is a paean from a fashionable liberal about ultramodern state charters that enshrine the use of compulsive force in the service of leftist ‘positive rights,’ such as the right not to be offended.” He added that “the more fervent Muslims trying to turn Egypt into a theocracy are very good at becoming offended, and they love the notion of using compulsive force to remove the objects of their ire.” Link

U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul tells NPR that President Obama's policy when it comes to Russia is that we're "going to support what we like to call universal values" and "not American values." The Senate confirmed McFaul as ambassador on December 17, 2011.

Title inflation at The Ohio State University

From recent announcements at The Ohio State University:

On April 29, 2011, Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee and Executive Vice President and Provost Joseph A. Alutto recommended the appointment of Bernadette M. Melnyk, PhD, RN, CPNP/PMHNP, FNAP, FANN, (Dean and Distinguished Foundation Professor in Nursing at Arizona State University's College of Nursing Health Innovation) as Dean of the College of Nursing and Associate Vice President for Health Promotion and Chief Wellness Officer. Subject to approval by the Board of Trustees, her appointment will be effective on September 15, 2011.

"Dr. Melnyk's role as Ohio State's chief wellness officer is, I believe, the first such position at a university and sends a strong signal about our commitment and proactive approach to ensuring a healthy workforce and student body," Provost Alutto said.

But not to be outdone, the OSU Medical Center then had to have a VP of Care Coordination and Health Promotion.

On February 4, Ohio State announced that Larry Lewellen, current Vice President for Human Resources, will be joining The Ohio State University Medical Center as Vice President of Care Coordination and Health Promotion. Subject to approval by the Board of Trustees, his new appointment will be effective March 1.

Hard to know how the salaries inflate with the number and complexity of the titles.

Some people still think homelessness is a housing problem

In order to provide work for architects, this fellow writes at an architectural forum: "I would suggest that the AIA Housing KC develop a National Housing Policy that says, in effect, that it should be a right for every citizen in the United States to go to bed each night in a safe, secure and weather tight environment. In other words, we need to eliminate homelessness from our nation's vocabulary."

Substance abuse is often a cause of homelessness. Addictive disorders disrupt relationships with family and friends and often cause people to lose their jobs. For people who are already struggling to pay their bills, the onset or exacerbation of an addiction may cause them to lose their housing. A 2008 survey by the United States Conference of Mayors asked 25 cities for their top three causes of homelessness. Substance abuse was the single largest cause of homelessness for single adults (reported by 68% of cities). Substance abuse was also mentioned by 12% of cities as one of the top three causes of homelessness for families. According to Didenko and Pankratz (2007), two-thirds of homeless people report that drugs and/or alcohol were a major reason for their becoming homeless.
In many ["some" would be a better word choice, nb] situations, however, substance abuse is a result of homelessness rather than a cause. Link

Further more, a tiny percentage of the homeless are chronically homeless.

5% of the nearly 2 million homeless people reported by the USHUD in 2009 categorized as chronically homeless, nearly all people living without a home for more than a month have family problems and some kind of disability, including drug or alcohol addiction or mental illness. Based on the 2009 HUD Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, Link

So unless the architects have found some sort of super-human solution to drug and alcohol addiction, mental illness and chronic family problems, they need to look elsewhere for a solution to their own employment problems.

Occupiers continue to challenge our freedoms

"An Allegheny County Common Pleas Court judge has issued a supplemental order compelling the county sheriff to oust all Occupy Pittsburgh protesters and tents from Mellon Green.

Judge Christine Ward had previously given the protesters three days to vacate the space. The deadline passed this morning at 11:15 a.m. as protesters continued to gather and about a dozen tents remained.

But Sheriff William Mullen said he would not have his deputies enforce it until they got a specific order to do so, which came this afternoon."

About 6,500 occupiers have been arrested across the country since last fall. How does that compare with the awful, terrible terrorist-bent Tea Party? It was reported that an Oakland, California couple who'd been active in the community and helping poor people were strangled to death by their teen-age son--who'd been skipping school lately to hang out with the Occupy Oakland crowd. Well, isn't that what Bill Ayers advised radicals back in the 60s. He was a spoiled rich kid, too. Your remember good old Bill--he helped with the Obama campaign last time around.

Read more

Obama won't back down on contraceptive requirement for Catholics

[Jay Carney] said the president had no plans to reconsider the mandate in spite of the outcry from leaders of the Catholic Church and other religious organizations.

“This is not a decision of politics,” Carney stated. “This provides an important preventive service for people around the country and is not in any way a violation of the conscience clause.”

However, this is not the viewpoint of many legal experts who say the new mandate clearly violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).

Read the rest of the article here.

In my opinion, this is not an issue about contraception or abortion insurance, this is an issue of power. Who will stand up to the mighty federal government. No one, says Obama.

As a Lutheran, formerly in the ELCA synod, I was very disappointed to learn that ELCA has mandated insurance coverage that includes elective abortions, even for gender selection. I didn't know this, and neither did any member of UALC that I've talked to.Read a statement about this here.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America maintains a pro-choice position for fetuses that are aborted before viability outside of the womb. The ELCA position statement says abortion should be an option of last resort, the ELCA community should work to reduce the need for elective abortions, and that as a community, "the number of induced abortions is a source of deep concern to this church. We mourn the loss of life that God has created."[47][48] The ELCA Social Statement on Abortion adds: "The church recognizes that there can be sound reasons for ending a pregnancy through induced abortion. These are the threat to a woman's physical life; when pregnancy has resulted from rape, incest or sexual violence; and fetal abnormalities incompatible with life.[49] The church opposes legal restrictions on abortion and provides health-care benefits to its employees that cover elective abortions. Some hospitals affiliated with the church perform elective abortions.[50] Wikipedia based on ELCA.org

http://www.elca.org/What-We-Believe/Social-Issues/Social-Statements/Abortion.aspx

Pigmentocracy and shadeism is world wide

Note to readers: I was asked to research the topic of why among people of color in every culture the darker are often lower, socio-economic class. I haven't spent a lot of time on this, but here's my opinion.

Although I don't like President Obama as a leader because of his regressive 19th century based social and economic policies where citizens are considered pawns and tools of the state, there are three positive cultural check marks in his column as a role model for American blacks. 1) He is educated and employed and thus a positive role model for young men who may find glamor and self-esteem in a gansta life style. 2) He is married to the mother of his children, and lack of marriage of their parents is the number one reason for poverty among children, whether black or white. 3) He did not use skin tone in selecting a wife. This is a huge plus for darker skinned, African American women, and certainly can't hurt him at the polls.

He's one of the few high profile blacks in American culture of any age, time, income, or profession who is married to a woman darker than himself. When you analyze that, it's not hard to figure out why. He was raised in a white culture, by his white mother and grandparents, and in that culture any black person, regardless of skin tone is simply . . . black. Not so for black men raised culturally with African Americans. For them, a lighter skinned girl friend/wife is preferred.

And this isn't an exclusively American phenomenon, although some would like to brand us with that and link it to years of racial mixing with the slave masters. See this biased link whose authors apparently have never traveled. Sorry folks, that war ended in 1865 and black men are still choosing women of light skin tone to be the mother of their children. It also happens in Brazil, Haiti, Dominican Republic, and also in India and many Asian countries. It was also apparent among Russians, where many Russians were ethnically part Asian or descendant from people who had worked the land for centuries. In India, the caste system is also a system of color. In China, before the Communist revolution, the higher better educated classes were very light skinned. The Laplanders of several Scandinavian countries are all darker and of lower social/economic class than the majority Swedes, Finns, Norwegians and Russians with whom they share citizenship.

It's called "pigmentocracy." My theory is it's roots are in labor--the darker a woman was, the more likely her family worked in the sun; they were laborers, slaves, serfs, servants. The freedom to choose a spouse based on relationship or love is just a little blip of recent history even for Europeans and Americans. If a man's wife and children didn't labor in the fields or mines, he had status. For most of history, it's been an economic decision made early in life for the betterment of the family. If you can't change your own skin color, you can change that of your children by selecting a fair skinned wife. Now it's an economic decision made by media--have you ever seen the women hosts of Spanish/Hispanic TV? Or even the desk clerk in a hotel in San Antonio compared to the maid who cleans your room?

Shadeism from Shadeism on Vimeo.

This video was made by a woman whose family is from from Sri Lanka. But notice the young black women shown on this documentary, who apparently haven't seen the pigmentocracy among their own people! The young Bangladeshi woman had discrimination even among her own siblings and parents. If it's in your own family--do you really want to condemn dead colonialism and society years later? In south Asia, colorism existed long before the British arrived as one gentleman observed. The Hip Hop culture really promotes shadeism. Ironically, Nayanni (film maker's name, I think) will get better attention and coverage because she is light skinned.

I've seen one exception and that's the Berbers of North Africa which DNA studies have shown to be Eurasian, not Arab, not African. I used to help in an ESL class a lovely hazel eyed, fair skinned Berber from North Africa who told me they came to the U.S. due to extreme discrimination in her home country. Although they were Muslims in a Muslim country, they were fairer skinned than the majority. They were the last educated and the last hired and they wanted a better life for their children. There is speculation that Berbers descended in part from white European slaves, so whether it's true doesn't really matter if that was the perception.

This woman wants to be the first female President of Mexico. Look at the color of her skin. If she were more Indian, more ethnic with darker skin, instead of European, what would her chances be?

The Earth Charter and Agenda 21

The differences. The similarities.

"Unlike Agenda 21, which is a document that provides a framework for hard laws, the Earth Charter is a set of principles that underscore and facilitate the strengthening and implementation of those laws. The Charter “was drafted in coordination with a hard law treaty that is designed to provide an integrated legal framework for all environment development law and policy.” This hard law treaty is called the International Covenant on Environment and Development and is being prepared by the Commission on Environmental Law at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a behemoth agency which oversees 700+ governmental agencies worldwide. Interestingly, Maurice Strong is on the IUCN’s Board of Directors." (Link)

Lots of religious language in the environment worshipers. The Charter sounds like the Gospel; and the Agenda 21 the Law. In the old days, it was just plain old pantheism.

The Earth Charter is the outcome of a process initiated in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Eight years later, in 2000, it was promulgated in Paris by UNESCO. According to Boff (2006) it is intended that the Charter will eventually be added to the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Charter is an attempt to expound a global ethic for the twentyfirst century based upon sustainability and the interconnectedness of all on planet earth – all living entities and the systems upon which all life depends. It makes and invites commitments to ecological integrity, social and economic justice, democracy, non-violence and peace. A sense of the tone of the Charter can be glimpsed from its Preamble. . .
British Journal of Religious Education

Another Health Care plan gone awry

“Dietrich Bonhoeffer rebuked German Christians who stood silent while Hitler intimidated church leaders to accept the socialist, anti-life agenda of the National Socialist Workers Party (NAZI).

The New York Times reported Oct. 10, 1933:

"Nazi Plan to Kill Incurables to End Pain; German Religious Groups Oppose Move...The Ministry of Justice...explaining the Nazi aims regarding the German penal code, today announced its intentions to authorize physicians to end the sufferings of the incurable patient...in the interest of true humanity.

The Catholic newspaper Germania hastened to observe: 'The Catholic faith binds the conscience of its followers not to accept this method.'...In Lutheran circles, too, life is regarded as something that God alone can take...

Euthanasia...has become a widely discussed word in the Reich...No life still valuable to the State will be wantonly destroyed."

Bonhoeffer warned Germans not to slip into the cult of Führer (leader) worship, as he could turn out to be a Verführer (mis-leader, seducer).”

From American Minute

Orothodoxy Today

Try Before You Buy?

"In spite of the social pressure, a growing number of brave singles are making the promise to wait. Still others who have been sexually active in the past are committing to what might be called a "second virginity." Regardless of their history, they're making a commitment to start over, to live as "virgins" until they make a lifelong commitment in marriage.

The reason is not that they've got crooked teeth, bad complexions, or don't bathe. Rather, they're choosing to wait because they believe the Judeo-Christian tradition holds the best insight on building strong relationships and durable marriages."

Salvo Magazine - Try Before You Buy? by Greg Koukl

He voted for Obama

Robert Burns party

Tonight we're attending a Robert Burns party. The hosts were ill last week when his birthday was, so it was moved to February 3. Robert Burns was Scotland's greatest poet, and every year all over the globe Burns Societies celebrate his birthday, read his verses, sing his songs, and sometimes eat authentic food. . . porridge . . . or something gray made with oats.

Black History Month

A lot to memorialize, remember and challenge

Planned Parenthood is the largest provider of abortions in the country. And over 36% of the abortions in the country are black babies, so do the math if it's primarily the poor who come to Planned Parenthood. Minority women constitute only about 13% of the female population (age 15-44) in the United States. According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute [research arm of Planned Parenthood], black women are more than 5 times as likely as white women to have an abortion. On average, 1,876 black babies are aborted every day in the United States.

Interesting isn't it, that women who aren't getting a disproportionate share of dental care, or chest x-rays, or pap-smears, somehow get so many abortions.

Now, I wouldn't testify or preach that Planned Parenthood is a racist organization, but only because they're doing a pretty good job of doing that with their own statistics.

Many of the medical research articles I read include race and poverty. But for some really odd reason, I can't find any breakdown by race or income of the clinical trials for mifepristone (RU-486), done in the early 1990s. Poor and minority women are often used in tests for all manner of things. For the life of me I don't know how researchers found the women who had been pregnant such a brief time in order to include them in the experiments.

Four Chaplains Day

February 3, 1943 -- Hundreds were killed when a Nazi torpedo struck the U.S. Army Transport ship Dorchester near Greenland. Four chaplains, including two Protestant ministers, a Catholic priest, and a Jewish rabbi distributed life jackets to those who survived the initial blast. When there none left, they ripped off their own life jackets and gave them to four young men. They bowed together in prayer as the ship sank and all four perished in the icy waters. Congress honored them, declaring this to be "Four Chaplains Day."

We need this kind of support from Christians working together to make the Obama Administration back down on its grab to destroy the First Amendment through mandating Catholic institutions to provide birth control and abortion services.

Friday Family Photo, a little different

This is my sister Carol's grandson, Chris, who is a freshman in college and a talented artist and cellist. I'm not sure how this process is done--obviously on the computer, but I sort of like it.

A very tasty pineapple dessert

Yesterday I heard something in the kitchen that sounded like a rifle shot. I went in to look, and the lid on the fresh pineapple had blown off! Yes, it was getting a little long in the tooth. So I made a dessert.

Cut up whatever fresh, but overly ripe, pineapple you have and put on low heat with a couple of Tablespoons of butter. While that starts to simmer, add two cut up peeled and cored apples. Sprinkle with some Splenda, or sugar if you can have that. Cover with lid and let it simmer for as long as you want--but pineapple doesn't really soften much.

Then look in the frig. Mix half and half (or milk) with some flour and Splenda until smooth, then add an egg and whip. When the fruit mixture is soft and juicy, mix in the flour/milk/Splenda, stir while it thickens, then take the sauce pan off the stove to cool. Serve cold or warm with a little sugar free Cool-Whip, or eat plain. It's really yummy. Sort of pineapple pie filling without the crust.

The Madison Project

I hate going to the "about us" tab on a website and still not know what sort of a group is posting it, or who is funding it. I liked the clarity and simplicity of this one, but haven't searched through the archives to verify it:

"Madison Project raises money for conservative candidates through our network of grassroots conservatives. We provide our members with campaign profiles of selected candidates, and each member decides which candidates they want to support.

Our values are Pro-Life, Pro-Family, Limited Government, Defenders of Religious Freedom. We only endorse candidates who clearly demonstrate their conservatism. We evaluate every Congressional and Senatorial race in America, and our endorsements are only extended to key competitive races which have a strong conservative candidate with the ability to win."

R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. on the 60s

"As I wrote last week, Newt is a 1960s generation kid. Allow me to elaborate. That generation -- my generation -- was the most ballyhooed generation raised in the 20th century, and it was -- at least in politics -- a failed generation. Gingrich, the Clintons, Al Gore, and the rest of the 1960s hustlers began their political careers in college when they were the first generation to actually believe that student government was on campus to govern. The weak Liberal administrators went along with them and gave them a say in the running of their universities. The universities have yet to recover. Yet, beyond the damage they did to the universities was the damage they did to themselves. They became the most self-absorbed generation of narcissists ever heard of. From their student government days to their days in national politics they all lived out a fantasy. Now it is over. It would be eminently fitting if Romney won the presidency and set the country on course in 2012. He is from the normal half of that generation, a man who was a student in the 1960s and afterwards a businessman, until he had secured his fortune and entered public life in middle age. By then the Clintons and Newt had been supping at the public trough for years."

Yep.

Except for Obama. He's not one of them, but he definitely exceeds their narcissism. Even as prepared as we were having seen, heard and experienced it for years from co-workers, friends and politicians, we've never quite seen anything like him.

Are Protestant churches standing up for religious freedom?

I haven’t seen any evidence that Lutherans, Methodists, Brethren, Baptists, Presbyterians, Anglicans, etc. have stepped up to support or comment on the U.S. Bishops’ letters read to their parishes throughout the USA on January 29 calling for civil disobedience related to mandated insurance coverage for contraception, sterilization and abortifacients for Catholic institution employees.

They might want to take another look at something completely unrelated but still a challenge to PPACA, and that’s Medicaid mandates. Medicaid was created in 1965. It is the nation’s largest health insurer. In 2010 Medicaid spending totaled $400.7 billion from the federal government and $129.8 billion from state and local governments, with a 20.3% increase by 2014 projected because of PPACA’s expansion. (figures and story from New England Journal of Medicine, Jan. 12, 2012)

You’ve probably heard about the challenge in the courts of the individual mandate to purchase insurance. Were you aware that 26 states (Florida + 25) are challenging the mandated expansion of Medicaid as a violation of the U.S. Constitution? (The spending clause) The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the challenge.

Do you know what the number one argument the government will have? The states were warned from the beginning that Congress reserved the right to make changes to Medicaid, and it has done so many times over the years, and with each subsequent amendment you didn’t challenge it.

It’s time to challenge the government in this intrusion into church teaching and it’s stripping us of our first amendment rights.

Soul Train videos

Don Cornelius who created Soul train has died.

Don Cornelius, the South Side native who founded and hosted the iconic TV music and dance show “Soul Train,” shot himself to death Wednesday morning at his home in Sherman Oaks, Calif., Los Angeles police say.

Officers responding to a report of a shooting found the 75-year-old at his Mulholland Drive home at around 4 a.m.

He was pronounced dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at 4:56 a.m. at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said Los Angeles County Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter. Chicago Sun Times

10 videos of Soul Train

Soul train video channel Love the clothes! Aretha was so thin!

My brother reads my blog

But he never leaves a comment.