Spring Break 2012

Forsythia in bloom

I've been out for a 25 minute walk. Looks like some storms are on the way--very dark in the northwest. Our forsythia which were cut back to about 6 inches when the wall and sidewalk were built in 2009(?) are blooming gloriously--about 6 ft. tall now. New grow, new energy, we all need that. If you've got some ratty looking, spindly bushes, cut them back. They'll thank you.

A morning prayer attributed to Saint Patrick

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through the belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness,
Of the Creator of Creation.

I arise today
Through the strength of Christ’s birth with his baptism,
Through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial,
Through the strength of his resurrection with his ascension,
Through the strength of his descent for the judgment of Doom.

I arise today
Through the strength of the love of Cherubim,
In obedience of angels,
In the service of archangels,
In hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
In prayers of patriarchs,
In predictions of prophets,
In preaching of apostles,
In faith of confessors,
In innocence of holy virgins,
In deeds of righteous men.

I arise today
Through the strength of heaven:
Light of sun,
Radiance of moon,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of wind,
Depth of sea,
Stability of earth,
Firmness of rock.

I arise today
Through God’s strength to pilot me:
God’s might to uphold me,
God’s wisdom to guide me,
God’s eye to look before me,
God’s ear to hear me,
God’s word to speak for me,
God’s hand to guard me,
God’s way to lie before me,
God’s shield to protect me,
God’s host to save me
From snares of devils,
From temptations of vices,
From everyone who shall wish me ill,
Afar and anear,
Alone and in multitude.

I summon today all these powers between me and those evils,
Against every cruel merciless power that may oppose my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against black laws of pagandom
Against false laws of heretics,
Against craft of idolatry,
Against spells of witches and smiths and wizards,
Against every knowledge that corrupts man’s body and soul.

Christ to shield me today
Against poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So that there may come to me abundance of reward.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness,
Of the Creator of Creation.

Amen.

Blago's gone to jail now, but. . .

We've still got a Chicago Democrat as head of the nation, and the press never even peeked at any funny stuff going on about his Senate seat. It was all swept under the rug. . . probably for a lower sentence or a hurry up parole for Blago. From April 2010:

Chicago Democrats have run Illinois into the ground. Since Rod Blagojevich became governor in 2003, Illinois state government has spent roughly $500 billion dollars (yes nearly half a trillion). Yet, we are:

48th in job growth
36th in education
Leading the nation in youth violent crime
3rd in the nation in gambling revenue.

Are you ready to be bamboozled again in 2012?

"The Clinton campaign has specifically cited a phrase pulled from one of Deval Patrick's gubernatorial campaign speeches, which champions the power of words.

In 2006 Patrick gave a speech quoting famous phrases: "'We have nothing to fear, but fear itself,' … just words. 'Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.' Just words. … 'I have a dream' … just words,'" he said, switching effortlessly from FDR to JFK to MLK.

On Saturday in Wisconsin, Obama said, "Don't tell me words don't matter. … 'I have a dream.' Just words. 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.' Just words. 'We have nothing to fear but fear itself.' Just words. Just speeches."

Obama also campaigned in 2004 on the slogan, "Yes we can," which Patrick did in 2006."

ABC News account of plagiarism charge by Clinton campaign

"As reported by the Chicago Sun Times on Friday from South Carolina:
"Don't be hoodwinked. Don't be bamboozled," Obama told crowds several times during the day.
As a movie and Denzel fan, those words were very familiar to me. They're from Spike Lee's Malcolm X. I remember going to see that movie soon after Bill Clinton won in 1992.

They were the eternal words of Malcolm X regarding political maneuvering in the African American community."

Sometimes the truth causes outrage--and it should

"The billboard -- placed at the bustling intersection of Sixth Avenue and Watts Street by the nonprofit pro-life organizations Life Always and thatsabortion.com -- is about half a mile from one of three Planned Parenthood locations. Those facilities jointly reported nearly 17,000 pregnancy terminations in 2010, according to Life Always. A Planned Parenthood spokesman confirmed that number, adding that about 92 percent of terminations were conducted during the first trimester. Twenty-eight percent were medication-induced abortions performed within the first nine weeks."

Black anti-abortion billboards

Is abortion justified and merciful in rape cases? The Roman Catholic view

"Women who have been the victims of this crime [rape] have suffered a very great wrong. However, if pregnancy results, the unborn baby is entirely innocent of any wrong. Justice forbids this [an abortion], while mercy demands that the wrong already done be limited and overcome, so far as possible, with healing love. This requires correctly drawing the line between good and evil: the rapist’s act was evil, but the woman who was raped remains good, and the baby, though unwelcome, proceeds in part from her, is innocent, and so belongs on her side of the line. To reaffirm herself, she must accept the baby’s goodness, with the conviction that nothing that happened can make her and her baby bad. Nurturing the baby until its birth, she can then decide whether or not to accept the responsibilities of motherhood."

G. Grisez, The Way of the Lord Jesus: Living a Christian Life, Vol. 2 (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1986), 501.

Kony 2012 is falling apart--probably won't stop interference in Uganda

When I'm wrong, it's big time. The Kony video which I actually did research before I passed along the information, took me in too. I began to suspect something amiss when I saw that World Vision didn't list that area as the biggest problem for child soldiers. I knew Obama had already entered Uganda, which should have raised a red flag, but . . . hey, I can get suckered in by a pretty video too. I just didn't check carefully enough--a real problem with social media. Now this: "Jason Russell, whose half-hour documentary urging action against Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony has taken in more than 100 million views during the past week, was arrested Thursday night for allegedly masturbating in public and vandalizing cars, NBC San Diego reports.' "

Link to Jason Russell story

World Vision information on child soldiers in Africa

U.S. troops in Uganda

Obama and his desire to destroy the Catholic Church

I've been puzzled that the Bishops were surprised at Obama's duplicity and lies. This sermon by Father Sammie L. Maleta, Jr. of Indiana on Feb. 5, 2012 gives the background on Obama's war on the Catholic Church (and indeed all Christians), the largest non-government provider of health services. "We will go out of business before we pay to have a child murdered." So why is Obama attempting to create a crisis? So the government can step in and provide the service at higher cost and become one step closer to socialism. Why is Obama so focused on "reproductive services" when there are so many problems in the world? Why did it become more important than the Bill of Rights? Even if you voted for Obama, you didn't vote for THIS! It's a very fine sermon. Don't miss it. Now I understand, and know a whole lot more than I did before. It's not the one you heard in your parish, and if you are a Protestant, you certainly haven't heard it.

Anniversary of our First Date--St. Patrick's Ball

Thirteen things about my date to the St. Patrick's Ball
1. Balls at the University of Illinois were usually sponsored by a campus wide or large organization and held in more public places like the Armory or the Athletic building; dances were for the individual fraternity, sorority or independent residence. Other balls during that era were Sno-Ball, Beaux-Arts Ball, Military Ball, Interfraternity Ball and Panhellenic Ball.

2. Balls always had a nice dance band or small orchestra; dances usually a combo. To not have live music would have been unthinkable. There was also a photographer to take a formal portrait.

3. First we had a coffee date to get acquainted, since the St. Pat's Ball was an invitation from a guy I didn't know.

4. I borrowed a red lace dress from my housemate Sally who was slightly smaller.

5. My date wore a jacket that had belonged to his grandfather, who was slightly larger.

6. I weighed more than my date.

7. He borrowed a car from a friend.

8. I was 19 and living in McKinley Hall.

9. He was 21 living in Armory House.

10.My date was one of the few good dancers I'd ever dated. We went to many more dances.

11. He was a city boy, I was a small town girl.

12. He probably wanted to impress me so he told me that night he'd like to marry me.

13. He did.

From March 16, 2006 Blog

Principles of Economics

What won in 2008--will it work in 2012?

I was looking at my November 3, 2008 blog entry about Obama. The technology thing probably won't work this time--the kids are on to him, and even grandpa's on twitter. We know he'll lower the price of gasoline, but it certainly won't be as low as November 2008; we know he'll pull something dirty in the middle east or Africa that will look like the U.S. is coming to someone's aid; we know he'll take credit for an ever so slowly recovering economy which primarily shows the will of the American people. Can you think of anything else? Since the $1 surcharge for abortion is already in the insurance policies of Americans, can the Catholic fight go anywhere?

Love him or hate him, admire or denigrate him, his minions and lackeys are masters of puppetry, show, fluff, alinskyized groups, speed and visual impact. He picks an old-time, aging liberal for a running mate and uses text messaging to announce it, and the kiddoes swoon from excitement, ignorning the fact that Democrats refused Biden several times. They get little old ladies to leave their home in Illinois and paint store fronts and make coffee in Wisconsin; they get honor scholars to come home from Europe and give false addresses in Ohio and live in a dump so they can bus in the homeless and confused who haven't voted in years, or maybe never. They build a Greek Temple for $5 million to announce what we all knew--he was going to be the candidate and then rip into Palin for her clothes; he prances around Europe posing with fascist imagery but the kids have never studied history, so still they swoon. His agents and organizers, managers and gurus understand that what matters is the feeling, the excitement of the moment, not the facts. Norma, Nov. 3, 2008

60% of pregnant black women in NYC abort

But a billboard that pointed out how dangerous a black womb can be? Rude, wrong, disgusting, inappropriate--the billboard not the statistics about the abortions of black babies. So they took the billboard down. Anti-life groups are very rich and have stunning political ties on the left. They are really going after life groups who place billboards that tell the truth. No one denied that this billboard told the truth.

New York abortions by zip code

Does a culture of contraception increase or decrease abortion?

At first it seems counter-intuitive. Look at the money we are shelling out for Title X (a Nixon program for family planning services for the poor). Unless you really think it through. Over half the abortions are for women who used birth control. Many birth control methods, unless used exactly as directed, like the patch or the ring, or when used in conjunction with certain medications fail. But easily available and heavily used contraception increases abortions.

From the proponents of the Sexual Revolution and the Abortion Industry:
“Sexologist” Alfred Kinsey, 1955: “At the risk of being repetitious, I would remind the group that we have found the highest frequency of induced abortions in the groups which, in general, most frequently uses contraception.”

Abortionist Malcolm Potts, the former director of Planned Parenthood of England, 1976: “As people turn to contraception, there will be a rise, not a fall, in the abortion rate…”

Alan Guttmacher Institute (Planned Parenthood’s Research Arm) researcher Stan E. Weed: “[F]or every 1000 teens between 15-19 years of age enrolled in family planning clinics, we can expect between 50 to 120 more pregnancies”

Abortionist Judith Bury, 1981: “There is overwhelming evidence that, contrary to what you might expect, the provision of contraception leads to an increase in the abortion rate.”

Now, a 10-year study, the largest of its kind (based in Spain), has concluded that increased levels of contraception increases sexual intercourse at a rate that drives up abortion rates by overcompensating for the decreased conception rate per sexual encounter. Contraception. 2011 Jan;83(1):82-7. Epub 2010 Jun 17. "Trends in the use of contraceptive methods and voluntary interruption of pregnancy in the Spanish population during 1997-2007."

RESULTS: During the study period, 1997 to 2007, the overall use of contraceptive methods increased from 49.1% to 79.9%. The most commonly used method was the condom (an increase from 21% to 38.8%), followed by the pill (an increase from 14.2% to 20.3%). Female sterilization and IUDs decreased slightly and were used by less than 5% of women in 2007. The elective abortion rate increased from 5.52 to 11.49 per 1000 women.

The Catholic Populist

She just loves this book!

Namaste's back. I've had a link to her for years, but she hadn't been blogging for awhile. Now she's returned refreshed because she read a book. Librarians love that.

So I read this book recently and I was like, HOLY CRAP!! I need to blog!

You know I love you readers, I do. But for the last few months of my blogging I had begun feeling outnumbered and overwhelmed by the leftist monopoly of the MSM. Yup, I confess, the liberal madness was under my skin, giving me a headache. It was beginning to feel as if I was seeing the liberal message in all things, screaming at me, everywhere I turned. Television, movies, books, magazines, newspapers!

If I went on-line to check the weather or get a little news, I had to first click past stupid yahoo or the idiot msn dot com with their slanted sucky headlines. Grrr! And then! If that wasn't enough, glassy-eyed black people who love Obama, were friggin surrounding me! Ugh! These glassy-eyed strangers would assume, because I happen to be black, that they could chat me up about their love for O-moron. Seriously. I needed a break.

But then! I never thought I'd say this, but thank God for Facebook! One of my friends started a discussion on his FB page that led me to discover The Content of Our Character by Shelby Steele, a must read for anyone who has spent any time living in our GREAT COUNTRY, AMERICA. The book, published over 20 years ago, takes an honest look at the effects of race relations on each of us and how it's evolved since the 1950s.

Steele, a conservative, advocates eliminating affirmative action in favor of rewarding individual performance based on merit. Here here! I will say more on my feelings about race in America today in later posts. But for now, let me say this. Having read this book, I feel like I found a long lost friend. Among Americans, I feel completely at home. That's a given. I LOVE my America. But it has also saddened me to feel so alienated from most black people. So many blacks are left-leaning and voted for Obama, not for his politics, but for the color of his skin. I did not. And I hope to see Obama booted out from my White House in November.

Five CME for this abortion workshop

It can be a good parenting decision to decide not to parent. p. 56 Early Abortion Trainers Workbook
"This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the Essential Areas and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education through the joint sponsorship of the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals (ARHP) and Advancing New Stanards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH). ARHP is accredited by ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians."

WHO HAS ABORTIONS
• 52% of U.S. women obtaining abortions are younger than 25. Women aged 20-24 obtain 33% of all abortions, and teenagers obtain 19%.
• 43% of women obtaining abortions identify themselves as Protestant, and 27% identify themselves as Catholic.
• 2/3 of all abortions are among never-married women.
• Over 60% of abortions are among women who have had 1 or more children.
• On average, women give at least 3 reasons for choosing abortion: 3/4 say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or other responsibilities; about 2/3 say they cannot afford a child; and 1/2 say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner.
CONTRACEPTIVE USE
• 54% of women having abortions used a contraceptive method during the month they became pregnant. 76% of pill users and 49% of condom users reported using the methods inconsistently, while 13% of pill users and 14% of condom users reported correct use.
• 8% of women having abortions have never used a method of birth control.
• As much as 43% of the decline in abortion between 1994 and 2000 can be attributed to the use of emergency contraception (Wind 2002).

INCIDENCE OF ADOPTION
• 2% of unmarried women place their child for adoption (Moore 1995). This percentage has steadily decreased since the 1970s (National Adoption Information Clearinghouse 2000).

There are interesting "values clarification" exercises, and how to reword the question if the participant remains a reluctant student of abortion.

For patients who express fear that, “this is a sin and God will punish me,” you might respond: “This is a difficult decision. Many women from different religious backgrounds struggle with this decision, even though they know it is the right thing for them to do.” or, “In many religions, people are permitted to ask for and be granted forgiveness.”

Rather than, “Don’t have intercourse for the next week” try instead: “If you want to reduce the risk of infection, then you will want to avoid vaginal intercourse for the next several days. How will this work for you? [Does this sound like the doctor is suggesting oral or anal sex? Do you suppose she knows about HIV or oral HPV?]

These women are studying how to abort more babies

The original photo of four attractive, young white doctors sitting around a table discussing "Turnaways" has been removed at the request of the photographer. So I'm reposting this one of Obama working through the Bill of Rights as he tries to destroy the Catholic Church and all its social service agencies which help the needy.
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Sounds crazy, but read through the website. They are concerned about "Turnaways," or women who get to the clinic too late to abort their babies (legally, I guess). It says that abortions are notoriously under reported. I guess the 50 million plus that Guttmacher reports isn't enough (reporting arm of Planned Parenthood).

These attractive, young, well-educated women are from the University of California at San Francisco, Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health, Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH), a collaborative research group and “think tank” at the University. Virtually all the websites I checked that were promoting abortion as a "health solution" showed attractive, vibrant, youthful white women (or so light and ethnically mixed you couldn't tell), talking to black women and children. I'm not sure to whom that message is going.

Ironically, on its history page, the founder of ANSIRH (now deceased) is referred to as the "mother" of the "reproductive health" movement, which as I've noted is code for "legal abortion and population attrition through contraception" the exact opposite of motherhood From her obituary, I see she also foster mothered Plan B, and there were eulogizing comments left from NARAL, National Abortion Federation, Reproductive Freedom Project ACLU, Population Council and Abortion Access Project as well as close associates and friends. My, what a proud legacy to take to Christ's throne--to have assisted with the deaths of thousands through research and advocacy.

Many "reproductive health" sites are pushing OTC contraceptives for underage women

Tylenol, Ampicillin, Coumadin, Lipitor, and Synthroid are really common medications. Millions of women use these medications for pain and headaches, sinus infections, heart rhythm problems, high cholesterol and thyroid deficiencies. Did you know they could mess with your birth control pill's effectiveness? No? Why the push for over the counter and underage use? Did you know the later a woman has her first pregnancy the higher her risk for breast cancer? No? Did you know that abortion increases a woman's risk for breast cancer? Well, then, just where did this "war on women" originate? It's certainly did not come from the Catholic Church or Rush Limbaugh (who would have been in grade school when this type of experimenting with women's hormones began). Remember the stats from the abortion workshop guidebook. . . ‎54% of women having abortions used a contraceptive method during the month they became pregnant. 76% of pill users and 49% of condom users reported using the methods inconsistently, while 13% of pill users and 14% of condom users reported correct use. Coumadin is a blood thinner, so is aspirin. An aspirin between the knees just might be an effective contraceptive.

Who is College Confidential to be grading U.S. News and World Report top anything schools

This morning I was reading at the OSU Today website about OSU placing in the top twenty of the various categories of U.S. News and World Report. There are so many categories, it would be difficult to not get listed for some reason. So while investigating the reliability of the USNWR rankings, I came across College Confidential--but who are they? At least USNWR has been around in some form since the 1940s (the magazine is now defunct, I believe).

College Confidential gives U.S. News and World Report a B- “for making a big splash at first, with little real, residual value in the final analysis” but an excellent source conveniently arranged for comparing a wealth of data. But who then is College Confidential? Not even Wikipedia seems to know much about it except it was created in 2001. The best information I could find about College Confidential which critiqued U.S. News and World Report was this blog by a Johns Hopkins admissions counselor. He begins with the addiction problem you have with any social networking site, and how he periodically had to withdraw from the forum where he tried to educate students about the process he understood and they didn't. Then he moves on to a frustration we all have who do e-mail, blogging, facebook or twitter.

Information is not knowledge and knowledge is not widsom. At a time when humans have more information available than at any other time in history, never have we been such poor stewards of it. It is a commodity, it is gossip, it is bought, sold, and hyped. There are gatekeepers who want no new studies published lest their own careers are threatened; and there are idiots spewing lies just for the fun of it. There's a Christian newsletter I continue to get (will remain nameless) to see if anyone but their own little group is ever right about anything--theology, politicians, food, diseases, etc. If I Snope, JunkScience or FactCheck something, I'll be criticized by someone who wants desperately to believe there is a plot to kill all Republicans. If I point out a dangerous program by President Obama, others call me racist--even if Bush had the same program and they railed against him. It's the nature of the beast.

"For me the most frustrating part of College Confidential is that for certain students it becomes the only source of information whatsoever. If one can’t find it on College Confidential than it must not be true. Why are people asking about a university’s standardized exam policy on College Confidential rather than going to that school’s Admissions site? Why are people asking what to do if all interview slots are filled on College Confidential rather than calling the Admissions office? Why are students asking about personal parts of their application and what they should do about something linked to them personally rather than sending an e-mail to the Admissions office? For Johns Hopkins, our Admissions site is easy to navigate and there is a ton of information at your fingertips. Our phone staff are polite, helpful, and available during normal business hours to help with any and all inquiries. And our e-mail account is cleared out on a daily basis with thorough responses even over the weekends and holidays. It just makes no sense that one has to turn to “CCFan326” to find out if Hopkins requires SAT scores, or ask “HopingforJHU” what the last date to request an alumni interview is for Hopkins."

Please go directly to the source--on anything--if you can.

Where is the real War on Women?

A recent study shows an increase in breast cancer with injectable and oral contraceptives and a decrease in others--but then, many studies have shown that. What surprises me is that the anti-life "reproductive health" industry (abortion/contraception) which is huge and probably more powerful than the tobacco industry even lets this stuff get in print. The link between abortion and breast cancer no one denies because it's so strong. Scroll down to see how I've been looking at the published warnings included with contraceptive chemicals and tools (which many women never read). It's enough to turn my gray hair brown again. Do you really want your teenage daughter or granddaughter starting this stuff, or having it available as over the counter medications with no input from doctor or parents?

Injectable and Oral Contraceptive Use and Cancers of the Breast, Cervix, Ovary, and Endometrium in Black South African Women: Case–Control Study
World Health Organization Data on Birth Control Pill and Estrogen Replacement Carcinogenicity
If you have a young woman in your life, and especially if you have breast cancer in your family or she has other risk factors like weight or smoking, please get this book into her hands. If you are her mom, she probably won't listen. But then, you should read it, or give it to her grandmother. They sometimes have avenues that moms don't.