One percenter Axelrod buys new Chicago mansion

David Axelrod, 57,  guided the 2008 campaign for President Obama,  and is now in charge of the 2012 campaign.  His thing is media.   He also worked as “a senior advisor in the Obama White House from 2009 until 2011, when he departed to begin work on the president's re-election campaign. Despite his time in Washington, Axelrod always has kept a home base in Chicago.

Now, Axelrod appears to have decided to trade up. The new seven-room unit he purchased first had been listed as part of an estate sale last May for $2.25 million, and was reduced to $1.9 million in November. Features in the 42nd-floor unit include views to the south and east, including of the lake. The unit also has 4-1/2 baths, a marble foyer, his and hers baths in the master suite and one garage space.”

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-axelrod-buys-17-million-michigan-ave-condo-20120416,0,7002704.story

Serving the President pays very well. Probably puts a person in the 1% or higher since so many owe you favors. All he has to do to pay more taxes is not use the loopholes available only to the rich. . . like the ones that reduced the President's taxes.

Farrakhan's threats

Since conservatives didn't elect our current leader, just who do you think Farrakhan is threatening? Obama. Who is he attempting to agitate? Black Americans. And if he is arrested for making threats, who do you think will come to his aid? Blacks. Who will be blamed? Conservative grass roots groups like the Tea Party and 9/11 groups. This whole thing looks like a set up, and he's not stupid. So is he doing Obama's bidding or is he really serious?

Architecture of Thomas Jefferson

Here’s an index of the architectural designs of Thomas Jefferson.

Today I noticed an article about two Utah architects running for Congress.  “Søren Simonsen, 44, is an architect and city planner from Salt Lake City, where he serves on the city council. He’s running as a Democrat in Utah’s 3rd Congressional District. Republican Stephen Sandstrom, 48, is an architect from Orem who was elected to the Utah House of Representatives in 2006. He recently resigned to run in Utah’s newly created 4th Congressional District. Both face June primary challenges from other candidates.” 

And that’s wonderful.  But what I found amusing was that the lede called Jefferson an amateur.  Have you seen some of the designs of the 21st century?  Who’s calling who an amateur?

Thomas Jefferson may be the most celebrated American architect, albeit an amateur one, to lead a political life, and he certainly wasn’t the last. But oddly, there are no architects currently serving in the U.S. Congress, and according to the AIA, there was only one during the entire 20th century. This year, however, two architects are running for Congress, and they both happen to be from Utah.

"Jefferson believed that architecture was the heart of the American cause. In his mind, a building was not merely a walled structure, but a metaphor for American ideology, and the process of construction was equal to the task of building a nation. The architecture of any American building should express the American desire to break cultural--as well as political--ties to Europe. American architecture, Jefferson believed, would embody the fulfillment of the civic life of Americans, and he sought to establish the standards of a national architecture, both aesthetically and politically." From Thomas Jefferson, the Architect of the Nation

Why both parties would rather debate about women who stay home to raise children

WASHINGTON (AP) –
Figures on government spending and debt. The government’s fiscal year runs Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.
•Total public debt subject to limit April 4: $15,574,371,000,000
•Statutory debt limit: $16,394,000,000,000
•Total public debt outstanding, April 4: $15,617,723,000,000
•Interest fiscal year 2012 through February: $99,386,000,000
•Interest same period 2011: $94,459,000,000

http://www.mygovcost.org/2012/04/06/u-s-government-spending-and-debt-by-the-numbers/

Operation Hot Mic--send it on

Bernanke’s Fairy Tale Recession Story for Kids

"In the nearly 100 years since the Fed’s creation, the deeper the economic downturn, the greater the number of policy missteps by the Federal Reserve and its cohorts in Washington. This was the case in the Great Depression, which was a downturn rife with Fed policy mistakes. Similarly, the most recent downturn, although not as bad as the Great Depression, was quite deep and also involved numerous policy errors by the Fed. Unfortunately, that’s not one of the obvious lessons of financial crises that professor Bernanke shared with the GWU students.

Rather than admitting to the arbitrary and capricious nature of the bailouts, Mr. Bernanke would have us believe that he and his band of bureaucrats executed a cogent strategy to pull from the brink of disaster companies—and, indeed, a nation—that were too big to fail. The fact is that they guessed their way through the bailouts and cannot point to any cogent analysis of the costs of “inaction.” "

Bernanke’s Fairy Tale Recession Story for Kids: Newsroom: The Independent Institute

Hilary Rosen vs. Ann Romney

The GOP and radio/TV talkers (I’m listening to Rush at the moment) should get off the choice of women to work at home or at the office, and get on with the important stuff--defeating Obama.  They keep letting him define the topic. Democrats are too clever to talk about real issues, they want slogans like "hope and change" and "war on women." And the GOP always fall for it.

The issue is that today most “stay at home moms”  are at opposite ends of the social spectrum.  Women in the top 20% are more likely to be married, have a good income, have good educations, and will be staying at home with their smart, well cared for children at least during their critical formative years, kids who have the advantages that only good genes can buy.  At the other end, you have welfare moms who didn’t have their first baby after they got married,  or didn’t marry at all, and maybe didn’t finish high school.  These are the “stay at home moms” that Uncle Sam parents.

If Republicans continue down this road, defending moms at home, the Democrats will turn on them and start defending welfare moms at home.

What is the difference between garden peas, snow peas and sugar snap peas?

This is from today WHFoods newsletter.  When we eat peas, it’s usually shelled garden peas. I remember shelling fresh peas from my mother’s garden. For lunch I often diced some onion and pepper, then add frozen garden peas and frozen corn.

Garden Peas

Garden Peas need to be shelled before eating. Fresh garden peas have rounded pods that are usually slightly curved in shape with a smooth texture and vibrant green color. Inside garden peas are green rounded pea seeds that are sweet and starchy in taste and can be eaten raw or cooked. Garden peas have more nutrients and more calories than snow peas or sugar snap peas. However, they require more work to prepare because they must be shelled before eating. As most people do not want to spend the extra time to shell their peas, the demand for fresh garden peas is very low, and they can be more difficult to find than other varieties of peas. Garden peas are sweet and succulent for three to four days after they are picked but tend to become mealy and starchy very quickly if they are not cooked soon after harvesting.

Ninety-five percent of garden peas are sold either frozen or canned. Frozen garden peas are a good substitute for fresh Garden Peas. They are already shelled, and because they are blanched before freezing, they take no time to prepare - just heat and serve. They also retain their flavor and nutritional value because they are frozen soon after they are picked. Frozen peas are more flavorful, contain less sodium and have more nutritional value than canned peas.

Snow Peas or Chinese Pea Pods

Sometimes called Chinese pea pods, this variety is usually used in stir-fries. Snow peas are flat with edible pods through which you can usually see the shadows of the flat Pea seeds inside; they are never shelled. Fresh and frozen Snow Peas are available.

Sugar Snap Peas

A cross between the garden and snow pea, they have plump edible pods with a crisp, snappy texture; they are not shelled. Both snow peas and snap peas feature a slightly sweeter and cooler taste than the garden pea. Like snow peas, snap peas have fewer nutrients and calories than garden peas. Fresh and frozen sugar snap peas are available.

Security? No problem?

Just last Friday we were told there was no compromise of the President's security with the news about the Secret Service security detail being sent home and replaced. I thought then that the writer of that story must not watch TV or movies with an  international crime plot.  There’s often a woman (or man these days) selling sex for secrets.  This is not about dignity, it's about the president's safety. And it's probably not the first time this has happened. Oldest trick (excuse the pun) in the book.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-calls-for-thorough-inquiry-in-secret-service-prostitution-scandal/2012/04/15/gIQACKO7JT_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines

Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), whose panel maintains jurisdiction over all federal agencies, said he had reason to believe that more than 11 Secret Service personnel were involved but never specifically explained why.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/2chambers/post/secret-service-scandal-could-be-bigger-lawmaker-says/2012/04/15/gIQAu0MOJT_blog.html

God must be weeping over the American culture of death

Planned Parenthood Federation of American shows 528,000 active donors on it's most recent tax filing ($1.04 Billion budget). What are the donors thinking?  Is there not enough death, destruction and disease in the world without claiming it on their income tax as a charitable deduction? The primary "beneficiaries" of these gifts are the poor and black.

According to its 2009-2010 report it provided 329,445 abortion procedures and just 841 adoption referrals.

Always civil, the Democrats

State Rep. Chuck Kruger, the Democratic chairman of the Maine Legislature’s Moderate Caucus, tweeted in August, “Cheney deserves same final end as he gave Saddam. Hope there are cellcams #cheney.” The Maine Wire first reported this, and preserved a screen shot of the now-deleted tweet.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/12/maine-legislator-tweet-seemingly-calls-for-cheneys-execution/#ixzz1s7mbr4v2

Dietrich Bonhoeffer at Union Seminary

Accustomed to the rigors of German scholarship and theology, the visiting young student Bonhoeffer not yet 25 writes in 1930 about his colleagues—faculty and students—at Union:

“The theological atmosphere of the Union Theological Seminary is accelerating the process of the secularization of Christianity in America. Its criticism is directed essentially against the fundamentalists and to a certain extent also against the radical humanists in Chicago; it is healthy and necessary. But there is no sound basis on which one can rebuild after demolition. It is carried away with the general collapse. A seminary in which it can come about that a large number of students laugh out loud in a public lecture at the quoting of a passage from Luther’s De servo arbitrio on sin and forgiveness because it seems to them to be comic has evidently completely forgotten what Christian theology by its very nature stands for.”

“Things [outside the seminary] are not much different in the church. The sermon has been reduced to parenthetical church remarks about newspaper events. As long as I’ve been here, I have heard only one sermon in which you could hear something like a genuine proclamation, and that was delivered by a negro. . . One big question continually attracting my attention in view of these facts is whether one here really can still speak about Christianity. . . There’s no sense to expect the fruits where the Word really is no longer being preached. But then what becomes of Christianity per se?”

The American seminaries had, of course, taken their lead from the 19th century German theologians, even though as Bonhoeffer noted they were not even up to the level of the fundamentalists they ridiculed. America had long since lost the fervor of the “awakenings” that had shaped it, at least in the seminaries. At that time, Hitler’s small party was gaining ground in Germany. Germany has since recovered from that disastrous time—at least politically and economically. I’m not sure the American mainline churches have been able to expunge the demons of the liberal seminaries.

From p. 105-6 of Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas

On reading Bonhoeffer

I’ve decided to recommend Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas for next year’s book club selection.  In order to have it finished by the next meeting in May, I have to read at least 22 pages a day. The following description is from Truth and Triumph, for which he’d done an interview:

“Eric Metaxas is the New York Times bestselling author of Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery. His work has been published in The New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, The Washington Post, Regeneration Quarterly, Christianity Today, National Review Online, Beliefnet, and First Things. He's also been featured on CNN, The Fox News Channel, and National Public Radio. He lives with his family in Manhattan.

Last fall, Metaxas' newest book, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Prophet, Martyr, Spy, became a New York Times No. 1
bestseller. In the book, Metaxas explores what happened when the German theologian's profound faith convictions ran up against a Nazi regime determined to co-opt, corrupt, and then neutralize the voice of the church in Germany.”

Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade Cooking

My goodness she has written a lot of books.  It took me awhile to find the right cover photo!  I got it for 90 cents today at the resale shop.  I don’t do a lot of “scratch” cooking these days, and hers are guaranteed “nothing is made from scratch.”

Overview

• Recipes for every palate and mood—the Semi-Homemade way creates an inspiring pairing of fresh ingredients and packaged foods.
• Quick-to-the-table, delicious recipes to satisfy any culinary whim any time of the day. Delectable breakfast fare, light lunch bites, family-pleasing dinners, simple appetizers and snacks, sassy cocktails, and more.
• Most recipes prepared in 30 minutes or less.
• All-new bonus chapters on red-hot topics: slow cooker favorites, restaurant remakes, and kid’s cooking.
• Time-saving tips for shopping, prepping, leftover storage, and Sandra’s brand recommendations for success.
• Wine suggestions to create delicious dining occasions every day.
• Beautiful photo of every recipe.

My Valentine by Paul McCartney

Natalie Portman and Johnny Depp

You won't find anything prettier. . .

“The videos were shot on 35mm and Paul worked with Academy Award winning cinematographer Wally Pfister (Inception, The Dark Knight), editor Paul Martinez and producer Susanne Preissler to create these elegant and powerful films based on an original idea by Stella McCartney.

'My Valentine' is the second Paul McCartney music video Natalie Portman has starred in, the first being the Michel Gondry directed 'Dance Tonight' in 2007. For this new performance, she was exclusively dressed by Stella McCartney. Johnny Depp also plays guitar in his version and recorded the track's guitar solo live. His guitar take was then mixed and mastered into the final track. The original guitar solo on the studio version of the song was performed by Eric Clapton. “

Adjusting to the poor house

The Obamas’ adjusted gross income was their lowest income since 2004 when he wrote his best-selling memoir, “Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.” This was the first year since 2006 that the Obama family income dipped below $1 million. In 2010, his adjusted gross income was $1.7 million; in 2009, it was $5.5 million.

I wonder how much the fabulous vacations they’ve had since January 2009 would rack up in any other family’s budget, the incredible state dinners, the gifts of clothing from designers, the servants to attend to every need, the limo service and celebrity entertainment?  I’m sure it’s a stressful job, but for the wife and kids, it’s pretty nice—especially considering how that life style is condemned almost weekly in his speeches. If we elect Mitt Romney, I’m guessing he’ll pay his own way for many of the perks Michelle has come to demand.

My friends and readers could say this about me. . .and do

“When I read your constant barrages aimed at the first black president, I think to myself, "Doesn't [Norma], the devout Christian, understand what it took to get to this place? And where would [Norma] have been in the years of the freedom struggle that finally eventuated in some measure of equality for African-Americans and even a black president?" Isn't there some way you can temper your attacks on Obama with this history in mind?. . . "The presidency of an African-American is a dramatic symbol of the advances in the struggle for human rights in this country so long denied to black citizens. Unless you have a record deep in the civil rights struggle, relentless attacks on this symbol will be seen as giving aid and comfort to, if not an expression of, the latent racism that is still much with us in this country. That is why criticisms of this president-as-symbol are not to be made in the same way as the conventional political fisticuffs."

But it was said about another writer critical of this president. . . someone named Pete who insists on judging the president on his actions and knowledge, his political and economic leadership,  not the low expectations and double standards of liberal supporters and the American media. 

If John McCain, a great patriot and war hero, had won in 2008 and took the same downward path,  reversed his promises and then told lies, I would still be writing a blog about the deficit, the czars, expanding the war into more middle east countries, the over regulation of the health and energy industries, the strange reasoning of the Buffett fair tax, even his narcissism if it jumped out in every public appearance.  And if McCain’s wife (the second one) who is quite pretty for her age appeared in Las Vegas in a crotch exposing skirt disgracing the office of FLOTUS, I’d mention it here.

http://www.eppc.org/publications/pubID.4713/pub_detail.asp

ABC dives into the sewer

Creator/Producer Nahnatchka Khan thinks this is real life America.  And maybe it is in his neighborhood.  Turn it off.

“Last night Don’t Trust the B---- in Apt. 23 premiered on ABC at 9:30 pm Eastern/Pacific -- that's just 8:30 in the Central and Mountain time zones -- and it may well represent a new all-time low for broadcast television.

The program is a sexist mixed-bag of hedonism, drug-use, alcohol abuse (including the main character plying a 13-year-old boy with alcohol to get him drunk) and explicit levels of promiscuity that are shocking even by today’s broadcast TV standards. “

http://www.parentstv.org/ptc/publications/emailalerts/2012/0412.htm

It Is Hard to Be Catholic in Public Life

Of all the great and necessary freedoms listed in the First Amendment, freedom to exercise religion (not just to believe, but to live out that belief) is the most important; before freedom of speech, before freedom of the press, before freedom of assembly, before freedom to petition the government for redress of grievances, before all others.

This freedom of religion, freedom of conscience, is the trunk from which all other branches of freedom on our great tree of liberty get their life. Cut down the trunk and the tree of liberty will die and in its place will be only the barren earth of tyranny. Our founders understood this, and that is why James Madison described the First Amendment's protection of religious freedom as "the true remedy."

It Is Hard to Be Catholic in Public Life by Rick Santorum.

Many schools looking at start times

To me, it looks like bus transportation is the problem. But what about that metropolitan area traffic for the bus drivers if schools start later [110,000 students along 6,500 routes , 1,500 buses]?

“Most high schools in Fairfax County, VA [suburban Washington DC, median family income $122,200]  start at 7:20 a.m., with bleary-eyed students getting picked up by their school buses as early as 5:45 a.m. In Arlington, the high school start time is nearly an hour later, and in Loudoun [richest county in the country] most high schools begin at 9 a.m.

“It’s important for the physical and mental health of our adolescent students,” said School Board member Sandy Evans (Mason), who sponsored the resolution and was a co-founder of the advocacy group Sleep, which led previous efforts to shift start times.

Evans cited research indicating sleep deprivation contributes to such problems as depression, obesity and poor academic performance. In a county survey, two-thirds of students reported getting seven hours or less of sleep on school nights.”

http://www.sleepinfairfax.org/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/fairfax-school-board-wants-to-change-school-start-time/2012/04/12/gIQAfie4DT_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines