Who’s fault is it?

       

[snark] I know who ordered that pizza, who bought that bag of chips and forced open my mouth. Yes, someone in the 1% who needs to be taxed more so I'll eat more fruits and vegetables which I grew in my backyard.

Have you ever looked at photographs of the over 50 crowd in 1910 or 1950—before the days of fast food restaurants, or 32 oz. bottles of coke?  Yup.  They are fat.  What’s different today is how heavy the young people are.  For that I think we can give thanks to the women’s movement of the 1970s, and less time playing outdoors. Women in the 1970s didn’t really calculate how much of their income was being taxed at a confiscatory rate [tacked onto their husband’s rate], and they were tired after working and driving, so they began taking the kids out to eat.  The restaurant industry and the processed food industry responded to the market, and so the next generation barely knew how to make a white sauce or hard cook an egg.  That gave rise to cooking shows and gourmet clubs and more food advertising, which lent itself to more and more government regulation.

See how neatly this all fits together?  Instead of blaming an industry or an agency, just eat less and move more.

From the fabulous fifties

One of the most popular TV shows in the 1950s was Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, a handsome Catholic priest.  I'm not sure how I knew about him because my parents didn't have a TV, but I knew.  Everyone knew who he was.  He was drawing 30,000,000 viewers a week when our population was only about 172 million and 42 million households had a TV. 

                                    

The other day I heard a story about him.  A man sat down next to him on a plane, and noticing his collar, began to unload on him all his gripes about the church. Just a bunch of hypocrites, liars, losers,  pettiness, etc.  So Bishop Sheen looked at him and said, "How much did you steal?" Turns out he was an usher at his church and had been dipping into the collection plate (which he confessed to Sheen probably in shock). By then I was in the garage and turned off the radio, but it was probably the end of the story.  Might be why he was so popular--he really knew people.

John Willson on Education

"The thinking in the Educational Establishment is overwhelmingly progressive, just as it is political culture. The idea behind democracy is equality, and it has become a matter of faith that democracy depends on education, which translates into equal education, which in turn requires centralized standards. The only way to impose centralized standards is through politics. Thus we have politically sponsored, powerful teachers unions, great educational bureaucracies at the state and national levels, incredibly expensive school systems, K-forever, all staffed by idiots who never tire of saying that the only thing they need to make the whole thing work is more money."
Testing for PC Truth

The dogs are cute

but I have no idea what this group is about.

Elizabeth Warren should be laughed out of the race—the political race, not the Cherokee race

I heard on the radio today that slightly over 50% of babies born in the U.S. today are minority/ethnic. I'm not surprised. All it takes to be a native American these days is high cheekbones and a story your grandmother told. Blond and blue eyed Elizabeth Warren was named Harvard's first woman faculty of color.

http://bostonherald.com/news/opinion/editorials/view/20220517harvards_woman_of_color

“. . . Politico.com reported a 1997 Fordham Law Review piece described the blue-eyed, blond-haired Warren as Harvard Law School’s “first woman of color.”

A footnote attributed the information to a telephone interview with then Harvard Law news director Michael Chmura, who was also apparently the source for a 1996 Harvard Crimson piece describing Warren as Native American.

In the Fordham piece on the subject of affirmative action its author Laura Padilla wrote, “In my three years at Stanford Law School, there were no professors who were women of color. Harvard Law School hired its first woman of color, Elizabeth Warren, in 1995.” “

Co-opting the churches

Before the Nazis of 1930s Germany began killing homosexuals, gypsies, the disabled and Jews, they infiltrated the Christian churches, both Catholic and Protestant. Christians became divided into 3 groups, the "brown shirt" Christians who owed their allegiance to Hitler not Christ and were allowed freedom of assembly, the nominal Christians whose lives went on as usual with time out for baptisms, confirmations and weddings as though nothing evil was going on, and the "confessing Christians" who attempted to keep in place the teachings of Christ and met and prayed in secret.

It wasn't difficult to divide them--they were already weak. The 19th century German theologians had pretty much decided that the Bible was a collection of fables, tales, and pieces of edited material from other ancient cultures. The Nazis then stepped in and declared the Old Testament was Jewish, and therefore, condemned it. Sort of declared it "hate speech" as it were. Wasn't to be read, taught or followed.

How far distant are we in 2012? How many pastors and priests in the pulpit today learned at the dead clay feet of 19th century German scholars at seminaries; how many Christians today think God's justice, peace, and blessings must come at the command and hand of the state through taxation, regulation and 501 C 3 non-profits which muzzle the church’s prophetic message?

From reading Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas.

                                         

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p1828.pdf

Booker T. Washington meets Occupy Wall Street

“In meeting crowds of people at public gatherings, there is one type of individual that I dread. I mean the crank. I have become so accustomed to these people now that I can pick them out at a distance when I see them elbowing their way up to me. The average crank has a long beard, poorly cared for, a lean, narrow face and wears a black coat. The front of his vest and coat are slick with grease, and his trousers bag at the knees.

In Chicago, after I had spoken at a meeting, I met one of these fellows. They usually have some process for curing all of the ills of the world at once. This Chicago specimen had a patent process by which he said Indian corn could be kept through a period of three or four years, and he felt sure that if the Negro race in the South would, as a whole, adopt his process, it would settle the whole race question. It mattered nothing that I tried to convince him that our present problem was to teach the Negroes how to produce enough corn to last them through one year. Another Chicago crank had a scheme by which he wanted me to join him in an effort to close up all the National banks in the country. If that was done, he felt sure it would put the Negro on his feet.”

From Up From Slavery, an autobiography http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/washington/ch15.html

HIV and HBV

Worldwide, hepatitis B virus (HBV) is the leading cause of chronic liver disease and death, accounting for up to half of all cases of cirrhosis and liver cancer.  Four hundred million people are infected with HBV in Asia and Africa with the infection occurring through perinatal transmission (before and after birth).  In more developed countries HBV is most often acquired during adolescence or adulthood through sex and drugs. Statistics from NEJM May 10, 1012.

Human immunodeficiency virus  (HIV) infects about 33 million people worldwide, the majority in Asia and Africa. According to the CDC, gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM)¹ represent approximately 2% of the US population, yet are the population most severely affected by HIV and are the only risk group in which new HIV infections have been increasing steadily since the early 1990s.  Since the beginning of the US epidemic, MSM have consistently represented the largest percentage of persons diagnosed with AIDS and persons with an AIDS diagnosis who have died.

“HBV is 100 times easier to transmit sexually than HIV ( the virus that causes AIDS). HBV has been found in vaginal secretions, saliva, and semen. Therefore, it doesn’t matter if a person’s sexual partner is of the same or the opposite gender. If one partner has hepatitis B, the other one can get it. Oral sex and especially anal sex regardless (whether it occurs in a heterosexual or homosexual context), are possible ways of transmitting the virus.” http://www.liverdisease.com/hbvtransmission.html

Medical advancements can help, but humans obeying God’s laws of chastity and marriage will do miracles for global health.

NOISE, newly revised book on media culture

                                

“NOISE, by Teresa Tomeo, a veteran broadcast journalist in both the Catholic and secular markets, makes a compelling and irrefutable case about the dangers of our dominant media culture—and the liberalism and immorality that comes with it.

Tomeo gives a sobering analysis of each of the nine dominant forms of media, revealing how they are rapidly dismantling families and destroying lives, and what we can do about it.”

Are you sick of “The View”

It’s not a TV program I watch, but occasionally I do catch a reference to it, or see it when flipping/clicking channels in the summer when we don’t have cable.  Now there is “The Catholic View for Women.”  WHOA!  You’re not Catholic?  Your beliefs and ethics probably don’t reflect what you see on The View, or Oprah, of Ellen either, but they are tolerated.  I heard about this show because I occasionally listen to Teresa Tomeo on the radio when I’m in the car. She’s good. These women sort of have the classic “coming home” Catholic stories—swept up into the women’s movement, cafeteria Catholic, no training in their faith, and attended church at Christmas and Easter—just like a lot of Protestant women. Although I’m a Lutheran, the women on Catholic View for Women are much closer to God than the women on secular, sexy, sexist television.

You have a lot more in common with these women than you do Oprah or Ellen or, God forbid, Joy Behar.

http://www.thecatholicviewforwomen.com/episodes/episode-1.aspx

How does a Tea (taxed enough already) Party Congressman vote?

This is the record for Raul Labrador (ID-1)who got 100% in the vote study important to the Tea Party. Steve Stivers from my district in Ohio only got 45%. Asterisk item is considered a bonus and can boost score. Labrador technically isn't a member of the Tea Party, but endorses all the principles and is very conservative. He was born in Puerto Rico and is a Mormon. http://www.labrador4idaho.com/

Repeal ObamaCare YES
Strike pork funding for drug intelligence center YES
Eliminate Legal Services Corporation YES
Cut energy subsidies YES
Strike funding for NLRB NO [Yes]
Cut Amtrak grants YES
Cut most continuing appropriations spending 5.5% YES
Stop many new leases for oil and gas drilling NO
Roll back most spending in the bill to 2006 levels YES
Limit Davis Bacon YES
Passage of continuing appropriations billNO
DC school vouchers YES
Bar EPA from passing greenhouse gas regulations YES
Disapprove Internet regulations YES
Republican Study Cmte. Budget YES
Bar funding for speech regulations YES
Cut agriculture dept. spending bill by 5% YES
Cut ethanol subsidy YES
Strike new flood insurance programs YES
Eliminate federally subsidized flood insurance program YES
Cut Energy - Water appropriations bill spending by 5% YES
Pass Cut, Cap and Balance YES
Cut Botanic Garden funding by $3 million YES
Cut Interior-Environment appropriations by $3 billion YES
Increase debt limit NO
Limit NLRB's powers YES
Pass Colombia trade agreement YES
Pass Panama trade agreement YES
Pass South Korea trade agreement YES
Revive expanded trade adjustment assistance NO
Pass bloated spending bill for five departments NO
Require congressional approval of major regulations YES
Impose 3.6% income tax surtax NO
Pass bloated omnibus appropriations bill NO
*Didn't sign discharge petition on anti-trade bill YES
*Sign Cut, Cap and Balance Pledge Letter YES
*Sign Letter in opposition to debt ceiling increase "compromise"
YES

Club for Growth Tea Party Freshmen Study

Get over yourself isn’t good advice for Obama

"Obama should get beyond his own narcissism and realize that, win or lose in November, he's just a temporary part of something that's bigger than himself."

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/obama-vandalizes-wh-presidential-biographies/543386

This is dumb advice. A narcissist doesn't believe he is bragging, haughty or shameless, and he believes the most important event in the history of the world is his own existence. So he can't very well move beyond what he doesn't know is there.

                    

Browsing through “For the Good of Illinois”

This website for corruption and fraud in Illinois works similar to one we have in Ohio. “We educate, engage and empower citizens to demand a transparent, accountable and limited government.”

“United Neighborhood Organization is getting $98 Million. Sounds like a nice organization. I decided to google them. Their home page is http://www.uno-online.org/. It states that it is “Modeled after the Saul Alinsky style of community organizing.” If you don’t know who Saul Alinsky is, google “Saul Alinsky Marxist”. The CEO of UNO is a gentleman by the name of Juan Rangel. He also happens to be one of Rahm Emanuel’s campaign co-chairman. “

http://forthegoodofillinois.org/blog/2011/01/springfields-dirty-little-secret/

Roger Eddy [Hutsonville superintendent]  is a poster boy example of Illinois public greed. We are confident that Roger Eddy’s total compensation will exceed $300,000 per year- when our Freedom of Information Act Request regarding Roger Eddy’s taxpayer funded health insurance as a state rep is fullfilled. We’ve called on Eddy to release the number, he refuses to do so. UPDATE: State of Illinois rejects request saying that the citizens DON’T have a right to know what the state is paying for the Eddy family health coverage, click here to read.

With two base salaries equaling $181,969; Roger Eddy outearns every governor of the 50 states. Source: The Book of States 2010.

http://forthegoodofillinois.org/blog/2012/02/roger-eddy-makes-289078-per-year-at-taxpayer-expense/

In late 2010, the Bellville News Democrat “reported that nearly 389 Menard employees received $10 million from taxpayers for workers’ compensation injuries. More than 230 claims were filed by guards for repetitive trauma damage to their wrists and elbows that were caused by locking and unlock cell doors.” This must be due to the extra hard springs and mechanics inside Illinois prison doors. Regardless, the story triggered a Federal investigation, which seems to be on-going.

It also triggered HR 131, which can be read here.

http://forthegoodofillinois.org/blog/2012/05/auditors-report-proves-the-need-for-forensic-audits/

2016: Obama's America | Official Movie Trailer

2016: Obama's America | Official Movie Trailer

Only in America, a viral e-mail worth posting

Usually I "Snope" viral e-mails and find them "mixed," or "false," but this one I can remember most of these incidents--although I'm not sure about Nike. Only in America is the name of a cable TV show, a Brooks and Dunn CW song, a blog. . . but this isn't those.

ONLY IN AMERICA ...

Only in America could politicians talk about the greed of the rich at a $35,000 a plate campaign fund raising event.

Only in America could people claim that the government still discriminates against black Americans when we have a black President, a black Attorney General, and roughly 18% of the federal workforce is black.

Only in America could we have had the two people most responsible for our tax code, Timothy Geithner, the head of the Treasury Department and Charles Rangel who once ran the Ways and Means Committee, BOTH turn out to be tax cheats who are in favor of higher taxes.

Only in America can we have terrorists kill people in the name of Allah and have the media primarily react by fretting that Muslims might be harmed by the backlash.

Only in America would we make people who want to legally become American citizens wait for years in their home countries and pay tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege while we discuss letting anyone who sneaks into the country illegally just become American citizens.

Only in America could the people who believe in balancing the budget and sticking by the country's Constitution be thought of as "extremists."

Only in America could you need to present a driver's license to cash a check or buy alcohol, but not to vote.

Only in America could people demand the government investigate whether oil companies are gouging the public because the price of gas went up when the return on equity invested in a major U S oil company (Marathon Oil) is less than half of a company making tennis shoes (Nike).

Only in America could the government collect more tax dollars from the people than any nation in recorded history, still spend a trillion dollars more than it has per year for total spending of $7 million PER MINUTE, and complain that it doesn't have nearly enough money.

Only in America could the rich people who pay 86% of all income taxes be accused of not paying their "fair share" by people who don't pay any income taxes at all.

Newsweek’s gay president cover

An awful lot of people don’t read, they glance.  Many don’t read well, they skim. They do know, however, what the words “gay president” under the photo of Barack Obama means even if after 12 years of public school they can’t pass a 4th grade reading test in Cleveland or Detroit. What were they thinking? Especially with that YouTube video that’s been going around for several years.

                               

Rev. Wright, Dr. Whitaker and Obama’s wide stance

I’ve been reading about the bribe to keep Rev. Jeremiah Wright quiet during the 2008 campaign (although I personally think he enhanced Obama’s resume for many radicals) and now the contract for about $6 million that the Chicago medical center v.p. who offered the bribe got from the administration (Dr. Eric Whitaker) the same medical center that appointed Michelle to its board with a fat salary after Obama became senator, and I’m wondering how this is so different than the John Edwards scandal, taking money for his mistress that was intended for the campaign and lying that the baby was produced by a campaign staffer. A bribe is a bribe is a bribe.

Also, now that Newsweek has announced that we have a gay president and we know that some of the gay PACs were pressuring him to flip flop yet again (first he was for it when running for Senate, then against it when running for President, now he’s for it) and we know Axelrod was orchestrating first the “leaks” about his girlfriends before the gay support, then put Biden out there to test the waters of the west coast, then the eastern establishment, so Obama could do his graceful flip into that messy sludge, why is a “wide stance” in a men’s restroom rumor enough to get a Republican run out of office, when openly soliciting money from the gay demographic is supposed to be a strong reason to reelect the president for evolving to a position we all knew he held?

I know we’re supposed to believe campaigns today are just as down and dirty as the 18th century when sexuality rumors were standard fare, but I do think the Obama campaign has scraped the bottom of the smelly, rotting offal barrel. And all this to distract from an expanding war, weakened borders, and a flagging economy?

Is it legal to buy votes?

"Health-insurance companies must tell customers who get a premium rebate this summer that the check is the result of the Obama administration's health-care law, according to federal guidelines released Friday," The Wall Street Journal reports.

Keeping up with sex acronyms

Having been a librarian, I developed a real fondness for acronyms of all kinds.  I came across an unfamiliar one today, because, well, it’s not one I would need often, and even in the medical literature I can’t recall seeing it before: AFAI—age at first anal intercourse—and no surprise here, “There appears to be a strong link between AFAI and infection with HIV/STIs, as well as tendencies to engage in higher risk sexual behaviour.”  Although for older baby boomers that age was 35, for Gen-Y it is 18.  I would attribute that to the increasing acceptance, and even encouragement of gay sex, since this study was exclusively about gay men.  And, my, how flippant the writers are about this, calling it a “sexual debut.”

http://sti.bmj.com/content/88/4/252.full

“Further education around safer sex practices that specifically targets gay-identified youth may also be required to ensure their sexual debut does not lead to poorer sexual health outcomes. “ As we’ve learned from the “safe sex” message given to school children, it actually encourages all sex, and is now increasingly called “safer sex” because there is no such thing as “safe sex.” There are always consequences, whether psychological, sociological, spiritual or biological.

The perversion and redirection of charity

Really, it's enough to make one never want to donate to a foundation, even one that funds good causes. The next generation bespoils the direction and intention of the founder. It becomes a playground of the left.

"The Kresge Foundation, established with a $1.6 million endowment from K-Mart founder Sebastian Spering Kresge in 1924, has morphed into a $3 billion behemoth. Ideological giving has grown along with the foundation’s fortunes under the stewardship of former Minneapolis mayoral candidate Rip Rapson.

The group gave approximately $9 million to Washington, D.C., organizations between 2003 and 2006 with nearly half that money going to the American Red Cross. Rapson took over in July 2006; between 2007 and 2011 Kresge gave $52 million to 68 organizations based in Washington, D.C. Nearly all of that money has gone to liberal groups, including lavish grants to the Center for American Progress, Tides Foundation, Sierra Club, and Progressive America Fund.

None of these political groups received funding from Kresge prior to 2007."

Read the whole story.