Thursday, August 16, 2012

Trust and Obey—Doug

Obamacare what could go wrong

BO and Hillary

This would be the left's dream team. I'm guessing old Joe is suddenly going to decide he has health problems or wants to spend more time with the grandchildren. I just don't think a sex scandal would do it--it doesn't bother the Democrats, and just wouldn't be believable.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/today-day_650058.html

The housing boom

“Not only did Federal Reserve actions stoke the housing boom, but transcripts released by the Fed make it clear that they entirely missed the magnitude of the problem of the housing bubble and failed to anticipate the ensuing crisis. This occurred even with diligent and constant economic forecasting by scores of intelligent and well-intentioned Ph.D. economists, armed with all the computers and databases they could desire, and earnest discussions of the outlook by senior officials. “

http://www.aei.org/article/economics/financial-services/why-do-smart-people-make-big-financial-mistakes/

Our strongest allies. . . all . . .punching above their weight class

http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/erYpXzE9Pxs%26

Why has Obama put the Navy SEALS in danger?

(CNN) -- A web video featuring former special forces officers accuses President Barack Obama of taking too much credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden and allowing classified information about the raid to become public.

The ad also includes former Navy SEALs.

Ingredients in cat food

Several times in her 14 years our cat, who isn’t very large—about 7 lbs—has quit eating.  With an appetite stimulant and refusing expensive testing plus smearing some baby food on her mouth, we’ve been able to get her started again.  Last August, I thought we’d lost her, but we got her going again.  But I did switch to a more expensive, specialty cat food, which she’s been very happy with until recently, and now sort of sniffs. At $1.50 more per can, I prefer she lick the bowl clean.  So I keep rotating it (she doesn’t like fish unless we’re eating it).  I don’t know if it makes any difference in her health, but I feel better reading the labels: (high price) duck, turkey broth, no grain, plus the usual additives cats need like taurine.  (9-lives) meat by-products, turkey, giblets, chicken, soy protein, wheat flour plus additives Most cat food labels start with corn—this one didn’t. I don’t see much duck in the meat counters, but there’s a lot in high priced cat food.

 

lotza

The community organizers evolve

Now it’s global and rural as well as suburban and urban.  Same old, same old. . .

http://www.sustainablecommunities.gov/

“Sustainable communities are places that have a variety of housing and transportation choices, with destinations close to home. As a result, they tend to have lower transportation costs, reduce air pollution and stormwater runoff, decrease infrastructure costs, preserve historic properties and sensitive lands, save people time in traffic, be more economically resilient and meet market demand for different types of housing at different prices points. Rural, suburban, and urban communities can all use sustainable communities strategies and techniques to invest in healthy, safe and walkable neighborhoods, but these strategies will look different in each place depending on the community’s character, context, and needs.

Developing more sustainable communities is important to our national goals of strengthening our economy, creating good jobs now while providing a foundation for lasting prosperity, using energy more efficiently to secure energy independence, and protecting our natural environment and human health. Three federal agencies came together to create the Partnership for Sustainable Communities to help places around the country develop in more environmentally and economically sustainable ways. To guide its work, the Partnership developed six livability principles:”

 

http://www.sustainableworthington.org/links#COSusComm

Is Obama really incompetent?

Is he really a failure, as some Republicans say?  I don’t think so.  Look at what he has accomplished. No Republican can match his record.  He’s been the overseer of the worst economic recovery in 75 years--using every failed policy from the FDR era, a man who extended the Great Depression by a decade; the debt has increased 450% to set in place years of diminishing strength;  he backed two losers in 2011—the Arab Spring and the American Occupiers;  he’s grabbed one fifth of the economy, health care, for the federal government; he’s expanded the wars and managed the press so well that even during a campaign year no one is talking about it not even Mitt Romney; he’s brought more people onto welfare and food stamps making them dependents of Uncle Sam than any other president in our history; he’s found at least a million college age illegals right before the toughest election in his career to fold into the Democratic party; he’s dismantling the work requirement in welfare reform of the mid-90s, something that’s always been an anathema to his party; he thinks contraception is more important than jobs to women; he’s virtually castrated Congress with his regulatory czars.  Add to all those events of the last 4 years, he’s the most anti-life leader we’ve ever had, garnering praise and endorsement from Planned Parenthood, the great snuffer of black children.  For a man of his political beliefs, these are not failures, they are accomplishments.

Both parties claim this

“It’s the President who took $716 billion from the Medicare program to spend on Obamacare. That’s cuts to current seniors that will lead to less services for current seniors. We won't do that. We actually say end the raid and restore that, so that those seniors today get the benefits that they organized their lives around.” Paul Ryan

 http://mi.tt/OfwGMO

Obama says he will save Medicare and Seniors by removing waste and fraud, and taking money from providers, but he’s moving that savings to Obamacare.  Ryan is doing pretty much the same thing, but giving it to seniors.  (I do wonder since 3 of the 4 candidates are/were members of Congress, why they couldn’t have tackled the waste and fraud issues before now.)  You’ll be the judge in November.  Ryan’s voucher plan won’t affect me or anyone over age 55, but for the rest of you it sounds like a good deal.  You’ll be able to buy the same health care that federal workers get or you can choose regular Medicare. Woot!  Choices always mean lower prices.   Someone has to step up and save Medicare (I guess we’re too ingrained with this entitlement to completely dump it).  The designers always intended it to grow, always saw it as the camel’s nose inside the tent of government paid health care for everyone,  but if it keeps on going, we won’t have any money for anything else. In 1960 health care was 5.2% of GDP, and today it is 18.4%. (Keep in mind when you see U.S. health care costs compared to other developed nations that ours is for the census population, not citizens, which means over 11 million Illegals, plus many legal immigrants who come here having had very little health care in the past.)

http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/NationalHealthExpendData/Downloads/quickref.pdf

http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/NationalHealthExpendData/downloads/proj2008.pdf

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Iowans are such nice people

They’ll host you, even if they won’t vote for you.

Jarret Heil, farmer Jeff Heil's son, calls the president's visit "truly an honor," and describes Obama as "gracious, personable and very respectful."

But then his statement takes a turn:

"As the milestone that it is for our community with the President's visit, it is important to not get caught up in the President's glamorous re-election words and remember President Obama's first term record and rhetoric does not represent Middle America, entrepreneurs, small business owners and farmers," Heil writes.

 http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/08/15/158884594/obamas-iowa-hosts-say-theyll-pray-for-him-but-they-wont-vote-for-him?ft=1&f=1001&sc=tw&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

The caterer for Obama’s event today in Iowa was wearing a Mitt Romney shirt reminding the President that HE built his business, not the government.




“Tax the rich” he says

Read her entire article. Yes, Doug, even you can learn about the damage Obama has done. https://www.facebook.com/#!/permalink.php?story_fbid=420897187956246&id=142620392450595 But only if you take off your blinders and hatred toward Christians.

Tax the rich. We hear a lot about loopholes that the rich use to avoid paying their share of taxes. Surely they exist, and no, it isn’t an honest thing to do. But allow me to give you a thought to ponder. Barack Hussein Obama wants to tax the rich, yet he depends, in fact he begs, for his rich “friends” to donate thousands of dollars to his campaign. I can’t think of anything less equitable than the obscene amounts of money that entertainers and athletes make in just a few years. Many of them squander their good fortune in disreputable ways. Are they in agreement with the raising of their taxes, when many of them don’t even pay their share?

This election is NOT about how much money Mitt Romney is worth, or how Paul Ryan invested his Social Security benefits after his father died. This election is about the economy and the lack of employment Americans have to live with. Take they middle aged man who has not been able to find employment for a year because of Obamacare. His employment possibilities in the Health Care Management field have been curtailed by the uncertainty that Obamacare presents to someone with his high degree of education.

This election is about ousting a president who has not kept a promise that he made. Some might call him charismatic, some might be fueled by “white guilt” and feel a responsibility to have a minority president. Some truly believe the rhetoric that “we will take from the rich and give it to the poor.” This is where my objection is strongest. People like Barack Hussein Obama and his socialist ideology have stifled the young Americans’ desire to succeed. “Why?” they ask, “If it will be taken away from us.”

21,000+ retired federal workers receive lifetime government pensions of $100,000 or more per year

How long before the country goes under from bloated government pensions? The secular world maxes out at about $28,000 on social security, so hopefully they have some private investments to keep up with the government employees.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/retirement/story/2012-07-19/federal-pensions-in-excess-of-100-thousand/57059716/1

Nothing to run on, no record to talk about—Guest blogger Murray

Obama is on his 4th year in a row of campaigning and he has NOTHING to campaign on. At least nothing he wants to talk about! Normally that would stop a candidate in his tracks, but with Obama, it's different. Different you say? Well, just look at his entire political record. He has NEVER had anything to run on. But how has he won and made it to the Presidency, you ask? Well, he got to the Senate by attacking and smearing his opponents. (Look it up) He won the Presidency by promising hope and change plus, with the help of the Liberals and the MSM, smearing and blaming Bush for the financial crisis that the Democrats basically manipulated. (Look it up) The Obama team has learned that attacking and smearing an opponent does two important things. With the help of the MSM, it influences the people who aren't paying attention to what he is really doing and it forces his opponent to spend time defending himself rather that staying with the issues. It's ugly but it has worked for him. You see, as far as the Obama team is concerned, they have no positive positions that they can bring into the campaign so it leaves them with what they are best at.... attack and smear the opponent. Who is this Obama team you ask? For the basic team try Valerie Jarrett and slime ball, David Axelrod. Axelrod is an expert at destroying a person's reputation and character by conjuring up any kind of dirt on a person by lying, exaggerating or false innuendos. I don't care who you are, if you take an honest look a Obama's campaign, he and his team have attacked EVERYONE who opposes HIS ideas. He does not have to answer to anyone as he will not allow interviews nor any questions at his news conferences. Whereas his opponents get bombarded with "hard" questions at most interviews from the MSM. This makes for a huge difference and advantage.

When Obama speaks he customizes the message specifically to the particular audience at the time. He does this because, contrary to what he campaigned on, he has divided the people into various groups rather than unifying them. Lately there have been two subjects that dominate his speeches. First, he hammers the the wealthy claiming they are not paying their fair share even though he counts on them to attend his $40,000 plate fund raisers. He knows his audience envies the rich so it's easy to get them clamoring to take their money. They ignore the fact that the rich already pay most of our great country's taxes and many consist of the needed small business owners while 50% of the citizens pay no taxes. They ignore the fact that if they would raise the taxes of the rich based on Obama's plan, the result would amount to only 8 1/2 days of government spending.

Second, he goes after Romney's tax returns with help from the little weasel Harry Reid. Gee, how many in Obama's cabinet or Democrats got caught not paying? Reid said at a news conference that "somebody" told him Romney hadn't paid his taxes. A few days later ON THE SENATE FLOOR (like the idiot he is) he said "there's a rumor going around that Romney hasn't paid his taxes". Well Harry, if there's a rumor who started it? Only you have been quoted as saying it! Harry lies and Obama grins. A Fox News analysis asked Margie Omero ( President of a Democratic public opinion research firm ) what she thought of Harry's statements. Her response was "Well it "could" be true so why doesn't he show his tax returns?" Could be true??? Fox said there are a lot of things that COULD BE true about Obama or anyone. And then there's the ever so dense Nancy Pelosi who stated "Harry isn't lying because "somebody" told him". Oh, well that's different then.  (I wonder if she's read the Obamacare bill yet?) Anyway, Obama keeps hammering at these ever so important issues in every speech like a union boss attacking another business. This is the strength of Obama's campaign? They distract from the real issues like the economy, jobs, budget, and the National Debt because they're not doing well there. They will not deal with the facts. A huge factor in Obama's bid for re-election that has been ignored is the stock market. You see, many people consider the market a measurement of the economy and if their 401-k's and IRA's are up, they are happy and think everything is hunky-dory. It's a shame that so many people fail to pay attention to what is happening to our great country and are only concerned about themselves. They won't like what their grand children have to say to them if Obama continues.

Obama hasn't been using the Senate or House. Doesn't need them. He has written 924 executive orders in 40 months. He has his various departments doing his dirty work. Everything from welfare, loan guarantees, tight fossil fuel regulation, expanding the war, stopping pipelines, immigration etc.. etc. Why... gee, just think, you need not bother to vote anymore. Obama will take care of everything. Your legislators can go home. An example of this is the fact that weasel Reid has 35 bills on his desk that passed in the house that he refuses to put on the Senate floor for a vote. This weasel should move them rather than shoot his mouth off. Obama has threatened that if they were to somehow get through the Senate he would veto them anyway!!!! Yet, in one of Obama's recent speeches he was yelling that the House wasn't doing anything. Then he added that they should pass HIS jobs bill which was loaded with spending and about as popular as his budget that EVERYONE shot down in flames. Speaking of spending, did you know the Obama administration blew 3.4 BILLION dollars on green companies that went bust? 3.4 Billion!!!! He did this WITHOUT Congress. That's YOUR money and you not only didn't get a thank you note, you probably didn't even know it. It's Obamaism at it's worst.

We have seen how the Obama team works and yet there are people who stick with Obama because they think he's cool and a macho guy. Why? Well, at any speech he just might crack a joke, sing or disrespect the opposite party to the delight of his hand picked audience. He also worked the talk show circuit for the last 3 1/2 years all the while our great country is drowning in debt, with a suffering economy and millions out of work. But, if you have been paying attention you will easily conclude that Obama will lie to you about anything to get what he wants. Why...he even exploited his mother's illness and death when he was trying to sell Obamacare. He claimed he watched ( he wasn't there) his mother die while she was fighting her insurance company for claiming her condition was pre-existing. It was totally untrue as she was covered and most all of her expenses were paid. But this is the Obama way. Lie and slander on anything they can dig up to avoid the issues or to sell their brand. They milked Bush for 2 years and when they get backed into a corner today, they start reaching for tits again. They started on Romney saying he bullied someone back in elementary school. They milked Baine Capital for all it's worth ignoring the fact that Romney wasn't even on board when they made their claims. Their super PAC ad is now trying to claim Romney is responsible for a woman's death which proved to be the ugliest lie yet. This was a new low for the Obama campaign. Here are the facts:

** Mitt Romney left Bain in 1999 to work on Olympics.
** GST Steel in Kansas City was shut down in 2001.
** Top Obama bundler Jonathan Lavine was in charge of Bain Capital at the time. (Hmmmmm?? Who would be responsible if it were true?)
** Soptic was offered a buy-out.
** Soptic took another job but declined to purchase their insurance plan.
** Soptic’s wife had her own health insurance plan through 2003.
** In 2006, Soptic’s wife was diagnosed — diagnosed! — with very late-stage cancer.
** She died 22 days after diagnosis.
** The pro-Obama PAC Priorities USA cuts an ad blaming Romney for her death. ( In spite of these facts, the Obama team continues to allow the ad to run and some even profess Romney IS responsible) That's continuing a known LIE!

Now folks, it can't get any worse than that can it? It shows how ugly your President will get to win the next election and that he and his team are liars. Oh, it's OK to call him that because that's what he does best. People hesitate however for fear of being labeled a racist. You can bet the Obama team would label you quickly but I'll take my chances! This is the kind of stuff that you can't just wipe off the slate and say "that's politics". It's more than likely it will get worse since they now have two people to slander and destroy. If, after you see stuff like this and you still support Obama, you will deserve what you get and you know what that will be. More trashing of our great country, more sharing your wealth, less people carrying the load and total destruction of the greatest Democratic nation ever.

Murray

Morris on the Rocks

This morning on my walk along Lake Erie in Lakeside, I noticed a very majestic “Morris” looking down on me from the rip rap.  Huge boulders were brought in about 20 years ago to protect the shoreline.  Now the lake has receded and a small, white sand beach has opened up just below where Morris is sitting.  Remember the 9-Lives cat food ads with a Morris character?

Morris on  rock

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

The Paracels and the Spratlys

It was a bit of a struggle to stay awake, but I'm glad I went to today's lectures at Lakeside on the South China Sea and the history of the U.S.-Japanese Alliance. As I was learning about shipping lanes, fishing rights and oil and gas reserves (2nd only to the Persian Gulf), the Spratlys (150 islands) and the Paracels (30 islands) and the demographics of an aging Japan, I thought about how many Americans were being fed stories about Miley Cyrus' hair cut, and the latest line up of Dancing with the Stars. Didn't the Romans do something like this to keep the masses content?

Spratlys

Edible Columbus classes

 

tricia_class

Edible Columbus publisher and editor in chief Tricia Wheeler invites readers to share her passion for cooking through the Edible Cooking Series. She will be sharing the knowledge she gained while attending the French Culinary Institute in New York City. Tricia combines classic French techniques with seasonal ingredients to produce wonderful meals that you can easily make at home.

Classes are held at HOME: M/I Homes New Home Sales Center, 4047 Gramercy St., Columbus, OH 43219, 614-418-8888, for questions about classes call 614-296-5053.

Tricia and her husband now own our former home on Abington Road.

Are they moderate or extremist Muslims. Here’s how to tell.

The most common reason why a Muslim terrorist group is labeled as moderate is because is it less open to killing other Muslims than some of its more extreme variants. Violence no longer defines extremism, only the full scope of that violence does. All Muslim terrorist groups, including the moderate ones, favor suicide bombings directed at infidel civilians. Not all favor suicide bombings directed at other Muslims. Those who do are often labeled extremist.

Muslim terrorist groups who treat Shiite Muslims as infidels are increasingly viewed as moderate, contrasted with extremist Muslim terrorist groups who declare other Sunni Muslims to be infidels. And the truly extreme Muslim terrorist groups are the ones who define even other Sunni Islamists as infidels over minor differences.

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-moderate-paradox.html

The Contraception President

Stopping economic growth before it becomes viable.

“From Occupy Wall Street to Wisconsin, from Trayvon Martin to Chick-fil-A, the goal of these manufactured conflicts has been to divide and conquer the electorate by emphasizing group rights over individual economic welfare.
Obama can't win on the economy. He can't win on foreign policy. He can't win on any aspect of his administration. All he can do is stir up violence and then promise to heal the country in his second term while winking to all the representatives of the grievance groups. It's not a new game, but the Democratic Party has never played it quite this baldly in a national election. And if it succeeds, then national politics will have finally been reduced to the level of a Chicago election.”

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-most-divisive-campaign-in-american.html

Monday, August 13, 2012

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms

I wrote this blog last summer, but I published it in my other, other blog, and don’t think I put it in this one—at least I can’t find it.  Hymns bring back many memories.  This one reminds me of my sister, Carol.
We sang that old hymn at the dockside service at Lakeside last Sunday, Sept. 4.  Published in 1887, it tells of the assurance of God's steadfast care and guidance in tough times, and offers the peace of a relationship with him.  I grew up in the Church of the Brethren where I don't recall we sang anything that had a beat--and then in 1974 became a Lutheran and they missed out on those twangy camp songs too, being mostly ethnic Scandinavians (in our synod).  The first time I heard it was in Flat Creek, Kentucky in 1956 where my sister Carol was a volunteer church worker through Brethren Volunteer Service.  Because she was only 19 at the time, and I was her "little" sister, I was stunned at the level of spiritual and social responsibility she had.  Like riding horseback into the mountains to provide Sunday school in areas that had no passable roads; working in the garden and taking care of chickens (and plucking them) for food for the staff (I think there were 5 people living in a little house); helping the local women with sewing and. . . leading hymns like this one.  In that area of the country it was sung like a dirge and a capella--not peppy and clappy the way we did it at dockside with an electronic organ. Carol went to be with the Lord in 1996, but every time I hear "Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms; leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms," I think of that amazing, fearless teen-ager.  Now I keep track of her 5 grandchildren (4 teens) on Facebook, Will, Jenny, Rachel, Catie and Chris.

Carol's BVS unit 1955. Wearing white blouse, looking between two women in the second row. She also helped flood victims in Pennsylvania, canvassed a neighborhood in Denver for a church plant, and was a "guinea pig" for the NIH. In 1957 she entered Goshen College in Indiana where she got her RN

A Note from my brother-in-law:

In 1940, my parents sent me to work on a farm of a distant relative-by-marriage. At that time we lived in uptown Mnhattan, New York but the dream was to leave the city at some point and start a chicken farm. I ended up near a little village on the Eastern Shore of Maryland called Trappe and worked hard and long for Graham Price and his wife Adeline and two daughters that whole summer. I didn't learn much about chickens but Graham had 7 acres of tomatoes and I learned the rigors of that crop many times over.
Graham belonged to a group I had never heard of called Pilgrim Holiness; we went to church every Sunday morning and every Wednesday evening at a little town called Oxford, which was almost on the Chesapeake Bay.

One Sunday morning they sang a hymn that I - a baptized and confirmed United Lutheran Church in America boy - had never heard called What a Fellowship. And when they would sing the refrain: Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms, the ladies would lift their arms and swing them back and forth in the air. I remember I couldn't wait to get back to the farm that day to write my mom and dad and tell them of the experience.

And yet, now in the Brethren Hymnal Supplement, hymn number 1081 is What a Fellowship and it is a hymn we sing frequently. In fact, I have arranged it as an anthem for soprano/alto chorus with optional congregational participation. And even more interesting is the fact that the text was by Anthony Johnson Showalter, a very distant relative of Vernon (and Jean) Showalter who go to the Mount Morris Church of the Brethren.

Everything comes around.
Nel

Remember Minnesota

"By making this choice, Mitt Romney is declaring war. There will be no evasion, no triangulation, no attempt to mask what is at stake in this election. Instead, Romney and Ryan will directly confront Barack Obama and call him to account for putting us on a ruinous course.

This will alter radically the dynamics of the race. The money spent by Obama trying to demonize Governor Romney will prove to be money entirely wasted. The election is not going to be about Mitt Romney. It is not going to be about the sexual revolution. It is not going to be about Bain Capital. It is going to be about the failed policies of Barack Obama, about their dangerous character, and about the sober, sound alternative the Republicans represent. ...

This will help the Republicans in Senate and House races immeasurably, for it will give Romney and Ryan coattails -- now, without a doubt, the candidates in these other races have something concrete on which to run: repeal Obamacare, pare back the entitlements state, reform our system of taxation, and put our fiscal house in order. No one will doubt the capacity of the Republicans to rule.

I have predicted that Romney will win by a landslide. The choice of Paul Ryan means that Romney has chosen the path that will maximize the significance of his victory and its impact on the races for seats in the House and Senate. As in 1980, this is going to be a national election -- in which local particularities count for much less than usual."
http://www.ricochet.com/main-feed/Romney-s-Declaration-of-War