Comparing Ohio and Illinois

Obama’s Second Inauguration

Language changes with the times and money flow

I remember "wife abuse."  But after gender equality, they found  out that women also abused men, it became "spousal abuse."  But then it was revealed that living together (aka shacking up) also produced nasty outcomes so it became "domestic violence." But research showed that gays and lesbians abused their lovers, so it was called "domestic partner abuse."  Now it is "intimate partner violence" (IPV) which is different than “elder abuse.”  We have an amazingly flexible language, always ready and willing to keep up with the flow of grant money.

http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1556964#qundefined

Oh well.  Like other rates of violence, the rate has gone down dramatically in the last 20 years.

Why are Americans working less?

From the Wall Street Journal article, The Wages of Unemployment

1.  Food stamps—even before the down turn in the economy the program was expanding under Bush. There are over 30 million more Americans receiving food stamps today than in 2000.

2.  Social Security disability payments. Supposedly, we’re healthier than ever, but five million receiving disability by 2000, 6.5 million by 2005, and rising to nearly 8.6 million today.

3.  Pell grants. More people in college, fewer in the work force. In 2000, fewer than 3.9 million young men and women received Pell Grant awards to attend college. The number rose one-third, to 5.2 million by 2005, and increased a million more by 2008. In the next three years, however, the number grew over 50%, to an estimated 9.7 million.

For many, it just doesn’t pay to work!  And obviously, this problem did not start with Obama!

Exploiting children

Obama needs to check the stats

Violent crime is way down since 1994 among the young, but Obama will never look at the stats. Doesn't fit his template of ripping the country apart by creating animosity among groups, races, genders, and religions. Now he wants to put in place a plan that will discourage people with depression or anxiety or bi-polar disorder from getting help because they fear being manipulated in a federal database. He's turning their doctors into snitches.

http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/vcay9410.pdf"

www.caintv.com

"Is there anything in Obama's proposals to take your 2nd amendment rights that would have saved the children of Sandy Hook? How about the 100+ black children in Chicago killed 2011-2012?"

Today I bought Velveeta labeled, “original”

Photo from Gr easy

Generally, I buy real cheese, but it is difficult to resist, and it is quite fattening.  Also, it makes my atrial fibrillation kick in, for some reason.  But I do remember the wonderful grilled cheese sandwiches, macaroni and cheese and scalloped potatoes my mother used to make. How did she get such simple foods to taste so good?

I also remember the great stuff she could make out of the wooden box!  Sometimes it would have wheels, we could paint it, put dollies in it, make houses, etc.

Today’s Velveeta still comes in 32 oz packages, and is labeled “pasteurized prepared cheese product.”

Flip, flop, clippity clop, through the slop

Texas releases map of gun owners

The right to keep and bear arms

It’s not about hunting deer; it’s not about a national guard.  Read your history of the Bill of Rights. Our founders feared the very power Obama is grabbing.

It looks like the president is planning to override the Constitution and our representative form of government (Congress makes the laws). Democrats should be very worried to be associated with this. You'd have to be from another planet without a course in American history, or a statist intent on taking away all personal freedoms, to think the 2nd amendment applies only to a National guard.

"When the first Congress convened for the purpose of drafting a Bill of Rights, it delegated the task to James Madison. Madison did not write upon a blank tablet. Instead, he obtained a pamphlet listing the State proposals for a bill of rights and sought to produce a briefer version incorporating all the vital proposals of these. His purpose was to incorporate, not distinguish by technical changes, proposals such as that of the Pennsylvania minority, Sam Adams, or the New Hampshire delegates. Madison proposed among other rights that "That right of the people... to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country; but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person. " In the House, this was initially modified so that the militia clause came before the proposal recognizing the right. The proposals for the Bill of Rights were then trimmed in the interests of brevity. The conscientious objector clause was removed following objections by Elbridge Gerry, who complained that future Congresses might abuse the exemption to excuse everyone from military service.

The proposal finally passed the House in its present form: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.: " In this form it was submitted into the Senate, which passed it the following day. The Senate in the process indicated its intent that the right be an individual one, for private purposes, by rejecting an amendment which would have limited the keeping and bearing of arms to bearing "For the common defense". "

1982, Preface, THE RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS REPORT of the 97th Congress.

Guns and hypocrisy

The clean out sort of fizzled

I started a major clean out the week of New Year's, I was going through boxes, repacking and pitching, but it fizzled. I'd
planned to go through all the greeting, holiday  and  sympathy cards, but after the project sat half finished, I put them all back in the box and pushed it under the bed . After reading through notes, some 20 years old or more, I just sighed.  Obviously, older ones are somewhere,  but where? I guess I’ll leave it for my daughter to figure out.  She’ll have no probably throwing everything out.

Then I bundled up a huge stack of clothing--mostly blazers from
the 90s and took them to the Discovery resale shop, along with craft items I'll never finish. I think one was an embroidery project from my last pregnancy (1964), and I'm not sure exactly what it was supposed to be. I was never very good at it. I wasn’t able to find a home for the cute window shade material I found in the attic, so it went too.  I took in two twin bed quilt/covers.  In our Abington Rd. house I had a border painted to match the print. They just take up too much space and will never be used again for anything except an extra blanket. Let's hope we never lose power in the winter, because they were my fall back option.

The genealogy genie has been visiting, and I’m getting a few blanks filled in.  Yesterday I found my husband’s cousin Jane—she wasn’t exactly lost, but we didn’t have an address.  I plan to send a note to my first cousin Joe whose name came up on the internet as a chef in a restaurant in Upland, CA.  I’ll see if he can tell me where his siblings are. It seems odd to know where a 3rd cousin twice removed is buried, but not have an address for a first cousin.

Ten Ways To Get In Shape To Own A Horse

I don’t own a horse, but saw this on the Facebook page of someone who has three.

1. Drop a heavy steel object on your foot. Don’t pick it up right away. Shout “Get off,stupid! Get off!”
2. Leap out of a moving vehicle and practice “Relaxing into the fall”. Roll lithely into a ball, and spring to your feet!
3. Learn to grab your checkbook out of your purse/pocket and write out a $200. check without even looking down.
4. Jog long distances carrying a halter and holding out a carrot. Go ahead and tell the neighbors what you’re doing.They might as well know now.
5. Affix a pair of reins to a moving freight train and practice pulling it to a halt. And smile as if you are really having fun.
6.  Hone your fibbing skills. “See hon, moving hay bales is fun!” and ” I’m glad your lucky performance and multi-million dollar horse won you first place - I’m just thankful that my hard work and actual ability won me second place”.
7. Practice dialing your chiropractors number with both arms paralyzed to the shoulder, and one foot anchoring the lead rope of a frisky horse.
8. Borrow the US Army slogan; “Be all that you can be’…(add) bitten, thrown, kicked, slimed, trampled.”
9. Lie face down in the mud in your most expensive riding clothes and repeat to yourself: “This is a learning experience, this is a learning experience,…”
10. Marry Money!

Violent crimes against youth—down

It appears that all those stories about how good things used to be for kids will have to be revised a bit.  The DOJ ‘s Violent Crime against Youth 1994-2010.

“From 1994 to 2010, the overall rate of serious violent crime against youth declined by 77%, from 61.9 victimizations per 1,000 youth ages 12 to 17 in 1994 to 14.0 per 1,000 in 2010 (figure 1). Among serious violent crimes against youth, the rate of rape or sexual assault declined by 68%, robbery declined by 77%, and aggravated assault declined by 80% . The overall rate of simple assault declined by 83% during the same period, from 125.1 victimizations per 1,000 youth in 1994 to 21.6 per 1,000 in 2010. Declines in simple assault against youth were similar
from 1994 to 2002 (down 61%) and from 2002 to 2010 (down 56%). Declines in serious violent crime were greater from 1994 to 2002 (down 69%) than from 2002 to 2010 (down 27%).”

“The rate of serious violent crime against youth ages 12 to 17 involving weapons declined by 80% from 1994 to 2010, and
the rate of serious violent crime involving serious injury decreased by 63%.”

“According to the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR) the homicide rate for youth ages 12 to 17 declined by 65%, from 8.4 homicides per 100,000 youth in 1993 to 3.0 per 100,000 in 2010. Most of the decline in youth homicide occurred from 1993 to 2000, when the rate declined by 59% (from 8.4 per 100,000 in 1993 to 3.4 per 100,000 in 2000).  During the early 2000s, the youth homicide rate fluctuated, increasing in 2006 and 2007.
In 2010, the youth homicide rate was about Table 8 13% lower than the rate in 2000.”

Some headlines don’t surprise

Quentin Tarantino yells at interviewer when asked about movie violence

Report: Lohan was drinking and driving, popping pills during 'The Canyons'

Obama May Use Executive Power on Gun Control

Report: Lance Armstrong to admit doping to Oprah

Millions notice pay hit after payroll tax hike

A scramble for flu shots is under way

Democrats not done raising your taxes?

No charges for NBC host for on-air ammunition clip

Tiger Woods 'not worth' $3 million appearance fee, says Qatar golf official

How great grandfather’s death and wealth was reported

I’ve been doing some genealogy this week.  I move back and forth between recent, ancient, mine and my husband’s. Find a Grave on the internet and County histories are quite valuable.

The Elwood Indiana paper reported on my husband’s great grandfather’s death this way.

“Pioneer Resident of City Fell a Victim of Heart Trouble Sunday Afternoon and Died Before Assistance Could Reach Him. Had Attended Meeting Earlier in the Day.”

And it goes on to talk about Lewis Heffner’s contributions to the city, but particularly speculated on his wealth (based on inflation it would be about $3.5 million today) in sawmills and in farms and that he had two surviving daughters, one being Mrs. C.L. (Abbie) Bruce, my husband’s grandmother.

However, in my genealogy notes, I have the memories of C.L.’s daughter, Roberta, about her grandfather’s death, and she said:

“Grandfather Heffner was not a religious man, but after his wife died he went to a revival and confessed and joined.  He walked home in a blizzard, and collapsed and died (turned to stone, she said).  He was a Mason.  He had no will, and his assets were divided between Abbie and Vinnie.” 

Roberta said he owned 2 sawmills, one in Elwood, IN and one in Arkansas, and 3 farms and some buildings in Elwood.  Each daughter got about $50,000 each.  Roberta's parents (Abbie and Casselman) owned the sawmill/coal business in Elwood, to which her father added automobiles (Nash, Chevrolet).  Aunt Vinnie owned the Arkansas Mill and 2 farms and some of the buildings.  Her husband (Uncle Lew Whipple) quit working after they married.  He was so bad with the customers, that Roberta's grandfather paid him $50/week to stay away from the office.

Hospital hygiene—let’s get with the program!

Columbus Dispatch reported Thursday on a 2 year effort to improve hand washing in central Ohio hospitals. It's up from 29% to 86%. That's good, but folks, I learned this in first grade! I've been in the hospital 2 times in the last decade, and was shocked at the careless hygiene. The national hand-hygiene compliance rate is less than 50%, and doctors are worse than nurses. But there's no bigger bang for the buck, so take the time! http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/01/10/hospitals-efforts-raise-rate-of-hand-washing-to-86.html

Let’s save Social Security and Medicare by raising the age of eligibility

Social Security was designed for a nation with a life expectancy in the 60s. The plan was that not many would ever get what they were taxed for. Now it has increased by about 60% or about 30 years. But the years after 85 have also increased. If we want to save the safety net that many poor and low income rely on, the retirement age needs to be raised, as well as the Medicare age.

http://www.elderweb.com/book/appendix/1900-2000-changes-life-expectancy-united-states

Teachers apply for training in protecting themselves and their students

Over 1,000 Ohio teachers have already signed up for this program to provide free first responder training to educational employees. In order for a teacher, administrator or other school employee to be able to have a gun with them at school  in Ohio, all they need is to be able to legally carry a concealed firearm and a simple vote by their school board. No Ohio law prohibits them from having a gun at work. Many school boards have already voted to allow this.

“While Ohio generally prohibits firearms at schools, the law includes a provision that allows teachers and staff to carry firearms if the school board approves it. The Armed Teacher Training Program seeks to help teachers get permission to carry concealed firearms on the job and provide advanced training that goes above and beyond the typical requirements of concealed carry.”

The Academy awards

This is how serious politicians are about violence--not a peep about blood drenched academy award nominations--or any movies.

"The task force is slated to hold meetings this week with victims of gun violence, gun safety groups, hunting groups and gun owners. The task force will also meet with representatives of the film and video game industries."

Hollywood is a big donor to their campaigns, particularly Democrats. Do you think Biden is brave enough to discuss violence with them?