Do you make lists?

I make a list for 2 reasons; 1) company’s coming; 2) we’re planning a party. I have friends who derive great satisfaction from marking things off the to do list.  It just makes me feel like someone is nagging me.

The skeet shoot photo op of the President

"The photo, purportedly shot last Aug. 4 (which happens to be the president's birthday), shows Obama holding a shotgun. The barrel is smoking, indicating that the gun has just been fired. What's odd about it is that the president is aiming straight ahead, as if he were firing a rifle at a stationary target.

But in skeet shooting, the target, a disk known as a clay pigeon, is moving. It is launched from one of two "houses" and travels in a parabolic trajectory across the field. In order to hit it, one has to move the gun so as to follow the path of the clay. It's not impossible that one would fire at shoulder level, as Obama is doing in the photo, but it's unlikely. We therefore surmise that the picture is the product of a photo shoot, not a skeet shoot."
Wall St. Journal Feb. 4

Thought as much.  And I’ve never shot a gun.

What do wealthy Democrats in Congress do to ensure the rest of the country won't get what they have?

                         

1) Pass environmental regulations that stifle smaller businesses so their own corporations and businesses will pull ahead;

2) keep the poor out of their neighborhoods with set backs, parks, and required green spaces which adds thousands to the cost of building or maintaining a home;

3) Vote for burdensome tax regulations with loop holes only they can qualify for, engorging the tax code;

4) stifle all economic growth stemming from fossil fuels, so they can invest in alternative fuels with contracts from the government (like the railroad barons did to kill the shipping industry of canal owners in the 19th century);

5) foist government, single payer health care on the masses, but not for federal workers, and they'll pay cash for what they need even if they have to fly to a foreign country to get it;

6) look for ways to undermine marriage and religion, the two wealth builders that helped their families get ahead, so they won't have any competition;

7) provide as much “free stuff” as possible to lure voters to ensure they will stay in office;

8) hire private security guards with guns for the protection of their homes and families;

9) send their children to private schools while denying the same right to lower income parents who want charter schools;

10)  lie and blame, and when it doesn’t work, lie some more.

Airplane rides aren’t just for kids

These are the adult grandchildren of my husband’s sister, Jacob 20, and Erin 31, having a good time the the old airplane trick.  Ten years ago, they wouldn’t have been able to do this.

Pensions for Revolutionary War Soldiers—Monday Memories

While filling in gaps in the genealogy database I came across a transcribed document on the Internet from 2011, not available the last time I looked.  It was the Pension application for Jacob Williford, my 4th great grandfather, born in 1755 in North Carolina and died in Grainger County, Tennessee in 1839.  The application was for the 1832 Act of Congress on Pensions for war veterans.  Obviously, he was up a bit in years by then—being 77 years old.  His application was successful and he received $60/year from 1833 to his death six years later.  Because there were a number of pension acts by the federal government, I haven’t located information if he’d qualified under a previous one, nor did I find any mention of a wife (blank spot in the database).

Swore under oath (pension application  S1737   fn15NC   1832) 

“That he enlisted in the service of the United States under the following named officers and served as herein stated to wit Col. Benjamin Axum [Benjamin Exum] commanded the Regiment and Capt. Axum Phillips commanded the Company to which he belonged. He states that he entered the service in Edgecombe County in the State of North Carolina and rendezvoused at Tarborough in said State. He states that he entered the service in the month of June in the year 1780 and that he left the service in the month of September of the same year.”

He states that he served in this tour 3 months. He states that he was discharged in Hillsboro in the State of North Carolina at the expiration of his said term of service but that he has lost it long since. He states he marched from Tarborough and joined General Gates in the State of South Carolina and was attached to his Army when he was defeated but was not in the engagement in consequence of sickness but was left with the baggage wagons.

He states that after the defeat of General Gates he was taken prisoner by the Tories and was rescued by a company of Light horse -- that the Tories dispersed when the light horse came up. He states that Col. or General Lee and Col. William Washington commanded the Dragoons. He states that he volunteered he thinks in the month of June in the year 1781 and joined a Company at Halifax under Capt. Orphy Thomas and served a while under him and was then transferred to the Company commanded by Capt. Benjamin Coleman a Continental Capt., and marched under him to the County of Onslow near Wilmington and from thence we marched to Duplin County in North Carolina from thence we marched to Kingston [sic, Kinston] I think in Dobbs County where I was discharged by Capt. Coleman. He states that in this tour he served 3 months. He states further that he has lost his discharge given him by Capt. Coleman.

He states that he left the service in the month of September in the year 1781 and that after he returned home he heard of the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. “

The pension requirements, begun in 1776 for those disabled by the war, changed often, and by 1820 they had to show proof of need but not disability. The requirements were loosened as the veterans aged, particularly for the widows.  At first, pensions were only given to the widows if they had been married before the man left the service, but eventually, when there were very few left (1878), a widow could receive benefits no matter when they married and if the man served as few as 14 days! 

Pensions enacted by Congress for Revolutionary War Veterans

Tennesseeans in the Revolutionary War

Battle of King’s Mountain Roster:  There is a Jacob Williford in the roster, but no way to know if this is him and the dates don’t line up, however, he seemed a little unsure of the dates himself.

Tomorrow is the Super Bowl

Some people watch it only for the ads, which are very, very expensive. At Super Bowl XLVII between the Ravens and 49ers, the average cost of a 30-second advertisement was around $4 million.

Detroit coach shoots two thugs last night

"Police sources in Detroit say that a women's basketball coach, 72 years old and a reserve police officer, from Martin Luther King, Jr. Senior High School shot two men who attacked him as he was walking two basketball players to their cars in the school parking lot Friday night." [7NewsDetroit]

The man was accosted by the teens, former students at MLK school, who attempted to rob him with a gun, but the coach had a permit to carry. One teen is dead, the other hospitalized. He probably saved his own life, and maybe that of the girls, but strangely, I can't find this story in any of the major news outlets, or liberal news web sites like HuffPo or Daily Beast that have been saying there’s no reason to arm school personnel. If I weren't subscribing to a black conservative news source, I wouldn't have seen it.

http://newsninja2012.com/detroit-mi-mlk-jr-high-school-70-year-old-coach-shoots-attackers-who-tried-to-rob-him-one-teen-died-on-scene-other-survives/#axzz2JlX0GryJ

Catty remarks

Of the top 20 wealthiest people in the federal government (Congress, Judiciary, Executive and appointments to cabinet, etc.), only 6 are Republicans. Two of the Democrats are not elected, but appointed by the President. Next time you hear the President talk about "fat cats," think of those who surround and protect him.

Open Secrets

None, however, are as rich as Julia Dreyfuss or Oprah, who both supported Obama and are worth $2.9 billion and $2.8 billion.

A Circleville, Ohio resident remembers life in Austria and Germany, before and after WWII

Perhaps you should consider the advice from someone who has lived in a country where all guns were confiscated, and the government was all powerful.

“We lived in Nazi-controlled Austria in a refugee camp in late 1944. Guns had been confiscated long ago by Adolf Hitler. In the refugee camp, my mother saved my life with an illegal gun. And in late May 1945, we were in the eastern part of Germany when there was a weeks-long total breakdown of law and order after World War II ended.

Gangs of criminals were going through the city one street at a time, raping, getting drunk and looting. My mother made elaborate plans to keep them out of our apartment and for us to hide in the basement without being seen. Fortunately she was successful in keeping the vermin out.

Most of the other women and even young girls were not so lucky. They were defenseless with no guns and all men of fighting age, 15 to 60, either prisoners of war or dead. At that time my father was a Russian POW. My mom still had the illegal semiautomatic pistol with her, just in case her plan did not work. I was a sickly child who cried a lot of the time.

One day while we were all hiding in the basement, a gang of criminals pounded on the blocked doors and blocked windows while they screamed, “Frau Schnapps.” I was totally quiet. I knew we were in mortal danger.

Unless one has experienced such events, one probably cannot imagine it can happen. Most Americans think, “It will never happen here.” Hope not. But don't count on it.

In any case, don’t ever let our government take our guns away or keep a list of all gun owners. After my father was released from Russian captivity, he lived in Romania until he fled to West Germany. The communists would knock on people’s doors at 3 a.m. and arrest them without a judge involved. Many of these people never were seen again. The authorities had guns, of course. They always do.

Based on the experiences of my youth, I do not share many people’s blind trust in governments, especially big powerful governments. My father read the Constitution before he decided to request to immigrate to the U.S. with his family. He had had his fill of communism, National Socialism (Nazism) and governments that feel the need and have the power to arbitrarily confiscate weapons.

Of course, Europeans generally accept that they can’t own guns. But their history is such that they started out as serfs and always had a lord, king or emperor. There was always a powerful leader who had control over the lives of his subjects. We Americans threw off the yoke of aristocracy and had a new birth of freedom.”

GERHARD MAROSCHER Circleville

The Recession was over in June 2009—before the stimulus kicked in—in 2013 he says recovery has begun

If Obama hadn't tried to take over 1/6 of the economy throwing all plans for development, invention and expansion into a free fall, the recession he continues to blame on Bush could have been solved quickly. (Technically, it was over in June 2009, so everything he did after that caused the economy to remain sluggish.)

Unintended consequences—population control

The “West” invented and promoted eugenics and birth control (aka reproductive health) to limit the populations of the developing countries (it still does through the U.N.), but the irony is western developed countries are now at below replacement birth rates, and don’t have enough workers to support those born after WWII.  Without immigration, much of it illegal, the United States would be at negative population growth.  But Mexico has a birth dearth we’re contributing to.

70 countries are below replacement fertility.  Now, environmentalists will say this is a good thing.  What do you say? Slavery used to be a solution for a shortage of manpower.  Would you like to go back to that?  Or maybe just a slow double decade of sluggish economy like Japan?

Look how the baby boomer demographic in the U.S. drove our economy from 1945 to 1980.  Do you really think the collapse in 2007 was just about banking and bad government policies, or can you watch that generation and see there is no one to buy the McMansions or shop at the malls?  Old people save, not spend.

There’s a reason for the term “human capital,” and our current government policy is to destroy it.  The age group that has babies is the one who create the inventions that make our life better.

The Obama economy

Where the rich get richer and the poor get more unemployment benefits.

Ballards before the move to Illinois—Friday family photo

William Ballard (Grand dad) seated in front with Leta Ballard on his lap; behind him the young boy in a suit is Arthur Ballard; behind William is his wife Leanor Williford Ballard. Standing to his left is Blanche Molly Ballard and her brother Earle Ballard.  On the far right in the white blouse and black skirt is Cora Ballard, oldest daughter of William and Leanor.  The man directly behind the baby is Frank Williford, Leanor’s brother and to his right is probably his wife Minnie Cline Williford.  Between Frank and Cora are Joe and Maude Rodeffer who in the 1930s lived in Mt. Morris, but I don’t believe are relatives. 

Leta was born in 1906 in Tennessee, and appears to be about 2 years old. If Roy and Bessie are in the photo, I can’t pick them out.

Update:  A 1917 farm directory for Ogle County that I just found today says Wm Ballard was a resident of Ogle Co. in 1905. . . maybe they returned to Tennessee for a while?

Media Landscape

Prostitution and the Super Bowl

As missionaries with Great Commission Ministries since 2000, Dan and Julie Clark have had the opportunity to serve a variety of populations including American college students at New Life/Mosiac, members of an inner-city church plant in Hampton, VA and church planters and orphaned children in Kiev, Ukraine. They were on staff with Children’s HopeChest from 2004/2005-2009 working with orphan graduates and women in crisis. They saw the need for a nonprofit with the focus of early intervention and prevention in the lives of orphaned children and vulnerable women and families, and launched doma in August 2008.

doma empowers women and embraces children at ConnectionPoints in Ethiopia, Uganda, Ukraine, and Russia. doma seeks to meet opportunities as presented by their communities and responds to each with individualized programming: a children’s center in Uganda, early intervention with baby houses in Ukraine, parenting and mentorship for vulnerable women in Russia and human trafficking survivors in the US.

http://www.domaconnection.org/learn/history-and-vision/

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/12/17/john-school-lesson-prostitution-has-victims.html

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-01-31-child-prostitution-super-bowl_N.htm

http://www.ennisdailynews.com/sports/59-arrests-in-super-bowl-prostitution-ring/

Violence

On Advice

From the very talented

http://blo64rt.blogspot.com/

How low can they go?

"Does the person you share a bedroom with snore?"  Isn't that about the dumbest advertisement--20 years ago it would have been "Does your husband snore?"  and maybe 10 years ago, "Does your partner snore," but now I guess it is whoever needs a bed for the night and stops by. Or it is directed to the prison population.

A new abortion clinic for Columbus area

Last week, Mervyn Samuel, a well-known Columbus abortionist, expanded his business to Pickerington, Ohio. He now has three offices in the Columbus area. Yesterday, Pregnancy Decision Health Center decided that it needs to be there to minister to the women attracted to abortion and to give the women of Pickerington a REAL choice. It will take a lot of work to get up and running. And, it will take about $250,000. So maybe you don't want to march, maybe you're just tired of the back and forth about life and choice and the value of life of the unborn. But I challenge all my central Ohio friends to donate, especially if you are a member of an adoption triad:

Pregnancy Decision Health Centers, 665 E. Dublin-Granville Rd., Suite 120, Columbus, OH 43229.

Gun control and Immigration

Do you think employment and the economy are completely off the national radar? Seems to be for Obama and his back up singers in the media. In the bad old days of GW Bush I remember even fast food restaurants were advertising $2 above minimum with benefits. Mr. President, the recession was officially over in June 2009.

Bureau of Labor Statistics for January 2013 (this is for those of you who think reporting negative news about Obama is racist and hateful)

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult women (7.3 percent) and blacks (14.0 percent) edged up in December, while the rates for adult men (7.2 percent), teenagers (23.5 percent), whites (6.9 percent), and Hispanics (9.6 percent) showed little or no change. The jobless rate for Asians was 6.6 percent (not seasonally adjusted), little changed from a year earlier.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm