The only issue that matters

Does your church condone killing babies? How about its insurance plan?  What organizations does it support? And end of life issues, and marriage?  It’s all connected.

Monday Memories—Passing notes

I saw this on FB and it made me smile, because even in the old days, we knew how to stay in touch without speaking.  However, the more I thought about it, the more I remembered how the less popular or not such good students were left out of the loop except the excitement of the passing.  I wonder, if like kids today who long to be included in texting or other smart phone activities, there were kids who hoped someone would pass them notes scribbled on torn  notebook paper.

Chicken Apple Wraps

Chicken Apple Wraps… This sounds like a healthy meal, and a good use for Iceberg lettuce, which really doesn’t have much to recommend it except for holding other good things.

 

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Ingredients
1/2 cup chopped cooked chicken breast
3 tablespoons chopped Fuji apple
2 tablespoons chopped black or red grapes
2 tablespoons Crunchy Peanut Butter
1 tablespoon lite mayonnaise (or Greek yogurt)
2 teaspoons honey
Iceberg lettuce

Preparation
Chop chicken meat and fruit, mix in bowl. Mix in peanut butter, mayonnaise and honey.
Spoon into open lettuce leaf, roll and serve

This was posted on FB by Deb Fowler Nicholson who writes about weight loss

MoDo first has to blame Bush before Obama

Maureen Dowd, we tried to tell you not to trust him.  He’s a statist and believes there is no limit to the power government should have.

“There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment,” George Orwell wrote in “1984.” “How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/09/opinion/sunday/dowd-peeping-president-obama.html?ref=opinion

“Back in 2007, Obama said he would not want to run an administration that was “Bush-Cheney lite.” He doesn’t have to worry. With prisoners denied due process at Gitmo starving themselves, with the C.I.A. not always aware who it’s killing with drones, with an overzealous approach to leaks, and with the government’s secret domestic spy business swelling, there’s nothing lite about it. “

It’s more difficult to turn a child around than you might think

Recently Devonshire elementary (NC) was featured on the Today Show for its innovative programs of giving low income minority children extra attention, including a full time social worker in the class room. 40 years ago there was a study done in Columbus, Ohio called "The prevention of juvenile delinquency; an experiment" Ohio State University Press, 1972, by Walter C. Reckless.

"Bad boys" (they'd already had some contact with the law and came from troubled families) were assigned to 2 groups--intervention and control, and compared to "good boys" who had never been in trouble. The intervention group got every possible assistance including special counseling, assigned role models, extra tutoring, and special help for interpersonal relationships. The control group took the same classes, but got no extra help. The third group made up of kids who'd never been in trouble just proceeded as usual. At the end of 4 years, the students, parents, and teachers were all enthusiastic and loved the program. All believed it had made a difference. Unfortunately, it made no difference in the enriched group's drop out rate, contacts with the law, disciplinary events, behavior, or grades. They were the same as the control group.

I blogged about the Reckless Boys 6 years ago.

Google in bed with Obama

Google visits my blog about 10 times for every 100 posts (and I post a lot--1405 times in 2012). When should I expect an audit from the IRS or visit from the FBI? It's absurd for the NSA site to say if you haven't done anything wrong, you have nothing to fear that it gathers private data in violation of the 4th amendment in a Congressionally approved program in place and expanded since 1981. Americans were killed by their government at Ruby Ridge and Waco because of minor gun registration infractions worthy of a fine or a wrist slap. There are laws and regulations you've never heard of that are being violated by all of us . . .

Perhaps people lost their innocence about Google and Facebook long ago, realising that, just because their founders were kids in jeans, they were no less red-toothed than any other capitalist behemoth. But now the president's reputation will suffer the same treatment. This Prism will dim the halo that once adorned him.

For he has authorised not merely the continuation of a programme of state surveillance that he once opposed, but has actively expanded it. That officers who serve him could brag in a 41-page presentation – one, incidentally, laced with David Brent-style grandiosity, starting with the naffness of the Prism logo – of their ability to collect data "directly from the servers" of the likes of Microsoft, Apple and Yahoo, will be a lasting stain on his record. In this, he is George W Obama.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/07/obama-apple-google-facebook-tainted-prism

What Bill of Rights?

The President said he wants us to trust him/NSA, that there are safeguards. Really? We do have safeguards--the Bill of Rights. They've been systematically stomped on, shredded, ridiculed, parsed for loop holes, and laughed at by the left. Why should we trust anything in this administration after what we've learned since September 11, 2012?

What does the 4th amendment say? "“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

About the NSA snoop scoop

The Brits seem to have our best stories; not beholden to Obama

It’s about the money, not your health

Obamacare makes perfect sense if you follow the money, because that's what it is about. Our current employer based system was put in place after WWII as a way to attract workers. But now since it is virtually required and very regulated, it is the standard, not the exception as it was in the 1940s. Only 6% now buy insurance through the non-group market.

Employers' spending on health insurance premiums is exempt from taxation for both employers and employees. When my husband was a partner in an architectural firm he had to buy insurance with after tax dollars (owners weren't part of the benefit plan); when I became a regular employee at Ohio State (not contract or part time) I picked up the insurance for both of us and we probably saved/made an additional $300-400 a month 25 years ago.

The federal government isn't happy about "subsidizing" our health insurance, and wants those tax dollars so it can run its own program. ". . .it reduces federal and state tax revenues by $260 Billion per year and is the government's third largest expenditure on health care, after Medicare ($400 Billion) and Medicaid ($300 Billion)." You see, the government thinks it rightfully belongs to them.

http://www.nber.org/bah/2010no1/w15766.html

When Bobby Kennedy snooped on MLK

Even before the Patriot Act, there were exceptions under federal law to our guarantee of privacy under the 4th amendment.

"One was for so-called "pen-trap" orders. To obtain from a telephone company the numbers dialed to and from a particular telephone, officers must get a pen-trap order from a judge. They do not need to show probable cause, but must certify that the information is needed for an ongoing criminal investigation. The reason for the lesser standard is that these records are far less intrusive than wiretaps and physical searches.

Another major exception was for matters before the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court. Congress created the court in 1978 following scandals revealing that U.S. intelligence agencies had spied on hundreds of thousands of American citizens, most notably the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr." [Bobby Kennedy was the AG for this snooping]

(from "The Patriot Act" - Constitutional Rights Foundation)

He deflects the blame from Obama, so he’s still useful

Dry drowning—I’d never heard of it

“According to the Centers for Disease Control, some 3,600 people drowned in 2005, the most recent year for which there are statistics. Some 10 to 15 percent of those deaths was classified as “dry drowning,” which can occur up to 24 hours after a small amount of water gets into the lungs. In children, that can happen during a bath.”

http://www.today.com/id/24982210/ns/today-today_health/t/boys-death-highlights-hidden-danger-dry-drowning/

Signs:

1) Difficulty breathing

2) Extreme fatigue

3) Changes in behavior

In an active child, these signs would be hard to spot.

You get to play the hand you’re dealt—so don’t whine

   “But the real problem with Clinton's sure-to-become-ubiquitous talking point [at the Democratic convention about job creation]  is that it imputes to the President a level of power that he just doesn't have. Presidents don't get to wipe the slate clean and start the economy over from scratch; they must play the cards they are dealt. President Obama inherited a very bad hand indeed, with the bursting of the mortgage bubble. But he is far from alone in inheriting a bad hand.
     His immediate predecessor, George W. Bush, inherited the bursting of the tech bubble that had helped make the late Clinton years seem so prosperous. George H.W. Bush inherited what was, at the time, the worst banking crisis since the Depression, courtesy of a real estate bubble that had left the country dotted with see-through office buildings that had been built on spec and never leased.
     Ronald Reagan inherited stagflation from Jimmy Carter. Had Reagan been fixated on maximizing job creation in his first term, he never would have given political support to Paul Volcker's aggressive interest rate increases at the Federal Reserve, which succeeded in choking off inflation but at the cost of what was, at the time, the worst recession since the Depression.
     Similarly, Richard Nixon inherited the inflation and various other distortions created by LBJ's guns-and-butter policies. Moreover, his elimination of those half million American jobs LBJ had created in South Vietnam was fairly popular, particularly among the men being displaced.”

Senator Blutarsky, blogger

Rice Power

I'll say one thing about the Verizon scandal, it bumped the Rice/Power appointments off front page. Rice lied on 5 national TV shows--if she wasn't lying then she certainly wasn't asking the boss any questions. And Power? What a disaster. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/Decoder-Wire/2013/0606/Samantha-Power-Can-Obama-s-UN-nominee-live-down-Israel-comments

It doesn’t matter what you call it

My borrowed Thursday Thirteen—13 good things about getting older

By Anonymous—as seen at Suddenly Senior

1. Your investment in health insurance is finally beginning to pay off.

2. Kidnappers are not very interested in you.

3. It's harder and harder for sexual harassment charges to stick.

4. If you've never smoked, you can start now and it won't have time to hurt you.

5. People no longer view you as a hypochondriac.

6. Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can't remember them, either.

7. Your supply of brain cells is finally down to a manageable size.

8. Your eyes won't get much worse.

9. Things you buy now won't wear out.

10. No one expects you to run into a burning building.

11. There's nothing left to learn the hard way.

12. Your joints are more accurate than the National Weather Service.

13. In a hostage situation, you are likely to be released first.

Verizon is probably just the tip of the ice-berg

The IRS spending spree

As the Federal budget goes, $40 million for one conference for IRS managers is a pittance (and that’s a different problem).  But it certainly shows that they are blind to the problems of their “customers.”  Also, they apparently were deaf to the worries of lesser paid government employees, and Rep. Trey Gowdy contrasts their spending on $3500 hotel rooms with his own staff in 2010 struggling to pay the bills. . . His recommendation?  Start over—a training webinar isn’t going to fix a culture that is so disconnected from reality.

How many died on D-Day, June 6, 1944?

“In April and May 1944, the Allied air forces lost nearly 12,000 men and over 2,000 aircraft in operations which paved the way for D-Day.

The Allied casualties figures for D-Day have generally been estimated at 10,000, including 2500 dead. Broken down by nationality, the usual D-Day casualty figures (killed, wounded, MIA) are approximately 2700 British, 946 Canadians, and 6603 Americans. . .

The total German casualties on D-Day are not known, but are estimated as being between 4000 and 9000 men. . .

Over 425,000 Allied and German troops were killed, wounded or went missing during the Battle of Normandy. This figure includes over 209,000 Allied casualties, with nearly 37,000 dead amongst the ground forces and a further 16,714 deaths amongst the Allied air forces. Of the Allied casualties, 83,045 were from 21st Army Group (British, Canadian and Polish ground forces), 125,847 from the US ground forces. The losses of the German forces during the Battle of Normandy can only be estimated. Roughly 200,000 German troops were killed or wounded. The Allies also captured 200,000 prisoners of war (not included in the 425,000 total, above). During the fighting around the Falaise Pocket (August 1944) alone, the Germans suffered losses of around 90,000, including prisoners.

http://www.ddaymuseum.co.uk/d-day/d-day-and-the-battle-of-normandy-your-questions-answered