The George Zimmerman trial

If Trayvon Martin had been Hispanic, would you have ever heard of this tragedy? Or if he'd been white? Or if George Zimmerman was black? The media chase these things. Here in NW Ohio we're watching another murder trial. Victim is a black baby girl, killed in a drive by shooting and her 2 year old sister was wounded but survived. But it's local news, not national. There's no one to agitate because the men who killed her are also black. http://www.northwestohio.com/news/story.aspx?id=914545

Act like a pinata, GOP

We can save both babies and women

Designs by Birgit.

Natural wood repair

I haven’t tried this yet, but someone on FB says, “Naturally Repair Wood With Vinegar and Canola Oil. So, for a super cheap, use 3/4 cup of oil, add 1/4 cup vinegar. white or apple cider vinegar, mix it in a jar, then rub it into the wood. You don’t need to wipe it off; the wood just soaks it in.

We have a maple dresser here in Lakeside that could use some help.  I’ll let you know.

Many women choose based on gender

If we can't give them "liberty and the pursuit of happiness" at the fetal stage, I'd settle for life.

A noose of snooping gets tighter and more expansive

If there were ever a federal agency misnamed, it’s the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

“(Washington, DC) - Judicial Watch announced today that it has obtained records from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) revealing that the agency has spent millions of dollars for the warrantless collection and analysis of Americans' financial transactions. The documents also reveal that CFPB contractors may be required to share the information with "additional government entities."

The records were obtained pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed on April 24, 2013, following the April 23 Senate Banking Committee testimony of CFPB Director Richard Cordray. The documents uncovered by Judicial Watch include:

Overlapping contracts with multiple credit reporting agencies and accounting firms to gather, store, and share credit card data as shown in the task list of a contract with Argus Information & Advisory Services LLC worth $2.9 million

Deloitte Consulting: solicitation issue date 11/30/2011, award effective date 05/29/2012;

Argus: solicitation issue date 02/14/2012, award effective date 03/15/2012;

Experian: solicitation issue date 07/03/2012, award effective date 09/24/2012

An "indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity" contract with Experian worth up to $8,426,650 to track daily consumer habits of select individuals without their awareness or consent

$4,951,333 for software and instruction paid to Deloitte Consulting LLP

A provision stipulating that "The contractor recognizes that, in performing this requirement, the Contractor may obtain access to non-public, confidential information, Personally Identifiable Information (PII), or proprietary information."

A stipulation that "The Contractor may be required to share credit card data collected from the Banks with additional government entities as directed by the Contracting Officer's Representative (COR)."

The full extent of the CFPB personal financial data collection program is revealed in a document obtained by Judicial Watch entitled "INDEFINITE-DELIVERY INDEFINITY-QUANTITY (IDIQ) STATEMENT OF WORK." According to the IDIQ document's stated Objective: "The CFPB seeks to acquire and maintain a nationally representative panel of credit information on consumers for use in a wide range of policy research projects... The panel shall be a random sample of consumer credit files obtains from a national database of credit files."

To accomplish this objective, the CFPB describes the scope of the program accordingly:

The panel shall include 5 million consumers, and joint borrowers, co-signers, and authorized users [emphasis added]. The initial panel shall contain 10 years of historical data on a quarterly basis [emphasis added]. The initial sample shall be drawn from current records and historical data appended for that sample as well as additional samples during the intervening years [emphasis added] to make the combines sample representative at each point in time.

The CFPB data collection program has been highly controversial since the April 2013 hearing, when Cordray disclosed elements of the venture at a Senate Banking Committee hearing. At the time, the US Chamber of Commerce accused the CFPB of breaking the law by demanding the account-level data without a warrant or National Security Letter.”

http://washingtonexaminer.com/feds-collecting-personal-confidential-data-on-consumers-credit-cards-bank-transactions/article/2532467

The IRS will be in charge of our health needs

And this is what we will get.

Remember, Krauthammer is a psychiatrist. He doesn’t throw these words around the way other political commentators might.

 

Snowden and Davis

We have strange heroes these days. Edward Snowden and Wendy Davis. Texas State Senator Wendy Davis, the woman they are cheering and admiring her shoes: "The law that Wendy Davis and her fellow “pro-science” acolytes so bravely stood against would have rendered it illegal to kill the child after this point [after 20 weeks]. And when I say kill, I mean kill. I mean break bones, rip apart limbs, crush skulls, drain fluids, still a beating heart, annihilate a brain that is capable of dreaming, and crush a nervous system. I mean: Kill. As David Freddoso put it yesterday, “Wendy Davis can now say, When the moment came to stand up for smashing the life out of a baby 6 mos into pregnancy, I was up to the task.” This is not an accomplishment of which she should be proud." http://www.nationalreview.com/article/352146/stand-death-charles-c-w-cooke/page/0/1

Paula Deen and the race card

"Yet, here is the reality: Deen told the truth about her past. Knowing everything: her empire, her contracts, and sponsorships were at stake–she told the truth. She was more honest under oath than at least 3 US Presidents, several dozen Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, and Non-Denominational preachers and countless business leaders. Unlike the Pope, Joe Paterno, or Donald Trump, she acknowledged she hadn’t always gotten it right but that she and her company was committed to doing it better and were doing better."

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/mariadixonhall/2013/06/saying-grace-paula-deen-progressives-and-race/

The SCOTUS DOMA Decision by the Numbers

Sharing this analysis of the SCOTUS decisions 'by the numbers':

50 The number of states whose marriage laws remain the same after the Court’s marriage decisions.

38 The number of states with laws defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman. That includes California, where the scope of today’s Prop 8 decision beyond the specific plaintiffs will be the subject of ongoing debate and, most likely, further litigation.

12 The number of states that can now force the federal government to recognize their redefinition of marriage. The Court struck Section 3 of DOMA, which means that it must recognize same-sex marriages in states that redefine marriage.

1 The number of sections of the Defense of Marriage Act struck down yesterday (Section 3). Section 2, which ensures that no state will be forced to recognize another state’s redefinition of marriage, is still law.

0 The number of states forced to recognize other states’ redefinition of marriage.

Seen at Maggie Thurber’s Face Book page.

Saturday night program at Lakeside, Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood

We had a great time at the opening program at Lakeside, June 23. Laughed ourselves silly. Sat with an OSU colleague from my library days, Lynda, and she took our photo. We’re really not that pale—the flash washed out what color we do have.

New Lakeside logo is wisely withdrawn

Although I'm not sure how a logo unveiled a few days ago became "iconic" (there are 3 buildings in Lakeside with a southwest mission style architecture from which the logo was drawn), but most didn't think it should replace the cross, which had 140 years history here. But this should save the expense of a copyright infringement case by Taco Bell.  Besides, “maize and blue” are not popular in Ohio.

 

For the coal miners union that supported Obama

I attended 2 Shakespeare lectures today by Ruth Gerrard Cole. Heard a great line for the coal miners who supported Obama. "Made I him king for this?"

“The only thing bold about a carbon tax is how much it would cost Americans and how little the environmental benefits they would gain in return. Even if America stopped all carbon emissions—no cars, trains, or planes; no factories, homes, or businesses that run on anything other than nuclear electricity; no manufacturing of plastics, which use oil as a feedstock, and so on—the global temperature would decrease by 0.08 degrees Celsius by 2050."

http://blog.heritage.org/2013/06/21/climate-change-the-cost-of-bold-action/

On DOMA

• If marriage isn't about one man and one woman, it is also NOT about two people--and this battle will continue for "equal rights and benefits." Could be 5 or more, or people related by blood (2 sisters and their first cousin), or people of a certain age (14 year old student and 32 year old teacher), or one person already being married wanting some legal status for the lover, or one or both having a serious disease, or anything that history has devised to protect the continuance of the human race. And then there's the divorce laws...imagine wife number 3 deciding she wants out of the clan and her share of the estate and the children she has birthed or cared for.

• There are thousands of laws concerning marriage and children. The GLBT community had an opportunity to go with something different without all those economic and political entanglements. But they wanted to be on the Me Too Train.

A little humor

Dismal news on the Middle East

Yesterday’s Chautauqua lecture at Lakeside was on the Middle East, specifically the Arab uprisings of 2011. Although a liberal academic (but I repeat), Lebanese American professor at Case Western Pete W. Moore gave one of the best and most balanced presentations I’ve heard on the subject, and of course, two years have passed in which they’ve been able to evaluate Morsi of Egypt and adjust for religion, poverty, government control, etc.  He was excellent in pointing out the differences among the many fighting factions of Islamists.  Also, since the situation has now been Obama’s for almost 6 years, there was only one mention of Bush, and the unspoken blame for our role in the increasingly explosive middle eastern battles and civil wars was squarely on our current administration (which is Bush-lite if you are on the right, and Bush on steroids if you are on the left).  But he gave one interesting example of how irresponsible behavior higher up affects the young.  He said 80% of the male citizens of the UAE (United Arab Emirates) do not finish high school.  They are virtually illiterate in Arabic except for speaking it.  They have been coddled by both their parents and their government, which will provide them with a cushy, do-nothing government job.  The citizens are so wealthy that all meaningful labor is imported, and those people have no rights at all.  It is a mirror image of what the United States does to its low income and welfare classes. He showed genuine grief in what is happening to the Syrian culture, a country where he has spent some time.  He talked some of their minority populations, many different Christian groups that have lived side by side with Muslims for centuries, and how they support Assad and will probably be wiped out if the Islamists succeed. The income level and education level in all these countries differ as does the type of government ranging from elected, to monarchy to dictator.  But what has happened in recent years is “rising expectations,” and a growing sense of being humiliated by their leaders and the very wealthy classes.  He also posted the trillions we’ve spent since 1979 in the area for the military and aid, including aid to Israel. Today’s lecture will be on Europe.

Modern medicine confirms biblical principles, again

JAMA Pediatrics 2013; 167(4):217-222

One hundred six (106) 10th grade high schools students who were fluent in English and free of chronic illnesses volunteered weekly with elementary school aged children for 2 months vs. a control group that did not but were on a waiting list (so their hearts were in the right place, so to speak).  After 4 months, they were tested and their cardiovascular risk facts had been reduced, compared to the control group.

The study suggests that those who increased the most in empathy and altruistic behavior also decreased the most in negative mood, and thus improved their cardiovascular risk profile.

The only problem I have with the study is the concept of “volunteering” now used in public schools.  It is required in many schools and thus is hardly volunteering.

Proverbs 11:17;  A man who is kind benefits himself,  but a cruel man hurts himself.”

This will be my summer reading—The Greater Journey

For our first meeting in the fall, our book club group usually choses the largest one, and McCullough always writes whoppers. I love non-fiction, and this one sounds fascinating.

In The Greater Journey, he tells the enthralling, inspiring—and until now, untold—story of the adventurous American artists, writers, doctors, politicians, and others who set off for Paris in the years between 1830 and 1900, hungry to learn and to excel in their work. What they achieved would profoundly alter American history.

Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female doctor in America, was one of this intrepid band. Another was Charles Sumner, whose encounters with black students at the Sorbonne inspired him to become the most powerful voice for abolition in the U.S. Senate. Friends James Fenimore Cooper and Samuel F. B. Morse worked unrelentingly every day in Paris, Morse not only painting what would be his masterpiece, but also bringing home his momentous idea for the telegraph. Harriet Beecher Stowe traveled to Paris to escape the controversy generated by her book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Three of the greatest American artists ever—sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, painters Mary Cassatt and John Singer Sargent—flourished in Paris, inspired by French masters.

Almost forgotten today, the heroic American ambassador Elihu Washburne bravely remained at his post through the Franco-Prussian War, the long Siege of Paris, and the nightmare of the Commune. His vivid diary account of the starvation and suffering endured by the people of Paris is published here for the first time.

Telling their stories with power and intimacy, McCullough brings us into the lives of remarkable men and women who, in Saint-Gaudens’ phrase, longed “to soar into the blue.”

                  

Some pro-abortion folks just don’t get it

"From the stage at the recent Women Deliver conference, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s daughter Chelsea revealed that her much-admired maternal grandmother was the child of unwed teenage parents who “did not have access to services that are so crucial that Planned Parenthood helps provide.”

Chelsea’s grandmother was born of an unintended pregnancy. And new research shows that her family is not alone in treasuring a person who – if Planned Parenthood had been successful – would not have been born."

Seems like she hasn't put it together that if her maternal grandmother had been aborted that she, and her mother too, wouldn't be here. Wonder if NBC is proud of their 'Rock Center' "special correspondent" now? Actually, they probably are.

http://www.lifenews.com/2013/06/20/chelsea-clinton-laments-my-grandmother-did-not-have-access-to-planned-parenthood/

Oven baked chicken breasts

MELT IN YOUR MOUTH CHICKEN

1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 cup Greek yogurt -plain
1 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp seasoning salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Spread mixture over chicken breasts, bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes