Not what I wanted to read the day after Thanksgiving

My daughter’s Thanksgiving Day pies—cherry, apple and pumpkin. She always decorates with little cut outs from the pastry.

I've had A-fib (atrial fibrillation) as long as I can remember, but wasn't diagnosed until 1996. I was on medication for awhile, then had an ablation (the cause turned out to be an extra circuit), then for a decade didn't use meds, then it began kicking in more frequently, and recently I returned to medications to control the rhythm and slow down my heart and a blood thinner in case a clot develops (the biggest risk for A-fib is a stroke). The Nov. 30 JAMA reports that losing weight is important in reducing A-fib, which would account for the increase in symptoms and the 30 lbs I've added in the last 4 years. This is not what I wanted to know the day after Thanksgiving with the frig loaded with left overs, including 3 kinds of pie.

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1779533

Lara Logan’s dismissal and sin

Do you think there's more to Lara Logan's "extended leave" from CBS? On good faith, she and her producer presented a story on Benghazi which shocked us all be showing up on 60 minutes. One of their sources turned out to be less than honest. As if this has never happened in the "caused by a video" mess. The administration probably came down very hard on CBS and she had to be sacrificed as did all the leftist media who have chosen to be blind to this administration’s sins.

ttp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2013/11/11/watch-lara-logan-shares-thoughts-on-benghazi-prior-to-60-minutes-apology/

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/10/10/cbs_lara_logan_slams_obama_admin_for_pushing_major_lie_that_taliban_is_weakened.html

http://www.eonline.com/news/485398/60-minutes-lara-logan-ordered-to-take-leave-of-absence-from-cbs-after-botched-benghazi-report

http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2013/11/13/Salon-Writer-Calls-for-Lara-Logan-s-Firing-Over-Benghazi-He-s-Wrong-Here-s-Why

Obama’s lies, laws and fixes

The president has a record for lying to get a law passed, then lying after it is passed, then offering a fix for the law he lied about.

"The flagship Catholic university [Notre Dame], named after the most prolife Woman in history, rewarded the most pro-abortion President in history by giving him an honorary degree. On this occasion the President publicly promised to respect Catholic conscience rights by keeping a conscience clause exception in his comprehensive healthcare program. He lied. He reneged on his promise." Peter Kreeft.

Obama's fix when even liberal Catholics were outraged by his lie was to give a one year reprieve. Sound familiar? Lies. Laws. Fixes.

My comments in 2009 on his event at Notre Dame, here, and here.

Bill Gates and Common Core

"After making tens of billions in the personal computer revolution, Gates has become a full-time cheerleader for leftist causes on a global scale—whether it’s reducing carbon emissions to zero by mid-century or reducing the world population by spending billions to pay for contraceptives in poor countries. Now Gates is hoping to transform education (through Common Core)."

I like his products--use them all the time. However, he's not qualified to decide who lives and dies (more Africans will die from Western "family planning", than were lost in the transatlantic slave trade of the 18th century), how to destroy other competing businesses through stiffer air quality regulations, or how to make "world citizens" out of American citizens.

http://www.crisismagazine.com/2013/the-ambitions-of-bill-and-melinda-gates-controlling-population-and-public-education

Abortion—the real war against women

A new study again confirms the link between abortions and breast cancer, and also the link to delaying first pregnancy. “Any birth was protective (adjusted OR = 0.36, 95% CI 0.20–0.66). Each year delay in first pregnancy increased risk (adjusted OR = 1.13, 95% CI 1.01–1.27) as did induced abortions (adjusted OR = 2.86, 95% CI 1.02–8.04).” “Fifty-four of 67 epidemiological studies since 1957 report an abortion-breast cancer link (not counting biological and experimental evidence).” http://www.lifenews.com/2011/11/28/abortion-nearly-triples-breast-cancer-risk-new-study-finds/

Add to that the toxic nature of birth control pills, and Plan B being made available without prescription for young teens and you can see where the war against women really comes from.

Three important terms in today’s political climate

Don’t confuse these terms:  same sex attraction, homosexual acts, and gay.  They are not the same.  The first is a feeling or emotion that does not involve choice; the second is sodomy an act or behavior not compatible with Scripture or church teaching; and the third is a political movement.  The culture teaches that our sexuality is just biological.  But God says otherwise.  This is not about civil rights, but God’s truth and creation.

“God created us as male and female. Host Gloria Purvis along with Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers and Damon Owens discuss complementarity between men and women, and why homosexual acts and redefining marriage are not compatible with authentic freedom. They also explain the difference between accepting homosexual behavior and a person with same sex attraction.”

Episode 5, http://www.ewtn.com/series/shows/authentically-free-at-last/episodes.asp

The New Economy vs. the Old Economy

Sergei Brin is a Russian immigrant.  He’s the founder of Google.  He’s a billionaire and the 14th wealthiest person in the U.S. He’s at the top, but hasn’t created all that many jobs. Other tech jobs go to China.

“The big names in tech might be awash in capital and might have made their founders billionaires (New Economy founders typically retain large blocks of their own stock), but they employ surprisingly small numbers of U.S. workers. Google, the valley’s largest employer, has 46,000 people on its payroll. Facebook employs only 4,600, and Twitter, in San Francisco, fewer than 2,000. Apple claims 400,000 people putting together components and creating apps and other extras for its iPhones, iPads, iPods, MacBooks, and desktop computers. Yet only 16,000 of those are on the payroll in Cupertino. Another 31,000 work at Apple operations in Texas and other states, but the vast bulk of manufacturing is outsourced abroad via contractors to China and other cheap-labor purgatories. Yet those 16,000 in Cupertino make Apple the second-largest employer in the valley. Kotkin compares those numbers to the 212,000 employed by GM, the 170,000 employed by Ford, and the more than 100,000 employed by Exxon Mobil, all three presumably Old Economy dinosaurs. The New Economy generates prosperity all right, prosperity that mostly flows to those in the upper echelons.”

Link to Silicon Chasm

The president noticed immigrants and commented

OBAMA: “ As I was getting a tour of DreamWorks, I didn't ask, but just looking at faces, I could tell there were some folks who are here not because they were born here, but because they want to be here and they bring extraordinary talents to the United States. And that's part of what makes America special. And that's part of what, by the way, makes California special, because it's always been this magnet of dreamers and strivers. And people coming from every direction saying to themselves, you know, if I work hard there I can have my piece of the American Dream.”

Of course, the immigrant workers of DreamWorks are not those who are sneaking across the borders.  Our 1996 immigration law would forbid DreamWorks from hiring them. Not even a janitor or grounds person would be hired without a green card or suitable documentation.

A few years ago I was at a birthday party, standing beside a stranger with dark skin and black hair who had a slight accent.  Not wanting to be rude, I didn't pounce and say "I see you are an immigrant here to bring us special talents," but eventually I found out he was Iranian born with a successful business that hired Mexican illegals because they were such hard workers, and wouldn't report him for fear of deportation.

Give Thanks

It’s not even funny

The President’s pardon record

Yesterday the President pardoned a turkey. But for humans, not so much. He has the worst record for pardons of any president other than George Washington and those who died after a short time in office. It's something like 1 in 6,000+ requests, compared to Clinton’s which was 1 in 190 something. Not to turn this into a race issue, but aren't blacks disproportionately represented in the prison population? http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865591370/Obamas-pardon-record-is-for-the-birds-critics-say.html

What will you be discussing at dinner tomorrow?

"Organizing for Action" is the group promoting talking points and advocacy for Obamacare at the dining room table on Thanksgiving. It also mysteriously was fast tracked for IRS approval and has a 501c4 classification as a "social welfare non-profit."

 http://www.jammiewf.com/2013/so-how-did-obamas-organizing-for-action-get-irs501c4-approval-so-quickly/

I'd forgotten that Obama talking points for Thanksgiving isn't new. In 2009 I wrote at my blog, "I looked at the cheat sheet the Democrats printed up (pdf) of Obama's accomplishments to discuss over turkey. But it really was the turkey. Stuffed and expanded with lies, some created, some saved."

How to fix a turkey

The National Turkey Federation recommends turkey be roasted by the Open Pan method in a preheated 325 degree F oven until the internal temperature, as registered on a meat thermometer, reaches 180 degrees F in the thigh or 170 degrees F in ...the breast. The open pan dry heat cooking method is the easiest and most reliable of all cooking methods and results in a juicy, tender, flavorful golden brown turkey. My turkey is 22 lbs. and the chart says 6 to 7 hours.

http://www.cooks.com/rec/story/66/

Black Friday savings available to all

Food stamps buying Thanksgiving dinner

What's wrong with this picture? The recession was over in June 2009 before a single Obama economic program went into effect. This is his failure, but he always points to someone, something else.

"Food stamps. Hit hard by the 2008 financial collapse, more Americans are using food stamps to help buy the basics this Thanksgiving than ever before. Average participation has increased 70 percent since 2007, with costs reaching $72 billion, according the Congressional Budget Office." Sunlight Foundation, Nov. 27, 2013.

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/09/20/nber-recession-ended-in-june-2009/

Thanksgiving at the Bruce household 2013

I'm doing Thanksgiving dinner for our family--first in a lot of years.  We’ll attend church at 10 a.m. at UALC.  Everything is done except the turkey.  Mashed potatoes, cubed roasted sweet potatoes, green beans with onions and mushrooms, home made cranberry sauce (sugar free), 2 kinds of dressing, gravy, mixed greens salad with fruit, and my daughter is bringing the pies. I only have 3 serving dishes that match my china, so some things will have to go from oven to the table.  This years for birthdays we went out to eat separately with each instead of mushing the birthdays and Thanksgiving together.

2012

2012 Black Friday

2011

2005

2005  (menus)

2005 (post dinner)

2004

2004

2003

2002

1991 (birthdays)

Searching the blog

The search widget on my blog is not working.  I looked at the discussion forum and many are having this problems.  Someone provided a code for a work around until it is fixed, but I couldn’t figure that out either.

What can you buy with SNAP? A lot.

I saw a discussion of food stamps (aka SNAP) at NPR where the liberals were arguing that cheap processed food was cheaper than healthier items like meat and fruits and vegetables, so the poor were not being well fed and needed more allocations.  No so fast, declared an alert woman. And she laid out the numbers.

Breakfast - banana, eggs, and grits
Lunch - bread, peanut butter or cheese, carrots and apple sauce
Dinner – 1 lb. meat ($3), starch (i.e. pasta or rice) and canned vegetables
Snack - homemade popcorn on the stove $1 (actually I make mine for about 15 cents, njb).
Every item ~$1 or $13 a day and many items would last 3 meals
Times 7 days is $91. And most families of 4 on food stamps get ~$525. 

I bought a box of sugar cereal for my kids yesterday that was ON SALE for $2. I was excited because a box of cereal can be $3-$5. So I thought it would be a cheap option (which it is), but it is only 11 oz. That's now $3/pound or the price of chicken. So it may SEEM CHEAP when really it is not a good deal.

Same with a frozen cheap pizza. I got one on sale for $5 (on sale from $8). Thought it is cheap and cheaper than Pizza Hut - yes, but it is 20 oz or $4/pound (regularly $6/pound - the price of a good steak).

Most fruits and vegetables are less than $2/pound. So you can't tell me that frozen pizzas are cheaper than apples and bananas and chicken. THEY JUST SEEM that way.

George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation

Thanksgiving Proclamation
Issued by President George Washington, at the request of Congress, on October 3, 1789

By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation.

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and—Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me “to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:”

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favor, able interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other trangressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.

George Washington

Iran’s deal of the century

If nuclear energy is so great for Iran, why isn’t  the U.S. faster about developing it?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christine-todd-whitman/plant-vogtle-nuclear-reactors_b_1269422.html

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2013/07/08/whats-wrong-with-obamas-energy-policy/

“On Feb. 9, 2012, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved a license for two new nuclear reactors in Georgia. The electricity giant Southern Co. intends to build them at its Vogtle site south of Augusta. (The White House pointed us to news coverage of the approval when we asked for evidence of Obama’s statement.)

Prior to this year, the last time the commission granted a license to build a new reactor was in 1978, which was 34 years ago, according to a commission spokesperson. The permit was for the Shearon Harris plant operated by Carolina Power & Light near Raleigh, N.C. But it takes a long time to build nuclear reactors, so the plant didn’t get operational approval until 1986.

And the North Carolina plant isn’t the most recent to go operational. That distinction goes to the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar site in Tennessee. It received a construction license in 1973 and an operating license in 1996, or 16 years ago.”

http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2012/mar/02/barack-obama/obama-says-he-supported-first-nuclear-power-plant-/