Short and sweet

Funnily.  Funny, it's been around since 1814, but I've only noticed it in 2013. http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2010/07/is-funnily-enough-cringeworthy.html

No one seems upset about Robertson when he addresses the sexual sins of 98% of the rest of the population, only gays. I wonder why?

Jesus said there are no goats in heaven, only sheep. (Matt. 25)

83% of abortions in Ohio are for unmarried women, so there are a lot of irresponsible men out there--it takes two.

Past data has found that when it comes to weight loss, race and genetics are real obstacles that doctors just cannot ignore.

The uninsured in the United States get more preventive care than the insured in Canada. John Goodman, MD

When making a resolution, cross out the word "try." It's a wimpy verb.

I was trying to look up some biographical information on W. E. Farbstein, and found this instead. "The dog is mentioned in the Bible eighteen times—the cat not even once." W.E. Farbstein. Quoted in "Hundkeit," Mondo Canine, ed. Jon Winokur, Dutton (1991).

                         

From my mother’s Commonplace book, 1942 Good Housekeeping

A prayer for 2014: "Two things I ask of you: deny them not to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying: give me neither poverty nor riches: feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God (Proverbs 30:7-9, ESV).

The glaze I made for the ham Christmas Eve was so delicious, I made a small amount to put on cooked carrots for a glaze for a buffet at the Zimmers. I can hardly keep from tasting. Maple syrup (real), red wine vinegar and mustard.

"Femininity has become a legal disability, and the irresponsible male has become a legal ideal." Patrick Lee, Institute of Bioethics at Franciscan University of Steubenville (Ohio)

Best slogan I've seen this week. "Hope and chains."

Who knew? Don't put fresh pears in a fruit salad. Bleh. I should have taken home ec instead of college prep. They turn brown and mushy.

                

My son’s living room on Christmas Eve.

Irony. The opposite of wrinkly.

                           

Crock pot salsa chicken

 Ingredients

• 2 lbs. (32 oz.) chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
• 1 cup salsa
• 1 cup petite diced canned tomatoes
• 2 tbsp. taco seasoning
• 1 cup onions, diced fine
• 1/2 cup celery diced fine
• 1/2 cup carrots, shredded
• 3 tbsp. sour cream

Directions

Place the chicken in a slow cooker. Sprinkle the taco seasoning over the meat then layer the vegetables and salsa on top. Pour a half cup water over the mixture, set on low and cook for 6-8 hours. The meat is cooked when it shreds or reaches an internal temperature of 165°F. When ready to serve, break up the chicken with two forks then stir in the sour cream. Makes eight 1 cup servings.

Nutrition Info: Calories: 164.9; Fat: 2.5g; Carbohydrates: 7.3g; Protein: 27.6g

Who is homophobic?

Not sure why the other 97% are called homophobic when so many celebrities, athletes and stars hide who they are--Elton John didn't and he came out of the closet about 40 years ago--didn't hurt his career or income. Ellen came out in 1997, both on her show and in real life.

http://chicagodefender.com/2013/12/30/robin-roberts-comes-out-thanks-long-time-girlfriend/#.UsGj4UbFEXx.facebook

 

Write a check, save a life

Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in the United States and gets approximately $1.5 million a day from your tax dollars. You can donate to your local pregnancy help center that saves babies and women. In Columbus that is Pregnancy Decision Health Center, 665 E. Dublin-Granville Rd., Suite 120, Columbus, OH, 43229. One more day for a tax deduction, one more day to save lives in 2013.

Not enough shelves

12 important things about demons and angels by Kuyper and Kreeft

Abraham Kuyper was a Dutch Calvinist statesman and theologian; Peter Kreeft is a Roman Catholic, a convert from Reformed Church in America.

Demons--

1. There exists a spiritual world outside of and apart from our human race.

2. There are two hosts or groups of these spirits, namely angels and demons.

3. The host of demons is subject to the rule of Satan.

4. Both angels and demons have powers, gifts and talents that they received from their Creator.

5. These spiritual beings have been called to use their powers and gifts in the service of God, not only to praise Him, but also as instruments for the development of His Kingdom.

6. These spirits exert all kinds of influence on this earth, not only in the spiritual realm, but just as much in the physical, visible and material realm.

7. After their fall, the demons have misused their powers in order to destroy both this earth and our human race.

8. Until the coming of Jesus and with the exception of Israel, these demons had established the kingdom of Satan over the peoples and nations that made Satan in effect the ruler of the world.

9. Christ has come in order to destroy the works of the devil and to establish Himself as Head and King over this world.

10. The temptations of Christ in the wilderness and the gradual casting out of demons must be understood in the context of that struggle.

11. The power of Satan was broken down in principle during this struggle, so that Jesus could exclaim, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18).

12. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost introduced into this world a holy spiritual force that was designed to ceaselessly push back that demonic atmosphere that had for so long oppressed the life of the nations.

You can do greater things than Christ, by Abraham Kuyper

Angels--

1. They really exist. Not just in our minds, or our myths, or our symbols, or our culture. They are as real as your dog, or your sister, or electricity.
2. They’re present, right here, right now, right next to you, reading these words with you.
3. They’re not cute, cuddly, comfortable, chummy, or “cool”. They are fearsome and formidable. They are huge. They are warriors.
4. They are the real “extra-terrestrials”, the real “Super-men”, the ultimate aliens. Their powers are far beyond those of all fictional creatures.
5. They are more brilliant minds than Einstein.
6. They can literally move the heavens and the earth if God permits them.
7. There are also evil angels, fallen angels, demons, or devils. These too are not myths. Demon possessions, and exorcisms, are real.
8. Angels are aware of you, even though you can’t usually see or hear them. But you can communicate with them. You can talk to them without even speaking.
9. You really do have your very own “guardian angel”. Everybody does.
10. Angels often come disguised. “Do not neglect hospitality, for some have entertained angels unawares”—that’s a warning from life’s oldest and best instruction manual.
11. We are on a protected part of a great battlefield between angels and devils, extending to eternity.
12. Angels are sentinels standing at the crossroads where life meets death. They work especially at moments of crisis, at the brink of disaster—for bodies, for souls, and for nations.

Angels, the 12 most important things by Peter Kreeft

This will protect a woman more than a condom

CDC has an educational unit on "safer sex" condom use (safe sex actually isn't the term, because it's virtually impossible), aimed at female teens. After reviewing the results after 12 mo. no statistically significant intervention effects on sex risk behaviors or STD recurrence were observed, so the "intervention package is not available at this time."

Only ten broken promises? Oh, it’s just Obamacare—from Newsmax

1. The website is simple and user-friendly

Just days into its disastrous rollout, the Obamacare website was out of order until mid-morning Oct. 8, a public relations headache . . . on Dec. 20, a mere three days before the deadline to sign up for coverage starting Jan. 1, yet another outage lasted for several hours.

2. "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan."

Obama's June 6, 2009 assertion was wrong. . . . Charles Krauthammer railed Obamacare itself was a fraud from the beginning.

3. "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor."

Obama's 2009 promise was wrong again, we learned in 2013. . .  conservative blogger Cam Harris writes. 

4. Premiums will fall by as much as $2,500 per family
That won't happen. Forbes magazine, comparing Affordable Care Act premiums versus pre-Obamacare premiums, finds this presidential assertion a dud.

5. Obamacare won't add 'one dime to our deficits'

But it does. Even the Government Accountability Office's report of Feb. 26, 2013, projected Obamacare will increase the long-term federal deficit by $6.2 trillion.

6. The ACA will cost around $900 billion over 10 years

Not even close. A Congressional Budget Office’s report from May 2013 puts the real price tag more around the area of $1.8 trillion.

7. Families making less than $250,000 won't see 'any form' of tax increase

Far from it. Obamacare contains 18 separate tax hikes, fees, and penalties, many of which heavily impact the middle class, the Heritage Foundation maintains. . . .

8. The ACA will keep healthcare costs down.
So says the president's Council of Economic Advisers.
But it's just not so, according to senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and American Enterprise Institute visiting fellow James Captretta writes in the Weekly Standard.

9. You have a deadline and a mandate.

Maybe. Squishy deadlines, and "fixes" have been a hallmark of Obamacare almost from the start. . . Another "fix" came Nov. 14, a week after the president apologized for the cancellations . . . As for sign-up deadlines, it's been confusing at best. . .  HHS also pushed back the deadline when the first month's premium would be due, and insurers obliged, extending the payment deadline nine days, to Jan. 10.

10. Sure, the national exchange is glitchy, but the state sites are working great.

Obamacare’s state-run enrollment operations have had technological delays and low sign-up levels. Several states even replaced top executives.

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/obamacare-broken-promises/2013/12/29/id/544262#ixzz2oyC0XUSr

The Holy Innocents Matthew 2:16-18

16 Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the magi. 17 Then what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled:
18 “A VOICE WAS HEARD IN RAMAH,  WEEPING AND GREAT MOURNING,  RACHEL WEEPING FOR HER CHILDREN;  AND SHE REFUSED TO BE COMFORTED,  BECAUSE THEY WERE NO MORE.”

"Just a few days ago, billions of Christians around the world celebrated the birth of an infant who was born to a young, impoverished, and unmarried woman. This weekend, many Christian churches also recognized the feast day of the Holy Innocents - the day when King Herod, fearing he may lose his political power, ordered the death of all the male infants in Bethlehem and its surrounds. Historians and historical representations of the numbers of children lost vary - from 15-20... infants . . .to 64,000, and medieval writers liked to use the number 144,000. The exact number is immaterial. The reality is that our modern sensibilities cannot fathom a world in which political leaders order the death of countless innocent infants in order to secure their own political power." (Columbus Right to Life)

But they do, don't they? Or at least they are complicit in the killing through laws, insurance and cultural pressure. It is estimated that 85% of women who abort have been pressured by parents, boyfriend, husband, or "friends" who convince her carrying to term would ruin her life, his life, her education, their economics, etc., and allowing the baby to live and be adopted by another family--well, that would just be too difficult. In Texas, home of the popular blonde politician in pink tennies, 63% of abortions were for black or Hispanic babies.

There’s a clawback feature in Obamacare

“The government has long been permitted to seek reimbursement for healthcare services by attaching the assets of deceased Medicaid enrollees. But before ObamaCare, an asset test was mandatory for Medicaid applicants and only those with few or no assets could qualify for government provided care. As a result, there was little of value which the state could attach after death.

ObamaCare, however, has done away with the asset test. Eligibility for Medicaid is now dependent only upon income. And at 138% of the federal poverty mark, that eligibility level is much higher than in previous years. Therefore, countless Americans who have accumulated valuable assets yet show little income will now qualify as Medicaid recipients.

So if parents have been placed on a state Medicaid roll, the house, car or other assets they had intended leaving to their children will be attached by that state upon their death. A lien will be filed and full payment for those “free” healthcare services provided from the date of enrollment until the time of death will be confiscated from any available estate holdings.”

http://www.westernjournalism.com/obamacare-shock-strip-assets-dead-seniors/#!

http://www.cjr.org/the_second_opinion/covering_an_obamacare_clawback.php?page=all

http://hoofin.wordpress.com/2013/01/06/the-obamacare-clawback-provision-a-trap-door/

http://www.thelundreport.org/resource/poorest_oregonians_could_be_hurt_by_obamacare

Racists are upping the ante

This is what GLAAD and NAACP are trying to call racist. Phil Robertson, unlike some ivory tower academics, poverty pimps, and civil rights careerists, worked along side blacks in the fields. In the GQ interview he said,

"I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person. Not once. Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with them. I’m with the blacks, because we’re white trash. We’re going across the field.  They’re singing and happy. I never heard one of them, one black person, say, ‘I tell you what: These doggone white people’—not a word! Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.”

He didn't say no black was ever mistreated; he was talking about his fellow workers. He said they were godly people. Now Democrats think it's just great to keep poor people on welfare instead of working (but it's OK for "undocumented workers" to be in the fields). Who is the phony looking for trouble? And "Jim Crow?" Those were regulations and laws put in place by Democrats.

 http://www.newsninja2012.com/racist-naacp-agenda-to-paint-phil-robertson-as-racist-starts-to-become-weak-argument-to-many/

Crockpot-Tamale-bake

http://crockpotladies.com/recipe-categories/entrees/crockpot-tamale-bake/

Ingredients

1 Lb. lean ground beef or ground turkey

1/2 cup finely diced onion

1 teaspoon minced garlic

3/4 cups yellow cornmeal

1 egg

1 1/2 cups milk

1 (15.25 oz.) can corn, drained

1 (14.5 oz.) can diced tomatoes, undrained

1 (1.25 oz.) envelope taco seasoning mix

1 (2.25 oz.) can sliced black olives, drained

1 Cup shredded cheddar cheese

Minced green onion, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

1. In a large skillet brown and crumble your ground beef with the onion and garlic until the meat is no longer pink.
2. Drain ground beef to remove excess fat.
3. In a large bowl combine cornmeal, egg and milk and mix until smooth
4. Add to the cornmeal mixture the corn, tomatoes, taco seasoning, olives and ground beef mixture and mix well.
5. Dump mixture into the bottom of a 4 quart crock-pot.
6. Cover and cook on LOW for 6 hours or HIGH for 3 hours.
7. Sprinkle with cheese and cover again and cook for an additional 15 minutes until cheese is melted.
8. To serve, spoon into bowls or onto plate and garnish with chopped green onion.

Legalized gambling and recreational pot

The push to legalize pot and various state government’s agreeing to that and other dissipating activities like casino gambling (now legal in Ohio) bring to mind what Frederick Douglass said in his autobiography about why slave owners gave slaves a week holiday between Christmas and New Year’s and encouraged drinking and all manner of evil activity—for them it was a taste of “freedom,” enough to convince them they were better off as slaves. He wrote that by making this concession the owners were assured of obedience and the slaves were less likely to revolt.

“They do not give the slaves this time because they would not like to have their work during its continuance, but because they know it would be unsafe to deprive them of it. This will be seen by the fact, that the slaveholders like to have their slaves spend those days just in such a manner as to make them as glad of their ending as of their beginning. Their object seems to be, to disgust their slaves with freedom, by plunging them into the lowest depths of dissipation. For instance, the slaveholders not only like to see the slave drink of his own accord, but will adopt various plans to make him drunk.”  Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-marijuana-colorado-20131228,0,6459410.story

http://www.governing.com/gov-data/state-marijuana-laws-map-medical-recreational.html

Barack Obama’s Rules for Revolution; the Alinsky Model

Most revolutionaries never had a plan writes David Horowitz in "Barack Obama's Rules for Revolution." They have a vague idea of the kingdom of heaven they propose to create. . . Marx's "kingdom of freedom," Alinsky's "open society," or the current left's "social justice." Otherwise they never spend two seconds thinking about how to make an actual society work. How to keep people from committing crimes against each other; how to get them to put their shoulder to the wheel; how to provide incentives that will motivate individuals to produce wealth." p. 51.

                         

Both Obama and H. Clinton are fans of Alinsky. http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/articles/rules%20for%20revolution%20(2).pdf

Hillary Clinton’s 1969 Thesis

David Horowitz's parents were members of the Communist Party USA; and he was a Communist as a young man, until he began to see their ruthlessness. Now he is a Conservative.

“When Obama announced a paltry $100 million in budget cuts, and insisted this was part of a budget-trimming process that would add up to “real money,” he clearly understood that the public processes these numbers very differently from the way budget wonks do. Alinsky wrote: “The moment one gets into the area of $25 million and above, let alone a billion, the listener is completely out of touch, no longer really interested, because the figures have gone above his experience and almost are meaningless. Millions of Americans do not know how many million dollars make up a billion.”” National Review online

Obama has not kept his oath of office

We know how he has shredded his own legacy—Obamacare. Supposedly, it is the law of the land, but you’d never know that from the way he has worked around and violated it.  But it isn’t the first time, or the last.

One of Obama’s first acts as president—only a month since he took the oath of office—was to announce his elimination of the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada for storing highly radioactive nuclear waste. He flouted decades of scientific study and countermanded the explicit decisions of Congress set forth in duly-enacted laws over many years. In 1982 Congress directed the government to assume responsibility for commercial nuclear waste. In 1987 it singled out Yucca Mountain for evaluation as the repository because of its remote and dry location. After years of research, Congress in 2002 endorsed the Yucca Mountain site.

Between 1987 and 2009, when Obama put himself above the law by effectively revoking it, $13.5 billion was spent on the program; a five-mile tunnel was bored into the mountain, and hundreds of studies determined the safety of the site for thousands of years. The nuclear industry was also forced to pay $22 billion to the Energy Department for establishment of the repository. Obama is not a scientist, and his decision was not made from a review of the scientific research. But that is not the point, nor is the billions of dollars of taxpayer money that went down the drain.

http://blog.heartland.org/2013/12/obama-vs-the-constitution/

Cat hair

Today I bought a "Fur Be Gone," a tools which is supposed to work on the carpet and the cat. Usually I just use a roll of masking tape. Anyone ever tried this?http://www.petbuddies.com/prod_details.php?cat=35&p=204

Green is for cats; blue is for dogs. I now expect pet tools to start appearing on my Facebook page and along the side of any page I visit on the internet; I’ve been getting ads for coconut oil since I blogged about that.

There is no alternative; why Margaret Thatcher matters

Our January book club selection is the above title about Margaret Thatcher, written by Claire Berlinski, published in 2008, before her death in April of this year, but after the amazing economic turnaround of Britain and before the whole globe was experiencing a recession.

“When Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979, Britain was in economic crisis, and had been for some time. From 1974, the top rate of income tax had been 83%, in some cases rising to an incredible 98%, killing growth, job creation and economic prosperity,[i] while inflation was dangerously high at 27%. In addition, powerful trade unions had taken control of the country’s many nationalized industries.” American Thinker 

The left both here at home and in Britain still demonize her. 

I’m enjoying the author’s writing style—a bit like following her around as she searches the archives and interviews people who knew her. She’s no lap dog, and it’s not hard to spot the areas she dislikes about Thatcher.

Your politics will decide whether you think Obama snubbed the British with the delegation he sent to her funeral (similar to those he sent to Chavez’ funeral which happened in the same time frame).  Of course, compared to the hoop-la of Mandela, there’s just no comparison.

My New Year’s Resolution 2013

I did this.  Only put 4 slips of paper in it.  But I looked at it today.  I had forgotten all 4, so it’s still a nice plan, if you can keep up with it. I guess this is what blogs are for: web logs, a log you keep on the world wide web.

Apple seeds

From the World’s Healthiest Foods Tips, Dec. 28, 2013

Is it OK to eat apple seeds?

“I don't recommend eating apple seeds, and it is not because a tree will grow in your stomach! Apple seeds, like many fruit seeds, contain compounds called cyanogenic glycosides, such as amygdalin, which act as part of the plant's natural defense mechanism. Cyanogenic glycosides are naturally occurring cyanide/sugar compounds that can release small amounts of toxic cyanide when their sugar groups are removed.

Prune and peach pits, which are well studied in the research world, have far greater concentrations of cyanogenic glycosides than apple seeds; however, the lower levels in apple seeds could still pose problems in terms of stomachache or food poisoning, and a few seeds chewed by a small child could result in poisoning. Although the severity of the problem caused by ingesting apple seeds would depend upon many factors, including a person's health, I don't think that the potential risk here is worth taking.”

Holzbecher MD, Moss MA, Ellenberger HA. The Cyanide Content of Laetrile Preparations, Apricot, Peach and Apple Seeds. J Toxicol Clin Toxicol. 1984;22(4):341-7.

I eat an apple almost everyday, and for the last two years, also an orange.  My favorite apple is the Honey Crisp, which are almost unavailable now. But I’ve never eaten the seeds.  Good to know.  Health benefits of apples.

Military sexual assaults

Most sexual assaults in the military are male on male. NYT made a big step by reporting this, but completely gives gay perps a pass either by referring to them as "self identified" heterosexuals, or not mentioning them at all, and blaming homophobia as the reason it's not reported. Needs a bit more serious research or we'll never see anyone charged, only victims treated.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/24/us/in-debate-over-military-sexual-assault-men-are-overlooked-victims.html?hp&_r=1

http://www.bandbacktogether.com/male-sexual-assault-resources/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2449454/More-men-raped-US-women-including-prison-sexual-abuse.html