Academic race and gender studies

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304858104579264321265378790

http://www.city-journal.org/2011/cjc0714hm.html

http://www.city-journal.org/2013/23_2_multiculti-university.html

Obama beats a dead horse named “The Gap.”

Obama, having embarrassed his administration with the tax increases and loss of insurance for millions, will once again bang the drum of income inequality to drown out the complaints, aka "the gap." But the gap for the majority who are not celebrities or wealthy millionaire politicians is caused by marriage, or the lack of it. To even it up will he tax married people more--oh wait, that is already the case, including higher prices for Obamacare than if they were single.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/us/two-classes-in-america-divided-by-i-do.html

Class envy, lies, distorted statistics, fuel for anger, wagging finger--all after a very expensive holiday.  Really, it's discouraging how many Americans are blind to his methods. He can help close the gap by getting government out of the way, reducing regulations, lowering taxes, but he's done just the opposite. The stock market had an unbelievably good year—he parties with celebrity millionaires and billionaires and still gripes about the rich who finance his campaigns. Also, the country did very well under sequestration and the shut down. Economy actually improved.

Upping the minimum wage so it is more expensive for the middle class to eat at a fast food restaurant and extending unemployment benefits haven’t done anything for the low income in the past—in fact those programs worsen the situation.  And it certainly won’t close the gap between my income and the President’s.

Happy now?

In Columbus it has warmed up to minus 4.  That’s not the chill factor—it’s somewhere in the mid 20s.

No coffee date this morning

Usually I meet my friend Adrienne for coffee on Tuesday morning.  We’ve called it off for today, and yesterday’s book club meeting has been moved to next Monday.

This is channel 6, about an hour ago.

Happy 69th anniversary to the Bushes

She said she married the first man she kissed.

They set the record in 2000 when they surpassed John and Abigail Adams’ 54-year union—now they’ve extended that.

http://youngcons.com/the-longest-presidential-marriage-in-us-history-celebrates-their-69th-anniversary/

The romance began when the two met during a Christmas dance at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., back when the future president was 16 years old. The two were engaged a year and a half later, right before President Bush shipped out overseas to fight in World War II as a naval pilot.

A few years later, in Sept. 1944, Bush was shot down and nearly killed during a mission over the Pacific, which resulted in his being sent back home in time for Christmas. Soon after, Bush and the then Barbara Pierce were married in Rye, N.Y. on Jan. 6, 1945. They would have six children, including future President George W. Bush.

Now that the 2 weeks vacation is over. . .

Calories at fast food restaurants

I love the You Pick 2 at Panera's, and if counting calories, it could be the better choice. The You Pick Two Broccoli Cheddar Soup and Chicken Caesar Salad add up to only 420 calories. A single Sierra Turkey Sandwich has a jaw-dropping 920 calories. (from a quiz on fast food calories at Dr. Oz) On politics I score 94%; on fast food calories, only 33%. I guess I need to eat out more.

Claire Berlinski on Sweden

Hysterical. The author of There is no alternative; Why Margaret Thatcher matters (2008 Basic Books) explains why socialists will bring up Sweden when justifying socialism:

“In his view [Neil Kinnock who disliked Thatcher], and he is perfectly clear about this, the alternative to Thatcher was a planned economy.

And the evidence he offers that such an economy can create anything other than a human hell is Sweden.  Let me finish the sentence he wouldn’t let me finish [in her interview with him, p. 151-53].  Socialists love analogies to Sweden.  But they are always unconvincing because they are based on some fantasy Sweden, rather than on an actual Nordic country bordered by Norway and Finland.  In this Sweden of lore, every single woman is also eighteen years old, blonde, busty, lonely, naked, and waiting for you in the sauna.  Kinnock is simply mistaken about Swedish unemployment statistics.  In the early 1990s, Swedish unemployment rose to 13 %, higher than ever experienced in Britain after Thatcher came to power.  In the period Kinnock is discussing, Sweden in fact experienced a precipitous slide in the prosperity league—from fourth place in 1970 to sixteenth place in 1998.  In fact the policies Kinnock admires nearly ran Sweden into the ground.  Only when they were abandoned did the Swedish economy begin to recover.  You may as well argue that the command economy has been a splendid success in Narnia.”

Berlinski agrees with her critics that she didn’t plan for Britain’s economic transition—precisely because if the government plans the economy, it is no longer free, and if it isn’t free, the transitions are likely to be in the bread lines.

Cats stealing dog beds

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/13/jerk-cats-love-stealing-dog-beds_n_4093467.html

and trying to fit in boxes, jars, vases

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/22/if-it-fits-i-sits-supercut_n_3790622.html

Claire Berlinski on free markets

The author of Why Margaret Thatcher matters (2008 Basic Books) attempts to first explain free markets, in explaining why Margaret Thatcher was so passionate about them as a key to a moral society:

“The argument for free markets involves a beautiful, fascinating, counterintuitive theory.  It is one of the great achievements in human thought.  It is also, basically, simple.  A free market is one in which the prices of goods and services are determined by individual sellers and buyers, not by the government.  It differs from a planned or command economy in that no centralized authority makes decisions about resource allocation.” p. 118

Then she goes on to explain how selling a product at gun point or deliberately not fulfilling the order on January 1 that you promised is not healthy free markets and government is needed to ensure that won’t happen. (p. 122)  Since she probably wrote this part in 2006 or 2007 she had no way to know she was predicting exactly what has happened during the Obama reign with the ACA.

Employer based health insurance  (60% of workers, 90% of market) which grew up after WWII was originally a choice by employer and employee which then developed to a jumble of government law and regulation.  The biggest plum for manipulation by Washington was exemption from income tax on that benefit.  If the government had bowed out and let the system evolve, perhaps we wouldn’t have had the messy government built system as a foundation for another failed system—Obamacare.  PPACA was signed into law on March 23, 2010 and the President has been violating it ever since.

Grammar fails

http://www.bitrebels.com/lifestyle/grammar-mistakes-on-signs/

Cold snap throughout the mid-west and south

Planned Parenthood fails poor women--again

Abby Johnson, a former PP employee, writes:  Abortion supporters complain that we prolifers have caused poor women to lose their access to healthcare...all because so many Planned Parenthood clinics are closing.

But here's the truth. Planned Parenthood CHOSE to close their doors...no one forced them. In Texas, all they had to do was stop performing abortions and they would have been eligible for all of that state money that was taken away from them. But they didn't. They CHOSE to close their doors and abandon all of those women who went to them for services other than abortion.

And since abortion is "only 3% of their business" it really shouldn't have been THAT big of a deal for them to get rid of the abortion services and stay open, right? (We all know the 3% number is a lie).

Hear this loud and clear. PLANNED PARENTHOOD HAS FAILED WOMEN. THEY EXERCISED THEIR RIGHT TO CHOOSE AND CHOSE TO STOP HELPING WOMEN.

Are you smarter than the average politician?

The average score for all 2,508 Americans taking the following test was 49%; college educators scored 55%.  Of the 2,508 People surveyed, 164 say they have held an elected government office at least once in their life. Their average score on the civic literacy test is 44%, compared to 49% for those who have not held an elected office.  I scored 93.94%.  Try it.

http://www.isi.org/quiz.aspx?q=FE5C3B47-9675-41E0-9CF3-072BB31E2692

Wasn’t al-Qaeda defeated? Another Obama mistake.

“Over the past several days, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham, al Qaeda’s affiliate in Iraq, has taken control of large sections of two western Iraqi cities that were once bastions for the terror group.”

http://counterjihadreport.com/2014/01/03/al-qaeda-seizes-partial-control-of-2-cities-in-western-iraq/

Officials from the Iraqi Interior Ministry acknowledged that parts of Fallujah and Ramadi are under al Qaeda control.

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2014/01/al_qaeda_seizes_cont.php

Top Republican senators on Saturday blamed the Obama administration for Al Qaeda-affiliates purportedly over-running parts of Iraq, including the city of Fallujah that the United States secured before President Obama removed all U.S. forces from that country in 2011. . .

“The administration's narrative that Iraq's political leadership objected to U.S. forces remaining in Iraq after 2011 is patently false,” said McCain and Graham, military hawks with an active interest in Middle East affairs. “We know firsthand that Iraq's main political blocs were supportive and that the administration rejected sound military advice and squandered the opportunity to conclude a security agreement with Iraq."

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/01/04/mccain-graham-blame-obama-for-al-qaeda-related-takeover-fallujah-call-situation/

Our first movie of 2014 will be

Philomena.  A woman looking for her child; a man looking for his career. 

The weather is supposed to be bitter tomorrow—a good day to go to a movie theater.

SeaTac minimum wage for hospitality and transportation workers upped to $15 January 1.

But there will be more law suits, because some are exempt.  There will also be many jobs lost as employers try to scramble not only to find the money, but to increase those who have been working for years above minimum.  How much does a mechanic deserve if the hospitality worker cleaning the hotel room or the driver of the van gets $15/hour as a beginning salary.  How many workers, if they are good, remain at minimum whether they are burger flippers or hotel maids?

And why does the city council think hospitality workers should earn more than McDonald’s or Burger King workers.  At least they get tips.

http://money.cnn.com/2013/12/31/news/seatac-minimum-wage/

Washington’s in for a rough economic ride.  Unions are pushing Boeing, who may just leave the state for a right to work state.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/02/business/vote-on-boeing-contract-highlights-rift-in-machinists-union.html

The dispute highlights a rift within the union, one that reflects the varying priorities of its leadership. Union officials in Washington State want to preserve gains hard won from a company that has surging profits and record plane orders. But the international leadership sees a different threat — the possibility of losing a large manufacturing center and more than 10,000 union jobs to a right-to-work state where it would be difficult to win representation. And that could mean a big loss in dues — Boeing workers in the Puget Sound area paid $25.5 million in dues to the international union in 2012.

What he does best is campaign; least is lead

While Obama vacationed in expensive luxury in Hawaii, his minions shivered in DC and scrambled to put a happy face on Obamacare, and appeal to disappointed supporters for money to run against the evil Republicans or lose the Senate. We know he'll take his failed economic policies, blame them on the Republicans and campaign against the evil rich--and why not, the stock market soared at the end of 2013, and blacks and minorities are still looking for work. So let's raise the minimum wage and bring in more illegals to further mess up the job market for the less skilled and less educated. I can't wait for the wagging finger and angry face--but will he be able to still fool that many people?

When Obama was an Illinois senator, he had nothing but bad things to say about the Iraq War, but the Afghanistan War was the "good war." As a U.S. senator he gave comfort to the enemy by criticizing Bush and the war. When he ran for president the wars were virtually over removing one of his talking points and both countries were on their way to freedom from extremists, although not to the democracy Bush has envisioned. Bush freed more women than Lincoln did slaves (Atlantic monthly). So he really had little to say about it in 2009 except to follow Bush's plan of orderly withdrawal and support (with a lot of criticism from the leftist supporters). Now Obama is throwing it all away. He doesn't lead; he's returning to his roots.

Soldiers Home Protestant Chapel, Dayton, Ohio

I haven’t seen this lovely church in Dayton, Ohio, but I think I’ll put it on my List of Places to See in Ohio (LOPTSIO).  The above photo is scanned from my grandparents’ Souvenir of Soldiers Home. There is no date on the booklet, but I assume it is late 1800s since they were married in 1901. They had a number of relatives in the Dayton area, so perhaps they took in the tourists sites while visiting.

      

“Contrary to the prevailing notion that the hospital chaplaincy is a program of the past few years. the Dayton institution has had a chaplain since the opening of the home September 9, 1867.

On that date, Chaplain William Earnshaw began his work at the Central Branch of the Asylum for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers of the United States. It is significant that when there were only five employees, one of them should be a chaplain, a religious leader. IN providing the original quarters for officers, a house was built before 1870 for the chaplain. It has housed succeeding chaplains and their families form that day to this, except for two brief periods.

Chaplain Earnshaw was a very energetic man. It was under his direction that the old Civil War soldiers helped quarry the stone from the rugged easter edge of the grounds to build the chapel. The corner stone was laid on November 21, 1868 and the building dedicated October 26, 1870, making it one of the oldest church buildings in this area. At the time of the dedication, Chaplain Earnshaw declared that it was “the first church ever built by the government for the benefit of soldiers”. Certainly, it was the first chapel built for veterans and so is now the oldest in government service.

Captain T. B. Van Horn, a chaplain in the regular army, was commissioned by Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, to lay out the grounds of the new institution. It was no accident that the chapel was built on the highest point of ground of the then reservation. Previous to 1870, Chaplain Earnshaw had used a frame building just to the west as his chapel.

The chapel is a gothic structure, built of several different kinds of stone with a steep slate roof. The orignial pattern of the roof included 14 stars of David, the Jewish symbol now so generally recognized, surrounding a large cross. A cross surmounted each front entrance and another was cut in stone over the rear entrance. This was in the day when few Protestant churches used crosses. Before the steeple was added, the tower was adorned with a large clock. The bell which struck the hours and was tolled for services was made especially for the chapel by the Troy (N.Y.) Foundrys from melted-down Confederate cannon. Later the pointed steeple was built and crowned with an American eagle perched on its nest and holding the tip of the lightning rod in its beak. The outside walls of the chapel were once covered with Virginia Creeper vines, but most of these had to be pulled down for pointing up the stonework in 1947. In 1933, the front wall started to bulge and was taken down, stone by stone and laid up again the same way. Likewise, the large stained-glass window was taken down, section by section, and again placed in the rebuiltwall. The original name of the institution, National Asylum for Disable Volunteer Soldiers, is still engraved in stone above this window, although the name was changed to Home in 1872, just 2 years after the chapel was completed.

The inside of the chapel was unchanged from the original construction, except for installation of an organ, until 1947. At that time, new flooring, new linoleum and new carpeting changed the base, while redecorating, the new electric lights and the new chancel greatly modfied and beautified the the interior. The front platform has been enlarged, the console of the organ moved across the front to the opposite side of the organ and the original pulpit and high-backed chairs sold. An entire new front has been built in, consisting of altar and reredos against the background of rich red velour drapes, gothic-designed oak pulpit and chancel rail, also lectern and its rail, two communion rails and kneeling bench, one on each side of the broad steps to the altar, and an baptismal font of similar design and material. The Pileher organ, installed in 1900, was the first electric organ in the whole Miami Valley.

All this has made the interior as beautiful and worshipful as any church and matching the extraordinary charm and architectural appeal of the exterior.” . . .

“As the official librarian of the post, he solicited books for what he called the General George H. Thomas Library. This was in honor of his old war chief. The next year, 1868, Chaplain Earnshaw was notified of the gift of several hundred books and a hundred rare paintings by Mrs. Mary Lowell Putnam of Massachusetts, sister of the famous poet James Russell Lowell. This donation became the William Lowell Putnam Memorial Library in honor of her son who was killed in his first battle of the war. The Chaplain arranged and catalogued both libraries and made them available for use in the second and third floors of the old Administration Building, at present housing the Supply, domiciliary and Engineering offices of the Center. In 1880 the present library was built, but the two libraries were not merged until 1921 under the present librarian, Miss Helen Carson. Mrs. Putnam and her daughter continued to contribute to the library until 1913. Today [1950], a well-balanced library of old and modern books, totaling some 40,000, is maintained at the center.”

http://www.daytonhistorybooks.com/chapoldslodiers.html

According to the National Park Service, 28 pre-1930 buildings survive including the Putnam Library (Building 120) and the Home Chapel (Building 118).

“Dedicated in 1870, the Soldiers Home Chapel (Building 118) is the oldest building at the Central Branch and the first National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers stand alone chapel. The Gothic Revival chapel features a bell tower that holds the 1876 “Centennial Bell,” which was made in New York from cannons captured from Confederate forces during the Civil War. Both Catholic and Protestant services were held in the chapel until the construction of the Catholic Chapel (Building 119) in 1898. The Catholic Chapel, also built in the Gothic Revival style, is made of yellow brick with buttresses supporting it. The small bell tower has an octagonal spire rising from a square tower. The altar’s centerpiece is by Heinrich Schroeder, a widely known altar/pulpit builder for Catholic Churches.”

http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/veterans_affairs/Central_Branch.html

http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/115dayton/115facts2.htm

According to this article in the New York Times in 1885, Rev. Earnshaw had an accident and died.

Start and stop cleaning

While cleaning my office shelves, I came across some requests I’d made to the Upper Arlington Public Library in 2008.  These days I don’t bother.  These are just the requests I saved on a printout; although 4 out of 7 isn’t bad. Because of the age of these books, it’s hard to know if requests for an additional copy was filled, because by now they would have been withdrawn.

Twenty-first century gateways,, immigrant incorporation in suburban America (2008) Brookings Institution Press  Not filled

Immigration Solution (2008) Manhattan Institute.  Filled

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks had 15 holds and 1 copy. I asked for an additional copy.

Obama nation. 13 holds, 3 copies. I requested an additional purchase.

What’s the matter with California. Filled. UAPL owned 3 copies of What’s the matter with Kansas.

Reinventing Jesus. Filled

The dirty dozen; how 12 supreme court cases radically expanded government and eroded freedom (2008) CATO . Filled

The way of improvement leads home. (2008) U. of Pa press. Not filled

Our man in Mexico; Winston Scott and the hidden history of the CIA (2008) University Press of Kansas.  Not filled