Today Ben Rhodes’ e-mails came out

Not that we didn’t know the video story was a lie.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/04/ben_rhodes_at_center_of_plan_to_whitewash_white_house_on_benghazi.html

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/04/29/the-ben-rhodes-email-foxs-new-false-benghazi-at/199067

http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/11/top-obama-officials-brother-is-president-of-cbs-news-may-drop-reporter-over-benghazi-coverage/

http://www.examiner.com/article/new-documents-reveal-benghazi-cover-up-emanated-from-white-house

Arkansas tornado kills father and 2 daughters

“Rob Tittle, a FamilyLife [Christian ministry focusing on strengthening the family] staff member and kindred spirit warrior for the family, died last night in the tornado that crushed parts of central Arkansas. Two of his daughters—Tori, age 20, and Rebekah, 14—were among the 16 killed in the storm.

Rob, 48, and his wife Kerry, had heard the tornado warnings and were shepherding their nine children under a stairwell when the tornado disintegrated their home. Rob was doing what a man does—putting his family first—when the twister hit.”

http://www.familylife.com/articles/topics/life-issues/challenges/death-and-dying/the-lord-gives-the-lord-takes-away?

She was told her baby was deformed—she refused to abort

Her husband left her.  Then at 20 weeks the ultrasound for her 2nd baby showed  a chromosomal disorder called Trisomy 18 in which the baby has an extra, 18th chromosome. It causes misshapen skulls, malformed ears, and mainly—heart defects. She was told the baby had no face.

http://blogs.christianpost.com/every-child/when-science-shakes-your-faithrefusing-to-believe-20475/

“Baby Abigael came into the world a perfect baby girl. No genetic defect. No missing heart ventricle. A beautiful face. It is hard for me to believe that these ultrasounds were a medical mistake—known to some as “false positives.” It is easier for me to believe my daughter is a miracle.”

Internet safety for teens

Keep children away from predators by sharing.

The Gosnell documentary getting close to goal

Kermit Gosnell was convicted of the murder of several live and viable babies at his clinic. It is thought that over a 40 year killing spree he murdered thousands of infants. Kermit Gosnell is currently serving several life sentences.

His case became controversial after the trial received almost no media coverage - and sparked allegations of a media coverup because the case shone a spotlight on abortion.

Producer Ann McElhinney said the record breaking success of the Gosnell Movie was a testament to the thousands of small donors who wanted the truth to be told.

"We have a huge number of small contributors giving to make sure the truth is not censored," she said.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gosnell-movie#home

http://www.toomanyaborted.com/gosnell/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/04/15/the-gosnell-case-heres-what-you-need-to-know/

Monday Memories—our trip to Illinois this Easter

Ladies of the class of 1957 MMHS enjoying breakfast




















Eating at LaVinja on Daysville Road, east of Oregon, IL. Really good Italian food and great service. With my brother and his wife April 19.  We were staying in Mt. Morris and he lives in Franklin Grove, so it was a good place to meet.

The movie Philomena

I loved that movie--although sad, it had a lot joy and forgiveness and humor. Amazing acting by Judi Dench and Steve Coogan.  When I see movies that are anti-Christian or anti-Catholic, I just remember the source—Hollywood (or whatever the international equivalent is). Its bread and butter is sex,violence, denying God, and sin, or there would be no story.  As far as the gay theme, I looked a little deeper.  The Catholic Church and Philomena were people of the morals of the time—sex outside marriage is immoral and only kings and statesmen got around it—and the public was in on that, even Philomena who acknowledges her sin in the movie/book. Even as a young teen she knew what she was doing.  The eighties and nineties and early 21st century, right up to Obama’s 2012 campaign during which he claimed to support traditional marriage, had a morality that didn’t support open homosexuality for public figures.  For librarians, like my dear boss Jay and his long time partner, no one cared, or all the lesbians like Dora and Pauline I worked with in the 1960s. Both parties were hypocrites.  Remember how the Democrats pushed out an active gay representative (Republican) from Florida whose life was well known to his fellow congressmen when he sent texts to young male staffers?  Anyway, in the Philomena story, her son who is gay, goes along with the prevailing morality in order to get ahead in Washington and keep his career, with a fake girlfriend and a hidden boyfriend. These were his choices for his career. So which is more phony?  The son or society? Many gays were open; he wasn’t.  He could have been a hairdresser, an actor, an author,  a librarian, etc., and no one would have batted an eyelash.  He chose his lifestyle and his career.

Back to the young Philomena, pregnant at 14 in the 1950s.  These days it is estimated that over 60% of the abortions are forced, in the same way relinquishing babies were forced in the mid-20th century. Today’s 14 year old “Philomena” is “encouraged”with threats of abandonment and financial need, to abort by boyfriend, parents, teachers, peers, and sometimes her church.  Frankly, although God doesn’t grade on a curve, the greater sin in my eyes is killing the child for the indiscretions of the parents.

It’s about the Resurrection

It's a week since Easter, the biggest holy day for Christians world wide. Our church welcomed 4,500. Unless you attend a liturgical service where you have the opportunity to say one of the three historical creeds, or sing some traditional hymns, it's possible to not hear much about the resurrection again until next holy week. You don't get the whole gospel unless this is included.

Resurrection of the body also our hope. Although we aren't given the details in the Bible, we will have physical glorified bodies, just like Jesus. The book of Acts makes 24 references to Jesus' resurrection and Paul talks about it often in his letters to the first century churches--it was a very successful time for the Christian church. Let's not get stuck on Good Friday; celebrate Easter all year.

“Living, He loved me;
Dying, He saved me;
Buried, He carried my sins far away;
Rising, He justified freely forever;
One day He’s coming—O, glorious day!” (One day, J. Wilbur Chapman)

The sad state of a formerly great organization

Where do they think the next generation of girl scouts are coming from, if not the womb?

Can coconut oil help dementia?

http://youtu.be/Dvh3JhsrQ0w

 

Dr. Newport is a neonatologist whose husband began showing signs of dementia at age 51. This is a TED talk, and it’s fairly technical.

Remember when people weren’t called racists if they didn’t like the president?

The liberal equivalent of “climate denial”

Canonization special

Two popes being canonized, and two popes attending.  April 27, 2014.  It has never happened before, and probably never will.  Some familiar U.S. media folk in the special like Peggy Noonan and Mary Matalan.

Benign fascism

“In the Twentieth Century, a nation of great beauty and culture embraced Fascism, and a backward peasant society embraced Communism, and the most evolved civilization in Europe embraced Nazism. And observers still wonder why the great anglophone democracies were almost alone in not going down this path. I think the reason's simpler than it seems: No one - Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Mao, Franco - had devised a form of totalitarianism appealing enough to seduce them. Now they have. As the Bundy example illustrates, a free people will cheerfully abandon bedrock principles like equality before the law if state power is being used to torment a racist or a homophobe or someone whose very presence offends against the citizenry's sense of its own virtue. Whether or not this is a middle-of-the-road fascism, it's certainly a very flattering strain: what, after all, is wrong with benign despotism in the cause of preventing  "climate change" or transphobia - or ensuring that Nevada's desert tortoise has an area the size of the United Kingdom to gambol and frolic in?” Mark Steyn

Does it matter if Cliven Bundy is a racist? Not to her

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0zoee4k7yE#t=61

Mark Steyn says: “. . . if what the Bureau of Land Management is doing is wrong, the fact that Cliven Bundy is a racist sexist homophobe whateverphobe doesn't make it right - any more than at Ruby Ridge FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi shooting Vicki Weaver in the back of the head as she was cradling her ten-month-old baby and running away from him is made right by the fact that she allegedly had "white supremacist" sympathies.”

Un-African, and un-presidential

There's some fuss right now that Obama was playing golf instead of going to his aunt's funeral. Actually, Auntie Zeituni has caused him a lot of grief as a free-loader and law breaker who needed the Bush administration to pull Obama out of a mess with her in 2008 (a lot of thanks he got). Bush officials issued a 72-hour cease-and-desist order to all fugitive apprehension teams to spare Obama embarrassment over his auntie right before Election Day when it came out that she had been living illegally in the U.S. for some years, and had evaded a 2003 deportation order.

And look, his Kenyan father was a polygamist, as was his father, so she was only a half aunt in a family full of halves some with their hands out for a favor, expecting "my brother's keeper" treatment. Still, one of his half brothers, Malik, who is not a millionaire, managed to make it.

For his book and his political career, Obama's African family was useful when need presented itself. " A delegation of African relatives flew in for Mr. Obama’s inauguration in 2009 and received royal treatment." http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/us/politics/amid-politics-obama-drifted-away-from-kin.html?_r=0

The racism of Bundy vs. Biden and Reid

On the internet you never know what is true or what has been edited. Yesterday I read two accounts from blacks who are Cliven Bundy's friends who say he isn't a racist. I also read some of the full interview (and no way to verify that), which had obviously been edited to hurt his case against the BLM, because everyone knows it's worse to be racist than a gov't agency planning to kill or steal cattle of a private citizen. However, some of us remember the Biden and Reid comments about Obama during the 2008 campaign, which in my opinion were much worse, and they are elected to the most powerful offices in the land, and are Democrats. Bundy is just a cowboy.

As reported by CNN: “His [Biden] remarks about Obama, the only African-American serving in the Senate, drew the most scrutiny."I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," Biden said. "I mean, that's a storybook, man." “

LA Times: And Reid didn’t apologize until 2 years later, 2010: “Harry Reid, the Democrat Senate Majority Leader and the national government's highest-ranking Mormon, has admitted now remarking apparently with some amazement on the nation's highest-ranking black Democrat as being notably "light-skinned" and having "no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one."

What is PB2?

“It is powdered peanut butter, which is not nearly as strange as it may sound. To make it, the manufacturers squeeze the oil out of roasted peanuts, and what remains is the powdered peanut butter – all natural with no artificial sweeteners or preservatives. When you’re ready to eat it, you mix a bit of the powder with a little bit of water, and you get the same consistency as full-fat peanut butter, but with 85% less fat calories.” Daily Garnish Blog

Flourless brownies made with PB2,

Ingredients:

• cooking spray
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg white
• 1 cup PB2
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp water
• 1/2 cup raw honey
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips

325 degrees, 9 x 9 pan, 30 minutes. Beat egg and egg white. In a large bowl combine the PB2, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda and mix well with a spatula. Add the egg and egg whites and stir. Add water, honey, vanilla and stir with a spatula until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Pour the mixture into the prepared baking pan and bake about 30 minutes. Set aside to cool, then cut into 12 bars cutting 3 rows x 4 rows

Why the wealthy have done well under Obama

It’s a puzzle considering how Obama demonizes the “fat cats” that the upper 20% have done so well the last 4-5 years (aka the recovery) and the rest of the economy flounders. Record numbers are on food stamps, and many college new graduates are discouraged. Unemployment among young black men is much higher than before the recession.  This semi-annual report from Blackrock gives a pretty good explanation of how quantitative easing has helped the investors in stocks.  Now, this is a policy of the Federal Reserve, not the President’s, but at least he didn’t nix it.  If you are invested in a pension, 401-k or 401-b or IRAs, you’ve seen a similar, but smaller advance. People with CDs or savings accounts (usually less wealthy) have seen their savings eroded.

“One year ago, US financial markets were improving despite a sluggish global economy, as easy monetary policy gave investors enough conviction to take on more risk in their portfolios. Slow but positive growth in the US was sufficient to support corporate earnings, while uncomfortably high unemployment reinforced expectations that the Federal Reserve would continue its aggressive monetary stimulus programs. International markets were more volatile given uneven growth rates and
more direct exposure to macro risks such as the banking crisis in Cyprus and a generally poor outlook for European economies. Emerging markets significantly lagged the rest of the world amid fears over slowing growth and debt problems.

Global financial markets were rattled in May when then-Fed Chairman Bernanke mentioned the possibility of reducing (or “tapering”) the central bank’s asset purchase programs — comments that were widely misinterpreted as signaling an end to the Fed’s zero-interest-rate policy. US Treasury yields rose sharply, triggering a steep sell-off across fixed income markets. (Bond prices move in the opposite direction of yields.) Equity prices also suffered as investors feared the implications of a
potential end of a program that had greatly supported the markets. Markets rebounded in late June, however, when the Fed’s tone turned more dovish, and improving economic indicators and better corporate earnings helped extend gains through most of the summer.

Although autumn brought mixed events, it was a surprisingly positive period for most asset classes. Early on, the Fed defied market expectations with its decision to delay tapering, but higher volatility returned in late September when the US Treasury Department warned that the national debt would soon breach its statutory maximum. The ensuing political brinksmanship led to a partial government shutdown, roiling global financial markets through the first half of October. Equities and other
so-called “risk assets” managed to resume their rally when politicians engineered a compromise to reopen the government and extend the debt ceiling, at least temporarily.

The remainder of 2013 was generally positive for stock markets in the developed world, although investors continued to grapple with uncertainty about when and how much the Fed would scale back on stimulus. When the long-awaited taper announcement ultimately came in mid-December, the Fed reduced the amount of its monthly asset purchases but at the same time reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining low short-term interest rates. Markets reacted positively, as the taper signaled the Fed’s perception of real improvement in the economy, and investors were finally relieved from the anxiety that had gripped them for quite some time.

The start of the new year brought another turn in sentiment, as heightened volatility in emerging markets and mixed US economic data caused global equities to weaken in January while bond markets found renewed strength. Although these headwinds persisted, equities were back on the rise in February thanks to positive developments in Washington, DC. For one, Congress extended the nation’s debt ceiling through mid-March 2015, thereby reducing some degree of fiscal uncertainty for
the next year. Additionally, investors were encouraged by market-friendly comments in new Fed Chair  Janet Yellen’s Congressional testimony, giving further assurance that short-term rates would remain low for a prolonged period.

While accommodative monetary policy was the main driver behind positive market performance over the period, it was also a key cause of investor uncertainty. Developed market stocks were the strongest performers for the six- and 12-month periods ended February 28. In contrast, emerging markets were weighed down by uneven growth, high levels of debt and severe currency weakness, in addition to the broader concern about reduced global liquidity. The anticipation of Fed tapering during 2013 pressured US Treasury bonds and other high-quality fixed income sectors, including tax-exempt municipals and investment grade corporate bonds. High yield bonds, to the contrary, benefited from income-oriented investors’ search for yield in the low-rate environment. Short-term interest rates remained near zero, keeping yields on money market securities close to historic lows.”

Income inequality?

Is this income inequality or job choice?  The owner of a local commercial and residential moving company, Two men and a Truck (franchise), is a woman, Gail Kelley. Right now, you can interview for a job at $12/hour lifting and moving heavy objects, but after 21 years as the owner, Ms. Kelley probably makes a lot more.

The President needs to know there are choices people make that can account for their success.  According to ColumbusCEO she originally wanted to be a ballerina, but failed. Then she wanted to be an artist (has a BFA from CCAD). After working for Radio Shack for 16 years, she and her husband bought this franchise and moved to Columbus. Now after business success she has started painting and is selling her work. Business success has allowed her to be an artist.