We at Lakeside often talk about a perfect day (we don't comment when it is muggy or ghastly hot), but yesterday really was. There was so much going on this week-end it looked like the Fourth of July traffic, yet the weather was sunny and under 80. There was the plein air art show in the park, the wooden boat show on the lakefront, a 50s-60s rock and roll band, Wally and the Beavs, at the pavilion, eats on the hotel lawn for a very reasonable price, a wonderful history lecture in Chautauqua Hall, and a fabulous recital, "Songs of Faith" (which I attended) by Andrew Blosser, tenor, and Emily Rogers, mezzo-soprano, at the charming United Methodist Church, and 88 kids showing up for Kids’ Sail (my husband is one of the sailors who take them out). We topped it off with a lovely dinner on the deck with some fresh produce from the Farmer’s Market. Although I did find out those weren’t Ohio peaches, but South Carolina. Still wonderfully sweet and delicious.
Monday, July 21, 2014
Carthage College commencement address
This tech CEO gives new graduates good advice about life. I don’t know anything about Reddit, but found this guy charming and honest about curiosity, failure and success.
Netanyahu to U.S. and to us Christians
I’m ashamed of the response and animosity many Christian denominations are showing toward Israel. Israel is not the aggressor. No Muslim country believes in its right to exist. How do you negotiate with that?
Sunday, July 20, 2014
Saturday, July 19, 2014
Paul McCobb retro furniture
Anything you search on the internet turns up in ads on anything else you read—online news sites or Facebook, etc. Early in our marriage we purchased Paul McCobb design furniture (modern for po' folk), and we still have it. Now it's worth more than anything in our house. After checking some retro-modern web sites, those ads are now pushing out the wigs and athletic shoes I looked for earlier in the summer.
Kenny House in Port Clinton
I had a wonderful massage at the Kenny House, 226 Adams St. in Port Clinton, Ohio (Nancy Barna) this morning. Haven't had so little pain in many months. Great job. She has 3 locations--others are Sandusky and Catawba Island. She also has an adorable 6 week old male kitten, orange tabby, very friendly, litter trained, she needs to find a home for if you live in the area, you might contact her. (419-734-5943) The mother cat was apparently HBC and 4 little hungry orphans turned up at her door, and she's found homes for 3 of them.
I blogged about the Kenny House in 2008.
Are smart phones changing Christians?
I was really getting into the article about 6 ways smartphones and social media are changing Christians, and then read the final paragraph, "To listen to my entire 34-minute conversation with Wells and Groothius on the pros and cons of personal communications technology, subscribe to the Authors on the Line podcast in iTunes, download the recording (MP3), or stream the conversation." The irony. . .
http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/six-ways-your-phone-is-changing-you
Advice from an older family member
Nephew Bob to his nephew Jacob—as seen on Facebook:
"Always keep in mind Jacob that you have generations of wisdom at your fingertips. Between all of us, there isn't anything you can go through that one or more of us hasn't already walked the path. We can't walk it for you, but we can sure tell you what the road conditions are and where the exits are. Don't ever be afraid to ask for that help. Just think of your family unit as a GPS with one mission, to safely get you to your destination. Trust that it will all work out in the end, because it does." A great definition of family.
Friday, July 18, 2014
Blood on our borders, guest blog by David
This week, Mexican-American comedian and actor, Paul Rodriguez made comments on CNN regarding America’s border crisis and the thousands of children caught in limbo. His strong stance against illegal immigration of any kind came as a shock to many of his fans.
Last night, in light of the controversy, Paul gave an exclusive interview on Estrella TV’s Noticiero con Enrique Gratas to elaborate on his statements. The entire segment (in Spanish) is available at: http://videos.estrellatv.com/video/paul-rodriguez-immigration-responde-a-las-criticas-sobre-inmigracion.
Also below are key statements from his interview. The full transcript in English is available upon request.
ENRIQUE: Many consider your stance is anti-Latino. How do you respond to this accusation?
PAUL: It is not anti-Latino I just care about the lives of these children. My words have no weight on immigration if it was for me they could come, give them life, a home, and education to all of them but the problem is so difficult that neither Democrats nor Republicans have found a solution. I just say that I got into this because of the documentary we making. See the danger they encounter. I ask these parents, would you send your little girl boarding a train called ‘la bestia’ from Quintana Roo to here more than 2000 miles? Who's going to care of her? There are many, many of them are raped.
ENRIQUE: Paul, don’t you think that these kids have the right to stay?
PAUL: Those who are here? Absolutely. The problem with that is the message that we send to other countries. There will be another 60,000 children coming from other countries who will risk their life from Yucatan all the way here? Many of them are not going to make it and we are talking about hundreds of children.
ENRIQUE: Who’s blame of this crisis occurring and how to solve?
PAUL: Mr Obama, has to resolve this crisis. His Government failed, in my opinion because, his not working in the migration program, he has to negotiate with the Governments of El Salvador and Honduras and we have to send help to them, there so they do not risk their lives.
ENRIQUE: The solution is immigration reform, and to strengthen the borders?
PAUL: Obama has betrayed us. Since he won't be re-elected, he does not care. I blame the Republicans and the Democrats. They take care more action from the things that are happening in the Middle East, when there is more blood spilled here in our borders.
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Hobby Lobby and Nancy Pelosi’s lies
The irony of all this is we the people pay for the health insurance through reduced paychecks (aka benefits). But we get an income tax deduction by not paying taxes on that part of our paycheck we never saw. The government is lusting for that deduction which I think amounts to more than the "losses" of the mortgage deduction, and by 2018 we'll be seeing significant changes. Obama thinks our benefit is his. By destroying the employer based system (which also gets a tax break for providing it) the federal government hopes to get huge gains. It's a 2-fer--health care costs go up because of gov't interference in the market, then we get to pay higher prices, and taxes. It's not really about what is covered and what isn't—condoms or orthotics-- but about how to mess it up so badly no one will want it and beg for something really neato like the VA offers.
http://www.kiplinger.com/article/spending/T027-C001-S001-a-tax-on-health-benefits.html
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Wellness—word bloat
"Health and Wellness" programs, websites, books, TV shows, etc. It's word bloat, and although "wellness" had bounced around in the 50s and 60s, it really took off in the 1990s. "In 1988, a survey of the Usage Panel for the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language found that a whopping 68 percent of panelists disapproved of the word when used to refer to employee benefit plans." (Language column, NYT magazine) But that's the beautiful thing about the English language, you're free to invent words or bloat your sentences. I see someplace in California they want to remove the words "husband" and "wife," so I guess it swings both ways (no pun intended).
http://definitionofwellness.com/
It’s Latin American week at Lakeside, Ohio
Yesterday was a brain buster day at Lakeside. The theme this week is Latin America. Although I had a Spanish minor in college, it had been 50 years since I looked into the geography, culture and economics of this huge and diverse continent. Today is literature, and tomorrow is devoted just to Brazil--it alone in LA has a full set of global connections--economic, industrial, military, diplomatic and cultural. Also, it was somewhat alarming to see the huge presence of China in LA.
For an Ecuadoran to travel to New York costs about $14,000 using local "loan sharks" and various networks to get him out of the country up through Mexico and across the border and more transportation to NYC. When there he may work as many as 3 jobs and have the loan paid back in 1.5 years (interest is 5% a month). Although there are a lot of illegal things going on in this story, there are also entrepreneurship, creativeness and very hard work. Remittances sent back to Ecuador supports his family and maybe his parents; also builds a nice home in a village that may be almost empty. One is left to wonder why Ecuadoran campesinos will work this hard with only the support of friends and family (no social benefits), but Americans won't.
Every Obama speech you’ll ever need
I heard one of these on “crumbling roads and bridges” that was hilarious.
Monday, July 14, 2014
Our guest book—Monday memories
When we bought our Lakeside cottage in the fall of 1988, my mother bought us a guest book, where visitors could sign. Today I was looking on the bookshelf for something, and found that book. I had used it until 2008 and then started a new one although there were many pages left.
The first names recorded in the summer of 1989 were our neighbors, Vanita, Margie, Betty and Mrs. Lowe; also friends we knew from Columbus, Rich and Julie Crabbs (now both deceased), Ken and Cean Hollenbaugh, Rosalee, Ned, Jason and Brian Moore who I think were at the camp grounds, Laura Linquist whom I used to work with at OSUL, Don, Gail and Stacey Bren, and Mike and Linda Evans; also my husband’s parents came that summer from Indianapolis, as did Tom and Pat Moir. My husband’s partners from Feinknopf, Macioce and Schappa, and a group from Cursillo seem to be visiting in the winter. The next summer I see Roger and Judi Gertz, who had a cottage one block over on Lynn, who now live in Marietta, and just arrived yesterday for a week with kids and grandkids. I see in the book our across the street neighbors Grace and Frank Sheidler (now deceased) visited—their cottage had a tree growing through the porch awning, now removed. That summer my husband’s sister and husband came. I think they got a call that baby Caleb (grandson) was ill and they rushed home—or was that the next summer? He’s now in Afghanistan. Bill Plate and his wife Kathy came to visit—he was one of my husband’s partners. Our daughter visited that summer of 1990 (she may have been here before, but didn’t sign the book). In August of 1991, my parents visited, but I think they were here also in the fall of 1989 to deliver some furniture because I remember watching with them the fall of the Berlin Wall. Marvin and Adrienne Zahniser came in the fall to spend some time, then Riitta and Martti Tulamo. Bob and Jean were back in the summer of 1992 as were Debbie, Kim and Kari Rosenberg and my in-laws the DeMotts. Summer of 1993 Paul and Marylyn Doncevic visited as did Nancy and Barb, two sisters we know from our church. In the summer of 1994 Donna and Mike Conrad came for supper (they later bought a cottage, but have since sold it, now live in Florida). Our daughter and son-in-law and his brother Pete and wife Peg came for a week. The Fall of `1994 there were a lot of folks we knew from Columbus here so we had a 6th anniversary party—Sowers, Shalters and Gatsches all signed, but I know there were many others—Boiarski, Steele, Conrad, etc. It was a pretty fall week-end and many were here.
Rich and Julie Crabbs who came for the Methodist conferences signed many times—he was a Methodist pastor, as did some of our other regular Methodist visitors (whom we’ve never met). Our daughter and son-in-law many times—usually a week every summer after 1993 when they married. And Holly and Lindsey several times, who were part of the family then, but not now. Miss them both. And many names I don’t recognize! And just so I wouldn’t forget, I noted in the guest book that the new roof and new heating system/AC were installed in 2002 and a new frig June 2002—seems like yesterday. It all does. But it has been 25 years.
Joseph Nye and soft power
Joseph S. Nye wrote in 2008: “ . . as I have said before, it is difficult to think of any single act that would do more to restore America’s soft power than the election of Obama to the presidency.” Soft power, Nye said, was the ability to obtain the outcomes one wants through attraction rather than using the carrots and sticks of payment or coercion. It’s difficult to think of any assessment of Obama that was more silly or misguided. Nye was commenting on the adulation and swooning of Europeans (they are good at that as history shows), not the desire for high priced reparations and absolution that American voters sought by electing a black man. Obama has messed up in so many foreign policies areas—Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Russia, Pakistan, etc. one doesn’t even need to go into the NSA, IRS, Fast and Furious, and his own “leave no Central American child behind.”
Sunday, July 13, 2014
Have you noticed what color the children are?
See anything in this photo? Two white guys sending their brown and poor north to the U.S. No children this color are among the unaccompanied minors flooding our border. President Perez Molina of Guatemala has a reputation for brutality and genocide--so this is much easier and cleaner. President Pena Nieto is a former community organizer and Mexico's John Edwards. http://www.ijreview.com/2014/07/156005-mexicos-shady-deal-guatemala-sheds-much-light-influx-illegals-flooding-border/
Victor Davis Hanson asks: "Have immigration-reform advocates such as Mark Zuckerberg or Michael Bloomberg offered one of their mansions as a temporary shelter for needy Central American immigrants? Couldn’t Yale or Stanford welcome homeless... immigrants into their now under-occupied summertime dorms? Why aren’t elite academies such as Sidwell Friends or the Menlo School offering their gymnasia as places of refuge for tens of thousands of school-age Central Americans?"
Who are getting the jobs? Not native born Americans
In the first quarter of this year, there were 5.7 million more immigrants with a job than in 2000. But among native-born Americans, there were 127,000 fewer with a job in 2014 than in 2000 — 114.7 million this year compared to about 114.8 m...illion in 2000. Since President Obama took office, 67 percent of employment growth has gone to immigrants (legal and illegal).
(Center for Immigration Studies) http://www.cis.org/who-got-jobs-during-obama-presidency
Support for the President among religious groups
More than 85 percent of Muslim-Americans voted for Obama, and although his popularity has plummeted among other groups, it's still about 72% for Muslims. Why any Jews or Catholics support him is beyond me. http://www.gallup.com/poll/172442/muslims-approving-obama-mormons-least.aspx?ref=image
College rate for Hispanics higher than whites or blacks
Black Americans who support Obama's amnesty and immigration policies might want to take a second look. Hispanic students graduating from high school now have a higher college enrollment than white students, and definitely higher than black... students. Graduation rates are still lagging, but I think that will improve too. And no one can catch the Asian Americans. College graduation rate for whites was 85% and 93% for Asian/Pacific Islander students; 76% for Hispanics and just 68% for black students. The term Hispanic is a made up word and covers Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Chileans, Jamaicans, etc. http://blogs.wsj.com/numbers/amid-affirmative-action-ruling-some-data-on-race-and-college-enrollment-1328/
Mission Accomplished. . . oops
“As he precipitously pulled out all U.S. peacekeepers from Iraq, the president had his own “Mission Accomplished” moment when declaring the country “stable,” “self-reliant,” and an “extraordinary achievement.” “ VDH
But Obama showed himself to be a weak and confused leader after the war was essentially over and won by the time he took office in January 2009 with nothing left to do but stabilize the victories. His supporters didn’t seem to notice, but the terrorists certainly took note. Now that ISIS has overrun the region, he is looking around for someone to blame. Bush and the Republicans, of course.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/381831/how-obama-lost-middle-east-victor-davis-hanson
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