Can Hutterites be born again?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddIxHNJ38mk

This is a fascinating film about a communal Christian colony called the Hutterites.  Their origins are in the Amish and Mennonite Anabaptist tradition and there are over 400 colonies in Canada and the U.S. This group live near the Canadian border, but some time back during a time of grief, one family went to a tent revival and were “saved,” and now worship differently than the Hutterites.  The emphasis is on Jesus, not love and commitment to the community of believers. They worship in English, not German.

The Flatwillow colony born again women sell their bread at a farmer’s market and use the time to evangelize. This is different from other Hutterites that only send men outside the colony. The “born agains” have Bible study, a practice not observed by Hutterites who read the Bible literally without questioning or interpreting. The “born agains” will not be able to intermarry with the Hutterites, and the two groups no longer do the same tasks on the 15,000 acre property.

I didn’t know when the film was made, but the eye wear looked like the early 1990s, and I found a WorldCat entry for 1992, filmed by BBC. So this all happened over 20 years ago.  They were making so many dress and life style changes I assume they eventually didn’t follow any Hutterite traditions, although when the film was made they continued them.  I did find an obituary for Eli Stahl from 2011, which follows a comment one of his relatives made in the film about an early death for those who leave the faith.

Progressive policies are hurting the poor

The bottom half of the economy has gone nowhere the last 7 years. The gains you see are for the richest Americans in Obama's recovery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPOnzzB3OZs

Trust in a marriage—what does that mean to you?

"Trust in a marriage." Just what does that phrase mean? This is my list, your mileage will vary.

• Trust with money--one doesn't decide major purchases without consulting the other. Check books and credit cards aren't a battleground. Money isn't about wealth, it's about values, which is why I put it first.
• Trust with communication--no lying, but no unnecessary honesty either, like what was said 10 years ago that hurt, or what you really think of your mother-in-law or her best friend.
• Trust that grievances will be worked out and not cherished and polished like prayer beads.
• Trust that the other isn't "sharing" or "just joking" behind your back, demeaning the marriage relationship instead of lifting it up.
• Trust that the marriage bed is pure and free of outside influences.
• Trust that the marriage vows will be kept, in thought, word and deed.
• Trust that the other can enjoy time with friends and family that may not include the other without jealousy or anxiety.
• Trust that the other will maintain a strong work ethic to support the family.
• Trust that one parent doesn't work against the other in discipline of children (minor or adult), family values, religion.

What would you add?

Coaxing the cat to eat

Our cat has stopped eating, so I took her to the vet, where I discovered she's only about 4.1 lbs even though she'd been eating well until Thursday. I turned down the expensive tests to find out why (she's 16), and asked for subcutaneous fluid and a few appetite stimulants. That has worked in the past when this happened (late summer, always at the lake house). Vet said give her anything to eat you normally wouldn't just to get some calories in her. So, this morning in addition to baby food she got some Häagen-Dazs ice cream and salmon meant for people. She'll get a little freshly cooked chicken and steak later--after she wakes up.

Who is this?

This is an early photo (yesterday) of a baby, the son and 4th child of mother, Sarah, whom we’ve known since she was 14.  The family is thrilled, as are grandma and grandpa.  But even if Sarah didn’t want him, even if his brother and sisters were not excited, even if grandma and grandpa said, “Oh, not again,” he would still be a baby and Sarah would still be a mother.  Separate and equal in God’s sight and love.

And the popular choice winner is . . .

It was announced last night at the evening program at Lakeside Chautauqua that my husband's painting of the children eating ice cream got the "popular choice" award (people vote for their favorite). This photo shows the winning painting with the winning models.

Our birthrate is below replacement levels

Pew Research says the U.S. birth rate is falling because of the recession, but it fell by more between 1990-2000 which were very good years. Let's blame Bush instead of Obama's anti-life policies and insistence on free contraception. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/07/25/chart-of-the-week-the-great-baby-recession/

OSU band director fired

Women were first admitted to the OSU marching band 41 years ago, and those who observed it in those pre-diversity days say it wasn't for wimps then either and there was hazing in the pre-Title IX days. Positions are highly competitive--and not just at try out. I don't know the details on why the band director since 2012 Jonathon Waters was fired, but I have read it was a parent that blew the whistle about serious "cultural issues" and sexual harassment within the band. I don't think this will make the new president the most popular guy on campus.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/ohio-state-university-marching-band-director-fired-sexualized/story?id=24708582

If a director on the job for 2 years can be blamed for behavior that goes back over 40 years, then why not the President who's been on the job for 3 weeks?

I wonder if this parent homeschooled her daughter?  Maybe she doesn’t read Facebook?  The whole world is sexualized but pretending not to be—horrified that someone made a gay joke 5 years ago, but insulted if it is suggested that fornication or adultery are wrong. Has this Mom never watched TV, or seen twerking, or wardrobe failures?

How many Americans are LGBT?

"Of 34,557 adults ages 18 and older, the survey reported, 1.6 percent said they were gay or lesbian. Some critics say the numbers are low, but they fall in the range of other surveys. In the new survey, however, only 0.7 percent of respondents described themselves as bisexual; other studies have reported higher numbers."

Even when they were guestimating the figure wasn't much over 3%. Now, the percentage of stories in the news, or characters in entertainment media or literature, that's probably about 20%. Obama by updating a Nixon era EO, will want gender identity included in personnel records--otherwise how will anyone sue their employer and create another dip in the economic recovery?

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/21/how-many-americans-are-lesbian-gay-or-bisexual/

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr077.pdf

Art and antiques of the Gilded Age

We had a wonderful lecture at Lakeside yesterday by Amelia Jeffers, co-owner of Garth's Auctions in Delaware on our theme of the week, the Gilded Age, art and antiques. We had visited Garth's on one of our trips with Conestoga (friends of the Ohio Historical Society--new name is Ohio History Connection) and also one of the mansions she used as an example, Stan Hywet in Akron. If you live in Ohio, both locations are wonderful half day or one day trips. Today at Lakeside is the home tour and craft show--many visitors. One of the open homes is a newly renovated cottage on our street. My husband is a host at one of the cottages for which he was the architect.

Victura; the Kennedys, a sailboat and the sea, by James W. Graham, guest blogger Lynne Wilburn

 

“Another Kennedy book,” was my first thought when seeing this title, but after the first ten pages I came to realize it wasn’t just another Kennedy book. It was a crash course in sailing for a land locked mid-westerner  like  myself and I found myself sailing right along with the family.  The Kennedys sailed when grief was everywhere, during  wedding weekends, in times of joy and  unthinkable sadness,  At times they sailed alone.  One account of Teddy sailing alone at night with just his skill and the stars following his brother Bobby’s death was especially touching . And the competing among family member is long standing going back to Joe, Jr. and Jack in their youth.

Old Joe Kennedy purchased the first sailing vessel for his two older sons and the race was on, entering  races  together and against each other.  Interestingly, the Kennedy women competed  against all comers, too, and Eunice and Ethel are among the finest sailors in the family. Ethel still holds her annual sailing picnics for her expanding family and she is well into her 80’s.

Christopher Kennedy , son of  Robert and Ethel, was author James Graham’s right hand  during the research for this book and they became friends. Chris often took the author sailing, although he was not much of a sailor at the time. Many sailing days later while Chris and Graham were returning to shore for lunch, they came upon a number of children of varying ages with a instructor.  The children were taking lessons in sailing and water safety and when they saw Chris they all smiled their toothy smiles and waved eagerly. Chris turned to the Graham and said,  “They are mostly Kennedys”.

As one generation of Kennedys sails into the sunset, so to speak, another generation comes over the horizon and the reader now understands why the family loves the sea. “We are tied to the ocean, and when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch--we are going back  from whence we came.” John F. Kennedy

University Press of New England
272 pages, 6 x 9", 28 images
Cloth, $29.95, Ebook $22.99
ISBN: 978-1-61168-4117
To order: 800-421-1561
www.upne.com

Got tofu?

Each lecture should have a take-away, just like a good sermon. Last week's lecture at Lakeside Chautauqua about commodities and South America: soybean production is contributing to rainforest destruction in Brazil; China is the world's biggest user of soybeans and now the #1 trading partner for South America. My thought: as America's farmland is used to create ethanol as an alternative to fossil fuel, there is less land for soybeans so the rainforest is destroyed. So can we thank environmentalists for this?

http://www.ozy.com/acumen/south-americas-soybean-revolution/3401.article

http://www.bigstory.ap.org/article/secret-dirty-cost-obamas-green-power-push-1

“past studies showing the benefits of ethanol in combating climate change have not taken into account almost certain changes in land use worldwide if ethanol from corn — and in the future from other feedstocks such as switchgrass — become a prized commodity.

"Using good cropland to expand biofuels will probably exacerbate global warming," concludes the study published in Science magazine.” http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/weather/climate/globalwarming/2008-02-08-ethanol-study_N.htm

How the President finds out what is going on . . .

http://robjonesforpresident.com/2014/05/22/obama-heard-it-on-the-news-collectors-addition/

The buzz about bees

"Bee populations in the U.S. and Europe remain at healthy levels for reproduction and the critical pollination of food crops and trees. But during much of the past decade we have seen higher-than-average overwinter bee-colony losses in the Northern Hemisphere, as well as cases of bees abruptly abandoning their hives, a phenomenon known as "colony collapse disorder."

Citing this disorder, antipesticide activists and some voluble beekeepers want to ban the most widely used pesticides in modern agriculture—neonicotinoids ("neonics" for short)—that account for 20% of pesticide sales world-wide. This would have disastrous effects on modern farming and food prices." http://online.wsj.com/articles/henry-i-miller-why-the-buzz-about-a-bee-pocalypse-is-a-honey-trap-1406071612

The identify crisis in the newest EO

President Richard Nixon in a 1969 Executive Order, included gender to a list of groups that are protected from being discriminated against as federal employees. Why the hoopla about Obama?  And if his EO update (also updated by Johnson and Clinton) makes a difference, why did he wait so long? Being gay didn't stop librarians from rising to the top of their profession. Or artists.  Or musicians. Or novelists.  Certain folks seem to fear their own sexuality and have stayed too long in the closet.  Will they now take the designation "male/female" off personnel records and applications? (I’ve heard California is removing husband and wife designations). Or will job applications and personnel records need to include surgery records for transitioned? Will a black transgender (male to female) have a case against the boss because a gay black man has been promoted and she wasn't? 

http://tgmentalhealth.com/basic-issues-in-transgender-mental-health/

http://www.healthcommunities.com/transgender-health/female-to-male.shtml

The irresponsible care of the children flooding our borders

If you've ever needed to be cleared even to be a volunteer or Sunday School teacher, let alone foster care, I'm sure this will be a mystery--except I suspect the reason there is no check on the families to whom Obama is sending the kids is that these kids' parents are already in the U.S. illegally, and they are the actual "sponsors." Although how that is determined (could be just a trafficker of children) I don't know. These children are being used as political pawns to get his immigration agenda passed.

Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona writes on her Facebook page:

Along with my fellow governors, we participated today in a conference call with the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and the Director of the White House Office Intergovernmental Affairs.

During the call, it was confirmed what I have long suspected – the Obama administration has specifically chosen to avoid its due diligence and is releasing Unaccompanied Alien Children into the care and custody of so-called ‘sponsors’ -- individuals about whom the administration does not check immigration or deportation status.

As a Governor, it’s beyond frustrating that, once again, this administration deliberately neglects its duty to act in a responsible manner and uphold the law. But as a mother, it’s unconscionable that federal officials willingly release children into the permanent custody of people of which little – if anything – is known.

I call on the President Obama and his administration to immediately correct this practice and expedite the removal of illegal aliens to their home country. The American people have had enough. They demand immediate action to return illegal aliens – whether adults or minors – to their countries of origin and secure our border.

Cloward-Piven perfect storm

A story in the Washington Post highlights a number of times the Obama administration was warned of the growing crisis on the border. For instance, a 2012 report by the Women's Refugee Commission spelled out the growing number of unaccompanied minors at the border which started in the fall of 2011. Why did they wait for it to be a crisis? Cloward-Piven, anyone?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-aides-were-warned-of-brewing-border-crisis/2014/07/19/8b5d2282-0d1b-11e4-b8e5-d0de80767fc2_story.html

Thirty Border Patrol agents were assigned in August 2013 to drive the children to off-site showers, wash their clothes and make them sandwiches. As soon as those children were placed in temporary shelters, more arrived. An average of 66 were apprehended each day on the border and more than 24,000 cycled through Texas patrol stations in 2013. In a 41-page report to the Department of Homeland Security, the team from the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) raised alarms about the federal government’s capacity to manage a situation that was expected to grow worse. . .

“There were warning signs, operational folks raising red flags to high levels in terms of this being a potential issue,” said one former senior federal law enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly about internal operations.

It’s not that Obama is incompetent or dumb.  But the alternative is much more serious.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/09/barack_obama_and_the_strategy.html

“Before the 1994 Republican takeover, Democrats had sixty years of virtually unbroken power in Congress - with substantial majorities most of the time. Can a group of smart people, studying issue after issue for years on end, with virtually unlimited resources at their command, not come up with a single policy that works? Why are they chronically incapable?”  The author announced this warning in 2008—before Obama was in office.

Why?  Cloward-Piven and the manufactured crisis.

Isn’t technology amazing?

And the protection of government employees doing the President’s bidding—that’s pretty awesome also.

Week five at Lakeside

The week begins on Saturday at Lakeside with the sad face renters leaving and the new vacationers coming in with happy faces.  We’re always happy because we’re here 9 weeks.  The Saturday evening program was Blood sweat and tears with Bo Brice (American Idol runner up) and the baby boomers were happy, but the volume drove us out after about 10 minutes. The big event for me on Saturday was the massage at Kenny House in Port Clinton.   Sunday I’ve already blogged about here—so many wonderful things going on and many people enjoying the wonderful weather.

The day time program theme is “The Gilded Age,” with Dr. Thomas Mach of Cedarville University presenting four lectures on big business, labor, the farmer and politics. On Wednesday morning Amelia Jeffers of Garth’s in Delaware will present on Art and Antiques of the Gilded Age, and she is also discussing the book The Classic Style of American Antiques at the Women’s Club on Tuesday.  On Wednesday afternoon, Bryan Wright who is pursuing a PHD in musicology will discuss “Music of the Gilded Age.”  Thursday afternoon is a program on Andrew Carnegie and a film on the Triangle Fire will be shown in the morning. There are some historic preservation workshops on Friday.

Tuesday night will feature some Russian musicians from St. Petersburg, “Moscow nights and golden gates,” (could be an awkward time to be Russian and traveling).  The cottage tour is Thursday, and my husband will be the host at one of them (he was the architect); that always brings in a lot of visitors.

It’s heating up today—we may not be able to enjoy dinner on the deck if it gets into the 90s as predicted.

A perfect day at Lakeside

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.