Need, greed and compassion

"Today, wanting someone else's money is called 'need,' wanting to keep your own money is called 'greed,' and 'compassion' is when politicians arrange the transfer." -- Joe Sobran

Doing the right thing is expensive, guest blogger Michael Smith

My wife and I bought our perfect house in South Carolina in 2007. Acre lot, backed up to a private golf course, 4000 sq.ft., 3 car garage. In 2008 the market crashed. In 2009, we moved when I accepted a much better job.

We put the house on the market and for two years it sat empty as we tried to sell it. We finally leased it but the lease market was saturated due to so many unsold houses on the market, so the monthly lease payment we received only covered 60% of the mortgage payments. Two years ago we lost our homestead exemption and our property taxes went from $1900 a year to $9200 per year and our insurance doubled from $1400 to $2800 a year.

We kept hoping that the market would rebound but it never has - but we never missed a mortgage payment. In 7 years, we were never even late.

This Friday, I close on the house - finally it is sold. It was the second offer that we received on the house in 5 years.

It sold for $120,000 less than we paid for it, so we lost every dime of equity we had in it. The selling price was less than what was left on the mortgage, so I had to make up $35000 in deficit to pay off the mortgage and with all the fees and prorated taxes and such, to sell my house cost me right at $67,000 out of pocket this week.

And yet I personally know of people who just walked away from houses in similar situations. Of course, they took a huge hit on their credit rating but they don't really seem to care, nor has it visibly affected their lifestyles.

I guess I may just be stupid but I was taught to live up to my commitments. We made a bad decision in 2007 and that decision cost us nearly $200,000 in actual cash - but it was our decision.

We decided to take the painful loss now because I can see no signs that the economy will recover any time soon because of the structural damage that has been done in the past 6 years. It was time to move on before things get worse.

So this is my view of what the President's people call a "recovery".

There is no recovery.

I thank God that we have been blessed with the financial means to survive Obama's "stewardship" of the economy and I have a special empathy for those who are struggling with the same decisions or simply cannot free themselves due to their financial situation.

We are witnessing the worst performance of a post recession economy in our history. In spite of an energy revolution, the US economy can't seem to get up off the mat. Economic policies and regulations matter. Presidents may not control the economy but they at least have the responsibility not to screw them up.

This economy is screwed up - normal capitalistic/free market economies will naturally generate growth on their own but Obama and his merry band of progodytes have ours tied down as sure as the Lilliputians did with Gulliver

Michael Smith lives in Utah and blogs at Rio Norte Line and on Facebook, where this post resides.

The churchless Nowa Huta can be an inspiration for American Christians—The Lord’s Ark

The Communists decided to build a “workers’ paradise in Poland and it would be without a church or cathedral or cross.  The Polish people under the thumb of an oppressive government thought otherwise.

“Nowa Huta was built in the 1950s as part of a project to bring a mammoth steel mill to the outskirts of Krakow. The factory was intended in part to undercut the influence of the Catholic Church and local universities in Krakow, the longtime religious and intellectual center of Poland. In keeping with that model, Polish authorities prohibited the presence of any churches in Nowa Huta.

The rule was resisted for more than 20 years by Wojtyla and other priests from Krakow, who visited Nowa Huta regularly to celebrate Mass in muddy fields and to reach out to workers outside the gates of the steel mill. In 1957, Catholics erected a cross on the site, where they asked to build a church but were repeatedly denied permission.

Wojtyla persisted in peaceful attempts to win permits to construct a church, winning small but cumulative victories over the next two decades. In 1965, he received the go-ahead to enlarge a small makeshift chapel in Nowa Huta. Two years later, he consecrated the construction site. The church took another 10 years to build, with the Polish government putting up a long succession of bureaucratic hurdles. . .

Today [2005], Nowa Huta has deteriorated into a ghetto, with endless rows of drab five- and 10-story concrete block housing that stand as a legacy of its socialist past. Most of the people who live here are either jobless or have been left behind by Poland's capitalist revolution. One of the few centers of vibrant activity is the 28-year-old Church of Our Lady.”

The Lord’s Ark

Lessons from Nowa Huta

ISIS, Ebola, VA, IRS, NSA, ACA, ARRA, and so on

Why we don’t make a dent in the hunger problem

We never see improvement and the rolls of both poverty workers and the needy continue to grow. Hunger became "food insecurity" and poverty is an arbitrary number set by the Government that is raised every year, but “percent of poverty level” is the standard for benefits. 200% of poverty is the standard for food assistance in Ohio. To be "food insecure" means at some time during the year you changed your eating pattern to accommodate your resources.

The actual number of Americans who are “food insecure” for more than a few days is tiny, under 1% and most of those are children in unmarried households and elderly without family, but even a day counts toward the annual figure--the figure we see in the news is 14.3%.  This guarantees political fights in Congress when USDA funding comes up, government grants to academics, fodder for campaigning, and good jobs for people and agencies in the benefits distribution field. Churches, charities, non-profits and foundations also receive a portion of their annual budget from government grants. Food pantries, mostly run by churches, are involved in a complex mix of federal, state, local and non-profit resources.

62% of "food insecure" families participate in SNAP, WIC or free and reduced school meals (we used to call this school lunch, but now it is breakfast, lunch, and after school, plus summer meals).

Poverty rolls took a big jump in 2008, but haven't really come down.  A chunk of ARRA money in 2009 went to find and enroll people in the programs. It was very successful. Because of the weak economy, they remain on the rolls.

If poverty were solved tomorrow, we’d have a whole new crew of poor people—those who formerly worked in the business.

http://www.ers.usda.gov/media/1565415/err173.pdf

The Ohio Association of Foodbanks was awarded $2.18 Million Federal Navigator Grant for a 2nd year not to feed the hungry, but to enroll people in Obamacare.

The Ohio Association of Foodbanks is Ohio’s largest charitable response to hunger, representing Ohio’s 12 Feeding America foodbanks and 3,300 member charities including food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters. In SFY 2014, the association and its member foodbanks were able to acquire and distribute over 186 million pounds of food and grocery items. The association also serves as the home of The Ohio Benefit Bank and operates the state’s largest navigator program for the Affordable Care Act.

http://admin.ohiofoodbanks.org/uploads/news/Press_Statement-_Federal_Navigator_Grant_Awarded5.pdf

Free stock photos

I needed someplace to stash this amazing information.  What better place than a blog? 14 free stock websites for photos.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/238646?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews

Some require attribution, others not.

The richest man in Africa will help Liberia

Before I read the article, I figured the richest man in Africa would be Nigerian. The richest African Americans are often Nigerian Americans; look at the rolls of Harvard and Yale and you'll find Nigerians. Something in their culture pushes them to excel; also Nigeria is close to 50% Christian. American and European missionaries brought Jesus and the Protestant work ethic. Aliko Dangote himself is Muslim. That said, why can't he do anything with his lavish wealth to stop Boko Haram, a Muslim terrorist group?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/mfonobongnsehe/2014/10/20/africas-richest-man-aliko-dangote-to-support-liberia-in-fight-against-ebola/

Nigerians make up less than 1 percent of the black population in the United States, yet in 2013 nearly one-quarter of the black students at Harvard Business School were of Nigerian ancestry; over a fourth of Nigerian-Americans have a graduate or professional degree, as compared with only about 11 percent of whites. (NYT, Jan. 25, 2014)

Brittany Maynard, suicide publicity hound

“Maynard is the subject of a well-planned PR campaign orchestrated by the George Soros-funded assisted-suicide advocacy group Compassion and Choices (formerly known as the Hemlock Society). C & C’s press release applauds Maynard’s “courage to tell her story as she is dying and alert all Americans to the choice of death with dignity” as “selfless and heroic.” “

http://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2014/10/of-michael-landon-and-brittany-maynard

“Suicide has made Maynard an international celebrity. Partly, that’s because she is the perfect icon: young, pretty, newly wed, tragically dying, and transgressive for wanting to kill herself rather than face the rigors of late-stage brain cancer.”

How many people will be pushed to their death through her example?

The missing Public Health Service Corps

The U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps is an elite team of more than 6,800 full-time, well-trained, highly qualified public health professionals dedicated to delivering the nation's public health promotion and disease prevention programs and advancing public health science. Instead of sending them to Africa, Obama is sending the 101st Airborne, who are not trained in anything medical. Why? The Corps is trained and equipped to respond to public health crises and national emergencies such as natural disasters, disease outbreaks, or terrorist attacks, both here and overseas. Obama is apparently having a hissy fit because the Senate (his guys, btw) won't approve his anti-gun nominee for Surgeon General, who is the head of the Corps. Of course, there is an interim Surgeon General, Rear Admiral  Boris D. Lushniak, M.D., M.P.H. , but maybe Obama is doing this deliberately--putting our troops at risk.

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2014/03/18/democrats-lining-up-to-oppose-obamas-antigun-nominee-for-surgeon-general-n1810745

Vivek  “Murthy, who has a history of calling guns a "healthcare issue," classifying guns as a "public health threat" and of slamming the National Rifle Association, is being opposed not by just Republicans, but numerous Democrats in an election year.”

http://www.businessinsider.com/no-surgeon-general-during-ebola-in-us-2014-10

http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/about/biographies/biosg.html

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/blogs/white-coat-notes/2013/11/14/obama-nominating-vivek-murthy-harvard-and-brigham-and-women-surgeon-general/eo6mit1nNtLpUxE6VrizLJ/blog.html

How low can they go?

Wendy Davis of Texas (think pink tennis shoes and abortion) isn't the first Democrat to play dirty with people's personal lives or disabilities (uses a wheelchair in a scare ad because her opponent is disabled). In 2004 both Edwards and Kerry brought up Cheney's lesbian daughter during the debates. I doubt they cared with whom she was having sex, but they hoped to smear Cheney. Really. Democrats will stoop that low.

Jesse Jackson (and a woman whose name I missed) are declaring the death of the Liberian treated at the Dallas hospital, because when he was first seen in the ER they did not recognize his symptoms.  The two nurses he infected are also minorities, Mr. Jackson.  Was Mr. Duncan a racist or was it just the hospital staff? Democrats find racism everywhere; they have it on the brain.  People aren't individuals capable of living without government help—they are all victims, at least if they are non-white.  Trillions spent on the War on Poverty and you’d think they’d be happy.

Ebola was brought to Nigeria by a Liberian on an air flight. They then responded responsibly and banned flights from West Africa.  Now they have been declared Ebola free by WHO.  But American race baiters will still rave on.

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2014/09/the-war-on-poverty-after-50-years

http://www.cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/katherine-rodriguez/jesse-jackson-cries-racism-privilege-over-ebola-patients-treatment

http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Texas/2014/10/13/Wendy-Davis-Holds-Press-Conference-With-Disabled-People-to-Defend-Ad

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31310-2004Oct13.html

Bigotry comes in all shapes, sizes, races, genders and public offices.

Crash diets work better than slow and steady, but they all fail

“People in the fast-dieting group were more likely to achieve their target weight loss than the slow-dieting group, but both struggled to keep the weight off over time.”

I actually think this is good news.  Quicky diets are much easy; I have no will power for the long run.

Weight-loss guidelines have long counselled that kilos shed too quickly are likelier to creep back than those lost at a slower pace.

But a new Australian study, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, found that over the long term, fast-track and slow-track dieters were equally likely to regain most of the weight they lost.

Research led by Joseph Proietto of the University of Melbourne divided 204 obese men and women into two groups.

One group entered a weight-loss programme of 12 weeks, the other a more gradual 36 weeks.

The 12-week group were restricted to a diet of 450-800 calories per day, while the other group had their energy intake reduced by about 500 calories per day.

Those who lost 12.5 per cent or more of their bodyweight from both groups were then placed on a three-year maintenance diet.

By the end of the trial, individuals in both groups had regained some 71 per cent on average of the kilos they had shed.

"By contrast with the widely-held belief that weight lost rapidly is more quickly regained, our findings show that regain is similar after gradual or rapid weight loss," the team says.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2014/10/16/4108436.htm

There’s only one answer.  Regardless of how much you lose and how you do it, immediately go back to dieting when you’ve regained 5 lbs.  Because you definitely will gain it.

Ebola vaccine news

“The pace of human safety testing for experimental Ebola vaccines has been expedited in response to the ongoing Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 1,400 suspected and confirmed deaths from Ebola infection have been reported in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone since the outbreak was first reported in March 2014. 

“There is an urgent need for a protective Ebola vaccine, and it is important to establish that a vaccine is safe and spurs the immune system to react in a way necessary to protect against infection,” said NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. “The NIH is playing a key role in accelerating the development and testing of investigational Ebola vaccines.”

“Today we know the best way to prevent the spread of Ebola infection is through public health measures, including good infection control practices, isolation, contact tracing, quarantine, and provision of personal protective equipment,” added Dr. Fauci. “However, a vaccine will ultimately be an important tool in the prevention effort. The launch of Phase 1 Ebola vaccine studies is the first step in a long process.”

“Tried and true public health interventions, strong supportive medical care and the rapid testing of Ebola vaccines and antiviral treatments can help to reduce suffering now and in the future,” said CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H.

The investigational vaccine now entering Phase 1 trials was designed by Nancy J. Sullivan, Ph.D., chief of the Biodefense Research Section in NIAID’s Vaccine Research Center (VRC). She worked in collaboration with researchers at the VRC, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, and Okairos, a Swiss-Italian biotechnology company acquired by GSK in 2013.”

Isolation and quarantine, but not restricting passports from West Africa?

http://www.niaid.nih.gov/news/newsreleases/2014/Pages/EbolaVaxCandidate.aspx

A number of research reports and grants go back to 2007. It’s not true that this disease (and others like it) were being ignored.

Danners in the tree

There used to be a lot discussion on the Danner genealogy forum about Blythe Danner (like whether she was one of ours), but if her daughter Gwyneth doesn't stop saying such strange things, the conversation will really cool. (I'm a descendant of Henry Danner).

An oldie but goodie

Brown struggled with Wilson over the gun—report in New York Times

The New York Times reports:

"The forensics tests showed Mr. Brown’s blood on the gun, as well as on the interior door panel and on Officer Wilson’s uniform. Officer Wilson told the authorities that Mr. Brown had punched and scratched him repeatedly, leaving swelling on his face and cuts on his neck."

Many witnesses have testified to the grand jury that Brown was attacking Wilson, although their accounts vary in details. I doubt that this will make any difference to the imported demonstrators. But I think Holder and Obama need to apologize for the problems they made for that community. Read the account carefully, the NYT reporters, who weren't there try to second guess Wilson's behavior after being attacked.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/18/us/ferguson-case-officer-is-said-to-cite-struggle.html?_r=0

Four low flow toilets

It was bound to happen with 4 low flow toilets in our house.  But I have successful “plunged” and we are free flowing again.  I had to buy a new plunger, as the old style don’t fit the angles.  It was a Waxman Heavy Duty Toilet Plunger.  It’s black plastic and has sort of accordion pleats.  There are models that have little containers, but this one is larger. I looked at the tag after I was finished, and happy to see not only was it made in the USA, but right here in Ohio.

Waxman Industries, Inc. markets specialty plumbing, and floor and surface protection products to retailers, primarily mass merchandisers, do-it-yourself warehouse home centers, and home improvement centers. It offers various products from plumbing repair to floorcare, and faucets to showers. Waxman Industries, Inc. also manufactures, packages, sources, and assembles plumbing products for industrial, OEM, and wholesale distribution customers. The company was incorporated in 1989 and is based in Bedford Heights, Ohio.

Everything is under control . . . of the president

I haven’t snoped Hillary’s past, but this sounds about right.

A letter to the Mayor of Houston

Dear Ms. Mayor of Houston,

You believe anyone with gender confusion or change should be allowed to share restrooms with whomever they identify to the point you want to destroy the first amendment over it. At what point in the conversion should the sharing begin?

On NPR I listened to a female to male transgendered man, at least that's how s/he identified herself--only hormone treatments, but no surgery yet--just the clothing, facial hair, muscle bulking, voice change, receding hairline, etc. Much to her shock, because s/he'd been raised a good feminist, s/he found out her brain had been changed. S/he had become interested in pornography, and even just a little skin showing on another female aroused her. S/he found her crude thoughts embarrassing, but unstoppable. S/he began losing her verbal acuity which had always been her long suit, and s/he had difficulty crying. S/he claimed she was reading more in the sciences which had never interested her before. Some points sound like a joke, but this interview was on NPR and I know we can trust the government in all things about sex.  The NPR guest doesn't have the right equipment for the urinal in the men's room yet, but sounds a bit dangerous for the ladies room. Maybe while in Houston, s/he could use your private restroom?

Norma

P.S. You may remember Chaz Bono's girlfriend (a lesbian) complained about her former lesbian lover's male behavior (and personal habits) and left her/him. The former Chastity Bono decided her attraction wasn’t because she was a lesbian, but because she was a man.