Snow Day for schools in Columbus and suburbs

I don’t think it will amount to much—4 inches will do it here—or extremely cold.  AZ and I decided yesterday after hearing the forecast not to meet for coffee today, but I do have a dental appointment.  Maybe the roads will be clear by then.

Talk about privilege!

There was thin privilege.  And now White privilege.  But Asian Americans make the most money of any group.  Is that Asian privilege?  A married couple with children has a median income in the mid 80s compared to a single mom with children in the mid 20s. They are also healthier and better educated.  Is that marriage privilege?  And what about those educated people who are earning more than those with a GED or high school degrees?  Is that higher education privilege? Government employees make more money and get better perks than civilian.  Employment privilege?  And lobbyists make more and have more influence than the industries they represent.  Is that lobby privilege? The cost of living in Columbus, OH is 32.0% lower than in Long Beach, CA . Is that Buckeye privilege?

Bootleggers and Baptists

Regulations make strange bedfellows. Baptists may be pleased that liquor stores are closed on Sundays, but so are bootleggers because their competition is closed down. And this happens in all areas of the economy. Restrictions on some mean more profits for others. You really need to look for this in environmental regulations which sets up a new, lucrative cartel. http://www.learnliberty.org/videos/bootleggers-and-baptists/

Morning chuckle

Would a new law make a difference?

Most articles about immigration, Republican, Democrat, Libertarian and Communist, including this one, begin with this as a given, "The United States immigration system is broken." But when you look through the 10 points, you see the current law isn't being followed or enforced, so why would the next one?

An Immigration Checklist: 10 Areas of Reform that Congress Should Demand of the President

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2014/11/an-immigration-checklist-10-areas-of-reform-that-congress-should-demand-of-the-president

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2014/11/ten-step-checklist-for-revitalizing-americas-immigration-system-how-the-administration-can-fulfill-its-responsibilities

1. Overriding and removing existing executive orders, agency memorandums, or other executive policy directives that ignore or contradict existing law;
2. Allowing immigration agencies to enforce and apply the law without workplace interference, political pressure, or procedural obstacles;
3. Providing the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency with a fully operational system of sensor and camera technologies and infrastructure on the southwest border to multiply the efficacy of their efforts;
4. Using the appropriate judicial and administrative tools efficiently to remove and return unlawful immigrants to their home countries;
5. Increasing enforcement against businesses that knowingly employ unlawful labor;
6. Engaging with international partners and remaining committed to citizen security and democratic governance in the Western Hemisphere;
7. Making U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), more efficient and effective;
8. Reporting accurate immigration data to Congress and the American people in a truthful, consistent, and complete manner;
9. Soliciting the assistance and support of the states in enforcing immigration laws and limiting the effectiveness of those governments that attempt to frustrate enforcement with sanctuary policies; and
10. Verifying the success of these actions through honest and accurate Census survey data of the unlawful immigrant population.

“Under President Obama, immigration laws are unilaterally ignored, waived, or changed. The rule of law suffers and more illegal immigration is encouraged, imposing large financial and security costs on the U.S. Indeed, the U.S. immigration system is broken because of the executive branch’s decision not to execute existing immigration law. The U.S. is a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. There is no need to sacrifice either of these principles in pursuit of the other. “ David Inserra

Marriage and poverty

Marriage drops the probability of child poverty by 82%. U.S. Census Community Facts reports the median family income in married couple households with their own children is $82,163; for a male headed household with children it is $37,127; female headed household with children is $24,349. These figures do not reflect wealth transfer gov't programs such as SNAP, Medicaid, public housing, day care, and TANF. Marriage is a much greater fighter of poverty than adding years of education to a single parent.

"CHILDREN CHARACTERISTICS more information 2009-2013 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates" http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=CF

I took the Viet Nam War trivia quiz. . . and got “War Historian”

I'm sure I didn't get them all--wish they would show what was missed. I won't identify what high school student I was talking to in the 1980s, but of course, Viet Nam was ancient history then. The student didn't know which came first, WWII or Vietnam. It had become popular by then to think teaching facts was just boring and unnecessary. When I watch Watters' World (Fox) I'm not surprised when college students think Lincoln was a founding father, or don't know the name of the current vice president. They can name all the Kardashians, though.

Quote of the Day

"You don’t get to hang out with Sharpton, endorse protesters calling for the death of cops, and then put on your fake mourning act at a police funeral." Daniel Greenfield reporting on the funeral of Detective Wenjian Liu.

What happens to taxes beginning January 1, 2015

A small reminder of what began on January 1, 2015:

Top Medicare tax goes from 1.45% to 2.35%
Top Income tax bracket goes from 35% to 39.6%
Top Income payroll tax goes from 37.4% to 52.2%...
Capital Gains tax goes from 15% to 28%
Dividends tax goes from 15% to 39.6%
Estate tax goes from 0% to 55%
Remember this fact:
These taxes were all passed only with Democrat votes, no Republicans voted for these taxes.
These taxes were all passed under the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.

Passed around the internet. I checked this at Snopes which says it's untrue because some of it happened in 2013 and 2014, and most of it only happens to the rich, and that the vote part only refers to the ACA part.  OK, I'll give them that; some are the result of the Bush tax cuts expiring. But the ACA has had some serious tax consequences.

Leg Exercises for Older Adults for gait speed

JAMA  May 28,2014, vol 311 no 20—diagnosis gait problems in the elderly

http://www.eldergym.com/leg-exercises.html  with videos

1. Ankle Circles
This exercise improves your ankle flexibility and ability to  move your ankle upward and downward.
This is a great warm up exercise for the lower leg and feet.

2. Hip Marching
This exercise will strengthen your hip flexor and thighs.
With correct seated posture it will also help your abdominal muscles.
3. Knee Extension
Strengthening your knees width knee strengthening exercises will improve your ability to stand and balance.
This exercise will improve your available knee range of motion.
4. Calf Raises
Strengthening your calf muscles with calf exercises will give your more power to step forward on level surfaces or carry you up hills on uneven terrain.
Helps pump blood up from your legs to your upper-body and brain.
5. Standing Knee Flexion
These knee exercises strengthens your hamstring muscles.
Also helps with your standing balance.
6. Side Hip Raise
Safely strengthens your side hip muscles to help with hip arthritis.
Helps maintain your lower body endurance to better walk and side step around objects.
7.Sit to Stand
Excellent hip exercises to maintain your leg and hip strength.
One of the most important exercises used daily to keep your independence and confidence.
8. Heel Stand
Strengthens the front part of the lower leg with ankle stretches.
You will become better able to raise your toes to avoid tripping.
9. Lunges
To strengthen your quadriceps and hips with leg toning exercises.
Improve your ability to get out of a chair and balance.
Help you with lifting chores around the house.
10. Straight Leg Raise
To increase your quadriceps and hip flexor strength with this leg workout.
To strengthen your abdominal muscles.
Allow you to advance your leg during walking with greater ease.
11. Partial Squats
Increase your hip flexibility, quadriceps strength and hip flexor strength.
Improve your ability to get up from a chair and walk.
Steady your body for better balance and safety.
12. Hip Extension
This exercise will help with strengthening the hip joint and muscles.
This will improve the ability to walk and propel yourself forward or up stairs.

Finally, after the fourth try. . .

The appliances are all in, wired correctly and plumb. My, what a difference.  We’ve been dealing with this since October. I've just baked my snickerdoodles with cranberries for Joanne Foster’s reception tomorrow at UALC. She is retiring after 25 years and most currently has been shepherding older adults. She will be missed--always cheerful and encouraging. Now I have to resist tasting them to be sure they are OK. Sure do smell good.

Feminism explained

What do you do?   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05ro6fcj6Ek&feature=youtu.be

 

Dengue and chikungunya

Will environmentalists relent and allow DDT in the U.S. again now that both Aedes aegypti and Anopheles quadrimaculatus mosquitoes have returned in force? Dengue fever, called break bone fever, and chikungunya, pronounced chik-en-gun-ye whose major symptoms are fever and joint pain (name means “that which bends up”) have been appearing in the U.S. due to travel and mosquitoes spread the virus.

Of course, the ban on DDT killed millions in Africa and Asia.  Will they relent for Americans?

http://www.examiner.com/article/dengue-fever-and-chikungunya-the-coming-threat

http://www.wired.com/2014/06/us-travelers-chikungunya/

Mosquito Borne Diseases: What Diseases Do They Carry? (pest-help.com)

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/debilitating-virus-infect/

Given a choice between dengue fever or another mosquito-borne disease called chikungunya fever, choose dengue every time. Neither has an available vaccine or treatment, but chikungunya (pronounced chik-un-GUHN-ya) is far more severe – it literally means “that which bends up” because patients are often stooped over from debilitating joint pain.

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/15/174

Friday Family Photos—Christmas 2014

Phil won a set of jade green dishes in the company Christmas drawing.

Bob is loving his guitar lessons and received a number of accessories for Christmas

It’s hard to get them to smile, so I really worked on this one.

Phil’s cheeseburger bacon lasagna.

A lovely tree and decorated fireplace.

Police are investigating

the murder of a black man, Reginald Jones, said to be a wonderful father, gregarious and hard worker was the last murder of 2014 for Chicago.  If the assailant turns out to be white, you’ll hear about this on the national news. Maybe Al Sharpton or Eric Holder can come for the protests or the funeral.   If he’s black, and 93% of these murders are, then you’ll never hear of him again.

http://wgntv.com/2015/01/01/chicago-crime-and-murders-at-historic-lows/

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-chicago-shootings-20141231-story.html

http://chicago.suntimes.com/news-chicago/7/71/251270/police-man-shot-death-avalon-park-neighborhood

The shooting occurred about 2:30 p.m. at Rodriguez Rims & Tires at 80th and S. Stony Island Ave in Avalon Park, police said. A gunman in a ski mask approached Jones, shot him multiple times and ran away, police told Jones’ family.

More on non-profit annual reports—Planned Parenthood

Yesterday I wrote about frustration with slick annual reports. Talk about a glitzy annual report--you should see the Planned Parenthood 2013-14. Lots of smiling young women. 327,653 abortions--94% of its "health" services, about 38% of which are for black women. (CDC reports 72% in Mississippi for blacks, 42% in Ohio, and 67% for black teens in New York), $528.4 million from government grants and reimbursements, which equaled 41 percent of its revenue. The rest comes from donations and foundation grants. And the CEO received nearly half a million in salary and benefits. PP has $1.4 billion in net assets.

Abortion is a very lucrative business. "Black lives matter," except in the womb.

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/files/6714/1996/2641/2013-2014_Annual_Report_FINAL_WEB_VERSION.pdf

http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2015/01/01/planned-parenthood-annual-report-all-about-abortions-and-profits/

http://dailycaller.com/2014/01/09/planned-parenthoods-annual-report-shows-abortion-pays/

There is a lot of good news out there—and that’s upsetting to some

The world has never been safer, or healthier; there's never been a better time to be alive if you want freedom to achieve your dreams and goals despite your ethnicity, religion or gender. Despite the charges of homophobia, there has never been a better, safer time in the history of the world to be LGBT. Wars are declining. NYC and other big cities have never been safer. Despite huge increases in population and gun ownership, gun violence is decreasing. And that, I think, is part of the motivation of the current round of loud protesters seeking media attention. They are Communist funded and based, and their current cause is police violence against blacks (they don't fret when white thugs and petty criminals die resisting an arrest). Violence is the lowest in 2 decades. Life expectancy is rising in all countries, not just ours; airline and auto travel have never been safer; technology, medical advances and capitalism are contributing to our longer, safer life span. In the U.S. minorities for several years have outpaced whites in college enrollments. There is no wage gap for women college grads in their 20s and 30s, and women have outnumbered men in college for over a decade. There is no rape crisis on campus. So what is the left to do when they see their schemes and lies shriveling, funding sources drying up and people ignoring them? Set up a straw man and then attack.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2893125/Nearly-100-protesters-storm-St-Louis-police-headquarters-25-arrested-pepper-sprayed.html

http://abcnews.go.com/US/protesters-years-eve-highlight-police-brutality/story?id=27927793

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/protests-planned-new-years/2014/12/31/id/615776/

A good start to the New Year

What a fabulous way to end the old and start the new.  UALC had its 12th New Year's Eve Jazz Worship service, and as I looked around, the sanctuary at Mill Run appeared nearly full (seats about 700).  We enjoyed some TV theme song favorites with audience participation, then some great jazzed up hymns, a sermon from Pastor TJ, a moving communion service with all our pastors and their wives serving, and final closing. Then we went out to eat with Bill and Joyce, got turned away at Houlihan's so we migrated to our old stand-by Rusty Bucket on Lane and had a lovely meal and enjoyed ourselves immensely. Beginning the New Year with God and friends--you can't beat that.

Greetings for the new year

"Then sing, young  hearts that are full of cheer, with never a thought of sorrow; the old goes out, but the glad young year comes merrily in tomorrow."-Emily Miller

    My friend Lynne writes to her high school classmates, “ found this in 1960 when the 50's slipped off the radar scene and thought, ‘My goodness -1960-that sounds strange,’-now it’s 2015 – friends, we have come a long way-hasn't it been fun and isn't it good to be alive... enjoy the coming  year and may all good things come your way... Lynne

Do churches still do this? Take in homeless?

http://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/13/nyregion/homeless-find-humanity-at-private-shelters.html New York Times article from 1988.

Our church used to do this in the late 80s, early 90s, I think—a busload of people would come for dinner and a night’s sleep off the street or away from the shelters.  Volunteers helped with food prep and baby sitting.  I don’t remember how long this went on—a year or two, but I think the volunteers burned out pretty fast.  Eventually our church took in the Hilltop Lutheran church members and facility, so our focus for volunteering shifted there.

''No matter how good the city system is, no matter how good their people are, they cannot provide the kind of care, concern and dignity that folks from churches and synagogues in the neighborhoods can do,'' said Peter P. Smith, the president of the Partnership for the Homeless.

But in practice, it is all but impossible to compare the two systems and to say how much of the difference is due to individual acts of charity and caring and how much to screening. Those who stay at the church shelters must be willing to abide by a series of rules and are carefully selected: drug addicts, alcoholics and the mentally unstable are unwelcome.

Once they pass the test, they must be willing to wait up to an hour or more for a bus ride to a distant church or synagogue, where they are often awakened at 6:30 the next morning for a bus ride back. Since some shelters, including B'nai Jeshurun's, are open only three or four days a week, they must also juggle a complicated schedule.

The screening system reduces the risks of incidents at churches and helps keep the most vulnerable among the homeless - those most likely to be robbed or victimized - out of city shelters.

So, I googled my question: and here’s what I found.  120 churches in the Columbus area had an Interfaith Hospitality Network, which began in 1988 and morphed to became a bricks and mortar family shelter.

The History of the Interfaith Hospitality Network (IHN)

The IHN began as the second housing network in the United States in 1988 and grew to include more than 120 churches. The system allowed homeless families to sleep on cots at various religious institutions nightly and the next morning were bused back to a day center (400 W. Broad St.). By the end of the 1990s, YWCA Columbus had assumed 24-hour responsibilities in transporting the families and managing day services. The realization that family homelessness was a social issue that was not going to go away led to a number of staff transitions and further visioning of a new model for responding to family homelessness. By 2003, the YWCA began planning its new Family Center and successfully completed a $7-million capital campaign to build it. [according another link it opened in 2005]