Why April 22?

It’s no coincidence that Sen. Gaylord Nelson (D) founded “Earth Day” on April 22, 1970, the centenary of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin’s birthday. http://patriotpost.us/alexander/34776

Happy Earth Day

Here in Columbus we're in winter recovery mode--green grass and beautiful flowers everywhere. And the winter debris. Today I'll drive to the west side for my volunteer job and I'll pass through some light industrial and "emerging" neighborhoods. I'll see people walking to the bus stops along roads with no sidewalks and a few who appear to be homeless. The grass and easements around the fast food businesses, gas stations, lumber outlets, and car lots will be pristine. The city of Columbus with responsibility for the exits, overpasses and other easements has a lot of work to do. Plastic bags, trash, newspapers, bottles. Do your part. It's Earth Day, a good time to clean up your own messes.

On Earth Day when we remember Rachel Carson whose poorly researched book contributed to the deaths of millions of Africans. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/05/science/earth/05tier.html…

One of the founders of Earth Day, Ira Einhorn,  in 1970 murdered his girl friend.  He was on the run for 23 years, but is in jail now. http://www.nbcnews.com/id/42711922/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/earth-day-co-founder-killed-composted-girlfriend/

Consumer Reports says coupons save money—they don’t

"All told, consumers saved $3.6 billion by using coupons [out of $310 billion], which makes it difficult to understand why only 59 percent of subscribers we surveyed used manufacturers coupons." (Consumer Reports).

Oh, let me count the ways American consumers are fooled into using coupons that

• 1) cover up price increases,
• 2) introduce yet another new product we don't need,
• 3) convince us to buy processed rather than steaming or grilling it ourselves,
• 4) deliver us into obesity with a bazillion snack offerings, etc. etc.

Yes, I know, I can't convince you that food companies don't stay in business by giving away their products, or that coupons add to the cost of your food, so just continue to fool yourselves--with the help of the media that prints or distributes the coupons. The first coupon was a wooden nickel.

Unemployment for some is not ending

"Long-term unemployment has fallen in recent years, although it remains high by historical standards. Five years after the Great Recession ended, the number of long-term unemployed still made up a larger share of unemployment than during any previous recession." (BLS, Spotlight on Statistics, March 2015). Actually, the recession ended in June 2009, almost six years ago—so these figures are from 2014 apparently. This has been the slowest recovery from a recession in history. I believe the ARRA made it worse.

Men more than women, blacks and Asians more than whites, older more than younger are the faces of the long term unemployed. Education level doesn't change things. Washington, DC, home of our federal government,  has the highest rate of long term unemployed. http://www.bls.gov/.../2015/long-term-unemployment/home.htm

Are these men really missing?

The New York Times Upshot column claims: “In New York, almost 120,000 black men between the ages of 25 and 54 are missing from everyday life. In Chicago, 45,000 are, and more than 30,000 are missing in Philadelphia. Across the South — from North Charleston, S.C., through Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi and up into Ferguson, Mo. — hundreds of thousands more are missing.”

I'm not sure why they are called missing. Black women abort at a much higher rate than white, so let's assume over half of those babies are male (birth ratio statistics); the crime rate for black men is about 8 times that of white, and their victims are black, so unless you want the police and courts to ignore the victims so the perps won't be in jail, what is the solution? More males than females are born, except among blacks; all boys are less healthy than girls, and by age 13 there is quite a discrepancy; visit the prisons and talk to the men of any race who grew up without fathers married to their mothers and in the home. CDC estimates that blacks account for almost half of all new infections of HIV in the U.S.each year, and although that's not the death sentence it used to be, it's also not the road to health, employment and marriage--and in a number of cities about 1/3 of the gay/bisexual black men are infected. When black men marry, about 24% marry outside their race, decreasing the opportunity for marriage for black women (Pew Study) so they might as well be missing. There is no plot.They aren't missing. But there is some negative behavior that can be changed.

Also, the author doesn’t seem to grasp the connection that the higher prison rate has resulted in lower crime rates for black communities.

Since the 1990s, death rates for young black men have dropped more than rates for other groups, notes Robert N. Anderson, the chief of mortality statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Both homicides and H.I.V.-related deaths, which disproportionately afflict black men, have dropped. Yet the prison population has soared since 1980. In many communities, rising numbers of black men spared an early death have been offset by rising numbers behind bars.

ISIS kills more Christians for show terror

Last night millions of Americans watched “Game of Thrones” with elaborate sets, made up languages, sexy female monarchs, fantasy creatures--very violent and blood thirsty. Meanwhile ISIS slaughtered some more Christians, this time Ethiopians, and made a video of it. Most Americans yawned. They'd rather shut down pizza shops owned by Christians than lift a finger to stop the massacre of Christians. One group was beheaded on a beach along the Mediterranean Sea, while the other group was shot in Southern Libya, hundreds of miles away. "The sea you have hidden Sheikh Osama bin Laden's body in, we swear to Allah, we will mix it with your blood," the narrator said in English. He's talking to us.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/19/africa/libya-isis-executions-ethiopian-christians/

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/middleeast/article4416389.ece

http://rt.com/news/251037-isis-christians-killing-video/

Ancient Roads from Christ to Constantine

Last night I watched Ancient Roads from Christ to Constantine, pt. 2 of 6, on WOSU. It seems to be quite faithful to church teachings (at least this segment) and I enjoyed seeing the places we've visited (tour with our church group in 2009).

Gwyneth Paltrow’s food stamp challenge

I think Gwyneth Paltrow has learned her lesson about food stamps (SNAP), but just in case, here's $29 of food purchased this morning, and even the government knows Paltrow's cupboard isn't bare and she probably has some flour, sugar, potatoes, carrots, some left over Easter ham in the freezer and coffee from last week. This grocery run includes 8# of oranges, $6; 6 bananas $.81; 1 lb. of strawberries, $1.50; 1/2 gal 2% milk, $2.39; bag of mixed salad greens with sunflower see...ds and dressing included, $2.50; 6 Lite yogurt with fruit, $3; and ground sirloin $6.50. I was not shopping to budget, and if I were, I wouldn't buy partially processed items. The rules are complicated and the household is expected to contribute its own money to the food budget. The S in SNAP is Supplemental; they changed it thinking people would understand it better--but they obviously don't. At least Gwyneth didn't.

Republican Thaddeus Stevens changed his grave site

Shortly before he died on August 11, 1868, Thaddeus Stevens learned that the grave he'd purchased was located in a whites-only cemetery. Incensed, he bought another plot, this one in an obscure graveyard in Lancaster with no racial restrictions. Then he wrote an inscription designed to carve his creed into his headstone:

I repose in this quiet and secluded spot,
Not from any natural preference for solitude
But, finding other Cemeteries limited as to Race
by Charter Rules,
I have chosen this that I might illustrate in my death
The Principles which I advocated through a long life:
EQUALITY OF MAN BEFORE HIS CREATOR.

Story at History Net

Monday Memories—what was your first car?

David Graf (lives in Florida, but grew up in Mt. Morris) had a Face Book post about his first car. This is probably more significant for guys than gals, at least from the 1950s when Dave and I were in high school. But it did give me a chance to remember the 1951 Packard Dad bought for Carol and me to drive to college in 1957 (a 6 hour drive), she was at Goshen and I was at Manchester. We could get 6 girls with all their luggage in that 4 dr. sedan. What was your first car?

I don’t have a photo of the car, but do have a vivid memory of a flat tire with it fully loaded with girls and luggage.  Some nice man helped us change it after we unpacked everything. Because I was a freshman, I couldn’t keep the car at Manchester, so it was parked in Goshen, where according to Carol, they locked up the Coca Cola machines on Sunday.

This is a photo of a restored 200 series Packard, which is the lowest end model.

That’s the way the feta crumbles

They can't fool me. If feta cheese crumbled is $1 more for 2 ounces less than block feta, I buy the block and crumble it myself. If "lite" salad dressing's first ingredient is water and is $1 higher than regular, I buy the regular and add water.

How to crumble feta cheese   I was surprised there were actually “how to” sites for this.  I just sliced the block and cut it up.  It sort of fell apart.

Presidential candidates of 100 years ago were invited to address the Convention of Former Slaves

http://ghostsofdc.org/2012/07/06/ex-slave-convention-1916/

Amazing photos, including four people, two men and two women who were over 100 years old.

Arthur Godfrey and FDR

I'm not an FDR fan, but I'm surprised I didn't see/hear more on the 70th anniversary of his death/funeral this past week. Was I napping? Was the TV off? The recording of the funeral has now been added to the Library of Congress under the National Preservation Act of 2000.

"Following President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s death on Thursday, April 12, 1945, the national radio networks suspended regular programming until after his interment on Sunday, April 15. In its place, they ...aired a round-the-clock stream of reactions from home and abroad, including formal tributes, memorial services, and live coverage of the journey of the funeral train bearing the president’s body to Washington, D.C. On Saturday, April 14, a solemn funeral cortege made its way through the streets of the nation’s capital from Union Station to the lawn of the White House, with relays of radio announcers describing its progress.

Arthur Godfrey, a local broadcast personality with many years of experience covering public events in the area, was added to the CBS national broadcast team. As the last announcer on the route before the White House, he gave beautifully detailed and dramatic descriptions from atop a bank building at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue for nearly half an hour, with his tone changing from solemn and journalistic to personal and emotional. When the caisson bearing the president’s body came into his view, Godfrey was dumbstruck, finally murmuring "God help me to do this" and choking out a few more sentences before breaking down on the air, forcing CBS to return to the studio briefly before resuming coverage on the White House lawn. Godfrey, a veteran of 15 years in radio, was deeply embarrassed by this incident, but soon became one of the country’s most popular broadcasters when he started his national morning show on CBS. His emotional coverage of this event now helps to illuminate the depth of the nation’s grief over Roosevelt’s death."

http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2015/15-041.html

Educators who make race relations worse

I haven't checked out this story--someone is clearly misguided if it is true. But what is true is it was completely unnecessary: Among 2014 high school graduates, 86.1% of Asians enrolled in college, compared to 70.9% of black graduates, 67.3% of white graduates and 65.2% of Hispanic graduates. So why are educators still trying to create hard feelings, entitlement and victimhood?

What we really need is some direction for students who won’t be going to college, a place they’ll rack up debt for jobs that won’t be able to support the debt.

Race Relations and Law Enforcement—Jason Riley

“The shooting death of a young black man by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, last year touched off a national discussion about everything except the aberrant behavior of so many young black men that results in such frequent encounters with police. We talked about racial prejudice, poverty, unemployment, profiling, the tensions between law enforcement and poor black communities, and so forth. Rarely did we hear any discussion of black crime rates.

Homicide is the leading cause of death for young black men in the U.S., and around 90 percent of the perpetrators are also black. Yet for months we’ve had protesters nationwide pretending that our morgues are full of young black men because cops are shooting them. Around 98 percent of black shooting deaths do not involve police. In fact, a cop is six times more likely to be shot by someone black than the opposite. The protestors are pushing a false anti-cop narrative, and everyone from the president on down has played along.” . . .

“If liberals want to help reverse these crime trends, they would do better to focus less on supposed racial animus and more on ghetto attitudes towards school, work, marriage, and child-rearing. As recently as the early 1960s, two out of three black children were raised in two-parent households. Today, more than 70 percent are not, and the number can reach as high as 80 or 90 percent in our inner cities.

For decades, studies have shown that the likelihood of teen pregnancy, drug abuse, dropping out of school and other bad social outcomes increases dramatically when fathers aren’t around. One of the most comprehensive studies ever undertaken in this regard concluded that black boys without a father are 68 percent more likely to be incarcerated than those with a father—that overall, the most critical factor affecting the prospect of young males encountering the criminal justice system is the presence of a father in the home. All other factors, including family income, are much less important.”

https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/race-relations-and-law-enforcement/

Capra’s America

Frank Capra was an immigrant--he rejected the theories of progressivism, communism and socialism popular in Europe. ". . . he did not understand America, as many Americans do today, in terms of personal categories of identity such as race, ethnicity, gender, or sexuality. He understood America in terms of its political principles—the moral principles of America that can be shared by all who understand them and are willing to live up to them. . .

In his last and most personal tribute to his adopted country, Capra recalled his family’s arrival at Union Station in Los Angeles after their long journey across America in 1903. When they got off the train, his mother and father got on their knees and kissed the ground. Capra’s last words to his assembled audience were these: “For America, for just allowing me to live here, I kiss the ground.” Capra did not believe that he had a right to be a citizen of America. Rather he was grateful for the privilege of living in America."

https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/frank-capras-america-and-ours/

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/03/books/it-wasn-t-such-a-wonderful-life.html

http://rougholboy.com/capra/

The “gotcha” question—get ready for it

Rubio's already answered the "gotcha" question the media will pose for all Republicans.  It's not on ISIS, EPA regulations, monetary policies, the deficit, Iran’s threat, Israel or did his dog ride outside the car.  It will be this one.  And he said, Yes.  Other candidates could mention 2008 and Obama's lie about supporting traditional marriage in order to get electeed and how he was outed just in time for the 2012 election so he lied again and said he evolved. If evolving is good enough for the president's supporters, then it should be good enough for Republicans replying to the Democratic media that they are evolving on the issue. Now that there are "throuples" wanting recognition of their marriages, perhaps it could be rephrased into something more trendy.

http://www.newsmax.com/US/Marco-Rubio-would-attend-wedding/2015/04/15/

We’ve already been through this some years ago in our family, and they’ve already split.

Look out.

America’s Best Architecture

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zBG1xML8U0

I wouldn’t necessarily call the choices, “the best,” but they are certainly influential. The filming begins with the Salk Institute designed by Louis Kahn in La Jolla, California, moves on to Colorado and the chapel at the US Air Force Academy, Trinity Church in Boston,  the St. Louis Gateway Arch designed by Saarinen, various buildings in Columbus, Indiana, Falling Water by Frank Lloyd Wright in Pennsylvania and the architecture of Chicago.  It leaves out a lot, but is interesting.  Hosts are  artist Mame McCutchin & architect Charlie Luxton and their big van.

#1 man made tourist example in Colorado—Air Force Academy Chapel. 24,000 pieces of glass with colors representing leaving the world coming into the light of God.  The pews are designed to look like old propellers.  Stations of the cross use olive wood from Israel.

This is Henry Hobson Richardson’s Trinity Church in Boston which started a particular style, Richardsonian Romanesque. “Like walking into a painting.”  Next door is the John Hancock tower. I’ve seen these.

When we visited Fallingwater last year with a group from Columbus Museum of Art it was the earliest day in the Spring it was open, so we didn’t see the lush green in this film.  We’ve been on so many wonderful architectural tours with local groups—which is how we saw Columbus, Indiana--this was fun to watch. We’ve also been on a boat ride to see the Chicago architecture—I’ve been to the top of the Sears Tower twice.

I wasn’t familiar with the Reserve Channel, but will continue checking it out.

15 minutes a day with the Harvard classics

If I began on today April 18, it would be in Don Quixote, according to the guide and I would learn how the naming came about. So I would know 15 minutes more than I knew 15 minutes ago.

Here is the guide for reading 15 minutes a day.

And here is an English professor who tried it and found it quite useful.

A Year of 15-Minute Daily Doses From the Harvard Classics

“I discovered that a reading regimen, even if only 15 minutes a day, requires discipline. William James wrote that discipline is needed in the formation of any new habit. In this case, the habit was reading regularly and outside my comfort zone. I often had to fight against an inclination to skip a day. But the relative brevity of the selections kept me on track—a hint to teachers who assign too much and thereby encourage cribbing and cramming. With a 15-minute assignment, I could push on, knowing that the end was near.”  Paula Marantz Cohen, WSJ, Dec. 26, 2014