Why can’t Obama take the tough questions? Bush did.

Buck Sexton writes:  “President Obama's response to Major Garrett today was snide, arrogant, and completely unbecoming of the Office of the President.

You can't ask this President a real question without being scolded.

You can't interrupt the administration's victory dance on this calamitous Iran deal without being punished.

...

It's preposterous to read the commentary from many on this who say the question was "disrespectful to Obama."

First of all, the question was completely legitimate. Not everything is about how awesome Obama needs to look all the time.

But more importantly- with 5 seconds of searching, you can find the kind of questions the press used to ask of President Bush, like this undermining, loaded question tossed at him back in 2006 that accuses him of being a liar and a warmonger:

"QUESTION [Helen Thomas]: I'd like to ask you, Mr. President -- your decision to invade Iraq has caused the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis, wounds of Americans and Iraqis for a lifetime.

Every reason given, publicly at least, has turned out not to be true. My question is: Why did you really want to go to war? From the moment you stepped into the White House, your Cabinet officers, former Cabinet officers, intelligence people and so forth -- but what's your real reason? You have said it wasn't oil, the quest for oil. It hasn't been Israel or anything else. What was it?"

That's what disrespect looks like. “

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/03/21/bush.transcript/

Garden and storage sheds of Lakeside, pt. 5

The graceful, classic gable

I think the door is on the other side, and molding has been added to dress up the window.

I have my suspicions that this might be a reuse of a privy.

It’s difficult to see the colors, but this is behind the classic 19th c. cottage at 4th and Sycamore.  Nice details added.

Handsome and roomy dressed with a nice cupola. Cottage has a gambrel roof with lovely porch.

This is next to the Plymouth House as seen from parking lot.

Some garages become sheds, but I think this is a shed made in a garage design.  It has a foundation and sits above ground.

Somewhere there must be a pink cottage I can’t see. Very large door.

Garden and storage sheds of Lakeside, pt. 4

Gambrel, or barn roof, or Dutch Colonial

You’ll see a lot of gambrel roof styles because it offers the most storage space in the attic when compared to a gable or saltbox style shed roof and at Lakeside every little space counts.

The brick drive way and flower pots dress up this gambrel shed.

This one has extensions.

Healthy ferns add a nice touch and color match.

This one probably has some loft storage.

Obama and Kerry are laughing too

Garden and storage sheds of Lakeside, pt. 3

Basic.  What you see is what you get sheds.

This little shed is made of metal with corrugated roof and a few peek holes for windows. It’s behind Jane and Don Leach’s cottage on Lynn, but based on the property line of hostas, probably belongs to the next cottage.

This one is concrete block, painted gray to match the cottage which is probably early 20th century farm house style.  Also on Lynn.

Here are two off the lot sheds, decorated to match their cottage, simple and inexpensive, but they get the job done.  The one on the left is a gambrel roof (also called barn roof), or Dutch Colonial, which is really the most authentic style since it is from the 1600s.  The Victorian style which many covet for cottage architecture came much later. The owners have dressed it up with shutters and a window box.  The one on the right is a simple gable, and is nice for areas that may get a lot of snow or rain for run off. The double doors really help for limited storage.

These two snugged together have basic shed roofs, but I suspect the one of the right may be an old garage from the old days—there’s just something about those doors.  The other is an off the lot style, and it’s been painted to match the house. The grass was wet when I took the photo, so I didn’t go closer.

This is on South Oak and is so hidden in trees and weeds that I can’t tell if it’s being used for storage.  If it is, no one has been visiting for awhile.  But it’s possible there is an entrance I can’t see from the street. It’s large enough to have been a garage.

Something about this one says chicken coop to me.  Possibly it was moved to this spot from another location. It seems to be much older than the cottage. But it is also possible this was a children’s play house at one time.

Garden and Storage sheds of Lakeside, pt. 2

Artsy and tasteful

You can’t get much more artsy than this charmer—a standard, off the lot, barn shape with a variety of shingles and shapes to create a lake scene lighthouse with a rising (or setting) sun.

And who couldn’t love this little sweetie behind a Second St.cottage. I believe the door was salvaged from the house when an upper deck was made.  In the 1800s, many cottages had a “chapel” theme to reflect the spiritual closeness to nature that church camps and chautauquas offered. This allows some protection for bikes and children’s toys as well as a shed for tools.

This one is also off the lot common, but has been dressed up with shingles to match the house.  It faces Second St. because the house is on the corner. Notice the window box an the convenient wide doors.

This storage shed has small chapel windows to match the 19th century cottage.

Another angle for this little chapel/shed. Nicely shaped doors wide enough for easy access.

I was so sure this lovely shed was a guest house, but a neighbor told me it has always been a shed.  It certainly is cute. It is so well hidden, you’d have to be looking for it to see it.  Next to the parking lot on Third St.

This shed was part of a wonderful renovation of a very old nondescript cottage for Bob and Janet Heishman of Oak Park, IL in the 1990s (since sold).  The shed was really ugly and a different material than the house, but was redesigned to look really nice and has a side extension .  A deck connects it to the house.

This one is so hidden in the back yard, I suspect it might have been a “guest” house in a less fussy time, but is now used for storage.  It has a gable roof, then a smaller gable perpendicular over the door for a covered entry, an flower box at the window. Windows in sheds are necessary so you can see the bugs, bats and spiders as you enter to look for tools or bikes.

I can see four, possible five sheds in this photo, however, it’s the one with its own lean-to or car port I am focusing on. Notice the washtub on the side.  That’s truly a sign from the early 20th century.  And I love the reserved parking sign.

 

Hip roofs are very popular in Lakeside, with a number of “Ross Hips” built in the early 20th century near Perry Park as rentals. This shed has a hip roof and very attractive, stylized doors.

We seem to be a high tide on this drift

Honor the children

In honor and memory of the babies who die daily at the hands of Planned Parenthood, particularly those whose little body parts were sold, please volunteer or make a donation at your local pregnancy center which saves the lives of the unborn, and assists pregnant women. In Columbus that is Pregnancy Decision Health Center, but you probably have some in your city.

http://www.pdhc.org/locations/

Salad recipe

http://simplyhealthyhome.com/bacon-tomato-cucumber-salad/

Planned Parenthood selling body parts

It's such a disgusting business that I supposed we shouldn't be shocked. On the tape, Planned Parenthood's senior director of medical services, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, casually sips her Merlot and discusses the sale of post-abortion infant body parts. And to think there are Christians who support this slaughter through “charitable donation” and electing Democrats.

http://www.caintv.com/planned-parenthood-director-ca

Tom Cotton on the bad Iran deal

"This proposed deal is a terrible, dangerous mistake that's going to pave the path for Iran to get a nuclear weapon while also giving them tens of billions of dollars of sanctions relief, even lifting the arms embargo at a time when they're destabilizing the entire middle east," Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) said in an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "The American people will repudiate this deal and I believe Congress will kill the deal."

Cotton, an Iraq War veteran and the youngest member of the Senate, has been the most vocal opponent of a nuclear deal with Iran. He sent an open letter to Iran's leaders in early March that warned Congress did not intend to honor any potential deal. Forty-seven of Cotton's fellow Republican senators signed the open letter.”

TPM

Robert Putnam speaks at Lakeside

Robert D. Putnam was our program at Lakeside last night--he’s an entertaining, engaging speaker, about my age, married 55 years, a Harvard graduate and college professor.  Even with charts and graphs that show the widening income and behavior gap between upper class (which is growing) and lower class (also growing) and middle class (shrinking) he can hold a large audience‘s attention. He clearly laid out the reasons (particularly for near-by Port Clinton, Ohio, his home town), but his solutions are what one would expect from an academic--more money for education. Twenty years ago his “Bowling alone” book showed how Americans were not pulling together in the communities, clubs, churches and fraternal societies working for the larger good as they had been in the first half of the 20th century.  And that was before the me-phone.

I was shocked to learn that in 1990 Port Clinton’s out of wedlock birth rate was 9% (below the national average) and today just 25 years later is about 40% just a little less than Columbus and above Ohio’s rate. This is not Chicago or Cleveland, but little Port Clinton (ca. 6,000 population, 93% white).  So guess which children are doing better in all measures? Which children are attending church and leaving Port Clinton to go to college?  Children living with married parents who provide economically, spiritually, and socially for them.

And yet he wants education and government to solve this. My belief is that government has contributed to the problem with 128 transfer programs taking money from the middle class to give to the poor that would make a woman think twice or thrice before marrying a guy who cares more about cars and sports than his children, causing her to lose health and housing benefits. Marriage and responsibility help young men become grown ups; the government helps them remain adolescents until they can collect Medicare.

He noted that at the turn of the 20th century Americans decided tax supported high school was important and it made a huge difference in the lives of the poor.  But for some reason I think he’s believing compulsory, government pre-schools and free college will do the same.  Well, not without marriage, and not without jobs—but it will be more jobs for academics and government bureaucracies.

http://robertdputnam.com/about-our-kids/ 

http://robertdputnam.com/about-our-kids/press-release/

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/08/books/review/our-kids-by-robert-d-putnam.html?_r=0

Dylann Roof wasn’t stopped by FBI, but the gun controls were there

“President Obama pushed Americans to call for stricter gun controls in the wake of the June 17 Charleston church massacre, complaining that the admitted killer, Dylann Roof, “had no trouble getting his hands on a gun.”

What the President likely didn’t know when he made those comments is this:  It wasn’t a lack of gun controls, but a bureaucratic failure, that led to Roof obtaining the gun legally, due, it turns out, on a senior FBI document examiner’s unfamiliarity with South Carolina geography.” Christian Science Monitor

However, does anyone believe he wouldn’t have found a way with an illegal gun?

What does Bernie really offer?

Bernie Sander's side has nothing of substance; he trots out socialism which is a total failure (except in all white countries), or which has resulted in the murder of millions by their own governments. So his party (which didn't support Lincoln) has to attack our past. My family has been in the U.S. since colonial times, and no one ever owned a slave. However, free blacks in the South and a few in the North did. So sort that one out, Bernie.

There are millions in slavery today, Columbus Dispatch just reported on some at chicken farms in Ohio, much of it still in Africa, much of it still in Muslim countries just as in the 17th and 18th century. Bernie's team-Democrat is supporting/advocating the deaths of the descendants of those who survived those terrible times. They are destroying their families with government transfers, tying them to the party plantation with "social justice" (just-us) programs.

Bernie's team even in my life time sent people to Congress who had been in the KKK, and who supported Jim Crow and voted against Republican civil rights efforts and anti-lynching laws. As recently as 2010, the Senate president pro tempore was former Exalted Cyclops Robert Byrd, D-W.V. If the South can't be trusted with a symbol, why trust the Democrats who are much, much closer to the problem--like the more recent 20th century? Living Democrats in glass houses had better stop lobbing rocks at dead Confederates. http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/courier/opinion/mona-charen-whitewashing-the-democratic-party-s-history/article_ae2148b7-7ce2-5c3b-abc0-0a45a57b13d7.html

U.S. Talibanners try to destroy Confederate history and memory

Wording on the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument at Gettysburg (dedicated 1965). "A memorial to soldiers and sailors of the Confederacy--South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Texas, Arkansas, North Carolina, Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee, Virginia, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi. Heroic defenders of their country. Their fame shall be an echo and a light unto eternity."

That is until the Democrats try to reinstate the bitterness of the post-war reconstruction era and kill their memories again.

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/04/14/confederate-soldiers-are-american-veterans-by-act-of-congress/

Daughters of the Confederacy put this statue on Johnson’s Island prisoner of war cemetery.  Let’s hope the Talibanners don’t come after it.

China hacked the OPM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/09/report-chinese-hacked-into-the-federal-governments-personnel-office

http://computer.financialexpress.com/news/opm-hack-about-22-million-or-7-of-us-population-data-stolen/12802/

http://money.cnn.com/2015/07/10/technology/opm-hack-fingerprints/index.html

Robert Putnam to speak at Lakeside

I'm not sure how many people will come to Lakeside tonight to hear Dr. Robert D. Putnam. Usually Monday is free movie night. He's a respected author (from Port Clinton, OH) and his topic is "Our kids, the American dream in crisis." I hope he reminds people that [real] marriage is the foundation for pulling kids out of poverty and crime. Our own "war on poverty" has created many of the problems we are experiencing as a nation.

http://robertdputnam.com/

Garden and storage sheds of Lakeside, pt. 1

Let’s start with my neighborhood.  You can see representative styles near by—mostly pre-built, but some designed to fit the needs of the homeowner.

This is ours.  My husband wants a larger one that will easily hold bicycles and the trash cans both, but I think this one fits the size of the house (750 sf). We have 3 bicycles, and maneuvering them is a challenge.  It came with the house (purchased in 1988) and I suspect it was built around that time. My experience after 55 years of marriage is that you fill up whatever amount of storage you have.  So think small.

This is our neighbor’s 6 sided, architect designed storage building on Third Ave., but it is at the street in front instead of behind the cottage.  One of the few I’ve seen like that.  The early 20th c. cottage was updated and remodeled in the 80s and again in the 90s and is covered with Hardie Board which doesn’t need to be painted. It’s a wonderful product for a historical community where you don’t want constant care. We sat on the porch most of one summer wondering what this would be as we watched a crew of carpenters build it.

This is behind one of the oldest cottages at Sycamore and Third—cottage dates from the 1870s.  It’s just a shed, but dressed up with some pottery and sits next to the patio with a trellis.  Huge Chinquapin trees (Quercus muehlenbergii)  provide the shade.

This storage shed was added to the house on Oak St. (all streets north and south are named for trees, with the exception of Lynn which would be Linden)  when it was sided with vinyl some years ago with a little shelter spot for bikes during the summer and a concrete drive for the cars.

This one is also on Oak St., and appears to be a “duplex” with two doors, perhaps at one time also serving the cottage next door (above).

This pleasant design was moved to this cottage from Lynn a few years ago when the owner put this rental up for sale.  It is now white with green shutters, and really provides the new owners with a lot of storage.

Jan likes to keep her shed authentic (unpainted), but festive.  This is also on Oak. Also provides shelter for feral cats which dine on her porch.

Little and big boxes as promoted by media

The U.S. Census Bureau allows us to self identify for statistical gathering and adheres to these 1997 Office of Management and Budget (OMB) standards on race and ethnicity. Notice there is no "Hispanic" or "Latino" because that would be Spain or oddly American Indian (tribal peoples of Central or South America). The Bureau of Prisons, Department of Justice and FBI use different designations for victims and criminals—including ethnicity and country of origin. Some statistical designations include age, and therefore under “millennial” you can have whites as a minority in some states. For the U.S. Census you can claim OPI with Samoan ancestors, but if your family was Zapotec (Mexico) from Oaxaca, which is probably much more common, you won’t even get a write-in.

White – A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.

Black or African American – A person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa.

American Indian or Alaska Native – A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America) and who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment.

Asian – A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander – A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.

A NYT opinion piece thrashes about examining the statistics for board members of various organizations that support parks and environmental issues and finding—you guessed it—discrimination.  I guess they didn’t examine  the age statistics, or leisure time, income, etc. of park visitors.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/opinion/sunday/diversify-our-national-parks.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0  (be sure to read the comments which demolish one person’s opinion) Also, according to U.S. Census, 75% of U.S. is white and not the figure given in this piece.

Camden is a good example of government waste and inefficiency

Camden, New Jersey, is the poorest small city in America and provides a case study of the tragic ineffectiveness of government programs at ameliorating poverty. State and federal taxpayers have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on various redevelopment programs in Camden.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0JorXgqxiU