Feed the children

“In 2014, the federal government spent about $20 billion to reimburse schools, child care centers, and after-school programs for children’s meals. Those programs benefit mainly school-age children from low-income households. . . Under current law, the Congressional Budget Office projects, spending would rise to about $31 billion in nominal dollars by 2025. Adjusted for expected inflation, that value represents an increase of 26 percent over 2014 spending.”

But . . .

“The effects of participating in NSLP, SBP, or other child nutrition programs on children’s nutritional intake, health outcomes, and educational achievement are unclear. Researchers studying that question have often reached conflicting or inconclusive results, in large part because it is often difficult to isolate the effects of the
program from those of other factors.”

Imagine.  Spending $20 billion and having no idea if it helps or hurts or does nothing at all.

https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/114th-congress-2015-2016/reports/50737-ChildNutrition.pdf

Gun Control and Confiscation

News junkie

Yes, that would be me. We don’t get a newspaper (Columbus Dispatch is mostly advertising), but I see several on line, but only see the articles that are are pre –selected for me by some sort of algorithm.

Online versions of print/paper sources (most are left of center in editorial content, except WSJ, which is liberal in news coverage)

Wall Street Journal

Washington Post

New York Times

Columbus Dispatch

LA Times

USA Today (rarely)

Investor’s Business Daily

Online only news sources

Newsmax (conservative)

Huffington Post (liberal)

Daily Beast (liberal)

Vox (liberal

National Review Online (conservative)

Slate (liberal)

TV news

Fox News

World Over (EWTN)

local news channels in Columbus (or Lakeside)

ABC, NBC, CBS occasionally, usually in the morning, or on the kitchen TV which has no cable.

Opinion shows, either radio or TV or internet

Teresa Tomeo (EWTN)

Michael Medved

Dennis Prager

Rush Limbaugh

Glenn Beck

Think Tanks

Manhattan Institute (conservative)

Brookings (liberal)

Ethics and public policy (conservative)

Blogs and Facebook

Ben Carson is right—51% of Islamic-Americans want Sharia Law

Hopefully none of them ever runs for president, because here's what he'd have to say about the U.S. system of government:

• Muzammil Siddiqi, chairman of both the Fiqh Council of North America, which dispenses Islamic rulings, and the North American Islamic Trust, which owns most of the mosques in the U.S.: "As Muslims, we should participate in the system to safeguard our interests and try to bring gradual change, (but) we must not forget that Allah's rules have to be established in all lands, and all our efforts should lead to that direction."

• Omar Ahmad, co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the top Muslim lobby group in Washington: "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Quran should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth."

• CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper: "I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future."

• Imam Siraj Wahhaj, director of the Muslim Alliance in North America: "In time, this so-called democracy will crumble, and there will be nothing. And the only thing that will remain will be Islam."

• Imam Zaid Shakir, co-founder of Zaytuna College in Berkeley, Calif.: "If we put a nationwide infrastructure in place and marshaled our resources, we'd take over this country in a very short time. . . . What a great victory it will be for Islam to have this country in the fold and ranks of the Muslims."

Read More At Investor's Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-perspective/100115-773707-tapper-scolding-of-carson-ignores-islamic-fifth-column-building-inside-america.htm#ixzz3nVI9A5iW

#bencarson

Journey Home

When the world is going to hell in a hand basket, I like to tune into “Journey Home” with Marcus Grodi, host.  A former Presbyterian pastor, he interviews in a very calm and soothing voice people of various faiths who have converted to Catholicism, or have returned to Catholicism after a life time away from the church.  Certain stories have similar elements:  the guest almost always has had a good Christian upbringing and family, lost their faith or drifted in college, married, had a family, some life changing events, worked through a variety of church experiences, joined a variety of churches, and eventually “comes home.”  Often, it is through reading the church fathers and finding out how true to the Bible the early church was. Occasionally, it’s a direct encounter with the Holy Spirit. Today was a former Episcopalian and paramedic (recorded Sept. 28)  who did ice rescues in an earlier life, now a Roman Catholic Deacon and a nurse practitioner.

http://www.ewtn.com/tv/live/journeyhome.asp

Obama’s Tally

Obama asked us to tally some numbers yesterday in his speech after the college shooting in Oregon, during which 90% was devoted to gun control and he mentioned himself 28 times. In this speech he praised 2 countries that have confiscated guns something his defenders claimed was just right wing hysteria before. Compare deaths by terrorists on our soil to gun violence deaths, he said. Daily Digest reports via National Review that in five states alone (Arizona, California, Florida, New York and Texas), more than 5,400 people have been murdered by illegal aliens. That is more than all Americans killed defending our nation against terrorism in both Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/424921/one-more-note-illegal-aliens-and-crime-peter-kirsanow

Elizabeth Warren is a bully—beats up on Democrats

“This week Elizabeth Warren succeeded in forcing the resignation of respected scholar Robert Litan from the Brookings Institution after he revealed that a new Labor Department regulation could cost investors billions. Now five Democratic economists have authored a letter to protest Warren’s bullying. Robert Lawrence of Harvard’s Kennedy School and Bowman Cutter of the Roosevelt Institute are among those writing “to express our concern over our colleague Bob Litan’s treatment at the hands of the Brookings Institution and Senator Elizabeth Warren.””

http://www.wsj.com/articles/democratic-economists-vs-elizabeth-warren-1443785001

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/sep/30/elizabeth-warren-brookings-institution-fellow-quit-lobbying

http://thehill.com/policy/finance/255298-top-brookings-economist-forced-out-over-biz-backes-study

Obama has been snookered by Putin—yet again

Are you prepared for the hurricane?

If it hits land, it’s climate change; if it goes out into the Atlantic it’s nothing but Mother Nature.

Church of the Brethren won’t forget their girls

These may not be the girls about which we heard so much in April 2014, and which were quickly forgotten except by the Church of the Brethren (EYN), the largest Christian group in Nigeria. That denomination has been devastated by Boko Haram. Unfortunately most of these girls appear to be pregnant.

http://www.mamamia.com.au/news/boko-haram-girls-freed/

•More than 500 women and children kidnapped, many of whom are EYN members
•3,038 EYN members killed
•Around three million people affected
•96,000 EYN members are displaced—needing shelter, food and water
•37 of 50 EYN districts are impacted
•18 districts are closed in areas now controlled by Boko Haram
•280 EYN pastors and evangelists are displaced

From the COB website: As the escaped Chibok girls return to school and society, one of them reported, “Education gives me the wings I need to fly.”

Legal doesn’t always mean moral or right

Yesudas, the famous singer you’ve probably not heard of

Isn’t the internet amazing?  Finding things you didn’t know you wanted to read. . .

I was browsing the archives of the Gospel Messenger for another story (1947) when I came across a film announcement, “Yesudas, the Outcaste,”  about a boy from India who becomes a Christian. It was making the rounds of the various Church of the Brethren congregations and meetings, I suppose to encourage interest in missions.  So I decided to look it up, and didn’t find it, but found out about Yesudas, a Christian Indian singer, probably more famous in his own country than Taylor Swift or Frank Sinatra in ours. He’s also a Bollywood film star.   His name means servant (das) of Jesus (Yesu), but I doubt if the boy in the film and the man who became a famous film star and singer are one in the same.  He’s about my age and still performing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtZHDQCy3EM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E08UYGssJEg

With his wife of 40+ years.

From his website: “He performs classical concerts in the courtyards of mosques, temples and churches, and strives to bring people of all religions together through music. Many of his songs have carried sublime messages of love, goodwill and brotherhood.”

He believes women should dress modestly, and that has brought him criticism, but his wife believes in traditional Biblical values, that men should be the head of the home.

The Kerala-born singer, who has been conferred with the honours like Padma Sri and Padma Vibhushan, said when women wear jeans, others are forced to look beyond that (jeans). Yesudas was inaugurating cleanliness drive under Swachh Bharat Campaign at Swathi Tirunal Music College in Thiruvananthapuram.

“What should be covered must be covered. Our culture involves the beauty which should be covered. Women should not trouble others by wearing jeans. When they put on jeans, men are tempted to look beyond that (jeans),” he said. “Women’s beauty lies in their modesty. They should not try to become like men. They should not force others to do unnecessary things by wearing jeans, which would give them magnetism,” Yesudas added. The Indian Express

Now I’ve “liked” his Facebook page with about 196,000 other “friends.”

Get the popcorn ready—winter’s coming

There's a good reason you don't see me review many films; I rarely go to a movie. However, an 8 hour flight across the ocean with a lot of movies on the back of the seat in front of mine gave me the opportunity to see recent releases. Right before touch down in Philadelphia I finished "Clouds of Sils Maria" (2014) with Juliette Binoche which went to DVD this July. Good, absorbing movie about relationships for your next movie night at home. Another one I recommend which I watched in flight is "Age of Adaline" (2015) with Blake Lively, about a woman who remains 29 years old for 80 years. Cast includes Harrison Ford and Ellen Burstyn.

While I was watching a rather elderly Ellen Burstyn (an outstanding actress), my husband next to me was watching her 40 years younger in “Alice doesn’t live here anymore.” (Later adapted for a TV series Alice.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UzSekc0LoQ Trailer for Adaline.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/20/way-up-high  Review from New Yorker for Sils Maria, with the reviewer narcissistically giving us much more about what he knows than is necessary, but still fairly accurate.

Which Spanish language?

And we think we've got language problems!  Spanish?  Lots of people living in Spain don't want to use it! They want their own regional language. Although my knowledge of Spanish is limited, I could certainly hear the differences between what is spoken in Spain and here in north America. Everyone sounded like they were lisping. You could see their tongues moving with c, s or z, and many cities had signage in two languages.  We flew into the airport at Murcia, the capital of the region of Murcia, which is sort of pronounced, MORTH ee ah there instead of mer SEE ah as we had learned it. When checking our bag in Madrid, the clerk wasn’t sure where we were going!  It’s between Valencia and Andalucía.

Wikipedia says, "Due to massive emigration from Andalusia to the Spanish colonies in the Americas and elsewhere, most American Spanish dialects share some fundamental characteristics with Western Andalusian Spanish, such as the use of ustedes instead of vosotros for the second person plural, and seseo. Many varieties of Spanish, such as Canarian Spanish, Caribbean Spanish and other Latin American Spanish dialects, including their standard dialects, are considered by most to be based on Andalusian Spanish."

In Catalonia, north of Valencia, home of Barcelona, there are four languages with official status in Catalonia. But Castilian Spanish and Catalan are the major ones.  That region was having a referendum on secession and language was just one issue. (Catalan was not used during the Franco dictatorship.) Mainly they were unhappy with 13% of the wealth in the country, they paid 20% of the taxes.  That probably sounds very reasonable to the 10% of Americans who pay 68% of our federal income taxes.

Hola. We're home from Spain

We're home from Spain after a wonderful 2 week trip for our 55th anniversary. Home. Where the big stories when I turned on the TV were a new Oreo flavor (Cinnabun) and a stolen dog instead of the visits of Xi Jinping, Pope Francis, Putin, millions if refugees pouring into Europe, and the richest province in Spain (Catalonia) trying to secede because they pay too many taxes and don't want to speak Spanish. Ah. Finally. Important stuff.

Your post cards should arrive in a week or two, but it's probably not worth it (if you're planning a trip). It costs one euro (about $1.12) to send a post card to U.S. (less in Europe), and you don't even get a pretty stamp for your trouble, only a label. Generally, things in Spain are a very good buy for people with Euros, just not at the post office.

In Spain we were hosted by our Finnish friends, Martti and Riitta Tulamo, who are friends from 1979-81, their years in Columbus as students, and are now a retired horse surgeon and architect, enjoying the good life, and the most fabulous tour guides ever. An added bonus was seeing about 600 photos of Virve's wedding in May at a castle in Estonia plus the places we visited in 2006 in Finland when we visited there. They provided the apartment and all the driving to special tourist spots, plus critical information we needed. 

I'm a news junkie, so in Spain every accommodation we experienced had different cable channels we enjoyed. In our Madrid hotel (Sidorme) we watched American series reruns of Monk, Closer and Castle along with spaghetti westerns in Spanish with Spanish subtitles; in Torreviaja our apartment cable selection was different than our hosts’ selection, and was primarily international news channels in English--China, BBC, Russia, Arabic, Algeria, France, Japan, Korea--great coverage of business and international events, wonderful documentaries with revisionist history (from our view point), and zero criticism of their own countries' government and policies. Hmm. We could learn from this. Oh, and the women journalists were lovely but well covered--very modest by our standards.

During our two wonderful weeks in sunny Spain, we encountered rain only one day on tour. Our umbrella and rain gear were back in the hotel (of course), so we were soaked while I was attempting to use a cane on slick stones. So one of my souvenirs is a new pink umbrella purchased in the village San Lorenzo de El Escorial at the monastery El Escorial, NW of Madrid.

I didn't gain a pound in Spain despite the fabulous meals which included very few vegetables (unless chocolate counts). After virtually no cheese or bread in 6 months, I had them at least once or twice a day. Perhaps walking with a cane on cobble stone streets takes a lot of calories? Our cat, who lived for 2 weeks with our daughter and her tiny Chihuahua, seems to have gained some. Little beggar.

I had no Facebook or e-mail, and really, didn't miss it. We made conversation the old fashioned way—face to face.  We met many wonderful people waiting in line for various tourist spots like cathedrals, mountain castles, Roman fortresses, Moorish architectural wonders, and great restaurants. Belgium, Holland, England, Finland, Montreal, Colombia, Poland, Philippines, Japan and even Bellefontaine and Marion, Ohio. Tourism is enormous and critical to the economy--and snatching a few minutes in garbled English about best places to visit was fun.

We almost couldn't find bad food, and the supermarkets were fabulous with very reasonable prices and great variety. Always look for "Menu del Dia" a mid-day special usually with 2 or 3 courses including bread, wine and dessert. Super highways and secondary roads put ours to shame.

Except for waiters and hotel staff and the ubiquitous China stores (Chinese immigrants thrive in Spain), we met few Spaniards, but Spain seems the most monochromatic, ethnically similar place I've ever visited. Spain, except in the southern most regions of Andalucía and Valencia near Morocco, must be about 98% white. Really handsome people, with gorgeous women and great flair for fashion. Only after 50 do the women pack on the pounds. A few gypsies, and some Africans, but TV and employment opportunities seem entirely Caucasian. Each province and state and city has its own culture, language, fiestas, and regional food, but in skin tone, not much difference.

The worst problem we saw was graffiti--it's everywhere from high rises, to highway overpasses, to ancient ruins, to construction sites. Very ugly and I never got used to it.

I’ll be taking a blogging break, but I’ll be back

There are Americans who believe we are “The Great Satan” along with Iranian leaders

Self hate is not attractive, Democrats.

Blood on his hands and unpaid taxes on the profits

Terrie Hubbard owner of Capital Care Network abortion clinics (Toledo and Columbus) and manager/operator of the Columbus Founder's clinic, has been sued by the City of Columbus for failing to pay back taxes on an estimated $1.2 million dollars of the estimated 1.6 million earned from 2011 to 2013. In a lien filed a few weeks ago on back-taxes in 2012 and in a lawsuit filed in May for 2013 taxes, Columbus claims the clinic owes more than $50,000.

That is a lot of blood money. How many babies have to die to get that sort of profit? A "good" abortionist can make more before lunch of one day than keeping those patients full term. Don't tell me it's about women's health--it's the money.

According to Secretary of State records, Founders is owned by Downtown Gynecologists. Downtown Gynecologists is owned by a trio of physicians, two of whom perform abortions at Founders and one of whom is a retired OBGYN and appears to be a member of Worthington City Council. (GCRTL, Greater Columbus Right to Life story)

More research on diverging classes going nowhere

“In 2013–14, Harvard Business School (HBS) conducted its third alumni survey on U.S. competitiveness. Our report on the findings focuses on a troubling divergence in the American economy: large and midsize firms have rallied strongly from the Great Recession, and highly skilled individuals are prospering. But middle- and working-class citizens are struggling, as are small businesses."

Isn't that a shock.  Here’s my take, Porter and Rivkin.

1)  The transfers, billions and billions, are not factored in for the lowest income;

2) those transfers often result in a single mom with 2 kids using 5 or 6 of the more popular programs like SNAP, Medicaid, Section 8, EITC, will have twice the income of the new minimum, so even if she wanted a good job, we've disincentivized her from accomplishing anything.

3) Government regulations are killing the very small businesses, maybe in her neighborhood, that would employ her and provide the tax base which would give her and the kids a future.

4) The most recent Obamacare mandates and EPA regulations are hurting the poor and low income the hardest by damaging small businesses, further preventing them from moving up. Beefing up the bridges and roads and stiffening education requirements will hardly undo that damage.

Quickly looking through the report I see the authors suggest more money for public transportation and more money for education and basic skill building.

http://www.hbs.edu/competitiveness/Documents/an-economy-doing-half-its-job.pdf

Obama’s legacy? A destroyed Democrat party?

No two-term president in recent times has seen his party clobbered in both midterm elections. Politico, a left of center political website: 

“When Obama came into the White House, it seemed like the Democrats had turned a corner generationally; at just 47, he was one of the youngest men to be elected as president. But the party has struggled to build a new generation of leaders around him. Eight years later, when he leaves office in 2017 at 55, he’ll actually be one of the party’s only leaders not eligible for Social Security. Even as the party has recently captured more young voters at the ballot box in presidential elections, its leaders are increasingly of an entirely different generation; most of the party’s leaders will fade from the national scene in the years ahead. Its two leading presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are 67 and 73. The sitting vice president, Joe Biden, is 72. The Democratic House leader, Nancy Pelosi, is 75; House Whip Steny Hoyer is 76 and caucus Chair James Clyburn is 75, as is Harry Reid, the Senate Democratic leader, who will retire next year. It’s a party that will be turning to a new generation of leaders in the coming years—and yet, there are precious few looking around the nation’s state houses, U.S. House or Senate seats.

Barack Obama took office in 2009 with 60 Democrats in the Senate—counting two independents who caucused with the party—and 257 House members. Today, there are 46 members of the Senate Democratic caucus, the worst showing since the first year after the Reagan landslide. Across the Capitol, there are 188 Democrats in the House, giving Republicans their best showing since Herbert Hoover took the White House in 1929.

This is, however, the tip of the iceberg. When you look at the states, the collapse of the party’s fortunes are worse. Republicans now hold 31 governorships, nine more than they held when Obama was inaugurated. During the last six years the GOP has won governorships in purple and even deep blue states: Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio. In the last midterms, only one endangered Republican governor—Tom Corbett in Pennsylvania—was replaced by a Democrat. (Sean Parnell in Alaska lost to an independent.) Every other endangered Republican returned to office.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/08/democratic-blues-121561#ixzz3lSgRv52K

Unfortunately, the Republican voters, or those registered that way, are chasing after Donald Trump and appear to be throwing away this opportunity to have another “Team of Rivals” in our federal government.