Equal pay day

Dumb and dumber. "The national observance of Equal Pay Day recognizes the wage gap between working women and men, and offers remedies to address pay inequity. Columbus Museum of Art and Women’s Fund of Central Ohio are partnering to present ‪#‎wageart‬, Equal Pay Day, a day-long event to make the gender income gap more visible and to position the role of art in generating awareness. Please note: Museum admission for the day will be adjusted for gender income inequality, $10.78 for adult admission for women, and evening admission is donation based, benefiting The Women’s Fund of Central Ohio."

Well, I certainly wouldn't attend something that charged by gender, and by the way, what if someone transitioning shows up. Will they ask for a birth certificate? DNA sample? Art is definitely in the eye of the beholder (or listener), and I know plenty of men who put too high prices on their terrible art, and it doesn't sell. Women do it, too. If a male silversmith spends 80 hours a week at his craft (with a wife who works for pay) and eventually sells something for a colossal price years later, and a female quilter who works her craft around the babies, and displays at the state fair occasionally, but gets barely enough to pay for materials, I don't call that inequity. It's art. My husband paints watercolors and there are many female water colorists who charge 6 times what he does and they get it.

Abortion is about profit, not "health"

"The modern abortion culture that once said it was all about “safe, legal, and rare” has today set mothers against their own children as though they are enemies. Instead of providing genuine counseling and support for women during a difficult time and a hard decision, staff members add up tallies on white boards listing the clinic’s abortion quotas for the month, according to what we have heard from former managers of abortion clinics. Managers of those clinics recount being told that “everyone who is pregnant who comes through the door gets an abortion.” Clinic workers are told to “up-sell” everyone with additional testing, products, and services — all to improve the bottom line. Basically, the clinics are looking for profit.  http://www.nationalreview.com/article/433689/abortion-clinics-quotas-profits

Abortion clinics that 15 years ago would’ve spent an hour with young pregnant women now brag that they see five women in an hour. Many of today’s clinics perform webcam abortions, except in states where these have been banned because of numerous life-threatening injuries and deaths resulting from the practice."

 

Today I mailed a contribution for the legal defense of David Daleiden, facing three law suits from Planned Parenthood which receives half a billion in federal funds every year to kill the unborn, The National Abortion Federation, and the biotech company Stem Express.  They are after him for those damning videos--you remember, don't you? The PP abortionist who sipped her wine and nibbled her salad while discussing how she could crush a living baby just right to keep the body parts in good shape for sale to a medical research lab. Or the PP council member who joked about hoping to get enough to buy a Lamborghini sports car ($200,000). Ghouls and witches.

California Attorney General, Kamala Harris, who has contributed over $80,000 to Planned Parenthood ordered a home seizure of Daleiden's property. Serious, serious conflict of interest. And believe it or not, this prize is running for Barbara Boxer's seat!  http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/apr/6/kamala-harris-california-ag-behind-daleiden-raid-s/

How much lower can Democrats go?

Who is hurt when you don't forgive?

Mary Poplin writes: "I was with Mother Teresa in Calcutta when [Christopher] Hitchens’ book came out, following his critical BBC movie. I had the opportunity to ask Mother about it and, struggling to recall the incident, she replied, “Oh, the book. It matters not. He is forgiven.” She and the sisters simply obeyed Christ’s commandment to forgive unconditionally.

Some say that not forgiving is like drinking poison hoping the other person dies. The sisters, read his book, prayed and fasted, examined themselves for any error, and let it go. They were free of his vitriol; he was bound by it."

You won't find it at my church either, Margaret

From a commenter at a Catholic blog:

"I have been to many Masses in many parishes over my long lifetime, and I can't remember the last time I heard a homily against abortion, gay "marriage," artificial birth control, cohabitation, etc.---all issues that have contributed to the "social disaster" in our country. The Sunday after the Supreme Court legalized gay "marriage", I heard not a word about it at Mass then or since, but we did have a "great" homily that Sunday on protecting the environment!"

Easter greeting

“O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory? Christ is risen, and you are overthrown. Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen. Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice. Christ is risen, and life reigns. Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave. For Christ, being risen from the dead, is become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.”
St. John Chrysostom – Paschal Sermon

Flash back to April 2014

Trump on abortion and punishing the woman

It's like the "when pigs fly" question. I'm strongly pro-life. Met (on the internet) yesterday a 70 year old pastor adopted at birth who was the result of incest/rape, a story of how God brings something good out of evil like Joseph being sold by his brothers and later saving a whole nation. So I don’t make exceptions to kill the baby for the man’s crime. However, “IF abortion becomes illegal,” will never happen, and that was Matthews question. And when it was illegal up to the 1970s, all those ridiculous stories about women dying in back alley abortions were just that, and the movement has admitted the phony statistics because the ends justified the means. Trump stepped into a gotcha question—in his thinking, and most who claim to be conservatives, if you violate a law, you pay for it. Except you really don’t. I’m guessing he doesn’t either as a business man. How many rich kids go to jail for marijuana possession, or a heroine overdose, and how many CEOs go to jail for cooking the books. Did President Clinton go to jail for having sex with a staff member, which in most companies would have at least cost him his job, laws put in place by progressives wanting to protect women from aggressive bosses. 

 

Everyone who participates in an abortion is killing a living human being—the parents, the abortionist, the nurse, the clerk who does the paper work, the friend who drives the mother to the clinic, the donor who helps pay the bills, the legislator who made it possible, the pharmaceutical company who makes the drugs or company who creates and sells the special equipment. Even the insurance company which covers it (many churches have this coverage for their staff). Right now it is legal to do that. But whether or not they will ever be prosecuted in the U.S. in anything but their own soul, can’t even be imagined. 

 

The law is over 40 years, and you can’t go back. There are millions of women who regret their abortions (and probably just as many who don’t), and only through God’s forgiveness for what they have done can they be whole. It is estimated over 60% are pressured into it, by boyfriends, parents, or peers, and in my opinion, they need to do some soul searching also.

Contraception

"Humanae Vitae was issued in 1968. It is fair to say that it dropped on the world like a bomb. It marked the beginning of a huge divide in the Church. Major theologians held press conferences and told Catholics they did not need to live by this decision, that it was based on inadequate understanding of natural law and that Catholics were free to do what their consciences told them to about contraception. It is certainly true that Catholics are obliged always to act by their conscience. But we must remember that the conscience is not an individual's opinion. The conscience is really the place within – it's called the inner sanctuary – where a person talks with God and tries to find out what God deems to be right. A judgment of the conscience should not be what the individual judges to be right, but what God judges to be right. If a Catholic is confused about contraception, he or she needs to ask: What does God think about contraception?
But how do we know what God thinks? Catholics naturally look to the Church to learn what God thinks since Catholics belong to a church that claims to be guided by God, the Holy Spirit.

After one of my talks, a woman told me that her conscience was perfectly comfortable with contraception. I told her I didn't want to be judgmental but there's a problem with that statement. If the conscience is the sanctuary where God speaks to a person, where the Holy Spirit guides us, what she is saying is that the Holy Spirit has managed to tell her that contraception is moral. That same Holy Spirit did not manage to inform Pope John Paul II that contraception is moral. Pope John Paul II was on his knees praying for more hours in any given day than most of us are in a month's time. And he certainly did not want to place burdens on people. In his prayer he undoubtedly asked the Holy Spirit: What do you want me to tell your people? How do I guide them? How do I bring them closer to Christ? We know he did not hear the Holy Spirit tell him to teach that contraception is moral." Janet E. Smith, Contraception: Why Not?

Some consider the abortion pill contraception.  Now the FDA has extended its kill time to 10 weeks. We know the babies die; and some mothers will, too.
 http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/abortion-pill-fda-rules/2016/03/30/id/721570/
 http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/fdas-abortion-pill-expansion-targets-babies-up-to-10-weeks-into-pregnancy-96027/

Most powerful Christian in U.S. dies on Easter at 92

You went a long way, Rita Rizzo of Akron, Ohio.  Mother Angelica created EWTN, the largest Roman Catholic television network in the U.S. with $200, a makeshift studio in a monastery’s garage in Irondale, Alabama, and one on-air personality, herself. The first time I heard her on the radio with her outspoken viewpoints on what was wrong and right in the world whether it was domestic abuse, poverty or the Vatican, I couldn't believe it. Funny, opinionated, deeply religious, and technologically savvy. Beginning in 1981 with nothing but a vision, her little EWTN is now a huge network with 24-hour-a-day programming to more than 264 million homes in 144 countries. The most powerful hierarchy and bishops in the land couldn't have done this. A child of divorce (at a time when it was a terrible sin) and poverty, she grew up in Canton, OH. She had a stroke 15 years ago, so I probably never heard her live. In my opinion, next to the Pope, she may have been the most powerful and influential Catholic in the world. And to die on Easter. Oh my.

In 1957 facing back surgery, she made a "deal" with God--"If you let me walk again, I'll build a monastery." She did walk again, with crutches and leg braces, and built the monastery, Our Lady of Angels, in Alabama. "When you make a deal with God," she said, "be very specific." (Story told by her biographer, Raymond Arroyo.) Her crippled legs were healed in 1998 and she removed the braces.
 
 She was 58 years old (and had already built a monastery) when she got her vision for spreading the gospel via radio and TV. I was planning my retirement at that age! She was way ahead of the Pope when he called for the New Evangelism. USCCB wasted millions trying to do what she did. Now critics of EWTN say it needs to change, it did its job, its audience is aging and so is the staff. Everyone chases the millennials. Your church and mine included. It's why the Pope has a Twitter account and your pastor wears jeans instead of a robe.She wasn't afraid to tell a bishop or cardinal to go stick his head in a toilet, or announce he wasn't preaching Catholic doctrine, and then under pressure would give an insincere apology. When liberal bishops talked to John Paul II about ordaining women she chastised them and said women were already the most powerful in the church and didn't need to be priests.

Originally, Mother Angelica said she wouldn't let the culture set her agenda--it would be scripture and the catechism. But by the early 90s, she was so sick of the liberal agenda, she jumped into the fight.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y35TxlQkICI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXh6VcYHMBI

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

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYxdvGmFWj4

Homeless outing in Licking County

One of our Ohio branch campuses of OSU is having an event to draw attention to homelessness. 

"The Ohio State University at Newark Dean/Director William L. MacDonald, Ph.D., will be sleeping outside on April 7 at the shared campus of Ohio State Newark and Central Ohio Technical College with United Way Executive Director Deb Dingus to kick off 50 the United Way and bring awareness to homelessness in Licking County." OSU news On Campus, March 24, 2016

It might be useful to assign good students and staff to compile a list of all the federal, state, and local tax supported programs for Licking County, add in the church charities and non-profits, and then figure out the overlap and wasted resources and determine if this homelessness is lack of income for available housing stock, mental illness, a temporary expulsion from a home situation due to misbehavior or domestic violence, or inefficient use of resources by professionals (social workers, government employees and academics).

The U.S. spends approximately $22,000+ per person in the low income/poor bracket available through tax supported programs. That’s $88,000 for a household of one mother and 3 children on top of what other income she might have. That doesn’t include food pantries, free medical clinics, church employment training, etc. Only one nation (Norway) spends more per person on social welfare than the U.S. USDA reports that only 4 percent of poor children were hungry for even a single day in the prior year because of a lack of funds for food. (http://www.irp.wisc.edu/publications/dps/pdfs/dp138710.pdf http://www.nationalreview.com/article/424009/poverty-us-we-spend-much-more-person-social-welfare-europe-does-robert-rector)

After the Dean draws attention to homelessness in Licking County, Ohio, will anything change?

Book Reviews--no thank you

Everyday I am offered 2-3 books to review and mention on one of my blogs or on Facebook. These are free, and rarely worth keeping or recommending, but occasionally I get something really good, like the very first book by Pope Francis, co-authored with Benedict, or an interesting first novel or a pink NIV Bible for elementary school girls. Today it was another anti-Catholic, anti-religious book about child abuse. Here’s my not surprising response (I usually just send a “Thanks, not this time” reply).

“Sorry, wrong reviewer, Lissy. I realize you’re just doing your job. Everyday I open the paper or see on the local news about a teacher or coach or youth organization leader who has been charged with crimes against children, yet no one blames the public school system, which has far more employees than religious organizations. And at the same time, we ordinary citizens are called “transphobic” if we don’t want sexually intact men wearing make up and dresses in little girls’ restrooms. Crazy world. This sounds like another religious witch hunt, and we know how those end.”

One time I was sent something on race relations that was really intended to worsen them instead of improve them, so I sent a similar note. Surprisingly, the gal wrote back and apologized, told me she felt the same way (she was black), but needed the job and worked out of her home.

Alcoholic finds Christ and her writing vocation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzEfMfs5qFQ

Heather King, who lives in LA and is a Catholic, tells her story of addiction and compulsion to coming to sobriety and joy, and then her vocation, writing. I found her reading her blog, which included this video. Funny, inspiring and entertaining.  You'll love this. I learned so much--and enjoyed her talk thoroughly.

"I'm an ex-barfly Catholic convert and I'm proud. I write, speak, give retreats, edit, and clean bathrooms.

Look for my monthly column, "Credible Witnesses," in MAGNIFICAT; and "The Crux," my weekly column on arts and culture in TIDINGS, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of L.A.

My heroes are Flannery O'Connor ("The writer has no rights except those he forges for himself within his own work”) and the late comic Bill Hicks ("Play from your F-ING heart!")."

Poor Baby, her book (essay) about abortion, available on Amazon.

" I came of age during the ‘60’s and ‘70’s. I’m a former waitress, an ex-lawyer, a sober barfly, a Catholic convert, and a self-supporting writer. I’ve been financially independent all my life. But I’ve never much been able to reduce the mystical to the political. I’ve never been much moved to call myself a feminist. The feminists had said that sleeping around would be empowering. The feminists had maintained that “choosing” would make me free. The feminists had asserted that there’d be no repercussions. The feminists had been wrong. That I’m for life—and against abortion, war, the prison industry, capital punishment, and the destruction of all that is most precious in us and the people around us—is a given. That I’m for life is why I suffered, in silence, in guilt, in sorrow, for over twenty years. Even women, who will talk about anything, don’t talk about abortion. But I do, in this 10,000-word essay that I hope might open the door to a new way of thinking about and talking about this difficult subject. Because abortion is not a political issue; abortion is a mystical issue. Abortion is a matter of emotional and spiritual poverty, of what we inherit from our parents and what we pass on to our children, of what we absorb from a culture that is saturated with violence. As Dostoevsky observed: “Love in reality is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams.” "Poor Baby" is the tragicomic story of a harsh and dreadful thing. May it shed some light on our collective yearning for love. NOTE: POOR BABY is a 54-page essay, not a full-length book."

http://shirtofflame.blogspot.com/p/books.html

Donald Trump's qualifications to be President

I saw this on Facebook, and have no idea of the provenance, authenticity or truthfulness of the author (who said he was a Democrat).

Life long voting democrat and blue collar: Lets check out Trump's presidential qualifications:

Obama is against Trump
The Media is against Trump
The establishment Democrats are against Trump
The establishment Republicans are against Trump...
The Pope is against Trump
The UN is against Trump
The EU is against Trump
China is against Trump
Mexico is against Trump
Soros is against Trump
Black Lives Matter is against TrumpMoveOn.Org is against Trump
Koch Bro's are against Trump
Hateful, racist, violent Liberals are against Trump.

 

Bonus points
Cher says she will leave the country
Mylie Cyrus says she will leave the country
Whoopi says she will leave the country
Rosie says she will leave the country
Al Sharpton says he will leave the country
Gov. Brown says California will build a wall.

Trump for President!
------------------------------
I believe the SuperPac lady who left the campaign who said he never intended to run; but did so well at the beginning, he just continued.  His political advisors are very frustrated with his open mouth insert foot campaign, the latest being women getting abortions should be punished, which later had to be retracted, and his "3 most important functions of the federal government being security, education and healthcare," 2 out of 3 of which are the Democrat platform.

Ten Conservative Principles by Russell Kirk

And Donald Trump doesn't fit any of them.

Ten conservative Principles

Sixth, conservatives are chastened by their principle of imperfectability. Human nature suffers irremediably from certain grave faults, the conservatives know. Man being imperfect, no perfect social order ever can be created. Because of human restlessness, mankind would grow rebellious under any utopian domination, and would break out once more in violent discontent—or else expire of boredom. To seek for utopia is to end in disaster, the conservative says: we are not made for perfect things. All that we reasonably can expect is a tolerably ordered, just, and free society, in which some evils, maladjustments, and suffering will continue to lurk.

Sorting Christmas cards at Easter

 

Since we were having Easter dinner here in two days, I thought it might be time to put away the Christmas cards. I take one last look, keep the letters and photos (which after 55 years is now a huge box for my kids to go through when I graduate to the next phase) and toss the rest.

Three things I have to pass on to you.

1) NEVER send cards with sparkles! My goodness. What a mess. My couch and jeans were covered.

2) Please, always write your last name!!! By the time I sort and throw the cards out, the envelopes are long gone and I get confused by all the Nancys, Jims, and Johns.

3) Third, I was rereading a handwritten note from my cousin Sharon and since she is (I assume) a U.S. citizen but has lived in Canada since her marriage 55+ years ago to Angus, she is paying attention to our election, but is seeing Canadian news sources. She writes: “Only Cruz and Trump use the words radical Muslims. I just heard Islam may not qualify as a religion under the Constitution. It only contains 15% religion and the rest is political ideology, which could take you anywhere even violence, depending on who is running the service even having you pledge allegiance to them. Maybe there is something going on here.” I had heard something similar—that it is a cultural ideology not a religion.I know this doesn’t sound like a Christmas greeting, but she also included her travels, health report and weather for Toronto. And it is all handwritten!

Then going through the cards I found notes I hadn't responded to, so I phoned Ann, a local call, who had scribbled something about genealogy that really puzzled me, but she was referring to a chapter in a book from 2003 that I had contributed. Stories of Ohio; tales my grandparents told me, by Dorothy Briss.

I had a note from my college roommate, Dora, and attempted to e-mail her but it bounced, and I looked her up on Google and phoned her in Boston. We had a great chat. Among the cards were some that had been returned to me that I had sent relatives in a nursing home years ago, which included an address for a cousin my aunt had requested. So I googled her, and found out she had died in late December. She and I had corresponded for years about genealogy, but I'd never met her. She's been a Church of the Brethren missionary in Nigeria, and one of the memorial suggestions was for the girls kidnapped by Boko Haram, because that was the area where she served. Marianne Michael was 98.

Easter Blessings

I'll be off line for a few days. 

Six failures of Obamacare--according to John McCain

Although I thought John McCain was a very weak candidate to go against Obama in 2008--old white military hero of memory against a young handsome black hope and change vision for the future, I'm still getting e-mails from him.  Today I received this--and he's speaking for Arizona, although it's much the same in other states.

1. HURTING THE ECONOMY: The CBO has projected that Obamacare will result in 2.5 million fewer full-time jobs by 2024 and increase taxes by $1.2 trillion in the next decade. During these tough economic times, [Arizona] Congresswoman Kirkpatrick stands by her vote as her constituents face job losses and higher taxes.
   
2. INCREASED DEDUCTIBLES: This year, Arizonans are facing a 21% increase in health care insurance deductibles. Yet, Congresswoman Kirkpatrick has done nothing to reduce these higher costs on Arizona families.
   
3. FAILED INSURANCE CO-OPS: The Arizona insurance co-op was removed from the Federal Marketplace resulting in 59,000 Arizonans losing their health insurance. Congresswoman Kirkpatrick continues to stand by Obamacare, proclaiming it as her proudest vote.
   
4. FALSE ASSURANCES ABOUT OBAMACARE: Despite her previous assurances, Americans who liked their plans were not able to keep them. Congresswoman Kirkpatrick even contradicted her own support of maintaining existing health insurance policies by voting against the Keep Your Own Health Plan Act.
   
5. INCREASED PREMIUMS: After voting to pass Obamacare, Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick announced that the new law would expand protections to consumers. Unfortunately, Arizona families have only seen tremendous increases in their premiums each year with no relief in sight. In fact last year alone, premiums increased by an average of 17.5 percent in Arizona.
   
6. FEWER CHOICES: Fewer insurers are offering Obamacare plans on the 2016 exchanges, according to a report from Government Accountability Office and federal and state Obamacare exchange data. Congresswoman Kirkpatrick promised more choice and competition but has stood silently by as the number of plans continues to decrease.

Imagine

Easter celebrates the bodily resurrection from the dead of Jesus Christ, the hope for all Christians; but here's what appeared in my mailbox.

• $17.32B: In Easter-related spending is expected in 2016
• 89%: Of Americans believe chocolate bunnies should be eaten ears first
• 81%: Of parents steal from their kids’ Easter baskets
• 1.5B+: Marshmallow Peeps are consumed each Easter
• 2.6B: Eggs are purchased each March

Imagine if $17 billion were given to agencies to improve housing for the poor or elderly with no cut for government bureaucracies.

Luther and Trump

If you know your church history, you know that Martin Luther split the church by deciding that Scripture meant what he said it meant, not what the Church declared. He discarded a number of books of the Old Testament, or said he didn’t like them (like James, Revelation, Esther, and Hebrews which remained canon, and he much preferred John to the other Gospels) all the while declaring “sola scriptura” to be the basis of faith. He changed the Catholic church’s definition of original sin and justification to one he created. 

  

But the implications went far beyond the church—probably because there were many forerunners of revolt who didn't like papal control, and the church was in great need of reform. Or, scratch a religion, any religion, and you get politics. Once that Bible cat was out of the bag, all sorts of interpretations began cropping up among others, and one was the horrible conditions of the peasants of Europe, who were virtually slaves to the local Lords. This was ready to explode even before Luther since their lives were so awful, not unlike slavery in the U.S. but often worse. So when the peasants got word of what Luther was saying and posting and writing (liberty in all things), they thought he could be their leader against both the church and the lords. Wrong. Luther sided with the German power structure, not the peasants. They rioted; Luther didn’t support them. Over 100,000 peasants died, as well as people in other classes who were poor or had less power. 

 

Let’s jump ahead 500 years. Luther was hot headed, intemperate, nasty, prone to deep depression, but brilliant in gathering supporters and translating Scripture into the language of the people, German. He touched a nerve both spiritually and politically. His ideas exploded all over Europe.

 

Does that sound familiar? Like today’s headlines?

Lard is good for us--again

When I was growing up, there were always several pounds of lard in the house. Mom cooked everything in it. Plus she was the most fabulous pie baker in the world with the flakiest crusts--all made from lard. But she always read the health articles in the ladies' magazines, and sometime in the 1950s, lard disappeared from our home, and even the grocery stores. I've never purchased it, but it's been coming back in style the last 10 years and is much healthier than the oils that replaced it.

 http://empoweredsustenance.com/lard-is-healthy/

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3176558/It-s-healthier-cook-LARD-sunflower-oil-Extraordinary-experiment-shows-ve-told-cooking-oils-wrong.html

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/28/cooking-with-lard-baking_n_5212804.html