More on e-mails and Democrats

I've seen some memes and posters about the latest e-mail scandal of the Democrats. They are much more worried about who hacked them than what they said about Sanders' supporters and minorities. Not sure the party faithful will see it that way. Now even Donna Brazile has been implicated. It should be a lesson to anyone, anywhere, politics, business or church, don't put it in e-mail if you don't want it exposed.

#‎blacklivesmatter‬ is marching in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, with a large sign, "Hillary, delete yourself." Is that a threat?

 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/25/us/politics/donald-trump-russia-emails.html?_r=0

 http://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-07-25/cybersecurity-experts-say-russia-hacked-the-democrats

 http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/25/politics/democratic-convention-dnc-emails-russia/

Meanwhile, in Philadelphia with the Democrats

The parents of the Fairfax County Virginia schools had been petitioning the school board to reconsider its new mixed locker and bath room edict, but with no success. Then. Guess what? Tim Kaine, former governor of Virginia and now a senator from that state, was selected as Hillary Clinton's running mate, and they needed to tap down any backlash for Obama's unpopular transgender policies, and definitely needed to win Kaine's home state. It was a miracle! The Board sent out a letter to parents, stating not that it had reconsidered its crazy policy unpopular with 99.9% of the students, but that it was postponing the implementation of the policy.

 Isn't politics grand? Segregated toilets and ID checks in Philadelphia for the DNC, and a Virginia school board postponing putting boys in the girls' locker room. In North Carolina that gets your tourism industry destroyed.

ISIS hasn't been mentioned in the DNC speeches although the bloody crimes continue in Europe. Today in Normandy an elderly Catholic priest was beheaded at the altar while saying mass by ISIS members. Amazing what can be done with knives. Another dead, another severely wounded. CNN reports it, "Doesn't know the motive?" One of the nuns escaped and went for help. In the U.S., we're killing air conditioners (mine is fried in the van), because according to John Kerry, that's the real danger, not ISIS.

Oh. And someone noticed almost no American flags flying over the DNC. I'm not watching--can anyone confirm?

Michael Brown's mother of the Ferguson riots is going to speak at the DNC. I can understand her grief. Her son is dead. If my son high on drugs had robbed a minority run store and then lunged into a police car to grab the officer's gun, I'd be grieving too. I just wouldn't go to the nation on TV and absolve him of guilt.

Think I'll go eat worms (from a children's song)

BEN SHAPIRO: "Hillary Clinton is in serious trouble. She’s not in trouble just because she’s unlikable. Everybody knew that. She’s not in trouble just because she’s corrupt. Everybody knew that, too. She’s in trouble because she’s politically inept. She’s in trouble because she can’t escape her unlikability and corruption by attacking Donald Trump. That was her game plan, too. She was hoping to sail to the White House on the wings of popular hatred of Trump. It’s not going to... happen – polls show Americans hate her even more than they hate Trump. That’s because she’s totally out of touch. She sees herself as a victim. She went on national television over the weekend and complained that “I often feel like there’s the Hillary standard and then there’s the standard for everybody else.” Americans across the country nodded: if she weren’t Hillary Clinton, she’d be in jail!"

Ninety five degrees and no AC

From Lakeside, Ohio to Columbus is about 2.5 hours, and Saturday after we started out when it was 95 degrees (probably 105 on the asphalt) we discovered our AC in the van had died. It was working fine on Friday. About 10 miles out we returned to our cottage with an almost dead cat, flushed faces and wet clothes. First we tried the nice service station outside Lakeside, and not only was it closed (late Saturday afternoon) but it was for sale. Thankfully, our guests (daughter, son-in-law, niece and husband) came up with a plan after determining it was nothing they could fix when the Wal-Mart trip yielded nothing. We drove in air conditioned comfort in our daughter's new Honda, and our son-in-law Mark followed us in our van sweating out the trip getting us safely home. Then he got back in the cool car and made the return trip for his vacation at Lakeside. I hope he is fishing on the dock now, he deserves it.

What does the priest say to Kaine in confession?

I was reading today the Catholic Catechism section on penance and reconciliation, and wonder how this fits with those who support the killing of the unborn in violation of church teaching, especially those supporting and influencing the laws of a nation of over 300 million. Being pro-choice reaches much deeper than dismembering a fetus or taking a morning after pill. In politics it’s lock step with euthanasia and the designation of male and female which protect families. The pro-choice mind set on the value of another human being, not unlike slavery in the mid-19th century when there were political decisions that could make or break a promising career.  “ I personally wouldn’t own a slave in Maine but support the right in South Carolina”. 

 

I do wonder what a priest says to really powerful, influential Catholics like Pelosi, Biden and Kerry (or even the deceased T. Kennedy), and now Kaine (who I believe rose up through the ranks as pro-life and then flipped to buy his political success) and was selected by Clinton* to make the party platform more compatible with the formerly reliable Catholic constituency http://www.catholiccrossreference.com/catechism/#!/search/1440-1449/fn/1446:47 

 

We Lutherans (and Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Brethren, etc.) have no such rules; we just show up or don’t, believe or don’t, it makes no difference, and no one cares. We can sin as much as we want because no one has any authority to say otherwise, “Jesus paid it all,” as the hymn says.

 

*Yes, Trump did the same political calculation choosing Pence to buy Evangelicals, but where is the church rule that says he can't?

Reasons to love bacon

Yesterday for lunch at the lake house with our daughter and son-in-law and niece and husband, we had  bacon-lettuce and tomato sandwiches.  Gosh, it had been ages since I'd had one. Then I also munched a little on the extra bacon.  Joan had brought along a pound of thin sliced, and I had a pound of thick, so I cooked them up ahead of time, we put out the sliced farm tomatoes, and leaf lettuce and let every one fix their own.  Fresh fruit and chips completed the banquet.

Here is a list of the Top 10 Reasons why bacon is actually healthy for you!

Pork-Powered Protein: The protein found in bacon is extremely valuable to maintaining our energy levels and a fully functioning, healthy body, with a minimum of those nasty, waist, thigh and butt expanding, fat-building carbohydrates.

Bacon’s Blood-Balancing Bounty: Several university and medical center studies have shown that including bacon as a regular, moderate part of one’s diet naturally works to lower the body’s blood pressure and blood sugar levels, helping to prevent and/or alleviate the effects of diabetes, as well as heart disease, stroke and heart attack.

Flushing Fat With Flavorful, Friendly Flesh: While people have heard horror stories for years that bacon is full of harmful fat and after all, if you are what you eat, who wants to be a PIG? But the facts are completely the opposite, as bacon helps to fully satiate our appetite with high protein / low carb energy, helping the body lose weight, raise one’s metabolism and build leaner, stronger muscles.
Bacon actually has less total fat, saturated fat and cholesterol than many popular cuts of beef and chicken. While some fish has less fat and cholesterol than bacon, bacon has more protein power and does not contain toxins such as mercury.

Bacon’s Brain Building Business: Bacon is chock full of a very important nutrient called “choline,” which helps increase our intelligence and memory, from conception to Senior Status, and has been shown in University studies to help fight off the debilitating effects of Alzheimer’s Disease and other chronic mental impairments.

Bacon Lets You “Pig Out” On Essential Vitamins & Minerals: Bacon provides us with substantial amounts of the important, necessary vitamins and minerals our bodies need to function healthfully. From bacon, we receive: 65% of our Recommended Daily Intake of Thiamin (Vitamin B1) as well as 47% of our Niacin (Vitamin B3), 38% of our Vitamin B12, 36% of our Zinc, 24% of our Vitamin B6, 22% of our Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), 22% of our Phosphorus, 10% of our Pantothenate, 10% of our Magnesium, 9% of our Iron and the Protein to fat balance in bacon is actually 4 to 1, which is one of the highest protein to fat balances found in any meat, fish or fowl found on Earth.

Effective Mood Elevator: Bacon makes you feel happy, satisfied, blissful, which greatly reduces stress in our lives and effectively relieves the negative effects of frustration, self-deprivation and sense of lack in one’s existence.

Nitrates and Nitrites – Now Non-Issues: The fact is, while it is true that nitrates and nitrites are unhealthy for your body, what most pro -veggie, chicken and fish nutritionists fail to tell you is that you can easily avoid nitrates and nitrites by simply (A) not burning / charring / over cooking your bacon or by (B) Baking your bacon in the oven.

Some people also choose to avoid nitrates and nitrites by (C) cooking their bacon in the microwave, however, some medical research shows a strong correlation between microwaved proteins (all meats and proteins, from beef to fish, from cheese to eggs and even milk) and cancers caused by protein mutation under the conditions of microwave bombardment, so we recommend using the oven, 400 degrees, 8 to 10 minutes per side.

P.S. if you always include some dairy and citrus in your bacon meal, the vitamins A, D and E work to effectively prevent conversion of “nitrates and nitrites into dangerously toxic “nitrosamines” in the stomach, rendering them harmless to the body.

Bacon Power Now Expands To Our Vehicles and Industry: Yes, believe it or not, a company in The United Kingdom, TMI Foods has already successfully found a way to use bacon fat and grease to manufacture a powerful, low emission, environmentally friendly, all-natural, bio-diesel fuel that can be used to effectively and inexpensively run anything from motor vehicles to turbines and from the various engines of industry to illuminating and empowering generators. That’s right … Pig Power now also means “Power To The People!”

Universally Beloved Flavor Enhancer: Because bacon tastes so amazingly awesome, we’re a LOT more willing to set many of our finicky ways aside to enthusiastically eat many of the boring, icky, lackluster, so-called, “healthy, nutritious food items” that are supposedly good for us, as long as they come wrapped in bacon or with lots of bacon bits broken up and served with or within them.

While We Heart Bacon – Bacon Heart’s Your Heart: While people over the years have mistakenly made jokes about bacon being a leading contributor to heart disease, actually there are in fact several studies that show that the Omega-3 Fatty Acids and “choline” found in bacon can actually protect the heart from developing detrimental problems, as well as actually help HEAL such anomalies, after they have occurred!
Unlike the Omega-3 Fatty Acids supplements derived from fish sources, the ones that come from bacon aren’t chock full of poisonous mercury, like most of the popular fish oil versions are. So bacon Omega-3’s can not only help prevent heart disease, as well as lower your cholesterol, reduce inflammation and improve circulation, but also help you to avoid mercury and other toxic poisons being regularly spewed into our planet’s oceans.

Trump is now THE candidate--no agreement on speech

Washington Post was offering readers paragraphs about Mrs. Trump's speech long after it was old news, not mentioning when Obama, an actual candidate in 2008 touted for being such a wonderful speaker, used Deval Patrick's "Just Words" speech (quoting many Americans) or Biden's challenge with borrowing a good line or three. From the Trump campaign's point of view, I suppose all was good if it keeps his name up front. Free publicity.

"The recurring theme of lawlessness, and Trump's determination to stop it, may be the most stark line of demarcation between the two parties. When Democrats hear that, they think racism, which is funny because what that tells you is that they think of black people as criminals who are most put at risk by the enforcement of laws. When Trump says it, he's talking about black and white people alike being protected from criminals." (Dan Calabrese, Herman Cain website)

I do find this odd. Violent crime, although on an uptick under Obama the last 2 years, is at historical lows. Why do Democrats fail to acknowledge the success of Bill Clinton's legacy--The Omnibus Crime Bill?

I did love Laura Ingraham's speech.  Well worth watching. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqNhDVcvrsg

MACRA and DREXIT

The latest government acronym that will increase your medical cost and lower your quality of service is MACRA, The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015. It was signed into law over a year ago and is the “law of the land” now with overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress and with much lobbying and cheerleading from medical associations. Obama even joked about having Republicans on board.  And MACRA is very lengthy and very detailed legislation. 962 pages. Does your doctor have time to read it? Efficient, quantifiable, homogenized, controlled and dehumanized. We might get a Drexit. http://hitconsultant.net/2016/07/19/34815/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2016/07/21/last-years-medicare-doc-fix-is-already-breaking-down-here-are-some-new-fixes/#dff7517154cc

"As many as 58 percent of surveyed physicians would opt to join a larger organization to mitigate individual risk and have access to a greater array of resources. Eighty percent saw physician consolidation as an inevitability under MACRA, with half of physicians viewing financial pressures as the top driver of consolidation."  I suspect this is the true purpose of MACRA.  No independent doctors. https://ehrintelligence.com/news/physician-readiness-for-macra-implementation-found-wanting

The list of suggestions for change looks as long as the legislation. http://advocacyblog.acponline.org/2016/06/macra-solutions-versus-macra-rants.html

How taste in beauty changes

Blue hair. That's what we called women over 65 when I was a kid. It was mean, but that's how kids are. And green hair was for a bad blonde rinse poorly applied. Now hair is lime green, purple, burgundy and polkadot, but on young women. What skin shade looks good with purple hair? And men wear orange running shoes with pink shoe laces and man buns. A nose ring used to be for bad tempered bulls, now they're for baristas serving $5 cups of latte. When I served coffee in the 1950s it was ten cents and if you smiled you could get a quarter tip. A nose ring would have gotten you fired. Tattoos used to be for tough guys, usually military, now they are walking art galleries with skin as the canvas stretched across big bellies and skinny calves and no one knows who the artist is.

Not sure a subjective view cuts it

. . . the researchers looked at 65 different mortality risk factors as they tracked participants through the later years of their lives. Once the number crunching was finished, the factor that rose to the top was surprisingly simple and straightforward.

The most sensitive measure of longevity was the individual’s own subjective evaluation of how healthy he or she felt. In other words, a person reporting that he or she feels healthy outweighed any other single predictor of a long life, including any medical measures such as cholesterol levels and blood pressure.'

It's hard for someone with diabetic neuropathy or COPD to report "I feel healthy." Unless they lie.  Unless they just haven't been to the doctor in years and don't know better.  Having a positive attitude and a fulfilling life is different.  I have a friend about 80 with a wonderful sense of humor, bright fulfilling volunteer life, and so many ailments she should be in a text book.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/out-the-ooze/201605/the-surprising-factor-can-predict-long-life

Bikers in Cleveland

 

Maybe you think this is harsh?  Picture an end-term abortion, and get back to me.

Speeches by First Ladies

I've now read more FLOTUS speeches than I care to, and they all talked about parents, hard work, strong values being passed on to their husband and self. Just about the only time Democrats talk about that without charges of racism and white privilege. After all, Obama was raised in a white family and his grandmother was a banker who sent him to private schools. I still think Elizabeth Dole's speech in 96 was the best ever, and no one can borrow from that one. FYI: I'm watching NBC--it is devoting more time to this than necessary. Has NBC ever found fault with the Obamas?

However, if you don't like a candidate the wife is fair game it seems.  I remember when a group from the American Library Association refused to attend (or maybe picketed) a speech by Laura Bush, a former librarian and big supporter of reading and archives.  ALA is so left it could fall off the planet. And I remember people on the right criticizing Mrs. Obama for her toned arms! She always looks great, and is a great role model for girls who can't get out of jeans, but detractors couldn't see it.

I read one account that Michelle’s speech 8 years ago was the same as that 7 habits of highly successful people book. But can’t imagine why Trump's campaign staff wasn’t more careful. At least she didn’t say it was the first time she’d been proud of her country. Although, maybe she did—I didn’t hear the speech.

I was a speech writer for a state politician in my 1983 job for the state of Ohio; it was a lot of cut and paste from her old speeches plus mixing in current issues, then making sure it had her rhythm and style. In those days you didn’t have the internet for checking word phrases.

Bursitis and walking update

Finally, I saw a sunrise. I'm getting 6-7 miles a day in walking, and mornings are best. All broken into small segments of one mile or less so I don't risk inflammation.  I use only the flat, east-west streets of Lakeside which indicate where the shore line was about 8-10,000 years ago.  We had a glacier in this area of the U.S. and then that darn climate change and global warming.  It was very hazy today, and promises to be very hot, but those first few moments as the sun pops over the horizon are glorious.

 I've seen several people using hiking poles, and when checking I seek trekking, hiking, walking, shock absorbing, ultralight, women's, cork, rubber, etc. Sure looks better than using a cane. https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/trekking-poles-hiking-staffs.html

One woman I saw with walking poles is getting ready for the 500 mile Camino in Northern Spain where hikers stop at monasteries, villages and churches. She did it several years ago, and is planning another one. She talked about it for a Women's Club program.  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2159915/Walk-lifetime-Why-epic-Camino-trail-Spain-route-true-happiness.html

Dockside church service

  

Maybe Windows 10 photo feature isn't so bad after all. I think it auto corrects for wrinkles. It even cleaned up the ladies behind us. Actually, by the time the service started, it was packed. Sometimes over flows to park area.

Now you can be on the Ferguson Grand Jury

  What happened in Ferguson that makes ‪#‎blacklivesmatter‬ a lie and "Hands up don't shoot" a fake? This is all a myth - an evil nasty story that has no relation to the truth, but has led to the deaths of many police officers and life time crippling injuries of others.

There was a Grand Jury investigation into the shooting and that has been made into a play. It is verbatim eyewitness testimony with nothing added. It's the truth. Now you can judge. But it is an hour and 22 minutes, but riveting. The set and costume design are amazing, as are the actors. The creator--the man who used only the words of the testimony--is Phelim McAleer and it was performed by professional actors on stage in Los Angeles. Now you can see it on YouTube.  But you can also see how witnesses see things differently, and how some are mentally unstable or frightened.

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

"If Michael Brown had just stopped running, it could have ended another way." Eyewitness

Donald Trump has a new voter

Harry writes:  "Sitting at a stop-light, I was rear-ended last night on Bruckner Boulevard by a beat-up old Toyota going about 15 mph. No damage to my crash-resistant rear bumper, but whiplash to my neck. I got out of the car to confront the driver of the other car, and discovered it had no license plates, and there were four Mexican occupants (speaking Mexican Spanish). I asked for his drivers' license and insurance five times. No response. He sat in his car, looking terrified. Finally, one of the other occupants got out of the car, and offered me $5 cash for my troubles. I could have called 911 for the cops, but this is Deblasio's New York. I thanked the Mexican offering me the cash for his generosity, rejected his donation, and drove off. My neck aches, and Donald Trump has another voter."

Obama and race relations

President Barack Obama began his administration by criticizing Boston police for responding to a break in call from a neighbor. As it turned out, the man owned the home, had forgotten his key, was trying to get in, and he was black, a friend of Obama's, Louis B. Gates of PBS. Well, I live in a condo complex of 30 units and I don't know all my neighbors, and I too would call the police if I saw a break in attempt. But Obama made it about race. And today, he has to speak out yet again after exacerbating race relations for the last 8 years.

Now we have three more police dead, after five dead in Dallas, and Obama making things worse.  I hope he doesn't decide to speak at their funeral.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/veteran-officer-rookie-baton-rouge-police-killed-article-1.2714978

http://www.reuters.com/video/2016/07/17/obama-condemns-shootings-of-police-offic?videoId=369292433&videoChannel=1

http://www.breitbart.com/video/2016/07/17/cleveland-police-officer-on-baton-rouge-shooting-obama-has-blood-on-his-hands/

Nothing lasts forever

My favorite cup, far right middle row with the gulls, develop a chip, then a crack that looked unsanitary, so it had to go. Probably had 25 years of good service because I bought it here in Lakeside at a now defunct gift store. All the added text had worn off years ago. Now I'm using my Fire King, top row middle that I got in 1961. I'll bring one up from Columbus so I don't have an empty peg. I'm VERY particular about size, so I'll have to choose it.  Each cup sort of has its own story.  The gray with teal is for Central Ohio Watercolor Society (COWS); the navy blue is advertising for Alt Realty in Columbus--Marti Alt and I worked together for many years; the white with black was to commemorate the Abigail Tea room 1933-1991; the yellow mug is from Coffee 'n Cream shop here in Lakeside, but the pottery is in Ohio. The Abigail sold and reopened in 2008 under new ownership, but failed. In 2010 it was auctioned, and now the building is two cottages again, as it was originally.

All Lives Matter suspension in Canada

Tenor Remigio Pereira was recently suspended from The Tenors of Canada for singing, "all lives matter," changing the words of "O Canada" at an MLB game. Not clear to me if they thought it was disrespectful to their national anthem or to blacks. But I fear it is now racist to claim all lives matter. Is it disrespectful to mention baritones and basses also count if a group is named THE TENORS? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpxsJ-_vdPU

Quercus muehlenbergii Engelm, the chinkapin oak.

"Chinkapin oak  (also called Chinquapin) is usually found on warm, moist Udalf Alfisols, Dystrochrept Inceptisols, Udoll Mollisols, and Udult Ultisols over much of its range.  In the extreme southwestern part of the range chinkapin oak also grows on warm, dry Ustoll Mollisols and Astalf Alfisols."  I have no idea what those soils are, but the only  place I've ever seen these trees is Lakeside, Ohio. They have a wide range in northern and Midwestern United States.

The tree's scientific name honors Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg (1753–1815), a Lutheran pastor and amateur botanist in Pennsylvania. He was the son of a German Lutheran missionary Henry Melchior Muhlenberg. In publishing the name Quercus mühlenbergii, German-American botanist George Engelmann mistakenly used an umlaut in spelling Muhlenberg's name, even though Pennsylvania-born Muhlenberg himself did not use an umlaut in his name. (Wikipedia)

There's a very large one on the corner of Third and Walnut, next to Hoover Auditorium, but at Third and Oak I can see 8-10 of them.  Very tall and shady. Our soil is rocky and the roots shallow and spread, so when they fall in a big wind, it is incredible.