The Castro in Obama's Administration

 

This is outrageous. How long before the first amendment is declared hate speech by the Obama government, an administration that has inflamed racial unrest for years? How long before the creation story in Genesis is declared hate speech or the story of Noah and the flood? After all, it could be code for male and female and procreation.  How long before the only place you'll be able to pray is your jail cell and then in silence so you don't upset your guards?

“The phrases ‘religious liberty’ and ‘religious freedom’ will stand for nothing except hypocrisy so long as they remain code words for discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, Christian supremacy or any form of intolerance,” said  [Martin] Castro, an Obama appointee, in a separate statement that marked the report’s release.("Peaceful Coexistence: Reconciling Nondiscrimination Principles With Civil Liberties" 

http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/are-religious-freedom-advocates-christian-supremacists/

We will again see the mixing of the words "freedom to worship" and "religious freedom."  Did you know that the Civil Rights Commission had met in 2013 with "scholars and legal advocates" to determine if Christians could be charged with violating the Commission's  interpretation of religion and not ours?  Now, of course they don't say "Christians" in the report, just other code words. Just as bureaucrats, not law makers, changed the word "sex" to "gender identity" in many laws and regulations, now they want to our cherished protections are hate speech.  I think they want to wear us out with law suits.

I read through the "scholars" reports and recommendations.  They are reinterpreting the Supreme Court decisions, and it will translate to regulations and law suits by the Commission.

The parallel universe of Obama and Clinton

Campaigning for Hillary Clinton on our dime while she is recovering from an unknown illness, the President said the Republicans have a dark view of America. "This is a dark, pessimistic vision of a country where we turn against one another, where we turn against the world. They aren't offering serious solutions, they are fanning resentment, and hate. That is not the America I know." 

SIXHIRB--their method to make everyone a victim, call everyone a hater. No one has been more hateful or pessimistic than Obama's administration--he's got college kids rioting, protesting and closing down free-ways, he's got millionaire football players dissing their country, he's got an attorney general who has a tarmac meeting with Hillary's husband another who sold guns to drug dealers in Mexico, he ignores violent crime in his home town where blacks have 8x the crime rate of whites, and says we need more conversations about race, he's misjudged every move by ISIS and Putin and Assad, he says nothing about the crimes of his former Secretary of State, in fact stumps for her. . . and on and on.

He also mentioned Hillary's "experience and qualifications" linking to her travel as Secretary of State.  She mid-wifed the current crisis in Syria with gun running from Libya to support the anti-Assad rebels and created the Benghazi mess. That's not a good thing to bring up during the campaign--I'd call it passive aggressive--do they even like each other?

 She says "that's not America," (referring to half of Trump supporters who she put in a basket of deplorables speaking to rich donors Friday) and he says "not the America I know" about all Trump supporters. 

Now who's the hater?

  

Pope Francis, what's going on?

I'm not a Catholic (I'm Lutheran), but even I know the recent decision (word? opinion? comment? letter? leak?) by the Pope about divorced and remarried Catholics (considered adultery by the church) receiving Holy Communion is going to be very divisive. 500 years ago a not so important man named Martin Luther decided to change 1500 years of church teaching, ignoring the teachings of Jesus, all the church fathers, reinterpreting the writings of Paul and eliminating some books of the Bible; and it started wars, chaos, splits, and evolved into 35,000 denominations many of which don't even call themselves Protestants (called Bible churches, or non-denominational), nor believe in the Trinity, baptism or communion. If Luther could have seen what would come of his agonized searching for peace with God, he probably would have stayed in his house and just continued translating.

Trump or Hillary better for working women?

Lots of confusion, outrage and interesting comments at conservative social media sites today over what some see as Trump's lurch to the left with his announcement about child care and maternity leave.

Let's take a look back at when businesses started offering health insurance--after WWII, to attract good employees during the economic recovery and boom. First it was for the major players, then moved down to the staff and low skilled. It was as unusual then as some of the Google perks are today. My husband worked for small architectural firms and we didn't have employer health insurance for many years, we bought our own. Both employees and employers got tax breaks (one of the goals of Obamacare is to grab that tax money which the president thinks belongs to the government). Eventually it became government policy for firms of a certain size, using tax breaks for the firms. Healthy employees were subsidizing the sick ones, and some sick employees simply lost jobs or couldn't change jobs. Government rules also eventually changed that. 

I worked in academe, and although we always had a fairly generous benefits package, it did evolve to include tuition for children, time off for research, travel to conferences, cumulative sick leave that could be turned in for money or donated to another employee, use of the athletic facilities for exercise, sports and recreation, free parking, special tax advantage retirement packages such as TIAA-CREF annuities in addition to our employer supported pension (403-b) which used to include medical coverage, but no longer does. Oh, and retirement at 55, which almost no business line or staff worker gets. Each year we'd get a printed statement that our tax free benefits were worth--$25,000 to $30,000. Long before the Supreme Court redefined marriage, domestic partnerships for gays (but not heterosexuals just living in sin) also included these benefits. 

Fast forward 70 years, and about half of the labor force is female, and a small percentage of those are having babies. If businesses want to remain competitive and retain good female employees, they've got to accommodate pregnancies, babies and pre-schoolers. Many already do and have generous leave packages for executives, but not lower level employees, or they have on site child care, or work from home arrangements.

Trump is a businessman, not a politician like Clinton who just repeats the same old socialist, tax the rich to give to the middle class line with the government skimming most of that. He'll work it from a tax angle, and that's iffy at this point because it always hurts small businesses and start ups whether it's socialist or capitalist plan. The government likes that because it's easier to control several large companies than thousands of little ones, and capitalists like it because it eliminates competition.

The goals are different. Government wants more breakdown of the family, more single mothers, more Uncle Sam as sugar daddy to ensure a voting block. Businesses want good employees and the smarts that women bring to the company.

Trump's plan of strengthening business is better than Clinton's plan of stealing profits.

Their mantra: Sexist, Intolerant, Xenophobic, Homophobic, Islamophobic, Racist, Bigoted.

The SIXHIRB mantra of the Democrats. “Sexist, Intolerant, Xenophobic, Homophobic, Islamophobic, Racist, Bigoted.” (cDennis Prager) But it's been that way for years, they didn't come out with it just for Donald Trump--they said the same about Mitt Romney, and all he did was comment privately that 47% of the population wouldn't vote for him because they didn't pay federal income tax (and he was correct).  The didn't tell his rich donors that he hated half his opponents supporters and thought they were a basket of deplorables.

 

I subscribe to START (terrorism), and you know what? Our current government says (with PC language) scarier things about the Islamic threat than Donald Trump! I read the Congressional Research Reports--and the Mexican drug cartels and the criminals coming in are reported to Congress, so why is it racist when Donald Trump says it? Our border agency, INS has a budget of $6 billion and 20,000 employees, yet it's Trump who is wrong? I've read the government reports about the failures of major wealth transfer programs (there are 123), like Head Start, which have allowed poor Americans to stay dependent or have not accomplished their goals after 50 years. Isn't that bigotry? 

 

I read the USDA reports, my eyes swimming in acronyms for feeding programs for Indians, elderly, disabled, Appalachian, and school kids. It's no longer about agriculture although it's called the Farm Bill--it's about food and nutrition and changing peoples choices--$151 billion for 2017. Many in that basket of deplorables Hillary sneered at use those programs, and they want something better, but Democrats want them to stay poor. Most recipients of government food aid and rural housing loans aid white, so why are they being demonized? 70% of federal spending is for dependence programs which developed when the War on Poverty kicked in during the mid-1960s. Whoosh.  Onward and upward. But steepest increases were under Republican presidents.

 

And racism? I'm stunned that President Obama, who was to be the one to encourage racial harmony, (take a look at his speech in March 2008) would so agitate, whine, and opine, making race relations the worst I can remember. In 2009 he said the Boston police acted stupidly for responding to a call about a break in. The owner was trying to break into his own house--and he was a friend of Obama's. And it's been downhill sense. George Zimmerman is 1/4 black, but was called a "white Hispanic" so he could be demonized.  If black college kids were rioting and protesting under a Bush or Reagan, we wouldn't hear the end of it. After 20 years of a decrease in violent crime after the Omnibus Crime Bill of 1994 with many criminals in prison and making black neighborhoods safer, Obama decides that's racist. I could have never imagined millionaire black men, coddled and idolized since childhood for something as passing as athletic skills, would act so irresponsibly as Colin Kaepernick (who has now started a movement) and the president would be OK with it. 

 

We now live in a world of victims in a basket woven by haters, liberals, Democrats, politicians and their co-horts in business and non-profits like Target and Planned Parenthood.

Other people's money

It should be amusing, but isn't. The liberal media and the social media are pretending that they've just found out foundations use "other people's money." It was a big story in Washington Post today.

Of course. That's the whole point of those laws. I could find a cause, like a school or clinic in Haiti, set up a 501c3 with my "wealth," and ask you to contribute. You get a tax break, after IRS approval, and I get to shelter my wealth for my family legacy.

Then my 501c3, which can't be for a political cause, could set up a 501c4 to support my ideological views. All these laws were set up by our government to protect the wealthy, especially the wealthy in government, and to buy influence. Some do a lot of good; others just launder money for return to their party. Planned Parenthood which kills the unborn (for a good cause--population control of poor and black) gets money from private donors, other foundations, and from the government, then in return, it supports those candidate, mostly Democrats, who support legal abortion. The Gates Foundation has many good projects (better to give it away than pay the government outrageous taxes), but "population control" has been one of the requirements for accepting the help in Africa. Controlling black populations, regardless of country, seems to be a liberal cause. 

However, the Clintons have something to sell; Donald Trump doesn't. Did Washington Post, which is currently investigating Trump's foundation, investigate Obama's brother Malik's foundation which had no problem getting 501c3 status from the IRS while conservative groups waited years, his "charity" seems to be funding his wives--he's a Muslim polygamist like his father.

How ill is Hillary and what is it?

Although I've never gone out in public looking like Mrs. Clinton did yesterday, if I did, it would take more than 90 minutes of "rehydration" at my daughter's home to get me up and going again. And I certainly wouldn't have hugged a little girl if I didn't know what was wrong with me. This woman just can't be trusted. With anything. With anyone. Any where.

This election season is so strange. A whole new round of speculations and theories about Hillary's health, and Trump is acting presidential and she's acting like a fishwife lugging a basketful of deplorables.

The Hillary media mavens are acting like a diagnosis of pneumonia is no big deal, but for the elderly, it is. 

https://www.cdc.gov/pneumonia/

Sex, race and income gaps

On my walk this morning I saw three women and four men, in four different jobs.

One woman was about 23 and a home health aide walking one of my neighbors around the condo grounds.  She was white, attractive, pleasant and cheerful and they were chatting together. Her median pay scale (on the internet, because I didn't ask her) is about $10.00/hour.  If she works for an agency, the family will probably pay more than double that, but she'll have decent benefits. If she's a private contractor, she'll make more, but will have to contribute her own Social Security.  Not even a high school degree is required.  I often see foreign women with limited language skills in these positions.  It was not the case with this young woman.
 
As I continued, I saw two men with the Columbus Public Utilities department--both had uniforms, tools, and white trucks.  They were white and probably under 40. They were repairing a piece of equipment in a large box near the road. I'm guessing they do some kind of electrical maintenance.  I think the box probably controls power in the whole neighborhood. If they were supervisory, they'd need a bachelor's degree and about 10 years experience. Salaries were hard to determine, since I don't have a job title and am guessing, but the median could be $154,000.

Two women were in the playground of the near by church with pre-schoolers.  I don't know if they were teachers or aides, but I'm going to call them pre-school teachers. They were white and probably early 30s. They were actively involved in the children's activities and very watchful. They weren't sitting and chatting or checking their phones. Their median salary is about $12.06/hour  ($28,570) or about 50% of an elementary school teacher ($56,000), and less than a fitness instructor ($39,410) at a private club or gym. I think the pre-school teachers need a bachelor's degree or would be working on one, but most elementary teachers around here have a master's degree.  Also the teachers work 9-10 months with a number of days off during the school year, but the Fitness instructor works 12.  They would probably all have benefits, at least health, vacation and sick leave.  The pre-school teacher may also get free day care for her own children, or a discount.  The fitness instructor may have a family discount to use the gym.  The elementary teacher gets play ground duty and short lunches.

When returning home I noticed two trucks going  a bit over the speed limit driven by two young black men   for the company, 1-800-Got Junk. These days it's called "environmental diversion."  I think they may have been late teens or early 20s. I actually found this company on the internet, and various job titles.  A truck driver makes $11.36 or ($18-$22,000 a year).  I think they had full benefits. There were various job levels, and room for advancement, and no education (for truck driver) was required. Brian Scudamore, a high school drop-out,  is the founder and CEO of 1-800-Got Junk, and you can check him out for a very interesting career story.  He's founded several companies, but this one does about $152 - $170 million a year. He got this idea when he was 18 and working at McDonald's.  (Company is now franchised, so I don't know who owns the one in Columbus.)

The next time you see an article about the wage gap or gender gap or race gap in employment, remember, not all jobs are the same, they don't have the same requirements, responsibilities, education, and race or gender probably isn't what has caused the difference. And also think about Mr. Scudamore.  Anyone could have done what he did, but he rolled up his sleeves and did it.

Hillary has her own basket of deplorables

Another basket of racist, bigoted deplorables--Hillary's team. Not even close to a retweet of Trump of David Duke who never said he'd rather die a thousand deaths than fight next to a Negro soldier like Hillary's mentor. Senator Robert Byrd was a welcome Democrat KKK member in the Senate. Hillary praised him as her "mentor" and "a man of surpassing eloquence and nobility.” Senator Robert Byrd was a "Grand Kleagle" of the KKK. And Bill Clinton saying "Make America great again" is racist?  He used the phrase many times in his campaigns, plus used it for her 2008 campaign.  These people are such HUGE hypocrites. If they weren't two faced, they'd have no face at all.

 

Monday Memories--up and down the scale

I was looking at this photo of two years ago from a Conestoga trip to Blannerhasset Island (on the river between Ohio and West Virginia). I've lost 30 pounds since then; I've given away the shirt and can now zip the vest (couldn't then). Over my adult life I've lost about 130 pounds beginning in college, but usually 20 pounds here and there (1960, 1983, 1986, 1993, 2006), and this was the most I ever had to lose and the weight gain all happened in 2011-2012 and the weight loss in early 2015. So ladies, trust me, it's not over til it's over--it will creep back. My enforced leisure right now with Bob recuperating from surgery has me eating everything that doesn't have mold.

 About six years ago I read an editorial in JAMA that recommended more government control of my (and your) eating. 

"An effective public health approach to obesity prevention will require fundamental changes in the food supply and the social infrastructure. Changes of this nature depend on more stringent regulation of the food industry, agricultural policy informed by public health, and investments by government in the social environment to promote physical activity." 

Liberals say "stay out of the bedroom" to the government, but invite it into your kitchen and dinner table. I have two nephews, Caleb Poynter and Matthew Clark, who have made amazing changes to their bodies through careful healthy eating and body strength workouts. I don't think they relied on the government to do this. I think they could both do cooking videos and upload them on YouTube.

One of my blogs is about health, but increasingly, it does focus on weight and exercise. Mindful eating

Help for Syrian refugees, pt. 1

 Syria’s civil war has created the worst humanitarian crisis of our time. Half the country’s pre-war population — more than 11 million people — have been forced to flee their homes. I came across a Multi-faith alliance for Syria, an organization set up specifically to help them (don't know if it also receives federal money--many of these religious organizations do.

 http://www.hearttoheart.org/multifaith-alliance-kit-event/…/

Looking quickly through the website of MFA the support seems primarily from Jews, with some Christian denominations and para-church non-profits, a few Muslim, and I saw one Hindu group. I'll need to look more closely at the individual websites. The format of this list is rather shaky since it's too complicated to rewrite the HTML code, but here is the first half of the list. I'm going to spot check the website.  Some I know like Catholic Relief Services, Church World Service, ELCA, UCC.  Others not at all.

Ameinu (Our People)

American Jewish Committee 

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee 

American Relief Coalition for Syria

Anti-Defamation League

Auburn Theological Seminary

B'nai Jeshurun, New York, NY 

Bronx Christian Fellowship Church, Bronx, NY

The Brotherhood Synagogue, New York, NY

Catholic Relief Services

Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA)

Church World Service

Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations 

Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, New York, NY

Congregation Beth El, South Orange, NJ

Congregation Kehillath Israel, Brookline, MA

CURE International 

The Edgar M. Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life at NYU

Episcopal Relief & Development 

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Foa & Son 

Global Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and

United Church of Christ

Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America

Heart to Heart International

HIAS 

Interfaith Center of NY 

International Refugee Assistance Project

Jamaica Muslim Center, Jamaica, NY

Jewish Coalition for Syrian Refugees 

Jewish Council for Public Affairs 

Jewish Federations of North America

Jewish Funders Network
The Jewish Theological Seminary

Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago

Syrian relief groups, pt. 2

Multifaith Alliance for Syrian Refugees, pt. 2 (couldn't get the HTML to work) See part 1 here.

London School of Economics and Political Science: Faith Centre
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue
National Council of Jewish Women
New York Board of Rabbis
New York Legal Assistance Group
North Carolina Hillel: UNC Chapel Hill
Orient for Human Relief
Rabbinical Assembly
Rahma Relief Foundation
Reform Judaism (UK)
Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
The Riverside Church, New York, NY
Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus
Saint Peter's Lutheran Church, New York, NY
School for Creative Judaism
Syrian American Medical Society
Syrian American Rescue Network
Syrian Community Network
Syrian Emergency Task Force
Temple Beth El, Boca Raton, FL
Temple Beth Shalom, Palm Coast, FL
Temple Emanu-El, Closter, NJ
UJA-Federation of New York
Union for Reform Judaism
Union Theological Seminary
Unitarian Universalist United Nations Office
United Sikhs
United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
U.S. Fund for UNICEF
Vassar College Refugee Solidarity
Ve'ahavta
World Jewish Congress
World Jewish Relief
World ORT

Hillary's medical episode

There's something very odd about Hillary's appearance at the 9/11 ceremony today.  And I don't mean tripping into the van and losing a shoe. It's her appearing in public with no make up and her hair not done, like she had to sleep until the last minute and had no time to shower.  Plus she was over dressed even for moderate September weather--did you see what the women around her were wearing? Also, no one around her was wearing sun glasses, and it was an overcast day.  I don't wear a lot of make-up, but it's on my face and my hair is combed if I leave the house.

I realize this episode, as it is being called by the MSM, will not deter loyal Democrats--she could have leprosy and polio and they would still vote for her, but I've been 70, and this is a rough and tumble job even for a 50 year old.  Look how it has aged Obama and Bush before him.

Colin Kaepernick sit upon protest

Colin Kaepernick didn't start this disrespect in the NFL, but he has grabbed the attention of other wannabes when they saw how easy it was to get on national TV and social media even with low stats and a floundering career. Even the president took notice.  And I've read (not fact checked) that he's converted to Islam for his #blacklivesmatter girlfriend. Interesting. For over 1,400 years Arab Muslims controlled the world slave trade and traded captured black Africans to Europeans for the trans-Atlantic horrors and sent millions of others to Europe and Asia. Women particularly were trafficked for sex before the 18th century when focus changed to labor, even as today Islamic Boko Haram steals Nigerian Christian school girls for sex and politics. Fewer than 97% of their captives made it to the North American colonies and the trade was outlawed by the Constitution within 25 years of the U.S. becoming a country. And Kaepernick has three white parents; the black one took off. http://www.africanecho.com/africanechonews5-sept29.html

S.I.X.H.I.R.B.

The "S.I.X.H.I.R.B." mantra of the left (coined by Dennis Prager even before 2010)  --- Sexist, Intolerant, Xenophobic, Homophobic, Islamophobic, Racist, Bigoted-- is just to throw conservatives off their game plan of better education and educational choice, free markets, religious freedom, 2nd amendment rights, border security, better jobs for Americans, counter terrorism, saving lives of the unborn, dignity and safety for women, diversity of thought at colleges, balanced budget, secure retirement, a non-political Supreme Court with justices who are guided by law not feelings, etc., because if they keep us fighting the battles where only they control the language of the rule book or with each other, we lose every time. If you're a #NeverTrumper or supporting #GaryJohnson because you think that's the "high road," you've really been scammed by Hillary and the Left. She's dumped you in the #basketofdeplorables, and you were easy pickin's.

Conservatives have issues to fight for; liberals have names and insults to lob.  Which one will advance our country?

Why we need to evangelize Muslims

"Up until 9-11, I considered Islam one of the three great monotheistic religions. It was not the actions of the terrorists that roused my suspicions, but the silence or obfuscation of the rest of Islam on the matter. If a group of Catholics had done that, I knew my Church would immediately rise in righteous anger to denounce the terrorists, to condemn them and proclaim excommunication on any who adopted such poisonous doctrines contrary to the faith. That did not happen with Islam. About the best they could muster was the “street-gang” defense: “It wasn’t us.” – denying personal responsibility while remaining ambivalent – and often excusing – the act.

It was that disturbing episode that led me to study the Koran. It is not very large…only about the length of the Psalms. I was stunned. I had heard all the quotations “proving” that Islam was a religion of peace. It was a shell game. To simplify, the Koran has two very different sets of rules, one for fellow Muslims and another for infidels. All the quotations supporting the “religion of peace” fantasy come from sections on how to treat fellow Muslims with whom you are in conflict. The rules for infidels are that they must convert or die. The only wiggle room is how long you give them to convert before you kill them."

Concerning Islam

Remember who you're representing, Hillary

Hillary Clinton is calling Trump supporters names.  She's of the party of Jim Crow, slavery and KKK; she's of the party that writes abortion for any reason into its platform--and those are disabled babies, girl babies, and maybe babies who would grow up to be gay; she's of the party that for 50 years has trapped the poor by using the War on Poverty against them. She's the one who said she believed in traditional marriage when she thought it was a voter pleasing phrase, and now she parties with rich gays to raise funds after testing the wind. She's the one who will never share a bathroom with a man who identifies as a woman and whose grandchildren will never attend public school or go without an armed escort. She's the bigot and racist. And a huge crook and phony.

Hillary calls Trump supporters a Basket of Deplorables

Remember how the left, the Democrats, the Media (but I repeat myself) jumped all over Romney for saying 47% of the nation was dependent in some form on the government and didn't pay income tax? What he said was true; but they crucified him for it. Now we've got #BasketofDeplorables sort of what Democrats believed about blacks in the 19th century, or the Jim Crow era, or what they think of the unborn to day. Unworthy people. Not so smart people. Poor people. And she'll get away with it. Romney meant he would never change the minds of 47% because they believed the government should take care of them so he wasn't designing his campaign for them. Leftists sliced and diced this showing that many who don't pay income tax do file taxes, and do work. True, but they don't pay income tax, which is exactly what he said. Then they said, well, a lot of these people are Republicans. Also true, but he was still right. Now, how will they redeem us deplorables? By saying what she said was true.

Hillary did the deeds, now adds the words

Yesterday I heard the softer, gentler Hillary.  Lower, less scratchy voice for a press conference.  But it didn't last long. During an LGBTQ fundraiser for rich gays for her campaign in New York hosted by Barbara Streisand, Hillary attacked a quarter of America, calling half of Trump's supporters a "basket of deplorables. "You know, just to be grossly generalist, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables."

“Right?” she said as the crowd laughed and applauded. “The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic -- you name it,” Clinton continued. “And unfortunately there are people like that."

Five months ago the liberal FiveThirtyEight.com website found that Trump voters' median household income was higher than the median in every state, sometimes by a wide margin; and that 44% of Trump voters have college undergraduate degrees, compared to 29% of US adults. In fact, the median household of a Trump voters is far higher than that of a Hillary supporter.

How many times have we been told (negatively with a sneer) that non-college educated white men are Trump's supporters? Were Obama's supporters ever described as non-college educated black men, and yet he had 99% of the black vote.

Now who is the mean spirited bigot whose favorite policies kill babies, great mayhem in the middle east and lock minorities into ghettos? Hillary is a crook. Now we can add deplorable to that.

Commas matter

I like cooking my family and my pets.  Use commas.  Don't be a psycho.