Are you still supporting Planned Parenthood?

Annual Report (2015-16) of Planned Parenthood shows abortions up, services down, and $77,000,000 profit. 328,348 abortions--PP is taking a larger portion of the abortion output. Drop of 50% in cancer screenings and prenatal care. Only 5 centers of 97 contacted offer prenatal care.

Why is our tax money funding this? They are dropping services and still taking our money! Because Democrats want it. And don't forget the sale of baby parts. Big money maker.

"Women's health" aka abortion was the #1 issue for Democrats, followed by racism, sexism, homophobia, and transgenderism, wrapped in climate change. And you wonder why Mrs. Clinton lost with nothing to run on except victimhood and hate?

"I take responsibility for every decision I made, but that's not why I lost,” she [Hillary Clinton] said at the annual Code Conference in California. “Anti-American forces are going after our economy and they are going after our unity as a nation.""

 But which party is so anti-American it is trying to destroy the nation by undoing the election and the next generation?

The Paris hoax and pressure on the President

Two dozen major U.S. companies—including Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, the Hartford, Levi Strauss, PG&E, and Morgan Stanley—sent an open letter to Trump published in The New York Times and other newspapers across the country, urging him to remain in the [climate] deal. Why? Because it's good for big corporations and kills the little guy trying to compete. They are already global entities, so why not come under control of the globalists behind climate change hysteria?

 http://dailysignal.com/2017/05/26/possible-reasons-big-corporations-eager-trump-break-promise-paris-climate-deal/

Is Evergreen the face of the future on college campuses?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fEAPcgxnyY

No, the worm isn't turning yet, but he's catching on. A progressive, Bernie supporter, liberal Jew and one who has stood up for racial equality and "social justice" all his life,  Professor Weinstein has the best take on what is happening, and he realizes where the left is going.  He says the white anarchists have taken over the black students (people of color) and now speak for them.  The anarchists have taken over the campus and  now have cowed the president and the campus police and Weinstein's only crime is that he is white. His life has been threatened and that of his wife, also a liberal. The college administration refuses to protect them, and simply warns them to stay away because of the danger.  And it's coming to a campus or classroom near you. If you are white, it won't matter if you believe in "women's reproductive health" causes, or hate Trump, or are tenured faculty with liberal beliefs, or even if you marched with a pink pussy hat on your head.  They are coming for YOU and the people who are supposed to support and protect you against the false stigma of racism have been silenced. No mainstream media outlet has reached out for him to tell his story--only Tucker Carlson (Fox) and Rubin.  Even the left wing media has been totally cowed. They have no angle--he's anti-racist, pro-gay, pro-abortion, pro-all the media's favorite memes.  How could they report this?

Bret Weinstein, professor at Evergreen State College

Kathy Griffin's apology for her death and mutilation of our president joke

What did you think of Kathy's apology? Not much, here. This would be an apology.

 "Hey there, this is Kathy. I apologize, folks. I went way over that mythical red line. I never did have a heart or soul, but until hate consumed me at least I did have intelligence and a sense of humor. I've lost that too, and I'm deeply sorry. My paycheck is REALLY sorry! But the only persons that I need to apologize to are Donald Trump and his family, and because I'm a Democrat, I just can't do that yet, or maybe never. However, with a little more schooling by my handlers, I'll work on it and get back to you."

Net neutrality, coupons and capitalism

 Many political conservatives or alternate voices in medicine, history and science are going to YouTube, pod-casts, alternative media to be heard, and to get around the blatant media bias filled with Trump hate and Climate scares. Every day I find new sources--some just awful (bad voice quality, bad IT) and some very good.  Meanwhile when I log in the search engine front pages lie about "net neutrality" and how we need it. No, THEY need it to keep the alternative viewpoints and start ups back. The "wild west" internet is what made these giants like Google, Yahoo, Amazon, etc., and like all good capitalists who become Democrats in order to fight competition that made them great, they want to put up the barbed wire fences with the government's help. Lots of lobbyists make their livelihood with this.

Forty years ago when I was writing about the coupon scams, it was the same deal. The largest companies put out the most generous offers so they could block the newer products which couldn't afford that kind of advertising in the cut throat grocery business.. Customers fall for coupons every time--can't believe that companies don't exist to "save" you money. Voters are similar. Capitalism works when the big guy eats or stops the little guy. It's still better than government transfers, but you need to understand the game.

 https://mises.org/library/net-neutrality-scam

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGtq7Ou-RrY

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z_nBhfpmk4

How a free media work today

Seth Rich case: Missing cache of thousands of e-mails, Clintons, DNC, dead body, no robbery, FBI stonewalled, strong hints from Wikileaks, DNC PR lawyer on the case, and silence from the broadcast and cable news. Russia interferring in 2016 election case: Thousands of rumors and anonymous leaks, DNC, Clintons, denial by Wikileaks, no evidence of a crime, and 24/7 reporting by the broadcast and cable news.

The blame Russia plan developed 24 hours after Hillary Clinton, the worst candidate they had, lost the election. But the plans to impeach Trump were developed before he became the nominee.  If every kooky idea about Russian hacking were proved false, they have 100 more waiting.

Just where would you go to find the truth on climate change, abortion, voter ID, Wikileaks, the DNC, medical insurance, the Syrian civil war, the payoff to Iran, the pull out in Iraq, Loretta Lynch's meeting with Bill Clinton, Benghazi, Hillary's health, etc. when all you have is Washington Post, AP, Reuters, New York Times, LA Times, Cleveland Plain Dealer, academic research, etc.?  They are all on the same team according to a recent study from Harvard.  On the other hand, I am forced to watch, listen and read the "other side" all the time, and I have to search out an alternative point of view and different angles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARqKdNd3Glk

Kathy Griffin's political porn--the severed head of Trump

How do you boost a flagging career?  You go the Colbert route and get more attention. Well, it certainly did keep people talking about her. In some ways it's a page out of Trump's play book. The media are doing it, comedians do it, celebrities do it. The more outrageous, the more attention, the bigger the bucks. Her career, like Colbert's, was on the sunset cruise schedule; now she'll be on top for awhile. But remember when Palin used the word target in her campaign, and the leftists/Democrats accused her of encouraging the killer in the Gabby Giffords case? All she did was use a word that actually is on the building of a retailer and yet the left made her guilty. What crimes associated with beheading and death will Griffin now be responsible for?

 Never mind. That's a rhetorical question; we all know Democrats are never guilty when accused of fake or real crimes; only Republicans. And they tend to fall down and play dead.  Even the latest sicko in Portland, Oregon--a Democrat and Bernie supporter. Trump is being blamed anyway.

 It's not like she doesn't have a track record--from 2010: "On her Bravo TV show Tuesday night, left-wing comedian Kathy Griffin referred to Sen. Scott Brown's two daughters as "prostitutes," and a CNN reporter apparently thought it hysterical." Dana Bush and Griffin yukked it up--Bush's husband had the decency to grimace. Sexism and child abuse are OK if done by women, right?" (My blog)

 http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2017/02/15/trump-bump-why-is-stephen-colbert-suddenly-topping-jimmy-fallon-in-late-night-ratings.html

 http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2017/02/stephen_colbert_gaining_late-n.html

Calumny and detraction--what's the difference?

Today I was reading about the strange case of Fr. John Corapi, a Catholic priest I used to hear occasionally on the radio.  He was an excellent, challenging speaker, yet one day in 2011 he just disappeared.  Is his case calumny or detraction? Frankly, I don't know that I still understand the difference, and no one seems to know what has happened to Father Corapi.

"To put it in simple terms, calumny is the telling of a lie about someone, almost always with malicious intent—for instance, to damage his reputation. Detraction, on the other hand, is the telling of the truth about someone to a third party who has no right to that truth. Detraction is often done with malicious intent as well, but not always.

In more common terms, most of what we call gossip is detraction; most of what we call backbiting is calumny. The Catechism of the Catholic Church classifies detraction and calumny as "offenses against the truth" (and specifically, as the venerable Baltimore Catechism notes, both are violations of the Eighth Commandment). Both are sins, which can be either venial or mortal, depending on their intent and effects. Even when committed carelessly, without malicious intent, detraction and calumny can cause grave damage to the person being discussed, and the person guilty of detraction or calumny has an obligation to try to repair the damage done by his action."

The fuss over Russia

Watching the media lies and the leftist memes/posters on Facebook about Russia, I'm very aware I missed something important during the Obama years despite the fact I'm sort of a news junky. After all, Obama ridiculed Romney that Russia was any threat to the U.S. at all! Democrats were yucking it up after that debate. What did former president Obama do?  He apparently let something very bad happen. All this fuss can't be just a cover for a horrid candidate and botched election. Or is it? Obama committed so many crimes the media never reported or expanded or blew out of proportion. Wonder what else they are covering up?

Search engines also skewed to support Hillary Clinton

"So far we have found that between May and November 2016, search results displayed in response to a wide range of election-related search terms were, on average, biased in Mrs. Clinton’s favor in all 10 search-result positions," the study's authors write. "This bias could not be accounted for by the bias in the search terms themselves."

"The study even goes so far as to claim that without the bias in search results, the oft-cited lead Mrs. Clinton enjoyed in the popular vote would have been nearly eradicated. “[I]n articles published in February 2016 and thereafter, the lead author of the PNAS study predicted that a pro-Clinton bias in Google’s search results would, over time, shift at least 2.6 million votes to Clinton. She won the popular vote in the November election by 2,864,974 votes. Without the pro-Clinton bias in Google’s search results, her win margin in the popular vote might have been negligible.”

So you see, it pays to have an honest or at least a diverse media, and we don't have that today.  Even if you don't like Fox, or Breitbart or Town Hall, you should at least look at them.  They may have the key sentence your liberal/left is leaving out. Then you can return to CNN or ABC and catch on to what they are doing.

http://bucksexton.com/study-google-other-search-engines-stumped-hard-for-hillary-clinton-throughout-2016-election/

http://aibrt.org/downloads/EPSTEIN_et_al_2017-SUMMARY-WPA-A_Method_for_Detecting_Bias_in_Search_Rankings.pdf

Zbigniew Brzezinski Is Dead

Zbigniew Brzezinski is dead and Lionel Nation can say nothing good about him.  I actually met him when I worked at the Center for Russian language and Area Studies back in the 1960s. The Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies was run out of our office, and my boss Ralph T. Fisher, Jr. and Brzezinski were on the board together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iIzxwnW0fo

Lionel says he is directly responsible for the rise of Al-Qaeda and ISIS.  So does Lew Rockwell.  Even if you read the fawning stories in the liberal press, take a closer look. They seem to agree that much of the mess we have today goes directly back to his days of power. Brzezinski hated Russia--he was a Pole. And he was Obama's advisor, under whom our relationship with Russia deteriorated to the point that the reset button of Hillary's became a bomb.

 https://www.lewrockwell.com/2017/05/no_author/real-story-zbigniew-brzezinski/

Monday Memories--Medical Library Assocation June 1-5, 1996

I got back from the Medical Library Association Annual Meeting in Kansas City about 1 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon.  I was there only 4 days, and chaired two meetings.  Glad that's over.  I know there are people who enjoy that sort of thing, but there are people who like to eat snails and jump from airplanes too, so go figure! 

Kansas City is a lovely city--seems much larger (is) and more cosmopolitan than Columbus, and much more self-aware.  The architecture is varied and dynamic and they've made a big effort to restore various areas.  The train station which used to see 250,000 people a day is empty but I think they are looking for a use for it--maybe a museum.  You get the feeling that KC is your last chance at urban living before hitting the plains, and maybe it was at one time.  The airport is miles and miles from the city, so although my airfare was pretty reasonable, a cab ride to the city is $30.  I found two other librarians at the airport, so we shared a ride. 

I shared a room with Vicki Kok from Virginia and Pat Mullen from Oklahoma.  Our hotel (Westin) was part of an 85 acre urban renewal complex maybe 20-25 years old now with attached shopping mall.  It looks just like Boston and San Antonio and Detroit in that sense.  All the stores and the merchandise are just the same if you stay in a hotel/mall complex.  As a chair of my section, I was invited to the president's reception which was held at Linda Hall Library, a huge privately endowed public library that specializes in the sciences.  I had wanted to see it for about 20 years, and was not disappointed.  It was fabulous.

Instead of going somewhere, our "tour" this year was a Missouri extension agent with his otter; “Reintroduction of River Otters in Missouri” by Glenn D. Chambers, Missouri Department of Conservation and Paddlefoot Productions Incorporated. He and his wife travel around with their two otters and demonstrate their behavior and talk about their habitat to school children.  He estimates he has talked to over 250,000 children in the last 4 years.  It was a very interesting program--I'd never seen an otter, and I guess they were almost extinct (fur trappers and draining swamps about eliminated them) in Missouri at one time, and now have about 800 in the wild.  He got two babies and they "imprinted" to him--he slept with them for the first several months.  He did this because his "real" job is a photographer, and in order to photograph otters in the wild he need some who weren't afraid of him.  He takes them out in the wild and photographs them, and then calls them in and they run and jump in their cages.  He was really great--drawled like a good 'ol boy but you knew he was one really smart guy--has done work for National Geographic and has a movie coming out. 

We had another program given by a guy from St. Louis about the Internet, "The Future of Veterinary Medicine on the Internet" by Ken Boschert, American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine, Division of Comparative Medicine, School of Medicine, Washington University. 

I already knew most of the stuff he talked about and he was doing 3 presentations that week, so it sounded a little canned.  Anyone who talks about computers in a way that I understand--well, I know he's not talking at a very high level, because I really struggle to keep up.

(from a letter to my parents)

Mount Holyoke, college for women welcomes

Biologically born female; identifies as a woman

Biologically born female; identifies as a man

Biologically born female; identifies as other/they/ze

Biologically born female; does not identify as either woman or man

Biologically born male; identifies as woman

Biologically born male; identifies as other/they/ze and when ‘other/they’ identity includes woman

Biologically born with both male and female anatomy (Intersex); identifies as a woman.

Of course, certain standards must be maintained; therefore, anyone in the “biologically born male; identifies as man” category cannot apply for admission consideration. Fortunately, however, those born male who identify as female are welcome to apply.

https://www.mtholyoke.edu/policies/admission-transgender-students

This should boost the athletic team records.

Cleo Crutchfield and Isobel Steele, long time Lakeside neighbors

Cleo Crutchfield, age 83, Our Beloved husband, father and friend to all. The Lord called him home on March 2, 2017 in St. Petersburg, Florida. Crutch was loved by all who knew him; he embodied kindness, strength, faith and humor. A US Army Veteran, teacher in Strongsville and spent 30+ summers at Lakeside on Lake Erie. Married for 58 yrs to Dorothy (Zabor); father of John (Diane) Crutchfield and Sue (Tom) Graske. Loving grandfather of Deborah (Josh), Matthew, Amy, Andrew, Rachael, David, & Joshua. Preceded in death by parents; Ernest & Ruby, mother-in-law; Marian Gue, siblings; Ernie Mae, Cleon, Barbara & Edwin. Survived by siblings, June & Carroll. Memorial Service at Grace Church, 7393 Pearl Rd, Middleburg Hts on Monday, April 17th @ 2:00pm. In lieu of flowers, memorials to Columbia Int'l University Scholarship Fund- 7435 Monticello Rd, Columbia, SC 29203 or any "No kill" Animal Sanctuary. (Plain Dealer)

Isobel C. Steele, age 99, of Wickliffe, passed away March 2, 2017. She was born in Cleveland, on July 19, 1917, to the late Dan and Mayme McKay.

She was a proud and loving wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend who will be greatly missed by all who knew her. She was a long time member and served faithfully at Wickliffe Presbyterian Church. Isobel found great joy with her family when they gathered at a family cottage at Lakeside.

Isobel is survived by her children, Bonnie (Bob) Schilling, Scott (Carol) Steele, grandchildren Neil Schilling, Lori Schilling, Julie Steele, Eric Steele, Jennifer (David) Eberly and Brian Steele, great grandchildren McKenzie, Madison, Alex, Hunter, Isobel, Ian and Taylor.  She was preceded in death by her beloved husband of 64 years, Clyde Steele, sister Jean Johnson, nephew Jeff Johnson.

A Funeral Service will be held on Wednesday, March 8, 2017 at 10am at the Monreal Funeral Home, 35400 Curtis Blvd., Eastlake. Visitation will be on Tuesday, March 7, 2017 from 2-4 and 6-8pm at the Monreal Funeral Home, 35400 Curtis Blvd., Eastlake. (Monreal Funeral home)

Friday famly photo--Memorial Day week-end

The wind was really brisk along the lake this morning. I had my 2 mile walk.  The irises are fabulous—I could tell even in the dim light of a cloudy early morning sunrise that had no sun. Since contractors are not supposed to be working during the “season” I could see a lot of remodeling and rebuilding going on as I walked down Third and then the Lakefont. The Design/Review committee doesn’t seem as concerned about size as when Bob was on it, but he just shrugs.

I tore the cottage apart looking for the IT/modem information we need to reconnect our internet which we turn off in the fall and winter. The Spectrum guy was here yesterday to flip the switch, but things were not connected. When our daughter arrived and made many phone calls, we were finally up and running, and she then set up the Roku stick she got me for Mother's Day.

 Meanwhile, I found lots of other “stuff,” including a 1977 photo of Bob, his dad Bob and his brother-in-law Bob. The 3 Bobs. It was taken at a time when Bob Sr. visited his sister, so Bob drove over to see him. As near as I can figure, Bob Sr. was 64, Bob was 39 and Bob Poisal was 44. Bob had longish, auburn red hair and was very slender. 40 years makes a huge difference, not just in the clothing fashion as shown in my recent blog, but our hair styles, bodies and physical fitness.

I took everything off the bookshelves and rearranged, without about 20 books.  We took those and our original wicker 2 seat couch on the porch since 1989 to the South Auditorium for the Historical Society annual sale. We really squeaked in--everything was arranged and ready to go for the Saturday opening.

And I found restaurants menus; I must remember to date them when I pick them up. The Hotel Lakeside; The Patio; Cleats; Nagoya (Japanese restaurant our kids like); and Sloopy’s the local pizza joint. At 5 we left the grounds to drive to Sandusky to Sortino’s, an Italian restaurants our kids like. We each ordered something different, and brought half home to eat on Saturday evening.

Enjoying lasagna and fettuccini at Sortino's in Sandusky 

A few of the neighbors are rolling in—gates are open and charging for the week-end, but most come up to get their cottages ready. Two of our immediate neighbors died over the winter—they lived across the street from each since the 1970s, and died the same day, one in Florida and one in Ohio. Another neighbor is using her cottage for AirBnB, so we never know for sure who will be there.

What else has no evidence?

Despite no evidence, the media have run with a suspicion of collusion and have 55% of Democrats believing that the individual elections in November were hacked by the Russians. Despite not a single leak of a meeting or discussion of Trump with Russians although there are leaks on everything else, the Democrats are preparing for impeachment. So the real threat to our free elections and constitution are the Democrats with their media handlers, not a foreign government.

http://hotair.com/archives/2017/05/23/poll-55-democrats-think-probably-definitely-true-russia-tampered-vote-totals-get-trump-elected/

Another charge for which there is no evidence, but people believe it anyway, just like the Russia-Trump collusion, is that John Brennan, the CIA director,  is a Muslim. There's no evidence he isn't. Try to prove it. But he did vote Communist in 1976. http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/15/politics/john-brennan-cia-communist-vote/

There's also no evidence that cradle to grave health insurance offered by the government creates a healthier nation.  Take the American Indians for example. We have 5 government health plans not counting the failing Obamacare. Democrats don't want unfairness or gaps so they are hoping we can all have the same wonderful care and health results as the Bureau of Indian Affairs has produced. Never mind that death rates for heart disease among American Indian and Alaska Native people are twice as high as the overall US population. Diabetes accounts for up to 75 percent of all cardiovascular events. Kidney disease—including chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease requiring dialysis—represents an important epidemic among American Indian and Alaska Native people. We must all be equal and accept what the government offers native peoples. (from Healthaffairs.org)

The budget

Republicans are handing the Democrats the next election. No, not impeachment, not the evil, unfair media that report 90% negative about Trump, but their splitting off and squabbling and internal, “but he promised” reasoning. Now we have the proposed budget to complain about. It’s the Congress’ responsibility, but we’re getting the whining about not enough ships for the Navy like he promised, or where’s my wall he promised, or where’s the infrastructure money he promised, or... literally, whose ox is gored by cutting the pork from Agriculture (which has actually become a giant food program and the rest special crop support). And then there were those horrified by his visit with Saudis, and the conservative Christians who don’t think Catholics are even Christians so why is he visiting the Pope, and the moderate Christians who think the Pope is a socialist. Yes, the swamp is full of bureaucrats, Democrat appointees and civil service employees who make 3x what people in the real world earn, but in draining the swamp, he needs his party’s help, and all they want to do is focus on their own piece of pie which fell into the swamp.

New shooz

I needed a few things so I popped into Meier's. Found some great black stretch jeans that look like slacks for our upcoming trip, and New Balance athletic shoes--not cute and trendy, in wild colors, but they work for me. Solid, and not made of fabric mesh, with a spread heel good for walking.  We'll be doing a lot of stairs, cobble stone, and rough terrain. A sore foot or painful shin bone can really spoil a trip.

 

Now I'm working on fitting it all in a small bag plus my carry on because we'll not be in one place long, and moving around by bus. Most clothing fabric is light weight or t-shirt but can be layered.  I think Scotland in June could be cold. I'll be wearing one outfit and the coat on the plane plus the fat shoes.  My carry on will have a complete change of clothes and a pair of shoes, just in case we get separated from our luggage. When we went to California by train in 2003 we had everything we needed for 2 weeks in 2 small bags.

Black stretch jeans

tan/khaki jeans

Blue stretch jeans

black skirt

print black and beige skirt

black and white dressy blouse

 white vest

2 aqua/pink/purple print shirts with sleeves

aqua short sleeve shirt with collar
pink sleeveless t-shirt

beige sleeveless t-shirt 

black/beige blouse

black sweater

black t-shirt with sleeves 

aqua silk scarf

grey spring coat

white rain slicker

beige sun/rain hat

White jacket

athletic shoes

black Mary Janes, flat

Brown strap shoes 

Pajamas, slippers, underwear, makeup, medication

Monday Memories--the Conestoga trip to Ripley and Georgetown, Ohio

Our Conestoga group supports the Ohio History Connection, and this year we took an all day bus trip on May 18 to Ripley, Ohio, to visit the newly restored homes of John Rankin and John Parker and to Georgetown to President Grant's boyhood home. All three homes are supported by local organizations with the help of the Ohio History Connection. We left the Ohio Center in Columbus about 7:30, and I think the trip was about 2.5 hours. Once the driver got lost as we looked for a McDonald's for our rest stop, so that contributed to some extra driving. Our group was over 40, so we needed to divide into 2 groups to take the tours because both houses are small. One group was dropped off at the Rankin House and then the other traveled to the Parker house which faced the river.

Rev. John Rankin, a Presbyterian minister, built his home in 1829 and he was active in the The Underground Railroad. It is located on a lovely bluff overlooking the Ohio River and the small town of Ripley, which in the 19th century had 9 millionaires. The river was narrower and more shallow then, and slaves came across from Kentucky. The hill was clear in the mid-19th century, so slaves and the conductors had to come at night watching for a candle in the Rankin cottage window. Now the hill is completely forested. The slaves were hidden in the barn as it was illegal to have escapees in the homes which could be searched. Mrs. Rankin and her daughters sewed clothes for them, and shoemakers in the community made shoes--and there were an unusual number of that craft in such a small town. The house didn't look very large from the outside, but had 4 nice sized bedrooms, where the children slept 3 to a bed. The Rankin family left Ripley and went to Kansas after the war, so none of the original furniture is in the house, but it is all appropriate to the era. John and Jean Rankin are buried in Ripley. The site of the Rankin home is having a make-over with a large visitor and education center, but it wasn't ready yet. The home was completely restored in 2014.

Before we switched places we enjoyed a relaxing lunch at Cohearts Riverhouse. The restaurant is located along the Ohio River in the scenic Historic District of Ripley and looks out across the river to the hills of Kentucky. We had selected our menu choice when we signed up so it was all ready for us.

 Half the group then visited the John P. Parker House, home of an African American inventor who helped hundreds make their way to freedom. As a young man he'd been sold 5 times, and his last owner allowed him to work extra at the foundry and save money to buy his freedom. Parker moved to southern Ohio and around 1853 established a successful foundry behind his home in Ripley. Patenting a number of inventions from his foundry, Parker was one of only a few African Americans to obtain a U.S. patent in the 19th century. Though busy with his business, Parker was also active in the Underground Railroad and is believed to have assisted many slaves to escape from the Kentucky side of the Ohio River. Suggested reading: His Promised Land; The Autobiography of John P. Parker Before leaving Ripley.

Then we boarded the coach and traveled about seven miles to Georgetown, Ohio and another Ohio History Connection and National Historic Landmark, the boyhood home of Lt. General and 18th President of the United States Ulysses S. Grant; newly restored to its appearance in 1839. Grant's parents had moved to Georgetown in 1823 and his father was a tanner.  U.S. Grant lived there until he was 17. This home was saved from demolition in 1965 by local preservationists and in 2002 was donated to the state. It had a $1.4 million restoration in 2015. As with the other two locations, we had a wonderful docent.

Originally we'd planned to also visit the schoolhouse Grant attended as a boy, but we were about 2 hours behind schedule so voted to head for home. 

Can you trust political polls? Not many do.

Just 26% of Likely U.S. Voters say they trust most political polls. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 55% do not trust most political polls. Nineteen percent (19%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Thirty-seven percent (37%) rate the current polling on political issues and events as worse than it has been in the past. Only 11% say polling is better now. Forty-six percent (46%) think it’s about the same.
Just one-out-of-three voters (35%) believe most pollsters are interested in reporting the attitudes of Americans in an unbiased manner when they poll on Trump. Forty-three percent (43%) think most pollsters are trying to block the president from passing his agenda. Just 12% say most are trying to help the president pass that agenda instead.

Not surprisingly, given how wrong most pollsters were about the outcome of the presidential election, 64% of Republicans think most pollsters are trying to block Trump’s agenda, a view shared by 42% of unaffiliated voters but only 24% of Democrats.