Miss America contest uses Anti-Trump questions

The Leftist culture  hated the Miss American contest--ridiculed it--until they found out they could use and manipulate these women as a weapon against President Trump.
 http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/09/11/when-did-miss-america-pageant-turn-into-nasty-woman-protest.html
https://pjmedia.com/video/miss-america-contestants-competed-for-anti-trump-quips/

• "By presenting an unattainable image of the ideal woman, Miss America not only reinforces noxious gender roles and stereotypes, but also implies that a majority of women have failed at womanhood itself." (2015)
• "Yet, there's this ridiculous message the pageant peddles: We enjoy judging women on their looks and bodies, and we will set as a body ideal a standard impossible for the vast majority of women on this planet.' (2013)
• "Can you believe it? They still have Miss America pageants. I thought they went out with Capris and beehives, or at least bangles and roller disco." (2008).
• "Watching the pageant "is almost the experience one gets when one opens a time capsule," says Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University in New York. "Miss America is in many ways a perfect reflection of a slice of American values as they stood a quarter-century ago."" (1999)

An anniversary celebration--sort of

Our condo association had its fall picnic Sunday evening on the grounds and I announced that we and our neighbors were celebrating our anniversaries on Monday and Tuesday for a total of 115 years.  We’d gone out on Friday at the Rusty Bucket for dinner together.  When I told the waitress she looked at me strangely, and said, "Anniversary of what?"

But the fun part was we have new residents who had moved in during July, so we’d never met.  He’s the new director of the school of music at OSU. They are from Texas, but natives of Iowa and met in high school (one of the questions on the quiz).  When we’d finished eating and playing our games, a group of men singing OSU stuff like Carmen Ohio and Hand on Sloopy walked up to our group—it was about 1/3 of the men’s glee club.  Wonderful voices. Their director was a friend of our new neighbors and did lots of inside jokes and stories.   It wasn’t for us, and it was all planned, but it sure was fun.

 

A surprise for our anniversary

I knew my husband attended a one day art class at Lakeside this summer, but hadn't seen the results.  It's a pendant he painted of the Marblehead Lighthouse, with lake, trees, sky and sailboat, and it's an anniversary present.

Monday Memories--Aunt Muriel September 2002

From a letter.  "Aunt Muriel called twice this month to wish us a Happy Anniversary and also on my birthday.  I said something about my last letter, but she didn’t receive it for two weeks.  I looked back in the computer, and I’d written it Sept. 4.  Even allowing that maybe it sat a day or two, it seems even by pony express it should’ve made it to Illinois by the 11th.  I said to Bob that sometimes I don’t know how she stays so perky.  She no longer has parents, husband or siblings, and most of her contemporaries have passed away. I think she and Mom lived next door to each other for 40 years, and as a teenager she lived with my parents.  I was the one to tell her of the death of her last surviving cousin, making her the only surviving cousin out of 28.  Fortunately Diane and Frank live close by--I think they visit almost every week-end.  She is really wonderful to her mother.  Just a rock."

Ready for Irma

We have a lot of family in Florida--my sister Carol's children Cindy and Greg and grandchildren, my brother's children, my husband's niece Susie and her children, my cousin Janet, and my husband's cousin Norma Lou and husband. And then there's my friend Jerry and her husband Jim, who use to live in Michigan and vacation in Florida, and now it's the other way around. A few days ago they were driving south as Floridians fled north.  Now they are ready.

 

 

 

Carol's granddaughter and great granddaughter waiting out the storm

 

The English Reformation was like Mao’s Cultural Revolution of the 20th century

Did you ever wonder why the Crawley family of the fictional Downton Abbey TV series lived in an abbey?  “There are many old country houses in the UK called "xxxxx Abbey", due to the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538, after which the land and the buildings themselves were sold to the wealthy.”  (Quora) “In Apr 1536, there were over 800 monasteries, abbeys, nunneries and friaries that were home to over 10,000 monks, nuns, friars and canons. By April 1540 there were none left. Much of the property was bought by or granted to landowners; monastery churches were sometimes converted to parish churches, while some buildings, such as Tintern Abbey, were left to ruin.”

“One of Eamon Duffy’s key resources [The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580] are the extant last wills and testaments. By collecting the data from wills he was able to trace the changes in English religion that Henry VIII and his officers enforced. Put simply, the wills made by Catholics before Henry VIII’s break with Rome expressed simple belief and enthusiasm for the Catholic faith.

In their wills the English provided for Masses to be said for the repose of their souls. They left funds for the maintenance of the church and her services. They left money to build extensions to churches and monasteries, provide for bells, vestments, altar cloths and candles. They provided funding for the poor, left money in their wills for schools and hospitals, and left endowments for colleges and orphanages.

In short, the wills are evidence of the health and vigor of the Church in England just before Henry VIII enforced the destruction of English Catholicism.

Similarly, the wills after the break with Rome reflect the new understanding of the faith. The old clauses granting funds to the Church and all her good works began to disappear. Being taught that Masses for the repose of their souls were pointless, they stopped providing for them in their wills. Being taught that religious art, vestments, stained-glass windows and statues were vain or idolatrous, they stopped leaving money for such things. They no longer left money for the poor, but left it for their relatives.

England in the Middle Ages was referred to as “Mary’s Dowry.” The churches, cathedrals, monasteries, convents, colleges and shrines were wealthy. There was corruption, certainly. Wherever there is a concentration of money and power there is bound to be corruption. But Duffy shows that the state of the monasteries and of religious life in England was robust, dynamic and strong.

Henry VIII’s depredations were about more than wanting to marry his mistress and have a male heir. He and his commissioners had also spotted that the monasteries and churches provided rich pickings. The king himself grabbed vast amounts of land for the crown and he awarded his faithful subjects with rich prizes of religious houses and their lands and goods.” Catholic England

DWS and the Awan deal

HT Happy Hayride.  “The legal teams for Imran Awan and Hina Alvi are close to finalizing immunity deals with the Justice Department that could spare them jail time in exchange for testimony against sitting members of Congress, federal law enforcement sources said. FBI sources familiar with the case said late Friday that Imran Awan’s legal counsel was “deep in the process” of structuring an immunity deal for himself and his wife with Justice Department lawyers. The deal would allow the couple to freely testify against any or all Democratic lawmakers they worked for as IT specialists, including Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. True Pundit reported on Thursday that the couple was working on a plea deal to avoid prison time. But on Friday federal sources said those talks had progressed into a likely immunity deal for the duo.”http://truepundit.com/fbi-awans-finalizing-immunity-deals-with-doj-in-exchange-for-testimony-on-members-of-congress/

Irma, Harvey and Climate Change

Has climate change created fewer hurricanes?  Something to think about. Things have been historically quiet since Katrina, when it was predicted that we were in for terrible storms. I’m watching TV with non-stop coverage, and they still don’t know where Irma will go even with deserted streets and hunkered down people who aren’t leaving. So why do these climate mystics and gurus think they know what will happen next month or next year or in 2030? We even have better technology, and drones, since 2005 and they still have computer models that look like a plate of spaghetti on the floor.  They should look backwards.  Last week I was walking on the shores of Lake Erie, the shoreline of 10,000 years ago on 6th street.  Absolutely climate change exists.
https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/despite-hurricanes-harvey-irma-science-has-no-idea-climate-change-causing

“What ensued [after Katrina] was an historically unprecedented 12-year absence of major (category 3 or higher) hurricanes making landfall in the United States, until Harvey, which ties for 14th-most intense hurricane since 1851. The events after 2005 were “consistent with” some projections, but any other events would have been as well.The long absence of landfalling hurricanes also points to another problem when opinion writers connect GHGs [greenhouse gases] to extreme weather. Science needs to be concerned not only with conspicuous things that happened, but with things that conspicuously didn’t happen. Like the famous dog in the Sherlock Holmes story, the bark that doesn’t happen can be the most important of all. 

It is natural to consider a hurricane a disruptive event that demands an explanation. It is much more difficult to imagine nice weather as a disruption to bad weather that somehow never happened.”

Jan writes for “The Verse” about crises

“Sometimes it takes a crisis for me to value our connectedness. A hiccup in travel plans, an unexpected diagnosis, a natural disaster, actions against loved ones -- any challenge can bring out the best in our shared humanity, if we choose to participate.  Recent images and stories of people helping each other, offering whatever assistance each could provide, across divides which suddenly seem much less significant than before, give me hope for the future.” Jan

I’m copying her words from the newsletter of the Hymn Society just because they reflect my own views. I’ve watched the videos and photos and stories coming from Houston, and I’m sure it’s repeated in Louisiana which is also having flooding, and Oregon and Montana with the terrible fires, and in Florida with people now fleeing in long lines on the the 2 ways out.

This issue of The Hymn Society Verse also has a link to a nice list of hymns from Gia Publications suitable for worship in times of crisis and some downloadable hymns free until November 1.

What Happened, Hillary?

No voter gets all she wants in any election. I wanted Ted Cruz--young, son of immigrants, conservative values, Christian, best debater in decades on the public stage. After 8 years of stumbling speechifying, I was so looking forward to something different. I certainly wasn't looking for snippets on Twitter.

That wasn't to be, and I didn't run away and join the NeverTrumpers. Although I didn't care about the wall, I did care about saving future generations of Americans, who would in turn give life to more generations, so I voted for Trump. Not that he was a huge advocate for life, but hey--"anyone anytime ladies' choice" Hillary was a sure bet against life. Donald Trump is not the one who elevated the judges to their current over weighted roles, but he at least can influence and balance it. Judges were never meant to make law based on their feelings or on their hatred for the President.

Second, I wanted to see low income Americans helped with something besides hand outs to their ineffective leadership. Democrats have kept them on the dole so they would keep cranking that D lever in the voting booth. Nothing helps the poor like a good job. That meant fewer regulations and laws against the small capitalists coming up who hire Americans and grow the economy at home. That meant less crony capitalism with the big players like banks, high tech and big Ag. The only candidate who seemed to care was a business man, not a politician.

Third, I wanted to see the brakes put on the erosion of the First Amendment, especially stopping the federal government from destroying our freedom of religion. Again, that was Trump, not known for being particularly religious, but he understands that is the solid foundation of the First Amendment.

Fourth, race relations had plummeted under Obama and he empowered and emboldened the left to destroy our basic values. Not sure which candidate could reverse that, but it sure wasn't Hillary Clinton. The Alt-Left, socialists, globalists and SPLC types are trying to convince us that "Make America Great Again" is racist and neo-Nazi, but it certainly has more gravitas than "Hope and Change."

Fifth, I was quite sure Trump wouldn't hand our biggest enemies billions of dollars, or welcome home traitors who worked against our military. He might prove me wrong, but with NKorean nukes pointed at Japan and South Korea, would we really want Hillary who ran out on Benghazi making the deal?

Friday Family Photo--Phil and the praise band

Labor Day parade in Canal Winchester, Ohio, praise band from Gender Road Christian Church on a float.   Phil is 2nd from left, playing base guitar. Phil says everyone on the parade route was very enthusiastic, praising God, singing and dancing. The children particularly treated them like rock stars.

Relief for Houston

I was looking through the web page for First Presbyterian Church of Houston that has suggestions for disaster relief (no more material stuff—the drop offs are full), and I decided to look through the sermon and Sunday School topics, because some churches that say they follow Christ actually follow the culture and a political ideology.  Found this one on architecture, part of the church’s Faith and Culture series, not a topic that churches usually focus on.  http://fpchouston.org/messages/architecture/651/

Hurricane Watch

President Trump's message on DACA

"In June of 2012, President Obama bypassed Congress to give work permits, social security numbers, and federal benefits to approximately 800,000 illegal immigrants currently between the ages of 15 and 36.  The typical recipients of this executive amnesty, known as DACA, are in their twenties.  Legislation offering these same benefits had been introduced in Congress on numerous occasions and rejected each time. . . .

"The temporary implementation of DACA by the Obama Administration, after Congress repeatedly rejected this amnesty-first approach, also helped spur a humanitarian crisis – the massive surge of unaccompanied minors from Central America including, in some cases, young people who would become members of violent gangs throughout our country, such as MS-13. . .

"The decades-long failure of Washington, D.C. to enforce federal immigration law has had both predictable and tragic consequences: lower wages and higher unemployment for American workers, substantial burdens on local schools and hospitals, the illicit entry of dangerous drugs and criminal cartels, and many billions of dollars a year in costs paid for by U.S. taxpayers.  Yet few in Washington expressed any compassion for the millions of Americans victimized by this unfair system.  Before we ask what is fair to illegal immigrants, we must also ask what is fair to American families, students, taxpayers, and jobseekers."

 

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/09/05/statement-president-donald-j-trump

And Speaker Paul Ryan

"President Obama’s DACA program was a clear abuse of executive authority, an attempt to create law out of thin air. Congress writes laws, not the president, and ending this program fulfills a promise that President Donald J. Trump made to restore the proper role of the executive and legislative branches. Now, the House and Senate, with the president’s leadership, will work to find consensus on a permanent legislative solution on this and many immigration issues, such as border security and interior enforcement." From Facebook

Unions and right to work

Public-sector workers had a union membership rate (34.4 percent) more than five times higher than that of private-sector workers (6.4 percent). So our taxes pay the salaries of govenment workers and then they lobby against us. Never waste a crisis, so government union membership grew during the recession. Among occupational groups, the highest unionization rates in 2016 were in education, training, and library occupations (34.6 percent). I think this suggests that women, who dominate those fields, seem to want protection despite all the bravado and complaints about a patriarchy, and see the government as a father/spousal figure. (Figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2016.)

https://www.law360.com/articles/899211/challenges-continue-for-organized-labor-in-2017

"The union agenda has also shifted since the 1940s. What was once a collective bargaining focus has morphed into a political operation using those millions in member dues to support other liberal organizations and campaigns. From 2012 to 2015, union bosses have given away over a half-billion dollars to groups many of their members would never support."
 
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/feb/6/union-support-for-donald-trump-gives-big-labor-cha/

A comment from a FB friend:  "And, in Ohio, they have what they call a "fair share fee" for those who don't wish to join the union, but pay their share of the union representing them. The difference is supposed to be what goes to political activity. What is a fair share? 100%, of course. Nothing fair or accurate about that at all. Having served as union rep and on state executive board, I can tell you much of what is done is clearly partisan political activity, including much of what goes on in their conventions."

Fourteen years later the OSU fire is still a cold case

I was looking through some old letters to my family and noticed this one, April 19, 2003, and I wondered what had happened with the investigation into this tragedy: 

 "I don't think our latest tragedy here would have made your news, but 5 students died in a house fire on the campus early last Sunday (13th) a.m. Actually, only 2 were OSU, the other 3 were Ohio University (Athens, OH). Many still hospitalized. An old house with 12 bedrooms that the kids just love to rent, close to campus. Celebrating one of the guys’ 21st birthday, so everyone had been drinking. Happened about 3 or 4 a.m. Now they've decided it was arson, so people are really upset. Will be a big murder investigation--maybe the biggest Columbus has had. All the bios in the paper indicated they were all really good kids, but if you combine the gases and smoke inhalation with the fact that they may have not been as alert as possible, it was lethal. One young OU girl was from Dublin, north of here, and 1200 people came to her funeral yesterday.  The smoke was so dense the firemen had trouble finding them.  One girl was rescued unconscious by the fireman lying on top of her to protect her and scooting her by looping his arms under her.  But he didn’t know there was another student also in the room--and had barely found her."

Then it was 5 years. http://www.10tv.com/article/victims-legacies-live

The Dispatch caught up with the survivors 10 years later. http://www.dispatch.com/article/20130413/NEWS/304139720

Now it's fourteen and it's a cold case.  Families of the deceased still stay in touch and try to make life good in memory of their loved ones.
http://nbc4i.com/2017/04/13/still-no-answers-14-years-after-ohio-state-university-fatal-fire/

Monday Memories--Book club memories 2002

From a letter. "I had book group here September 9. I finished the book, “John Adams,” that Monday morning!  I made my mother’s apple walnut “Autumn bread” recipe and Phoebe’s cheese ball with crackers.  The leader, Carolyn A. did a fabulous job.  She’s been a John Adams fan for 20 years, and brought along all her other books about him, many of which had wonderful illustrations.  Our next selection for Oct. 7 is “Peace like a River” by Leif Enger.  I’ve been taking it down to jury duty, but haven’t made much progress.  In December I’ll be leading “The Persian Pickle Club” by Sandra Dallas, a wonderful story about women in the Depression.  Everyone loved the condo [we'd moved in January 2002].  It was still light enough they could see the grounds.  One lady asked me if we overlooked a park.  It really is that lovely.  I must get busy and finish the decorating.  It is hard after you live with it for awhile, because you sort of don’t notice some of the oddities.  This group formed in 1979, and still has about 3 or 4 of the original members, and some who’ve been with it for 19 or 20 years.  I didn’t join until I retired in 2000, so I’m a real novice at reading on command.   One woman said that when they started they had 20 women and 24 babies."

From a letter.  "Book group meets tonight, [November 4, 2002].  I stop at Adrienne’s about 2 miles north, and she’ll drive us up to Muirfield (northwest of here) to the hostess’ home.  The book is Anne Tyler’s “Back when we were grown ups,” and I can’t say I enjoyed it much.  I hope someone else has something to offer.  I can’t imagine a woman taking so long (she is 53 when the novel opens) to figure out her 4 daughters are all losers. With names like Patch, No-No, Biddy, and Min-Foo, what can you expect? Although people usually talk about Tyler’s humor, I thought the only funny part was when she gets together with her old boyfriend from high school/college for dinner (she is a widow and dumped him to marry her husband) and finds out what a dud he is too.  She had sort of romanticized the memory of their time together. I sort of felt they deserved each other--she’s been wearing a fake happy face for 30 years and he’s been following rigid routines and is mad because she walked out on him."

Secrets of the Alhamba

In September 2015 we visited Spain, including Granada and the Alhambra. It was an amazing trip hosted by our Finnish friends the Tulamos.  We celebrated my birthday at a Flemenco theater in Granada.  Interesting video on how it took 500 years to figure out the inscriptions of the Arabic in the Alhambra. http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20170817-the-secret-world-of-granadas-alhambra-palace

https://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/09/hola-we-home-from-spain.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did the federal government create the obesity epidemic?

Lots of pretty charts in this report, but it looks to me like obesity rates began soaring with the War on Poverty, about the same time that marriage rates began dropping. Hmm. More government is supposed to solve what government created?

http://healthyamericans.org/assets/files/TFAH-2017-ObesityReport-FINAL.pdf

A Harvey rescue of a Chihuahua Rescue

Many people support the rescue services of specific dog breeds, especially when one breed becomes popular and then people lose interest and discover a Great Dane doesn't work well in a one bedroom apartment.  I don't know the source of this photo, but it looks like this Good Sam has picked up a boat load from a Chihuahua Rescue.  (Website of a California rescue.) There are some "deer heads" (like our little Abby), "apple heads" (sort of a pug nose), long hair, short hair, and mixed breed.  All sizes.  But bless this guy who apparently took them out of the rain and flooding--and I'm sure they are grateful, but shivering more than usual. In 2005 was blogging about Jinky The Hollywood Dog who was a long hair Chihuahua mix rescue with a lot of personality.