Time lapse at sea

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHrCI9eSJGQ

30 days of time lapse photography,  about 80,000 photos combined. 1500GB of Project files.  This has been viewed over 2,800,000 times, and I'm sure everyone enjoyed the experience.  Sri Lanka, Singapore, Hong Kong, etc. See how the cargo is loaded, unloaded. You'll feel very, very small.

Social justice warriors are off the leftist cliff

Attacks by the SJW and cultural Marxists are on the rise and going over the edge of reason. Social media assist them in these attacks on other citizens.

“For instance, on July 26, 2017, we [website Intellectual Takeout] published the article “I Was Once Transgender. Why I Think Trump Made the Right Decision for the Military”. The original article was published with a picture of a soldier greeting President Trump, which was acquired through a public domain, military images service. The soldier had nothing to do with the issue, it was just a good photo.

Nonetheless, a mob of people searched for the image online and finally tracked down the name of the soldier. They never checked to see if the name of the soldier in the picture matched the soldier's name who wrote the article. Having found the name, they then went after any public contact information they could find and began an e-mail and phone campaign against the soldier (who had no idea what was going on) to try and get the man removed from the service. The social justice warriors emailed him, his relatives, and both his commanding officers and fellow soldiers, they messaged him, his wife, his friends and relatives through Facebook, they called his military base, his home, and anyone else they could get a hold of, saying all manner of nasty things and attempting to destroy his professional career and social circles. How do we know? He and his wife both called our office and emailed to share the details, bewildered by the hate that they were receiving and begging us to pull the photo, which we did.

Again, that is not an isolated incident.“

 http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/we-had-pull-article-indoctrination

Are you still blogging?

Have blogs (a diary kept on the internet—web log) died?  Interesting to discover a research article that finds some merit in what I’ve been doing for 14 years. At one time I had 9 blogs, or was it 11? There was my general, catch-all that became increasingly political.  I had a sewing blog, art blog, retirement blog, immigration blog, church blog, health blog, a book blog, a first issue blog.  Many people dropped blogging for the micro-blog of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. Everyone is in a hurry, no time to write or to read.   I do both—sometimes Facebook my blog, or the other way around, but those short twits are too confining.

I still read a lot of blogs—political or craft or religious, usually. I love the quilting how-to blogs and the theology blogs.  As more and more became corporate or sponsored or cluttered with ads, they became less interesting.  But I’m still going—with no ads. That would be like work, and I’m retired.

http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/8065/6539

That so-called white privilege

Millions of Americans are designated white by the U.S. Census Bureau that perhaps you, especially on the academic left, have not recognized, such as Asian Indians, Lebanese, Syrians, Armenians, Jordanians, Iraqi, Kurds, Turkish, Egyptians, not just Irish and German ethnicity. Remember this the next time a college instructor hoping to get attention and tenure maligns or tries to "gaslight" white Americans of west or north European ancestry.

And interestingly, many of these "also white" ethnicities have higher incomes than European Americans. The highest is Indian Americans, like our current UN ambassador Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina and daughter of immigrants--their household income is over $107,000, (real U.S. median household income was $59,039 in 2016) whereas my poor Irish Americans are #48 at $64,525. Most of the Indian Americans are very entrepreneurial and focused on education, and most households are married couples. Work, education and marriage--it's a formula that can't be beat. Even Nigerian Americans are above Irish Americans, with a household income of $76,172 and 72.2% of the households are married couples. Census.gov
https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=bkmk

 Married couples with children under 18 years of age, according to the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey (Table HINC-04), made an average household income of $107,054 in 2013 and a median household income of $85,087. Married couples with NO children under 18 had an average household income of $91,870 in 2013 and a median household income of $70,995. Unmarried couples with children under 18 had an average household income of $65,337 and a median of $50,031. Call me crazy, but I think marriage and children have a positive effect on income and well being. Why do married couples with children do better financially than all others? "Perhaps it is because they are not primarily driven by greed but something quite the opposite: a willingness to make sacrifices so their children may live better lives."

https://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/terence-p-jeffrey/income-inequality-married-couples-kids-make-average-107054
 

Roe v. Wade

"We had an unplanned and unexpected pregnancy in the 70’s when abortion was rampant. And we gave serious thought to going that direction. We were young and active, just out of college and just getting started. We wanted children, but not right then. We decided against termination. Please indulge my “what if” for a moment:

“What If”‘ we had chosen abortion? There would be 4 grandsons I would not know, one of which I watched as a junior in high school pitch in his team’s first district baseball game of the season last Saturday. I would not be able to watch he and his next youngest brother play together on their high school football team that will be looking for their 15th State Championship in the Fall. (They won their 14th State High School championship last year) I would not know their 11 year old brother who is already becoming an accomplished pianist and song writer. Nor would I know their “little” brother, who at 8 years old is the most active, most outgoing and happy young man I’ve ever known, and is already a phenomenal athlete.

I would have not known their Mom who is one of the most amazing women alive today. She is brilliant, focused, hard working, hopelessly devoted to her family, and is the loving glue that holds our extended family together, plans every function and is an organizational and artistic genius. One other “what if” is probably the most sobering: we would be buried in the guilt of knowing we missed all of these people that would have been our descendants because we chose abortion. My “what ifs” are a bit scary. Think for a moment about yours." https://dnewman.org/roe-v-wade/

I want to be like Betty when I grow up

We went to Scotland for a week in June and our friends Howard and Betty, 82, who are in our couples group at church went to England, Wales and Scotland the last two weeks of August so they could see Tattoo, which we missed since it only performs in late summer.

"How was the vacation?"  "Oh it was wonderful!"  Except. . .

Howard had his wallet stolen with their credit cards and cash early in the trip. People on the tour offered them money to tide them over, but they watched every penny, bought no souvenirs, and made do with the cash Betty had.  His wallet was in a zippered leg pocket with a Velcro strip and he never felt the hand that took it until dinner.

Returning to the USA from Heathrow they boarded the plane to fly home, via Houston, and no one mentioned the Hurricane. They were told it was raining.

Theirs was the last plane in and then the airport was closed, and they had to find a hotel in a strange city because none of them would take the vouchers United provided.

Betty is being treated for a serious illness and had no more medicine left by the time they got to the US, and what she did have needed to be refrigerated.

When they finally found one by using Howard's I-pad to make a reservation and using the United van, it was a suite, with a refrigerator, but there were no cooking utensils or dishes. And there was no way to get food anyway, since they couldn't leave the hotel, and even if they could, everything was closed. The hotel experienced some leaking, but not in their room  and it was on the second floor which was good because the elevator was no longer working. The hotel was still serving breakfast, which got smaller each day since no supplies were coming in.

Howard became extremely ill while they were in the hotel, and they had to go to the ER, in a strange city, with almost everything closed. Before the trip he had photocopied all their medical cards, credit cards, passport, etc.

Betty told the clerk at the desk, who had only been working a day or two their dilemma, and she knew of a hospital open in her neighborhood and offered to drive them there after her shift. (There are angels out there). Because he had the photocopies, he was able to get through the paper work even with having had his wallet stolen.

Howard was treated in the ER, and given a prescription for an antibiotic, but the city was on lock down after 8 p.m. to prevent looting and they couldn't get it filled.

Meanwhile their daughter got them reservations on the first flight out of Houston to Chicago when the rain and storm let up and they were able to get out of town 3 days sooner than what they thought.

Neither one is quite well yet, but for 82, that isn't bad.

But it was a wonderful trip, with enough stories to last a lifetime.

Hello October

Meritocracy, the latest target

I caught the tail end of a Fox story on "meritocracy is a white myth" by yet another professor with pink out of control hair offering a class/workshop on how terrible American culture is. The idea that hard work merits advancement is just so much doggy poo. But then if you google it, you see this has been building at least for 10 years in the media elite like Atlantic and NYT. After all, Jenna Bush and Chelsea Clinton or even George Stephanopolous, a political operative of the Clinton years, didn't get their cushy TV jobs through merit--it was family, influence or money, or maybe all three. What goes around comes around, and soon the journalists who were writing about it 5 years ago, will become the latest victims of the Leftist smears, tossed aside after they are no longer useful, because they didn't deserve their jobs or graduating from Columbia or Berkeley.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/06/the-cult-of-smartness-how-meritocracy-is-failing-america/258492/

http://brandywine.psu.edu/person/angela-putman

Thinking about Western Civilization

I listen to a Catholic call-in radio talk show, and in August I heard a question that sounded like the man had been to one of those “gaslighting” workshops where the audience is led to believe that western civilization, especially “white” people, has ruined the world (instead of being the gift it is in architecture, music, literature, economics, etc.). How it works: The presenter will move from broad strokes with snippets of truth buried in mountains of lies to the individuals in the room who have probably been forced to attend. They are then brainwashed about white privilege and micro aggression and made to feel responsible for the KKK, Jim Crow and police killing black criminals.

The gist was:  “Why are all the disciples’ names in the Bible, “white” when they all lived in the middle east? “ Yes, the  caller identified certain names, “white.”  I almost giggled when I heard it, except I know he probably didn’t come up with that on his own.  Dr. Anders, the host, was very kind and explained (and I paraphrase), “In the English translation, all the names are anglicized, translated from the Latin and Greek, which were Hellenized from the Aramaic or Hebrew, the original language Jesus and his disciples spoke.  Peter is Pedro in Spanish, and Pierre in French, but it was Kephas or Cephas (stone, rock) in Aramaic, and Petros (rock, stone) in Greek and Petra in Latin (stone, rock).”  

However, the mistake the caller made is one many make when they read or hear a name and make assumptions about race, religion or sex, so I won’t fault him for being misled—if that is what happened.

 

If you click on that show, you'll find my question at about minute 11:12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubz1YHTVrPY

Revisionist sociology

Interesting that Ben Carson, who grew up poor, in the projects with a single mom who couldn’t read, is now called “not a typical black man,” but Colin Kaepernick, who has 3 white parents, a white girlfriend, private schools and scholarships, and wealth in the millions,  is supposed to have the scoop on what it means to be a minority male.

Friday Family Photo--Fall Cleanup

Neighbors buttoned up for Fall

A few sprinkles

Cleaning up the east side of cottage

 

Congress is the first word of the First Amendment

Back to the Lake for some fall clean up

Our internet is turned off, so I won't be taking my laptop.  I'll be reading my book, Being Mortal by Atul Gawande for our book club discussion on Monday.

When I was about 40, I noticed I was wearing my mother's hands. So whenever I look at them, she is with me! Dr. Gawande writes:   "40% of the muscle mass of the hand is in the thenar muscles, the muscles of the thumb, and if you look carefully at the palm of an older person (like me) at the base of the thumb, you will notice that the musculature is not bulging but flat. . . The hand has 29 joints, each of which is prone to destruction from osteoarthritis, and this will give the joint surfaces a ragged, worn appearance. The joint collapses.. . . The hand also has 48 named nerve branches. Deterioration of the cutaneous mechanoreceptors in the pads of the fingers produces loss of sensitivity to touch. Loss of motor neurons produces loss of dexterity (I really notice that--have to be very careful not to drop things). . . Using tiny buttons on a phone or touch screen display, becomes increasingly unmanageable."

I have all my permanent teeth, even my wisdom teeth. Dr. Gawande writes:  "In the course of a normal lifetime, the muscles of the jaw lose about 40% of their mass and the bones of the mandible lose about 20% becoming porous and weak. The ability to chew declines, and people shift to softer foods, which are generally higher in fermentable carbohydrates and more likely to cause cavities. By the age of 60, people in an industrialized country like the U.S. have lost, on average, 1/3 of their teeth. After 85, almost 40% have no teeth at all." p. 29, Being Mortal

California crime statistics

Each state compiles crime statistics and sends them on to the appropriate federal agency which then sorts and recompiles them into different category. This is the address of the California Homicide Report for 2015, Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General.

https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/cjsc/publications/homicide/hm15/hm15.pdf

The first thing you notice in this report (and the older ones which I looked at) is that there is a wealth of information on victims; almost nothing on the offenders. Since most violent crimes are committed by younger males within their own ethnic/racial group, we can only guess at the offender, but it's close.

In California for 2015

28.3% of the victims are black, who are 5.7% of the population for a rate of 23.5.

43.1% of the victims are Hispanic who are 39% of the population for a rate of 5.3.

21.2% of the victims are white, who are 38.5% of the population for a rate of 2.6.

http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/09/27/violent-crime-rises-in-california-u-s-but-is-still-low-compared-to-past/

http://www.ppic.org/publication/crime-trends-in-california/

The Athlete Crybullies

I don't care if workers peacefully protest climate change or gender dysphoria or abortion or advocate for their religion or non-science on their own time. If I hire an electrician, or pay a bill at the city building, or ask for an estimate to remove the animal in my attic, or get stopped by the police for speeding on Mountview Road, I don't want to get a lecture or advice on their pet beliefs. Football players are hired to do a job. And I'm disappointed to learn that Obama was paying them to "act" patriotic. So when he's out of office, they can start acting like spoiled kids. Now some are trying to make this about race? Well, OK, why is the NBA and NFL allowed to have 80% and 70% one race and not be subject to law suits by the government?

“Responding to a tip from one of his "boys," Smith brought up the fact that until 2009—eight years and a new Presidential administration after 9/11—players weren't on the field for the national anthem and instead generally remained in the locker room. According to Smith's boy (and the researcher at ESPN who checked it), the switch happened "because it was seen as a marketing strategy to make the athletes look more patriotic." " Sports.vice.com

NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart: "We also believe our players have a right to express themselves." Would that include expressing support for traditional marriage, or ridiculing popular beliefs on climate change, or refusing to accept transgenderism in their daughters’ locker rooms?

LeBron on Twitter: "Going to White House was a great honor until you showed up!" And this isn't the first time he's dissed the president. Probably 20 or so on Google. Poor loser, just like Hillary. Maybe in his next tweet he can list what Obama ever did for black people.  In December he said he’d never stay in a Trump hotel, and in November he was speaking out against the election.

Bill, the WWII veteran

Before the heat became unbearable,  I was on my walk in the apartment complex close by, and he was on his walker. I stopped to chat with him and found out he was born in 1925 and enlisted when he was 17. "I wasn't afraid to die, but I was afraid I might not be able to do what I was trained to do." He was on a destroyer, manning incredibly complex equipment--before he ever had a driver's license. He injured his hip in the war, and later in life broke it, so thus he's on a walker. The complex where he lives is beautiful and I like to walk there, but rarely meet anyone. Lucky me.

School closing due to heat

I don't know how many MMHS graduates remember this, but they actually did close the school one September in the 1950s because it was too hot. I was there. Of course, our homes didn't have AC or fans either, but . . . Today Columbus is sending the kids home early due to the heat.

Monday Memories--jury duty September 2002

From a letter. "I am on jury duty for two weeks and have been selected for a jury, but we’re not meeting until 1:30 this afternoon.  It seems like a strange way to run a circus, but apparently the judges are several weeks on civil and then on criminal, so our judge this week has been moved to criminal, so our case is being squeezed in to her new schedule.  This is the county, so there are about 90 people called for each week and you are on duty for two weeks. On the first day several women in our group went to City Center for lunch.  The orientation told us to get to know each other, and it seems a very compatible group. It is interesting to see the different ages, races, genders sitting around chatting like old friends. I'm feeling really patriotic. We get pep talks from court workers, lawyers and judges when they see us wilting from the waiting and the heat. I read on the bulletin board in the jury room that only 45% of Americans are called for jury duty and only 17% ever actually sit on a jury. Most cases go to mediation or are settled before they come to trial. The biggest challenge is getting there and parking.  I practiced several times the week before.

Now that I'm getting really good at navigating the streets of downtown Columbus, dodging the utility trucks tearing up streets, the orange barrels, and the construction sites, I have time to actually read the names of streets as I pass on my way to the construction site called Rt. 315. One main street is called "Commit to be Fit." It was apparently renamed by our mayor who is unhappy that we have won the honor of 5th fattest city in the USA.

 But I came down with a cold late Thursday.  Fortunately, my case didn’t meet on Friday, so I just laid around most of the week-end.  I had to cancel my birthday dinner with Phoebe and Mark, but Phoebe stopped by Sunday with a nice present, and on Saturday Mark brought me a box of Puffs and some tapioca.  Because of my heart medicine I’m not suppose to take any over the counter cold remedies.  So I just have to snuffle and sneeze through the testimonies."

Update 2017:  The case for which I was seated involved Ohio's infamous Scott-Pontzer insurance law which was finally reversed in 2003. It was incredibly confusing and caused me to lose chunks of faith in our laws and our jury system. It was referred to as the Golden Turkey award and had allowed employees and their families injured on their own time in their own cars to collect from their employers’ auto insurance policies

https://www.clevescene.com/cleveland/absurd-at-any-speed/Content?oid=1481862

Think about it.

From Russia, Russia, Russia to KKK

President Trump is tarred and feathered for not naming "Nazi" (before the invesigation) in Charlottesville. Naming them the next day wasn't enough, because, well, he was Donald Trump and no matter what he did, it would be wrong.

But the left, Democrat and progressive media and politicians all gave Obama a pass for refusing to say "Islamic Terrorist," even when the bodies were in front us in Orlando (49 people killed and 58 wounded), Ft. Hood (13 people killed and 30+ wounded, all military) and San Bernadino (14 people killed and 22 others seriously injured) and numerous other sites since 2009. Even when gays and military were targeted and a Christmas party were the scenes of massacres. Couldn't be Islam. Oh No.  Had to be something else. Workplace violence, an unhappy arranged marriage. Discrimination.  Only social media called Obama on it. Never the news media or his star struck supporters.

Donald Trump didn't refuse to use the word Nazi, but Obama refused to link Islam and terrorism. He called them murderers. Which was true. Using their own tactics and reasoning, was Barack Obama an Islamic Terrorist because he refused to say it?

And the media? Based on how they covered those attacks by angry Muslims, wringing their hands that there could be blow-back, they should have been writing editorials after Charlottesville worrying about how Nazis and supremacists were being maligned.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/28/politics/obama-radical-islamic-terrorism-cnn-town-hall/index.html