November is prematurity awareness month

Someone asked me nicely if I could share that November is prematurity awareness month. At first I thought she meant old too soon, ;-)  but no, it's about premature babies.

"Mama B. Designs is official partners of March of Dimes, a foundation that funds lifesaving research-giving every baby a fighting chance. A substantial 50% of every item sold goes to the organization. Premature birth is the #1 killer in babies 0-5."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEURNBZaZjo&feature=share

Forget Russia. What about the U.S.A.

Let's forget Russia, Russia, Russia for the moment. “They’re here in large numbers, actively trying to penetrate a whole host of sectors—government, industry, and academia.” according to a Obama official in 2016 as reported in the New Yorker. Going on for over a decade--that'd be Bush and Obama. "After neglecting the Russian threat for a decade, the U.S. was caught flat-footed by Moscow’s election operation. Now, officials are scrambling to figure out how to contain a sophisticated intelligence network that’s festered and strengthened at home after years’ worth of inattention." (Politico)

If destroying patriotism and love of country were the goal, the Russians succeeded in academe and the entertainment culture with a heavy boost from the Democrats who failed to see the problem, then added to it.

But then. How much interfering does the USA do in the cultures and elections and businesses of other countries? You know, like Bill and Melinda Gates and birth control? Or big pharma testing its products on brown and black babies? Or removing DDT from the tool box to defeat malaria as demanded by liberals of the 1970s? Or helping with the funding of preferred candidates in Kenya or Egypt or eliminating the leaders like Muammar al-Qaddafi’s regime by Obama? Department of State AID for agriculture? It's endless. We have military bases all over the world through "treaties" and "trade agreements." That's not interfering?

A successful trip to Asia by President Trump

I was happy to see the President wrap up his trip with a visit in the Phillipines. Filipino Americans are an amazing group--second highest income group in the U.S. just behind Indian-Americans. And Filipinos live all over the world, yet remain loyal to their family homeland and culture. When we ate at a restaurant in Madrid, our waitress was Filipino--spoke good English. Our daughter manages the office for a doctor who is Filipino American. There was a Filipino-American couple on our trip to Scotland--they'd met when both worked in the Middle East.

All the links from the MSM are negative or disparaging.  They haven't learned a thing since the election a year ago.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-asean-summit-song/you-are-the-light-philippines-duterte-croons-at-trumps-request-idUSKBN1DD04O

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-asean-summit/gala-glitz-masks-asias-tensions-as-trump-winds-up-tour-idUSKBN1DC07P

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/11/14/trump-chuckled-as-duterte-called-journalists-spies-thats-no-laughing-matter-in-the-philippines/?utm_term=.d754b2225b3b

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/13/world/asia/trump-duterte-philippines.html

I wonder if the President was served Spam? https://theculturetrip.com/asia/philippines/articles/why-spam-and-rice-is-a-filipino-food-classic/

Going around--don't know source of why Hillary lost, but I've heard them all

"I still haven’t figured out why Hillary lost.

• Was it the Russians?
• Or was it Wikileaks ?
• Or was it Podesta?
• Or Comey?
• Or was it a sexual predator husband?
• Or was it her chief of staff's husband Wiener’s pictures of his penis?
• Was it a subpoena violation?
• Or was it the corrupt Clinton foundation?
• Or was it the congressional lies?
• Or was it the Bengazi bungle that cost several lives?
• Or was it pay for play?
• Or was it the travel gate scandal?
• Or was it the Whitewater scandal?
• Or the cattlegate scandal?
• Or the Trooper Gate scandal?
• Or was it the $15 million for Chelsea’s apt bought with Clinton Foundation money?
• Or Comey's investigation?
• Or her husband’s interference with Loretta Lynch and the investigation?
• Or was it stealing debate questions?
• Was it deleting forensic 30,000 emails?
• Was it the Seth Rich murder?
• Was it calling half the USA deplorable?
• Was it the underhanded immoral treatment of Bernie Sanders?
• Was it the Vince Foster murder?
• The Jennifer Flowers assault?
• The Jennifer Flowers settlement?
• The Paula Jones law suit?
• The $800,000 Paula Jones settlement?
• The lie about taking on sniper fire in Eastern Europe?
• The impeachment?
• The $6 billion she "lost" when in charge of the State Department?
• The $10 million she took for the pardon of Marc Rich?"

C. S. Lewis’ son Douglas Gresham

Douglas Gresham being interviewed about his step-father, C.S. Lewis:  “I mean, for Jack (Lewis) to even imagine a world in which millions upon millions of babies are slaughtered before they’re even born, simply because they’re too young to defend themselves, that sort of horror Jack would have attributed to hell, not to earth at all. So I think he’d find it difficult to live in today’s world as many of us who care about people and care about the world do. But it’s difficult for me to put words into his mouth, of course, I wouldn’t try to do so.”

Following his mother’s death in 1960 and Lewis’ death in 1963, Douglas and his brother David inherited Lewis’ estate.  Douglas Gresham is an actor, writer, produces films, lives in Malta and is a Christian.  His brother David is an orthodox Jew.  http://bustedhalo.com/features/busted-douglas-gresham

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/17/surprised-by-c-s-lewis-why-his-popularity-endures/comment-page-5/  Scroll down for photo of Gresham. “Gresham, though, snorts at the suggestion that his mother damaged Lewis’ friendship with Tolkien. “It never happened,” he says. Gresham says that when he went to visit Lewis in the hospital during his last days, he saw Tolkien. Tolkien told him he could live with him if anything happened to Lewis, Gresham says.”

Fund raising in China

Why was UCLA playing their basketball opener in China (3 players, Freshmen LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill were arrested for shoplifting)? To fund raise and promote California.

"Yet lost within that story about their arrest is the even more absurd story about why the UCLA men's basketball team was even in China in the first place — during the heart of their fall academic semester. If we are going to call these basketball players "student-athletes," shouldn't they be in class?

From the standpoint of a college such as UCLA, sending the men's basketball team to China makes business sense. China has one of the world's fastest growing economies, and it serves as a fertile recruiting ground for potential college students. By sending the team to China, UCLA gains the chance to expose a whole generation of young Chinese students to its brand and the opportunity to become Bruins." https://www.forbes.com/sites/marcedelman/2017/11/10/everythings-wrong-with-ucla-and-georgia-tech-opening-their-mens-basketball-season-in-china/#4bcd81ed5299

"Side bar: NCAA boycotted North Carolina over a proposed 'bathroom bill' because it violated civil rights. NCAA is promoting itself in China, which is outstanding at violating civil rights." (Ty Walikonis)

The hypocrisy stinks like a stopped up toilet in a public restroom. And a smaller dose of stink, other UCLA players caught in crimes in other years got a slap on the wrist. Different standard for athletes who bring in money.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/pac12/2017/11/11/report-three-ucla-players-could-remain-china-week-two/855020001/

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-ucla-basketball-china-20171111-story.html

http://www.ajc.com/sports/ucla-basketball-players-expected-serve-time-china/bPK99olg2LtdtL5MHluo0I/

We bought the tickets; we made them rich

For decades the entertainment industry has been pushing and eroding respect for sexuality, parenthood, women, men, children, family, and church, inserting its values into sit-coms, dramas and violent crime shows, until they convinced the world their values were normal. And all along, the men were pawing and raping boys and women, and the females were keeping quiet to protect their careers while performing the roles the men controlled and the women wrote in the screen plays. The industry glorified violence and crime while demanding gun control for the average person. They push dropping pronouns, changing the language and opening bathrooms in the name of "social justice." Sick. Too late now; we bought the tickets, we didn't change the channel, we laughed at their smarmy jokes. We made them rich.

The women blame power imbalance, the men blame their fathers for poor behavior modeling? Richard Dreyfuss calls it flirting and thought it was consensual. She let it go on for decades; I can see why he might get it wrong. So after 40 years of "I am woman hear me roar" it's still all about sex? Apparently, the Marxist message underlying much of the Feminist movement just didn't have much appeal for the ladies.

http://www.vulture.com/2017/11/richard-dreyfuss-accused-of-exposing-himself-to-woman.html?

 The Clinton News Network (CNN) last night at the Pub was featuring Putin and Trump meeting, making a big deal about it instead of pointing out the latest revelations from the entertainment industry, and all the people who knew all about Louis C.K. who could fill Madison Square Garden and masturbate in front of women and make films about 14 year olds and sex. And they all kept quiet while pointing fingers. I guess the late night comedians are not covering it either--comedians need to stick together, plus the Democrat Party hasn't given them the script.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/09/arts/television/louis-ck-sexual-misconduct.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/01/business/media/mike-oreskes-npr-sexual-harassment.html

The Jardiance Commercial

Have you seen the Jardiance Commercial called “Big News?” It’s actually quite engaging and I would give it a prize in the ad world (whatever that is). I’d seen it several times in the morning using my exercycle, and finally looked it up.  It begins with a camera crew of 4 strolling in a park, and the 40-something, fashionably gray interviewer with glasses (Jordan Murphy), asking people questions and showing them the ad on his i-pad (which we then also see as though we are there looking over his shoulder). Everyone he interviews is overweight and dressed in oversized clothing—jeans, sweats, slouch caps, sweaters, just the sort of stuff you wear in a park, or to hide the extra pounds. All seemed to be in the 50-60 age range.  The TV ad staff—young black woman assistant and two young white cameraman and sound assistant-- are not overweight and in their 20s.

The ad (on the i-pad) did not say a word about weight.  But it’s all over the ad.  Subtle.  Well played.

Clinton/Comey worse than Watergate

Former Assistant FBI Director James Kallstrom unloaded on James Comey, Robert Mueller, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama Thursday, charging that major crimes "20 times bigger than Watergate" are being swept under the rug while Attorney General Jeff Sessions "is in a coma."

 

Appearing on Fox News' Varney & Co., Kallstrom told the host that it "was obvious to anybody that knows anything" that former President Barack Obama was not going to let James Comey indict Clinton.

 

"It turns out -- unfortunately -- he was a political hack," Kallstrom said flatly. "I think he maybe started out in an honorable way. His opinion of himself is sky high --  just an unbelievable guy with just an arrogance about him…. It got him in trouble because I think he thought he was Superman and he found out that he wasn’t."

 

Kallstrom blamed the Clintons for Comey's descent into hackery.

 

Read the whole story here. https://pjmedia.com/video/former-asst-fbi-director-clinton-crimes-20-times-bigger-watergate/

Friday Family Photo--Happy Birthday Marines

Happy birthday to the U.S. Marine Corps, founded Nov. 10, 1775 in a tavern in Philadelphia. My dad, (1913-2002) was a Marine in WWII, and the photo is me in 2007 pointing to his name on a monument in Forreston, IL where he was American Legion commander.

http://myplace.frontier.com/~ricksplumbing/forrestonillinois/id9.html

https://www.visitnorthwestillinois.com/what-to-do/history-and-heritage/forreston-veteran-s-memorial.html

Another memorial, this one in Oregon, for fallen soldiers, dedicated in 2015.

http://www.oglecountynews.com/2015/11/16/fallen-soldiers-memorial-dedicated-on-veterans-day/a24oy96/

It seems a few times a week I see a reference on social media or a news story about priests and child sexual abuse. Especially now that there is a lot of attention directed at high profile Hollywood entertainers.  It's part of the toxic, anti-Christian atmosphere we live in (some of it, to be honest, promoted by anti-Catholic Christians), even though it is far more common for a child to be abused by a school teacher than a priest. The Roman Catholic church is a big target, but the prejudice affects all Christians.

"Based on key studies done in recent years, abuse by priests amounted to about 11,000 cases over a period of 50 years, or about 220 abuse cases per year. However, based on a major 2004 study by former Hofstra University Professor Charol Shakeshaft done for the US Dept. of Education (Educator Sexual Misconduct: A Synthesis of Existing Literature ), there were 290,000 cases of child abuse in our public schools over a 10 year period, or about 29,000 cases of child abuse per year committed by public school employees, mostly teachers. In other words, for every one case of child abuse by a priest, there were 130 cases of child abuse by a public school employee. What’s surprising is that in spite of the fact abuse by public school employees occurs more than 100 times as often as priestly abuse, this is rarely, if ever, discussed in our media or newspapers. Why is this ?" https://afany.org/2016/05/01/child-abuse-huge-problem/

https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2004/03/10/26abuse.h23.html

http://www.gao.gov/assets/670/660375.pdf

Democrats are concerned about divisiveness

After 9 years of marches, protests, burning down buildings and disinviting conservatives to speak at colleges, after whiners unfriending relatives on social media, prepared scripts on what to talk about at Thanksgiving, 90 minute CNN specials on how awful the president is for not being Obama, constant Russia, Russia, Russia talk, sneers about faith, sympathy and prayer when an atheist carelessly left out of the NICS database kills Christians, calling the nuclear family "white supremacy," ridiculing western civilization . . . Democrats and Never Trumper non-Democrats announce their concern about divisiveness in the nation and again virtue signal after state and local elections . Duh!

Gun Control

"It's amazing that Sutherland Springs reignites the gun control debate, when it should ignite the "Why Are Christians Being Targeted" debate."  Rex Tillerson tweet.

http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/11/07/dana-loesch-we-need-enforce-gun-laws-are-already-books

She [Loesch] revealed that 38 states report fewer than 80 percent of felony convictions to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), which means there are seven million felony convictions that are unreported.

There were so many fails in the gun law protections we have in the Sutherland Springs church massacre.  He was never reported despite having been in a mental facility, he had threatened his military superiors, he had beaten his wife and infant son, he'd abused animals.  All the gun laws failed.  Plus during the 8 years of Obama, the FBI and DoJ were not working together and did almost no adjudication of the offenders.  There's no way to stop the Sandy Hook shooter who kills his own mother and uses her guns, but there is a way to stop those who have already been fingered who try to purchase guns.

Two church shootings, two gun law failures

"Despite having previously admitted to drug possession, the man, Dylann Roof, 21, was allowed to buy the .45-caliber handgun because of mistakes by F.B.I. agents, a failure by local prosecutors to respond to a bureau request for more information about his case, and a weakness in federal gun laws." July 10, 2015, New York Times

Two church shootings. Two screw ups in background checks. But Democrats won't pray for victims because they want more laws for criminals to not follow.

http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/11/06/democratic-rep-walks-out-of-a-moment-of-silence-for-shooting-victims-to-post-on-facebook/  Seth Moulton said the same thing after LasVegas.

Sonya Carson has died

From Dr. Ben and Candy Carson:

Today, November 6, 2017 we lost my dear mother, Sonya Carson. Although she came from an impoverished background with very little formal education, she somehow understood how success was achieved in our society. If anyone had a reason to make excuses, it was her, but she absolutely refused to be a victim and would not permit us to develop the victim mentality either. Whenever we made an excuse, she quoted the poem "Yourself to Blame." The poem is included in this post. May she rest in peace.

Yourself to Blame by Mayme White Miller

If things go bad for you
And make you a bit ashamed
Often you will find out that
You have yourself to blame

Swiftly we ran to mischief
And then the bad luck came
Why do we fault others?
We have ourselves to blame

Whatever happens to us,
Here is what we say
"Had it not been for so-and-so
Things wouldn't have gone that way."

And if you are short of friends,
I'll tell you what to do
Make an examination,
You'll find the faults in you...

You are the captain of your ship,
So agree with the same
If you travel downward
You have yourself to blame

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/05/03/ben-carson-to-postpone-first-rally-to-say-goodbye-to-his-ailing-mother/?utm_term=.1b11d1f1ba9c

 

 

How and to Whom?

It seems the advice is "if you see something say something" (serial killer Devin Kelley). How? To whom? Easy to say, hard to do. The lowest scum of the earth in the U.S. has rights that can't be taken away. Who commits a mentally ill person to treatment, and does it work? How do you report a relative who lives under the same roof?   I wonder if Rand Paul had reported his hostile neighbor; did the ex-wife of the TX killer have a worthless piece of paper on file; how many have tried to have a driver's license taken away from an elderly parent--unsuccessfully; a barking dog? Good luck.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/11/06/how-was-texas-gunman-able-to-buy-firearm.html

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/11/06/man-hailed-hero-for-chasing-texas-church-gunman-after-massacre.html

https://www.thedailybeast.com/bystander-shot-devin-kelley-twice-before-suicide

http://www.westword.com/news/texas-church-killer-devin-kelley-and-colorado-springs-connection-9667697

Chocolate deviled eggs

At first I thought, "How ridiculous!" but then lots of chocolate desserts contain eggs. Chocolate just follows me around. When I got home from Meijer's on Tuesday, I found in my grocery bags Devil's Food donuts, chocolate peanut butter Cheerios, and chocolate peanut butter flapjack single serving cups. Watch out for other shoppers throwing things in the cart when you're not looking.

Ingredients

6 hard boiled eggs

3 Tablespoons cream cheese

3 teaspoons unsweetened, dark cocoa powder

1 ½ Tablespoons confectioner’s sugar

1 ½ Tablespoons heavy cream

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch of salt

Directions

Peel and halve eggs. Remove yolks and mash in a bowl.

Add the cream cheese, cream and vanilla to the yolks and thoroughly mix. Add the cocoa, sugar and salt and continue to mix until well incorporated and smooth. A food processor will simplify this process.

Fill the whites with the mixture.

Garnish with shaved chocolate and a bit of sea salt.

Cocoa and sugar amounts may need to be adjusted slightly depending on personal taste and the percentage cocoa used. Accordingly, the amount of heavy cream may also need to be adjusted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEy8cDtrQyM&feature=youtu.be

Bad posture exercises need a wall

Aging causes poor posture--at least that's my excuse. I have to really think to sit or walk with good posture. When I look at Silver Sneakers' instructions to correct this, they always suggest doing something with a wall. I have doors, windows, rooms with chair rails, wide openings, banisters, furniture either floating or against the wall and maybe 50 paintings, but no wall space for doing chin tucks, corridor stretches, hands against the wall, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJspJaFL_l8   This is not Silver Sneakers, but the moves aren't difficult and some are sitting or standing (without the help of a wall).

The Clinton scandals continue to expand

 

1. New paper trail on Uranium One.
2. Donna Brazile's book
3. Hillary admits the fake dossier was her campaign's, but acts as if it was no big deal.
4. Revelations of the struggling finances of DNC (see #2) taken over by Clinton to get the nomination.
5. Testimony for senate by Google, Twitter, YouTube reveals high tech tricks to help Mrs. Clinton

Where in the world is Jeff Sessions?  Hiding?

Keep your kitties indoors, please.

“Cat lovers in the U.S. own about 90 million cats, bringing much joy to tens of millions of families.  There are also, however, an estimated 60-90 million unowned free-ranging cats in the U.S., cats which may be hit by vehicles, preyed upon by other animals, and can contract – and spread – a variety of diseases. 

Global impacts of cat predation are documented: a minimum of 33 extinctions and a decline of at least 142 species of birds, reptiles, and mammals; mortality of an estimated average of 2.4 billion birds (~69% from unowned cats), 12.3 billion mammals, and hundreds of millions of reptiles and amphibians. Cats can also pose a threat to public health from potential transmission of diseases, most significantly Toxoplasmosis.”

Peter Marra , PhD, Director, Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center at the National Zoo, Washington, D.C. Co-author (with Chris Santella) of Cat Wars – The Devastating Consequences of a Cuddly Killer, Princeton University Press, 2016.  Speaker at Ohio State, November 7, The Environmental Professionals Network Breakfast. https://epn.osu.edu/events/november-7-2017-epn-breakfast-club

https://www.statista.com/statistics/198102/cats-in-the-united-states-since-2000/

http://www.bradfordlicensing.com/documents/pets-fact-sheet.pdf

https://nationalzoo.si.edu/conservation/pete-marra