Why privacy matters

Some people say, I'm not doing anything illegal, why does Facebook privacy matter?

Watch this YouTube video by Glenn Greenwald to find out why. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=pcSlowAhvUk  It's 4 years old and yet really applies to millions of people giving up not only their own privacy, but that of their friends.

Watching HGTV—and all that stuff

We have friends whose mother lived in Arizona in a tiny mobile home the last decade of her life. She used to come and spend several weeks at Lakeside with them in the summer in her 90s. Just as sharp as a tack. She had so pared down her material goods, that she had almost nothing—by choice. She said when she died, they should just roll her “home” over a cliff. Now obviously, they didn’t do that, but she’d had a full life, and at the end, didn’t want to spend her moments left taking care of things.

I’m not there yet. Still have a problem with print and paper. . . everywhere. Every time I pull books to donate (like this week)  I can always suggest things for Bob to toss, but Monday he asked me about my Latin I and II books from high school, and they are still here on the shelf. But it did get me to thinking. Don’t know if the library sale really wants textbooks from the 1950s when I used to scribble in margins.

One of our favorite cable channels is HGTV (particularly Fixer Upper with Chip and Joanna) and although it’s been an evolution, I can hardly believe how much more luxuriously Americans live than in the 1970-1980s when everyone was talking about how we had too much stuff!  Fixer Upper has its own blog.  We just loved the show this week about redoing a 100 year old restaurant. https://www.hgtv.com/shows/fixer-upper

Cleaning out the book shelves--again

3 novels in Secrets of Mary’s Bookshop, HC

Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken, PB

Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer, PB

Alan Bloom, Closing of the American Mind, 1987, HC

Ulrich  Kellerer, One moment can change your life, 2017, PB

Viral Dalal, Choosing light, 2017, PB

Rebecca Smith|Galli, Rethinking possible, 2017, PB

Bret Stephens, America in retreat, 2014, HC

And one in the pile went back on the shelf as I was typing the list.  That’s what’s so hard about clearing out my office.

Sex is not a social policy

“Modern science shows that our sexual organization begins with our DNA and development in the womb, and that sex differences manifest themselves in many bodily systems and organs, all the way down to the molecular level. In other words, our physical organization for one of two functions in reproduction shapes us organically, from the beginning of life, at every level of our being.

Cosmetic surgery and cross-sex hormones can’t change us into the opposite sex. They can affect appearances. They can stunt or damage some outward expressions of our reproductive organization. But they can’t transform it. They can’t turn us from one sex into the other.”

http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2018/03/21151/

You’re missing the point if you believe this is about Trump’s campaign

Eight years ago, Ian Bogost created a silly app for Facebook called Cow Clicker, and inadvertently collected a lot of data on people who signed on the play his time waster (by his admission). He still has it. This is not, in my opinion, about the Cambridge Analytica “scandal.” That hyperbolic hysteria only exists because of Trump’s presidency. Obama’s campaign did the same thing in 2012.   It’s a problem because millions of apps have been created, so no one really knows what has happened to that data Facebook users willingly gave away. If they weren’t trying to bring down Trump, it probably would have become an issue, although it shouldn’t have been happening.

He writes, “Cow Clicker’s example is so modest, it might not even seem like a problem. What does it matter if a simple diversion has your Facebook ID, education, and work affiliations? Especially since its solo creator (that’s me) was too dumb or too lazy to exploit that data toward pernicious ends. But even if I hadn’t thought about it at the time, I could have done so years later, long after the cows vanished, and once Cow Clicker players forgot that they’d ever installed my app.

This is also why Zuckerberg’s response to the present controversy feels so toothless. Facebook has vowed to audit companies that have collected, shared, or sold large volumes of data in violation of its policy, but the company cannot close the Pandora’s box it opened a decade ago, when it first allowed external apps to collect Facebook user data. That information is now in the hands of thousands, maybe millions of people.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/03/my-cow-game-extracted-your-facebook-data/556214/

In some ways, this reminds me of the Henrietta Lacks story, where her cell line was used without compensation to her and her dependents.  FB users gave away the data; FB then sold them and Zuckerberg became one of the richest people in the world.

Baltimore has highest murder rate—helps illegals with special fund

“Less than a year after Baltimore prosecutors ordered staff not to charge illegal immigrants with minor, non-violent crimes because it could get the offenders deported, Maryland’s largest city will hire immigration attorneys to help those facing removal. It’s important to note that Baltimore has the nation’s highest per capita homicide rate and has been coined the deadliest big city in the United States by a mainstream newspaper. Nevertheless, a city panel approved spending $200,000 this month to pay for lawyers to represent illegal aliens with deportation orders. Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh says in a local news report that the goal is for everyone to get due process. “We’re not making a decision as to their status, we’re making the decision to be supportive of individuals who live in our city,” according to the mayor.”

https://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2018/03/city-highest-per-capita-murder-rate-starts-defense-fund-illegal-aliens/

Sentences that make you go, Hmmmm.  “During the early years of the Obama administration, Highlandtown residents were occasionally targeted, though by the end of his second term, Martinez and other immigrants here said, they felt more at ease.”  Yes, I imagine they did.

https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/05/20/529176360/facing-a-population-decline-baltimore-set-up-a-legal-defense-fund-for-immigrants

The mayor of Baltimore needs an expensive PR campaign to explain all of this. https://baltimorebrew.com/2018/01/10/pugh-hires-240-per-hour-media-consultant-with-city-funds/

Comparing Trump to Reagan--Heritage

“2017 was a banner year for conservative policy victories. On that score, President Trump can confidently stack his record right up there next to President Reagan’s first year.”

https://www.heritage.org/conservatism/commentary/the-incredible-trump-agenda-what-most-americans-dont-know-about-the-war-the

“By year’s end, the Trump administration had withdrawn or delayed 1,500 proposed regulations. It has made a difference. On Dec. 14, the administration reported that the regulatory rollback had saved the American economy $8.1 billion, and would save another $9.8 billion in fiscal 2019.”

Toys R Us eliminated its customer base—blames low birth rate!

“Competition is fierce among retail stores, and Toys R Us tried to respond.

“Just a few months ago,” reports USA Today, “Toys R Us CEO David Brandon had mapped out a goal of upgrading online sales, renovating stores and introducing augmented reality into the shopping experience.” It didn’t work. And in any case, that’s only part of the story.

Toys R Us did not just fall behind its competition. It promoted the eradication of its future customer base. One doesn’t need a Harvard MBA to see that that’s a bad idea.

You see, for years, Toys R Us funded Planned Parenthood, the nation’s leading promoter and provider of abortions and contraception. This is a company that has many stores called Babies R Us!”

http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/toys-r-us-contributes-to-its-corporate-death-wish

Also supports gay marriage. https://www.2ndvote.com/business-entity/toys-r-us/

https://www.mrctv.org/blog/toys-r-us-who-donated-planned-parenthood-blames-low-birth-rates-bankruptcy

Facebook, Zuckerberg and data mining for votes

"In the last two elections, Facebook has sold its user data to Democratic and, apparently more controversially, Republican campaign affiliates. Google, Twitter, and Facebook have often been accused of censoring users’ expression according to their own political tastes. Civil libertarians have accused social-media and Internet giants of violating rights of privacy, by monitoring the shopping, travel, eating, and entertainment habits of their customers to the extent that they know where and when Americans travel or communicate with one another."

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/03/high-tech-corporations-need-oversight-muckraking-reporters/?

And or course, the Democrats weren't outraged when it was Obama and Zuckerberg getting together frequently.

"Unprecedented capital and revenue matter — both the fear of governments’ losing it and the hope of acquiring it. Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon, is the world’s richest person, worth $112 billion. Bill Gates of Microsoft is second, at $90 billion, Mark Zuckerberg ($71 billion) is fifth. Civilization has never seen such Croesus-like concentration of personal wealth, and we are dumfounded by it."

More housecleaning

We took a load to Volunteers of America this morning, saying good-by to:

Kitty carrier—served our 3 cats from 1976-2016

Kitty litter box with detachable lid, bright pink

Small pillow with sides for the cat

Black drapery pole

Black men’s dress shoes size 8

Robert Bruce label sweater

Singer Sewing machine purchase in 1960

Rubber ring chair seat for surgery

puppy pads

small coffee maker

And then on to the Lane Rd branch of our library to drop off recent issues in big boxes of

various artist magazines

Architect

Preservation

JAMA

At the last minute I pulled out the 12 cup coffee maker that my mom gave me in the 1970s.  Not for sentimental reasons, but we have company coming, and I can always give it away later.

The bathtub grab bar will go up to the lake house.

My friend Sue wants the toilet seat and Marti wants the 4” rise for a toilet seat.

The children of Parkland

 

Actually, a lot of them are--but the MSM don't want to interview them because it might hurt the anti-gun lobby. Layers and layers of government failed them. Laws are useless if no one from the criminal to the sheriff to the school board don't follow them.

Sonja Ness says, “Why aren’t the folks marching to protest the complete and utter failure of “see something, say something”?
Why aren’t they marching in support of kids that have been bullied to the point of mental breakdown?

Why aren’t they marching for the repeal of the law that forces schools to turn a blind eye to corrupt students because Obama ruled it racist? (Oh wait, they did address this by going after Marco Rubio and his faith, who is leading the way in trying to get Obama’s law repealed)

Guess it makes way more sense to march to take away a Constitutional right for millions of Americans than to address the real problems..."

Washington Post—hysterical as usual

I could only laugh when WaPo's headline flashed on my I-pad. Cambridge Analytica had sent foreigners (gasp) to work in the U.S. Isn't that a racist allusion? Doesn't the Left love foreigners coming to our country, especially without "documents" and doing the work of Americans? Don't Google and Facebook hire foreigners with special visas to do jobs Americans are too dumb and uneducated to do, like computer programming, data mining and app design? And the very MSM folks who want global government and global economy are horrified that in 2014, before Trump was even in their sights and playing with their minds "Whistleblower Christopher Wylie said the “dirty little secret was that there was no one American involved in it, that it was a de facto foreign agent, working on an American election.” Obama's campaign had raised the bar for data mining in 2012, and WaPo just can't imagine that anyone could be more clever or devious than Obama!

Reflections on the Pied Piper March

The majority of gun deaths are suicides, not homicides. And the suicide rate for older white men is higher than any other group. Just keep that in mind as you reflect on the time media spent covering the march yesterday.  It's as true today as it was 26 years ago when this article was written.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1578415

You won't see any people organizing for men, but you will see them demonized and ridiculed in our media, in academe and by the left. Yesterday's march was solicitation for Democrat voters, not a response to a tragedy. (Never waste a crisis.) We saw children used and manipulated by the very organizations that have put them at risk.

On Valentine's day there was a massive failure of federal, state, county, and local governments. Yesterday we saw the pink hats, Planned Parenthood, the anti-gun and anti-Trump forces. That said, children are safer at school than anywhere else; but many are not safe at home. A child is more likely to be injured or killed by the fists and feet of a parent/guardian than a rifle smuggled in to his school.

Spring cleaning, 2018

I like to think I'm not a hoarder, but you should see what's coming up from the basement! A sewing machine (purchased in 1960) that I haven't used for 30 years. It was called a "portable," but could be used in a weight lifting class. I remember walking into a store in downtown Indianapolis and buying it, but have no idea how I got it home.  A 12 cup coffee maker that I haven't used in this house where we've lived since 2002.  A gift from my mother who was so sure I could make a good cup of coffee if I just had the right maker. A bread maker—don’t know where the directions are.   A bathtub grab bar that I bought for my dad's visit in 2000. Two very large pots for making chili (or something big like canning), never used. An electric skillet received as a wedding gift--1960. Punch bowl with 12 cups, maybe used twice in 50 years. A toilet seat, still in the box.

The rest of the accumulation under the stair well will have to wait for another day.  We’re tired. 

Listen to this NPR interview with the author of “Coming Clean,” and what it was like to live with parents who were hoarders.

https://www.npr.org/2013/07/29/206654538/-coming-clean-about-growing-up-in-a-hoarding-household

"Call Me By Your Name" and the phony MeToo movement

I guess with boys it’s OK?  This movie normalizes having sex with kids.

Matt Kessler, guest blogger,  writes”

I saw this Oscar-nominated movie and I can't live with myself if I don't warn you all about it.

I was aware that it dealt with a gay relationship, but not that it glamorizes pederasty: A 17-year-old boy has sex with a man about twice his age.

Rotten Tomatoes gives it 95% (critics) and 86% (audience), but I don't believe that. In fact I don't believe *anyone* could like this movie. Milo Yiannopolous would find it offensive. Kevin Spacey would walk out.

It literally normalizes sex between a man and a boy. It's set in Italy; was it easier to shoot it in a country where that's legal, than to change one digit in the dialogue to make the boy 18?

The setting and atmosphere are the only good things about the movie. Oh and there's a pretty waterfall in one scene.

The dialogue is tedious, and the pacing would bore a sloth.

In one scene near the end, the boy's father takes five minutes to say "I know and it's OK." He's the worst imaginable parent, and sitting through that speech was the longest five minutes of my life (and I've had root canal).

The best character in the movie was a photograph of Mussolini.

If the two main characters in "Call Me By Your Name" were edited out, leaving only pretty shots of the Italian countryside, the movie would be just a few minutes long and much better.

Today’s new robber barons

"The robber barons of the nineteenth century are disparaged today for their greed and power. But Amazon, Facebook and Google operate virtual monopolies, the influence of which exceeds the oil, rail, steel, and banking trusts of the Gilded Age. The chief difference is that companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook, or Apple are worth more in inflation-adjusted dollars than were Standard Oil or U.S. Steel, and their global reach now affects 6 billion people, not a continent of 60 million." Victor Davis Hanson

https://www.hoover.org/research/camouflaged-elites

I can do This!

Prime age men not in the labor force

“ . . . the nonparticipation rate for prime-age men with only a high-school degree rose from 8.8 percent in 1996 to 14.9 percent in 2016 (a 70.3 percent increase), while the nonparticipation rate for prime-age men with some college or an associate’s degree rose from 6.8 percent in 1996 to 11.0 percent in 2016 (a 61.7 percent increase). The nonparticipation rate for prime-age men in the highest education group, who had a bachelor’s degree or higher, increased more modestly, from 4.1 percent in 1996 to 6.0 percent in 2016 (a 45.9 percent increase). Similarly, the nonparticipation rate for those in the lowest education group, who had less than a high school degree, rose only slightly, from 18.3 percent in 1996 to 20.3 percent in 2016 (only a 10.6 percent increase). “

https://www.kansascityfed.org/~/media/files/publicat/econrev/econrevarchive/2018/1q18tuzemen.pdf

Shipping books

Don't look under the bed; it's expensive. I found a few children's books that belonged to my uncle Leslie who died in 1999. I think I inherited them from my mother, some years before, and they had been in the family home.  Since I'm trying to clean out items, I decided to mail them to his daughter, Sharon, my cousin, who lives in Canada. Do you know how much it costs to send a package at "international" rate? It cost me over $37!!!  If I’d put them in the book sale at the library, she would have never known.  Freckles and Return of Tarzan plus a book of Bible stories and a cut out from a magazine.

    

What would “basic income” look like?

The usual "welfare" consists of 6 or 7 programs, although there are actually about 120 transfer programs--TANF, Medicaid, SNAP, WIC, housing, Utilities, CSFP (packaged commodities for low income), School breakfast, lunch and snacks. That doesn't count all the non-profits and church programs. There are 8 states where this amounts to earning more than $25/hour, and no taxes. In most states it's worth more than a $15 minimum wage since it's tax free. It's a high of about $49,000 in Hawaii and low of $17,000 in Mississippi. Poor people aren't dumb--they'll probably object to their Democratic congressman if he tries to fool them with that.

TANF provides financial assistance to help pay for food, shelter, utilities, and expenses other than medical.

Medicaid coverage provides all-inclusive care for eligible children younger than the age of 19, with particular emphasis on primary and preventive care in keeping with its Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) methodology.

Other types of Medicaid insurance, such as the Healthy Start/Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) provide enrollees access to equivalent Medicaid coverage. CHIP is a bridge program that extends Medicaid enrollment to low-income or at-risk children and pregnant women who would not otherwise meet the eligibility requirements. CHIP covers nearly all costs associated with pregnancy, prenatal care and birth for income-qualified pregnant women of any age.

SNAP means supplemental nutrition, but you can eat quite well with it. You’d need a PhD in government speak to figure out the rules. https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/eligibility#What are the SNAP income limits?

WIC is Women Infants and Children as supplement for mothers with young children.

There are numerous housing programs.

Utilities is to help with costs of heating.

The National School Lunch Program is a federally assisted meal program operating in public and nonprofit private schools and residential child care institutions. It provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost or  free lunches to children each school day. The program was established under the National School Lunch Act, signed by President Harry Truman in 1946.