Life in 1957

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6bHs8Vm3EQ&app=desktop
Part of a PBS series Making sense of the Sixties. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhV5CJsoQdg&list=PLl5jpZP-bgnm062FH0VVktr8zOveXLehI
The 1950s and after Sputnik   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlZRHBGlBJY
Rules in the 1950s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrYX9j3Tqzw

May 3 National Day of Prayer

Today we’ll not be attending any particular service, but will be at a funeral for a faithful servant of God who died at 94, so I know we’ll be bathed in prayer.  Here’s what I wrote six years ago.

“Prayer Breakfast at Upper Arlington Lutheran Church this morning: Bishop John Bradosky of the North American Lutheran Church hit it out of the ball park! A fantastic review of religion in America--the role of the Great Awakening, the beliefs of the founders, how the United States form of government is different than all others, that 94% of the founding documents were based on the Bible, that clergy and pastors had a huge role throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, including the founding of such important universities as Harvard and Columbia, that "separation of church and state" was intended to protect the church from being harassed by the state, not the other way around by keeping the church out of the public square, and that the change needs to begin not in the White House, or the state house, or the court house, but in the house of God! Wow.”

Why we have a Russian mess—President Obama

“Russia doesn't make anything. Immigrants aren't rushing to Moscow in search of opportunity. The life expectancy of the Russian male is around 60 years old. The population is shrinking. And so we have to respond with resolve in what are effectively regional challenges that Russia presents.” President Barack Obama, August 2014.

He was wrong on all three; what else didn’t he know about Russia? Combine this with what he said in 2012 to Romney, and what he whispered to the Russian president Medvedev off mic, and you can see what a loser we elected. In his defense, he probably didn’t know anything about Russia and was repeating what his advisors had told him.

https://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2014/08/barack-obama-talks-economist

Worse than we thought

"The wreckage of Barack Obama’s foreign policy is coming into focus. Syria: the “red line” fiasco, with hundreds of thousands killed. North Korea: a do-nothing policy that brought America’s West Coast perilously close to coming under nuclear threat. Iran: a deal that would have been foolish even if the mullahs hadn’t cheated, $100 billion and sanctions relief now, in exchange for promises that Iran could walk away from at will. We now know that the deal was even worse than that." John Hinderacker, Powerline

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/04/the-obama-disaster-and-the-tweet-of-the-day.php?

If the elections were this week

The attention span of voters is short--like 24-48 hours, but today these four things help the Republicans.

1) Michelle Wolf, sickening comedienne who revolted even Democrat journalists at the White House Correspondents Dinner;

2) the two Koreas meeting and shaking hands when Democrats had predicted WWIII;

3) busloads of central Americans demanding entrance at our borders, well fed and financed by the left;

4) realization by workers that taxes really are lower and Democrats lied again.

Right to life isn’t just about abortion

“Jacob Koehler, a senior from Springfield, Ohio, won the Ohio Right to Life Oratory Contest. The competition, which is held every spring in central Ohio, challenges high school juniors and seniors to write and present an original speech on the many issues pertaining to the right to life: abortion, infanticide, euthanasia or stem cell research. In his speech, Jacob focused on the life of his grandmother, who is currently struggling with Alzheimer's. He passionately spoke of how her life is still valuable, no matter how dependent on his family she might become.

"Jacob's speech was passionate, well-articulated, and really tugged at the heartstrings of the audience," said Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life. "It is crucial that the next generation is able to powerfully and persuasively communicate the pro-life cause. Ohio Right to Life is excited to send Jacob to the National Right to Life Contest where we are sure he will represent pro-life Ohio very well." “

https://www.ohiolife.org/jacob_koehler_wins_the_ohio_right_to_life_oratory_contest

Take care of your teeth

When I was a young child, health was sometimes combined with art at our school (we had no art classes in either Forreston or Mt. Morris) and we'd color special pages with messages--like "Take care of your teeth and they will take care of you." And it's true. Early and consistent care of teeth will greatly benefit you. Here's some good news. 75% of baby boomers will enter long-term care with most of their natural teeth. Very different from my parents or grandparents generation. My in-laws were in their 40s when I met them, and both had dentures. All sorts of health problems are linked to oral conditions. I still have all my teeth—even my wisdom teeth, but I had a close call with gingivitis in my 30s.  That can lead to periodontal disease which causes loss of connective tissue and bone.  It’s the leading cause of tooth loss.  So I needed surgery to correct it.  You don’t ever want that—very painful.  "The effects of oral health on systemic health," by Shawn F. Kane.  You'll be able to understand most of this.  https://www.agd.org/docs/default-source/self-instruction-(gendent)/gendent_nd17_aafp_kane.pdf

Making cocoa with honey

Hot Cocoa Recipe With Honey

Ingredients:

1-2 TBS (2 for a super chocolaty drink!) cacao powder

2 cups milk (we prefer using organic whole milk for a creamier hot cocoa drink)

3 TBS honey

pinch of salt

Optional additions:

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp peppermint extract

Directions:

Add all the ingredients into a saucepan in the order listed. Include any of the optional additions that you choose. Heat on medium heat and slowly whisk together as the milk warms. Make sure the milk doesn’t boil since you don’t want to scald it! Boiling the hot cocoa would also destroy some of the health benefits of using raw honey. Once the hot cocoa is hot and mixed well, remove from heat, pour into mugs and enjoy!

This is the recipe from my previous blog, but this is what I made.  I mixed 2 TBSP of cacao with 2TBSP of honey (purchased from a friend who has hives), mixed with 1 1/2 cups of hot decaf plus some whole milk and a smidgen of vanilla.  Tastes fine.

You can see my blogs on the benefits of chocolate.

http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/05/dark-chocolate-is-good-for-us.html

http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/02/habitual-chocolate-users-perform-better.html

http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/03/but-make-it-dark-chocolate.html

A month with no processed food

Can we do it? For the month of May we are giving up processed foods (my definition). So today we are finishing up the donuts and potato chips just to get a clean start. We're not milking cows or harvesting wheat here in the 'burbs, so some processing is allowed.

I couldn't figure out how to make our hot cocoa, but found a recipe for using honey. http://montanahomesteader.com/hot-cocoa-recipe-honey/ Of course, cacao is highly processed, but it's also very bitter along with having lots of health benefits, so you need a sweetener. I just might try this.

Supper tonight: ham, steamed fresh baby spinach, grilled bell peppers with onions and mushrooms, fresh fruit on skewers with some cheese.

We live in crazy times

Louie Gohmert on Robert Mueller

https://www.scribd.com/document/377409983/Gohmert-Mueller-UNMASKED#

“I was one of the few who were NOT surprised when Mueller started selecting his assistants in the Special Counsel’s office who had reputations for being bullies, for indicting people who were not guilty of the charges, for forcing people toward bankruptcy by running up their attorney’s fees (while the bullies in the Special Counsel’s office enjoy an apparently endless government budget), or by threatening innocent family members with prosecution so the Special Counsel’s victim would agree to pleading guilty to anything to prevent the Kafka-esque prosecutors from doing more harm to their families.”

On Mueller’s Five Year Up or Out Policy. . . which got rid of a lot of experienced FBI agents

“If an FBI Director has inappropriate personal vengeance in mind or holds an inappropriate prejudice such as those that infamously motivated Director J. Edgar Hoover, then the older, wiser, experienced agents were not around with the confidence to question or guide the Director away from potential misjudgment. I also cannot help but wonder if Mueller had not run off the more experienced agents, would they have been able to advise against and stop the kind of abuses and corruption being unearthed right now that occurred during the Obama administration.

Rather than admit that his Five Year Up or Out Policy was a mistake, Mueller eventually changed the policy to a Seven Year Up or Out Program.”

A movie for the #metoo movement

The Bill Cosby trial and #metoo movement brings to mind a great movie to watch this week-end, just as a refresher in guilt and complicity almost 60 years old. The Apartment (1960).

Jack Lemmon (Baxter) hands over his apartment key willingly to lechers in the firm so he can curry favor and advance in the company. Shirley MacLaine (Miss Kubelik) is the boss's mistress hoping to move up from elevator operator to being Mrs. Sheldrake, for whom Baxter provides the apartment for servicing Miss Kubelik. Fred MacMurray (Sheldrake) has no intention of leaving his wife and 2 kids as he makes the moves on at least 4-5 female employees out of 32,000 including his secretary Edie Adams (Miss Olsen) who after she's fired tells the real Mrs. Sheldrake what's happening at work. The only character even slightly innocent is Baxter's neighbor, Jack Kruschen, (Dr. Dreyfuss) and even he is ethically challenged for covering up Miss Kubelik's attempted suicide in the apartment.

Did none of these #metoo women watch movies? It got five Academy Awards.

Ethnicity vs. nationality

Sunday we celebrated with the Oromo Evangelical Church, which is part of our Lutheran synod. They had recently occupied a church building near Baltimore, Ohio with the financial help of our congregation and other Lutheran churches in central Ohio.  The Oromos are from Ethiopia. I saw many different skin tones and hair styles (and lovely Ethiopian fashions). In this YouTube video the speaker says her parents and grandparents are Ethiopian. But when she referred to herself as African in her video, she got push back from people who said she was too light. Her brother Noah is very dark. So she did a genetics test through National Geographic. 56% east African, about 28% Arabian, some Jewish diaspora (possibly from slavery days in Egypt), some Asia Minor and going way back--Kenya. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a7Z8Q43cfw

If you keep looking through the sequence, there are several people sharing Ethiopian genetics tests on YouTube. I saw one from UK, and one from Canada.  They too said people had told them they weren’t African because they were too light.

Kanye and Trump

Although I don't think Kanye's remarks were political or economic (I think it was plain old friendship), the Democrats are deathly afraid of economic revitalization for American blacks. If Trump succeeds, they could possibly lose a locked down voting block. He must be stopped, even if the rising middle class will be hurt. Electing black politicians has never helped black citizens; education, strong families, and creation of businesses has always been the way. Many of our largest cities have powerful political machines from the black population, and still the city struggles. Government can help families with a safety net for hard times, but as a wealth builder, government only builds that for politicians.

The New Yorker called it “galling.”  Vox was inside out about it. Rolling Stone said they are “made for each other.” Huffpo claims Kanye is being erratic and outrageous.  Get over yourselves, leftists.

The importance of relationships in our health

Inheriting good genes and taking care of your body are important, but "Close relationships, more than money or fame, are what keep people happy throughout their lives, the [80 year] study revealed. Those ties protect people from life’s discontents, help to delay mental and physical decline, and are better predictors of long and happy lives than social class, IQ, or even genes. That finding proved true across the board among both the Harvard men and the inner-city participants. . .The people who were the most satisfied in their relationships at age 50 were the healthiest at age 80.”

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/04/over-nearly-80-years-harvard-study-has-been-showing-how-to-live-a-healthy-and-happy-life/

“Good relationships don’t just protect our bodies; they protect our brains,” said [Robert] Waldinger in his TED talk. “And those good relationships, they don’t have to be smooth all the time. Some of our octogenarian couples could bicker with each other day in and day out, but as long as they felt that they could really count on the other when the going got tough, those arguments didn’t take a toll on their memories.”. . .

“Aging is a continuous process,” Waldinger said. “You can see how people can start to differ in their health trajectory in their 30s, so that by taking good care of yourself early in life you can set yourself on a better course for aging. The best advice I can give is ‘Take care of your body as though you were going to need it for 100 years,’ because you might.”

An interview with Ross Douthat on Pope Francis

Ross Douthat is an author and New York Times Op-Ed columnist. He received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University in 2002. He is the author of several books including, Privilege, Grand New Party, Bad Religion, and most recently, To Change the Church.

https://www.hoover.org/research/change-church-ross-douthat

Douthat and Robinson spend a large portion of the episode discussing the Catholic teachings surrounding marriage, divorce, and communion. They examine the history of Catholicism and divorce, going back so far as to understand the lessons of the New Testament on divorce and how those lessons were radically conservative for the time. They talk about how problematic the terms “conservative” and “liberal” are when used in the context of the Church as the political leanings do not necessarily correlate with moral leanings of religion. They go on to discuss the future of the Catholic Church under Pope Francis and how the Bishops can handle all of the changes.

What’s in my refrigerator and pantry?

Americans spent 5.5 percent of their disposable personal incomes on food at home and 4.3 percent on food away from home. Food is a good buy. (USDA, 2014)

Fruit

Apples

Oranges

tomatoes

blueberries

orange juice

apple cider

bananas (on the counter)

pineapple juice

pie filling, various flavors

applesauce

Vegetables

cauliflower

broccoli

red cabbage

red, green, yellow and orange peppers

onions, cut and bagged

carrots, whole

mushrooms, whole

mixed salad greens, bagged

leaf spinach

butternut squash

peas (freezer and pantry)

cucumber

V-8 juice

green beans

green beans (canned)

black beans (canned)

Dairy

whole milk

5 kinds of cheese

Greek Yogurt, plain

butter

eggs

ice cream bars

Meat

chicken thighs

beef sirloin

pork roast

sausage links and patties

lunch meat, ham

hamburger

salmon (canned)

tuna (canned)

Grains and Nuts

whole wheat bread

baked brown rice

dry brown rice

cookie mix

brownie mix

Banana bread (from our neighbor Jan)

walnuts

pecans

But what I’d really like is a bag of Fritos or potato chips.

Am I the only one who likes to shop?

“Walmart on Tuesday announced an agreement with restaurant delivery firm DoorDash to expand its grocery delivery service in Atlanta. Walmart plans to expand its grocery delivery to more than 40 percent of U.S. households by the end of this year. The company already has assembled a team of more than 18,000 personal shoppers to implement the service.”  E-Commerce Times, April 25, 2018

After exercising at the gym I went to Marc’s today for bananas, and came home with $32 of groceries.

Two Kates

The Deep State Update—Judicial Watch

The scandal in Washington is not about Russia; it’s abuse of power at the highest level, the FBI, the CIA, State Department and embedded and entrenched government loyalists, aided by the media who didn’t even look for any sources other than what was leaked from those agencies. This panel took place yesterday and is an update to discuss “The Deep State Update.”  Panelists are Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Vince Coglianese, Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer, Michael Bekesha, and Tom Fitton, who gives the introductions.

https://www.judicialwatch.org/video-update/judicial-watch-expert-panel-deep-state-update/