Eating in the 1950s

A thank you note

I'm one of the millions who sent money to make the Gosnell movie. Today I received another nice "thank you."

"Yes, your support has meant that a baby will not be killed in an abortion. It will survive thanks to you. This extraordinary miracle happened when a group went to see the Gosnell Movie in Bakersfield. A group of moms was so moved and motivated by the film that they decided to go and stand at a nearby abortion clinic with their small children. There they met a woman going for an abortion and with their babies they inspired her not to go in."

The power of a well made film with a message.

The WalkAway Campaign

There is a social media site that’s getting a lot of traction, and I read it since I was a Democrat until 2000.  The founder, Brandon Straka, a gay actor (I suspect he must be out of work), has done some TV appearances on Fox—or possibly others. The bulk of the “testimonies” are young people—of all varieties—gay, trans, brown, black, born again Christians, Muslims, atheists, white even foreign—who have walked away either from liberalism or Democrat party.  Many submit videologs about their epiphanies.  Not all say they’ve become Republicans, but they aren’t voting Democrat in this or the 2020 election.  Their biggest complaint seems to be they are tired of being treated like victims, and they realize the media are biased.  That said, this one pasted below seems a little formulaic to me—as if it were written by a Democrat or two I know.  As if they were suddenly to see the light.  Question:  Do people really become wise, sensible, patriotic and pragmatic by getting off social media and not watching the news?

“I'm 26. I was a Democrat and progressive every since I first got into politics. Loved President Obama, voted for Bernie in the primary. Then voted for Hillary. I HATED Trump, the reason is because I thought he was racist, sexist and a bigot, I also thought all Republicans and his were supporters were too. When he won, I was devastated. Couldn't believe this happened. I expected the world to end, literally. Up until a little over a month ago, I was a dedicated viewer of CNN and MSNBC, listened to SiriusXM progress on a daily basis etc. Everyday that passed by, I got madder and madder. And I hated him more and more. I finally got so tired of him, I decided to stop watching the news and take a break from social media. That was when I finally had time to think, on my own, without 24/7 liberal commentary/media TELLING me how to think.. I realized this is the greatest country on Earth. I'm not a victim, I'm not a whiner. I take personal responsibility for myself. There's so much to be grateful for being an American. I started questioning why I was a Progressive. The reason is because I thought I was SUPPOSED to be one. I also realized that the news paints this man in such a terrible light, they WANT you to hate him. While in reality, this country is doing GREAT under his leadership. They want you to focus on his character and not how America is becoming the world leader again. Every single attack against him is that he's supposedly racist sexist and bigoted, that's all bs man. Nobody wants to talk about how great America is doing right now. When you realize that, there's no way you can be a Dem anymore. He is standing up for this country, and they hate it. They want him to be a globalist and make the rest of the world happy, at the expense of Americans. I honestly believe they don't love this country. I didn't. I came to the revelation that 90% of what I was complaining about was BS and playing the victim. All rooted in emotions and zero logic. I was mad all the time and truly didn't know why. That's exactly how all of them are. They'll never admit this country is wonderful. They'll never admit this man is doing great. I am. Therefore I am not a Democrat anymore, and I will vote for him in 2020. And whoever wants to help him along the way. I believe millons of Americans like me are walking away, silently. The media will never report it. But they will see sooner rather than later.”

Kavanaugh and caravan didn’t seem to do it, so--

After the Justice Kavanaugh debacle when many independents and even some Democrats turned against the last minute smear tactics of the Democrats in the Senate, a meeting was called.  Senate Democrats, members of the deep state, high level members of the Obama administration, tenured radicals in academe, late night comedians and the main stream media put their heads together two weeks before the election and said, "What can we do to stop this man who has foiled everything we've been able to throw at him?"

And they came up with another last minute plan . . . more dangerous and evil than all the rest combined. If anyone gets hurt, it will just be one of the little people who work for a living, because all the “targets” have layers of security.

Which party has an unabashed record for violence?

At 47%, Trump's approval rating at mid-terms is higher than Obama's in 2010, and 6 bombs didn't go off right before elections giving Democrats free air time to talk about how awful Trump is.

It's the Democrats who have been encouraging violence--Clinton, Holder, Waters, etc. Just Google "violence against Fox" and you'll find stations attacked with bombs and trucks in Baltimore, Boston, and LA, and that's as far as I got.  What comedians have shown Trump’s severed head on YouTube/TV? Who thinks it’s funny to threaten his son with rape, and produce a rap video of the first lady as a stripper. Then subscribe to Washington Post on line and have 9 out of 10 articles be not just anti-Trump. but full of lies. The intent is to outrage their readers, and if it brings some unstable people to violence Nancy Pelosi gets her “collateral damage.” Who has been attacking members of the Trump administration in restaurants, malls and elevators? Who tells their supporters to get in the faces of Republicans and drive them out, or kick them when they are done?

The left is so undone with their collective inability in government, academe and entertainment to thwart we the voters, they are moved to violence.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/pipe-bombs-story-why-no-one-trusts-media/

Lovely tradition

On this day in 1987

The Borking. On October 23, 1987, the United States Senate held one of the most-controversial votes on a Supreme Court nominee in its history, when it rejected Robert Bork’s appointment.

The evil and words of Ted Kennedy was still apparent during the Kavanaugh hearings. We heard almost exactly the same charges.  "“Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists would be censored at the whim of government, and the doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is often the only protector of the individual rights that are the heart of our democracy,” he said.

The irony is the Supreme Court always moves to the left, even with an appointment by a Republican.  Democrats are never disappointed in a Republican nominee—Republicans always are.

Update from Larisa on Lily’s leukemia

“Today Lily had her first 4 week off treatment appointment. Her counts looked good. Not quite normal yet but that is expected. She is feeling much better off chemo. Her back pain which was causing a bunch of issues a couple of months ago is much better since she started doing acupuncture!

Overall Lily is doing great. She is enjoying her senior year of high school. She has heard back from two colleges that she has been admitted and is waiting on her final 4 colleges and nursing programs to make a final decision.

Overall her body is still recovering from the two years of more chemo. This month they are running some additional tests to see how her immune system is recovering. Those results will take a couple of days. In addition she is continuing to follow up with orthopedics on her back — they recommended acupuncture which is working so praying that continues to improve her back and overall pain level. She will also follow up with endocrinologist in December. We are hoping getting off chemo will help with the issues she has had there. Time will tell on most of this. We are cautiously trying to wean her off some more of her meds. It will be a slow process.

So on a different note please send up a prayer for our sweet clinic friend Finn. His cancer continues to spread. He and his mom sat often beside us at clinic. Such a sweet family. Please keep them in your prayers. Rhabdo is a horrible cancer.”

https://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2017/09/childhood-cancer-grandmothers-guest-blog.html

https://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2018/09/lilys-leukemia-battle.html

https://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2018/09/september-is-childhood-cancer-awareness.html

Hungry children at schools

I'm watching a TV ad about hungry children and school feeding programs. It’s a very positive message about how these programs help children learn.

I attended kindergarten in Alameda, CA during WWII and remember receiving free milk (in glass bottles). I asked my husband who went to first grade (no kindergarten) in Indianapolis. He remembers free milk also--he even recalled leaving the classroom and going to a particular place in the building to get the milk.

When I was in high school we could buy milk cartons for 2 cents (no pop in the building in those days). The lunch program in the 1950s used "surplus government commodities," and according to the document cited below it began in 1947. Who can forget shredded turkey in gravy on mashed potatoes with a side of green beans? Not as good as mom's. My mother recalled lunches at her one room country school in Lee County, IL, but the parents brought it.

Now children can receive breakfast, lunch, after school snacks and summer nutrition programs when schools are closed either free or subsidized by the government. Breakfast programs began in 1966 as a pilot program, and became permanent in 1975. And now we battle obesity in children and almost 40 million children are fed at school. But "food insecurity" apparently has increased, not decreased.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_meal_programs_in_the_United_States

https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/child-nutrition-programs/national-school-lunch-program.aspx

https://fns-prod.azureedge.net/sites/default/files/SNDA-IV_Findings_0.pdf

When the government separates children from parents

As you all know, our state and local governments separate children from their parents--usually an agency called child services something, and like what's happening at the border it is for their own safety and well-being. Sometimes the parent is going to prison, sometimes the home life is chaotic, sometimes the parent is mentally ill, or abusive, or homeless or has died.

If possible, the agency representing the state works to reunite the family, just as is going on at the border, sometimes they place them with relatives, as immigration services is doing, sometimes the hearings are extended or postponed, as is happening to the illegal immigrants who then just disappear.

It's a long, tedious process. Occasionally our American children are "surrendered," and an adoptive family is found, or they go to foster care until they "age out." It's always disruptive and painful for the children. If you care about the children our government is protecting at the border, toss in some care for America's children who go through this every day. . . maybe visiting dad in prison, maybe at granny's part of the time, and aunty's home part of the time. Frequent school changes, lost records, and missing friends while going from foster home to foster home.

Although the agencies are state and local, much of the funding for our U.S. children comes from your federal government which has an elaborate reporting system, and even then it sometimes fails the children (which is the sad story you read in the papers). The Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) collects case-level information from state and tribal title IV-E agencies on all children in foster care and those who have been adopted with title IV-E agency involvement. These child statistics include race, ethnicity, age, demographics, court dates, adoption and foster records, medical including immunization (which the foreign children don't have, btw), parents' problems, income, etc. quite detailed and the information collection and research has been going on for decades.

The border children have none of these records, and information is collected on the fly. The federal agencies have to be sensitive to child trafficking, and there's no quick way to find out who these children belong to. During the last administration an unknown number of children were placed with traffickers. I looked at the Ohio AFCARS page which had 18 different elements, and found it overwhelming. The section for tribal groups has 24 different elements.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/obama-administration-placed-children-with-human-traffickers-report-says/2016/01/28/39465050-c542-11e5-9693-933a4d31bcc8_story.html?

The Obama administration failed to protect thousands of Central American children who have flooded across the U.S. border since 2011, leaving them vulnerable to traffickers and to abuses at the hands of government-approved caretakers, a Senate investigation has found.  (Washington Post, Jan 28, 2016)

Hymns of praise

 

We attend the traditional service at our Lutheran church (NALC) in Upper Arlington, Ohio.  There are two other types of services—one I call “happy clappy” which I’m guessing is mostly post-1960s songs and praise music without liturgy and the other “clangy bangy” with very loud guitars and drums, and we have two locations for one congregation. Right now we have a total of five services, but I can remember a time when we had 10, trying to suit all the tastes in worship style and preaching. Our traditional service at Lytham Road has a choir and the other two have praise bands with perhaps a quartet to lead the music.  The pastors rotate, so we all eventually hear the same sermons by the same pastors. Right now we’re in a study called “Gathered,” which is about worship.  Last week was on music (song) with sermon by senior pastor Steve Turnbull and yesterday was the sacraments by Aaron Thompson who is director of the high school ministry.  Lutherans have two sacraments—baptism and communion, but for 1500 years the Christian church had six sacraments, but Martin Luther cut them to two, and today many Protestant and Bible and non-denominational churches have no sacraments, only memorials.

So this all leads to the opening hymn of praise, “Praise the Lord! O Heavens. I always read the information about the hymn writers at the bottom of the page (I don’t like to read words on a screen, because I like to see the music so I can practice my dwindling ability to read music.) This one said, Text: The Foundling Hospital Collection, London, 1796.  One of the beautiful things I appreciate about the Internet is I don’t have to wait long to satisfy my curiosity. An antiquarian book dealer, Simon Beattie of London had one for sale and was discussing its history. You can go to his website for further explanation of the institution and its collection, and also http://www.intriguing-history.com/foundling-hospital-collection/  The hospital has a fascinating history which includes Dickens and Handel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundling_Hospital

The Foundling Hospital, Britain’s first children’s charity, had been established by Thomas Coram in 1739.  ‘The Hospital chapel, in use by 1749 and officially opened in 1753, soon became well known for its music as well as for its elegant architecture and adornments …  The singing of the children at ordinary Sunday services was a great attraction to fashionable London and became an important source of income to the Hospital through pew rents and voluntary contributions.  Music was specially composed and arranged for the Hospital chapel, and the success of the singing led to a demand for this music, which was met by the publication of a book called Psalms, Hymns and Anthems; for the Use of the Chapel of the Hospital for the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and Deserted Young Children.  It is generally known more informally as the Foundling Hospital Collection’ (Nicholas Temperley, ‘The Hymn Books of the Foundling and Magdalen Hospital Chapels’, Music Publishing & Collecting: Essays in Honor of Donald W. Krummel (1994), p. 6).  [from Beattie’s blog)

This hymn is in the 1978 Lutheran Book of Worship and the Lutheran Service Book and Hymnal of 1958, which notes the text is by John Bacchus Dykes, 1823-76, which wouldn’t work with the copyright of 1796.

Let us all kneel and thank God

This Republican PAC is funded by Democrat

Don’t let the name fool you.  “Republican Women for Progress” was founded all the way back in 2017, has literally never given any financial support to any Republican candidate, and their largest donor is a Silicon Valley billionaire Reid Hoffman who (1) was a major Democratic contributor long before Trump came on the scene and (2) is a man. If this is just the sort of "grass roots"  it's not clear Republicans should be too worried. It’s like thinking Nuns on a Bus are Catholic nuns.

https://dailycaller.com/2018/10/19/liberal-male-billionaire-republican-women-pac/

Voter ID

Yesterday I paid $4 for a spring coat at the Volunteers of America. Apple Green with a nice hood that folds inside the collar for those brisk lake breezes and I will keep it up at our lake house. I paid cash. The woman in front of me bought several nice winter coats for children. Her bill was $14 and she used a credit card. For that small purchase at a non-profit she had to show an ID. In fact, you almost can’t function in the USA if you don’t have ID to get in a government building or to make a purchase which shows you are alive and living somewhere with an address or a citizen. But Democrats rage. Why is that? Why do they want dead Chicagoans and live Hondurans cancelling out black votes?  This is a rhetorical question, of course.

Relax liberals

Although I'm not sure this will assure my Democrat friends and relatives, Brett Kavanaugh will probably not bring any change to the leftward list of the last 60+ years of SCOTUS decisions. Beginning with Earl Warren (when I was in high school and during the 40 years  I  was a Democrat) we've had an activist court. Americans have become very comfortable with being told what to do by the highest court. Democrats are never disappointed with their presidents' SCOTUS picks; Republicans always are with whom their presidents chose.

 Joseph Mussomeli at the Imaginative Conservative outlines the picks and pans. Eisenhower gave us Warren and Brennan; Nixon gave us Blackmun and Powell (Roe v. Wage and California v. Bakke); Ford's appointee John Paul Stevens helped strike down "a moment of silence;" Reagan's Sandra Day O'Connor often disappointed conservatives; GHW Bush's David Souter also sided with liberals; GW Bush's John Roberts supported Obamacare.

So relax liberals, Democrats, Progressives and Communists. Call back your witches, the Antifa, the Pink hatted haters. Stop the caravans invading. The court always leans left, even if it's not as fast as you desire.

NPR and The Donald

I was listening to NPR while putting away groceries. Did you know there is a woman in St. Petersburg posting discord and disrespect on Twitter who's a threat to our election integrity? I thought about it, and I'll stick with Maxine Waters, Nancy Pelosi and Rosie O'Donnell as bigger problems sowing hate and misinformation in our midterm elections. When that interview was over, the announcer went on to lament that President Trump called a prostitute "horse face," but had a soft spot of dictators. And all this with my tax money

Things change quickly in la-la land

Donald Trump, the man the Democrats/Progressives/Left and their buddies in late night TV accused of being mentally ill and incompetent, a stupid boob, a racist, sexist and homophobe, is now supposed to straighten out generations of Saudi regime behavior which includes hard line sharia justice, (chopping off hands, stoning women, beheading homosexuals). Until recently the Leftists were OK with sharia and if any of us were concerned WE were Islamophobes. Now that their victim is a journalist, well, it's shock and awe at the 7th century system of justice.

One of the President's simple phrases is "they are good people." He's quite predictable and doesn’t use big words. It's like Obama's stammer when he's searching for the next word. He said it about Mexicans coming illegally over the border, meaning not all were criminals, and the Left chose to NOT hear it, and instead heard "rapists." He said it in Charlottesville when angry groups were attacking each other, and others were just standing around and the Left heard only "I admire Nazis."

No matter what President Trump says, the leftist media and politicians translate it for the worst. He never said all Mexicans are criminals and rapists--he's not a racist. He never said the white supremacists were good and he agreed with them. That's just our "free press" media slinging it again, telling us what to think.

Birthday greetings?

Democrat Professor acting badly

Another example of a crazy academic Democrat--James Thomas, an assistant professor of sociology at Univ. of Mississippi—“stick your fingers in their salads.” What unhinges these guys? I hope this stops his tenure and promotion plans.

I checked his staff bio page. Thomas’ "dissertation research focused on the role of stand-up comedy venues in the production of contentious politics. I conducted ethnographic fieldwork at three different sites where stand-up comedy took place: a professional comedy club, a self-described punk/rock/horror/sci-fi bar that hosted a weekly amateur comedy show, and a popular drag revue at an LGBT nightclub."

And you all thought PhDs had no fun! Imagine spending 5 years in comedy clubs and claiming you were working! And then when you finally get to "adult" you incite people to attack others in restaurants who disagree with you.

A caravan of illegal immigrants heading for our border

I supposed it would be paranoid to suggest the Democrats are behind pushing throngs of healthy, well dressed illegal immigrants to our border so there can be a confrontation complete with crying children on the news right before an election. If they were refugees, they'd just step over the border into Mexico. If they are political pawns and tools, they have to get to our border.

Why don't the central Americans who say they are escaping poverty and violence just go to Mexico? It's much closer, it's a very wealthy country, and they speak the same language. Some of the requirements for citizenship are steeper, but for being guest workers, that won't matter.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/mexico-caravan-migrants-us-border

https://www.nola.com/news/2018/10/trump-threatens-to-use-military-to-secure-border-against-central-american-migrant-caravan.html