Giving Tuesday is out of control—at least in my e-mail

It’s about 1:00 p.m.  (updated at 4:30) on Tuesday and so far I’ve received e-mail requests to donate for “Giving Tuesday” from these entities/organizations. At some point during the year, I probably get a news notice or information from most of them, but to hear from all in one day is a bit overwhelming. There are maybe 3 or 4 I’ve never heard of so there must be a “sucker” list going around.

This one from Stop Predatory Gambling was interesting.

"Americans are expected to lose $118 billion of their personal wealth to commercialized gambling in 2018. Many of these citizens, some of whom are your family, neighbors and co-workers, suffered life-changing financial losses.

When you look at the bigger picture, the American people are on a collision course to lose more than $1 trillion of wealth to government-sanctioned gambling over the next eight years.

This is happening at the same time that around 50 percent of the US population has zero or negative net wealth, meaning their debts equal or exceed their assets."

I think Ohioans voted down casinos many times, but we have them anyway. Was supposed to help the schools. Ha!

So far, I’ve had about 50 appeals, counting the double and triple appeals:

McConnel Arts Center

National Police Foundation

CBN (twice)

Wycliffe Bible Translators

The Catholic Thing

Greater Columbus Right to Life

Word on Fire

Wounded Warrior

Hillsdale College

Center for Education Reform (3 times)

Stand with Us (twice)

Prager University

University of Illinois

PDHC—Pregnancy Decision Health Center

Presidential Prayer Team

Lakeside (4 notices)

Black Swamp Bird Observatory

Media Research Center

Human Coalition Center (twice)

Mothers Against Drunk Driving

Ohio Right to Life

First Things

Ohio History Connection

Columbus Museum of Art

My Jewish Learning

Genetic Literacy Project (twice)

Hymn Society

Judicial Watch

Pope Paul VI Institute (twice)

Patriot Post

EWTN

Mercy Ships

Charity Navigator (4 requests)

Lifetime [Fitness] Foundation

Washington Post—ProLiteracy

Stop Predatory Gambling

American Spectator

Living Water International

Worldwatch Institute

Ohio History Connection

Sister Accord Foundation

Today is Giving Tuesday

Giving Tuesday was established in 2012 to "counter the cultural trend of overspending and commercialism by focusing instead on a cause that you believe in." I suppose because it follows Black Friday and Cyber Monday the two most commercialized gift orgies on the planet. But does it? Or does it just rearrange the gifts that generous people would give anyway, and expose us to less worthy organizations? Is it one more layer of bureaucracy between us and the non-profit, charity or parachurch organizations we've been supporting?

"Giving Tuesday" creates a flood in my e-mail, and I can delete most since I know which agencies and organizations deserve my support. But when one comes through with one Christian group dissing another, I do sigh and pay attention. This is not the usual baptism--dunk, pour or sprinkle--or whether one must speak in tongues, or which Bible translation is authoritative, but did World Vision knowingly fund a terrorist organization with our tax money. This one required some research (although I didn't do much) and it's very messy with charges and counter charges.

Forty years ago we supported World Vision regularly, but then it was a much smaller organization (now works in 100 countries) and I don't think it distributed money from US government for foreign aid. Now it's a mega NGO and the bad guys really know how to manipulate large NGOs. Like many Christian relief groups it depends heavily on various governments--not just the U.S.--for its funding. And it's my belief that you "dance with the one who brung ya," and it's awfully hard to preach the gospel with the government overseeing your funding and hiring. Foreign relief is a tiny fraction of our U.S. budget, but it's a major source of funding for some NGOs who do the on the ground, down and dirty work of cleaning up and health care after hurricanes, floods and famine.

This is an update for November 2018 for a misuse of funding that started I think in 2014 or 2016. https://www.christianpost.com/voice/lost-in-sudan-world-vision-worked-with-and-for-terrorist-funding-organizations.html?

This story is about terrorists in Sudan, but before that it was about Hamas and an employee within World Vision reported by an Australian Christian site. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/the-faqs-the-world-vision-gaza-scandal/?

Nothing ruins a relationship like politics

On Facebook, Christopher Buckley writes:

“It has long been my dour and sour view that you don't get to make good friends later in life because they don't have the same background or share the same experiences as the ones you've had with old friends... Well, my best friends died. (From living large. We should all be so lucky.)

Other friends, shockingly, have unfriended me because I believe in reason and they, passionately, in unthinking madness.

But I will tell you now that I was very wrong about what the length of a friendship means.

I am very glad to know everyone I have met here on this platform along the way and on my life's journey...

We expire... That's the deal.

So fill your barrels as you sail on... Life is a continuum... (funny if you know me IRL) and we will be cruising these waters until the end! XOXO

Phone etiquette

‘Tis the season of scams

Think before you donate. It's the season of scams.

"Some nonprofits with benevolent-sounding names actually have agendas that undermine American freedom. The Southern Poverty Law Center positions itself as a watchdog on racist and hate-filled organizations. The American Civil Liberties Union is billed as the nonprofit law firm that defends civil liberties. But both these groups follow a left-wing partisan agenda that vilifies political speech and undercuts due process." Capital Research Center

“Indeed, groups like the ACLU and the SPLC really do pose a direct threat to the very fabric of America, and, in many respects, are contributing to the decay of our constitutional republic. Earlier this year, the American Civil Liberties Union in Oregon filed a lawsuit against the federal government following a February 2 directive from the head of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to target criminal illegal aliens appears in courthouses. In this way, the ACLU stood not for, but against, the rule of law in order to protect individuals that have no right to be in the country in the first place. America’s justice system was sabotaged, just as it had been dozens – if not hundreds – of times before. (Related: The ACLU has sued a small town into submission over a cross on top of a Christmas tree.)

As for the Southern Poverty Law Center, this is an organization that disguises itself as a reputable, bipartisan group that seeks to preserve civil rights, when in reality it’s nothing more than a far-left, anti-conservative organization. They have developed something of a habit of labeling certain groups (mostly conservative and rarely liberal) as “hate groups” as a means of discrediting them and damaging their reputation. Ironically, when it comes to radical left-wing groups like Antifa that are staunchly opposed to republicans and President Trump, the Southern Poverty Law Center won’t even come close to using the term “hate group.” They are rabble-rousers, intentionally trying to stir up trouble and creating nothing but chaos in the process. (Related: The SPLC is a hate group pretending to be an anti-hate group.)” https://www.naturalnews.com/2018-06-08-aclu-slpc-must-be-prosecuted-for-sabotaging-a-constitutional-republic-warns-author.html

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/splc-adl-aclu-expand-focus-leftism/

What has happened to church weddings?

A Catholic priest called the Dennis Prager (who is Jewish) Show today to respond to a question about “marriage is a sacrament” in the Catholic church.  He said he’d been at his parish of about 400 families for 20 years, and weddings in the church had gone down by two thirds! Some people are not getting married, and some are choosing other venues.  Prager expressed his shock, but the priest continued, that the young people he counseled over 20 years had changed.  Whereas, 20 years ago they were “cultural Catholics,” and now they were “choice Catholics.”  And he mentioned 3 couples in his parish—one he married a few weeks ago, one right after Thanksgiving, and one whose wedding was coming up.  He said all three couples were in mass this past Sunday.  Prager agreed with the concept.  He said formerly there were cultural Jews, and now they are Jews by choice if they attend services.

The class reunion blog has ended

It was time.  It was supposed to be just our 50th reunion blog for the Mt. Morris High School class of 1957.  Now we’re past 60 years since we graduated!  I really appreciate those who contributed stories and photos—Mike Balluff the class president is a great story teller--but recently it was being referred to as “Norma’s blog.” I figured it was time to close the diary (which I actually did in 2010, but I kept updating it so often, I finally went back to occasional posting as there was news).  Before I closed it, I pulled out the updates from 2010 and made them separate entries, mostly obituaries, making them easier to find. 

Facebook really made blogs obsolete, and Twitter is eating Facebook’s lunch, that said, I think Mt. Morris has at least 4 FB pages plus a webpage. Not bad for a small town of less than 3,000 with no high school or elementary school.  At this blog I write on approximately 15 topics, of which Mt. Morris, education, business, medicine, retirement, church, books, films, fashion, food, family, health, etc. are in there with what’s going on in the world.  There’s really a lot of variety also in the 1957 class blog, some funny posts and some sad.  And all the women were beautiful and the men all had hair!

 

September 22, 2018 class breakfast

Yesterday I cleaned out several boxes of negatives from our collective photo albums and found a bunch from the 1950s.  If I find anything pertinent (and someone who still develops b & w), I’ll back date them and add to the class blog.

Comments on quotas and gender bias in hiring

This is a comment which appeared under the YouTube talk on attacks on a physicist who actually did research on gender hiring differences and found a bias against men. Less qualified women were hired. The Fiamengo File Episode 90 on the shaming of Alessandro Strumia. She’s a great commentator on current problems in society with feminists, genderists, racists, intellectual quality and quantity, etc. University of Ottawa. Like Jordan Peterson and Gad Saad she’s a Canadian with a great series on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOCIke7zLMo

“I am a retired electrical engineer, raised in a feminist dominated household. I worked for FAA. About 1995, there was a policy announced from DC. By 2000, 50% of all technicians were to be female. We had some female technicians already. From what I saw, they were well accepted and fully competent. There were some instances of sexual harassment and policies were instituted to protect them and raise awareness of the need to not offend females. These were rational and well administered, for the most part. I recall one female technician with a sign above her desk that read, "Sexual harassment will not be tolerated, but it will be graded." She loved the attention she got for being female, and it was a happy and highly functional workplace. The female technician and engineer numbers were steadily growing, but once this 1995 policy was introduced, the path to promotion for managers was to select women technicians over men, if at all possible. I could write a book about the results of this forcing a change onto a workforce responsible for maintaining the safety of the air traffic control system.

At first, I welcomed the policy, thinking that disparity in gender diversity was due to bigotry. Primarily, it wasn't. There were very few capable female candidates. Secretaries and other technically incompetent women were encouraged to apply for positions that formerly required deep technical backgrounds. After a few classes at the FAA Academy, they were led to believe they were technicians, though some really were incapable of using a screwdriver. In my limited experience, I saw several such cases where they were sidelined because they were too dangerous to be allowed near the equipment. They drew full pay, but managers did not know what to do with them. Their careers were ruined by believing what they were told, so a misguided policy could be made to appear successful. They were then led to believe that their failure was due to the patriarchy.

On the other hand, the competent female technicians suffered by association. When I was assigned to work on some project with a female before the policy was initiated, I was glad for it. I like women. Having them in the workforce improves the general conditions. I never had problems with incompetence or corruption before this 1995 policy. Afterwards, I was often nervous to be working with women, despite my long favorable history of association with many feminist minds. Male technicians would tell me of their dread to be working with incompetent women technicians, which was never the case prior to the policy. The chances of being called before the Accountability Board for non-malicious comments or jokes were strong, and could have severe consequences. What was a funny joke, which make women technicians laugh, suddenly was a matter of utmost offensiveness. Where was the middle ground of telling the guy to cool it? Times change. Those with more than 3 neurons to rub together want to avoid trouble. Electronics technicians were smart people, mostly ex-military and knew how to get along under authority. Elimination of overt sexism had been happening. Then, the PC police started busting heads, figuratively. Now, hostility proliferates, and it all gets blamed on men, particularly old white men, like me.”

Jordan Peterson always win these battles with feminists, as does Fiamengo and Saad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkMq-R6BfmA



New academic rock star, Gad Saad

Professor Gad Saad is another academic who's become some what a popular rock star of PC and crazy feminism like Jordan Peterson through YouTube and podcasts. He's a Lebanese-Canadian Jewish immigrant whose family first fled to Syria from Lebanon. That should get him points. His field is evolutionary behavior and he's even been bold enough to research how hormones affect consumer decisions. Interview is with one of my favorites, Greg Gutfeld .
https://radio.foxnews.com/2018/10/10/dr-gad-saad-on-idea-pathogens/
 
His YouTube channel is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLH7qUqM0PLieCVaHA7RegA/featured
A non-political chat about his problems with weight management after having been an athlete as a young man. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zxzBrqSDsQ  You should read the comments and advice on this one!  Probably a good one to watch after 4 days of feasting and left-overs!

How the Clintons became so wealthy and powerful

An article from 2015 reminds us of how the Clintons became fabulously wealthy--and powerful. "Clinton Foundation has basically been a foreign money-laundering operation. The scheme works like this: collect millions of dollars in foreign money, dump it into a foreign charity, pretend that the law prohibits you from ever disclosing the identities of those foreign donors to the foreign charity, then have the foreign charity bundle all the cash and send it to the Clinton Foundation. Then, when the time comes–whether it be a Clinton Foundation conference or a lavish Clinton Foundation trip overseas–make sure those individuals get some me-time with the Clintons."

http://thefederalist.com/2015/04/29/is-the-clinton-foundation-just-an-international-money-laundering-scheme/?  Good links.

From a California friend of a friend via e-mail

“The Caravan’s route to Tijuana is instructive: 

If you know anything about Mexico you should remember that Tijuana is in Baja California and not on “mainland” Mexico where the Caravan famously “walked” through 2000 miles of Mexico to get to the border and to jump it. 

The gaggle of caravan members, 3000 strong as of today with more to come, are now in Tijuana.  They had to have an extra struggle to get there.   Look at the map:   There is only one road through the desert and mountains of Baja between the mainland just south of Yuma to Tijuana. The road is about 200+ miles long and skirts the Northern shore of the Sea of Cortez and crosses the large dry lake, the Laguna Salida. Then it climbs the Cuyamaca mountains; it is quite a trip….hot and steep.

If they came to Tijuana from the South in Baja they had to cross the Sea of Cortez by ferry boat at three points you can do that all far South of the border and you need to bring money…..lots of it.

Then the route they took goes past the USA border entry points at San Luis/Yuma, Mexicali/Calexico (two crossing points), Tecate/Tecate Cal. and Otay Mesa/San Diego before it finally ends at Tijuana.  The caravan also could have turned East at the border to reach other entry points there.

If the caravan’s objective was/is to gain entry to the USA they had at least five opportunities to do that before Tijuana……but that’s where the TV cameras are and the caravan went those extra miles to reach them.  They didn’t  walk either— that road isn’t made for that.   So that trip was organized and financed by radical “open border” thugs like George Soros and people with deep pockets who are democrats. 

I have not heard one reporter (so called) say anything about the facts above.”

Khashoggi is dead and so are many other Muslims

“Bomb kills Afghan soldiers inside mosque --Army spokesman says 27 are dead | 24 Nov 2018 | A bomb exploded during Friday prayers in a mosque packed with army troops in Afghanistan's southeastern Khost province, killing at least 27 soldiers, a government spokesman said. There were conflicting accounts as to how the blast was triggered. Some officials said a suicide bomber detonated explosives on his body, and other officials said they suspected that a bomb hidden in the main hall of the mosque detonated as soldiers were beginning to offer special Friday prayers.”
“ Bomb blast at religious scholar gathering in Afghanistan kills at least 50 | 20 Nov 2018 | A suicide bomber who targeted a gathering of religious scholars in Kabul has killed at least 50 people and wounded another 80, authorities say. The scholars had met inside a wedding hall to celebrate Prophet Mohammed's birthday, interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said. The total of 50 dead and 80 wounded is reported by the Reuters news agency, quoting three government sources, while other reports put the death toll at 43.”
“The attack is the first of its kind against a Sunni religious gathering in Afghanistan, the Washington Post reported.
No one has claimed to have been behind the blast, but both Taliban and Islamic State (IS) groups have targeted religious scholars tied to the government in the past.”
So why are our media only concerned more about Khashoggi?  Because then they can reach deep in their bag of hate tricks and link it to Trump! It’s really bizarre.  Here’s a peaceful group of scholars celebrating a holy day, and they are blown to bits by other Muslims vs. a disaffected Saudi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, living in the U.S. who writes columns (he was not a journalist) for the NYT who is brutally murdered by his own government for being anti-Saudi. A religious killing or a political assassination?  Who knows, but Trump knows we need the Saudi government in that region.
CLG News update.

CNN and its obsession with Trump

China will judge all citizens on behavior by end of 2020

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-21/beijing-to-judge-every-resident-based-on-behavior-by-end-of-2020

Michael Smith writes:  “I don't know why people are so shocked at what China is doing. America already has a program to judge people - it's called progressivism and it is 100% owned and operated by the Democrat Party.

If you are not a progressive, you are judged by the central committee to be racist, sexist, bigoted, homophobic, xenophobic, transphobic and a selfish hoarder of resources. If you aren't with the progressive program, you will not allowed to speak at universities, you will be hounded out of restaurants and banned from social media. You will never teach at a major university where diversity of thought is forbidden. Your books will never show up on the New York Times' best seller list. Your belief in God and your practice of religion is ridiculed and often outlawed by the courts (bake the damn cake). You are assaulted daily by the media and the party organs headquartered in the major cities.

Due to your thoughtcrimes and wrongthink, you are literally and figuratively not fit to be a citizen.

We even have a card and an identifying number thanks to the Social Security Administration.

I think it is hilarious there are Democrats shocked, shocked, I tell you that China is doing this when they would start issuing formal citizen behavior report cards tomorrow if they thought they could get away with it.”

Her cards took a detour

When the mail arrived today I looked through it and pulled out a Christmas catalog to throw away.  But it felt a little thick, so I opened it, and inside were two cards addressed in red to two families in Pennsylvania, from a family in Aspinwall, Pennsylvania, a borough in the Pittsburgh metro area with  hockey player forever stamps not cancelled.  So I figured that somehow those cards got pushed inside a catalog addressed to us along the way from Pittsburgh.  There was a return address so I sat down and wrote a note to the sender telling her that her cards had made a detour to Columbus, Ohio and I was sending them on their way.  While checking this out on the internet I learned that the woman’s father had died earlier this year of ALS, so I also included my condolences.

David Horowitz and Freedom Center

“Earlier this year, MasterCard shut off our online fundraising because the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled my Freedom Center an "Islamophobic hate group," and then Discover Card came after us too.

Why did MasterCard go to war against the Freedom Center? Part of the answer no doubt has to do with the invisible advance of political correctness in the corporate world which has helped create a "progressive" culture based on virtue signaling and moral preening.

But there's more to it than that...

The forces waging this war involve a tight network of the most powerful institutions in our economy, the censorship prone social media, the liberal press, and financial giants like MasterCard.

Their marching orders are issued by radical groups such as the George Soros-funded Media Matters and their ammunition dump is provided by the Southern Poverty Law Center's fabricated blacklist of alleged "hate groups."

I know that the story of this attack on the Freedom Center is complicated and I appreciate your patience in reading about it. I hope you see the threat it poses to all enemies of the left.

I also hope you see that the Freedom Center is in the fight of its life and desperately needs your support if it is to continue our historic role as the left's worst enemy.”

Other conservatives have their accounts shut down or go to Facebook “jail” for speaking out about freedom for Jews, or abortion, or schools or support for Trump, like Diamond and Silk (2 black women who advocate for the president). Dare not aim at the Left’s sacred cows.  George Soros has a lot of power (and now you can be called an anti-Semite for speaking out about Soros!) You can’t really say social media punishment for disagreeing with Soros is about free speech because that’s a government issue, however, these sites do have bills to pay—they are a business and depend on advertising which depends on web traffic.  Big Tech is Big Monopoly.  The left also shuts down bakers and florists or fashion designers who don’t want to participate in a same sex wedding, and THAT is a first amendment right, and their businesses are also being destroyed by government.

This is heartbreaking

I had been reading through the moving speech a mother of a murdered child had given at an Amber Alert conference this past summer, 2018 NATIONAL AMBER ALERT SYMPOSIUM, as reported in their journal. https://www.amberadvocate.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/AA34-web-final.pdf  She tells her relief when the murderer of her sexually molested and murdered 12 year old son Justin Bloxom is finally brought to justice in 2014.  And although it was a recent 2018 article, I thought I’d better double check for updates, and unfortunately, the murder conviction was overturned in September.  Brian Horn’s rights were violated.

Justin Bloxom 12 years old was found smothered to death on March 30, 2010 after he took a cab driven by then 34-year-old Brian Horn, who had posed as a teen girl in texts.

https://apnews.com/c897325e8251403983f56189735cadf2

Maybe later

Trump and the press

What is it about this President that drives the media mavens and moguls bonkers?  They are constantly attacking him, but he hits back. Remember how GW Bush just grinned? They call President Trump mentally ill, physically unfit, a Nazi, an anti-Semite, a homophobe and racist with no evidence.  And he calls them out on Fake News with a lot of evidence.

“. . .this President has been relatively passive when it comes action on the media. John Adams, Sedition Act. Locked up journalists. Abraham Lincoln's Executive Order. When the New York newspaper prinked printed a fake Presidential proclamation, he ordered his generals to arrest the editors and the journalists and they shut down almost 300 papers. Whatever you think about, that's; what he did. Woodrow Wilson set up a whole intelligence operation against the media and a new Sedition Act of 1918.

You've got FDR going after publishers. You've got Obama going after reporters. Trump has not done any of that.”  https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/historian-victor-davis-hanson-on-why-he-supports-trump.print

Gender Pay Gap

This is nothing new.  Twenty years ago a study involving librarians found out the same thing—choices.  And that was within just one field where all studied had an advanced degree.

“Progressives claim that the pay difference between men and women is caused by sexism that government must redress. But a new study offers compelling evidence that the choices and priorities of women account for much of the disparity.”  Wall St. Journal, Nov. 23, 2018

There’s a pay wall so I won’t provide a link, but I’ll snoop around to see who the editors are citing.  But here are some recent 2016 -  2018 stories on the subject.

https://www.louderwithcrowder.com/the-gender-pay-gap-is-explained-by-womens-choices-say-the-young-turks/

“Jordan B. Peterson has discussed this pressure women face at length: years 25-35 are exactly when one gets their career going, but also the best biological window to have children. Women who work through those years see a huge financial payoff, but may miss out on the child-bearing window. And women who choose babies will miss out on the profit-reaping window.

But the choice is still up to the woman. It’s not rampant sexism which explains the pay gap. A woman’s choice explains the pay gap. Can we stop blaming sexism in the workforce for at least this issue? Please?”

I loved my career, but there are few days at work that are worth bundling up the baby, struggling with a car seat, dropping him off at a sitter/daycare where the woman in charge won’t love him as much as you do.

This 2016 article was cited in November 18 at a business journal, and may have caught the eye of the WSJ.

It says, and I concur: https://www.chicagobusiness.com/opinion/why-do-women-earn-less-we-choose

“Here's what Goldin's research shows: First, there's almost no gender wage gap among younger workers: Women in their late 20s make 92 cents for every dollar a comparable male worker makes. But women in their early 50s make just 71 cents compared to comparable male workers, according to Goldin's research. Why does that matter? Because it indicates that the gap is better explained by differences in experience between men and women over their life cycles than by gender.

Second, the gaps differ by industry. When Goldin analyzed college-educated, white-collar workers, she found that for those in science and tech, the gender wage gap is remarkably small, but for lawyers, along with those in business and finance, the gap is much wider. Goldin's research notes that female MBA holders with children shift to positions with lower pay but more flexibility. Half of female MBA holders studied who work part time are self-employed, mainly because of a lack of existing part-time opportunities. Similar trends hold true for women with law degrees.”

I’m surprised Goldin can keep her job!