The Jussie Smollett publicity hate crime

I've been watching the Jussie Smollett stories on ABC and Fox and the back tracking by liberals, and also the "yes, but it's a racist society anyway" no matter what happened in Chicago, Trump dog whistles, etc. and therefore it's his fault. However, when whites are attacked by blacks it doesn't get much publicity, but the federal statistics show the RATE is much higher than whites attacking blacks. Is it even called racism or hate crimes when whites are attacked? Where ever this leads, I think it has worked as a publicity ploy, because I'd never heard of him before, and all the TV channels (I assume, although I've only seen 2) are now talking about him, and providing interviews.

St. John’s Bible

And I found in that same 2001 letter with the description of the African travel book the following information:

“On Feb. 21, I attended a lecture at the Faculty Club about the St John's Bible, the first manuscript Bible in about 500 years.  The art work is really magnificent.  A monastery in MN has commissioned it, and the calligrapher lives in England.  Father Hollas had a video showing the artist at work--was absolutely fascinating, and slides of the sketches and mock-ups of several scenes, like the nativity (he calls them the infancy narratives) and the raising of Lazarus.  I was surprised that the new RSV was selected as the version.  I asked one of the librarians about it, knowing he is Catholic, and he claimed complete ignorance of any version.  "Oh, we Catholics don't read the Bible, we just rattle our beads," I think he said.  The December issue of Smithsonian has a cover story on this Bible.  It is projected to take 6 years--and of course you can sponsor a page, but the costs weren't as bad as some I've seen for getting your name on a brick of a building.  I think $1,000 was the price of an un-illuminated page.  $250,000 if you want to sponsor one of the Gospels.”

Well, this sounded interesting! Even 18 years later.  I vaguely remember the event, so I looked it up, and it has a blog and a web page.  I’ll for sure want to find that December 2000 Smithsonian (checked—it’s available for $36.)

Information on the calligrapher, Donald Jackson, scribe to the Queen of England.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTS5m59DPoo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULb9xZuj1bE

The Heritage Edition.
https://blog.saintjohnsbible.org/posts/2019/02/mount-saint-mary-college-heritage-edition/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90togEvOruo  Rev. Eric Hollas, O.S.B., Senior Associate for Arts & Cultural Affairs at Saint John's University. http://stmu.it/15cYKtP  Was apparently the person who gave the presentation that night in February 2001 at the Faculty Club.

White Africans and Black by Caroline Singer and Cyrus Le Roy Baldridge, on my bookshelves

According to a letter I found, I bought this book in 2001 from the wonderful used book store (now closed) Acorn in Grandview because of the beautiful pencil and charcoal drawings. There are no whites in the book so I was a little puzzled by the title—the authors say it’s because all Africa was controlled by whites. Originally written in 1929 and published by The Methodist Book Deport , Cape Coast, Gold Coast,  it is extremely respectful of the beauty and culture of black Africa, but the authors comment on the presence of the Europeans and their culture throughout the book as they travel in Africa for 14 months.  There is an inscription in mine from the original owners: January 1945, Marilyn Phyllis Birch, A memento of our field of foreign service. Daddy and Mother (beautiful script).

One of the first things the authors mention is that photographs do not do justice to the shading and tone of African skin--but their drawings certainly do. The people are all beautifully drawn--very well muscled, graceful, and beautiful. They comment on relations between men and women, slavery (which had been outlawed, but still was obvious), funeral customs, polygamy, religion, the culture of the "Creole" West Indians who had returned to Africa but weren't really African, food, bathing, language, work attitudes.

The illustrator is Cyrus Baldridge, and  his wife, Caroline Singer is the writer. Her writing style is unusual. She uses almost no active verbs, lots of descriptive clauses, and sometimes word repetition, and so her writing develops sort of a calming rhythm. I would love to see something else they've written--and they did a lot of traveling,

“Quiet is the bedroom which adjoins our own, occupied by a swaggering hawk-nosed Kissi, his childlike wife and half a dozen retainers who, though slavery is by law abolished, differ racially from their employer and obey him, without servility, but still as people owned obey.  That the young man is Moslem is evidence not by robes and sandals alone—for many pagans assume this dress without derangement of their inner life—but by his pretty one’s abasement, which has a subtly meretricious quality.  She is demure.  But I think she is so designedly, not unselfconsciously as pagan women are.  It is often stated by the governing whites—despite the missionary’s protest—that any pagan, Moslemized, has made an upward step.  This child, littered with European jewelry of dubious gold, is set apart from other women here by a mincing self-consciousness, equalled only by the preciousness of half-Europeanized women of the larger coast settlements, unduly inflated by newly acquired monogamy, Charleston sandals, and coverings for their upper parts.  A favorite toy, chosen for her charms and not her usefulness, the girl, as if in fearful anticipation of the day those charms may pass, undetected from behind her husband’s back, plunges long glances into the eyes of passing men, searching for reaffirmation of their potency.”

https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/collex/exhibits/cyrus-leroy-baldridge-illustrator-explorer-activist/

If I were collecting books instead of giving them away, this is an illustrator/author I would try to locate.

https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/media/documents/baldridge-C.pdf

A WWI illustration from “ I Was There With the Yanks In France (1920), a book of sketches by the artist Cyrus Leroy Baldridge, who had served as a war correspondent in occupied Belgium and France before America even joined the war. Baldridge later joined the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) and became the chief illustrator for the new Stars and Stripes military newspaper.”  https://library.wustl.edu/wwi-archives-dan-bartletts-books/

The President’s emergency powers

We’re still living under emergency powers put in place by previous presidents.  According to Democrats, only President Trump can't call a national emergency when we are being invaded by thousands every year, a large number who are members of gangs, who are trafficking women and children, who are using children to pose as "family" groups, who are bringing in drugs.

What if they were Russians arriving in San Francisco or New York demanding refugee status for admittance? By the thousands. The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming. Big ships of them because Putin wanted to empty his jails and prison camps.  Every year. Demanding the social safety net originally set up for our poor and unemployed. Wanting all the labels and directions printed in А, Б, В, Г, Д, Е, Ё, Ж, З, И, Й, К, Л, М, Н, О, П, Р, С, Т, У, Ф, Х, Ц, Ч, Ш, Щ, Ъ, Ы, Ь, Э, Ю, Я, and press 2 for Russian? Demanding special sanctuary cities so they can avoid police and prey on Russians who came as legal immigrants and refugees in the 1990s?

What if instead of hundreds crossing our northern border with Canada annually there were thousands and thousands flooding into Minnesota and Washington, working the good tech jobs, or even as baristas, taking over slots in the colleges intended by minority affirmative action for people born here?

Ilhan Omar has shown us one doesn’t have to be born in the U.S. to be in Congress and have an ugly, biased, bigoted Twitter account and try to destroy our ally Israel.

The Dred Scott case

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OML9AVR10PQ

Democrats (7) on the Supreme Court decided Dred Scott wasn't a citizen worthy of rights--just as now Democrat led states are deciding that third trimester unborn babies are not citizens worthy of rights and protection. When their ugly legislation passed, they cheered and lit up buildings. To their credit, those 7 judges didn't say Scott wasn't human—just unfit and inferior—sort of what they say about full term babies.

https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/supremecourt/personality/landmark_dred.html

Unspeakable evil

Harm reduction in San Francisco

Has the world gone crazy? Why do "do-gooders" do so much harm?

"The Department of Public Health distributes 4.45 million needles each year to the city’s 22,000 intravenous drug users. Heroin and prescription opioids are the most injected substances, though use of methamphetamines and Fentanyl is on the rise. It’s true that sterile needles reduce the transmission of blood-borne infections, and injecting narcotics under supervision can lower the risk of overdose and death. But harm reduction goes far beyond promoting these kinds of needle-safety measures. For example, At the Crossroads, a nonprofit, assembled “safe snorting kits” for at-risk and homeless youth. Baggies were filled with straws, chopping mats, plastic razor blades, and instruction sheets. Other groups offer crack-cocaine “safe-smoking” kits. A proposal to open “safe injection” sites, opposed by Jerry Brown, is favored by Governor Gavin Newsom, and is likely to succeed."

 https://www.city-journal.org/san-francisco-drugs-harm-reduction?

Can media survive the Trump presidency?

Journalistic standards were dropping 3-4 decades before Trump won, and the editorial bias was to the left. However, once the print media had to compete with the internet media things really got serious.  The media, both old school and new, are dependent on ads for income.  Sure, some have subscriptions, (one is actually owned by the richest man in the world and could care less about accuracy) but now it's all about the click count or full page ads of faculty names or companies supporting climate scares or fighting the rape culture. If you've noticed, some of the on-line content not only isn't information or commentary, but it's disguised advertising. Pew says newspaper print ad revenue fell by 2/3 between 2006 and 2016. But what brings on the clicks?  Any salacious and twisted story about President Trump.  They helped create his campaign by giving him so much coverage, and now they're still dependent on him while they attempt to destroy him, but in the process use him to fatten their sad bank accounts.

Yes, Trump blasts "fake news" and that gets journalists worked up who then fight back, but unfortunately they don't even see their own biases and some really believe they are being objective and fair. And then there are revelations like those of Andrew McCabe's book which just prove him right again.

Conservatives knew for years before the 2016 election that they weren't being treated fairly, that the intellectual "elites" in the media, academe, DC, the state houses, and entertainment were slamming, ridiculing and dissing them. So it's been a perfect storm--falling advertising revenue, loss of readership by customers who don't trust them (most people don't enjoy being insulted by someone who wants to sell them something), and a President who calls them out on their bias.

I would like to see the old print media survive, and the web media improve, but they've got a few miles to go to win back the country and become solvent again.



"If you’re a working journalist and you believe that Donald J. Trump is a demagogue playing to the nation’s worst racist and nationalistic tendencies, that he cozies up to anti-American dictators and that he would be dangerous with control of the United States nuclear codes, how the heck are you supposed to cover him?

Because if you believe all of those things, you have to throw out the textbook American journalism has been using for the better part of the past half-century, if not longer, and approach it in a way you’ve never approached anything in your career. If you view a Trump presidency as something that’s potentially dangerous, then your reporting is going to reflect that. You would move closer than you’ve ever been to being oppositional. That’s uncomfortable and uncharted territory for every mainstream, nonopinion journalist I’ve ever known, and by normal standards, untenable."  https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/08/business/balance-fairness-and-a-proudly-provocative-presidential-candidate.html

El Paso Rally up close by someone who was there--Dionne

"I live in El Paso, TX - a "blue" city that is over 90% Hispanic population. I went to the rally on Monday. It was amazing. The line stretched literally over 2 miles (I know, I stood in it), people started showing up as early as 7 in the mornings even though it didn't start until 7pm; the venue was full to capacity- I produce live shows at the El Paso County Coliseum so I KNEW when I saw the crowd there was no way they would fit (Coliseum holds 8000; fire department squeezed in 10000). 30k+ watched outside on the Jumbo-tron in the Coliseum parking lots, and a bunch of people were turned away once the parking lot was full so they either went home to watch or stood out on the residential streets that were blocked off - I don't know, I couldn't see anything beyond the parking lot because there were too many people and I'm a shorty. (BTW, there WAS one larger indoor venue that would have been more suited for this and help more people....the University's Don Haskins Center...ask them why they didn't accommodate the President.) 

Anyway, 45k+ people - about 90% of them Hispanic - wearing MAGA hats. Also black, white, LGBTQ, military, even some peaceful mature democrats all in line braving the freezing wind, laughing joking , talking with each other, to see the President. No fighting, no meanness - not even to the few protesters (and I mean FEW--- we didn't really see any until AFTER the rally when we were coming out. I guess they waited until cover of darkness or were just irritated because of Beto's failed "Rally" down the street). Mexican, white, black, gay, young people, old people, military, law enforcement, men , women... all getting along and supporting each other with a shared pride and love of our country without a SINGLE Democratic leader around to "help us get along" or "protect us" from each other..*GASP!!* who'da thought? ? 

I didn't watch the news or the "Media's" version of the rally, but I'm sure it wasn't the picture I just painted. I cant blame them ---it's pretty embarrassing to show visual evidence that you are LOSING the city and demographic you thought you were in control of...I wouldn't show it either if I were them, or I'd definitely dirty it up with some fake stories, fake fights, and maybe only show pictures of the few WHITE people that were there (they made up maybe 5% of the entire crowd) so it would look like a KKK rally."

Trump has been proven right again

 

https://www.dailysignal.com/2019/02/14/senate-panel-may-probe-alleged-plot-to-oust-trump/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiDF0FenOw8

Forget toxic masculinity

2019 may become the year of toxic feminism. We experienced a temper tantrum by the aging Pelosi, the highest elected female in the country, in line for the presidency, refusing Trump his SOTU; then when it finally happens we had to watch a block of white lab coats described variously as abortion assistants to noisy middle school girls' silliness; a Michigan Congress woman called the President a disgusting term; we have Kathy Tran proposing death to fully viable babies in Virginia; and women who cheered late term abortion in New York; and finally yesterday we saw the grossest, most vile behavior of Ilhan Omar in Congress that I've ever seen in my life time, coming on the heels of her anti-Semitism of a few days ago which was defended by another female, Ocasio-Cortez. Time to get the cameras out of these hearing rooms! They are exposing women and are embarrassing 51% of the country.

Joan doesn’t agree with today’s philosophy of reading—guest blogger Joan Turrentine (former teacher)

“Recent educational philosophy has been that it doesn't matter WHAT children read as long as they DO read. I am glad I grew up and went to school in a day when schools believed that it matters WHAT students read. My mind and memory are full of quality literature, classic poetry, thought-provoking stories and poems. I became familiar with and developed a useful and precise vocabulary and a familiarity with proper English language syntax. I observed in countless realistic situations (in reading assignments) how real people act and how people interact with other people and build happy and successful lives. I read the thoughts of some of the greatest thinkers of the past and learned how they organize their thoughts, thereby learning HOW to think and reason. Because of this background, I often read FB posts, have conversations, or read other media and recognize cultural references, recognize faulty/logical reasoning strategies, understand some of human nature.

I feel bad for many of today's elementary school kids who only read about teachers who are aliens, students who are wizards, and other such imaginary life situations. What preparation for real life does that provide? What thought processes does that develop? How does that help them discover their own values in life? And then in post-elementary school they read such dystopian literature as the Hunger Games series, the Unwind series, or numerous other books with unrealistic settings which provide no opportunity for observing how people might handle real life situations and what consequences might be expected to result from actions. There's nothing wrong with any of this literature if students want to read them on their own; but I believe the schools owe them better than that. These students won't be culturally literate as adults - recognizing references to the classic literature, philosophy, or history of the ages. They won't have had the opportunity to develop their own sense of how to live successfully in this world. What they have read will not have helped them develop values to help them live successfully and happily. I so strongly believe that it DOES matter WHAT children read.”

I  agree with Joan’s concern and philosophy, I just don't think I had all that much "quality" reading material--at least my mother used to complain it wasn't as good as what she had in the 1920's.  All I cared about as a child was horse and dog stories. I enjoyed reading from encyclopedias and preferred to write and illustrate my own stories. My grandmother gave us subscriptions to Jack and Jill, hardly sophisticated or difficult information.  We had a lot of magazines and the local newspapers (and maybe one from Chicago). Mom belonged to the “Book of the Month” club, which was definitely considered “low brow,” but I enjoyed looking through her fiction.  I learned the names of the classics, by playing the card game "Authors" , and by high school, the literature text books were just excerpts grouped by era or genre. In college I was a foreign language major, so I had NO American or British literature. I was definitely a forerunner for today's poorly educated students!  Today I belong to a book club, and I’m grateful for my well educated reading friends—but I’m still not educated in the type of literature Joan recommends. And of course, not having grandchildren (she has many), I haven’t even heard of the series she writes about.

Just in time for the Green New Deal

"California’s new governor, the prim and grim Gavin Newsom, announced that the project [bullet train] would be taken off its $650-million-a-month life-support apparatus and euthanized. The end of the project leaves Californians with no way to travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco except a 90-minute, $149 flight." Kevin Williamson, Feb. 13

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/02/california-bullet-train-boondoggle-central-planning/?

For those who have family with mental health issues

This young lady is the daughter of a friend.  Not sure of her age, but she’s about 19-20. I spent some time with her about 7 years ago when she was in middle school—such a sweet, beautiful child.  We have been praying for her and her mother. Recently she had some serious problems, and today posted this:

“Hi all, I just thought I would share with you what 2019 has held for me so far. I’ve been through some stuff I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy. I’ll start with my most recent “adventure”. I’ve struggled with mental health issues for just about as long as I can remember, whether it be anxiety, depression or Bipolar 1. These past 9 days I was hospitalized due to these issues and I would like to share my experience in hopes to help anyone going through something similar.

I was at the lowest of the low. I was unstable, depressed, hopeless, dissociated, anxious you name it. I wasn’t sleeping. I wasn’t eating. I lost 20 pounds in the past month or so. Even though I have a strong support system, I had never felt so alone. I couldn’t describe in words how awful that feeling was.

The first night I was there, I wished that I wasn’t alive. I wished that I had never been born. I wished I could fall asleep and never wake up. Looking back now, I want to tell myself that everything was going to get better with each passing day.

I met some incredible people during my stay in which I hope to keep in touch with for the rest of my days. Hearing people talk about their experiences and being able to relate with you and talk through your problems, is the most amazing way to start your healing process. I cried with them, I laughed with them, but most importantly they taught me that having mental health issues is okay. They taught me so many valuable skills and lessons that I will cherish for the rest of my life. During any future struggles I may have, everything I’ve learned from them will help me come out stronger than before.

Through this experience, I’ve learned not to be ashamed or embarrassed. I’ve talked about my problems, which is totally not my style, but it’s helped immensely. I’m happier, I’m healthier and I have a whole new, positive, outlook on life. I will continue to better myself day by day.

I thought I had no way out. It felt like there was no light at the end of the tunnel. Some of you may be able to relate in your own ways, some of you may not and that’s perfectly okay.  . .

Thank you to my Family, Friends and everyone else who has supported me through my struggles. I appreciate it so very much and I don’t know what I would do without you!”

Who knew what when? Theodore McCarrick

“More than sixty years after his priestly ordination, nearly five decades after he began sexually abusing young men and boys, more than four decades after his episcopal consecration, and at least nineteen years after his preying on seminarians was first reported to the Vatican, Theodore McCarrick is – we are told – on the verge of being removed from the clerical state”

In this era of either hyper-vigilance over a joke or a yearbook 35 years old,  contrasted with a casual accepting attitude toward homosexuality, the church will be conflicted over what to do.  So far, the oversight and caring for the teens and boys who have been abused is just disgusting.

https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2019/02/14/mr-mccarricks-mess/

DC resident sees the culture wars up close

“I am a chiropractor, who has lived in the DC area for 35 years. During that time, I have had the opportunity to treat Generals, Colonels, employees of the CIA, the FBI, hundreds of government workers, as well as members of all of the branches of the military. I have never, in that time, encountered the intolerance, racism and hatred that exists in the Democratic party today. Some of my dearest friends are Liberals, and have been for years, and it is only recently that their sanctimony and animosity has gotten to the point that we can't have a civil conversation regarding our President. I kept quiet during President Obama's two terms, because I knew that if I had dared to disagree with him, I would have been labeled a racist. I am saddened by the 'soundbite nation' that we have become. Fact and truth seem to have no place in the Democratic Party, nor in the Liberal media, for that matter.”

(from the Walk Away site on Facebook)

She’s in the belly of the beast. . .

Why Trump is attacked on immigration

The reason President Trump is attacked on immigration has nothing to do with reality--just check out Obama, Bush and Clinton's records. Trump is attacked about ICE and "beds" for violent criminals because he is. . . Trump. Otherwise, we'd have to assume Democrats love traffickers, rapists and murderers and want to return the southwest to Mexico.

"The most recent enforcement figures released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on December 30 [2016] offer the latest evidence of these trends. Eighty-five percent of all removals and returns during fiscal year (FY) 2016 were of noncitizens who had recently crossed the U.S. border unlawfully. Of the remainder, who were removed from the U.S. interior, more than 90 percent had been convicted of what DHS defines as serious crimes.

Border apprehensions and removals increased in FY 2016 compared to the prior year, DHS reported. In FY 2016, DHS carried out 530,250 apprehensions and 344,354 removals, compared to 462,388 apprehensions and 333,341 removals a year earlier. Despite the increase, these numbers were far lower than the peak of enforcement operations at the beginning of the Obama years, after he inherited a robust enforcement regime from his predecessors. These numbers dipped as new enforcement priorities were put in place, before rebounding slightly at the end of the Obama presidency. " 

https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/obama-record-deportations-deporter-chief-or-not

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are both children of immigrants

Have you ever looked up Kamala Harris' ethnicity? Some second generation Americans (parents were immigrants) turn on the very people who welcomed their parents. And she's also lived in Canada after her parents divorced. These figures were for Sept. 2018.

 "Approximately 12 percent of members of Congress are immigrants or children of immigrants. There are 12 foreign-born members, of which only one is Republican. Democrats account for 39 of the 53 members of Congress with at least one immigrant parent. First- or second-generation immigrants represent 23 states, with California having the most, and they come from various regions throughout the world. Over the course of American history, there have been 413 foreign-born Americans that have served in Congress, out of 12,000 total. For this reason, the debate over America’s immigration laws is deeply personal for some members." 

If immigration is deeply personal why do some want no borders for the country of their birth? https://news.yahoo.com/daily-digit-first-second-generation-…

Our president is also the son of an immigrant--and he seems grateful to be an American. Why do our media continue to conflate those who come illegally and those who have to follow the very difficult challenges to be a legal immigrant?

Thurberville--March book club selection

Although I haven't ordered it yet (library computer system seems to be locked up) the selection for our book club on March 4 is Thurberville, by Bob Hunter. (Ohio State University Press, 2017)

"James Thurber’s Columbus was not today’s Columbus—or even yesterday’s. It was a Columbus he both knew and created, a place perched on the fringe of reality and the fringe of his imagination. It is the place Bob Hunter revisits in Thurberville, a book where the author separates truth from fiction and identifies what parts of the famous humorist’s hometown of 180,000 exist in the burgeoning metro area of more than two million today.

Thurber’s Columbus was a wild and crazy place, a city full of fascinating and sometimes peculiar characters, many in his own family. Because of the widespread popularity of his stories, that was also the Columbus that many of his readers around the world came to know.

Thurberville chronicles those characters and explores that world. But it also examines the real city where Thurber struggled and then blossomed as a college student, worked as a newspaper reporter and a press agent, and achieved international fame as a humorist and cartoonist after he left town, in part by writing about the subjects he left behind." 

https://ohiostatepress.org/books/titles/9780814213377.html

Translating the Bible into Kikerewe

Americans are rich in God's Word. From where I'm sitting in my office I can see 11 Bibles, including my grandmother's, one in Spanish, one in Russian, and a Tyndale which pre-dates the King James. But many people still don't have the Bible in their language. "Ukerewe Island in Lake Victoria is home to 100,000 people, mostly fisherfolk. It is remote. It is difficult to get there. There are churches planted, but growth is minimal. Many Kerewe people do not understand Swahili, the national language most often used for preaching and worship. In fact, many are not in church because the Bible is not in their language." But things are about to change. Lutheran Bible Translators are there and they now have one book in Kikerewe, the language of their heart. https://lbt.org/eagerly-waiting/? We support this ministry (as does our church) and love hearing how God's word is changing lives.