"Gibson's Bakery v. Oberlin College” comment by Michael Smith

If you haven't followed this case, you should take a look. Legal Insurrection has been on it from the beginning. https://legalinsurrection.com/2019/06/verdict-jury-awards-gibsons-bakery-11-million-against-oberlin-college/

Three black students were caught shoplifting, then claimed they were targeted due to their race (they later admitted to the crime), and SJW professors and administrators at Oberlin immediately assisted in organizing protests in an attempt to destroy the business, targeting the white family who owned and operated it.

It is a perfect example of how progressives can't deal with their own irreconcilable and conflicting feelings, the dead-end nature of their own reasoning and a need to signal just how awesome and virtuous they are while being neither. It's an example of how they project their own failures onto others, making enemies where there were none and the weaponizing of some group or organization against those imaginary foes - this time a college, Oberlin, was the weapon.

Perhaps the tide is turning - but not without pain. This family never should have faced the three years of hell they have had to endure."

Netflix suicide series “13 Reasons Why”

Should the entertainment industry be held accountable? The Netflix series examines the suicide of 17 year-old Hannah Baker, who made 13 cassette tapes prior to her death.

"According to a study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, United States youth ages 10-17 had a 28.9% increase in suicide rates in young males in the month (April 2017) following the debut of the show."

www.ncregister.com/daily-news/study-finds-nearly-30-spike-in-male-teen-suicide-following-netflix-release?

https://www.phillyvoice.com/netflix-13-reasons-why-teen-suicides-increase-study/

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/news/science-news/2019/release-of-13-reasons-why-associated-with-increase-in-youth-suicide-rates.shtml

The entertainment industry, specifically TV and film, is a powerful mind control group whose representatives love to lecture the rest of us on man caused climate change, racism, sexual issues, gun laws, etc., yet are the most consistently violent, abusive, and life threatening force in our lives. It also brought us the MeToo hypocrisy, black performers as servants, criminals and/or dancers, and all the shoot 'em up car chase themes which they now decry as toxic masculinity.

“Time to Get Tough” by Donald Trump (2011)

Yesterday I picked up a remaindered copy of President Trump's "Time to get tough" (2011). I've been browsing--and it's actually shocking to see that he was the same guy 8 years ago (or 9 if you count the time to write it). And it's exactly in his style.

Trump was running in 2011 (announced he was dropping it in May 2011)--and didn't have wonderful things to say about Obama. "Obama's popularity in America may be at rock bottom levels, but I know one place his ratings are likely sky high: the Kremlin. Russia's leaders can hardly believe their luck. Never in a million years did they think America would elect a guy as ineffective as this. Obama's pretty-please diplomacy and endless American apology tours have served Russian interests extremely well. . . No sooner did Obama move into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue than he began making concessions and sacrificing American power on the Altar of "improving relations" with Russia." (pp. 93-94, PB)

Called that one.

There is effectively an oil spill every day at Coal Oil Point (COP), the natural seeps off Santa Barbara, California, where 20 to 25 tons of oil have leaked from the seafloor each day for the last several hundred thousand years. Keep that in mind when you hear about man made environmental problems like oil spills. Research is on-going. https://www.msi.ucsb.edu/current-projects/effect-hydrocarbon-production-offshore-natural-seep-rates-coal-oil-point-area-santa?

Donald Trump mentioned this in his 2011 book, "Time to get tough," as he commented on the amount of oil and gas the U.S. has, but because of the environmental lobby and Obama's weakness and messing around with the free market economy, there was no leadership.

"Here at home, he's kept in place the bans on drilling off our coasts. But he goes to Brazil, gives them $2 billion through the U.S. Export-Import Bank, and brags that he's proud and excited to make America one of Brazil's "best customers." . . . It's the most ludicrous, anemic leadership anyone could imagine."

How the Census over counts poverty

Are you surprised if our borders are flooded with illegals who ignore our laws? They know the Democrats will protect them, pay for college, let them vote, not require citizenship, and even supply pro-bono lawyers for crimes, and it must look like the streets are paved with gold for the poor.

In the United States, in 2015, there were 43.1 million people the Census said were living in poverty (a very misleading figure).

Poor households routinely report spending $2.40 for every $1 of income the Census says they have. (Some figures are from 2009 even though article is 2016) https://www.dailysignal.com/2016/09/13/15-facts-about-poverty-in-us-government-buries/

"The average poor American lives in a house or apartment that is in good repair and has more living space than the average nonpoor person in France, Germany, or England.

Eighty-five percent of poor households have air conditioning.

Nearly three-fourths of poor households have a car or truck, and 31 percent have two or more cars or trucks.

Nearly two-thirds of poor households have cable or satellite TV.

Half have a personal computer; 43 percent have internet access.

Two-thirds have at least one DVD player.

More than half of poor families with children have a video game system, such as an Xbox or PlayStation.

One-third have a wide-screen plasma or LCD TV." . . .

"In 2014, government spent over $1 trillion on means-tested welfare for poor and low income people. (This figure does not include Social Security or Medicare.) Welfare spending on cash, food, and housing was $342 billion.

The cash, food, and housing spending alone was 150 percent of the amount needed to eliminate all poverty in the U.S. But the Census ignored more than four-fifths of these benefits for purposes of measuring poverty. Effectively, the Census counts poverty in the U.S. by ignoring almost the entire welfare state."

UA CARES

Our program at the UALC Thursday Bible study lunch [delicious, btw] was UA CARES, which stands for Community Assistance, Referrals and Education Services. A representative from the Fire Division of Upper Arlington explained many services they offer to make our homes safer ranging from home assessments, coordination with care providers and medical services, to grab bars to a handy little feature I'd never heard of called KNOX.

"Knox Box is a mini, lockable steel vault that provides firefighters and paramedics access to keys for entry to a residence or business in an emergency. Only the UA Fire Division can access boxes in Upper Arlington. The vault is installed by the resident or business owner on the structure’s exterior near the entry. In an emergency, the dispatcher tells first responders if a Knox-Box is onsite for easy building access, without forcing a door or damaging the building.’

Many communities have similar services.  The speaker said 80% of what the Fire Division does is NOT fighting fires.

Spring cleaning before it's summer

It's hard to grow flowers when you're gone so much, but we're attempting again.  Most of our neighbors have such lovely blooms.

And then I finally finished cleaning the green crud off the deck.  It's made of Trex, but the green mold on the north side of the house loves it just as much as it did our wood deck which we replaced a few years ago.

Gender wage gap

We had 6 mature trees removed today. Some were in the oval which was built up with soil dug for our basements in the mid-70s and probably other fill. Wrong nutrients for trees, and by middle age (they were about 45 years old) they were struggling.

I call this photo "Jobs American women don't do." Oh sure, you'll find a few female tree maintenance workers, but mostly it's a high risk, dirty, difficult job, with 3x the fatality rate of other jobs, and it's rough on the manicures. According to BLS this guy makes about $20/hour--a school teacher, $64/hour. That's a gender wage gap.

Transwomen are biologically men

When I scroll through various news sites I see on the side bar, "Another transgender woman found dead." 1) That is not a woman, but a biological man. 2) Women are found dead often in those same cities, and there's no headline story for them. I heard about Samuel Little, serial killer of 93 women, for the first time this week.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/06/03/samuel-little-serial-killer-indicted-ohio-cold-cases/1335133001/?

Illinois perfect storm (Gene Kollack)

The 'Perfect Storm' descended with full force on the citizens of Illinoi this week. Your Governor and legislators (both sides) thank you for allowing them to go 'full Venezuela' on you. . .

This week in Springfield the following legislation was passed.

1. Expanded abortion up to birth.
2. Expanded gambling with up to 6 new casinos.
3. Allowing inmates to vote including establishing a polling place at the Cook County Jail.
4. Removing $5 co-pay for inmates making medical and dental completely free.
5. New law passed regarding Driver Licenses. When completing your drivers application you can identify as Male, Female, or Other (non-binary).
6. Legislation to extend voting rights to non-citizen student trustees in Illinois.
7. Passed legislation preventing law enforcement from enforcing the law and making Illinois a Sanctuary State.
8. A bill that requires all Refineries in Illinois, all petrochemical plants, all ethanol plants, all basic organic chemical plants must become union.
9. Last night passed legislation for a $40 billion budget (a billion more than the governors proposed budget) and $45 billion capital bill, raising license plate fees to $199, legalizes sports betting, higher taxes on video gaming and an expansion of video gaming, a tax hike on cigarettes and vaping, a new tax on parking garages, and raises the gasoline tax to $.38 a gallon.
10. Passed a constitutional amendment to go from a flat tax to a progressive tax.
11. Increased minimum wage to $15.
12. Legalization of marijuana.
13. Last but not least legislators gave themselves a 2.5% salary raise, a 25% and 33% increase in mileage and per diem.

Pastor is criticized for praying for the President

https://www.mcleanbible.org/prayer-president? Some have tried to make political hay of the McClean Bible Church pastor's prayer and didn't like it that Trump asked for prayer. The pastor has been criticized, and I see no reason for him to explain his prayer. It's Biblical. It's a beautiful prayer--scroll down to see the video.

The pastor is now finding out what thousands of us have experienced--if you don't say something negative and hateful about President Trump, friends, family and parishioners might be upset.

Beyond Burger—the plant based burger

We tried this last night. Ours wasn't as expensive as what this YouTuber says—we paid $3.99 for 8 oz. John thinks they taste good--I'd say, tastes "OK," my husband said, “Don't do this again.” Left a lot of residue in the pan even with a spray. But if you're desperate for a burger experience--it's made with pea protein isolate, canola oil and coconut oil. We didn't add cheese or catsup or pickles. I think he was tasting memories.

https://youtu.be/_pRP3-SyzT0

We both felt uncomfortable later in the evening. But for people who don't want/tolerate beef, it's pretty close. . . especially if you add cheese, pickles, lettuce, sauce and can only taste that. I bought mine at Marc's.

2 million children visited an ED because of a TBI sustained over 7 years

An estimated 283,000 children seek care in U.S. emergency departments each year for a sports- or recreation-related traumatic brain injury (SRR-TBI), according to a new MMWR Report. TBIs sustained in contact sports accounted for approximately 45% of all SRR-TBI ED visits. Activities associated with the highest number of ED visits were football , bicycling, basketball, soccer and playground activities.

Injuries differed by sex and age of the child. "SRR-activities associated with the highest percentage of ED visits varied by age group and sex. Football was associated with 26.8% of all SRR-TBI ED visits for males aged 0–17 years. Among males aged <5 years and 5–9 years, playground activities accounted for the most ED visits (38.2% and 19.6%, respectively). Among all females aged 0–17 years, soccer, playground activities, and basketball were the most common causes of SRR-TBI ED visits, contributing to 13.1%, 12.6%, and 11.9% of all SRR-TBI-related ED visits, respectively. Playground activities led to 42.3% of SRR-TBIs visits among females aged <5 years.

In all sports and ages, twice as many boys are injured than girls. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/68/wr/mm6810a2.htm?

Jeanellen grieves the loss of a friend

This happens far more often than it should—bigotry and intolerance in politics. She writes:

“Feeling a heavy heart tonight as I may have lost a friend due to politics. Had dinner with a few friends that came into town who I haven’t seen in years. They all are very liberal, but one in particular looked at me & said, “Please tell me you would not vote for Trump again”. I was trying to keep it light but it just degenerated with her bringing up the abortion debate and acting like I was utterly ridiculous for believing that life begins at conception.

This is a person I like and respected who always agreed to disagree with me. Even though I was calm & respectful during the discussion she was barely speaking to me at the end.

This is not the first time this has happened and I really avoid bringing up politics but the media has poisoned the waters and makes people in the left feel like they have the right to take the stance of righteousness and unfettered disgust towards those who don’t agree.

How did we get here?”

Constant anti-Trump drumbeat

I am so sick of the anti-Trump drivel in every media source--this in "Architect," which awards issue (336 pp) is the size of the old Penney's Christmas catalog. President Obama was known as the "deporter in chief," turning back hundreds of thousands of illegals, and the so-called child cage photos were from his administration. Only because he was dealing with fewer illegals crossing the border has Trump passed Obama on numbers and Soros funded non-profits are assisting with the onslaught. Why is it journalists in all media are all progressives? Why is it "anti-immigrant" to protect our sovereignty which is the #1 job of a President?

Author Jacobs brings up his grandmother, a Polish immigrant, who opened a Kosher restaurant in Hoboken to first drum up sympathy with readers, but of course, there weren't 22 million illegal Poles storming our borders after WWII, were there Mr. Jacobs? "Make the Road New York" is an immigrant rights group and it has a building designed and out sourced to a Mexican firm hired while Obama was president (I suppose there are jobs American architects won't do in a struggling economy?). I'm betting there are walls, doors and locks in this building.

https://www.architectmagazine.com/design/ten-arquitectos-designs-a-beacon-for-the-resistance_o

Over half of this issue is devoted to advertising, indicating a booming economy. I hope Mr. Jacobs takes notice.

Kirsten Gillibrand, Democratic candidate for President ponders, imagine if

50% of Congress were women and 50% of mayors and governors were too. (Twitter, July 2017)  But I say. . .

Imagine if 60% the NBA and NFL were white like the population in that age group. Imagine if 51% were female. Imagine if half of all race car drivers were female. Imagine if half of all librarians were women instead of 90%. Imagine if half of all teachers were women instead of 80%.

Imagine what it would be like to have our government shoe horn us into a profession/life style that didn't fit because of our skin color, ethnicity or sex. I think that was tried by the Democrats about 100 years ago--it was called Jim Crow back then.

https://theweek.com/speedreads/837445/more-than-half-kirsten-gillibrands-donors-are-women-only-2020-contender-who-say-that

We now export energy

"As of 2017, renewables (solar, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal, and biomass) provided 12.8% of the US power supply, an increase from 8.1% of all power generated in 1980. Biomass is the leading renewable energy source, accounting for 5.1% of 2017 power production. Solar power grew by 12 times since 2007, but only generated 0.9% of power in 2017. Nuclear power provided 8.6% of the nation's power, up from 3.5% in 1980. Meanwhile, fossil fuels supplied 77.7% of American power in 2017, down from 89.4% in 1980. Petroleum continues to be the largest source of energy consumption, with natural gas being a second and rising source." USA Facts, annual Report.

We used to be an importer of energy; now we're an exporter.

https://annualreport.usafacts.org/articles/26-transportation-infrastructure-energy-natural-disasters-diversifying-power-supply-energy-independent

President Trump as defender of religious freedom

I was puzzled that the Washington Post editorial board was attacking the Bible as literature in schools today; after all, you can't read a history of rock or pop music or understand Shakespeare if you are illiterate in the Bible. But the attack by its "editorial board" is tied to Trump. He tweeted it is a good idea, therefore, it must be awful, oppressive and fascist.

The president made promises as a candidate about restoring our religious freedom, and it was one of the earliest promises he kept and with little fan-fare. The MSM haven't said a lot, but the left continues to attack nuns, bakers, and Catholic school kids at a march for life even after the Supreme Court returned to them their constitutionally protected rights.

I urge you to go on line and print out "Federal Law Protections for Religious Liberty" from the Office of the Attorney General, Oct. 6, 2017. Give it to your pastors, priests and professors. No other country has this; and no other U.S. president has told his AG to compile an easy to understand guide of laws, regulations, court cases and litigation results concerning that most precious of all our freedoms.

During the eight years of Obama, our freedoms were eroded in small but alarming ways with, "I've got a pen, and I've got a phone" to "fundamentally change" our nation. From announcing embryonic stem cell research at a Catholic university to setting up bureaucratic regulations in various agencies which bullied people of the book to using a website announcing which religious schools were receiving exemptions from Title IX, President Obama, a professed Christian, ground his heel on religious liberty in the United State.

Slowly the agency actions which were chipping away at our freedoms are being undone. That website which was used by the left to harass and mock people of faith, has been taken down. Other changes are being made in hostile bureaucracies in the Department of Labor and State Department and there is an ambassador at large for international religious freedom. HHS now has a division devoted to conscience protections and religious freedom.

Use it or lose it applies to religious freedom, too.

For more on this important issue see May 2019 issue of First Things. https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/05/trump-and-religious-liberty

Guilty of being white with no license to exist

How crazy is academe (choose that college carefully)? Dorothy Kim, an assistant professor of English at Vassar, demanded that all faculty who specialize in Middle Ages use their classrooms to address white supremacy and assure their students "you are not a white supremacist." Diversity! Inclusion! Intersectionality! Of course, this is impossible. Being an English speaking person of European heritage will always brand one--usually as a toxic male, but women get smeared, too. Kim demanded her colleagues in the rather esoteric specialty take a side because not taking a side is choosing a side. Crazy totalitarian battleground classrooms. Faculty drunk with power over their students. People of fair and light skin are being marginalized and bullied--for existing. So is it the behavior and the hate, or the ethnicity that makes bullying and prejudice wrong?

This is a link to a very biased article, written by someone named Xu for the Vassar paper.

 http://miscellanynews.org/2017/09/27/news/vassar-medievalist-harassed-for-advocating-diversity/

A different point of view—I think this is a gay publication. https://www.dangerous.com/49082/why-is-inside-higher-ed-propping-up-this-abusive-lying-fraud/

Mueller Report

Is there a pay gap, are teachers underpaid, and why do Democrats run on issues that are settled law?

“2020 Democratic presidential contender Sen. Kamala Harris is on a mission to close the pay gap for America's teachers, something she says is "not a partisan issue." Harris, who unveiled her new plan to increase the pay for public school teachers nationwide with a $13,500 pay raise, told "CBS This Morning" on Tuesday that "for too long" teachers have been paid "substandard wages" and are "not being paid their value to us as a society."” (CBS News)

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kamala-harris-on-closing-teacher-pay-gap-lets-pay-them-their-value/?

Why do Democrats campaign on issues settled in law--will more laws help? Teacher pay gap? Local schools set those salaries, not the Department of Education (a federal agency that doesn't need to exist). Public school teachers according to BLS earn $63/hour (with benefits)--if they lie about teachers, then they lie about engineers and plumbers.

The "equal pay for equal work" law was passed over 50 years ago. When women continued to choose jobs that were easier, less risky, closer to home, and child-friendly, the feminists decided it became "equal pay for equal value" and what is that? Of course, a day care worker's job is valuable, but is it as valuable as an RN with an advanced degree or an entry level teacher?

What happens when you compare women with women? I was a librarian, one of the lowest paid jobs that requires an advanced degree, and dominated by women. Who is the commissar of jobs in DC who will decide that entry level Alabama librarians should be paid the same as chefs with 20 years experience in Chicago or a petroleum engineer in Alaska?