Thursday, April 08, 2021

Our Road to Emmaus

In 2009 we visited the Holy Land on a tour with our church, Upper Arlington Lutheran Church and Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church of Columbus. St. Jerome called this kind of pilgrimage, the fifth gospel. And it is, indeed, as all the readings and stories you've heard for years come alive.
 
According to Fr. Sebastian White (editor of Magnificat, April 2021, p. 3-5) the one place we're not sure we saw is Emmaus, the place two disciples were heading when the risen Jesus joined them on the road. There are 6 contenders! Not to worry, the Bible is very clear even if modern explorers can't agree on the historical location. It's the road that represents "every place," -- "the road every Christian, every person takes. The risen Jesus makes himself our traveling companion as we go on our way, to rekindle the warmth of faith and hope in our hearts and to break the bread of eternal life." (Pope Benedict XVI)

Wednesday, April 07, 2021

Child murder statistics compared to Covid19

"American children 14 years and younger are more likely to be murdered than to die because of COVID-19, according to data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/03/18/more-children-14-and-under-are-murdered-than-die-of-covid-19/?

That's not a pleasant topic, but their violent deaths also didn't close down the schools. And if you scroll through all the statistics (this article is loaded), it doesn't tell you that children under 5 are in danger of homicide, but it's their parents, not strangers or neighbors. Particularly their mothers and their boyfriends, and it's not guns either. Homicide has drastically gone down in all age groups the last 25 years, but has gone up in that one, and black children are way out of proportion to their population.

Although statistics for women who murder are far lower than men, for homicides involving young children the percentage is very high, and going up the last few decades. No one knows why, but I suspect it's abortion creating a disrespect for life and breaking the mother-child bond.

Collecting My Thoughts: Do black lives matter?

Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) - Race and Ethnicity of Violent Crime Offenders and Arrestees, 2018

Tuesday, April 06, 2021

Wall Street Journal reports economic crisis is over

The economy is set to soar, but the Biden /Democrat hysteria choir is trying to tap it down so it can grab more green goodies at your expense.
"The latest evidence arrived Monday with the Institute for Supply Management’s news that its March survey for service businesses hit 63.7. That’s an all-time high, and it signifies rapid growth and optimism. The only problem is that many businesses say they can’t find enough workers or supplies to meet their order books.

That follows Friday’s blowout employment report for March, with a net total of 1.07 million new jobs including revisions from the previous two months. Wage gains were bigger than they looked at first glance, given that many returning workers were those in lower-wage services jobs hurt by the pandemic." Wall St. Journal
Cancel the egg rolls. Hire CBS to do a hit piece on Florida's governor. Bust open the border with more infected immigrants and ship them around the country. Keep the schools closed with teachers union (which funds 99.9% Democrat candidates) cooperation. Send Fauci to all the talk shows with even more confusing information.

Egg rolls cancelled because of Covid

I don't care much for "egg rolls" which are traditional at Easter, but cancelling them at the White House or locally in our town was a political statement, not a health statement. They are done outside, and the WH lawn is huge. The numbers could have been limited, there was plenty of space for distancing, and even children, who don't need masks, could have worn them. It was just another Biden /Democrat bureaucracy announcement that we are under his control and power, and we better not forget it.
 
We took our children ONCE as pre-schoolers to the local event in the early 70s, and swore never again. It was a mob of screaming, fighting, yelling suburban kids who one would have thought hadn't eaten in weeks. It terrified our little ones and we never went to another one.

 
We had our own Easter egg hunt at our house in 1973 with the Clarks. Phil and Rich used their cowboy hats as Easter baskets.





Use this form to apply for a ballot to vote by mail

Our household has received a hand delivered brochure with 2 absentee ballot applications. I could say it's rigged against a certain class of people. The elderly. And not for naught. We old folks, especially remembering the creaming we got for that school bond issue which was so outrageous many didn't bother to vote, might just vote down a recreation center as fancy as our neighbors in Dublin, Westerville and Worthington. This keeping up with the Jones on a pension budget is tough. I suspect the supporters do all they can to discourage the elderly from voting and not campaigning.

Back to voting. These applications certainly ask for a lot of information. Probably much more than Georgians need to know. This one has 8 parts, but #8 is not required. There is a bold warning that WHOEVER COMMITS ELECTION FALSIFICATION IS GUILTY OF A FELONY OF THE FIFTH DEGREE.

The first thing I noticed is that the print is so tiny (and I have a minimal prescription for bifocals and have had cataract surgery) I may need to look for a magnifying glass.

Second, there are at least 7-8 items one can use for voter ID and I can think of many elderly voters who might have a problem (not a current driver, don't know where their SS card is, have bills taken care of by someone else or the bank, or get confused about that exception that is listed which won't be accepted.

Third, the form to apply for a ballot to vote by mail asks the date of the election (do not write today's date), and that information is on the brochure, not on the application, which has been separated and possibly thrown away.

Fourth, the application to apply for a ballot asks if this is for a general election, a special election , a primary election, the name of the voter's political party, or an issues only ballot. Then outside that space to the left are instructions in teeny print that the voter must complete a separate application for each election.

Part 7 of the form to apply for a ballot to vote by mail needs a signed affirmation that the voter wants the form mailed to the address shown in part 4, not part 3. Pt. 7 contains another warning about legal penalty if the statements are not true.

The request (this form) must be received by the board of elections no later than noon on the Saturday before Election Day if by mail or by 2 pm the day before the election if in person. Who gets mail before noon around here? Ours sometimes arrives at 7 p.m. If I mess that up or forget I applied (not voted) and go to the polling place to vote in person, then I will have to vote a provisional ballot which cannot be counted until at least 11 days after Election Day.

I can recall "in the old days" we could request absentee if we were going to be out of town, or were ill or disabled, by calling, It wasn't a mass mailing (or distribution) and it was very simple.

Now where is that magnifying glass? I think I'll drive to the polls on that date I need to look up. It's easier.

Monday, April 05, 2021

Sara thought she was making herself sick, but it has a name--guest blogger Sara Gruber

"After being told for years that my ailments were anxiety, I became a disbeliever in my own body. I stopped believing in my ability to decipher if I was physically ill or not. I spent the past two decades convincing myself that anxiety was the cause of my dizziness, weakness, heart palpitations, tightness of chest…

And like so many people with anxiety, I believed that it was my fault. I believed that I had these physical feelings because I wasn’t mentally and emotionally strong enough. My confidence was replaced with a chaotic dialogue. “You’re dizzy because you need to calm down… You’ve never passed out in the grocery store before so stop being ridiculous. You’re not going to pass out today…”

I fought anxiety. I fought so hard! I took medications. I worked out. I meditated. I changed my diet. I read self-help books. I listened to podcasts. Yet, I was still sick and I was still scared.

Learning that I had dysautonomia was the first step to regaining the belief that I was interpreting my body correctly. It freed this resounding roar of, “I knew it! I knew there was something else that wasn’t right.” So many of my symptoms that were from dysautonomia were attributed to anxiety. All too often, anxiety has become a crutch diagnosis. It is the label many are left with when tests don’t find answers. It puts a halt to people’s journeys to find answers and it even belittles those who are suffering from anxiety by being a catch all.

Year after year, day after day—I thought I wasn’t smart enough, determined enough, strong enough… and maybe even that I wasn’t deserving enough…

Thinking I was too sensitive to be in the heat, then discovering, “Hey, I actually don’t sweat anymore.”
Believing I wasn’t strong enough to be in leadership roles. My heart would beat uncontrollably in meetings with an aggressive supervisor. Not mild palpitations, I’m talking pass-out-quality pounding. I found myself looking for every opportunity to get out just to calm my heart. I know now that the type of dysautonomia I have, Hyperadrenergic POTS (Hyper POTS) causes massive adrenaline dumps during times of stress.

Feeling ashamed because I was too scared to drive long distances. I often felt like I couldn’t breathe when I was driving. I’ve since been able to track that my heart rate often increases over 40 bpm in this position. It goes up because my blood is not circulating properly and my heart is trying to compensate by working harder.

Thinking I was ridiculous for being scared to go into grocery stores. The combination of standing, reaching for items, and fluorescent lights was dizzying. I remember mustering up all of my energy to push through when all I wanted to do was leave. I would look around at people who were 40 years older than me and believed that they looked so much healthier than I felt.

Did I ever share that I felt this way with anyone? Never! It was crazy talk.

Now, I absolutely know that I also have anxiety. I think it would be hard to live through this and not. All of these ailments inspire anxiety; they draw it out of me and then that anxiety exacerbates everything. It’s still hard to know where the line between dysautonomia and anxiety lies. Maybe that’s because that line doesn’t end, it blurs.

Even if I had been fighting anxiety without dysautonomia, I wish I could have seen the bravery in that. I wish that my internal dialogue had been loving instead of self-deprecating. No one with anxiety chooses it. I never chose it! It’s like living in a prison of fear—the least we can do for ourselves is have self-compassion as a cell mate.

So here’s to self-compassion!

I have anxiety. I have dysautonomia. I am stronger than I thought. I am braver than I knew. "

I thought I was making myself sick – Blessings of Chronic Illness

Friday, April 02, 2021

Anesthesia and memory loss

 I noticed this article in TheScientist Magazine today.  Anesthesia Impairs Memory in Mice | The Scientist Magazine® (the-scientist.com)  It is reporting on the original published work,  Anesthetics fragment hippocampal network activity, alter spine dynamics, and affect memory consolidation (plos.org)  For some time, I've been concerned about memory changes after anesthesia, but haven't been able to find anything about it except discussions of "brain fog" and short term memory loss that clears after a day or so. I recently cancelled an appointment for a colonoscopy, a procedure I consider important, because I was told that after 80 and even deeper sedation is used.  I had requested lighter or minimal because I never seem to fully recover and experience what I would call long term effects--like forever.  This research says the effects it might be otherwise: “The results challenge a very fundamental notion that I think the public—and many investigators even—assume. And that is, once the drugs have been eliminated from the body, the brain goes back to baseline state. And that’s not the case.”


Thursday, April 01, 2021

New dishes for the lake house--again

   

I really didn't need new dishes for our lake home, but when I saw these (above), I knew they'd be perfect in the blue and white kitchen with pink touches.  They are Keltcraft (Noritake label made in Ireland), and so far, the most expensive I've had at the lake, $95 for about 50 pieces. As I recall, I originally had blue and white Currier and Ives dishes from the 1950s, free from my friend Adrienne which she was getting rid of when she remodeled her kitchen in the late 80s. Many years later a neighbor on Oak Avenue had a set of blue and white Pfaltzgraff Yorktowne put out for a yard sale.  They didn't sell, so she put a price of $10 on the set and that included the laundry basket they were in, and she enlisted her kids to carry them to our cottage. After a few years I gave the Currier and Ives to a friend who was moving and needed a set of dishes.  

Years before at another yard sale I bought some white china with delicate blue and pink flowers and platinum trim that were going for $25 due to a divorce. They had been a wedding gift and had all the serving pieces and even a tea pot.  I put those aside for "special" times. Then about 8 years ago I found a lovely set of white on white china, International Wakefield 364, about 7 place settings, for $5 at the Lakeside Heritage Society Labor Day sale, and I couldn't pass those up.  I put the Pfaltzgraff in a neighbor's sale and then had two sets of china--neither of which could be used in the microwave, so I had to pick up some pottery for cereal bowls and serving.  Then last summer I found a wonderful hand painted set about 70 years old, Mountain Ivy from Blue Ridge Southern Pottery. at the Lakeside archives sale store.  I love them. I think the set was $25, and they delivered them to the house.




  








My plan is to keep a few pieces of the blue and pink on white floral china for us to use at home, and donate the rest.  As I recall, I have either 10 or 12 place settings, more than we ever could use at the lake. Even if I keep 2 or 4 place settings, there is still a lot to donate.  And now Bob will be able to cook his oatmeal in a nice bowl that matches the plates. 

Every time I see CDC director Walensky's emotional news clip about Covid I am reminded of Biden's lies during the campaign about how he had a plan. (Deja vu. Obama had a secret plan in 2008 to get us out of a war, and kept us there 8 more years.) I remember how Biden and Pelosi criticized Trump for closing air traffic from China as racist and xenophobic. He and other Democrats ridiculed the idea of fast tracking a vaccine without years of red tape. He had no plan, and for the most part he is doing nothing except instilling more fear and asking for more of what we've been doing for a year.
 
His lies worked, and Democrats voted for a cognitively impaired head of a family crime ring with close to 50 years in government. While all his advisors worked behind the scenes to take advantage of this crisis, they busted the border wide open while busting the budget with more trillion dollar green deal give aways, and stealing our rights guaranteed us as Americans. No one advising Biden was doing anything about Covid because all scientists and researchers were already going full steam ahead.
 
Trump was a victim of his enemies in the media, Big Tech, and RINOs, but Biden is a victim of old age and feebleness--something none of us can control. We still don't know who's in charge, but I'm pretty sure it isn't Harris who hasn't had enough time to clear out her enemies in the party. (She only got a paltry 1% in the primaries--a good indication of the faith they have in her). A cabal of Obama cronies and their straw bosses is my guess. They believe they didn't think big enough with the 2008 financial crisis with just billions, so they've moved on to trillions. They've been controlling our education system for such a time as this, and Americans probably don't know the difference.
 
Only China of all the countries in the world has made out with the crisis it engineered.

Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Churches using government money to fulfill their promise to Christ

Christian relief groups, particularly churches like the Catholics and Baptists, are really in a bind. Christ commanded us to help the poor, imprisoned, hungry, etc. but NOT by taking grants from the government to do it. We Christians are cooperating with evil by providing humanitarian care for the caravans--many funded by traffickers and drug cartels. And it isn't just this administration, it really geared up under "thousand points of light" of GHW Bush, although it was common before that with building contracts to help clean up poverty and farm surplus for food pantries run by churches.
 
When Jesus comes back and asks how we followed Matthew 25, I fear he'll find the churches there with the goats, and not the sheep who know him. We're not to be siphoning off tax money and becoming dependent on the government.

Unfortunately, this invites anti-Catholic hostility from other Christians, while tying the Catholics even closer to poorly managed, dead end government practices.  Plus, many Christians who are critical of this, are ignorant of what their own denomination is doing with government money.



A year late, and trillions of dollars short


Even in the Biden administration and the diehard leftists in the main stream media, there is skepticism about the latest WHO report. 

That the virus may have escaped, or been released, from a lab in China has been a discussion at Newsmax and other conservative sources, especially Gordan Chang, China expert, for months. Jen Psaki, Biden's Spox said in a press conference that medical experts and the global community "all deserve greater transparency." She said the report lacks crucial information and provides a "partial, incomplete picture" of the virus’ origin. Well, duh. Where was Mr. Expert Biden a year ago? Well, he was criticizing President Trump as a racist and xenophobe.


Here's Gordon Chang on Fox last April, "And, by the way...there is a lot of evidence that suggests this comes from the lab. A January 24th article from The Lancet -- which is the authoritative British medical journal -- said that many of the initial coronavirus cases did not come from the wet market, which is China's theory," he stated. "Well, if they didn't come from the wet market, they had to have come from the lab."




The Trump hatred, which includes Google and Facebook blocking my posts,  has made this disease much worse in the U.S. by insulting and cancelling voices that wouldn't believe the China-WHO information.


Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Downton Abbey the third time

We received a gift boxed set of the British TV series Downton Abbey for Christmas and are watching it for the second time. We watched all the bonus shows after we finished the series and then the movie, and so went back to see what clues, music, fashion, etc. we had missed.   I had first seen it 10 years ago, but had forgotten most of it.  Now we just finished watching the 3rd season (2nd time) and Matthew Crawley dies in the last scene. It was a shock the first time, and still is.  If Daniel Stevens hadn't wanted out of his contract, you do wonder what direction the series would have taken.  His departure caused a huge uproar among the fans, but his career has gone well.

 There are a few things we’ve noticed and commented on. We think if the series were made today—2020 instead of 2010—they wouldn’t have begun the story with a homosexual as the bad guy. Thomas Barrow is a gossip, a coward during the war, and gets into the post war black market, even though he fails. He’s nasty and sneaky and no one likes him. He is redeemed somewhat for being so mean as the series progresses. But also, we noticed that except for the rape story involving Anna, most of the overt sexual aggression was from the women. Edith, Sybil and Mary, all go beyond proprieties to get their man—especially Edith is aggressive. Mary’s shame influences the family’s fortune for years. Then Rose is also quite the sex kitten. Old lady Grantham had almost run off with the Russian prince in the 19th century when she was young, and was prepared to give up her two children. Then there are 3 house maids who go after men socially above them, and the one gets pregnant and then becomes a prostitute after her baby is born. I don’t think I noticed that thread so much the first time I watched it in 2011. We’ll probably watch it again when we’re at the Lake house this summer. 

Karen vs. Meghan

Apologies to the Karens of this world. According to a popular internet meme, Karen is a middle-aged white woman with an asymmetrical bob asking to speak to the manager, who happens to be as entitled as she is ignorant. But it's two mega-rich, opinionated Meghans who are acting the part of poor lil me. One is a B list movie star turned Princess, and the other a soccer star.  The "Karen" meme was sexist, misogynist and racist, and she was the junior hi popular girl we all loved to hate. Yet these two poor examples of womanhood are masquerading as icons of the culture and get even more publicity from the media who make money from them.

Monday, March 29, 2021

Christian singing groups in India

Yesterday I found a source of beautiful hymns, including “All glory laud and honor” for Palm Sunday, and was surprised they were from India—St. Andrew Kirk in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, and other cooperating Christian groups. According to the tradition of Indian Christians, the Christian faith was introduced to India through Thomas the Apostle, who is said to have reached the Malabar Coast (Kerala) in 52 AD. From this album I looked at a few more sites, and found this lovely group, BESY. But they looked Asian, not Indian. And they are indeed, Asians of many diverse tribes, but an Indian state.
“Mizoram is a state in northeastern India, with Aizawl as its capital city. The name is derived from “Mizo“, the name of the native inhabitants, and “Ram”, which means land, and thus Mizoram means “land of the Mizos”. Mizoram was previously part of Assam until 1972, when it was carved out as a Union Territory. It became the 23rd state of India, a step above Union Territory, on 20 February 1987. Mizoram’s population was 1,091,014, according to a 2011 census. It is the 2nd least populous state in the country.

About 95% of the current population is of diverse tribal origins who settled in the state, mostly from Southeast Asia, other waves of migration started about the 16th century but mainly in the 18th century. This is the highest concentration of tribal people among all states of India, and they are currently protected under Indian constitution as a Scheduled Tribe. Mizoram is one of three states of India with a Christian majority (87%). Its people belong to various denominations, mostly Presbyterian in the north and Baptists in the south.”

Some of the Mizo tribes claim to be Jews, of the lost tribes of Israel. They had first converted from animism under European missionaries to Christianity, then in the 1950s became Jews. Some have immigrated to Israel.

The myth of food desserts

Yesterday I blogged about dollar stores and how the woke blokes are sounding the alarm that they target poor and minorities (Google/FB blocked my link when I tried to post it to Facebook). But while watching the show on Cheddar, I noticed again how often the food nannies complain and alarm us about "food desserts." That was disproven about a decade ago, when it was a common myth. I think it was a hobby horse ridden by Michelle Obama. Too many fast food and convenience store businesses was the complaint. Here's a recap by Rod Dreher, from 2012.

"But two new studies have found something unexpected. Such neighborhoods not only have more fast food restaurants and convenience stores than more affluent ones, but more grocery stores, supermarkets and full-service restaurants, too. And there is no relationship between the type of food being sold in a neighborhood and obesity among its children and adolescents.

Within a couple of miles of almost any urban neighborhood, “you can get basically any type of food,” said Roland Sturm of the RAND Corporation, lead author of one of the studies. “Maybe we should call it a food swamp rather than a desert,” he said."
Obesity is a growing (no pun) problem for all Americans, but particularly in "underserved neighborhoods." Thousands of academics have earned promotion and tenure by siphoning off our tax supported grants from the federal government to try to change the food culture of minorities. They develop exercise programs, food plans and diets. We get fatter and they get richer. Meanwhile they want more and more women to leave their homes and children, and sit behind a desk with a computer. Go figure. I know several of my inches belong to Blogger (Google) and Facebook.

The good news is I passed the 11,000 mile mark on my exercycle (since January 2015).  The bad news is that it makes little difference in how my clothes fit, so I'm hoping its good for the heart and lungs.

Sunday, March 28, 2021

Dollar Stores, good or bad for your community?

I like to watch Cheddar channel on Sunday when I cycle (inside, another 11 miles and I'll pass 11,000 miles). But because its focus is on youth, it's a bit thick with woke and SJW opinions and stories. Today its focus was on the scary, outrageous (hype) growth of the dollar store chains. Oh. My. They cater to low income and those with immediate shopping needs! Horror. Remember, these same greenie "save the world" types ran out investments in big box stores and chain grocery stores from inner city neighborhoods about 2 decades ago. It seems there are now more dollar stores than McDonald's. The save-the-earth  and make-all-minorities-victims groups also don't like McDonald's.  Consumers like them so much, everyone is obese or at least not eating enough fruits and vegetables from other sources.

It seems the SJW crowd are all for "mom and pop" stores, but only if run by an actual local family, who is probably white or Asian and middle class hoping to expand to something better. I've been hearing about "mom and pop" and the "small farmer" for decades. Look, they are in business to make a living. If we drive by on our way to Walmart, or the produce is too limp and old to make a salad, let's not blame a lack of diversity and equity in the "system." If "mom and pop" owners can sell the family business because the real estate is now worth $2 million and they only clear $30,000 a year working 12 hours a day, why would the SJW deny a small business owner that opportunity to move up and out by selling to a corporation?

I love the little dollar store a few miles from my home, and the one near Lakeside. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find small packages in large supermarkets? I prefer to pay more per ounce if I can lift the container! I love paying 2/$1.00 for greeting cards, or 5 shower caps for $1, or 6 packages of peanuts for $1. The store is clean, the staff pleasant, and they seem to meet the needs of the people now taking up residence in those awful apartment complexes that look like prison compounds. 

The Cheddar program reported that dollar stores target poor and minority neighborhoods--you know, so they can walk to the store, or find several items they can afford. What the SJW are really mad about is that market forces and capitalism are driving the growth of small scale, cheap to build money making stores. There are many suburbanites who shop there too, and they fill a need the big box stores don't. And they stayed open during the pandemic.

The final point in the program was that they attract crime (I suppose because of the minority neighborhoods?). Recently in Columbus, we've had a spate of shootings and robberies at suburban shopping centers and gas stations. Criminals aren't stupid, and they don't become bad people because of where investors put their businesses whether it's a kosher grocery in Boulder or a massage parlor in Atlanta.

But as I noted, Cheddar's focus, fast paced and trendy, is on the young--they have a specific market just as dollar stores do. But for them, I guess it's OK. Cheddar was founded by Jon Steinberg, President and Chief Operating Officer of BuzzFeed from 2010 to 2014. Its investors include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Raine Ventures, Goldman Sachs, Liberty Global, Comcast Ventures, AT&T, Amazon, Antenna Group, Ribbit Capital, The New York Stock Exchange, Altice USA, 7 Global Capital, and Denstu Ventures.

Palm Sunday 2021, All Glory, Laud and Honor

 Many churches are still on a limited schedule, buildings locked during the week, ministries of service that involve person to person contact closed, and even if meeting with social distancing, hymn singing is discouraged.  I've heard from friends who have changed worship locations that Shiloh Mennonite (London, OH) and Grace Fellowship (Upper Arlington, OH) and Resurrection Lutheran (Hilliard, OH) continue to have congregational singing. Today is Palm Sunday when Christians celebrate the entrance of Christ the Lord into Jerusalem.  Normally, and nothing is normal these days, at Upper Arlington Lutheran Church, we would pick up a palm branch on the way into the sanctuary, wave the palms from the pew and sing with gusto . . .

All glory, laud and honor,

To you, Redeemer, King,

To whom the lips of children

Made sweet hosannas ring.


You are the King of Israel,

And David's royal Son,

Now in the Lor's Name coming,

Our King and blessed One.

https://youtu.be/h3a8fTTrAdE

https://youtu.be/zxzhFsuBijs

One of the commenters at the Indian site, Prashant L. Nemani, left this information; 

Words "Gloria, Laus, Et Honor" (Latin).Author: Bishop Theodulph Of Orleans [760- 821], Circa 820. Theodulph was born into the Italian nobility in 0761, but decided on a life of religious service. His first position was as abbot of a monastery in Firenze (Florence), Italy. In 781, Charlemagne appointed him Bishop of Orleans, France. However, this flourishing career came to an abrupt end with Charlemagne’s death. Louis the Pious suspected Theodulph of secret loyalty to political leaders in Italy, the country of his birth. These suspicions led to Theodulph’s imprisonment in Angiers in 818. His predicament is reminiscent of Paul’s incarceration in Rome. Like Paul, Theodulph’s faith sustained him inside cold stone walls. It was there he wrote ALL GLORY, LAUD AND HONOR, and there that he died in 821. Translated from Latin to English by: Rev. (Dr.) John Mason Neale [1818-1866], in 1851.

Saturday, March 27, 2021

Joe Biden lied at press conference

For the first time in anyone's memory, household income and wages of the low income made REAL advances during the Trump years as a result of the tax cuts. 82% of us got the cut, and 90% of working people got a raise. But what did Biden spout at the presser? The same old lie--only the richest benefitted. That's been disproven so many times, you wonder where the speech writer was the last 4 years (we know where he was). Growth was greater for the lowest quarter than the upper quarter, plus there were REAL wage gains. Now he wants to chase American companies to foreign soils as higher taxes always do, creating job loss and higher consumer costs here. At the same time, he's bringing in people who will compete with our workers in the lower income groups. Kevin Brady (R-TX) says Biden told so many lies at the press conference (his first) that Twitter should take his account away from him. He's welcoming people who will need a huge safety net and impose costs on local communities, while simultaneously pushing well paid jobs to foreign countries.

Now that he and Pelosi have us speaking trillions instead of billions, and they just foisted on us $1.2 trillion, little of which was for Covid19, but had that check dangling out there as a carrot, now it will be trillions more for "infrastructure," the green grab and more government control over public and personal health.

Do we even know what a trillion is? Let's look at seconds. 60 seconds is a minute. One million seconds is 12 years. One trillion seconds would be about 32,000 years. And $10 trillion still won't change the climate.

Friday, March 26, 2021

The Great Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020--7 Critical Lessons

As of January 28, 2020 there were more than 4500 confirmed cases (98% in China) of a new virus that originated in the City of Wuhan, China and more than 100 deaths according to Lawrence O. Gostin, J.D., global health expert at Georgetown University (and now an advisor to Biden). On January 30, 2020, when the U.S. had not yet reported a single death, President Trump closed travel into the U.S. from China. Powerful Democrats like Biden, Pelosi, and DeBlasio predictably called him racist and xenophobic. Since Trump is not a doctor, lawyer, or experienced in public health, he created a team and listened to advice from well established experts, with credentials just as good as Dr. Gostin. For weeks he was on TV with his advisers, but because he was hopeful and positive, the Democrat run media stomped their feet and insisted on gloom and doom (which we still get with the nightly news).
In JAMA Forum article Nov. 10, 2020 (v. 324, no. 18) Dr. Gostin published "The Great Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020--7 Critical Lessons." He's a lawyer who advises organizations like UN, WHO, and now Biden, and holds multiple international academic professorial appointments. If I were to criticize his lessons, I would be waved away like a gnat.

With distain he refers to "populist political leadership" right after acknowledging the remarkable development of clinical trials for a vaccine within 6 months of the virus being sequenced. He credits personal hygiene, physical distancing and masks to control virus particles so tiny that so far, no mask has been able to stop. Still, lesson 2 is a nation needs great leadership and public trust to beat such a challenge. Imagine public trust when 95% of the media report negatively or lie about dear "leader." Gostin seems to mean, any leader other than Trump could raise the public trust. Like someone who says, "Hey man, I'm here for ya."

And no article could be complete these days without a mea culpa for health inequities. When this article was in a first draft in the fall he knew, we all knew, old age and comorbidities were factors in death rates. Now I think the figure is about 50% elderly and 80% overweight or obese. Blacks and Hispanics have a higher rate of overweight and obesity than whites, who are obese, but less so. Life style strongly influences health--smoking, drinking, drugs, poor nutrition/too many calories, lack of exercise and sexual promiscuity. Dr. Michael Rosen of the Cleveland Clinic says 75% of chronic illnesses can be improved or cured by changing our lifestyles. The medical profession has not yet found a way to control our lifestyles, despite all the articles, TV ads, billboards, organizations and lectures. It's easier to just blame societal inequities.

In lesson 6 he mentions the horrifying disaster of the uneven lockdowns through the sweeping powers of local and state governments. He warns of usurpation of power under the pretext of a health crisis which threatens to erode democratic freedoms. Yet his only solution seems to be "the rule of law," by which I think he means federal, or even global. If you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail, and his area of expertise is global law and institutions. So he really was unhappy when President Trump thought WHO mishandled or mislead other countries.

So his recommendations are choose "science," the rule of law, and equity. That would be transformational, he says.

Income inequality—shrinking

As government transfer payments to low-income households exploded in the last 50 years, their labor-force participation collapsed and the percentage of income in the bottom quintile coming from government payments rose above 90%.   WSJ Incredible Shrinking Income Inequality – WSJ

"Nobody making under 400,000 bucks would have their taxes raised. Period. Bingo." – Joe Biden, May 22, 2020

Of course, that doesn't tell the whole story. An increase in the federal corporate tax rate to 28 percent as proposed would raise the U.S. federal-state combined tax rate to 32.34 percent, highest in the OECD and among Group of Seven (G7) countries, harming U.S. economic competitiveness and increasing the cost of investment in America. When businesses are taxed more they either move to another country or raise our prices. So who is Biden kidding?

Few people could get elected promising to raise your taxes, but Biden isn't few people. He's just Barack Obama 2.0.