Happy Birthday, Dad

Happy Birthday to my dad--he would be 112 today, died in 2002. I don't have a lot of mushy, gushy remembrances like some of my FBF or blogging friends, but I do laugh at some of the stories I remember. He was really sappy with the grandchildren, but with his own kids--well, there was that thing called the Great Depression and WWII and trying to get his life back on track, and put all that behind him. My favorite story is the day he went to the court house to get his birth record for Social Security and was told he was registered as "baby boy." (I've seen the ledger book in calligraphic handwriting of 1913.) When asked could anyone vouch for his identity, he said, "Yes, my mother and father." We all got a good laugh, but Grandma sure wasn't happy about it. She'd had his name picked out a long time, and the doctor just forgot to register it (born at home).

Visiting the National Archives on-line

I stopped at the National Archives site today just because I looked at one of the pdf records from the JFK files. But from there I got lost in all the interesting stuff in the Archives, and stopped to look at the military records, something I'd done about 15 years ago when I was doing genealogy. I'm not going to register (well, I did for just one newsletter) to be a citizen volunteer or get a login so I can answer other's questions, but it was interesting to read through "how can I find out about my uncle's WWII service" or something like that. I clicked on it because I had made similar inquiries years ago. And when someone reported she couldn't get a form to work, some helpful non-employee responded it was probably Trump's Doge program. Yikes, get real. Government forms fail all the time, and even years ago it might take weeks to get a reply--but when you do, those government archivists really know their stuff. Then I looked around at the educational programs for schools. I saw a lot of material on women and minorities just in case some media source has told you falsely that's all been scrubbed. If the writer has insulted or demeaned a group intentionally, I suppose it could have been removed.

You could spend years poking around the National Archives. It's an exciting place to visit on-line--or maybe it's just fun for retired librarians.

What is an Official Military Personnel File (OMPF)? | National Archives

Distance Learning Programs | National Archives

History Hub

Do Democrats have any plan but to destroy Trump?

"Fight, fight, fight." Donald Trump said after being almost assassinated in Butler, PA. So now the Dems think that's the magic. Yell fight, fight. That's the trick. Put on matching t-shirts paid for by Soros, cover your faces like the KKK and yell. But the only thing they know how to fight is Donald Trump. They don't fight the drug cartels, they don't fight the human trafficking, they don't fight Big Pharm or Big Farm. They don't know how to fight entrenched bureaucracy, they don't know how to fight for better food, or how to not kill the next generation. What kind of a fight are Democrats offering? Only chaos, my dear.

The War in Ukraine

Perhaps there will be a cease fire in Ukraine. Perhaps the killing will pause or stop. For now. But there's over a thousand years of enmity, hate and killing, and then the more deadly 20th century, to tell us it won't last. Please find a history book written before the 21st century and read it. Be prepared.

My Ukrainian supervisor at the University of Illinois Library in the mid-60s told me he'd gone to high school in 4 countries, but his family hadn't moved.

We are blessed to be a blessing

Buffalo Grove, IL : "Tesla car owners, dealerships and charging stations have been targeted nationwide by protesters and vandals because of CEO Elon Musk's involvement with the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which aims to slash wasteful spending and fraud within the federal government."

Shocking. This story was about a suburban woman. The Left used to admire electric cars and tackling government waste and fraud. Obama and Clinton lauded it. Now we know that was all scripted by Soros and others who were drinking from the Government corruption hose. Our own citizens are having their brains warped and wounded by Trump Derangement Syndrome. They now hate what Democrats used to stand for.

 
I still want care for the environment. We forgot that in the "Green New Deal." Reduce waste and clean up after yourself. If we had a cabinet member for that we could all breath fresh air and not look at trash along every intersection. I want fair tariffs and honest government workers, and grants that go for worthwhile research instead of building academic empires. How did we end up with so much graft? The lower and mid-income in our country are the biggest, most generous (in percentage) and the two biggest corporate giants, Buffett and Musk , are the most generous in amounts. Rich or ordinary--we have been blessed to be a blessing. Let's get back to that value system.

Cook County woman allegedly vandalized Tesla service center in suburb | FOX 32 Chicago

Warren Buffett Tops List of Biggest Donations - Business Insider

Elon Musk: The Donations of the World’s Richest Individual Focus on Education and Innovation - CEOWORLD magazine

Do Democrats know what their party supports?

Democrats have decided to support

Anti-Semitism
Hamas
Terrorism by South American gangs
Open borders
Property destruction
Anti-women in sports and safe spaces
Racist DEI policies
Bloated and corrupt government departments
Late term abortion
Rogue judges
Mutilation of children

rs

Sirach or Ben Sira--it's all interesting and inspiring

Today's reading was in Sirach 10. I just love this book of the Bible, because as a Protestant, I'd never heard it or read it until a few years ago--probably didn't know it existed. The Catholic, Orthodox, Syriac and African canons have it, so well over half of all Christians have an opportunity to hear or read its wisdom, at least in a church service during certain seasons or festivals. It's like the book of Proverbs, but much more in depth and more topics. Chapter 10 concerns governments and rulers. So true for today and regardless of your political leanings, it can comfort you. God is in control. See verse 4.

Chapter 10
A wise magistrate educates his people,
and the rule of an intelligent person is well ordered.
2 As the people’s judge is, so are his officials;
as the ruler of the city is, so are all its inhabitants.
3 An undisciplined king ruins his people,
but a city becomes fit to live in through the understanding of its rulers.
4 The government of the earth is in the hand of the Lord,
and over it he will raise up the right leader for the time.
5 Human success is in the hand of the Lord,
and it is he who confers honor upon the lawgiver. [a]

The book of Ben Sira was collected around 130 B.C and was used by Greek speaking Jews, and the early Christians. Jesus himself probably knew this book. However, in 1896 the Hebrew manuscripts from 180 B.C. were found by 2 British sisters. (see The sisters of Sinai by Janet Soskice which our book club read). That's what got me really interested. Since joining Academia.edu web site I've found hundreds of scholarly papers on this fascinating book.
https://www.bensira.org/introduction.html

Dax--Nigerian Canadian rapper

"To be a man" is what is called country-adjacent cross over music and the singer is Dax, a Nigerian-Canadian rapper. https://youtu.be/tHxip2x-PLc?si=sJp5Rlfbn-cDEUH0 Now, it's not something I would ordinarily listen to, but I had put a link to some popular 1950s music in an earlier post, and a song about abortion from a guy's point of view by Dax came up. At first I thought it was an ad, but it was listed along with the others like Frank Sinatra and Elvis! It was definitely NOT a 50s popular song, so I don't know how it got on this play list. Maybe it's a new way to market YouTube singles? It worked, because I then looked Dax up and played a few of his songs/poems. This is not his most recent, and he seems to be a very hard worker and loves to experiment with his style. I think this one is very good.

Sports drinks compared

Now with MAHA and Bobby Kennedy Jr rattling our cages, what are you doing about guzzling water and sports drinks? The microplastics have been an issue for a while; microplastics are smaller than a sesame seed and nanoplastics are even smaller, small enough to enter the body’s cells. Look at the drink aisles in the grocery stores that look like a painter's pallet. I'm not sure anyone is paying attention--plastics + dyes.

I'm not athletic, don't sweat unless it's 90 degrees, but I am a "senior" (aka elderly) and when people get older they lose the protection of feeling thirsty, even if they need liquid. So, I've been looking--plastic free, dye free, sugar free with electrolytes. They are all expensive, in my mind, compared to water, and most come in plastic bottles.

Here's what I'm drinking today. Sugar free, clear (watermelon, berry flavors) Propel. I move it to a glass quart bottle and drink it in a wine glass! The watermelon flavor is mild; the berry is a little sharp, so I water it down. I compared it to Zero Gatorade. For sodium, G is 160 and P is 210; for potassium G is 45 and P is 70; for Vit. C, G is zero and P is 25. There are numerous vitamins and minerals but those are the biggies. You can buy packets of the electrolyte mix and avoid plastic all together. Here's some additional sources from Medline Plus with additional links: https://medlineplus.gov/fluidandelectrolytebalance.html?

Democrats look for purpose

As I watch the Democrats go crazy over tariffs, closed borders, the fight to clean up government graft and greed, negotiations for peace, and how they rail about Trump's care for the "little people" I'm reminded of something I heard, but didn't catch who said it. Paraphrase: Trump (and MAGA) is the Democrat our parents (i.e. citizens of the 30s and 40s) voted for. Rich, connected and powerful person who cares about the little guy. A true patriot. [clarification--I personally do not see FDR that way, but my parents did]. Democrats are now the wealthy party, the snobs, looking down at the blue collar family, soldiers, farmers, police --and it's awfully hard to give back what you've stolen.

 
And Dems are almost as hateful toward JD Vance who pulled himself out of a difficult, low income situation in the rust belt of America that the corporations had abandoned for greener profits abroad. There's a fentanyl pipeline from Mexico to Southern Ohio. The Ohio Trump wants to restore to its former glory. The Northwest Territory that invented the Bill of Rights. Life is hard right now for Democrats with no one to look up to, but movie stars and leftist academics. Their big hope seems to be to abort the next generation and finance a proxy war.

I was listening to the "All-In" podcast yesterday. Three of the four venture capitalists who gather to discuss politics, technology, culture, finances and poke fun at each other are immigrants. Some started really poor, were picked on at school, had difficult family situations, etc. Do you know they learned as teen-agers with really grubby jobs the importance of compound interest? They began investing their tiny wages as teen-agers! I didn't have a retirement account until I was in my mid-forties!!! Although they didn't start out as Republicans, they all support Trump now.

David Sacks, one of the four, is now less active.  He's now in the Trump administration David O. Sacks: Silicon Valley Visionary Blazing New Trails - History Tools as cryptocurrency czar.

 
My hope for Trump is that he not try to pay back the Democrats for their crimes against him personally. Retribution and revenge are not good policies in the long run even if deserved. We've seen Democrats use non-profits and political office to get around free speech, and Lawfare to destroy justice. It's not pretty especially when it works.

The war that never was--Argentina and Chile

First let me say I know more about northern Ilinois (Ogle and Lee counties) where I haven't lived since I was 17 than all of South America, especially Argentina. I know well the statue and history of Blackhawk on the Rock River but knew nothing about the statue of Christ in the Andes mountains except what I'd seen in a few tourist brochures. Until today.

Christ the Redeemer of the Andes (on the border with Chile and Argentina) was the topic in my reading in Magnificat for today. It is commemorated on March 13 for celebrating the war that didn't happened between Chile and Argentina in 1904. Although Chile and Argentina have the same ethnicity, language and religion, greed and self interest have no boundaries, and the two countries had been squabbling about some very rich territory in the mountains between them back into the 19th century. History will report the resolution in different ways, but this account credited some Catholic women who organized for peace. Women suffer greatly in wars. Led by Señora Angela de Oliveira Cézar de Costa they got the bishops and Pope involved and the other leaders to talk, and so the issue was brought to arbitration and negotiation led by a third country, Great Britain. Three Christian nations and a disputed region.

The war never happened and the statue on the highest pass on the border celebrates that. There are two plaques on the base of the 60 ft tall statue. "He is our peace who has made us one" and "Sooner shall these mountains crumble into dust than Argentinians and Chileans break the peace sworn at the feet of Christ the Redeemer." (Magnificat, March 2025, p. 206-210, by Anthony Esolen) also, https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/dailystory/permalink/christ-of-the-andes-stands-for-peace

Rosie O'Donnell and Ireland

I'm not upset about Rosie O'Donnell moving to Ireland. So many people are trying to get into the U.S.A. that will make just one fewer ungrateful person and more space for someone to succeed. I'm not sure I'd even blame her hatred for Trump. She hasn't had a happy life, always sarcastic and complaining, so maybe a change of scenery will help her.

We've visited Ireland in 2007 and loved it. The Irish have helped populate Canada, USA, Australia and New Zealand, they contributed so much to their adopted countries and they did so in part because they were oppressed by England. My Irish beat the crowd and got here just in time to fight in the Revolution. I'm probably 8th generation thanks to my Irish.

A bit off topic, but as I look at this photo taken in Ireland, I remembered the shoes! Marti Alt and I went to a Christian Writers festival at Calvin College in Michigan and why I don't know, but we went shopping and I bought these shoes! They must have been comfortable enough to hike in Ireland's very rough terrain. The white rain jacket was "merch" picked up at a library convention probably in the 90s, and I still have it. I checked my blog and I'd written about the Festival in 2004. Looking through it, I found that in the same paragraph that I wrote about skipping meeting Joyce Carol Oates I included the shoe story. They were Naturalizers.   https://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2004/04/308-festival-report-2there-were-some.html?

     

University of Illinois lobbyists object to eliminating waste and bloat

I got an email from The University of Illinois System (Chicago, Urbana, Springfield) warning me that "Cuts to federal research funding threaten the future of innovation at the University of Illinois System. " That's a bit of a stretch. The message came from the "lobbying for more money system." I had to wade through a lot of gobbledygook to find out where it came from and what was being threatened. I have no problem if colleges and universities want to lobby their own legislature for special perks, but they shouldn't be asking through our federal tax system for people living in New York and Nebraska to pay for Illinois lobbyists.

Music of the Fifties

I saw a meme yesterday when a 50-something was getting weepy over 80s music. I was shocked. But my generation got sappy over 50s music--I didn't like it when I was a teenager! I'm always out of step with music. I love me some Lady Gaga and Adele and Patsy Cline, Mahalia Jackson and Tammy Wynette. Eclectic. I didn't care much for Elvis in the 50s, didn't buy a lot of records (they were 78s then) but I did like Don and Phil Everly. Did you like "your" music?

YouTube Music  50s music

Egg-citing breakfast

I know eggs are expensive, but the dozen I have in the frig were about $3. So, I made a fried egg sandwich for breakfast rather than have them go bad. I'm not making desserts (sort of a sugar fast) right now which was about the only dish I used them for. A salute to my Dad--he wasn't much of a cook, but he could make a fried egg sandwich, and after Mom died, I think he ate a lot of them.

It's been a busy week and it's about to end. I have whip lash trying to keep track of what President Trump is doing. Yesterday I watched the bitcoin meeting. Clueless. Dinner out last night with friends, Joyce and Bill and Joan and Jerry. Our Friday night dates which had been a staple for us for 60 years ended with Covid, and now it's about once a month, if that. I've looked at the menu (Houlihan's) before we left and picked out a petite top sirloin 5 oz, with 2 sides, green beans and fresh fruit. And since I don't drink wine anymore because I take too many medications, I treated the table to appetizers, stuff mushrooms. 

Some policies of Trump I'm not enthusiastic about

There are some things in the Trump plan that I don't care for. I'd rather have Canada be a good neighbor than a sullen step-child always trying to run away. I'm not crazy about name changes--never understood why some of our bases were named for Confederate heroes, but the change back? Seems petty. But Department of Education? It's sort of a newcomer. Late Jimmy Carter idea. The main beneficiaries have been the office holders and those who received grants. (I think I may have had one.) "Crumbs," as Fancy Nancy called the money, was all that went to the children.

Transgender mice

I know everyone (except Democrats) is joking and laughing at transgender mice experiments--millions spent on this with our tax dollars. It was mentioned in the President's speech Tuesday night. You know the one--all the Democrats were glued to their seats and they wore pink put don't support women.

 
But better they experiment on mice than children! No one gets sexually aroused (well, maybe some do) mutilating a mouse. Yet there are those medical horror chambers called "affirmation centers" at almost all our major health centers like Ohio State where surgeons (I'm just guessing most are men) can experiment with vaginoplasty, orchiectomy, mastectomy, fat transfer, metoidioplasty, sex hormones and other ghoulish dreams on people not old enough to vote, or to understand their human rights.

 
It reminds me of the Kinsey sex experiments on children in the 1940s or how American medical researchers used African women to experiment with birth control pills back in the 60s to be sure contraceptives were safe to use on European and American women although many died or were left sterile for life. Or the experiments conducted by our government on southern black men from the 1930s to the 1970s who had syphilis. It was later strongly condemned, too late to help those men who were not told what was being done to them.

Last night Democrats just pouted and probably felt sorry for the mice. I'm sure they can throw a benefit to support PETA's program to live in harmony with mice and rats. But children? Why don't they care about children?

From Father Petkosek, a message about Ukraine

 A message from a Ukrainian American priest: Father Michael Petkosek, Catholic Diocese of Cleveland 

If you’re going to virtue signal with the flag of my heritage, please know this:
The Ukrainian people have long been caught between the imperialism of a neighbor and their own independence. Their history is one of being ethnically Ukrainian yet belonging politically—generally by force— to a stronger and more militant neighbor. They have long seen empires fight over their fertile soil and Black Sea coastline.

The twentieth century alone was quite brutal for the Ukrainian people. In the 1930’s, seven million Ukrainians died in Stalin’s artificially created famine, the Holodomor, in an attempt to simply get rid of the population and claim the land. During World War II, the Ukrainian people were caught between Nazi and Soviet invasions. The Communists never left and the people became citizens of the Soviet Union.

When the long-suffering Ukrainian people finally achieved independence with the fall of the USSR, they knew only one corrupt government after another. The influence of Communist evil ran deep and the KGB never really died.

Did you care about any of this, now or in the past?

My grandfather forsook serving in his national army because it was infiltrated by the Soviets. Instead, he fought with the real Ukrainian army, the Underground. He fought Nazis and hid from Communists. His friends were executed for attending a town dance while he slept under a dead horse for safety. This is the Ukrainian grit that has held off Russian aggression for three years, it is a grit that will continue to run headlong into a hopeless fight.

 
No one in their right mind likes the idea that Russia stands to get away with a great injustice. But, no one in their right mind wants this war to continue. The first step is to stop the bleeding. One must wonder just why Zelenskyy was willing to throw that chance away.

 
Understand that when you say, “I stand with Ukraine,” I know that what you really mean is, “I hate Donald Trump.” From where I’m sitting, “I stand with Ukraine,” first said on February 27, 2025, sounds as if you’re happy for the war to continue—for Ukrainians (and Russians) to keep dying…. because, hey, it’s a chance to troll Donald Trump.

See the expression of Ukraine’s ambassador during the infamous meeting, which if watched in its entirety, does not support an anti-Trump narrative. She sees what Zelenskyy did and she knows that Ukrainians will continue dying.

You stand with Ukraine? Spare me. Your virtue signaling is just tacit support for an ongoing war, one that Ukraine can’t win. You're just cheering on a slaughter.

St. Josaphat, pray for us!

The importance of congregational singing and reading the Bible

Congregational singing and reading the Bible, thoughts from Thaddeus Williams, author of "Revering God; how to marvel at your maker."

"And I think singing congregationally is huge. And if I get very practical with this, if I had a word of advice on congregational singing, it would be to the sound engineers and churches around the country, turn it down. Maybe this is the old man in me, like the curmudgeonly guy in his 40s. But the power of corporate worship is that I can hear my wife exalting God next to me. And I can hear Joe the plumber sitting in front of me. Whether he's on key or not, he's exalting God out loud, affirming the same truths about God. And I can hear the little kid behind me singing off-key and glorifying God with everything she's got. There's power to hearing the congregation, not just hearing a face-melting guitar solo and a wall of sound. So I'd say that's number one, corporate worship is important.

And number two, I'm just going to land where we started, just getting into the Word. There's a study that I cite in the opening of the book that people who read their Bibles once a week have no measurable difference, no positive outcomes relative to those who never read their Bibles. People who read their Bible twice a week, no measurable positive outcomes. Three times a week, you start to see a few little areas beginning to peak. But for some reason, it seems like at four, when people read their Bible four times, four times plus, then the study showed people become less lonely. They become less angry. They become less addicted to alcohol or pornography. They become less spiritually stagnant. They become more evangelistic. They become better disciples. So I would say if you want to tap into some of this reverence, try to push past that four threshold and see the difference." https://www.biola.edu/blogs/think-biblically/2024/revering-god

Save us, Oh God, for the waters have risen to our necks--Psalm 69

 Excuse, please, if I take some liberties with pronouns (everyone else is), because the filth is too awful to use a mild word like swamp or chat room for just one writer crying out.  The smut, slime and sin are engulfing us all. Anyone who votes and says I'm an American, is involved.

Recently, Doge has exposed what is going on in the NSA (and other agencies) and Tulsi Gabard has fired over 100 people who were involved in a sexual, gay porn cabal.  And in hearings it has been revealed our tax money has been funneled to our sworn enemies, even Hamas which has been exposed as killing Jewish babies after the October 7, 2023 raid with their bare hands. We bought and paid for that through our unelected bureaucracy which we allowed to grow in fetid slimy darkness. We should cry out to God collectively--we've not been careful--we've entrusted our country to evil people who intend to destroy us and God's plan for life.

New American Bible, slightly revised.

Psalm 69

2Save us, God,

for the waters* have reached our necks.a

3 We have sunk into the mire of the deep,

where there is no foothold.

We have gone down to the watery depths;

the flood overwhelms us.b

4 We are weary with crying out;

our throats are parched.

Our eyes fail,

from looking for our God.c

5More numerous than the hairs of my head

are those who hate us without cause.d

Those who would destroy us are mighty,

our enemies without reason.

Must we now restore

what we did not steal?*




and so forth and so on.

Psalm 69 New American Bible