Who was Charles Darwin?

Church of England, but no real belief system. Worshiped at a Unitarian Church. Grandfather was a doctor and poet—very liberal and “evolutionary” in his thinking. Father was a physician and a good communicator. Shrewd investor. The culture was of “free thinkers” when Darwin was growing up. Great winds of change.  Man is supreme; no need for God. Darwin didn’t like medical school, preferred natural sciences.  His father thought he was an idle, sporting man so pushed young Charles toward the clergy (positions could be bought) so he would have an income.  He couldn’t assent to the orders of the church. So he took an ocean voyage . . .

Columbus on the move

In the last 6 days I've done more traveling around metropolitan Columbus than probably the previous decade. I am so impressed with our city even on gray rainy days! Congratulations to our Republican governor and Democratic mayor. I saw lots of growth and ingenuity, great small businesses, and yet big developments, too. Our immigrant community is starting many new businesses; I saw expansion everywhere. (unemployment 5.8%)

It was three trips to the east side for my eyes (I was wowed by Mt. Carmel), and then lots of driving around picking out bathroom cabinets, fixtures, tops, lights, etc. Yesterday we spent an hour with a salesman who will be singing in Vaude Villities (a local talent show 71 years old). At all the businesses, the sales force was knowledgeable, polite and helpful. Today the contractor came and ripped out the old shower. Finally, we have a dumpster and big trucks in our drive-way just like our neighbors.

Remember when the feminists told women they didn’t need men?

Also told them that marriage was a trap.  Oppression.  What’s a piece of paper?  They needed to be liberated.  More liberated than men.  So why if it was a trap when a woman was married to a man, is it not a trap when it’s two women or two men?

Monday memories—bathrooms

We are stripping the walls, moving furniture, and emptying bathroom cabinets that will soon be removed.  The contractor is to start on Tuesday.  Two 1970s era bathrooms are being upgraded (I’ve got a bad case of sticker shock). Who knew we had 6 different boxes of band-aids, and never could find one when needed? And to think my father was a senior in high school before he knew people had bathrooms inside their homes.             

                                

The story he told me, which may be embellished a little because he was a great story teller, was he knew there were bathrooms in public buildings like schools.  He attended Polo High School and was in the senior play.  Because his parents lived on a farm and there was a night rehearsal and then the performance, he stayed overnight with a fellow cast member and realized that people living in town had toilets inside the house, just like at school!  He was a year ahead of his age group, since in rural schools they weren’t real picky about that, so I’m guessing he was about 16 or 17 when this was taken.

When I was in first grade and my father returned from service in the Marines after the end of WWII, his old route with Standard Oil had been taken over by someone else, so he was doing a long drive to a different area.  So he bought a home in Forreston, about 15 miles from our home in Mt. Morris.  It was an old farm house on the last street at the south end, and it had no indoor toilet.  And there was a pump on the counter of the kitchen.  Really, I don’t know what my mother must have thought, but she learned carpentry and plumbing and we soon had a bathroom.  Nothing fazed that woman. Of course, being six years old, I thought it was a great adventure.  Now, not so much!

Noah’s Ark—Lessons from

An orange a day . . .

                   

Usually I have such terrible, miserable colds that last so long--usually three weeks--I really should give them names--like hurricanes or tsunamis. I was coming down with a cold when my husband returned, sick, from Haiti 2 weeks ago. But not much happened. This winter I've been eating oranges. I've always liked them, but rarely have more than one or two a year. They just tasted awfully good this year, and I've been buying 8 lb bags for about $6 and have added one orange to my daily one apple. So I think I've eaten 5 bags since the fall, or 40 lbs of oranges. http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=37

Also, I candied quite a few of the orange peels until eating them was making my mouth a little raw—and making me hungry for other sweets. Maybe it was all those peels.  Lots of good stuff in those too.

Waiting for Pope Francis’ first Angelus prayer at St Peter’s square on March 17, 2013

I was watching this on EWTN.  He drives his translators and security detail crazy by going off script and off in any direction.

Celebrate!

           

In just a few days. . .

They missed the apostrophe, but it’s still cute.

CPAC 2013

There’s nothing a Democrat fears more than a black conservative . . . Allen West

http://gretawire.foxnewsinsider.com/video/former-congressman-allen-west-on-the-record-6/

Rick Santorum and Allen West

An early Ohio gun law decision

In 1920, the Ohio Supreme Court upheld the conviction of a Mexican for concealed carry of a handgun–while asleep in his own bed. Justice Wanamaker’s scathing dissent criticized the precedents cited by the majority in defense of this absurdity:

"I hold that the laws of the state of Ohio should be so applied and so interpreted as to favor the law-abiding rather than the law-violating people. If this decision shall stand as the law of Ohio, a very large percentage of the good people of Ohio to-day are criminals, because they are daily committing criminal acts by having these weapons in their own homes for their own defense. The only safe course for them to pursue, instead of having the weapon concealed on or about their person, or under their pillow at night, is to hang the revolver on the wall and put below it a large placard with these words inscribed: “The Ohio supreme court having decided that it is a crime to carry a concealed weapon on one’s person in one’s home, even in one’s bed or bunk, this weapon is hung upon the wall that you may see it, and before you commit any burglary or assault, please, Mr. Burglar, hand me my gun.”
State v. Nieto, 101 Ohio St. 409, 430, 130 N.E. 663 (1920).

What goes on in an abortion clinic—the war against women

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=J7YmrsY4KSY

Late term abortion clinic—but also an unsanitary shop of horrors. A process called “snipping,” was used by Dr. Gosnell. Scissors severed the spinal cord of the babies born alive—because he did late term abortions.  One woman in the film went back for 8 abortions. . . for that I don’t blame the doctor or the staff.  Abortions are lucrative—Gosnell became a millionaire.

“Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams called Gosnell's macabre medical clinic -- where agents found filthy and blood-stained patient rooms in addition to fetal body parts in glass jars and staff refrigerators -- a "house of horrors."”

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57572339-504083/dr-kermit-gosnell-abortion-doctor-set-to-go-to-trial-for-8-murders-in-philadelphia/

The last time this clinic had been inspected was 1993. Hair and nail salons have more supervision.  Why didn’t any of the women patients or staff say something and report Gosnell to the police?

State of the Union

And Blog

Friday family photo—Grandma in glasses

My grandmother began losing her eyesight as a child, and probably my father, the oldest of 9, was the only child she actually "saw," because eventually it was only light and dark, and then all darkness. The last decade of her life she wore dark, wrap around glasses to hide what we all knew--she had no eyes (nor taste or smell). Now I'm temporarily wearing very similar glasses to protect my new lens and the healing. I've been thinking a lot about her and what a wonderful inspiration she was to all who knew her love, kindness, sweet spirit, faith in Jesus, and service to others.

Republican politician Rob Portman flip flops on marriage because of his gay son

Many gay websites (Hillbuzz, for instance) and journalists have reported that Barack Obama is gay. So which is homophobic: hiding it, reporting it, covering it with symbolism and double meanings, or not reporting it at all?  The May 21, 2012 cover of New Yorker has a rainbow White House. The same month Newsweek's cover (Andrew Sullivan) also declared him the first gay president. Many, many people have supported gay friends and relatives without being declared gay by the media. The most recent being Rob Portman; but also Dick Cheney and former first Lady Laura Bush. So what's up with this?

Will they ever come to an agreement?

What debt?

The history of blacks and gun control

Good discussion tonight on Glenn Beck TV about blacks and gun control. The first gun law restricting 2nd amendment rights was in the 1830s for free blacks in the north. Then after the Civil War for freed black slaves.  In the pre-war South, slaves were allowed to use guns (for protection of the plantation and the owner), but freed slaves were not.  The KKK was the terrorist arm of the Democrat party, and when black farmers were deprived of their guns, there was no way to resist. Also, Martin Luther King, Jr. was denied a conceal carry permit. Gun control is not about guns; it's about control, as black Americans have learned.

Star Parker, one of Glenn’s guests, said the policy of the Democrat party for blacks is still to keep them uneducated, unarmed and dependent, just as post-Civil War days.

Pope Francis

First Jesuit

First Pope from the Americas

Like his predecessors, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II, he is a staunch pro-life advocate when it comes to abortion.

Comparison of gun violence in Chicago and Houston

According to RedEye, homicides in Chicago were 513.

“Chicago this week ended 2012 with 513 homicides, a 15 percent increase from 448 homicides in 2011, RedEye determined based on data from the Medical Examiner's Office and police.

http://homicides.redeyechicago.com/blog/page/3/

FrackNation—an excellent documentary

Last night we had the opportunity to watch FrackNation with a group followed by a discussion. It is a follow up (with the truth) after Gasland (a pack of lies that even liberals are embarrassed to be associated with) appeared on HBO about 2 years ago. Phelim McAleer faces down Josh Fox of Gasland and defends the farmers in Pennsylvania who want these natural gas wells on their land.

Fox tries to scare his audience with shots of water catching on fire—something that’s been going on in that area for years, long before fracking.  There is methane in the water, along with a lot of other minerals.

The funding for FrackNation is very clear and stated several places. It's not clear who funded Josh Fox. The Russians want to defeat the sale of natural gas in Europe because they currently control the supply for their former "soviets", but it doesn't seem plausible that they are funding Fox. At least to me. Maybe Soros? Some Greenie organization? The desire to have the USA fail miserably in the energy sphere is behind all the Environmentalist activist groups. But we Christians have a bigger mandate--the first commandment in Genesis.

"Then God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground."

If you have the opportunity to see it, own it, or share it, don’t miss the opportunity.

Dressed in Klan garb, a black man protests violence

The message of the black man wearing a Klan robe: "According to the FBI, in 2011 more than 7,000 black people were killed. King’s sign reads that the KKK killed 3,446 blacks in 86 years, while black on black murders surpass that number every six months."

http://newsninja2012.com/african-american-dressed-in-kkk-hood-on-street-corner-sparks-controversy-in-philadelphia/#ixzz2NM2aKYqV

Watch the video for the complete story.

Apparently, TSA can’t spot Democrats

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) complained Monday she was subject to a very uncomfortable screening by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

McCaskill tweeted about the experience before boarding a flight on Monday.

"‪Today in my airport screening, test on my hands was positive," McCaskill wrote to her 89,100 followers. "Got private, more aggressive pat down. OMG. #veryuncomfortable‬." 

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/transportation-report/tsa/287369-mccaskill-complains-about-aggressive-tsa-screening#ixzz2NMk1TvTZ

Voter fraud didn’t begin with Obama, and it certainly won’t end there at this rate

This article is specifically about three people in Cincinnati, Ohio who have been charged/convicted of voter fraud, Melowese Richardson, Sister Marguerite Kloos and Russell Glassop and 50 some whose ballots are in question. This is just one area, and I suspect in small districts it can make a difference.

I'm in favor of voter ID, and since I have to show ID for far less serious obligations than voting, like entering a state or federal building, or visiting my doctor, I'm not sure why liberals object when they don't for these other events. It would take pages to fill out the voter fraud history in Illinois where I grew up, infamous for the voting dead, the voting pets, and JFK stealing the state from Nixon in 1960, especially in the Chicago area.

http://www.humanevents.com/2013/03/12/cincinnati-poll-worker-indicted-for-voting-for-obama-six-times/

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-09-26-jfk-chicago-politics_N.htm

Pew estimates that in America about 24 million voter registrations are invalid or significantly inaccurate. More than 1.8 million dead people are on the lists, and about 2.75 million people are registered in more than one state.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-06-12/news/ct-oped-0612-byrne-md-20120612_1_voter-fraud-voter-registration-registration-rolls

Our safety net has holes in it

This is written by a woman on disability receiving Medicaid. Really, it brings tears to my eyes. It's demeaning to treat people this way and say that we are taking care of people who need help with a safety net. I've heard similar stories about women who've had to choose between taking a raise and keeping medical benefits for a child.

"Disability is not a lot of money, there is no need for a savings account to hold excess income. Disability teaches humility and frugality. The Social Security Administration attorney put me on permanent disability and approved my Medicaid in the autumn of 2012. I received medical benefits for about 90 days. And then in January 2013 my world radically changed…the government changed the Medicaid rules.

I ran the numbers that the DHS indicated as my deductible amount: my Spend Down deductible for medical expenses must be 75% of my disability check (that’s right 75%) before I will be reimbursed. If it’s, say, 72%…oops, so sorry, you’re not getting any medical reimbursement and you’re out that amount to pay for your living expenses.

So, let’s imagine my SSA monthly income is on the higher end at $1000 a month. This must pay for mortgage, utilities, food, clothing, laundry soap, and, well, all other personal hygiene stuff. And now imagine my medical and prescription expenses are at the low end at $720 for the month. That is only 72%, three points below my required 75% Spend Down deductible. Do the numbers ($1000 SSA income – $720 un-reimbursable medical). That leaves me with $280 per month to pay my mortgage, utilities, and groceries. Oh, and DHS added to my income my qualifying amount of $20 a month in food assistance. $20 a month for food?!

How do I manage financially? Where is the excess income on which my Medicaid Spend Down is based? How do I choose between paying the mortgage or buying prescriptions, seeing a doctor or keeping the lights on?

What am I to do? What are any of us on disability to do?

I had relied on the charity of others and their loans while I waited for the SSA determination of my disability. I’m a single person without a husband or family. I had to spend my back up plan in the economic crash of 2009. I’ve worked hard since I was 14, paid my taxes, paid into Social Security.

Now I am set adrift with medical expenses eating into my excess (below poverty level) income, seeking a way to not become an indigent…it’s too cold in Michigan to live under a bridge.”

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/prayergardens/2013/03/medicaid-burn-spend-down-what/

Big Obama supporters find ways to avoid taxes

U.S.-based nonfinancial companies are parking record amounts of cash abroad, thanks largely to a tax code that encourages them to indefinitely keep profits from their foreign subsidiaries outside of the country.

The cost of doing this is prohibitive for smaller companies—the ones who don’t support Obama.

GE, Apple, Microsoft, etc. often support tax increases and more regulations.  It helps them by keeping others down.

http://www.ibtimes.com/ge-pfizer-microsoft-apple-other-major-us-corporations-are-parking-more-cash-abroad-avoid-paying

The jobs outlook is worse than you think

"The number of Americans designated as "not in the labor force" in February was 89,304,000, a record high, up from 89,008,000 in January, according to the Department of Labor. This means that the number of Americans not in the labor force increased 296,000 between January and February.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) labels people who are unemployed and no longer looking for work as “not in the labor force,” including people who have retired on schedule, taken early retirement, or simply given up looking for work.

The increase marks the second month in a row, after rising in January from 88.8 million in December. Those not in the labor force had declined in December from 88.9 million in November."

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/record-89304000-americans-not-labor-force-296000-fewer-employed-january

Our petty, petulant President is pouting

What a terrible example to set “for the children,” the ones he usually uses as back drops (even dead children) to pass his expensive legislation.

Charles Krauthammer says: "The President’s travel expenses alone for the golfing outing with Tiger Woods would pay for a year of White House visits. So I suggest that perhaps he curtailed the travel, or perhaps auction off the set of clubs and he might be able to allow those Iowa tots to come through the White House," Krauthammer added. "I'm not cynical enough – I’m trying."

It’s an ugly view

Elisabeth Hasselbeck is being forced off the liberal VIEW according to US Magazine, because her Conservative values no longer mesh with the show's audience. I’m not surprised.  I’ve only seen it occasionally, usually in the summer (we don’t have cable at our lake home), and find the hostile, ugly liberals very frustrating to watch.  Elisabeth is always outgunned, and the whole show brings shame on women.

The Fox channel on cable manages to have strong, capable liberals on its panels that often are talked off their stools with their comments, but they don’t get fired.  They even a PBS liberal, Juan Williams,  as a regular when he was fired for his comments about being afraid of a group of Muslims on a plane.  But the MSM can’t let their liberal audience ever hear a view point that differs from the template.

Pro-Life covers many areas

The Bible on the History Channel

Watching.  But my it’s violent.  Certainly not the sweet colorful pictures we got in our Sunday School bulletins as children.

Idiots happen

I don't see too many at my age. The most exciting thing that happened today is 4 strangers came to Panera's and sat where some of the regulars usually sit. I left before the fireworks.

Gun crimes in Franklin County, Ohio

I sure was happy to read in the Columbus Dispatch that a gun crack down DEVELOPED FOUR YEARS AGO using current laws is working. Prosecutor Ron O'Brien created a special gun crimes unit and has had a 98% conviction rate over the past 3 years. "Most violent crime in our county occurs at the intersection of guns, gangs and drugs," he said. It should be on the front page, but can be found in Sec. B of the Mar. 8 Columbus Dispatch. It should also be on the national news as a model for cities who want to clean up crime so the citizens are safe. Chicago comes to mind, but it's possible the crime, corruption and "community organizers" are just in too deep there.

“The idea to start the units came after a Near East Side shooting in 2008 that wounded two police officers. Police and prosecutors realized that a gun case against one of the suspects had languished. A further review uncovered a bottleneck between police and prosecutors that had stalled dozens of cases.

Although detectives in such units as the assault and robbery squads were well-versed in what was needed to make a good felony case for a gun offense, not all patrol officers were. Detectives of the Columbus gun unit review every carrying-a-concealed-weapon case that is prepared by patrol officers to make sure it is ready for a quick indictment.

The four prosecutors assigned to O’Brien’s unit take the cases from there.

The 60 indictments secured by the unit this year range from carrying a concealed weapon, possessing a weapon under disability, and improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle.”

What do you think about Obama pardoning the sequester and sending it to Portugal?

The last gal interviewed is the most honest. “I have no idea what that is; I just voted for him because he’s black.”

Remember to reset your clocks tonight

Why is unemployment in Yuma so high?

Yuma, Arizona, has the highest unemployment rate in the nation—27.3% in December 2012.

Here was a response at The Straight Dope website where readers write and respond that made the most sense, from a resident of Yuma :

Aside from agribiz, the two main employers are the Army (Yuma Proving Grounds) and the Marine Corps (MCAS Yuma). A lot of the testing and such is done by contractors in the defense industry. 

From my observation, part of the reason for the shortage of jobs is that the companies who subcontract at these bases tend to transfer in specialists from other locales, because few locals are likely to have the required skills or training needed. What's left over for the natives are jobs in the service sector--and employers hire as few people as they can operate with and then overwork them.

Another important employer (though this is changing, I hear) is the criminal justice system--the county sheriff, US Border Patrol, Customs, a big state prison, etc. A lot of those people are trained at the local community college, AWC. Criminal Justice is also a big major at the Yuma branch of Northern Arizona University.

There isn't a lot of industry because there isn't much room for it. Once you subtract all of the federal land (YPG, MCAS, the Barry Goldwater Air Force Range, and a couple of large wildlife refuges) and what's left of the irrigated farmland (what hasn't been developed yet), there isn't really much private land left over. There is a carpet fiber plant in the city (which seems to change name and ownership every couple of years), but it's mostly automated.

The Bismarck, North Dakota metropolitan area had the nation’s lowest unemployment rate of 2.2 percent.

The cost of date night

We usually go out on Friday nights (our date night), but will pass because we've both been ill. However, keep in mind that Obamacare is adding $44.2 Million Per Year to our (collective) eating at restaurant costs after the initial $315.1 million to comply with the regulations. It's because we don't know that chocolate cake with fudge topping has more calories than steamed cabbage. Retailers can add up the costs, but no one has yet figured out the benefits.

Pizza will be hardest hit.

http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2013/02/21/restaurants-prepare-cost-new-menus-mandated-obamacare

Hope and Change

I have no idea if this is real or photo shopped.  With drones and ambivalence on the part of the WH, I don’t think any business owner would make himself a moving target like this.

Obama signs another feel good act

The Violence Against Women Act bill that Obama signed today extends federal aid to gay, immigrant and tribal victims, while adding services for its original beneficiaries and a large voting bloc: women. But VAWA never denied services to Indian women or to lesbians or transgendered women, so what's the hoopla? Look at California's web site, and you'll see plenty of money going to Indians last year from VAWA. Mainly, it's grant money for "public servants" to earn a very healthy income and although a woman might find support and assistance AFTER the abuse, if she refuses to get out of an abusive situation with her Lesbian lover or a boyfriend, there's not much the agency that gets the money can do.

What happens to Head Start money after it leaves Washington’s bureaucracy?

Here in Franklin County, some if goes for “Sisterhood”  CDCFC is a nonprofit organization funded by the U.S. Office of Head Start. Since 1985, CDCFC has provided comprehensive early education and development services to income-eligible Head Start preschool children, ages 3-5, and their families. An Early Head Start program was added in spring 2007, to serve pregnant women and children ages 0-3.  Its budget went from $200,000 25 years ago to $20 million in 2011 for 3800 children.

“CDCFC (Child Development Council of Franklin County, Inc)  has created the Sisterhood Program, a new initiative for women involved in the lives of Head Start and Early Head Start children. Designed to empower and motivate women to be self-sufficient, and to take control of their lives, the Sisterhood Program utilizes individualized and/or group education, support and advocacy services to aid members in becoming productive, involved members of their communities. One of the program’s primary goals is to provide support for members as they deal with life’s challenges, while also improving their positive self image and their feelings of self worth. The group will do several community outreach projects throughout the year as well, including neighborhood “clean-ups,” aiding the homeless, and motivational speaking, to encourage other women.”

Head Start’s funding in Franklin County, Ohio  per child is $7,816; funding for Early Head Start is $10,984; funding for Early Head Start ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) slots is $15,562. Head Start employs 400 and brings $20 million in federal dollars to Columbus' economy. And that's why it will always get funding; not because it helps children prepare to read and do math in school, but because it "helps" our economy. (figures from 2011 annual report)

Premium rate shock for 2014

Thank you, all Obama supporters for making our health care even more costly than before he took office.

"As conservatives predicted, Obama, Pelosi and Reid all lied about Obamacare as they rammed it through Congress, sight unseen. Rates are going to skyrocket. Employers will drop coverage. Physicians will stop accepting Medicare patients. Insurance carriers will go bankrupt. Care, when you can find it, will be rationed. And the system is going to melt down, with the poor and seniors suffering most.
Obama lied — and people will die. Obamacare is an Angel of Death hovering over the very fabric of this society."

http://www.mrconservative.com/2013/03/5861-ceo-prepare-for-obama-rate-hike/

Jerome McCorry

Interesting.  The same man who led an anti-gun protest at a  gun show and sale in Dayton recently, is a convicted rapist (who has served his time, I hope) on a watch list; he also led a "hoodie" demonstration in Dayton about 6 months ago to protest the killing of Trayvon Martin.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/gun-control-opponents-supporters-express-their-vie/nT7qs/

Our peace prize prez

The Drone Debate

VAWA, Violence Against Women Act, Again

The Violence Against Women Act (1994), which probably did nothing to protect women from domestic violence in its former wording, has been expanded in 2013 to include the GLBT demographic, which according to testimony has a much higher rate of domestic violence than the straight community. Violence in the lesbian and bi-sexual groups was stated as higher than for heterosexual women and men, or gay men.

The CDC report found that 29.4 percent of lesbians and 49.3 percent of bisexual women reported experiencing some form of severe physical violence in their lifetimes, compared with 23.6 percent of heterosexual women.

I glanced through several web sites to see about the funding (aka “follow the money”) and found 18 grants in Wikipedia, and 21 on the DoJ page, connected to the current VAWA.  That’s full employment for a number of activists in a variety of fields—social workers, grant writers, lawyers, workshop planners, college professors, etc.  This list is from Wikipedia, so may not be complete.  I’ll keep looking.  Like Head Start which did nothing in over 40 years for children (who grew up to become adults), it is a jobs program.

• STOP Grants (State Formula Grants)
• Transitional Housing Grants
• Grants to Encourage Arrest and Enforce Protection Orders
• Court Training and Improvement Grants
• Research on Violence Against Indian Women
• National Tribal Sex Offender Registry
• Stalker Reduction Database
• Federal Victim Assistants
• Sexual Assault Services Program
• Services for Rural Victims
• Civil Legal Assistance for Victims
• Elder Abuse Grant Program
• Protections and Services for Disabled Victims
• Combating Abuse in Public Housing
• National Resource Center on Workplace Responses
• Violence on College Campuses Grants
• Safe Havens Project
• Engaging Men and Youth in Prevention

This is the grants/program information from the Department of Justice. http://www.ovw.usdoj.gov/docs/ovw-grant-program-factsheet.pdf

The DoJ reports on 21 different grants doled out to the states.  Ohio received over $8 million in 13 grants. Lots of grants for native American groups in the western states. $400,225,051 for over 750 grants to all states. Just can't find any comprehensive report.  We know violence is down in all areas in the last 20 years—usually attributed to better law enforcement and an aging population.  If it were VAWA, wouldn’t they take credit?

http://www.ovw.usdoj.gov/grant2012.htm#oh

I thought I’d found one “results” report that might show a project had made a difference—the Safe Haven Demonstration project in Chicago (report was 2005 and 2008), but I was wrong.  Mainly, it was urging whites in a supervisory role to be more sensitive to cultural differences (2005) and noting how many families had been served with the additional money from VAWA since the program had been in place before 2002. 

http://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/fss/supp_info/DV/SafeHavenSiteExperienceFullReport.pdf

Rand Paul objecting to the President going after yet another one of our Rights, #5

“be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”

"I cannot sit at my desk quietly and let the president say that he will kill Americans on American soil who are not actively attacking a country."

Paul has been asking for weeks—and Holder has answered, “Yes, we can.”

He is filibustering the nomination of Brennan

 

.

Obama’s programs haven’t helped minorities and women—even Democrats say that

"Sequestration will impact everyone, but it will have a particularly harmful effect on communities of color who were hit first and worst by the great recession, and have yet to significantly feel the effects of the recovery. Federal budget cuts under sequestration would quickly mean cuts to federal, state and local public-sector jobs, which disproportionately employ women and African-Americans." --Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA)

TSA gets $50 million in new uniforms

I hope the rumor that they were in part made in Mexico was an ugly rumor from the GOP.

Why the rush to arm government agencies?

According to one estimate, since last year the Department of Homeland Security has stockpiled more than 1.6 billion bullets, mainly .40 caliber and 9mm.

DHS also purchased 2,700 Mine Resistant Armor Protected Vehicles (MRAP).