Eating pumpkin ice cream reading obesity research

After a lunch of lightly grilled, prepackaged organic vegetables (broccoli, carrots, red cabbage), I had a dish of pumpkin ice cream with some peanut butter on top. While eating the dessert I was reading "Transforming Research Strategies for Understanding and Preventing Obesity" by Huang and Glass in JAMA, Oct 15, p. 1881. Before I go into detail, let me ask you a few questions, and please don't argue or go off topic, just answer about you and you only; no one else:

• Has the federal government made you fat?
  
• Has your state or local government made you fat?
  
• Did your educational institutions--high school, college, grad school--make you fat?
  
• Has your income, whether high or low, made you fat?
  
• Has your peer group made you fat?
  
• Did your mother's diet before you were born make you fat?
  
• Has the location of your super market or grocery store made you fat?
  
• Has the lack of fresh fruits and vegetables where you shop made you fat?
  
• Has the lack of a farmer's market in your neighborhood made you fat?
  
• Has lack of exercise opportunities made you fat?
  
• Has the zoning where you live made you fat?
  
• Did the farm, town or city where your great, great grandparents lived and worked make you fat?
  
• Have USDA policies affecting land use made you fat?
  
• Has building design of your home or work place made you fat?
  
• Has the elevator in your building or the parking lot for your car made you fat?
  
• Has food labeling or lack of it on restaurant menus made you fat?

I've been up the scale and down the scale, and no one but me can determine whether I'll be obese or not. But there's a whole bunch of government money out there just waiting to call me a liar.

Using the tobacco taxes as an example of how top down punishment by the federal government can stem the obesity tide of the predicted $860 billion in health care costs, the writers of this article (both NIH employees), are pointing the way for Uncle Sam to join you at the dinner table, the restaurant, the grocery store, the snack bar and the tailgate party before the OSU football game. And he won't be a fun or an invited guest.

Clearly, education about personal responsibility for health and weight has failed, the authors report. We have evolved, but not enough. Our bodies are not equipped for an obesogenic environment. After working their way through maternal feeding patterns, lack of P.E. in schools, public snack machines and sedentary behavior, the authors pounce on the real problem. You'll be glad to find out it's not your genes, your taste buds, your cravings, or your lack of will power. It's the government--all levels from cradle to grave, from bike path to freeway, from safety to quantity.

At the governmental level, policies regarding food, agriculture, education, transportation, urban design, marketing, and trade all play a role in increasing the accessibility and availability of high-fat and high-sugar foods vs fresh fruits and vegetables and in decreasing opportunities for physical activity. The lack of access to preventive care is also a major concern. Historical U.S. policies that led to social inequality and segregation have, in turn, resulted in inequalities in the built environment, leading to disproportionate rates of obesity among the poor and minorities.

"Trust me, I'm from the government." These are the same guys from the government who don't require country of origin on your canned goods, and have no way to check the quality or adulteration of foodstuffs imported from Mexico and China, the most recent culprits that sent people to the hospital. But we're supposed to hand them billions in government grants for "cross-disciplinary hypotheses to research on upstream (trendy word = bad capitalists) policy interventions and their downstream effects on food and physical activity behaviors, investment in capacity building and rigorous training of a new generation of multilevel scientists, and global perspective on obesity research." What does cross disiplinary look like?

medical geography
epigenetics
psychoneuroendocrinology
advanced neuroimaging tools
socioenvironmental factors
spatial data
expression of genes
population patterns
food marketing
taxes on unhealthy food
public transportation
crime free neighborhoods
behavorial economics

and of course
the United Nations World Health Organization

Please note you free market and capitalist morons, your government knows best: "Neoclassical economic theory promised that allowing individuals to pursue their individual passions and desires with a minimum of constraint would lead to aggregate prosperity. However, this theory may be flawed in the case of food and activity preferences. If humans have built-in biological propensities at odds with their environment, top-down approaches may be needed to achieve population obesity prevention goals."

And here comes Obama rama dom dom.

Reformation Sunday

We both forgot to wear red; looking around the 8:15 service I see many others did too. In the Cornerstone this week Pastor Eric Waters writes

"Because we were the first of the Protestant churches, many of our fellow Protestants look on us with suspicion as being "too Catholic." They point to our practice of infant baptism, belief that the bread and wine of Communion really is the Body and Blood of Jesus, and the recitation of the Creed as proof that we're still stuck in the superstition of the Middle Ages. On the other hand, the Roman Catholic church looks on our longer sermons, various liturgies, and disagreement with the Pope as proof that we went too far. In short, most of our fellow Christians look on us as neither fish nor fowl: too Catholic for some, too Protestant for others."

My husband was baptized as an infant (Presbyterian), and I was about 12 (Church of the Brethren). If you ever want to see a Lutheran pastor go pale in your adult confirmation/transfer class, just ask to be re baptized. On the other hand, there are Protestant churches that would want to do mine over, because they wouldn't trust the minister or denomination who presided at mine. Lutherans and Catholics see infant baptism as done by God, not by man, so Lutheran pastors don't do that. I think Luther himself gave a good explanation, because he really had more problems with the reformers (in my opinion) who came after him (he called them dolts and blockheads) than the Catholics and Humanists. To the argument that you don't remember your baptism, he replies

Were I to reject everything which I have not seen or heard, I would indeed not have much left, either of faith or love, either of spiritual or of temporal things

He asks the anabaptists. . . How do you know who your parents are. . .you don't remember your birth, so why should you honor your parents? Why should you obey the government if you haven't seen the leader. How do you know the apostles preached. If you can't believe anything you haven't seen, felt or experienced, says Luther, you're in the devil's pocket.

To the argument that you need to believe before baptism, Luther really works up steam

For if they follow this principle they cannot venture to baptize before they are certain that the one to be baptized believes. How and when can they ever know that for certain? Have they now become gods so that they can discern the hearts of men and know whether or not they believe? . . . You say that he confesses that he believes. Dear sir, confession is neither here nor there. The text does not say, "He who confesses," but "He who believes."

And how many times would you be rebaptized asks Luther. Each time you have a fresh sense of your faith, or after each doubt is put down.

So when next day the devil comes, his heart is filled with scruples and he says, Ah, now for the first time I feel I have the right faith, yesterday I don't think I truly believed. So I need to be baptized a third time, the second baptism not being of any avail. You think the devil can't do such things? You had better get to know him better. He can do worse than that, dear friend. He can go on and cast doubt on the third, and the fourth and so on incessantly. . . the end result? Baptizing without end. All this is nonsense. Neither the baptizer nor the baptized can base baptism on a certain faith. . .

Since our baptizing has been thus from the beginning of Christianity and the custom as been to baptize children, and since no one can prove with good reasons that they do not have faith, we should not make changes and build on such weak arguments. . .

When they say, "Children cannot believe," how can they be sure of that? Where is the Scripture by which they would prove it and on which would they build? They imagine this, I suppose, because children do not speak or have understanding. [goes on to tell the story of John and Jesus in their mothers wombs as an example that children can know and understand and believe]. . .What if all children in baptism not only were able to believe but believed as well as John in his mother's womb?

He gives another example from a betrothal and wedding where a girl marries reluctantly and without love then after 2 years, she loves her husband.

Would then a second engagement be required, a second wedding be celebrated as if she had not previously been a wife, so that the earlier betrothal and wedding were in vain?. . .

Rebaptism is relying on works, says Luther. God's Word is unchanging even if the person doing the baptism does not have faith.

The unchanging Word of God, once spoken in the first baptism, ever remains standing, so that afterwards they can come to faith in it, if they will, and the water with which they were baptized they can afterwards receive in faith, if they will. Even if they contradict the Word a hundred times, it still remains the Word spoken in the first baptism. Its power does not derive from the fact that it is repeated many times or is spoken anew, but from the fact that it was commanded once to be spoken.

You can read Martin Luther's Basic Theological Writings ed. by Timothy Lull on-line.

Worth repeating

Someone came to my blog today looking for an Oreo Cowkies photo (belted Galloways) and ended up at "Where I part company with Conservatives" essay. They must have been archived on the same page. I reread it and decided it was worth posting again with a few additions.

Politics

• I'm against the death penalty. Don't let the evil scumbags turn you into a killer.
  
• I believe marijuana can be a controlled substance for medical treatment, just like other mind altering legal drugs.
  
• I believe drug sentencing is too punitive and counter-productive--at least in Ohio. 60% of our prison population is drug related (I've heard, haven't researched it). Prisons are schools for crime, and we should stop sending so many novices there, because they will graduate and return to us.
  
• I think Creationists need to stay clear of the public schools. We haven't even convinced our own folks, so why go after non-believers? No one ever got to heaven because of believing in creation, nor was sent to hell because of evolution. Plus, you're not being truthful about your motives and that hurts your witness for Jesus.
  
• Schools need to allow students the freedom to be Creationists or write or speak on the topic without fear of punishment or grade reduction.
  
• I don't believe in the current political race for the brass ring called global warming, but I also believe that many conservatives don't take the precautions and care they should with the environment. Clean air and clean water is good for our health and for capitalism.

Religion

• I'm not a dispensationalist Christian. Not that all conservatives are, but many that are cherry pick their way through the Bible finding end-times principles to apply to politics that aren't there.
  
• Most Biblical admonitions about sexual behavior and morality are addressed to men lusting after women, not to gay men. Pay attention to your own plank before looking for the splinter.
  
• The Biblical record is clear that Jesus intended women to have an equal role in the church.
  
• I'm fine with infant baptism and don't believe in rebaptizing, although I appreciate my anabaptist heritage. Watching an infant baptism is a wonderful reminder of our need to rely totally on God.
  
• If you've got a well written liturgy, faithfully followed, it makes up for poor sermons and unsingable hymns.
  
• Conservative Christians need to pay attention to Matthew 25. Peace and justice Christians need to realize they won't find government grants and taxes there to fund their favorite programs (and salaries). It is very clear to all who you are meeting when you feed the hungry and visit the sick.

Others

• I don't believe pets are "just like family," but once you take one into your home, you have obligations and responsibilities for training, veterinary care, love and affection.
  
• I believe homeschooling is good and educationally sound, especially for the parents who will have more actual learning and support than if the children attended public or private schools, but it isn't always better for the children. There's nothing wrong with doing it for mom or dad if they become better parents.
  
• Our children come into this world as unique beings, with everything in place to be successful and happy. If they don't get there, it may not be your fault, and it definitely is not the government's. Take the blame where you deserve it, and dump the guilt if you don't.
  
• I believe that Eat less, move more is the best health plan, and that probably isn't in the Bible or hawked on your favorite talk show.
  
• I know from experience that all bubbles burst, whether it's love, finances, dreams, careers, or political candidates.

Working for the candidates

Yesterday I volunteered at a printing facility for the McCain-Palin ticket. I met some interesting people and got a little taste of how "boots on the ground" works during campaigns. You can have tons of money for the TV ads, billboards and appearances on Letterman and SNL, but if you don't have the loyal, organized volunteers, you probably won't get elected--at any level.

Until the carpetbaggers came to Ohio (about a dozen Obama staffers have now cancelled their registration and ballots--they must have cut a deal to avoid felony charges), I thought the involvement of some of my Democrat friends 24/7 was admirable, even though I disagreed with their politics. It takes a lot of gumption, guts and glorification to pick up and move to another state even for a week or two. I don't see it that way anymore.

Not that my friends of 50 years would register and vote multiple times or encourage anyone else to, but they've helped with the plan--whether setting up the headquarters, filling in for the locals, making the coffee or hosting an event. The 20-30 year olds they admire so much do not have our grounding in ethics and morality. They are of the ends justifies the means crowd. They're schooled in Obamanomics. As Michelle said this week in Bexley, "Barack gets it" (and I think she means your money).

Seeing the vans pull up to voter sites (during golden week in Ohio you could register and vote the same day and our Secretary of State and Courts have said it is legal even though she can't verify them) and disgorge the homeless from God knows where with ACORN drivers and counselors telling them how to vote makes me see political volunteering outside your own city and state in a whole new light.

The houseful of 13 out of towners who came here were taking time out of their busy schedules in Europe and elite Ivy League schools as honor scholars with wealthy parents to fund their fun to tell us poor schmucks how we should vote. Good riddance, and I hope they can't find another sandbox to litter and just go back to studying peace, justice and marxism until they grow up.

The International Herald Tribune regrets

Not that I expected it to print my comments--I never give out all that detail (phone, address, eye color, handedness, all identity stuff) that you need, and still your comments will never appear--your identify just goes into a database. I just wanted to let them know that the comments of Joe Biden My Time promising Barack's election would cause an international crisis appeared in their paper a few days before our local journalists thought to mention it. At another international on-line news service (Pakistan) I think I noticed the phrase "Islamic terrorists", whereas the USAToday had called them "insurgents" when they burned down a building storing cooking oil intended for families with daughters enrolled in school.

At the bottom of the Tribune's nice "thanks but no thanks" response I saw this warning.

-
In order to preserve the environment, please do not print this message unless it is necessary.

This e-mail message, including any attachments, is destined solely for the recipients detailed above and may not therefore be divulged or communicated to any other persons. Any modification, publication, use or dissemination is prohibited if not authorized by the International Herald Tribune.

So you are seeing an unauthorized response to my e-mail complimenting them on their coverage of a very alarming incident that happened twice in one day in the U.S. on the Biden by-hook-or-by-crook march to the White House.

A voting record Left of Everybody

New York Times Endorses Obama for President

Oct. 24, a Reuters headline. Now that's a big surprise, right?

"S&P Lowers NYT Rating to 'Junk'" also a headline on October 24, Crain's New York Business.

The company reported a 51.4% decline in third-quarter profit but still beat Wall Street estimates as the newspaper industry continues to suffer from advertising reductions accelerated by a worsening economy.

For years the New York Times
has published only its opines
of how much America declines
while George Bush it always slimes.

Read it daily if you will
I can't take the snooty swill.
A 50+ decline but still
Team Obama is their drill.

The National Run Around

We can expect FDR type programs from BHO, for in your face, God Almighty inspired government regulations, and jack boots on the necks of non-compliant plumbers. But with better looking graphics and logos, given that his campaign man is a media guru. The National Recovery Association was called the National Run Around because of the hundreds of codes that impeded business, and the WPA, Works Progress Administration, was called the We Piddle Around.



"The economic impact of the NRA was immediate and powerful. In the five months leading up to the act’s passage, signs of recovery were evident: factory employment and payrolls had increased by 23 and 35 percent, respectively. Then came the NRA, shortening hours of work, raising wages arbitrarily, and imposing other new costs on enterprise. In the six months after the law took effect, industrial production dropped 25 percent. Benjamin M. Anderson writes, "NRA was not a revival measure. It was an antirevival measure . . . . Through the whole of the NRA period industrial production did not rise as high as it had been in July 1933, before NRA came in.

To run NRA, FDR chose "General Hugh "Iron Pants" Johnson, a profane, red-faced bully and professed admirer of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Thundered Johnson, "May Almighty God have mercy on anyone who attempts to interfere with the Blue Eagle" (the official symbol of the NRA, which one senator derisively referred to as the "Soviet duck"). Those who refused to comply with the NRA Johnson personally threatened with public boycotts and "a punch in the nose."

Roosevelt next signed into law steep income tax increases on the higher brackets and introduced a five-percent withholding tax on corporate dividends. He secured another tax increase in 1934. In fact, tax hikes became a favorite policy of Roosevelt for the next ten years, culminating in a top income tax rate of 90 percent.
Read Reed.

Calling Team Obama

While they were out investigating Joe the Plumber's taxes, look what was going on in New York with a Kennedy man.

Gov. David Paterson's embattled top aide resigned Friday, after a week of escalating criticism over his failure to pay $300,000 in taxes on time and a questionable excuse for the lapse.

Mr. O'Byrne, who has ties to the Kennedy family, has said clinical depression kept him from paying taxes between 2001 and 2005, before he took the job as secretary to the governor. He's a former Jesuit priest who officiated at the wedding of John F. Kennedy Jr. and counseled the Kennedy family three years later after he died in a plane crash. He was the top aide to Mr. Paterson. He was responsible for mapping out policy and politics as Mr. Paterson rose from the near powerless Democratic minority in the Senate to lieutenant governor and then governor after Democrat Eliot Spitzer resigned in March amid a prostitution scandal. Crains

Dear President Gee

You probably don't remember me, but we met during your first round as OSU's president when I went to a public meeting to "meet the new guy on campus" and boldly asked what you intended to do about the leaky roof over my library which was putting our books and computers at risk. Ah, the good old days, when one could ask questions face to face. That building's gone now, replaced by the one I helped plan, and you are back at Ohio State.

I'm writing to tell you I met one of your wonderful students today. Not only am I impressed with the quality of our young people, but I feel safer too--he's in the National Guard. We had a delightful time volunteering together on a political campaign project for McCain-Palin.

However, as Glenn Beck would say, I need to wrap duct tape around my head to keep it from exploding over what I learned about the abusive behavior of your faculty at Ohio State. It was shocking and alarming, and as a tax payer, I recommend an investigation. I was aware of the brainwashing going on in the 80s and 90s, but I don't think it was anything like today. I think OSU's faculty of 20 years ago had more integrity, and weren't so monolithic in their views and politics.

He told me that he has seen every one of Michael Moore's movies in his college classes! It was required. One was a biology course, one was a political science course, and I've forgotten the other two. For one class final in a Latin American history course the only question was to write an essay on the seven best things Fidel Castro had done for Cuba. In another course where the students needed to write a persuasive paper, he chose "Why the U.S. needs to drill in ANWR." His instructor, an honest but not particularly ethical woman, told him at the outset he'd need to choose another topic. She'd have to flunk him because he'd never be able to persuade her, no matter how good his argument or bibliography, she said. He says the ridiculing and trashing of the Bush administration has been relentless in all his classes.

He also told me he doesn't know why we hear so much about unemployment--he has three jobs! After volunteering, he was going to go play golf with his dad, retired military, who was in town visiting.

Dr. Gee. Tell me. What is going on at Ohio State? Whatever happened to a liberal education where students were taught and encouraged to think on their own? Why are you asking for money for buildings and landscaping if all you're producing there is a graveyard for young minds?

The sale of National City

National City Corp., Ohio's biggest bank, acquired Buckeye Federal Savings and Loan of Columbus in 1991 which had a small branch in the Tremont Shopping Center close to our home. This week it agreed to be bought by PNC Financial Services Group for more than $5 billion. I had opened a savings account at Buckeye Federal because it was convenient (within walking distance). When depositors were allowed to buy stock, I did--maybe 10 shares. I think until it was bought by National City, I used my dividends to buy more stock. This was my first adventure into investing, and I know exactly where the money came from and the sad, sad story of where it has gone (subprime mortgages). My last dividend check was thirty-two cents, less than the stamp to mail it.

When my grandmother's estate was finally settled (it took years--apparently the fine state of Illinois thought my grandmother had given her three children her farms in Iowa and Illinois as a death-tax dodge). My mother, a very mild mannered woman with a wry sense of humor, said this was clearly ridiculous, noting that Grandmother a somewhat stubborn and strong willed woman had no intention of dying--ever. Grandma died in 1963 at 87, and I don't recall exactly when everything was settled, but it went on a long time. Sometime in the early to mid-1970s my mother gave me $5,000 from Grandma's estate. This was more money than I'd ever seen, so I took it to the Buckeye Federal branch, and in turn, opened college accounts for my two young children using their SS# (don't ever do that), and put the balance in my account.

I wanted to be very careful with this money because I knew the story of its journey. My grandmother's father was born in 1828 in Adams County, Pennsylvania. He was a hard worker, ambitious, and when news of the Gold Rush in California got to southeastern Pennsylvania, it looked like a lot more fun and money than driving a team to Baltimore and back for his father. So he and a friend were on their way. We have no record of what happened, but we assume the friend died during the trip, and Grandfather David settled in Rockford, Illinois where he worked as a carpenter making furniture and household things. He saved his money, and eventually bought acreage in Lee County very cheap because it was marsh land that needed to be tiled. He returned to Pennsylvania, found a bride, and they set up house near Ashton, Illinois.

Wedding photos, 1855
Fast forward through the Civil War, coming of the railroad and boom and bust years of the 19th century. When he died in 1912 his estate was worth about $250,000, which was a lot of money in those days--probably millions in today's dollars. My grandmother was the youngest of four, with a college education, husband and 2 young sons. The other three siblings had all died rather tragically as adults--Willy, diphtheria, Martha, child birth and Ira, blood poisoning. So she inherited a third of his estate along with her nieces and nephews, children of her deceased siblings. She and grandpa, who didn't like farming and wanted to be a business man, settled down on the farm--although neither were suited or prepared for this life. Fast forward through the ups and downs of WWI, the Great Depression, WWII, and old age, with grandma doing all she could to hang on to the land.

So that's how the money came down to me to deposit in Buckeye Federal, which was absorbed into National City (I'm guessing because of the S&L scandal of the 80s, but haven't really documented that), which this week met its own end. National City was most likely brought down by bad investments in subprime mortgages.

And it all started about 160 years ago with a young man heading for California on an adventure.

-----------

Note: As I re-read this a month later, I see I used both "City National" and "National City", probably because when you leave a saved post in blogger to go out to the internet, it sometimes returns you to a previous unsaved post, and thus, you think a correction you made is there, and it isn't, you then resave, losing the first save. Get it? Well, since these mistakes never get erased, if you got here or didn't get here because of a mistake, I apologize. I really did try to correct them early on.

The health care gap and the poor

My years in a medical library have left me with a bias and love for medical literature. I'm pretty much down to reading JAMA regularly (love the poetry, essays, editorials and book reviews), but I also visit a lot of web pages and have bcome dependent on googling the terms that confuse me (many). I have a growing concern alarm about the amount of money circulating to support research on research (i.e. the value and distribution of information) and/or research on social/political issues or conditions. When you look at the huge dollar amounts from NIH, corporations, pharmaceuticals or foundations or even various philanthropic runs or walks for the disease of the week, you see that so much of it never finds its way into the lab or the clinic. It never touches the virus, bug or neoplasm. It gets sifted and sorted and distributed to various versions of the medical community organizer--ACORN in a lab coat--for lack of a better term.

For example, let's just look at this simple phrase in a review of Metabolic syndrome and psychiatic illness by Scott D. Mendelson (2008) which appeared in JAMA, Oct. 15, p. 1824.

Patients with chronic mental illnesses may not have access to regular medical care and may lead unhealthy lifestyles, and their physical conditions are often not diagnosed or treated in a timely fashion.

I can guarantee you there will be millions and millions of grant dollars heading out the door to chase "access" and "timely fashion," and not enough toward diagnosis and treatment. Further, there will be more millions wasted on "unhealthy lifestyles," primarily in the form of education, information, and hand wringing with endless lectures by the nearest relative--especially the mother! At the risk of sounding like a cold hearted wingnut as some of my readers call me (not realizing I'm a reformed humanist), I call that "peace and justice medicine." Science isn't advanced, people aren't healed, but liberals get a warm glow, a sense of doing something and a good salary.

Before you buy into peace and justice medicine, just look around at your own family or friends. Especially someone with very serious health concerns. You probably won't find lack of access or timely treatment (unless you're on a government plan, but that's another topic). You'll see that person's genes and jeans. What they inherited from the generations who came before them, and what they are doing with it now: eating too much, exercising too little, driving too fast, chasing too many rainbows, drinking too much, smoking or chewing tobacco, sleeping around, shooting up or sniffing, and hanging out with bad people. That about covers it.

There may be an insurance gap, gender gap or access gap for the mentally ill, but that isn't what made them ill. There may be some people who need cholesterol or high blood pressure medicine and don't get it because they bought groceries instead, but that's not what caused their high cholesterol. There may be men going to bath houses who don't know there is a drug out there for the disease they are about to plant inside the anus or mouth of another man, but it isn't ignorance or poverty that is causing their behavior.

More later. Time for the coffee shop and reading more book reviews in this excellent issue. I'm going to write P. Murali Doraiswamy, MD and tell him/her that was really an excellent review.

You've read or seen "I am Joe"

Don't miss "I am Bill" for equal time, to be fair to the other side, to spread the wealth and fun around.

In his 2001 screed, Fugitive Days, Ayers recounts his life as a Sixties radical, his tenure as a Weatherman lieutenant, his terrorist campaign across America, and his enduring hatred for the United States. "What a country," Ayers said in 2001. "It makes me want to puke." Discover the networks

How the New Deal hurt the poor

Poor people were principal victims of the New Deal. The evidence has been developed by dozens of economists. . .

"New Deal programs were financed by tripling federal taxes from $1.6 billion in 1933 to $5.3 billion in 1940. Excise taxes, personal income taxes, inheritance taxes, corporate income taxes, holding company taxes and so-called "excess profits" taxes all went up. . ." excise taxes on alcohol, chewing gum, candy, playing cards, movie tickets--hitting mostly the poor and middle class.

"New Deal taxes were major job destroyers during the 1930s, prolonging unemployment that averaged 17%. Higher business taxes meant that employers had less money for growth and jobs. Social Security excise taxes on payrolls made it more expensive for employers to hire people, which discouraged hiring."

Other New Deal programs destroyed jobs, too. For example, the National Industrial Recovery Act (1933) cut back production and forced wages above market levels, making it more expensive for employers to hire people - blacks alone were estimated to have lost some 500,000 jobs because of the National Industrial Recovery Act. . . "

"For defenders of the New Deal, perhaps the most embarrassing revelation about New Deal spending programs is they channeled money AWAY from the South, the poorest region in the United States. The largest share of New Deal spending and loan programs went to political "swing" states in the West and East - where incomes were at least 60% higher than in the South. As an incumbent, FDR didn't see any point giving much money to the South where voters were already overwhelmingly on his side.

For the whole article.

Interesting thought. FDR channeling money away from the people supporting him to influence votes in another region.

Campaign volunteer story a hoax

Young female McCain volunteer who claimed she'd been attacked at an ATM has admitted she lied. Needed some attention, I guess. But this one isn't a hoax. At a place of business in Columbus, employees caught removing McCain bumper stickers from customers' or other employees' automobiles have been warned they will be fired. Nor is this one. There are yards in Upper Arlington with both Obama-Biden signs and McCain-Palin signs. Should make for some interesting dinner table conversation. . . or sleeping arrangements. We've wondered if the folks who live in these half-million dollar homes sprouting Obama signs can't get their calculators to work, or if they are just patriotic, as Joe Biden My Time claims.

I saw the cutest Obama logo/badge at another location that had been photoshopped with CNN on it. I won't show it because Obama's puppeteer is a media guru and it's probably copyright. But you can probably google it.

If your property for public benefit, why not your investments?

"Eminent domain is the power governments have to confiscate, or take, private property as long as it is for a legitimate “public use” and property owners receive “just compensation.” Whereas eminent domain was initially intended to ensure that public services, such as roads and highways, were available to the public, local and state governments often use eminent domain for any project that is considered economically beneficial. Public use, as a practical matter, has morphed into a more ambiguous “public benefit.”

An estimated 10,000 cases between 1998 and 2002 involved projects where private parties benefit substantially from government seizures of property under the banner of economic development or urban redevelopment." Eminent domain, private property and redevelopment

Yes, those of us who invested in 401-ks, IRAs, Roths and other vehicles (with or without our employers) got a tax break--and we fueled the powerful economy we've enjoyed the last 25 years. We, the investors, aren't the ones who brought it all down. Hands off, Congress. Hands off, Barney and Barack. You've done enough damage.

Finally someone bold enough to use the S word. No wonder Obama's hiding in Hawaii. I imagine he went there to cover for his Kenyan birth certificate and now has just decided he'd better lie low, or, just lie.

This comment at the USNews blog was good: "I'm encouraged that Obama will make our senior citizens earn their paychecks. Michelle spoke at length that people will be made to work and there will be no shortages of volunteering opportunities. Let's clean up our streets, get seniors out raking leaves, picking up trash, cleaning up dog droppings in our parks, mowing city property, mentoring children in the schools and serving other useful functions. Every government dollar provided should be met with enthusiastic joy and reciprocity by the receiving citizen. An idle citizen is an unappreciated citizen."

How the government takes care of retirees

1) Don't reform Social Security.

2) Destroy the value of your 401-k and 403-b and any other investments you have through a subprime mortgage meltdown they could have stopped (or never started). Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and Barack Obama made sure no one would stop their pet projects and kick-backs from the GSEs.

3) Steal the value of the 401-k that's left.

Powerful House Democrats are eyeing proposals to overhaul the nation’s $3 trillion 401(k) system, including the elimination of most of the $80 billion in annual tax breaks that 401(k) investors receive. Workforce

Share the wealth, folks. Share the pain. You're next.

Dear Samuel Swann

I'm a big fan of free-circ serials and newspapers, and today I saw CityNewsUSA (serving Cleveland, Akron and Columbus) for the first time. I'm a retired librarian, and at one time I'd planned to write an article about the role of free-circs in the information food chain, lamenting that they aren't indexed (at least they weren't in 1999). They are an excellent source of news, advertising, and a good market for writers, but without being indexed, they are a hard to find segment. I gave up that project before I retired in 2000. By then I had collected about 40 that served our metropolitan area--pets, recreation, sports, leisure, politics, religion, fashion, home decor, cooking, parenting, book reviews, etc. Perhaps the internet advertising has solved the print indexing problem.

I was very impressed by your article "Making the Grade; gaps still exist between urban and suburban grad rates," on p. 8 of the Oct-23-29, Columbus edition. I just blogged on that topic two days ago, referencing a Columbus school teacher, the Wall Street Journal, and a current book review. Columbus and Cleveland were in the bottom five of 50 major cities. The WSJ article used the study you cited commissioned by America's Promise Alliance.

I am a big booster of marriage and parental involvement as the #1 best reducer of poverty and poor academic performance by children, and was glad to see that you included it as

The biggest reason we have so many drop outs in Cleveland is lack of parental involvement and the failure of the middle schools to continue the grammar school educational process."

I know your paper is a heavy supporter of Obama-Biden, however, I don't see this as a resource or funding problem as you also suggested. The Ohio parent who sued a few years ago was in a district that had much higher graduation rates with lower per-pupil state funding. For instance, Obama wants universal day care beginning in infancy, when we're already spending $11 billion on child care for at risk children, and it hasn't made any difference. How can children of poor single mothers compete with children from in tact homes with biological, married parents? (I'm speaking statistically--this is not to say individual single parents can't or won't do a good job.)

Keep up the good work of reminding parents that children need their involvement to succeed--and I would add a reminder that Uncle Sam is a poor step-father.

More wrong headlines

Greenspan admits errors
Now maybe the Democrats can take the stand and admit their errors? Don't hold your breath. The most breathtaking statement in this article by Kara Scannel in WSJ (Kara, don't you realize your job too is going down the tubes?)

"Greenspan dodged and weaved."

The finest weavers in the country first tied us in knots and now sit unraveling our economy in Congress. Barney Frank. Chris Dodd. Barack Obama. John Kerry. Ted Kennedy. The fraternity of fixers.

Forecasting, Kara, is not the problem. There clearly was time 18 months ago to stop this blood bath. Many Republicans tried to save the sinking ship, including John McCain and George Bush, and they were blocked by accusations of racism and defeating the dreams of the poor. And you guys who write that puerile, journalism school 101 nonsense as the "news" for WSJ, NYT, WaPo and USAToday just went along, and along and along. You never dug deep, never ask questions, but if the truth did peep through, you buried it somewhere beyond paragraph 15.

For edification, Kara, please read, "Would the last honest reporter please turn out the lights"

If there were no Fox News, I might be 2 or 3 points higher in the polls

Barack Obama told liberal journalist Matt Bai. Every major news source grovels before this man reporting or distorting every thought, word, and move. If there's one that doesn't, he whines about that alternative, the one that provided him with a long interview on O'Reilly, putting him at length in front of an audience who might otherwise tune him out because of the mainstream bias. The broadcast and cable media which has provided us with a steady frame-up of Republican Sarah Palin on ABC, NBC and CNN. This man's fragile ego is amazing! Palin has smiled through all the muck and yuk, and he's a cry baby. He and Team Obama cry "racist" at the most non-racial terms, like "that one," and "socialist." Which backbone is made of steel, is more prepared for the crisis Joe Biden is threatening?

It's hard to pin him down on legislation, however, he does write letters, and it's excruciatingly clear in this one to the FCC about a year ago (Oct. 22, 2007) about how he plans to further restrict our freedoms. Note certain themes, then remember "community organizer" and "ACORN," the oak tree harvest of Saul Alinsky. In your face, swamp the opposition, storm the meetings, community input. Words matter. History matters.

U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today sent the following letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin J. Martin, calling on him to launch an independent review panel to develop proposals to further promote media ownership diversity. According to press accounts, following an insufficient 30-day review, the FCC intends to modify existing ownership rules by allowing greater media market consolidation. This would allow large media outlets to become larger, potentially cutting out small business, women and minority-owned firms. Minority owned and operated newspapers and radio stations play an important role in the African American and Latino communities and help bring minority issues to the forefront of our national dialogue.

However, the Commission has failed to recognize the vital role these outlets play in our democracy and has not done enough to further the goals of diversity in the media. In the letter, Obama also asks for the FCC to reconsider the Chairman’s proposed consolidation timeline and start a public review of any specific proposed rule modifications. He also asks Martin to complete a study of the responsibilities that broadcasters have to the communities in which they operate.

Obama and Senator John Kerry have previously written to Kevin Martin asking him to address the issue of minority media ownership, and the impact that new rules would have on opportunities for minority, small business, and women owned firms. http://obama.senate.gov/press/071022-obama_fcc_polic/

In case you don't understand how "community" and "diversity" is used these days by special interest groups, let's look at an example in my quiet, suburban community, Upper Arlington, Ohio when parents went to the library board to ask that explicit, how-to gay publications (bundles of free-circ, boiler-plate newspapers) be removed from the library lobby. Not removed from the collection, but removed from the lobby. Representatives of the gay community packed the meeting, objected (they didn't even live in UA) on the basis of state funding of public libraries. The result? The publications were removed from the lobby, and brought inside the library and placed on an expensive, specially designed unit, now even more prominent. No library is required to be a launch site for free materials that are primarily supported by advertising--not gay newspapers, not church bulletins, not health insurance plans designed to look like health advice. The parents lost, just as they lost the computer filtering battle, and the x-rated video battle.

The power of special interest groups over the media even without new legislation was perfectly clear when Dr. Laura, the 2nd highest rated talk show, literally disappeared over night in 2001 because she was attacted by powerful pro-gay groups when she advised against gay adoption of infants, believing as a counselor and orthodox Jew that children thrive best in a home with a mother and father. A posse of thirty liberal Christian pastors in Columbus has tried to get Rod Parsley bounced by going after his tax exempt status.

This, my readers, is "community" and "diversity" in the 21st century. Not community standards, but "community input." It isn't your community--it's any group that calls itself a community. Since virtually every organization, non-profit and church ministry now receives government money, this leaves them wide open for pressure groups like ACORN or one of their little squirrelly off-shoots planting seeds.