Charitable giving

We actually have 6 television sets.  And two are not connected to cable, so I see broadcast media whether or not I want to.  Today ABC Good Morning America (kitchen) is featuring companies that donate 1% of profits to charity, and give employees 7 days off to volunteer. Well, fine. That means the consumer is contributing in higher costs because the profits to donate come from us. Plus, most Christians I know are donating 10% or more and they volunteer on their own time. When was the last time ABC or the broadcast media featured tithing Christians or Jews in the corporate world--except when denouncing them for their abortion or contraception policies? (This is not to say the CEO/owners featured were NOT religious--it just wasn't the focus. Apparently virtue and morality appear magically out of nowhere.)

Can waiting room chairs accommodate anyone larger than size 10?

Yesterday I didn't blog, but I was a client at a clinic that is two  years old (the practice is older, and so is the building, but the practice moved down the street and remodeled this building). Modern everything--lots of glass and exotic lighting fixtures--except the seating. Of ca. 30 chairs, only one would accommodate an obese, or even mildly overweight patient or care giver. 29.8% of Ohio is considered obese; 32.6% of Columbus.  http://stateofobesity.org/states/oh/ Ohioans need to eat more fruits and vegetables, but I don't think discouraging them with chair size is the way to do it. Also I noticed that the trendy interior decor made it impossible to read the equally trendy light gray titles and instructions on the glass doors from the hall ways. I started out in the wrong space.  Just getting old and crabby, I guess.

This strikes me as odd because if I walk through a residential furniture store, the couches and chairs are huge.  We can hardly find one that fits our body size; yet office furniture seems stuck in the 1950s size ranges.

Failure bought on the party plan

 

Only Republicans considered Obamacare a failure--and all the people who lost their network and their cardiologist, ophthalmologist, oncologist, rheumatologist, pediatrician, etc. and who were forced to purchase from a carrier that covered abortion because there was only one available. Democrats called it a success because it was so bad they thought with Obama 2.0 (Clinton) they'd dump it and go for single payer. Otherwise they would have just come up with a plan in 2009 that covered people who needed it--something without jail and fines.

It's not over yet.  But Democrats designed this to snake through multiple laws and regulations making it extremely difficult to undo. They were determined that it fail so they could shrug and say only single payer would work.

Shocking Facts from the book, Don't Divorce by Diane Medved

Don’t Divorce: Powerful Arguments for Saving and Revitalizing Your Marriage
By Diane Medved, Ph.D.

Statistics show that 30 percent of first marriages, 69 percent of second marriages and 73 percent of third marriages end in divorce.

Forty percent of marriages in 2013 included a remarrying partner (in 20 percent it was one of the parties, and in 20 percent it was both).

A survey of thirty-one thousand persons on “office sex and romance,” found that 62 percent have admitted to at least one office affair—and 41 percent had sex on the job, with 16 percent using a boss’s office to do so.

According to a study from McGill University, divorced people had a 30 percent higher chance of dying (from all causes) than their married or single counterparts.

A 2015 study from Duke University reveals that once-divorced women had a 24 percent higher risk of heart of attack than the never-divorced. And twice-divorced women had a 77 percent higher risk of heart attack than the continuously married. Men divorced once had the same risk as their married counterparts, but with a second divorce, their risk was 30 percent greater.

The vast majority of divorces (two-thirds) dissolve “low-conflict” marriages, in which children usually don’t even realize there’s a problem. Children from low-conflict homes are actually more at risk of serious problems than even those who escaped high-conflict situations.

Almost two-thirds of children of divorce who stay in contact with both parents say they felt like they grew up in two families, not one.

Addicted to sugar?

I've never thought of myself as addicted to sugar, but I wouldn't want to go cold turkey deprivation, either. Yet I know I have more than the recommended amount for women (6 teaspoons of added sugar a day). One or two sodas a year works for me, and maybe 3 snickerdoodles warm from the cookie sheet if I made them.

"If you have a history of binge eating, failure at setting rules about your consumption (like cheat meals / days) and repeated failures with the “everything in moderation” approach – then perhaps you are addicted (like I was).

The same way that a smoker needs to avoid cigarettes completely, a sugar addict needs to avoid sugar completely.

Complete abstinence is the only reliable way for true addicts to overcome their addiction.

I have personally made the choice to never eat added sugar again. I now haven’t touched it in over 7 months. I’ve lost a lot of weight and I feel awesome. Kris Gunnars"

I have a friend who says she's stopped eating "white." White sugar, white rice, white flour products like pasta and bread, white beans, white potatoes.  She had lost some weight doing this, in 2015, I think.  Don't know if she was able to continue down that road. The No White Foods diet. But more whole grains can't hurt.

Friday family photo, memorabilia and memories

I don't remember the exact date, maybe 1970. My dishes were new then. I thought I had given them away about 40 years ago, but found one piece this week while rearranging the cupboards to fit my new crock pot (which I think will go to basement storage due to space problems). Enjoying white tea and memories with this little sweetie.   

I think the first time I used these dishes was the visit of my sister-in-law Jeanne with her mom and two daughters, Julie and Joanie, and they got lost in Columbus. (Three weeks ago Joan and husband Dan came for an R & R visit with us.) The three hour trip (from Indianapolis) became five hours.  They finally called us and Bob went to get them so they could follow him to our house. We lived on the northwest side on Abington Rd., and there was another Abington on the northeast side.  Julie immediately jumped in our car and said, "I'm riding with Uncle Bob." Then in browsing our photo album of the 1960s and 1970s, I spotted a photo of a festive reception in our dining room with these dishes and the dining set.

The table and chairs are now one of the most expensive items in our home after 50 years of use.  It's been in the dining room (108 E. White, Champaign, Charles St. in Champaign, Abington Rd. in Columbus, and our condo where we live now), the kitchen, the family room and at our daughter's home for awhile. Mid-century modern is very "hot" right now, and this little Paul McCobb set is popular.  So popular in fact, I can't afford to buy two more chairs if I decide to move the set back to the dining  room.

Photo album from the 1960s and earlier

4,000 miles

Today I crossed over to 4,000 miles on my Exercycle. Two years and 82 days. Started small--it was Indianapolis (180 miles) to see my sister-in-law Jeanie first. Then to California to see my other sister-in-law Debbie. Along the way I dropped 30 pounds which if found, do not return. Actually, by June, 2015 I'd lost 35 lbs., but maintained that only about a week, so I don't count that five pounds.

 Exercise alone can't do it. It was rice and beans, a lot of salads, limited desserts, giving up cheddar cheese and peanut butter, and also getting on the bike when I wanted chocolate pie. Tonight I'm fixing pumpkin pie--and I'll call it a vegetable, and I'll cut the pieces a little smaller so they won't be 340 calories.

Today I've been watching YouTube travel videos of Glasgow and Edinburgh while I exercise.  It's for our up coming trip to Scotland, the dates of which I haven't exactly nailed down, but we're working on it.  In watching them, it's hard to believe we're all speaking English.

Glasgow Cathedral, Scottish Gothic architecture was built between the 13^th & 15^th centuries

Praying that God would send help

When God Sends You Help, Don't Ask Questions
 She hurried to the pharmacy to get medication, got back  to her car and found that she had locked her keys inside.

 The woman found an old rusty coat hanger left on  the ground. She looked at it and said,  "I don't know how to use this."

 She bowed her head and asked God to send her some help.

 Within 5 minutes a beat-up old motorcycle pulled  up, driven by a bearded man who was wearing an old  biker skull rag. He got off of his cycle and asked if he could help.

 She said: "Yes, my daughter is sick.  I've locked my keys in my car. I must get home.  Please, can you use this hanger to unlock my  car?"

 He said, "Sure." He walked over to the  car, and in less than a minute, the car door was open. She hugged the  man and through tears, softly said,  "Thank you, God, for sending me such a very  nice man."

 The man heard her little prayer and  replied,  "Lady, I am not a nice man. I just got out of prison yesterday. I was in prison for car theft."

 The woman hugged the man again, sobbing,  "Oh, thank you, God! You even sent me  a professional."

 Is God great or what!?!

HT Rusty.

An eye stroke, retinal artery occlusion

"Eye strokes occur when blockages (occlusions) occur in arteries or veins in the retina, causing vision loss. The severity of vision loss depends on the extent and location of the occlusion(s) and loss of blood flow.
Just as strokes occur in other parts of the body because blood flow is blocked, your eye also may suffer damage when vital structures such as the retina and optic nerve are cut off from nutrients and oxygen flowing through your blood.

Besides having an eye exam to detect signs of an eye occlusion, you'll also need your family doctor or internal medicine physician to evaluate you for high blood pressure, artery disease or heart problems that may be responsible for the blockage."  http://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/eye-occlusions.htm

Our son is now in the process of more testing.  The eye stroke was around noon on Saturday.  It was painless, but profound with no vision in the center of his right eye and small streaks or slits (his words) around the edges. Studies have shown that the retina suffers irreversible injury after only 90 minutes of blood flow loss. He went immediately to the ER, had numerous tests which showed nothing, and was seen by a retina specialist on Sunday.  Despite all attempts to preserve vision, even if seen immediately, most patients suffer severe and permanent visual loss according to the All about Vision web site. We are praying that his case might be that small percentage that doesn't have permanent damage.

Comey's testimony

We learned yesterday that Obama's FBI was investigating Trump as early as July 2016, and maybe before. Are we to assume nothing electronic was used? We know phone conversations were leaked to the press almost before the words were spoken. Comey sticks with the old fashioned word, "wire tapped," as did NYT when it reported on it in January, but we know today's methods go far beyond that. It's called surveillance.  We also learned again yesterday that nothing was found. Now what will Democrats pull for their next impeachment move? None of that could have been done without Obama's approval. This Wired account continues to refer to DNC John Podesta's email as "hacked." As a so-called premier geek source, they should know that phishing isn't hacking.  Anyone could have done this since his password was "password." And all we learned from that was that the DNC was for Hillary and against Bernie--but Donna Brazile has admitted that, too.  Is she a tool of the Russians? The word interfered is continuously used by Democrats, but no one can find anything they have done, no one who changed her vote, and all it has done is make people less secure--which I suppose would be a plus for the Russians even if it is a result of the Democrats' refusal to accept the election results.

https://www.wired.com/2017/03/fbi-director-comey-confirms-investigation-trump-campaigns-russia-ties/ 

 http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/fbi-trump-russia-probe-timeline-236258

 "This story is FAKE NEWS and everyone knows it!” Trump tweeted. “The real story that Congress, the FBI and all others should be looking into is the leaking of Classified information. Must find leaker now!”

Bathroom plumbing tip

Household tip. If you've replaced any plumbing in the last 10 years, you know the score--it's junk. So today we have a plumber here. The first task is rather simple if you know to ask for it when the fixtures are installed. If you don't have children in the house who want to remove sink stoppers and flush them, or use them as missles, have the stoppers unlocked when installed. Your (definitely our) age or the special tool needed to remove them for cleaning may require a call to the plumber. Also, the products purchased at Lowe's or other consumer outlets are not the same as those the contractors buy at their supply house; much cheaper (looks the same in the box) and less likely to hold up. Still, even the so called quality items are plastic.

The big job is removing everything from the bathroom cabinet, so a relatively small adult can lie on the floor between the stool and the sink and get under there.

A prayer to Saint Lucy for healing in the eye

Asking a saint for intercessory prayer isn't any different than asking any other Christian friend, Catholic sources tell me. Our son has a serious eye problem, a stroke in his right eye that may leave him blind. So I'm asking all readers to pray for healing, and Saint Lucy also, the patron saint of the blind and those with sight problems. ("When we pray to the saints we are using the word “pray” meaning “to ask”. This use of the word can be seen in archaic English usage. So in Shakespeare’s plays a character might say, “I pray you good sir, lend me a ducat.” He uses the word “pray” to mean “to ask.” So when we pray to saints we are asking them to pray with us and for us in the same way that we might ask a friend, family member or fellow parishioner to pray for us. Longenecker)  Part 4 of Catechism, Sec. 1, Ch. 2, Art. 3 "Guides for Prayer")

 

Federal funding for the arts--clubbing the President over the budget

One of the arguments I've heard in favor of keeping the various arts funding programs of the federal government is the wildly successful musical, "Hamilton." You know--the one where the cast lectured the Vice President. Look at all the jobs it has produced!! Look how no ordinary citizen could possibly afford or even get a ticket!! It apparently had a small grant to get off the ground and the rest was history. Who really believes that there were no private investors for this in the shopping around stages? And now we have "Go fund me" type sources--at least for liberal causes. I helped fund the movie about the abortionist, Gosnell. We helped with a funding page for a rare disease. And there are funding opportunities for small business start ups--I get an email about once a week on marvelous innovative products. But what about all the great ideas/performers/artists the government by-passes, or all the horrid things it does fund which the public hates? 

Yesterday Facebook was awash with hashtag  IMLS--Institute of Museum and Library Services.  Since it was only liberals posting it, I figured someone feared Donald Trump was going to do something awful.  All of a sudden libraries and museums are going to collapse because fewer federal dollars are going for studies that no one reads and cushy federal jobs for conferences and workshops? Is that what people think makes libraries and museums work? Look, when Laura Bush (a real librarian) was advocating for libraries and museums, members of the American Library Association were boycotting her appearances. When George W. Bush was reading to school children on 9/11, all manner of paranoid plots blossomed when he took a few minutes not to alarm them. So save your hash tags and support your local bond issues--that's what pays for your library services--we the people.

Then when your public library turns down your request for conservative or Christian titles, you know where to complain.  This is not about money.  The amount the federal government puts into the arts wouldn't build a bomber or drone.  It's about where does the responsibility lie, and who should be in control.

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/17/im-calling-bs-on-the-la-times-using-hamilton-as-a-pawn-in-trumps-budget-game-commentary.html

http://www.theverge.com/2017/3/16/14948108/trump-nea-neh-budget-cuts-proposal-arts-funding-effects

We'll meet again, don't know where, don't known when

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHcunREYzNY

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1xYq40yVQg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0Dwf93z7w8

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNB8VbFmlOY

Vera Lynn is 100 years old, March 20, 2017.

Advertising that demeans women

Is it sexist, racist, homophobic or just anti-woman to show women in mental confusion in various stages of undress and their underwear having a bad hair day in a wind storm over shoes?  I love Clarks; wonderful shoes with styles that still include Mary Janes of all types, decent athletic shoes, loafers, and sensible heels, even if you have to scroll on by the platforms and tipsy topsy strapsy stuff.  But why make women look like anorexics who just escaped a concentration camp without a hair dryer or make up?

You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows

Justice Alito warns Catholics and other Christians about the coming storm. Speaking to a group of Catholic lawyers and judges who promote church social teaching, Alito used his own words from his dissent in the Supreme Court's landmark same-sex marriage case, telling the gathering he had predicted opposition to the decision would be used to "vilify those who disagree, and treat them as bigots."

"In a roughly 45-minute speech that mentioned the Founding Fathers and 19th-century French writer Alexis De Tocqueville as well as Dylan and the 1960s TV sitcom "The Flying Nun," Alito discussed the hostility faced by Catholics in the U.S. over the centuries, and of his own joy as a youth staying up until the wee hours of the morning to witness John F. Kennedy elected the first Roman Catholic president in 1960.
"I felt it had lifted me up from the status of second-class American," he said.

While religious freedom has been recognized in Congress and in the courts, Alito said, attitudes are slower to change. He recounted a Democratic lawmaker who opposed his nomination in 2005 because Alito would make "too many Catholics on the court."

Alito said reactions to Supreme Court decisions such as the Hobby Lobby case, in which a company balked at being required to cover certain forms of contraception in its employee health plan, should spur action.

"We are likely to see pitched battles in courts and Congress, state legislatures and town halls," he said. "But the most important fight is for the hearts and minds of our fellow Americans. It is up to all of us to evangelize our fellow Americans about the issue of religious freedom." " http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/03/uss_dedication_to_religious_liberty_being_tested.html

http://www.ncregister.com/blog/joan-desmond/justice-alito-warns-religious-believers-of-hostile-wind-ahead

https://dailyinfo.co/justice-alito-religious-liberty-is-in-danger-in-america/

 http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/06/28/religious-liberty-justice-alito-supreme-court/

Justice Scalia on Obergefell (same sex marriage): "Today’s decree says that my Ruler, and the Ruler of 320 million Americans coast-to-coast, is a majority of the nine lawyers on the Supreme Court. The opinion in these cases is the furthest extension in fact—and the furthest extension one can even imagine—of the Court’s claimed power to create “liberties” that the Constitution and its Amendments neglect to mention. This practice of constitutional revision by an unelected committee of nine, always accompanied (as it is today) by extravagant praise of liberty, robs the People of the most important liberty they asserted in the Declaration of Independence and won in the Revolution of 1776: the freedom to govern themselves."

The Earth Charter is alive and well

I first read this Earth Charter in 2008 during the presidential campaign of 2008, and realized it was actually the Democratic platform, and supported both by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.  At the core is Pantheism in the spiritual realm, then globalism in the political.  She won the popular vote, however, he won the most primaries, so he became the candidate and the president. Much of this was already well into fruition by 2008, but advanced during the last 8 years of Barack Obama. Discover the Earth Charter. It would have continued if Clinton had been elected in November, but it will still continue, just slightly tamped down.

 President Obama's programs lost the Democrats most of the states and provided the new president with a Republican majority in the House and Senate.  Much of the outrage and horror we see about President Trump is stepping on someone's religious beliefs--the thinly veiled pantheism that was elevated in the last 2 terms. Particularly climate change hype and blurring the lines of biology. The big push in the Earth Charter is the elimination of national interests, which in light of what is going on in populist and national movements in Europe, the U.S. and Asia, may have precipitated this unpopular notion.

1. Earth worship (global warmism/pantheism).
2. Evolution, broadly defined.
3. Socialized medicine.
4. World federalism.
5. Animal rights (animals are seen as our brothers and sisters).
6. Income redistribution among nations and within nations.
7. Eradication of genetically modified crops.
8. Contraception and “reproductive health” (legal abortion); every small and weak creature except the human fetus is protected in the scheme.
9. World-wide “education for sustainability” which includes spiritual education.
10. Debt forgiveness for third-world nations.
11. Adoption of the gay rights agenda, including gay marriage in the churches.
12. Elimination of nuclear weapons and the right to bear arms.
13. Redefining the media so it will support the environmental agenda, not report on it.
14. Setting aside biosphere reserves where no human presence is allowed.

Nothing new for presidents

Politico--snarky, but most likely accurate: 

 

"Did you know, for example, that before they were presidents, John F. Kennedy and Gerald Ford expressed support for the “America First Committee”? Or that before deportation became a dirty word, President Barack Obama was known as the “deporter-in-chief,” deporting more people than any other president in American history? Or that Harry Truman also had a “Southern White House” in Florida, spending a cumulative six months there during his time in office? Or that Warren G. Harding was denounced for his grammar and spelling, with H. L. Mencken once noting, “He writes the worst English I have ever encountered. . . Even Trump’s accusation that Obama wiretapped him has presidential precedents. As the Washington Post reported, Richard Nixon was convinced that his predecessor, Lyndon Johnson, had bugged his campaign plane in the final days of the 1968 race. [I think I also saw that Hillary Clinton had the WH swept for bugging.] And don’t forget that Reagan, Clinton, Bush and Obama all replaced U.S. attorneys appointed by their predecessors. . ."

 

The point is there’s very little Donald Trump has done that hasn’t been done, in some form or another, by others before him."

Site meter stats

Checked my site meter at my blog. 985 hits today. The big hits this week were a cartoon on the Ohio weather and U.S. spending on diabetes. A hit doesn't mean a read.  The words come up in a search. Here's what I get for my free statistics.  Blogger also supplies statistics, and they seem to be completely different.

• Detailed stats - Specific info about your visitors such as their IP, location, browser type, and pages they loaded.
• Hit - When a visitor opens a page on your site, also referred to as a pageload.
• IP masking - Hides the last part of their IP in the stats.
• Log - This holds all of your detailed stats. It has a has a finite limit and removes the oldest stats to make room for new stats.
• Log size - Represents how many detailed stats can be stored. The free log comes with a log size of 500, so it can hold detailed stats for the last 500 hits. To hold more detailed stats you can adjust the log size at this page.
• Pageload - When a visitor opens a page on your site, also referred to as a hit.
• Returning visitor - A visitor who has been to the site before and has returned.
• Tracking code - The StatCounter code placed on your site to collect stats on visitors.
• Unique visitor - Represents one visitor to the site.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Anniversary of our first date, 1959, for the St. Pat's Ball at the University of Illinois.  He told me he was going to marry me.  I wore a borrowed dress, red lace (I guess Sally didn't have anything in green) and he wore his grandfather's coat.

My 2017 card from my husband