New York's ridiculous quarantine regulation is reinstated

While you weren't watching . . .

New York has reinstated one of the biggest power grabs I can remember. It was struck down last year, and has now been reinstated on a technicality, like "standing." The way it's worded, "highly contagious communicable disease" can mean the state could take over a citizen's health care and quarantine her because of a cold or the flu, both of which fit all the definitions in this regulation. It's a HUGE attack on civil liberties. And what NY does [like California], other states will follow. Hochul has an even bigger power lust that Cuomo. It was struck down in July 2022 as unenforceable. Now it's been unstruck down, if that's a word.

 
"Rule 2.13 was first enacted on Feb. 22, 2022 and has been extended by successive 90-day periods through July 20, 2022. Rule 2.13 states in pertinent part: “whenever appropriate to control the spread of a highly contagious communicable disease," the state health commissioner may issue and/or direct local health officials "to issue isolation and/or quarantine orders, consistent with due process of law, to all such persons as the State Commissioner of Health shall determine appropriate.” The rule allows the state health department to coordinate with local health authorities to mandate isolation and quarantine for individuals exposed to communicable diseases, even in locations outside of their own homes." The word "appropriate" is another squishy term for the power hungry to chew on.

Senator Walczyk Denounces Court Decision To Reinstate Quarantine Regulations | NYSenate.gov

Quarantine isolation law reinstated, reversing prior GOP win (timesunion.com)

Judge Declares New York’s COVID-19 Isolation and Quarantine Regulation Unenforceable | Bond Schoeneck & King PLLC - JDSupra

Rape as a weapon of war

Rape.

As a "community," American feminists are a huge fail. They are narrow minded, self-centered, and duplicitous. Begin with the Squad in Congress, follow them with the Women's Studies mafia at the Universities then clean up on aisle 7 with the Hollywood aging celebs digging up dirt on men they chased during their failed careers. Silence in the case of rape as a weapon of war really is violence, unlike using the wrong pronoun.

It's almost two months since the October 7 massacre in Israel. The U.N. virtue signalers (many women) who can make all sorts of pronouncements and create documents about a fraction of a degree in temperature, have been much too busy preening to condemn the rape of women and children, not by the military, but by Palestinian civilians. It's disgusting. I'm ashamed of all those who say they fight for women, from AOC and Tlaib in D.C. to the motley crew and noisy gaggle in the U.N.
Israeli women are making waves, but even they don't say anything about rape as a war weapon in Sudan and Ethiopia, where some estimates are that 70% of the women have been kidnapped for sex or raped and left to fend for themselves as the men are killed.

I'm sorry to provide such a biased link (pro-Hamas), but it's the only one I found which even had a small paragraph about rape as a war weapon being addressed by U.N. It may be my search skills or Big Tech algorithms.

UN Commission to Investigate Hamas Sexual Violence, Appeal for Evidence (usnews.com)

Sudanese women describe being gang-raped in attacks by Arab forces (reuters.com)

Giving Tuesday

Opinion: Giving Tuesday (following Thanksgiving, black Friday, small business Saturday and cyber Monday) might have been a good idea when it began, but it has become annoying. I think I deleted about 35 messages yesterday and threw out some snail mail. Some were from organizations I've already given to, and even though I know these are mass mailings, it irritates me to see begging and manipulating after I've already been generous. I'm of the opinion that, unlike true growth or the expanding economic pie, charitable dollars are probably fixed. We donate about 10 or 12% of our income and have for about 50 years. Our income and interests change (higher when we were employed) but our values haven't. Our cat died in 2017 so we don't contribute now to Cat Welfare. When Project Veritas dumped the founder, it lost our donation. When Pinecrest was taken over by Allure I no longer send a memorial to honor my parents. The money was shifted to Lutheran Bible Translators or Pregnancy Decision Health Center, saving babies from abortion.

Whether you give $5 a year or $5,000, getting an e-mail may move more for this orphanage or that little league team, but it may not change your overall percentage. There are only so many charitable dollars to go around. Does Giving Tuesday make people more charitable?

A few facts:  Now, AFTER I wrote the above paragraph, I actually checked my opinion against the AI fact checkers. I was told that 2012 was the first year with 2500 non-profits and over $12 million given/pledged. Now (2022) it's up to $3.1 billion, an increase of 15% over 2021. So what self-respecting manager of a non-profit wouldn't sign on for what appears to be an increase in gratitude and charity?

So, I ask you, are people more charitable than they were in 2012 or is it a shell game and the money just moves around, with the bigger and better advertisers getting the bigger share using a good gimmick, Giving Tuesday.

Memories

Many years ago, I read a short piece in a woman's magazine about clearing out the home of an elderly woman after her death. Among her belongings they found a large ball of string (frugal people used to save string, rubber bands, pieces of foil, bread bags, etc. for some need in the future). It was labelled, "Pieces of string too short to use." That's how I feel about my memories; I'm grateful I started a blog (web log, or diary on the internet) 20 years ago, because I remembered then details I can't recall now. I occasionally recall something from Alameda, CA during our time there in WWII, or an event at Faith Lutheran in Forreston, IL where we lived after Dad's time in the Marines. One piece of string I found today for which I have no story to write because I was trying to remember the pastor's name, is how cute my little brother looked in his Bumble Bee costume for the Mother's Day program at the church.
It's a piece of string too short to use.

Billy Collins wrote a poem called "Forgetfulness" in 1994. It's the only poem I have posted on my refrigerator. https://youtu.be/aj25B8JYumQ?si=M5m15Zd1J-cI5zvX You can hear the audience laugh, but you'll recognize every line. It's happened to you,

This 2011 blog entry includes both Alameda and Forreston at Christmas. Collecting My Thoughts: Monday Memories--Christmas in the 1940s

Collecting My Thoughts: Monday Memories of Kindergarten and Alameda

Meeting IRMAA

 Irma was the name (not used) of my mother-in-law. Beautiful blonde, lots of fun.  But this IRMAA is different kind altogether.

If you have a "one time" event like selling your summer home in Lakeside, the IRS will increase the cost of your Medicare the next year. It's called IRMAA. Of course, on the sale price, those inflated costs since the purchase in 1988 were figured as real dollars. The government never loses, but it sure can go in debt spending a billion here and a billion there.

We Sold Our Home. Now We Have To Pay More For Medicare! What’s IRMAA? (forbes.com)

The appeal seems to be written in a foreign language that no one but a bureaucrat could read. https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0601140005#

More hostages released today

"A fourth group of hostages was transferred out of Gaza on Monday, capping a temporary truce negotiated between Israel and Hamas after weeks of conflict.

So far 69 hostages have been released by Palestinian militant group Hamas over the first four days of the truce. Israeli civilian women and children were freed in groups of 11 to 13 each day, per the deal’s terms, along with varying numbers of other nationals, including citizens of Thailand, Poland, the Philippines and Russia."

I've been watching Israel TV i24 almost every day since October 7, and each story is riveting, and upsetting. The bad behavior of the rioters in this country is terribly depressing. What sort of idiots and haters have our young people become?

Who are the hostages released so far in the Israel-Hamas deal? (msn.com) CNN

It's true, I'm a one issue voter

"Mifepristone, also called RU-486, blocks reception of the pregnancy hormone progesterone, shutting off the flow of oxygen and nutrients to the baby in the womb. Forty-eight hours later, the drug misoprostol is taken to induce labor.

Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says the abortion pill is “safe and effective,” chemical abortion is four times more likely to result in complications than surgical abortion, [Dr. Christina] Francis said."

Women ‘Deserve Better’ Than Chemical Abortion, Physician Says (dailysignal.com)

Daily Signal is a media product of the Heritage Foundation.

Yesterday I listened to a September interview on the podcast Edify with Abby Johnson, who helps women give up a good income by leaving their jobs at Planned Parenthood. Making Abortion Unthinkable - EDIFY. Abby Johnson is a former Planned Parenthood clinic director turned pro-life advocate.

EDIFY is a Catholic podcast on hotly debated issues in our society. There's nothing I've heard that wouldn't benefit all Christians.

Universal Prayer

 https://youtu.be/6mGOrgJqWl8?si=HogwG4txdWu4YnBw

THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER (attributed to Pope Clement XI) (adw.org)

Blindsight is 2020

I'm reading "Blindsight is 2020; Reflections on Covid policies from dissident scientists, philosophers, artists, and more" by Gabrielle Bauer, Brownstone Institute, 2022. It begins with two stories we've lived through the last almost four years. And I'm guessing it's not over.

 
Story one is the one all the media agencies, tech and pharma giants, politicians, local, state, and federal governments insisted we believe. And I did, and maybe you did, for about the first month after which not much made sense if you knew anything about economics or social sciences. It had the momentum of a patriotic war--if you didn't go along or found it fantastical, you were the enemy of the people. You weren't saving lard or scraps of aluminum to help our boys in Europe and the Far East.  And miraculously, it turned out to be just the crisis that the Democrat Party dreams about to turn to their favor. Demonize the incumbent and change the rules for voting,

Story two is the one that moved underground--it is told in this book by 46 epidemiologists, public health experts, doctors, psychologists, cognitive scientists, historians, novelists, mathematicians, lawyers, comedians, and musicians. They all took issue with the way the people in Story one were trying to stamp out a virus using unproven and dangerous methods, including lockdowns, experimental vaccines, masking and destruction of our basic liberties.

A lot of Democrats and liberals have been "red pilled" by this health crisis and trauma, even though they still don't like President Trump (who also got suckered by some of the "believe the science" deep state). I hope there are some answers in this book. I'm still in chapter one.

Blindsight Is 2020: Reflections on Covid Policies from Dissident Scientists, Philosophers, Artists, and More: The Independent Review: The Independent Institute

Blindsight is 2020: Perspectives on COVID Policies from Dissident Scientists, Philosophers, Artists, and More (freethepeople.org)

https://youtu.be/whIn3vCpspI?si=bIQ-pcu_JhMJlmhb

What's stressing you this season?

What's stressing you this holiday season? Each year we see articles like the one I saw at OSU Health:

 
"This year the top sources of stress for Americans are national and world affairs, higher prices putting a crimp on holiday budgets and increasing cases of respiratory illnesses, according to a recent national survey conducted here at The Ohio State University."

Most of the items (there were more) could be crossed off your list if Biden weren't in the White House. We'd all be richer, healthier and more secure. Five or 6 years ago Trump was being blamed and experts would recommend meditation and not getting together with Republican relatives.

 
So, in a way, this is progress. https://health.osu.edu/health/mental-health/holiday-stress?

Whatever the Left Touches It Ruins

Dennis Prager (and many others) say: "More than two years ago, I wrote a column titled "Whatever the Left Touches It Ruins." I listed eight examples:

• The universities.
• The arts: music, art and architecture.
• Sports.
• Mainstream Judaism, Protestantism and Catholicism.
• Race relations.
• Women’s happiness.
• Children’s innocence.
• And, perhaps most disturbingly, America's commitment to free speech.

One should now add the sciences."

"If you send your children to a university, you are endangering both their mind and their character. There is a real chance they will be more intolerant and more foolish after college than they were when they entered college.

When you attend an American university, you are taught to have contempt for America and its founders, to prefer socialism to capitalism, to divide human beings by race and ethnicity. You are taught to shut down those who differ with you, to not debate them. And you are taught to place feelings over reason — which is a guaranteed route to eventual evil."

https://dennisprager.com/column/whatever-the-left-touches-it-ruins?

Home buyers are much older today than in 1962 when we did it

What would the media do without a constant stream of crises? Home buyers are getting older! Sure, we were first time buyers at 22 with a baby in tow, but that was an important value for my generation. Today? Hey, at 22 they are still hanging out in college or back packing in Europe, waiting for Joe to pay their college loans. Even at 35, a lot of young adults prefer granite countertops, a gym and a swimming pool they can get with their pricey rental. Our first home was a duplex with a dirt floor basement and no garage. You only make money in real estate if someone else is paying the mortgage.

"Repeat buyers were a median age of 58 in 2023, while first-time buyers were 35, per National Association of Realtors annual data released this week."

America's first-time and repeat homeowners are getting older (axios.com)

                                    First home on White St. , 40+ years later--many changes.

Pro-Hamas protestors at DNC and Biden home

You get to protest in this country (except election results), but pro-Hamas riots in front of DNC headquarters? Or in front of Biden's Delaware White House? There will be no arrests and punishments, and especially no show trials on TV.

"House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, House Minority Whip Katherine Clark and Rep. Pete Aguilar were inside as the clash between protesters and police sparked and turned violent,  according to authorities. Six officers were injured during the melee Wednesday evening and one person was arrested for allegedly punching a female officer. According to US Capitol Police, officers had worked “to keep back approximately 150 people who are illegally and violently protesting” in the area – a characterization activist groups later disputed – and escorted members of Congress, including the top House Democrats, from the area." (CNN report)

"The pro-Hamas harem of intersectional oppression Olympians, outright bigoted Islamists, and trust fund slacktivists coalesced on the Democratic National Committee headquarters in a demonstration that devolved into, shall we say, a proper insurrection." (Washington Examiner)

Protesters have gathered near his personal home to call on the President to push for a ceasefire in the brutal Israel-Hamas war. A video shared on Twitter, shows a large group of protesters waving Palestinian flags outside his home chanting "ceasefire now!" and "President Biden, you can't hide! We charge you with genocide!." (Mirror US)

January 6 tapes released by Johnson

Speaker Mike Johnson announced on Friday that nearly all of the surveillance footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol incursion will be released.

And some of the initially released video showed non-violent protesters moving freely through the Capitol with Capitol Police monitoring the situation, but seemingly not too concerned.

Officers weren’t directing people out of the building, though there was an exit door right behind police.

New Jan. 6 Footage Shows Protesters Parade Uninhibited by Police (westernjournal.com)

The MSM didn't show it, the J-6 Committee didn't see it, and those who breathlessly watched the hearing/trial didn't see it.

 
Insurrection my foot. So why didn't Speaker Pelosi release the footage? Trump had to be destroyed.

Conservatives Owens and Shapiro fighting each other instead of their enemy

When it comes to famous people, even famous conservatives I like who are much less duplicitous and nasty than leftist famous click baiters, I'm never sure what's true and what's media. But apparently Candace Ownes, famous black conservative who is a Christian and Ben Shapiro, famous Jewish conservative journalist and speaker who both work for the same company are having a spat.

 
Truly, no Christian should be telling a Jew how the Hamas Jew haters and terrorists should be handled by Israel. Hamas picked this fight and put the Palestinian people in grave danger--they plotted to bring on this war so Israel would retaliate. I haven't read anything but the bare bones of the Owens/Shapiro argument, and Tucker sure didn't help. But I'm horrified that Owens was quoting Jesus to Ben. Really? How's the historical record for Christians on that? Has she read what Luther said about Jews? And btw, what did she or Tucker or Ben say about the half a million killed in Ethiopia, or the thousands of women raped and terrorized in Sudan? Have any of them asked about the grannies in Russia mourning their grandsons who died in Ukraine? Why be so selective on deaths in war time? Let's calm down and let the people who have been chased out of every country on earth for 2,000 years figure out the best way to stop the killing and rebuild a better world.

Shapiro Owens war escalates conservatives take s​ides | Blaze Media (theblaze.com)

A Crisis of Confidence

 America’s Crisis of Confidence Rising Mistrust, Conspiracies, and Vaccine Hesitancy After COVID-19

Americas-Crisis-of-Confidence-Rising-Mistrust-Conspiracies-and-Vaccine-Hesitancy-After-COVID-19.pdf (aei.org)

Visiting former coffee spots and coffee blogs

After I got Bob settled in this morning for his Zoom men's Bible Study I headed down the road a mile or so to Panera's at Five Points next to the Aldi's grocery where I could shop at 9 a.m. I rarely go there any more for my morning coffee, but at one time (pre-2015) I was a regular and had many friends I would see each morning while I read the Wall Street Journal.

I used to have a blog (Coffee Spills) devoted to my coffee habits--the places I enjoyed and the people I met--staff and customers. I continued it until December 2014 because I was parting ways with a habit begun in 1956 and saving the money for a trip to Spain (about $2, 5 times a week). I glanced at my final entry today before my closing--

November 10, 2014: "It happened in the parking lot. I was getting out of my car; one space away was a man on the passenger side of his car straightening his pant leg. He looked at me and said cheerily, "I change my socks 20 times a day; I guess I'm a little weird." "Uh, you betcha," I thought, but I said, "If it works for you." So I just had to Google it. I found 6.5% of Americans change their socks more than once a day. But 20 times seems a bit OCD."

November. 21, 2012: "I greeted a coffee shop friend today with a casual remark about "How are you celebrating Thanksgiving?" But she wasn't feeling thankful. It turns out a trusted employee, a woman she’s known and been friends with for 25 years, was embezzling from her. Now they both have lawyers, and the woman has admitted to stealing about $100,000, but my friend suspects it’s much more. And as you may guess, losing the money hurts, but not as much as her feeling of grief and backstabbing over this woman whom she considered a friend. She said, “She smiled at me every day, clucked over my children, we did things together. What sort of psychopath does this?” A very sad holiday."

January 7, 2005: "The clerk at the coffee shop told me today (Friday) she'd been late to work every day this week. She's supposed to start at 6 a.m. but didn't get to work until 6:10. I've supervised enough people in my work life to see a problem.

Bad work habits and excuses do not ever fool a supervisor. We've heard every story from alarm clocks to a tear in my slacks, to a sick baby to a traffic jam. Actually, I've heard some fairly imaginative ones, but didn't believe a word.

The solution is always the same for the employee who wants to move ahead to a better job, or keep the one she/he has. Whether a bakery clerk, an auto tech, or a library assistant, always plan to arrive early--15 minutes is good. That way you can handle the dog throwing up or the malfunctioning traffic light. And if you actually do arrive early, straighten up your clothes, comb your hair, wash your hands and turn on that smile. And don't ever kid yourself that coming in 15 minutes early on Thursday makes up for being 15 minutes late on Friday."

Reading my old blogs is like looking through someone else's diary. I often don't recall the occasion and had forgotten that one. That habit change did work--I think I saved about $500 for the trip and learned to make coffee (decaf) at home. Now if I go out for coffee with a friend, we go to McDonald's where it's $.60.

Lakeside selects new President

Lakeside is pleased to announce today that Jim McConoughey has been selected as the community’s new President and CEO after an extensive search.

McConoughey brings over 25 years of experience in business development, fundraising, and community engagement to the position. Most recently, he served as the President for the McHenry County Economic Development Corporation, where he led strategic planning, fundraising, and community outreach efforts.

A Lakeside resident for 5 years, McConoughey has volunteered his time and talent to support various organizations in the community. He and his family have been coming to Lakeside for over 50 years. This is in direct connection with his ties to Lakeside where his grandfather played the organ and piano for decades. In addition, his wife Gina was the owner of the Lakeview Inn for four years.

New President - Lakeside Ohio

Christmas catalogs

I enjoy the Christmas catalogs. 2 or 3 a day from mid-October to New Years. Love Uline ULINE - Shipping Boxes, Shipping Supplies, Packaging Materials, Packing Supplies . But yesterday Signals arrived. 

I like the t-shirt, door mat and sweatshirt slogans. 

Hardware stores are my therapy.

I don't want to go through things that don't kill me but make me stronger anymore. 

Ring the doorbell and let me sing you the song of my people--the Dog.

Wallet, Glasses, Keys and Phone, Keys and Phone. (to the tune of Head, shoulders, knees and toes. 

Life Goal pet all dogs. 

Mothers of little boys work from son up to son down. 

I remember when things only cost an arm. 

I don't mind getting older but my body is taking it badly.

 

No wonder they didn't work--Covid boosters

Judicial Watch through a FOIA request learned that only 23 people were used in the 2021 vaccine booster study by Pfizer before asking FDA to approve it. Three weeks after its approval, 8.9 million boosters were administered.

 
Pet food gets closer scrutiny than that.

From Verdict, vol 29, iss. 11, November 2023 p. 1, 6-7 Judicial Watch: Pfizer Records Reveal 23-Person Study of COVID Vaccine Booster Safety and Effectiveness before Approval | Judicial Watch