Thursday, January 31, 2019

Medicaid expansion in Louisiana

“Auditors took a selection of 100 single-person households receiving Medicaid under expansion created by Obamacare. of those 100 households, 93 of them were ineligible for benefits between 2016 and 2018, and 14 of them were making more than $100,000 per year.”

https://www.theblaze.com/news/louisiana-medicaid-may-be-paying-millions-for-recipients-who-make-too-much-money-to-qualify?

Now Republicans will be blamed for taking away (if that happens) people’s health care.

Who’s the racist; is the Wall racist?

The President is accused of being a racist by his enemies because of the travel ban for groups originally targeted by Obama and the Wall, which several years ago Democrats agreed to fund and high profile Democrats like Obama, Pelosi, and Schumer are on video strongly advocating for it.

Neither Muslims or Mexicans are a race--one is a world wide multi-ethnic religion, the other a nation of multi-ethnic people who speak a European language--Spanish--and are 60% white. The U.S. is 70%. There are also many middle-easterners and Asians coming in through our porous southern border, especially where there is no wall/barrier/fence. If they would vote Republican, that original 20 billion the Dems approved would be there tomorrow.

The Democrats continue to demonize people as racist, ignoring the KKK in their closets and roots. They are eying 2020 and have nothing for the nation but old, failed socialist policies like higher taxes and freebies.  Now they've declared a red hat, a slogan, obscure words, teen-age boys, Catholics, and all of Western Civilization racist. They've examined every idiomatic expression for dog whistles and racism, from “rule of thumb” to “union of man and woman” to pronouns,  to the names of sports teams. 

National Socialism, aka Nazi, is extreme statism, when a government takes control of a business or sector of the economy to benefit the state, like health care, education, etc. Hitler didn’t just target Jews, he  also killed the disabled, gypsies, Christians, Poles, etc.--who were absolutely no danger to him. As far as dividing us--that began in Academe, with now massive, bloated departments devoted to "diversity," aka division. Hitler learned the attacks against Jews from the Turks who used it on Christians, and eugenics from Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood. But it was the Communists of USSR, China and Cambodia who really grew mass human destruction (although not as many as legal abortion), but because it is a form of socialism which the Leftists admire, they can only mention Hitler in their tirades against Trump.

When will Democrats say “That’s Enough!” guest blogger Joan Shaw Turrentine

At what point will the sane folks (yes, there are some!) who have identified as "Democrat" for years realize that their party is gone? At what point will they finally say, "That's enough. I can't stand by and watch one generation decide to trash the whole structure of this once-great country. It's not rational (and is incredibly arrogant) to imagine that a few politicians of our day are smarter than all the brilliant minds that conceived this country and all the great statesmen who nurtured it through many generations into being the greatest country in the world. I can't pretend any longer that it is fine to kill someone else because they are inconvenient for me. What can possibly be gained by allowing the government to make all important decisions for citizens thereby permanently infantilizing them?" Surely there's a point at which this realization will hit! I don't imagine that my thoughts here will have any impact on anyone else; I certainly don't expect any of those mentioned above to suddenly have an epiphany because of my expression of my thoughts/feelings here. If you are one of those, don't imagine that any rebuttal you might write here will have any influence on me, either. Just unfriend me and go on about your business. I'm fine with that. At some point thinking people have to express thoughts even when they know they'll be dismissed. I reached that point today.

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Don’t install Bible study in our public schools

I was in elementary school in the 1940s--they weren't "teaching" Bible then, although it was read occasionally. It's a bad idea--we've got 35,000 protestant denominations and groups, many called "Bible churches." We've got 6 rites within Catholicism with another 21 under that. We've got Orthodox, Mormons, and Jehovah Witnesses, plus some spiritualist types, unity affiliated, Swedenborgian, and those are just the ones in the big tent of Christianity. Then there is a buffet table of other religions who also have their own sacred scriptures. Teach religion at home or send your child to a religious school. We've got lefties who say we can't say "Western Civilization" or use certain pronouns. Can't imagine what they'd do with the battles and ceremonies of the Old Testament.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-boosts-bills-teach-favorite-book-bible-public-schools-220638186.html

There is no shortage of ways to learn or read the Bible.

Fulton J. Sheen, 1931

Google eyes and knows all

"Last month, the New York Times revealed how sensitive location data is harvested by third parties from our smartphones — often with weak or nonexistent consent provisions. A Motherboard investigation in early January further demonstrated how cell companies sell our locations to stalkers and bounty hunters willing to pay the price. For some, the Google sibling’s [Sidewalk Labs] plans to gather and commodify real-time location data from millions of cellphones adds to these concerns." https://theintercept.com/2019/01/28/google-alphabet-sidewalk-labs-replica-cellphone-data/

"We are a counted people. Our locations, words, memories, shopping habits, entertainment preferences and political beliefs are translated into numbers, then stored, sold, and traded by governments and the data giants of Silicon Valley who make our technological age tick.. . phones record location; emails, calls, and texts are scanned for keywords that allow Google to develop personalized ads; Facebook existence can be run through algorithms that generalize political psychology into a marketable identity. . . The general desire to know how to get to a coffee shop has uncovered the daily lives of the citizenry more quickly and effectively than a million wiretaps." (Marc Barnes, A counted people, First Things, Feb. 2019) https://www.firstthings.com/article/2019/02/a-counted-people

Body painting may protect indigenous peoples

“Using sticky plastic models with differently painted surfaces, researchers showed that zebra stripes painted onto the body can protect against biting insects. Relative to a striped mannequin, a brown painted model attracted 10 times more horseflies, while a beige one lured in twice the number as the striped figure. “

Dark bodies attract many more pests and insects than light bodies. White stripes on dark bodies protects.

https://www.the-scientist.com/image-of-the-day/image-of-the-day--white-stripes-65356

Virginia out-ghouls New York

Virginia is now trying to out-ghoul and out-Gosnell New York. If the infant is born alive in an abortion procedure, she will be made comfortable until the "mother" [is she a mother if the baby isn't a baby?] and doctor decide whether to "abort" [aka kill] her or let her live. That's infanticide, same as all the gruesome deaths in Dr. Gosnell's death clinic. I'm not kidding. Listen to the video.

https://hotair.com/archives/2019/01/30/moderate-dem-virginia-governor-new-late-term-abortion-bill-allow-babies-killed-theyre-born/

Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger used abortion to keep the population of the poor and minorities down.  It's still the Democrat method.  More blacks are killed in 4 days than 80 years of lynching. Republicans tried to outlaw lynchings but the Democrats wouldn't cooperate. They would gather to cheer and jeer at the hangings, but as people today in liberal legislatures cheer the killing of born alive babies intended for death as medical waste.

Listen to radio around the world

http://radio.garden/ What a neat site. I'm listening to Ufa, Russia, Radio Chanson. Each green dot on the globe represents a city/town with a station or five or six. Vast expanses of the world have no radio stations.  Stopped in Italy, France, Turkey, Romania--all were playing U.S. rock or similar. Found a Russian language speaker in Ufa, but now is playing Russian pop/rock/folk. Moved on the St. Petersburg and found a Christian station, http://radiomaria.ru/  They are speaking slowly and calmly,  and I can catch a few words. Also visited Lithuania and Norway.

My brother-in-law loves to say phrases in other languages and greet people.  He would love this one.

And now Virginia falls

BREAKING: Another radical abortion bill was introduced, this time in Virginia, allowing abortion UP TO THE VERY SECOND OF BIRTH. Extremist groups are descending upon state capitols each day, hell-bent on destroying precious human life. It's up to all of us to show up at our state capitols to stop them! https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/virginia-bill-would-legalize-abortion-up-to-birth/?

A lot of sick people out there.  There is NEVER a medical reason to kill a child while mother is in her final month.  This is not maternal health, or women’s reproductive rights—it’s an attempt to kill all respect for human life, to dehumanize the entire nation, to destroy families.  Infants will be next; then toddlers.  They are already after the disabled and elderly in about 25 states.

Why now?  Conservatives and the pro-life movement for the last 47 years have been saying abortion was a state’s rights issue and have organized to unravel the very bad law called Roe v. Wade.  Even far leftist pro-aborts have admitted it is a weak, poorly sourced law.  Now they are terrified of a conservative court and the absence of RBG on the court is energizing the radicals, calling a murder in the 9th month a mother’s right to abortion.  God will not be ridiculed.


Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Democrats are just being honest about who they are

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) has pushed Democrats out of the closet--they are finally honest about who they are. Elizabeth Warren wants to tax wealth instead of income, Kamala Harris wants to raise taxes and make all medical care free for the asking, getting rid of health insurance, and Julian Castro thinks a 70% tax rate (AOC's suggestion) is too low--he's going for 90%. Meanwhile, Venezuela is in chaos--people are starving while the rulers stash away money for what they know is coming, Cuba looks like a 1950s used car lot, North Koreans don't have food or electricity, and 100 million East Europeans, Russians and Chinese are dead. All is forgotten by gen-x and millennial snowflakes due to erosion of the education system that began before their parents were born. It's been 30 years since Americans naively believed when that wall came down between the Germanys, Communism had failed. We have several generations who are reanimating the Socialist Zombies of history.

And what countries had the most liberal abortion laws in history, and are now suffering for it? USSR and China. Democrats are pushing that too.

Is it cold enough for you in the Midwest?

A large hole in the sun's atmosphere is facing Earth and spewing a stream of solar wind in our direction. Polar geomagnetic storms are likely when the gaseous material arrives on Jan. 31st or Feb 1st. The Tax U More party [aka Democrats] will tell you that's just anthropogenic "climate change." They think humans are so advanced their consumerism and technology cause holes in the sun's atmosphere, but they are not smart enough to be considered human by the NY legislature.

Why can’t Paddy be black?

Why not? If Irish Paddy wants to be black or Indian, why can't he be a transracial man--or women if he gets the hormones at the same time as the tanning lotion? There's a scholarship s/he has his eye on. Janice Fiamengo finds this delicious irony of a feminist publication that intends to publish those on the minority fringe, being castigated for actually publishing something those further out on the edge didn’t like. Sit back and enjoy the cat fight. “The Hazards of Defending Trans-Racialism.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdoSddjV_q0&feature=share


What’s old is new again

Well, there is a property for sale in Hilliard that comes with a 4,000-square-foot bunker that is 30 feet underground, has 2-foot-thick concrete walls and ceiling and is able to "withstand 20 megaton blast from 2 1/2 miles, 1,000 (mph) winds, and 40-G shock wave.”  Columbus Bizjournals.com

In our old neighborhood on Abington Road which was generally developed during 1938-40, paused for the war, then 1945-, some houses in the Canterbury area which were built in the 1950s had bomb shelters.  It was a big thing in those days, I remember the duck and cover drills and food stored in the hallways of our school in Mt. Morris, IL. Apparently, someone was fearful a few years back (don’t know when the Hilliard home was built).  The one I saw in our former area was used as a playroom for the kids in the 1970s.

Removal and arrest of illegal aliens

In 2017 256,085 illegal aliens were removed from the U.S. , and 57% were convicted criminals. Also in FY2018, Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) arrested 158,581 aliens, 90% of whom had criminal convictions (66%), pending criminal charges (21%), or previously issued final orders (3%). The overall arrest figure represents an 11% increase over FY2017. https://www.ice.gov/features/ERO-2018

So maybe you’re thinking, then why do we need a wall if we successfully deport or arrest that many? 

1) there are already many sections of the wall protecting major cities, but leaving huge gaps, like near Laredo, TX.  More than 300 Bangladeshi illegal migrants have been arrested by Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents in Texas this fiscal year. https://onenewsnow.com/national-security/2018/06/12/texas-border-sector-arrests-306th-bangladeshi-illegal-this-year

2) why allow them in just to be removed or arrested later at the cost of a lot of manpower,

3) if they have convictions or pending charges, why do you want them living in your sanctuary city in Hispanic neighborhoods or next door to you in Cleveland or Chicago?

German immigrant Sandra came after 9/11

“I am very much for immigration as I did this. I did the paperwork. I did the doctor visits. Blood work, chest x ray and physical. My mother had to give her financial info and so did my husbands family. Not really a pleasant thing to go through but I wanted to move here so I did all that was necessary to get it done. I stayed a “legal alien” for many years until I felt home was the US and not Germany anymore.

To see people cut in line and totally ignore the laws of this country really bothers me. It’s unfair and quite frankly super disrespectful to the people that you claim you want to live with.
America first is long overdo as I heard the “Ami get out” during the times I lived in Germany. They want your money and protection but not your presence or opinion. When crap goes down they want the US to come and clean it up. For free.

No, enough is enough.

I am tired of the lies told every day. We Trump supporters are not racist. As a matter of fact I only hear and see rich liberals pointing out skin color.

It’s a plan orchestrated for 2020. Let’s paint Trump as a racist and all his supporters will be ashamed and sadly frightened to wear their MAGA hats. It’s started people and the media only shows what they want us to see.

Stay positive, be kind, talk to family and friends. Lead by example. But call out the liars and expose them.”

From her Walk away post.

Monday, January 28, 2019

Walls, fences, passwords, locks and security systems

I don't know if Meryl Streep’s mansion has a fancy wall around it or not (saw a photo on the internet, but you just never know), but I do know the "open border" liberals I know are not compassionate about others invading their space or belongings. They have locks on their doors, windows, phones; they have fire walls, security systems, passwords; they have their pets tattooed, locks on their bikes, fences made of steel, brick, concrete or even an electric wire to keep out the neighbors' dogs and burglars; they have play pens to keep an eye on their kids, a cloud to take care of their computer documents, a safe to hold their jewelry and guns; they use a fingerprint to open their I-pad, or their office elevator, they have garage door openers--which btw--don't open without the gizmo; they have safe deposit boxes and pin numbers on their library cards and credit cards. My open border friends want aliens to vote, but they personally don't want to pay the taxes if they don't live in my township/city/state which have boundaries. Some open border liberals, particularly the young ones, think there are "safe spaces" with imaginary boundaries where no conservative, Trump supporter, or Republican can wear a red MAGA hat.

We have a hate hoax problem--hate speech from the media


The media hate hoax which defamed a teen age boy needs some context. https://spectator.org/the-hate-hoax-industry/
"Consider, for example, “violence against women,” a problem allegedly so prevalent in America as to require federal legislation to suppress it. Yet reports of such crimes are often ignored by feminists, even when the violence particularly heinous. In 2017, a 15-year-old girl was rescued from a gang that had forced her into prostitution in the Maryland suburbs of D.C. Police say the gang had pimped out the girl since age 14 and she was savagely beaten with baseball bats when she didn’t turn enough tricks. Feminists have utterly ignored this case because the gang was MS-13, and at least one of the perpetrators was in the country illegally. “Violence against women” doesn’t interest feminists when it’s committed by illegal aliens, because calling attention to these crimes might help increase support for Trump’s border-enforcement policies — perish the thought!
The media’s anti-Trump agenda is what led them into their catastrophic blunder in the Covington Catholic incident. Because several of the students, including Nick Sandmann, were wearing “Make America Great Again” hats, the network TV producers were only too eager to agree with the Colorado teacher who pronounced them “Hitler Youth.” Plenty of liberal journalists have stated their belief that Trump is a latter-day Hitler, and by this logic the nearly 63 million Americans who voted for Trump must be crypto-Nazis. So when the video clip of Phillips in a face-off with the Kentucky students surfaced online Jan. 19, the folks at CNN, MSNBC, and other left-wing “news” operations were easily persuaded that Phillips was an innocent victim . . ."
Have the Trump haters (of him and the voters) learned anything from this.  Of course not--they were just coming of the fake Buzzfeed fiasco.

Heads up (or maybe down) northern Illinois and Indiana


Whatever happened to global warming?  They had to fix the wording: climate change because then it covers everything.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/01/26/polar-vortex-intrusion-dangerous-brutal-cold-aimed-great-lakes-by-tuesday/?

National Weather Service reports for Chicago: By Tuesday night, temperatures are expected to take another plunge, to 23 below zero, flirting with Chicago's coldest temperature ever: minus 27 on Jan. 20, 1985.

Recommended blog on education

Robin S. Eubanks, an experienced corporate attorney from Georgia  authors an insightful blog entitled “Invisible Serf’s Collar” (www.invisibleserfscollar.com) dealing with evolving events in the realm of education and social reform.

See her January 9 column, http://invisibleserfscollar.com/systematizing-human-nature-via-internalized-marxian-standards-of-truth-goodness-and-beauty/

“The idea that the Commission pitched “practices to help students develop a growth mindset” as a solution to school shootings when its creator, Carol Dweck, was originally a Vygotsky scholar seeking to implement his theories on using new classroom practices to create the transformed mindset needed for a new kind of Soviet Man, would be funny in an ironic way if it was not so ridiculously ignorant of these practices. Tragedies like Parkland and the rule of law get used to force poisonous collectivist ideas down this nation’s throats and into our children’s minds and hearts. https://www.learningandthebrain.com/blog/we-can-no-longer-ignore-evidence-about-human-development/ from November 29, 2018 from Professor Immordino-Yang involved in both the US and UNESCO’s neural redevelopment efforts via education is at least honest about the intentions to use new practices to”support the development of our full humanity.””

Ms. Eubanks writes about herself: “A background in Law is also excellent preparation for determining precisely what the terms commonly used actually mean. Especially in an industry that is consciously using language to hide the actual intended goals. My experience allowed me to recognize that education in the US and globally has been, for decades,  engaged in a massive Newspeak (as in George Orwell’s 1984) campaign that creates a public illusion on what is being promised and what is coming to the schools and classrooms that are this country’s future. I know what the words and terms really mean to an Ed insider and how it differs from the common public perception. I have documented what was really behind the reading wars and math wars. I have pulled together what the real intended Common Core implementation looks like. And it is wildly different from the PR sales job used to gain adoption in most of the states.”

Three women hope to get a bed in the White House

So, we’ll now have three women with a good chance to be the first female president of the United States.

One rose to fame because of her marriage to a serial sexual abuser. One became a prominent figure because she was the mistress of the mayor of San Francisco. And the other achieved her success largely by pretending to be a Native American.

Somehow I don’t think this is what Susan B. Anthony had in mind.

African-American Conservatives Facebook wall

Sunday, January 27, 2019

Are tattoos telling us something?

I kept seeing things float past about tattoos, sex, sleep and mental illness, so I decided to try to track down the research, since none of the summaries gave a definitive source—just something about University of Miami.  Finally found it in the International Journal of Dermatology, “Are tattoos associated with negative health‐related outcomes and risky behaviors?” Jan. 24, 2019  Two of the authors are at the University of Miami.
Abstract (the article is not available on-line)
Background
Tattoos have reached broadening mainstream acceptance. Medical professional societies have noted that tattoos may co‐occur with high risk behaviors.
Methods
Using a variety of statistical models applied to a sample of 2,008 adults residing in the United States via Amazon's Mechanical Turk, we estimate the associations between tattoo characteristics, three health‐related outcomes (overall health status, ever diagnosed with a mental health issue, sleep problems), and three risky behaviors (current smoking, ever spent time in jail or prison, and number of sex partners).
Results
We find that the presence, number, and specific features of tattoos are positively correlated with two of the health‐related outcomes (ever diagnosed with a mental health issue and trouble sleeping) and all three of the risky behaviors (P < .05). Magnitudes are larger for those with multiple, visible, and offensive tattoos.
Conclusions
Our results suggest that individuals with tattoos are more likely to engage in risky behaviors relative to their non‐tattooed counterparts, which may lead to health consequences. Dermatologists, healthcare providers, and public health advocates should recognize that having a tattoo(s) is a potential marker for mental health issues and risky behaviors.

Comments. . .

I suppose I shouldn’t feel too bad about what people say to me about my blog or Facebook Posts.  Arthur Brooks has just begun a new column at the Washington Post taking Charles Krauthammer’s old spot, and some of the endearing comments were:

  • Someone calling themselves Leaving weighs in with, “Well, this column is garbage.”
  • dogbath adds, “The personable but warped Mr. Brooks provides a second home for psychopaths at AEI.”
  • Benzaiten comments, “Ok I didn’t finish this article because it was becoming sappy nonsense.”

The internet is a cesspool.

Pastor Rich Nathan on why he opposes abortion

Pastor Nathan lists 10 points, but I’m just showing #3. http://www.richnathan.org/article/10-reasons-why-i-oppose-abortion?

The Christian church throughout history has been pro-life.

 
The Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights argues that the Bible does not forbid abortion. It is absolutely true that there are no explicit verses in the Bible opposing abortion. The reason is because during the biblical era, Jews believed that abortion was unthinkable. They regarded abortion as a form of murder and laws against murder were considered to be sufficient to cover abortion.

In the early church, Christians felt that they needed to take a stand because they were in an entirely different cultural situation. In the Greco-Roman world, both abortion and infanticide were widely practiced. The church unanimously and strongly opposed abortion from its earliest days:

• The Didache (likely written in the first century) says, “Do not murder a child by abortion nor kill it at birth.”
• The second century Epistle of Barnabas says, “You shall not slay a child by abortion.”
• Athenagoras, a second century Greek apologist, wrote, “We say that women who use drugs to bring on abortion commit murder… [for we] regard the very fetus in the womb as a created being, and therefore an object of God’s care.”
• In the early third century the African church father Tertullian wrote, “It does not matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to birth. In both instances, the destruction is murder.”
• In the fourth century, Basil of Caesarea, wrote, “A woman who deliberately destroys a fetus is answerable for murder.”
• In the same century, John Chrysostom, the most esteemed church father in Eastern Orthodoxy said, “Why do you abuse the gift of God… and make the chamber of procreation a chamber for murder?”
• Jerome called abortion, “The murder of an unborn child.”
There’s an unbroken chain of witness from the earliest days of the Christian church to the 20th century voicing strong countercultural opposition to abortion.

If you are interested in reading more of the church’s history of opposition to abortion check out: Third Time Around: A History of the Pro-Life Movement from the First Century to the Present by George Grant.  https://www.amazon.com/Third-Time-Around-Pro-Life-Movement/dp/0943497655

Saturday, January 26, 2019

260th party for Robert Burns

Bobby Burns parties have been celebrated on January 25 since 1801, the 5th anniversary of his death.  So with the rest of the world last night we celebrated with Dave and Donna who have such a party each year.  With many others (I think we were a total of 17) we sat around their table and enjoyed a lovely dinner, telling stories, reading poetry and singing.  I got to wear my “new” kilt.


When an apology isn’t

I don't know how it's done in confession, but I'd not consider Bishop Foys PR move an apology considering his position and the children he insulted.

“We apologize to anyone who has been offended in any way by either of our statements, which were made with goodwill based on the information we had,” said Bishop Foys in the letter, which was addressed to the parents of Covington Catholic students.
“We should not have allowed ourselves to be bullied and pressured into making a statement prematurely, and we take full responsibility for it.” Bishop Roger Foys, Covington, KY

How about something along the lines. . .

"I'm deeply sorry and sincerely apologize to all the students and their parents for the terrible mistake I personally made in misjudging your character and behavior. Rather than waiting and looking at the facts, as adults always tell children to do, I believed rumors and innuendo instead of my own children. I have been guilty of looking out for my own reputation, afraid of being called a racist or a Trump supporter, rather than supporting and loving my own parishioners. Please forgive me."

None of this "we" business, or "to anyone who has been offended" nonsense. That's politicianspeak, and no one trusts it.

http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/covington-bishop-apologizes-to-covington-catholic-students

Friday, January 25, 2019

Cheering for Death by Pro-Choice legislators—scene from Hell

Image may contain: 1 person, text

Intersectionality, multiculturalism, inclusion, and diversity--all except white men

Before the Jews were rounded up and killed, there was first a campaign to demonize them--to depict them as less than human. Is the same thing happening to white men? Not that they will go to the gas chambers--they just won't be able to get a job.

Smiling while White

A white male gaze is considered sexual assault or predatory behavior by some feminists. So if you follow that reasoning, pink hat feminists are outraged by the March for Life because it protects the lives of the preborn. Now follow me here. These White boys from the Catholic school were in town to participate in the March and by wearing a MAGA hat were fair game. You can see why a smile was interpreted as a smirk, but either one, combined with staring while White is cause for feminists who control today's news media to pounce. Sometimes you just have to diagram a sentence or analyze a feminist to get a clear understanding.


Reminder

Print the POLST form and read. http://www.cathmed.org/resources/polst/  Do not sign this form. 
Things are moving quickly.  It was just 2012 that President Obama was still saying that marriage was between a man and a woman.  Were President Trump to say that today it would be more shouts for impeachment.  Polygamy demands were supposed to come after same sex marriage, or incest law revocation, but the transgender lobby  jumped in to use up the coffers for the marriage fight and look how well they’ve done in a very short period of time. We now have unlimited numbers of gender and you can be fired for using the wrong pronoun.  It was just about 3 years ago that the Democrats approved 20 Billion for the wall and now they call it immoral.  So the society and cultural standards are changing quickly.

So after all states start following NY, they’ll be coming after us elderly and disabled or depressed.

Thursday, January 24, 2019

Pastors, not to speak is to speak

Image may contain: 1 person, text 

Pastors and teachers, will your sermons and teachings this week engage the actual world? Or will our passivity give folly and death more ground?

Legalized infanticide in New York. Hate Hoaxes framing innocent bystanders (the Covington kids etc.). Borders open to drugs and crime, with thousands of victims.

I urge every Christian minister to step up to the plate this Sunday. Conviction and courage, friends. In time of war, silence isn't golden. It's yellow.

Be a Bonhoeffer. A Paul. Be like Jesus. Speak, stand, act - because of love. It's time to restore the garden in which we're placed to steward, and to grow.

Kelly Monroe Kullberg, author of Finding God at Harvard and A Faith and Culture Devotional and founder of the Veritas Forum www.veritas.org.

Sorry, Kelly—we’ve never heard a sermon on abortion, on marriage, on war, on drugs, on friendships and relationships destroyed by political animosity—and we never will.

Jeffrey explains how it works today

Jeffrey Varasano:  "I'm old enough to remember when vilification of a 17 year old required that he be accused of grabbing a girl with zero corroboration and an ever changing story. Oh, how I long for those good ole days. Now standing motionless and smiling on video while being provoked by someone banging a drum in your face while his friend tells you to leave the continent, is enough to vilify you, your school, parents and your culture."

In a New York minute

Image may contain: 1 person, smiling, baby and text

This is Diana’s story—a former liberal with a big heart—guest blogger

My story   . . .

I went to the most liberal university in my very liberal state and got myself a degree in sociology. I was a full believer in socialism and Bernie was my hero in 2016. I devoted my working life to helping people. My first job out of college I worked with families involved with the child welfare system hoping to help reunify them with education and advocacy. That system was a little messy and I felt like I could do more to help people so I began a job working with the homeless just before Trump was elected. More on that in a minute . . .

At this time I was studying the results of a socialized healthcare system in countries like the UK and Australia because as a supporter of universal healthcare I wanted to put my money where my mouth was and get the full story on how it would affect Americans. I wanted to be the open minded person I claimed I was. What I learned is that people were losing rights to make their own healthcare choices such as seeking alternative treatment for a child with a terminal illness. Police were barricading hospitals keeping people in. Overall the quality of care for patients was not as good and people had a lot less choices to sum it up. Only good thing was it was “free” if you don’t count the high taxes. I could certainly provide some examples to anyone interested in learning more about that though. Anyway, I realized what a disaster it would actually be for America and I couldn’t support it. I did what all grown up girls should do and admitted I was wrong. Hillary was a war criminal and my formerly leftist self would never have supported her anyway so I did the next best thing and voted for Donald Trump on 11/6/16. The next morning when I learned he had won I was overcome with a sense of RELIEF that I don’t know where it originated. I felt it was a sign.

Continuing on with my work “helping the homeless”. So I worked in a program that would essentially pay for people (anyone that could claim they were homeless) to get an apartment and pay their rent for a short time until they got on their feet. Except that never really happened. We would pay rent for people who flat out refused to work and make a living until they ended up either being given a permanent housing voucher (which they knew was coming) or they got evicted and would come back through the program again later. The program worked in a “collaboration” with other agencies in the area. But this “collaboration” was very political. You weren’t allowed to point out that the program was essentially wasting hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars per MONTH. You were however asked to lobby at the capitol for more funding for these extremely poor performing programs. It was all a dog and pony show. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t have hard feelings for the homeless. But the ideas that most people are fed about homelessness is actually a fraction of what it really is. The really vulnerable homeless people that required quality help were mostly addicts and severely mentally ill, but this comprised maybe 15% of the people we were serving. The rest were capable people who just kept making poor decisions and expecting more and more money to pick up the pieces. The most important lesson I learned here is that subsidies and vouchers and other types of government help don’t solve the problem of poverty. It enables and perpetuates it. This is something I never would have understood before, when I was walking around with my Feel The Bern hoodie on.

The last straw for me was seeing how the liberal media demonized each and every thing our president does! Even good things like criminal justice reform that they could have no basis for criticizing, they just simply don’t report on it. It’s disgusting. I didn’t really like Obama--he was a war criminal and a phony to me but if he did something good I gave him credit for it. And seeing all my friends and family who supposedly believed in love and tolerance and understanding, demonizing people who voted for our president. I volunteered for my state GOP this past year and I was called racist, anti-LGBTQ, anti-women’s rights, etc. JUST for being a registered Republican! People suddenly just seemed so deranged to me. I could go on forever about this really so I’m gonna stop here but I plan to make a blog post about my walk away story and will link it here when I do!

What Obama promised us

There was a time before Obama became president, that he was the ONLY politician in the nation radical enough to vote for something like what New York has just passed. Well, he did promise to fundamentally transform the country, and unfortunately, he did.

But at least when Obama cast his vote against babies, the people of Illinois did not cheer and celebrate (he was a state senator then).

Now that New York has codified the killing of full term babies, they will begin (or continue) the efforts on the other end of life—euthanasia of the elderly or disabled.   Don’t wait.  Print off the POLST form and read it carefully.  You do NOT want to sign this form. But you definitely want to read it. http://www.cathmed.org/resources/polst/

Dr. Gosnell was our biggest mass murderer until the NY legislature and Gov. Cuomo, and now will the doctor at Mt. Carmel hospital in Columbus who has killed 34 patients (more to come) with fentanyl be considered just ahead of his time in euthanasia of the elderly and disabled?
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/doctor-accused-ordering-fatal-doses-dozens-patients-should-have-been-n962336

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The MAGA hat and triggers for the Left

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Cuomo and Pelosi

Abortion and infanticide were common in the pagan cultures where the early Christians lived and worked. Still is, and Christians still need to reject the siren call of the culture.

I'm not a Catholic, but neither are Andrew Cuomo and Nancy Pelosi for their support of killing the unborn, a violation of church teaching since the 1st century. ("Thou shalt do no murder; thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not commit sodomy; thou shalt not commit fornication; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not use magic; thou shalt not use philtres; thou shalt not procure abortion, nor commit infanticide; thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods." The Didache, a document of the church older than the Bible)

This latest crime in NY is beyond belief. Legalize the killing of a baby right up to birth (and make sure she's DOA for that last push with a shot or sucking out her brain). What can they possibly be confessing at the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation that can get them absolved of this sin against humanity and a ticket out of purgatory? They have to find a really liberal priest, is my guess.

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

American press

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New York’s new law was cheered by ghouls

In the last 25 years I've heard the liberals/leftists/Marxists/Democrats redefine a lot of words, but cracking the skull of a baby coming through the birth canal and sucking out her brains so she's DOA then calling it "Reproductive Health" is really Orwellian. And they cheered! Dr. Gosnell will no longer hold the record for killing the most babies.

It “expands abortion for virtually any reason through the third trimester” even allowing abortion on viable babies for financial reasons. Insurance carriers will now be required cover abortion and non-physicians may commit abortions. The law even rescinds protections for babies born alive during an abortion, and will not treat preborn victims of violence as homicide victims."

And it's coming to your state, too.  This is how fearful Democrats are that their flimsy flimflam Roe v. Wade will be over turned, so they are preemptively creating new laws to make it worse.

Can you imagine the evil that undergirds the Trump hatred

A Los Angeles DJ called For Covington Catholic School in Kentucky to be burned down – with kids locked inside.

Since people who voted for Trump are called racists and homophobes, then should we say all who didn’t vote with him, who dislike or hate him or who voted for Clinton, are at the level of this DJ?  Or the person who wanted to put these teens into a wood chopper? Or the SNL writer who offered oral sex to anyone who would smash their faces.  Is that how much all DEMOCRATS hate?

And what about the lily livered Conservatives and Catholic leaders who were willing to believe all the lies? Do you Democrats now like them more?

This incident of a bunch of kids waiting for a bus accosted by a black cult has really revealed some ugliness in the media, the church, and in the Democrats, who have still not condemned this form of child abuse.

Removing the murals of Columbus at Notre Dame

It w as a bad week for Catholic education—teen boys at a Catholic high school have had their lives threatened after being accosted by both blacks and Indians,  and the most prestigious Catholic university was accused of racism, insensitivity, and worse because of murals.  We all know from the removal of the post Civil War statues of Confederate heroes, and removing the name of a modern day hero (Ben Carson) from a school because of his association with the President, that it won’t end here. Robert Royal comments:

“And there’s another side to this story [murals], because slavery and human sacrifice were common in the areas the Spaniards first explored. As Carlos Fuentes, a Mexican novelist and no great friend to Christianity, put it: “One can only imagine the astonishment of the hundreds and thousands of Indians who asked for baptism as they came to realize that they were being asked to adore a god who sacrificed himself for men instead of asking men to sacrifice themselves to gods.”

Still, I would not much defend those murals. They’re mediocre portrayals of a fantasy version of Columbus bringing the Faith to the New World. In purely historical terms, the cringing and humiliated Native Americans correspond to nothing.

My worry is that something larger is afoot.  Because if Notre Dame is going down this path, it might just as well also cover up all the crucifixes and depictions of Christ on campus. Because some might feel excluded and marginalized by them, in our current dispensation.

Jesus, after all, was a “homophobe” who warned, “For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law.” (Matthew 5:17) The Mosaic Law calls homosexual acts an “abomination.” It also says “male and female he created them,” clearly the source of that widespread mental illness “transphobia.””

https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2019/01/23/our-tribal-warfare/?

Why in this day of gender and racial dysphoria does it matter?

Why does it matter if Nathan Phillips says he's a Native American, or a VietNam vet, or if he has lost most of his teeth, or acted in films as an Indian? Why can't African Americans be a lost tribe of Israel and preach hate for gays just because they are black and protected by race? The very media who have created Phillip's fame, also tell us men can be women if they think they are and compete in their athletic events. They tell us if you don't accept a violation of your religious beliefs about marriage you're a hater and shouldn't teach at their school or buy cupcakes at their bakery.

Today, it's all about who you THINK you are. One of the newest socialists in Congress says she's a "woman of color" because she has a Spanish (from a country in Europe the last I looked) surname.

The Jews of India

The Christian missionaries couldn’t convert them, but did aid in their scholarship which benefitted the community. A fascinating article on how the culture is resisted, yet absorbs minorities.

“In the 20th century, the Bene Israel Conference (1917-37) and the All India Israelite League (1918-25) became foci of Bene Israel communal development. Both organizations deliberated upon social, religious, educational, and economic matters affecting the community.

At the end of the 1940s, with India’s total population at 350 million, the Bene Israel population in India peaked at an estimated 24,000 to 25,000.

After 1948, many members of the community began emigrating, mainly from the cities, to the new State of Israel. They were motivated by a combination of three equally compelling factors: a sense of Jewish identity, Zionist idealism, and concern over Bene Israel economic prospects in the newly-independent India.

A minority of Bene Israel emigrated to England, the United States, Canada, or Australia. Large-scale emigration from the Villages did not occur until the early 1970s. Since then, the total number of Bene Israel remaining in India–almost all in urban centers–remains fairly stable at around 5,000.”

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-bene-israel/?

Tuesday, January 22, 2019

A good day at Panera's with Nancy


Never mind, it wasn’t a baby. Stop grieving.

OK, parents, time to stop grieving for that lost child from 1964 or 1980 or last week. It wasn't a baby, you didn't love her, and that red hair and sweet little toes were just in your imagination. She wasn't human and she wasn't your long awaited daughter. New Yorkers believes that. Wait a few years and they'll say the same thing about your toddler.

https://www.lifenews.com/2019/01/16/new-york-bill-allowing-abortions-up-to-birth-says-a-person-is-only-a-human-being-who-has-been-born/?

The “Reproductive Health Act” redefines a “person” as “a human being who has been born and is alive,” according to Breitbart. The state bill also describes abortion as a “fundamental right.”

This language will allow unborn babies to be aborted for basically any reason up to birth in New York. It looks like it will pass in the new Democrat-controlled state legislature this winter. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has threatened to hold up the budget until it does.

The legislation goes beyond Roe v. Wade, allowing abortions even when the Supreme Court has said states may regulate them, according to the pro-life leaders. Late-term abortions, which currently are illegal in New York, would be allowed, and non doctors would be allowed to perform them.

The face of 2020

These past few days through the magic of the twisted media and the ocean of hate on twitter and FB we have seen the 2020 election in the faces of a bunch of Catholic kids waiting for a bus to take them to March for Life in Washington DC. Hate for the unborn and the people trying to save them, and hate for our president--that's all the Democrats have. All you have to do is tell the truth, and their lies will crumble. Be Martin Luther King, Jr. for our time.


Ten Yiddish words that went mainstream

I think I’ve used nine of these ten.  It’s such an interesting language. Nosh, putz, klutz, etc. European Jews have had an amazing influence on our culture, art, entertainment and language.

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/10-yiddish-words-that-went-mainstream/?

10 years ago I blogged about Aaron Lansky and his goal to save Yiddish books.  It’s still interesting given my librarian background, and I’ll have to go back and check on what has happened to that effort. https://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2009/05/saving-culture-through-its-books-99-of.html

Monday, January 21, 2019

Kamala jumps in

I think there are now about 50 Democrats who've thrown their hats into the ring for 2020. They have 2 issues. 1) abort babies, and 2) impeach Trump. Raise taxes on productive Americans might be a close 3rd.

White Christians accosted in DC while waiting for bus

A group of Catholic teens from Covington, KY were in DC for the March for Life this past week-end. The next day while waiting for the bus to take them to the march location they were accosted by both a black supremacist "Hebrew" group and a native American guy who shows up at rallies to protest ancient history. Being kids, they initially thought the Indian was performing and they joined in, before realizing they were under attack. Because a few had MAGA hats, they were fair game. The blacks were shouting gay slurs at the boys—not just reading Bibles as CNN reported. The media ran with the story that the kids were the ones causing the problem, twitter spread it, and their own school didn't support them--of course did no research. Now the full video is out (not the 30 seconds shown on social media). There was racist name calling directed at the teens, and shame on all those fake news sources [and their own school], and congratulations to the kids for keeping their cool until the truth came out. White males are under attack; pro-lifers are under attack; people who support our president are under attack. Our Fox 28 here in Columbus carried the fake story without ever checking for facts.

The clip that went viral was about 30 seconds—but there is full video available.  No taunting even in the viral clip, as CNN claimed. The teen just stood quietly and the total stranger who claims to be an Indian and VietNam vet (to the media) bangs a drum in his face. Remarkable restraint from a 16 year old. CNN should be ashamed for their lies. There's no video of any of the things they accused the kids of. There was no clash. The cult of Hebrew blacks who were calling the children disgusting names about homosexuality and incest, are treated as Biblical prophets by the racist CNN rip and read babe.

The media gave these children more attention than they gave the whole March for Life which was filled with teens and millennials, marching for the lives and rights of the unborn. Little did they know they'd be stripped of their own rights while waiting for a bus. For just standing there singing and goofing around like kids do.

Be very afraid for your sons and brothers, your husbands and friends. Anti-life, anti-Christian Marxism is coming after them, and too many Christians and conservatives are willing to grab at anything they see on-line and take it for truth just so they can run for cover from the lies. Remember the Duke Lacrosse team smear of 2006? That was anti-white, anti-male. That took months to reveal--now it happens in minutes, and lives are ruined, families threatened by internet goons.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/covington-catholic-high-school-students-smeared-by-mainstream-media-lies-dont-expect-an-apology?
https://www.lifenews.com/2019/01/21/networks-spend-19x-more-time-smearing-pro-life-teens-than-reporting-on-march-for-life/?
https://www.glennbeck.com/radio/media-malpractice-the-covington-catholic-teens-would-make-martin-luther-king-jr-proud

What’s come out about Bruce Ohr

“Everybody knew. Everybody of consequence at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Justice Department understood fully in the middle of 2016—as the FBI embarked on its counterintelligence probe of Donald Trump—that it was doing so based on disinformation provided by Hillary Clinton’s campaign. That’s the big revelation from the transcript of the testimony Justice Department official Bruce Ohr gave Congress in August. The transcripts haven’t been released, but parts were confirmed for me [Kimberley A. Strassel]  by congressional sources.”
https://outline.com/ANjgbL

Women earn less cash prize money than men in the sciences

Except the answer is in the article.

“The analysis also shows that when considering all of the awards, women earn 64 cents of prize money for every dollar a man receives, and when cutting out the top and bottom prizes, women winners earn 60 cents of every prize dollar a man receives, the researchers report. Women also tend to disproportionately win awards for service compared with those for research, and they do not win as many prestigious prizes as men. An analysis of the most prestigious prizes shows women received only 11.3 percent of them over the 50 years reviewed; they received 5.1 percent of them between 1968 and 1977 and 17.4 percent of them between 2008 and 2017.”

If women disproportionately win awards for service (more time), and win the less prestigious prizes (less money) why would one expect the outcomes to be the same?  Maybe women enjoy the service aspect (like serving on committees) and maybe they don’t compete at the higher levels because they have chosen different career paths.  In the last decade this has changed—women are competing at higher levels than before.  They may be good, but what have they taken out of their lives?  Marriage and children?

How many women were getting PhDs in the sciences between 1968 and 1977?  Maybe 11.3% is more than their population would represent? How many American Indians have received a prestigious cash prize?  How many transwomen?  That question is coming too. And when a transwoman receives a prize, will he be counted as a woman or man?  And are the women scientists earning more than the women grad students, or the women administrative assistants?  Let’s look at all the gaps.

Sunday, January 20, 2019

The so-called pay gap

“Feminists, and leading politicians, make much of the so-called gender pay gap which ostensibly favours men. But actually women under 35 years old and working full time have a higher median hourly pay rate than men of the same age. In view of the greater number of women graduates, this disparity in favour of young women is set to increase. Any pay gap in favour of men sets in only once a woman has children. This is due to the woman’s diminished commitment to work due to preferring to prioritise child care instead (and the new father’s increased commitment to work in order to earn more to support the family). The so-called pay gap is actually a parenting gap. That the much vaunted pay gap is not valid is now admitted even by some feminists, e.g., Hannah Rosin who has used the observation of women’s higher pay to support her triumphalist cry of “The End of Men” (book title). When women earned less it was discrimination, now that men earn less it is because men are useless has-beens. Nice.” Introduction to the Disadvantages faced by Men and Boys

http://empathygap.uk/?page_id=22

As Canada goes, so goes the U.S.?

There are a number of excellent Canadian conservatives that have done well with YouTube channels. Jordan Peterson, Stefan Molyneux, Gad Saad, Janice Fiamengo, Rick Mehta. I think they are being silenced by Big Tech.

Janice Fiamengo is a favorite of mine—I haven’t found much recent on her YouTube channels. She has no charisma and a voice that could put you to sleep, but she's delightfully smart and perceptive. The first is an interview on Rubin Report, but he's being censored, too. Don't know how long we'll be able to watch him. Even being gay didn't protect him. Having unapproved thoughts by Left Mafia can seriously impact your income on the internet.  If you have sons, brothers, boyfriend or husband, look out. Their jobs and reputations could be destroyed and no one will protect them.

https://youtu.be/tm7gGEgVXRw  Rubin Report

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PtNzMjvves Professor’s course cancelled

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFO4xvnv_DM  The Gillette ad

Guessing compliments will get you further than insults. Ya think?

Image may contain: one or more people, crowd and text  Use farther for physical distance, further for metaphorical.

Actually, none of us can survive without help at any age

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“Every strong woman was once a helpless child.”

And we still are.  That part of our humanity doesn’t change, there are just degrees.  I don’t grow my own food or make my own clothes or drive a van that I put together. I’m much more helpless than my Ohio great great grandmothers who could manage chickens, gardens and trim a lamp wick and help the neighbors birth the babies.

The issue is life, not helplessness. At both ends of the spectrum.  I chatted with my friend Rosalie at the grocery store on Thursday who is the care giver for her 90 year old husband who can’t leave the house, or even the floor he is living on. His mind is good, but his body has failed him.  Take care—they may be after the unborn now, but they are also going after the ones who can’t fight back.

Watch out for POLST. http://www.cathmed.org/resources/polst/  POLST is spreading rapidly across the United States as a result of a concerted campaign by euthanasia advocacy groups, including Open Society (George Soros).

Who’s responsible for the immigration mess?

Not Donald J. Trump.

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Remember how Obama blamed Bush for 4 years for the recession and then set out to make it worse? Slowest recovery since the 30s when FDR tried the same tricks with the economy. The “experts” are still trying to figure out what happened.  Along comes Trump who asks for 1/4 of what the Democrats promised during the last administration, who suggests a deal to correct the DACA executive order mess which Obama illegally foisted on us, but they are terrified to give him another win like he's done with the courts, the economy and the prison system.  This is not about illegal aliens, it’s about stopping Donald Trump’s second term.

Saturday, January 19, 2019

How to handle a few inches of snow

When I was in college, there was no e-mail, and the dorms had only one phone to a floor, so we couldn’t even take messages from the college administration on how to handle a few inches of snow. It was just one of those things it was assumed we had learned from our parents who had lived through the Great Depression and walked to school uphill both ways in 6 feet of snow.

This is what Ohio State University sent out to the “campus community.”  I’ve been retired for 18 years, and I still hear from them.

“The safety of our campus community is our top priority. Please remember to take precautions while traveling in winter weather.

  • Plan ahead and allow extra time.
  • Check scheduled activities in advance to make sure there are no changes or cancellations.
  • Dress appropriately for the weather (boots, hat, gloves).
  • While walking, take it slow to avoid slipping.
  • While driving, allow additional distance between your vehicle and the vehicle in front of you.
  • Know your route and pay special attention to changing and/or declining weather conditions.”

March for Life, January 18, 2019




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XACCdre_tk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkrJawCk7J0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAmHrvlGflw&fbclid=IwAR0JxghEc500yyU0XHp7bZbDmKz0atpiUUDfZjHN6sqRyU80ODsef1LeUjU

I watched the very inspiring March for Life on EWTN. If you ever want to see REAL diversity, inclusion, multiculturalism and LOVE, that's the place to be. Catholics, Evangelicals, Mormons, Muslims, atheists, black, white, brown, men, women, children, teens, elderly, toddlers, in utero babies, politicians, bakers and candle stick makers. All united on one issue--life is precious, don't kill the most vulnerable, alone and helpless just because they are appearing at an inconvenient time, or are disabled, or are female.

The reason Democrats demand open borders is because we can no longer populate our own country. Families are the safety net, and now that government wants that job too they have to make sure there are bodies to fill those jobs to pay for their plan. Promote divorce, promote living together outside marriage, make sure women can't be fulfilled without being a wage slave, make sure she's paying off college debt for 2 decades so there's no time for babies and children, tell people there's no difference between sexes, so why even have sex, make women think they are both helpless and yet powerful. Perfect recipe for disaster.

And today the counter march--the feminists, Marxists, pro-abortion, government paid labor, elderly boomers--all marching to kill off the family, lower the birth rate, and destroy the nation. It will be promoted by the MSM because who needs people, anyway, to buy the lies?



We’re under a snow watch, but nothing is happening

No photo description available.

Lucille Snodgrass, 1919-2019

I heard this week that Lucille Snodgrass,  the mother of my high school friend Nancy Snodgrass Falzone, had passed away.  She was living at Pinecrest in Mt. Morris, and we should all have a devoted daughter like Nancy—or even a good friend like my brother who visited her there.  Nancy and I used to ride horses together as children, so I remember Lucille and husband Bill who died in 1989 from their days on the farm on Mud Creek Road between Mt. Morris and Oregon.  I’d only seen her a few times in the last 50 years, but my memory of her is a sweet, beautiful, charming, classy gal who was a lot of fun.  I think her passing is the last of the “mothers” that I knew since the 1940s-1950s. I wrote this poem over 20 years ago,  after so many of the women I knew had died, although there were some, including my own mother, who were still alive.

The Mothers of Our Childhood
by Norma J. Bruce
February 20, 1997

I have filed a report
and sounded the alarm.
We are missing the Mothers:
They're nowhere to be found.

Strong women disappeared while
I was living away.
Perhaps a moment ago,
a year or a decade.

Housewife, retailer, artist;
teacher, farmer and clerk.
Secretary, volunteer;
No doctor, lawyer, chief.

Velda, Gladys, Marian, Mildred;
Rosalie, Rita, Rose, and Ruth;
Alice, Hazel, Ada, and Esther:
Born during the century's youth.

Finish this list of Mothers
while I go look around.
No, the veil closed behind them;
they're gone. We are alone.

When I searched her name, I found her wedding announcement on a genealogy page for the Freeport Journal Standard:

“10 Sep 1938 : Miss Lucille Moore, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Irvin Roy Moore, North Henderson road, and William Snodgrass, son of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Snodgrass, Mt. Morris, were united in marriage this morning at 10 o'clock at the parsonage of the Trinity Lutheran Church in Mt. Morris, the pastor, Dr. C. H. Hightower, performing the single ring ceremony.
       The bride was dressed in a boy blue dress with Alencon lace jackette, and her accessories were navy blue.She carried a bouquet of pink roses.
       The attendants were Miss Betty Peterson and Ralph Satterfield of Mt. Morris.
       After the ceremony the bride and groom left on a wedding trip to Omaha, Neb., and Denver, Colo.The bride's traveling outfit was a navy blue taffeta ensemble with rust accessories. On their return they will reside with the groom's parents on their farm home near Mt. Morris.”

I know a little bit more about Lucille and Bill than the parents of my other friends because Nancy kept a book of memories, and when she was 69, she put it all together with photos, and made a number of copies, of which I am the owner of one. It includes a wedding photo.  Nancy wrote that her mom was born September 9, 1919, so  she  almost made it to 100—which seems to be pretty common in Mt. Morris.  In addition to working alongside her husband on the farm she also worked at the Conover Cable Piano Factory in Oregon, then later at the Mt. Morris Cleaners

Friday, January 18, 2019

She's finally put her family together


This is my high school classmate Ebba, and her family—in a puzzle which she has put together. She’s in the front row between grandchildren in a red sweater. [Facebook photo]

Wouldn’t it be nice if it were this easy!

 
Ebba's Jan. 6, 1964 wedding.  Jerry died in 2004. 


Rep. Steven King is being condemned

for defending Western Civilization.  The Republicans are actually the “stupid party” for letting the Democrats trap them.

The only white supremacists we’ve had in Congress were Democrats—like Robert Byrd, who was praised at his funeral/memorial by leading Democrats.  He actually was a member of the KKK, as was President (former Senator) Lyndon Johnson.

Democrats’ agenda on abortion kills more blacks in 4 days than their terrorist lynchings did in 80 years.

Jennifer, mother of 5, has lost friends. . .

She was always a Conservative, always a Christian, and enjoyed friends from  many different lifestyles, until . . .

“I always found a lot of fulfillment in having open conversations with people unlike me- and enjoyed growing and learning from all new perspectives, upbringings, and cultures and religions- it made me proud to be American and felt it embraced free speech and thought.

I became so disheartened over the past few years as it became obvious those kinds of conversations could no longer be had by my many of my friends and family that ran along a more left or liberal leaning line- since voting for Trump I have lost two of my lifelong best childhood friends - friends that were like sisters for 25 years or more.  I was devastated to be called a bigot and a racist and worse- a fake and hypocritical Christian simply for my conservative beliefs- and the told we could no longer be friends.   I was in shock.  Even though I never supported Hillary,  it didn’t even occur to me to end friendships over someone else’s difference in opinion or political views.”

I feel your pain, Jennifer. [from her Walk Away post on Facebook]

The 100th day

At this private Christian school in Indianapolis the children (I think it’s first grade) celebrate their 100th day by decorating t-shirts.  And they are all ours!  These beautiful dumplings are the grandchildren of our niece Joanie who teaches at the school.  That makes them our great grand nieces and nephews—or whatever you call the great grandchildren of your sister in law. Halli, Kalli, Jaxson and Anthony.

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Orwellian pleasantries

I’ve been cleaning off my desk this morning, tossing old church bulletins, returned Christmas cards with the wrong address,  articles to read printed from the internet on crime statistics and nutrition, pieces of Fritos and cookies, and came across a quote I had jotted down while reading the website Priceton.org.

“Whenever one hears the dreaded Orwellian pleasantries ‘diversity,’ ‘tolerance,’ or ‘inclusion,’ one knows that another of one’s fundamental, democratic liberties is about to be rescinded by the revolutionary guard of progressive orthodoxy.”  Harley Price.

I think I’ll keep that one and use it when I return a request to review a book or interview an author.  Sounds better than “Are you kidding me?”

Pelosi and Trump squabble

“Due to the Shutdown, I am sorry to inform you that your trip to Brussels, Egypt, and Afghanistan has been postponed," the president wrote the speaker of the House of Representatives. “We will reschedule this seven-day excursion when the Shutdown is over. In light of the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay, I am sure you would agree that postponing this public relations event is totally appropriate.”
She attempted to embarrass Trump with her demand he postpone the address to the nation because of the shut down,  and there wouldn’t be enough security, so he grounded her flight for the same lame reason.
But also she over uses her “free flights” around the world.
We usually have ABC on in the morning when Bob eats breakfast to keep track of the weather, which breaks in with local coverage, but I tell you, the bias and junk we get from broadcast is about as bad as CNN. If they keep using the word “bombshell” to describe every tidbit from Buzzfeed and Politico, they become the child who called wolf. They are working overtime not only to impeach Trump but to disenfranchise everyone who voted for Trump by declaring 2016 invalid.  That puts Nancy in the President’s seat.

Thursday, January 17, 2019

The True Minimum Wage

“The Democrats seek to more than double the federal minimum wage. “A $15 federal minimum wage affirms the bedrock idea of fairness in our country: that hard work deserves a decent wage,” Speaker Pelosi claims. But as Milton Friedman pointed out, “The true minimum wage rate is zero—the amount an unemployed person receives from his nonexistent employer.”” Dan Flynn

Only 2.9% of American workers are earning minimum. and most of those live in households well above the poverty level, because they aren’t the primary earner.  So this is nothing but posturing, most low income families would reduce their hours rather than lose the government benefits like SNAP, Section 8, Medicaid.

Leftists attack minority female—Trump pick

Neomi Rao, a 45-year-old Indian-American, has become the latest target of liberal activist groups and media smears, including BuzzFeed News, CNN, Mother Jones, Alliance for Justice, and Lambda Legal.

No one is safe from these vultures.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2019/01/16/the-left-attacks-trumps-pick-to-replace-brett-kavanaugh-for-her-smart-college-writings/?

“Take the example of Rao’s 1994 op-ed in The Yale Herald, headlined “Shades of Gray,” where she did indeed write that if a woman “drinks to the point where she can no longer choose, well, getting to that point was part of her choice.”

Activist groups are twisting this line to suggest Rao believes it’s women’s fault when they get raped, but that’s not what she said at all.

Rao wrote firmly that men should be prosecuted and held responsible for rape—not once, but twice, in case the point wasn’t clear.

“A man who rapes a drunk girl should be prosecuted. At the same time, a good way to avoid a potential date rape is to stay reasonably sober,” she wrote.”
Makes sense to me.  Women shouldn’t get drunk and men shouldn’t assault drunk women.

Drugs at the border, report of 2016

“Over the past several years, the nation has seen an uptick in the use and abuse of opioids—both prescription substances and non-prescription substances such as heroin. The estimated number of individuals who had used heroin was 914,000 in 2014. Further, about 586,000 individuals (0.2% of the 12 and older population) had a heroin use disorder in 2014. In addition to an increase in heroin use over the past several years, there has been a simultaneous increase in its availability in the United States. This has been fueled by a number of factors, including increased production and trafficking of heroin—principally by Mexican criminal networks.”

“Mexican transnational criminal organizations are the major suppliers and key producers of most illegal drugs smuggled into the United States. They have been increasing their share of the U.S. drug market—particularly with respect to heroin. The United States still receives a large portion of heroin from South America (primarily Colombia) and, to a much lesser extent, Southwest Asia. In order to facilitate the distribution and sale of drugs in the United States, Mexican drug traffickers have formed relationships with U.S. street, prison, and outlaw motorcycle gangs. Although these gangs have historically been involved with retail-level drug distribution, their ties to the Mexican criminal networks have allowed them to become increasingly involved at the wholesale level as well. The bulk of heroin smuggled into the United States transits across the Southwest border. From 2010 to 2015, heroin seizures in this area more than doubled from 1,016 kg to 2,524 kg. This trend mirrors the increase in overall seizures throughout the country. Further, there has been an increase in federal arrests and prosecutions of heroin traffickers. In 2015, for example, the Drug Enforcement Administration made 6,353 heroin-related arrests. In addition, U.S. Sentencing Commission data indicate that from 2011 to 2015, the number of individuals sentenced for heroin trafficking offenses in U.S. District Courts increased by nearly 50%. “

Heroin Trafficking in the United States, by Kristin Finklea, Specialist in Domestic Security, August 23, 2016

Is Donald Trump your President?

What happened on the way to economic recovery? Was it Obama?

https://www.bostonfed.org/news-and-events/speeches/2016/after-the-great-recession-a-not-so-great-recovery.aspx   This is the link to the summary, and you can open the text with a click.

Shortly before the 2016 election there was the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston's 60th Economic Conference, with president Eric Rosengren exploring what went wrong in the recovery from the recession.  Technically it was over by June 2009, and Obama’s goosing the economy with payouts to special interests and bail outs hadn’t even gotten out the door.

Without ever getting to the heart of it (I personally think it was Obama’s personality and negativity that caused workers and investors to hold back with a wait and see attitude) Rosengren lists

changing demographics

falling labor participation

higher savings rate (imagine complaining that people were holding on to their own money and not buying stuff they didn’t need)

low inflation

even when full employment returned, the economy was sluggish

low federal funds rate

treasury rates low

price to earning ratio for stocks were low

rents were low

rapid appreciation in commercial real estate

capitalization rates were at historic lows

Conclusion:  Recovery was mostly bad news and it may be the new “normal.”

Hmmm.  Maybe not Mr. Rosengren.

Data on employment

I don’t know why, but Mercer County Ohio seems to have the lowest unemployment rate in the state, 2.4. It’s on the Indiana border, which seems to have a lower unemployment rate than Ohio, and did all during the very slow recovery. The highest unemployment rate in November 2018 was Monroe County, at 7.1. It is located on the eastern border of  of Ohio, across the Ohio River from West Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was only 14,642, making it the second-least populous county in Ohio. If you want to be alone, this is your county--the county averages thirty-three people per square mile. Major employers are the county government, the schools and nursing homes.

I found this by looking at “Local Area Unemployment Statistics Map” of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and clicking on Ohio, then placing the cursor over the various counties which were shaded according to unemployment rates, with the lightest color being the least unemployment.  https://data.bls.gov/map/MapToolServlet    From there you can go to https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045218 and type in the county name in the search window for more facts about the county.

Since I’ve never applied for unemployment I do wonder why some counties that are high are right next to counties that are low, but generally those counties in Appalachia are higher than the counties next to Indiana. Poor transportation?  Low education rates?  Monroe’s graduation rate is 87.9 and Mercer’s 92.7—both above the national average.  Health insurance?  Monroe County has 7.8% who don’t have insurance, and Mercer 5.6%.  Both counties are over 97% white.  But the poverty rate in Monroe is 15.2 and Mercer is 6.9, and disability is much higher in Monroe, 13.7 compared to 6 for Mercer.

See?  Even with the employees furloughed, there’s a lot of information out there from the U.S. Census.

I got a compliment

on my research skills and a question on how did someone from academe ever become a conservative! And I responded:

“ I was completely apolitical until about age 55—when my husband went into business for himself and I had to start paying attention to silly things like taxes and insurance—something the state of Ohio had always done for me. I was the perfect state employee—rarely asked how Ohio  was going to meet all those pension obligations that paid 2 or 3 times what Social Security does. And frankly, being a Republican isn’t that much fun since we elect such wimps and liars!  Being a self-righteous Democrat was much nicer.  Did you see where Ohio’s Republican governor (until 2 weeks ago) has taken a job with CNN?  Just infuriates me.  What a turn coat!!!  Right now I’m using my research skills on “growing older with health and vitality.”    I think we’ve attended 6-7 funerals in the past 6 months. We called a good friend Sunday to find out why we didn’t get a Christmas card,** and he told us his wife now has Alzheimer’s.  She always handled that stuff, and he now has diabetes and congestive heart failure.  This getting old is getting old . . . .  But occasionally there’s something interesting on our group list to respond to.”

**These days, when we don’t hear from friends or relatives, we know it’s because of Trump, but we knew this guy’s politics so figured it was something else.

As far as being an academic, yes, conservatives are a dying breed on campus because “you dance with the one who brung ya’.”