Monday, May 31, 2021

New study from Europe suggests evidence Covid19 comes from lab

 An explosive new study claims researchers found 'unique fingerprints' in COVID-19 samples that they say could only have arisen from manipulation in a laboratory

DailyMail.com exclusively obtained the new 22-page paper authored by British Professor Angus Dalgleish and Norwegian scientist Dr. Birger Sørensen set to be published in the Quarterly Review of Biophysics Discovery

The study showed there's evidence to suggest Chinese scientists created the virus while working on a Gain of Function project in a Wuhan lab
 
Gain of Function research, which was temporarily outlawed in the US, involves altering naturally-occurring viruses to make them more infectious in order to study their potential effects on humans
 
According to the paper, Chinese scientists took a natural coronavirus 'backbone' found in Chinese cave bats and spliced onto it a new 'spike', turning it into the deadly and highly transmissible COVID-19

The researchers, who concluded that COVID-19 'has no credible natural ancestor', also believe scientists reverse-engineered versions of the virus to cover up their tracks

'We think that there have been retro-engineered viruses created,' Dalgleish told DailyMail.com. 'They've changed the virus, then tried to make out it was in a sequence years ago.'

The study also points to 'deliberate destruction, concealment or contamination of data' in Chinese labs and notes that 'scientists who wished to share their findings haven't been able to do so or have disappeared'
 
Until recently, most experts had staunchly denied the origins of the virus were anything other than a natural infection leaping from animals to humans

Earlier this week, Dr. Anthony Fauci defended US funding of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, saying the $600,000 grant was not approved for Gain of Function research

Chinese scientists created COVID-19 in a lab and then tried to cover their tracks, new study claims | Daily Mail Online

Memorial Day, 2021

 Our terrible storms on Lake Erie have cleared out (Port Clinton was in a state of emergency) and the holiday to memorialize the fallen heroes of our wars has appeared warm and sunny.

I walked to the Wellness Center on Sixth St. (about a mile) and then spent 3 miles on the exercycle.  The cycle had been moved (and maybe replaced, not sure) to a different window, so I couldn't see the pool.  However, I did see the small woods and open lot, and had the fun of watching a young deer nibbling tender shoots for breakfast.  I walked back home through the woods and Seventh Street rather than walk along the lake, the lakefront still being strewn with debris from the storm.  So I had five miles in before 8 a.m.

Then at 10:30 I went to the Memorial Day event on the lawn in front of the pavilion, and enjoyed it immensely.  We are usually not in Lakeside on this holiday, and I found the small town atmosphere with a mayor and city council (from Marblehead), and locals telling about the service of their fathers in WWII quite moving. One man's father had been in the Philippines waiting for the invasion of Japan, when the bomb was dropped.  He said there was much rejoicing--something we don't often hear about that terrible loss of Japanese people, yet it did save thousands of American lives. One woman told of her own father whose 4 year enlistment was up on December 8, 1941, so he was commanded to remain another 4 years. She was born after he returned after the war.  Bob Grim, head of the Lakeside Board also told of visiting Normandy with a 95 year old veteran who had been there when he was 19 years old. 

I sat next to a woman, my age or older, whose name was Nancy.  It was her first time in Lakeside and she was quite charmed by it all.

I took me back over 75 years, probably a year or so after WWII to the Memorial Day service in Mt. Morris.  The rifle salute scared me then as much as today, but I knew my Dad was home. I also thought about Uncle Clare, killed in 1944 in China and how my mom and grandparents grieved. Collecting My Thoughts: Remembering Uncle Clare on Memorial Day

Five characteristics of successful civilizations, guest blogger Michael Smitih

Earlier Michael wrote:  "It is hard for anyone with an open mind to look at the policies and executive orders of the Biden administration, contrast and compare them with those of the Trump administration, and not see the Democrat's total, unrestricted, all-out war on every aspect of America - what she is, who we are and how we live.

You can see the attacks accelerating, the condescension and threats are turning into actions - if they cannot bring us to heel with laws, rules, and regulations, if they can't make every single one of us a dependent beggar, they will make your savings worthless and break the entire country with spending and debt."

That passage made me think about how I once proposed that the most successful and long-lived civilizations of history have the five characteristics in common, that the loss of any one of the five results in decline, loss of more than one results the fall of the civilization. In these civilizations, the overwhelming majority of their members share:

• A common theism,
• A common ideology,
• A common culture,
• A love of the aforementioned, and
• A willingness to defend all the above (with deadly force and to the death, if necessary).

A common theism is important – to be a unified civilization and survive challenges from other, competing civilizations, there must be a unity at a spiritual level. Contrary to what our ruling class and the elite academia believe; the rise of Islamic terrorism is not driven by economic or political motives. Most academics and devotees of secularism deny that Islamic terrorism has a religious and spiritual genesis because they give little or no credence to their own spirituality and are motivated by a form of dialectic materialism rooted in their own fealty to socialism and communism. Jihadis come from all strata of Islamic and Western society, we have seen the wealthy and the poor, the educated and the ignorant become agents of human destruction. Islamists conceptualize this “struggle” as Islam versus the infidels – this is the only dimension they understand. If Western civilization cannot unite behind a single, motivating, spiritual organizing principle, it will fall. The Crusades are often thought of in pejorative terms but in more visceral times, the Islamic threat was far more obvious and therefore imminently more visible.

A common ideology (and by ideology, I mean a concept of freedom, liberty, and the governance necessary to preserve them) is also necessary. A common understanding of the political process, the legal environment and a broad understanding of the governing structure is essential. To avoid an arbitrary and capricious nature of savagery, people must be able to predict how their interactions will affect others and what the reaction from those “others” will be. This commonality must also be as minimal as possible – for it to bind all the civilization, it must be simple and clear enough to be understood by the most common of men in that civilization.

Like ideology, a common culture is required – and this does not mean that it is unchanging or without variation, just that it is shared across the civilization as new, unharmful and enhancing aspects of other varying cultures are assimilated (and assimilated is the key point). Important aspects providing strength to a civilization are the stability and predictability brought about by the common bonds between its people – Rousseau called it a social compact or contract. It is the mutual understanding of how things are going to work in society and what are the expectations of, and duties between, members of the civilization.

It goes without saying that the members of a given civilization must love it – that is to be totally and completely devoted to it. Members must value liberty, the systems that protect it, the culture that drives it and the spirituality that preserves it. Absent that level of devotion, the final aspect of defense is impossible - the willingness to defend the civilization with force and with the risk of one’s own life.
For better or worse, it seems clear that Western civilization has witnessed varying degrees of success in the intermixing of these five characteristics. It is a personal belief that America’s success has resulted from
 a) Christianity, 
b) the classical liberalism of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, 
c) the unique American ability to assimilate the best of the world’s cultures and create a singular American culture, 
d) the nationalism and patriotism of American exceptionalism and 
e) the willingness to expend its treasure and give the ultimate sacrifice of American lives to defend the ideals incorporated in these five characteristics and to provide the opportunity for the rest of the world to benefit from them as well.

America’s decline is not an inevitability; it is a choice – we are choosing to violate the characteristics of success (or at least we are not stopping those who are).

Every single one of these five characteristics are under active (and passive) attack. Given that the failure of one set us on a path to destruction, it is not a stretch to imagine that multiple violations of all five will spell our end just as it has the great civilizations of antiquity.

Saturday, May 29, 2021

Biden wants $2 Trillion for infrastructure

Who owns U.S. Infrastructure? Not the federal government. So with a $2 Trillion request from Biden for something it doesn't own, where is the money going? State and local governments and the private sector own 97% of the nation’s nondefense infrastructure, and they fund 94% of it. This is just a "green new deal" tax. In other words, a pay back to unions, oligarchs and party hacks for getting Biden into office.

Dave Ramsey says Millionaires are made, not born.

79% of millionaires in the United States didn't inherit ANY money.

Our team conducted the largest study of millionaires EVER. The top 3 careers of the over 10,000 millionaires we talked to were, 
1. Engineer 
2. Accountant 
3. Teacher. 
They became millionaires through consistent investing, avoiding debt like the plague, and smart spending. No lottery tickets. No inheritances. No six-figure incomes.

You have what it takes to build wealth and leave a financial legacy. Stay the course. You got this!

Thursday, May 27, 2021

A look at Lakeside's weather for the holiday week-end

I read this on Facebook.  Temps have dropped (Thursday evening).

"For those packing for the weekend - here's a quick heads up that the weather starts off  HORRIBLE! Friday will be wet and cold and windy, with steady rain all morning turning to showers in the afternoon. High temps barely above 60 (so plenty of room at the pool.  Winds will be blowing steadily out of the northeast all day, turning quite strong by Friday evening with gusts > 35mph at times. So no dock walks either .

Saturday will still be chilly but drier with some sunshine (although the NWS still says there is a chance of showers until 2 pm, I just don't see that as much of a threat after sunrise at the latest.) Highs in the 60s.

Back to near 70 with sunshine by Sunday and well into the 70s and dry Memorial Day too."

When lie dresses like truth

The Lie said to the Truth, "Let's take a bath together, the well water is very nice. The Truth, still suspicious, tested the water and found out it really was nice. So they got naked and bathed. But suddenly, the Lie leapt out of the water and fled, wearing the clothes of the Truth.

The Truth, furious, climbed out of the well to get her clothes back. But the World, upon seeing the naked Truth, looked away, with anger and contempt. Poor Truth returned to the well and disappeared forever, hiding her shame. Since then, the Lie runs around the world, dressed as the Truth, and society is very happy...

Because the world has no desire to know the naked Truth.

Painting: Truth Coming Out Of The Well, Jean-Léon Gérome, 1896.




Wednesday, May 26, 2021

What is the Palestinian state?


Posted at the Thomas Sowell Foundation:

“A crash course on history of PALESTINIAN STATE:

1. Before Israel, there was a British mandate, not a Palestinian state
2. Before the British Mandate, there was the Ottoman Empire, not a Palestinian state.
3. Before the Ottoman Empire, there was the Islamic state of the Mamluks of Egypt, not a Palestinian state.
4. Before the Islamic state of the Mamluks of Egypt, there was the Ayubid Arab-Kurdish Empire, not a Palestinian state.
5. Before the Ayubid Empire, there was the Frankish and Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem, not a Palestinian state.
6. Before the Kingdom of Jerusalem, there was the Umayyad and Fatimid empires, not a Palestinian state.
7. Before the Umayyad and Fatimid empires, there was the Byzantine empire, not a Palestinian state.
8. Before the Byzantine Empire, there were the Sassanids, not a Palestinian state.
9. Before the Sassanid Empire, there was the Byzantine Empire, not a Palestinian state.
10. Before the Byzantine Empire, there was the Roman Empire, not a Palestinian state.
11. Before the Roman Empire, there was the Hasmonean state, not a Palestinian state.
12. Before the Hasmonean state, there was the Seleucid, not a Palestinian state.
13. Before the Seleucid empire, there was the empire of Alexander the Great, not a Palestinian state.
14. Before the empire of Alexander the Great, there was the Persian empire, not a Palestinian state.
15. Before the Persian Empire, there was the Babylonian Empire, not a Palestinian state.
16. Before the Babylonian Empire, there were the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, not a Palestinian state.
17. Before the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, there was the Kingdom of Israel, not a Palestinian state.
18. Before the kingdom of Israel, there was the theocracy of the twelve tribes of Israel, not a Palestinian state.
19. Before the theocracy of the twelve tribes of Israel, there was an agglomeration of independent Canaanite city-kingdoms, not a Palestinian state.
20. Actually, in this piece of land there has been everything, EXCEPT A PALESTINIAN STATE.”

Tuesday, May 25, 2021

A day of small pleasures, May 25

Beautiful day in Lakeside with a walk through the neighborhoods to observe the new builds and remodeling, and lunch on the deck.  The internet down for 5 hours, just as were admiring all the work our daughter had done to add new features to our Roku and get everything up and running. We are planning to try out the Slack House historic cafe this evening. It's named for an old residence/former boarding house that was removed in the early 60s when the mentality was tear it down and build something new. Now it's in the building that replaced it. Each generation and director has fresh ideas--some work, and some don't. I visited the new archives site today, in the location of the old "Shadetree" a store of many evolving tastes.  I will miss the former archivist, Dakota. I also visited the Memorial Garden on my morning walk where Phil's ashes were placed last August. I can find the spot because of the dwarf iris which bloom early, are hardy and carefree, and the young oak shading the spot. It was lovely and quiet at sunrise.

Saturday, May 22, 2021

First day back at the lake May 22, 2021

We ran into the usual detour on Rt. 4—but every year in a different place, so we get to see something new. This time we were routed through Bellvue on 269. Many people always take that route, but it is 6-7 miles longer. More scenic, however.

Sitting on the porch last evening we saw and talked to as many people in one evening as we would in a week or two in Columbus. Scott and Carol our neighbors next door, Ross our neighbor across the street, both Bob and Martha neighbors half a block south of us, Tom and Lori almost neighbors 2 blocks, Jon and Katie neighbors one block north, and we saw Don, a former neighbor in Columbus who has moved further to the east of us here, out jogging while we ate dinner on the deck. Today I ran into Steve, our neighbor who is a retired antique dealer and getting ready for next week’s sale. Stopped at the Patio Restaurant and bought 4 donuts and saw the owner’s son. Walked to the little grocery store and saw Ray, and got a free cupcake from his granddaughter’s graduation party last night. Yes, there are many people around this week-end.

One block to the east of us is Lynn Avenue, and we found out 3 male neighbors died over the winter. One was going through an incredible remodeling—turning a very modest cottage into something quite spectacular—even moved the house briefly and put in a basement. Our properties almost touch although we’ve only met them at one party when Scott and Carol were celebrating their 50th. So now his widow is left to see this through without him, and he was only 55. Last year it was our street. Our son Phil died, Jan’s niece whom I remember from when she visited as a child, Jon and Katie’s daughter in law, Claude’s wife Brenda across the street, and another neighbor we always spoke to as she walked her dog, but didn't know her name.

Friday, May 21, 2021

Patent protection

Is Biden discouraging patent protection? "The announcement that the United States might waive intellectual property rights could stymie the discovery and deployment of new vaccines; returning us to the same vulnerable position we occupied in the closing days of 2019. All the wiser and yet, somehow, not. While I remain firmly in the camp that the patent system needs to be updated and reformed, we must appreciate that patents do indeed provide an incentive for innovation."

Wednesday, May 19, 2021

Catalog browsing--Uline

I just love sitting down with the 800+ page Uline catalog. Oh sure, you can read it on line, but it brings back the memories of the old Sears and Roebuck, or the Montgomery Ward catalogs. Mom would give us the old one for craft and paper doll projects when the new one arrived. (Yes, and in the 40s some still used them for t.p.) The real name of the family is Uihlein, but it's been simplified for customers. Everything from pegboards to zippered partitions, from key holders to trash cans, from stretch wrap to label guns, from respirators to wall clocks. And the packages and tape to ship them. They've got boxes to ship your art, guitar, unicycle, dishes, wardrobe, wine, and drum set.

I've written about this catalog before. Collecting My Thoughts: Enjoying the Uline Catalog

Collecting My Thoughts: Thank you, Uihlein family

Liz, the president, writes interesting tidbits. In 2019 she compared Texas and California where they have companies, and California didn't look too good because of taxes, regulations, cost of living and gas prices. This year it's China, Covid and U.S. policy. She is very pro-American, and admits it's hard to compete with China, although about 20% of their products come from China. She says publicly held companies are too concerned about their stock share price and don't invest enough in new equipment and up date their plants. She liked Trump's support of American companies, and his "America First" philosophy. She wants a clearly defined policy because Democrats are trying to undo the lower taxes, increase in tariffs, Trump's new trade deals, and stopping the endless wars which were bad for security and the economy.

She writes, "America sorely needs a coherent, largely united trade policy. If we don't get this done, this century belongs to the Chinese."

You go girl--you make more sense than most of Congress.

Joe Biden mixes family with fuel

In 2004 and 2008 Joe Biden told conflicting stories about coal mining in his family, and now he's done it again at the Ford Electric Vehicle Center in May 2021. Actually, I don't care what his grandfather did, just like I don't care if your great great grandparents who were freed black slaves, owned slaves themselves as many did. I do know the media would have taken Trump to the woodshed for a whipping, if he'd flip flopped on important union and fossil fuel issues.


Supporting the Democrats on abortion

On Resurrection of the Dead day you'll be asked about your support of the party that has killed millions of helpless babies, because Jesus IS coming back. He said there are sheep and there are goats. He has said some go to Hell and some go to Heaven. By their own actions he'll know who has done what. Matt 25 makes that clear.  You've said you don't approve, yet you support the Democrats and all the media that push abortion for any reason and any stage of life. No one gets elected as a Democrat if they don't support the euphemism "Women's health," or "Women's right to choose." Pelosi and Biden defy their church's teaching, yet you support them. And the Bishops who look away will have to answer to Jesus some day.

According to CDC in a decade 143 babies were born alive during an abortion out of about 9 million. Is 143 struggling, squirming live babies left to die OK with you? If you include the previous decade the number is 362. What number is good for you? And those 8 or 9 month aborted developed babies, not born alive whose brains were sucked out or limbs sliced off in utero so they wouldn't be "born alive" and therefore legal. Their body parts are sold. Do you go along with Democrats on that? If you read through the Gospels, Jesus can ask some really tough questions. I don't think "I don't vote" or "I didn't approve" is going to get you past that judge.

Tuesday, May 18, 2021

Is the First Amendment bonkers?

I think the conservative news media are being too hard on Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, for his bonkers comment about the First Amendment. We've got Big Tech shutting down our First Amendment Rights claiming they can do it because they aren't "government." They behave like a public utility then claim their first amendment rights to shut down a sitting president and his 75,000,000 supporters. You've got to admit, that sounds bonkers to all of us who aren't Democrats. We've got governors declaring our churches as non-essential, while allowing tattoo parlors to stay open. That's bonkers. Our freedom of assembly went right out the window at the say so of minor government civil service employees in departments of health. That's bonkers, too, so let's give Harry a break if he finds our First Amendment has no teeth, no consistency and is being tossed about as a political football.

Monday, May 17, 2021

The Unsilenced Majority

The Unsilenced Majority:

“We strongly believe that corporate censorship, thought-policing and politically motivated blacklists and boycotts are having a corrosive effect on our country and will ultimately lead to a less free world. We also believe that freedom of speech and diversity of thought are fundamental bedrocks of a free society and should always be protected and celebrated,” Mike Davis said. “The Unsilenced Majority speaks for an emboldened majority of Americans who recognize the imminent threat that cancel culture poses to our nation. The rising intolerance of cancel culture is breeding fear and paranoia in our politics, across the corporate world, at our children’s schools and even in our neighborhoods. It must be stopped. The Unsilenced Majority aims to harness grassroots opposition to fight back against cancel culture before it’s too late.”

Let's see where this goes. Will conservatives fight back? Recently talked to a teacher in one of Columbus' wealthiest suburbs, and seems the indoctrination about inclusiveness and diversity is mind deadening. It would be my guess that this suburb may have tops 2% POC, and they are wealthy immigrants--doctors, lawyers, academics--from Africa and Asia.

Sunday, May 16, 2021

Good ol' Uncle Joe is a KILLER!

He killed the Abraham Accord, Trump's finest accomplishment, by restoring Obama's 2016 "humanitarian" Billion+ dollars to Iran and the back room deals which fund Hamas and kickstarting the nuclear deal which Trump scrapped.

He killed innocent Palestinian civilians because Hamas launches attacks on Israel from heavily populated areas, even schools and hospitals. They hate Israel more than they love Palestinian children, and so does our squad in Congress.

He killed the recovering job market by flooding American workers with benefits and disincentives to return to work.

He killed the Keystone Pipeline, emboldening Russian hackers to shut down the Capitol Pipeline for ransom crippling the east coast with no way to get fuel there quickly.

He is killing the value of retired people's savings and retirement funds with runaway inflation caused by his foolish leftist policies and his party's hatred of Trump.

And it would seem he's killing the ratings of CNN and MSNBC because who wants to watch them slobber over him while ignoring the race riots caused by BLM and its woke sponsors?

Non-defense spending

 Six charts illustrating what is happening to non-defense spending/safety net. 6 Charts Highlight Trends Driven by Growing Nondefense Spending (dailysignal.com)

The growth of the federal budget and the debt has been driven by an unsustainable growth in nondefense spending.

These charts illustrate how we got here and the long-term consequences to our nation’s financial health.

Saturday, May 15, 2021

Christian doctors discuss Covid19

The "Doctor doctor" program on EWTN broadcast May 15 a discussion of May 11 (before the latest CDC announcement) with 2 doctors, one in Portland, OR and one in Fargo, North Dakota.

https://www.ewtn.com/radio/shows/doctor-doctor I don't have the exact broadcast number, but it's the latest if you look at the listing. Learned that 84% of those most vulnerable (over 65) have at least one of the shots, and 71% are fully vaccinated. They answer most of your questions, although for some there's no answer right now. This is a Christian, and medical perspective, not political. Interesting discussion also of "long Covid," and the value of vaccinating teens.

I went to the gym and then the local grocery store this morning, and neither is requiring masks. 

Friday, May 14, 2021

No mean tweets from Joe



No mean tweets from Biden. However, we do have soaring inflation, our enemies laughing at his failures, the whole nation, including Democrats having absolutely no idea who is in charge. But you’ve got to hand it to Democrats they are more clever by 10 and more evil by 5 than the Republicans who are acting like the Katzenjammer Kids (the comic strip, not the band). We all watched and sort of snickered during the primary campaign when Bernie and Mayor Pete and those fake ethnic ladies were all swinging so left it took our breath away, yet good old fumble bumble Joe seemed reasonable and moderate compared to them. Now they’ve unwrapped their plan and he’s “Uncle Joe” straight up bait and switch socialist heading for Communism or National Socialism with the help of his cronies in Big Tech. He’s making Bernie look like Ronald Reagan. What he has said and done in his 45 years has been so racist and misogynist, he can make Trump look like a 10 year old, yet the media just kicks it under the rug with, “Oh well, that’s just Joe”.

And Democrats got 9% for Covid out of the Covid bill, and 6% for infrastructure out of the infrastructure bill (because child care is infrastructure), and people making twice as much money to stay home as they’d get if they went to work, while he’s pushing an inflationary “stimulus” when there are 8x more jobs than unemployed looking

Wednesday, May 12, 2021

Monday, May 10, 2021

The Left is killing comedy, humor, parody and satire

https://fb.watch/5oXRZ0jYeT/ 

The Left is killing satire. They are indeed a parody, plus they are censoring humor. Snopes (leftist) checks their satire as "false" information and threatens the Bee as "fake" news. Of course, it's fake, it's satire, but the left is using it to control and condemn. Humor can deliver the truth, and for the Left that's scary.

The Leftists are so absurd, like claiming men are actually women, and 2 + 2 = 4 is white supremacy, calling mothers, birthing people, that a satire site can get in trouble with Big Tech. 

My own theory is a bit more sinister--Babylon Bee is run by Christians, and the Left (and increasingly the Democrat party) hates Christians of any color, ethnicity or academic rank. Unfortunately, I know a lot of Christians who haven't caught on.

Biden vs. Biden

In 1968 the Democrats had 3 factions. And today they have 3 factions or blocs, according to Pat Buchanan. And Biden has a foot in all three camps.

"There is the Biden liberal establishment that controls the media, the academy, the Congress, the administration.
 
There is the Bernie Sanders-Elizabeth Warren-AOC progressive-socialist wing.
 
And there is, today, a new militant and radical third force. Included in its ranks are Black Lives Matter, antifa and protesters who burn Old Glory, tear down statues, monuments and memorials, assault cops, smash and loot stores and riot at will."

Saturday, May 08, 2021

The strength and power of the Catholic Bishops

The Catholic Bishops apparently don't have the power or desire to stop Uncle Joe from embarrassing the Church or receiving communion--they aren't as powerful as the CEOs of Twitter and Facebook who had no trouble shutting down a sitting U.S. President while spreading lies about him.
 
Out of the $1.9 trillion stimulus (which we don't need) Uncle Joe is sending $467.8 billion off to help kill the unborn. And he is propped up by the party that denies Church teaching on marriage, religious freedom, sexuality and gender ideology. That's a lot more serious than mean tweets, don't you think?

 Even if you're pro-choice, you must see the duplicity of a guy who left his pro-life values behind so he could be Obama's vice president in 2009. Then in 2020 he ran as a moderate with strong Catholic values (or so his campaign ads said on Catholic radio) and is now lurching left of Bernie Sanders who never kept his motives or ideology a secret from the voters. And what an insult to Mary, the mother of God, when he flashed the rosary beads of his deceased son during a virtual visit with Mexico's president. It's embarrassing for our nation--not to have a Catholic president--but to have such a big phony. And the media who raged that President Trump dared to carry a Bible while investigating a fire in a DC church, just shrug at his hypocrisy.

Obesity not race is reflected in Covid deaths

Obesity, not race, is creating the unequal results for recovery from Covid19 and a higher death rate. Because blacks and Hispanics are more likely to be overweight, their illness and death rates are higher. But you'd have to go into the statistics or read the last paragraph of an article on "health disparities" to find that out. In 2017-2019
  • 6 states had an obesity prevalence of 35 percent or higher among non-Hispanic White adults.
  • 15 states had an obesity prevalence of 35 percent or higher among Hispanic adults.
  • 34 states and the District of Columbia had an obesity prevalence of 35 percent or higher among non-Hispanic Black adults.
80% of Covid victims are overweight or obese, which leads to the other co-morbidities like diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. And the rate is also high for whites. My state, Ohio has 30-34% obesity rate, according to this CDC map. Very few articles report differences within a racial group and why. No way to make it all about race if the reporter/researcher reported the truth on lifestyle vs. race.

Almost 72% of Americans are overweight or obese according to USAFacts compared to about 14% in the early 1960s. Just a quick observation: we have more government involved in our food system, there are many more weight loss programs, and in the 70s more women began working outside the home causing the restaurant industry to boom and fewer meals at home.

https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/prevalence-maps.html?

Covid: CDC study finds about 78% of people hospitalized were overweight or obese (cnbc.com)

https://usafacts.org/articles/obesity-rate-nearly-triples-united-states-over-last-50-years/?




Friday, May 07, 2021

Pregnant people

This is what "science" has become. Woke. Notice that women no longer go into labor, "pregnant people" go into labor. This movement is so anti-woman it's beyond anything or any era of misogyny.
"Researchers integrated information from 45 protein, metabolite, and immune data points to identify a window two to four weeks before a pregnant person will go into labor."
Fortunately, in the actual article, "pregnant women" and "mother" are correctly used. However, woke editors are easing you into the word changes so that if later you start to object you will be called "transphobic."  Stop it now.

The Discovery Shop--donations 2013

The Discovery Shop (cancer fund raising) is just up the street, and I like to shop there and donate there.  In May 2013 I mentioned the things I was taking that day from my so-called "vintage clothes collection."  This week I bought medium blue summer slacks for $1.34 and Volunteers of America, and a pleasant blue (different shade) knit shirt at Discovery for $3. Although neither appear to have been worn, I always wash them.  You just never know . . . 

"I wouldn't say I have a vintage clothing collection, but I have saved a few favorites over the years. Some are leaving the house tomorrow for the Discovery Shop (cancer). A 1963 wool winter coat--sort of the Jackie Kennedy style knock-off, except I bought it at K-Mart. A long, floor length cotton print skirt, 1973, I enjoyed wearing at Lakeside. A black and cream silk dress for my daughter's wedding rehearsal dinner in 1993. A purple formal I wore on our 2001 Alaskan cruise. I still have formals my mom made for me in high school, blazers she made for me for college, the wedding dress she made and some favorites from the 80s and 90s with giant shoulder pads."

The Media's double standard

It's not a tragedy that Biden told an old guy's story about Amtrak. The tragedy is that if Trump had said anything even remotely as false and fabricated, the media would have run with it for weeks. Now they just shrug and say. "Oh well, it's just the charm of good old Joe. No big deal." Joe's story is as believable and as easily checked as the Democrats' Russia, Russia, Russia lie which they used in an attempted coup against a duly elected president.

Thursday, May 06, 2021

Welcome to the Government Attic--where librarians can browse

". . . governmentattic.org provides electronic copies of thousands of interesting Federal Government documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Fascinating historical documents, reports on items in the news, oddities and fun stuff and government bloopers, they're all here. Think of browsing this site as rummaging through the Government's Attic -- hence our name."

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Can't decide if it's like an attic in a haunted house or a trash dump in DC. One document I read was from 1980 reporting on an incident from the Census of 1950 whereby two people from the White House tried to get a census tract when the White House was being remodeled and they needed to move President Truman. Seemed to be based on personal recollections. One neighborhood was rejected because it had too many foreigners living there and the President was moved to Blair House. However, remember this was only 5 years after WWII and the beginning of the Korean War, and this was the president who ordered the A bombs.

Some documents I attempted to look at were hundreds of "blank pages," and others so redacted, they were impossible to read. I browsed scattered issues of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) employee newsletter, FERC Insider, 2016-2018 which had health tips on lowering blood pressure, where to travel on vacation, where the FERC choral group was performing, favorite restaurants in DC, the agency's Weight Watchers program, energy saving tips in winter 2016, computer tips on changing passwords and creating file folders, a security story about intercepting a group that had planned a protest against FERC (see something say something), FERC had a football club and a child care center so there were announcements for that, retirement announcements, and obituaries with all the names redacted. This agency was very intersectional with special interest groups for LGBTQ, Middle Eastern, Asian, Women, African American each promoting special lectures and events. Photography contests which included pet and flowers. And it was voted the best place to work. Who knew?

Because the FOIA request was apparently for specific issues, the last of the Obama years was Nov. 2016, no. 10 and the first of Trump years, June 2017, no.6 and it changed to a better resolution and color instead of B & W. Although the heads and managers changed with the party, the civil service and middle managers stayed.  One woman I recognized in all most all the issues, both administrations.  She usually wore the same outfit for photos.

Today is National Day of Prayer



National Day of Prayer, May 6

I sing as I arise today!
I call on my Creator’s might:
The will of God to be my guide,
The eye of God to be my sight,

The word of God to be my speech,
The hand of God to be my stay,
The shield of God to be my strength,
The path of God to be my way.

Attributed to St. Patrick

Wednesday, May 05, 2021

Watching the hawks from the living room window

Sometimes it's tough to watch Mother Nature in action. I just saw the hawk swoop down, and then what appeared to be a mama rabbit take off chasing it. She won't win of course, even if the hawk drops the baby, it will be too late, but she's putting up a massive fight. Yesterday I saw the hawk chasing a heron that was 10x its size--probably protecting her babies or eggs. A mother robin has chased away our nesting doves near the front door, and stolen their nest.

Meanwhile, I'm listening to a Zuby podcast. (British) He's interviewing a woman who's had to go to court to get her job back. And she'll probably lose the case. She used the wrong pronoun and was accused of being an absolutist for using male and female words. She was required to use the terms, "men who were assigned male at birth," torturing the English language instead of a baby rabbit.
 
Birds seem to be smarter than people these days.



HGTV reruns with exercycle

I'm always finding something new playing around with Roku, a streaming service which allows viewing TV without a cable box. Trying to find something to watch from my exercycle that isn't politics is hard, but the other day I found on "free channels" some reruns of HGTV, and one of our favorites--House Hunters International. Yes, I know it's all scripted and the homes they choose have already been selected, and the others were never actually in the running or even on the market. Still, they are fun to watch and we always learn about the city/country and the life styles.

So there was a family from Kansas who had been living in Amsterdam for her university job for two years who wanted to move to Scotland so he could start a "Scottish Games' business. In the process of their selecting the house in Stirling, I got to review our wonderful trip and gorgeous scenery there in 2017 where we met our friends Robin and Karen, and Gene and Barbara who live in California. 

The second one I watched was an African couple, both doctors, moving from Houston back to Ghana, Africa, so their children could be nearer family members. Their Houston home was nothing short of a mansion so I wondered what they'd find in Accra, Ghana. Not to worry, every home they saw was even more spectacular than the last, plus the city is on the ocean. I think the market scenes were for the tourists, because the 1% lives the same no matter what the country.

Humanized mice using fetal tissue

Some Christians want to judge the salvation and eternity of other Christians. Not me. But I will say, Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi are really bad Catholics.
 
When President Bush placed a limit on fetal cell research, the research using adult stem cell research boomed, and it looked like we would not need millions of aborted babies to feed the ravenous research labs of industry and academe. But hey, the Democrats got back in power. It's just so lucrative and there's always a supply.

Bioethicists will somehow try to convince you that using aborted baby parts to create "humanized mice," is really OK. I mean, all these hospitals and universities have boards and committees to look at the proposals, yet they can't see further down the road than their mega-million dollar grants and the next promotion. It's science, so it must be OK, right?

"Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein comes to mind, though that would be kind. At least Dr. Victor Frankenstein stuck to grafting dead human flesh upon dead human flesh. These 21st-century scientists intermix human with rodent. Perhaps more fitting for these new pioneers would be another novel: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World." . . .
 
“In September, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh published their work on the development of humanized mice and rats with ‘full-thickness human skin.’ ” This so-called “full-thickness human skin” from fetuses was grafted onto rodents “while simultaneously co-engrafting the same fetus’s lymphoid tissues and hematopoietic stem cells from the liver, so that the rodent models were humanized with organs and skin from the same child.” This coveted “full-thickness fetal skin” was taken from fetuses aborted at Magee-Women’s Hospital at 18 to 20 weeks of pregnancy. Human hair was evident on the mice by 12 weeks: “In the scalp grafts, fine human hair can be seen growing long and dark surrounded by the short white hairs of the mouse.”

Aliens or angels?

I haven't paid a lot of attention, but there's been some buzz on the news lately about space aliens/extraterrestrial beings visiting earth--that the government is investigating? A quick search shows a January release, but I've heard something more recent, or maybe reporters and producers are catching up on the TBR pile now that they don't have Trump to kick around and consume their every thought.

"Based on the CIA’s recent release, on January 14, 2021, of nearly 3,000 pages of documents that detail a wealth of fascinating data about UFO behavior and capabilities , it seems they know a lot and have known a lot about this topic for quite some time. These freshly declassified US government UFO info documents (published in their entirety on The Black Vault ) reveal the truth about harrowing and awe-inspiring encounters between reliable witnesses and “unidentified aerial phenomena” of unknown origin that have been occurring since the 1950s."

The Bible is full of references to beings which God created that are higher, wiser, more intelligent and flexible in appearance than human beings. Depending on the interpretation of certain words, there are at least 7 levels higher than us. And they are not chubby little cuties and we don't become angels when we die, because "they aren't us." Just two mentions, then you can search.

Ps 34:7 "The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them." 
Good to know!

Heb. 1:14 "Are not all angels spirits in the divine service sent to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?"

Based on what's going on in the swamp with the CIA and FBI, and the self appointed, unelected rulers in Big Tech, perhaps we're just having more appearances of angels looking out for us than usual.

Tuesday, May 04, 2021

Worshiping at St. Agatha, May 2

This morning I "attended" via YouTube the May 2 service at St. Agatha, in our former neighborhood, but I've never been inside. I saw something really strange to a Lutheran--holy water being sprinkled on the congregation instead of in a font for fingers. Perhaps it's the pandemic, or maybe they always do it that way. The priest and the deacon walked up and down the aisles and sprinkled everyone (aspergillium), making a special stop for the young children, who seemed to love it. Water is everywhere in the Bible, and has many special meanings. I looked it up, and discovered this is a sacramental, not a sacrament. I had guessed it was a reminder of baptism, but apparently it's much more.
Repentance of sin. The ritual washing background of holy water comes into play here, says, Father William, who quotes Psalm 50, which reads in part, “Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense. Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me.” St. John the Baptist underscored this sentiment in calling people of his time to conversion. This is occasionally recalled during the course of the Mass, he adds, when the priest sprinkles the congregation with holy water.
 
Protection from evil. Catholic tradition has long held that holy water is a substantial force for keeping evil at bay. A proponent who wrote specifically about this in 1562 is Saint Teresa of Avila: “From long experience I have learned that there is nothing like holy water to put devils to flight and prevent them from coming back again. They also flee from the Cross, but return; so holy water must have great virtue.”

Baptism. “In making the Sign of the Cross with the holy water, we are mindful that we are called to renew those baptismal promises of rejecting Satan, all his works, and all his empty promises, and to profess our creedal faith,” writes Father William. “Once again, we repent of sin, so that we can offer our prayers and worship to God with pure and contrite hearts.”

https://occatholic.com/its-the-water/?

 

Book Club selection for 2021-2022

  

Book Club Schedule for 2021-22  
All Book Club meetings will be on first Monday at 2 PM at Bethel Presbyterian unless noted otherwise.

September 13--The Paris Dressmaker by Kristy Cambron led by Mary Lou 

October 4--The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore led by Peggy at Peggy's home

November 1--A Burning in My Bones by Winn Collier led by Carolyn C.

December 6--Pearl Harbor Christmas by Stanley Weintraub led by Carolyn A. at Carolyn's home

January 3--This Time Next Year We'll Be Laughing by Jacqueline Winspear led by Carolyn A.

February 7--A Divided Loyalty by Charles Todd led by Cindy 

March 7--Gilead by Marilynne Robinson led by Marti 

April 4--The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott led by Margie 

May 2--Outwitting History by Aaron Lansky led by Peggy 

Runner-ups include--The Gown by Jennifer Robson,  Good and Angry by David Powlison, 
No Surrender by Chris Edmonds



Sunday, May 02, 2021

Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch and today's problems of race

Our sermon today focused on the apostle Philip (feast day May 1) and the Ethiopian eunuch who was an important government official, who was baptized after Philip explained to him the meaning of the Prophet Isaiah's words. Our pastor mentioned that the Lutheran Church of South Sudan which our church supports was no longer in South Sudan, but in refugee camps in Ethiopia, the oldest country to officially be Christian, and home of the largest Lutheran church in the world. That wasn't the topic of the sermon, but my mind went to the trouble makers in the U.S. who would have you believe that color (white) is the problem. That's just to raise money from guilt-ridden, virtue signaling whites and woke corporate CEOs who see an opportunity for a profit. Not so, if you follow the civil wars and unrest in Africa. If race were the problem, then the Irish and English would never have had a war, the Germans and French would have never had a conflict, nor the Ukrainians and Russians and the Japanese and Chinese.

In Sudan, there was a long civil war (about 50 years, 2 million dead) which included black Muslims (backed by Arab Muslims), indigenous peoples and black Christians tribes. After the South Sudan was created in 2011 and that civil war ended, then the politicians in South Sudan (which is 60% Christian) began to fight each other based in tribalism and the churches as peacekeepers were overwhelmed.
https://www.meforum.org/22/sudan-civil-war-and-genocide

I looked through the centuries of history for this area and it's terribly complex involving languages, cultures, tribes and religions, but skin color is the least of their worries. Anyone who believes the BLM and Democrats' lies about race (which is a Marxist ploy) just needs to look at the on going wars and power strubbles in Africa.