1 Million Workers. 90 Million iPhones. 17 Suicides. Who’s to Blame? | Magazine

While everyone's all soft and gooey about the loss of Steve Jobs, let's all pause for a moment of silence for the American jobs that would have never been created by Jobs. American unions would not have tolerated any of this--especially not dormitories for workers. But it has been a boon for the Chinese economy.

1 Million Workers. 90 Million iPhones. 17 Suicides. Who’s to Blame? | Magazine

Monday Memories--Salt Fork State Park 1972

The colors weren't as brilliant as this year, and it must have been much colder since we're all wearing winter coats in the photos, but we took a 3 day vacation to Salt Fork State Park on October 15, 1972. As I recall I caught a terrible cold, was very sick so we went home early. The photos are starting to fade in the album. . . a bit like my memory. Camping, even when you have a cabin with a bare bones kitchen, isn't much fun with small children--or at least it wasn't for this mom.

The note under this photo said, "Lost." I think we missed the trail we were looking for.

Our cottage was near the water.

Inspiration and perspiration

When I got home from exercise class this morning, I decided to tackle the mismatched storage boxes in the garage. I really don't like storage boxes that say STOR-ALL or Progressive. So now they are either white, green or royal blue. But. . . in order to do that I had to do some shifting and repacking, and thus came across a box full of VHS movies. Other than the Dagwood and Blondie series, most we've never watched. I think most of them used to be our daughter's who is quite a movie buff. I'm thinking we should have a movie night once a week, view them, then pass them on to the library. As it is, I selected about 12 to donate that I knew I would never be desperate enough to watch. I used to have a notebook with an alphabetic list of our movies and TV shows on VHS, but that seems to have been separated from the box of tapes.

When ART imitates Life

According to the data rich CDC 2008 report (dated Dec. 2010) on assisted reproductive technology (ART), 61,426 live births were recorded in 2008 from 148,055 discrete ART cycles. It was mandated in 1992 through the Fertility Clinic Success Rate and Certification Act (FCSRCA) that fertility clinics had to report the outcomes of assisted reproduction. This is an amazing database, regardless of your political or religious views, and has been a model for those for nursing homes, hospitals and physicians. (JAMA, "public reporting of clinical outcomes of Assisted Reproductive Technology Programs," Sept. 14, 2011, p. 1135-1136.

The ART database tracks oocytes retrieved, embryos transferred, embryos and gametes frozen for later use, donor eggs, non-donor eggs, age of mother, multiple births, etc. In the meanwhile, there were about 1.2 million abortions in 2008--over 28,000 just in Ohio. I'm guessing primarily the rich use ART; the poor and black are going the abortion route. Non-Hispanic black women account for 30%, Hispanic women for 25% of total abortions--blacks are about 12% of the population.

Occupy Columbus

A group has assembled in Columbus, the Occupy Wall Street wannabees, not to demonstrate on behalf of the poor, but to ask demand the stuff others have created or earned--their wealth, their companies and corporations, their money that goes to foundations, their lifestyles. They are calling themselves the 99%, saying 1% have 20% of the wealth (and pay 40% of the income taxes). Income isn't wealth, as we all know, and they demand a share of their wealth funnelled through the government, of which they will receive very little after the layers of bureacracy are paid their grand salaries and benefits. If they truly are representatives of the 99%, there would be Christians among this motley crew.

I find that hard to imagine, outside of the PAJAMA (Peace and Justice and More Aid) Christians. Christians, those called by the name of Jesus Christ, are those bought, purchased, ransomed with the blood of the Lamb who are a Kingdom of Priests called from every tribe and language and people and nation to serve God. (Rev. 5:9) They already have every possible riches, wealth, understanding, wisdom, and power to use in their worship of God, so why would they trade that for these trinkets?

When the Tea Party gathered to demonstrate, they won elections, but. . .

George Will: “I disagree with some of the Republicans. I wish the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators long life and ample publicity for two reasons: I think they do represent the intellectual spirit of the American left, but also I remember 1960s. We had four years of demonstrations like this led up to 1968 when the Nixon/Wallace vote was 57 percent — the country reacting against demonstrators, and Republicans went on to win five of the next six presidential elections.”

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/10/09/george-will-i-wish-the-occupy-wall-street-demonstrators-long-life-and-ample-publicity/#ixzz1aKSuPxc3

Republicans should not get their hopes up

Just because Democrats are moaning and groaning behind the skirts of the MSM, doesn't mean they will give up on Obama. He's not stupid, and he's learning this how to be president thingy bit by bit, although always shifting the blame to someone other than himself for his failures, which is extremely unpresidential and adolescent.

Barack Obama was created by the media who found him photogenic and liked how he spoke (didn't speak like a Rangel or Jackson). Also helping were the genuinely liberal (generous, interested in liberty) whites wanting to undo years of bad behavior by the Democrat party toward blacks (Jim Crow laws, Tuskegee experiments [ended by Nixon admin after 40 years], civil rights bills fought by 90% of the Democrats before the Republicans finally pushed through the 1964 Civil Rights Act signed by a Democrat president, neighborhood abortion clinics which have targeted black babies, urban renewal projects which have destroyed many black neighborhoods, etc.) which caused them guilt and angst.

Yes, they all have buyer's remorse and they don't know what to do with him, but I believe he will go for a second term. They just have too much invested, and I don't think Republicans should even imagine he won't run, or they'll get soft and go all RINOish again like they did in 2008.

Obama fooled the Democrats; don't let him fool the Republicans and Libertarians.

The Ohio Education Association squabbles with its staffers' union

I’ve been reading some of the pro- and anti-Senate Bill 5, Issue 2 (restricts public unions in Ohio). For those of you outside (or inside) Ohio, all teachers in Ohio public schools must pay union dues, but technically they don't have to be members. Since a lot of their money goes toward political issues in which they have no say, a lot of teachers are muzzled with their own money. Make any sense to you? Me neither. But. . .

Seems that the OEA (Ohio Education Association aka “union” with revenue of nearly $62 million) has a problem with its employees' union called PSU (Professional Staff Union of the OEA) and some of the dirty linen was being aired, so the PSU blog was taken down. Yes, I can see the OEA wouldn‘t want this circulating, but it was copied to PDF and posted by The Columbus Tea Party.

“The truth of the matter is that OEA failed to bargain in good faith with PSU. In fact, they wasted five bargaining sessions before even responding with a written counter-proposal. Does that sound like collaborative leadership?

No doubt both the teachers, their highly paid (nearly $200,000 a year) union reps and the lowly PSU staffers will all be out on the streets of Columbus joining raised fists in solidarity against the evil rich tomorrow with "Occupy Columbus." It will keep their minds off the "public" and children.

This is really working well for the anti-American forces behind the Occupy Wall Street movement. The first few weeks they couldn't get any traction, but now that it has spread to cities like Toledo, Columbus, and Cincinnati and people are already unhappy about a number of things messed up by the government and particularly Obama's leadership (although they would never say that), the socialist/marxist crowd is practically wetting itself with glee and anticipation.

Discord Riddles Libyan Factions--send in the drones

"Six weeks after the fall of Tripoli, the palmy days of rebel unity have begun to disintegrate into a spiral of infighting, political jockeying and even the occasional violent flare-up threatening to derail Libya's post-Gadhafi transition.

Regional rivalries between fighters from the western mountains and Tripoli have in recent days come perilously close to exploding into open warfare in the capital. In some neighborhoods, multiple leaders claim sovereignty for their groups amid a deepening battle over the makeup of a citywide military council."

No surprises here, and let's hope Mr. Obama stays out of this one.Discord Riddles Libyan Factions - WSJ.com

Holding hands?

I'm sorry, but I almost dropped the cat when I read this advice column at Ask Jen & Barb.

My children are 9 and 11. Girl and Boy respectively. They fight all the time. Spout hateful words at each other constantly. I have tried things like making them hold hands and of course lectured them. Any ideas on how to get my children to show each other they love and care for each other.

Hi Jessica, They need major consequences. There needs to be a zero tolerance for hateful words. Take away whatever it is they hold near and dear to them (i.e. time on the computer, toys, play dates, etc.). They need to know that if they treat each other that way, they will have consequences. Stay strong and do not waiver. Good luck! Jen

Probably Mom is yelling at them. And she wonders why they are nasty to each other? And what sister and brother want to hold hands? Yuk!! When are these kids together? In the car--when Mom is on the cell phone ignoring them so they quarrel to get her attention. Or she's on the computer at home so they fight in order not to be ignored. This case needs a bit more investigation.

How can I get my children to show they love and care for each other? | Jen and Barb, Mom Life

Obama's Thursday news conference

This isn't how I perceived it, but littletboca is indulging in some wishful thinking that Democrats actually see through this guy:

"[Democrats] sat and listened to a man who’s acting like a caged animal – he’s on the fight and will attack any and all who get in his way. His body language along with his rhetoric reveals his anger and discontent. Americans, it looks like we have a problem that could be worse than the economy.

The Commander in Chief alienates himself from his duties in the White House; he’s in a campaign mode and oblivious to the real world. Obama appears to be functioning on hot air and incapable of facing reality. This person truly is living in a fictitious make believe world.

Democrats know the Obama’s jobs plan isn’t paid for and they know the brunt of the cost for this second stimulus will be placed on taxpayer’s shoulders. Democrats must be thinking about several things this morning: (1) How can we replace this person in the 2012 elections, and (2) How do we get him to stop campaigning and, (3) What do we do with him between now and 2012?

Obama Dealt Democrats a Losing Hand | RedState

Party of Whiners

"Our current President is callow and incompetent. Does anyone doubt that any of our three top candidates are FAR superior to His Oneness?" So why, Barleycorn asks, are Republicans such whiners?

My personal preference right now would be in the order Perry, Cain, Romney, but my problems with Mitt Romney are not over whether he could handle the job. I feel certain he is a big enough man to sit in the Oval Office and fulfill the oath. If Romney is the nominee I will support him to the nth degree next Fall.

The same goes for Herman Cain. I worry some about his tendency to allow the media to frame the soundbites in interviews, but I’ve no doubt he has the brains, knowledge, and temperment to fill the office.

Rick Perry is a horrible debater but presidents are not Debaters in Chief. They assemble, delegate, persuade, and lead. Debating is a fine exercise for young minds but a foolish part of our presidential elections.

Party of Whiners | RedState

41 Obama White House aides owe the IRS $831,000 in back taxes -- and they're not alone

This is old news (Sept 2010) so the figure may be higher now:

"Federal employees across the nation owe fully $1 billion in back taxes to the IRS. As in, 1,000 x one million dollars. All this political jabber about giving middle-class Americans a tax cut. Thousands of feds have been giving themselves one all along -- unofficially. And these tax scofflaws include more than three dozen folks who work for the president with that newly decorated Oval Office." Maybe the "Occupy Wall Street" crowd could expand their horizons to the federal gov't which created the regulations they are protesting.

41 Obama White House aides owe the IRS $831,000 in back taxes -- and they're not alone - latimes.com

I sort of backed into this story (which I think I've written about before) because I came across a tax law professor Alex Raskolnikov who had written a paper that began, "Crime and punishment. . . and so forth." If you are familiar with Russian literature, Raskolnikov was the main character in Crime and Punishment, a novel by Dostoevsky.

Guide to Obama’s Floundering Foreclosure Programs

I knew from blogging occasionally on this topic that the results of Obama's foreclosure help programs were miserable, but I just had no idea they were this bad!

Making Homes Affordable 2009
The Home Affordable Refinance Program 2009
Emergency Home Owners Loan Program 2010
Housing Finance Agency Innovation Fund [billions to the states to figure it out]
Change bankruptcy laws 2011
Reduce principal on underwater mortgages 2011
Turn foreclosed homes into rental properties 2011

All have failed, or achieved so little they are laughable.

There are many links in this story which you need to read. Obama's advisors and Chicago carry-alongs are like kids in the U.S. candy shop.

Our Guide to Obama’s Floundering Foreclosure Programs - ProPublica

Repeal the Death Tax--from 0 to 35% in 2011

"America’s family businesses and farmers were hit by a large estate tax increase, from 0% to 35%, at the beginning of 2011, making planning and passing on farms and businesses to the next generation even more difficult. As it stands, more than 70% of family businesses do not survive to the second generation, and a full 90% of family businesses do not survive to the third. In 2011, the political landscape has changed but family businesses are still struggling, family farms are liquidating, and even more jobs are at stake."

I didn't realize the death tax had made such a comeback. Why does the Obama administration hate small businesses and farmers so much? Easy. They are the backbone of the economy, and he wants it to collapse. So when conservatives say we want him to fail, we mean we don't want him to collapse the economy with oppressive taxes and regulations that destroy businesses and jobs.

My mother and her siblings inherited their parents' farms in Illinois and Iowa when they died in 1963 and 1968, however, the taxes then were so oppressive, most of the land had to be sold in order to pay the taxes.

"As part of the tax deal struck at the end of 2010, Congress set the death tax at 35 percent with a $5 million exemption for 2011 and 2012. The death tax did not apply in 2010 because the 2001 and 2003 tax relief abolished the harmful tax. Even though the death tax is resurrected, the new rate and exemption levels represent a substantial improvement from where the death tax was in 2000 before the tax cuts: 60 percent with just a $1 million exemption. Despite the positive advances the death tax is back in place and therefore has resumed destroying jobs and slowing the economy."

Death Taxes

The Latest Book on Obama

I wish I had more confidence that people still read books today. The new one on Obama sounds like a winner--Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President, by Ron Suskind.

R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. writes at American Spectator, "The book tells us what we Obama critics have all been saying since early on. This President is the most incompetent and ideologically rigid president in American history. . . How are all the Liberal sages going to get out of their absurd exaggerations of Obama's modest gifts? Increasingly they admit that Obama has chosen the wrong policies, but he speaks so beautifully -- using a teleprompter for the most measly address. Ah, but he is so forceful. So is his former chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, when he dons his tutu. But he is curious, adventurous, a sponge for new ideas. Actually he has been a hopeless socialist, lost in Fabian abstractions. . . Skip the first 150 pages. The author needs an editor. Settle with Suskind's discussion of the fights between the boys and the girls on the White House staff, and Obama's utterly insensitive meeting with the aggrieved ladies at a dinner he held to placate them. . . Suskind contains his narrative to Obama's economic policy and, to a lesser degree, healthcare. There is nothing in the book about foreign policy or the way this President has conducted two foreign wars and a worldwide effort against terrorism. My agents tell me Obama's conduct of foreign affairs and of the war on terror are even more appalling."

The American Spectator : The Book on Obama

Steve Jobs 1955-2011

Jobs was born out of wedlock to two graduate students, and was adopted by an Armenian-American couple rather than aborted or raised by a single mom. Armenians (Christians) themselves had been slaughtered by the Turks (Moslems) and some escaped to the U.S. His birthfather was a Syrian immigrant. How the threads of ethnicity and history are woven in the United States where freedom to live and explore and invent come together!

As Jobs' life was slipping away this week, thousands of ungrateful, whiny, manipulated college students, using his inventions which made him incredibly wealthy--with more cash than our government--protested in "Occupy Wall Street" on the streets of New York and campuses all around the very country and values that gave him that opportunity. They want "redistribution" (aka communism) of other people's wealth, whereas Steve Jobs dropped out of college and went out and created wealth and jobs. Maybe we need a few drop-outs from that "Occupy Wall Street" crowd to go out and do some real work like cashiering or flipping burgers and put their faculty in the unemployment lines.

Steve Jobs, brilliant entrepreneur, however, was a moral midget and cad himself. He had an out of wedlock daughter with his high school girl friend and denied paternity for years, so his daughter was raised with the help of his fellow Californians on welfare. His birth parents later married (after his adoption) and he has a full sister, but he steadfastly refused to even meet with his birthfather. And I don't think it was the money. So in addition to being extremely talented, wealthy, and a cad, he was also hard hearted and unforgiving to the end.

http://www.minyanville.com/special-features/articles/lisa-brennan-jobs-business-icons-rich/8/31/2010/id/29768

Democrats Anonymous

The first step is admitting you have a problem. . .

The redistribution rants

Harry Reid wants more taxes from millionaires and billionaires which won't create jobs, but it will make the great unwashed, sniveling whiners picketing on Wall Street happy. Obviously, these Occupy Wall Street antics don't help Obama's phony plea for more jobs (aka campaign 2012), so we know their intention is to bring the economy to a halt--with the President's help. It's too bad these gullible students didn't take more Russian Soviet history--the first to the barricades are the first to be put on trial by their fellow revolutionaries, imprisoned and killed.

The autum leaves--taking a break from blogging

Next time, I'll try to not get the trash container in the view.