Morris on the Rocks

This morning on my walk along Lake Erie in Lakeside, I noticed a very majestic “Morris” looking down on me from the rip rap.  Huge boulders were brought in about 20 years ago to protect the shoreline.  Now the lake has receded and a small, white sand beach has opened up just below where Morris is sitting.  Remember the 9-Lives cat food ads with a Morris character?

The Paracels and the Spratlys

It was a bit of a struggle to stay awake, but I'm glad I went to today's lectures at Lakeside on the South China Sea and the history of the U.S.-Japanese Alliance. As I was learning about shipping lanes, fishing rights and oil and gas reserves (2nd only to the Persian Gulf), the Spratlys (150 islands) and the Paracels (30 islands) and the demographics of an aging Japan, I thought about how many Americans were being fed stories about Miley Cyrus' hair cut, and the latest line up of Dancing with the Stars. Didn't the Romans do something like this to keep the masses content?

Edible Columbus classes

 

Edible Columbus publisher and editor in chief Tricia Wheeler invites readers to share her passion for cooking through the Edible Cooking Series. She will be sharing the knowledge she gained while attending the French Culinary Institute in New York City. Tricia combines classic French techniques with seasonal ingredients to produce wonderful meals that you can easily make at home.

Classes are held at HOME: M/I Homes New Home Sales Center, 4047 Gramercy St., Columbus, OH 43219, 614-418-8888, for questions about classes call 614-296-5053.

Tricia and her husband now own our former home on Abington Road.

Are they moderate or extremist Muslims. Here’s how to tell.

The most common reason why a Muslim terrorist group is labeled as moderate is because is it less open to killing other Muslims than some of its more extreme variants. Violence no longer defines extremism, only the full scope of that violence does. All Muslim terrorist groups, including the moderate ones, favor suicide bombings directed at infidel civilians. Not all favor suicide bombings directed at other Muslims. Those who do are often labeled extremist.

Muslim terrorist groups who treat Shiite Muslims as infidels are increasingly viewed as moderate, contrasted with extremist Muslim terrorist groups who declare other Sunni Muslims to be infidels. And the truly extreme Muslim terrorist groups are the ones who define even other Sunni Islamists as infidels over minor differences.

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-moderate-paradox.html

The Contraception President

Stopping economic growth before it becomes viable.

“From Occupy Wall Street to Wisconsin, from Trayvon Martin to Chick-fil-A, the goal of these manufactured conflicts has been to divide and conquer the electorate by emphasizing group rights over individual economic welfare.
Obama can't win on the economy. He can't win on foreign policy. He can't win on any aspect of his administration. All he can do is stir up violence and then promise to heal the country in his second term while winking to all the representatives of the grievance groups. It's not a new game, but the Democratic Party has never played it quite this baldly in a national election. And if it succeeds, then national politics will have finally been reduced to the level of a Chicago election.”

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-most-divisive-campaign-in-american.html

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms

I wrote this blog last summer, but I published it in my other, other blog, and don’t think I put it in this one—at least I can’t find it.  Hymns bring back many memories.  This one reminds me of my sister, Carol.
We sang that old hymn at the dockside service at Lakeside last Sunday, Sept. 4.  Published in 1887, it tells of the assurance of God's steadfast care and guidance in tough times, and offers the peace of a relationship with him.  I grew up in the Church of the Brethren where I don't recall we sang anything that had a beat--and then in 1974 became a Lutheran and they missed out on those twangy camp songs too, being mostly ethnic Scandinavians (in our synod).  The first time I heard it was in Flat Creek, Kentucky in 1956 where my sister Carol was a volunteer church worker through Brethren Volunteer Service.  Because she was only 19 at the time, and I was her "little" sister, I was stunned at the level of spiritual and social responsibility she had.  Like riding horseback into the mountains to provide Sunday school in areas that had no passable roads; working in the garden and taking care of chickens (and plucking them) for food for the staff (I think there were 5 people living in a little house); helping the local women with sewing and. . . leading hymns like this one.  In that area of the country it was sung like a dirge and a capella--not peppy and clappy the way we did it at dockside with an electronic organ. Carol went to be with the Lord in 1996, but every time I hear "Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms; leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms," I think of that amazing, fearless teen-ager.  Now I keep track of her 5 grandchildren (4 teens) on Facebook, Will, Jenny, Rachel, Catie and Chris.

Carol's BVS unit 1955. Wearing white blouse, looking between two women in the second row. She also helped flood victims in Pennsylvania, canvassed a neighborhood in Denver for a church plant, and was a "guinea pig" for the NIH. In 1957 she entered Goshen College in Indiana where she got her RN

A Note from my brother-in-law:

In 1940, my parents sent me to work on a farm of a distant relative-by-marriage. At that time we lived in uptown Mnhattan, New York but the dream was to leave the city at some point and start a chicken farm. I ended up near a little village on the Eastern Shore of Maryland called Trappe and worked hard and long for Graham Price and his wife Adeline and two daughters that whole summer. I didn't learn much about chickens but Graham had 7 acres of tomatoes and I learned the rigors of that crop many times over.
Graham belonged to a group I had never heard of called Pilgrim Holiness; we went to church every Sunday morning and every Wednesday evening at a little town called Oxford, which was almost on the Chesapeake Bay.

One Sunday morning they sang a hymn that I - a baptized and confirmed United Lutheran Church in America boy - had never heard called What a Fellowship. And when they would sing the refrain: Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms, the ladies would lift their arms and swing them back and forth in the air. I remember I couldn't wait to get back to the farm that day to write my mom and dad and tell them of the experience.

And yet, now in the Brethren Hymnal Supplement, hymn number 1081 is What a Fellowship and it is a hymn we sing frequently. In fact, I have arranged it as an anthem for soprano/alto chorus with optional congregational participation. And even more interesting is the fact that the text was by Anthony Johnson Showalter, a very distant relative of Vernon (and Jean) Showalter who go to the Mount Morris Church of the Brethren.

Everything comes around.
Nel

Remember Minnesota

"By making this choice, Mitt Romney is declaring war. There will be no evasion, no triangulation, no attempt to mask what is at stake in this election. Instead, Romney and Ryan will directly confront Barack Obama and call him to account for putting us on a ruinous course.

This will alter radically the dynamics of the race. The money spent by Obama trying to demonize Governor Romney will prove to be money entirely wasted. The election is not going to be about Mitt Romney. It is not going to be about the sexual revolution. It is not going to be about Bain Capital. It is going to be about the failed policies of Barack Obama, about their dangerous character, and about the sober, sound alternative the Republicans represent. ...

This will help the Republicans in Senate and House races immeasurably, for it will give Romney and Ryan coattails -- now, without a doubt, the candidates in these other races have something concrete on which to run: repeal Obamacare, pare back the entitlements state, reform our system of taxation, and put our fiscal house in order. No one will doubt the capacity of the Republicans to rule.

I have predicted that Romney will win by a landslide. The choice of Paul Ryan means that Romney has chosen the path that will maximize the significance of his victory and its impact on the races for seats in the House and Senate. As in 1980, this is going to be a national election -- in which local particularities count for much less than usual."
http://www.ricochet.com/main-feed/Romney-s-Declaration-of-War

The Ryan Plan, myths, lies and facts

Now, let’s compare the Ryan Plan with the Democrats’ plan.  Ooops. Someone is a no show.

Who will pay for Obamacare? People like me and you.

“How much will ObamaCare actually cost us? 90% of the burden will be funded by new taxes that will fall upon individuals making between $9,500 and $200,000!” Over one third of the burden will fall upon people with incomes between $9,500 and $37,300, whose ObamaCare tax will be a flat $695 beginning in 2016. That makes the ObamaCare mandate tax a very regressive tax.   Well over one half of the burden will fall upon people whose incomes put them squarely in the middle class. This breaks the President’s 2008 campaign pledge to not raise taxes on the middle class, which he defined as individuals making less than $200,000 a year, or households with incomes less than $250,000.   http://www.mygovcost.org/2012/07/25/the-mandate-tax-burden-of-obamacare/

Here’s an article on the penalty tax. http://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-is-the-obamacare-penalty-tax-2012-7

I’m not too worried about his broken promises.  He lies so often, the promises don’t matter.

Obama and the 1%

Christians should be happy that Obama has finally acknowledged the wording of the First Amendment is "freedom of religion," and not changed it to just "freedom of worship" (the Soviet constitution wording), and that he has had his arm twisted into saying that it is our Creator and not the government that gives us our rights. Culturally, he is still very naive, having been raised in a Muslim, not Christian country. Yes, he said it to American Muslims, the 1%, but it's a start. Maybe someday he'll say it to Christians, the 83%.

And he's not even in terrible error about Muslims and the founding of our country [it's odd that he holds up Jefferson owning a Koran--I own a railroad table, and that doesn't make me an engineer]. Arab Muslims attacked and enslaved African blacks by the millions and sold them to the European slave traders, so in a way, they helped create our mixed society.

President Obama: "Of all the freedoms we cherish as Americans, of all the rights that we hold sacred, foremost among them is freedom of religion, the right to worship as we choose. It’s enshrined in the First Amendment of our Constitution — the law of the land, always and forever. It beats in our heart — in the soul of the people who know that our liberty and our equality is endowed by our Creator. And it runs through the history of this house, a place where Americans of many faiths can come together and celebrate their holiest of days — and that includes Ramadan."

Christians need to speak to other Christians about their involvement in and support of crimes against the unborn

Mennonite Germans worshiping with English Quakers in Philadelphia were the first Americans to speak out against the practice of slavery in 1688, and particularly were against their fellow Christians engaging in the "traffic of humans."  They recalled the days when the Turks (Muslims) were capturing Europeans on ships and selling them as slaves.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_1688_Germantown_Quaker_Petition_Against_Slavery

Who knew there’d be math on the test!

Paula Priesse writes: “Poor O, he didn’t know there’d be math on the test. And poor media. Might now have to discuss icky stuff like jobs, Obamacare, energy independence, cutting deficits & entitlement reform. But being O’s lapdogs, they probably won’t. As for O’s campaign of no ideas and no scruples, expect 3 more months of pure garbage. Like Romney “murdering” a man’s wife & Ryan throwing granny off a cliff.”

Your head will split with all the numbers Obama can't even imagine, but Ryan understands.

Help turn the country around with Romney and Ryan

Paul Ryan on the current president

Let me say a word about the man Mitt Romney will replace. No one disputes President Obama inherited a difficult situation. And, in his first 2 years, with his party in complete control of Washington, he passed nearly every item on his agenda. But that didn’t make things better.
In fact, we find ourselves in a nation facing debt, doubt and despair.
...

This is the worst economic recovery in 70 years.
Unemployment has been above 8 percent for more than three years, the longest run since the Great Depression. Families are hurting.
We have the largest deficits and the biggest federal government since WW II.
Nearly 1 out of 6 Americans are in poverty--the worst rate in a generation. Moms and dads are struggling to make ends meet.
Household incomes have dropped by more than $4,000 over the past four years.
Whatever the explanations, whatever the excuses, this is a record of failure.

Obama and the border—fences, school finances, and Fast and Furious

I'm confused here about the border fence between Mexico and the United States. I think I saw an ad or speech where Obama was taking credit for getting that completed. I can't imagine that plays well with his base, but maybe the undecided? Then when I looked it up, I found an article that said it was about 90% completed in Jan. 2009 when he took office, and another that said 4.3 miles have been finished since he was in office. See? This is how the man’s lies work. He’s a dream weaver (as in DREAM plan for illegals to go to school more cheaply than your kids.)  Yes, it's been almost completed since he took office (conservatives can smile), but virtually all of that was Bush's fault (so his leftist base can't blame him). Same with Osama bin Laden's death. He was found and killed (conservatives smile) using the policies and techniques employed by the Bush administration, all of which Obama voted against (leftists love him). Then he steps up and takes the credit, and doesn't blame Bush for this one. Unfortunately, too many Americans don't realize that the Big O is a Big Zero when it comes to the truth. Fast and Furious hasn’t made it’s way into his speeches or political ads, but I sure hope Romney grows some and mentions it.

The Daily Beast roars on

The Daily Beast (Newsweek's collaborative online smear machine) is reaching all the way back to Ryan's high school year book to find something negative to say. Wow. Now that's deep for folks who can't find Obama's college records or even anyone who was in class with him! "Since 2008, Newsweek has undergone a series of internal and external contractions designed to shift the magazine's focus and audience while shoring up the title's finances. Instead, losses at the newsweekly accelerated: revenue dropped 38 percent from 2007 to 2009. The revenue freefall prompted an August 2010 sale by owner The Washington Post Company to 92-year-old audio pioneer Sidney Harman—reportedly for a purchase price of $1.00 and an assumption of the magazine's liabilities." Wikipedia Tina Brown is in the mix/mess somewhere.

I'm ready for a change, are you?

Now the political ads, which we’re seeing about every 5 minutes, will really get going.

Ohio is a swing state, so we see a lot of ads the rest of you don't. Money won't be wasted in Chicago, where even the dead vote Democratic and ACORN will chase down anyone else. The Obama ad writers have 2 styles, slash and burn. When they aren't out and out lies, the truth part is buried so keep in BS you're afraid to dig. One of my favorites is the contraceptives for Obama ad.   Big Pharma must be ecstatic. Did you know contraception changes the lining of the uterus making women more susceptible to STDs? Or the more contraception, the higher the abortion rate? That the pill increases the rate of cervical cancer?  That it increases breast cancer.  STDs and pregnancy can send poor women to Planned Parenthood to build their coffers and pay their high salaries. Do you know that the drug companies test them on 3rd world women who are clueless about their dangers, side effects, or failures? But Obama has increased our debt by over 450% since Jan. 2009, so what else is there to talk about except free contraception?

2016 the movie starts today

John David Ware, formerly of Columbus, Ohio, now doing film (168 Project) in California

I just saw "2016-Obama's America." Narrator Dnesh D'Souza has a unique point of view, having come from a similar experience of colonialism at the hands of the British. D'Souza predicted much of Obama's behavior in his book, so there must be something to his analysis. Riveting and informative, the film explores our president's frequently bizarre actions: reckless spending as we teeter on the edges of a Greece-style meltdown, redistribution of wealth, provoking class warfare, passing bills that not even he knows what is in them, shutting down oil drilling and the Keystone oil pipeline in the US, but giving money for drilling to Brazil and other countries, supporting domestic anarchy via the Occupy Movement, turning his back on or being cold to our longtime allies--Egypt and Israel, NOT supporting the rebels in Iran, doing NOTHING to prevent Iran from attaining nuclear weapons, and making secretive pacts with Russia as he works to weaken US nuclear superiority). It's hard to believe that a US President could ever compile a record like this. It's harder still to understand what benefits proud, hard-working people can derive from 4 more years of Obama. The film reveals much about the way Obama grew up and what/who shaped him. It reveals the great conflict in Obama's ideas versus traditional American ideals and how unlikely was his rise to power. Though he seems like a even-tempered person, you can really get a sense of the bitterness that colonialism engenders. The film also points out Obama's mastery of the politics of perception and appealing to different groups at the same time. D'Souza says that America felt good about electing it's first Black president. A second Obama term, the film argues will make for an America that is unrecognizable compared to the one we have known. From his Facebook page.

See the film. It starts today.
http://2016themovie.com/​trailer/

Friday Family Photo--Today's Guitar recital

A very mixed group of guitar playing wannabees took a class together at the Rhein Center in Lakeside today. The class presented a recital this morning. I believe this oneis "You are my sunshine."