The uproar over sexual harassment that began with the Harvey Weinstein scandal has intensified the scrutiny of political contributions linked to Backpage, which law enforcement officials say is the chief platform for activities far worse than harassment, including sexual slavery and child prostitution.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/dec/17/nancy-pelosis-super-pac-keeps-donations-from-backp/
Former Arizona congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick says she will donate money linked to Backpage.com that was given to her campaign, months after other Arizona Democrats unloaded campaign contributions linked to the embattled website. Democrat U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema donated $53,400 to the charity earlier this year for similar Backpage contributions.
Now why do you suppose an organization that promotes sex slavery and child pornography would be donating to the campaign of someone in Congress?
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/arizona/articles/2017-09-26/arizona-politician-to-donate-backpage-related-campaign-funds
On another front, when the Office of Compliance pays money to women and men who are charging sexual harassment, do the recipients have to pay taxes on it, and if so, what is it called? Bonus? Service? Pay? Why is this so hard to nail down? One source lists 62 politicians so far, almost all Democrats, but some appear to have been paid off out of the Congressman's office budget.
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/21/congress-sexual-harassment-slush-fund-255547
Thursday, December 21, 2017
Bonuses for Christmas after tax cut bill passes
"You're going to see the economy take off like nothing we have seen in a generation," Louisiana GOP Rep. Steve Scalise, the House majority whip, predicted, The Hill reported.
According to Axios, Fifth-Third Bancorp will raise the minimum wage of its workforce to $15 per hour — a move that'll increase the payout to 3,000 of its workers who make less than that. Axios reported the company made $1.5 billion in profit last year.
Charlie Rose and me go way back
I used to watch Charlie Rose back in the 90s when he was on PBS and he'd interview notable people. I was a liberal then, so of course, I never noticed political bias on PBS or broadcast news, and there wasn't any Fox or internet access. And although I watched him, I didn't like him. Why? It was the way he interviewed women, although most of his guests were men. He would frame his questions in such a manner and be so detailed, that all she could do was answer Yes or No. He hogged the limelight and diminished his female guests. With men, he was more respectful and seemed to think they could tell their own stories. Was it just Charlie or is this a guy thing?
I also never cared for Bill O’Reilly’s interviewing techniques, but he was rude to everyone—showed no bias toward women.
I also never cared for Bill O’Reilly’s interviewing techniques, but he was rude to everyone—showed no bias toward women.
What is storytelling?
Lately I’ve been hearing/reading the expression “telling the story” or “story telling to fight injustice,” “the narrative,” . . . as in “young people can bring about social justice by simply telling the stories of who they are and what they have experienced.” https://pj.news.chass.ncsu.edu/2016/06/06/making-change-by-changing-the-story/
Really? That’s all it takes? When I watched Christiane Amanpour interview the British woman last night, the Brit used the expression about “telling our story” several times. I have no idea what that means other than entertainment value like the “moth porch stories” we’ve begun at Lakeside, or listening to learn more about family.
So I’m wondering how encouraging children to look at their homes, schools and neighborhoods as being victims of a cruel society helps them achieve, get good jobs, find the right life partner, and raise a family.
Really? That’s all it takes? When I watched Christiane Amanpour interview the British woman last night, the Brit used the expression about “telling our story” several times. I have no idea what that means other than entertainment value like the “moth porch stories” we’ve begun at Lakeside, or listening to learn more about family.
“The goal [of a non-profit for young people] is to creating programming that allows for young people to tell the story of “what it is to grow up economically poor, Black and brown in this country, to be educated in poor schools, to be in communities that are inundated with drugs and violence, but to overcome that.” That ability to take back the narrative of who they are develops a strong sense of empowerment within young people that allows them to “form a moral and ethical code – who they are as young people – helps them become leaders and social change makers” in a cycle that continues to fight poverty decade after decade. These youth then end up seeking out roles in their communities and abroad, continuing the narrative that young people can bring about social justice by simply telling the stories of who they are and what they have experienced."Twenty five years ago I had prepared a family story and cook book for a Corbett reunion, and was chatting with my Aunt Lois who died two weeks ago at 92. Different members had brought along old photographs to share, and there was one of her in the late 1930s, heighth of the Great Depression. She looked fabulous. I made a comment about the family being poor, and she laughed (she had the greatest laugh in the whole family) and said—“We had no idea we were poor. In the Depression everyone was poor.”
Amanpour on PBS
I’ve had a cold, so my sleeping is a little off, and I happened to be awake at 11:30 last night and caught Amanpour on PBS, which is a half-hour replacement for Charlie Rose who left in disgrace. It’s a CNN program, so not sure how that works, but it is apparently shown in other venues, probably Europe.
http://money.cnn.com/2017/12/04/media/pbs-charlie-rose-replacement/index.html
Anyway. It’s an interview show, not news. Definitely not news. She interviewed the Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. (or maybe England) and tried to trap him into saying something negative about Trump. I didn’t have a pen and paper, but I do recall her using the phrase several times, “do you fear. . .” rather than “do you think.” The Ambassador, however, was more careful and professional than President Trump or Ms. Amanpour and delicately stepped over her trap. Yes, he used a lot of weasel words, but he definitely had been coached. Also his English was so good, I was then not prepared to try to figure out what the next guest, a Brit, was saying.
https://www.truthrevolt.org/news/christiane-amanpour-brags-about-bias-i-insist-being-truthful-not-neutral
Her next interview was with two women, one a Brit with mid-chest length stringy gray hair and the other with shoulder length stringy dark hair, but a lovely smile. It was about the MeToo movement and whether there is now a backlash.
So Amanpour felt “led” as we say in prayer groups of sharing intimately to bring up Anita Hill and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas back in fall of 1991. I was a Democrat back then—didn’t change my party for another nine years. I distinctly remember being sickened by the way Democrats treated a black justice—he was at that time a member of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. By that time we knew all about the sexcapades of the Kennedys and if any woman starlett or aging movie star had been brave enough, the whole “Weinstein me too” story would have tumbled out 25 years ago instead of late 2017.
In 1991 I was horrified when I heard other liberals on the OSU campus deride his qualifications and say Bush had only nominated him because he was black. As if Democrats would NEVER do such a thing—play games with race or sex. It was definitely a “high tech lynching” and I think Justice Thomas has done a fine job. I also read his very moving autobiography.
But then Amanpour commented that the cases Justice Thomas as been a part of have actually led the women’s movement backward. She cited no case, just threw it out for the self righteous liberal head nodders. Hill was the only woman to bring this charge, which as I recall was an off-color joke. Perhaps I didn’t take it seriously because I’d heard worse, and the world didn’t collapse. Obviously, if so many women have kept quiet all the years since of current women’s rights movement of the early 70s, many people were ignoring work place chit chat.
The identified sexual assault/harassment/rape/tighty whities cases—including Charlie Rose whom she was replacing--are currently identified as about 150. All but 3 or 4 of the charges are against high profile Democrats in politics or media/entertainment. Yet, the only case she can find to recall a historical precedent is from 25 years ago? And this is the drip dribble of biased information Americans and Europeans get every evening.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/437603/christiane-amanpours-daniel-hannan-interview-exposes-her-leftist-bias
Here’s the NYT account from 1991 and it is also biased and negative toward Thomas.
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/16/us/thomas-confirmation-senate-confirms-thomas-52-48-ending-week-bitter-battle-time.html?
http://money.cnn.com/2017/12/04/media/pbs-charlie-rose-replacement/index.html
Anyway. It’s an interview show, not news. Definitely not news. She interviewed the Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. (or maybe England) and tried to trap him into saying something negative about Trump. I didn’t have a pen and paper, but I do recall her using the phrase several times, “do you fear. . .” rather than “do you think.” The Ambassador, however, was more careful and professional than President Trump or Ms. Amanpour and delicately stepped over her trap. Yes, he used a lot of weasel words, but he definitely had been coached. Also his English was so good, I was then not prepared to try to figure out what the next guest, a Brit, was saying.
https://www.truthrevolt.org/news/christiane-amanpour-brags-about-bias-i-insist-being-truthful-not-neutral
Her next interview was with two women, one a Brit with mid-chest length stringy gray hair and the other with shoulder length stringy dark hair, but a lovely smile. It was about the MeToo movement and whether there is now a backlash.
So Amanpour felt “led” as we say in prayer groups of sharing intimately to bring up Anita Hill and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas back in fall of 1991. I was a Democrat back then—didn’t change my party for another nine years. I distinctly remember being sickened by the way Democrats treated a black justice—he was at that time a member of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. By that time we knew all about the sexcapades of the Kennedys and if any woman starlett or aging movie star had been brave enough, the whole “Weinstein me too” story would have tumbled out 25 years ago instead of late 2017.
In 1991 I was horrified when I heard other liberals on the OSU campus deride his qualifications and say Bush had only nominated him because he was black. As if Democrats would NEVER do such a thing—play games with race or sex. It was definitely a “high tech lynching” and I think Justice Thomas has done a fine job. I also read his very moving autobiography.
But then Amanpour commented that the cases Justice Thomas as been a part of have actually led the women’s movement backward. She cited no case, just threw it out for the self righteous liberal head nodders. Hill was the only woman to bring this charge, which as I recall was an off-color joke. Perhaps I didn’t take it seriously because I’d heard worse, and the world didn’t collapse. Obviously, if so many women have kept quiet all the years since of current women’s rights movement of the early 70s, many people were ignoring work place chit chat.
The identified sexual assault/harassment/rape/tighty whities cases—including Charlie Rose whom she was replacing--are currently identified as about 150. All but 3 or 4 of the charges are against high profile Democrats in politics or media/entertainment. Yet, the only case she can find to recall a historical precedent is from 25 years ago? And this is the drip dribble of biased information Americans and Europeans get every evening.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/437603/christiane-amanpours-daniel-hannan-interview-exposes-her-leftist-bias
Here’s the NYT account from 1991 and it is also biased and negative toward Thomas.
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/16/us/thomas-confirmation-senate-confirms-thomas-52-48-ending-week-bitter-battle-time.html?
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Trump and Climate Change by: Jane M. Orient, M.D.
Setting National Health Priorities: Trump and Climate Change
The Trump Administration has announced the removal of climate change from the list of national security threats. This Obama Administration priority was responsible for policies such as trying to make the U.S. Navy a “Great Green Fleet” running on “advanced biofuels.” The rationale was that global warming (renamed “climate change”) was a bigger threat than terrorist attacks or North Korean nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles, and that running aircraft carriers on a blend of 90% diesel and a very costly additive made from beef fat or palm oil would somehow protect against bad weather over the next century.
Climate change is also supposed to be the greatest global health threat, according to a consortium of medical organizations and Pope Francis, who oppose President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. The predicted climate disruption is evidently worse than poverty, AIDS, poor sanitation, Ebola, or other emerging infectious diseases, in their opinion. It is, indeed, supposed to worsen those factors, for example by increasing the range of insect vectors like mosquitoes. (Never mind that mosquitoes thrive in Alaska and Siberia.)
Fifty years of public health gains could be reversed, warn 22 authors in the prestigious British journal The Lancet, if we don’t take urgent action to limit emissions of carbon dioxide from the fuels that now power 80 percent of the world’s economy (coal, oil, and natural gas—“fossil fuels”). The “planet still has time to heal,” they say, but we are on a “countdown.”
It’s a little hard to get the public aroused about heat waves 50 years from now, while people are shoveling “heart attack snow,” or trying to keep from freezing to death. Deaths from cold are historically far more prevalent than deaths from heat waves. Arctic cold is setting dozens of records for low temperatures in the U.S. Northeast, and a Siberian cold front has already killed dozens in Central and Eastern Europe, with 50-year record lows as far south as Bulgaria.
European countries such as England and Germany that are taking the lead on turning to “renewables”—the German Energiewende—prices for fuel and electricity have soared. Many people have to choose whether to “heat or eat.”
It takes an apocalyptic threat to get people to accept economic hardship. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and prominent U.S. academics constantly trumpet a litany of horribles that will supposedly be inevitable without drastic, immediate changes. California and other jurisdictions claim that they will take unilateral action to “protect” or “stabilize” earth’s climate despite Trump’s opposition. Dozens of Congressmen of both parties have joined the Climate Solutions Caucus to oppose Trump.
President Trump’s priority is energy security—or energy dominance for America. His initiatives include:
But perhaps even more important to public health than energy is scientific integrity. Trump is basically at odds with the self-anointed scientific authorities who demand that their computer models be accepted as gospel and used to impose trillions of dollars in costs. This authoritarianism garbed in science is in itself a disaster. Moreover, the models give wrong answers, and the policy recommendations are all pain for no gain. To demonstrate this, Doctors for Disaster Preparedness posed 10 Climate Change IQ Questions to the Climate Solutions Caucus, inviting them to seek a refutation from their go-to experts. So far, not a single argument has been presented.
President Trump’s initiatives on energy and climate challenge medical and public health authorities to prove their anti-carbon case, instead of just imposing it on the world. That is both a national security and a health priority.
The Trump Administration has announced the removal of climate change from the list of national security threats. This Obama Administration priority was responsible for policies such as trying to make the U.S. Navy a “Great Green Fleet” running on “advanced biofuels.” The rationale was that global warming (renamed “climate change”) was a bigger threat than terrorist attacks or North Korean nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles, and that running aircraft carriers on a blend of 90% diesel and a very costly additive made from beef fat or palm oil would somehow protect against bad weather over the next century.
Climate change is also supposed to be the greatest global health threat, according to a consortium of medical organizations and Pope Francis, who oppose President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. The predicted climate disruption is evidently worse than poverty, AIDS, poor sanitation, Ebola, or other emerging infectious diseases, in their opinion. It is, indeed, supposed to worsen those factors, for example by increasing the range of insect vectors like mosquitoes. (Never mind that mosquitoes thrive in Alaska and Siberia.)
Fifty years of public health gains could be reversed, warn 22 authors in the prestigious British journal The Lancet, if we don’t take urgent action to limit emissions of carbon dioxide from the fuels that now power 80 percent of the world’s economy (coal, oil, and natural gas—“fossil fuels”). The “planet still has time to heal,” they say, but we are on a “countdown.”
It’s a little hard to get the public aroused about heat waves 50 years from now, while people are shoveling “heart attack snow,” or trying to keep from freezing to death. Deaths from cold are historically far more prevalent than deaths from heat waves. Arctic cold is setting dozens of records for low temperatures in the U.S. Northeast, and a Siberian cold front has already killed dozens in Central and Eastern Europe, with 50-year record lows as far south as Bulgaria.
European countries such as England and Germany that are taking the lead on turning to “renewables”—the German Energiewende—prices for fuel and electricity have soared. Many people have to choose whether to “heat or eat.”
It takes an apocalyptic threat to get people to accept economic hardship. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and prominent U.S. academics constantly trumpet a litany of horribles that will supposedly be inevitable without drastic, immediate changes. California and other jurisdictions claim that they will take unilateral action to “protect” or “stabilize” earth’s climate despite Trump’s opposition. Dozens of Congressmen of both parties have joined the Climate Solutions Caucus to oppose Trump.
President Trump’s priority is energy security—or energy dominance for America. His initiatives include:
- Removing climate alarmism messages from official government websites;
- Cutting the funding of the multi-billion dollar infrastructure devoted to “finding” human-caused climate change and promoting an agenda of global energy rationing;
- Demanding that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) include all scientific viewpoints instead of silencing critics of the “sky is falling” narrative; and
- Rolling back Obama regulations and policies designed to kill the coal industry and suppress use of America’s petroleum and natural gas resources.
But perhaps even more important to public health than energy is scientific integrity. Trump is basically at odds with the self-anointed scientific authorities who demand that their computer models be accepted as gospel and used to impose trillions of dollars in costs. This authoritarianism garbed in science is in itself a disaster. Moreover, the models give wrong answers, and the policy recommendations are all pain for no gain. To demonstrate this, Doctors for Disaster Preparedness posed 10 Climate Change IQ Questions to the Climate Solutions Caucus, inviting them to seek a refutation from their go-to experts. So far, not a single argument has been presented.
President Trump’s initiatives on energy and climate challenge medical and public health authorities to prove their anti-carbon case, instead of just imposing it on the world. That is both a national security and a health priority.
Chris Matthews, Tavis Smiley and Matt Lauer
I’ve never liked Chris Matthews (NBC), but I think the charges against him for something he said or did in 1999, are just so stupid. Unless they can come up with something serious, they are just trivializing real problems women in the workplace have. He’s given the company the best years of his sorry life, and this is the loyalty he gets? Same for Tavis Smiley and PBS. And the female producer of the Matt Lauer show who had an affair with him when she was 24, should just go crawl in a hole. She still sounds love-sick in her pathetic story which she’s blabbing everywhere to anyone who will listen to “confirm” the damage he’s done to women. She knew he was a married man with children. Didn’t stop her. Stitch a scarlet letter on her throbbing bodice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kNpbW4uwhA
Lisa Bloom pays women for stories of sexual assault.
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
Morning mass in South Dakota
Sunday morning I watched on YouTube Sunday Mass broadcast from Sioux Falls, SD, and what a beautiful cathedral--the Cathedral of Saint Joseph, streamed available at www.sfcatholic.org. I checked the internet and learned that this cathedral was built in 1919, had a poor restoration in the 1970s (lots of beige paint to cover beautiful features probably considered old fashioned), then the congregation went through a 15 year restoration that was completed in 2011. The last two years of the restoration they had to worship in another location. The first church was made of wood, and it burned in 1881, then the brick church that replaced it, was replaced by this one in 1919.
Here’s the story of the restoration. It’s quite technical with information about the original architect, and the one who did the $16 million restoration. At one time they thought of tearing down this lovely building, and now it is a stop on architectural and history tours.
https://www.traditionalbuilding.com/projects/cathedral-of-st-joseph
One visitor commented: “This is an amazing place for anyone to experience. I've been to some of the largest cathedrals in Spain (in the world) and this cathedral is certainly borrowing from that style of architecture. It's awe inspiring and surprising for such a small city to have such an amazing church. If you are religious, or simply just love beautiful architecture, do yourself a favor when visiting the area and take a look. God bless...”
MSM reluctant to report Obama’s Hezbollah disaster
To appease Iran, the Obama administration prevented its own DEA from cracking down on Hezbollah's incredibly lucrative cocaine trafficking which it was using to fund some of the deadliest weapons against our soldiers in Iraq. Thanks Mr. former president for being so supportive of our military and so careless with the people you pledged to protect.
When I googled “Obama Hezbollah Iran” only Politico of the left leaning sources which also broke the story, came up as top sites. All the rest were the traditional conservative sites like the Blaze, National Review, Washington Examiner, Fox, Jewish or Israeli sources--until finally the nasty and leftist Daily Beast. With all the scandals coming out of the Obama administration, I know journalists are having a tough time after 8 years of lap dancing. Maybe they should go to Wal-Mart or McDonald's and apply for an honest job?
https://www.politico.com/interactives/2017/obama-hezbollah-drug-trafficking-investigation/
Monday, December 18, 2017
I have a dream speech—for women
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) in her "I have a dream" speech (1792) advocated for the rights of women—to own property, to have an education equal to her brothers and to be equal under the law in marriage. How’s that working out 225 years later?
Women certainly can own property and inherit it, but many choose the hair dresser, manicurist, clothing designer, a cute trendy apartment and partying with friends rather than the stock market or buying a rental property to manage. The rate of college enrollment for women has exceeded men for three decades, and in many of our cities, they out earn male peers with the same education. Yet women still congregate in the social sciences and artistic fields (the sketching and needlepoint of the 18th century), by-passing business and the hard sciences despite 50 years of fiddling with the curricula in the lower grades and sending them off to math camp in the summers. Politicians and academicians continue to throttle us with “pay gap'” misinformation turning women into another victim class for votes.
And marriage? Careers, some of which are going nowhere, are more important to some educated young women than a solid marriage with children. Then in their late 30s, they find the pickins slim. Birth control and abortion have turned women into sterile playthings for men to objectify. They go into middle age without a family network and a more advantageous combined household income .
Mary—did you know?
http://oll.libertyfund.org/quotes/434
Women certainly can own property and inherit it, but many choose the hair dresser, manicurist, clothing designer, a cute trendy apartment and partying with friends rather than the stock market or buying a rental property to manage. The rate of college enrollment for women has exceeded men for three decades, and in many of our cities, they out earn male peers with the same education. Yet women still congregate in the social sciences and artistic fields (the sketching and needlepoint of the 18th century), by-passing business and the hard sciences despite 50 years of fiddling with the curricula in the lower grades and sending them off to math camp in the summers. Politicians and academicians continue to throttle us with “pay gap'” misinformation turning women into another victim class for votes.
And marriage? Careers, some of which are going nowhere, are more important to some educated young women than a solid marriage with children. Then in their late 30s, they find the pickins slim. Birth control and abortion have turned women into sterile playthings for men to objectify. They go into middle age without a family network and a more advantageous combined household income .
Mary—did you know?
http://oll.libertyfund.org/quotes/434
If it weren't for double standards . . .
Shocking, right?
Sunday, December 17, 2017
Resentment and envy
"THERE IS AN OLD STORY about two Russian peasants, Boris and Ivan. Both are
poor as dirt, the only difference between them being that Boris has a goat
and Ivan does not.
One day, a good fairy appears at Ivan's hut and tells him that she can
grant him just one wish -- but that it can be anything he wants. Ivan says,
"I want that Boris' goat should die.""
Oromo Evangelical Church in Columbus, Ohio
We enjoyed having guests today at UALC from Oromo Church (east side of Columbus) the fastest growing North American Lutheran Church (NALC) congregation. The congregation is in negotiation to purchase a church building so our church is helping from the mission fund. It serves the Ethiopian refugee community, which has about 6,000 in Columbus, about half of which are Muslim. Their pastor was a bishop in his homeland with oversight of 600,000. I think I heard that Ethiopia has the largest Lutheran Church in the world. On fire for Jesus.
50 years ago I wondered why Christians didn't just worship together--i.e., in the style I knew--take in the immigrants--just one big family. But now that I know more history I recognize that most immigrants in the U.S. stayed together for worship as they learned the language, food and culture. The Methodists in Ohio used to have German speaking churches (Lakeside had special meetings in German), as did the Lutherans, and the Finns, Swedes and Norwegians had their Lutheran churches. In the 20th c. in Cleveland already established 19th c. Hungarian speaking congregations--Jewish, Roman Catholic, Reformed and Lutheran responded to the refugee crisis of 1956 as the Hungarians fled their communist oppressors, and many still have services in Hungarian. There are several Chinese and Korean congregations in Columbus, some rent sanctuaries in other churches, some are house churches, some are stand-alone and have services in both Mandarin and Cantonese. By maintaining their language and culture, they can be very effective missionaries in Asia where there are other diaspora Chinese communities. By the second or third generation, the non-English services sometimes are dropped, there are mergers, and new polities develop. But this is what I call real diversity, not the artificial, victim type; fitting in, yet staying together for the glory of God.
Saturday, December 16, 2017
Violence against women in music
Wondering if Kathy Griffin of Trump severed head fame in her "comedy" routine got the idea from Kanye West who in one of his videos carried the severed head of a woman in his right hand, and got no push back. Oh sure--it's just zombies, who are attractive voluptuous white women.
"West's video shows him, Rick Ross, Jay-Z, and Nicki Minaj living in a sort of torture-palace-mansion thing, littered with the dead, dying, and dismembered bodies of models. Occasionally, models — who may be zombies, or vampires, or vampire-zombies? — try and break into the mansion; they are, naturally, killed and dismembered. [Taylor] Warren appears in the clip as a vampire who kills a man with a stiletto and drags his body across the bottom of a drained swimming pool. Later, Kanye raps an entire verse while dangling Warren's severed head by its hair from his right hand."
Those are the clips that appear on the internet--West carrying a severed head.
Were the women concerned? Nah. Taylor Warren: "I shot with Kanye when he held my decapitated head, and that was really amazing! I was super stoked to be a part of it. We met before we shot the scene and he said, 'Hey, how's it going,' and then I had to kneel down and he was holding me by the hair — I couldn't move or talk because it would ruin the shot! Between takes, he still had my hair and would talk to the director or on his phone while I was chilling three feet below him, but I couldn't help but think, 'This is so surreal and amazing.' "
In 20 years she'll be claiming abuse.
"West's video shows him, Rick Ross, Jay-Z, and Nicki Minaj living in a sort of torture-palace-mansion thing, littered with the dead, dying, and dismembered bodies of models. Occasionally, models — who may be zombies, or vampires, or vampire-zombies? — try and break into the mansion; they are, naturally, killed and dismembered. [Taylor] Warren appears in the clip as a vampire who kills a man with a stiletto and drags his body across the bottom of a drained swimming pool. Later, Kanye raps an entire verse while dangling Warren's severed head by its hair from his right hand."
Those are the clips that appear on the internet--West carrying a severed head.
Were the women concerned? Nah. Taylor Warren: "I shot with Kanye when he held my decapitated head, and that was really amazing! I was super stoked to be a part of it. We met before we shot the scene and he said, 'Hey, how's it going,' and then I had to kneel down and he was holding me by the hair — I couldn't move or talk because it would ruin the shot! Between takes, he still had my hair and would talk to the director or on his phone while I was chilling three feet below him, but I couldn't help but think, 'This is so surreal and amazing.' "
In 20 years she'll be claiming abuse.
Obesity as a disease and a label
The Cleveland Clinic began calling obesity a disease in 2008, and AMA in 2013. Supposedly, this was to reduce discrimination and increase insurance coverage and government funding for research. Changing the label hasn't changed the problem. In 1991 approximately 12% of the US population was obese, and it was 38% in 2014 (CDC figures) with no single state having a rate lower than 15%, not even those with super active, outdoorsy populations that surf and climb mountains. Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans all have different rates, with Native Americans the highest and Asian Americans the lowest.
Now obesity is called a pandemic. I can't exactly find the right figures to compare, but in 1976 the median weight for adult males and females was 170 lbs. and 137.8 lbs. In 2014, the last I could find in CDC the average (not median) weight for adult males and females was 195.7 lbs. and 168.5 lbs. In 45 years the height for men increased 1/10 of an inch; and no gain at all for women (I could have sworn women were getting taller just from watching sports.)
We seem to be victims of our own achievement. Whereas for millions of years, most of the globe except for the very rich, didn't have enough calories and had to do physical labor to survive. Now we have far more calories than we need with food waste being a huge problem, and technology from automobiles to television to computers to moving from farm to city the last 100 years have conspired to create this new disease, never before known to humankind. We don't even have to get out of a chair to answer the phone or change TV channels.
Here's some librarian trivia. The 1987 report (DHHS 87-1688) used 1976-80 data, and the word "obesity" didn't even appear, except in the Library of Congress cataloging data for the report. The words used were "overweight" and "severely overweight."
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/body-measurements.htm
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_11/sr11_238.pdf
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/2013/06/obesity-is-now-considered-a-disease/
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/192036
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1614362#t=articleTop
Now obesity is called a pandemic. I can't exactly find the right figures to compare, but in 1976 the median weight for adult males and females was 170 lbs. and 137.8 lbs. In 2014, the last I could find in CDC the average (not median) weight for adult males and females was 195.7 lbs. and 168.5 lbs. In 45 years the height for men increased 1/10 of an inch; and no gain at all for women (I could have sworn women were getting taller just from watching sports.)
We seem to be victims of our own achievement. Whereas for millions of years, most of the globe except for the very rich, didn't have enough calories and had to do physical labor to survive. Now we have far more calories than we need with food waste being a huge problem, and technology from automobiles to television to computers to moving from farm to city the last 100 years have conspired to create this new disease, never before known to humankind. We don't even have to get out of a chair to answer the phone or change TV channels.
Here's some librarian trivia. The 1987 report (DHHS 87-1688) used 1976-80 data, and the word "obesity" didn't even appear, except in the Library of Congress cataloging data for the report. The words used were "overweight" and "severely overweight."
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/body-measurements.htm
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_11/sr11_238.pdf
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/2013/06/obesity-is-now-considered-a-disease/
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/192036
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1614362#t=articleTop
The older non-traditional student
When I was a freshman at Manchester College in North Manchester, Indiana (now university), I recall there were two “older” women students; one was in her early 40s and actually in my classes, don’t know the age of the other, a little younger, but she had been a missionary and was updating her credentials. I met her years later when I went back to MC to search the archives for some genealogy information and she was the archivist then. Mt. Morris College where my parents and grandparents had attended had merged with MC after its closing in 1932, so their college records were at MC. Of course, at 18 I thought anyone over 25 was ancient, but it was a novelty then to have women the age of our mothers in our classes.
I thought that when I retired I would take advantage of all the programs for older and non-traditional students available at Ohio State University, which is virtually next door. But that also meant driving there, parking, bad weather, etc., and I never did sign up. I took two evening classes at the local high school, one in accounting and one in Spanish. I didn’t do well, and although all of us were college grads just updating skills, I was one of the oldest. For a librarian, being able to search the internet and have information at my finger tips, is like heaven, even though I still prefer print on paper. I don't enjoy the classroom or deadlines anymore, so over the years, the internet with YouTube, on-line news, and access to journals through Ohio State has been my teacher and class mates.
I thought that when I retired I would take advantage of all the programs for older and non-traditional students available at Ohio State University, which is virtually next door. But that also meant driving there, parking, bad weather, etc., and I never did sign up. I took two evening classes at the local high school, one in accounting and one in Spanish. I didn’t do well, and although all of us were college grads just updating skills, I was one of the oldest. For a librarian, being able to search the internet and have information at my finger tips, is like heaven, even though I still prefer print on paper. I don't enjoy the classroom or deadlines anymore, so over the years, the internet with YouTube, on-line news, and access to journals through Ohio State has been my teacher and class mates.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00223989809599261 Stressors of college, comparing traditional and non-traditional students
"Significant differences were found between the nontraditional and traditional students for events in the following categories: academics, peer and social relations, family and network, autonomy and responsibility, and intimacy. Nontraditional students enjoyed going to classes and doing homework more, whereas traditional students worried more about school performance. Peer events, including social activities, had much more impact on traditional students, whereas nontraditional students reported much more responsibility in the home. The results suggest that there are significant differences between the groups in their perceptions of stressors."
"Significant differences were found between the nontraditional and traditional students for events in the following categories: academics, peer and social relations, family and network, autonomy and responsibility, and intimacy. Nontraditional students enjoyed going to classes and doing homework more, whereas traditional students worried more about school performance. Peer events, including social activities, had much more impact on traditional students, whereas nontraditional students reported much more responsibility in the home. The results suggest that there are significant differences between the groups in their perceptions of stressors."
The Great Recession--was it?
The academic definition of a recession set by the Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research described the last recession as the 18-month period from December 2007 to June 2009. Using the broader definition of the word “recession” as a period of reduced economic activity, it is customary these days to claim the recession as two years, the period from December 2007 to January 2010--"The Great Recession." That would give the Bush administration 12 months and Obama administration 12 months. Obama, however, had Democrat control of both houses his first two years, and Bush was saddled with a hostile Congress his final two years, led by Reid and Pelosi. The Democratic Party controlled a majority in both chambers of the 110th for the first time since the end of the 103rd Congress in 1995 (2 independents voted with Democrats). The Recession was global, but in the U.S. it belongs to the Democrats, with the roots of the housing crisis going back to1977 and the Community Reinvestment Act.
The current struggle to stop tax reform and keep economy busting regulations in place is led by Democrats even today, with a number of anti-Trumper Republicans assisting them out of personal animosity for the president. The sluggish economy finally lifted in the final year of Obama’s reign with a Republican Congress. Determined and heroic Americans both liberals and conservatives in small businesses and the energy fields began to regain their footing, and the stock marked recovered.
Since November 2016, there has been more hope and change in the economy, something Obama just couldn’t deliver, despite his promises. Trump's detractors say he inherited a robust economy--which is only partially true--the Democrats had forgotten the middle income worker (aka "deplorables" according to Clinton).
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-cra-debate-a-users-guide-2009-6
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/good-news-for-the-president-in-latest-trump-scoreboard-2017-11-03
http://www.peoplesworld.org/article/no-troop-surge-as-110th-congress-gets-to-work-the-call-is-raise-minimum-wage-end-iraq-war/
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/impact-110th-congress-us-foreign-policy
The current struggle to stop tax reform and keep economy busting regulations in place is led by Democrats even today, with a number of anti-Trumper Republicans assisting them out of personal animosity for the president. The sluggish economy finally lifted in the final year of Obama’s reign with a Republican Congress. Determined and heroic Americans both liberals and conservatives in small businesses and the energy fields began to regain their footing, and the stock marked recovered.
Since November 2016, there has been more hope and change in the economy, something Obama just couldn’t deliver, despite his promises. Trump's detractors say he inherited a robust economy--which is only partially true--the Democrats had forgotten the middle income worker (aka "deplorables" according to Clinton).
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-cra-debate-a-users-guide-2009-6
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/good-news-for-the-president-in-latest-trump-scoreboard-2017-11-03
http://www.peoplesworld.org/article/no-troop-surge-as-110th-congress-gets-to-work-the-call-is-raise-minimum-wage-end-iraq-war/
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/impact-110th-congress-us-foreign-policy
Friday, December 15, 2017
Christmas in ‘Nam by guest blogger Bill G.
Christmas of 66, my unit received a bunch of letters from 4th graders in Des Moines.
At the time, the public wasn't getting a lot of anti war media but it was building.
The 1st sergeant handed out 2 letters at random and told us ...”Reply and be thoughtful.”
My two kids had the same last name, Green, so I assumed they were related, somehow (they weren't).
The letter from the little girl was as one would expect ...thanking me for fighting for my country, wish you could be home, etc.
The boy wrote the same type of letter...but added the following:
“I wish that I could take your place so you could be home ...”
With a P.S. ... “Can you send me a machine gun?”
Any way...I sent the young girl, Denise, a dress ... And the boy, a silk jacket that had a tiger embroidered on the back.
Some weeks later, I am told to report to the commanding officer ...
Turns out the teacher spoke to the Des Moines paper and there was a front page article about the letter project and my letters back to the kids.
Those were the days.
Note: Bill and I have never met, except in an e-mail group. He posted this story and I asked permission to share since so many of us remember the VietNam years. He served as a helicopter gunner in the Mekong Delta from 1966-68 when he was 19.
At the time, the public wasn't getting a lot of anti war media but it was building.
The 1st sergeant handed out 2 letters at random and told us ...”Reply and be thoughtful.”
My two kids had the same last name, Green, so I assumed they were related, somehow (they weren't).
The letter from the little girl was as one would expect ...thanking me for fighting for my country, wish you could be home, etc.
The boy wrote the same type of letter...but added the following:
“I wish that I could take your place so you could be home ...”
With a P.S. ... “Can you send me a machine gun?”
Any way...I sent the young girl, Denise, a dress ... And the boy, a silk jacket that had a tiger embroidered on the back.
Some weeks later, I am told to report to the commanding officer ...
Turns out the teacher spoke to the Des Moines paper and there was a front page article about the letter project and my letters back to the kids.
Those were the days.
Note: Bill and I have never met, except in an e-mail group. He posted this story and I asked permission to share since so many of us remember the VietNam years. He served as a helicopter gunner in the Mekong Delta from 1966-68 when he was 19.
What do Democrats hate most?
What do Democrats hate most?
1. President Trump.
2. The electoral system.
3. The Bill of Rights.
4. White men.
5. Free market.
6. Tax cuts.
7. Small businesses.
8. Israel.
9. Fox News.
10. Unborn babies.
1. President Trump.
2. The electoral system.
3. The Bill of Rights.
4. White men.
5. Free market.
6. Tax cuts.
7. Small businesses.
8. Israel.
9. Fox News.
10. Unborn babies.
Of course, it's #1, but the others are being used in the rage. Recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital, something Clinton, Bush, and Obama all promised, well, that's the reason there's violence in the middle east, not Iran's threats, or Hamas' bombing women and children.
Of course, it's #1, but all white men are in there too. Everyone on the left is so deep in identity politics that all things bad about the U.S.A. can point back to white men.
Of course, it's #1, but unborn babies have been the target of the Democrats hate long before Donald Trump said he might run for president.
We all know #1 is the biggest, most expansive, intense, and bigly hatred we've ever encountered. Hatred for Trump is bigger than 20th century nationalist or communists or socialist indiscriminate hatred for groups. It's a hate that has brought long time enemies on the left and right together to bring him down. The hate for Trump is eating brains and diminishing people. He's accused of being boorish and bumbling, yet the haters exceed all his faults. Hatred for a race is condemned, or for sexual preference, or for a religion (except Christianity--that's OK), but hatred for an individual is condoned and encouraged. Hate eats the soul; makes the hater ugly.
What do the haters fear most--that he might really deliver on his promise to make America great again.
We all know #1 is the biggest, most expansive, intense, and bigly hatred we've ever encountered. Hatred for Trump is bigger than 20th century nationalist or communists or socialist indiscriminate hatred for groups. It's a hate that has brought long time enemies on the left and right together to bring him down. The hate for Trump is eating brains and diminishing people. He's accused of being boorish and bumbling, yet the haters exceed all his faults. Hatred for a race is condemned, or for sexual preference, or for a religion (except Christianity--that's OK), but hatred for an individual is condoned and encouraged. Hate eats the soul; makes the hater ugly.
What do the haters fear most--that he might really deliver on his promise to make America great again.
Thursday, December 14, 2017
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