Prof. Paul Rahe on Obama's Gestures

Power Line's Scott Johnson has this post today, quoting Professor Paul Rahe's assessment of President Obama, his gestures, and what those gestures say about him. Johnson's post is too powerful for me to be able to use excerpts and have it translate well. This is the whole thing:

Hillsdale College Professor Paul Rahe writes to comment on the Obama administration's announced abandoment last week of the so-called Third Site of missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic. Claremont Institute President Brian Kennedy addressed the subject in the Wall Street Journal Asia column "Obama's strategic confusion." Kennedy writes: "The cancellation of the Third Site demonstrates the Obama administration's complete confusion over strategic defense." Professor Rahe argues that it also suggests Obama's peculiar animus against friends of the United States, if not the United States itself:

In the Week in Review section of this past Sunday's New York Times, Robert Gates argues that the plan announced last Thursday by President Obama for shifting American policy regarding the defense of Europe against nuclear missile attacks will leave Europe in general and Eastern Europe in particular safer. I do not doubt that he believes what he says.

I do not, however, find this consoling. Back in June, in two separate posts on Power Line -- here and here -- I drew attention to our current president's propensity for communicating different messages to different audiences by means of gestures of one kind or another. Here is what I then wrote:

Barack Obama has a history of belittling his adversaries in just such a fashion. In April, 2008, he was caught on tape during a debate with Hillary Clinton, rubbing his hand across the right side of his face and extending his middle finger in an obscene gesture that many in the audience could see it but she could not, and when this provoked laughter on the part of his supporters he responded with a knowing smile. Later, after accepting his party's nomination, he did precisely the same thing during a debate with John McCain; and, after Sarah Palin remarked at the Republican National Convention that the only difference between a pit bull and a soccer mom was lipstick, he observed at a rally that a pig with lipstick is still a pig. Again, many in the audience caught the dig and they, too, were rewarded with a knowing smile.

Obama is, in fact, a master of the insulting gesture. There is no other construction that one can put on his conduct towards Gordon Brown when the British prime minister paid him a visit shortly after his inauguration. First, in an ostentatious manner, he returned to the British embassy a bust of Winston Churchill that had been loaned to his predecessor. Then, when Brown presented him with a pen made from timber used in a British ship once involved in putting down the slave trade, he gave him in return a stack of movies on DVD which could not be played on machines sold in Europe.

Were Obama a yokel, one might be able to explain this away. But a yokel he is not, and there are State Department protocol officers who are highly sensitive to the proprieties. It is no accident that, at about the same time, the White House press secretary intimated in the presence of members of the British press that there was no special relationship between the United States and Great Britain. Obama's gesture was a calculated insult -- meant to be understood only by those to whom it was directed.

If we are to comprehend what is going on, we must pay close attention not only to what Obama says but to what he conveys in other ways. His tone is nearly always moderate but what he hints at and what he intimates by way of body language often convey the opposite Witness his warm embrace of Hugo Chavez. Behind the thin veneer of politeness, there is, I suspect, something ugly lurking. In the first of the autobiographies that he claims to have written, Barack Obama frequently speaks of himself as being in the grips of rage. We would do well to take him at his word. If we are to stop him from doing great damage to this country and to our friends and allies, we must take every opportunity that comes our way to unmask the man.

We now know -- thanks to events in the Honduras -- the meaning of Obama's gesture with respect to the Venezuelan dictator, and I would suggest that we must regard in a similar light the timing of Obama's announcement of his administration's shift in policy regarding missile-defense in Europe. For it can hardly be an accident that he chose the seventieth anniversary of the Soviet Union's invasion of Poland as the occasion.

We must keep in mind the fact that Obama is not a yokel and that the State Department is there to prevent an ill-informed president from unnecessarily stepping on toes. What happened last Thursday was a deliberate gesture. It was aimed at our allies in eastern Europe and at Russia , and it was recognized as such in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Russia. Vladimir Putin spoke of Obama's decision as a courageous act. Our friends in eastern Europe would not have used that adjective. A signal has been given, and they know the meaning.

We are living in a dangerous time. It seems highly unlikely that Barack Obama will get his way in domestic affairs. The Democrats may control Congress, but they now fear a rout in 2010, and they are likely to tread with caution from now on. In foreign affairs, however, presidents have a relatively free hand, and this president has ample time to do damage to a country that, there is reason to suspect, he deeply hates.

Paul A. Rahe holds the Charles O. Lee and Louise K. Lee Chair in the Western Heritage at Hillsdale College. He is the author, most recently, of Montesquieu and the Logic of Liberty: War, Religion, Commerce, Climate, Terrain, Technology, Uneasiness of Mind, the Spirit of Political Vigilance, and the Foundations of the Modern Republic, published today, and of Soft Despotism, Democracy's Drift: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocqueville, and the Modern Prospect.

Unfortunately, I have to agree with Prof. Rahe's conclusions about our President. Let's hope Obama's policies can be thwarted well enough that he doesn't cause any lasting harm to our country.

Honduran President on Strengthening their Democracy

The press hasn't been covering Honduras very well, so I salute the Washington Post for publishing Honduran President Roberto Micheletti's column today about his country. It's excellent and, if you're a supporter of liberty, well worth reading, so I'm providing it to you in its entirety. Here goes:

My country is in an unusual position this week. Former president Manuel Zelaya has surreptitiously returned to Honduras, still claiming to be the country's legitimate leader, despite the fact that a constitutional succession took place on June 28. Amid all of the claims that are likely to be made in coming days, the former president will not mention that the people of Honduras have moved on since the events of that day or that our citizens are looking forward to free, fair and transparent elections on Nov. 29.

The international community has wrongfully condemned the events of June 28 and mistakenly labeled our country as undemocratic. I must respectfully disagree. As the true story slowly emerges, there is a growing sense that what happened in Honduras that day was not without merit. On June 28, the Honduran Supreme Court issued an arrest warrant for Zelaya for his blatant violations of our constitution, which marked the end of his presidency. To this day, an overwhelming majority of Hondurans support the actions that ensured the respect of the rule of law in our country.

Underlying all the rhetoric about a military overthrow are facts. Simply put, coups do not leave civilians in control over the armed forces, as is the case in Honduras today. Neither do they allow the independent functioning of democratic institutions -- the courts, the attorney general's office, the electoral tribunal. Nor do they maintain a respect for the separation of powers. In Honduras, the judicial, legislative and executive branches are all fully functioning and led by civilian authorities.

Coups do not allow freedom of assembly, either. They do not guarantee freedom of the press, much less a respect for human rights. In Honduras, these freedoms remain intact and vibrant. And on Nov. 29 our country plans to hold the ultimate civic exercise of any democracy: a free and open presidential election.

Although much of the international community disagrees with our past actions, we can all agree on the necessity of ensuring Honduras's full commitment to the electoral process. Our citizens believe that the upcoming presidential election is the best way to guarantee peace and democracy. While the election will take place in little more than 60 days, the electoral process has been underway for some time. The election is being convened by an autonomous body, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, whose magistrates were selected by Congress in early 2009 and ratified by then-President Zelaya. The autonomous body began the electoral process with presidential primary elections -- which were supervised by the Organization of American States -- in 2008 also during Zelaya's tenure. The upcoming election will include Honduras's first independent presidential candidate -- a rarity in all of Latin America.

The winner of the November election will take office as president of Honduras in January 2010. At that moment my transitional administration will cease, and the newly sworn-in president will hold all the authority vested to him by our country's constitution.

Our whole country -- whether members of political parties, youths, students or members of civil society, government, parental organizations or private businesses -- is committed to guaranteeing transparent elections. Voter turnout will be a constitutional expression of self-determination and a demonstration of national sovereignty. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal has invited independent observers from around the globe to observe our voting process. Our country is open to the world. All organizations -- churches, universities, think tanks, nongovernmental organizations -- that wish to witness firsthand this great exercise of self-determination and democracy are welcome.

We are, of course, disappointed with the position of the United States and the European Union, both longtime friends. We look forward to continuing dialogue with the United States, the European Union and the rest of the international community to prove our commitment to democracy and the Honduran people's love of freedom. Coercive action directed at our nation will only harm less fortunate Hondurans, whose hospitals, schools, roads and other institutions rely greatly on our friends' generous assistance, for which all of our citizens are immensely grateful.

I have said from the moment I was sworn in as president of Honduras that I do not intend to remain in office one second more than what our constitution mandates. On Jan. 27 I will hand over leadership responsibilities to the ninth president of our 27-year-old democracy. Such actions are in keeping with the desire of the majority of our people: the strengthening of our democracy.

Only 27 years old. Long may they enjoy their freedom!

Quote of the Day

“I remember seeing a bumper sticker when I was in college in the ’60s that said, ‘The majority is not silent – the government is deaf.’ Well, that could not be more true today.”

-- Unnamed Democratic strategist, from Pittsburgh Trib-Review article today (via RealClearPolitics).

Are You A Racist?

Are you a racist? How can you really be sure? You think you're not, but then Jimmy Carter or Nancy Pelosi or some other racist-detecting Democrats say they just know the truth about you, and you start to doubt yourself. Maybe they know something you don't know...

Well, now you can check to be sure. Just follow this easy flowchart to learn the truth (click to enlarge).


Developed by Missourah.com (HT: Power Line).

Priceless!

Obama Screws Poland on 70th Anniversary

Today is the 70th anniversary of the invasion of Poland by the Nazi and Soviet armies. And this is the day President Obama chose to announce the cancellation of the missile defense shield that was due to be placed in Poland.

The Obama administration will scrap the controversial missile defense shield program in Eastern Europe, a senior administration official confirmed to CNN Thursday.

Vice President Joe Biden earlier refused to confirm to CNN that the George W. Bush-era plan was being shelved.

But he did explain the logic of doing so, saying Iran -- a key concern for the United States -- was not a threat.

"I think we are fully capable and secure dealing with any present or future potential Iranian threat," he told CNN's Chris Lawrence in Baghdad, where he is on a brief trip.

"The whole purpose of this exercise we are undertaking is to diminish the prospect of the Iranians destabilizing that region in the world. I am less concerned -- much less concerned -- about the Iranian potential. They have no potential at this moment, they have no capacity to launch a missile at the United States of America," he said.

Biden said he is "deeply" involved in the review of the missile defense program.

Oh, that's comforting! Joe Biden vouches for Iran's intentions and capabilities. And he's never been wrong before.

More from CNN:

The Bush administration had cited the perceived nuclear threat from Iran as one of the key reasons it wanted to install the missile shield in eastern Europe.

The U.S. reversal is likely to please Russia, which had fiercely opposed the plans.

Yes, I bet it will! Dictator-for-life-in-the-making Vladimir Putin now has an open door to recreating the glory days of the Soviet Union and its Iron Curtain satellite states.

A U.S. delegation held high-level meetings Thursday in both Poland and the Czech Republic to discuss the missile defense system. While the outcome of the meetings wasn't clear, officials in both countries confirmed the system would be scrapped.

Czech Prime minister Jan Fischer said in a statement that U.S. President Barack Obama told him in a Wednesday phone call that the United States was shelving its plans. Fischer did not say what reason Obama gave him for reconsidering.

A spokeswoman at the Polish Ministry of Defense also said the program had been suspended.

"This is catastrophic for Poland," said the spokeswoman, who declined to be named in line with ministry policy.

So the tone-deaf, stone-hearted Barack Obama announced a catastrophe for Poland, one of our few loyal allies in the battle against evil in the world, on the 70th anniversary of its own catastrophic Day of Infamy. Who knows when or where the next slap in the face of liberty will take place? But rest assured, there will be more to come.

The only possible consolation to this is (as one Michelle Malkin commenter suggested) that it could cause Europe to finally have to start paying for its own defense, instead of relying on us. Heaven knows (and hopefully Europe is figuring it out too) Obama has made America completely unreliable for anything except support for terrorists and dictators.

Obama Revokes Honduran President's Visa (Updated)

Reuters reported today that the Obama administration has revoked the visa of Honduran President Micheletti.

Honduran de facto ruler Roberto Micheletti said on Saturday the United States has revoked his visa to pressure him to step down and reinstate exiled President Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a June military coup.

Micheletti, however, was defiant of the latest move by Washington, which said earlier this month it was cutting more than $30 million in aid to the poor Central American country.

"We will not back down. Dignity does not have a price in our country," Micheletti told Honduran radio.

You may not have been following the events in Honduras, because heaven knows plenty of other things have been happening a lot closer to home. But Obama's response to Honduras is the cherry on top of the whipped cream on top of the icing on the cake of his unending preference for socialist dictators over the rule of constitutional law.

As for what Reuters (not to mention the Obama administration) calls "a June military coup," this couldn't be further from the truth. Dennis Prager's summary at the time is priceless:

Even if you know little or nothing about the crisis in Honduras, nearly all you need to know in order to ascertain which side is morally right is this: Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega, Cuba's Castro brothers, the United Nations, and the Organization of American States are all lined up against Honduras.

And what troubles these good people? They claim that there was a military coup in Honduras that renders the present government illegal.

Here's how, back in July, Honduran-born Miguel Estrada described the complete legality of those events:

Something clearly has gone awry with the rule of law in Honduras -- but it is not necessarily what you think. Begin with Zelaya's arrest. The Supreme Court of Honduras, as it turns out, had ordered the military to arrest Zelaya two days earlier. A second order (issued on the same day) authorized the military to enter Zelaya's home to execute the arrest. These orders were issued at the urgent request of the country's attorney general. All the relevant legal documents can be accessed (in Spanish) on the Supreme Court's website. They make for interesting reading.

What you'll learn is that the Honduran Constitution may be amended in any way except three. No amendment can ever change (1) the country's borders, (2) the rules that limit a president to a single four-year term and (3) the requirement that presidential administrations must "succeed one another" in a "republican form of government."

In addition, Article 239 specifically states that any president who so much as proposes the permissibility of reelection "shall cease forthwith" in his duties, and Article 4 provides that any "infraction" of the succession rules constitutes treason. The rules are so tight because these are terribly serious issues for Honduras, which lived under decades of military rule.

As noted, Article 239 states clearly that one who behaves as Zelaya did in attempting to change presidential succession ceases immediately to be president. If there were any doubt on that score, the Congress removed it by convening immediately after Zelaya's arrest, condemning his illegal conduct and overwhelmingly voting (122 to 6) to remove him from office. The Congress is led by Zelaya's own Liberal Party (although it is true that Zelaya and his party have grown apart as he has moved left). Because Zelaya's vice president had earlier quit to run in the November elections, the next person in the line of succession was Micheletti, the Liberal leader of Congress. He was named to complete the remaining months of Zelaya's term.

So, the Honduran Supreme Court and military and Congress followed their constitution, ousted an illegal president whose very actions nullified his presidency, installed the next in line as president, and Obama can't see the legality of it all.

Indeed, Obama is pressuring Honduras to restore Zelaya to the presidency, and he's gone so far as to impose sanctions, as reported by the Voice of America on August 27, 2009:

The United States says it is cutting a broad range of economic aid to Honduras, over the June 28 ouster of President Manuel Zelaya. The State Department's announcement on Thursday came as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with the deposed Honduran leader in Washington.

The decision came a day after President Manuel Zelaya urged U.S. leaders to take tougher actions in condemning his removal from power more than two months ago.

Thursday, the State Department made permanent a suspension of some $30 million in aid imposed after Mr. Zelaya was deposed. In a statement, the State Department said the decision was made in recognition of the de facto regime's failure to restore democratic, constitutional rule to Honduras.

President Obama is either willfully stupid (which I don't believe), or he's a fascist-lover hoping the lack of MSM coverage will allow him to install one more socialist dictator-for-life in South America. Either way, Obama has no respect for the constitution, not the Honduran constitution and not ours.

Don't back down, President Micheletti!

Update (09/13/2009):

I left out a point, one that is probably the worst. From the Voice of America article:

Officials say the U.S. will not recognize the outcome of presidential elections scheduled for November, under current conditions.

Let's pretend, if you will, that it's June of 2008 here in America. A case claiming Bush stole the 2000 election gets to the Supreme Court, which declares that, indeed the election was stolen and both Bush and Cheney must be removed from office. Congress then passes a law requiring the military to ensure the removal of the President and VP from office and the installation of Nancy Pelosi (as next in line) as our new President. All according to the Constitution (assuming a couple details are found in the "penumbra" of the Constitution).

Meanwhile, in Pretend Land, the November elections are proceeding, with McCain and Hillary and Obama in heavy campaign mode. But because the UN and the UK and China are calling it a "military coup," they say they won't recognize our November election unless Pelosi is removed and Bush and Cheney are reinstalled as President and VP. As though who is living at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave has any bearing on the coming presidential election.

That's what Obama is doing by refusing to recognize the election in Honduras this November. All the candidates were busy campaigning (and the Honduran VP had already resigned in order to run for President) well before Zelaya's removal. The two events are NOT related. But the US will be the last ones, standing alone, against the lawful workings of a constitutional republic.

Read here about our standing alone against Honduras.

President Obama can't seem to get anything right.

Dizzy Dame

Today I go back to the health clinic where I'll be starting my new job in just over a week. I had my pre-employment health check-up and drug test Thursday, and today they'll need to read my TB test to make sure I'm not a pandemic-in-the-making.

I had to get a health check-up and TB test for my assisted-living job too, but the health screening was much more cursory there than at the clinic. At the assisted-living place, the nurse checked my blood pressure, pulse, and breathing, and she asked me if my back was OK to lift heavy things. She seemed not to believe me about the lifting, but I passed my physical and got the job.

At the health clinic, they checked the same vital signs, plus my hearing, which was excellent (they must not have tested for that frequency that my high-pitched tinnitus rings at), and also my vision, which was excellent, too, because they didn't make me read anything up close.

Now, my most-of-the-time normal blood pressure is around 110/70. Perfect for making the doctors smile in approval. The last couple times I've been to the doctor on official medical business, as opposed to employment business, my BP has been dreadfully ordinary at 120/80. I found that annoying.

The employment screenings, though, have been low. At the assisted-living place, I was at 100/60 for the first time I can remember. And then Thursday, my systolic reading dropped down into double digits (99/64), which left me alarmed rather than annoyed. It certainly explained the last few days when I've gotten dizzy from standing up after leaning over, but my goodness! Ninety-nine? There's something wrong with that.

I'd heard from one of my doctors (plural, because the medical group I've gone to seems to be the stepping stone doctors use before they move on to another more luctrative practice elsewhere) many years ago that there could be some health effects from having sustained low blood pressure. So last night I went online and looked up "low blood pressure" to see if my 99 was a cause for concern.

Low BP is often associated with bradycardia (Hmm... Better check my pulse: 60. Not good, considering I don't exercise, so the low heart rate isn't from being in shape, but it's one beat above the official definition of bradycardia, so that's sort of a relief. Too bad my friend the cardiac nurse is off on a cruise, where I can't grill her for answers and reassurance). Most of the ill effects of low BP are to the brain, heart, kidneys and other essentials, caused by not enough oxygen getting there. I'd have noticed angina, poor kidney function, and exhaustion if this were happening.

Another cause is a systemic infection, but I don't have that either. Or heart murmurs or electrocardial issues.

So that leaves me with one of three possible reasons: low thyroid (possible, but I'm usually at the low end of normal and not abnormally low), stress (uh, big yes to that one), or I'm just one of those people whose BP is low without causing any health problems (there was one lady who commented on the low BP website whose normal BP is around 55/45! She makes me feel downright powerful).

I guess I don't need to be alarmed, then. But I did look for their advice on how to increase my blood pressure. I could eat more salt, except even the suggestion sounded like medical blasphemy. Or I could consume more caffeine.

I like that last one, and it makes sense since our latest heat wave has made me drink less tea and more water. So I'll be having more tea again and checking to see if this dizzy dame can cast aside her woozy ways in the process.

Breaking In

Adventures are never much fun when you're going through them.

After work at the assisted living place, I went home and gathered up many of my belongings. I cleaned out my dresser, stuffing each drawer into a plastic grocery bag or two and discarding the excess T-shirts into the Donation pile. Then I put my boxed food items into paper grocery bags and put the essential refrigerator foods into a cooler. I loaded it all into my car and topped everything with some more closet clothes.

At my friend's house (my new home), I started unloading the car. First stop was to shut off the alarm. I put my purse in my room and started bringing things into the house, leaving the front door open and my car doors open too.

But when I had the cooler and my computer speakers in my hands, I reached for the security screen door, and it was locked. Tight!

My keys and my cell phone were in the house, so I couldn't call anyone, and I couldn't drive anywhere (though I don't know where I would have gone, except by that time I was thinking about how I was going to get to work in the morning without my keys).

My friend's house is a duplex in a senior community, so I knocked on her roofmate's door, but nobody responded. Across the street a light was on in someone's garage. I rang the doorbell, and a really wasted-looking woman came to the door. She led me to the garage, where she and her friends were hanging out. They smelled more strongly of beer than of the cigarettes they were smoking.

Beggars can't be choosers, so I asked for their help. They lent me their cell phone and a phone book, and I looked up the couple I thought was most likely to have my friend's spare key. They didn't. But they had my friend's cell phone number, so I called her, hoping she could tell me who I should call for a spare key. Her phone went right to voicemail.

I looked for her son in the phone book under multiple possible spellings and couldn't find it, so I called back the other friends again to see if they had the son's phone number, but they didn't.

I had no more leads. It left me with only one option: We had to break in. Rather, the guys would have to break in.

There was an older (in his 50s) big guy and a younger (in his 20s) skinny guy, and they scouted the house for weaknesses. The gate had a lock on it, and the big guy hesitated about climbing over, for fear of disturbing the neighbor whose yard he'd have to bother. But the wasted lady said the neighbor had recently passed away, so nobody was there.

The big guy jumped the fence and then reported back about the same time the skinny guy saw a neighbor lady in her driveway and went to her to see if she had a key. She didn't, but the big guy said that if he had a wire coat-hanger, he could break in through the slider door. The neighbor lady said she had one in her car, so she got it and donated it to the cause.

The skinny guy got the door to the back of the garage open and tried the door from the garage to the kitchen, but it was bolted. So all our hopes were on the coat-hanger and the big guy (with some help from the skinny guy).

The skinny guy held a crowbar between the two doors to allow room for the coat-hanger to get in, and the big guy twisted and pulled on the coat-hanger in an effort to get it below the fat dowel that was wedged against the slider door. It took several minutes, but he finally hooked the dowel and gave it a good yank, knocking it onto the floor.

Next was the shorter dowel that lay on the slider track. The big guy straightened out the hook and worked at the end of the dowel until he moved the end away from the door. Then the slider slid open, and we were good to go!

I thanked the two guys and went inside. Then I grabbed my keys from my purse and put them in my pocket and proceeded to bring the rest of my stuff into the house without further mishap.

Once I had finished, I set the alarm for the night, because now I know how easy it is to break into a house.

UN Honors Castro

The Latin American Herald Tribune reported today (HT: Michelle Malkin) that the UN General Assembly honored three "Heroes."

The president of the United Nations General Assembly, Rev. Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, on Saturday declared Bolivian President Evo Morales as “World Hero of Mother Earth” in a ceremony at the presidential palace in this capital.

With a medal and a parchment scroll, the General Assembly of the United Nations Organization named Morales “the maximum exponent and paradigm of love for Mother Earth” in the resolution for his decoration that was read during the ceremony.

The document added that the decision was taken “after extensive consultation” among representatives of the General Assembly’s member countries.

Besides Morales, the former Cuban head of state Fidel Castro has been named “World Hero of Solidarity” and the late ex-president of Tanzania, Julius Nyerere, will be honored as “World Hero of Social Justice.”

“What we want to do is present these three people to the world and say that they embody virtues and values worth emulation by all of us,” said D’Escoto, who like the socialist Morales is a staunch critic of U.S. foreign policy in Latin America.

Your tax dollars at work funding the UN so it can honor dictator-for-life Fidel Castro as a World Hero.

Kick the UN out of the US and let World Hero Castro host that useless waste of space and hot air in Havana instead. The dictator-loving UN ambassadors deserve nothing less.

Oh wait. President Obama loves dictators too. Never mind, then. I guess the UN can stay here in America, where World Hero In His Own Mind Obama welomes dictators with open arms, deep bows, and a kiss.

Sigh!

September Calendar Photos

September is here, and summer is promising to come to an end, except in Southern California, where it will remain hot for a while longer. When I was a kid in San Diego, summer vacation went from mid-June until mid-September, because those were the days before air-conditioned school rooms. June is heavily overcast and cool, and September is an oven-baked extension of August.

I didn't plan it this way on purpose, but my September calendar pictures have a way of taking the heat off the day.

The family calendar has lighthouses from the Oregon Coast, and you may remember two of the pictures from the trip with my mom.


My patterns calendar has one of my favorite photos, this one a prime example of broken patterns. I took the picture at the fish market in Washington, DC, during a photography workshop.


Happy September!

Sand

My daughter finds the best videos for me!

This is from Ukraine's Got Talent, and some of the images have meaning for Ukranians and maybe Russians that don't quite resonate the same way with the American experience. Still, it's amazing what Kseniya Simonova can do with a little sand...

Quick Update (Updated Quickly)

I have successfully survived an entire week flying solo at my new job! I called my counterpart about a dozen times the first day, four times Monday, twice Tuesday, and only once Wednesday. Not too bad!

Yesterday afternoon was my job interview for a better-paying (but more demanding) job. I think it went well. They said they should get back to me today.

I worked at the shoe store for the final time last night, with the very high-strung girl I had a run-in with about a month ago. She was in high-stress mode when I got there, so I just stayed out of her way, and we both survived quite nicely.

This weekend I'll be away in the Sequoias. Gotta go get my car ready and start packing...

Update (4:00 pm):

I GOT THE JOB!!!

It should pay noticeably better than my receptionist job. Much, much, MUCH better than the shoe store.

Life is good. God is even better!

House Sale Update

I just realized that I hadn't given an update on my house sale status.

It fell through, but in an interesting way.

The story starts two years ago, when I put my house up for sale before the big trip with my mom. I had already listed the house with a realtor but wasn't ready for the sign to go up. On one particular day I was outside pulling weeds from in front of the house, when this realtor asked me if I wanted to sell my house, because he would sell it without charging me a commission.

Now, I'm no spring chicken who was born yesterday by falling off the back of a turnip truck. I knew he would add his commission to my asking price and charge the buyer for both. The guy just struck me as being as slippery as the day is long. And I had already decided not to use his agency, because almost every house in the neighborhood that was for sale was through him. I figured he'd be dividing his time among everyone, rather than giving me great service.

I told him the house was already listed, and he left.

So last month, when my realtor told me she had talked to Mr. Slippery Realtor (SR), who was asking about why my house was priced so low (he had one listed for almost 3 times what I was asking and way over the market rates), I hoped that someone--anyone!--would come in with an offer so I wouldn't have to deal with the guy.

But the only one to come through with an offer was SR, whose buyer offered only half of what I was asking. I was insulted and refused.

Eventually, though, SR convinced his buyers that my house was a steal even at a higher price, and we settled on a price. He wrote up an offer, and when my realtor presented it, I noticed that SR had ignored the listing and included the washer, dryer, and refrigerator in the sale price. I had my realtor write up a counter-offer without those appliances. When she called him to present the counter, though, he didn't call her back.

She tried to reach him for a couple days, and then the buyer called her and said he couldn't reach his realtor, so she tried again and got hold of a woman at SR's office. The lady there said SR had an emergency in the family and wouldn't be able to check his messages until the following Wednesday.

We tried to figure out where SR could possibly go that he couldn't make any phone calls, and all we came up with was jail or the deepest, darkest jungles of Mexico (SR is hispanic). But I didn't want to assume bad things about even a slippery guy, in case I was wrong, so we waited patiently for Wednesday to come around.

By Thursday or Friday, the buyer called my realtor in desperation. He hadn't been able to reach SR, so he asked my realtor to put the deal together. She had a bit of scrambling to do in order to write things up so they matched what SR promised his buyer plus took care of what I needed out of the deal, but she got it figured out, written up, and signed by both parties on the same piece of paper.

I live in a mobilehome park, and any buyer has to apply to the park management to be allowed to move in and pay space rent. When I was hanging out at the mailbox, I told the assistant manager that I had a buyer, and SR's name got mentioned. The assistant manager said that SR was in jail and apparently hadn't been let out on Wednesday.

At about same time, my realtor heard from the buyer that SR was in jail, but we didn't get any details until a day or two later. SR was charged with embezzlement, including ripping off his clients. I was thankful that they threw him in the slammer before he could ruin my house sale. Within a couple days of my learning that, all of SR's For Sale signs in the neighborhood were replaced with other agencies.

When the buyers (one guy with cash and his brother) went to the park management to apply, they were upset at having the rent raised, and they came away angry at the way they were treated by the manager and assistant manager (both of whom, unfortunately, come across as a first impression as anywhere from angry to nasty). Even after I offered to pay for 9 months of rent increase and my realtor would pitch in another 3 months, the buyers said they refused to live anyplace run by those people. Their refusal happened this past Sunday, my first day on my new job.

So Wednesday, I went over to the office to talk to the manager and asked her to PLEASE be nice to any buyers I get. She didn't think she'd been rude and said it was like pulling teeth to get the buyer to even say who would be living in the house. First it was just him (the one with the cash). Then it was him and his brother. Then it was him and his brother and maybe his brother's wife and two kids. Then there was the chance that the one with the cash might return to his own wife and kids (his wife had thrown him out), leaving the brother and his family in the house. But according to a combination of park rules and state law, this last scenario wasn't allowed, because nobody living in the house was on the title or an immediate ancestor or descendant. That would be sub-letting, which isn't permitted.

When the manager started to cast aspersions on my realtor, who is also a friend, I explained the whole SR-related situation to her, and she relaxed. She said that every single buyer that SR brought into the park has been trouble.

She promised to smile and be friendly and even welcoming to any future buyer of mine, and she even promised NOT to raise the rent (which she's allowed to do), after I pointed out to her that our rents are among the highest in our area and that I'd already had people refuse to even look at the house because the rent was too high. Thank God for small miracles!

So now I'm back to needing the big miracle of a house sale in this market. Before I run out of money.

Another Job Update

Today was my last day of training at my new job before I go solo on Sunday.

I'm mostly getting the hang of it. My questions have changed from, "What do I do?" to, "I do this, right?" That's the kind of progress we like to see.

Yesterday, on my day off, I went to the shoe store to try on some shoes, because the dress code requires closed-toed shoes, and most of mine are open-toed. I found some good ones and put them on hold for today, when my boss would be there to ring me up at the employee discount. So today I went there at lunchtime and bought my shoes, and now even my feet are ready for settling in on the job.

This afternoon, however, I got a call on my cell phone from a lady I interviewed with a few months ago for a job I really wanted but didn't get. The clinic's HR person had told me a few weeks after the interview that they selected someone who had experience doing that kind of work (admin combined with data analysis), but they really liked me and wanted me to apply there again. I hadn't seen any openings there that I wanted, though.

So today the hiring manager said in a voicemail that they'd been having trouble getting someone to fill the opening, and would I be interested?

I was stunned, and walked into my boss's boss's office (the friend of my friend) and told her about the message.

She said, "Go! Call them! I want you to make more money!"

So I called them and told the manager what the situation was, and she said they couldn't interview me until Wednesday or Thursday, which works well with my schedule, since my days off are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. So they'll try to have an interview on Thursday or Friday.

Amazing!

New Job Update

I started my new job Sunday. My counterpart, whose normal schedule is Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, is working overtime to train me. It's a daunting task for her.

My biggest challenge is the phone. Having only had my own extension to worry about on all my previous jobs (plus being able to transfer people who called me by mistake), I wasn't ready for four phone lines, the intercom, and whole-building paging. With my counterpart sitting by me, ready to answer my questions, I'm starting to get the hang of it.

The other challenge is knowing who to call for what. Marketing is for prospective residents or their families. Housekeeping is for clean-up. Assisted Living is for personal care of the residents. The Med Tech (part of the Assisted Living department) is for medications. The Kitchen is easy to figure out. And there are other people to call as well. Not to mention the random things that come up that don't quite fit into one tidy category.

It was starting to feel as though I'd never get the hang of it, but by yesterday (Day 3) I was kinda-sorta catching on.

The area where I added the most value was with the computer work. My friend's friend (who hired me) is also my boss's boss. She came in briefly Sunday, because she needed a report by Monday morning, and as she described what she needed (my counterpart was going to work on that while I started reading the important manuals), I said it really needed to be a spreadsheet.

My counterpart avoids the computer like the plague, and my boss's boss doesn't have much of a working relationship with Excel, so they were trying to build a report manually on a notepad. After a while spent beating her head against the wall, my counterpart said something, and that got me to volunteer to see what I could do in Excel. They had a spreadsheet started, so I worked from that, sorted it by resident name so it would match the order of the physical files, added a few columns that helped me get the calculations they needed, then finished by re-sorting it all by room number after I got everybody's information entered.

The two of them were thrilled, and my counterpart asked our Big Boss if she could keep me. She can. But the project took up most of Sunday, so my training really didn't start until Monday. And Tuesday I handled the phones on my own as much as I could. I called for help less and less, which was a big relief, because the plan is that the two of us will work together again Friday, and then I'll be on my own starting Sunday, though my counterpart says I can call her at home 20 times a day if I need to.

As for the residents, I'm enjoying most of the ones who come to the lobby to hang out. There are a couple cranky ones who like to be around people so they can spread their dissatisfaction with the way things are. I'm supposed to ignore them as much as possible while still being polite, because the workload will suffer if I allow myself to become too wrapped up in conversation with them. Actually, the same goes for the friendly ones too. If the phones are quiet, though, I enoy talking to the residents.

On Tuesday I received two gifts. One was a drawing with markers of a farm scene as a welcome to me. The other was a yellow and purple yarn trivet/hot pad that's very nice. But the maker of it let it slip that she had given all the other ones away and still had one left, and that's why I got it. I don't feel slighted, though.

The other employees are really nice and love the residents. I can see it in the way they interact.

In spite of the long workdays, I think I'm going to like it there.

New Job

I have a new job, and I start tomorrow!

I'll be the receptionist at an assisted living facility, working 10-hour days four days a week (Sunday - Wednesday), though this week will have a slightly different schedule for my training.

The previous receptionist wasn't coping well with the demands of the job, and when she lost it with one of the residents this past week, they had to get a replacement in a hurry. The director of the facility is a friend of a friend, and I'd met her before. I had semi-interviewed for this position earlier, when the now-fired lady had expressed dissatisfaction with the job, but she wouldn't quit so I was left in limbo until now.

So far in my job search, every single interview I've had (except at the city, where your test score determines whether you get an interview) has happened because I knew somebody who knew somebody at the place with the opening.

I gave one day's notice at the shoe store, but the manager convinced me to make it two weeks so I get flagged as rehirable. She promised not to schedule me in the next two weeks except for my days off from my new job.

I remember many years ago, when I was attending Bible Study Fellowship, that the teaching leader announced at the end of my first year at BSF that she was stepping down. She said she felt the Lord leading her out of that position through a brand-new restlessness coupled with Scriptures related to leaving or going that were jumping out at her. She had no idea what she was supposed to do next, only that she must leave.

A year later, she took the position of a coach (not the official title for this job) for the leaders in the region, and she loved it.

This is the way I've felt at the shoe store the last month. I've had challenges with most of my co-workers (never the customers), to the point that I really wanted to quit the job, but I needed the meager income it was bringing in. Now my restlessness has an answer.

Since my church only has Sunday morning services, I'll have to attend another church on Saturday nights. I'll need to sign up for a weekday Bible study group to stay connected with my home church.

I'd better go to bed, so I can get up in the morning early enough to figure out how to get ready for work. No more sleeping in late whenever I want to...

Some Great Music

Now, some time away from politics. Courtesy of my daughter...

Watch the band members have a little fun throughout the song.



Classic!

Arlen Specter Gets an Earful in Town Hall

Sen. Arlen Specter (RINOD-PA) held a Town Hall, and this video highlights two attendees who had something to say (HT: John Hinderacker at Power Line). To his credit, Specter didn't take his ball and go home, like the AARP lady did.

Constitutional Rights

(Hat Tip: WordSmith at Flopping Aces)

Single Payer Health Strategy

Kevin McCullough posted this video today, refuting the White House's assertion that the Public Option is about insurance competition and not a move toward a single-payer plan (universal health coverage).



Do you like your health insurance plan? Do you want to keep it? Too stinkin' bad, because it won't be around for long if the White House and the Democrat-controlled Congress pass this Hurricane-Katrina-on-steroids disaster of a bill.

Key Changes Are Evil

They should not be allowed in the house of our Lord, especially not when His people are worshiping Him through song. That's neither the time nor place for the Godless wickedness of changing keys to one that's always higher and harder to sing.

And that's all I'm going to say about it.

Maybe.

New DNC Ad

The Democratic National Committee is upset about all the people who are protesting Obamacare, because everyone knows that protests belong to Democrats and NOT Republicans or opponents of Democratic policies. So they've created an ad that they'll be airing during the Congressional recess month of August. Here it is:



OK, maybe that's not quite the same version the DNC made.

But it's what they meant.

(The audio track is from the original ad, but some of the images were... changed.)

New RNC Ad

Courtesy of Connie Hair at Human Events:

Town Hall with AARP

I got my first invitation from AARP around the time I turned 40, and I threw it away, insulted that they thought I was old enough to join.

Sometime after that I learned that AARP is a major supporter of Democrats and liberal causes. I have since refused to join that organization, even in my advanced old age, and even though I could get bargains (on insurance at least) through them. I will not knowingly put my money somewhere that it will work against what I believe in. So AARP (and Ben & Jerry's, too) is out until they change their Lefty ways.

Then I saw this video that Duane Patterson (Generalissimo) posted on Hugh Hewitt's blog. It's a town hall meeting held by AARP with the intent to have a discussion with the seniors in the audience. But the seniors weren't buying the AARP talking points.



The citizens of the country are upset, and the self-appointed ruling-class elites aren't accustomed to having their pronouncements contradicted, so they just take their ball and go home.

As long as Congress and their supporters keep trying to ram through the complete destruction of finest (though imperfect) medical system in the world, we must oppose them. And when efforts to pass the current "reform" plans fail, the radicals will simply try stealth tactics to achieve the same ends. We must not lose our vigilance as long as Democrats hold the majority in Congress.

Update:

Here's the audio of Hugh Hewitt's discussion of the video on his radio show. Classic!

Next Weight Loss Target Reached

This morning I stepped on the bathroom scale, as I do many mornings, and for the first time since I started my weight loss program, I am at -30 pounds. Time for a celebration!!!

A friend and I had agreed to come back to the new French bakery in town (I had just discovered it) when we hit our next target and celebrate over tea and (for the target-hitter) a pastry. Unfortunately, my friend is up north doing some cat-sitting, so I had to go alone to the bakery today. This chocolate pyramid was my treat:


They have a bigger one, and that's what I planned to get, have it cut in half, eat half there at the bakery, and take the rest home for my nighttime treat. But the guy at the counter (his sister is the baker, trained under a genuine French pastry chef) suggested I buy the two mini-pyramids so I could have one there and take the other one home with me.

The outside is a hard chocolate coating, and inside is chocolate truffle. Oh. My. Goodness!

Of course, tomorrow my weight will probably pop up a pound, but that's OK. It'll be back down, because I'll be behaving again until my next target, which I haven't quite decided on. I'm within striking distance of the weight that I can both a) look good at, and b) maintain. Another 10 pounds might be too much, but it might good. I'll have to see when I start getting close.

One concern, though, is what to treat myself with when I get to the next goal. With each successive goal so far, my treats have become bigger and bigger. The first one was a piece of chocolate not even an inch square. The second one was a See's dark chocolate chip truffle. And now this one is two mini-pyramid truffles, with consumption separated by several hours. I think I'll need to scale back some for the last one.

One of the ramifications of this victory is that it's ruining the fit of my pants. I mentioned earlier about the new Levi's 529 jeans for curvy women that I bought after I'd lost almost 20 pounds. Well, they're getting droopy now, except when I first pull them out of the dryer. But the website where I bought them is now out of stock in my new size and won't be stocking them anymore. I'll have to go hunting, maybe Sears, maybe Penney's...

But I bought a new pair of slacks to wear to interviews when I don't want to wear a dress (my dresses still fit, because they have full skirts that don't care what size my hips are), and the slacks look nice on me, at least they did when I was plateaued at -28 for several weeks.

Life is definitely looking awfully good these last couple days!

August Calendar Photos

August snuck up on me while I was paying attention to other things.

The family calendar this month is Seattle. You may recognize these pictures from when my mom and I were on our trip.


Also from our trip was this bin of gourds for sale in the Amish area of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. This is the picture in my Patterns calendar.

My House is Sold!

Praise God from Whom all blessing flow!!!

It should close on the 28th of August. A realtor may be showing the house tomorrow (for a backup offer), and after that, I get busy messing up my house while I sort everything and do some serious down-sizing of my stuff.

US Consulate in Jerusalem

Holy crap!

Paul Mirengoff at Power Line linked today to the home page of the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem.

It is almost entirely about the Palestinians. The only exception is the upper right corner, called, "Spotlight USA," which has a story about the Anatomy of a Jury Trial and a 40th anniversary commemoration of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

Every single news item, every single notification of available grants, every single aid and educational program is geared toward the Palestinians.

There. Is. No. Mention. Of. Israel. Or. Jews.

What does this tell you about Obama's Middle East policy?

It tells me that if Israel is depending on America for anything at all during the Obama administration, they're screwed!

(Pardon the language.)

Draft Beer Diplomacy

Tonight is the night of the Beer Summit at the White House. The AP today describes it this way:

Offering cold beer and careful words, President Barack Obama is trying to bury a political distraction and show the nation how conversation can help ease racial conflict. Just don't expect to hear much Thursday evening: The moment billed as teachable won't be that reachable for the masses.

Obama is going to a have a beer — that all-American bonding gesture — with the two men he joined last week at the center of an uproar over race in America: Henry Louis Gates Jr., a Harvard professor who is black, and James Crowley, a Cambridge, Mass. police sergeant who is white.

It was Obama himself who said the episode could be a "teachable moment" on improving relations between police and minority communities.

For now, his stated agenda is simply to allow for a good, productive conversation among the three men. The hope, in turn, is that people in communities across the nation will see the meeting as a model for how to solve differences — more listening, less shooting from the lip.

The hoped-for outcome of this beer fest is what bothers me. Helping communities see this "as a model for how to solve differences" implies that there are "differences" in the Gates Affair that need solving. As Larry Elder said today when he was a guest on Dennis Prager's radio show, Obama is treating Prof. Gates and Sgt. Crowley as though they were both in the wrong and needed to come to a mutually agreed-upon solution.

But that's not the case at all. Prof. Gates was in the wrong. And Sgt. Crowley was insulted by both Gates and President Obama, both of whom owe Sgt. Crowley an apology. A real one. Not some dribble that puts the fault back on the victim like, "I'm sorry you had to go and get your feelings hurt when I said what I meant." So the first order of business in tonight's meeting--either before or immediately after pouring the beers--needs to be heartfelt apologies to Crowley from both Obama and Gates. Without that start to the meeting, there's no point in continuing. It's just a waste of time disguised as a teachable moment in an attempt to accomplish the very dubious purpose of burying the political liability caused by Obama's having "stupidly" run at the mouth.

Frankly, I don't believe there will be any apologies, except maybe for one coerced from Crowley for the insult to Gates and Obama by his having been born white.

All that said, I probably wouldn't have posted about the Suds Summit at all, if it weren't for the broader application: This is Obama's modus operandi, and he applies it to all situations from the two-man conflict to the world stage. It will prove ineffective with Gates-gate, and it will prove deadly when used as foreign policy.

Obama, when making his first remarks about Gates' arrest, followed these general steps:

1. Subscribe to popularized group stereotypes (cops = bad, blacks = poor, abused victims)

2. State these stereotypes as facts, without doing any genuine fact-checking ("[T]here is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that's just a fact." But facts show, as in this mapping of crime statistics by race, that crimes are disproportionately committed by minorities, so minorities will and should be stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. A crime report's description of a suspect as a six-foot tall black man should prompt police officers to stop black (not white) men).

3. Declare, either explicitly or implicitly, that both sides are at fault (despite the evidence) and call for what will be pointless conversation, because the real issues won't be addressed. Beer is just a bonus.

4. With Obama, of course, as the Great Mediator, able to make all things new.

This appears to be the formula President Obama is following in the Middle East as well. He has swallowed the much-publicized slur of Israel as the oppressor/occupier that must be stopped from victimizing the unfortunate Palestinians or bombing peace-loving Iran--completely ignoring the disagreeable fact that Iran, the PA, and Hamas have all called for the total destruction of Israel.

Then he insults Israel, telling them what internal decisions of theirs he will or will not approve. And his great desire is to sit down and talk with all the parties and help them resolve their differences, when he has no clue what those differences really are because he's bought into the stereotypes. And those sit-down meetings will accomplish nothing but giving Israel's enemies more propaganda to paint themselves as good-hearted souls who just couldn't convince wicked Israel to play nice, all the while buying more time to prepare for wiping Israel off the map.

But don't worry. Obama will be sure to bring the beer...

What Was He Thinking?

I was leaving Wal-Mart (which I've heard will become the first Super Wal-Mart in San Diego County this Wednesday) yesterday, walking out to my car, and there was a man headed toward the entrance. What caught my eye was his hair. Sorry (very sorry), but I don't have a picture, because that would have been rude.

He had male-pattern baldness, the kind that makes a man's hair recede until his forehead stretches all the way across the top of his head and starts down the back, leaving a fringe of hair around the back and sides like an ancient Olympian's laurel wreath.

OK, but that's not the whole picture.

The sides were pretty thick with nicely groomed, silvered-brown hair, and he had a pony tail in back that fell to the lower edge of his shoulder blades. Like maybe he was compensating...

OK, but that's not the whole picture.

He had a comb-over. A serious one, about four inches wide, across the top of his head that left a large semi-circle of baldness showing behind it. And the comb-over was plastered down with what must have been some industrial-strength axle grease or maybe some hard-core lacquer that would require a hammer and chisel to make it budge, because it was darker than the rest of his hair the way wetness or greasiness will make it.

Fortunately I was a distance away when I spotted him, because I stared. And thought about my camera.

He can't possibly believe he looks good that way, can he?

It just seems as though there must come a time in life when a person (and I'm including myself in this lesson too) has to face the fact that his or her looks are not quite the ideal. The struggle to hang onto that bare thread of former glory isn't worth the grotesque mockery a person can make of himself in the process.

Zombies

They're big in the fiction world these days. The Twilight series (Oops! That's vampires, not zombies). The Zombie Survival Guide. World War Z. And now, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies:


My interest in zombies began several years ago, when my son and some of his online friends developed a Wikipedia alternative, called AwesomeWiki, that details the history and facts of an alternate world. This is a world in which Switzerland has conquered and assimilated most of Europe, we live in the Federated American Union, the English language still uses "æ" instead of "e", and they've developed the process of zombification - particularly for bringing back dead præsidents to rule the country.

During this past Christmastime, I spotted the Zombie Survival Guide and, thinking of my son, flipped through it. The book had such useful information as which weapons are effective at killing zombies, with the caveat that if you decapitate a zombie, you should be careful because they can still bite. Since I didn't know if my son still had a thing about zombies, I decided not to buy the book for him.

I noticed World War Z, by the same author as the Zombie Survival Guide, about a month ago and talked to a guy who was going to buy it. He'd already read the Survival Guide and had a buddy who loved WWZ. Good to know that it's recommended.

Then last week, as I was at B&N perusing the display table with the sign that said, "School Required Reading," I notice that World War Z was one of the selections. I asked an employee what school required its students to read that book, and she said that it was on a list of books the students could choose from. She said it was too many words to make a sign that said, "School Required Reading and Books on the Recommended Reading List." That made sense, and it's good to know that schools are letting kids read fun books.

A few days ago, when I was hanging out at Barnes and Noble with my daughter, we saw Pride and Prejudice and Zombies on a rack as a "Recommended by our Staff" book. My daughter, who read Pride and Prejudice (without zombies) during her senior year of high school, decided to buy it, and she read the first page to me over the phone last night.

It takes Jane Austen's story and weaves in the zombies, using the language of Regency-period England. The recent spate of zombie attacks are properly referred to as a scourge or other euphemistic language that suits the time. Just the first page sounded delightful, and I get to borrow it after her roommate friend finishes it after my daughter finishes it.

But in an act of kindness (mercy?), last night my daughter Facebooked me a link to an article entitled, "A Harvard Psychiatrist Explains Zombie Neurobiology." Here is how Dr. Steven C. Scholzman describes the function of the frontal lobe and its effect (or lack thereof) on zombies:

This part of the brain is involved with "executive functioning" - enabling us to think carefully and solve problems in an abstract way. Clearly, there's not much going on there if you have the misfortune of being afflicted with living deadness. But we do know that zombies can see us and sense us. Schlozman concludes that zombies possess just enough frontal lobe activity to "listen" to the thalamus, through which sensory input is processed.

But the frontal lobe function most relevant to understanding zombie behavior is the control of "impulsivity"-the general term for when you do something and, if you had two more seconds, you might not have done it. For instance, if in a fit of rage you have the sudden urge to punch your boss in the face, the frontal lobe intervenes and allows you to consider why that might be a bad idea.

He goes into more of the parts of the brain, including explaining why "the infected" creatures in 28 Days Later are actually NOT zombies, all of it extremely useful information, much like the Zombie Survival Guide.

Because you never know when you'll need it...

Bay of Pigs

Here's a little something to brighten your day.

Photo credit: Eric Cheng / Barcroft Media

The Telegraph (UK) has an adorable photo essay on the feral pigs who live at the beaches of Big Major Spot Island in the Bahamas. Enjoy.

The Ordeal is Over for Now

I posted on this topic about a year ago. Everything was fine for a while, and then some time ago I noticed a silhouette at the corner of the house when I'd pull into the driveway at night. It was small and light brown but shaped like a black widow. But since it wasn't black or big enough, I left it alone.

Several months later, that small, brown spider had grown and turned black. It really was a black widow, after all. I went in the house, got one of my sneakers with a smooth-ish sole, and whacked the shoe against the spider and the house so hard, the sound probably woke the dead.

Life was much better after that (once my heart palpitations settled down).

But then I started noticing a familiar shape hanging under the electric meter at night when I'd come home. Unfortunately, this black widow couldn't be obliterated against any hard surface. I sprayed the heck out of it with Raid, but it just crawled up into the nether regions of the meter.

I didn't see it for a while, and then it must have recovered, because it came back again. Understand, my can of Raid only promises to kill ants and roaches (which I don't have), but not spiders.

I mentioned it to some friends, and one of them brought me a can of Ortho Ant, Roach, and Spider Killer, complete with a picture of a black widow on the front.

So, Saturday night I grabbed the flashlight and the deadly toxin and went out to the electric meter. I sprayed at the spider, but a lot of the spray stayed on the web. The spider ran up under the meter again, so I sprayed under there (getting more on another part of the web), then went back into the house, the adrenalin still running through me.

Sunday night I had my daughter over to share my diet plan's dessert with me (Peanut Butter-Banana Dream, makes 2 servings), and when she was leaving, she saw the black widow hanging on its web but to the side and back of the meter. I must have only winged it on Saturday.

I grabbed the can and doused it good this time, until I saw it fall and DIE!!!

There!

Monday morning (Garbage Day), I took a dustpan out to get the carcass in the trash, because I didn't want it lingering a moment longer than necessary in my driveway. It was still dead, and I got rid of it without having it touch me or my clothes, then I took the garbage can out to the curb. I also grabbed (with a paper towel - this can has more spiderwebs) the garbage can I keep my recyclable paper in, and when I pulled it away from the house, there was another black widow hanging on the wall of the house with three of what must be egg sacs. Eeeeeewwwww!!!

Again, I grabbed the can and sprayed until the spider fell and died. Then I sprayed the egg sacs and smashed one of them. Then I got the jet-spray nozzle on the hose and hosed down the garbage can and the side of the house, and I washed all the debris back toward the part of the yard where I never go. I was almost late for work because of that stinkin' spider.

Last night, when I came home from work, there was the same black shape under the electric meter again. But when I looked more closely, I could see that it was dead and hanging from a web. So I really had killed it the first time, and that spider on the side was another one.

Today I had to go into the shed to get another one of those stupid twisty light bulbs (I got them before the powers-that-be announced that they're deadly), and I was afraid to open the doors for fear of what evil black menaces I'd find lurking in the dark. That can of Killer was at the ready by my side. But other than a few non-black-widow-looking webs (BW webs are "disorganized" in a particular way (there are one or two benefits to having been married to a guy who liked spiders)), the path between the doors and the bag that held the bulbs was clear.

By then, the dead, dangly one had fallen on the cement, so I scooped it up into some recycling papers and dumped it into the garbage can, where it made a thump when it landed. It'll be gone Monday afternoon.

I think I'm ready to return the spray can to its rightful owner now.

The Left's Fascination with Islamists

Janice at You Heard it Here has a great post today on how CAIR is claiming victory for pressuring the American Library Association to cancel a panel discussion. The reason for CAIR's distress over the panel, "Perspectives on Islam: Beyond the Stereotyping"? Robert Spencer was one of the four panelists.

Spencer, on his site Jihad Watch yesterday, explained more fully the events surrounding the panel and its cancellation. Here's how he opens:

The American Library Association invited me to speak on a panel tomorrow, which led the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case, along with some complicit, bemused, and Leftist academics, to kick up a controversy -- previous posts about this here and here.

However, now the other three panelists, caving to pressure from this terror-linked group, have withdrawn from the panel, and the ALA has canceled the panel. The panel was stacked three against one against my point of view, but even three-to-one wasn't safe enough for CAIR or these evidently very insecure academics.

Keep in mind, the American Library Association (ALA) is not what its name might imply. It's a hard-left group that, among other things, fights tooth-and-nail against protecting children in libraries. The ALA refuses to block access to child-porn websites on library computers, siding with the obscenity-viewing "rights" of predators over the safety of children visiting the library. The ALA has also been ignoring the librarians in Cuba who have been jailed for actively supporting Cubans' right to choose what to read.

Ever since 9/11, I've been trying to figure out why the Left (including Academia), which has so much disagreement with Islam, would side with groups like CAIR and against American culture. In the comments to Spencer's explanation of events, Gozan303 describes it this way:

Academia today is like an adolescent schoolgirl with a huge crush on what she perceives as the fascinating badboy in the class. If a stinky old teacher or parent comes around and tries to point out the obvious problems with the guy, like he has a police record a mile long, or he doesn't have a steady income or education, that just gets the girls prepubescent interest piqued further, since everything cool is what the stinky old establishment rails against. Right?

The .edu crowd has a huge crush on Islam, because it ruffles the feathers of that old dinosaur, Judeo-Christian western culture. Robert, bringing the irrefutable truth, is unwelcome in the same sense as the stinky old parent, because he would interrupt their swooning adoration session directed at the school badboy. Your [Robert Spencer's] credibility and reputation are strengthened by each such inanity as this. Who knows, maybe good old logic and non-contradiction will be the new fashionable outlaw one day. I've always thought truth should ride a Harley.

Gozan303 is absolutely right. And just like the schoolgirl, who doesn't realize that if the badboy ever took an interest in her he'd hurt her, the Left doesn't want to know that they're just as big (maybe more so) a target of the Islamists. So they'll keep fawning after their badboy every time he goes after that stinky old Robert Spencer, but sooner or later they're going to wake up to the fact that badboy is just plain bad, even to them.

Where I've Been

The short answer is: studying.

In my online Medical Coding class, we had three weeks since our previous meeting to do the last six chapters. Our final meeting/final test was scheduled for yesterday.

I was pacing myself for two a week, but the second week I slipped because I worked a lot at the shoe store (good for the bank account, bad for studying). By a week ago Friday, I still had three chapters to go.

That seemed fine. I finished the next one on Monday and then discovered that the following chapter was not the usual 25 - 40 pages long. It was 100 pages, with 40 exercises (not the usual 10-ish) to complete throughout the chapter! I almost cried.

So I started the Killer Chapter 15 (diagnostic coding in the ICD-9-CM manual) late on Monday night, got through about 10 pages, when I started falling asleep. I had Tuesday off, so I spent the whole day studying, studied before and after work on Wednesday, studied all day Thursday (another day off). Thursday night I finally finished going through the chapter, then did my post-chapter exercises, did a few of the 208 questions in the workbook, and considering the late hour (about 3 am by then), decided it was time to tackle the online quiz. I finished that at 4:03 am, went to bed for about 4 hours, then got up again to try to do the final chapter Friday.

My test results came back in the morning: 79. Not passing (80 is the cutoff). My heart sank, until I noticed the teacher's note saying that I got the multiple answers correct (they were marked wrong, because I had them in a different order than the answer code), and I had passed. So I worked on Chapter 16 Friday and finished it just before it was time to leave for work after dinner.

In class yesterday, our final test was easy, with answers straight out of the CPT (procedures, not diagnoses). Since I'd finished all the work assignments (she didn't care that I hadn't done all the workbook exercises--those are for our own benefit), I passed the class, and I should be able to find a beginner coding job. If only I could find an opening somewhere.

Meanwhile, a week ago my friend the cardiac nurse called to tell me that a friend of hers from her widows growth group at another church (I've met this friend) had to fire the medical receptionist at her nursing care facility for saying horrible things out loud about some of the patients on multiple occasions. The friend was interested in hiring me. The job would only pay $11 an hour and would be four 10-hour workdays a week, Sunday - Wednesday. The friend would call me about it.

Only, she didn't call.

Yesterday, my friend told me that the other lady had been in class all last week, and she'll be back at work this coming week (except for Wednesday, when she'll be at Disneyland). Just as well, since I needed every waking moment last week for homework.

So tomorrow I'll give her a call, and we'll see what happens. It'll be a foot in the door to the medical world, and there are a LOT of jobs that want the crucial 1 year of medical experience.

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!

A Woman of My Word

Sometimes it's the little things that reveal important things.

I've gotten to know my postal carrier. She's a she and not a he, like I thought a couple years ago when I got in trouble for not getting my mail very often. I finally got the courage about a month ago to ask her if she was the one who wrote "BOX FULL REPEATERS" on the salmon-colored paper that was in my mailbox, and she said, "No, that must have been my T-6." Whatever a T-6 is--probably her weekend replacement.

I explained to her that, since I pay my bills online now (ever since I started getting ready for the trip with my mom), I don't have much to get excited about in the mail, so I don't have the incentive to pick it up every day.

Well, after my doggie-sitting adventure, I don't think I've emptied my mailbox at all. Today, as I was studying my medical coding textbook by the window that looks out the front of the house, I spotted the mail truck drive by and park next door, so she could deliver a package for them. So I went outside and asked her if she had taken all my mail back to the post office, or if she was still shoving it in there.

She said it was still there, so I told her I'd empty it today, and she thanked me.

This evening I took a break from studying to put gas in the car, get groceries, and pick up a salad at Jack in the Box for dinner. On my way back home, I thought about stopping at the mailbox, but my front seat was filled with grocery bags, so I just came home, telling myself I'd get the mail in the morning before I left for work (she delivers the mail in the afternoon).

But sometime after 11:30 pm, it occurred to me that if I waited until morning, I would have lied to the postal carrier. Not that she would even know, of course. But I would know.

It's a bad habit to fall into, letting yourself do "good enough," or get "close enough" to what you've said you'd do. And I haven't really done the introspection yet to see if that's become a habit for me. All I knew was that, even if it was just this once, if I didn't do what I said I would do, I would make myself a liar. Just between you and me and God, that's not what I want to be.

I left the house and got the mail and kept my word.

It feels good.

"Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one."
-- Matthew 5:37

Unemployment Chart

A manager in the department I worked in when I was in my early twenties had a sign on the outside of his cubicle: "There's Theory, Then There's Reality."

That's the perfect sign for the times we're in, as we're led by theory-relying Democrats determined to pursue policies that have no foundation in reality.

Geoff at Innocent Bystanders (HT: Power Line) has this chart showing Obama's theory vs. reality as it applies to unemployment and the stimulus program (click to enlarge):


The stimulus may be providing temporary improvements for people in the construction-related industry, but the net job loss is way beyond what was expected if we did nothing. Granted, what was expected by doing nothing was theory too, but economists were pretty good at predicting an untampered-with economy.

GOP on the Hunt for the New Jobs

House Minority Leader John Boehner's office put this together:



I hope they let me know when they find those jobs. I could use one!

July Calendar Photos

It's July already. Where did the time go?

The family calendar photo is from Gettysburg. Without the squirrel, the picture would be nice but boring. Gotta love those squirrels.


My patterns calendar photo for July is my favorite. I was at a photography workshop in Washington DC, and we had just finished up an outing to Foggy Bottom and were going to the Metro station. Some workers had one of the escalators dismantled for maintenance, and they had placed the wheels to the side in nice rows, surrounded by bright orange strappy fencing. As I walked by, I spotted the wheels, stopped for just a second to snap a picture, asked a worker what they were, and then joined our group down a working escalator and back to the hotel.


When it was time to review our pictures, I was the only person who had a shot of the wheels. Not even the instructors had noticed them. And the art-photography instructor especially loved the photo.