Buffalo Gal

All of us who are the ones who pay our taxes faithfully and on time to our local, state, and national governmental agencies are simmering….no…ready to erupt….at the thought of yet another government bailout for failing businesses brought on largely by greed and "crony capitalism" as one writer recently called it.  If I understand it, it would seem that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two lending agencies sponsored largely due to government support really started the breakdown on Wall Street the past week or ten days.   There are many politicians howling and blaming right now, but the one that gets me the worst is Barney Frank of Massachussetts.  He is been in the forefront blaming the Bush administraton but Barney has a huge pile of rubble around his feet. 

Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe (in Frank’s own state) wrote recently and titled his commentary piece "Frank’s Fingerprints are all over the financial fiasco".  According to Jacoby, Barney Frank was one of the leading politicians in Congress to engage inpressuring lending institutions like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to make more loans to people who could not afford to pay them back …this was done so that low-income people couldown their own homes.  Fine and dandy, but those who take on home mortgages have to pay them back in the real world,  but Frank chose not to recognize  that most important factorof borrowing and lending.  Time and time again, previous to last week’s FM’s disaster, Frank insisted in public and in the House of Representatives that Fannie Mae and Freddie Macwere in good shape when they were not.  He was one of the leading pols who blocked attempts some years back to force the two FMs to be more regulated in making loans and collecting on them.  This has led to to what we witnessed last week when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both proved to be "houses of cards" that came tumbling down in the foldingof other lending institutions on Wall Street.  In spite of his fingerprints being so publicly "all over" the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac crisis. Frank had the gall to stand upin Congress and say this:  "ThePrivate Sector got us into this mess.  The government will get us out of it."    He is really living in some kind of a La La Land "bubble".

If there is one thing I cannot abide, it is hypocrites like Frank who point their finger atothers for blame when there are 4 of their own fingers pointing back at themselves.  I do not think that Barney Frank even thinks he has any responsibility for this fiasco even thoughhe was active in the entire process of bad loans to people who could never pay them back.  This was done in the name of "fairness" according to Frank, who seems to  need somebasic economics education badly!

In another commentary written by Phil Harris on Monday September 29, Harris calls NancyPelosi, the so- called leader of the House,  "an elder snotty brat" after Pelosi’s leadership failed once again and she made a highly partisan speech from the HouseFloor  before  the bill for the government rescue was voted on… causing it  to fail by a significant number of votes from both Republicans and Pelosi’s own Democrats.  Pelosi hassuffered other humiliations as House Leader but this is a big one.   Harris also described Senate Leader Harry Reid as being in the same boat as Pelosi other than that he has a Ychromosome!  Reid’s  continuous petty partisanship has caused much distress in Senate actions in the past and he is not acting the part of a true leader now, either. Both Pelosi andReid are too much concerned with small stuff that might help "one of their own" get past an election, but their concern for the good of the nation is lacking with their extremepartisanship….not a good quality for true leadership.  They are far more interested in playing "Gotcha" games against the opposition party than they are in getting thingsdone that count,  in both houses of Congress.  It is a small wonder that the approval rating of Congress has sunk to about 12 percent and, at times, has been in the single digits….muchlower than the approval ratings for the hapless President.   But Pelosi and Reid continue on their own destructive paths and fail to provide any real leadership in either house of Congress.

There is a long history of government bailouts, unfortunately.   It started in 1932 and1933 after the Crash of 1929 sent the United States into the Great Depression that lasted for almost 10 years.  President Hoover in 1932 got Congress to pass  legislation to bail out some Wall Street failures by enacting the Reconstuction Finance Corporation which was supposed to prop up business and promote some positive business activity.  President Roosevelt in1933and thereafter, got lots of  legislation passed to reinvigorate the economy in many bailouts and government takeovers.  The bailout process has never stopped.   In 1971 Lockheed Aircraft and Penn Central Railroad were rescued in government bailouts to the tune of billions of taxpayer dollars.  In 1979 in the waning days of the CarterAdminstration ,Chrysler was bailed out with more millions of government dollars.  After the September 2001 attack on the United States and the subsequent shut-down of theairlines for several days, the government provided about 15 million tax dollars to shore up the airline industry.  There were other major bailouts in 1984, 1989 and 1998.

Now in the first half of 2008, Bear Stearns has been bailed out (March); IndyMacbank was bailed out later in the spring; Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were bailed out on Sept. 7 and AIG was shored up with government dollars shortly after the "rescue" of "Barney Rubble’s"favorite government loan institutions which borrowed millions in bad loans to people who defaulted and were unable to pay when they were approved for the loans inthe first place.  People who have little or no income (it has been discovered that some FM loans were made to Illegal Aliens!)  should not be trying to buy a house they cannot pay for.  And no agency should be lending money to those "customers"….can you imagine your local bank making that kind of a mortgage loan????

This history of bailouts should tell us something:  no government bailout ever createspermanent help for businesses.  Only the free working of capitalism will ultimately cause financial success in  any business.  Sometimes poorly managed businesses have tofail… if their failures are  due to the greed and stupidity of those who are at the head of the company.  Why should "we the people" pay for such greed and stupidity and allow thosefailing CEOs to walk free with huge golden parachutes???   There should be a lot of people sitting in jail rather than holding up the failed institutions that made the bad loans inthe first place?    I wish it were not so… but watch out—-nobody will be held accountable.  That is too old fashioned as a concept…..the new way is to point the fingerand blame,blame,blame!!! It isn’t going to change and we are going to see more failures and more bailouts as our once- great nation goes gradually further and further intodebt and degradation brought on largely by the people who are supposed to represent us in Congress.

Just sit back and watch our elected representatives continue to "pour sand down arathole" over and over and over til the country falls into a third-rate position in the world.

My absolute favorite activites:  spending an entire day at either a good bookstore or a good library.   I spent a day at a bookstore today and it was as satisfying as it can get….for me.  I browsed in the adult area and also caught up on new books in the childrens’ and young adults’ section of the store.  You can take a librarian out of her/his library, but you cannot take the love of books and library possibilites out of the librarian!!!    I simply must see new and wonderful new books that have hit the market recently.   Lynne Cheney’s book about the United States Constitution was one of the books I perused in the childrens’ section.  People may despise her husband for a variety of reasons, but Lynne is a marvelous woman and a terrific author of very interesting books for kids.  They are done in a picture book format but are written more for older kids….grades 4, 5, and 6 and they would even be very interesting to junior high students.  She has done several excellent books in this particular format.. "A IS FOR ABIGAIL: AN ALMANAC OF AMAZING AMERICAN WOMEN  (I love the use of the "A" words in the title…what is that again?  onomatapoeia??)    Also to Cheney’scredit: WHEN WASHINGTON CROSSED THE DELAWARE;  OUR 50 STATES;  AMERICA: A PATRIOTIC PRIMER.

Over in the adult section I found DEWEY:  A SMALL TOWN LIBRARY CAT WHO TOUCHEDTHEWORLD.  Dewey’s true story touched my cat-loving heart and I might have to buy that one so I can have it forever.     In the meantime, I will check it out first from mypublic library system.   DEWEY tells the true tale of a small abandoned kitten who was dropped into the book return at Spencer, Iowa.    Librarians rescued the tiny kitten whofroze his little paws on a cold January night in the book drop.  He recovered with their loving care and that of the enchanted library patrons who loved Dewey for the 19 years ofhis life.   He spent his entire life living in the Spencer, Iowa library and had great fun chasing things, popping out at people in the book stacks and settling comfortably into librarypatron’s laps when they sat down to read.         

   I also perused two "current affairs" books….David Freddoso’s CASE AGAINST BARACKOBAMA which is a well researched book containing information that the Mainstream Media does not want to publish; the book is on the best seller list for several weeks in spite of the MSMinattention to the well researched book.  I also looked at Dick Morris’s and Eileen Gann’s new book, FLEECED, which chronicles all sorts of ways we taxpayers are getting it socked tous.  Very interesting reading.  I could not resist looking at some books about the Impressionist painters from later 19th century France.  I just completed reading AnnVreeland’s interesting historical novel, THE LUNCHEON OF THE BOATING PARTY which follows the famous painting by Pierre Auguste Renoir.  Vreeland’s book is also carefully researched forreal information about that period but she uses a novel to imagine the lives of the friends of Renoir whoposed for the large painting which had 9 men and 5 women in it.  Vreeland isa good author who has also written another novel about a famous painting— THE GIRL IN HYACINTH BLUE.  

I also enjoyed looking at two New Yorker cartoon collections…OLIVE & TWIST…CARTOONS ABOUT DRINKING.  I did not appreciate all of them but one almost knocked me off my chair from laughter.  In that cartoon, a large bull is looking down a bar at a large cow and asks her "Excuse me Ma’am…do you happen do be in estrus?"   I also got good laughs from the NEW YORKER’S CARTOONS ABOUT TEACHERS.  The funniest ones were about parent-teacher conferences and the one that cracked me up had a teacher facing two parents and saying "Your daughter is a pain in the A – - "   You will never hear that sort of truth-telling at a REAL parent/teacher conference.   It gave me many memories of P/T conference days of yore!

I need to choose a couple of books I want to give to my school library  in memory of aformer student who died in an auto accident this summer.  I looked at some possibilities for that particular need.  I need to talk to my successor at the school library also so I do notdouble up on something already ordered.   Everyone remembers dear Deanne, who died this summer at the age of 20…much too soon and much regretted by those who loved herso much.

The company of a good friend was, as always, an addition to a good day at thebookstore.  We always enjoy our browsing and our "people watching" done from our perches in the coffee shop.  People’s coming and going are endlessly fascinating.  What are they lookingfor?  Do they love browsing as much as I do?   I know they are readers because readers are who come to bookstores and libraries.  It gives a feeling of comraderieeven though the people you see are people you do not know and maybe never will know.  But we have so much in common there in the bookstore setting….it gives one a family feelingseeing others who love the bookstore as much as you do.

There really is a "golden valley" in western ND…not far from the border and Beach ND.  It is truly a golden valley in that it produces lush crops each summer season.  It is beautiful country also.

But My Golden Valley lies outside my home—it is the Buffalo River Valley I look at every day and now in the past few days, this valley that follows the river has turned golden in color.  The trees…mainly ash trees….do not turn into brilliant reds or oranges or shades of brown like we see just a few miles east and north in the forest county…the trees are bright gold or yellow and the brilliance of the monochromatic golds is enough to satisfy my soul.

The changes wrought each fall by the colors that appear on the leaves before they fall off the trees remind us that all of life is governed by change.  All of us experience change whether we want to or not.  Things happen….there is good change and the changes we would rather do without—-losses of friends and loved ones by death or desertion or simply from moving away to a place too far away for our comfort or desire to see these people often.  Good changes include job promotions, babies born into loving families, kids growing up to be successful and useful adults who marry and start their own families with happy grandparents resulting from such changes.    Then there are the changes we would rather do without….the ones that are painful and hard to go through.

The most painful change in my life occurred when my youngest son was diagnosed with serious scoliosis at tender age of 9 years old.  Everything changed from that day and on into the 10 years that he… and we… endured the changes  wrought for all of us.  Years of wearing an uncomfortable brace;  years lost to him when he could not participate in the things he loved—-especially the sports he wanted to be part of.  Years of surgeries after the brace was not enough to stop the severe "S" curvature  that kept progressing.  It was a painful and maddening change that would not relent for a long time.

Everyone of us would have a "change" story in our lives.  Nobody escapes change, just as the trees in my Golden Valley never escape the changes that occur at this time of year….  as sure as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.  The best thing about the trees in the valley is that another marvelous change occurs in the springtime when the buds burst forth again, promising new life in a new season.

Sometimes the changes we feared and despised in our own lives can cause us to appreciate the times of renewal and recovery, as constant as the good change that comes with each springtime in my now-Golden Valley.  Winter will bring an unpleasant change of bleakness in the form of bare grayish-brown trees bending in the winter winds…but I know what springtime will bring after the cold winds and snows of winter are done with us.

  Change produces hope also.

I found a great recipe while perusing a magazine in the Fargo Library about one week ago. I cannot even remember the name of the magazine but it had the word "cooks’ in it and it was one of those goumet magazines.  I leafed through it even though I am far from a gourmet cook nor do I have the desire to be one….good old fashioned meatloaf, pot roast, chili, spaghetti sauce…those are my fortes.  Oh I DO make lefse!!….and homemade bread the old fashioned way—kneading the bread by hand and getting rid of lots of inner turmoil in the process…"take that Harry Reid!…"This one’s for you Nancy Pelosi" and on and on!  I am definitely a conservative cook.

But back to the topic of creamy tomato soup without the cream…..the recipe uses white bread in the tomato mixture and after the bread is thoroughly soaked up, the whole pot is emptied into a blender, beaten til smooth, and returned to the soup pot to simmer.  I made it last week, and it is fantastic!  The finished soup looks like Cambell’s Cream of Tomato but it has a far more gourmet taste to it.  We absolutely loved it and it surely is a good way to use up the ripe tomatoes without any further canning. (I break into a hot sweat when I say the word "canning" after "putting up" many quarts of tomato sauce and tomato salsa).

In the old days when I watched my mother make homemade cream of tomato soup she either had to have the tomato mixture and the milk at the correct temperature when she mixed them together or it would curdle and be highly unappetizing.  Some cooks used baking soda added to the tomatoes to prevent curdling but the soda destroyed all the vitamins present so that was not a truly good way to do it either.

Here is the recipe that I used for "Creamy Creamless Tomato Soup"

1/4 cup olive oil/     1 medium onion, chopped finely/     3 cloves of garlic, chopped finely..or about 3 tsp of prepared chopped garlic) Leave this out if you cannot tolerate garlic. /    2  - 28 ounce canned whole tomatoes (or equivalent amount of garden ripe tomatoes)/     1 heaping Tbs. brown sugar/   3 slices of white sandwich type bread, crusts removed and cubed up/  2 cups low-sodium chicken broth.     Over moderate heat, saute onion and garlic in olive oil;  add tomatoes and cook thoroughly if they are raw garden tomatoes,  add  brown sugar and bread cubes.   Cook on moderate heat til bread is thoroughly saturated.     Pour tomato mix into blender and blend til smooth and creamy.  Return soup to cooking pot and add the chicken broth and heat to serving temperature.  

Add salt and pepper to taste (and a bit of butter if your taste says "do it")

It passed the taste test at the Buffalo-Bluff  Kitchen and was pronounced a perfect substitute for the tomato soup served at the now-closed Royal Fork.  (this still remains, for us, a great sorrow)

I am going to make some more today or tomorrow as the build – up of red, ripe, juicy tomatoes is getting out of hand here.

I read an alarming article on Breitbart.com about the warnings many scientists have put out regarding the connection between heavy cell phone use and the development of tumors…brain, auditory nerve, and salivary gland tumors were the ones mentioned in the article.  Recently we have noted the brain tumors of three leading national personalities:  Johnny Cochrane, a well known lawyer;  Senator Ted Kennedy and Robert Novak, a leading news columnist for many years.  Kennedy and Novak are receiving cancer treatment; Cochrane died about 2-3 years ago.  It does lead one to wonder about the connection of heavy cell phone use to the development of malignant tumors in the head.

For years, there have been studies on this subject…some saying that caution must be excercised in using cell phones..others saying there is no connection.  But now this article says this….and I am quoting directly from the article:

"The potential link between mobile telephones and brain cancer could be similar to the link between lung cancer and smoking—something tobacco companies took 50 years to recognize, according to U.S. scientists’ warning……’society must not repeat the situation we had with the relationship between smoking and lung cancer where we—waited until every "i" was dotted and every "t" was crossed before warnings were issued’ said said David Carpenter, director of the Institute of Health and Environment at the University of Albany, in testimony before the US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform.  ‘Precaution is warranted even in the absence of absolutely final evidence concerning the magnitude of the risk’…..especially for children, said Carpenter."

Further testimony from Ronald Heberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute which is one of the top cancer research centers, was a bit chilling also.  Herberman said that many of the studies that have been done previously are outdated and did not use certain methodological means to achieve their results.    One aspect of these outdated studies, according to Heberman, was that they defined regular cell phone usage as "once a week."   If I have observed cell phone usage among regular cell phone users correctly, these folks are using their cell phones a lot oftener than once a week.  (that would describe my cell phone usage…or more likely, once a month!!!)

Both Carpenter and Heberman told the Committee that cell phone usage among children poses even greater risk than the risk to adults.  Heberman held up a model for the lawmakers showing how radiation from a cell phone penetrates far deeper in to the brain of a five-year old than that of an adult.

"The Committee were shown several European studies, particularly surveys from Scandinavia—-where the cell phone was first developed—which show that radiation emitted by cell phones have definite biological consequences…..A separate study in Israel determined that heavy cell phone useers had a 50 percent increased likelihood in developing a salivary gland tumor….In addition a paper published this month {September} by the Royal Society in London found that adolescents who start using cell phones before the age of 20 were five times more likely to develop brain cancer at the age of 29 than those who did not use a cell phone."

Their testimony also cited this fact:  the tumors develop on the side of the head where the cell phone is used.

One can only wonder if such recent testimony might cause government agencies to intervene in the regulation and discouragement  of cell phone usage….for reasons of public health.       The comparison to the 50 year time period before connection was made between smoking and lung cancer kind of causes a person to think twice about what these leading cancer researchers told the House Committe before whom they testified recently.

There has been a lot of items in area newspapers (especially in the lakes country) about the Minnesota DNR enforcing some rules about using weed rollers in the lakes that are too weedy for they people who live on their shores.  I saw a diagram of a weed roller which is attacked to a dock and works in a semi circle from that anchor position to cut weeds in some way.  Apparently these devices are very effective.  Too effective, according to the DNR who thinks the explosion of weed rollers along shorelines is endangering the weeds needed to shelter fish.  Apparently weeds in a lake is a natural phenomena but lake dwellers do not want weedy lake fronts because of swimming, boating, skiing, et.al.  Never having lived on a lake nor spending any time at a cabin (we do not own lakeshore property) I am interested to know more about this process of weed rolling.

One of the "fish" who got trapped with some sort of illegal weed roller on one of the area lakes known for its weediness (Melissa) was States Attorney Burch Burdick of Fargo.  He paid his fine and re-installed his weed roller according to DNR rules apparently.

The issue of weeds along lakeshores is also a big issue in several lakes including Big Detroit. Seems that a species of shore weed is proliferating and I have noticed tall reedy weeds along the north shore of Big Detroit while driving on Highway 10 east.  In my memory, Big Detroit has always been a weedy lake.  I remember some sort of weed cutters operating way back in the 40′s and 50′s along the shores of BDL…which started its life as a rather shallow large slough.  The eager leaders of Detroit Lakes, at some time past…probably pre-1920s , decided to make their big slough into a "tourist attraction" and set about dredging big time….hauling sand and gravel into the lake, especially along the shores.  The lake was greatly enlarged.  And the tourists have been coming ever since.  But if you go to the lakeshore of BDL in the fall or early spring, you see Coots, a waterbird that makes its home on bodies of water that are polluted with a lot of nasty things in the water.  The only other place I have seen flocks of Coots is on the sloughs that surround us in  eastern Clay County…mud bottom shallow sloughs.  Does this tell us something?   Coots also are one of the main carriers of the organism that causes Swimmers’ Itch.  If you have ever had Swimmers’ Itch, you do not forget what it feels like.  I had it once at Camp Trowbridge when I was about 11 years old and I never spent such a miserable week in my childhood.

I also wonder how much of a role weed growth in the popular area lakes…Pelican, the Cormorants,, Melissa, Maud and Eunice, to name a few of the bigger ones….is related to the big change in permanent homes along lake shores.    It is a big difference from a few decades ago when the dwellings along lakeshores were small humble summer cabins (with outhouses)    The advent of septic tanks really affected weed growth along lakeshores. 

Action was taken some time back to get rid of septic tanks in the sandy porous soil by lakes and rural sewage systems were developed.  But the effects of the septic tanks lives on.

Then,  I wonder, after boating along quite a few of the most popular area lakes, how much people’s desire to have a non-lakefront lawn…but one that looks like the ones in Fargo Moorhead or other towns from whence the lake dwellers came…has affected weed growth when trees are cut down, lawns are seeded or sodded, and lawn fertilizer is applied on land where runoff is guaranteed.  The elements in lawn fertilizer when added to lake water, encourages growth on the lake bottoms as well as on the lawns.  I always think of the "lawns" in front the cottages where my dear Uncle Carl had a true cottage (no indoor plumbing and the running water came from a hand pump on the sink).  The lawns then were not cultivated nor were the trees cut down except in a small area so the families could sit outdoors and look at the lake.  The grass was the wild grass which was either let go or scythed by hand or, in some cases, cut once in a while with a push reel mower.  That the  lake shore was weed-free is also a memory!!!

The beautiful lake my  Uncle had his cottage on, is is now looking pretty grim as far as the water and the shore is concerned….gone is the clear blue- green lake water I remember and in its place, murky brown colored water in too many areas.  Too many permanent homes have caused trees to be cut down and  "city lawns" planted…. and I fear, they use too much fertilizer also.  It certainly looks like that is what has happened unless the Septic Tank Factor is still very much in play.

OK, sometimes I get kind of off the wall for my age.  I cannot help it…it is a long term habit leftover from when I was really young and equally foolish.  I amuse myself by reading blips and short headlines on line and today I came across a few thing that were very successful in my quest to entertain myself.  I shall share a few of them:

GOING POSTAL IN INDIA:  A report from the TIMES of India reported that a mob of angry factory workers laid in wait for the CEO who had laid them off after closing the factory.  This mob bludgeoned the CEO to death, inflicting many many "cuts" to his body in the process.  I suppose this might be one method of stopping the financial bleeding on Wall Steet and among Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac investors who got shafted.  Bludgeoning the Golden Parachuters might put an end to their greed in a big hurry.

MOOSE ON THE LOOSE:  I have followed the reports of the West Fargo Moose-Capade and think that this is one more piece of evidence of what humans invading wild animals’ territory  produces.  This has been proven in Colorado and California with attacks by cougars on joggers and runners who build homes in cougar habitat; also coyotes in California eating up little Fifis and little Binkys in people’s backyards is an indication of human encroachment on animal habitat.  If the fires and floods don’t get those Californians, Coyotes will remind them that they are living in the wrong places.

FOOT-IN-MOUTH WINNER OF THE WEEK:  Joe Biden, while being interviewed by Katie Couric, made an amazing  statement about what Franklin Roosevelt did when the Market crashed in 1929….Joe said that Roosevelt got right on the television and told people what was happening, etc.  Joe forgot that Franklin Roosevelt never had the opportunity to speak on television during his presidency and also forgot that Franklin Roosevelt was not President in 1929.  Oh well.

WHY SHE’S HOT OUT THERE:  Bill Clinton made an assessment of Sarah Palin’s rise in esteem in the nation after being nominated as the VP candidate for the Republican Party.  He used the term "Hot", as in "I know why she’s HOT out there…..(how Clintonesque to use such a term)   But  he truly  complimented the Palin’s family for dealing with their teenage daughter’s pregnancy in public and also said that he admired the Downs’ baby and Todd Palin for finishing a snowmobile race with a broken arm.  "He’s my kind of guy" Clinton said.  Bill also said that his being from Arkansas helped him understand the Power of Palin among people in the Midwest and in Small Towns all over the country.  Bill was actually very nice to Sarah Palin and her family.  Good for Bill.

PEACE MEETING PRODUCES FIGHT:   The report in the FORUM about a huge melee in the parking lot of the FargoDome after one of the attendees was kicked out of the Dome for trying to start fights inside amused me.  It happened at a Peace Rally.  Say what?

BEDBUGS MAKING A COMEBACK:  I get creeped out thinking about things like bedbugs, woodticks, deerflies,  frogs and snakes… but the report in the UK Guardian that bedbugs are making a huge comeback in Europe really made me itch.  Apparently this can be chalked up to low- cost travel deals between countries and tourists who are carrying  items  back on the planes bought at thrift and second hand shops and other less than stellar shopping venues.   (Eeee-Yew!!)

CAPTION CONTEST:  Human Events had started having a caption contest each week with the winner getting some nice cash rewards.  This week’s picture is of Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi leaning toward each other in a color photo.  I entered a caption but I am only telling if I win BIG TIME!!!!

We are still in the official time of Hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. The last one, Hurricane "Ike" was a Monster of a storm as wide and big as the entire state of Texas, to which it gave a heavy blow before it conked out somewhere in the Northeastern part of the country.  

I read a lightly humorous, wry opinion piece by a man called Mark Skousen.  He begins by asking the question of why we should name hurricanes after good people?  HIs major question was why should a hurricane be named after a famous war hero like Dwight D. Eisenhower?   He has a point.

In days before it became too sexist and gender-incorrect, hurricanes got named after women.  I faintly remember reading about hurricanes named "Camille" and "Diana" both of which really packed a wallop and did a great deal of damage to the southern Gulf Coast which suffered so badly from "Katrina" and "Ike".  But naming hurricanes after women or men can take a toll on one’s self esteem.  In Skousen’s piece, he told of a woman he knows who has a daughter named Katrina who has felt badly ever since that hurricane.  This girl has taken a lot of teasing and a lot of heat over the name "Katrina".   Not too many years ago, one of the fairly destructive hurricanes that hit the upper Gulf coast was named "Fran" and a friend of mine took a lot of guff over that one (her name).  So it is not fair to name hurricanes after Good People…like Andrew, Arthur, Bertha, Angela, Sally, Teddy or Vicky. People with those names can be scarred for life having a hurricane bear their name.

Skousen goes on to tell some names that he thinks would be good for hurricanes:  Stalin, Tojo, Hitler, Satan, Lucifer, Osama, Saddam, are some suggestions.  He even  thought that

dog’s names would be better than people’s names.  Can’t you see it now?  Hurricane Fido, Bluto, Rover, Jughead,Trixie, Pal, Spot, Klutz,Tippy or Bowser???  How about some infamous names in our history like Hurricane John Wilkes Booth?     Or name them after crimnals….Hurricane Boston Strangler or Hurricane Jack the Ripper?   How about O.J. Simpson?

One wag quoted by Skousen said Hurricanes should be named after famour Strippers like Cherri, Bambi or Bunny—-after all hurricanes are REAL strippers for property owners in the path of the storm.

I kind of like Hurricane Hugh Hefner or Hurricane Jesse James….?

If I thought about it long enough, I think I could come up with a good long list to give to the Weather Service in charge of Hurricane-Naming or whoever does that job. The U.S. Navy used to do it and they are the ones who picked the female names, the dirty Sexists!

Then Skousen adds one further speculation to his name the hurricane game.  Put the three

major news networks (NBC, ABC, CBS) in charge of naming hurricanes  and we know what the next hurricane would be named: Hurricane Sarah.

There are a number of things that really bother me about extreme Liberals’ views on running our nation….increasing taxes to pay for all the promised social programs, trusting the government to provide universal healthcare when government medicine a ‘la Medicare and Medicaid, have not been totally stellar success stories..plus evidence from countries like Canada, England and other places where socialized medicine has led to long waiting lines for crucial surgeries and other life-saving procedures (many die waiting, or else, they come to the United States and have it done here)  I am botherd by the idea that Liberals seem to think only government can decide for individuals what is right and what is wrong…that we the people are really incompetent when it comes to making decisions about the basics in our everyday lives.   But…. the thing that bothers me most is the extreme Liberal position on what they call "abortion rights"…no, they do not call it that–they call it "a woman’s right to choose" which is much nicer- sounding than saying your are  choosing to kill your own offspring in your uterus.

I have done a lot of research about abortions in the United States since the Roe v. Wade decision was adjudicated  by a group of Liberal Justices on the Supreme Court…. forever changing our culture.   Over 40 million potential United States citizens have been dispatched before they had a chance to be born and grow up.  That number is a lot higher than the deaths in many of the wars our nation has fought and yet those who support this pre-birth killing spree are often the ones to moan the loudest over the deaths on the battlefields we have been on…what is the big difference between the deaths of 40 million unborns and the deaths of millions of  adults???  Another major question that has been on my mind is this one:  Why can a person be charged with a double murder for killing a woman who is pregnant?  (Remember Scott and Lacey and Connor Peterson?)   But a person who aborts an unborn baby is not charged with anything criminal.  What is the difference?    So far, no LIberal has ever been able to give me an answer that is not one that consists of "shadow-boxing techniques"  or else changing the subject.

Now comes an essay by Mona Charen, a writer I admire and read often.  Her essay from September 19, 2008 is titled "Abortions Do Sometimes Produce Live Births".   She cites many cases of late term abortions where the child that is "delivered" is alive and breathing but is taken to a soiled linen room of the hospital and left among the dirty sheets and towels to die alone.

Jill  Stanek, a registered nurse at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois, has testified before a subcommittee that was considering the bill called the "Born Alive Infants Protection Act" (BAIPA).   Ms. Stanek, along with Allison Baker, another nurse at Christ Hospital , described several occasions that babies of abortions in that hospital were alive and moving and trying to breathe upon being "aborted".  Ms. Stanek also testified that she had taken more than one of these abortion suvivors into her arms and cradled them til they died, which sometimes took more than several hours.   Another medical person, lab technician Shelley Lowe, who worked in the Bethesda North Medical Center in Cincinnati  {OH}   testified that she took a live aborted baby from a lab dish where the attending physician had laid it and put the dish on a counter til the baby died.  Ms. Lowe testified that she held that aborted live infant,  a girl,  who struggled to breathe for 3 hours before she (Lowe called her "Baby Hope") died in Ms. Lowe’s arms while she sang to the baby and cradled her.    I do not think I could survive that kind of a "work experience" without being emotionally scarred very severely.

Mona Charen writes in this essay that she has had furious messages and calls from people who accused her of making up the stories of "abortion survivors" but Charen challenged all of them to go to their computers and use a search engine typing in "abortion survivors" into their web browser.  Charen also has met Gianna Jensen, who survived an attempted abortion and lived to tell the story later in her life.  Still, Charen writes, the denial goes deep…many angry messages have denied that any infants have survived their abortions and that "abortion survival" is a lie perpetrated by Pro – Life groups.  

The testimonies before the Congressional Subcommitte by Jill Stanek and Allison Lowe give the lie to those who say others are lying.  You testify before a Congressional committee UNDER OATH and if you are not being truthful, your testimony will be exposed.  Neither of these two womens’ testmonies have been disproved.

The national BAIPA bill passed the U.S. House by a vote of 318-15 but it was blocked by the U.S. Senate.  When a "neutrality clause" was added to the bill that would not be construed as an attempt to limit the scope of Roe v. Wade, the bill passed in the Senate by unanimous consent in 2002. 

But  now we come to a disturbing fact involving Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee.  Obama was a member of the Illinois Senate when essentially the same bill (BAIPA) was introduced in the Illinois legislature.  Obama opposed it, saying "I mean, it would essentially bar abortions because the equal protection clause does not allow somebody to kill a child, and if this is a child, then this would be an anti-abortion statute."    In 2003 the Illinois legislature introduced a "neutrality clause" to its bill and it became, essentially, a clone of the national law already passed by the U.S. House and Senate—almost unanimously… except for 15 votes against it in the House.    But again Obama opposed the Illinois bill saying "an additional doctor who then has to be called in an emergency situation"… {a live – born abortion victim…my insertion}…. "and make these assessments is really designed to burden the original decision of the woman."  He still voted against the Illinois BAIPA bill.

Charen concludes her op- ed on survivors of abortion with this statement:   "Barack Obama is a charming and intelligent man.  But there is no other way to interpret his position on BAIPA than this:  A woman who chooses an abortion is entitled to a dead child no matter what. That is an abortion extremist."

I could not agree with Charen more.   I am shocked that this nation could possibly elect such an abortion extremist to the office of President of the United States.  In  just a few short decades, the national ethos and mores of our people have changed forever if we accept the killing of unborn babies as a "right" instead of a crime against humanity.

ADDITION TO BLOG/SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20:   Since there is already a comment by someone calling themselves "They Are Lying" perhaps the first paragraph of Charen’s op-ed needs to be examined because Charen describes the frantic anger of readers e mailing her and calling her a liar:   Quoting Charen:  "Appearing on C-Span last weekend, I mentioned that Barack Obama had opposed  the Born Alive Infants Protection Act when he was an Illinois senator.  The liberal blogger who appeared on this program with me erupted with indignation.  She didn’t deny that Obama had opposed the bill.  She denied hotly that babie are ever born alive after an attempted abortion. Since I have actually met Gianna Jessen, who survived an attempted abortion, I  invited viewers to contact me directly if they wanted evidence.  My inbox has been bursting.  The denial goes very deep. Amy number of e mailers expressed their contemptuous certainty that "born alive" infants were an invention of pro-life activists.  OK, enter "abortion survivors" into your browser and see what you get.  Or if you prefer a traditional media source, consult the Daily Mail in Britain. The Mail reported that 66 infants had been left to die after abortions in Great Britain."

I suggested in my blog that doubters go to a search engine as Charen says and type in "abortion survivors".  I did and I got pages of documents on the subject.   Also if you are a deny-er and doubter, do contact Mona Charen’s e mail which you can hook up to by going to Townhall.com and click on Mona Charen’s name.  You will get the proper form for contacting her e mail.

I repeat what I already said to the commenter, "They Are Lying":   do you REALLY think a nationally syndicated writer like Mona Charen AND her syndicated service would dare to publish a lie?   I think not and unless you check out the sources listed here, do not call anyone a liar without evidence to confirm it.  ( a wild-eyed Liberal blogger on Kos or Salon or the Huffington Report would not be a reliable source either)

Also type in on a search engine:  "testimony of Jill Stanek" and you will get a volume of documents of her testimony before the U.S. Congress before they passed unanimously the Born Alive Infants Protective Act.  Stanek’s and Allison Baker’s testimonies are on record in the Congressional Record which also would be highly unlikely to publish lies told them in a hearing of that nature.

(You can read Charen’s entire op-ed by typing in her name (Mona Charen) on a search engine or by going to the Drudge Report and clicking on Charen’s name in the list of many writers in the middle of Drudge’s home page.  I also went to my Browser and typed in "Abortion Survivors" and found an entire page of "hits" along with 10 more pages that I did not check out.  On the opening page I found a fascinating "Youtube" video of Obama trying to deal with abortion protestors at one of his appearances in what appeared to be a theater or a high school theater.)

There is a mounting backlash against Joe Biden’s "re-doing’ of Catholic teaching on abortion. Senator Biden, in an appearance on "Meet the Press" on September 7 this past month, tried to make over Catholic doctrine on abortion to suit his own views…he says that human life starts at conception but he does not oppose ending it via abortion.  Go figure.  Biden quoted St. Thomas Aquinas to defend his pro-abortion view even though he has been warned and denied communion in a number of Catholic Dioceses.  (he defied the communion ban in his own parish in Delaware recently, but several other dioceses have forbidden him to receive communion as long as he holds to his pro-abortion stance) The same sort of communion edict was issued regarding Senator John Kerry in 2004 on the same issue…his pro-abortion stance as a politician and his rejection of true Catholic teaching on that issue.

Nancy Pelosi  "stepped in it" as well, when she appeared on the same news show (MTP on NBC) before Biden appeared. Pelosi did  a similar convoluted "makeover" of her own creation, of Catholic doctrine regarding abortion…. only she used St. Augustine to justify her support for Roe v Wade and abortion "rights".  She has also been taken to task by her own bishop in San Francisco and by others in the Catholic bishopry. 

Now comes news in an op-ed in today’s TELEGRAPH  from the U.K.  I have found it most interesting that the Brits are closely following our election this year.  Gerald Warren has written other essays recently in which he pointed out the growing uproar that Biden has caused among Catholic bishops  in Europe and now in America.  In his essay previous to the one today (Sept. 19) Warren wrote that at least 8 bishops were opposed to what Biden had said about Catholic teaching on "Meet The Press".  In todays piece, Warren points out that this number has mounted  to 55 Bishops;     also in the U.S.,    the Union of Catholic Newspapers is denouncing Biden in its chain of newspapers, and also on Catholic radio, TV and other media outlets sponsored by the Church.   .  A pastoral letter has been sent out by the bishops of Kansas City that informs Catholics in that diocese of Biden’s self- induced heresy to the teachings about abortion.    A quote from Warren’s piece today says "It is a tsumnami of rejection." (for Biden)

Even the mainstream media is acknowledging Biden’s growing alienation from the Catholic hierarchy.  TIME, Sept 13, 2008 has an article titled "Does Biden Have A Catholic Problem?"Between Pelosi and Biden, there is a big risk here for the upcoming election.  There are 47 million Catholic voters in the United States and in this year, about 41% of those Catholic voters count themselves as Independents.  Catholic voters were key electors in several states in 2004, turning  the tide for George W. Bush in both Ohio and Florida according to Warren.   However, that bloc of voters became disillusioned with the Republicans for a variety of reasons since 2004, and are now calling themselves Independents.  With Biden and Pelosi giving them plenty of reason to sit up and take notice, it may be highly likely that these two Liberal Democrats (Biden and Pelosi) are jeopardizing the upcoming election by the alienation of the Catholic Bishops now leading the way in informing their Parishioners of the statements of distortion by these two Liberal and leading Pols among the Democrats.   Anti-Abortion has been, and remains a firm tenet of the Catholic faith and it is one I agree wholehearedly with… even though I am not a Catholic.     I believe firmly in the rights of the Unborn….not of the woman who says she must have control of her own body but fails to recognize that the baby she is carrying is A SEPARATE BODY AND BEING who should be accorded its own "rights"—-to live— and not be destroyed in its mother’s uterus.  This issue of a "woman’s rights" is an utter fallacy when you compare those "rights" to the rights of the Unborn infant she is carrying.

Warren ended his op- ed piece today with this statement saying that the Liberal Dems, led by Biden and Pelosi and all who agree with their views, may be committing "Electoral Suicide".

Gary Bauer, in another op- ed today, speculates on the effect that Christian voters will have on this upcoming election.  Bauer says this: "After years of watching helplessly as Conservative Christians handed political victories to conservative candidates, Big Media thought it had discovered a new type of evangelical voter, one for whom "fetus fatigue" had set in.  The new type of believer, we were told, was tired of debates over abortion and marriage and wanted instead to discuss issues like AIDS and universal healthcare."

Another quote from the Bauer op-ed says "The first signs that Obama was blowing it with people of faith came at the Saddleback Forum, where the Democratic nominee’s glib answer to the simple question about when he thinks a child gets human rights stunned those assembled and millions watching at home…..Obama is hemorrhaging Catholic support for the same reason John Kerry lost the Catholic vote in  2004:    because most Catholics believe that some issues are non-negotiable.  Now as a popular new video ad by www.catholicvote.com  explains, there is a more important set of issues than the protection of our most basic values of liberty, family and life."

Bauer also quoted and pointed to the most recent article in TIME just as  Gerald Warren did in his piece in the UK TELEGRAPH today.

All of this shows us that no matter how fast Obama and Biden try to run from key social issues  like abortion "rights"…  the members of  the electorate, who are truly "of the people" (middle class values) will play a huge part on November 4—especially the Christians…both Evangelicals and Catholics—who turn out in massive numbers to vote in elections such as this one.  The conservative candidate will win the bulk of that vote by faith-based voters, while the Liberal candidate will garner the votes of the small group of voters who call themselves Atheists.

The two op-eds I read today are stunning realities for this election.