Buffalo Gal

I have neglected the awarding of the “Buffie” awards for too long. The last ones were given out in 2008 and so it is again time!
The “Buffies” are named after me…Buffalogal. They give me a chance to vent and release some of my volcanic sarcasm about matters in and out of the news. I have to depart from my usual calm, sweet, harmless dispostion to hand out the Buffies but so be it. A woman can only take so much stifling….I think that is an Edith Bunker quote from sometime in the 1970′s.
The Buffie awards are somewhat similar to the Obies, the Emmys, the Grammies and the Innies and the Outies (bellybutton awards).
So let the Buffies begin for 2010. There might have to be a series of Buffies given out over a period of time…but these are the very first ones for 2010.

THE FILTHY BARNYARD BRAWL BUFFIE: this one goes to Andrew Cuomo and Carl Paladino…the two candidates for the governor’s office in New York state. Carl Paladino surprised everyone by winning the Republican primary over party favored Rick Lazio and Carl has been slinging mud ever since that night last week when he upset the party candidate. Andrew Cuomo is the Democrat in the race and has been blindsided by the attacks launched at him by Paladino. The curious thing in this triangle (Lazio-Cuomo-Paladino) is that all three of them sound like they could have come out of Sicily or Italy and then we have to ponder the possible Mafia shadows over these candidates. But we shall leave it for now and get on to the “Barnyard Brawl” Buffie. It is shared equally by Cuomo and Paladino. Each of them have run a couple of down- and- dirty- TV ads against each other. Paladino’s ad showed a real picture of Cuomo soaping himself in a shower…showing off his hairy chest but nothing else, thankfully. He is scrubbing vigorously to to get mud blobs off his body…. all with political labels that New Yorkers can understand. Cuomo’s ad against Paladino features Carl’s head superimposed on a swill-slurping pig. Paladino has pulled out the stops on questioning Cuomo’s manhood also, saying that Andrew “doesn’t have the “cojones” to face him (Paladino) in a debate.
Paladino also makes reference to Andrew Cuomo’s reliance on Daddy, Mario to give him all sorts of boosts up his political ladder. Carl advises Andrew that “it is time to stop riding your daddy’s coattails”
It is a filthy Barnyard Brawl for sure and both men richly deserve this “Buffie”.

THE SPOIL-SPORT BUFFIE: this one is awarded to Lisa Murkowski and Mike Castle jointly because a decision could not be made about who is the biggest Spoil Sport in recent politics. Murkowski of Alaska lost her primary race to a Tea Party candidate named Miller and Castle lost in Massachussetts to upsetter Christine O’ Donnell. Both losers are whining and blubbering about being rejected by the voters of their states; Murkowski has petulantly launched a “write in campaign” for her seat in the Senate which she is loathe to give up. Castle is attacking O’ Donnell at every opportunity and trying to undermine her campaign for a Massachussetts senate seat. This could also be called the “Ruling Class” Buffie since both Murkowski and Castle seem to think that only they deserve to be elected. Each one will also get a huge 5- pound sour pickle as well as the Buffie award.

THE “PULL YOUR FOOT OUT OF YOUR MOUTH” BUFFIE: Harry Reid..the maybe-big loser in the Nevada senate race.. gets this award. Reid is almost as good as committing gaffes as Vice President Joe Biden..although Biden gave Reid a run for his money by saying he was “second in command” to President Obama the other day.
But back to Harry’s gaffe problems: His most recent foot- in- mouth incident was calling Kristen Gillbrand, the senator from New York “the hottest member” of the senate. Reid, a liberal, seems to not have a problem with being a flat- out sexist but he would despise anyone else who made such a comment…might even file a lawsuit against such a Gaffer if it were a Republican member of the senate. But not him, boy! He also famously said that Barack Obama was “light-skinned” and did not have a “Negro dialect” when Obama was running for president. Reid also judged Townhall protestors during the summer of 2009 as “evil mongers”. In 1998, Reid accused his then-opponent, John Ensign of being incompetent when he stated that Ensign “shouldn’t interpret the consitution because he (Ensign) was a Veterinarian”. It might have been even worse if Harry had gaffed and called him a “vegetarian”.

THE GERMAN SHEPHERD/PITBULL WATCHDOG BUFFIE goes to Michelle Obama (FLOTUS) for her role as the national German Shepherd looking out for obese children and consumers of junk food, salt, sugar and other bad things. Last summer she very publicly planted a garden at the WhiteHouse grounds for fresh organic vegetables. It featured arugula…a vegetable I am unfamilar with but it must be potent and politically correct. If only she could get her husband to eat it instead of those cheeseburgers he eats with Joe Biden; Michelle also never mentions her husband’s failure to give up his cigarette habit…but recently she came out with the recommendation that all babies should be breast fed because breastfeeding will prevent obesity later on in life. I think she is wrong on this one….she is the type that likes to suck on American taxpayers money… but some of the fattest babies I have ever seen were breast fed babies, including my own three. I was a fat breast fed baby also and I am still kind of a chunky adult so there goes that theory of obesity prevention. She still gets the Buffie award though. She IS definitely bred to be a watchdog.

THE “I DON’T KNOW AND I DON’T CARE BUT I WILL TRY TO FIND THE ANSWER” BUFFIE goes to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. He also should get a GOLDEN GLOVES SPARRING buffie for his many rounds with the Press since he became Obama’s press spokesman. His “I Don’t Know” answers to questions from the press must exceed several thousand by this time in the presidency. He also has not “found out” about a thousand times as well. But he is good at sparring and sneering and smearing and other negative attributes not seen in former Press Secretaries.

THE BIGGEST LOSERS BUFFIE: Katie Couric and Brian Williams share this award. (and you thought I was talking about weight!) No …ABC, CBS and NBC nightly news reports have now totalled a composite loss of 739,000 news viewers. Oh for the days of Chet and David and Walter Cronkite and Eric Severeid! But those were REAL newsmen…Brian, Katie and others on the regular channels are some sort of shills for partisan political views. No wonder the American people are dropping like flies from viewing these empty Shells of newscasters. Oh well, they get a big Buffie award out of it.

There will be more Buffies in the near future as soon as I can collect worthy winners for them.
But that is it for Round One in 2010.

First off let me be perfectly clear (quote Pres. Obama)……here is my perfectly clear opinion: the Global Warming Rescue By Government May Be Over And Done With.

I read an article on “Realclearpolitics” market section in today’s issue online. The article says that two very reputable climate science progessors from Massachussetts Institute of Technology may be ready to level the playing field of those politicians, Hollywoodies, and other Green Freaks who have been crying “The sky is falling” for the past few years. The two REAL climate scientists are neither global warming zealots nor global warming deniers. In their view (an in the hope that a study they wish to conduct) the wildly varying climate forecasts produced by hugely complex black-box computer models have not only become disconnected from sound science but have drawn the money and talent away from the critical challenge of trying to understand how basic climate mechanisms work.
They do not want any money from governent sources or from any sources that have an agenda of their own, re. global climate change and climate science. That is good news.

Then there is some bad news, brought to us by a September 17 article about the planned demise of incandescent lightbulbs which was perpetrated by the Global Warmers of the kind that the two MIT professors say we should beware of!
Just in the past week, the WASHINGTON POST reported that the last factory producing incandescent light bulbs is due to be closed with the firing of 200 employees…all in the name of Green Environmentalism. With the loss of this factory it will end American jobs that have produced light bulbs since Edison figured out how to light up homes and businesses long ago.

The replacement bulbs—called CFLs—compact florescent bulbs, are manufactured overseas in China. Another nail in the coffin of American jobs.
Two U.S. Representatives…Joe Barton of Texas and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. have introduced the Better Use of Light Bulbs Act into the House of Representatives. “The Bulb Act” repeals a section of the Energy Independence Security Act of 2007 that called for more energy-efficient light bulbs. That provision set in motion the phasing out of incandescent bulbs, the bulbs most commonly found in your hardware stores…. by the year 2012.
Rep. Burgess’s interest in the Bulb Bill was ignited by his learning of the tremendous loss of American jobs brought on by the Energy Independence Security act of 2007. The idea that other cheaper energy sources would be up and running by the time incandescent light bulb ban went into effect has not materialized.

Since incandescent bulbs are cheaper than the CFLs, Barton said in a recent interview “it’s a debatable proposition whether energy saved offsets the additional costs….you may end up with some lower income families, literally, in the dark.”
Even more disturbing is the fact that the CFLs contain mercury, creating a potentially dangerous situation if one of those bulbs breaks. The EPA recommends that if you break a CFL bulb, everyone in the house should be evacuated while the room is aired out for at least 15 minutes. Isn’t that a nice scenario for those of us in the northern part of the U.S? Can you imagining evacuating a home for a broken CFL lightbulb in the middle of a -40 below night???? If the mercury from a broken CFL bulb gets into clothing or bedding, all of those items must be thrown away, pronto!
Burgess also points out that the mandate to use only CFL bulbs should not apply to hospitals or nursing homes where residents and patients may not be mobile enough to evacuate in case of a broken CFL bulb.
It kind of sounds like the introduction of CFL bulbs only is a potential opening of yet another “Pandora’s Box” of evils and ills.
In a flash of humor, Burgess also said this: “The biggest most damaging thing about CFLs is that people over the age of 40 look older when they’re under floresent light.”

I have tried a CFL bulb….in a closet upstairs that contains a lot of important things for our life….it is a large “cedar closet” and since I put in the CFL bulb I have trouble seeing in the closet. The light is so much dimmer than that of an incandescent bulb I cannot believe the difference.
I have also seen the cold blue light of CFLs in other homes. It does nothing for the warmth and coziness that people want to have in their lit- up rooms in the dark of night.
Both Congressman who have introduced the “Bulb Bill” say that economic concerns outweigh envronmental ones.
Barton said “I say let the consumers make the choice (of light bulbs) rather than mandating it.”

Exactly! Another freedom of choice limitation was passed without considering the real side effects on ordinary citizens. Let us choose our lightbulbs! I have been choosing to hoard incandescent bulbs for quite some time…which is my right as an American citizen. Mandates about lightbulbs? Bah! Humbug!!!

A few months ago I blogged about a book I read (GRAVE MATTERS) which dealt with traditional burial rites, embalming, expensive caskets and vaults, rules and regulations in cemeteries et.al. The book triggered a response in my thinking.
I have always felt that the traditional sorts of funeral rites are not for me when I go to meet my Maker. I was most interested in obtaining a plain pioneer-type of pine wood box (casket) and being buried quickly without being embalmed….that… or being cremated and having my ashes scattered where I instruct my children to do so. (one of my cousins did that and had his ashes scattered around his favorite thinking tree on the farm where he was born and raised.)
Reading GRAVE MATTERS encouraged me and allowed me to think deeply about contacting some local mortuaries and discussing this type of simple burial I want as contrasted with the traditional ones we see all the time.
Now an article from the Minneapolis STAR-TRIB has been forwarded to me by a reader who only wants to be identified as a “backward North Dakota Farmer”….so I will respect that wish by the one who sent me the article.
The Star-Trib writer, Jeff Strickler titles his news report “Dust to dust, with zero carbon footprint” and in it describes the movement that is developing all over the nation—and even in the staid Midwest as close as our neighbor Wisconsin…for what is called a Green Burial. This type of burial uses a simple wooden casket or even a plain cloth shroud or a favorite blanket for the burial of the deceased person. There is no concrete vault but rather an optional “bottomless vault” where these type of things are required in a public cemetery. The reason for vaults is to keep the ground from caving in over a grave…which is the natural way things happen. As the body and the wooden casket decay and collapse, the ground becomes concave and that makes mowing a public cemetery a bit more difficult. Some cemeteries are offering this type of natural (green) burial, but suggest burial in a special place in the cemetery where vaults are not used and the graves will become concave. One Mower and Tender of cemeteries said it would be simple just to fill in extra earth over collapsed graves and add grass seed to the extra dirt. It sounds sensible to me. I would like to be buried that way, if I were not cremated. I have not totally made up my mind about how I will be interred…whole body or ashes of my body.
I am definitely ready to have my talk with a funeral director/mortician about my wishes. The article in the Star-Trib also made mention of the change in Minnesota laws that do not require a body to be embalmed any longer and that interested me enough that I plan to check it out further so I know what the law says exactly.
After reading the chapter in GRAVE MATTERS that dealt with embalming, I know I do not want that to be done to my body. It is positively barbaric!!! Plus, the embalming fluids…strong chemicals that are poisonous, are released into public sewer systems along with the blood that is drained out of the corpse. That part horrified me when I think of the implications to the ground water, at some point…..polluted with embalming fluids that are poisonous. It is not ecologically wise at all!!!
The article also said that funeral directors in the Twin Cities area are getting calls from many “clients” who want a green burial or if not a totally green one…at least what can be called a “natural burial”….no embalming, simple degradable wooden coffin, no concrete vault. One of those contacted by people interested in more natural burials said that he thinks such burials will become very common in 10-15 years as the Baby Boomers consider what to do with their funerals and burials. The Boomers are going for the traditional rites and burials for their dying parents but will want something entirely different for themselves later. Many natural burial enthusiasts do not even want wood from rare rain forests used in coffins either…they consider that an environmental transgression. The more common woods like pine or cedar would be more preferable.

Another appealing quality of green/natural burials is that they are not as costly (the funeral directors might buck at that factor!) Without embalming and a costly casket, the cost would be reduced.
Another factor to consider is that traditional funeral rites put an embalmed body in a steel lined casket inside a heavy concrete vault; it is possible with this sort of treatment that a mummified corpse will last forever and there is no natural breakdown of bodies or caskets. GRAVE MATTERS also brought up the fact that many vaults do leak and that the embalming fluids used in bodies seeps into ground water in that way….right in the certified cemeteries.
A true green burial also does not have any formal gravestones but prefers instead to use natural rocks which can be engraved with names and dates. The burial grounds are also preferred to return to natural prairie states after burials…no mowing or planting of alien plants other than prairie flowers and plants is not wanted.
When one considers this without the usual emotionally charged thoughts about death and burial…green burials are what have happened on this earth since the time of prehistoric people. Until morticians took up the ancient pagan Egyptian practice of embalming the dead…all funeral rites were natural or green! When you think of all the people who have lived and died on this earth over the eons of existence since Creation…..green burials are far more numerous than what we know as modern funeral rites and burials in this day and age….steel caskets, concrete vaults and all—-to protect a body? To prevent pollution of ground water? Not true at all I think. And why preserve a dead body? Is this some cultural come-lately appeal to people who are left behind….to do all this stuff so their loved one will not decay naturally? Apparently that is the bill that is sold to clients of modern funeral practices.

A green burial is far more natural than any other thing that has been truly “invented” by mankind….if you think about the endless “rites and rituals” of modern funerals (such as the reviewal of bodies) it almost seems to be pagan in its conception. It surely does not appeal to my Christian belief that “we are absent from the body but with the Lord”. A dead body is such an obvious shell no matter what a skillful mortician does to make it look like it is only sleeping. That is a great deception because one look tells you it is not true…..that person is truly “gone” from its earthly container.
There are those who advocate Green Burials who say that a wooden coffin is not even necessary…..wrapping a body in a shroud or in a blanket that the person loved is adequate for a natural or green burial.
I am convinced that I want this sort of “last rite” for myself. I am not interested in having people look (review) my dead body. I want to be buried quickly and simply…..and I wish the law would permit my burial on my own home farm….that is my fondest desire. I plan to look into it seriously after re-reading GRAVE MATTERS and the article from the “Star-Trib” by the person known as the “backward ND Farmer” !!
I am grateful for the article forwarded to me.
In late May of this year, we visited a large ranch that is along Lake Sacajawea in North Dakota. When we were going cross country on part of the ranch land we pulled up to a lone grave on a hill. It was the grave of a man who had lived on the land many years ago and had wanted to be buried in that spot rolling hills and prairie land. The grave was simple and a small stone marked the place where the man lay. The grave had been fenced off so it would not be disturbed by any persons in the future. It was a touching moment to see that simple grave on a prairie hill. It is the sort of thing I envision for myself if it is at all possible.
Being returned to the dust is a natural part of life —-and death. Why should it be so cluttered up with “funeral rites” that are man-made and complicated by being man-made? I do not want that for myself; I know that for sure and certain!!!!

When the Founders of this nation constructed our marvelous constitution at the time of the birth of the United States, I do not think they envisioned anything like what we see today…..Career Politicians who do NOT want to give up their perceived power in Washington, D.C. even when they are un-elected by the voters in their districts or states.
Take the case of Lisa Murkowski of Alaska; she was defeated in the primary election by another man whom the voters chose in her place to run in the November election. Now Murkowski….in a fit of sour grapes and unwillingness to give up her seat in the Senate, is declaring she will run a write -in campaign…..kind of like the local school board elections some of us have observed. She thinks that only she can serve as a senator; in reality she does not want to give up all her “perks” and her nice salary and her own perceived power as a senator.
Also take the man in Delaware who lost the primary to a newcomer, Christine O’Donnell. He has been whining and crying like a baby since that election on Tuesday and has even gone so far as to deliberately try to undermine O’Donnell’s campaign…now that it is not HIM running. He has 40 years of perks, Washington Beltway Potomac Fever, and his perceived power and the idea that only HE can be a senator for Delaware. His words last May, when he spoke about getting behind whatever candidate won the primary now ring hollow. When he spoke those words, he was confident it would be HIM running but now that he was defeated, he is having a hissy fit and dissing O’Donnell as unfit to run…AFTER the voters of Delaware chose her over him. It is not working for the Delaware folks or for others in this nation; O’Donnell has received… in less than 72 hours… over one million dollars in campaign donations from people around the nation…and in Delaware– people who are sick and tired of the defeated candidate making such insulting and undermining attempts to hurt the lady the voters elected in the primary.

I looked up “potomac fever” in an online dictionary and it gave this meaning: “a determination or fervor to share in power and prestige of the U.S. government by being appointed or elected to a government position.” Uh-huh! There are a lot of politicians who have really bad, almost critical-condition cases of Potomac Fever. I could name a long list from Washington, D.C. alone. It does not take very long to get infected once a politician gets a seat in Washington.

Last night I browsed a new book by David Limbaugh when I visited one of my favorite “haunts” (a big bookstore) and one chapter of his book is about the Narcissism of President Obama. But as I scanned the chapter, I thought Obama is not the only one with a possible narcissistic mental disorder……a huge percentage of our elected legislators are probably almost as bad off…re narcissism—-as Obama.
Narcissists hold very high opinions of themselves in all aspects of their life functions. They deceive themselves into thinking that nobody is as intelligent, as capable, as ready to make major decisions on behalf of millions of people that are exactly what those millions of Inferiors need. The latest batch of losers in the primary elections last Tuesday seem to have that exact attitude if you can believe they are being truthful about their extremely high worth and indispensibility in the federal government.

And then we have the concept of the Ruling Class. This, of course, was not supposed to even exist when the Founders were wisely forming our means of governance. Their vision was for “citizen legislators” who would serve as representatives of their states or districts for a brief time and then return to their citizen status once again….gracefully, I might add. Seen any graceful citizen legislators lately?

This is certainly not what has come to pass over the years since the late eighteenth century when our government was formulated and laid down in our Constitution. We have had the likes of Robert Byrd and Strom Thurmond and Everett Dirksen and countless others who have spent an adult lifetime in either the senate of the house of the U.S. They are the Ruling Class according to their own rules.

There is also the Ruling Class concept that only those who went to Ivy League institutions, mostly on the Eastern Seaboard of our nation, (with a possible exception for certain California universities) are worthy to serve in either house of congress. Another form of elistism is to ride on a family name or a family’s wealth and status. Elitism has become the watchword for those who see themselves as the Ruling Class.
Another hallmark of the Ruling Class is that one must be a lawyer in order to be elected. We Peons….who are looked down upon by those in the Ruling Class….are a lot more intelligent and perceptive than the Ruling Class thinks we are….we can see the horrendous mess that the Ruling Class….the Elites, the Ivy Leaguers, the Lawyers….have made of our nation. We are so deeply in debt and have such a national deficit that it seems unlikely even 3-4 generations will not escape the consequences. There is no such thing as living within a national budget in the minds of the Ruling Class Elites. Throwing money at domestic, foreign and any other sort of perceived inadequacy is the way to go…..never mind the accompanying waste, fraud and corruption that springs like a Medusa’s Head out of such thinking and legislating. Never mind the fact that the money they legislate to solve all the Pandora’s box of national ills….does not even exist in our national treasury! Just continue to spend money that does not even exist.

The Ruling Class Elites are currently horrified by the rising of the masses…the low-lifes that Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi referred to as misfits, criminals and astro-turf types of grass roots movers and shakers. The Elitists do not like to have their hallowed positions threatened by what they view as “the Rabble”…a view similar to that of the English King George 111 and the British Parliament at the time the American Colonists began to show their thirst for self-governance.

The Elitists KNOW what is best for the Rabble and how dare they insert themselves into national politics or…..oh,horrors!….a government postion through election by their peers.

We have come full circle. Our national Ruling Class is now playing the same role as the English Parliament in the 1770′s when the first Tea Party movement struck down the Ruling Class in the Mother Country.

The Ruling Class has looked askance at the results of the 70 plus percent of Americans who are furious over what the Elitists have shoved down our throats in recent acts and bills…TARP..the Stimulus…the national healthcare debacle…the proposed Cap and Trade bill…… which are set to change our way of life…..the way of life the Lowly Ones want to live and grow and prosper and leave to their descendants.
It is going to be a battle that none of us in our lifetime may have witnessed. And it is going to be interesting to see if the Ruling Class gets a bit of the A—Kicking prescribed by our President during the Gulf Oil Spill crisis of recent months…even though that kicking was not meant for the Ruling Class.

I have already done one blog post this morning but sitting on the deck in the morning sun has inspired me again—so here goes for the second time this morning.
On the old system I sometimes posted more than two times in a day if ideas popped up. I just checked my stats and I am now posting #1293 since I began blogging in May of 2006. What fun it has been for me to express my thoughts on this site.
Obligations and Work seem like the same thing when you say it,   but my idea of an “obligation” does not involve any work at all!
This morning, I was “under obligation” to do some things that were very important.
1. I had to sit on the morning sunshine on the deck and turn my face up to the sun like some human sunflower…seeking a bit of natural vitamin D for the ergosterol in my skin to transform into that all- important vitamin we need so badly to stay healthy. I obeyed that obligation and got plenty of the sun’s early rays on my skin so I assume that I am now newly supplied with Vitamin D or am in the process of getting it.
2. I had to watch the nuthatches collecting sunflower seeds again.    Those beautiful little birds who prefer to move up and down stalks and tree trunks in an upside down position, were flying in from the woods to collect one sunflower seed at a time.    I think they fly back to a tree limb or some solid surface where they use their powerful little beaks to break open the seed and eat the meat of the nut.     Then back they come, on the same route…flying from tree to tree on our hillside to the sunflower plants—to get one more sunflower nut to take back to the woods.    So goes their September days. I am seriously considering buying sunflower seeds and other birdseed for winter feeding….I might have to go without something else but it seems more an more compelling to feed birds thru the winter.  I might even see some cardinals!
3. I had to track the traffic on Hiway 10 one mile away from my observation post.    It is pretty quiet right now.    But I like to watch the traffic anyway. I am reminded of Howard Mohr, a Minnesota author who got famous for his “HOW TO TALK MINNESOTAN”… who described his days on his farm near Cottonwood, MN.    He would get his binoculars, a lawn chair and sit on the edge of his property and keep track of all kinds of things out in the fields and groves for long lengths of time.    He is my kind of person!     I should use binoculars too…so far I just use the old “eagle eye” method.
4. I was also obligated to keep a watch on a huge “convention” of blackbirds who have no chairman, obviously, since their capophony sounds a lot like the British House of Lords in full cry.    I noticed that they immediately shut up when a decision is made by “someone” or all of them, to fly to another tree where they take up the noisy chatter once again…talk about the “Chattering Classes”….these birds are the champs at being part of that designated group. I think they were gathered after eating a lot of some farmer’s corn so they could drink in the river and the “dead river”.    There were clouds of them ; they must’ve numbered in the thousands. It is hard to count a flock of flying crows or blackbirds but one can estimate and I did.
5. I was obligated to stare out at my flower beds which I sense are short -lived with frost in the forecast soon. Most of them look like they are all done with summer but zinnias are still blooming, the bells of Ireland have not given up and the deep red sedum is just beginning its glorious bloom which will survive into late November.    The red-white-and blue wildflower bed is totally done with it….the cosmos just started to bloom and I am sorry it will get hit with a frost soon and have its blooming days cut short.    We cut open our first Suagar Baby watermelon this morning. I always watch the stems for signs of separation, as in what the cantaloupes do , but the melons did not…..so we finally just cut one open and it was red, ripe and sweet!    We have to get at the others too before they over-ripen but that is another enjoyable obligation.
6. Last night, for our evening meal on September 16, we fulfilled another sweet obligation. It was my late father- in- law’s birthdate and he would now be over 100 years old. We ate a meal of his favorite foods…..I roasted a pork loin, made rich brown gravy, had mashed potatoes and white bread and we made Hot Pork Sandwiches!     Also cooked McIntosh apples into a cinnamon flavored hot applesauce.    Our Dad loved hot meat sandwiches and every time we ate in a restaurant that served them, he ordered either Hot Beef or Hot Pork.    Then softly he would tell the server to bring him an extra cup of gravy…his wife (my mother in law) would see the extra gravy when it arrived and she would explode…”Oh for Pete’s Sake,   S—–you should not be eating so much gravy…you know you won’t sleep tonight at all!”     He grinned and ate ALL the gravy and suffered all night due to his missing gall bladder that he parted company with in 1969.    The meal was sweet and warm with such fond memories of one of the best of men I have known, and his loveable habits and tastes. The only thing we could have added would have been a chocolate malted milk for dessert…he always called them “malted milks”…never just a malt like the moderns do.    He always talked about the great malted milks served at the Mandan Drug and at Ohm’s restaurant there also. His son can attest to the good m.m.s at those places also…he was trained by his father to seek them out!

7. My last true obligation involves the stack of books I have to read. Being a member of an adult reading group piles them up higher all the time. As we get them on request from our regional library, we get the books early at times. Like now, I am reading one for November (STUCK ON EARTH) and have another that we are all waiting for….THE HELP which is still number 4 on the NYT bestseller list. That is for our January meeting.    It is also NOT in paperback yet due to that fact…remaining on the bestseller list.     There have been at least 25-30 “holds” on that book in our regional library at all times…how we got them is a mystery. I  think our wonderful Joy at our library knows how to pull a few strings for a reading group!

And then there is the Work.     Work, vs. obligations,..is not pleasant like my obligations. The Work waiting for me today involves green peppers..another bumper crop this summer. So many are there, that I have a big bucket of them to chop up to freeze on cookie sheets and freeze them so I can pour green pepper pieces out of a freezer bag for winter cooking. I have to face it because I know I will be glad to have them in the cold of winter when no fresh ones at the store compare to home grown ones. There are  also the dishes in the sink and the clean ones in the dishwasher. They are “work”.    Although I must say that being able to use my automatic dishwasher is a true “joy” in my world of housework.     In 1969 when we still lived in our tiny farmhouse that was built by an early English settler named Sibley, my friend Sandy asked me why I did not have a dishwasher.    I pointed out to her that the small crowded, add-on boxcar- shaped kitchen did not have a place for a dishwasher to be installed. “Who cares?” she crowed, “Get a portable–use it for a lamp table if you have to but GET A DISHWASHER!”      I was not smart enough to take my friend’s advice in 1969 but when we built our new home in 1976, we did get a dishwasher and we are on the second one now.    She was so right!      That machine is worthy of a deep love as anything else alive is!!!! It is my constant friend and companion, especially after holiday dinners with so many gunky dishes to clean up.
Another piece of work is the digging of a trench for my one tea rose plant. I can wait til Terri H. teaches us sometime in October how to put our roses in a covered trench so we can avoid the high rate of winter kill in the sensitive tea roses. She has about 20 of them that she trenches each fall so why should I not listen to her and dig one trench?    But that is for later.
I could also work and clean up the raspberry patch of the many dead canes but I need a hard freeze to kill off the biting bugs once and for all. Hopefully it won’t snow right away after that freeze I so wait for. I have a couple of outdoor campfires and picnics to have before it snows….so snow, stay away til about December 23!!!!
I could also work on cleaning up corners in the basement and designating a lot of “stuff” as garbage.     But that can wait also—it has been waiting all summer so why not longer?
One bit of work that I really like: keeping the broccoli producing til the first snowstorm. Broccoli is so hardy and the fall broccoli is the best of all of it…so tasty and crisp in the cool fall air. The damnable white butterflies are also seemingly gone so no more green eggs hatching into green worms which must be cleaned out before you eat the broccoli.    Salt water usually gets rid of them so you have to plan ahead and soak the veggies before you eat them.
 There are even more work jobs to do but I am ignoring them as long as I can….the warm sunny dry days—with gentle breezes are much more fun to deal with as “obligations” galore.
I think I will go check the coffee maker for the last drops of morning coffee now. That is another obligation.

And isn’t retirement for obligations rather than work?  I worked for 40 years or more–worked hard at home and at a school.  I deserve to take care of my obligations first every day!

I was upset to learn that FORUM writer Bob Lind has been hospitalized with non-Hodgkins lymphoma but I have trust and confidence that Bob will be up and around very soon…even though I know he will be undergoing some pretty rough treatment regimens.    One of my dear classmates from 12 years of public school went through this some years ago and he is well and active today more than ten years after his treatment.     That should be a great encouragment for Bob, one of the most beloved of FORUM columnists.

I met Bob a few years ago at his church (Bethel Evangelical Free Church of south Fargo) at the time that Bob had a leading role in one of the Halo Project’s productions done by the members of that fellowship. Bob played the role of one of the accounting dept. angels who had to keep track of angelic activity in Heaven and on Earth; he was as great an actor as he is a writer.
When my cousin introduced Bob to us after the performance, he was as warm and personable and kind in person as he is in his writing. It is no wonder he is referred to as a “beloved” FORUM writer.
 I met his gracious and kind wife also.    They are a marvelous couple with adult children and grandchildren.  They have been married for over 50 years.
I had another pleasant surprise when I was at my second son’s clinic in SW Fargo a year or so ago; one of Bob’s daughters- in- law works at that clinic  and was the one who administered my much needed (at the time) ultrasound treatment for a nasty muscle injury.    She spoke so highly of her father in law, Bob….I doubt that there are any people who have met him that do not like him…he is that kind of man.

He has brought so much pleasure for readers of his column, “Neighbors”.   He has said that it is a job he ought not be paid for…he loves it so much and enjoys writing the stories with which his readers keep him supplied.    Even his hospitalization won’t disrupt the “Neighbors” column;   Bob has many things written well ahead of publication time and will keep those of us who love to read “Neighbors” supplied with many future columns, in spite of his illness.

I know that Bob and his wife and family are people of strong Christian faith. He is also surrounded by many others who have strong Christian faith and they are all praying for Bob….for recovery, for healing, for strength to bear it all… and for comfort from the Lord in whom He places his trust.

Bob Lind is one of the truly fine men among us;    may he be with us much longer…and enjoy restored health and complete healing from his lymphoma.

Many others have survived and prospered for many years.     Bob, I pray for you and know that all the many prayers sent on your behalf are being heard.

There has been much speculation recently about whether President Obama is a real true Christian. He says is is but there are doubters based on his actions and some of his words. Many writers have speculated on the question: Is he or is he not a Christian? Another question that has begun to be asked is “Is he a Muslim?”
A lot of things have led to both questions and commentator David Limbaugh in a piece entitled “Obama’s Christianity” is one of the most lucid of the many essays on the topics that I have read so far.
Limbaugh confesses right away that nobody can truly discern what is in another person’s heart and soul. He does say that we can get a pretty fair idea by listening to the words of that person, studying his actions and listening to his professions of faith. Limbaugh then goes on to state a few factors that make him believe that Obama is a Christian, a Muslim or neither.

Obama seems to exhibit more behaviors to indicate that he is a secularist more than a Christian or a Muslim. His worldview surely resembles the beliefs of a secularist.
His early travels around the world and his statements about U.S. policies, culture and even his apologies for U.S. actions  do make him seem like one who thinks like a secularist rather than one who embraces a faith.
Limbaugh then asks this question: how many truly God-fearing (or God-believing Christians) would make statements that seem to indicate that he (Obama) is his own Messiah…..his statements about his election meaning that the oceans began to fall, and the planet began to heal?   Does this sound like one who trusts in God or does it sound like one who is so full of confidence in himself that he has no need for God?
A quote from the essay says this: “Some counter with an oft reported tid- bit about Obama receiving a daily devotional on his “blackberry” and also that he relies heavily on his “spiritual advisers” But can they explain away his messianic complex or satisfactorily square his personal idolatry with his profession of Christian faith? ”
Obama would have us believe that he as a devoted member of Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s church for 20 years… yet he denies ever hearing the rhetoric of Wright who preached black liberation theology, took the Lord’s name in vain during his sermons and regularly spoke against “Whitey”.         Wright’s theology seemed far more racist -centered than Christ- centered,  yet Obama professed to never having heard such things during the 20 years he was a church member there in Chicago. It leads one to wonder about the truthfulness of such statements.
Another key factor is the lack of church attendance on Obama’s part since he took office in February 2009.    His reason for this is that it is too much work for all his secret service agents to be dragged to a church on a Sunday morning but he thought nothing of dragging them to several New York date nights with his wife over the time he has occupied the Oval Office. It seems disengenous to me.
Obama stated in one of his books that the sound of the Muslim evening call to prayer was “one of the most beautiful sounds on earth” .   He has mocked Christian scripture and Christians themselves by describing them as people who have to cling to their guns and their religion—that was a thought to be private statement that got outed by reporters who heard him say it.
At one appearance at Notre Dame University, Obama insisted that all Christian symbols in the auditorium where he was to speak, be removed from sight. Odd for a professing Christian, I would say.

 He has glorified Islam in many ways, on the other hand. His bows to Middle Eastern Muslim leaders stirred up questions and controversy; his apologies in the Cairo speech in 2009 for American ways and policies, his reluctance to name acts of terrorism in our own country is another suspicious clue to what he thinks of Islam.   The extreme reluctance of calling terrorism by its correct name was especially noticeable in the Fort Hood shooting when the military man(a paracticing Muslim) shouted  ”Allahu Akbar” as he shot other U.S. soldiers was most mystifying.     Obama has hesitated to call it terrorism when a Nigerian man tried to set off a bomb on a plane landing in Detroit Michigan or another Muslim tried to set off a car bomb in the heart of New York City.     It is surely a new interpretation for Americans to deal with.
Whether Obama is a Christian, or is Muslim-directed or simply a secularist is also a mystery. If one regards his words and actions, I think I would conclude that he is masquerading as a Christian for political purposes but in his heart, he is truly nothing…..if that what constitutes a secularist.

Unfortunately these zingers will only work for Conseratives and not for Liberals! It is from a piece by Wynton Hall in “Human Events”

The following are direct quotes from Mr. Hall and will be most effective for any candidate running against a Liberal!

1. Here is an economic lesson for President Obama and congressional democrats: you cannot be “for jobs” and against those who create them.
2. Saying goverment can spend its way to prosperity is like saying you can eat yourself skinny.
3. I refuse to put faith in a government that cannot plug a hole.
4. We need leadership that is as committed to getting this economy growing as it is about building a mosque at Ground Zero.
5. If ignorance is bliss, why do Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi always look so gloomy?
6. With all due respect, Mr. President, Tea Parties are not what is wrong with America.
7. This president loves to travel around the world apologizing for America. How about traveling around America apologizing for your policies?
8. Obama has added more to the national debt in 2 years than all presidents from George Washington to Ronald Reagan —-combined. This is not the change we were waiting for.
9.  This president throws a party every week; we need a president who is not a party organizer.
10. President Obama is to leadership what Charlie Rangel is to ethics.
11. The Obama econonomy forced us to give up our summer vacations; how about the Obamas giving up just one of their 12 vacations?
13. Only in Washington DC could destroying America’s future be considered a stimulus.
14. Here’s a message to Washington: the Amercian people want jobs, not welfare. We support small business, not bailouts.
15. Our message is clear to this administration: keep your hands off our childrens’ money.
16. I guess when President Obama promised that his economic policies would ignite a Revovery Summer, he apparently meant a SEARCH and recovery summer.
17. When Pres. Obama promised us that he was going to spread the wealth around he meant it for Michelle’s travelling entourage.
18. So let me ask you, does the community feel organized now?
19. Inquiring Taxpayers want to know: if Tim Geithner does not have to pay his taxes, why do we?
20. This summer, President Obama has been sited on the golf course more times than OJ Simpson (who is still searching for the REAL killer)
21. Obama said he would heal the oceans; impressive that he did this while golfing all summer.
22. Let me be clear. The number one priority of NASA has NOTHING to do with reaching out to Muslims.
23. Washington would do well to remember the words of Lady Margaret Thatcher: ” the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”

I think this would work quite well on the conservative campaign trail!!!

What is going on?  A lady walked into Moorhead Walgreens on Sunday wearing a thong, pasties, and whipped cream?   Is this really our Moohead???    How times have changed!   When I lived in Moorhead, as a student (back when the dinosaurs were still roaming) we went out and bought whipped cream in the can too….we had Andy’s Grocery (one of the long- gone neighborhood stores in south Moorhead) where we could walk less than a block from our college dorm to get our whipped cream. Our purpose was quite different than the Whipped Cream queen that told authorities she was making a statement by dressing up in whipped cream: she called herself a “Free Thinker” who wanted to “catch people’s attention and get them to “think outside the box and not conform to society’s views”.   I am sure the real Free Thinkers in Fargo-Moorhead are not eager to associate with the Lady in the Thong and Pasties ( and whipped cream). I have not heard of any of the real Free Thinkers making their statements in this way—ever.    They have always been fully clothed when I have seen pictures of them or read about them.     Another bullet to dodge, thanks to the unwelcome (non) member of the Free Thinkers, I think!
But back to my whipped cream days in college: Our purpose in buying canned- aerosol whipped cream was to go with the oreos we also bought; then we would play with the whipping cream in the privacy of our dorm rooms. 

 The game went like this:   put an oreo in your mouth, chew it up and let another friend shoot whipping cream into your oreo-filled mouth. It was delicious and it was a great game til the day one girl kept shooting the whipping cream trigger and the whipped cream recipient started having whipping cream come out her nose…while the other participants in the game fell down on the floor laughing. How nice to be 19 years old and have the whipped cream/oreo game when you needed to relax and take a break from studying!!

The woman said she wanted to buy shaving cream also…maybe that is more stable when squirted on a warm body and maybe she had noticed that the whipped cream was melting too fast for her to “make her statement” about thinking outside the box. That triggered another college dorm story but this was more recent…my oldest son and some buddies filled a big brown envelope with aerosol shaving cream and eased it under the door of a “throne room” where my son’s roomate was seated on the “throne” tending to business.     The pranksters, after sliding the open end of the envelope under the closed door, stomped on the shaving cream- filled envelope and the person in the throne room emerged coated with shaving cream, looking like a pretty good facsimile of an Abominable Snowman.
About the “pasties” the woman was wearing when she entered Walgreens:   After several bad references to “thongs” in the past years (I thought they were those summer sandals)…at least they used to be, but after embarassing myself several times, I learned to say “flip flops”.      But “pasties”…..did she actually go into Walgreens wearing those Welsh-origin miner’ sandwiches called “pasties”? You know, those neat pocket sandwiches made from pie crust and stuffed with meat, potatoes and either turnips or rutabegas? Or carrots?    They sell them everywhere north of Winnipeg and they are very good. How could she attach those sandwiches to crucial spots on her body? I am truly wondering how that could be done?
Or am I once again caught flat-footed, not understanding the jargon…..could pasties be something different than those delicious miner’s sandwiches?
Ok just in case any readers think I am a comlete Doofus….I am trying to be funny…I actually know what kind of “pasties” she wore.    It makes me want to sing the runway song from a Burlesque theater…dah dah dah…duh.. dah dah dah……you know the melody perhaps?
Well it added a good bit of flavor to a Sunday shopping trip late in the afternoon if you went to Walgreens that day and time. I wonder if anyone took pictures on the ever-present cellphones?

My first thoughts about a deep-down bunker would be of the reports of Adolph Hitler’s last days at the end of World War 2. He hid out in the deep bunker beneath the Reichstag building in Berlin while the city was being destroyed by bombs and invaded by Americans on the west side and Russian troops on the east side. I have read more than one account of those final days of the Nazi’s “Thousand Year Reich” which ended pretty quickly after only about 10 years.  Hitler and his closest aides hid out in the bunker til the bitter end…when some killed themselves and others surrendered to face trials in Nuremburg later.
But the deep bunker I read about the other day in an article by Rich Lowry was not the Hitler Bunker, but the Obama bunker….not a true under- the- earth- place under a governent building, but a bunker nonetheless….a mental and emotional  hiding place from the increasingly “madding crowds” who are being polled endlessly and telling the pollsters that they disapprove more and more with every passing week….with the current President and his policies.

Another thought I ran across recently was Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over even if it fails over and over. That is a pretty fair description of the Obama policy called “stimulus spending”. Our government had passed several acts since 2009…stimulus plans…that were supposed to bring an end to unemployment, provide jobs galore and cause the faltering economy to recover.   But it has not happened; our job losses and unemployment are greater than several months previous and the promised 8% unemployment figure (Christina Romer) has never materialized.   ( And Romer has “gotten out of Dodge”)    The last time I checked, the rate was 9.6% Americans still unemployed and that doesn’t measure those who are UNDER- employed.   But still the stimulus goes on…but it is not called a stimulus any longer after the failures to bring about the promised results.   Now it is called something like “recovery” or some such elusive terminology.   It is still Einstein’s definition of insanity: trying the same thing over and over even when it fails over and over.  The newly promised recovery is going to cost another 50 billion dollars which we do not have even though the President said it was already paid for.    I wonder with what?    Monopoly money??    The Chinese won’t even lend us any more money so how is it paid for? We simply do not have the money for any of these fairy tale stimulus/recovery acts or whatever they call them.     Throwing non-existent money by the billions does not work nor will it work….that is clear to the American people who seem to have a great deal more economic expertise than the President or his cabinet….. including the hapless,  tax- evading Secretary of the Treasury, Tim Geithner.       That brings to mind a recent event in my own life. I was notiifed by the IRS that I owed them money. It was a relatively small amount of money as government spending goes, but nevertheless a mistake in returns two years ago did not account for the money I was required to take out of an IRA account at age 70.   So we will pay up what we owe.   Isn’t it amazing how they can track down a retired teacher on a very low retirement income to dun a few dollars out of….the IRS seemed blank and helpless and incapable  when the taxes not paid by Timothy Geithner and former Senator Tom Daschle came to light in early 2009.    How odd that they did not track that missing tax money because it was a heck of a lot more money than what I now owe!!!     It never ceases to amaze me…this taxation system of ours. I would go for the Flat Tax that Steve Forbes proposed a few years ago. It would surely make things simple and there would be NO loopholes for anyone.    Wouldn’t that be fair….and nice????     I thinks so.
But back to the deep, deep Whitehouse Bunker that the Prez and his cabinet and advisors are huddled in.
From the Lowry article of Sept. 8:
“The administration already lavished more than 100 billion dollars on the first “stimulus ” bill. This new round of proposed spending is supposedly different because it ‘will be fully paid for’ in Obama’s words, but Congress has been struggling to reauthorize the transportation bill that expired more than a year ago precisely because it’s so hard to cover its costs.   As for jobs, only the handful of believers in the ‘summer of recovery’ will think another shot of infrastructure spending will do anything for the job market soon, if ever.”

Another thing the deep mental bunker is shielding the Dems in the Obama government from is “the entire political-media establishment awakened to the catastrophe awaiting Democrats in the fall. A CNN poll found that among voters who dislike both parties—-one in five voters—Republicans now lead by 38 points. That’s a landslide, among voters who don’t even like them!” (Rich Lowry)

The political tactics being developed deep down in the Obama bunker go like this:   Obama wants to write George W Bush’s name on the ballot (figuratively speaking) and keep blaming the man who has been out of office for 2 years for everything that has gone wrong for Obama.     Another obvious tactic is what we didn’t think Obama was standing for…..slashing partisanship on everything but foreign policy.    Most recently on Labor Day at a rally of  his ardent Union supporters, the President said his opponents have treated him ‘like a dog’ …..a “line that demeaned the arguments of the opposition and revealed an unflattering flash of self-pity” (Lowry)

What the Bunker folks may not have “gotten” is the tremendous wedge that has been driven by the President’s policies…a wedge against a huge percentage of American voters who thought he represented some real changes…but he does not, obviously. “While most people want less of of the Obama program, his base wants more.”     Any easing off of spending by the goverment would anger his leftist-liberal base. “His new proposals for business tax breaks are paid for not with spending cuts. but with contervailing business tax increases, lest the Left throw a fit.” (Lowry)

And if anyone deep down in that Bunker thinks that is going to turn our economy around…..I have a piece of real estate in the Okefenokee Swamp that I would like to sell to the Boobs in the Bunker.