Buffalo Gal

The royal wedding had more pomp and pageantry in a different way on April 29. The hats and matching outfits of the female guests at Wesminster were a “sight for sore eyes” as the old saying goes.
I was reminded of one of my favorite read-aloud children’s picture books which I read each spring around Eastertime to the youngest students: JENNIE’S HAT by Ezra Jack Keats. a childrens’ author and artist, who won the coveted Caldecott Award for THE SNOWY DAY is the author. “Jennie’s Hat” by Keats featured a young girl who admired the women’s fancy hats at church and wanted one for herself. When an aunt gifted Jennie with a wided-brimmed, but totally, plain hat the girl had a hard time being grateful..she wanted a fancy hat. Jennie fed birds in a park each Saturday and the first time she walked to church wearing her new plain hat, her birds came flying and adorned her hat with fantastic beauty…fresh flowers, ribbons and pieces of lovely veiling, their own nestfuls of eggs, and other colorful things—- so that when Jennie arrived at church, she had the most beautiful hat anyone had ever beheld. Kid loved that story. The artwork by Ezra Keats was wonderful. He used collage as his technique and the color of all sorts of materials pasted on the art paper made a most unusual and beautiful picture book.
The hats at the royal wedding were almost as fantastical as the one that Jennie’s birds made for her as she walked. The spring colors of the women guests’ hats and outifts were dazzling. It was fun to watch them arrive at Westminster. It was obvious that British women love Hats! It seemed as they had outdone themselves in choosing hats to wear to the royal festivities. in Nature it is the male birds and some animals that are the most colorful and most beautifully adorned. Not so with Humans! Ladies’ hats far outshine anything a man can wear!
At the same time as I was fascinated by the multiplicity of hats and their colors and designs, I could not keep myself from being …….(I want to say “catty” but it was more than that….I found myself thinking like the cast of Monty Python’s Flying Circus of old..making light of British customs and even British women and their styles and fashions. So here goes…I cannot help myself.
I am definitely not an admirer of Camilla the Duchess of Cornwall or her Twit of a royal husband, Charles the Prince of Wales, and heir to the British crown after his mother dies or abdicates. So Camlla’s hat reminded of a combination of a flying saucer and an upside down butter tub. She seems to choose that type of hat. I recall the one she wore when she married Charles…it appeared that somewhere. there were hundreds of dead birds of a feather lying in a dark alley…slain by the milliners who designed Camilla’s hat of that day. One of the Duke of York’s daughters (child of Andrew, Charle’s brother and the infamous “Fergie”) who looks just like her red haired Mum)….wore a hat that looked like a piece of playground equipment or maybe it looked like the glassy curled tubes you see in a science lab experiment. It was pink and it matched her dress of course, but she looked like she could have pressed a switch and taken off vertically like a helicopter..maybe in honor of her cousin William who flies helicopters for the RAF. Her sister had a blue hat that matched her blue and green dress but I noticed more that the Princess Eugenie is “buxom” like her Mum and appeared to have been poured into the dress. Posh Spice Beckham was there with her famous soccer husband, David. Posh is heavily pregnant with a 4th child and wore a hat that appeared to be stuck on the front of her forehead like the end of a black rubber pub dart had been shot at her head and had stuck there. There was another similar “stuck on the forehead hat” on another unknown guest but that one was a deep blue and was shaped like a Lund fishing boat. How they stayed in place on the foreheads remains a secret to the Mad Hatters who designed them. There were a number of guest’s hats in a rainbow of spring colors that looked like Direct TV Dishes.
Some also looked like alien spacecraft that are regularly reported to be “saucer shaped” with glowing lights blinking on and off. Only the blinking lights were missing from the hats.
I liked the Queen’s hat the best. Like other British women she does not have to make a “fashion statement” or try to outdo her contemporaries. She had a dignified lemon yellow hat with lemon colored roses on the brim and everything matched. She looked lovely for a mid-80′s time to “walk into her feet.” She is going to be on that throne as long or longer than her relative Queen Victoria and her son (the Twit) will be in his 80s or 90′s before he becomes King. No wonder the Brits prefer William as their next King. His youth and easy manner and the more casual genuine friendliness (reminiscent of his mother Diana) outshines the stiff, stogy , discomfortable “fake friendliness” father he has. There were few loud cheers for Charles or Camilla compared to Elizabeth and Phillip and of course, the Newlyweds. Perhaps Charles and Camilla should retire at Highgrove and tend to the gardens, talk to the plants and be horsey like they seem to enjoy most.

The history of hats is fascinating. On a website which was fun to see and read (hatsuk.com) it was said that “Hats have been around for a very long time. It is not known when the first animal skin was pulled over a head as a protection against the elements and although it was not a hat in the true sense, it was realized that a head covering sometimes had an advantage.” (hatsuk.com)
Early paintings by people in the early Egyptian culture (times of Pharoahs and pyramids) show women and men with hats on their heads.
At an early stage in human history “Women were expected to cover their heads by veils, kerchiefs, hoods, caps and wimples” (hatsuk.com)
By later in the 17th century womens’ hats emerged in their own right.
Remember the “Mad Hatter” from “Alice In Wonderland”. Early hat makers used amounts of mercury in their hat-making and the mercury went to their brains and nervous systems giving birth to the term “mad hatter” because they often went mad after so much exposure to mercury.
By the early 1900′s womens’ hats were enormous, wide-brimmed and loaded with adornments of flowers, feathers, gauze, and much veiling material.
Since fairly early times, women wearing hats was required by Christian and other non-Christian churches…think of the veiled women in Islam. Hindu women are also covered by veils and big scarves over their heads. There is a Biblical admonition in one of Paul’s epistles for women to cover their heads when they are at worship. Many of us who of an age can remember when women simply did not step inside a church without a hat! I remember how important hats were to my Mom and aunts and other women of that era. My mother wore a hat to “Ladies’ Aid” (Lutheran version of Hadassah) and even to PTA meetings and other public functions. It was just expected of women to wear hats! Even young girls like me had hats..usually a new pretty bonnet for Easter! Think of the old song “In Your Easter Bonnet With All the Frills Upon It” !!!!!
The Brits have never departed from that tradition and big, small, feathered, flowered , wide-brimmed, no- brimmed hats still flourish in Britain, especially at formal events.
I remember walking from my south Moorhead college to Watermans’ Department Store and buying a nice green winter hat to wear to church when I was a freshman in 1957. I had a nifty red hat too at that time and I alternated hats with my coal black winter coat!!!!

If you go to the UK Telegraph webside there may still be a number of pictures of the hats at the royal wedding. I you are fascinated like I am about hats and other parts of British culture you may enjoy seeing the colored pictures on the wedding hats site.

I can’t resist using a quote about hats by Katherine Whitehorn (whoever she is!)

“Hats can genrally be divided into three classes: offensive hats, defensive hats, and shrapnel.”

I saw all three classes yesterday on the royal wedding coverage!!!!!

Okay then…I am an incurable Royal Watcher of the British monarchy. I have read biograhies of a lot of the bygone monarchs and their familes…Geroge V and George VI in particular…oh yes… we cannot forget about the Tudor family..Henry VIII and his daughters Mary and Elizabeth I, the virgin queen of the 16th century. I have read about them also. I am also an incurable Brit-o-phile in my taste in films and literature as well. But—————————————
I got up at 4 a.m. and watched the entire wedding of William and Kate, now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. With as long- lived as the royal family is..I think they will run out of Dukedoms and Duchess-doms. But they still have a lot of territory left for future royal chilren…Essex, Hampshire, Northumberland…the beat goes on but there are already Dukes of Cornwall, Kent, Edinburgh, York..and now Cambridge…what? the college or somewhere else?
I thought the wedding today..April 29, 2011..had a very different dimension than the wedding of William’s parents. You can see that this pair has known each other for a very long time…very unlike the artificialness of the relationship of Charles and Diana. He did not want anything else..he was committed to his mistress Camilla Parker-Bowles.
Today when the church officials who presided at the wedding went through all the “instructions” for a Godly marriage…”til death parts you”…..”faithfulness, love,”…..I thought I would have loved to watch the face of Charles since he lied in his vows about every single one of those admonitions. He probably did not even listen to any of them. How can a man–who is destined to be the “Defender of the Faith” be such a blatant hypocrite and still face himself in the mirror each morning. It takes arrogance of an unknown degree in my opinion. Charles’ sister Anne and his brother Andrew are in the same marital boat with their rotten-to-the-core and even -the -core- is – rotten older brother!!!! This is not judgement; it is discernment. If you know what the “fruits of the spirit” are that are listed in the book of Galatians (Bible) you know that Charles lacks almost all of them. Speaking of judgement..I would hate to be in Charles’s boots at the Final Judgement of Christ!!! But he, like everyone alive, is redeemable..but the decision to accept or reject true redemption is theirs alone and so far I see no signs in the arrogant Twit, Charles.
I think his mother’s memory was much on Wiliam’s mind today during that service in Westminster. Harry too…even though he is so casual he could not restrain his mischivous grins as he “stood up” for his brother. Their frienship is so apparent.
I am sure their Mother’s death sealed their close relationship forever.
I liked the music at the royal wedding. William had chosen at least two of the hymns in honor of his dead Mother Diana. One was a familiar one to me “Guide Me Oh Thou Great Redeemer” and the other one was played by the orchestra in Westminster cathedral…I did not recognize it but it was beautiful. I love the very traditional and British national poem turned into a hymn-like song..”Jerusalem” whose many verses were sung completely today.
I looked up the origin of the work by William Blake and it is based on a legend that the young Jesus came to Britain with an uncle Joseph of Arimathea (I do not think that man was his uncle but legend, you know..in the Bible it is that Joseph who gives his tomb to the family of the Savior after His crucifixion. The legend also says that when Christ came to Britain it was a momentary “heaven” and that is all in the song, “Jerusalem”. I first heart the song sung in the movie “Chariots of Fire” because those words are in the poem also….”Bring me my sword and chariot of fire”…words recorded in the old testment spoken by the Prophet Elijah who did ascend from earth in a fiery chariot into the Heavens. That was one other human who did not exerience physical death. To me this song is moving beyond moving in its majestic strains of the music it is set to. The words are a bit strange but the melody is marvelous to the ear of a genuine music lover.
It was a wonderful English touch today…..you could see the crowds singing it in the streets—everyone must know it from memory in England.
I also loved the Westminster male choir members singing a version of Psalm 118: 24…”This is the day the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it”.
Another big different demension of this royal wedding was the reading of as prayer composed by William and Kate and read by one of the presiding Anglican ministers.
“God our Father, we thank you for our families, for the ;joy we share and the joy of marriage. In the business of each day, keep our eyes fixed on what is real and important {I thought this was particularly William’s prayer in light of what happened to his parents} “and help us to be generous with our love and energy. Strengthen our union {again William’s parents came to mind}…”Help us to serve and comfort those who suffer. We ask this in the Spirit of Christ. Amen”
The Queen looked so happy and relaxed for a change; she has endured more with her own children than many “commoners” have. She must be well pleased with the marriage of her grandson to Kate Middleton.
The Pomp and Pageantry is SO English! All the uniniforms, special carriages and cars, all the horses!!!! I have a Ramona Quimby like question about those horses…..in the first book about Ramona by Beverly Cleary, Ramona a first day kindergarener listens to the teacher read “Mike Mulligan and His Steamshovel”. When it is done, Ramona asks a question that all children have probababy wondered about when hearing how Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel could not get out of the hole they dug. Ramona asked “But how can he go to the bathroom?” The teacher was so stunned she could not answer as all the kinderarteners looked at her expectantly. My Ramona question is “Why didn’t all those horses in the royal processions leave any manure on the road?”
I couldn’t see any of the usual piles of “horse apples” anywhere as one sees in other parades involving horses…especially Rodeo Parades. Are Royal Horses “potty-trained ” to wait til they get back to the stable? Do they feed them nolthing for 2 days before a parade? How do the Brits do this?????
Maybe none of the camera shots showed the piles of manure…that seems the most logical—or did they really NOT leave any of the normal deposits. Maybe royal horses do not fart either. We rode in an old fashioned school bus..horse-driven once many years ago, and the horse’s “powerful releases” as they pulled hard…. had the kids in the school bus in near hysteria because they thought it was the driver!!!!

But back to the RW….commenters on televisoion speculated about what the royals were doing in the big square room in Buckingham Palace as they awaited the balcony appearance and “first kiss” of the Newlyweds. Specualtion led to thinking the Queen might be sipping a glass of Dubonnet and Harry asking for a beer!!!! State Secret—nobody will ever know unless the butlers squeal and someone will eventually write a book as Paul Burrell did as Diana’ friend and butler.

I enjoyed the wedding. I got up early in July of 1981 for Charles and Diana but I had an ugly feeling about that wedding and marriage. I think William and Kate may just be different..at least, I –and all those who have high hopes for the Royals have for the newly married couple.

As my age advances….. so do the muscular aches and pains that come with hard physical work. Two pieces of hard work that I am now re-considering are
1. spring/fall housecleaning and 2. hard physical gardening.

This is a defeat for me….me, who has always loved doing the hard work of digging, planting seeds, transplanting things….caring for the flower and vegetable gardens I have had in abundance. Now I am considering having the raspberries mowed down…I am tired of fussing with them and their old canes, nasty weeds, picking in hot humid biting insect weather….the only pleasant thing about raising raspberries is eating them fresh…often with half- and- half poured over them. That is the best part and it is hard to contemplate giving up.
I desperately still want to have fresh garden carrots, green beans and tomatoes—and green peppers. But, I tell myself there are garden markets and those 10 pound boxes of frozen big red raspberries I can get from my daughter in law’s buying club.
I have given up on the container gardening I have tried; the yields are just no good compared to planting in a real garden plot. So now I have to decide what to do with all that soil I put into container gardens. My muscles will not take too much of removing that from the containers.
My cousin says that getting older is not for sissies and I am at the sissy stage of my muscular and “tendon-al” life.
Things hurt from doing almost nothing. I want to go outside so badly and do all the things I used to do so easily…but it is no longer easy.
I have dug up some pesky quack grass from a few spots where it is invading my tulip bed…then I saw that the rabbits have been at my tulip leaves and I am fit to be tied! I just looked up “homemade rabbit repellent” and will probably mix up some of the suggested recipes; I have to get some tobasco sauce and cayenne pepper first but I could try the egg-milk-garlic combo for starters. I have all those ingredients in my regrigerator and I am ready to lower the boom on the bunnies who are feasting on the tulip leaves. I cannot stay up all night with an infra- red light and a .22 rifle so I better try the home made concoctions. Darn those bunnies! They are so cute and furry but as tulip eaters they are ugly critters.
Rabbits have never bothered the tulips before so something has changed.
Spring/Fall Housecleaning is going to go the way of the hard physical gardening…for the same reasons: My sissy muscles and tendons.
When I was teaching full time for many years, I would finish off the rigorous jobs of closing down a schoo library, taking inventories of various library materials, cleaning my back room (“it’s my mess and I love it” said the poster on the back room door. I should have made another poster for that particular door: “I know where EVERYTHING is!!!!!”) My library para and I did KNOW where everything was in the back room no matter how chaotic it became as the schoolyear advanced. Now just like my infamous “backroom” that had to take a back seat for neatness, my spring housecleaning has to go that route also. When I would get home from the final teacher workshop days ..often extended for me due to the many jobs of closing down for summer…I would immediately start in on the housecleaning….shelves, walls,cupboards, closets…the whole stinkin’ house! I was at it for all of June in those days coupled with trying to do the gardening I had no time for all of May. My good friend and I would talk about each of our “cleaning ladies” whose names were both “June”. We cleaned our houses for the month of June! Now I think I must have been crazy—or else I had a lot more strength, endurance and energy and that is most likely.
Now I really do not give a hoot if I do housecleaning like I used to do…..the house stays pretty nice without it ….I just take a swipe at things as I go by sometimes….swipe with a dustcloth here and there if I can see dust; give the parts of the kitchen a little wet-mop if my feet start to stick; take a swipe with a wet dishcloth if something is running down the refrigerator door or oven door or a cupboard door.
Peg Bracken, an author from the 1960′s called this “Bad Housekeeping” and wrote a book advising uptight housekeepers to adopt the habit of haphazard housekeeping. I thought it was humorous when I read it then; now it sounds really practical and probable.
Hard housework is for people who are not in their seventh decades of life. Hard gardening is not for those folks either.
But can I enjoy the spring, summer and fall without falling into my bad old habits of being uptight about housecleaning and gardening?
It is not going to be easy. Old habits die hard regarding those particular issues,

Now I hve been resting up after the early morning digging and cleaning forays in the perennial beds; I think I will take an Aleve and go outside and dig up that Russian sage plant I want to move to the west side of the garden patch……
wait a minute…what am I doing??????

Bad Day at Black Rock…that was the title of a movie I think…a shoot-em up western of bygone days.
There have been a lot of Bad Days lately for the White House. Today’s Realclearpolitics.com has a McClatchey/Marist polls that shows that 58% of Americans disapprove of President Obama’s handling of the economy. Only about 40% are satisfied with the President’s approach to the faltering economy we have faced for the last 27 monhts. It is so bad that Fed. Chairman Ben Bernanke held a first-ever press conference about the bad economic news that builds daily. All the policies since Obama took office have been economic failures….the so called stimulus has not lifted the economy nor have the many billion dollars pumped into saving failing financial organizations..and General Motors..how many ordinary Americans have 40 thousand dollars lying around to buy a new Volt?
The Freddy-Fannie mess created by Barney Frank and other Liberals is still causing economic failure and stress.
Yesterday in the face of all these bad news items for the administration, Obama did what he has always done since 2009 when REAL issues for the nation get magnified and COVERED by the press: change the subject as fast as you can call a press conference, so yesterday he released his “long form” birth certificate..something he could have and should have done in 2008 when the subject of his eligibility first came up. But now the economic news…the wars we are involved in…the terrible numbers against Obamacare..it has snowballed—- so he released the birth certificate to distract from the crumbling economy and other festering issues. He is a master of the Presto! Change-O move to distract from things he should have covered, according to John Hayward in an op ed today titled “The Press Conference We Didn’t Get”
Hayward lists several items of great importance that got ignored by the release of the birth certificate.

1.The continuing collapse of the war in Libya into which the President has blundered. He has promised 25 million in “non-lethal assistance” to the Libyan rebel forces….what the Sam Hill does that mean? Not much.

2. The brutal oppression of demonstrators in Syria who are dissatisfied with their dicatator, Assad 2 (won of the former brutal dictator.
Obama has not made a peep about offering more millions to Syrian rebels; he ran out of money long before he offered the 25 mil to the Libyans.

3. The worsening situation in Afghanistan. Just days ago an Afghan military pilot attacked and killed 8 Americans and there was a bizarre escape of hundreds of Taliban prisoners from a prison in Afghanstan. The escapees will no doubt turn up soon to kill more Americans in that god-forsaken “war”.

4. The historic first press conference ever by the head of the Federal Reserve. Our economy is tanking so badly that Ben Bernanke found it necessary to hold his own press conference.

5. The skyrocketing gas prices….for which Obama has blamed “price gouging profiiteers. All he has to do is look in a mirror and see the man who has deliberately…by his policies..caused gas prices to soar so badly we have never seen anything like it in our history. Shutting down all oil drilling in offshore waters on our own Gulf shores and then turning around and offering American subsidies to Brazil to do that drilling is almost incomprehensible to ordinary Americans who are not fooled one bit by the machinations of this president who seems to not know what he is doing on a daily basis–saying one thing and doing another on nearly every front of our nation’s policies on both domestic and foreign issues. There was a recent “analysis” made in print by a mental health professional with an advanced degree in which he said that Obama’s abandonment by his parents at such a young age is the root of all his many problems. A commenter to that op-ed said that it was not that issue at all but a very bad and full- blown case of Narcissim which troubles Obama the most!

6. The dire report on American economic failure could also have been discussed at the presidential presser yesterday but instead Obama tried mightily to cover up the negative Standard andf Poor review about the gloomy and negative propspects for the American economy…but it was released anyway. This also includes the InterChange-O again…don’t talk about it for heaven’s sake—hide it!!!!

7. The blatant attempt by the Obama administration to quash the building of a Boeing facility in South Carolina that would have set up a manufacturing line that was union-free. Obama sides with his unions cannot let such an economic boost to SC’s economy happen!

There was plenty more to address in yesterday’s false news conference about his birth certificate. But he cannot face the possibility of his failures on so many issues and in so many policies. He said himself in putting down the issue of the birth certificate that he had “so many other issues he had to deal with”
If onlhy he WOULD instead of making things continually worse by his liberal policies to suppress business and the ecomony of our once great nation–but do not hold your breath…he won’t do any such thing. Thre is too much basketball and golf to play and vacations to take and rock concerts to sponsor at the White House!!!!

The BOSTON HERALD attacked the Obama administration for their handling of the economy by making this opening statement in their editorial today (April 28): “Where the (bad hot place) did Obama learn economics?”
(“bad hot place” is my own version of what the HERALD editors said)
It is a scathing criticism of Obama’s economic policies. It is titled “Obama’s New Math” (Boston Herald editorial April 28, 2011)

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/editorials/view.bg?articleid=1333834

or google it by the title.

As the frenzy of the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton grows with only 2 days left, even the WASHINGTON POST is getting into the fray.
In an article today the WP reports on the waning popularity of the Prince of Wales (Charles). AT the time that William’s mother Diana died, the British public overwhelmingly expressed its desire to see William as King rather than his father Charles.
Charles has always been viewed as a true royal “twit”. His mumbling way of speaking irritates everyone who hears him. His snooty disdain for what does not interest HIM is always apparent. His interference in things architechtural is considered totally uncouth for a Royal…he succeeded in bullying some firm into NOT building a modern designed building in London. His legendary talking to plants earned him more discernment as a Twit. Charles is just unlikeable and always has been since he entered adulthood. He is far from handsome as his son, William, is, and William’s bride is a beautiful woman. This new royal couple is inspiring Brits to reconsider the role of the Monarchy according to the article in the WPost.
His infidelity to his wife from before he married her became so obvious that Charles was cast as a true villain. His lady love..Camilla….was seen, and well deserved…as the most famous home-wrecker of the century, especially in Britain. She was mocked as a “horse-faced” twit like her papamour Charles. When tapes of their phone conversations were revealed it was such silly teen-aged talk about sexual things that the British people were more than disgusted with the immaturity of it all. No wonder only 38% of Brits say Charles would make a good king and 69% say William should be the next king.
There was a photo of William and Harry looking up at the camera and it was striking how much William looks like his mother Diana. Harry looks like a Spencer….Diana’s family. Neither of the sons inherited the Dumbo ears of their father!
It appears that William and Kate have the potential to be as beloved as William’s great grandparents…George VI and his wife Elizabeth, the parents of the current queen. A hallmark of George VI and Elizabeth was their faithfulness to each other in marriage and their devotion to their children. Also they were considered to be “just like us” by the Londoners who endured the terrible bombing by the Nazis in much of 1940 in the Battle of Britain. The King and Queen refused to leave London and when Buckhingam Palace was hit by a bomb, Queen Elizabeth said that they were just like their people now..they had taken a hit also from the bombings every night that went on for months. Their daughter Eilzabeth..now the queen…served in the military womens’ corps as a truck driver. George VI and Elizabeth were not “distant” like other Royals including their daughter Elizabeth II has seemed. Elizabeth’s prickly, owlish husband who has an acid tongue, is also not liked by the Brits.
William, alone seems to be the favored one at this time. It will be interesting to see if he and his wife are more like his great grandparents than his faithless father and the stiff seemingly unfriendly current Royals.

The continuing encroachment by the Environmental Protection Agency into the lives of Americans is not all that puzzling. It could be a part of the Extreme Liberal (socialist/marxist?) plans to destroy the USA that now exists in order to start over and create the “ideal” nation of those extremist liberals. I count President Obama and his cabinet members and his “sneaky” czars to be a part of that coalition. The EPA is clearly doing the bidding of the extremist liberals in the regulations they are prepared to hand down…in effect strangling the USA that those of us have known for so long.

Ted Poe wrote the following in an op-ed from today April 25, 2011.
“Right now someone is sitting at a large oak table in the EPA’s marble palace in Washington, D.C. sipping a vanilla latte and dreaming up a new rule to impose. Without fail, the EPA continues to come up with ideas that leave you scratching your head in wonderment because of the questionable science used to justify these regulations. Instead of protecting the environment, these rules dreamed up by the EPA in Washington are destroying American industry and killing job creation, which is what our economy needs right now. This type of federal meddling is exactly what causes companies to lay off workers, move overseas and in many cases, fail. The purpose of the Environmental Protection Agency is to protect the environment—-not to regulate American industry into nonexistence.”

And yet…I wonder—-is this what the Extremist Liberals in our midst WANT to happen? The destruction of American business and industry…..the massive lay-offs creating even more Americans without jobs or income….this would be the Perfect Storm for re-creating a totally Socialist/Marxist brand new America!!!! Destroy all of the Old America and this group of plotters can bring in the NEW America..one where individual responsibility, creativity, sound work ethic that produces and creates business and jobs..could be utterly wiped out and then ALL Americans would be DEPENDENT on the all-encompassing Big Brother governement. Could it happen? I think it is happening right before our clouded eyesight as to what is going on in Washinton DC to make it happen.

Poe also writes of the EPA’s “blatant disregard” for the fragile state our economy is in right now and has been in for some time…like half a dozen years and economic recovery is being systematically stifled by the Obama administration and its supporters in the extreme liberal wing of the country. Poe draws a conclusion in one part of his op-ed:
“If the EPA continues on its crusade of destruction and over-regulation, manuafacturing (which is almost dead in this country already) and energy companies will take their businesses to friendlier lands overseas, jobs will be destroyed and the environment will not be any better off.”

The abuse of its power by the EPA seems to be totally out of control and who or what will stop it? Can congress stop it? Can any branch of existing government stop it? I cannot see it happening.
The American people spoke loudly and clearly at the time Cap and Trade legislation came up within the past two years. Congress became afraid to pass it and let it die even when there was a liberal/Democratic majority. But the Libs have done an end run in allowing the EPA to steamroll its regulations for energy and the affected industries and businesses. And the American people who wanted nothing to do with Cap and Trade legislation are getting it anyhow.
There have been hearings conducted by some congressional committees such as the House Environment and Energy Subcommittee but the EPA officials have simply not bothered to show up for the hearing leading one Representative to call them the “Evaporating Personnel Administration”
When one EPA official WAS questioned by Rep. Cory Gardener of Colorado, the question of whether the EPA gave any consideration to how the regulations will affect job creation, this sent EPA assistant administrator Mathy Stanislaus into a five-minute long frenzy” where he let it slip that the EPA doesn’t much care about job creation” (Ted Poe) So obviously the EPA sits in its marble palace and comes up with regulations and thinks not at all about how its policy(ies) affect on job creation.

Poe concluded thus: “The reality that the EPA policies are driving up energy costs at a time when gas is nearly $5 a gallon, destroying jobs when unemployment is hovering at 8% and sending companies overseas at a time when investment in American is at a low. Many of these regulations…such as regulating dust on farms..just make no sense. It is understandable , but not defend-able, how someone who does not set foot out of the marble palace might think that dust on farms should be regulated. This just shows how disconnected some people in Washington really are, coming up with rules-based science on no science or knowledge. This is why the Constitution does not give the government power to decide what kind of light bulb you use. The pure absurdity of the ridiculous and expensive federal regulations is what makes normal Americans all across our country so frustrated with Washington, D.C. ..the EPA needs to do its job—to protect the environment—–and get out of the way of American businesses and job creators.”

And some people think that the No Child Left Behind law is a boondoggle!!!! Take a closer look at the EPA—and your local branches of the state EPA’s.

As Christians celebrate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ….a blessed and joyous Easter Sunday to all other Christians who are praising God for the Gifts of mercy and grace…..in other words, eternal life with Him.
The FORUM’s Sunday editorial affirms the Christians’ faith! Thank you to the editors who wrote it.
I wish all of you a happy and joyous day!
The sun is shining….every day is Resurrection Day for the Christian believer.
He is risen! Alleluia!!!!!

I just re-read a blog I wrote on November 23, 2010 titled ROYAL WEDDING: DATE SET
My last sentence said in effect that I would be among many setting our alarm clocks for an early hour on April 29. Now the date is almost upon us. From the little I have read lately (I am just waiting for the big day to learn all the details of the wedding dress,how Kate will wear her hair (down and long like she always wears it is what I have heard) if William’s growing bald spot will be disguised (heehee) and all that good stuff. The Royal Grooms are always in one branch of the British military so they wear their uniforms…..Phillip, Charles, Andrew, Princess Anne’s first husband…Mr. whathisname Phillips..Mark I just remembered) have all worn uniforms. Prince Edward the youngest prince in the Windsor family wore a suit as I recall when he married Sophie.
I wonder if Prince Harry will be able to controll his urge to clown around and show off? Someone better lock the liquor cabinet where ever Harry is getting ready for his brother’s wedding.
Everyone has high hopes at every Royal Wedding that the couple will ACTUALLY honor their vows…”til death us do part”. Very few have made it lately. In my opinion Prince Charles (His Royal Big Ears) should have been made to pledge that he would not cheat on his wife…but we all know how that turned out. Wills and Kate seem to be truly in love…maybe they have a chance of staying faithful throughout their marriage. But I place no bets on it considering William’s family history….even the “faithful” Phillip is reputed to have cheated on Elizabeth I……but she rarely smiles in public so maybe she bored Phil to death at some point. George VI…William’s great grandfather and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon,(the beloved Queen Mum) seemed the likeliest candidates for remaining faithful throughout their marriage. I like to believe it anyway.
So let’s give a Royal Huzzah! to Wills and Kate…may the sun shine all day the 29th of April and may they have a long and faithful marriage.
I AM going to get up at 3 a.m. on Friday so I do not miss a minute of the Royal Wedding.
I can nap in the afternoon!!!!!

I waited til today to post a blog about what the EPA plans for citizens of the USA in the near future.
Fasten you seatbelts!

Ken Blackwell has written a news piece about the future effects of 30 new major regulations from the EPA–plus 170 major policy rules in the next several months.
Quote from Blackwell’s article:

“Even with 14 million Americans out of work and an economy searching for light at the end of the tunnel, the EPA is poised to enact a series of back-door mandates that will stifle economic growth. And with the speed that this runaway train is traveling, people in states like Ohio should be scared of the “train wreck” headed toward a town near you. Unfotunately, everyday Americans may not realize the impact of EPA’s “train wreck” of new regulations on jobs, the economy, and the price of essential energy until its too late. The truth is, even the EPA doesn’t quite know what these regulations might cost to implement.—-though various outside analysts seem to agree that, at minimum, the 10 major rules that the EPA issued in 2010 could cost the economy at least $23 billion and nearly ONE MILLION jobs.”
(that’s 23 billion we do not have in our treasury. Think China will float us another loan to kill coal production?)

Ken Blackwell is from Ohio so he looks at how these regulations and rules will impact the people of his homestate. Coal generates 90% of net electricity in Ohio. Energy consumption in Ohio’s industrial part of their economy is one of the highest in the entire USA. Blackwell says that the EPA regulations will guarantee that EPA will destroy Ohio’s main electricity source. The new regulations when put in place will cause 10 coal plant shutdowns and about 1000 job losses. Ohio’s unemployment rate already stands at 9% already you so you can easily see why Blackwell calls the EPA’ s new rules and regs. a “trainwreck”.
Another quote from the article: ” But the Bureaucrats in Washington D.C. and the environmental groups intent on stopping the use of coal in America aren’t worried about these good-paying, blue-color jobs in Ohio. Unfortunately for us, they consider EPA’s ‘trainwreck” to be an effective means to an end. An end to coal for sure.”

Blackwell compares the United States to Saudi Arabia, calling the US the “Saudi Arabia of coal.” The U.S. has huge reserves of coal as a source for low-cost energy production and this source is capable of stimulating and sustaining long-term economic recovery.
“So with industry analysts estimating that 22 percent of existing coal-fired power plants could be shut down, with 75 gigawatts lost (read: enough electricity for 56.3 million homes). It is understandable why there is fear mounting about when this “trainwreck” will be coming around the bend.”

Blackwell’s report is not for Ohio only. Think about all the other coal- producing areas of our country…..Pennsylvania, North Dakota, Montana, West Virginia..to name just a few. Think about the economic implications close to home.
And think about losing all that cheap energy at a time when gas prices alone have run up the cost of food, clothing….all our needs that have to be transported in huge semi-trailer trucks and on trains that need diesel fuel to run. For people who are not wealthy or on fixed incomes this represents more than a “Trainwreck”….it is an ecomomic disaster of a major tsunami plus an earthquake. That reminds me that the EXTREMISTS also oppose building any nuclear power plants also!
Are you ready for electricity blackouts nation- wide? Will you be forced to give up not only electricity, but heat in your homes since electricity runs modern heating systems?
Clearly the EXTREME Environmentalists have not even thought this out. Their only goal is to shut down all carbon- based energy production…..they have no viable alternative other than to have the USA return to primitive times around a campfire inside a twig hut. I have already blogged about how many wind towers it would take to light up just one big city. There is not enough space in the entire country to electrify a few big cities to say nothing of all the rural towns and homes.
One has to wonder about the sanity of such EXTREMISTS. And we are stuck with Bureaucrats and Politicians who actually listen to them!
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Ken Blackwell. “EPA’s train wreck could leave many in the dark”

** Coal Producing States in USA: Montana, Wyoming, Illinois, West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Dakota, Colorado, Texas, Indiana.

I have had one of those lovely, perfect days I cherish. Even though it is gray and rainy, I did something I always enjoy to the maximum degree….I made another lovely, dreamy, wonderful, many-hour trip with good friend Fran to Barnes and Noble for one of our Browsing and Buying days at that bookstore. I have heard things about Barnes and Noble being in “trouble” (financial) and I shudder…what would Fran and I do if B and N closed it doors. It is such an enjoyable social event to spend hours there…..browsing, holding , touching, turning pages in REAL books. The sweet scent of new books, pages of paper and coffee concoctions is such a greeting when you walk in the entrance. I have to stand a minute and breathe it in …deeply. A “nook” or a “kindle” cannot hold a candle ( or a kindle!) to a real bookstore with BOOKS on the shelves. It is sweet music to my soul to be in a bookstore—–or a library.
Then we get our usual coffees….Mocha for me and a Breve for Fran. We take our places on the stool perches at the coffee counter that overlooks the bookstore layout. I wonder if those who may look back at us think of a couple of old crows perched on a tree branch? Nawwwww…..we cannot look like that-way—-yet! We people-watch and chat and chat some more and sip our hot coffees til they are gone. Sometimes we make up little stories about the people we see…we give them names and reasons why they come to Barnes and Noble. It is a truly enjoyable fantasy time. Our stories are pretty good too!
Then we begin to think about the browsing part of our day. Fran heads for the poetry section and I head to many places…current biography, Christian fiction, the childrens’ books (you can take a librarian out of her library but you cannot take the library our of the old librarian!) I also pick up books from current US history and maybe a gardening book or two. I also like to read about and look at paintings by Johannes Vermeer of 17th century Delft, Netherlands. Also a collection of poetry assembled by Garrison Keillor.
I did it all today and carried my books to the southwest corner of the store where the comfortable chairs are for readers. Today they were already full and I sat at one of the tables which was fine—except for two guys old enough to know better…. they were at least my age….one of them answered his loudly ringing cell phone twice and they talked too loudly for my satisfaction. I am so old…and old fashioned..that I think bookstores and libraries should be QUIET PLACES. I resist the urge to tell people like them to take their phones and loud talking somewhere else…like outside or in their cars. What an old Crabapple I am becoming!!!! I like it quiet when I read..always have and always will.
Someone always has a screaming, tantrum-having child in the store too…..more Crabapple reactions.
The browsing ends up with getting in line to buy things….I found a lovely basket today on and Earth Day table….made from recycled newspaper that was dyed in mulitple colors..very sturdy. I bought it for a shower gift for a bride this coming Monday night. It is lovely and I later bought some colorful napkins to go in it. I will write out some of my favorite best recipes for the bride to be also and put them in the basket as well. One of the best shower gifts I ever got was a recipe box with the givers’ favorite recipes. I treasure that gift 51 years later!!!! I will never forget Mary Ann who gave it to me even though she passed away several years ago.
Browsing and buying ends, and off we go—- into the wild blue yonder–well actually we go to the Olive Garden and order our favorite soup (Tuscana) and the endless salad and bread sticks. It is the order of the day when we go on our BN outings and this cannot be changed even when we had a 35 minute wait today. People are out shopping for Easter or other things. Kids have vacation and that means shopping for many families. The leisurely lunch completed…we both had to have a glass of wine..one Cabernet and one Moscato…and we go again..headed for home with a quick stop at a CVS store for napkins and Yardley soap bars. Oh—wait once..look at the Cadbury chocolate eggs filled with caramel—two for a dollar–one for you and one for me. So back in the car we eat our Easter treat while the rain falls gently around the car and on the car.
We drive to my home. Fran transfers her Billy Collins poetry book (a NEW one) into her car and she goes home to Detroit Lakes while I get out about three big containers of wild bird seed for the chittering Juncos in the spruce trees. It is wet and nasty today and the Juncos need extra food..or so I think and they land under the trees and appreciatively began eating the fresh food. They seem grateful. I know they are!
What a dreamy, lovely , wonderful day. And I have a couple of new Inspector Morses to consider all evening while the gentle rains continue to fall.
The earth is having a much needed shampoo after the grit and fungus of winter have set into the gray grass.
Better greener days are on the way!