Buffalo Gal

Last night I read a most disturbing long featured piece in a monthly magazine I get (NEWSMAX). The magazine is a news junkie’s dream so I wait for each issue to arrive. I almost wish I had not read what I read last night—it is my long time custom to read in bed before I fall asleep and what I read was not very conducive to falling asleeep peacefully.
The feature article in this month’s issue was titled “The Collapse of Mexico: it’s civil war comes to America.”
The opening paragraph is indicative of the rest of the article:
“The raging drug war in Mexico that has cost nearly 40,000 lives and has pushed America’s southern neighbor toward a failed nation-status , has created a civil nightmare of beheadings, mass graves, kidnappings, and endemic corruption at the highest levels of Mexican society. All of that was relatively remote to two Texas missionaries, Samuel and Nancy Davis, until a cross-border trip to help out a small Mexican church led to a life- and- death chase through Mexico’s killing fields.”
The Davis’s story then unfolds; this missionary couple have crossed the border countless times in the past three decades to deliver Bibles, deliver babies, stage revivals, and help small Christian churches that were in dire need. This time the Davises encontered a roadblock set up by the Mexican Drug Cartel and the result was the shotgun killing of Nancy Davis, age 59, as her husband tried desperately to escape the thugs who stopped them as they tried to return to Texas. The Davises happend to be driving the sort of vehicle the Drug Gangs want so they can smuggle loads of marijuana across the U.S. border. The Davis couple were in the wrong place at the wrong time like countless others who have been murdured by drug cartel members. This happened in January 2011. Sam Davis spoke to NEWSMAX writers by phone recently; he is too afraid to speak out publicly about his wife’s death because he was advised by authorities to “disappear from the radar” after his wife died so he would not be targeted by the drug gangs for his own murder.
About the same time Sam Davis was interviewed by phone, Mexican authorities were exhuming another 183 bodies from a mass grave near San Fernando..the largest massacre Mexico has unearthed thus far. Not wanting to waste ammunition, the forensics reports suggest the killers of the mass grave dead had bashed in the heads of the helpless victims’ heads with sledgehammers.

Another quote from the long article says this: (and here is where we the American people are not being told the truth).
“The idea that foreign drug cartels would conduct surveillance on a U.S. citizen in Texas might sound far-fetched. But it’s no surprise for law officers on the border. For years, local sheriffs in Texas have warned that the same drug lords who use backhoes to dig mass graves in Mexico are also using high-tech surveillance gear and weapons to tighten their grip on remote areas in the United States. It’s an assertion that President Obama and Secretary of Homeland Defense Janet Napolitana vigorously reject. In his July 2010 speech on immigration at American University the president said ‘The border is as safe as its ever been.” Napolitano declared in February {2011} ‘The border is better now than it has ever been’ “.

One would wonder where these two top people in the Obama administration have been getting their information? The law enforcement officials in the border states of Texas and Arizona KNOW for certain that the borders are more porous than ever and the Mexican drug cartels are making advances into the United States with more violence than either the President or Big Sis could conceive of..especially since they are telling the American people lie after lie about our southern border all-out war being waged upon Amercan citizens in those areas.
NEWSMAX spent two months interviewing more than 20 citizens during their visits to the border areas in Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico.
It is a very different story that NEWSMAX interviewers heard than the one being told by the president and the homeland defense secretary.
The drug cartels run human trafficking operations along with their drug runs into the United States. They have taken away the backpacks of Illegals trying to cross the border so they can jam them into trucks, shoulder to shoulder, in what is referred to as “french fry loads”. Anyone like women and children who slow down the human trafficking are simply left in the desert to die.

” All of which calls into question the notion that maintaining a porous border with Mexico is an act of social justice and humanitarian good will. Almost everwhere along the border, residents are gradually accepting a ‘new normal’ where the old assumptions of security and the rule of law no longer prevail.”

I would think the action taken by Pres. Obama and his Attorney General Eric Holder TO SUE ARIZONA FOR PASSING AN IMMIGRATION LAW that is essentially the same as the one the United States has for illegal immigration is one of the msot ludicrous things ever done by any Adminstration. Only now we have a lawless president and administration that has turned ordinary citizens’ beliefs about actually enforcing immigration laws completely upside down–perhaps in the shallow hope that the illegals will somehow vote for Obama or his people in future elections. What a price to pay for votes…mayhem, murders, beheadings, mass graves, and drug cartel violence to helpless people…..with the US president looking the other way in the face of our established immigration laws. It is nearly inconceivable to me—I grew up in a time when laws were enforced —–and respected.
There have been so many murders of Americans on their own land in the U.S. by the drug cartel…the most well known is the murder of Robert Krentz, a rancher close to the Arizona border. He was shot in cold blood on March 27, 2010 as he went out to check on what he thought were illegal immigants in need of water at his ranch.
NEWSMAX interviewers asked Sue Krentz (the widow) what her message would be to Janet Napolitano who says our borders are safer than ever!!!!
The widow of Robert Krentz said the following:
“My family, and all of the families along the southern border deserve to live and work in peace on their own land without having to constantly look over their shoulders. For years the federal government has failed the people of Arizona by allowing a porous border and my family has paid the ultimate price for these broken policies..No longer are people crossing border looking for a better life. They are using our southern border to move illegal contraband and we, American citizens, are outmanned and outgunned. We are allowing organized criminals from foreign countries to operate along our southern border…..We are the greatest country in the world —we are known for our military forces and peacekeeping missions . Why is it not possible for this great nation to properaly secure our border and return law and order to our southern border?”

Why indeed? Because we have a lawless administration who is not interested in the least at facing up to the REALITY that the Americans along the Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico face every day….the fact that Mexican and other nationality criminals are taking over part of our United States for the purpose of committing the most heinous crimes against us and others who happen to get in their way.
A recent chart of illegals who were caught by our border patrol authorities is chilling. Here is a list of citizens of dangerous foreign countries who were apprehended trying to cross our borders illegally in the past year…and these are the ones who were caught…not the ones how made it across, illegally:
Afgahnistan….6
Algeria……..41
Cuba **…..1,559

Iran**…….128
Lebanon..138
Liberia……6
Nigeria…..256
Pakistan…409
Saudi Arabia….52
Somalia………93
Sudan**….43
Syria**…..68
Yemen……..53
(starred countries identified by US State Dept. as sponsors of terrorism)

Total illegals apprehended: 3, 103

And we wonder how many thousands more got in without getting caught along the porous American borders????

I have had a spider plant (variegated one) for several years after buying a small “baby” at a church rummage sale. I potted the tiny baby plant and it has grown and thrived— becoming pot-bound (or root bound) in its clay pot.
I have looked up “the care of spider plants” and the “airplane plant” (another name for spider plants because of its spreading leaves and eventual stalks that produce the “babies”)..loves to be crowded in its pot..apparently the thrive much better when the roots fill the pot.
Now this spider plant of mine is having its first “baby”……I spotted the long stalk coming out of the middle of the plant a few days ago and it was exciting..I have been waiting for the first “baby” off this plant that started as a baby itself!
I think I get emotionally involved with some of my indoor plants–if that is possible. I blogged long ago about “MY OLD GERANIUM” and I still have “her” (I decided long ago that she is a girl geranium!) She lives in the house in the winter and I used to take cuttings off her and plant new geraniums outside for the summer…saving the plants before frost and bringing them inside again. My plant table under a winter gro-light got too crowded with geraniums and other saved plants, i.e. coleus, impatiens, et. al. and I finally decided I could not harbor all the plants over winter and would go to the greenhouse for new ones in spring.
Except for the Old Geranium……she has been my plant for about 15 years and now I just leave her in her big pot and set her outside on the sunny south deck for summer and keep her watered as often as necessary. She is a really Big Girl now and takes a lot of water.
I am not so attached to all my grape ivy plants…..I keep harvesting cuttings and starting new plants, either to keep or to give to friends. My grape ivies started when one of the other teachers at school ( a most uninterested male teacher)left his grape ivy plant on a library table after the elementary student council gave us all little plant starts. I took his home with me and started my first grape ivy. They grow like weeds for me and I have about 3 big ones now…they also go outdoors for the summer and stay on the kitchen steps mostly in the shade.
I also have what I call my “Daddy Plant”; it was given to me by some very good friends at the time of my Dad’s death in 1991. It is a graceful philodendron (almost impossible to kill unless you forget to water it) and I have taken so many “starts” off that plant I cannot remember them all. Most recently I gave a new plant from the Daddy Plant to a young friend whose father died tragically last Fall in a tractor accident. I told her the story of my Daddy Plant and encouraged her to keep hers as a new Daddy plant. I also gave her a small green spider plant off my friend’s plant (which I care for in winter when she goes to warm climates) Now “K” has plants from both of us “old ladies” whom she allows to park one car in her yard when we share rides to Silver Sneakers.
(My philoderendon needs to be pruned back on a regular basis and also given fresh soil….it has thrived because of this regimen I think..although my Mom had an old philodrendon that she virtually ignored except for the watering with her specially collected rain water). It lived for years and years probably as long as my Mom lived.

Plants can almost get to be like family members for me…and many others who love to grow them inside our homes…they are lovely and green and some have flowers…but they all clean the air inside your home if you keep them.

I am going outside right now to make another valiant effort (in spite of our cold wet current weather pattern) to transplant some wonderful deep maroon petunias into a pot along with some pale pink ones. Some of my potted flowers like impatiens and pansies need to have some replacements. They have not survived or thrived in this cold weather. BUT…..my good friend Fran and I are making our “Frolic to Fertile” trip this week as we always do on one of the first days of June…to celebrate Fran’s birthday and to go to Bergeson’s Nursery to take in the beauty of all the plants. AND to eat the homemade donuts they serve during this spring season and to drink the delicous hot coffee that goes with the donuts. If we are lucky and if Eric is around, he might sit down at the old upright piano in one of the gift shop rooms and play “happy birthday” like he has done in the past!
He has a good memory and remembers why we are there!!!!
I will get some replacement flowers when we go on our annual “Frolic” this week. The drive to Fertile is a beautiful one…when we pass the “Gary Pines” which is now a forest of evergreens planted by a group in Gary MN years ago, we know we are close to the to the east turn towards Bergesons!!! It is such a pleasant day I wish we could do it once a month–but this is too special to do too often.
Maybe in August when the Bergeson Gardens are in full bloom!!!!

Once again I have visited the local cemetery on the west side of the town I live near. My parents and one brother in law are buried there. I always bring flowers to decorate their graves on this weekend. I also bring flowers for our old neighbors’ graves since none of their children (of my generation) live near enough to do that for their parents.
It is a curious thing that the neighbors who lived in the same block for so many decades are buried close by each other in the cemetery. I remarked on this to my Dad once and he said “Ma and I picked this place because our good neighbors will be close to us.” They were close in life and now their bodies lie close to each other in their graves.
The cemetery, to me, is like another neighborhood…just like the ones lived in during their lives. Now the living family members and friends visit that “neighborhood” to make it beautiful for this special weekend each year.
I walk around and visit the folks I knew when I was much younger. There have gotten to be so many old friends living in the cemetery neighborhood as the years go by. There is nobody left alive in the block I lived in when I grew up…they have all moved to the cemetery “block”.
There are so many stories at the cemetery…many of them full of tears and great sadness. There is the grave of the 14 year old girl whose family I grew up with; she died in 1989 when the 3-wheeler she was riding on a country road crashed and killed her instantly. There is my parents’ little neighbor boy who died when a tree fell on him when his father was cutting wood. That was a grief I will never forget. Some of my old teachers live in the cemetery block now. One man lived several years after his wife died and he spent many hours at her grave after she was gone; of course it would do nothing to change the death of his wife but it gave him comfort to be there. Now he is beside her in death and their daughter and her family decorate thier graves each Memorial Day. The town librarian I loved so much as a child lies there now also…..beside her husband who was famous for being too deaf to hear himself speaking. He was also famous for his large vocabulary of swear words. Once at a wedding long ago, he grew tired of the long musical prelude before the wedding of a young woman who loved music and was a music teacher. He remarked (so loudly the whole church heard it)….”What the hell do they have do damn much music for?” His poor little wife (the librarian) lived with that sort of outburst for nearly 70 years before both of them joined the cemetery neighborhood.

A sweet little boy I knew when he was about five and I was twenty years old lies in his place in the cemetery. He was not very old when he died and his widowed mother brings flowers to his grave each spring as well as to her husband’s and her parent’s graves. She is now an older woman….I remember her when she was the young busy mother of my sweet little friend who kept a newspaper picture of me on his bedroom bulletin board. I was his first “crush” she told me. Once when he was very little nobdy could find him and the neighborhood was in a panic searching for him. After hours of searching, he was found..fast asleep in a neighbor’s raspberry patch where he was picking and eating fresh fruit. Dear little boy…how I loved that little tyke!!!!

Everytime I see the grave of a soldier or sailor I knew when I was young, I get that feeling of deep grief remembering the sorrow of the famililes who got the fateful visit from a military representative and their pastor or a chaplain. How the neighbors grieved for the young father and husband and son when he was killed in Korea in 1952. How we sorrowed for another young friend who died on a cold hillside in Korea leaving his new wife and his large family to cry for him. He was part of the family my mother picked potatoes for in the 1940′s when I went with her to the potato fields early in the October mornings before I went to school. He was the happiest young man; I can still see his wide smile and hear his laughter all these years later.
I see the grave of the young man who died in a car accident; his parents were the most kind gentle people. His father became our friend because he was an employee of the grocery store where I shopped when we came back from Washington State. My little boys loved to see “John” at the grocery store and John’s beloved son lies in the cemetery now for many years since his fatal accident.
Two young women–both 16 years old–lie in the cemetery for many decades since the summer day they held hands and walked into the newly built WPA project “lake”..stepped into a deep drop-off and drowned together leaving their familes stunned and grieving. I was not even born then but the memory of that fateful day was told to me by my mother who heard the fire whistle blowing when the local volunteer firemen were called to the lake to retrieve those two 16 year olds who were best friends in both life and death.
It is a neighborhood of tears and deep sorrow…..fresh sorrow that eventually had some healing but those left behind never get “over it”…they just get used to it.
I first read that statement in an autobiography of Dwight Eisenhower who recalled the death of his 3 year old son from scarlet fever and said that one should never believe the ones who say “you will get over this.” “Ike” testified to the reality of the day his little boy died and said it was just as fresh 50 years later as it was the day the little boy died in an army hospital. He said “you do not get over it..you get used to it.”
There has been a lot of “getting used to it” at that cemetery….and any cemetery where families and friends gather and bring flowers and plants to graves of loved ones.
The forerunner of our Memorial Day began in the South during the Civil War when women began decorating the graves of the southern Civil War dead. A sentimental song….”Kneel Where Our Loves Are Sleeping” was written at that time and dedicated the the ladies of the South who were decorating the graves of the soldiers. It was first called “Decoration Day” and I remember my parents calling it that. They never said “Memorial Day”.
It was declared a holiday to remember the fallen military men and women in May of 1868 only three years after the Civil War ended. It used to be observed with solemn ceremonies honoring the fallen soldiers of all our wars. More recently people have thought it was a day to remember and honor all the dead..but it was originally for the Military dead only.
Many people of younger generations think of this late spring holiday as a day for barbecues, picnics, going camping, going fishing or boating …with little to no thought for what the day is really about.
Towns and Cities used to have large patriotic parades and ceremonies on Memorial Day and some still do but the true meaning of the day is slowly being lost to the younger generation who do not remember what the Great Wars were about. Many men and women have fallen in battles in the smaller wars that have grown too familiar since Vietnam to the Gulf Wars to Afghanistan.
The oldest part of our cemetery has little decoration on the graves; they are graves of the town’s first settlers who came from England. There are few survivors or families of those first English familes now. The names on the old tombstones are unfamilar to most people now….names like Chant, Woodward, Weaver, Turner……all English names which do not sound at all familar to the present day generations. But those first settlers were the ones who really built the town and their memory does live on in the old part of the cemetery where they were laid to rest so many years ago…some over 100 years ago.
The cemetery neighborhood is quiet and peaceful except on the days when people come to decorate the graves…..honoring the dead of many generations of military and civilian folks. After Memorial Day, the residents of the cemetery block lie in peace amid the whispers of grass and the swish of large leafy tree branches. Birds abound at the cemetery and sing sweet songs every day, flying from grave to grave as if they know who lies there.
I love this weekend when I can visit all my old friends and family who are gone from this earth.

The Serbian military commander(Ratko Mladic) who was responsible for ordering the 1995 slaughter of 8000 Bosnia men and boys (all Muslims if I recall correctly) has now been captured after eluding authorities for long, long years since the slaughter at Srebendica. Yesterday I heard a report that in one of his monstrous acts against the enemies of the Serbs: he made a grandfather eat the liver of his grandson.
Now this man is pleading that he is in ill health and cannot stand trial in The Hague. In other words he craves mercy which he never showed his victims.

CRY ME A RIVER! I don’t care what his health is like (he is no doubt lying about it to avoid the trial) he should be dragged to the Hague and propped up in the court stand while he is tried for his vicious and unspeakable crimes against humanity. It is always amusing that these tough guys who commit atrocities against others want special treatment (mercy) when they are caught. It was the same old crybaby story with the Nazi war criminals who were captured.
I would like to be there and get a few licks in myself to show this monster what the world citizens think of him.
He certainly cared little for the “health” of his many victims in Bosnia. I wonder how that grandfather felt after Mladic made him eat his grandson’s liver?

Back in January I read a long article that was based on an interview with Joe Bastardi, a nationally known meteorologist. In his interview Joe (I have a hard time typing his last name) said that a prevailing La Nina oceanic pattern off South America was influencing weather all over the Earth….it brought us the bad U.S. blizzard of December 2010 and continued to bring us heavy precipitation throughout the worst of the winter months..January in particular, when I barely left my home for bad snowy conditions and icy roads constantly. This spring we have had colder weather and a lot of rain that is making it hard to believe that summer may eventually get here. Do not hold your breaths!!!!
I researched “La Nina” and have learned some things I would rather not know.
The good news it that the cold water in the south Pacific of the La Nina is giving in to an area of warmer ocean water..dare we hope for a better winter in 2011 and 2012? I want to think so.
An interesting piece I have read this morning says that La Nina is probably behind the terrible outbreak of tornadic storms in the south-midwest and other areas of the southern US this spring. It has happened before; another time there were strong La Nina measurements (1917) we had the same pattern of a really awful tornado season in the same areas…Tornado Alley. So it is not a new thing for those who think it is..it has occurred before and long before the alarm for global warming and the blame for almost everything that happens weatherwise has been laid on “global warming”.
A quote from one of the articles on La Nina/El Nino weather patterns is needed:

“Looking back,tornadoes have generally and statistically occurred more in La Nina years. In 2011 alone, there have been more than 1,200 reported tornadoes, four of them extreming a scale of EF-5 and more than that resulting in fatalities.
There has been less than five EF-5 tornadoes in the United States for the past decade. Look back to 1974 and one can find there were unusual reports of tornadoes during a time of La Nina. Watching the weather recently one can easily determine that the jet stream has truly been all over the place causing a real instability of weather patterns nationwide… Typically La Nina keeps warm and cool air separated to the North and South respectively. In a normal pattern, cool air drying out the South would be blocked altogether. Yet when Northern fronts push to the South the high amount of thunderstorms and resulting tornadoes is expected. Long jet streams shifted South combining into areas where there is heat and moisture In combination with heavy winds it wouldn’t be surprising if extreme weather occurred……Overall La Nina is said to be a key factor in recent extreme forecasts but she is not soley to blame…..For now the U.S. remains in a neutral state meaning no experience of El Nino or La Nina. It cannot be determined how long a neutral state will last; although weather models (NOAA) show it to persist for at least a few months.” (Angela Brauer, May 26, 2011 report).
It is interesting to google “La Nina” and see the number of results….one NOAA site has so many mind boggling statistics that is is difficult to look at..it was like ironing a pin strip sundress years ago when I actually feel over from staring at the tiny stripes on the ironing board!
So have a nice summer! My topsy turvy tomato plant has already been killed by the winds and rain of two days ago…but I am not giving up..yet. I am going to buy another Roma tomato plant and modify something on the planter that I have identified as bad for the small stalk. I WILL have a topsy turvy tomato if I have to work it out for several more weeks!!!! If only I could depend on some heat and sunshine…I could have my desired upside down red tomatoes later in the summer.
Everything that I have planted so far is greatly retarded…..the flower transplants look like they did the day I potted them……I will have to by a few replacement pansies and inpatiens due to inclement La Nina weather…..the weeds however are flourishing as they always do and it is too wet to get at many of them.
I have decided to move my entire tulip bed to the west side of the house as soon as the leaves and stems turn brown and dry. That little tulip bed will become my condensed vegetable garden next year……Oh please come back to us..El Nino!!!!

Our worldwide weather repeats its cycles…. much of it depending on which Spanish child shows up……plus the unpredictable sun cycles that also affect our world’s climate. I like to know what is happening, so googling La Nina and El Nino is something I will continue to keep track of.

When President Obama delivered what has been called an anti-Israel speech just a day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to the United States, many reactions to the President’s speech bordered on open- mouthed disbelief. He seemed to be deliberately provoking a fight with the Israeli P.M. by saying that Israel should return to pre-1967 war borders as one condition for a peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinian groups who refuse to acknowlege Israel as a state…that and references in his speech to “land swaps” between Israel and its sworn enemies gave a very negative impression to Israel and many other nations. It seemed to mark a time in our history when an American president seemed to be anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian/Arab….unlike all his presidential predecessors with the possible exception of the hapless Jimmy Carter from 1976-1980 when his one- term presidency was obliterated by Ronald Reagan’s victory in 1980. Carter has since proved himself to be a shill for groups like Hamas and Hezbollah…terrorists sworn to eliminate Israel from the earth.
When Benjamin Netanyahu met with the President at the White House within almost hours of the speech by Obama, the Israeli Prime Minister seems to have taken Obama to the woodshed, figuratively speaking. Netanyahu appeared before both houses of the U.S. Congress after meeting with the President and made it more than clear that Israel was NOT going to return to its pre-1967 borders for anything…peace treaty negotiations included and he did not even find the “land swap” proposal worthy of mentioning…in other words, forget about any land swaps!
Netanyahu’s speech was interrupted by bursts of applause and standing ovations by both sides of the political spectrum; if the President is anti-Israel, he should haved gotten the message that the US Congress is NOT—–it applauded Netanyahu’s remarks about Israel’s being a shining democracy in the darkness of Palestinian and Arab dictatorships and terrorism.
“In unusually strong language, he (Netanyahu) told Congress that Israel is the only mideastern nation that guarantees freedom to all religions and that Israel must remain undivided.” He also told Congress that “Judea and Samaria are part of the ancient Jewish homeland that our forefathers walked in and that the 650,000 Jews lving there are not occupying the region.” It is stunning to hear an Israeli prime minister who is largely a non- religious Jew bring up the Promised Land given by God to Abraham (recorded in the 3rd chapter of Genesis)….Abraham is the Father of the Jewish nation according to scripture in the Old Testament which Jews and Christians alike believe….at least those who are Believers among those two great faiths that acknowlege “Jehovah” as the one true God of Israel and the Gentiles.

“Interrupted dozens of times by standing ovations, after minutes-long applause as he entered the chamber, Netanyahu said that there are 300 million Arabs in the Middle East but the only ones who are free are the Israeli citizens.” (Tzi Ben Gedalyahu in “Aruz Sheva”, May 24, 2011)
Netanuyahu repeated more than once in his speech to Congress that it is not the creation of a Palestinian state to which six succesive Israeli prime ministers have agreed, that is an obstacle to a peace agreement…the obstacle is the Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Instead the Palestinians want to anihilate Israel. A major obstacle, indeed!!!!
Two days later Obama was forced into giving yet another speech in which he had to backtrack from his “pre-1967 borders” contention. He sought to soothe Israeli fury over his first Middle East speech that he gave just before the Israeli Prime Minister arrived for talks with the President.
President Obama found himself in the all-too familiar position of having to give another speech to explain a previous speech carelessly given. Mark Steyn, a national political writer put it this way: ” I think he thought he was getting a cheap shot in at Israel and as usual, as with all this great, you know…the greatest speaker of all time, after he has given his speech, the great orator has to go out and give these mopping-up speeches every 48 hours to try to correct the damage.”

Steyn even wondered if Obama realized what he was saying in his first speech when he suggested a return to 1967 borders for Israel.
“And the fascinating thing about this 1967 borders stuff is whether he intended it as a conscious shift in U.S. policy that would allow the Israeli government or whether it would–with the casual arrogance of his half-wit 12 year old speechwriter, it just got in there and he finds himself up there saying it….that is what I don’t understand”. (Mark Steyn)
Steyn, in an interview with Hugh Hewitt, wondered aloud whether about what motivated Obama to make grand policy gestures {as in his first speech citing Israel’s need to return to its 1967 borders} Steyn suggested that perhaps it was the first time in Obama’s life that he has been in a job long enough to see his actions effect change.
“I think it is interesting …I mean I think if you look at Obama, he has wafted upwards basically through Coumbia, Harvard Law….community organizing, the Illinois State legislature, the US Senate —without lingering in those jobs long enough to have to do anything. He basically was someone who was kind of just wafted upwards through the system until he became the beneficiary of the ultimate waft into the Oval Office. And for the first time in his life, the words he says and the actions he takes have consequences. This is a guy who as far as I know has never had a paper route. This is the first time what he does has consequences…..”

In an interview a day earlier than the one with Mark Steyn, Senator James Imhofe of Oklahoma had wondered about the state of mind of the President when he made his controversial first seemingly anti-Israel speech.
Others in the field of mental and emotional health have wondered about Barack Obama’s arrogance and strong Narcissistic streak exhibited in many of his speeches…speeches that have to be later explained and denied in some cases, as an example of being misinterpreted et.al.
Steyn also said “….I think it is hard to avoid the growing feeling that he (Obama) has a contempt for long-time American allies….I think he has in that sense a contempt for the United Kingdom and India. I hear from Indian politicians all the time and Indian diplomats who are amazed at his off-handedness toward India.”
In a recent book about the President,( THE ROOTS OF OBAMA’S RAGE) the author thinks that Obama has deeply rooted anti-colonial feelings that his father, Kenyan Barack Obama Sr. had all his life…resentment for all nations who had colonies in Africa and other nations.

The mental and emotional complexity of our current President gives many reasons to wonder at such rash pronouncements like the 1967 borders speech…and then the subsequent back-tracking, apologizing and explaining that has to come after the rash words spoken—– for whatever unfathomable reason.
It is certainly a worry for those who examine the current American foreign policies…or lack of a coherent foreign policy.

“The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has insisted for years that its notorious body scanners at the nation’s airports are safe for all passengers, including children, pregnant women and individuals with medical implants.”
So writes Becky Akers in her piece entititled “Cancer on the Concourse” (May 24, 2011).
The claim defies the normal thinking on the use (and overuse) of X-rays.
Radiation experts have warned for a very long time that the damage that radiation does to human flesh negates the diagnostic benefits and it should only be used SPARINGLY {my emphasis}.

“So how does the TSA know that irradiating millions of passengers regardless of their physical condition is perfectly fine? Because the manufacturer of its equipment says so.” (Becky Akers)

One year ago, a group of four scientists urged the Obama administration to get a disinterested evaluation before unleashing any more airport scanners on the public.
“Dr. John Sedat is a professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco; his three colleagues are experts on cancer and radiation. They wrote the White House on April 6, 2010..’to call your attention to serious concerns about the health risks of the …backscatter X-ray airport security scanners.’ ”

The four scientists were rather mild in their concerns voiced to the administration and did not demand anything… but the TSA reacted with great resentment to this request for further study of the scanners. Instead of going for some real scientific testing. the TSA tried to get by with testimonies from the FDA which responded by saying that the scientists’ fears were inconsequential..after all… they (the FDA) regulated radiation. The TSA also tried to enlist Johns Hopkins University Applied Laboratory. When the lab “confirmed that the radiation dose for the individuals being screened, operators and bystanders were well below the dose limits specified by the American National Standards Insitute,” the TSA implied that Johns Hopkins endorsed its scanners. No so fast: Johns Hopkins argued that its study only demonstrates that the radiation dosage is under the limit set by ANSI (American National Standards institute according to the International Business Times, but “the safety of the machines is a somewhat different question.”

Becky Akers writes: “That wasn’t the only egg on TSA’s face. In March the manufacturer revealed that its technicians had underestimated the risks of using the scanners. ‘ It would appear that the emissions are ten times higher’ one of the TSA spokeswomen confessed to Wired.com. ‘We understand it as a calculation error’. Well hey, what’s a little calculation error among friends? Sure enough the TSA reigterated its Big Lie—the scanners are safe—-and still refuse to sideline them.”

Akers wonders why the US Congress hasn’t long since abolished the TSA as a goverment agency. Until that happens, you will have to protect yourself as best you can from this abusive agency….like Dr. John Sedat does. He doesn’t fly any longer.

I have been suspicious of overused X rays for a long time after doing my own research on the effects of such radiation. I refuse the dental X rays and will have them only every few years in spite of the insistence by the dental office of their necessity. I refuse to have the radiation that the high-tech breast exams involve. After reading a Candadian study that concluded that the routine radiation of women’s breasts was more dangerous than previously thought, I changed my mind about submitting to that radiation. I have wondered why with all the so- called modern high- tech “early detection”…. there is till a huge rise in breast cancer cases among younger and younger women…could it be the “early detection” is contributing to the development of cancer???? It is a definite possibilty. There may indeed be “cancer on the concourse” as well as other places where indiscriminate radiation is used.
I also refuse to fly any more with the intrusiveness of the TSA’s ham-handed handling of bodies or the demand for the X- rays emitted by the unproven scanners that the four U of California scientists have questioned…to no avail thus far. My travel will stay on ways that do not involve endangering my health.

The students and teachers and townspeople in Audubon know how to do things right when it comes to saying goodbye to an old school building that will be demolished on June 6 to make way for new construction at the elementary site for the Lake Park Audubon school district.
I attended a special assembly on Monday May 25 at “my old school” where I was a teacher for nearly 25 years before I retired in 2004.
That old 1922 dark red brick building was part of my history also and I needed to go to the program to see it done right by the Audubon people at school and in the town.
The students in grades 4,5 and 6 have spent a “history year” in 2010-2011 school year. They have interviewed former students who spent their school years at the old 1922 school house. The students wrote up the interviews, wrote poems and did paintings of the the history of the old school and have now published a wonderful remembrance book about that old building that is so much more than bricks, wood, mortar and steel. That old building also holds in its structure all the memories of the hundreds of students who spend 12 years there when they went to school. Many friendships…even marriages…were formed in that old building.
Much learning took place there as students left and went out to go on to more school or start businesses, serve in the Military and Armed Forces, and start families. So much happened in that old red brick building. It is so much more than what the materials made it…..it was a living part of a community for years and years and years.
It’s time of life has come due; it is a very old building and now it is going to its rest when it gets demolished on June 6. It has served well in all its years and yesterday it was “honored” for all its years of service.
I thought of the old school buildings that were demolished years ago in my town…the two buildings that meant a great deal to me. The old yellow brick “grade school” and the similar 1920′s style red brick two story “high school” were ripped apart with no goodbye whatsoever and that has hurt a lot of us who spent so many good years of our school lives in them.
I am glad that the students and townspeople of Audubon honored the old red brick school house yesterday.
People need to say good-bye to such important buildings in the life of the towns they grew up in.
I am so proud that I was part of that school community for nearly a quarter century.
They know how to “do things right” !!!!

May 15-June 15 is the best time of the entire year. The days are long, the sun is setting way up on the northwest horizon, the days are mild and pleasant…even when it rains…and the Summer Solstice is just a few weeks away when the Longest Day of the year occurs. Grain is just beginning to show in the fields and it is a green velvet landscape when that happens. Trees are leafing out, the lilacs are beginning to bloom (very late this spring) and I have two bleeding heart bushes in full lovely bloom.
There are Baltimore Orioles (at least 2-3 pairs) visiting my grape jelly dish; purple finches and chickadees are also feeding on the jelly and the greatest thrill of all…..I have seen a rose-breasted grosbeak pair eating at the jelly dish as well as at a seed feeder! Life is good. The only thing wrong is that no bluebirds have taken up residence in the new house set up for them…maybe next year. Goldfinches are abounding around my finch feeder and the feeder often looks like it is decked out in bright yellow feathers as many finches cling to it at one time eating the seeds inside it. The wrens are finally back…late this spring..and are in full voice singing their little hearts out each day.
It is truly the best time of the year…and it goes way too fast!
I have spent many days working on flower gardens and planting vegetables also— and my aging body tells me that I ought to cut back on gardening but I have not obeyed it yet. I just spend some misery times with really sore muscles after working too hard outside. I am ready to try an upside down topsy turvy tomato planter this summer….I hope my Roma tomato plant thrives in that topsy turvy planter which will hang from a hook on the south side of our deck in full sun.
My Juneberry trees have had more blossoms than ever and maybe this is the year I can try baking a Juneberry pie! The rhubarb needs to be picked, cut up and frozen in packages for future pies and crisps. The apple trees are beginning to burst into bloom and it looks like late May and JUNE will be bustin’ out all over!
THE BIRTHDAY: There are four of us–good friends— all born the same year a few months apart. I have known my friend “A” so long I cannot remember NOT knowing her. We went to Sunday School with our mothers who were teachers together when we were only 2 years old and there was no such thing as a church nursery then—we simply started Sunday School a year earlier than usual!
We both married men born the same year as we were also and all four of us are the best of friends. Our birthdays have a pattern: mine is on the 21st of January; “A’s” is on the 22nd of March, her husband is on the 23rd of May (today) and my husband’s is on the 24th of June…so we have observed this pattern for years…21-22-23-24….we always go out for dinner together on or near the birthday of the number pattern. Tonight is was the 23rd’s turn and we ate a nice place in Breckenridge, MN . It had wonderful food and was a lovely old building that was once a bank…the old bank cage is still there…with its wrought iron and frosted glass windows. The floors are the old original tiny white hexagonal tiles and the wainscoating is dark and varnished as are the old bar and booths (all originals). By the time we left around 7 p.m. the place was packed with diners…on a Monday! It is definitely THE place to go in Breckenridge…very nice and we had a great meal and a great time. It was nice to drive leisurely back home through the FLAT FLAT fields of the heart of the Red River Valley. Many fields are still way too wet to plant….some that got planted are a green carpet of new grain beginning to show itself.

May 23rd…right in the middle of the Best Time of the Whole Year!!!!
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There is a phrase stuck in my mind: “Two weddings and one funeral”…I think it is the title of an episode from one of my favorite British mystery series.

We have been to two weddings…May 20 and May 21..it is either Feast of Famine as far as weddings go these days. We are more likely to take note of 50th or 60th wedding anniversaries at our age but this weekend two children of dear friends got married and we attended the weddings. Both were wonderful occasions and the parents of both children “did good” with their childrens’ great days.
We especially enjoyed the speech by the father of the Groom on May 20. “M” has been our great good friend for nearly 20 years even though he is the same age as one of our sons….we just “hit it off” with this terrific couple younger than us by over 20 years. It was their sons wedding on May 20 and “M” gave a speech directed at the Bride especially, giving her fair warning of the family she is now part of! “M” and “R” have great true stories about their family vacations which usually have at least one near-disaster per vacation and their legendary shopping trips together, especially at Christmas time, are sources of such hilarity that nobody could possibly make up their equal for sheer zaniness and faux pas(s).
“M” first related a story about a family vacation on the Mississippi River in craft the size of a fishing boat. They and others in small boats on the Father of Waters were forced to travel about 5 mph due to restrictions on making a “wake” in that area of the river. The two brothers in the family got bored with the slow speed and took off their white T – shirts and wrapped them around their heads til they looked like Islamic terrorists. They added to the scene by donning dark sunglasses over the small slit for their eyes. Then the oldest brother stood up in the front of the boat making threatening gestures to the other boats…which immediately veered off to both sides, breaking the 5 mph speed limit in a flash. The M and R family found themselves alone in the river!!!
The Christmas shopping adventures nearly put all the guests on the floor from laughing. First off “M” told about being in a busy Target store in December when he got in a checkout line and spotted his wife in front of him wearing her familiar coat and a pink scarf. He sidled up behind her and playfully blew in her ear. She turned around to him and………..it was not his wife. He awkwardly and stuttering-ly tried to explain his forwardness to the startled woman who was wearing the similar coat and pink scarf but she was pretty mistrustful of his stammering explanation.
About one day later the M and R family were at West Acres shopping again when M sat down to rest on one of the many couches in West Acres Mall and– lo, and behold—- he spotted the woman wearing the similar coat and pink scarf as he had seen in Target when he blew in her ear. He went over to her and said “I apologize for blowing in your ear at Target yesterday”.
She looked at him and said “I wasn’t AT Target yesterday!”
M could not believe there were two women in F-M who had such alike coats and pink scarves as his wife’s!!!
Poor M was left stammering another apology to another startled and wary female stranger.

To top things off, M went to start the van up in the parking lot and wait for his wife to come out of West Acres. He saw her bolt out the main entrance and run to another similar van and hop in beside a total stranger who thought he was being attacked or kidnapped by an agressive female stranger!
R leaped out of the van and finally saw where M was waiting in THEIR van!
Their funny stories are endless…..we have heard so many of them over the years we have known them.
I just hope their new daughter- in- law can survive the surprises that will surely come her way as she embarks on marriage to M and R’s son!!!!!
M’s stories reminded me of one of my biggest errors when I was a young married woman. We had attended a concert at a large Lutheran Church in Bismarck during Holy Week and as we left the sanctuary we were all crowded together in the church’s entry way which led to a long flight of concrete steps outside the church. It was a mild spring night and I rook my husband’s arm as I walked down the steep steps. I looked down to see my brother in law and his wife looking up the steps and both were laughing very hard. I could not understand what was so funny but I kept noticing that my husband seemed to be trying to pull his arm away from my firm grasp. I just hung on tighter.
When I got to the bottom of the steps I looked up at him and found myself looking into the frightened face of a teen aged boy who was wearing a tweed topcoat just like my husband’s. I do not know what I said to him but I was stammering like our friend M in that Target Store.
What made it so funny to my brother and sister in law was the look of sheer terror on the teenager’s face as I clung to his arm but behind us was my husband laughing at me and my capture of the wrong guy to escort me down the steps.
The memory of it makes be blush yet!!!!