Book Review: Alice Starmore's Book of Fairisle Knitting

(Reclaimed from Blogjob: Alice Starmore, Fair Isle knitting, hand knitted sweaters for women, hand knitting, history of knitting, Jade Starmore, new book,stitch patterns for knitting design.)

Not a Fair Trade Book...this one's been reprinted, so it qualifies as a New Book. Buy it as a New Book to encourage this author--if you can--here:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Alice-Starmore-s-Book-of-Fair-Isle-Knitting/10850951

(However, since Walmart.com doesn't seem to be working today, I'm going to go ahead and post the Amazon link too. I don't want to send anybody to a web site that's "unresponsive" for 40 minutes, the way Walmart.com seems to be.)

Title: Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting 

Author: Alice Starmore

Date: 2009

Publisher: Dover

ISBN: 0486272183

Illustrations: full-color photos on almost every page

Between 1981 and 2000, Alice Starmore was a superstar knitter/designer/writer. Reviewer Carol LaBranche asked, "When does Alice Starmore sleep?" Apparently this Scottish sister of one of Vogue Knitting's editors had done a lot of advance preparation, because when her books started selling in the U.S., each year seemed to bring out a new book filled with historical research and travel pictures and knitted masterpieces that seemed likely to take a year, apiece, just to knit. Then Alice Starmore retired, handing down the knitting business to her daughter Jade. Or did she? They still have a web site:

https://www.virtualyarns.com/alice-starmore/

Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting was perhaps her most popular book, the first to go into reprints. There are several reasons:

• It's a beautiful book, full of historical models, landscapes, and examples of lovely multicolor knitting. This was one of the first examples of the knitting book that was designed not to be carried around in a purse or overcoat pocket, but to sit on the coffee table and be admired by knitters and non-knitters alike, as a work of art. And it was one of the best in that genre.
• The full-length sweater patterns in this book are not "classic Fair Isle" work, nor is Alice Starmore a "real" Fair Islander (her home is on a different island off the Scottish coast)...but who cares? They're part of a living, growing tradition. They're all knitted in fairisle stitch patterns, mostly knitted in real Shetland wool, even if the colors reflect 1980's fashions rather than the tradition of using naturally dyed and undyed wool from naturally multicolored sheep. Most of them have the classic fairisle sweater shapes. Only a purist could grumble. Most readers' only complaint about the sweater patterns in Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting was that there aren't more of them. Well...after knitting even three of these wonderful things, a knitter might want to design fresh variations...
• The book includes an easily scanned/copied collection of classic fairisle stitch patterns. Knitters can tuck copies into their knitting bags, literally cut them up and paste them together to lay out new combinations on paper, or scan them into a computer and play with them on the screen. Not all of the classic patterns are here, but most of them are, and you can figure out how to add the others--even the swastikas, if you're willing to readmit them to your list of classic patterns.
• There's lots of history, color theory, and technical tips to help you play with the patterns in your own way. If you want to design new tote bags and afghans that use fairisle stitch with chunky acrylic yarns, this book explains how that can be done.
• And, frankly, for this amount of information in a Dover paperback, these days $18 is a bargain...considering that, if you knit even one of the sweaters in real Shetland wool, you should be able to sell it for $180 or more.

I'm not planning to part with my original hardcover copy. Frankly, Gentle Readers, the suggestion for this review came from Prosperent, when they invited readers to play with "mix" ad-generating software. Well, generating ads is their job and does not overlap in any way with my talent, but I had to try it. I threw in a picture of the original edition of this book from Amazon. Prosperent doesn't work with Amazon. Prosperent works with Walmart.com. The new Dover edition is available at Walmart.com. Walmart.com is not a functional web site, at least not today. Nevertheless, a new edition of Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting is good news and I'd like to encourage any knitter who doesn't already own this book to buy it.

You can buy the yarn you'll need to knit the sweaters, too, or to knit other traditional lightweight pieces the way Fair Islanders traditionally did--very light knitting, seven or eight stitches to the inch:

https://www.virtualyarns.com/store/hebridean-2ply/page/1/

If you browse, you'll find plenty of the heavier yarns of which U.S. discount department stores and hobby stores are full, too, but a full range of colors in lightweight yarn can be hard to find in the United States.

Robert Hurt on the Economy

From U.S. Representative Robert Hurt (R-VA-5):

"Earlier this month in his State of the Union Address, the President painted a rosy picture of our nation’s economic future, claiming that we have created jobs while cutting deficits. The President seems to believe that we have done enough to reduce our massive spending deficits, but I believe – and most Americans believe – that the future fiscal health of our nation remains one of the most serious problems facing our children and grandchildren.
Last week, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its budget projections for 2016. These projections paint a daunting picture that centers around the fact that, according to their findings, the budget deficit for the upcoming year will increase for the first time since 2009. The CBO’s estimation of a deficit of $544 billion is over $100 billion more than last year. This is another stark reminder of how important it is for us to get our fiscal house in order.
A significant portion of this deficit increase is due to growing mandatory spending programs – namely Medicare, Medicaid – and the ever-increasing taxes and subsidies created by the President’s healthcare law. The CBO estimates that spending increases for these programs will increase by $104 billion, and there is no indication they will slow down in the foreseeable future.
Furthermore, the CBO warned that these increasing deficits mean the federal debt held by the public will increase to nearly $14 trillion – that will be 76 percent of Gross Domestic Product. To put that in perspective, that is the highest it has been since the years immediately following World War II. There is no doubt we must get our fiscal house in order and stop spending money we simply do not have.
There was some good news in the CBO’s report. It forecasts an expanding workforce and job market, which are critical to growing our economy. This is an encouraging indicator, and the Congress must continue to make this one of our top priorities, so that this becomes a reality, not just a prediction.
We also must continue to focus on policies that address the need for more jobs and more growth, including mitigating the harmful impacts of the President’s healthcare law. Our increasing deficits and irresponsible spending must be put to a stop before it is too late. We have taken some positive steps in recent years to cut spending and reform unsustainable government programs, but we must take further action to rein in the programs that represent trillions of dollars in unfunded liabilities for future generations because this burden will bankrupt our country if we do not act.
Though there are some troubling findings in this week’s CBO report, it should be seen as a renewed call to promote the policies we need to deliver a brighter future to our children and grandchildren. I am confident the combination of growth and responsible reforms will steer our country away from the dangerous path we are on and place our great nation on a path to opportunity, prosperity, and success for all.
If you need any additional information or if we may be of assistance to you, please visit my website at hurt.house.gov or call my Washington office: (202) 225-4711, Charlottesville office: (434) 973-9631, Danville office: (434) 791-2596, or Farmville office: (434) 395-0120.

I met with Englon Roberts of Danville.

I presented a commemorative pin and certificate to Vietnam veteran

Robert Nowak of Aroda.

Sincerely,
" [signature graphic: Robert Hurt]

February 1 Link Log

Categories: Obligatory Fundraising Links, Animal, Christian, Food (Yum), Politics

Obligatory Fundraising Links

For those who'd like to see less political content on my Blogjob, these links contain the secret of how that can be achieved. Frugal Gracious Living Challenge posts will consist of facts not opinions and thus, unless I'm reviewing political (or religious) books, they'll edge the political (and religious) content off the Blogjob.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-frugal-gracious-living-challenge–2#/

http://blogjob.com/priscillaking/2015/12/29/so-then-i-told-the-senator/

Animal

The Twit known as Pilgrim Traveler offers lots of appealing Christian-oriented nature photos. Here's a terribly cute duck:

http://pilgrimtraveler.com/the-peace-of-god-which-passeth-all-understanding/

Here's a detailed run-down on how poisoning nuisance animals in the garden can endanger your pets (and you), or why the position of this web site is that we should be predators if we can't recruit predators but should not be poisoners.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/782

Here's one of the harmless little animals who tend to become casualties of "gardeners" who try to protect their gardens with poison:

http://blogjob.com/insights/2016/01/30/the-amazing-walking-stick-or-stick-insect/

Books 

Here's a review of a new book by a great, topophilic, Western U.S. writer, at a web site dedicated to the encouragement of topophilia. If you've not discovered Terry Tempest Williams yet, run don't walk. Oh...the reason why I stumbled across this'zine was that they're holding a topophilic poetry contest; thanks to Hope Clark for sharing the link.

http://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2008/12/22/finding-beauty-in-a-broken-world/book-reviews/

Christian

I think the surprise here is that anyone didn't predict what any member of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church is likely to say to, well, one of the questions that define that denomination's identity...

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/02/01/ben-carsons-pointed-response-to-biblical-end-times-question-is-jesus-coming-back-in-our-lifetime/?

Food (Yum)

Vegan yumminess from Mary McDougall, whose recipes usually seduce carnivores:

https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2016nl/jan/recipes.htm

Medlars aren't meddlers. They're a species of fruit tree, mostly cultivated in Europe, that need some encouragement to survive even where they're planted. But do you want to try them? (I didn't realize that a pearlike fruit from Europe would have something important in common with the banana!)

http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/376

Funny Things

If I were in Florida and had $25, I'd go to this.

http://davecarlelection2016.bpt.me/

Politics

Publius Huldah live:

https://publiushuldah.wordpress.com/2016/02/01/phs-natural-born-citizen-art-v-convention-event-in-fairfield-glade-tn-2/

Television thrives on "controversy," meaning clever verbal abuse. But is that really the key qualification for the President of the United States? Tip for some Fox staff: you did the right thing by dumping Trump, now why not carry it forward and learn how to make conversation with an intelligent gentleman? I for one don't think a smart-mouthed Will-Smith-character-wannabe is what we need in the White House. I'd rather see a quietly effective, mature leader who commands respect...even if the novel sensation of having to respect an adult is putting some TV personnel off their stride.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/267577-carson-rips-fox-debate-moderators-over-speaking-time

I'm not finding a link for this one so, with all due respect, I'm ganking it:



Now, even more seriously...Should the President be authorized to declare war without the consent of Congress? Should Congress just sign away this Constitutional protection?

http://us7.campaign-archive2.com/?u=6a89b73599e68a4cdf6730e21&id=684d6d9235&e=e038f280b8

Election coverage, about as serious as this particular moment in the election probably deserved...No, I want to highlight one phrase from Dave Barry's commentary for special endorsement: "Trump has...an incredible family." That, indeed, he has. It's incredible that he has an adult child who's willing to claim him in public. I don't know that I'd trust Ivanka Trump any further than I'd trust her father, but I give her full points for loyalty.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/elections-2016/article57260143.html

Today's Politics links are quite a jumble...As regular readers remember, it's possible for people who don't make it a full-time job to read the bills proposed in the Virginia General Assembly, because they are usually nice, straightforward bills that say one thing, usually a reasonable thing even if it's wrongheaded, in such a way that you can read them in one sitting. In the U.S. Congress, some bills, notably the "Affordable Care Act" that brought us Obamacare, are deliberately written with the intention of being unreadable, such that members of Congress have actually said things like "We'll have to pass it to know what's in it." E-friend Jim Babka has been opposing this practice for years, and so, as of today, do U.S. Representatives Mia Love, Jim Jordan, and about a dozen more at last count. Here's JB's temporary link sharing the good news:

http://us7.campaign-archive1.com/?u=6a89b73599e68a4cdf6730e21&id=d4e24e5c16&e=e038f280b8

And here's an easy way to be counted supporting U.S. H.R. 4335:

https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/114/hr4335

Btw, Rand Paul proposed a similar bill in the Senate last year:

https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/114/s1572

Traffic Safety

Hmm...this petition seems like another judgment call, and another close one, like the Flint water petition discussed below. I'm sharing the link in case you want to sign it. You may notice that I didn't sign it. Here's why: Yes, I know it's possible for a car's exhaust system to leak carbon monoxide into the car. A relative had a car like that in 1970; my parents drove one between 1983 and 1987. And when that starts to happen, people will notice it. You feel tired after a short drive, or sleepy, or sick; you feel more alert and less sick within minutes after stepping out of the car. That's a wake-up call, Gentle Readers. The leak may or may not be growing. If it is growing, or if someone takes a long drive in that car, it's rare but certainly possible that the driver could pass out while driving in traffic. So, if you feel that you're driving or riding in a "Smogmobile," don't wait for the leak to grow or for an expensive mandatory test to explain to you that you have a leak. Get it fixed now.

https://www.change.org/p/pass-savannah-s-law?

Virginia Legislature 

Here's the Virginia Tea Party Patriots Federation's list of bills they support and oppose, in Word format. (Members of this web site generally, but not absolutely always, agree with their lists; when we disagree with them we're likely to be disagreeing with each other as well. Their list is a splendid piece of work, as always, for which we thank them.)

http://www.vtppf.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/2016.1.26_Support-Oppose-List.pdf?mc_cid=1d1ccf5d3c&mc_eid=bc15bff284

Words 

In English "house" has traditionally been used as a metaphor for "household, family, tribe, society," etc., in phrases like the Bible's teaching that "A house divided against itself cannot stand." (And "stand," of course, is used as a metaphor for "surviving as a group.") Dan Lewis shares photographs proving that a literal, physical house--the building--can stand being divided:

http://nowiknow.com/a-house-divided/

You wanted to learn a more obscure, S.A.T.-type word? Jonah Goldberg explains apophasis:

http://link.nationalreview.com/view/55c8a77718ff4357208b47083kr10.7c7j/984ad998

Here's a professional writer using words in a way that is just sooo...deeply...wrong: (1) President Obama may have done the country a lot of harm, by pursuing an agenda that's basically anti-American, but he's not stupid, which is the word Ann Coulter was looking for. (2) "Retarded" has a literal meaning--it refers to people who mature at a slower than average pace, who are not stupid, or short, or whatever, but who, at any stage during childhood or youth, look or function like people who are younger than the average person their own age. (Example: "Although his physical growth was retarded by polio, such that he was the same height at age 12 that he'd been at age 7, by age 21 my father was 6'2".") (3) Calling someone "a ree-tard" is typical of people between ages 4 and 10, so what does that tell us about Coulter?

That she needs to grow up and apologize, that's what. Sometimes I think Coulter is smart, and sometimes I think she's funny, and then again sometimes she just falls flat on her face. And this was one of those times:

https://www.facebook.com/FightForEquality/photos/a.847361071948065.1073741828.119872344696945/1214858051865030/?type=3&theater

Work 

What's the purpose of your work?

http://www.dailygood.org/story/1211/president-abdul-kalam-on-life-s-pursuit-gavin-aung-than/

Book Review: How Fletcher Was Hatched

(Blogjob tags were children’s book, children’s story, dog cartoons, picture book, rivalry among pets for human attention, Wende and Harry Devlin.)

Book Review: How Fletcher Was Hatched

Authors: Wende and Harry Devlin

Authors' (memorial) web page:

https://www.harryandwendedevlin.com/about.html

Date: 1969

Publisher: Parents Magazine Press

ISBN: none

Length: pages not numbered

Illustrations: color drawings by the authors

Quote: “Fletcher, look at this dear chick. It’s so tiny. It’s so yellow. It’s so fluffy!”

Fletcher, a dog whose human is besotted with chickens, hatches a plot (sorry) to get himself repackaged in a giant clay egg, with a little help from his friends the beaver and the otter.

In real life, I observed a real dog in a similar situation. I had taken a job renovating an old farmhouse. A police-type dog called Penny, born at the house and adopted by some disreputable human neighbors, didn’t seem to get much of the attention and affection she wanted. Penny did not have the tough, dominant personality generally associated with her breed. For four of the six months I worked there, starting from the first day, she considered herself my dog. Asked whether I wanted to buy her, I said I couldn’t afford to keep her. All I ever did for Penny was scratch behind her ears, and she followed me everywhere.

Then the new owner for whom we were working sent some chickens out to the place. They were, he said, to be allowed to roam freely around the farm. They were purebred Game chickens, pretty birds, slim and graceful; they hardly looked like the same species as the big clumsy chickens that are bred for meat. 

At the end of the day, after washing and dressing to go back into town, I paused to look at the chickens. The dog bounded out from a shed, along a muddy track, to greet me with a hug. I didn’t hear Penny approaching; I heard a man yell at her, turned, and found myself hugging a muddy dog. “That (rude word) dog messed up her dress,” one man bellowed to another. “Wait and let her clean up—if she can.” While wiping off the mud I heard the men scolding and swearing at the dog. They knew as well as I did that that sort of thing matters a great deal to some dogs, but none of us thought we could possibly mean very much to Penny. After all, other people seemed to have been feeding her all her life.

The chickens were great fun for the next week or two, and then they began disappearing, always by threes. Three happened to be the number of disreputable human neighbors in the house where Penny lived. They told the new owner of the farm that that dog just kept sneaking out and stealing chickens.

“One dog keeps stealing three chickens at a time?” I said. Well, they had another dog who slipped out with her. “Two dogs keep stealing three chickens? For three humans?” A Game hen is just the right size to make one big meal for one fat, greedy slob of a human. I didn’t think Penny really deserved the blame, but Penny was chained, then locked in the cellar, while I was working there. 

And one day, after twenty-three chickens had been reduced to five—always subtracting three at a time (yes, additions were made before the subtractions ended), stopping only when the flock had been reduced to a mutant minority who were able to fly straight up from the ground, which most chickens can’t do—Penny was "put down."

It’s unfair to the Devlins that I had this animal tragedy in my mind before I read How Fletcher Was Hatched. Silly, whimsical stories shouldn’t have to clash head-on with real memories. Knowing that real dogs can and do feel envious of other animals who get their humans' attention, and what they do about it is not to have themselves repackaged in fake eggs, shouldn’t have to interfere even with my enjoyment of a silly cartoon-like story. We do not live in an ideal world.

Still, the cognitive dissonance between the cartoon dog story and the true dog story flashed into mind, causing me to laugh bitterly when I read at their web site that the Devlins were remembered for stepping out of the "angel fluff" school of writing for children. How Fletcher Was Hatched is pure spun sugar.

It is, of course, very cute and enjoyable spun sugar, and if either of the Devlins were still alive I would have tried to write a happier-sounding review and encouraged people to buy this one as a Fair Trade Book. But they have no further use for the dollar they'd get out of the $5 per copy + $5 per package + $1 per online payment I'd have to charge for this book...If How Fletcher Was Hatched interests you, though, you might want to add it to a package along with one or more Fair Trade Books; if you did, you'd pay only $5 for the whole package and could consider the shipping for this one free, which might make it a better bargain than you'd get from other online sellers after all.

A Little Bit About Me

(Blogjob tags: Bok Muir & Trickett, House of Musical Traditions Takoma Park MD, Jim Reeves, Joan Baez, John McCutcheon, McDougall recipes, me me me me me, Sinatra recipes, the Beatles, the Carter Family,Trapezoid the band.)

After last week's strictly professional posts, here's a very bloggy one, suggested by +Sandy KS .

1. What is your favorite TV show?

I don't have one. I rarely watch TV. If I plan to watch TV it's usually to see the coverage of some breaking news event. Most of the TV I've watched has been sort of secondhand, or sidestream, exposure to shows other people were watching. In recent years that's been mostly game shows and reruns of wholesome 1950's and 1960's sitcoms, a lot of Bonanza and Andy Griffith. It doesn't make much difference, though; I tend to fall asleep if I watch "suspenseful" true crime shows, pretty nature shows, or triple-X pornography, without knitting. I think my brain figures that whenever it's processing primarily visual images, it must be dreaming. Informational videos are wasted on me unless someone else watches them and stops them at the image that contains the information I want.

2. What is your preferred cuisine?

I like cooking and experimenting with recipes from around the world (if they can be reproduced with ingredients found in the U.S., anyway). When cooking I don't have a real preference, but when I go to restaurants I feel safest in Asian-theme buffet restaurants, because they're likely to have wheat-free food. Every post here needs to contain an Amazon photo link...I've linked to books by e-friends Mary and John McDougall many times, so here's a link to the one my husband preferred as our Everyday Cookbook. All recipes are easy to follow, easy to adapt to a gluten-free or dairy-free diet if they're not already gluten- or dairy-free, and palatable. (If you click on that "copyrighted image," you can buy the book from the person who copyrighted the picture, and in theory I get a commission.)

3. What is your worst household chore?

My least favorite household chore is cleaning the litter box. I'm glad to live in the country, where adult cats can be encouraged to go outside!

4. What is your playlist?

It varies from day to day. Live Journal always prompts us to suggest a musical selection to go with each post. I've had fun thinking of songs that relate in some way to books I've discussed. Favorite musicians and bands include John McCutcheon, Jim Reeves, Joan Baez, the Carter Family, the Beatles, some obscure ones like TBM and Trapezoid. I like early classical music (Bach more than Brahms, and I usually enjoy efforts to revive medieval music) too.

I can enjoy listening to almost anything you might suggest...if you're really listening to it, too. I have "microphone ears" and hate any kind of background noise against which people are trying to talk. If that music (or radio or TV or whatever) isn't good enough to listen to, why not turn it off?

Once, long ago, there used to be a store in Takoma Park, Maryland, that stocked just about all my favorite music--now that's rare. I was fascinated by the House of Musical Traditions; about three-quarters of the LP's and cassettes I bought new came from that store. I've not spent money on digital recordings, but if you do, you might be interested in the store, which still exists:

https://house-of-musical-traditions.myshopify.com/

5. If you could travel anywhere, where would it be?

My parents travelled all over North America when I was a child. I burned out on travel as pleasure at a very early age. The Cat Sanctuary is where I want to be. A day trip to D.C. or Chattanooga is as far as I plan to go.

(This sounds so unromantic. Don't I even want to go to Ireland some day? Well...frankly, I've always imagined that the fifty-some percent of my ancestors who came from Ireland left for good and sufficient reasons. That's not to say that I could never, ever, be persuaded to visit some place outside of the U.S. or Canada, but it would take a lot of persuading--as in money.)

Here's a link to @nana 's post about these questions: Read more at https://blogjob.com/artofliving/2016/01/31/little-bit-about-me-challenge/#xlVlOEuSHjpd2IjT.99

Here's @rusty2rusty 's post: https://blogjob.com/creativewriting/archives/160

And here's @thelme55 's post: https://blogjob.com/thelme55/2016/01/29/a-bit-of-myself-challenge/

Mark Warner on the Cost of College

From U.S. Senator Mark Warner (D-VA):


"
Friends,

For too many young people across Virginia, college is nearly out of reach because of rising costs. And for too many graduates, options and opportunities are being limited due to mountains of student debt.

The average college student in Virginia today can expect to graduate with more than $26,000 in student loans. Nationwide, Americans owe more than $1.3 trillion in student loan debt, outstripping credit cards and auto loans as the country’s leading source of non-housing debt.


Earlier this week, I invited students from 20 colleges and universities across Virginia to come to Capitol Hill to share their concerns about the rising costs of higher education. They discussed the impact of rising levels of student debt on their futures. Here's what some of them told me and Sen. Tim Kaine:

• A senior at Longwood University has worked two campus jobs to help cover the costs of room and board, yet she still expects to graduate owing more than $35,000 in student debt.
  
• A senior at Mary Baldwin College discussed the physical and emotional impact of the financial stress: “I was forced to miss the first couple of days because my mother did not have the funds to pay for the semester. The financial burden caused severe stress on me that caused me to become ill,” she said. She expects to graduate with $30,000 in student debt.
  
• A Virginia Union University student worries about the ways college debt can limit opportunities outside of the classroom. She said the need to work while also attending school limits the ability of many students to pursue internships and other opportunities which might give a head start to a career.

As these stories show, the cost of college is having a crippling impact on a generation of young Virginians. That’s why I’ve introduced bipartisan proposals to provide some new tools.

• The Dynamic Student Loan Repayment Act will streamline the confusing array of federal income-based repayment programs. It caps repayments at 10% of income, allowing borrowers to repay more as they earn more.
  
• The Employer Participation in Repayment Act will help employers recruit and retain talented workers by allowing them to help pay down an employee’s student loan debts with pre-tax income. Right now, an employer can help cover the cost of ongoing education — but they cannot help employees by applying pre-tax earnings to pay down student loans for education that’s already occurred. That’s crazy.
  
• And to provide greater transparency on college affordability issues, and to help students and their families make better informed decisions about where to go to college, I’ve introduced The Student Right to Know Before You Go Act. It puts on a single website, by degree program and by university, a bunch of really relevant information: What’s the cost? How many students complete the program? What’s their average student debt? How many find jobs in that field of study? What are the average starting salaries?

As Congress prepares to work on comprehensive legislation to reform higher education, please know that I’ll be fighting to make college more accessible — and college loan debts more manageable — for all Virginians.

Thank you,


Mark R. Warner
"

January 29 Link Log

Categories: Animals, Books, Environment, Scams.



Animals 

How do you prefer to hunt rabbits? With a camera, with traps or guns, or do you just let your dog or cat deal with them? There are actually two distinct types of animals that people who see them hopping away are likely to call rabbits. People who prefer to be precise call one family hares...although the most common names for some species of hares include the term "rabbit." All species are edible in cold weather. (They can transmit "rabbit fever," also known as undulant fever and nothing to trifle with, in warm weather.) Spider Robinson explains the difference:



http://fishingandhuntinginoswego.blogspot.com/2016/01/late-season-hunting-in-oswego-county.html



Books 

I just posted a review of Moving to the Country as a Fair Trade Book on the Blogjob, which is where my book reviews have gone, along with several of my Link Logs, rants, articles, knitting patterns, and recipes--the rule is one book review and one other post per day at Blogjob.



http://blogjob.com/priscillaking/2016/01/29/book-review-moving-to-the-country/



...and I'm impressed by this publications page. This is what a web page for any writer, living or dead, should look like...even if the writer chooses to have a blog and web site, this is the ideal for the home page.



Reeve Lindbergh (1945-) Biography - Personal, Addresses, Career, Honors Awards, Writings, Adaptations, Sidelights



Environment 

Steve Milloy shares a report on how "cap-and-trade" schemes aren't working for China:



http://junkscience.com/2016/01/cap-and-tax-failing-in-china/

Scams 

I think U.S. culture at least forces scammers to be a bit more sophisticated than this one:



http://blogjob.com/myarticles/archives/218

What in Flint...? (Rant Followed by Fundraising Links)

Flint, Michigan...it's a real place. (So is Hell, but Flint is bigger and, in some ways, more unpleasant; in real life I often say "What in Flint...") I didn't spend much time in Michigan and don't plan to go back there, but my emotional "heart" does contain a tiny glow of warmth toward this beleaguered, often benighted, horribly polluted State.

Home of Gerald Ford..."President Nice Guy" wasn't our most memorable President, but he was nice.

Home of Michael Moore...a lot of this web site's correspondents bash him, and there were a few years when he bought into a conspiracy theory and even my Democrat husband was saying "Don't support that kind of lunacy," but he's a good writer and I've always liked his work. Conspiracy theories apart.

And the home of some, not all, of the "Moms" in a nationwide organization called Moms Rising. As an aunt I support some of their efforts in aid of children. Some, not most, because there are too many left-wingers in the group. Left-wingers are really good at publicizing problems. At generating workable answers they're not so good.

I mean to say...take a look at the e-mail below. The problem is that these people are poor...so their idea of a solution is to spend more tax money...but tax money has to be collected from local folks, and the local folks don't have much, so they're basically talking about a boondoggle that's going to require a bailout. There are disaster areas, like New York in 2001 or New Orleans in 2005, where a bailout may seem like the only remaining way to help. That's not what Mom Dream is describing to me, though. What she's conveying to my mind is definitely a problem, but it looks, sounds, feels, whatever, more like a problem that might be better addressed by collecting and spending less tax money.

I want to know, if the following commonsense suggestions don't work for Flint, why they don't work better than the ones the left-wingers are proposing:

1. Flint's city water is polluted. Buy filters. Lots of filters, because the chances are that residents of Flint are going to go through them like toilet tissue this year. Take up a collection to buy filters for those who can't afford them.

2. The city manager switched the water supply? Well, then, the city manager should switch it back. (Whether the city should switch managers, and/or take a switch to the manager who switched to the polluted water supply, is up to them.)

3. After exposure, the body recovers from lead poisoning...slowly. Some people benefit from chelation therapy to speed up recovery; most don't need it. A clinic to help identify anyone who does need treatment, and advise other residents of Flint about nutrient supplements during the recovery process, would be a good thought. Should the state use tax money to set up the clinic...taxes collected from poor people...or offer private people and organizations whose image could use a boost, of which Michigan has plenty, the opportunity to get credit for funding it?

Not being from Flint, I can't claim to know, but I would think that in a place as rich as Michigan a good marketing campaign could get richies competing over which of them could chip in most. There's the Meijer store chain fortune, Amway, Little Caesar's, Quicken, Penske, Stryker, Henry Ford's heirs, Dan Gilbert, what's left of General Motors, the university built on the ruins of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, and that one's not even close to being the biggest university/hospital system in Michigan. By now, for pity's sake, never even mind Roger Smith, Michigan has Michael Moore! Admit it, conservative readers--no matter how much you disagree with his politics, there are times when you have to like Michael Moore:

http://michaelmoore.com/walk-with-mike

At the right point in the recovery process, walking helps people recover from lead poisoning, too.

So, Mike From Flint, this is for you, from the friendly-looking fair-skinned woman who dragged in the judgmental-looking dark-skinned man, and sat at the back and didn't buy a book, at the Arlington book party after 9/11. (Oh, of course, at a mob scene like that any writer would remember the people who didn't buy the book after fifteen years...all two of them? Maybe.) If I'd written a book that had earned as much as any of your books, even the one my husband hated, and if my home town had a crisis, would I sit back and let people raise taxes on working parents to salvage my town? Like the Pope would convert to Judaism, maybe. Like thunder! What are you going to do for your townsfolk? Book? Movie? You could singlehandedly give the world something that could raise enough money to fix the water supply in Flint and open the clinic. Writers have power. Writers have fortitude. You, Michael Moore, could not only get the hard-working and laboriously poor-mouthing people in Gate City to shell out money to help Flint; you could make us laugh out loud as we did it. And it's about time we had another good laugh out of you anyway. I'm not about to sell my copy of Here Comes Trouble, which I believe my husband would've liked too, but it is practically old enough to be a Fair Trade Book.

But honestly...Penske people, I know you're going to read this because I mentioned your company, are you going to leave everything to Michael Moore? Youall could put something about Flint on a racing car and take up collections at races. You have fans. You could probably collect enough to open a clinic at Charlotte alone...

Andrews University, where I met most of the real-world people I know in Michigan. How long are you going to be the only Adventist university that's not affiliated with a well-known present-time health care institution? Seventh-Day Adventists are not poor. Not all of them are rich, either, but they donate religiously to church, mission, and humanitarian causes. That whole clinic idea is calling yourall's names. "Holistic," Dream wrote. Think "naturopathic," A.U. people. And build it to last. A hundred years is long enough to coast on the memory of the Battle Creek Sanitarium.

I'm not saying the legislators should sit on their hands either; they're human too, they'd have to have had quite a bit of lead poisoning themselves to want to sit on their hands. Virginia and Tennessee legislators "never allow a crisis to go to waste"; in any kind of community disaster they're out there raising funds, boosting morale, and basking in free publicity. I'd be surprised if a Michigan legislator weren't in Flint as I type. But I am saying that raising taxes is not the ideal solution to everything. Raising taxes seems likely to be an especially non-ideal solution for a place like Michigan that still has way more than its share of money, but seems to be stuck in a state-wide, thirty-year-long shortage of healthy pride. A one-time crisis seems to call out for a one-time display of that "We can take care of our own" sort of pride.

Penniless as I am, I do want to be part of that one-time display. So here's what I can do: If any Michigan writer, ideally but not necessarily Michael Moore, it could be un-funny Dan Gilbert for that matter, cranks out a new documentary book about the Flint water crisis and/or what Michiganians are doing to solve it, and sells it at fundraising prices up to $50 per copy, I will personally walk into Kingsport and buy that book at the Fort Henry Mall bookstore. And I will photograph that walk. And that book. And tweet the images, using the "WalkWithMike" hashtag.

Here's Mom Dream's alternative solution...and it's not all bad; it just seems to me less efficient and less good. I could be wrong, and if convinced that I'm wrong I could support Moms Rising on this one. But I'd be greatly disappointed in Michiganians if they had to fall back on any solution that involved raising taxes.

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As parents, we do all we can to keep our kids healthy. And we rely on our government to make sure we have access to essentials like clean water. That shouldn't change depending on what color we are, our income level, or where we live.
That's why we're beyond mad about the lead contamination of drinking water in Flint, Michigan. Join us in demanding justice from the Michigan State Legislature: http://action.momsrising.org/sign/Flint_2016/?t=5&akid=7553.1995681.1kHsbh
Here's what happened. In April 2014, in an effort to cut costs, an emergency manager appointed by Governor Snyder switched the Flint water supply from the Detroit water system to the Flint River. Long story short: dangerous levels of lead seeped into the water supply, posing long-term and serious health risks for local residents.
Families in Flint knew there was a problem when the water turned brown, young children broke out in rashes, and the hair of some residents began falling out. Yet officials denied anything was wrong, as they failed to follow federal guidelines around lead safety and utilized faulty water testing techniques. [1] Can you imagine?
Refusing to stay silent, residents started organizing. Researchers found the water supply contained over 900 times the recommended amount of lead [2]. Even the City Council voted to reconnect to the Detroit Water Supply in March 2015. Yet Emergency Manager Gerald Ambrose continued to insist that the water was safe to drink [3].
Indeed it took WELL OVER A YEAR for the city to acknowledge that there was a BIG problem, and that the water in Flint was NOT safe to drink. There are no words for this kind of failure. Are the children and families of Flint so disposable that local officials didn't act more quickly and comprehensively?
Governor Snyder himself now refers to the situation as a "catastrophe". [4] The New York Times wrote: "Officials at all levels of government acted in ways that contributed to the public health emergency and allowed it to persist for months" [1].
We are outraged. It's time for urgent and comprehensive action on behalf of the families in Flint. Join us in demanding justice from the Michigan State Legislature: http://action.momsrising.org/sign/Flint_2016/?t=7&akid=7553.1995681.1kHsbh
Earlier this month Governor Snyder finally declared a state of emergency in Flint, over a year and a half after the problem began. [5] Residents are now being told to use water filters and/or bottled water, and no one knows how many of the city's almost 100,000 residents have been affected by lead, and to what degree. What we do know is that ingesting high amounts of lead can have devastating and long-term effects on children, the elderly, and the sick. Current estimates are that it could take as much as $1.5 billion to fix the problem. [6]
Would officials have ever been so careless about the drinking water if over 50% of Flint's residents weren't black, and over 40% live below the poverty line, making Flint one of the most impoverished cities of its size in the US? [7] The appointment of an emergency manager in Flint, one of several Black cities across the state to have their elected officials replaced by an appointee from the Governor, is at the center of this crisis.
These kinds of environmental injustices happen time and time again in communities of color. Indeed, "Black people in America - especially those living in rural and poor areas - have long been denied the same access to clean drinking and water for bathing and sanitation as everyone else. The crisis in Flint is not an isolated incident," Black Lives Matter has stated. [7] We must do better.
Following the lead of our local allies, we're demanding the Michigan Legislature do the following:

1. Replace all public water infrastructure at no cost to residents or businesses.
2. Refund all water bills since the switch to the Flint River water supply, and create a fund to repair property damage caused by toxic water.
3. Launch an independent state and federal investigation into what happened in Flint. Lift executive immunity from the Governor’s office and release all communications.
4. Create a Flint Citizen Civilian Core to train workers to repair infrastructure.
5. Create a holistic medical care facility in Flint to offer therapies and other methods to treat lead poisoning.

Join us in speaking out, on behalf of families and parents in Flint: http://action.momsrising.org/sign/Flint_2016/?t=9&akid=7553.1995681.1kHsbh
ALL of our children and communities deserve access to safe drinking water. What's happening in Flint is a tragedy and a disgrace. Our leaders must be held accountable, and we must do all we can to ensure it never happens again.
Thank you,
- dream, Elyssa, Monifa, Karen, Gloria, Felicia and the rest of the MomsRising.org team

[1] Abby Goodnough, Monica Davey and Mitch Smith: When the Water Turned Brown, the New York Times. January 23, 2016.
[2] David Graham, What Did the Governor Know About Flint's Water, and When Did He Know It? The Atlantic. January 9, 2016.
[3] Stephanie Gosk, Kevin Monahan, Tim Sandler, Internal Email: Michigan 'Blowing Off' Flint Over Lead in Water, NBC News. January 6, 2016.
[4] Julia Jacobo, Flint Water Crisis: Michigan Governor Apologizes, Takes 'Full Responsibility' for 'Catastrophe’, ABC News. January 19, 2016.
[5] Paul Egan, Snyder declares emergency as feds probe Flint water, Detroit Free Press. January 15, 2016.
[6] Paul Egan, Flint mayor: Cost of lead fix could hit $1.5 billion, Detroit Free Press. January 15, 2016.
[7] Solidarity Statement with Flint, Michigan, Black Lives Matter.
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