May 16 Link Log

Categories: Charity, Education, Funny Things, Health, Politics.

Charity 

The Guardian (yes, a well-known left-wing paper) is featuring a month-long "blogging challenge" aimed at discouraging people from volunteering to help orphanages. What? Do we hear lefties saying that orphans might be better off living with their cousins or grandparents, rather than in state-run institutions? Some facts are so obvious they overwhelm even political correctness...

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2016/may/16/volunteers-stop-visiting-orphanages-start-preserving-families?CMP=twt_gu

Education 

In New York City, it may be hard to fire a teacher for minor matters like failing to come to class...but, for ordering books at his own expense and, worse, asking students to reimburse even part of the cost?

http://nypost.com/2016/05/16/teacher-thrown-out-of-school-for-ordering-kids-books/

Funny Things 

If you enjoy singing old songs, these two-liners should bring tears of laughter to your eyes:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/style-invitational-get-lucky-with-a-13-scrabble-point-neologism/2016/05/12/77381464-1620-11e6-aa55-670cabef46e0_story.html

Health 

Partisan political prejudice aside, it is hard to assess exactly how toxic glyphosate is to humans, because different individuals react differently to different levels of exposure. That part of the science you can study for yourself. Visit somebody who uses "Roundup" and observe how many different symptoms different members of the family complain of having during the next week. "Hayfever" type reactions may flush airborne carcinogens out of the body efficiently enough to reduce the risk of cancer. Other reactions, including the intestinal laceration that may be caused by eating food "preserved" with glyphosate, seem likely to increase the risk of cancer, specifically of the colon. Brain tumors? Kidney cancer? In order to have absolute proof that glyphosate is "more" of a causative factor than any of the other carcinogens to which we're all exposed, a lot more people will have to die.

http://www.gmwatch.org/news/latest-news/16947

Politics 

Slow death of democracy? An overtly biased "progressive" poll asked people whether they supported a "tax cuts package" that included tax cuts "for businesses and for millionaires," or reducing the tax cuts "to provide...cash assistance to low-income families with children." Oh please don't take our cash assistance away, they wailed, not realizing that the larger portion of the higher taxes would be used to bail out the "property management companies," car companies, utility companies, and processed food companies that gouge the money out of their pockets--and keep those prices nice and high, the way the people who can afford to buy the politicians want them.

My take? There's something about modern-style U.S. poverty that "inhibits brain function," as Arthur Brooks put it. "Poverty consumes so much mental energy that people struggling to make ends meet often have little brainpower left for anything else," as a Washington Post writer put it. (Oh, right, Gentle Readers. If you'd funded this web site better I would've written the Great American Novel by now!) In fact, when nobody is pushing the welfare-cheat lifestyle on them, people living in extreme poverty show extreme creativity in thinking of ways to reduce their own poverty. They invent ways of terracing and hydroponic gardening and recycling and generally turning garbage into pennies. But when people can get certain "needs" met only as long as they tune out their awareness of how much they're sacrificing to those "needs"...this does require that many brain circuits be shut down.

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/city-desk/blog/20780213/poll-majority-of-dc-residents-support-slowing-tax-cuts-to-boost-social-services



For some reason this Wordpress site doesn't want to take my comment: "This hurts me too, because the state of Maryland treated me like an "unpaid caregiver"...People who care for disabled family members at home *deserve* more than a paltry $55K for home health care, but the bottom line is, the U.S. can't afford it. Candidates Clinton and Sanders can't deliver it; they're talking about it in the hope of attracting votes, but we'd be lucky if, as a nation led by either of them, we were able to maintain disability pensions for the most severely disabled."

http://thesavvyage.com/paid-leave-for-family-caregivers-remains-elusive-from-government/

Book Review: Bag of Bones

A Fair Trade Book

Title: Bag of Bones

Author: Stephen King

Date: 1998

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

ISBN: 0-684-85350-7

Length: 529 pages

Quote: “I had an awful dream...death had driven her insane.”

If you are plagued by Pollyanna Vampires, the kind who think we should just “think positively” about problems instead of doing things to solve them, and you need a great big chunk of “negativity” to fend them off, Bag of Bones is one. This book contains bits of all the unpleasantness of the world.

The plot begins with the senseless death of the happily pregnant wife whose husband later dreams that death has driven her insane. Then the grieving husband gets involved in a neighbor’s depressing custody case; he feels that her child is in some way the child that would have been his, but when he tries to show fatherly love he worries that people will think he’s a pedophile. A lot of children in his small town have died recently, under mysterious circumstances. He’s not precisely depressed, but he suffers from writer’s block and recurring nightmares, most of which are narrated in detail. The waking reality of this novel is not “horror” before about page 400. It’s grim in a realistic way.

Then he realizes that he’s being haunted by two ghosts, and everything else starts to make sense. Death hasn’t driven his wife’s ghost insane; she had been trying to lay to rest another ghost who’s gone over to the dark side, driven by rage at the way she and her son were murdered. In their small town, almost everyone is a descendant of someone who was involved in the murder. In the Stephen King universe, when two ghosts direct their psychic energies toward the same purposes, they can accomplish much more. That’s why the nasty ghost hasn’t caused nearly as many mysterious deaths as she wants to, but the two ghosts together have virtually unlimited power to harass the nice ghost’s grieving husband. Until he solves the murder, they’ll give him no peace.

Then the whole town slips into the Stephen King universe, where you never know who’s going to survive to the end, but you know a majority of the characters won’t, and what happens to them will be gruesome.

I’m not sure that Stephen King really had to do this. He has more talent than most writers who limit themselves to the horror genre; he was doing quite well with a straight story about the grieving husband trying to rescue the neighbor’s child. He could have made that story spine-chilling and suspenseful without bringing in ghosts and murders. The neighbor’s child’s grandfather is gruesome enough as a believable real-world bigot.

Probably some of King’s regular readers would have complained if he’d crossed over and finished Bag of Bones as a mainstream story of love, loss, and litigation. I wouldn’t have. I've read most of his novels, and I think this is his best.

To buy it here as a Fair Trade Book, send $5 per copy + $5 per package to either address at the bottom of the screen. You may find a better deal elsewhere online, but from this total of $10 we send $1 to Stephen King or a charity of his choice, which is more than other secondhand booksellers do.  

May 13 Link Log

Categories: Animals, Boston Update, Crime Prevention, Food, Health, History, Obamadness, Venezuela Update.



Animals



Cute pet-photo bloopers is another blog theme that's been proposed...I'm not good at remembering things like "the second Friday of each month," but with prompts like this...



http://www.mochasmysteriesmeows.com/2016/05/the-pet-blogger-bloopers-round-up-may.html



I can remember to dig up photos like this. (Is that an early photo of Sisawat, or was it her cousin Bucky? I've forgotten.) Just use a cheap cell phone to snap shots and you'll have dozens of "out-takes" like this...

Boston Update 

I just posted a review of a book that I physically sold long ago. Yes, you can still buy it from me, affordably, as a Fair Trade Book, thanks to the wonders of the Internet. It's an early, obscure children's book by Wendelin Van Draanen, who is, when not writing, a runner. (Also a rocker.) Here's her update, which some will find inspirational, from Boston after the Marathon bombing.



https://etrtr.blogspot.com/2016/04/bust-through-and-bloom.html

Crime Prevention



Anything that puts the fear of God and the law into a conscience-challenged person is good...but it's not good when the Court of Public Opinion pays more attention to demographics than to what's actually going on. One simple solution: cities like Ferguson, Missouri, need to recruit Black police officers, so demographic snap judgments are at least equally unfair to cops and perps. As highlighted here, though...what about the victims?



https://pjmedia.com/blog/chicago-pd-ferguson-effect/?singlepage=true



In a story told in Oops Then You're Dead a young lady is harassed by a "Street Monster" who reminds her that the rough neighborhood she's visiting is his neighborhood, not hers. "If you don't come with me, I will just drag you back to my place and tell all those tired old women waiting for the bus that you're my cheating wife. They will listen to me and not to you." (That's the gist of what he says...desensitizing herself to hatespeech and graphic threats is part of how the young lady became "streetwise" and learned to live on her own in the city.) She believes him. She also knows she can't count on the police even to answer a call from that neighborhood. What she does is in the book. I mention it here because it highlights the demographic factor in the Court of Public Opinion. Every character in the story is Black. The city police (back then they were probably all White and certainly all in the habit of ignoring "bad" neighborhoods), who don't arrest the Black male "Street Monster," are guilty of failing to protect the Black female "Sweetie Pie."



http://www.tolu2books.com/oops.html



Fashion 

+Marsha Cooper shares a hat that looks good enough to remind (some of) us to wear one, in summer.

http://marshasspot.blogspot.com/2016/05/apparelnbags-for-all-your-headwear-needs.html



On Monday, I went out to keep a wary eye on those "Shawnee" types we'd been warned were approaching Gate City. Whether any of them had any actual Shawnee ancestry, who knows. The presentation I heard was about what people wore on the frontier. The presenters, who were impersonating Euro-American "pioneers," spoke at some length about the many benefits of wearing hats. One of them called out hat wearers in the audience as being "smart"! In the snapshots below, two middle school types in the audience model eighteenth century clothes--ordinary work clothes, as distinct from the preposterous "fashions" worn by courtiers and by soldiers on parade.

Food



Outdoor cooking made easy...you could make this, but buying it is probably easier.



https://blogjob.com/ideasforoutdoorliving/easy-way-to-cook-over-an-open-campfire/

Health 

+Coral Levang introduces British blogger (and cancer survivor) Ronny Allan:

https://ronnyallan.wordpress.com/2014/05/12/always-thank-your-nurse-sometimes-theyre-the-only-one-between-you-and-a-hearse/



And some tips for sanitation:



https://blogjob.com/ideasforindoorliving/unclog-toilet-plunging-doesnt-work/


Should athletes expose themselves to a very contagious, potentially fatal, mosquito-borne disease?


http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/05/12/blaze-poll-should-the-upcoming-olympics-in-rio-be-canceled-or-moved-due-to-growing-zika-virus-outbreak/?


Should athletes...go vegan? This one did.


http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=5e58f59d97611f910916b6276&id=a6fce36237&e=4d57a9fdfb



History



Undeniable. Some Anglo-Israelites believe that the English-speaking countries have inherited a special "covenant" relationship with God and that this explains our abundant "blessings." Some believe we'll receive even more "blessings" if we do formalize this relationship. But no, the United States never officially proclaimed...in fact, our founders officially proclaimed freedom of belief, with a specific intention that the United States would remain equally as hospitable to Jews and Catholics as to Protestants.



http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/05/13/historian-tackles-the-claim-that-god-made-a-special-covenant-relationship-with-america-heres-how-he-responds/?



Obamadness



This is just plain stupid, in view of Target's example:



http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/05/12/obama-admin-to-direct-public-schools-to-let-transgender-students-use-bathroom-of-their-choice/?


Politics


My debut piece in a new conservative'zine! (Meh. While working on the rightist George Peters FacTapes, I was also working with short-lived leftist volunteeroverseas.org. Should I look for a leftist publisher just to keep my head balanced?)


http://ipatriot.com/will-bill-clinton-first-king/



Venezuela Update



Socialism at work...what Sweden is (commendably) swerving rightward to avoid, what should have doomed Bernie Sanders' presidential "yearnings" long ago...Before there were any United States, Europeans observed that democracies fail when people "vote themselves benefits" from the public treasury, thus destroying their economy and, usually, their nations. They warned our ancestors that democracy would destroy us, that we'd go crawling back to England, or maybe to France, begging to be a colony of a monarchy again. Our ancestors' (Christian, individualist) "work ethic" saved us but, as we've seen throughout the late twentieth century, other countries have been less lucky. When countries have formed "democratic socialist" systems inspired by Marx, Mao, or Lenin, this is what happens. Venezuela isn't even merely a huge oil field, although it has huge oil fields. It has other resources as well. And a socialist government to manage those resources in such a way that oilmen can be as miserable as professional beggars in Calcutta.



http://ntlconsulting.blogspot.com/2016/05/venezuela-starving.html

Book Review: How I Survived Being a Girl

A Fair Trade Book 

Title: How I Survived Being a Girl

Author: Wendelin Van Draanen

Author's web site: http://www.wendelinvand.com/

Date: 1997

Publisher: Harper Collins

ISBN: 0-06-026671-6

Length: 163 pages

Quote: “Just something brothers do, I guess. Call you names. Pound on you.”

It was something brothers did in the 1960s, when I suspect Wendelin Van Draanen was growing up. It went with girls wearing skirts and Mary Jane shoes to school, kids being allowed to sneak out at night and annoy the neighbors, and newspaper offices having a rule that girls weren’t allowed to have paper routes. Nothing in this story has been updated.

This was one of my pet peeves when I was the kind of middle school reader for whom How I Survived Being a Girl is intended. I enjoyed historical fiction; I liked stories about things that happened to grown-ups back when they were my age. I didn’t like it when books whose publication dates made them seem contemporary turned out to be about things that could only have happened forty years ago. I thought writers owed kids some sort of update, at least a foreword or afterword that would have explained things like, in the case of How I Survived Being a Girl, “This story is based on things I remember from when I was twelve years old. Businesses wouldn’t be allowed to discriminate against girls nowadays...which may be one reason why fewer businesses hire twelve-year-olds.”

Anyway, this is a fast-moving, easy-reading story about a girl who’s been trying to conform to her brothers’ way of being boys. Middle school readers will be laughing at the character more than learning from her, but they’ll be entertained through a few long bus rides or rainy afternoons.

So, it's not Sammy Keyes , but this book is recommended to readers who are in middle school, but still look for short easy-reading books with small words and large print...and will enjoy feeling that they are more intelligent than some kids their age, or a bit older, after all. It’s possible that How I Survived Being a Girl will make that sort of kid’s day.

To buy it here as a Fair Trade Book, send $5 per book + $5 per package to either address at the very bottom of the screen, for a total of $10, out of which we'll send 10%, or $1, to Wendelin Van Draanen or a charity of her choice. 

Terrific T-Shirt Sale

I don't often do this, even for the U.S.O., but this is a sweet deal on a U.S. "colors" T-shirt. (Note that the proportions are different, so technically it's a "colors image" rather than a flag. If the U.S.O. and the troops approve, who's to quibble?)

GET YOUR T-SHIRT »

Donate $25 by M‌ay 26
The Kroger Co. will match all gifts, up to $250,000!

SUPPLIES ARE LIMITED

* From M‌ay 1 – M‌ay 26, your donation will be matched dollar for dollar, up to $250,000, by [Kroger logo]

Morgan Griffith on Bald Eagles

From U.S. Representative Morgan Griffith (R-VA-9):

"
EPA: “Okay to kill thousands of eagles”

According to a recent Associated Press (AP) story picked up by the Roanoke Times, “The Obama administration is revising a federal rule that allows wind-energy companies to operate high-speed turbines for up to 30 years, even if it means killing or injuring thousands of federally protected bald and golden eagles.”

The story continues, “Under the plan announced Wednesday, wind companies and other power providers could kill or injure up to 4,200 bald eagles a year without penalty – nearly four times the current limit.”

Wow.

While these eagles are not currently endangered, they are protected under laws prohibiting the killing, selling, or otherwise harming of the eagles, their nests, or their eggs without a permit.

Among the interesting items in the AP story is that there is little information on the impact of wind farms on the eagle population. “Reporting of eagle mortality is voluntary,” the story notes, “and the Interior Department refuses to release the information.”

The AP also reports that, “The permits would be reviewed every five years, and companies would have to submit reports of how many eagles they kill.” The AP did not report that this new kill limit would affect other industries as well, but I believe it reached the correct conclusion that the rule will predominantly benefit wind energy.

The announcement starts a 60-day comment period, with officials planning to issue a final rule in the fall.

I can’t help but recall that several years ago as part of its War on Coal, the Obama Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued conductivity guidance (later struck down by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia) relying in large part on one study which found that certain mayfly populations (out of the thousands of mayfly species known worldwide) are especially sensitive to conductivity levels. Conductivity measures the ability of water to transport an electrical current.

The EPA’s conductivity test did not go through the Administrative Procedures Act. The agency was overstepping its statutory authority under the Clean Water Act and the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. Further, I believe its guidance was also unscientific and harmful.

Before the conductivity guidance was struck down, I offered an amendment that would have rescinded funding for the conductivity test and would have helped to get the EPA off of the backs of coal producers. I was glad to see this guidance be ruled unlawful.

I can’t recall a time I’ve been to an animal facility that either rehabilitates or raises mayflies for introduction into the wild. But because it is our national symbol and because of the value we place on them, such facilities exist for eagles.

In fact, when we go to Dollywood, my kids and I love to see the eagles that have been injured and nourished back to health but are not capable of fending for themselves in the wild. Dollywood has plenty of them. They don’t need the wind industry creating more injured bald eagles.

If it weren’t for the bias of the Administration against coal and for wind, this slaughter of bald eagles would not be allowed. Can you imagine Central Appalachian coal producers proposing to kill even a hundred bald eagles for the production of coal? Can you imagine coal-fired power plants being allowed to kill a thousand bald eagles?

The answer of course is that the EPA would never allow such a thing. But in their mind, wind and solar can do little wrong.

It disturbs me that EPA policies seem to reflect the view that, “God forbid a coal mine kill a mayfly, but sure, eagles may be slain or maimed in the name of wind energy.”

So whack the birds, fry the birds, kill the birds...

For wind and solar, EPA’s judgment has been blurred.
"

May 12 Link Log

Lots of links (already a whole screen full to be shared later), and it's time to put the paper to bed, and a new publication invitation came in...I finally got through the cybergarbage at I-Patriot and hope to publish there soon, but not today. The Portal Paper must come first. Btw the local lurkers have done well--so far--with a new record of four whole ads this week. I'm delighted. Now, for the free weekly paper we want to be, we need only about 25 times that many...Categories: Animals, Books, Business, Debunking, Food (Yuck and Yum), Fun Stuff, Gardening, Movie, Nature, Politics (Election and Philosophy).

Animals

I don't think anyone should ever have to live in an apartment block. (An apartment within a private house may be less bad, but...) For those who have no immediate choice, however, +Lyn Lomasi offers reliable tips for keeping a dog in an apartment. Note particularly the one about exercise. It's crucial, even if you live in a house--the dog may get bored if it's left alone even in a large fenced yard, and want to jump the fence and "play with" neighbors or their pets!

http://www.pawsitiveparenting.com/positive-pet-parenting/how-to-raise-a-large-dog-in-an-apartment

Btw, at Change.org, this was an historic first. I don't usually support the "international animal rights" groups in anything because they're infested with people who really want domestic animals to go extinct. I did, however, sign a petition to the Spanish government objecting to the alleged custom of killing aging greyhounds "by torture." The system didn't display the comment, nor did it provide a link directly to the petition. When I opened it, I found that SPCAI had indeed deliberately paid to have the petition tacked on behind another petition in this format so that people who don't actually oppose hunting would sign a petition that's quite different from what they saw on their computer screens. SPCAI's petition in its original form didn't get enough signatures to be of any use...so they're recirculating it, dishonestly. If you want people to "stop torturing greyhounds," I suggest posting an explanatory comment when you e-sign here:

https://www.change.org/p/congress-of-deputies-of-spain-stop-torturing-greyhounds-galgos-in-spain

My comment:

"I DO NOT support bans on hunting, or sneaky petitions tacked on behind other petitions as this one was. I do support letting the dogs live. At least they can become pets; I know people who've adopted greyhounds; they're great pets, good with children.

No firme una peticion contra la caza. Si firme una peticion contra el mato cruel de los perros. Los ruego a Uds que se les permitan vivir. Al menos se pueden hacer util como perros domesticos; conozco a gente que han rescatado galgos; son excelentes en casa y con ninos."

(A Dog Sanctuary I know has adopted a resident greyhound...I've offered a paying customer the rights to a post about what a lovable pet he is. If you want a big but gentle trail buddy, you might want to check out these links:

http://www.2ndchancegreyhounds.org/AboutGreyhounds.htm

http://adopt-a-greyhound.org/ )

And, the Sloth Sanctuary has spawned! (Full-length BBC story; cute sloth photos and video.)

http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=6742

Meanwhile Dan Lewis reports on animals that get drunk:

http://nowiknow.com/a-different-type-of-bar-fly/

And Twitter.com, itself, wanted everyone to see the time-lapse photo of an art project created by flying pigeons. Cruelty-free...pigeons fly often but not far!

https://twitter.com/i/moments/729128162794319872?refsrc=email

Books 

Nothing could top Left Behind...or could it? Tim LaHaye has teamed up with Craig Parshall to work on another "end-time" speculative fiction series. Admit it, you want to look...and Kindle has just made Volume 3 a cheap promotional e-book of the month.



Business 

Does your business have a Twitter account, but nobody ever uses it and you're starting to wonder what it's good for? Here's a thought a Tweep just shared...that hit home. I usually open Twitter five days a week, these days, but don't Tweet every day. Of course, that's because I do blog every day, but...Right. I will now remember to Tweet or Retweet at least once a day. (This computer finds it easier to handle Twitter Mobile, which makes it easy to Retweet without commenting.) And, if you are one of the people who wants a daily business-related Tweet--that's strictly about your business, not about my business or me--I could, just as easily, be Tweeting in aid of your business while I'm there...for a price.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/young-entrepreneur-council/10-signs-you-shouldnt-be_b_8831016.html

Debunking 

Seriously, I'll admit I never tried it, but if young women, older men, diabetics, etc., want to do jobs that involve walking, lifting, shovelling, etc., every single day, sometimes adult diapers could be convenient. Not because the workers are "denied breaks"; because they want to keep up with other people who take fewer breaks. So, although the big commercial poultry farms have to struggle constantly to maintain conditions that are tolerable for either man or beast, it's likely that with this particular report Oxfam got their knickers in a twist over nothing.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/national-international/Poultry-Workers-Denied-Breaks-Wear-Diapers-Oxfam-Report-379197631.html

Food (Yuck)

Should the same stores that sell food, also sell poison? I'd like to see all stores that distribute food ban anything marketed under a "-cide" term from their buildings. Wouldn't you?

https://www.change.org/p/costco-stop-selling-toxic-roundup?

Food (Yum)

+Susan Zutautas knows how to write a recipe I think I just have to try. Clever to slip in a touch of vinegar, which I would never buy if not testing a recipe!

http://everythingsusanandmore.blogspot.ca/2013/05/banana-strawberry-low-carb-gluten-free.html

http://everythingsusanandmore.blogspot.com/2013/03/low-carb-gluten-free-almond-flax-bread.html

(Did youall realize that anything posted at Blogspot.com is also available at Blogspot.ca, Blogspot.fr, and more? Google's translation software makes our blogs available in languages we don't even read, so I've actually seen what Google says is a Russian edition of this blog--no idea how it looks to anyone who can read Russian, although it attracted lots of readers this week. And we welcome our new Polish readers, too, nobody here having any idea how this blog works in Polish either. I suspect it's quite ridiculous in French, which I read just well enough to realize that the computer is not making me sound like Montaigne. Anyway, SZ does blog from Canada.)

Fun Stuff

Calling all grandparents, godparents, etc....did you even know you could buy all this stuff to help busy young parents baby-proof the bathroom?

http://www.betterplumbingdenver.com/blog/10-simple-bathroom-safety-tricks-and-tips-for-kids

Gardening

This German gardener posts from a colder climate zone than Virginia, where the danger of a killing frost is officially considered over on the tenth of May. My neighbors are moving their tomato plants from the containers to the gardens now. However, it's not too late to start later crops indoors here, either...

https://blogjob.com/irenen1garden/2016/05/10/container-veggie-gardening/

And these gardeners know how to work Amazon...I salute them. (I'll even add a book link: in Staying Well with the Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense, Suzette Haden Elgin, who was a polio survivor, discussed her experience with gardening as a "symptom-buster" activity. How does that relate to communication? It comes under what you tell yourself about whatever mild chronic symptoms you might tend to have: if an hour or even a half-hour doing your "symptom-buster" makes you feel worse, you call the doctor and confidently say you're really sick; if it makes you feel better, cheers, you're not really sick.)

http://thesavvyage.com/senior-health-benefits-of-gardening/



(Available directly from the seller who posted the picture, if you click on the picture; also available from me for $5 per book + $5 per package.)

Movie

Since I just reviewed a Stephen King novel, this review of Big Steve's first major success seems to fit the daily blog theme. (I have not personally watched the movie. I read the book. Terror, horror, and lots and lots of gross-out.)

http://thedailyvoicenews.com/2016/05/11/retro-reviews-carrie-1976/

Nature

It's a video (apologies)...of hummingbirds hovering, in slow motion.

http://environews.tv/092015-watch-hummingbirds-in-super-slow-mo-in-beautiful-northern-california/

For those who can enjoy photos but not videos, +Jeff Sullivan is highly recommended. This is an "album" of Sierra Mountains photos.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/112689391100142840168/posts/1XoUku9FWQt

A Loch Ness Monster has been found.

https://kasmansbonniescotland.blogspot.com/2016/04/has-loch-ness-monster-been-found.html

Politics--Election 2016

Joe Biden thinks he might do a better job than any of the disaster-roster we're now facing? Hmm. I hate to say it, but the Plagiarist from Delaware might be right about that...compared with brain damage and major memory deficits, outright socialism, or total jerkery. (Coming from the least populous State is an unfair handicap for a politician, even one who's not achieved national infamy.) It's just that I suspect most of us know somebody who'd be a better President than a Plagiarist from Delaware, too.

http://patriottribune.com/42946/biden-i-would-have-been-the-best-president/?

And I seriously think a Wood Roach would be a better President (in spite of the age issue) than this lousy creep. (This meme was suggested by a Blaze article yesterday and should appear in a blog post some time soon.)

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/10/eminent_domain_trumps_your_property_rights.html?

Politics--Philosophy

From the +Allen West Republic , another image that just has to be shared...and this is the only way I seem to be able to share it. Plagiarism is never my intention. If you find AWR on Google +, maybe your computer will connect to whatever system they use to post their links and graphics, so you can thank them. My computer will display what they post on Google +, but not connect.



A good commentary, in two short and simple parts, came in from Jim Babka, who asked people to e-mail these two links to friends. I'm not doing that, because the other time, when it worked, the Turkish hackers used what appeared to be links forwarded by friends. But these links are worth reading...especially if you feel sympathetic to the gender-confused people; Babka and Perry Willis explain why a saner, more peaceable approach--in this particular case, politely requesting more access to privacy in restrooms--is better for them too.

https://www.zeroaggressionproject.org/mental-lever/social-science-part-1/

https://www.zeroaggressionproject.org/mental-lever/social-science-part-2/

Book Review: Cell

A Fair Trade Book 

Title: Cell

Author: Stephen King

Date: 2006

Publisher: Scribner

ISBN: 978-0-7432-9233-7

Length: 350 pages

Quote: “Don’t use them. Tell the others. Don’t use the cell phones.”

According to the back of the book jacket, Stephen King is still living with Tabitha King in Maine. He does not own a cell phone. And one day, it seems, he was really ticked off by people who were using cell phones. You don’t want to think about what happens when people tick off Stephen King...except that, in a sneaky unconscious way, you do...and what happened this time was that he wrote a horror novel in which a small group of terrorists discover an electronic code that destroys the human mind. All the cell phone users become violently insane.

But that’s not the end. Even Stephen King couldn’t get 350 pages out of that. The signals mutate. The surviving “phoners” go into a zombielike phase during which they kill as many “normals” as they can. Then, without recovering human intelligence, they develop a psychic bond, convincing “normals” who resist them to kill themselves.

You know how a Stephen King plot develops. An Unlikely Band of Heroes will form, and will avert the threatened apocalypse with a mere ordinary disaster in which only some of the heroes will die.

For those tracking what they hope will be King’s evolution toward Christianity, this novel contains another ambiguity. The Unlikely Band of Heroes will exclude a church-lady type who tries to tell the teenaged girl in their group that she’s not safe travelling with grown-up men. (None of the Unlikely Heroes gets much opportunity to think about sex, although there is a married man who misses his wife, a Stephen King trademark, and another man who the other characters think is probably homosexual.) The church lady seems like a fan of the other horror novels that challenged King’s for bestseller status at the turn of the century, Left Behind. However, when the first of the Unlikely Heroes dies, the others recite a Bible passage at the funeral; later somebody prays for help and gets it.

I think I’ve read most of Stephen King’s novels—once; usually at a friend’s house, or at a library. I prefer the realistic danger in The Girl Who Loved Tom Hanks and Gerald’s Game to the science fiction motif in Cell; then again I prefer Cell to the gross-outs in Salem’s Lot. The unifying principle in the Stephen King universe is that every human mind contains a cesspool of filth and brutality, and it’s good for us to ventilate our inner cesspools every year or two. If you feel a need for a fictional bloodbath, here’s one that’s logical, free from occultism and sex and overt preaching, and written with more suspense and less yuck than some of King’s earlier books.

And yes, I still think a cell phone is a valuable safety device...provided, of course, that you resist the temptation to shout into it in public places and cause others to wish the thing could be programmed to kill you.

Cell is not hard to find, and you may find better prices elsewhere (possibly even by clicking on the photo link to buy it directly from the seller who photographed it). To buy it here, as a Fair Trade Book, you send our minimum price of $5 per copy + $5 per package to either address at the very bottom of the screen. (If you buy several books in one package, the price becomes more competitive.) From this total of $10 per copy, even if you buy two copies for $15 or four for $25, we'll send $1 per copy to Stephen King or a charity of his choice. 

May 11 Link Log

Lots of news story Updates today. Categories: Baltimore Update, Books, Censorship, Cyberstuff, Flint Update, Food (Yum), Fun Stuff, Malheur, Nature, Phenology Link, Politics, Seniors, Travel, Writing.

Baltimore Update

Although it may seem unrelated to the "police brutality" incident that triggered the riots that came to your mind...it's really the same thing: bullies get into government in order to push people around, abuse their positions, destroy whatever poor old Baltimore has in the way of community.

http://conservativevideos.com/city-tries-to-crush-veterans-small-business/

Books

For those who like the "Hamilton" musical:

http://booktrib.com/2016/05/crazy-for-hamilton-heres-4-books-you-should-be-reading/

Thanks to http://hallicasser-jayne.com/blog/ for presenting this new book:



What about the book reviewed here today?! Well...following up on the theme of "diversity"...you hadn't heard or thought much about it, but the idea of an aunt having induced lactation is plenty controversial! I'll give readers a few hours to recover, and tomorrow morning I'll review a bestselling novel.

Censorship

Should Facebook be sued for censorship? Meh...I think discrediting them is good enough. Editors, a category that could conceivably include web hosts, have the right to decide what to highlight or censor. The Portal Paper "censors" news stories that have been printed in other local newspapers just to avoid duplication. And eight years ago I published that rap/poem about the Yahoo news wallpaper:

"I think my Internet provider likes Barack Obama:
The stories that they post on him always seem so much warmer
Than those about Joe Biden, John McCain, or Sarah Palin.
If fair, unbiased coverage is their goal, then they are failin'..."

Maybe we should agree that nobody can be 100% fair and unbiased, 100% of the time, and as long as your control over content you post or publish doesn't interfere with my control over content I post or publish, I have no legal complaint. Of course I have the right not to read your content, and it's mutual...and this web site has always recommended that everybody ignore Facebook.

http://politistick.com/unprecedented-legal-motion-filed-facebook-censoring-conservative-news/#

Cyberstuff

Does your laptop overheat?

http://themarthareview.com/laptop-cooling-pad/

Flint Updates

Thanks to the +Allen West Republic for sharing this one:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/09/us/flint-mayor-water-crisis-lawsuit/index.html?sr=twCNN051016flint-mayor-water-crisis-lawsuit1217AMStoryLink&linkId=24306380

This one was on the Yahoo wallpaper. Dogs--who'd've thought?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/dogs-flint-getting-tested-well-lead-toxicity-053818682.html

Food (Yum)

I love Zatarain's rice mixes. And since they've become contaminated with GMO and/or glyphosate-treated grains and veg, so that they make me as sick as the gluten-based Rice-A-Roni would-be-competition...I miss them.

http://hubpages.com/food/Jambalaya-Using-ZATARAINS-with-Shrimp-and-Sausage-Recipe

Did you know this non-perishable food is available online? You can e-mail Zatarain's, too, about the need to keep the contaminants out of their yummy rice mixes, if GMO grain (more likely the corn than the rice) and/or glyphosate make you sick too. Let them know how much these things matter. This is a big company now, but they grew fast--probably by having people on board who learn fast. The more e-mails, the sooner the problem can be resolved.



Fun Stuff

Thanks to +Sandy KS for sharing:

https://www.tryazon.com/sterno-smores-party/#tab-4

Malheur Update

Cliven Bundy sues:

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/279314-cliven-bundy-suing-obama-nevada-officials

The issue has not been locked up with Mr. Bundy:

http://ntlconsulting.blogspot.com/2016/05/epas-illegal-fines.html

Nature

Or is it really...I have never seen wisteria bloom like this. It's a gorgeous flower, but...

http://thevagabondtabby.tumblr.com/post/144163427386/banshy-wisteria-sugura-baba

Phenology Links

Elizabeth Barrette has added a regular "yardening"/phenology feature to her Live Journal:

http://ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com/3997875.html

Politics

(See also the post showing below, about diversity.)

Presidential foot-and-mouth disease...The (Black-ruled) +Allen West Republic commented, "What about their parents?" What indeed? And, for those of us who've encountered major bad luck a little further down life's road...yes, society may thank our personal choices, too. I've met a few dealers who've offered to start me out in the field of illegal prescription medication sales. I thank my introvert brain, hard-wired with a sense of honor. You're welcome.

http://bb4sp.com/watch-obama-tell-black-graduates-luck-kept-you-from-being-a-drug-dealer/?

Are there serious wonks who'd rather listen to Ezra Klein's column than read it in the Washington Post? +Arianna Huffington found one...actually it looks as if she's found several.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ezra-klein-show/id1081584611?mt=2

Asset forfeiture update...Ebony naturally has to focus on how this affects Black people. Last week the Washington Post zoomed in on an Asian church group, and last year, when some correspondents wanted to ride State Senator Carrico harder on getting this issue into Virginia law, so far as I know most of those correspondents were White. I think abuse of asset forfeiture has been much more a question of which cops are on the take and what they think they can get away with. If they perceive someone as either weak/helpless or aggressive/unsympathetic-on-TV-news, from the crooked cop's point of view that person is fair game. It's unfortunate that color can be among the factors that contribute to some people's being perceived in either of those ways. Anyway, the commenter with the foreign name provides a classic example of "mangled" English being more insightful than the "correct" kind. Any way you parse the misplaced pronouns in that closing line, it's true...

http://www.ebony.com/news-views/asset-seizures-police#axzz48GWk0Ppu

This one was obviously written to vent steaming indignation, and may be pulled down afterward since it's much ruder than Terresa Monroe-Hamilton usually is. Language may activate your computer's filters. Nevertheless...I agree with her.

http://noisyroom.net/blog/2016/05/10/who-the-heck-do-these-people-think-they-are/

I've tried to find what it is about the #BankruptcyBillionnaire that could possibly appeal to conservative voters. I mean, we've been watching the self-promoting creep-rat for thirty-some years now, those of us who are old enough. We know what he's famous for: money-grubbing, gouging, and cheating in real estate; shameless displays of greed and egomania; an unappealing look, voice, and manner; promising marriage for life, then dumping wife after wife as soon as a younger willing victim comes along; most of all, refusing to pay debts by declaring one of his enterprises bankrupt while continuing to rake in the profits from his other enterprises, which real conservatives believe ought to have got him straight into jail. And he has no politics, nor has he any shame; he agreed to run as a Republican after a call from his ol' pal Bill Clinton, who used to call in Trump when it seemed necessary to distract attention from the undeniable truth that Bill Clinton never was a gentleman. What on earth could this "candidate"  have to offer? Scott Adams has been using the #TrumpTrain media phenomenon as a springboard for studying communication techniques. That Trump can afford to study communication techniques with the best, I'll not deny, although I've seen him falter and blogged about it. (That Bill Clinton ranks among the best, I'll not deny, either.) But is anybody really that good...or has Trump's ace card really been his claim that he could afford to campaign without asking anybody for money?

Regular readers will remember that this web site liked several of the real Republicans in this race, and it cost me a lot of time, purging masses of e-mails from their supporters who constantly asked this web site for money. (The nerve.) I can see how constant appeals for money could have cost Candidates Bush, Carson, Cruz, Fiorina, Huckabee, Kasich, Paul, and Rubio votes, all right.

Well, geddaloada dis, Republican readaz...and sing along: "The cockroach has no politics...the cockroach has no shame..."

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/10/us/politics/donald-trump-campaign.html?ncid=newsltushpmg00000003

Now for Bernie Sanders fans...there's not going to be time to throw in the West Virginia follow-up link about how the Clintons were uninvited to tour that state, they toured anyway, they were booed and hissed and Bernie won the Democratic popular vote in the Illegitimate State. So in case anybody out there thinks this is more than a stereotypical display of W.V. attitude, here's a link from Venezuela...Some people on Google + think we in the U.S. don't care. Actually I think more of us just can't read the Spanish edition of CNN on Google +, where I suspect CNN posts these things in Spanish, checks how many English-speaking Googlers read them, and decides we're more interested in yet another intensive analysis of what she said he said in the boring pre-election in-fighting. But we should care,'cos this is what socialism really looks like, Gentle Readers. This is strictly a political disaster area in a country that was oil-rich only a few years B.C., Before (Hugo) Chavez. These are oilmen in need of CARE packages of canned tuna.

https://panampost.com/sabrina-martin/2016/05/04/in-venezuela-residents-resort-to-hunting-dogs-on-the-street/

Seniors

More semi-fun stuff everyone should do...

http://life-after-60.com/make-family-notebook/

Travel

Home of Gordon Lightfoot:

http://hubpages.com/travel/Orillia-Birthplace-to-Gordon-Lightfoot

Camping in Scotland:

https://kasmansbonniescotland.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-secret-howff-in-cairngorms-seek-and.html

South Carolina:

http://www.itsjustlife.me/waterfall-wednesday-falls-park-oasis-city/

Writing

It's a point of view...I think some of the best blogs and web links are written at a college level, and the very best at least cite those abstracts of the cutting-edge reports in the professional literature. Then again, I remember one of the things my father used to like about Herbert W. Armstrong. "Anything worth saying can be said in a way that a reasonably intelligent ten-year-old child can understand."

The point was (1) that this ruled out very personal, private discourse about sex and death and so on, and (2) that loyal children ought to be willing to try to absorb new information about physics and engineering and dead languages and whatever any time their dear old Dad wanted to make a point clear to some other grown-up. This probably had something to do with the fact that Dad didn't bring home a great number of grown-up friends.

Anyway...do you readers like easy-reading content, content that draws on your advanced education (if any)...or maybe a mix? Because actually, on consideration, I find that I like a mix. Scientific studies are good, and so are cute pet stories. I felt this way at age ten; I suspect The Nephews do, too.

http://www.articlewriterforhire.com/blog/is-writing-at-a-college-level-bad-for-web-writing

Book Review: The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding

A Fair Trade Book



Title: The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding (this review refers to the 35th Anniversary Edition, not the one shown/linked above)

Author: La Leche League

Date: 1991

Publisher: Penguin

ISBN: 0-452-26623-8

Length: 446 pages

Illustrations: many black-and-white photos

Quote: “The sensitivity that helps you do the right thing at the right time...develops more quickly, and to a greater degree, if you are nursing your baby.”

Or someone else's. Yes, this book is for aunts as well as mothers.

Natural childbirth, and its follow-through of breastfeeding, are so universally idealized today that young people don’t realize what radical cultural changes took place during the past century. For the first half of the twentieth century, a mechanized, dehumanized birth process seemed to be many people’s ideal; new mothers were immobilized, heavily sedated if not fully anesthetized; babies were extracted as quickly as possible; hormone injections were used to “spare” women the messy process of lactation, and babies were sent home with a load of cow’s or goat’s milk. In the mid-fifties, as the actual “baby boom” began to subside, women realized that this virtually artificial birth process was producing “dopey,” brain-damaged, large but malnourished babies, and liberated women began fighting for the right to give birth and feed their babies naturally.

My mother literally, physically had to fight hospital procedures. Picture a small, pale, sickly woman straight-arming bigger, stronger nurses even while panting and counting her way through the labor process. As a result, at a time when pop culture encouraged other kids to focus on sexual acts and relationships, I was given lots of information about natural childbirth and breastfeeding. At the same time, observation of Mother had convinced me that, if I married someone who wanted children, I’d just have to adopt some...I've always been glad I was sterile anyway. (There is probably some valid excuse for perpetuating the celiac gene, but I don't know what it might be.)

Nevertheless, my natural sister married young. Her husband had also inherited various health problems. Instead of "Cheers--you're about to be an aunt!" I heard "Your sister and that idiot she married are determined to have a baby, so prepare to adopt the poor little thing...it probably won't be healthy either." So I bought my own then-new copy of this book. I didn’t really need it; all of The Nephews were healthy breast-fed babies. (At last report their parents were still working, too, thanks just the same. There are ways in which real progress has been made during our lifetimes.)

A few years later a friend who’d married outside her ethnic group gave birth to a child who inherited two separate sets of food allergies. I restricted my diet to match hers and successfully induced lactation. I can testify that this book helped; there are things you don't learn just from words, and it was a lot less icky to be able to learn them from pictures than to ask for a live demonstration.

As discussed in the book, when new mothers’ milk seems to be failing, anxiety may be the cause. So it's possible that knowing that other restricted-diet human milk was available if necessary may have been what it took to enable my friend to produce all the milk her baby needed.

Anyway, women who have never given birth, or who’ve gone through menopause or even had hysterectomies, can still breastfeed babies. Nothing to it...except that I still had Mother's nasty celiac genes. During just ten weeks of induced lactation my metabolism changed; I went from top-heavy to just plain heavy, gaining two jeans sizes. The pounds came off as fast as they’d come on, but left stretch marks behind. This is one of the possible complications that are not discussed in The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding. Both pregnancy and lactation have all kinds of effects on women’s metabolism. Most women recover, and in fact breastfeeding is a safe natural way for most new mothers to lose the surplus weight gained during pregnancy...but thyroid failure is possible.

This book is the kind of encouraging read that ought to be true. By and large it is true. Millions of women have found it true and empowering. There are just a few places where the La Leche Leaders blithely overlook some of the situations that occur in families less fortunate than theirs. In an ideal world, all mothers are financially comfortable, can afford to pay up front for the medical help they need instead of having to depend on what some insurance agency has decided they need, need very little medical help, are still in love with their babies’ fathers, and live in suburbs with all the mod. con...and most babies also have doting grandparents. Not all of us live that way. If you don’t, or you know a young woman who doesn’t...I think studying this book might give young single women a good incentive to wait until they have achieved the kind of economic comfort the typical La Leche Leaguer enjoys. Being a full-time mother can be such a sweet experience for those who wait for it. Then again, realistically, some women don't reach the place where they can afford to nurse a baby until they’re too old to have given birth to that baby.

What about those who’ve already had babies? “Learning to consider the needs of someone who is help­less before one’s own needs is a valuable lesson for the older chil­dren,” the authors chirp. “School-age youngsters...generally...enjoy babies.” Hah. What about women who don’t have husbands, or whose husbands can’t work or can’t find work? What about wheelchair dwellers? What about people who live in Brooklyn? The La Leche Leaders seem to feel that breastfeeding can be made to work for them, too, but they don’t write with the confidence of women who have actually done it.

Still, there are substantial reasons why most women should at least try breastfeeding, at least for the first six months of an infant’s life. Successful breastfeeding seems to prevent postpartum depression and reduce the chance that a woman will develop breast cancer. Babies who are breast-fed have more efficient immune systems, fewer allergies, and better resistance to infections--breastfeeding even seems to compensate for the adverse effects of problem genes. It’s hard to measure the incidence or severity of depression or hostility, but it seems that people who were breast-fed as babies have less depression and hostility than those who were bottle-fed and parked in day care centers. And check out page 384: “[A] mere twenty percent rise in bottle feeding, in just two years...would cost [the economy of Mozambique in the 1980s]...10 million US dollars, and this did not include fuel, distribution, or health costs...Inventors of fuel-saving cars are rewarded, why not energy-saving women?”

Oh, why not reward all caring family members for all the good work all of us do? It's such a nice idea...it's just economically impossible. Anyway, most people agree that the rewards of caring for family members are "better" than hourly wages, apart of course from little things like paying the rent...

Breastfeeding may not be as easy and delightful for everyone as it obviously was for the writers of this book, but it’s still a Green, healthy, and empowering choice for those who can make it. I consider the stretch marks and the brain-dead lethargy I felt during those ten weeks of reduced thyroid function. Then I consider that scrawny, screeching infant who couldn’t keep formula down, whom I never actually fed, who calmed down when his mother did and grew strong on her milk. I’d do it again...and the kid’s not even related to me.

La Leche League is a growing, flourishing organization. Many different editions of The Womanly Art have been printed; the book has grown, over the years, like a child. Newer editions sometimes answer some of the questions raised by older ones, so it's possible that more information is now being provided to answer some of the questions raised here. I chose to use a photo link to the latest edition for those who'd rather buy the book directly from Amazon. What I used (and have sold) is by now an older edition. If you want to support this web site by buying it as a Fair Trade Book, and don't specify which edition you want, I will send you the latest one. All the recent editions are easy to find, so the price is $5 per copy + $5 per package, for a total of $10, of which $1 goes to La Leche League (naturally). If you insist on a much older edition, collector prices may apply.

Diversity, or Yes I Am Prejudiced, and Here's How

It wasn't faaair...Yesterday, Word Press bloggers were "challenged" to blog about "Diversity."

http://blogjob.com/saintpblogging/prompt-for-the-day-diverse/

Since this site is not hosted by Word Press, little they know, but for several weeks I'd been lugging around a bag full of drafts of things I meant to post when I found time. One of them was a poem I wrote several years ago, called "Three Ways of Being Multicultural." It told, in rhymed couplets, three anecdotes about how feeble and useless public schools' efforts to teach "diversity" used to be, and how, nevertheless, I enjoyed living in a neighborhood that actually had diversity when I grew up and lived in the city. Yesterday morning I picked up the bag and saw that the hole in the seamy side had grown, overnight, to the point where I thought I'd better carry a different bag, and picked one that didn't have room for all those drafts...

Rather than try to replicate the poem I'll say, for now, that what I learned from my diverse experiences with "diversity" was that "diversity" shouldn't be the goal. Instead of looking at people and trying to work out whether you're "diverse" enough, it works better to let people sort themselves out by doing something that interests them, and then step back and notice how diverse they really are. In ways that are not necessarily as obvious as color. Like not advertising "Bloggers With Major Disabilities," but just advertising "Blogs" and discovering how many people blog about having disabilities.

As regular readers know, my family has diversity by the trainload. I have a long pedigree (even by Virginia standards!) that includes only a slight majority of Irish ancestors, some rather notorious English aristocrats, a blue-eyed Frenchman who arrived on the Atlantic Coast as a slave, a few Cherokees, at least two German Anabaptists, and others. People usually guess that I'm White, but from some different, more southeasterly part of Europe than the parts my ancestors actually left; they usually hope I can speak their language, so I usually hope, when I see those people approaching, that their language is Spanish, which I speak with an accent. Whatever ethnic group I have to admit I don't belong to, however, in my extended family somebody probably married one. I'm not Greek, Italian, Indian, Arabian, or even Jewish, but I have relatives who are.

My (culturally British West Indian, officially Anglo-Canadian, legally immigrated U.S. citizen) husband's family certainly didn't simplify matters; he also traced his ancestry to a British aristocrat on one side, and to the southern peninsula of India on the other three sides. He had a freckle-faced blonde sister, a brother who looked "Indian," first cousins who looked about as "French" as I do--and he was melanistic, like many people on the southern peninsula of India, with a face the same shade of "black" as my hair is. He called himself black, with a smile, because it was almost literally true, and because he had been married to a Black woman and legally adopted (for immigration purposes) his blonde sister's grandson, whose real father was Black. He was only slightly less conspicuously a "minority" type, in the D.C. schools, than I was. (Among other things he was darker than most of those Black Americans...)

When your extended family looks as much like the United Nations as mine does, you become jaded about what some people who are waaay behind the cutting edge are still hyping as "diversity."

A few summers ago, one of those homeboys who are handsome and intelligent and reasonably successful, but don't appeal to me sexually because they feel like the distant relatives they really are, was looking for someone to go to a "diversity conference" with him. "Just to get out of Gate City and meet some people who are different! I mean, there'll be Black people there! And lesbians!"

(1) There are Black people in Gate City, although he might reasonably have forgotten to count them since, if you're not feeling extra-sensitive to color, they fit right in with the rest of us.

(2) I'm pretty sure there are lesbians in Gate City, too, but they're discreet enough that nobody really cares whether they are or not. (The ones I know about for sure didn't count; they were only visiting.)

(3) But anyway...why would that count as an attraction, when there may well be both Black people and lesbians (about whom I know for sure) at my extended family gatherings. It's not as if I'd never seen anyone in those categories before--or lived under the same roof with them, called them "Cousin," or hugged them. In order for speakers to count as attractions you'd have to specify which Black people and/or lesbians and why they, individually, would interest me.

There's one good-sized category of people who go around advertising that their being Black and/or lesbians and/or some other widely publicized "minority" type/s is their main attraction, and they totally bore the daylights out of me. I think I've heard everything they have to say. I think they're narrow-minded, ignorant, shrill, bigoted, and boring as all get out. Not because they are this or that "minority" type; because they are Left-Wing Clueless Clones, as documented by a self-identified left-winger here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/opinion/sunday/a-confession-of-liberal-intolerance.html?_r=2

Well, y'see, when I even post that link, or this link...

http://ntlconsulting.blogspot.com/2016/05/leftists-are-mentally-ill.html

...I feel this urge to say that even though there is a real need for this new stereotype to reflect reality and balance a familiar stereotype, this new stereotype, let's call it The Illiberal Leftist, is so not based on Ralph Nader. Or...well, I don't know who wants to be called out here and who doesn't, but it's not based on any left-winger I knew in Washington, with the possible exception of a mixed-up kid I used to date and once caught trolling under the screen name "Craig." Craig was the son of a right-wing bigot and, having inherited the bigot gene, he became a left-wing bigot, especially annoying when in pain from squeezing his oversized body into his tiny politically correct car on a long road trip. But he was reasonably civil to my parents in their home, so even he wasn't the true real-world incarnation of The Illiberal Leftist. The mouthpieces of the Obama Administration are that.

I feel a need to mention, in this context, that many left-wingers I've known personally were salt-of-the-earth types who would happily give you their shirt if they thought you had any possible use for a secondhand shirt. If they said they'd meet you at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, they'd be there at 9:55, and if they said they'd pay you $100 and you did a good job, you'd get $110, and if they said they wouldn't preach left-wing propaganda at your six-year-old, they wouldn't consciously do that either. They would be walking statements that Leftists Are Good People, but they wouldn't say that, in so many words, if they agreed not to say it.

Well, let's just say that these Illiberal Left-Wing Clueless Clones have never experienced a need to find out that anybody who's not a left-winger, even if what they are/were is/was ahead of their time (like C.S. Lewis, Wendell Berry, or Piers Anthony), might be a decent human being too.



In order for "diversity" to mean anything to me, it must not be confused with a panel of people saying "I'm Black and I'm an Extreme Leftist...I'm Jewish and I'm an Extreme Leftist..." etc. etc. etc. ad nauseam. Anyone with a reasonable talent for narrative can share stories about growing up Black or Jewish or Korean or lefthanded or pitch-deaf or gender-confused or "gifted" or in any other way different from the Great American Stereotype Shown on 1950s Television, although these days you have to be fairly old to remember 1950s television, and those stories can be reasonably interesting...but they have to be going somewhere other than "I'm an Extreme Leftist, I'm an Extreme Leftist, I'm an Extreme Leftist," to remain interesting.

As far as I'm concerned, if you want to claim "diversity" as a selling point, you have to include some diversity of opinions as well as backgrounds. (Like this blog's feed, incidentally; displaying the feed on the screen you see is somewhere down around 500th position on my to-do list, but it includes at least one writer who's claimed socialism as the religion of her childhood and at least one who'd like to go all the way back to "McCarthyite" leftist "hunting.") You want a left-wing Catholic and a right-wing Catholic, a left-wing Protestant and a right-wing Protestant, a Jew, a Mormon, an atheist, a Neo-Pagan, and if possible a Sikh too, for "diversity." You want a practicing homosexual and a person who believes God doesn't want her to sit at the same table with a practicing homosexual, at the bare minimum, if you're going to talk about "diversity" in sexuality at all. You don't want to force a Vietnamese-American and a Vietnam veteran whose PTSD flares up at the sight of "slanted eyes" to sit at the same table, but if you want "diversity" you want to cite things both of them have said or written.

And, hello, do you want to include HSP introverts? Er um...the only way it would ever have been possible for me to have become friends with the people I have is that, although they really show "diversity" as defined above, they are HSP introverts. That is My Kind Of People.

Frankly, although I honestly don't care what skin color, hair texture, or eyelid shape people have, and my only concern about ethnicity is whether we can at least agree on one mutual language even if it has to be French, I'm none too keen on The Other Kind Of People--the ones who are not HSP introverts. I have no ethnic prejudice whatsoever and am glad to say I could find at least one point of agreement with the Devil itself, if it has a "self." Still, in my way, and it's not so much a conscious choice as a physical reaction I can't conceal for much longer than the veteran can conceal his PTSD, I, too, am prejudiced. As a Christian I've made a conscious choice to practice love toward all God's creatures (whether I like them or not); as a biological life form I'm able to like only people who are like me in the one important way.