This Just In

From my brother in Wisconsin who has a long memory. Nice people with long memories.

 

Brett Farve  is retiring and will live in the Twin Cities and will
open a bakery specializing in Turnovers !!!!

Remember the Watergate scandal?

This lady writes a nice column on the various 'gates' threatening our serenity.

Bumpersticker of the Year

Has anybody seen this one yet? Where would one get one?

The Proletariat Have Arisen

Dr Krauthammer and Dr Sanity add some words of wisdom to the meaning of the surprising upset pulled off by now Senator-elect Scott Brown of Massachusetts. Mr Brown Goes To Washington. Haven't we seen a movie something like that?

"And the Democrats are delusional: Scott Brown won by running against Obama, not against Bush. He won by brilliantly nationalizing the race, running hard against the Obama agenda, most notably Obamacare. Killing it was his No. 1 campaign promise."—Dr Krauthammer

Yes, it is rather remarkable that the left is oblivious to the fact that the proletariat they have worshipped and depended upon for their revolution have finally arisen; but sadly, not in support of their ideas.

Quite the opposite.

Back in the mid 20th century, it became increasingly clear to dedicated Marxists that something was fundamentally wrong with the master's economic hypotheses. Like the followers of Jesus, they had been waiting a long time for the second coming,and they expected the collapse of capitalism at any moment. In fact, they were greatly encouraged by the Great Depresion and were certain that it was imminent.

But like a bad dream, capitalism just wouldn't go away, and instead of collapsing, it rebounded stronger than ever.—Dr Sanity

These two psychiatrists by trade have got their heads screwed on right.

Influenza Week 2

This is from FluView

2009-2010 Influenza Season Week 2 ending January 16, 2010

All data are preliminary and may change as more reports are received.

Synopsis:

During week 2 (January 10-16, 2010), influenza activity decreased slightly in the U.S.

• 120 (3.7%) specimens tested by U.S. World Health Organization (WHO) and National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System (NREVSS) collaborating laboratories and reported to CDC/Influenza Division were positive for influenza.
• Ninety-eight percent of subtyped influenza A viruses reported to CDC were 2009 influenza A (H1N1) viruses.
• The proportion of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza (P&I) was above the epidemic threshold.
• Nine influenza-associated pediatric deaths were reported. Three deaths were associated with 2009 influenza A (H1N1) virus infection, four were associated with an influenza A virus for which the subtype was undetermined, one was associated with an influenza A (H3) virus infection, and one was associated with an influenza B virus infection. The influenza A(H3) and B deaths occurred during the 2008-09 influenza season.
• The proportion of outpatient visits for influenza-like illness (ILI) was 1.8% which is below the national baseline of 2.3%. One of the 10 regions (region 9) reported ILI above their region-specific baseline.
• No states reported widespread influenza activity, seven states reported regional influenza activity, Puerto Rico, and 10 states reported local influenza activity, the District of Columbia, Guam, and 32 states reported sporadic influenza activity, and the U.S. Virgin Islands and one state reported no influenza activity.

2nd Sun after Epiphany aka 2nd Sun in Ordinary Time

Some churches celebrate the Christmas season a little longer than others. I like to visit Mount Olive Lutheran Church down near the corner of 24th and Central because they sing lustily all those great Christmas hymns well after the Nativity of Our Lord, they have great Christmas decorations which they enjoy until some time in February at least, possibly into early March according to the calendar of seasons in the hymnal, and they know how things should be done in general.

We Christians probably have more good songs for Christmas than any other season. Instead of stretching out the season back toward All Hallows Eve, as the commercial world would have us do, the church chooses to play with time in the other direction, i.e. with a long Epiphany season.


Today's Gospel reading was the Wedding at Cana, a great reading for those who would wax eloquently on the vagaries of Time. Who else was lucky enough to sing Once in Royal David's City today?—and, it should be noted, practice a little gentle irony too? Have you seen Bethlehem these days?

On one side of the altar there are a large collection of angel dolls, and on the other side is a nicely done tableau of Bethlehem and Our Lord's Incarnation, see above for a part of it, and of course, a couple of nicely done Christmas trees, one mainly splendid Chrismons. There are a lot of really nice people too.

Good Stuff from the Gazette

Feeling much better after 3 days of diverticulitis, a kind of inflammatory bowel disease lite, I got up early Sunday morning, and was further revived by some good news in the Gazette.

Donna Healy, one of my favorites, writes about snowflakes here. She doesn't mention that old wives tale about no two snowflakes being the same. How can they know? Some good pictures of snowflakes too from Kenneth Libbrecht, a physicist  who specializes in snowflakes. That is one of them to the left. I didn't know they could be so large and so beautiful.

Jim Gainan shows he has more to say about life and living than just making our gardens more attractive here. What an asset to our community.

Ed Kemmick, in his usual wry clever way, has a long article on obituaries worth reading here. When you turn to the obituary page— you all do, don't you?—you find at least a couple of interesting lives well chronicled. And moreover, the Kemmick article mentions an obit written by Sue Hart, professor of English at MSUB: I wonder, how exactly do we get Sue to write our obit? Hmm? As the time gets nearer, I wouldn't mind taking a course in how to write a decent obituary. Any others?

The Op-Ed page has George Will on it, almost always worth reading. And finally, the letters to the editor section, not usually one of the Gazette's high points, has a couple of interesting letters. What the heck: buy the paper.

Influenza Week 52

If you compare this year so far with that of a couple of years ago it looks like fewer deaths this year than two years ago. What were we worrying about a few months ago?

New Mini-Ice Age Starting?

This just in, from England's Daily Mail, not usually considered to be worth reading by the upper crust, not even to be used for lining your bird cage, but nevertheless a surprisingly intelligent summary for the rest of us concerning recent events in the climate change racket.


And then here is another one from the same source, same day on the same subject.


Interesting, countries with less freedom of the press than in the USA, such as Great Britain, have got their main stream media interested in this hoax and change climate racket. Is our failure to explore this story an example of an institution being "too big to fail?"

Above is my back yard a few days ago. I think it looks better in the winter than in summer when it is covered in green.

Now This Is A Useful Graph

I can't resist peeking at this site every morning.

Here is some real cheese

Between Four and Five pounds of Baby Swiss direct from the vats and agitators of Phil Mueller's Minerva Cheese Factory, Minerva Ohio.

You should try it. Not as dry as ordinary swiss, a little softer, a little more yellow in color, perhaps not quite as holey. I liked it a lot.

Phil has won prizes with this cheese and well he should.

Though of course I must confess that he is my cousin and I am a cheesehead from childhood. Still, I don't know why that should bias you all that much. It didn't me. Brett who? Never heard of him.





















It goes very well with our Washington state Riesling, lovely apples and pears beyond expectation.

And it keeps very well in the fridge with a little Saran wrap around it.

We received this lovely cheese about the middle of December. I sampled a portion on 5 Jan 2010. It tasted the same as the middle of December. This is the real thing.

Are We Lumberjacks?: Don't Do It!

Are We Lumberjacks?: Don't Do It!



Funny folks with a very useful comment block. Check them out.

A New Ice Age Coming?

As usual, others are much more skilled at this sort of thing than I am. The trick is to recognize the ones who are telling the truth. Check out Common Cents.


Would it be ironic or something else if our ill-conceived efforts at preventing global warming actually contributed in a small way to what might be a natural tendency toward global cooling?

And there are a couple of interesting articles here too. I think they may even be peer-reviewed.

Influenza Season Week 51

Some things go up and down, like temperatures and deaths. This is the place to go for numbers on influenza deaths.