"GlowBull Warming" and the Reindeer

“In God We Trust, all others bring data.”  - Motto of the Apollo team

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2015

Global warming is not going away. Vice President Al Gore’s infamous words, “The planet has a fever,” referring to global warming, has been met many times with the planet’s natural and cyclical climate change response of frigid temperatures, ice, and snow.

A term has been coined, the “Gore effect,” reflecting the 2004 event when a global warming rally held by VP Al Gore was met by bitter cold weather. And it repeated in Australia in 2006. Mother Nature prepared snow and frigid weather in 2013 for global warming protesters in D.C. Environmental activists at Yale attempted to hold a global warming rally in 2015, but had to cancel due to “unfavorable weather conditions and other logistical issues.”

Members of the “Keep It in the Ground” anti-fracking activist group in Denver, Colorado were met this week with temperatures in the low twenties during their protest against fossil fuel drilling on public lands. Randy Hildreth wrote, “While it is clear that the national activist groups behind these efforts are not abandoning their goal to ban fracking, they picked a day to protest the use of fossil fuels when most Coloradoans are likely more thankful than ever for the affordable energy provided by domestic energy development.” https://energyindepth.org/mtn-states/bitter-cold-freezes-out-anti-fossil-fuel-protest/

Reducing one’s carbon footprint by taking all energy savings steps possible, solar panels, geothermal energy heating and cooling, low energy bulbs, caulking, turning the thermostat down, reducing consumption in general, has been an issue raised and preached by the climate change guru Al Gore.

According to a recent article, citing data from Tennessee Center for Policy Research and the Energy Information Administration, the Gore residence uses “an average of 17,768 kWh per month – 1,638 kWh more energy per month than before the renovations. By comparison, the average American household consumes 11,040 kWh in an entire year, according to the Energy Information Administration.” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/2153179/Al-Gores-electricity-bill-goes-through-the-insulated-roof.html

Good stewardship of soil, air, and water, and pollution reduction and mitigation are great ideas and we support them. Cleaning up the Ganges, the holy river, before it dumps trillions of cubic meters of trash and raw sewage into the ocean, would be a good start. Conservation of natural resources is very important and humans everywhere agree. http://www.smh.com.au/national/the-ganges-holy-river-from-hell-20140806-100xz9.html

But the climate change industry based on reduction of man-made CO2, the gas of plant life, is a very profitable ruse worth trillions of dollars for global elites. Not giving up on the climate change fear-mongering effort, the Oscar winning author of “An Inconvenient Truth,” has announced the sequel to his documentary which will debut at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/dec/09/al-gore-inconvenient-truth-sequel-sundance

Engaging the church to influence people into believing that global warming is real, the activist Pope Francis announced in September that “global warming is a sin and man can atone by recycling and carpooling,” by stopping deforestation, not polluting rivers, protecting the soil, not destroying the bio diversity of the planet, as if reading a canned U.N. Agenda 2030 script. http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/09/01/pope-francis-global-warming-sin-man-can-atone-recycling-car-pooling/

The Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the advisor to the Pope, has concluded that “global climate change is real and is caused, at least in significant part, by human activity.” Catholic.org stated in a recent post that “new priests [are] to learn about global warming as part of formation.” Why would a priest who is not a scientist need to learn about alleged global warming? “The established community of experts agrees with frightful consensus that the planet is warming because of human activity. And while nature may play a role in the natural heating of the planet, it is known that the Earth’s temperature is dynamic, humans are clearly responsible for much of the present warming.” And the public’s opinion is being manipulated by climate change skeptics on the payroll of the fossil fuel industry. “The fossil fuel industry funds nearly all of the climate change skeptics, going so far as to commission questionable studies, to financing think tanks, and even paying individual bloggers.” http://www.catholic.org/news/green/story.php?id=72433

According to this Catholic blog, the church has a duty to care for people and the environment. And I thought that the church’s mission was to care for the salvation of our souls, not for environmental stewardship, a concept pushed by U.N.’s Agenda 2030.

The blog continues in an Armageddon manner, “The Earth’s temperatures are spiking faster than at any time in history. The speed of the warming is so great, it is fueling extinctions and other crisis. Natural selection, evolution, and adaptation cannot keep up with the pace of rapid change.”

And the Vatican said, because of the “emerging planetary crisis” on the “ecological question,” all Christians need an “ecological conversion.” All future priests will then become advocates of this ecological question called global warming, “promoters of an appropriate care for everything connected to the protection of creation….”

Taken from the Vatican’s 91-page document, “The Gift of the Priestly Vocation,” http://www.clerus.va/content/dam/clerus/Ratio%20Fundamentalis/The%20Gift%20of%20the%20Priestly%20Vocation.pdf Eric Worrall quotes in his blog the passage describing the role of the new priest in the global warming proselytization of his flock. https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/12/10/catholic-church-new-priests-will-be-expected-to-preach-global-warming/

Dr. Ken Haapala, President of Science and Environmental Policy Project, discussed in this week’s publication the Charney Report of 1979 to the National Research Council. CO2 and greenhouse gases warm up the atmosphere but are generally beneficial – CO2 is the gas of plant life. Atmospheric water vapor was proposed by global climate modelers as a potential second cause of global warming.

Comprehensive and independent data of atmospheric temperatures gathered from weather balloons are now available, dating back to December 1978. These data reveal that, “In general, the models overestimated atmospheric warming by 2.5 times and by 3 times over the tropics, where the water vapor warming should be more pronounced.” http://www.sepp.org/twtwfiles/2016/TWTW12-10-16.pdf

Global warming “consensus” is not real science and global climate computer models are questionable. Scientists should use and compare reliable sources of information, independently and correctly gathered data, valid studies over long periods of time, and accurate measurements, not manufactured or manipulated statistics to fit the already-decided narrative and conclusion.

Haapala believes that the EPA did not produce data to justify the finding that “greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health and welfare, … instead relied on three lines of evidence: 1) understanding of the physics of greenhouse gases; 2) a questionable study that late twentieth century warming was unusual; and 3) global climate models. The evidence is woefully incomplete.”

Additionally, “any warming of the surface is not the same as a warming of the atmosphere, and can be highly influenced by other human activities such as change in land use, change in instrument locations, and change in instrument types.”

The global warming advocates told us that polar bears were disappearing due to global warming; children were terrified in schools; solitary polar bears were depicted floating on tiny melting ice floes even though polar bears are very good long distance swimmers. It turned out that their numbers actually increased five-fold.

A study lead by Steve Albon of the James Hutton Institute in Scotland found that “over the past 16 years, the weight of adult reindeer in Svalbard in the Norwegian Arctic has dropped by 12 percent, likely due to global warming.” AFP quoted Steve Albon, “Twelve percent may not sound very much, but given how important body weight is to reproduction and survival, it’s potentially huge.” https://www.yahoo.com/news/reindeer-shrinking-warming-threatens-xmas-icon-000845791.html

But the study published in August 2016 actually stated that “The cumulative effects of climate warming on herbivore vital rates and population dynamics are hard to predict, given that the expected effects differ between seasons. … We explored the causes and consequences of variation in body mass of wild female Svalbard reindeer (Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus) from 1994 to 2015, a period of marked climate warming.” http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.13435/full

Climate, weather, climate warming, global warming, terms are interchangeable for the general public who peruse headlines in a hurry or listen to fake-news MSM to interpret the news for them. We can now scare children that Santa Claus may not have enough reindeer at Christmas as they are threatened by global warming. https://www.yahoo.com/news/reindeer-shrinking-warming-threatens-xmas-icon-000845791.html

Blaming humans for the natural changes and variations in climate over the millennia, to the exclusion of all other variables such as solar flares, underwater volcanic activity, and oceanic currents, is not real science. And priests are no experts in climatology, they are spiritual guides.

 

 

 

 

The Role of Education in America-Phobia

“I never let my schooling interfere with my education.”     -  Mark Twain

Poster in D.C. mall advertising citizenship
in the global economy
Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016

Have God and fervent prayers saved America temporarily from the scourge of global communism by electing Donald Trump for president? It was the hand of God that acted through the voting population to elect Donald Trump but it is up to his chosen administration to implement his promises.

If the President Elect is going to deliver a fraction of his campaign assurances, we are going to make tremendous progress in addressing our huge national debt and our national security.

There is a lot more to be redressed that has been deliberately diminished, fundamentally transformed for the worse, and even destroyed in the last ten years, i.e., the military, jobs, the economy, education, health care, family, faith, our personal freedoms, and our foreign policy.

No matter what problems we attempt to solve, unless we change the “global citizen” course of our educational system dictated from the Department of Education in Washington and the States’ Department of Education, we are doomed to fail, and Common Core will remain the curriculum tool of the global citizenship. America will continue on the globalist path of self-destruction and irrelevancy.

Charter schools will give marginalized students an opportunity for a better school choice, however, there is no guarantee that the indoctrination into Marxism will stop. Those teachers come from the same pool of the College of Education licensed teachers, the corps of “social justice” and “collectivist” thinking.

Socialist teachers will continue to be the vectors of Marxist indoctrination because they are rolled out with little effort on the College of Education assembly line and are encouraged to become proud members of the National Education Association.

Unfortunately for America, these socialist teachers have our children’s eyes, ears, and minds eight hours a day, ample time to shape them into the communist and environmentalist drones required by the 21^st century “social justice” and impossible equality know-nothing workforce.

Sadly, the establishment no longer educates teachers like some of my former colleagues who taught real American history, no matter how uncomfortable the truth may have been to some. They taught Civics and brought speakers to their classes who have experienced or survived communism, the Holocaust, and various wars. They infused pride in our American culture and honored our American exceptionalism. No revisionist history was taught and Howard Zinn’s popular textbook, “A People’s History of the United States,” was not used. David Greenberg wrote in 2013 about “Howard Zinn’s influential mutilations of American history.” https://newrepublic.com/article/112574/howard-zinns-influential-mutilations-american-history

One day a year students were required to eat just soup so that they could feel what it was like to stand in soup lines during the Great Depression. This type of “fasting” was uncomfortable for the coddled generation who felt deprived of their abundant choices in the cafeteria. Many complained bitterly when their tummies were churning empty.

Posters were hung in the hallway for a week, showing in grisly detail the Holocaust atrocities committed by the German National Socialist Party (the NAZIS) against the Jews, the gypsies, the gays, the priests, the handicapped, and anybody else who did not fit the insane profile of the perfect race as designed by Hitler’s Social Democrat party. No safe spaces for these students to flee from reality -- Judy wanted her students to never forget what evil atrocities monsters were capable of towards their fellow man.

A Christmas Cantata was organized every year and a Christmas tree was proudly decorated by students of all religions who enjoyed the tradition. A staff member dressed as Santa Claus; faculty and students took turns having their photographs taken. There was no “war on Christmas” then and people wished each other ‘Merry Christmas’ instead of the leftist politically correct ‘Happy Holidays.’

Ten years ago, an administrator thought it wise to bring an imam to school to indoctrinate a rapt audience of high school students to the wonders of Islam and the “respect” they afford women. The faculty stood silent, disapproving, but fearful of losing their jobs if they spoke out. Some nodded in agreement with the imam; one of his sons will be caught years later trying to join ISIS with his girlfriend.

Diversity did not have to be mandated by government, our society was already plenty diverse and tolerant but not self-destructive. Legal immigrants assimilated into our country, were proud to be here, learned English, but retained their traditions and language at home. Now, the government-imposed progressive and diversity at every level is splitting society into divided groups, at odds with each other, creating micro-societies within our country, each rooting for the hellhole they’ve escaped from, or pushing the agenda they were paid to advocate.

The America-phobia ginned up by the progressive left has reached a new crescendo. They are projecting and displaying all their hatred and intolerance for Americans, while glorifying third world nations and primitive cultures as better than our civilization, vilifying hard-working ordinary Americans who happen to disagree with them. America-phobes want to change everything in the image of their Marxist ideology, utopian nonsense that has failed fully in every country where it had been forced upon the disarmed population.

Progressives no longer hide their intolerance and disdain for Caucasians and conservatives, inventing terms such as “white privilege,” “micro aggression,” “pathological bias,” “ordinary prejudice,” “pathological bigotry,” requiring collegiate “safe spaces” for their frightened progeny, the Snowflake Generation, telling them lies that all conservatives are racist and bigoted, and are going to harm legal and illegal immigrant children.

At the same time, the progressive and Islamo-phile MSM are busy turning a blind eye to all the violence, mayhem, and crimes that Islamists have committed in this country and around the globe. Nobody in the Christian population at large has attacked, killed, or maimed any Muslims. However, most terror attacks that have occurred in this country in the last fifteen years had been orchestrated and executed by radical Islam.

Symbols of pride and Americanism, our flag, our National Anthem have been burned and disrespected; monuments and veteran cemeteries have been desecrated without much note or mention by the main stream media.

The cable news media ignored the massive fires in Tennessee while spending an inordinate amount of time on the Oakland fire even though both events were tragic. The MSM focused non-stop on paid rioters around the country, on their mercenary and violent demonstrations against the President Elect with whom they vitriolically disagree. Innocent bystanders were subjected to their hateful wrath and suffered physical injuries.

Since the presidential election was not to their liking, the intolerant left is now trying to subvert and destroy the Electoral College process. Baseless recount challenges have been made in three states and millions were raised overnight by the Green Party candidate. Additionally, alleged threats have been made to electors to change their votes before December 19.

Our future depends on who is going to win the war on our “borders, language, and culture,” on our sovereignty, the leftist America-phobes or the America-philes? Unless we change the global communist course and Common Core content of the public education and collegiate education of our children, the future looks uncertain.

 

 

Fidel Castro and His MSM Sycophants

Fidel Castro Visiting the United States in 1959
Photo: Wikipedia

Forbes estimated Fidel Castro’s wealth at $900 million while the country he ruled with an iron fist, 11.39 million people, lived in poverty and dignified squalor under his boot. The deceased “El Comandante” Castro left behind a huge fortune, a private island called Caya Piedra, mansions, a marina with his private yacht called Aquarama, bank accounts, an alleged gold mine, and thousands of worthless Marxist speeches.
http://www.abc.es/internacional/abci-fidel-castro-herencia-201612021149_noticia.html?ns_campaign=gs_ms&ns_fee=0&ns_linkname=boton&ns_mchannel=abc-es&ns_source=fb

Celebrity guests who have enjoyed Castro’s lavish hospitality on the island of Caya Piedra included the Colombian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the French underwater explorer, Jacques Cousteau. Nothing but the best for western elitist visitors, they were never taken to the slums where Cubans were forced to live, playing dominoes and making beautiful music to soothe their trapped bodies and souls. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2637927/Castro-commie-hypocrite-lives-like-billionaire-Hes-posed-man-people-But-new-book-reveals-Cubas-leader-led-life-pampered-hedonism-fortune-big-Queens.html

Why God would keep such an evil man alive to the ripe old age of 90 is a mystery. The longer he lived, the more people he tortured and kept chained to his utopian idea of how God’s free people should live.

Castro enslaved and oppressed his people for 59 years while giving them speeches about the wonders of Marxism and the evils of capitalism. He tortured and killed an estimated 15,000 of his own citizens who dared to object to his proletariat hell.

The lucky ones escaped to Miami and made a good life for themselves, others drowned at sea in ingenious and desperate makeshift vessels, trying to flee this Marxist paradise that kept them in chains spiritually, economically, ideologically, and physically.

After decades of brainwashing, Castro created a perfect police state of fear and terror, run by his henchmen, loyal to his failed ideology that rewarded only the top elites running this beautiful island. Evidence that this man was insane surfaced early in 1959 when he appeared in pajamas on black and white American television in his first public appearance in an interview with Edward R. Morrow. http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Morrow+interview+of+Castro&view=detail&mid=D10386F88FFC88BD551DD10386F88FFC88BD551D&FORM=VIRE

The main stream media liberals who adore dictators were quick to sing his praises, ignoring the glaring reality of his Marxism that ruined the lives of countless millions, stealing their potential wealth and any opportunity of a good life. Even “60 minutes” mentioned in its short biopic that he had brought education and medical care to his people. He did bring schooling of the Marxist indoctrination type and medical care for sniffles. Why have Fidel Castro and his family sought the best doctors, hospitals, and medical care in the U.S. and Spain instead of the clinics and hospitals in his own country?

The media is lauding and glorifying the killer Castro who has imprisoned other humans for their divergent political views, their faith which contradicted Castro’s atheism, and left many of his people on a starvation diet. If the MSM loves what Castro did for his people, why don’t they move to Cuba and seek medical treatment there?

Today the liberals in the media and academia are just plain communists disguising their communism under the euphemistic term of “progressives.” There is nothing progressive about forcing everybody under totalitarian government control without any possibility of choice and free will. It is regressive to control people to such an extent that they cannot leave their own country to pursue opportunities and freedom of spirit and body elsewhere – their island utopia becomes their prison.

I’ve never seen people fleeing from western, free market capitalism to communist nations. But history has shown, time and time again, that people fled oppression at all costs, even at the cost of being shot while crossing through Checkpoint Charlie, crossing the border from oppression to freedom, from east to west, including fleeing a beautiful tropical island where buildings and streets are so deteriorated and dilapidated that they look like they have an insidious cancer dripping with decay. In a way they do, the terminal cancer is called totalitarian communism. https://www.facebook.com/MiamiHeadlines/videos/445815272209280/

The intolerant and dishonest liberal media talking heads that commit journalistic malpractice by deliberately lying to the American public are just teleprompter readers who are verbally dancing on the graves of those who lost their lives at the hands of communist dictators like Fidel Castro. There is nothing worthy of acclaim about this man. He was not “awesome, great and inspiring.” Those are not the words to describe a Hitleresque sociopathic murderer.

All unethical western media praises for Castro’s regime are nothing but slaps in the faces of all Cuban Americans who have either lost family or had to leave their loved ones in the dead of night, sometimes not even saying good bye for fear that they may be discovered and arrested; they left with only the clothes on their backs, leaving their hard-earned possessions and wealth behind when this monster took power.

The media and public schools rarely discuss the “benevolent” dictator’s firing squads used to enforce compliance and discipline, to punish disloyalty, and to intimidate any possible opposition. Such “executions continued for decades.” http://babalublog.com/fidel-castros-greatest-atrocities-and-crimes/fidel-castros-firing-squads-in-cuba/

My Cuban friends, Alexis Maria E. and Silvio C. discern the reality of what Castro did to Cuba. I know exactly how it felt to flee your own country in search of freedom, to leave everything you’ve ever known and loved behind. Freedom has a very strong magnet and no man has the right to take lives and freedom away from others just because of divergent political opinions.

 

The Greek Sponge Divers of Florida

“Give me a word and I will show you that it comes from Greek.”

-          Mr. Portokalis, character in “My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding”

 

Sponge diver with sponge in hand
Photo: Wikipedia

Having experienced the excruciating ear pain from failure to equalize the pressure change underwater, I am in awe of any scuba diver who goes underwater to explore the depths of our oceans or, as is the case of pearl divers, to find exquisite pearls that adorn rare and expensive jewels.

There are submersibles that operate at depths of 6,500 feet for scientific reasons, research and discovery.  A previously unknown life form, the sinking of famous ships, submarines, airplanes, ocean acidification from underwater volcanoes, marine life behavior, sharks, whales, and other creatures are explored and studied extensively at depths formerly off-limits to humans.

Pices V is such a submersible that can safely carry three people to depths that man cannot withstand. Even sperm whales’ lungs must collapse at such pressure in order to allow them to survive at 7,000 feet and lower, in their hunt for squid. http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/pressure.html

At sea level, we are comfortable at air pressure of 14.5 pounds per square inch. Our bodies do not react in any way because fluids push outwardly with the same force. But, when diving even a few feet, the pressure starts to be felt by our eardrums. The hydrostatic pressure, the force per unit area exerted by a liquid on a solid mass, grows with every 33 feet by 14.5 psi.

According to NOAA, deep down, the pressure is as much as “the weight of an elephant balanced on a postage stamp, or the equivalent of one person trying to support 50 jumbo jets.”

How do animals survive at such depths? They have more flexible bodies; ribs are connected with “loose, bendable cartilage, which allows the rib cage to collapse at pressures that would easily snap our bones.”

How then can pearl divers learn to cope with the underwater pressure, often without a suit? Some people need ear tubes to be able to withstand even a few feet of water pressure.

Long time ago, in 1932, a movie was made about the “sponge fisherman of the Aegean,” operating in Tarpon Springs, Florida, “a quaint colony” of Greek fishermen who had dived for generations to find the sponges that were used for “washing cars and little Johnny’s back.”



Sponge diving boat
Photo: Wikipedia

The divers were descendants of the Greeks who used to dive naked with a stone under their arms to fight buoyancy. Their group had established in Tarpon Springs eighty years prior to the making of this film. Flying both the American and the Greek flags, the fishermen showed their pride in America and in their own heritage.

The Rock Island sponge bars were the realm of these “fantastic living things we call sponges.” The creatures thrived on graveled ocean floors.

Diving in an air-compressed suit, the master diver required several men to help him suit up properly for the dangerous dive. It was such a treacherous profession; the young did not seek employment in this field. There was such a shortage of divers that old and skilled men were brought from Greece.

By current standards, diving was an infant technology in 1932.  The diver controlled the air pressure in his suit with his head by touching an air valve. He was tethered to the boat by an air hose and a life line and depended on his mates on board to pull him up if he started going down head first and could not right himself up.

At the depth of 100 ft., suited in his 570 lbs. behemoth that kept him alive and conscious, the diver had to walk against the current that was sure to bowl him over otherwise. Dragging his cast iron shoes, the diver filled his basket with live sponges of the sea. When the basket was full, he attached it to the life line, signaled to the surface, and they pull it up.

Photo: Wikipedia

 

The divers sought the sheep’s wool sponge (Spongia equina) found in Florida and in the West Indies. This variety was the more valuable but others were harvested as well.

The diver was not protected in any way from encounters with giant marine life on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. Barracudas and sharks were a primary danger but giant turtles, in excess of 2,000 lbs., could “bite off a man’s arm.”

After one hour of work, the scuba diver signaled to be pulled up to the surface. While floating helplessly on the surface, bobbing up and down, waiting to be pulled inside the boat, the diver was in danger of being attacked by barracudas.

Pulling his air hose in, the boaters towed the diver into the boat. The diver took his time surfacing, in order to adjust the pressure on his body. If he failed to do so, he suffered from the dreaded “bends.” Many divers became crippled and prematurely old from the “bends.”



Tarpon Springs, Florida
Photo: Wikipedia

Even though hyperbaric oxygenation treatment was tested and developed by the U.S. military after WWI and has been used safely since the 1930s to treat deep sea divers with decompression sickness, these sponge divers did not have such chambers to bring them back slowly and safely to atmospheric pressure.

The marine sponges were “cleared” off the live creature, leaving just its skeleton, the sought-after sponge people used. After a three-month journey, the sponge cargo was auctioned off at the Sponge Exchange after they were dried off on dock. A catch could be worth $90,000, with yearly revenue of one million dollars.

Little creatures that had burrowed themselves inside the sponges were hammered out. The larger sponges were cut into smaller ones while the workers sang the “Song of the Sponge Divers.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR68ZqgLKzc&feature=youtu.be&app=desktop

And that is how real sponges arrived in fancy bath stores and were sold in beautiful packaging.

The Greatest Generation of the South

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Ina Faye’s mother was a “pack-rat” who lived through the Great Depression. A child of seven brothers and sisters, they lived in dignified poverty, glad and thankful for hand-me-downs, clothes, apples, peas, okra, and whatever their neighbors could share in those difficult years. It was a hard-scrabble life but nobody complained much.

Ina Faye’s dad came from a well-off family. Even though he could give her mom whatever she wanted, mom still tended to hoard things. Dad was a farmer who owned a dairy, a milking machine, and even ran Charlet (Charolais) cows bred for beef.

Recycling grease in containers for later use, she would cleanse the grease with potatoes to prevent cross contamination of frying smells. Having brought her frugal ways into the marriage, she saved all the time and cut corners.

When she passed away, Ina Faye found yards and yards of string, old twine, boxes of saved aluminum foil, washed, dried, and neatly stored for future use, jars of buttons, tubs and tubs of Crisco shortening, used tin foil plates scrubbed clean, and batches of home-made lye soap for her husband to use after fertilizing the fields and working on farm equipment.

Ina Faye’s mom always stocked up on sale items and, since Southern ladies fried most of the things they cooked, Crisco shortening was a must pantry item to store in excess.

Old dresses and ragged shirts would be cut into strips and made into lovely quilts which Ina Faye still proudly displays in her Mississippi home. As it was the case then, mom always made clothes for her girls until high school. A terrific seamstress, she made dresses and aprons for herself and other females in the family, a must in the wardrobe of any Southern country woman at that time.

Hancock Fabrics made a good business selling sewing implements, from Singer sewing machines, to buttons, to thread, fabrics, yard sticks, and McCall’s dress patterns made of thin onion-skin beige paper.

Ina Faye found an entire cedar chest filled with fabrics her mom had purchased to make dresses for Cox’s army. The fragrant scent of cedar brought back instant memories when she opened the lid.

In the late 70s and early 80s, the tide started to turn and southern moms started shopping more and more for ready-made clothes in department stores and the fabric shops started to disappear. There are few left around the country, such a novelty that the younger generations do not understand.

An occasional downtown fabric shop in a small town always makes me stop to peruse the racks of fabrics. The smell of cotton dye, the wooden shelves, and polished floors bring back memories long forgotten. I too had sewn my own clothes and my babies’ little dresses in the late seventies and early eighties. Sewing was terrific therapy for the soul and it saved us so much money.

The Greatest Generation learned to scrimp and save, using everything up until it could no longer be fixed and it had to be recycled. An appliance, a tractor, a vehicle, a stove, or anything with a motor, was fixed and reused until it fell apart. And even then, it was recycled or scavenged for parts. Nobody liked to buy on credit; they saved until they had enough money to buy what they needed.

And then, there were Green Stamps given at the grocery store each time a purchase was made. Women filled books of them and bought kitchen items and small appliances. It was so exciting to fill a new book, that much closer to a can opener, an electric frying pan, or a set of dinner plates.

Amway and Tupperware became popular among country folk. Families would have parties, selling vitamins, soap, farm surfactant, and plastic storage containers from Tupperware. There were few families in the South who did not have a Tupperware party and kept their rice, flour, tea, sugar, and other ingredients in classic orange Tupperware containers. My girls played with a Tupperware red and blue puzzle ball with different geometrical yellow shapes that had to be fitted through proper slots.

Everything people ate was produced on the farm. On a special day, dad would take the children to town for a cold cola in a glass bottle, taken out of the grocery store cooler or on a trip to the downtown Rexall Drugs counter where they served cola floats from a real fountain. When the children finished their drinks, dad would return the empty glass bottles to the store owner for a 5 cents refund per drink.

Ina Faye’s parents never bought them candy because mom would parch peanuts grown on the farm and would make chocolate fudge with the peanuts; on weekends, while they played games with friends, they had delicious treats. Her cakes and fried chicken from scratch were “second to none.”

It was a simpler life, close to home and to the country that revolved around church, a life that the children of today will never get to experience. It was much safer, closer to church on Sunday morning, evening, and on Wednesdays. Few girls were sexually active, it was something people did not do, it was immoral and dishonorable, and guys did not expect girls to “put out.” There was intense shame attached to such loose morals, and children were taught right from wrong. Most kids did not get into drugs, there was no Hollywood telling them that anything goes.

Ina Faye’s dad was highly respected in the community and knew most people in the area. He was the Justice of Peace for many years and a good friend of the Sheriff who lived up the road from his home. Her dad would sometimes hold court in their living room and a few couples were married on their front porch.

It was a life from another century when family, church, citizenship, hard work, and morals mattered. It was the 20^th century generation of Americans that had made America great.

 

 

Marital Advice from My Grandma's Era

 

Photo: Wikipedia

I found an interesting old book that my Grandma, in her youth, would have been familiar with, which described the qualities of a good wife. Was there a magical formula for a long and happy marriage? In an era when arranged marriages were the norm, the consensus was that marriage was a “lottery," you either won it or you didn’t.*

Seventy years ago, this was the “practical” advice married women gave to those engaged to be married:

1.       Defend and respect one another.

2.       Don’t wear the same dress every day; change it with a bow, a belt, a new collar, a colorful scarf, or a ribbon.

3.       If you use face cream, don’t let him see you.

4.       Do not wear droopy nylons because husbands seem to have an aversion to them.

5.       Never gargle in front of him and never wear house shoes - they are too unattractive.

6.       Never serve him coffee without first combing your hair.

7.       Never talk to him until after he’s had his first cup of coffee.

8.       Don’t bother him or talk to him when he shaves. Shaving and dressing are a ritual which men like to do alone without verbal interruption.

9.       Don’t talk to him when he reads the paper and make sure his ashtray is close by. I think the Marlboro Man would have been proud of this one.

10.   Pretend to listen intently when he shares things he likes, even though they may bore you to death.

11.   Learn to cook what he likes but also what you like.

12.   Improvise fun things to do at home and always smile as if you were in public, never show anger or displeasure to him, only a happy face.

13.   Once a week, allow him to have time with his buddies as if he were single.  Don’t ask him where he goes; he will tell you when he comes back.

14.   If he has a passion, such as collecting stamps or listening to certain shows on the radio, encourage it and engage him in conversation about it.

15.   When he makes a mistake and talks about it, don’t criticize him because he may never tell you again when he makes the next mistake.

16.   Don’t be sick too often, men don’t like sickly women.

17.   When he exalts the virtues of other women, don’t get upset; he is probably doing it because he knows you are missing that virtue.

18.   When he comes home every night, give him the impression that you waited on him with love all day.

19.   Don’t talk on the phone with your family when he is at home; do that when he is at the office.

20.   Get ready for the theater half an hour before departure time – men don’t like to be late for anything.

21.   Don’t bother him with your daily housewife problems or kids when he comes back tired from the office. Have supper ready and leave him alone.

22.   Never accept dinner or party invitations without first consulting with him. He has to approve first before you RSVP.

23.   Be ready to fix whatever wardrobe item requires attention.

24.   Never, ever clean his desk or even touch it.

25.   Never give up your profession or your trade. There may come a time when the kids are gone and you will be all alone in the house, a wife without a compass.

26.   Don’t forget your old friends but create new ones in your husband’s circles.

27.   For every man, his job is his first love. The love for you is secondary. Don’t ask him all the time if he loves you. Don’t tell him you hate him when you have arguments.

28.   For women, love comes in first place while a job comes in secondary.

29.   Don’t try to give him advice all the time; he does not want to hear it.

30.   Don’t talk about money because he does not like to hear it. If you need something important or valuable, manipulate his vanity and pride.

31.   Don’t force him to have relationships with families you like.

32.   Don’t speak ill of his relatives as it is almost sure that your relatives are just as bad.

33.   Help him with well-placed hints as to what presents you wish him to buy for you.

34.   Say yes to everything but then do what you want later. Never tell him no.

Last but not least, women warned that marriage was not a subscription to eternal love. Life, even without “rosy illusions,” could be colorful enough.

*The Code of a Good Wife (pp. 24-27)

 

 

Progressives Are Not Giving Up, the War Rages On

There is some hope for America as the dark cloud of global communism has temporarily dissipated. We won this battle but the war rages on with a vengeance. The Democrat coffers are full and young people are bought and duped with ease. The New World Order, the communist insurgency, is almost complete.

The Democrat left is now going after the Electoral College members to change their votes from their state’s winner, Donald Trump, to the Democrat loser. Their campaign of intimidation, threats, paid rioters, and fake outrage coming from liberal, anti-American campuses, is supported non-stop by the MSM rhetoric of hate and division and Hollywood turned bad role-model know-it-alls.

Progressives know that this is the only way, to beat citizens down until they agree to elect presidents by popular vote. When they do, the communists will have succeeded in permanently altering elections in the U.S. The over-populated Democrat coastal states will forever determine the elections, the rest of the country will become irrelevant, and globalists will rule.

“The West has won the Cold War but there is now more communism in the West than ever before.” The Americans’ idea of fighting global communism is sporting popular license plates with the Gadsden flag, “Don’t tread on me,”and “Coexist” bumper stickers.

Tom DeWeese, President of the American Policy Center, stated in a recent article,

“They know full well that they aren’t going to overturn the election. These privately-funded forces are being used to create pressure to destroy the Electoral College so they won’t have to deal with it next election. This is how the Left operates. Make a big deal over here to force the hidden agenda over there. The plan is to make enough trouble that Congress will move to abolish the EC to get some peace.”

And who is behind this effort? In DeWeese’s opinion, “One only has to watch to see which member of Congress proposes such action. The answer of course is California Senator Barbara Boxer. It only took a week after the election for her to come to the rescue of the broken and distraught Left.” http://fairfaxfreecitizen.com/2016/11/22/the-anti-trump-riots-are-a-smoke-screen-the-real-goal-eliminate-the-electoral-college/

A large and diverse crowd at the Institute of Texan Cultures in San Antonio, witnessed the U.S. citizenship ceremony presided by the federal Judge, John Primomo. The federal Judge took the opportunity to scold the newly-minted American citizens, who have taken an oath of allegiance under one flag, that Donald Trump is their President Elect.

“I can assure you that whether you voted for him or you did not vote for him, if you are a citizen of the United States, he is your president. He will be your president and if you do not like that, you need to go to another country.”

He criticized the protesters who shout disrespectfully and carry signs that read, “He is not my president.” Judge Primomo also condemned athletes who bend a knee during the national anthem.

“I detest that, because you can protest things that happen in this country; you have every right to. You don’t do that by offending national symbols like the national anthem and the flag of the United States.” http://www.kens5.com/news/politics/federal-judge-if-you-dont-like-trump-you-should-go-to-another-country/353652060

The federal magistrate judge for the Western District of Texas was promptly suspended because he offended leftist sensibilities. The federal district judges in San Antonio “have determined that he will no longer be handling citizenship ceremonies, and the judges are meeting with him to see how this matter can be resolved and concluded.” http://www.governing.com/topics/politics/tns-primomo-judge-trump.html

Americans are the luckiest people on the planet yet the paid anarchists came out for $15 an hour to say that America was never great, that we are a racist and intolerant country. If that is the case why are people around the world flocking to America? Are they doing it for the generous welfare system?

What is wrong with these misguided Americans? Have they ever traveled to an intolerant totalitarian regime that kills and stones women to death and pushes gays off buildings? Have they had to do without food, a place to live, without their beloved smart devices, without their automobiles, without abundant grocery stores filled with food to the brim, without toilet paper, without medical care, drugs, hospitals, and a clean bed? Were they stopped for I.D. checks, arrested, beaten, tortured? Do they understand how lucky they are to have been born in the one country that has been the envy of the world, the country they are so eager to destroy?

We keep hearing from this administration and the left, “This is not the American way, this is not who we are.” What is the American way? Is the American way what progressives decide? Is the American way what globalists, the Islamists, and the gay lobby decide? If we disagree with them, and we do, they are going to ram the leftist communist ideology down our throats. If we protest, we are racists, islamophobes, bigots, homophobes, and all the other words the suffix “phobe” can be attached to. The Islamophiles and Marxist media continue their indoctrination of the silent masses and of the youth.

America embraces gays, tolerates the burning of our flag, the desecration of tombs and cemeteries, of historical monuments, tolerates moronic athletes who talk about racism when they live in multi-million dollar homes and are raised by white people, tolerates leftist college students who are so brainwashed and scared of their own shadow, they need a safe space away from reality.

America is so tolerant that they give degrees to people who should have never been given admission to a college, socially promotes people based on the color of their skin, not necessarily on their achievement or merit because we have quotas.

America is so tolerant, it’s being invaded by outsiders who don’t want to become Americans; they want to destroy America. Americans open their homes, their hearts, and their pocketbooks and they put these invaders on welfare while their own veterans die waiting to be cared for in VA hospitals. Veterans live modestly on insufficient pensions while illegals receive larger paychecks the moment they set foot on our soil.

Americans are so tolerant that they turn a blind eye and deaf ears to the race baiting coming non-stop from this administration, to the murder of police, to the destructive paid rioting that has only one goal in mind, to replace our constitutional republic’s electoral process with the popular vote driven by mob rule.

Americans turn a blind eye to the invasion from our southern border, to the Reconquista sanctioned by La Raza who believes America is rightfully theirs.

America is so tolerant that we give nukes and billions in aid to countries that are sponsors of terrorism, to countries that hate Americans and wish us harm, to countries that kidnap our citizens. Americans protect the ungrateful Europeans who snub our culture and demonstrate a disdain, hatred, and anti-Americanism never before exhibited.

Americans are so tolerant that we allowed our public schools to become indoctrination farms into global communism with the help of Common Core, the Department of Education, and the vaunted collegiate academia. Their pupils are now among those who are pushing for “forward,” “hope and change,” “fundamental transformation,” “social justice,” impossible “equality,” and replacing our Constitutional Republic with a “democracy” ruled by anarchists. As such, the Electoral College, an important element of our republic, must be destroyed, no more checks and balances.

There is more hate, intolerance, disinformation, and lies coming from the progressive left than we can possibly quantify in a lifetime. Until we change the entire education system back to patriotic American values, citizenship, culture, borders, family, freedom of faith, and accurate American history, we are not going to win the war against the globalists.