Save Stogie from foreclosure

Last year when Stacy McCain was under attack by the Left, Stogie helped to rout the attackers thanks to his personal knowledge that they were using bogus charges. Now Stogie is in trouble — he has been out of work for over a year. His savings have run out. He has missed his July mortgage payment and might miss August, too. Bill collectors are calling. Even a small donation will help because every donation gives him another reason to hope and loosens the grip of fear so he can think properly and make a new plan.

If you are wondering — yes, the book I advertise here, Stuart Lichtman’s How to Get Lots of Money for Anything — Fast,* DOES help in situations like this because it teaches you how to get your conscious and unconscious minds to work in harmony to achieve your goals and shows you how to turn self-defeating patterns into supportive ones. If you are skeptical about it because I’m recommending it and I’m not rich — now — that’s because I haven’t really described the challenges I’ve had to overcome.

I’ve decided it’s time to do that because it will put posts I’m planning on the nature of conservatism versus the nature of liberalism in context. I’ve held back because I was worried about affecting my ability to get a job in the future — you know, like nothing else I’ve written here would ever come back and bite me in the ass. However, my best hope is to make it as a writer and entrepreneur, so it’s time to commit and that means being forthcoming about my challenges. My intention is that my dear gentle readers will see the congruence between my life and my writing and that people with similar challenges will see their path to overcoming them.

Right now — please help Stogie by going to his place and clicking his “Donate” button.

*This is an affiliate link, which means I receive a commission if you buy the book and do not tamper with the link. The book is worth more than Stuart charges for it and he provides a LOT of value for the money, including how to apply his techniques to finding the perfect job, losing weight (it works!) and finding your perfect spouse or business partner. If you are intrigued, but on the fence, then try his free mini-course.

‘I’m very happy in my old age’

Dad had severe back pain in June and part of the treatment has been physical therapy for him in a swimming pool. The practice treating him has a deal with the health club where we belong to use one of their pools, so I go work out on one of the elliptical machines while Dad is exercising.

Today (Friday) Dad had PT at the pool and it was the kind of sparkling clear weather in the high 80’s that is typical of Maryland in late July and August. Since neither one of us gets out very much, and Dad goes out less than I do, after Dad’s therapy session we sat by the pool at a table in the shade of an umbrella and just enjoyed being out among people in the fresh air for a couple of hours.

Instead of driving straight home, since it was cool enough — the air conditioning in my car isn’t working so rides with Dad in the car have to be short to keep him from overheating — I decided to see if the farm in Forest Hill where we used to buy Raritan Rose peaches still has a produce stand. Harford county is heaven in the summer because the mimosas are in bloom (their pink flowers have an ethereally sweet scent and look other-worldly), crabs are in season and fresh fruits and vegetables are ripe. This is when we feast on peaches, tomatoes, corn, cantaloupe, watermelon and patty pans squashes.

The peaches I love the most are a white-fleshed variety with an intense rose blush, scent and flavor called Raritan Rose. My problem is that I can’t find farm produce stands that label the varieties of peaches they sell. I learned to treasure knowing the names of varieties of fruits and vegetables in college when I went to the farmer’s market in Ann Arbor every week. Michigan has lots of apple orchards and the farmers would show the names of their apples and give wedges as samples. My favorites then were Paula Red and Ida Red. Nowadays I don’t hold with eating an heirloom tomato unless we have been properly introduced and I know its name, pretty much because I would be very frustrated if I liked it and didn’t know its name and therefore couldn’t grow it myself.

I got a bit lost but it was such a lovely day in the rolling fields that we were in no hurry and I stopped at the produce stands we came across. One knew their yellow peaches were Red Havens, but did not know the name of the white peaches — I bought them on spec anyway.

Our final destination was the produce stand on Rt. 22 for Lohr’s Orchard, because they sell peach seconds by the peck and half bushel. The seconds were all yellow peaches — probably Red Haven — and I bought a half bushel along with some unknown white peaches, blueberries, plums and corn. I meant to buy green tomatoes, but forgot.

We had an hour at home for Dad to change so we could go to see our local minor league baseball team, the Ironbirds. We had sandwiches for dinner and arrived at Ripken Stadium after the game had started. (Due to Dad’s low-sodium diet, there’s hardly anything at the stadium that he can eat so we had to eat at home — although tonight I discovered a new treat there and bought him a pint of french vanilla Turkey Hill ice cream.)

The Ironbirds played the Brooklyn Cyclones and got trounced, 11-3. Sigh. Nevertheless, it is a beautiful and intimate stadium, and again, we were out and about, in glorious weather, so it was fun just to be there. Plus, we began to chat with a woman in our row and, glory hallelujah!, she knew the name of the farm in Delta, Pennsylvania, that is probably the supplier for some of the produce stands I visited — Susquehanna Orchards, WHICH TELLS YOU THE NAMES OF THE VARIETIES OF PEACHES THEY SELL. So we are DEFINITELY going to pay them a call next week.

On the way home, I asked Dad how his day was, and he answered, “I’m very happy in my old age.”

Yes. Heaven.

One small conviction reversed on a technicality for a polygamist, one giant leap for polygamy

On Tuesday the Utah Supreme Court reversed the  convictions of polygamist Warren Jeffs of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints of felony rape as an accomplice based on a technicality having to do with how the jury was instructed at his trial in 2007. Following the ruling a hearing to decide whether to extradite Jeffs to Texas to face charges there was canceled.

I am not expecting to read denunciations of polygamy in general and Jeffs in particular by Maggie Gallagher of the National Organization for Marriage any time soon, or, well … ever. I also am not expecting the Mormon Church to mobilize its members against polygamy the way it has against same-sex marriage equality, no matter how often it claims that marriage is between one man and one woman.

While NOM and the Mormon Church have been very effective at claiming that the word “marriage” should belong to and be defined by religions that reject the validity of same-sex marriage — and only those religions — I seem to be the first person to notice the definition of marriage varies significantly according to the religion that is defining it — and that no religion has more definitions of marriage than the Mormon church.

According to the Mormon church, the only real marriage is a celestial marriage, which is a union between a male and female who are both Mormon, who both have been sufficiently obedient to the church elders and hierarchy and current with their tithes to have a “temple recommend,” and which is performed in a Mormon temple. According to the Mormon church, absolutely no other form of marriage is truly spiritual or sacred. Mormons also practiced polygamy, which they prefer to call “plural marriage,” until 1904. Currently mainstream Mormons can be excommunicated for practicing plural marriage, but the church’s official Web site leaves open — to people who understand the structure of the Mormon church — that its prophet may have a revelation any minute that re-institutes plural marriage. The third form of marriage is any marriage performed outside of a Mormon temple — it is spiritually inferior. By definition. By people who are not you. And who practice a different religion. Which they are grooming you to accept by convincing you that only an anti-gay religion can define marriage. Which will pretty soon morph into bullying you into agreeing that only the Mormon religion can define marriage. Then you are REALLY going to have to jump through some hoops.

To get a peek into the brave new world of polygamy — oops! plural marriage! — check out a recent story on Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the National Geographic. My father subscribes so in a subsequent issue in the “Letters to the Editor” section, I saw that one reader explained how the polygamists can afford to have so many wives and children: since their marriages are religious, but not legal, only one spouse is lawful and therefore related but all the other spouses are not so they — and their children — are eligible for welfare. In other words, polygamists game the system and live off their Uncle Sam — who takes the money from you, Joe and Jane Taxpayer — until that happy, happy day when they have enough votes to take over.

Call me crazy, but the gay agenda of simple and total equality still leaves our Constitution and democratic republic in place and I’ve got to say that it looks a lot better than having our Constitution overthrown and replaced by any religion.

If you want to learn how to get along with quadriplegics, read John Callahan

A cartoon by quadriplegic cartoonist John Callahan with a woman behind a counter telling a customer, "This is a feminist bookstore! There is no humor section!"

A cartoon by quadriplegic cartoonist John Callahan of two panhandlers next to each other on a street corner, both are just a head on a small box, but the one with two good eyes says to the one wearing an eyepatch, "People like you are an inspiration to me."

I see from a post by dear Fausta that quadriplegic cartoonist John Callahan died on Saturday of complications of quadriplegia and respiratory problems. FYI, most quads can move their arms but lack dexterity in their hands. If you are wondering what kinds of complications quadriplegia has, he could have gotten sepsis from a pressure sore or a urinary tract infection (from his bladder stoma, catheter, tubing or catheter bag). Quadriplegia can make it hard to cough, which you need to do to clear your lungs, so that could have caused respiratory problems. Or the person reporting his death thought he had respiratory problems when really he had the death rattle common at the end of life.

Years ago I read Callahan’s first autobiography, He Won’t Get Far on Foot. He was unsparing of himself in writing about his life. The passages that come to my mind the most often were about the difficulty of getting a quadriplegic person dressed in pants and getting the creases and seams where they belong — I thought of that every time I dressed my late life partner, Margaret Ardussi, who was quadriplegic the last 10 years of her life due to MS — and the foods he could afford with his food stamps — beans were a staple.

If you understand the battle of the severely depressed to live just one more day — day after day — then you will get John’s song about how even the smallest waves of joy, and ordinary beauties, nourish the soul enough to regenerate the resolve to live. It is piercingly beautiful. (If you currently have depression, do NOT listen to this song, instead immediately click the “Humor” category in this blog and get the hell out of this post. Or scroll down to “I don’t know why he swallowed the fly” — FAST! NOW! GO!)

Update, 7/28/2010: I guess it makes sense that dear, irreverent Kathy Shaidle also was a fan of John Callahan’s. Do go to her place and read what she’s got, but also check out a story she links with the great headline, “Tales from the Crip,” especially if you were wondering about who dyed his hair. It’s not the kind of thing you notice unless you’ve lived with quadriplegia, but Callahan did NOT have the most appropriate wheelchair for his mobility, so it’s no wonder the one he had hurt his back and required him to be bedridden most of the time — he should have been in a tilt-in-space/recliner chair with electric leg lifts. Then he could have changed positions for pressure relief.

I’m pretty sure we need a federal civil rights law ensuring equality for gays and lesbians before the one for photographers

I was browsing at Ace of Spades HQ and a story there by Maetenloch about law enforcement officers harassing photographers caught my eye because it mentions a case about a Maryland man — who lives near me — who is on trial for videotaping his own arrest for speeding on his motorcycle. This is an issue that Instapundit, aka law professor Glenn Reynolds, follows and Maetenloch linked a piece by Prof. Reynolds published at Popular Mechanics a week ago. Here’s what caught my eye (boldfacing mine):

Not surprisingly, police tend to be particularly sensitive about being photographed themselves. And many of the cases cited by Manning involve officers discouraging citizens from filming them while they go about their duties. Though one can understand their skittishness, the fact is, our ability to document the actions of public officials is an important freedom, one that can serve as a check against abuses.

Police and prosecutors in Maryland have been taking a particularly hard line. In one case, motorcycle rider Anthony Graber left his helmet cam on while he was pulled over by a state trooper. A grand jury indicted him on several violations of the state’s wiretapping laws. If convicted on all charges, Graber could face up to 16 years in prison. In alleging that the GoPro video camera on Graber’s helmet constituted a “surreptitious” wiretapping device, prosecutors are making the claim that a person recording his own arrest is violating the police officer’s right to privacy.

This is the sort of thing you might be tempted simply to toss in the crazy file. But, in fact, this is one of the comparatively few issues that could merit a new federal civil rights law. Under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, Congress is empowered to pass laws protecting civil rights against infringement by state and local officials, and that seems to be what’s happening here. A clear federal law would limit cases, like Maryland’s, in which local officials use their power to harass those who might keep an eye on them. Passing such a law would make us all safer.

So lesbians and gays are supposed to fight state-by-state for equality — which conservatives advocate because they know it will be an exercise in futility — but PHOTOGRAPHERS merit a federal civil rights law? GET IN LINE, PHOTOGRAPHERS!

In the same spirit, I invite GOProud Chair Christopher R. Barron to resign from GOProud for his stupefying failure of vision and leadership in his exhortation this week in The Advocate for gays to abandon the fight for same-sex marriage equality and instead become fiscal conservatives:

While the debate over marriage continues, we as a community should support pragmatic reforms that will reduce discrimination against gay and lesbian couples while at the same time strengthening these systems for all Americans.

It is time for the self-appointed leadership of Gay, Inc. to recognize that with leadership comes responsibility. If you claim to speak for the gay community, if you claim to set the agenda for our community, then you have a requirement to make sure you support legislation and policy initiatives that would improve the lives of gay and lesbian Americans today. It is time to abandon marriage or bust.

No, Mr. Barron, it is NOT time to abandon the quest for same-sex marriage equality. However, it IS time for people of real vision and leadership and courage to point out that EQUALITY for lesbians and gays is indeed a matter of the liberty that conservatives purport to hold sacred and that equality is only real when it is federally guaranteed. Criminy, if the liberty of photographers deserves a federal civil rights law, then the noble aspirations of lesbians and gays to marry, serve in the military, adopt children and to be free of discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations DESERVES A FEDERAL CIVIL RIGHTS LAW FIRST.

Lesbians and gays are a natural constituency of fiscal conservatism because discrimination forces so many of us to become self-employed as individuals or as small business owners. In addition, we know we cannot look to the government for handouts. There are two reasons that there are not more lesbians and gays who are fiscal conservatives — first, social conservatives use the government to force us into second-class citizenship in a deliberate effort to destroy as many gay and lesbian people as they can, and second, social conservatives drive lesbians and gays out of the conservative movement.

So, rather than calling on gays and lesbians to be second-class citizens in perpetuity and fight for the causes of a movement that intentionally destroys our lives, why not call out the conservative movement and explain how many of our conservative goals of improving the morality of individuals and society will be met by the socializing benefits available only to first-class citizens AND how much easier it will be to get the programs advocated by fiscal conservatives enacted into law AFTER gays and lesbians get a federal civil rights law ensuring our equality. This would gut the Left because it would take from them a constituency whose priorities they have vowed to stall forever and yet who performs prodigious amounts of labor and donates even more prodigious amounts of cash — all in quest of the birthright every other American takes for granted: EQUALITY. Nothing would expose the Left as a fraud faster or more effectively.

I don’t know why he swallowed the fly, Keyboard Cat, perhaps he’ll … have a freakass ghetto meltdown

OK, I’m pretty sure I came across the following Keyboard Cat cover act by actor Ron Livingston at icanhascheezburger.com, and I will take you on the journey through YouTube that it sparked:

This led to a reporter who swallowed a fly — I don’t know why he swallowed the fly — but hijinks ensued because you can take the boy out of the ghetto, but apparently you can’t take the ghetto out of the boy*:

Naturally Keyboard Cat had to be summoned to play his bitch punkass off:

And THEN came the parody because very few people have the kind of money it takes to keep comedy gold this pure off of YouTube:

*Racism hypervigilance alert: This is a parody of the old expression, which applies to men of all ages and races, “You can take the boy out of the farm but you can’t get the farm out of the boy.”

Best. Health Club. EVAH!!!

In late May 2007, I felt so good after all the work I had to do to get some 80-ish 15-gallon containers I use for my heirloom tomato garden from their winter home in the backyard to their summer home in the front yard that I knew I needed to get into some structured exercise programs to regain my health and have a shot at functioning well enough to be able to support myself. (I’ll explain more about that soon — I’ve finally decided to tell my story.)

I joined the Bel Air Athletic Club and recently I was considering a post in which I was going to poke a little fun at myself about having to work hard in my cardio class to keep up with the seventy-something instructors. I’d forgotten the name of one of them, but I was sure I could describe her by a unique characteristic, so I asked one of the assistant managers, “What is the name of the woman who sometimes substitute teaches the cardio class — the one who lost her foot to cancer?”

The assistant manager looked puzzled and then replied, “Which one? We have two.”

Best. Health club. EVAH!!!!!!!

Neo-neocon, A Connecticut Yankee’s lessons from trying to talk to a liberal

Neo-neocon is pondering how to talk to liberals tonight. I’m struck by her saying her liberal friends accused her of going over to the dark side because one of my friends who voted for Obama is now disgusted with him and sent around to her friends, including me, Robin of Berkeley’s recent post at American Thinker matching Obama’s behavior with the symptoms of various mental illnesses, “A shrink asks: what’s wrong with Obama?” Like neo-neocon, my friend thought she would get a rational discussion. Instead, ka-boom! from the liberals, who, wait for it, accused her of going over to the dark side!

My post answering neo-neocon on how to talk to liberals instantly transformed into my thoughts on how to talk to people who disagree with you on the basis of propaganda rather than information and who hate you with a passion — since I rather get that from both sides of the political spectrum — see above, “conservative lesbian” — and will take more time to finish than I want to spend right now. It is quite late and I need to get a full night’s sleep and wake up before my father does, so I am going to pass the baton to the capable hands of Mark Twain and my favorite chapter from his book, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, “Sixth Century Political Economy,” in which the Boss advocates the virtues of the free market to a blacksmith who favors protectionism. Spoiler alert: he wins but fails to consider how badly he frightens his audience in the process and they turn on him to save themselves — a pitfall to talking to liberals that it is worth assessing and avoiding to this day.