Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Judicious use of technology
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/show/
Herf wrote:
Is it just me, or does it look like Barry is taking a leak on the Fillmore armchair (or whatever the chair is)?
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Sugar and spice and Princeton and Harvard degrees and . . .
"Elizabeth and Michelle: Best Friends Forever" --Globe and Mail
with thanks to Hoser for pointing this out
with thanks to Hoser for pointing this out
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Fighting the wrong fight
Right-wing Catholics vs. Obama
by Joan Walsh
Wednesday April 1, 2009 17:04 EDT
I've tried to ignore the controversy over the University of Notre Dame's invitation to President Obama to give its commencement speech in May. I don't believe the effort to block his visit can succeed. For more than 30 years it's been a tradition for the renowned Catholic university to invite the new U.S. president to give the address and receive a doctorate from the law school. Nobody protested when George W. Bush visited, despite his ardent support for the death penalty, which the Catholic Church opposes.
But the growing movement to stop Obama's visit isn't your ho-hum sort of Catholic League media dust-up, where Bill Donohue harumphs on television and then goes away. It's part of a well-funded lobbying effort by a group of right-wing Catholics to run liberal Catholics, and dissenting doctrine, out of the church, and to recruit the remainder of the faithful for the GOP. As the L.A. Times' Tim Rutten reports, it's been organized by the Cardinal Newman Society, no relation with the nice liberal Newman Centers that do outreach to Catholic kids on college campuses.
This is a group of rabid right-wingers who came together to make sure Catholic universities enforce Catholic doctrine. They publish the work of ultra-right Opus Dei member Rev. C. John McCloskey, who has argued that "for a university to be truly Catholic," its faculty must be "exclusively" Catholic. Operation Rescue fanatic Randall Terry, who converted to Catholicism recently, is bringing his special kind of crazy to the movement. "The faithful Catholic world is justly enraged at the treachery of Notre Dame's leadership," Terry rants. "Notre Dame will rue the day they invited this agent of death to speak." Once a thug, always a thug.
Today the Washington Post's Michael Gerson weighs in with what purports to be a fair and balanced approach to the controversy. He urges the protesters to back off some -- they should respect the office of the president, if not Obama! -- but he accuses Obama of stiffing Catholic supporters in his first 70 days, due to his moves to lift the antiabortion gag rule on contraception counseling abroad and Bush's ban on federal funds for stem-cell research. Gerson warns darkly that Catholics are turning their backs on Obama, pointing to a Pew poll that found the number of Catholics who disapprove of his job performance has increased 9 percent over the last month (Gerson says 9 points, but it looks like it increased 14 points to me). But 59 percent of Catholics still think Obama's doing a good job, the same percent as Americans do overall.
Even more interesting is this Gallup poll, released Monday, that finds Catholics are actually more liberal than other Americans on the so-called moral issues the Cardinal Newman Society seeks to use as a wedge. Polling more than 3,000 people, Gallup found that Catholics are more likely to think abortion, stem cell research, gay relationships and sex before marriage are "morally acceptable" than non-Catholic Americans. Even devout churchgoing Catholics are more liberal on those issues than devout churchgoing Christians of other denominations.
Although Father Andrew Greeley's research has been documenting Catholic liberalism since the 1970s -- Catholics are more likely than other religious groups to intermarry, religiously and racially, for instance -- my people have long been stereotyped as close-minded. There's still some class disdain that hangs over from 19th century WASP derision of dumb white "ethnics," particularly the Irish.
This also has personal resonance with me because my daughter attends Fordham University, New York's great Jesuit institution in the Bronx, where she's a leader of the College Democrats and is thriving in the free-thinking, compassionate community she's found there. This month her College Republican colleagues are bringing Newt Gingrich, the twice-divorced GOP leader who in fact served his first wife her divorce papers when she was recovering from breast cancer. Not terribly Christian, if you ask me. But no one challenges Gingrich's right to speak at Fordham -- including me.
We don't need a new Inquisition in our Catholic universities, we need them to model reason and compassion, and most do. One factor that helped us choose Fordham was a serendipitous NPR profile of Rabbi David Hartman, who runs the Shalom Hartman Institute for interfaith community in Jerusalem, and who credited his time at Fordham for helping him more deeply understand Judaism. That's the kind of environment a college student deserves; if Fordham ever adopted the Cardinal Newman Society approach, it wouldn't be Fordham anymore.
Luckily, Notre Dame's president, Father John Jenkins, is holding fast to his plan to host Obama, calling the president "an inspiring leader." According to Tim Rutten, 73 percent of Notre Dame students -- and 97 percent of its seniors -- support the Obama invitation. Young Catholics are even more liberal than their parents, so the work of the Cardinal Newman Society will be increasingly futile as the years pass. Futile, but noxious nonetheless.
-- Joan Walsh
Register your support here.
In the year 2009 . . .
Good news for chubby midwesterners everywhere.
CONAN: in the year 2000, andy richter will successfully cross over into gay porn, with the smash hit "69 on the richter scale."
---
huh. evidently in the earliest days of the show Conan thought it was okay to use brow liner. huh.
CONAN: in the year 2000, andy richter will successfully cross over into gay porn, with the smash hit "69 on the richter scale."
---
huh. evidently in the earliest days of the show Conan thought it was okay to use brow liner. huh.
NO.
The spouse drew to my attention:
10 Affordable Places to Retire
By Emily Brandon, US News
Mar 31st, 2009
Boost your retirement prospects by picking a low-cost locale.
Most baby boomers don't have enough left in their 401(k) to kick back in Napa Valley or exit the mainland for Honolulu. Retirement dreams are being delayed and downsized. Even before the recession began, most Americans were behind on their retirement savings. And, let's face it, baby boomers are unlikely to recoup their losses anytime soon.
But there's a lot you can do to boost your retirement prospects by picking a low-cost locale. There are plenty of places where you can scale back your cost of living without reducing your quality of life. If you move to a city with a lower cost of housing than where you live now, it's a quick boost to your nest egg. In some cases, retirees can even get a better house for less money and reduce their tax bill, both of which will help your remaining retirement dollars stretch farther. "There's two factors that account for most of the difference in cost of living between two areas: housing and taxes, and housing more than taxes," says David Savageau, author of Retirement Places Rated. "You could flip a house in D.C. and go to Albuquerque or Iowa City and be better housed for one third the money and bank the rest and fund your retirement."
To find a few affordable retirement spots, we fired up our U.S. News best places to retire search tool. We sought out places with a low cost of living, giving considerable weight to affordable housing. But far from being out in the boonies, these places also offer access to arts and culture, sports, healthcare, and other amenities that retirees want and need in a retirement location. Every spot on our list has a median home price below $150,000, and many have important tax perks for retirees.
Retired hospital administrator Cynthia Nesson, 62, left behind a pricey suburb of Atlanta for a trendy loft with a private rooftop terrace offering up a view of Lookout Mountain in downtown Chattanooga, Tenn. "This would have cost four times as much in Atlanta as it did here," she says. Since retiring four years ago, Nesson has formed a yarn co-op, and she sells the shawls and bags she creates. It helps that there's no state income tax in Tennessee. Dividends from stocks and interest from bonds and notes are taxed, but residents over age 65 bringing in less than $16,200 annually from their portfolio ($27,000 for couples) are exempt.
Florida also doesn't levy personal income, inheritance, or gift taxes. And the sales tax rate hovers at 6 percent. Real estate can be quite expensive in many parts of the state, though. Retirees with an eye on their bottom line might do well to pass over high-cost Orlando and give nearby Cocoa, where the median home price is just $121,250, a closer look. "If you can live a little further out, you are going to find some great bargains," says Bert Sperling, founder of BestPlaces.net.
Multibillionaire Warren Buffett bought a five-bedroom stucco house in Omaha for $31,500 in 1958. He still lives there. The median home price in Omaha has risen a bit since then—to $113,044—but that's still an affordable price for most Americans. Plus, you won't have to travel far to attend the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders' meeting, known as "Woodstock for capitalists."
College towns also generally offer a great value for the money. "You will be able to see live plays, hear world-famous performers of music, and get all kinds of things that only big, expensive cities would normally support, and you can get them in a much less expensive place in a college town," says Andrew Schiller, founder and CEO of NeighborhoodScout.com. Seniors get a discount on tickets to Carnegie Mellon School of Music concerts in Pittsburgh, for example, and some shows are even free. State residents age 60 and older can even audit classes free at both the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and Binghamton University in New York. "We have a performing arts center, and they put on operas, and we go to games at the university and to the theater department. They have a good symphony orchestra," says Cornelius Lorden, 77, a retired high school principal, about Binghamton, N.Y. He and his wife, Eleanor, 73, a retired nurse, have considered moving to pricey White Plains, N.Y., to be closer to their son and daughter-in-law, but the low cost of living, coupled with a great quality of life, is keeping them upstate. To boost their pension and Social Security income, the couple recently downsized from a house to a condo. "We sold our house for double the amount we paid for the condo," says Cornelius.
Sports fans will be drawn to the Division I sports at the University of Notre Dame. Admirers of the Fighting Irish have a block party in downtown South Bend, Ind., every Friday evening before a home football game. Ray McFadden, 88, a retired Dow Chemical Co. manager and his wife, Marion, 85, recently moved from Arizona to Holy Cross Village at Notre Dame, a retirement community affiliated with the university. "We are within walking distance of three colleges: Notre Dame, Holy Cross College, and St. Mary's," he says. "The activity level here is almost more than one person can handle at a time." Affordable housing is just an extra perk. The median South Bend home price, $81,396, will give you plenty left over to spend on hot dogs.
Yet, many baby boomers will not be able to give up working entirely. "People are living longer in retirement, and you may need to live in a location where you might be able to pick up some employment, should you need it," says Schiller. But work can be difficult to find, unless you live in San Antonio—one of just three large areas in the United States that saw significant gains in employment in the past year. And with a median home price of just $142,310 and no state income tax in Texas, your nest egg will stretch even farther.
Affordable transportation should also be an important consideration, especially if you can't or don't want to drive. Downsizing from two cars to one or even going automobile free can boost your budget if there are other ways to get around town. Senior citizens age 65 and over in Pittsburgh can ride Port Authority buses and trains for free at all times if they have a Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Senior Citizen Identification card or a Medicare card. And Montgomery, Ala., seniors who need to can take a cab to medical appointments or the nearest pharmacy for just $3 each way, and the Montgomery Area Council on Aging funds the remaining fare. But while housing, taxes, and transportation costs are important, a variety of other factors should be weighed before you move. Consider the quality of healthcare available, proximity to grandchildren, access to an airport if you plan to travel, and even the weather, before you move.
Many of the most exciting activities, of course, cost barely anything at all. Be on the lookout for low-cost and free things to do, like learning about comets, quasars, black holes at the Goddard Planetarium or hiking through the Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Roswell, N.M. And don't forget to ask for a senior discount. One of 67-year-old Jan Clarkowski's favorite things to do in Eau Claire, Wis., is go out for a simple drive with her husband, Richard. He drives his antique Harley, and she rides in the sidecar.
Here are 10 great affordable places to retire.
1. Binghamton, NY
2. Chattanooga, Tenn.
3. Cocoa, Fla.
4. Eau Claire, Wis.
5. Montgomery, Ala.
6. Omaha, Neb.
7. Pittsburgh, Penn.
8. Roswell, NM
9. San Antonio, Tex.
10. South Bend, Ind.
10 Affordable Places to Retire
By Emily Brandon, US News
Mar 31st, 2009
Boost your retirement prospects by picking a low-cost locale.
Most baby boomers don't have enough left in their 401(k) to kick back in Napa Valley or exit the mainland for Honolulu. Retirement dreams are being delayed and downsized. Even before the recession began, most Americans were behind on their retirement savings. And, let's face it, baby boomers are unlikely to recoup their losses anytime soon.
But there's a lot you can do to boost your retirement prospects by picking a low-cost locale. There are plenty of places where you can scale back your cost of living without reducing your quality of life. If you move to a city with a lower cost of housing than where you live now, it's a quick boost to your nest egg. In some cases, retirees can even get a better house for less money and reduce their tax bill, both of which will help your remaining retirement dollars stretch farther. "There's two factors that account for most of the difference in cost of living between two areas: housing and taxes, and housing more than taxes," says David Savageau, author of Retirement Places Rated. "You could flip a house in D.C. and go to Albuquerque or Iowa City and be better housed for one third the money and bank the rest and fund your retirement."
To find a few affordable retirement spots, we fired up our U.S. News best places to retire search tool. We sought out places with a low cost of living, giving considerable weight to affordable housing. But far from being out in the boonies, these places also offer access to arts and culture, sports, healthcare, and other amenities that retirees want and need in a retirement location. Every spot on our list has a median home price below $150,000, and many have important tax perks for retirees.
Retired hospital administrator Cynthia Nesson, 62, left behind a pricey suburb of Atlanta for a trendy loft with a private rooftop terrace offering up a view of Lookout Mountain in downtown Chattanooga, Tenn. "This would have cost four times as much in Atlanta as it did here," she says. Since retiring four years ago, Nesson has formed a yarn co-op, and she sells the shawls and bags she creates. It helps that there's no state income tax in Tennessee. Dividends from stocks and interest from bonds and notes are taxed, but residents over age 65 bringing in less than $16,200 annually from their portfolio ($27,000 for couples) are exempt.
Florida also doesn't levy personal income, inheritance, or gift taxes. And the sales tax rate hovers at 6 percent. Real estate can be quite expensive in many parts of the state, though. Retirees with an eye on their bottom line might do well to pass over high-cost Orlando and give nearby Cocoa, where the median home price is just $121,250, a closer look. "If you can live a little further out, you are going to find some great bargains," says Bert Sperling, founder of BestPlaces.net.
Multibillionaire Warren Buffett bought a five-bedroom stucco house in Omaha for $31,500 in 1958. He still lives there. The median home price in Omaha has risen a bit since then—to $113,044—but that's still an affordable price for most Americans. Plus, you won't have to travel far to attend the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders' meeting, known as "Woodstock for capitalists."
College towns also generally offer a great value for the money. "You will be able to see live plays, hear world-famous performers of music, and get all kinds of things that only big, expensive cities would normally support, and you can get them in a much less expensive place in a college town," says Andrew Schiller, founder and CEO of NeighborhoodScout.com. Seniors get a discount on tickets to Carnegie Mellon School of Music concerts in Pittsburgh, for example, and some shows are even free. State residents age 60 and older can even audit classes free at both the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and Binghamton University in New York. "We have a performing arts center, and they put on operas, and we go to games at the university and to the theater department. They have a good symphony orchestra," says Cornelius Lorden, 77, a retired high school principal, about Binghamton, N.Y. He and his wife, Eleanor, 73, a retired nurse, have considered moving to pricey White Plains, N.Y., to be closer to their son and daughter-in-law, but the low cost of living, coupled with a great quality of life, is keeping them upstate. To boost their pension and Social Security income, the couple recently downsized from a house to a condo. "We sold our house for double the amount we paid for the condo," says Cornelius.
Sports fans will be drawn to the Division I sports at the University of Notre Dame. Admirers of the Fighting Irish have a block party in downtown South Bend, Ind., every Friday evening before a home football game. Ray McFadden, 88, a retired Dow Chemical Co. manager and his wife, Marion, 85, recently moved from Arizona to Holy Cross Village at Notre Dame, a retirement community affiliated with the university. "We are within walking distance of three colleges: Notre Dame, Holy Cross College, and St. Mary's," he says. "The activity level here is almost more than one person can handle at a time." Affordable housing is just an extra perk. The median South Bend home price, $81,396, will give you plenty left over to spend on hot dogs.
Yet, many baby boomers will not be able to give up working entirely. "People are living longer in retirement, and you may need to live in a location where you might be able to pick up some employment, should you need it," says Schiller. But work can be difficult to find, unless you live in San Antonio—one of just three large areas in the United States that saw significant gains in employment in the past year. And with a median home price of just $142,310 and no state income tax in Texas, your nest egg will stretch even farther.
Affordable transportation should also be an important consideration, especially if you can't or don't want to drive. Downsizing from two cars to one or even going automobile free can boost your budget if there are other ways to get around town. Senior citizens age 65 and over in Pittsburgh can ride Port Authority buses and trains for free at all times if they have a Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Senior Citizen Identification card or a Medicare card. And Montgomery, Ala., seniors who need to can take a cab to medical appointments or the nearest pharmacy for just $3 each way, and the Montgomery Area Council on Aging funds the remaining fare. But while housing, taxes, and transportation costs are important, a variety of other factors should be weighed before you move. Consider the quality of healthcare available, proximity to grandchildren, access to an airport if you plan to travel, and even the weather, before you move.
Many of the most exciting activities, of course, cost barely anything at all. Be on the lookout for low-cost and free things to do, like learning about comets, quasars, black holes at the Goddard Planetarium or hiking through the Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Roswell, N.M. And don't forget to ask for a senior discount. One of 67-year-old Jan Clarkowski's favorite things to do in Eau Claire, Wis., is go out for a simple drive with her husband, Richard. He drives his antique Harley, and she rides in the sidecar.
Here are 10 great affordable places to retire.
1. Binghamton, NY
2. Chattanooga, Tenn.
3. Cocoa, Fla.
4. Eau Claire, Wis.
5. Montgomery, Ala.
6. Omaha, Neb.
7. Pittsburgh, Penn.
8. Roswell, NM
9. San Antonio, Tex.
10. South Bend, Ind.
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