I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

IllinoisLady

E -- so true and now he is going to be a sitting duck out there with no one because when  all the wingers saw what was coming they high-tailed it.....just when Mr. B thought there was love and admiration.....their was nothing.  Stock in trade -- anything to make the guv-ment  look like the bullies they are not............and babes in the woods ( though he is extremely wrong ) get left with their foot in their mouth and no one around to help them get it out.

Jackie

IllinoisLady

GG - Thinking.....glad you are a retiree now for sure, huh !!!!

Jackie

IllinoisLady

IllinoisLady

First pic would not stay in here...grrr.  It has a pic of two cute babies and said, buy one, get one free.

Jackie

bluedahlia

Being a right wingnut himself, I think Bundy said what he thought the rest of the wingnuts wanted to hear, to hold him in higher esteem.

bluedahlia

Anonymous

GG - how wonderful, grandbabies!  YEAH

Blue - those pics are fabulous.,..how DO you find such wonderful things...

gardengumby

thanks ladies.  This is really cool on a couple fronts.  I'm so happy about it.  Hoping for grandsons for hubby.  It's actually his daughter but she lived with us for a long time.  Feels like she's mine.

crazy4carrots

Congrats, GG -- twins are double the pleasure, double the fun (so some folks say!).  My mother had twins.  She also had an au pair to help out, but as the twins got older, they were true partners in crime and used to give her 40 fits with the tricks they got up to!

Here's a little interesting story.  I play badminton twice a week, with usually about 10-12 other women.  We range in age from 35 to....wait for it....90!  Our oldest player turned 90 on Monday.  She's a fantastic player, by the way, and always cheerful.

Anyhow, today I asked her about the secret of her longevity and if she'd ever had any serious health problems.  For the former, she said that she always has plans -- trips, dinners out, sports etc.  She says it's SO VERY important to have stuff to look forward to.  She's off to Norway in the fall to see the fjords!

As for her health, she has had 4 children (no problems, had them at home) and has only suffered a broken arm!  Oh yes, she had her first mammogram at age 75 -- they found some calcifications but that's all.  She has shrunk about 4 inches and has a bit of a dowager's hump, and a wee bit of arthritis.  But otherwise, she's in great shape.

Sounds like she's had a charmed life, right?  Well, not exactly.  Her husband committed suicide at age 70, and her daughter did as well.  Bi-polar, she thinks, which had never been diagnosed.  Damn mental illness, so often ignored or misinterpreted, or hidden away.

Anyhow, seeing her every week makes me feel good, and a bit less inclined to moan about the little things that bug me!

GatorGal

just love the picture of Quinn.  Not a cat person be ause of allergies, but I'd try to snuggle that little guy if I could.  So glad things are working out between the two of them.

GG ... Congratulations on the twin news.  How fun!

Rainy and cold night at oriole park but enjoyed watching my grandson really getting into the game.  O's lost but we still had a good night!

Bundy ... One of those "give him a rope and he'll hang himself" kind of guys.  Don't think I really feel too sorry for him, though.  He seems to enjoy the limelight a little too much and that's what got him Into trouble.  

Have a great weekend, everyone!!

IllinoisLady

CfC -- what an inspiration your badminton partner/player is for you, and for me hearing about her.  She truly knows the secret of 'getting out of herself' and just being.  It is hard sometimes to "look" forward because there seems to be so much negativism floating around everywhere -- but she gets past it and leaves it in the dust.  Good for her. 

Jackie

GatorGal

sitting in bed this morning being lazy. My grandson is next to me watching the cars movie. I feel so blessed to have been such an important part of his life and love making memories with him. His other grandma told me that a friend had asked her if they shouldn't "wean him off me, due to my condition". Other grandma was offended .... And responded that they wanted him to spend as much time as he could with me for as long as I was around. I'm hoping that means I'll be at his high school graduation in 9 years! LOL!  Think I will take up badminton!  Maybe that is the secret to longevity!!

IllinoisLady

May be we all ought to take up badminton!!!!

People in the U.S. are living longer than ever before. Many seniors live active and healthy lives. But there's no getting around one thing: as we age, our bodies and minds change. There are things you can do to stay healthy and active as you age:

• Eat a balanceddiet
• Keep your mind andbodyactive
• Don't smoke
• Getregular checkups
• Practice safety habits to avoid accidents and preventfalls

NIH: National Institute on Aging

I was reading the part about keeping your mind AND body active. 

Hmmm, there goes my trail mix if I eat a balanced diet.......or I'll learn to snarfle up a whole lot less.

Jackie

IllinoisLady

Just read this article and decided I'd try to copy and paste it here as I wouldn't have to go back for the link info.

John Lott: The Key to Defeating Gun Lobbies

Posted byChad R. MacDonaldon Saturday, April 26, 2014 ·Leave a Comment 

We need to silence the man most responsible for the misinformation being spread about gun control

When it comes to the gun debate in America, there is one name that has inexplicably flown under the radar, and that name isJohn Lott. Even though this pundit for the gun lobbies makes regular television appearances, his embattled background has managed to stay obfuscated. That’s because John Lott doesn’t want to be written about, he wants to do the writing.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. There is a very good chance you have never heard of John Lott, hisquestionable history of bad data, or how important he is to theNRAand other gun lobbies. This piece will be to bring him to light, where he certainly doesn’t want to be, and show how integral this man is to the overall issue of gun violence in the USA.

Lott is most known for his book “More Guns, Less Crime” which exhorts the value of, you guessed it, more guns to decrease crime. This is a message the gun lobbies like of course, and so Lott gets paid to spread that message. He is a frequent “expert” called upon whenever the topic of guns comes up, and he writes a column for Fox News where he continues to forward a pro-gun agenda. And, whenever there is a mass shooting in America, there’s John Lott appearing on television to downplay the gun violence issue.

The problem is that the research he used to base his book upon is in dispute. Accusations have beenleveled at Lott of fraudulence, to which he has responded with claims that he lost his data in a computer crash. In the meantime, Lott’s books,based upon questionable data as they are, have become the cornerstone of gun lobby arguments and their base, which can prove rabid in their uncompromising stances. As this writer has experienced, when one speaks out against the gun lobbies, expect extreme resistance from gun advocates.

For the most part, gun lobby supporters don’t have much more to say than “You’re wrong!” They simply say it insistently. But those who do quote statistics in their arguments are using numbers taken from the works of John Lott. If those numbers are false, then arguments based upon them must be rendered moot.

Critics of Lott’s research are plentiful, although he dismisses them as “Liberal.” So it’s important to note this blistering rebukeby conservative pundit Michelle Malkin:

“Lott claims to have lost all of his data due to a computer crash. He financed the survey himself and kept no financial records. He has forgotten the names of the students who allegedly helped with the survey and who supposedly dialed thousands of survey respondents long-distance from their own dorm rooms using survey software Lott can’t identify or produce.

Assuming the survey data was lost in a computer crash, it is still remarkable that Lott could not produce a single, contemporaneous scrap of paper proving the survey’s existence, such as the research protocol or survey instrument.”

It is also important to note that John Lott has a history of vetting his own work under another pseudonym, “Mary Rosh.” This is not in question,Lott himself has admitted his use of the Rosh persona. Here’s Malkin again:

“By itself, there is nothing wrong with using a pseudonym. But Lott’s invention of Mary Rosh to praise his own research and blast other scholars is beyond creepy. And it shows his extensive willingness to deceive to protect and promote his work.”

John Lott is quick to respond to his critics, this writer included. But he remains unable to definitively address the specific problem of his questioned data. On twitter, he produced these links to absolve himself of these issues.

Two of the links provided were diversionary pivots that had nothing to do with the subject of his disputed data. Another was a collection of his responses to allegations of falsified research. All of Lott’s responses basically boiled down to his data is correct because he says so. Hardly substantial.

Thethird link, lists articles criticizing Lott’s data , each responded to by Lott. And the source John Lott continually uses to defend his own disputed data is… drum roll… his own website. He has done so with this writer, twice, and he has used it to respond to Malkin, as well as other critics. In fact, the only thing all three links had in common was that they originated from Lott’s sites.

In various responses, when he doesn’t try to pivot, Lott more or less says the same thing; he lost the data in a computer crash; he conducted a second smaller survey, and results were near enough to the original, non-existent survey to validate it; and that he has now provided the means for the survey to be replicated for whomever wants to prove him wrong.

Let’s break that down. John R. Lott lost all of his work in an extensive survey which was performed over the phone. He was unable to produce even one shred of that work. Not even one. But that’s okay because he did a second survey, and it got kinda the same results. And if we don’t like it, then we should go ahead and do that survey ourselves. Even though the very methodology of how he conducted the survey in the first place is one of the issues in question.

It needs to be said that, with his history of academia, Lott has to know what unacceptable answers these are. No boss would ever accept these excuses for work not done. No professor would ever pass you from a class with research this flubbed. And if the source of the information is itself flawed, then further information from that source cannot be admissible, let alone credible.

Lott has dismissed this writer and others for being far too beholden to similar critiques on Media Matters, which isn’t true. This piece, as well as previous ones about him, have used various sources. But, to answer his charges, this particular essay will continue to focus upon the conservative critique of Lott. As Michelle Malkin sums up charges against Lott succinctly and certainly holds no “Liberal bias,” then her account serves the purpose of exposing Lott’s research flaws:

“The most disturbing charge, first raised by retired University of California, Santa Barbara professor Otis Dudley Duncan and pursued by Australian computer programmer Tim Lambert, is that Lott fabricated a study claiming that 98 percent of defensive gun uses involved mere brandishing, as opposed to shooting. When Lott cited the statistic peripherally on page three of his book, he attributed it to “national surveys.” In the second edition, he changed the citation to “a national survey that I conducted.” “

Lott’s defenders, few that there are, also quote Lott’s own website. Here is “Luke” with a George Costanza profile picture, challenging me with the same link that Lott provides, which was previously dismissed in aprior article about Lott:

John R. Lott is quick to defend himself with himself. But as it is his work in question, the originator of said data cannot be taken as a reliable source of it’s defense. Hence Lott’s use of the “Mary Rosh” persona in the first place. Therefore, every defender of Lott’s data hiding behind a blatantly fake profile must be dismissed. Whether they are named “Mary Rosh” or “Luke” they are only illustrating the convoluted history of Lott’s work and his purposeful obfuscation of truth.

Consider; has John R. Lott Jr. intentionally falsified his data? This is what he denies. But if his only defense is incompetence, that’s not comforting or reassuring for people on either side of the gun debate. In the meantime, Lott’s “More Guns, Less Crime” continues to forward gun lobby arguments. Think about that. The major arguments of gun lobbies rely upon the work of a man who cannot exonerate himself from charges of fraudulent data. As this is the case thenmany major arguments of the gun lobbiescan be dismissed for good.

Gun lobby arguments are fallacies if based upon the work of John Lott. “More Guns, Less Crime” is a sales pitch, not a truth. Lott has managed to evade large scale public scrutiny while at the same time remaining a mouthpiece for the NRA and others. This needs to stop. Were it to be fully publicized how erroneous Lott’s research is, whether it’s because of purposeful deception or pure ignorance, the gun lobbies would be left scrambling.

Would this remove gun lobbies from the equation entirely? Of course not. Check the comments below. Gun advocates are sure to be raging against this article. Let them. It is pointless to engage them. They will only try to divert focus from Lott while tossing baseless accusations back at you.

John R. Lott Jr. is the key to defeating the gun lobbies. His data is either deliberately misleading or subject to ignorant methodology. It has been repeatedly defended only with his own responses. If Lott is held accountable for his mistakes and mis-truths, gun lobby talking points would get their volume turned down. It will be fully revealed how baseless many gun lobby arguments are. They are motivated by what they want, not how things are, and certainly aren’t interested in the greater good of the country.

Americans should be able to decide for themselves how to handle the issues of gun violence without vested interests shouting in their ears so loudly. John Lott’s story should be far bigger than it is. Perhaps you can help with that.

“Things come apart so easily when they have been held together with lies.” ~ Dorothy Allison

IllinoisLady

A true rancher or what Bundy might have thought he was:  http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/16/1292565/-An-Idahoan-shows-Bundy-what-a-real-Western-rancher-is

crazy4carrots

Great story about a true American patriot, Jackie.

I guess all you need to know about the GOP/TP can be summed up by their having made a hero out of a thief, racist and anti-American seditionist in the person of C. Bundy.

IllinoisLady

TRUE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IllinoisLady

Of course you know someone has to do this:

[Cliven Bundy, to "Home on the Range"]

Oh give me a home,
Where mah' cattle can roam.
Fer free, while others must pay.
Where now all that's heard,
Are encouraging words--
For militias arriving today.

Home, home on the range,
Where FoxNews and Hannity play.
Where the right-wing is heard,
And the gun nuts are stirred,
Getting crazier each broadcast day.

Now thanks to the right,
Public land is a blight,
You can really just take it by force.
We're loaded and locked,
I'm a rancher half-cocked,
My rights they exceed those of yours.

Now sometimes at night,
When the cable glows bright,
I think 'bout the wild creatures, too.
But that's gone in a burst,
Private sector is first.
Take your laws and your rules and screw you.

Home, home on the range,
Where FoxNews and Hannity play.
Where the right-wing is heard,
And the gun nuts are stirred,
Getting crazier each broadcast day.

Jackie

bluedahlia

"Music,
writing, theatre, action - I'm doing all those things. I like to write,
I'm even publishing a book of my poems pretty soon, stuff I had that I
realised wasn't for music. But songs are special. I find that music
liberates my imagination. When I sing my songs in public, that's a
dramatic act, not just acting as in theater, but a social act, real
action." - Jim Morrison in 1968

IllinoisLady

This was a OMG read for me....tsk, tsk....such desperation.   http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/24/1294259/-President-REALLY-5-Things-You-Don-t-Know-About-JEB

Some things in here I did not know or forgot, but tsk tsk.

Jackie

off to work.

IllinoisLady

Beautiful Sunday morning here but storms are the prediction starting just after noon some time.  They don't sound good at all.  Maybe hail, and maybe some tornado activity.  We are fortunate where we are that we don't seem to get it really bad things happening, but you still have to feel a lot of concern.  We have had once some straight line type winds but we did not do too bad right around our house.....still yet, power was gone for a week and lots of outside crews were in to repair lines and restore service. 

J. Morrison -- knows how to interact with life.  I can see why you like him so much Blue.  Some are genuine, some are not.

Jackie

bluedahlia

Jackie, he was a genius.  IQ 149.

hahaha.....

"Let's
just say I was testing the bounds of reality. I was curious to see what
would happen. That's all it was: just curiosity." -- Jim Morrison, Los
Angeles, 1969

Anonymous

Hope all in the path of these midwest storms are safe.

Only reason for Jeb to run is to "neutralize" the dynasty tag some might want to tag HRC with

But don't underestimate him, or his advisors - and his wife is from Mexico, & tho has a wee brush with the law when she tried to smuggle some stuff in thru customs, DOES speak Spanish, as does Jeb and all his family.  Daughter had ( has?) serious problem with drugs, but they can spin that to their advantage too.

Anonymous

Jackie - hope you are safe if near a storm.  Reports sound grim in places.  We've had tremendous wind, some rain for a few days now.  Temps at night are well below freezing, sure doesn't feel like Spring. We had a few glorious days - and you could just tell everyone was feeling more cheerful, amazing what a difference the weather can make.

Daffodils in full sun are out.  Mine are slowly waking up.  Little johnny jump ups all over, I LOVE them.  Almost as much as I love violets, no one will ever convince me they're weeds.

Bren-2007

Hi Everyone!

Gorgeous day today!  In the mid 80's with a nice breeze.  I have all the windows open, enjoying the fresh air.  Going to cool down a bit for the coming week.  Lots of storms are forecast.  Tornadoes in North Carolina as well ... just hope they don't move up this direction. I was less scared of the earthquakes in California than I am of tornadoes out here.  They scare the bejeezuz out of me.

Sunnyflowers ... My daffy's are all done now.  I have two pink tulips that are about done as well.  My hostas are up about 6 inches and they look so pretty.  I have them in pots and in the ground.  My garden phlox are about a foot high already.  Need to check my lilac bush out in the south 40 to see if it's blooming yet.  The lilacs smell so good!  The redbud trees are really pretty right now, a combination of pink and bright lime green!

Hope you guys have had a great weekend!  I had two reports waiting for me when I got home from dogsitting about noon today.  Yay!  April was a good month for work.  Wish they could all be like this.

hugs,

Bren

Anonymous

Ah, bren, we probably won't get those days for at least 2 months...my lilac trees have wee little green buds...weeeeeeee little..gotta look close to see them, WHICH I HAVE BEEN DOING.

eager for Spring much?

bluedahlia

bluedahlia

Anonymous

I love some of Johnny Depps movies - Benny & Joon is one of my ALL TIME favorites, and of course, Willy Wonka.  But his charlie chaplin routine in Benny & Joon is a classic.  Just LOVE his character in that movie.

IllinoisLady

I really thought there wasn't any more really to be said about Bundy, but I saw this and it struck a nerve.