McKenzie brick wall update

McKenzie brick wall update

Posted on by Jack

This is an update of the story how my McKenzie brick wall was broken by DNA. Genealogists trace a family and then get to a point where is seems very difficult or maybe even impossible to get beyond. These involuntary stopping points in genealogy are often called “Brick Walls”. I have several and I suppose a good many people doing genealogy have brick walls.

I had been able to go back as far as my great grandfather Malcolm McKenzie and his wife Emma Cash McKenzie. My earlier post on this McKenzie brick wall will give some details about how a comment on this blog guided me towards Malcolm’s family in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada and much more.
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Republican or conservative women betrayed

Republican or conservative women betrayed

Posted on by Jack

This campaign season has been a bad one for Republicans and conservatives in general and Republican or conservative women in particular.

I usually try to read a variety of views on issues I care about. Quite often what is written or on television has a point of view that may favor on side or the other. So the key is to read widely. The reason I say read is that when you are reading you can think about things and maybe do a bit of fact checking. When things are on television or radio you often don’t have time to do that.
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Vote for a working government

Vote for a working government

Posted on by Jack

I decided how I will vote for Senate this year. I will vote for a working government.

Several days ago I wrote about my Senate choices and was still undecided. I didn’t particularly like my choices.

Senator Toomey (R-PA) was a known. He has a record in the Senate and mostly I disagree with him but I agree on at least one issue.

Katie McGinty was a unknown. She has not previously held office, at least not one that I was familiar with. But I watched her debate the Senator and read a few things and decided to vote for her. I think she will make the better Senator. A major factor in my decision that Katie McGinty is not a Republican.
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Echoes of Sherlock Holmes

Echoes of Sherlock Holmes

Posted on by Jack

Echoes of Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger is a good collection of short stories.

The short stories in Echoes of Sherlock Holmes are not necessarily about Holmes. The authors were just asked to write a story inspired by Holmes.

I’m over half way through now and I’ll take a little break in reading this book now since I have other things to do but that is the good thing about short stores. You can read one or 2 at a sitting and put the book down for days or even weeks without a thought to losing the flow of the story.

I found some stories to be better than others but this is to be expected in anthology such as this.

Fair vote

Fair vote

Posted on by Jack

About every 10 years in Pennsylvania the majority party in the state legislature comes up with a plan to prevent a fair vote by making as many votes of the opposition party as ineffective as possible. This is called redistricting. The same happens in other states too.

The legislature figures out how to slice and dice the population in a way that protects incumbents of their party by making a challenge by the opposition unlikely to succeed. In other words, if you are unlucky enough to be a a district gerrymandered in favor of one party but prefer the candidate of the other party, your vote is unlikely to help bring about change.

The process is also called gerrymander. It is a way for politicians to prevent a fair vote. This political process is almost as old as the United States. But old and fair are not the same. Can this unfairness be prevented?
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Why doesn’t Trump sue ?

Why doesn’t Trump sue ?

Posted on by Jack

Will Donald Trump sue ?

He has been treated unfairly by the media. The New York Times in particular. But just generally by all those bad media people who report what he says.

He brags on tape about his sexual prowess and sexual assaults. Then dismisses it as mere locker room talk. When women come forth to claim that he has actually done some of these things to them, he threatens to sue. But not now. He’ll file those lawsuits after the election.
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Doors by Daniel Brako, again

Doors by Daniel Brako, again

Posted on by Jack

This is a repeat of my review of Doors by Daniel Brako.

I sometimes review books here. Sometimes it is library books, sometimes a book I bought, sometimes it is a book I borrowed from a friend but most of time it is an Advanced Reading Copy (ARC) from Netgalley.

I reviewed this here over 3 years ago and I’m preety sure I told NetGalley about it but this morning they are asking for my review. So here is a repeat –

First, I requested this advanced reading copy for review since the write-up on Netgalley sounded like it might be interesting but I wasn’t sure about that.
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Senator decision: Mitch factor

Senator decision: Mitch factor

Posted on by Jack

I am still trying to decide how I will vote in the election for US Senator. In Pennsylvania we have a choice of two major party candidates I do not like. So the Mitch factor may be important.

I would normally think party should not be the deciding factor. We should chose the best candidate or at least the one we think is best.
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Donald Doubt

Donald Doubt

Posted on by Jack

Should Donald Trump be known as Donald Doubt?

Donald’s birther controversy cast doubt on the legitimacy of Barakh Obama’s presidency. At first he demanded the President show his birth certificate to prove he was born in the USA and therefore eligible to be President. Then when he did show it Donald Doubt cited an ‘extremely credible source’ indicating the birth certificate was a fraud. he changed his mind a few weeks back without ever revealing his ‘extremely credible source’ or giving reasons why he no longer believed the President was born elsewhere.

Now he is calling this presidential election “rigged” and casting doubts on the legitimacy of the winner and our whole electoral system.

Can anyone seriously support Donald Doubt of the trumped-up charges for president?

Our new tea kettle

Our new tea kettle

Posted on by Jack

After reading more reviews then I care to remember, we settled on this tea kettle. We had been using the same kettle for years and it finally broke. We could still boiling water but it was not easy to pour the boiling water. So we started looking.

At first I thought it would be easy just to buy the same model that had served us well for many years. But we read the reviews on Amazon and it seems that what was once a fine tea kettle was now a piece of crap. People reported rusting badly as well as leaking. Since neither sounded good, we decided to expand our search.

We were more inclined to trust the reviews on Amazon (supplemented by other sites and blogs) than trust the opinions of sales people in the kitchen stores at the mall. Besides I hate going to the mall. Since I have Amazon Prime with free 2 day delivery, we thought we could use the old one for a few more days. Continue reading “Our new tea kettle”

Trump evidence

Trump evidence

Posted on by Jack

I wonder if the new evidence suggesting Donald Trump is not a sexual predator will come from the same ‘extremely credible source’ than told him President Obama’s birth certificate was a fraud.

Donald J. Trump Twitter Aug 6 2012:

‏
An ‘extremely credible source’ has called my office and told me that @BarackObama’s birth certificate is a fraud.

Banana Republican

Banana Republican

Posted on by Jack

In the second presidential debate, Donald Trump threatened to put Hillary Clinton in jail if he was elected. This type of thing may happen in a Banana Republic but certainly not in the United States. Is Donald Trump now a Banana Republican?

Is this the future of our country if Trump is elected? Will Banana Republicans dominate what was once considered the party of Lincoln?

Trump’s One Public Service

Trump’s One Public Service

Posted on by Jack

Much has been made of Donald Trump’s lack of knowledge of national and international affairs and a lack of any public service. Rebecca Traister writes about Trump’s One Public Service in New York magazine.

Here it is:

http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/10/trumps-one-service-was-exposing-the-misogyny-of-the-gop.html

Colum McCann

Colum McCann

Posted on by Jack

One of my favorite authors is Colum McCann. I’ve read several of his books (and reviewed two of them here). The books often move in unexpected ways and the author has a gift for the memorable and thought-provoking phrase or sentence.

The illustration is a line from “Thirteen Ways of Looking” which is now in paperback. My other review is of “TransAtlantic”. “TransAtlantic” made such an impression I wrote about it twice.
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Yellow Dog Republicans for Trump

Yellow Dog Republicans for Trump

Posted on by Jack

I’ve talked about Yellow Dog Republicans before. Actually I wrote about both Republicans and Democrats.

There are those with such extreme belief in a political party, they would vote for a yellow dog of their party rather than the best qualified candidate. This election season seems to have sparked a variant of that species known as Yellow Dog Republicans for Trump.

Several prominent Republicans have said they will vote for Donald Trump despite his many problems. Are these Yellow Dog Republicans for Trump or will he eventually say or do something that disgusts them or otherwise convinces them he would not make a good President?