http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/ Marriage, birth, divorce, transitions, widowed, career, retirement, transitions, death, moving, rules of life, aging, caregiving, life events, life changes http://www.estatevaults.com/images/bol_banner_thumb.jpg http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/ 92 40 en-us jillfallon@gmail.com Jill Fallon Copyright 2009 Jill Fallon 2009-11-07T11:03:56-05:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2009/11/07/human_individua.html Jill Fallon Art 2009-11-07T11:03:56-05:00 A portfolio of tract houses by photographer Julie Baum who writes Over the past 50 years these Houses have transformed from modest white cubes into a vibrant display of personality and present a rebellion against conformity. My work asserts... http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2009/11/07/human_individua.html A portfolio of tract houses by photographer Julie Baum who writes Over the past 50 years these Houses have transformed from modest white cubes into a vibrant display of personality and present a rebellion against conformity. My work asserts that human individuality cannot be contained. Inevitably it shines through even the most average facade. http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2009/11/07/human_individua.html#comments http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2009/11/07/more_than_1_in.html Jill Fallon Economy 2009-11-07T09:36:45-05:00 Broader Measure of U.S. Unemployment Stands at 17.5%  reports The New York Times. More than one out of every six workers — 17.5 percent — were unemployed or underemployed in October. The previous recorded high was 17.1 percent, in... http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2009/11/07/more_than_1_in.html Broader Measure of U.S. Unemployment Stands at 17.5%  reports The New York Times. More than one out of every six workers — 17.5 percent — were unemployed or underemployed in October. The previous recorded high was 17.1 percent, in December 1982. This includes the officially unemployed, who have looked for work in the last four weeks. It also includes discouraged workers, who have looked in the past year, as well as millions of part-time workers who want to be working full time. The official jobless rate — 10.2 percent in October, up from 9.8 percent in September — remains lower than the early 1980s peak of 10.8 percent. -- With the release of the jobs report on Friday, the broadest measure of unemployment and underemployment tracked by the Labor Department has reached its highest level in decades. If statistics went back so far, the measure would almost certainly be at its highest level since the Great Depression.                                   Chart from Innocent Bystanders http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2009/11/07/more_than_1_in.html#comments http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2009/11/07/they_failed_to.html Jill Fallon Culture and Society 2009-11-07T07:23:04-05:00 On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall Roger Scruton writes The flame that was snuffed out by freedom My small contribution consisted of joining like-minded colleagues to smuggle books and printing materials,... http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2009/11/07/they_failed_to.html On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall Roger Scruton writes The flame that was snuffed out by freedom My small contribution consisted of joining like-minded colleagues to smuggle books and printing materials, to organise lectures and to maintain an underground messaging service. The experience taught me a lot about people, and in particular about the transforming effect of sacrifice on the human character. The people that I met were imbued with a more than ordinary gentleness and concern for one another. It was hard to earn their trust but, once offered, trust was complete. Moreover, because learning, culture and the European spiritual heritage were, for them, symbols of their own inner freedom, and of the national independence they sought to remember, if not to regain, they looked on those things with an unusual veneration. As a visitor from the world of fun, pop and comic strips I was amazed to discover students for whom words devoted to such things were wasted words, and who sat in those little pockets of underground air studying Greek literature, German philosophy, medieval theology and the operas of Verdi and Wagner. In 1985 the secret police moved against me and I was arrested in Brno; visits to Czechoslovakia came to an end and I was followed in Poland and Hungary. But our team kept going until 1989 when, to our surprise, the catacombs were opened and our friends came pale, staggering and bewildered into the sunlight, to be hailed by the people as the natural trustees of their restituted country. This was a wonderful moment and, for a while, I believed that the public spirit that had reigned in the catacombs would now govern the State. It was not to be. Having been excluded for decades from the rewards of worldly advancement, our friends had failed to cultivate those arts — hypocrisy, treachery and realpolitik — without which it is impossible to stay in government. http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2009/11/07/they_failed_to.html#comments http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2009/11/05/the_demise_of_a.html Jill Fallon Civilization - Can We Keep It? 2009-11-05T11:48:46-05:00 The end of a 1000 years of history. Sold out to Europe by generations of weak, lying leaders The drive by the Eurocrats to impose the Lisbon Treaty has made a mockery of democracy.  The Labour Government promised the... http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2009/11/05/the_demise_of_a.html The end of a 1000 years of history. Sold out to Europe by generations of weak, lying leaders The drive by the Eurocrats to impose the Lisbon Treaty has made a mockery of democracy.  The Labour Government promised the British electorate a  referendum but disgracefully reneged on that pledge. Hugh Gaitskell would have been outraged by Brown’s refusal to keep his word. In his great 1962 speech he said that British  people had to be consulted about their future in Europe. The belief that the political élite knew best, he argued, “was an odious piece of hypocritical, supercilious, arrogant rubbish”. -- WE will lose any vestige of control over our borders, our  justice system and our foreign policy -- Our national embassies will be soon be superseded by those of the EU, while our Army will be subsumed within the new European Defence Force. EU control of all environmental policy will mean sweeping new regulations on everything from bin collections to petrol prices. For the first time the EU will have the power to raise its own taxes, bringing another heavy financial burden on the already oppressed British public. -- Already 80 per cent of our laws are dictated by the EU. Lisbon will make Westminster redundant as an institution, there will be a Europe-wide police force, complete with all the  sinister intrusive powers of the modern surveillance state. -- We can be sure that the fashionable ideology of political correctness will be rigorously enforced by our European masters, crushing the rich heritage of our Christian civilisation in the name of diversity. It is no coincidence that on the very day that the Lisbon Treaty was finally ratified by all 27 member states, the European Court ruled that crucifixes had to be banned in Italian schools for fear of offending minorities.    The definition of dictatorship is the inability to remove from power those who govern us, no matter how corrupt or authoritarian they are. That is exactly what the post-Lisbon EU will be like, wielding unprecedented authority but accountable to none, insulated by privilege and riddled with abuses -- But now, without even a whimper, our politicians have thrown away our democratic liberties. What is even worse, the entire saga of our relationship with the EU has been based on the cynical deception of the public by the  political establishment. -- "The demise of a once- great nation has arrived  without a vote being cast or a bullet fired. http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2009/11/05/the_demise_of_a.html#comments http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2009/11/05/via_american_th.html Jill Fallon Economy 2009-11-05T08:32:36-05:00 Via American Thinker comes this graph of the day showing the extraordinary fossil fuel energy resources the United States has - more than Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Venezula and Canada.  The figures are sourced from this Congressional Research... http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2009/11/05/via_american_th.html Via American Thinker comes this graph of the day showing the extraordinary fossil fuel energy resources the United States has - more than Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Venezula and Canada.  The figures are sourced from this Congressional Research Service report released last week. Randall Hoven pulls out these statistics from that same report. Total fossil fuels (oil, coal, natural gas) reserves of the US, in Barrels of Oil Equivalent:  1,321.3 billion BOE. US consumption of fossil fuels in 2008:  14.8 billion BOE. Earlier this week Daniel Yergin in the WSJ wrote about America's Natural Gas Revolution Yet the natural gas revolution has unfolded with no great fanfare, no grand opening ceremony, no ribbon cutting. It just crept up. In 1990, unconventional gas—from shales, coal-bed methane and so-called "tight" formations—was about 10% of total U.S. production. Today it is around 40%, and growing fast, with shale gas by far the biggest part. The potential of this "shale gale" only really became clear around 2007. In Washington, D.C., the discovery has come later—only in the last few months. Yet it is already changing the national energy dialogue and overall energy outlook in the U.S.—and could change the global natural gas balance. -- With more drilling experience, U.S. estimates are likely to rise dramatically in the next few years. At current levels of demand, the U.S. has about 90 years of proven and potential supply—a number that is bound to go up as more and more shale gas is found. __ A  'shale gale' of unconventional and abundant U.S. gas is transforming the energy market. http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2009/11/05/via_american_th.html#comments http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2009/11/04/climate_change_1.html Jill Fallon Culture and Society 2009-11-04T19:01:00-05:00 In England, Climate change belief given same legal status as religion In a landmark ruling, Mr Justice Michael Burton said that "a belief in man-made climate change ... is capable, if genuinely held, of being a philosophical belief for... http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2009/11/04/climate_change_1.html In England, Climate change belief given same legal status as religion In a landmark ruling, Mr Justice Michael Burton said that "a belief in man-made climate change ... is capable, if genuinely held, of being a philosophical belief for the purpose of the 2003 Religion and Belief Regulations". The most famous climate change believer of all stands to make a bundle.  Al Gore could become the world's first carbon billionaire For the NY Times, John Broder examines Gore's dual role as advocate and investor. http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2009/11/04/climate_change_1.html#comments http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2009/11/04/more_on_the_wor.html Jill Fallon Economy 2009-11-04T16:46:58-05:00 The Wall St Journal calls it The Worst Bill Ever In a rational political world, this 1,990-page runaway train would have been derailed months ago. With spending and debt already at record peacetime levels, the bill creates a new... http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2009/11/04/more_on_the_wor.html The Wall St Journal calls it The Worst Bill Ever In a rational political world, this 1,990-page runaway train would have been derailed months ago. With spending and debt already at record peacetime levels, the bill creates a new and probably unrepealable middle-class entitlement that is designed to expand over time. Taxes will need to rise precipitously, even as ObamaCare so dramatically expands government control of health care that eventually all medicine will be rationed via politics. Yet at this point, Democrats have dumped any pretense of genuine bipartisan "reform" and moved into the realm of pure power politics as they race against the unpopularity of their own agenda. The goal is to ram through whatever income-redistribution scheme they can claim to be "universal coverage." The result will be destructive on every level—for the health-care system, for the country's fiscal condition, and ultimately for American freedom and prosperity. -- Mr. Obama rode into office on a wave of "change," but we doubt most voters realized that the change Democrats had in mind was making health care even more expensive and rigid than the status quo. Critics will say we are exaggerating, but we believe it is no stretch to say that Mrs. Pelosi's handiwork ranks with the Smoot-Hawley tariff and FDR's National Industrial Recovery Act as among the worst bills Congress has ever seriously contemplated. Annual Medicare Fraud: $60 Billion; Annual Profits of Top Ten Insurance Companies: $8 billion As 60 Minutes reported last week, Medicare fraud is rampant and has now replaced the cocaine (ahem) business as the major criminal activity in South Florida House Republicans Find 111 New 'Bureaucracies' in Health Care Bill Among some off the new agencies, the list cites a Health Insurance Exchange; the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation; the Public Health Investment Fund; the Public Health Workforce Corps; an Assistant Secretary for Health Information; the Food and Drug Administration Office of Women's Health; grant programs for alternative medical liability laws, infant mortality programs and other issues; and about 100 other government-sponsored creations. 26 reasons to oppose Pelosi's health care bill, H.R. 3962.  Here are a few: • Permits federal taxpayer funding of abortion services, above and beyond the status quo of current law. • Provides for a "health care czar" called the Health Choices Commissioner, who could forcibly enroll individuals in government-run insurance and whose tasks include requiring random compliance audits on Americans' health benefits plans. • Allows for "community organizations" like ACORN and Planned Parenthood to assist the Health Choices Commissioner in enrolling individuals in the Health Insurance Exchange. • Provides for 13 new and different tax increases, including an employer mandate excise tax. • "Grandfathers" out of existence individual health insurance coverage. • Retains the "death panels" by providing for bureaucrats working for a new comparative effectiveness institute funded by a tax on health benefits. The institute could publish the protocols needed to deny patients access to life-saving treatments on cost grounds. • Contains NO ban on federal promotion of assisted suicide and/or health care rationing of treatments. • Slashes Medicare payments to providers by more than $400 billion. Using the English to 12-year-old -AOLer Translator, I've translated the above. • P3RMITS FADARAL TAXPAEYR FUNDNG OF ABORTION S3RVIECS ABOVE AND BYOND DA STATUS QUO OF CURENT LAW •!1111 PROVIEDS FOR A H3ALTH R CZAR CALED TEH H3ALTH CHOIECS COMISION3R WHO CUD FORCIBLEY ANROL INDIVIDUALS IN GOV3RNMANT-RUN INSURANC3 AND WHOS3 TASKS INCLUD3 RAQUIRNG RANDOM COMPLIANCE AUDITS ON M3RICANS H3ALTH BNEFITS PLANS •!11!!11!! WTF ALOWS FOR COMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS LIEK ACORN AND PLANAD PAERNTHOD 2 ASIST TEH H3ALTH CHOIECS COMISION3R IN 3NROLNG INDIVIDUALS IN DA HAALTH INSURANCE 3XCHANGE •!1!!! OMG WTF PROVIEDS FOR 13 NU AND DIFARENT TAX INCREAESS INCLUDNG AN 3MPLOY3R MANDAET EXCIES TAX •!!1!! OMG WTF LOL GRANDFATHERS OUT OF EXISTANCE INDIVIDUAL HEALTH INSURANC3 COV3RAEG •!1!1!1!1 WTF RETANES DA DEATH PAENLS BY PROVIDNG FOR BUREAUCRATS WORKNG FOR A NU COMPARATIEV EF3CTIEVNES INSTITUT3 FUNDAD BY A TAX ON HAALTH BN3FITS!!11!!!! OMG LOL TEH INSTITUT3 CUD PUBLISH DA PRO2COLS NEDAD 2 DANY PATEINTS ACES 2 LIEF-SAVNG TR3ATMENTS ON COST GROUNDS •!1!1!1 WTF LOL CONTANES NO BAN ON FED3RAL PROMOTION OF ASISTED SUICIED AND/OR HAALTH R RATIONNG OF TRAATMANTS •!1!1!11 SLASHAS R PAYMANTS 2 PROVIEDRS BY MORE THAN $40 BILION!!!11!!! WTF http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2009/11/04/more_on_the_wor.html#comments http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2009/11/04/five_hard_truth.html Jill Fallon Rules of Life/Lessons Learned 2009-11-04T10:22:02-05:00 Five Hard Truths That Will Set You Free 1. Life is hard. 2. Your life is not about you. 3. You are not in control 4. You are not that important 5. You are going to die. Hoag's object... http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2009/11/04/five_hard_truth.html Five Hard Truths That Will Set You Free 1. Life is hard. 2. Your life is not about you. 3. You are not in control 4. You are not that important 5. You are going to die. Hoag's object http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2009/11/04/five_hard_truth.html#comments http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2009/11/04/from_a_tiny_tow.html Jill Fallon Culture and Society 2009-11-04T09:32:00-05:00 The values of my fringe homeschooling family have become urban chic now Growing up in a home-schooling family in rural Texas, I got used to thinking of myself as fringe. Like a good number of home schoolers, my parents... http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2009/11/04/from_a_tiny_tow.html The values of my fringe homeschooling family have become urban chic now Growing up in a home-schooling family in rural Texas, I got used to thinking of myself as fringe. Like a good number of home schoolers, my parents distrusted television, the food industry, the medical profession, and, well, just about anything that average middle-class Americans considered normal. Most of my brothers and sisters were born in our parents’ bedroom and never made the pilgrimage to the local hospital for vaccinations. We spent lots of our days away from textbooks, trying our hands at growing and raising our own food and tackling grown-up chores. We did not catch many episodes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or eat many Pop-Tarts. Needless to say, I was, for much of my adolescence, preoccupied with proving I was “mainstream”—that despite all this natural, organic, precocious living, I was capable of consuming as thoughtlessly as everyone else. Now, as a post-college transplant to New York, I have to do a rapid reverse. Never did I imagine that what I once considered my parents’ annoying “alternative” choices would be lifestyle gospel in New York, praised on the cover of cool magazines, evangelized by all sorts of celebrities. Now, I’ve started to think of my parents and their obscure home-schooling friends living in tiny, isolated American towns as some kind of urban prophets. http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2009/11/04/from_a_tiny_tow.html#comments http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2009/11/02/once_long_ago_i.html Jill Fallon Civilization - Can We Keep It? 2009-11-02T15:43:11-05:00 Phyllis Chesler on A Lesson Learned in Kabul Once, long ago, I was held captive in Kabul, Afghanistan. Yes, I went there of my own free will, but I was only 20 years old and in love with my... http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2009/11/02/once_long_ago_i.html Phyllis Chesler on A Lesson Learned in Kabul Once, long ago, I was held captive in Kabul, Afghanistan. Yes, I went there of my own free will, but I was only 20 years old and in love with my college sweetheart -- If one survives such a grand and dangerous adventure, one learns some important lessons. -- Thus, at too young an age, I already understood that barbarism and hatred of the Other is indigenous to Islam; it is not caused by Western “evil.” Intra-tribal and religious-sect feuding is a permanent way of life in the wild, wild East. -- I could never get anyone in the American civil rights, anti-war, feminist, or post-colonialist movements to understand this. They needed to blame the Big Bad West for the world’s problems. They also needed to identify the developing world as intrinsically innocent, pure, victimized. -- My people: Western feminists, leftists, gay liberationists, progressives, absolutely refuse to stand up to Islam’s subordination and bestial persecution of women, dissidents, and homosexuals. The same activists who easily condemn Christianity and Judaism as “misogynists” are hushed about Islamic misogyny in practice. - Now I and a handful of others are trying to tell the truth about Islamic gender apartheid.  Those of us who are raising the alarm are being demonized as “Islamophobes,” “racists,” and “fascists.” Yet, in my opinion, western civilization, beginning with Europe, will be won or lost on the issue of women’s rights. http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2009/11/02/once_long_ago_i.html#comments