Adrienne's Corner

Senate Passes Obama's Economic Recovery Plan

House-Senate negotiations next.....

The Dow has dropped more than 300 points this morning, and now rests below the 8,000 mark. The NASDAQ and the S&P 500 have fallen more than 3%. Maybe they didn't get the message that everything is going to be A-ok now!

Change: The First Three Weeks
by Randall Hoven

Far be it from me to criticize Barack Obama before he's even had a chance to rule. Well, he's had almost three weeks in office as I write, and some patterns are beginning to emerge. Here is a list of accomplishments 20 days into President Obama's first term. read more


Abortion and Orwell
by Sam Aanestad

These slogans are spoken in Newspeak, the fictional language of George Orwell's twisted utopia in 1984. By removing meaning from words and increasing state control over speech-and thought-Newspeak is designed to manipulate those who hear it.

In California, Newspeak is now spoken fluently by those who seek to advance a political agenda in healthcare by avoiding scrutiny. read more


Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan: Betsy McCaughey

Republican Senators are questioning whether President Barack Obama’s stimulus bill contains the right mix of tax breaks and cash infusions to jump-start the economy.

Tragically, no one from either party is objecting to the health provisions slipped in without discussion. These provisions reflect the handiwork of Tom Daschle, until recently the nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department. read more

St. Scholastica
February 10

*** When my grandmother was just a young girl when she was dropped off at St. Scholastica School and Monastery in Duluth, MN. Her mother had passed away and her dad was out of work. She had a couple of brothers that remained with my great-grandfather as he looked for work and a place to live.

*****Months turned into years and even though the good sister's at St. Scholastica were not running an orphanage, they allowed my grandmother to remain. She left when she was 16, traveled to St. Paul, and became one of the first telephone operators.

*****There was a sister there who had made a deep impression on my grandmother. After leaving my grandmother promised to name her daughter, if she had one, after this lovely sister. Her name? Glad you asked! Her name was Sister Mary Adrienne and my mother was named after her.

*****When I came along my mother named me Adrienne, and my niece in California has named her newly adopted daughter Adrienne. What's is interesting to me is, if you Google St. Scholastica you will see the name Adrienne pop up at an rate that is nothing if not astonishing. This is not an ordinary run of the mill name and until recently was almost never heard. Different lay ladies doing different things all named Adrienne, and somehow connected to St. Scholastica. I wonder how many of them may have a connection, through the generations, with this one obscure sister.