Reason Number Two...

...for why I'll never move to Michigan.

This Is My House....

...on December 16.

This is my daughter's house on December 16.

Any more questions as to why I refuse to move to Michigan?

What Tam Said

About relics(http://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com/2017/12/relics.html?m=1) Brick and mortar stores.  I had a particular gift in mind but I needed to see it for real rather than online.  So I set off to outlets and malls.  Only to find that once nice collections are now reduced to a couple of this and that.  It's a death spiral - people order online so not as much is bought at a store. So they stop stocking.  But if they don't stock it you can no longer buy at a brick and morter store because they don't have it. But the store is declining because you can't buy stuff there.  Because they don't stock it because it's bought online.

Sigh.

But I got the tree up.

Seen at Books-A-Million

Lots of copies, too.  Unsold copies...

Sister Update

The good news - the doc feels she cleanly whacked the tumor out.  The bad news was that tests dropped my sister right in the middle for probability of the cancer returning.  So she opted for prophylactic chemo.  It's not been fun, to put it mildly.  In addition to bone ache, nausea, and baldness, she is covered with a miserable, itchy rash. Two more treatments to go.

This isn't half bad compared to her face.

Proportionally

But Pence is a weird Puritan because he will only be with his wife.

H/T Mark Simone

Did You Notice?

There's a lot of big names going down.  And a whole lot of guys whose names I don't know.  I cut the cable years ago.  I recognize Lauer and a couple others, but the rest are strangers.

But I can't help but notice.  We basically volunteer to pay the salaries of Hollywood/media folks when we buy their "products" - watch the shows, go to the movies.  If we don't want them to have our money we simply don't play.  And It's a bloodbath right now as Hollywood/the media tries to protect their bottom line and celebrity after celebrity loses their jobs due to accusations of sexual impropriety.

At the same time, it has come out that various members of Congress have used our tax dollars to pay off women who have made the same sorts of accusations that have cost the  Hollywood and media elite their jobs.  And those members of Congress who have been accused and paid out that money - OUR money - are just toddling on, "unfired" so to speak. We aren't even allowed to know who used our money to cover their tracks.

We didn't agree to our money being used for this.  They just stole it. Odd, isn't it, that right now Hollywood is showing more integrity than Congress is?

A Quote

"Responsible men can become more deeply convinced of the truth of the doctrine laid down by the Church on this issue if they reflect on the consequences of methods and plans for artificial birth control. Let them first consider how easily this course of action could open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards. Not much experience is needed to be fully aware of human weakness and to understand that human beings—and especially the young, who are so exposed to temptation—need incentives to keep the moral law, and it is an evil thing to make it easy for them to break that law. Another effect that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection." Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI.

The encyclical was rejected, reviled, held in contempt, as was even so simple a thing as Mike Pence's refusal to be alone with any woman but his wife.  The encyclical has proved prophetic. And Pence, at least, will be safe from the growing hysteria.

I pity the assaulted children and it's a good thing I'm not the parent of one of them.  Too bad liberals haven't been as concerned with the gay rights "leaders" of San Francisco who have been nailed for child pornography in recent years. I pity the young people who looked up to others who were no more than predators. But I'm all out of sympathy for squalling liberal women.  They played the "sex as sport" game.  The actresses in particular played it on the screen and lived it in their lives.  They promoted it.  Liberal women danced down the streets of DC in p hats and vagina suits, demanding "choice" and contraceptives and abortions paid for by me, and their p-whipped men danced with them.  Well, too bad if some men want to play the sport differently.  Too bad if their choices are different from yours - you demanded choice, they LIVE choice.  Women are as complicit in this as men are.  They BOTH have rejected reverance.  They BOTH have rejected honor.  The wind has been sowed, now the whirlwind will be reaped.

That's Going To Haunt Me For A Long Time

Screaming animal - sounds like a cat. It had fallen in the water. I couldn't get to it in time. The water is already very cold. I couldn't get to it in time. It actually looks like a small dog, but it's dark and I can only see it from behind. It's got a collar on. I don't know which was worse - the screaming or the silence after. Excuse me while I decide if I'm going to vomit, cry hysterically, or both.

Evil

They are:

"Enemy, paranoid, greedy, Bible-thumping, gun-toting, fear-mongering, racist, sexist, bigot, birther, redneck, homophobic, xenophobic, global-warming denialists, anti-science, Neanderthal, barbarian, terrorist, hobbits, member of the Flat Earth Society, Nazi, bully, Yosemite Sam hillbilly, beer-toting, pot belly, church going, small-minded, whack-job, Evangelical, gun nuts, wing nut, knuckle-dragger, clueless, Teabaggers, narrow-minded, evil, redneck freaks, judgmental, backwards, sick, anti-intellectualist, slut-shaming, slimebuckets, forced-birther, neocons, Zionist, neo-Confederate, wild nasty hard-right fringe, extremist, sewer rats, wacko birds, bitter clingers, misogynist, you suck, Obamaphobic, chirper, white nativist, crazies, creepy azz cracka, unpatriotic, white grievance, dumb, cracker, white devils, rabid, squealing political pigs, anarchist, fanatics, extortionists, lemmings, gangsters, murderers, banana republicans, fakers, ideological crusader, Cruzites, anti-government idealoges, fraud, Taliban, arsonist, suicide bombers, suicidal lemmings, spoiled children, hostage takers, overlords, Jihadist, blowhard, religious fanatic, freedom fiend, kidnappers, Jesus freaks, dangerous, troglodyte, from the Planet of the Apes, resurrection of the Confederacy, lemmings with suicide vests, anarchy gang, idiots, wife abusers, frightened white people, right-wing loonies, tea-hadist, tea-tards, segregationist, freaking retarded, morally disgusting, Confederate flag-waving, breeders, Robert E. Lee lovers, Southern white radicals, losers, violent rapist, blathering idiots, climate change deniers, way crazy, racist killers, rabid animals, Cro-magnon, cave dwellers, narrow-minded, toddler, headless chicken brigade, monkeys, morons, virus, teapub, Christofascists, healthcare repealers, gun-crazed, wide-eyed creatures, bed-wetting kidult, climate fool, Trotskyite radicalists, Dixiecrats, willfully ignorant fucksticks, anti-Obama, Huns, nutcases, pseudo-militia of gun-toting nutcases, lunatic, radical terrorist, people from slave-holding states, Uncle Toms, distrustful, Rumplestiltskins, somewhat strange, screw-loosers, bald-faced racists, carnival barker, boorish individuals, Tea Party maggots, not normal people, mean, troglodytes, selfish, haters, meatballs, dingus, scorched earth insurgents.Grumpy Cat, jingoistic, microaggressionist, ableist, transphobic,, poor, dumb, cousin-humping, ammosexuals, genderist, sexist, anti-semites, skinheads, crazy, angry, ignorant, morally tainted, irredeemable, deplorable, swamp of crazy, dark, devisive, white nationalist, alt-right, white devil, despicable people, white selfishness, scumbags, Kremlin Klan, slobs, residents of Podunk USA, intolerant, anti-American, Cheeto aliens, fatties, Tealiban, sufferers of white neurosis and white fragility, Y'all Qaeda, Trump-ite, cave dweller, troglodyte, luddite, scumbags, Bannonites, do not appear to be humans, angry loud-mouth Irishmen"

Yes, actually, that has been tracked.

And those are the names that these two men have been called over the last year.

One of them, an evil member of the evil NRA, grabbed his evil gun out of its safe and ran barefoot to stop a mass murderer.  The other, the instant he heard what was happening, went in pursuit of the evil that had struck that morning.

I call them conservative Christians.  Liberals call them names selected from the list above.  

Yeah, well. If you are of a praying mind...

...please keep my sister Peggy in your prayers.  She found out Tuesday that she has cancer.  A golf-ball size tumor.  And until surgery they won't know what stage or any of the other details that the slightly OCD among us would like to know.  All I know is that I'm going to NC soon.  Because with the tumor already that big even a lumpectomy will take a big chunk out of her and she's going to need help for a bit.

Right Biceps Tendon

Inflamed and painful.  Because I'm addicted.  I get on the water every day that I can and once I get going I just don't want to stop.  Since I often go out alone and don't have anyone to shuttle with I often go upstream against the current.  For miles.  'Cause I can't stop.  The river.  The amazing green. The birds.  Eagles, great blue and little green and night herons. Kingfishers, swallows. An occasional doe with fawns. The cicadas.  Dragonflies skipping all around.  Big ol turtles sipping air then ducking away from me.  Catfish along the bottom.  A butterfly kept me company for miles today.  I didn't charge it for the ride.

Well.  Heading out to run the Whetzell-Felton Reunion, so shoulder will get a break at least until Tuesday.  Except for the whole riding the Mon River Rail Trail on Saturday. But that's only holding my body on a bike...

Say A Prayer...

...for the repose of the soul of Marge Hoover.  My friend from church.  We are in shock.  She became short of breath while working at St. James yesterday.  Deacon Dave's wife took her home.  And she died.  She had health problems but...

I have a broad selection of cuss words to choose from, but I'm trying to hold it to "Crud!" as I crawl into a corner and cry...

It Actually Took Longer...

... than I expected.

My church got a phone threat today that resulted in police being called, evacuation, and the Blessed Sacrament being reposed until further notice.  Which leaves those of us who are a part of the 24 hour, 7 days a week worship up in the air.

But, to tell the truth, I'm surprised it took this long.  We are a large church with "conservative" teaching near DC.  Last year, we fought the "any man can go into a women's bathroom" bill that the city tried to force us into and we won.  But liberals hate women, hate diversity, and will try to use a law to bludgeon anybody who believes different from them into the ground.

In another area, I might say is was a muslum threat.  This area - nah.  This is some liberal.  And I'm not too worried about it because the threat was called in.

But they really need to read up on our teachings on self defence.  And contemplate that my church has a lot of people who are carrying concealed.

RIP

Rest in peace, Father Larry.  Many of us have actually been grieving your loss for a couple years now as you battled first one thing and then another and were pulled away from the parish more and more.  You were a wonderful priest and a darling man.  And I'm so glad that you were a player in the canonization of St. Faustina.  Not many people could say that their best friend was the final miracle needed for canonization.

http://www.journal-news.net/obituaries/2017/06/the-rev-lawrence-gesy/

Spotted While Bicycling...

...near Lake Gaston in Virginia.  In one of those little family graveyards you see along the road and in fields sometimes.

With eternal gratitude for your service and sacrifice, I salute you, young Charlie Moseley.

Woot!

I'm a great-aunt as of a couple hours ago.  Considering that there won't be another grand-child, I've been darn near as anxious about this as I was about becoming a grandmother.

But look at his expression.  He was head down more than a month ago.  Then he turned himself back around again.  He looks pissed off to be here.  And I suspect it bodes ill for his parents...

Just a Thought

Once again there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth.  There has been a muslim attack in a European country that's way more concerned about diversity than their own lives.  So what else is new?  There've been nearly 31,000 islamic attacks throughout the world since 9/11.  But now everybody is complaining that there wasn't enough security at the concert they blew up.  Everybody is scrambling to change the way they deal with concert security.  And, oh yeah, "He was on their radar."  But they didn't do anything about that. Again. They can't do anything about that now, either, because he's dead.  Along with more than 20 young people and children who would be alive today if there wasn't so much Stupid around.

Here's a suggestion.  Instead of crying in horror after the rabid dog has run rampage and torn up a bunch of people, how about inoculating the damned dog beforehand?  How about you stop muslim immigration, start monitoring mosques, and when you know somebody is talking about, oh, blowing things up, you give them a one-way ticket back to whatever 3rd world cesspool they crawled out of?

It's just a thought.

And In Other News...

...Flitter loves me.  Flitter being the other mother of kittens, the one who, although spayed, is too wild to come in.  But she desperately wants company - she comes to the back door and rubs against it and purrs and does happy paws if I come over and put my hand against the glass where she is.  Yet if I try to open the door she's gone in an instant.

But.  Nearly every day she leaves a gift in that spot.  I'm happy with the dead voles.  Not happy with the dead birds - goldfinches, chipping sparrows, wrens, chickadees.  Tonight I switched on the light and watched her chase a mouse around the deck.  It will probably be tomorrow's gift.

She loves me, but as usual love's a mixed bag.

So, Which Time?

On the one hand, James Comey's testimony under oath that there has been no political interferance with FBI investigations.

On the other hand, a Comey associate calls a so-called reporter and reads them a piece of a memo he supposedly found in which Comey says that Trump asked him to drop the probe of someone who had already been fired and whose reputation was already shot.  Not the full memo, a piece of a memo.  Said memo has never been seen by anyone except the Comey associate at this point.  But the so-called reporter and his so-called newspaper run with it as proof that Trump tried to interfere with an investigation.

Let's just drop the fact that this standard is below that of the National Enquirer for journalism.  Nobody has seen or even heard the full memo.  But let's say it exists.

Which time did Comey lie - under oath or in the memo?

I Mean. Really.

I haven't been posting because...Stupid.  There is so much stupid that I seriously wonder if perhaps Darwinism is in full swing and it's the end of Homo Sapiens.  Because if there are as many Stupids as there seem to be our species absolutely deserves to end.

Don't even get me started on Obama's climate change speech earning a gazillion dollars while leaving a carbon footprint larger than I do in a full year.  Effing idiots.  Who need to explain to me how humans were responsible for ice ages and the warm periods between them long before humans had much to do about anything.  But they can't.  Because the Bill Nye worshipers, the Obama worshippers, the Gore worshippers are dumb as posts. Period.  They wouldn't know science if it jumped up and bit them in the butt.

And then there's Comey.  He's either scum because it's all his fault Hillary lost or he's a hero because his FBI has an investigation going into the non-existant ties between Trump and Russia.  Because people are too stupid to accept that Hillary is a totally corrupt peice of crap who has zero successes to show for her political career and a long, easily proven track record of complete corruption that should have led to her indictment ages ago.  She has a vagina.  And that's ALL her voters voted for.  So did Lizzie Borden and Lucretia Borgia.  But rubbing two brain cells together would be hard. So just be glad you freaking idiots that Hillary isn't in jail right now.  Because better people than her have gone to prison for less.

And of course Planned Parenthood is freaking out.  Because CEO Richards earns nearly $900,000 a year and that seems to be a bit in danger.  Note that that is the salary of just one of the board of directors of a supposed charity recieving MY tax dollars.  Because liberals despise choice.  My choice is not to fund an organization that pays its board millions and provides little other than systematic killing of human beings.  But libs, as I have said for decades, despise choice and are freaking at the idea that at some point I may have one.  Nasty, ugly, stupid people.

And the protests.  How do these people manage to go out every whip stitch to scream and torch things?  I have property, people, and animals to take care of.  I don't have time to run around busting things up no matter how pissed I am. Yet they are constantly running around in vagina hats and gay pride stripes loudly demostrating how foul mouthed and intolerant they can be about this and that. And wrecking stuff and attacking people who don't believe the same as they do.  All I can think is don't bring that crap around me.
 

Bill Nye vs Dolph Lundgren

H/T Funny Libertarian

I Don't Care Who You Are...

...that there is funny!

H/T Weaselzippers

Things Every Child Needs To Hear

Proper Spelling Is Important

Seen at the local Glory Days:

Heh. Clever Coexistance.

So, in NC last weekend 'cause my great-nephew will arive in May...

I think I'm nearly as excited as the grandparents-to-be are.

And on the way back to my sister's after the baby shower we stopped at one of the many micro-breweries that have cropped up in the Raleigh area in the last couple years:

It's directly across the street from a church. That was clever enough to put this sign in their yard:

Heh.

On the home front, our regular vet, after studying Precious' files and biopsy reports from her emergency surgery, thinks that the problem may be parasites and we are now doing a 10 day round of white chalky stuff that will be followed by Drontal.  Drontal being a humongous pill that has an awful bitterness to it so you only get one good shot at getting it in.  If the victim, er, patient licks it all hope is lost - you won't get them out from under the sofa for a year.  Been there, done that, with last year's gazillion kittens. Precious was de-wormed as well but sometimes it takes more than one dose to kill the various buggers that strays can be infested with.

And I'm giving weekly B 12 shots - apparently she's not absorbing the vitamin properly from her food.

Right now just being on a prescription diet seems to have helped - I suppose it's less aggravating to irritated bowels.  She had lost 2 pounds - a lot for a cat that was less than 8 pounds to start with.  But she's gained 1 of those pounds back.  And she's back to being a total love bug every time I sit down.  Fortunately she's very forgiving about me shoving icky stuff down her throat and sticking her with needles.  I'll be happiest when she goes back to counter surfing but things are definately improving.

And Scooter is, happily, his same old self.  Gads he reminds me so much of Blu.

LOL!

And she's being groomed for political office.

Superman's Doctor

I Don't Get The Upset

People are all upset over today's attack in in London.   Why?  Muslims have announced over and over what they intend to do and how they intend to do it. And countries just smile and say "Come on in!"  Today was attack number 30,497 since 9/11.  They are just keeping their promises.

And how about that rape of a 10 year old girl in Sweden by some poor refugee? Ain't diversity grand?

Good News

Got the results from Precious' biopsies today.  The only negative in the lot was that she isn't absorbing vitaman B properly.  If that's a permanent state it can be supplimented by a monthly injection, which isn't a problem. I've had a diabetic cat that had to have daily insulin injections and Blackberry had to have subcutaneous fluids the last 3 months of her life.  Giving a once a month injection is no problem.

They also say she might have inflammatory bowl syndrome just like humans do. Which can be controlled by diet.

The one thing the emergency vet says we need to do that had actually passed through my mind is repeat tests for intestinal parasites.  She said that sometimes they can "hide" and be missed.  Then they "bloom."  Precious had both giardia and tapeworms.  More kittens came in after she did, plus I battled that flea infestation for months even after she was treated, and fleas are carriers.  I've sometimes wondered if she could have been re-infected.

They didn't tell me until the tests came back negative that they were looking for cancer.  But I had already thought about that a lot.

She loves the prescription food as well as the chicken I poached and pureed for her.  She's eating like a horse.  If this is permanent I'll be making cat food at home - that prescription stuff cost me $78 for less than a month's supply.  I can buy things like chicken, peas, and human grade bone meal and puree and freeze it for way less per serving.

Last night she came down and snuggled while I was watching TV.  This morning she rousted me out of bed for breakfast.  She doesn't understand why I smooch her and try not to cry.  The vet comented on what a snuggly darling she is.  I think about how some idiot who I would like to smack the bejabbers out of is missing out on all the love she gives.

Nearly $4000 Later And We Still Don't Know

I thought that once Blackberry passed and I was left with 2 young cats the era of daily medication, which had lasted about a decade, was over.  The era of not being able to just set out a couple gravity feeders and a lot of water and take off was over.  I could up and go and not worry about hiring a pet sitter because it's been a decade of sick cats and that was finally over.

Apparently that's not in the cards.

You don't know what a relief it is to see Precious, formally named Mama, at her food bowl and eating.  And yet emergency exploratory surgery and days in the hospital has only been able to say that her colon is swollen up and her pancreous is inflamed.  I didn't know that the colon could swell but that was why they went in - the xrays showed the colon was occupying way more space than it should and they were afraid there was an obstruction.  She's on profalactic antibiotics while we wait for the results of biopsies. They didn't find anthing and so they couldn't fix anything.  But I brought her home today and she's eating like a pig.  She hasn't been eating - that was the first red flag that something was wrong. And then she started holding herself hunched up and clearly miserable.  I made an appointment with her vet but couldn't get in for a few days.  And then she let out a meow that is the closest to the sound of a cat in misery you'll ever hear.  And we were on the way to the emergency vet in Winchester in minutes.

If I had to bet, I'm thinking from what I read that pancreatitis will be the final diagnosis.  And that at the least her diet will have to be strictly controled.  Which pretty much ends the hope of just running away when I want to.

Boy, That Took A Lot of Courage

Apparently pro-Trump talk show host Michael Savage was attacked while dining out this week.  I'm not a fan of Savage - occasionally he can be entertaining but meh.  And he irritates me fairly frequently when I do listen.  So meh.  But Savage is 74 years old.  And his little poodle was kicked as well.  By some screaming lib.

This has been happening all over the US.  They can't sustain their arguments, so they've just gone to violence.  Wear a MAGA cap in the wrong place, and you can get some screaming jerk spraying spittle in your face.  And we won't even discuss the rioting and violence on college campuses any time anyone even vaguely conservative shows up.  Ask Milo Yiannopoulos how many death threats he's had.  Or Jeff Kuhner, my favorite radio host out of Boston - the threats against him and his family have increased exponentially over the last year and he can't even go to the grocery store without obscenities and threats being screamed at him.

It doesn't take much courage to throw a 74 year old man to the ground and kick his miniature poodle. But one of these days they are going to make a big mistake in who they go after.  Not only is the violence becoming tiresome, but the fact that the rioters/attackers are then let off with a slap on the wrist just means it's going to escalate.  And some people are going to hit maxed-out sick-and-tired and instead of trying to move away from the situation start swinging.  Or a group of screaming "anarchists" are going to come up against a group of pissed off Conservatives who've held their peace as long as they can.

Almost Made It

But not quite.  At least the amount looks to be on the low end of the prediction.  Maybe 8 inches.

So...

There's supposed to be some "day without women" thing.  I have more important things to do that day.  Like clipping my toenails.

But it does occur to me that in order to be non-hypocritical the women who plan to sit on their hands that day should also give up anything invented by a man.  Like, you know, flush toilets.  Automobiles.  Microwaves.  And they might want to check out who invented the fibers used in any clothes they have and not wear anything made by or with anything invented by a man.

'Cause liberals wouldn't want to be hypocritical, would they?  Oh.  Wait.  Yeah.  Brahahahahahaha!!!

Sigh

River otter. Dead on the access road to my community.  I've seen sea otters while traveling in California but never seen a local river otter.  Would have much preferred to have seen this one from my kayak this summer.

Let Me Be Perfectly Clear

If a man walks into a restroom I am in and doesn't look embarressed, excuse himself, and back out because he's made a mistake, I will "escort" him out.  If there are little girls in the bathroom, it will get very unpleasant. If my granddaughter is in that bathroom it will be the absolute worst day of his life.  I absolutely promise that.

Huh.

I finally realized that, after nearly 40 years of taking care of someone or some critter, I'm ... playing.  Not that there weren't moments and days over those years but... I'm playing.  As I explore woods and river day after day, walk mile after mile, breathe deep, get stronger and stronger despite artheritis and blisters and other physical issues, I'm ... playing... Huh.

Well. That was unpleasant.

Facebook gets hacked and "friend" requests go out from folks you've already friended.  Today I got a friend request from Charlie.  Who died in a fire just before Christmas.  Not funny.  Not funny at all.

Yes, yes, it is that nice out...

And it looks like it's staying with us until March.

First bike ride in months.  First time in years that I have had regular physical activity every day.  And first lesson - biking muscles and walking muscles are actually fairly different even though they both involve legs.  And while the towpath seems level, unused biking muscles can detect the slope as you climb northwest.  Also, I should have changed into my padded biking shorts instead of plain short pants after Mass.  'Cause OW my butt!  How can my butt be so big but be so unprotected at the same time?

But a beautiful ride.  I want to come back on foot and explore the remains of a road that, according to my guide book, goes past various ruins, including a canal community, on the other side of the canal.  I've got some serious neck problems that may require me to trade for a recumbant cycle, but its worth the suffering on a day like today.  10 miles, then I went off to explore stuff on foot as well.  This area is the north end of where the canal barges locked in/out of Big Slackwater above Dam 4.  The cliffs here were too much to allow for a 60 ft wide, 10 ft deep canal to be built so they built the dam and created a 14 mile resevoir in the river.

 

Leftovers

I mean ... Really?!

All the laundry is done.  I'm going to have to pull out every doggone fitted sheet and check the corners.

Ha. Haha. Hahahahaha!!!!

Quick, Dems, keep demanding Ellison repudiate Duke even after he has done so repeatedly!  Except Duke and Ellison are much closer in philosophy than Trump and Ellison are.

So, You Need A Product

And you go to the store.  You find a version of that product on the shelves, but it is not as high a quality as what you want, so you plan to continue your search.  But you pay for the product you don't want before walking away and leaving it on the store shelf.  After checking out a couple other stores you find the version that you wanted and buy it and that's the one you take home and use.

So you've paid for an inferior model of what you were looking for without having any intention of using it.  Plus you've also paid for the product that you found that fits your needs.  Double dipping OUT of your pocket.

Does anyone know of someone who would do such a thing - willingly agree to pay for a product they don't want and leave it on the store shelf?  Does it make sense to do something like that?

Well, that's what opponents of tax breaks or vouchers for private schools or home schooling are demanding people do.  Children in private schools or who are home schooled do not use the product known as public school.  They don't require that a teacher be hired.  They don't use the facilities, don't use the text books.  Yet their parents are required to pay for the teacher, the facilities, the text books.  It's not the product the parents want for their children.  But they are forced to double dip out of their pockets.

Just one more example of the hatred the left has for choice.

Heh

Dang.  You'd think he was a hillbilly.

It's Sort Of Weird

First there was Blu, who was the cat equivelent of an albino and had multiple problems because of that.  I started having to shove medications down his throat more than a decade ago.  And then there was the whole period when Mom fell at my house and ended up with compression fractures of her spine.  At the same time I needed major surgery.  That was the beginning of two years from hell and trying to take care if everybody at the same time - myself, my mom,  and my furrbutts.  Yeah, that was fun.

And Blu needed more and more medication and Blackberry, just a few months younger than him, began to slide into the need for more and more medications as well.

Then I lost Blu to cancer.  And less than two years later my garage produced 14 needy kittens and we went through rounds of respiratory infections, giardia, and tapeworms.  And all the while Blackberry needed more meds morning and evening.

By the time Blackberry died 3 weeks ago she was getting meds morning and night plus sub-cutaneous fluids every other day.  She had her own pill case, morning and evening pills, pills she only got twice a week, and liquid meds in the fridge

And now Blu is gone, all the kittens are gone, Blackberry is gone, and I'm down to just two seemingly healthy cats.  Nobody needs meds.  But the weird thing is that I have this strong pull to go to the kitchen and get meds every night.  If I watch Netflix I want to turn right at the top of the stairs as I come up from the family room at night.  If I read in bed I want to go to the kitchen before I turn out the lights.  I'm so used to taking care of a sick somebody that I still want to go get their meds.

I'm free of having to get somebody in, to pay somebody, to give meds to a cat twice a day for the first time in a decade.  I'd like to run away now and celebrate my freedom. I'd like to go over to the ocean and get an ocean front room.  Or go to Pittsburg and go enjoy their art museums, the national aviary, and their zoo.  But I'm so broke because of vet bills that I can't run off and celebrate.  I haven't even gotten Blackberry's last bill yet because her vet is way more interested in condolences than bills.  Which is why I still take my cats to her even though it means an hour's drive each way.

Pets - can't live with them, can't live without them.

And I'm hoping Mama just has the hiccups right now...

Enchanting

I've gone back to walking every day, usually 5 miles or so.  And my location gives me relatively quick access to both the Appalachian Trail and the C & O Canal Towpath.  Plus a walk down the mountain to our mail shed and then back up is a 5 mile round trip that's rather a challenge.  And I've discovered that I don't actually hate Winter.  I just hate being cold and I hate lack of spontonaity.  So now the back seat of my suv always carries a pack with water and food as well as a variety of head coverings, scarves, gloves, and different wieght jackets, including the first Winter jacket I've bought in years.  And I'm out in the woods walking somewhere nearly every day now.

The Towpath along the Potomac River is particularly enchanting.  I've been a "low level" birder for more than 40 years and a river is a great place for that.  A few days ago we had a series of snow clippers come through and I found myself watching wild turkeys and a pair of bald eagles through swirling snow.  I was grinning with delight with each alternation of light and dark, snow and sun, as the afternoon went on.

Two days later, walking in the same area, a bald eagle swooped over - probably one of the pair I saw before.  It used to be that I had to drive over to the Eastern Shore of Maryland and to Blackwater Wildlife Refuge to see eagles.  Now they are by far the most common raptors I see.

But the eagle got upstaged.  I saw a flash of white coming in on the river and watched as flock of common goldeneyes - a type of wild duck - landed.  When you've been birding in the same area for decades it's rare to have a new entry for your life list, let alone an entry as beautiful as the goldeneye.

And then today, two days later, I got to watch them again a couple miles up the river from where I first saw them.  I'm a very happy camper.  I look to Spring, when I can get the kayak out there, but right now Winter is A-OK.

Sooo...

It appears that folks are out protesting the halt in immigrants from Muslim hot spots. Are those the same people who protested Obama giving Cubans in transit the middle finger as he went out the door, leaving them in limbo?

Oh, wait...

The Difference

Last week there was a big march in D.C.  It was called something like the Women's March on Washington 2017.  The "trigger" seems to have been President Trump's macho locker room comments a decade ago.  I'm sure that Juanita Broaddrick appreciated their support when these same women marched in protest of Bill Clinton's actual attacks on women.  And they came out in force when it was learned that Clinton made trips to "Pedophile Island" sans his Secret Service detail:  they marched in protest of his use of young, possibly under aged girls in pure objectification for his pleasure.  They've also been protesting quite regularly against the horrors and abuse that face women under Sharia rule, particularly where radicals have taken over. 

Oh, wait, silly me.  Locker room talk: bad.  All the rest: phffft.

Of course, the instant the march organizers denied official association to pro-life women's groups you knew exactly what it was about.  They couldn't have made it any clearer if they'd danced around with signs that said "I'm a pro-abortion hypocrite!"

So in order to to make America take them seriously as women they marched wearing "pussy hats", dressed as vaginas, carried obscene and vulgar signs, and chanted obscene and vulgar slogans.

Yep, when those images went world wide, it really made people respect American women.

And the speakers...Well, everybody has already heard the audio of Madonna and Ashley Judd presenting their intellectual feminist arguments.  But there were some other "feminist leaders" involved that most people don't know much about.

Like Linda Sarsour, one of the organizers.  Her feminist credentials are top notch as shown by a tweet she sent out 2013:

You might not know Brigitte Gabriel or Ayaan Hirsi Ali's names, either.  They are ferocious opponents of Sharia law.   Ali is a leading activist against the Islamic practice of genital mutilation.  She knows whereof she speaks - her genitals were mutilated when she was 5 years old. 

Linda Sarsour, march organizer, on the other hand, is an advocate of Sharia law and has ties to radical Islamic groups.

Then there was speaker Donna Hylton, a convicted killer who was part of a gang who kidnapped, raped, tortured, and killed  a 62 year old gay man.  A detective who interviewed Hylton said later:

"I couldn't believe this girl who was so intelligent and nice-looking could be so unemotional about what she was telling me she and her friends had done. They'd squeezed the victim's testicles with a pair of pliers, beat him, burned him."

Psychology Today featured her in an article in 1995.  The full text is here.

So, pussy hats, vagina suits, vulgarity, and women who are just dandy representatives of women.   And lots and lots of media coverage.   Which is a good thing because that allowed millions of people to see and hear what went on and many were repulsed, particularly when they saw that children were in the crowd.

There was a march today, too - the March for Life.  It won't get nearly as much media coverage, no matter how many hundreds of thousands are there.

There are no vagina costumes or topless women.  There is always pink because the march is heavily attended by women, especially young women.  And there are always signs.

There is no vulgarity in speech or behavior, no obscenities.  There is always a great deal of something the left hates much more - prayer.

But here is the biggest difference between these two marches:  the march last Saturday was about Self.  The march today is about Other.  And that is why they are so different.