General Discussion, Sunday, February 25, 2018

Spring

Spring! Tight buds unfolding from winter’s frosty hand
Turning to the sun’s warm glowing,
Touched by its magic wand.

The hope of buds and leaves tightly wrapped
With promise of trailing green,
Bright pink and white and yellow light
All waiting there serene.

Spring, resurrection time again!
My heart was like that bud,
When God drew me with warming glow
To turn to Him.

He bid me open up my heart,
And hope was born within.
See how the promise of His love
Is bringing forth, through Him!

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108 Responses to General Discussion, Sunday, February 25, 2018

  1. Lucille says:

    Condor embraces man who saved him when it was baby

    Liked by 5 people

  2. czarowniczy says:

    We’ve broken record hi temps in the area more days than not so far this month. Can’t complain though, it’s making all of the trees come out early and grass is almost summer green. Makes me wonder if it isn’t nature’s attempt to right itself – longer growing seasons mean more carbon is removed from the environment and more plants are produced. No, that can’t be it, there are no Federal inhouse made experts involved helping nature do it right.

    Liked by 5 people

    • litenmaus says:

      :0) Location, location, location….I was doin’ the happy dance yesterday because I spotted a little bit of pavement under the ice.

      Liked by 5 people

      • stella says:

        It’s in the forties here and will be in the fifties for the next few days. No snow on the ground, just ugly dead stuff. Spring will certainly not arrive for at least a few weeks.

        Liked by 1 person

      • czarowniczy says:

        No…wait…the cold is supposed to be retreating…

        Liked by 1 person

        • litenmaus says:

          A few nights ago it was 24 below, today it’s supposed to be 33…O.M.G…that means the temperature rose 57 degrees in less than a week, that must mean global scamming is for realz and the polar bears are all gonna die….

          Don’t get me started about the retreating cold….:0)

          Liked by 1 person

          • czarowniczy says:

            Polar bears can always eat the penguins…

            Liked by 1 person

            • litenmaus says:

              Will that help the polar bears swim better?

              Like

              • czarowniczy says:

                There’s a pending Federal program to give polar bears Travelocity accounts.

                Liked by 1 person

                • litenmaus says:

                  We better educamate the polar bears, ’cause we wouldn’t want them to get an NRA credit card and then try to rent a car or fly Delta…..that could get ugly.

                  Liked by 1 person

                  • czarowniczy says:

                    Point, but I’d like to be at the TSA checkpoint as one of the ex-Mickey-D cooks gropes him…..
                    “Yo, guy at the x-ray machine, can I get fries with him?”

                    Liked by 1 person

                  • czarowniczy says:

                    I got TSA Chek that allows me to skip the shakedown/feelup but I still can be groped at their pleasure. Insulting part is that for 30 years I held security clearances they could only dream of and was part of a group that tested their effectiveness when they were established.
                    Insulting sidebar is that first TSA agents were largely the same folks that were the private security folks that TSA was formed to replace. The unions raised hell about their being fired enmasse so Feds hired them (Well, they already knew where the bathrooms were…) and ‘retrained’ them. Yeah, right, like the Feds actually train anyone: “Go to the light, Casper…no, go to the light!” “CASPER! GO TO THE ^&%$#@? LIGHT!”

                    Liked by 1 person

                  • litenmaus says:

                    I used to travel a lot and, I never got groped by the TSA (frankly, I give off the aura of ‘touch me & die’ and it has worked well for me over the years)

                    However, I was ALWAYS being pulled aside and tested for explosives residue….it used to drive me insane.

                    Liked by 1 person

                  • czarowniczy says:

                    I was pulled over in Colorado Springs for an explosives residue test. Squirrel opens my bag, swabs it with the patch and the machine lights up. “Care to explain the test results, sir” I was asked. “Care to put your &^%$#@ glasses on and see that my bag’s full of used military battledress uniforms, sir?”. “Ever think that an Army Combat Engineer at Ft Carson might have explosives residue on his field uniforms he used during breaching ttraining?” At least he didn’t say ‘thank you for your service.”

                    Liked by 5 people

                  • litenmaus says:

                    My favorite one…I was returning home and I had a carryon bag that contained forty pounds of costume jewelry….I got pulled aside for the explosives residue, but when the TSA guy opened up the carryon, well…yeah, had to call in the “expert” to verify that I wasn’t smuggling jewels….seriously…the case was wrapped in duct tape…

                    Liked by 2 people

                  • czarowniczy says:

                    2003, I believe, and I was working with a branch of DHS. We got ac report in that a well known local rap star and his bodyguard were stopped at a secondary security point at the local airport and the bodyguard was carring a loaded 9mm Glock under his coat.
                    Rapper had distracted the starry-eyed TSA security personnel, talking with them signing autographs and whatever while the bodyguard slipped unnoticed around the metal detector. Rapper goes thru, both saunter down to the boarding gate. They used to have random secondary inspections down by the gates and the bodyguard got one – probably racially profiled.
                    The rapper has a felony on his rap sheet so he can’t carry a firearm but neither can he hire an armed body guard – charge against him. The bodyguard slipped past a checkpoint and had a loaded firearm past the checkpoint – two charges against him.
                    The airport belonges to the City of New Orleans and no one wanted to file charges under state law against the rapper or his em[ployee. The Feds didn’t want to foile charges either though the DHS and FAA folks were sorely pissed. And that’s where that all ended.

                    Liked by 1 person

                  • litenmaus says:

                    “And that’s where that all ended”

                    It is a sad commentary that I am not surprised in the least Czar…

                    Like

                  • czarowniczy says:

                    That’s how the system operates.

                    Liked by 1 person

                  • czarowniczy says:

                    Oh yeah, my second favorite: a friend works in DHS and the TSA folks are supposed to pass anyone showing Federal LEA, CIA or DHS credentials without inspection. He travels a lot and about two or three times a year gets rerouted to the deep-throat inspection line as the TSA squirrel doesn’t recognize hid credentials and thinks he’s trying to work a scam.
                    I frequently use my retired military ID at the TSA Chek point. Ain’t unusual to have them reject it as it has ‘expired’ on the back. I try to explain that the ‘expired’, as it clearly states, is saying that my military medical benefits have expired. If you look on the front of the card under effective date it says ‘indefinate’. I’m almost always told that they must reject any card with ‘expired’ on them – I get a supervisor over and the usual answer is that the screeners have so much to absorb that sometimes they forget stuff.

                    Liked by 1 person

                  • Czar, like many other people I know, you really need to write a book.

                    Seriously.

                    I know people who have died that should have written a book, but didn’t.

                    All those tales are gone. My uncle, the EMS/Fire guy who was my friend, never wrote a book. I don’t know his stories well enough to tell them. And he’s gone. And he had so many.

                    Liked by 2 people

            • joshua says:

              with 12 you get eggroll

              Liked by 1 person

        • joshua says:

          merely redeployment of a tactical nature…….faux spring.

          Like

  3. Hello Precious Stellarites, (this is a copy/paste from the CTH Prayer Request page, fyi)
    Just wanted to share that Brandon is doing pretty well now a day & a half since surgery. He slept poorly & in pain last night but seems to be settling down better tonight. He’s had a number of visitors who have brought food gifts & fellowship & he’s increased his energy when they have been present. When it’s just us who live here he’s fairly low-key & trying to rest, hopefully more comfortably than last night. Thanks, again, so much for praying for him! Blessings, Valerie

    PS If you want more details on his surgery &/or what’s happening with Josiah I’ve posted a more comprehensive “update” here:
    https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/josiahcurren
    It’s under Journal Updates & called “On Brandon & Beyond”
    God Bless YOU ALL!!!

    Liked by 7 people

  4. nyetneetot says:

    Mornin’ stella! (Smiter of those that ought to be smote) 😎 🍸 (Long Island Iced Tea)
    Mornin’ WeeWeed! (Master Mixologist Extrodinare) 😎 🍸 (Old Fashioned)
    Mornin’ Menagerie! 😎 |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| (Jack Daniels – Single Barrel )
    Mornin’ Ad rem! (Queen Felis catus) 🐱 🍸 (Flaming Lamborghini)
    Mornin’ Sharon! 😎 🍸 🍸 (earthquake)
    Mornin’ ytz4mee! 😎 🍸 (cosmopolitan)
    Mornin’ waltzingmtilda! 🙂 🍸 (white wine and perrier)
    Mornin’ partyzantski! 🙂 |_| (Tom Collins)
    Mornin’ texan59! 🙂 |_| (Black & Tan)
    Mornin’ ZurichMike! 🙂 🍸 (fuzzy navel)
    Mornin’ Col.(R) Ken! (hand salute) 🙂 |_| (Boilermaker)
    Mornin’ czarina33! (aka czarina) 🙂 🍸 (Lynchburg Lemonade)
    Mornin’ czarowniczy! 🙂 |_| (Wild Turkey Rare Breed)
    Mornin’ letjusticeprevail2014! 🙂 |_| (Irish Car Bomb)
    Mornin’ Patriot1783-ctdar! (aka “ctdar”) 🙂 🍸 (grasshopper)
    Mornin’ tessa50! 🙂 🍸 (flaming volcano)
    Mornin’ waltzingmtilda! 🙂 🍸 (sidecar)
    Mornin’ varsityward! 🙂 |_| (Godfather)
    Mornin’ MaryfromMarin! 😀 |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| |_| (Mortlach)
    Mornin’ Wooly Covfefe! (aka “Wooly Phlox” aka “taqiyyologist”) 🙂 |_| (Roy Rogers)
    Mornin’ Howie! (aka “doodahdaze”) 🙂 |_| (Classic Daiquiri)
    Mornin’ TwoLaine! 🙂 |_| (Gin & Tonic)
    Mornin’ Sha! 🙂 🍸 (Lemon Drop)
    Mornin’ BigMamaTEA! 🙂 🍸 (Harvey Wallbanger)
    Mornin’ cetera5! (aka “Cetera”) 🙂 |_| (Blackberry wine)
    Mornin’ The Tundra PA! 🙂 🍸 (Gentleman Jack Whiskey Sling)
    Mornin’ lovely! 🙂 |_| (Backdraft)
    Mornin’ michellc! 🙂 🍸 (Salty dog)
    Mornin’ auscitizenmom! 🙂 🍸 (Kiss on the Lips)
    Mornin’ Margaret-Ann! 🙂 🍸 (White Russian)
    Mornin’ Auntie Lib! 🙂 🍸 (Tom and Jerry)
    Mornin’ holly100! 🙂 🍸 (Jack & Coke)
    Mornin’ Pam! 🙂 (Not even water)
    Mornin’ Ms.Tee! 🙂 🍸 (Mojito)
    Mornin’ koolkosherkitchen! 🙂 🍸 🍸 (Cuba Libre)
    Mornin’ ImpeachEmAll 🙂 |_| (Flaming Dr. Pepper)
    Mornin’ Monroe! 🙂 |_| (Stinger)
    Mornin’ Les! 🙂 |_| (Rusty Nail)
    Mornin’ shiloh1973! 🙂 |_| (Jack Daniels)
    Mornin’ TexasRanger! 🙂 |_| (Whiskey Smash)
    Mornin’ Ziiggii! 🙂 |_| (B52)
    Mornin’ oldiadguy! 🙂 |_| (Rum & Coke)
    Mornin’ smiley! (“stuck in spambucket”) 🙂 🍸 (Spanish coffee)
    Mornin’ derk! (“Stellars”) 🙂 🍸 (Kamikaze)
    Mornin’ Jacqueline Taylor Robson 🙂 🍸 (Shirley Temple)
    Mornin’ facebkwallflower! 🙂 |_| (Night Train Express)
    Mornin’ Ms. Cindy! (aka “Ms Cynlynn” aka “ms cynlynn”) 🙂 🍸 (1970 ducru beaucaillou)
    Mornin’ sandandsea2015! 🙂 🍸 (1961 Château Montrose)
    Mornin’ amwick! 🙂 🍸 (Blue motorcycle)
    Mornin’ hocuspocus13! 🙂 🍸 (1970 Chateau Latour)
    Mornin’ Sloth1963! 🙂 🍸 (1971 Moulin Touchais)
    Mornin’ MTeresa! (Ex-lurker) 🙂 |_| (Albanian Raki Moskat)
    Mornin’ rheavolans! (aka “Rhea Salacia Volans”) 🙂 |_| (Hot Buttered Rum)
    Mornin’ joshua! 🙂 |_| (Mudslide)
    Mornin’ John Denney! 🙂 |_| (RumChata)
    Mornin’ litenmaus! 🙂 |_| (Stolichnaya elit, no ice)
    Mornin’ kinthenorthwest! 🙂 🍸 (A Lonely Island Lost in the Middle of a Foggy Sea)
    Mornin’ TwoLaine! 🙂 |_| (Smoking Bishop)
    Mornin’ patternpuzzler! 🙂 🍸 (Old Lady)
    Mornin’ Senatssekretär FREISTAAT DANZIG! 🙂 |_| (Red Russian)
    Mornin’ G-d&Country! 🙂 🍸 (Blind Russian)
    Mornin’ Gary! 🙂 |_| (Yuengling)
    Mornin’ valeriecurren! 🙂 🍸 (Flaming Sambuca)
    Mornin’ Lucille! 🙂 🍸 (Peach Schnapps)
    Mornin’ Lburg! 🙂 🍸 (Lburg lemonade)
    Mornin’ davidhuntpe! 🙂 |_| (Baileys Irish Cream on the rocks)
    Mornin’ skipper1961! 🙂 |_| (Brompton’s Cocktail – No cherry, no umbrella, no plastic monkey)
    Mornin’ mightyconservative! 🙂 |_| (Benjamin Franklin’s clarified milk punch)
    Mornin’ whiners and complainers! 😛 (No drink for you!)
    Mornin’ to people posting that I missed. 😳
    Mornin’ to all you lurkers! 😕

    Also just in case someday; mornin’ to Elvis Chupacabra, F.D.R. in Hell and sundance! :mrgreen:

    Breakfast!

    NEW and IMPROVED breakfast with extra bacon for ZurichMike!

    Doughnuts and coffee!

    Liked by 6 people

  5. WeeWeed says:

    Mornin’ kids!

    Liked by 4 people

  6. stella says:

    A cousin posted this on Facebook. It made me laugh out loud, and I knew some of you would appreciate it:

    Liked by 9 people

  7. stella says:

    Found on Facebook:

    Written by Regina Brett, 90 years old, of the Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio .

    “To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 42 lessons life taught me. It is the most requested column I’ve ever written.

    My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:

    1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.
    2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
    3. Life is too short – enjoy it..
    4. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and family will.
    5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
    6. You don’t have to win every argument. Stay true to yourself.
    7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.
    8. Save for retirement starting with your first pay check.
    9. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
    10. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.
    11. It’s OK to let your children see you cry.
    12. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
    13. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it…
    14 Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
    15. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful. Clutter weighs you down in many ways.
    16. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.
    17. It’s never too late to be happy. But it’s all up to you and no one else.
    18. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.
    19. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
    20. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
    21. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.
    22. The most important sex organ is the brain.
    23. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
    24. Frame every so-called disaster with these words ‘In five years, will this matter?’
    25. Always choose life.
    26. Forgive but don’t forget.
    27. What other people think of you is none of your business.
    28. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
    29. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
    30. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does..
    31. Believe in miracles.
    32. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
    33. Growing old beats the alternative — dying young.
    34. Your children get only one childhood.
    35. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
    36. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
    37. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.
    38. Envy is a waste of time. Accept what you already have not what you need.
    39. The best is yet to come…
    40. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
    41. Yield.
    42. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.”

    Liked by 8 people

  8. G-d&Country says:

    Afternoon Stellars! Hope everyone is having a great day 🙂
    Granite Grok has had some good articles lately. Here are excerpts a few that are of common interest:

    http://granitegrok.com/blog/2018/02/notable-quote-jeffrey-folks
    ‘Notable Quote – Jeffrey Folks’ Feb 24, 2018 by Skip Murphy
    The heart of Liberalism and why they hate us [1] and the lives we have chosen for ourselves (emphasis Skips’ – all caps G&C).

    Do they really hate ordinary people that much? Yes, they do. At its core, liberalism can be defined in gnostic terms as the human mind’s idolizing of itself. In this sense, Obama’s famous aphorism is spot on. The liberal mind really is what the liberal mind has been waiting for. To succeed, liberalism must acquire and retain clients in need of change. It is not in the interest of the liberal to solve problems. There are fewer pawns lately, what with President Trump’s determination to actually solve problems rather than exploit them. BUT AS THE 2018 AND 2020 ELECTIONS DRAW NEARER, THERE WILL BE AN EXPLOSION OF MEDIA ACCOUNTS OF VICTIMIZATION. It will be theater nonstop, and it will express perfectly the liberal’s need to transform the world whether it wishes to be transformed or not. …There is a point at which liberalism’s hubris turns into bloodlust. The act of exerting force becomes reflexive and then pleasurable. …
    [1]https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/02/leftists_versus_the_people.html
    ~~~
    http://granitegrok.com/blog/2018/02/obama-democrats-daca-created-opioid-crisis#more-143211
    ‘Obama, Democrats, and DACA Created the Opioid Crisis’ Feb 25, 2018 by Steve MacDonald

    It’s no secret that I think the opioid crisis is an excuse to grow the bureaucratic state. With frequent references to the work of Theodore Dalrymple, I’ve tried to warn legislators and citizens that budgets will be blown in the name of ‘doing something‘ to create a sprawling government infrastructure whose addiction to your tax dollars will prove a greater burden than the “problem” it was created to alleviate. If history is any guide an expansion of the state to deal with drugs and addiction will accomplish nothing meaningful on any timeline. “Every problem in contemporary society calls forth its equal and supposedly opposite bureaucracy. The ostensible purpose of this bureaucracy is to solve that problem. BUT THE BUREAUCRACY QUICKLY DEVELOPS A SURVIVAL INSTINCT and so no more wishes the problem to disappear than the lion wishes to kill all the gazelle in the bush and leave itself with no food for the future. In short, the bureaucracy of drug addiction needs drug addicts far more than drug addicts need the bureaucracy.” Theodore Dalrymple – Romancing Opiates
    The answer is not to create new bureaucrats but to allow the Federal government to do something for which it is already responsible. National security. Republicans have a counter-narrative. They need to rise up 24/7/365 in defense of the people of the nation in support of ending policies at the root of the problem.
    ~~~
    http://granitegrok.com/blog/2018/02/man-woman-something-else#more-143126
    ‘A Man, a Woman, Or Something Else’ Feb 24, 2018 by Steve MacDonald

    The professional left is obsessed with stereotypes. It is the foundation of their path to rule. Dividing people, profiling them, and then dividing them further. There are man and woman and a limited number of races, but adding twenty, or thirty, or one-hundred misunderstood and struggling gender classes into that mix makes fruitful ground for sowing deceit, distrust, division, and hate. A ground in which Liberals and their ‘God-Government’ can claim power for themselves in the name of reconciling the differences they created. All Progressives do is divide us. EVEN THEIR EMBRACE OF DIVERSITY AND EQUALITY, A VERITABLE CONTRADICTION IN TERMS, IS A POTEMKIN VILLAGE NAMED “INCLUSION” WHOSE SOLE PURPOSE IS TO INSTITUTIONALIZE WHAT SEPARATES US BEYOND RECONCILIATION IN THE BLIND PURSUIT OF POWER.
    ~~~
    http://granitegrok.com/blog/2018/02/notable-quote-kevin-williamson-9
    ‘Notable Quote – Kevin Williamson’ Feb 23, 2018 by Skip Murphy

    “The difference between communism and socialism is that under socialism central planning ends with a gun in your face, whereas under communism central planning begins with a gun in your face.” –Kevin Williamson (writer, author H/T: The Truth About Guns) And Susan notes: History’s worst mass shooting took place after Socialists disarmed their citizenry. [G&C’s comment is that after being disarmed they were no longer citizens, but subjects, serfs, and slaves.]

    Liked by 3 people

  9. stella says:

    I don’t know the story behind this photo, but it doesn’t look good.

    Like

    • stella says:

      Here’s the story:

      Asked about the car, Veda Coleman-Wright, director of BSO’s public information office, explained that it was on loan from the Prestige Imports of Miami for the Toys in the Sun run and that it had been wrapped at no cost to the department.

      Florida statutes specify that only cars owned and operated by sheriffs departments can use their logos and color schemes, and that it’s unlawful for cars to be marked like law enforcement cars unless properly authorized. But BSO got around those by drawing up a written contract that looks like a de facto rental agreement, suggesting the agency is renting the car for $10. The contract specified that the car had to be towed to and from the event and that the wrap had to be removed after 72 hours.

      http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/news/about-that-broward-sheriffs-office-lamborghini-6472979

      Liked by 1 person

    • Lucille says:

      Every single person in this photo is now tainted by the dereliction of duty shown by some of their deputies. Who among them has not just gone along to get along?

      The media isn’t reporting much, if at all, on the Broward County program to let criminal behavior in schools slide so the record seems better than it truly is. Once that is discovered, and again if it is at all, respect for the entire department will be non-existent.

      At a time when our police and sheriff departments are constantly berated, this group will be the poster child for how NOT to do your duty.

      Like

  10. auscitizenmom says:

    lilbirdee12’s prayer:

    Our Heavenly Father, Your children come to you tonight to ask for healing and peace throughout our country so that we may return to being One Nation Under God. Guide us to be leaders in Your Kingdom, spreading Your Love and Salvation to all. Forgive us our sins and deliver us from evil.

    Lord, we ask for a blanket of protection over all our troops and law enforcement who serve to defend and protect us. Bless our representatives with the strength and wisdom they need to achieve the path You have chosen for us.

    Please place Your Guardian Angels of Protection around Donald Trump and Mike Pence and their families as they seek to lead America back to You.

    Grant us patience, Lord, as the evil ones try to anger us and cause us to fall.
    Spread blessings over Israel and Netanyahu.

    We humbly ask that You please comfort those who are grieving and in pain.
    Thank you Father, for Your Love and the gift of Life.

    In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.

    Liked by 4 people

  11. michellc says:

    Lovely, now they’re turning goats into golf caddies.
    https://nypost.com/2018/02/13/golf-course-to-start-using-goats-as-caddies/

    Like

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