Link Log for June 27-28 (UPDATE)

What'm I even doing online here? I'm supposed to be polishing the document I wrote for payment on Friday. In between delays as the document is zapped around the world and back, however, I've been checking for yourall's most plus-worthy links. Categories: Animals, Charity, Christian, Confederate Flag Rants, Cute Things, Cybersecurity, Etiquette, Food, Health, Job Opening, Obamacare, Patriotic, Politics, Writing, and Young. [Edited to fix a Googlitch--things typed in italics were showing on the screen as blank space. Let's see whether changing to bold type will fix it, or whether Blogspot really wants people to start YELLING at one another.]

Animals

This Sloth Sanctuary update might be important to anyone planning a trip to Costa Rica:

http://www.slothsanctuary.com/frequently-asked-questions/

Not the most flattering photos of the photogenic hound Valentino, these pictures do answer the question raised a few weeks ago--whether the dog could obtain an appropriate harness:

http://www.dogpawsitivetidbits.com/2015/06/dog-water-fun-in-summer-sun.html

Mei Liang Hoe titled this photo collection "The Perks of Being a Wildlife Photographer":

http://themillionhair.tumblr.com/post/122660406054/catsbeaversandducks-the-perks-of-being-a

Charity

+Coral Levang reports on a heroic little boy:

https://corallevang.wordpress.com/2015/06/28/8-year-old-boy-goes-beyond-to-help-young-cancer-patients/

Christian

+Ed Decker shares this link to a thoughtful preliminary Bible study. I'd be interested in digging deeper into the original texts and the degree of difference, if it is a consistent difference, made between homosexual and heterosexual sin (not to mention non-sexual sin). I've always thought that sin is sin is sin, myself. Anyway I completely agree with Rick Phillips' conclusion: they're all washed away by the sacrifice of Jesus.

http://www.reformation21.org/blog/2015/06/should-we-equate-homosexual-an.php

Here's a quick summary of the Christian position on homosexuality as such. We don't throw stones at people; when we want to worry about individuals' sins, we have plenty of our own. But we can't "call evil good and good evil."

http://deckerreport.com/homosexuality-how-do-we-stand-on-this-subject/

Confederate Flags

Censorship just brings out the latent "rebel" in people. I saw a Confederate flag rippling in the breeze this afternoon. Haven't seen one in years; usually the flags displayed on Jackson Street in Gate City are U.S. and Virginia flags. But I could understand. I've not owned or displayed any Confederate-flag items for years, since in Washington I thought all they'd do would be to alienate students (mostly Northerners, mostly Black)...but this talk of censoring the Confederate flag is making me wish I had one to run up the pole myself.

Some people need to be reminded that, so far as is known, none of my Confederate ancestors was fighting to preserve slavery. One of them did own slaves; one didn't. One, who was too old to fight but served the Confederacy as a tailor, had been enslaved (in Europe), and supported the place where he'd recovered his freedom. (Slavery was global before 1800, and some Europeans were enslaved after 1800.) My Confederate ancestors were fighting to protect their homeland--in all probability, no more no less, although the one who was fifteen and lied about his age might have been looking for adventure. The political causes of the 1860s don't translate precisely into the terms of the 2010s. Rather than try to revive the antique Confederate flag, I'd like to see young people design and display an Anti-Censorship, Anti-Nannyism flag of their own.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jack-coleman/2015/06/27/ed-schultz-purge-confederate-flag-desecration-american-history#.VY_sCFf_wcw.blogger

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/06/27/walmart-refused-to-create-confederate-flag-cake-the-next-day-same-customer-asks-store-for-cake-with-islamic-state-flag-want-to-guess-how-it-pans-out/?

Cute Things

Schools and day care places really need this cute piece of household décor.

http://www.betterplumbingdenver.com/blog/the-convenience-of-child-sized-bathroom-sinks

Cybersecurity

How important is this tidbit? After all, people who are serious about cybersecurity don't do Facebook.

http://freedomfightersofamerica.blogspot.com/2015/06/facebook-now-harvesting-list-of-all.html?

Etiquette

Dave Urbanski shares a table of boring things people say that may be heard as..."racial microaggression"? Per-lease. What about "Think twice before saying these things to anyone, regardless of race, because they're boring clichés"? Not hateful...just super-stale!

In Washington, D.C., everybody is "from" somewhere else, and I literally think of the "from" chunk as part of the identity of a new acquaintance; I feel better defined, among people who don't know my family, as "Pris from Virginia" (or the equivalent for my real-world name) than as "Priscilla King." But I was warned a long time ago that in places that are or might be someone's home town, "Where are you from?" sounds more like "You don't fit in here." And of course, having mentioned Virginia, I now have to share the classic tip: "Never ask people where they're from. If they're from Virginia they'll tell you which town. If they're not, why embarrass them?"

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/06/27/classic-tip-encouraging-hard-work-now-considered-a-racial-microaggression-by-college/?

Food

I'm not sure how people were referred to my site from hers, but after investigating Trudy Hanley's "Hub" (because Google reported it as a source of traffic here) I can recommend it as a source of pasta sauce recipes. Also baklava, for those who can eat baklava.

http://trudyhanley.hubpages.com/

Health

Recent political events are causing some e-friends and real-world friends to need this reminder from Tim LaHaye. (It's a book--from back at the beginning of his career, meaning that it's one of the excellent early books that made his reputation. Older conservative Christians already own copies, but if you don't, here's your chance to buy it for only the price we paid for it when it first came out.)

Anger Is a Choice

For non-Christians, or Christians who may find it interesting, Elizabeth Barrette shared the link to this meditation:

http://www.riseearth.com/2015/06/this-simple-hand-exercise-will-help-you.html#.VY6tYVQuXS8.facebook

Mei Liang Hoe reminds people of something basic:

http://themillionhair.tumblr.com/post/122676033114/lipstick-autistic-please-stop-saying-autistic

+Coral Levang reminds people of another basic...overwork is a health hazard! (That's why taking one day out of seven as a "day of rest" from all ordinary work is a commandment in the Bible.)

Well, yesterday I pasted in the link, but today it's not showing up. And it was a link to a post on Persona Paper. The title was "I Am Such a Slug," if you want to Google it; PP is too cluttered with ad graphics to run on the computer I'm using now.

Job Opening

I need someone with these skills too, but I think +Coral Levang can afford to pay the person...

http://personapaper.com/article/33805-i-have-ideas-but-need-collaboration

Obamacare

At least Norb Leahy gets the basic point...one of them, anyway:

http://ntlconsulting.blogspot.com/2015/06/obamacare-is-still-bad-deal.html

Patriotic

Here's to our country, right or wrong--when wrong to be put right. +Theresa Wiza had the idea when she wrote this vintage article, newly republished:

http://myheartblogstoyou.blogspot.com/2015/06/mom-learns-patriotic-pride-from-her.html

Politics

Patricia Evans shared some incisive comments, significant claims about the behavior of Virginia's U.S. Representatives, and an excellent cartoon. Below the claims, which are copied on my Freedom Connector page, is a link that should take readers (in any State) to the comments and cartoon. If it doesn't, let me know and I'll copy them from the e-mail.

http://connect.freedomworks.org/node/195382

Somewhat "crotchety" (in the Ozarque sense) discussion of the Constitution and proposals for Balanced Budget Amendments:

https://publiushuldah.wordpress.com/2015/06/24/states-need-budgets-but-enumerated-powers-limit-federal-spending/

Writing

Here's an interesting writing group...some familiar to regular readers, some not.

http://www.writewavemedia.com/our-writers.html

Young

Some bloggers are very, very young. I chortled at this snappy retort from a very young writer. Then I remembered events like the Prozac-demented (in his case I think it literally was Prozac) bus driver who deliberately smashed a few dozen passengers into a building in Israel in the 1990s; they were adults as I recall, but could've been kids. The kids chatting on this Tumblr thread do not even remember what were known as The Troubles in Ireland in the 1970s and 1980s. Banning guns does not cause outbreaks of knife-throwing, not in an era when motor vehicles are widely available and explosives are easy to make. (And the surprising thing about Washington's gun ban, in the 1990s, was that banning guns did not noticeably discourage shootings either.)


http://themillionhair.tumblr.com/post/122675485944/bogleech-yeah-clearly-someone-could-just-bust