Obligatory Fundraising Links
For those who'd like to see less political content on my Blogjob, these links contain the secret of how that can be achieved. Frugal Gracious Living Challenge posts will consist of facts not opinions and thus, unless I'm reviewing political (or religious) books, they'll edge the political (and religious) content off the Blogjob.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-frugal-gracious-living-challenge–2#/
http://blogjob.com/priscillaking/2015/12/29/so-then-i-told-the-senator/
Animal
The Twit known as Pilgrim Traveler offers lots of appealing Christian-oriented nature photos. Here's a terribly cute duck:
http://pilgrimtraveler.com/the-peace-of-god-which-passeth-all-understanding/
Here's a detailed run-down on how poisoning nuisance animals in the garden can endanger your pets (and you), or why the position of this web site is that we should be predators if we can't recruit predators but should not be poisoners.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/782
Here's one of the harmless little animals who tend to become casualties of "gardeners" who try to protect their gardens with poison:
http://blogjob.com/insights/2016/01/30/the-amazing-walking-stick-or-stick-insect/
Books
Here's a review of a new book by a great, topophilic, Western U.S. writer, at a web site dedicated to the encouragement of topophilia. If you've not discovered Terry Tempest Williams yet, run don't walk. Oh...the reason why I stumbled across this'zine was that they're holding a topophilic poetry contest; thanks to Hope Clark for sharing the link.
http://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2008/12/22/finding-beauty-in-a-broken-world/book-reviews/
Christian
I think the surprise here is that anyone didn't predict what any member of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church is likely to say to, well, one of the questions that define that denomination's identity...
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/02/01/ben-carsons-pointed-response-to-biblical-end-times-question-is-jesus-coming-back-in-our-lifetime/?
Food (Yum)
Vegan yumminess from Mary McDougall, whose recipes usually seduce carnivores:
https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2016nl/jan/recipes.htm
Medlars aren't meddlers. They're a species of fruit tree, mostly cultivated in Europe, that need some encouragement to survive even where they're planted. But do you want to try them? (I didn't realize that a pearlike fruit from Europe would have something important in common with the banana!)
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/376
Funny Things
If I were in Florida and had $25, I'd go to this.
http://davecarlelection2016.bpt.me/
Politics
Publius Huldah live:
https://publiushuldah.wordpress.com/2016/02/01/phs-natural-born-citizen-art-v-convention-event-in-fairfield-glade-tn-2/
Television thrives on "controversy," meaning clever verbal abuse. But is that really the key qualification for the President of the United States? Tip for some Fox staff: you did the right thing by dumping Trump, now why not carry it forward and learn how to make conversation with an intelligent gentleman? I for one don't think a smart-mouthed Will-Smith-character-wannabe is what we need in the White House. I'd rather see a quietly effective, mature leader who commands respect...even if the novel sensation of having to respect an adult is putting some TV personnel off their stride.
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/267577-carson-rips-fox-debate-moderators-over-speaking-time
I'm not finding a link for this one so, with all due respect, I'm ganking it:
Now, even more seriously...Should the President be authorized to declare war without the consent of Congress? Should Congress just sign away this Constitutional protection?
http://us7.campaign-archive2.com/?u=6a89b73599e68a4cdf6730e21&id=684d6d9235&e=e038f280b8
Election coverage, about as serious as this particular moment in the election probably deserved...No, I want to highlight one phrase from Dave Barry's commentary for special endorsement: "Trump has...an incredible family." That, indeed, he has. It's incredible that he has an adult child who's willing to claim him in public. I don't know that I'd trust Ivanka Trump any further than I'd trust her father, but I give her full points for loyalty.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/elections-2016/article57260143.html
Today's Politics links are quite a jumble...As regular readers remember, it's possible for people who don't make it a full-time job to read the bills proposed in the Virginia General Assembly, because they are usually nice, straightforward bills that say one thing, usually a reasonable thing even if it's wrongheaded, in such a way that you can read them in one sitting. In the U.S. Congress, some bills, notably the "Affordable Care Act" that brought us Obamacare, are deliberately written with the intention of being unreadable, such that members of Congress have actually said things like "We'll have to pass it to know what's in it." E-friend Jim Babka has been opposing this practice for years, and so, as of today, do U.S. Representatives Mia Love, Jim Jordan, and about a dozen more at last count. Here's JB's temporary link sharing the good news:
http://us7.campaign-archive1.com/?u=6a89b73599e68a4cdf6730e21&id=d4e24e5c16&e=e038f280b8
And here's an easy way to be counted supporting U.S. H.R. 4335:
https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/114/hr4335
Btw, Rand Paul proposed a similar bill in the Senate last year:
https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/114/s1572
Traffic Safety
Hmm...this petition seems like another judgment call, and another close one, like the Flint water petition discussed below. I'm sharing the link in case you want to sign it. You may notice that I didn't sign it. Here's why: Yes, I know it's possible for a car's exhaust system to leak carbon monoxide into the car. A relative had a car like that in 1970; my parents drove one between 1983 and 1987. And when that starts to happen, people will notice it. You feel tired after a short drive, or sleepy, or sick; you feel more alert and less sick within minutes after stepping out of the car. That's a wake-up call, Gentle Readers. The leak may or may not be growing. If it is growing, or if someone takes a long drive in that car, it's rare but certainly possible that the driver could pass out while driving in traffic. So, if you feel that you're driving or riding in a "Smogmobile," don't wait for the leak to grow or for an expensive mandatory test to explain to you that you have a leak. Get it fixed now.
https://www.change.org/p/pass-savannah-s-law?
Virginia Legislature
Here's the Virginia Tea Party Patriots Federation's list of bills they support and oppose, in Word format. (Members of this web site generally, but not absolutely always, agree with their lists; when we disagree with them we're likely to be disagreeing with each other as well. Their list is a splendid piece of work, as always, for which we thank them.)
http://www.vtppf.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/2016.1.26_Support-Oppose-List.pdf?mc_cid=1d1ccf5d3c&mc_eid=bc15bff284
Words
In English "house" has traditionally been used as a metaphor for "household, family, tribe, society," etc., in phrases like the Bible's teaching that "A house divided against itself cannot stand." (And "stand," of course, is used as a metaphor for "surviving as a group.") Dan Lewis shares photographs proving that a literal, physical house--the building--can stand being divided:
http://nowiknow.com/a-house-divided/
You wanted to learn a more obscure, S.A.T.-type word? Jonah Goldberg explains apophasis:
http://link.nationalreview.com/view/55c8a77718ff4357208b47083kr10.7c7j/984ad998
Here's a professional writer using words in a way that is just sooo...deeply...wrong: (1) President Obama may have done the country a lot of harm, by pursuing an agenda that's basically anti-American, but he's not stupid, which is the word Ann Coulter was looking for. (2) "Retarded" has a literal meaning--it refers to people who mature at a slower than average pace, who are not stupid, or short, or whatever, but who, at any stage during childhood or youth, look or function like people who are younger than the average person their own age. (Example: "Although his physical growth was retarded by polio, such that he was the same height at age 12 that he'd been at age 7, by age 21 my father was 6'2".") (3) Calling someone "a ree-tard" is typical of people between ages 4 and 10, so what does that tell us about Coulter?
That she needs to grow up and apologize, that's what. Sometimes I think Coulter is smart, and sometimes I think she's funny, and then again sometimes she just falls flat on her face. And this was one of those times:
https://www.facebook.com/FightForEquality/photos/a.847361071948065.1073741828.119872344696945/1214858051865030/?type=3&theater
Work
What's the purpose of your work?
http://www.dailygood.org/story/1211/president-abdul-kalam-on-life-s-pursuit-gavin-aung-than/
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