Link Log for October 9

Happy Twitterday! On Twitter I learned a new word, but there was a reason why I didn't know it before and will not be using it on this web site. Since, although I've been stuck here all day, I don't leave hack writing jobs going over the weekend, I've also had time to explore Blogjob. Categories: Animals, Books, Communication, Crafts, Food (Yum), Health, History, Natural Rights, Pictures, Politics, Race, Stories, Travel, Writing.

Animals 

Documentation: it's only in the U.S. that superstitious people think black cats are unlucky. In the U.K. they think black cats are lucky (and orange ones are not).

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/oct/09/coming-out-of-the-dark-why-black-is-such-a-positive-colour?CMP=twt_gu

Books 

Snarky, but a great auction idea: Rand Paul auctions off the autographed copy of her memoir that Hillary Clinton sent to him, along with each of the other Republican presidential candidates.

https://store.randpaul.com/index.php/signedbyclintonrand

Books about places...no, this link was not Tweeted by Margaret Atwood, although it mentions her books. Is there such a thing as Toronto topophilia?

http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2015/oct/09/reading-cities-books-about-toronto?CMP=share_btn_tw

And, of course:

http://blogjob.com/priscillaking/2015/10/09/book-review-through-my-eyes/

Communication 

Guys, here's how you can avoid being seen as jerks: When a woman is speaking, shut your mouth. Focus on her words--this is going to be on the test. When it's your turn to speak, first show that you heard what the lady said.

http://time.com/3666135/sheryl-sandberg-talking-while-female-manterruptions/

http://blogjob.com/tiki33/2015/10/09/rebuilding-a-marriage/

Crafts 

Here's a splendid quilt:

http://www.itsjustlife.me/crafted-with-love-cathedral-window-quilt/

Food (Yum) 

How to make a sugar pie:

http://blogjob.com/jadeshomemaderecipes/2015/09/22/sugar-milk-pie/

How to make a fresher, healthier version of Rice-a-Roni...if you can find GMO-free rice and rice pasta.

http://blogjob.com/jadeshomemaderecipes/2015/09/24/how-to-make-rice-a-roni-from-scratch/

How to make some beans to go with the rice:

http://blogjob.com/jadeshomemaderecipes/2015/09/29/how-to-make-homemade-baked-beans/

How to make a party festive, without serving alcohol.

http://blogjob.com/jadeshomemaderecipes/2015/09/26/chocolate-nut-fudge/

Health 

Hypnosis is actually less dangerous than Lidocaine...I'm not saying that the school principal was right to hypnotize the students. I am saying that, when we read that a kid came out of the dentist's office, started to drive home, then suddenly got "a strange look on his face" and wrecked the car, we're not reading about the effect of his having been hypnotized in the past, or of his playing violent video games, or of his eating too much junkfood. We're reading about the way some people predictably react to popular anesthetics used at the dentist's office. The commercial media are told to tell people that various pharmaceutical products are safe, and not mention that, if they are safe, it's because people take certain precautions. Like knowing that after a Lidocaine injection some people are going to pass out, and when that happens, they should not be driving cars.

http://blog.dilbert.com/post/130747201026/florida-school-board-believes-principal-is-a

History 

There was a Battle of Blountville. It was more important, historically, than the Battle of Kingsport (which was not yet a city). There was no official Battle of Gate City; there was a Battle of Estilville, as Gate City was then known (not important), and a Battle of Bray (a tiny settlement outside Gate City) that seemed as if it might have been important at the time.

http://www.heraldcourier.com/news/school-kids-learn-about-battle-of-blountville/article_209f85cc-6ea2-11e5-b6f1-831acaddbcf2.html#.Vhfz1IlFreM.twitter

Natural Rights 

The position of this web site is that people have a right to end their own lives, but not to demand that others help them do it. Because, when others are willing to help someone die, their motives will always be suspect.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/when-it-comes-to-assisted-dying-whose-choice-is-it/article26721554/

Pictures 

Have you ever wondered why your neighborhood map looks the way it does?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/10/08/the-27-patterns-that-make-up-the-worlds-cities-and-suburbs/

Politics 

Publius Huldah and friends in Fort Wayne, Indiana:

http://allencountyteaparty.com/2015/07/11/u-s-history-forum/

Ben Carson tells it like it is:

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/ben-carson-defends-hitler-gun-control-comment-214601

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/10/08/fresh-off-of-his-abortion-debate-on-the-view-ben-carson-takes-aim-at-pc-police-who-say-every-lifestyle-is-exactly-of-the-same-value/?

Here's an interesting study of how the game is played...why opinions that are actually held by a minority can be mistaken for majority opinions, if the minority are vocal enough--or use networking well. (As when people think that society "accepts" same-sex marriage although none of the men we know personally would consider hanging out with a "gay" guy, or Republicans imagine that a party that's backed a "Defense of Marriage Act" can be represented by a serial divorcee like the #BankruptcyBillionnaire ).

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/business/wonkblog/majority-illusion/?tid=sm_tw

This one could become very serious...

http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=34485

Race

"Filed under 'Oy' and 'White People'," indeed.

http://daddytypes.com/2015/10/08/10_years_a_playmobil_slave-turned-pirate.php

The Daily Kos also reported a study showing that, when the White people surveyed were asked to picture someone who has one of several names associated with various Black ethnic backgrounds, they pictured big mean gangsters...I know the name game is based on what we remember or half-remember about some person. If "Bill" sounds to you like a name for a large, loud person with flushed, puffy skin and thick grey hair, that's not because you're a bigot; it's because you're remembering Bill Clinton. Many Anglo-Americans' only memory reference points for Black men's names are professional football or basketball players, so I can see where the association with extra-large body types comes in; "Kareem" sounds like the name of a tall man to me too. But "aggressive, violent, dangerous"? Some White people need to get out more. And why does it not surprise me that these White people were specifically recruited from the political left?

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/10/08/1429414/-Scientific-study-shows-that-when-white-people-hear-black-names-they-imagine-big-violent-criminals

Rand Paul gets it right on:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/10/07/rand-paul-blasts-crazy-yale-course-taught-by-prominent-black-lives-matter-activist-deray-mckesson/?

Stories 

An old folk tale from feudal times...

http://blogjob.com/stories/2015/09/21/the-clever-courtier-a-folk-tale/

Travel 

This was written to be filed under "seniors," but it's applicable to some young travellers too.

http://blogjob.com/thoughtsonaging/2015/10/08/tips-for-travelers-on-diuretic-drugs/

Writing 

A client asked what I know about writing "viral content." Ewww. Ick. Things that don't actually get read and shared a lot, but they strain so hard it hurts to look at the titles? "Five Dog Photos That Will Break Your Heart!!!" "Shocking News: Fruit Is Healthier Than Pop-Tarts!!!" Things I laugh at but never read? "Viral content" is either a judgment made after the fact, or an indication of tackiness. But here's an analysis of why one particular cartoon, in a well-known series by a well-known cartoonist, did go viral.

http://blog.dilbert.com/post/130750618061/why-this-tweet-went-viral

Link Log for October 6-7

Categories: Animals, Bad News Revisited, Books, Censorship, Christians, Citizens Fight Crime, Electricity, Firearms, Food (Yum), Funny, Good News, Muslims, Phenology Links, Politics, Relationships, Relocation, Writing.

Animals 

Just another kitten and puppy who've bonded...except that in this case the kitten is a cheetah.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/10/07/cheetah-cub-and-rescued-lab-puppy-develop-brother-like-bond/

This Smithsonian web page has succumbed to tacky advertising techniques, but if you can put up with that, here's how whale songs print out as sheet music.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/what-whale-songs-look-sheet-music-180956813/?no-ist

Bad News Revisited 

I disagree with Elizabeth Barrette about many things, but in this article I think she's almost completely right. Almost, because her suggestions are further-reaching and less workable than mine, which focusses on the problem. But read hers first, please:

http://ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com/3793861.html

Now...people have been unhappy in reasonable ways, and people have had depression-as-symptom-of-disease, for a long time and all over the world, so why did the U.S. school/stranger massacre problem start in the 1980s? Guns don't cause school shootings. Drugs cause school shootings (even though, at Columbine, one of the shooters was drug-free and was following his drugged buddy's lead). This web site doesn't care for the sloppy assumptions in the write-up below about Christopher Harper Mercer's drug use, either about vaccines or about race, but we have to share, anyway, this part of the evidence. People who walk into a school, church, shopping mall, and start shooting strangers, are on drugs. So are people who lock children "safely" inside a car and shove the car into a lake, who jump out of a car at an intersection and drag another driver out of her car and stomp her to death on the median strip, who crash a bus full of unsuspecting tourists into a cement wall, who aim cars directly at other motorists or pedestrians and hammer down on the gas, who use fertilizer to build bombs and blow up day care centers...and terrorist groups have been feeding drugs to those who carry out their attacks for at least a thousand years. Guns are a variable in the equation; drugs are the constant factor--the equation is "(drugs + human = homicidal maniac) x (weapon available to homicidal maniac) = number of victims." Guns are not the weapon that produces the maximum number of victims. And although (illegal) meth is one of the drugs that make people homicidally insane, some of the others are legal as "prescription medications"...and that's why some corporations, and corporate-owned media, prefer to scream hysterically about the guns (when guns were involved) and ignore the real problem.

http://www.naturalnews.com/051453_Christopher_Mercer_psychiatric_medications_autism_spectrum_disorder.html

http://freedomfightersofamerica.blogspot.com/2015/10/breaking-story-from-anna-morris-at-ffoa.html?

Books 

John Grisham's finished a new novel:

http://www.jgrisham.com/?Ref=Email_KDD_2015-10-6

Censorship 

The position of this web site has always been that the Internet is optional, a luxury. All of us need to be and stay prepared to go back to reading and writing without the'Net.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/10/07/you-thought-obamacare-was-shocking-drudge-reveals-what-supreme-court-justice-said-to-my-face/?

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/10/07/matt-drudge-issues-grave-warning-to-america-on-social-media-current-state-of-the-internet/

Christians 

The Pena-Vegas dance to "Amazing Grace"? I'm the sort of liberal Christian who thinks that's sort of cool.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/10/07/famous-actor-was-smoking-weed-everyday-and-in-an-incredibly-dark-place-watch-him-tearfully-explain-what-happened-next/?

Citizens Fight Crime 

This web site salutes Gerard Gaumond, even if rabid Humanists, attached to the harmful delusion that trespassers have rights, have failed to thank him for allowing a burglar to surrender and survive. He let the burglar squawk and didn't bash his head in? If the burglar has any relatives who prefer to keep him alive, why aren't they kissing Mr. Gaumond's feet?

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/10/07/man-faces-assault-charges-after-chasing-break-in-suspect-out-of-familys-home-and-allegedly-beating-him-into-the-fetal-position/?

Another citizen, Mike Hanson, claims to be fighting corruption. Well, this is what the Internet should be good for. Shine the light. Who's really out of order in Gonzales, Texas?

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/10/07/video-man-is-quickly-arrested-for-going-over-speaking-time-limit-at-city-council-meeting-after-unloading-heavy-allegations/?

Electricity 

Solar power should be clean, ethical, and cheap. The technology has reached that stage in California and Arizona. In the Eastern States, people understandably feel just a bit less enthusiasm about investing in solar power, because (a) we don't get enough sunshine to make solar power as profitable as it is in the desert states, and (b) we can't afford to add one more hair's breadth of damage to our already endangered roofs. Will greedhead utility companies work out ways to make solar power a rip-off even for farmers who can afford to dedicate whole fields to solar energy harvesting, or will we legislate ways to keep this new industry private, free-market, and thus an overall benefit for everyone? This web site has seen some hopeful signs but Norb Leahy is seeing some bad ones:

http://ntlconsulting.blogspot.com/2015/10/solar-raises-electric-rates.html

Firearms 

For those who use Disqus socially (I don't) and know that I've posted longish comments on Scott Adams' "gun problem" blog post, Kurt Schlichter's observations are apropos:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/10/07/retired-army-veteran-warns-anti-gun-advocates-by-recalling-the-time-he-walked-through-the-ruins-of-a-gun-free-society/?

(Hat tip, here, to the "curmudgeon" commenter who still types "firearms" because the U.S. Army used to discourage the use of "guns" as a generic term by encouraging the use of this word as slang for a part of the male body. It's taken me a while, and some encouragement from a sponsor, to type "guns." Nice to know that I'm not the only one who remembers "This is my rifle, this is my gun...")

Food (Yum) 

Here's a gluten-free recipes site...From Kristina Stosek's point of view it's mostly good, and from John1282's point of view it may be bad, that people who don't suffer from lifelong genetic gluten intolerance or even from temporary wheat allergies think they want to go gluten-free. Because it's trendy--with well-known Irish-Americans from Chelsea Clinton to Bill O'Reilly, and even non-Irish types like Keith Olbermann, publicizing their gluten intolerance, going gluten-free seems like something rich and famous people do? I think readers of this web site know that there are better things to have in common with rich and famous people than their diseases. No. Everybody can enjoy gluten-free meals, and depending on what their eating habits have otherwise been some gluten-tolerant people may be healthier if they learn to cook and eat gluten-free meals. If you're not physically gluten-intolerant, you don't need to commit to a gluten-free diet in order to enjoy gluten-free foods.

What some people don't realize is that most ordinary foods are naturally gluten-free, unless they're bought in canned or pre-packaged forms from manufacturers who try to reduce costs by dumping in wheat products as fillers. Soup doesn't need thickening with flour unless it's been watered down in the first place. Gluten-free recipes for meat and vegetable dishes tend to be simpler, sometimes even quicker and cheaper recipes. Only in recipes for baked goods does "gluten-free" ever mean "more expensive" or "more elaborate" or "harder to find."

Well, the site linked below contains recipes in both categories. Lots of simple, natural main courses; some elaborate, expensive baked goods too.

http://onlyglutenfreerecipes.com/

Funny 

How to raise your own spaghetti tree.

http://nowiknow.com/the-spaghetti-tree-hoax/

Anthea Butler may be a tenured professor, but she just nominated and seconded herself for the Idiot of the Year award. (If you embarrassed yourself on Twitter--like a gorgeous movie star I recently discovered there, who developed an unsexy illness and Twittered about it--you can try to delete Tweets people have seen, or you can just back away and leave your embarrassing Tweets showing, but the best strategy is to Tweet a couple of hundred links to things you want to publicize and bury the embarrassing one. Force those who want to focus on your bad idea to scroll down through screen after screen of better things, y con suerte Twitter-hiccups won't even let them get to the Tweet you buried. Duh. A teacher can't figure that out?) I wasn't aware that U Penn was considered "Ivy League," though it is the home of some good teachers who maintain a world-class, informative-and-funny blog...but it needs to lose the embarrassment that is Butler, fer sherr.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/10/07/ivy-league-professor-uses-racial-slur-to-refer-to-ben-carson-deletes-comment-when-reporter-uncovers/?

Elizabeth Barrette remembers a great comic strip...In "Peanuts" cartoons, Snoopy the silent but intelligent beagle fantasizes that he's a World War I flying ace and his doghouse is a Sopwith Camel fighter plane. That's why Mother nicknamed the Toyota Corolla my sister and I learned to love to drive "The Sopwith Camel." Thanks for the memories, Elizabeth Barrette! (First link to her blog, second to an Amazon book page that lists her as an author...let's let that Amazon tag-widget earn its keep...)

http://ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com/3795069.html

Good News 

Children want to help other children with cancer, and their families.

http://thesmittenedlife.blogspot.com/2015/10/fish-and-bread.html

Speaking of which, SARK's partner John is doing better:

http://planetsark.com/healing/team-velveteen-you/

Muslims 

An Arab-American at World News Daily, name omitted for sufficient reasons, calls out the CAIR organization that have been hassling Dr. Carson. Serious charges are made. This web site is not going to investigate those charges, but is sharing this link in case youall want to investigate them.

http://ntlconsulting.blogspot.com/2015/10/ben-carson-vs-cair.html

Phenology Links

+Barbara Radisavljevic finds a garden growing in a tree:

http://blogjob.com/justtrees/2015/10/05/a-garden-in-a-tree/

In South Carolina, after epic floods...

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/10/06/look-closely-thats-not-a-pile-of-mud-fire-ants-show-off-their-survival-technique-amid-historic-flooding/?

it's "Welcome Back, Sun":

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/10/07/south-carolina-weatherman-chokes-up-live-on-air-at-the-sight-of-sunshine-following-deadly-rains/?

Politics 

The fun part of this pre-campaign news story includes, but is not limited to, the graphic that shows up on Google +. It's not on the Blaze page itself, so why is it on the Google +? Does your browser show it on the Blaze page? It's a snapshot of Candidate Clinton looking distinctly weird. A lot of us lose facial symmetry as we age, but on someone who's claimed brain damage, this face looks...alarming.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/10/06/read-the-note-hillary-clinton-sent-each-of-the-gop-candidates-and-see-how-cruz-jindal-responded/?

Relationships 

What online comments can teach us about the "emotional labor" in relationships...I'd have to print this out in order to read it, and so probably will you, but some of the comments are interesting.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx-xbuASOkWccFk3ekRzcmZSajg/view?pli=1

Relocation 

Mona Andrei reports that changes of address involve some heavy thinking, in Canada. One tip I've shared in a comment on the blog post. Another tip I'll share here: If your eyes are serving you well (you don't need glasses to read or drive) when you die, and you want to pass'em on, there's no need to worry about being buried without eyes. That's what morticians are for. Plastic replacements under closed eyelids preserve the look of peaceful repose on dead faces. If cultural tradition dictates open coffins and relatives lining up to kiss the face, nobody will notice how many organs have been donated.

I mention this because I used to work with a man who was an excellent driver, in any kind of weather, thanks to a donated eye. The colors of his eyes didn't completely match, nor did they work perfectly as a team; the donated eye saw better than the one that had survived the accident. But he's worn glasses mostly for protection for thirty years.

http://www.moxie-dude.com/2015/10/07/a-few-things-that-happened-to-me-when-i-died-in-my-head-of-course/

Writing 

Some successful writers don't outline novels...

http://www.jerryjenkins.com/how-to-outline-a-novel/

...Bringing up this farrago (as distinct from a fandango).

http://blogjob.com/priscillaking/2015/10/07/the-zombie-apocalypse-of-priscilla-king/

Robert Hurt on Iran

From U.S. Representative Robert Hurt (R-VA-5):

"Dear Friend,
Congress has no greater responsibility under Article One of the Constitution than to provide for the defense of our great country. The first duty of our federal government is to guarantee the safety of Americans both at home and abroad. Unfortunately, I believe that Congress failed to live up to this responsibility last month when it was unable to stop the President’s implementation of the Iran Nuclear Agreement.
In a bipartisan vote, the House defeated the Iran Nuclear Agreement. I was among the Representatives who voted against this agreement, and I was extremely disappointed the Senate voted to filibuster debate on this issue. The Administration was ultimately able to implement this dangerous, unpopular agreement. It is essential that the American people and their Representatives in Congress thoroughly debate every issue, particularly grave issues of national security, and the American people and their representatives in both houses of Congress should have had the opportunity to meaningfully participate in this vital debate.
Iranian leaders clearly remain focused on expanding their nuclear capabilities and are only willing to do the bare minimum to reduce the stringent international economic sanctions that have crippled their economy. The fact of the matter is that the sanctions imposed on Iran were working. I remain committed to working with my colleagues to enhance the necessary sanctions against the Iranian regime and to do everything within our power to prevent Iran from building or acquiring a nuclear bomb.
Last week, in another bipartisan vote, the House passed the Justice for Victims of Iranian Terrorism Act. This bill would prohibit waiving, suspending, or limiting any sanctions currently in place against Iran until it pays the court-ordered damages it owes to terror victims – something the Obama Administration has glossed over in their effort to make a deal with Iran.
The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act gives American victims of state-sponsored terrorism the ability to sue and collect damages from the states responsible. Despite Iran’s standing as the world’s largest state sponsor of terror, it has yet to pay one penny of these court-ordered damages. I think we can all agree that at the bare minimum, Iran should not reap any benefits until it pays its victims what they are owed.
We live in a dangerous world, but this Administration is far too trusting in those who want to do us harm, seek power through aggression toward our allies, and further destabilize places in turmoil. Look no further than the Iranian regime’s continued hostility toward the U.S. and
Israel or the air strikes Russia launched this week in Syria, which they claimed were targeted at ISIS, but were actually hitting Syrians that oppose the dictatorial Assad regime, including Syrians trained by the U.S. to combat ISIS. It is unrealistic to expect that power-hungry leaders that have dubious track records will be honest brokers in high-stakes negotiations that implicate the safety of both our country and our allies.
Issues of national security are too important to leave to idealism and wishful thinking. We must remain vigilant and resolute to ensure that our top priority is that our nation and allies are kept safe. I will continue to oppose a nuclear Iran and advocate for a foreign policy that promotes peace through strength.
If you need any additional information or if we may be of assistance to you, please visit my website at hurt.house.gov or call my Washington office: (202) 225-4711, Charlottesville office: (434) 973-9631, Danville office: (434) 791-2596, or Farmville office: (434) 395-0120."

Link Log for October 4

Categories: Animals, Communication, Christian, Crafts, Firearms Rights, Green, Jewish, Military Families, Muslim, Phenology Link, Technology, Writing.

Animals 

Valkyttie was to the Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap as Magic was to the Cat Sanctuary...at this web site it's always Black Cat Appreciation Day.

https://wendywelchbigstonegap.wordpress.com/2015/10/04/should-auld-aquaintance/

Communication 

This web site has no idea how anybody found their way from the web site linked below to this one, but this web site does recognize some commonalities...this web site, too, was once a Weebly. (People who've kept at it have built some quite impressive Weeblies.) This web site is maintained by people who are severely ASL-challenged and can barely finger-spell. If the idea of a language that doesn't require hearing, or even absolutely depend on sight, interests you, click here:

http://aslthat.weebly.com/

Common courtesy: What's changed in 1963 is that we're more aware of situations (less secure than courtrooms) where it's rude to utter any part of anyone's real name. It's never polite to utter the first name of anyone over about age ten unless you've been invited to do so, and it always sounds idiotic, if not deliberately rude, to continue "calling" someone by any name or title over and over. (It's not rude to clutch at a friend's arm, bleating "Oh Tracy, Tracy, Tracy," if you've just received terrible news in the hospital; it just suggests that you might need to see the psychiatrist.)

http://nowiknow.com/what-to-call-witnesses-according-to-the-supreme-court/

More chatter, more pushiness, more bogus intimacy, is not better. We need a social movement toward more healthy distance, more respect, and a general understanding that before you've lived through the various stages of being a respectful acquaintance you can't be "friendly." The poor fool discussed in this blog post thinks she's being "friendly." She thinks she's building her husband's church by helping all the extroverts feel like one big yappy family. (She probably is not a natural extrovert, herself; they usually do have some sense of when to back off and shut up.) She's been told that "people" need to "break the ice" by talking about things that make them uncomfortable. And, being a poor, stupid idiot, she believed that.

http://blogjob.com/rusty2rustyschatter/2015/10/04/i-dont-care-if-she-is-the-pastors-wife-she-needs-to-back-off/

Christian 

Are same-sex "marriages" "celebrating sin"? Probably, but so are a lot of opposite-sex "marriages." Rather than try to judge which people seriously intend to be Partners For Life, I'm more interested in the public issue--the collective injustices to unmarried people, including the half of all previously married people who become widows, that allow the same-sex couples to claim that marriage is a civil right. The Bible positively harps on the theme of protecting the rights of widows, but greedheads in our government wanted to "encourage marriage" by encroaching on the rights of bachelors--and thus of widows. So as a natural consequence of this abuse, we now have this epidemic of annoying same-sex "weddings." It'll get worse if we don't deal with the root cause. The Bible foretells that "seven women will take hold of one man." Or we could see "weddings" between humans and cars, humans and computers, humans and trees.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/10/05/god-will-judge-our-country-for-this-famed-preacher-goes-after-obama-for-celebrating-sin/?

Crafts

"Pom Pom All the Way"? Remember the game called "pom pom pull away"?

http://jileaton.blogspot.com/2015/10/learn-to-knit-kit-and-pom-pom-all-way.html

Firearms Rights 

Survivors of the school shooting aren't falling for the Dim-ocrat spin...

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/10/05/family-of-oregon-shooting-victim-has-a-message-about-gun-control-and-the-second-amendment-none-of-us-have-changed-our-minds/?

http://ntlconsulting.blogspot.com/2015/10/carry-gun.html

I'm more concerned about the drugs involved in this story, myself, but why not say "up yours" to the Evil Principle?



Green 

These trendy little things aren't enough in my part of the world, where, basically, whenever any other place gets serious bad weather, we aaaalways get rain. I want pedal-powered generators as well.



http://blogjob.com/priscillaking/2015/09/21/can-solar-energy-save-you-money/

Save you money? Send a miner or steelworker back to work? What about blocking a possible attack from China?

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/10/05/for-the-record-chinas-cyber-warfare-unit-targeting-american-power-grid/

Jewish 

After a murder, dancing with the Bible.

http://noisyroom.net/blog/2015/10/02/a-posting-written-in-pain/

Military Families 

Jon Street reports on how current legislation could affect present-time military families:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/10/05/buried-in-1915-page-defense-policy-bill-are-major-changes-that-could-affect-over-1-million-members-of-military-and-their-families/?

Muslim 

We promised to promote any content in which a rational Muslim denounced ISIS. Trigger warning: bereaved parent in pain.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/10/04/he-was-controlled-by-terrible-thoughts-jordanian-official-says-his-son-joined-islamic-state-carried-out-suicide-attack/?

Phenology Link 

Our rainy weekend was South Carolina's floods. If the video works for you, you'll see a truck "swim":

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/10/05/what-in-the-world-witnesses-watch-in-awe-as-semitruck-driver-tackles-historic-south-carolina-flooding/?

Technology 

Cartoon with a point:

http://blog.dilbert.com/post/130557062016/robots-read-news-about-humans-in-metal-cages

Writing 

Here's the nonfiction piece I picked (mainly as being the shortest) for a blog "scholarship" or sponsorship contest.

http://blogjob.com/priscillaking/2015/09/22/three-athletes-who-write-poetry/

And here's where (if you think you need or deserve the money more than I do) you can submit your own best blog post or unpublished short piece to the same contest:

http://www.buildyourownblog.net/scholarship/

Morgan Griffith on the Foreign Policy Game

From U.S. Representative Morgan Griffith (R-VA-9):

"Monday, October 5, 2015 –

The Great Game is AfootMany are familiar with the 1967 Walt Disney classic film The Jungle Book – the tale of a young orphan boy, Mowgli, raised by wolves but who must leave his wolf family and return to the “man village” as the result of the fearsome tiger Shere Khan. This animated film was inspired by a book by the same name, which was written by the popular writer Rudyard Kipling. Kipling was born in 1865 in Bombay, and moved with his family to England when he was approximately five years old.
Kipling is also the author of Kim, a novel set against the backdrop of the political rivalry and conflict between the British and Russian Empires in Central Asia, a period known as “The Great Game.” Though Kim is likely set somewhere between 1893 to 1898, The Great Game’s push-me-pull-me of nations pursuing strategic supremacy in the world continues taking place today.
That The Great Game is still afoot is particularly evident in the Middle East.
Last week, the House made a move in the ongoing Great Game, which also furthered the pursuit of justice. With my strong support, the House of Representatives passed the Justice for Victims of Iranian Terrorism Act (H.R. 3457) on October 1. This legislation, which I was proud to cosponsor, would prohibit the President from waiving sanctions for Iran until the President certifies to Congress that Iran has paid court-ordered damages it owes to victims of terror. Despite having $43.5 billion in unpaid, court-awarded damages, Iran could receive as much as $150 billion in sanctions relief as the result of the President’s ill-advised Iran nuclear deal.
According to Congressman Patrick Meehan (R-PA), the author of the legislation, “Among the victims of Iranian terrorism who have been awarded judgments in U.S. courts are victims of the 9/11 attacks, the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, the 1983 attack on the Beirut Marine barracks, and numerous other bus bombings, suicide attacks, assassinations and hostage takings. All these attacks were linked in court to Iranian support or financing.”
I am opposed to President Obama’s bad nuclear deal with Iran, and I am appalled by the possibility that Iran may be given sanctions relief while American families of those who have lost their lives as the result of Iran’s terror see nothing. This legislation would see to it that victims be paid what U.S. courts say they are owed before Iran receives even one cent in U.S. sanctions relief. Consequently, this would reduce the amount of funds then available for Iran to use for other potentially nefarious activities.
While I believe the President’s policies regarding Iran have been irresponsible, when it comes to Syria, I believe he and his Administration have been neglectful.
Not surprisingly, Russian President Vladimir Putin is moving to take advantage of the leadership vacuum and strengthen his position in the Middle East. It is reported that Putin is strengthening his ties with Syria while also working with Iran to shift the balance of power in the Middle East toward a more Russia-friendly position, all to the detriment of the leadership position of the United States in the Middle East. The Russian parliament has given Putin permission to put boots on the ground, and the Russian air force began airstrikes on Syrian targets just two days after meeting with President Obama at the United Nations. According to The Hill, “Experts say Russia's airstrikes could worsen the Syrian crisis, which has led to more than 250,000 deaths and more than 4 million refugees fleeing the region."
Additionally, on October 2, the President himself acknowledged that his Administration’s plan to train and equip opposition forces in Syria “did not work the way it was supposed to.”
The President’s policies regarding Syria and Iran and his Administration’s lackluster performance in The Great Game are very concerning and detrimental to America’s position in the world. Unless you favor American isolationism, the absence of leadership from President Obama is having a high cost, a cost that, unfortunately, is getting worse with each passing day.
If you have questions, concerns, or comments, feel free to contact my office. You can call my Abingdon office at 276-525-1405 or my Christiansburg office at 540-381-5671. To reach my office via email, please visit my website at www.morgangriffith.house.gov. Also on my website is the latest material from my office, including information on votes recently taken on the floor of the House of Representatives."

Link Log for October 1-2

Can't believe I left without posting this on Friday, but I did. Categories: Animals, the Bad News, Crafts, Cybersecurity, Education, Faith, Health, Phenology Links, Picture, Politics, Real Men, Walking, Writing.

Animals 

Gross-out alerts for some: mealworms can eat Styrofoam and, apparently, like it.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/10/01/this-is-a-shock-scientists-put-mealworms-on-a-diet-of-styrofoam-and-were-surprised-to-see-what-happened/?

Cuter animals along the course of this "blog tour" with Peggy Frezon, author of a book called Faithfully Yours about pets and their people. (Blog tour itinerary ganked from Melissa's Mochas, home of the super-cute tortoiseshell Mudpie.)

Giveaway: Leave a comment to be entered to win a free copy of Faithfully Yours. One winner will be chosen from all the comments from the blog tour. Follow the tour and if you leave comments on all 14 stops, you'll get 14 entries!

Tues 9/29- Earl’s World
Wed 9/30- Cindy Lu's Muse
Thur 10/1- Melissa's Mochas, Mysteries and Meows
Fri 10/2- Pet Product Review
Sat 10/3- Talent Hounds
Sun 10/4- The Writer's Dog
Mon 10/5- Pooch Smooches
Tues 10/6- Heart Like a Dog
Wed 10/7- Champion of my Heart
Thurs 10/8- Joyful Paws and Talking Dogs
Fri 10/9- Fire Safety Rocks and Five Sibes

Another effort is underway to make rats the dominant species in Washington, D.C.:

https://www.change.org/p/tommy-wells-muriel-bowser-people-for-the-ethical-treatment-of-animals-peta-save-the-cats-of-washington-d-c?recruiter=12133782&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink

Bad News 

Yet another school shooting...and yet another chance for certain Dim-ocrats to spout unenlightened drivel about how, ohhh, if that horrible gun hadn't made him do it everybody would be alive, waaaail...I really find this annoying, Dims, and a disgrace to any Democrat who's been awake during the last twenty years. In countries where people who want to kill strangers can't get guns easily, they build bombs, or use motor vehicles, and more strangers are killed--and wounded. Horrible as it seems, when the problem is an insane compulsion to kill strangers, guns could be called a (very inefficient) solution. Guns may allow lunatics like this one to kill twelve strangers when a knife might have allowed him to kill only two, but then again a bus might have allowed him to kill sixty; a bomb might have allowed him to kill twelve hundred.

Let's review the problem, slowly: The problem is an insane compulsion to kill strangers. And what do the people who suffer from this problem have in common, before they start looking for weapons to kill strangers with? They have used drugs. Many of which drugs were legal prescription medications that are prescribed too often, without adequate provision for safety in the event that drugs like Prozac have their predictable side effects, which are known to include an insane compulsion to kill strangers in 3 to 10 percent of users. So, if we really, seriously, don't want to keep reading stories about school shootings, let's just erase that old worn-out tape that keeps playing the "we need gun control" garbage that served Washington so badly in the 1990s, and start talking in real present time about the truth that we need legal prescription drug control.

I saw the story first as Yahoo wallpaper; it was e-mailed first by the Huffington Post, an e-paper that frequently scoops the competition. Others also reported the story. As usual, the first reports weren't the most complete; here's the official report:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/10/02/oregon-shooter-said-to-have-singled-out-christians-for-killing-in-horrific-act-of-cowardice/?ncid=newsltushpmg00000003

The Huffington Post received the names of the victims and survivors:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/umpqua-school-shooting-victims_560ed03ee4b076812701e5af?

Crafts 

Jil Eaton knits a toy lamb:

http://jileaton.blogspot.com/2015/09/its-almost-october-and-time-to-start.html

Cybersecurity 

If the United Nations take over the Internet, are you prepared to back out and let the Internet collapse?

http://ntlconsulting.blogspot.com/2015/09/wrecking-internet.html

Education 

Ahmed Mohamed was a mischievous, rebellious little kid, reports Jason Howerton. Gifted children often are--especially when subjected to hours of boredom waiting for other children their age to catch up with them, which may not take so many years, but don't you remember how long a year is to a kid? In middle school a year might as well be "forever." People don't realize how passionately some of these kids hate school, or how easily that hate can be transferred to people in general. Or, in the case of children who travel widely, the town or state or even the country where a child feels especially misunderstood. That makes the Mohamed family's Arab-Muslim identity a valid reason why the President should reach out to this particular child. You want the Einsteins of this world to think of you as friends.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/09/29/before-clock-incident-made-him-a-celebrity-ahmed-mohamed-racked-up-weeks-of-suspensions-and-clashed-with-authority/

For the record, I sympathized with young Ahmed's story before I looked at pictures of his face. But I like his face. Aunts tend to look at the younger generation and think "If I'd had a child with X s/he might have looked like that," and if I'd had a son with the man I did marry, he might have looked like Ahmed Mohamed. Of course, another reason why an online image of a child's face stirs up mother instincts is that I don't see a lot of images of children in cyberspace. Which is as it should be. Children deserve privacy and need to learn to protect theirs. It's one thing to make a modest little trickle of money by blogging about a dog or cat modelling different pet care products. It's another thing to make that money by blogging about a child. Let's just say that I know of no terrorist who's ever sneaked into the United States under cover of the identity of a U.S.-born dog, nor of a thief who's ever closed out a victim's savings account by impersonating a cat.

http://daddytypes.com/2015/09/28/a_modest_parental_proposal.php

Now, about bright kids who waste their talent and energy on stupid kid mischief...what happens when they decide to use their talents for good?

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/10/01/ben-carson-jokes-about-throwing-rocks-at-cars-running-from-cops-in-the-days-before-they-would-shoot-you/?

Here's a feel-good petition that exemplifies part of the problem. What's wrong with "fully including in first grade" a child who's not ready to learn to read? Efforts to "fully include" all seven-year-olds, or five-year-olds or whatever other age is credited with the magic power of making children ready to learn to read, in the first grade, actually teaches them how much they don't have in common and why they can't be friends or work together. Efforts to bring together, in a first grade reading class, all people of any age who are ready to learn to read the same material, might "fully include" all the people in that category. But pretending that all children of a certain age are equally ready for the first grade is not "treating with dignity" a little boy who may be lovable, but who is not ready to learn to read. School classes need to move in the direction of ignoring age (or pre-existing social relationships) and screening out anyone who, for whatever reason, is not prepared to learn the same material. This woman needs to give her seven-year-old son the due "dignity" of noticing what he can learn and do, and making sure that whatever education or day care he gets is based on what he can learn and do--as distinct from either calling attention to his inadequacies, or dragging others back down to his level, by trying to force him to be ready to learn to read at age seven. (For those who don't know, Downs Syndrome is a genetic condition that makes it unlikely that this little fellow will live long enough to learn to read; most people who share the mutation spend most of their short lives learning the things the rest of us learn at age three or four.) This web site does not recommend signing the petition linked below...just read it and see for yourselves how wrongheaded it is.

https://www.change.org/p/fully-include-liam-in-first-grade-and-treat-him-with-dignity?

Faith 

I wasted a bit of time on a Disqus discussion at a U.Cal. site about a student who felt "persecuted" by a teacher whose initial announcement was, apparently in a snarky bantering tone, something like "If you are a devout Christian who believes the Bible is literally true, please drop out now." Neither the student nor the teacher was much of a surprise. I don't believe every word in the Bible even claims to be literally true; I don't believe a valid approach to Bible scholarship begins with the assumption that none of it's true, either.

I was surprised, though, by the low quality of debate coming from someone who claimed to be a student, a scientist, a rationalist, speaking for U.Cal., with the kind of venomous vaps that I would have thought were really clever, too, maybe in grade five--and as passionately attached to a blind faith in "Science" as a child, too. On questions like "Does the respondent called Cam, whom we know only from a few comments on a web page, have permanent organic brain damage such as Asperger's Syndrome, or, perhaps worse, the mind damage done to some children by teaching them to confuse fashionable ideas with liberal and scientific ideas?" the scientific response is "We don't and can't know. Something is wrong when a university student can't detach from emotions, use parliamentary manners, and refrain from calling names, but we don't have sufficient evidence to say what."

There are several topics of "scientific" debate--like macroevolution, mandatory vaccines, global warming, who "really" wrote a book that survives as copies made from copies a thousand years after the events in the book happened--where the really scientific response is "We don't and can't know." People unscientifically attach themself to one opinion or the other with blind faith and, because their faith is supported by some fallible piece of scientific research rather than a sacred text, they mistake their blind faith for science.

And there aren't enough teachers who are as willing to question these "scientific" opinions on the side generally supported by the Old Left as they are on the side generally supported by the Old Right. Faith in science is as much of a mess as faith in God...anyway, here's a good, short one-line summary of people's faiths, as distinct from God or, for that matter, from Science.

http://harvey-rrit.livejournal.com/321838.html

Health 

Ah...flu guilt.

http://thesmittenedlife.blogspot.com/2015/09/admitting-to-brokenness.html

This, I admit, is speculation, based on what I've been feeling this week so far, and on similar occasions in the past, and what others report...but it's workable. Say you've been exposed to the virus that's going around. (Check.) You're a reasonably healthy person, so the chances are that you're going to shake it off without showing any obvious symptoms. (Check.) You feel, more than anything else, tired. No nausea, no pain, no significant fever, not even a runny nose. (Check.) Well, maybe just a little bit...less cheerful than you normally feel; the baseline mood of healthy people isn't "happy," because "happy" is noticeably better than baseline, so this web site describes the baseline as "cheerful." Anyway, as a slightly less healthy person, while fighting the virus, you notice that things irritate, discourage, or worry you more than usual. Other people may or may not notice this, but you do. You've learned that this is one of the early, and minor, symptoms of fighting off an infection. (Check.)

So then something comes up--some opportunity to do something that people should not do while fighting off an infection: shovel snow, mend your own plumbing, walk 25 miles, sit up with a friend in the hospital, hug your grandmother. You know that doing whatever it is would increase the risk of (a) your coming down with the virus and becoming unable to do other things you normally do, and/or (b) one or more other people, who may be more vulnerable, coming down with the virus. Nevertheless, while you stay warm, avoid stress, and fight the virus, you keep thinking that you ought to do whatever it is that virtually guarantees that you and they will develop visible symptoms. Public-spirited people shovel snow. Nobody should be alone in the hospital. How can you not hug your grandmother? People will think you don't Care Enough about things you're supposed to care about. It's not as if you had a cough or a fever...

I propose that we consider this type of thought pattern as a symptom. False guilt is yet another unpleasant mood that goes with fighting off an infection. A person who normally feels sick and tired when facing any unappealing chore may have a problem with responsibility or a chronic disease or both, but for a person who is normally responsible, and feels false guilt about "slacking" in some way while fighting off an infection, the false guilt is as much a part of a disease process as a fever would be.

Phenology Link 

Salmon fishing in scenic New York state:

http://fishingandhuntinginoswego.blogspot.com/2015/09/salmon-at-gate.html

Picture 

For every comment made on Beth Ann Chiles' site, fifty cents will be donated to a legitimate charity. After typing a comment on this pretty picture, I'm not sure my comment was worth fifty cents. I'm sure youall can think of better ones.

http://www.itsjustlife.me/wordless-wednesday-in-bermuda/

Politics 

Lewis Shupe's essay on the life cycle of republics was good for a laugh, anyway. This web site hopes nobody would take seriously the idea of giving people extra votes based on their age or income. (Anyone who thinks baby-boomers aren't welfare cheats is obviously not familiar with the United States.) On the other hand, there is some merit in the idea that people receiving federal handouts, including college tuition grants or Social Security in excess of the amount they verifiably paid in, should forfeit the right to vote until they're self-supporting again.

http://freedomfightersofamerica.blogspot.com/2015/09/a-few-comments-on-nature-of-republics.html?

Scott Adams claims, on what basis I have no idea, that some people--presumably his personal acquaintances--can take the spoiler candidate's word. On some things. All to the good; all of us humans are bad enough at best and don't need to be made to seem worse than we are. However, how many weeks has it been since he promised to stay off the Fox channel, before the Bankruptcy Billionnaire is back on Fox, spouting "I don't think the word 'mature' is appropriate" with that classic four-year-old's pouty face. As this web site has observed...when a married man has initiated multiple divorces, when a man has filed for bankruptcy while known to have millions of dollars, if that man says it's raining outside we want to verify that before we pick up an umbrella.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/09/30/oreilly-and-trump-face-off-over-whether-he-needs-to-be-a-bit-kinder-and-more-mature-and-trump-explains-his-rubio-clown-quip/?

Real Men 

My Google + comment was "Proof that America needs car control?" Yes, that's a lame comment. There ought to be a Corrido de Juan Mena-Brito.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/09/28/man-dies-a-hero-pushes-his-wife-to-safety-and-out-of-path-of-oncoming-car/?

Walking 

Most of us should enjoy the right and ability to walk more than we do.

http://www.dailygood.org/story/1138/walking-the-world-at-three-miles-an-hour-awakin-call-transcript/

Writing 

I have no immediate plans for writing a conventional novel. Have you?

http://www.jerryjenkins.com/the-secret-to-compelling-writing/

Thanks to Hope Clark for sharing this writers' market link, with which I'm sure +Lyn Lomasi is already familiar:

http://www.thsc.org/about-thsc/opportunities-at-thsc/writing-opportunities/

Here's another'zine, with a focus on articles parents can laugh with and also use. (Writers and nonwriters are encouraged to browse the articles at this site, grouped in logical categories like Birth, Parenting--Toddlers, Parenting--Teens, etc. Despite the "Mommy" focus they're interesting to aunts/uncles, teachers, and grandparents too.)

http://www.scarymommy.com/write-for-scary-mommy/

Robert Hurt's Video Report

From U.S. Representative Robert Hurt (R-VA-5):

"Each month, I record a video report that recaps what we've been working on the previous month. Video and text of September's Monthly Video Report are available below. You may view the video by clicking the image or by clicking here.

“Hi, I’m Robert Hurt. Thank you for tuning into our Monthly Video Report for the month of September.

“Today, we are in the James Madison Building at the Library of Congress here in Washington. As you can see we have chosen this place in honor of James Madison and his defining role in the adoption of our U.S. Constitution by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787 – 228 years ago this month. We know that Mr. Madison – known as the Father of the Constitution – called Virginia’s Fifth District his home and served as its first representative. We also know that Mr. Madison’s vision and influence was unparalleled in the debating, adoption, and ratification of this document that has served for over two hundred years as our American blueprint for freedom. At a time when our Constitution and its founding principles so often seem to be ignored, it is especially important that we give thanks for those who set their signatures to this document and planted the seeds of liberty that we enjoy today.

“Speaking of the U.S. Constitution, I think most people would agree that Congress has no greater responsibility under Article One of the Constitution than to provide for the defense of our great country. Unfortunately, I believe that the Congress failed to live up to this responsibility in early September when it was unable to stop the President’s implementation of the Iran Nuclear Agreement. After studying the provisions of the agreement and attending numerous classified briefings with Secretary John Kerry and other Administration officials, I concluded that I could not support it, and I voted against it. And while a bipartisan majority in the House of Representatives reached the same conclusion and voted against it as well, we watched as the minority in the Senate once again used petty procedural tactics to block Senators from even debating this critically important issue. This misguided agreement has profound implications for both our national security and global stability, and the American people and their representatives in both houses of Congress should have had the opportunity to debate and vote on this issue. And while I believe that the implementation of this agreement makes the Middle East and the world a much more dangerous place, I remain committed to working with my colleagues to do everything within our power to ensure that Iran does not build a nuclear bomb.

“On the domestic front, we in the House of Representatives continued to work with laser focus on promoting policies that will encourage American economic growth and job opportunities for the people of the Fifth District and across this country. Indeed, in September the Financial Services Committee – the committee upon which I serve -- held its final hearing in a three-part series examining the effects of the Dodd-Frank Act five years after its enactment. During our Main Street Tour in August, we met with many Fifth District Virginians who talked to me about the need for common sense in Washington. We met with a number of individuals who told me about the negative effect that the Dodd-Frank Act has had on the ability of community banks and credit unions to provide capital to small businesses, farmers, and our Virginia families. And while this law was touted as Washington’s attempt to protect consumers, in reality it has only left consumers with fewer choices and made it more difficult to access capital. I will continue to work with my colleagues on the Financial Services Committee on both sides of the aisle to implement commonsense policies to promote jobs across the Commonwealth and this nation.

“Perhaps the most exciting event in Washington during the month of September came whenPope Francis visited the Capitol and delivered an address to a joint meeting of Congress. It was an honor to represent the people of the Fifth District in witnessing this historic event on the floor of the House of Representatives. I was especially pleased that we were joined at the Capitol by a number of visitors who came to Washington to see the Pope – including three groups of students from the Charlottesville Catholic School in Charlottesville, Sacred Heart School in Danville, and St. John’s School in Warrenton. I appreciated the Pope’s message to the young people of America, and I was so glad that there were young people from the Fifth District who were able to hear his message in person.

“Finally, we were very pleased to learn this month that the Commission on Presidential Debates selected Longwood University to host the only Vice Presidential debate during the upcoming 2016 Presidential election. This is excellent news for Longwood University, for the Commonwealth of Virginia, and for the Farmville and Prince Edward County communities, and I was pleased to be able to work with our Virginia Congressional Delegation to advocate for Longwood’s selection. I thank my colleagues for their efforts, and I commend President Reveley and the Longwood board for their leadership and for their efforts.

“In conclusion, I would like to thank each of you who joined us this month during our telephone town halls and remember that if you ever wish to visit our nation's capital – or the Library of Congress – please do not hesitate to contact our office so we may assist you. We are always glad to see folks from home. And if we may ever be of service to you in any other way, please contact one of our district offices or our Washington office.

“We can always be reached at our website at hurt.house.gov-- where you can also sign up for regular legislative updates. And don't forget to join the conversation on Facebook,Twitter, and Instagram.

“Once again, thank you for tuning in to our September Monthly Video Report.”

Sincerely,

Washington, DC - 125 Cannon HOB * Washington, DC 20515 * Phone: (202) 225-4711

Charlottesville - 686 Berkmar Circle * Charlottesville, VA 22901 * Phone: (434) 973-9631

Danville - 308 Craghead St., Suite 102-D * Danville, VA 24541 * Phone: (434) 791-2596

Farmville - 515 S. Main Street, P.O. Box O * Farmville, VA 23901 * Phone: (434) 395-0120

Link Log for September 30

Categories: Animals, Celebrity Gossip, Christians and Others, Food (Yum), Food (Yuck), Politics, Psychology, Writing.

Animals 

There's no mention that the dog in question actually bit anybody, and the deputy needed to waste five bullets on it? Sounds as if the deputy needs a lot of retraining...about animal control, self-control, weapon control, and, er um, are they sure s/he even went to the right house? At the deputy's own personal expense, please.

https://www.change.org/p/fresno-county-internal-affairs-fresno-county-sheriff-s-office-training-unit-hold-fresno-county-deputy-accountable-for-shooting-family-pet-and-implement-training?recruiter=12133782&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink

Unbearably cute kitten picture...my camera wouldn't have taken a picture this good of our Imp, last summer, but this is the sort of thing she did. Constantly. All kittens are cute but Imp worked at it.

http://themillionhair.tumblr.com/post/130230727689/seekingwillow-this-is-even-cuter-when-you

Less cute kitten picture. Fur be it from this web site to echo the Humane Pet Genocide Society's mindless chanting about how horrible it is to allow kittens and puppies to be born, but this web site does agree with Wendy Welch about the general idea of responsibility. Personally I'm willing to live with an indefinite number of Heather's and Ivy's descendants, and a reasonable confidence that other nice people will want to live with these purr-ticularly lovable cats. If you're less confident about either your cats' kittens or your willingness to live with them, autumn can be a good time to schedule spaying: many cats don't have kittens in autumn, and most autumn kittens don't survive in any case.

https://wendywelchbigstonegap.wordpress.com/2015/09/30/dorian-grey-kitten-of-erudition-speaks/

This, of course, is not how calico cats have kittens...

http://themillionhair.tumblr.com/post/130223952514/smilingribs-how-calicos-give-birth-based-on-a

Celebrity Gossip 

Celebrity blogger Michelle Malkin sees inspiring First Lady material in Candy Carson:

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/423730/ben-carson-wife-cand

Christians, and Others 

Liz Curtis Higgs on encouraging words:

http://www.lizcurtishiggs.com/say-something-nice/

Food (Yum) 

Vegan recipes that will tempt the carnivores...

https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2015nl/sep/recipes.htm

Food (Yuck) 

Once again, Monsanto and other corporations successfully lobby to prevent states labelling known GMO food products...like the corn and rice that nature guaranteed would be safe and healthy for me to eat, until Monsanto deliberately bioengineered some corn and some rice to be more like wheat and therefore poisonous to me. Mind you, no state is trying to prevent GMO foods from being sold, or for that matter advertised. What the states are trying to do is label GMOs so that people who have suddenly developed immediate, unpleasant reactions to some formerly natural, healthy food can avoid the bioengineered products their bodies reject as poison--e.g. "Roundup Ready" corn or rice, for those of us who inherited the gluten intolerance gene. Click here to tell your U.S. Senator that GMOs need to be labelled:

http://bit.ly/1iJ5ZXw @food_democracy Pls RT #labelGMOs

Although it's hosted by NYTimes.com, this graphic and list rolled up smoothly and displayed beautifully, ad-free, even in this computer's vintage version of Internet Explorer, so I expect it will work for you too. It's not good news, though, for "conservative" readers. The Congressmen we have to thank for taking the right side of this bill are pretty left-wing. John Conyers, Barbara Lee, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, other people Republicans don't get many chances to commend.

To be fair, most Republicans in Congress, including Congressmen Griffith and Hurt, took the wrong side...because they listened to too many farmers, many of whom had been coached by Monsanto salesmen, wailing that these farmers ca-a-a-an't make a living growing corn and rice without the GMO versions, and/or that their "natural" corn and rice are probably contaminated with the GMO versions (which is likely, and frightening if you're gluten-intolerant). No matter how many Washington insiders, like Al Gore, have fond memories of getting to ride the tractor during summer visits to Grandpa's farm, most Congressmen are not farmers and do not understand the solution to a real, and growing, problem.

In order to have a sane policy on GMO labelling we will have to go back and do things that it would have been much cheaper and easier to have done twenty or thirty years ago. Farmers will need to be re-educated about the (Bible's!) model of crop rotation, rather than monocropping and depending on poisons and GMOs to maintain crop production. For the first few years, the corn may be wormy. GMOs will need to be registered and reared in complete isolation, probably in greenhouses. Nobody will make a profit.

Why should American farmers get Green, get small, or get out? Because the alternative of relying on poisons and GMOs is unsustainable. Virtually all corn grown in North America today is now poisonous to many people, of whom I'm one. The next GMO experiment may be more poisonous to more people. "Zombie apocalypse" fiction may be a morbid fantasy, the actual disease and death may be ordinary, but our "sophisticated, enlightened" population wouldn't be the first population group on this continent to be wiped out by a plague...a preventable plague.

http://politics.nytimes.com/congress/votes/114/house/1/462

Politics 

The phrase is "Politics makes strange bedfellows." (For foreign readers, this phrase dates back to the bad old days when travellers slept in bunks, berths, or communal benches, and has the same literal meaning as "fellow travellers." Anyway, who would've expected the Pope to meet--and hug!--lapsed Catholic Kim Davis?

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2015/09/30/pope-francis-and-kim-davis-secretly-met-during-dc-visit-n2059205?

Psychology 

In a review of Julie Klam's book, Please Excuse My Daughter, I observed that Klam presented herself and her family as the kind of people I'd long perceived as Homo denaturatus, a pathological variant of H. sapiens produced by insufficient interaction with other species. Today Jonah Goldberg shared an essay by David French, who describes "victim culture" as a sociological phenomenon created by interactions among H. denaturatus, where instead of punishing offenses to oneself as smears on one's "honor" or pretending that being offended is beneath one's "dignity" people compete to impress authority figures with the intensity of their wounded feelings. We are definitely talking about the same mostly affluent, mostly Northern U.S., mostly left-wing guys; French doesn't mention the females of the sub-species.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/424805/victim-culture-kills-american-manhood

Writing 

For how many video game aficionados is this rule true?

http://themillionhair.tumblr.com/post/130230739444/things-that-dont-break-white-male-gamers