June 22, 2015

Watch: John Oliver has a suggestion for South Carolina’s Confederate flag — and it’s perfect

Scroll down a bit to the clickable link - I wish I knew how to post it directly - it’s worth your time, and will allow you a much needed smile.

It will be worth it, naturally he nails the issue.
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/watch-john-oliver-has-a-suggestion-for-south-carolinas-confederate-flag-and-its-perfect/

June 20, 2015

Leave it to "the big dog" to find a little appreciation in Republican denial

June 17, 2015

"We have to work together" - Bill Nye's the Science Guy talks about the "race" of all humans.

June 9, 2015

Dennis Hastert Pleads Not Guilty to Lying About Hush Money

Source: NYTimes

Dennis Hastert Pleads Not Guilty to Lying About Hush Money
After days of silence, J. Dennis Hastert, a former speaker of the House of Representatives, on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he illegally structured bank withdrawals and lied to the authorities about millions of dollars he had promised to pay someone for misconduct that occurred decades ago.
It was the first time Mr. Hastert had appeared in public since the charges were announced last month, and he was met with a crush of news media in the federal courthouse here.
In late May, Mr. Hastert, 73, was indicted on charges of structuring cash withdrawals and lying to federal investigators in connection to what prosecutors described as an arrangement to pay a person, identified only as Individual A, a total of $3.5 million in exchange for not making public misconduct against that individual.


Read more: RE » http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/10/us/politics/dennis-hastert-chicago-court-appearance-for-arraignment.html?emc=edit_na_20150609

June 8, 2015

June declared as "Immigration Month"is pretty special to me. Proof here:

I pulled out the old passport and yep
sure enough (not that I would ever forget it)
I immigrated in June. On the 7th, so my anniversary was yesterday.

You can see that half a century ago I came to this wonderful land where I felt at home as soon as I put foot on the soil, and where I immediately found acceptance all around me.
I was in my late teens, knew a family, spoke school English, and had 40 bucks in my pocket.




The photo is me on the deck of the coal freighter on which I was one of 10 passengers from Rotterdam to Norfolk.

I left home because I was the oldest of 7 children in a very poor family, and had to get away to find my own place in the world.
Also I was not happy with how Germany mishandled the second world war history in my school, and I wanted to leave it.
I came into the American South in 1964, and people pressingly wanted to explain to me the differences between "us" and the people of color.
They did not get very far from the first hint of trying.

I became a citizen in order to vote for McGovern,
I have only voted for Democrats in the last 50 years, except once. In a local race, the Republican lawyer I hired to get child support due had done a good job for me, and he wanted to become District attorney, he won and did a fine job for my city as well.

More than you probably ever wanted to know about me, or maybe not enough.
But I love you folks here and I appreciate your acceptance of this immigrant in a whole country full of almost nothing but...........

June 6, 2015

If only we in the South could all have neighbors like this: anonymous gift on my front porch

I stepped out a few minutes ago, and the string of buttons was lying there for me.
No note.
Just left by someone who knew me well enough to be sure of my appreciation.

I hung it at the door, along with my note

June 6, 2015

What is the reason you think our participation in the contests is so low? This is not a poll

Surely I am not alone in worrying about our low count of entries - there have in my observation been only 2 times that the entries filled up to 30 since DU3 started.
We had almost a year then when we could not poll and therefore not run contests.
When the polls came back we could no longer do private voting.

I long thought this break and the change were the reason for the lack of participation, but I'm not so sure any more because I figure people have gotten used to it by now, even I gave up flailing about it.

Could it be fear of winning and therefore having to host? Maybe, but that's nothing new.

Could it be that not being a star member prevents a person not from entering, but from hosting? Has that always been like this?

Are we just worn out and no longer interested?

Should we think of some other way to determine the host or hostess?

I'm just wondering about this as I see the struggle to get the Spring contest up to 20 entries. For heaven's sake, anybody with a camera has a photo of spring flowers.........


Thoughts?

June 5, 2015

While I’m already wearing out my welcome tonight :) here are 2 photos I took on my way home

On my way home from the shot I took for the “Water running through it” I stopped, parked precariously, and looked up to take these.
My mind was on taking pictures.

If ever we have a contest: “If you can’t hide it, feature it” one of these would be my entry - can't chose which one

June 4, 2015

Federal Computer Breach With Origins in China Exposes Personnel Data

Source: NYTimes

BREAKING NEWS Thursday, June 4, 2015 6:13 PM EDT
Federal Computer Breach With Origins in China Exposes Personnel Data
The Obama administration on Thursday announced what appeared to be one of the largest breaches of federal personnel data, involving at least four million current and former government employees, in an intrusion that federal officials say apparently originated in China.
The personal data was held by the Office of Personnel Management, which handles government security clearances and federal employee records. The breach was detected in April, the office said, but it appears to have begun at least late last year.
The breach is the second major foreign intrusion into an important federal computer system in recent months. Last year, the White House and the State Department found that their email systems had been compromised in an attack that has been widely attributed to Russian hackers.
READ MORE »


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/05/us/breach-in-a-federal-computer-system-exposes-personnel-data.html?emc=edit_na_20150604

June 4, 2015

Happy Graduation to Caitlyn - Perfect Feminist Quote in a Senior’s yearbook in 2015

Click the link, you’ll really like it

http://twitter.com/casualnosebleed/status/603085032744493056/photo/1

edited to spell her name correctly