It starts with a thought…

Yesterday is history, Tomorrow's a mystery. Today is a gift; that's why they call it "the present".

Unknown

Rambling on...

Mayrin Villanueva

• These Wise County boys found a new archery treat when the banks of Big Sandy flooded. Looks like fun to me...
  

• It’s official, we now have an organized grammar police! Be prepared to face judgment if you butcher the king’s english.
  

• If you wanted to get rid of your top employee, would you pay him $150,000 to resign? Would it help if you paid him with other people’s money? Boyd ISD did just that…
  

• Decatur needs another pharmacy so the EDC gave them $19,000 to help get their building space prepped. Seems fair to all the other pharmacies in town, don’t you think?
  

• ‘Yesterday [April 28] police in riot gear were dispatched to a wholly-peaceful TEA Party event at Quincy, Illinois as snipers observed old ladies with cutesy protest signs through their rifle scopes... and the Secret Service insisted on trucking-in the riot squad over the protests of local police who felt there was no threat whatsoever.’
  

  Is the President afraid or is this just intimidation?

• 'Looking to reduce his carbon footprint, Al Gore and wife buy $9 million home in California.
  

  This man could quite possibly be the biggest fraud who ever lived... 6 fireplaces, 5 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms, and he will take a private jet to get there...'

  
  
  

Golden algae on Lake Granbury and down the Brazos

These are pictures we took at Possum Kingdom Lake where our lake house is located. The lake has been hit by something called "golden algae". First time it occurred was about 5-6 years ago. It is extremely toxic to fish. When they swim through it the algae coats their gills and they cannot breathe and all die. The lake was restocked with fingerlings after the first outbreak. Last year was the first year since the original outbreak where we could catch fish that were "keepers".

It initially shows up as foam on the shoreline of the lake (which is 63 miles long). It came back with a vengeance this year. Golden algae is always present in the water but sometimes it has a "bloom" which is where it multiplies rapidly and becomes toxic. Last Saturday we had a huge amount of rain 7-9 inches within 24 hours. That resulted in the flood gates being opened. When the water is moved about rapidly (as when it goes over the dam) the algae turns to foam. The first picture is the water below the dam. As you can see it is covered with the white foam.

About 1/2 mile below the dam is the bridge shown in the subsequent pictures. The water level is up to the bottom of the bridge. This caused the foam to back up over the bridge. It was deeper than the cars are tall. This 4-5 foot deep back-up continued for at least 500 feet prior to the bridge. This means doom not only to all the fish in our lake but in the lakes below us. Lakes Granbury and Whitney will also see the fish kill.

The first time it happened was in Israel, the second time in Arizona or New Mexico. The 3rd time was the outbreak at Possum Kingdom a few years ago. Now we have the repeat event. Scientists have studied it - but so far no cause of the outbreaks has been identified and no cure is known. There is little money for research to do much else.

Today there was so much foam they had to close the bridge and we could not even get down to the road to see it. It's a sad day for all the lake people. The one good thing is that it is not toxic to humans. Thought you all might enjoying seeing what 5 feet of foam (not snow) looks like.

h/t McGillicutty

The proper way telephones should be answered in America

Good Morning! Welcome to the United States of America, a Christian nation of the free and the home of the brave.

Press '1' for English.

Press '2' to disconnect until you learn to speak English

How may I help you?


And remember only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you, Jesus Christ and the American Soldier. one died for your soul, the other for your freedom.


h/t McMike

It starts with a thought…

To think bad thoughts is really the easiest thing in the world. If you leave your mind to itself it will spiral down into ever increasing unhappiness. To think good thoughts, however, requires effort. This is one of the things that discipline - training - is about.

James Clavell, in his novel "Shogun"

Canadians and their billboards

Rambling on...

photo of
Jennifer Lynne
removed at the request of
Jennifer Lynne

• So you want revenge on your spouse or significant other after you catch them cheating? You could publically humiliate them by posting their name on the Cheater Registry and tell your story and post photographic proof… You could also check to see if someone you’re interested in happens to be listed.
• Will you be one of those men whose wife or girlfriend will make you try the new medication designed to prevent premature ejaculation? Yea, I thought so...
• I find these 5 cardinal rules for traveling abroad to be most helpful. If you ever experience one of the consequences of breaking these rules, you will most assuredly regret it...
• Looking at the military bunkers in Normandy somehow creeps me out. They look cool but I when I picture all the soldiers who died near them makes me ill.
• If there was ever a question as to where the money is spent that you donate to the Republican or Democratic political parties, "about two-thirds of the money they take in on the care and comfort of committee staffs and on efforts to raise more funds, with lavish spending on limousines, expensive hotels, meals and tips..." Surprized?
• Politicians have become rock stars...
• So how do you win an election in Iraq if voters choose another candidate? Have your opponent disqualified! Doesn’t sound like a democracy to me…

Amish, Muslims to be excused from Obamacare mandate?

via American Thinker

WordWayze

The Senate health care bill just signed contains some exemptions to the "pay-or-play" mandate requiring purchase of 0bamacare-approved health insurance or payment of a penalty fine. As Fox News has pointed out, for instance, the Amish are excused from the mandate:

So while most Americans would be required to sign up with insurance companies or government insurance plans, the church would serve as something of an informal insurance plan for the Amish.

Law experts say that kind of exemption withstands scrutiny.

"Here the statute is going to say that people who are conscientiously opposed to paying for health insurance don't have to do it where the conscientious objection arises from religion," said Mark Tushnet a Harvard law professor. "And that's perfectly constitutional."

Apparently, this exemption will apply similarly to believers in Islam, which considers health insurance - and, for that matter, any form of risk insurance - to be haraam (forbidden).

Steve Gilbert of Sweetness & Light calls our attention to the probability that Muslims will also be expempt. According to a March 23 publication on an authoritative Islamic Web site managed by Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid, various fatwas (religious decrees) absolutely forbid Muslim participation in any sort of health care or other risk insurance:

Health insurance is haraam like other types of commercial insurance, because it is based on ambiguity, gambling and riba (usury). This is what is stated in fatwas by the senior scholars.

In Fataawa al-Lajnah al-Daa'imah (15/277) there is a quotation of a statement of the Council of Senior Scholars concerning the prohibition on insurance and why it is haraam:

It says in Fataawa al-Lajnah al-Daa'imah (15/251):

Firstly: Commercial insurance of all types is haraam because it involves ambiguity, riba, uncertainty, gambling and consuming people's wealth unlawfully, and other shar'i

Secondly: It is not permissible for the Muslim to get involved with insurance companies by working in administration or otherwise, because working in them comes under the heading of cooperating in sin and transgression, and Allaah forbids that as He says: "but do not help one another in sin and transgression. And fear Allaah. Verily, Allaah is Severe in punishment"

[al-Maa'idah 5:2]. End quote.

reservations.
And Allaah knows best.

So, it turns out that observant Muslims are not only strictly forbidden from buying any health insurance under the 0bamaCare mandate, but may also not even work for any company that provides such insurance or any other form of commercial insurance.

It is not made clear whether or not it is religiously okay to accept "free" non-insured medical care such as that offered in hospital ERs and to some who are covered by Medicaid.

Whether it's all right to serve as a doctor, nurse, or orderly caring for patients whose medical services are being paid for by insurance is not covered in the present response - but one could probably obtain a religious ruling from the Sheikh, whose site welcomes the submission of questions about Islamic law and practices.

WordWayze is the nom de plume of a freelance writer and political pundit who would prefer not to become the object of any attention such has been paid to the Mohammed cartoonists of Denmark and others.

************************

Well, I must admit I was wrong when I previously stated that the only people exempt from 0bamacare are members of Congress, illegal aliens and legal aliens. That just goes to show you that, as always, I could be wrong!

By the way, who will be claiming Amish or Muslim? Will the IRS be checking religious backgrounds or is that a right of privacy that will be violated as well?

This will be how our government will assess, determine and separate Muslims from the rest of the American population. I wondered how they would do it and there is no better way than the Internal Revenue Service. Now it actually pays to convert to Islam...

DC

h/t AJ

Contemporary Message

h/t CD