Nice hot Summer day.
"Jimmy Carter is the one president who never fired a shot in war. This is where America should be." Bill Maher
01. I didn't know that!
OK, you Ninjas.. you need to know that buying baby turtles less than 4" long has been illegal since 1975, because of the very real threat of salmonella.
02. *Scam .. Why you are paying overdraft penalties.
Tribune reporter Brian J. O'Conner reminds us that some banks still do "check ordering." That is, clearing your transactions not in the order they get them, and how you planned on them being processed, but from the largest to the smallest check amount. This gives them a better chance of hitting you with an overdraft penalty. Wells Fargo, Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase have all paid fines on this issue and supposedly have changed their tactics... however, other banks continue to "order" checks. Just be aware!
03. Not a nice demise.
A 15 year old farm boy had his "skid loader" overturn in a manure pit, causing him to drown. He was one of six Lancaster, Pennsylvania area residents who have died since 1983 by falling or "jumping into" manure pits. Is this a new gruesome game?
04. Water Usage
Elaine says that the Earth's supply of water does not change, and water that rains down on us today may have been walked on by Jesus. Interesting thought.
According to an article in the Hacker's Quarterly "2600," titled: Toilet Hacking, citizens are now required to buy "low flush" toilets. Such toilets use only 6 liters of water per flush. However, the author of the article had to flush 3 times to get things to disappear, and that meant that he used 18 liters of water per flush.
To fix this problem, the author extended the "standpipe" in the tank using Gorilla (Duct) Tape and a rolled up tube of cardboard. Now, when he flushes, he uses 10 liters of water instead of 6.. but since he only needs one flush, he uses 8 liters less each flush than before.
05. Ralph's Joke
An 85 year old woman goes for her yearly physical examination. Her husband sits outside in the waiting room.
The doctor says: "For your age, you are in great shape. To complete the examination, I have to ask you one more question: Do you and your husband still have sexual intercourse?"
She looks confused, opens the door to the waiting room and yells out for all to hear: "Henry, do we have sexual intercourse?"
Henry yells back: "How many times do I have to tell you, we have Blue Cross."
06. Nancy Sings!
At our last AARP luncheon, our entertainment was by "Nancy Sings". This is a nice looking lady who decided she liked to sing and entertain with show tunes and other songs that an "older" audience would appreciate. This time she sang a lot of songs about Summer. She did a fine job, and I hope to hire her in future for family gatherings.
She did have a problem with our AARP audience though. A few people kept looking at their watches and that got her a little mad. The problem is that some people can't drive any more and have to have relatives or friends drive them and the person getting a ride doesn't want them to have to wait.
07. Genealogy
Bumper Sticker observed: "Genealogists: disturbing the dead and irritating the living."
08. Meet Laslo
Per the New York Times: Laslo Krasnahorkai is an Hungarian author who is getting a lot of interest in the United States, as more and more of his work is translated into English.
One review of Mr. Krasnahorkai remarks on his use of sentences that can go on for pages and pages. Such as in "The Melancholhy of Resistance" .. in which a bizarre circus wanders into a small town in the dead of Winter, toting a gigantic stuffed whale. The story consists of a single 314 page sentence.
We'll be hearing a lot about Laslo's first novel "SATANTANGO" which is now available in English.
09. *Immigrant Kids .. Legalizing Pot
An editorial in the latest Progressive Populist says, in part: "If the United States wants to improve conditions in Mexico and ... Central American countries so these children might safely return, the first step would be to legalize marijuana to help defund the gangs and criminal cartels. The Washington Post reported in May that since 21 states legalized marijuana for medical use and Colorado and Washington state for recreational use, pot farmers in the Sinalo region of Mexico have stopped planting marijuana due to the drop in wholesale prices, from $100 per kilo down to only $25. One farmer told the Post "It's not worth it anywmore. I wish the Americans would stop with this legalization."
10. Assault on Voting Rights Continue
Some states are passing laws to restrict voting rights. But, what makes a democracy? Churchill said it: "Democracy is a little man, going into a little booth, and marking an X on a small piece of paper."
Why can't we make it easier, instead of harder to vote? Why are some people afraid of what might happen? Are we WASPS going to be dethroned? Maybe, but so what!
11. What's on your Magazine Rack?
Hal Crowther writes: "At the service station where I buy my morning coffee, there's a magazine rack including the titles Combat Handguns, Military Surplus and Home Defense. Their covers feature bristling photo-collages of high-tech weapons, large improbable ones like mercenaries and robots carry in violent movies for adolescents. This is uniquely American media, ballistic pornography for twisted souls who confuse homicide with sexuality."
What do you think?
12. We're having a heat wave..
The Nation reports that since 2007, at least 14 inmates in Texas state prisons have died from over heating, according to a new report by the University of Texas School of Law's Human Rights Clinic. Well, we've all read about Texas' jails in recent months, and would believe anything anybody said about them. The state of Texas doesn't seem to give a damn that Federal appellate courts have found that submitting inmates to extreme heat is a violation of their constitutional rights... but then, Texas doesn't believe that inmates have constitutional rights.. at least that seems to be the case.
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