Carload of big riprap
Thursday Open Comments
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40 responses to “Thursday Open Comments”
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Thursday already? And May 25th, times a flying. Much cooler and dryer here after the front came through. 60 degrees as we speak and we’ll only make the low 80’s today, nice.
Mornin’ Gang
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So the Rip-Rap is heading to a breakwater or jetty I guess?
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G’morning, all! Or should I say “Salvete, omnes!” I didn’t study Latin last night, gotta get that done.
Woke up to see this headline. It seems China is making moves:
Chinese Malware Hits Systems on Guam. Is Taiwan the Real Target?
Around the time that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was examining the equipment recovered from the wreckage of the Chinese spy balloon shot down off the South Carolina coast in February, American intelligence agencies and Microsoft detected what they feared was a more worrisome intruder: mysterious computer code that has been popping up in telecommunications systems in Guam and elsewhere in the United States.
The code, which Microsoft said was installed by a Chinese government hacking group, raised alarms because Guam, with its Pacific ports and vast American air base, would be a centerpiece of any American military response to an invasion or blockade of Taiwan. It was installed with great stealth, sometimes flowing through routers and other common internet-connected consumer devices, to make the intrusion harder to track.
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The code is called a “web shell,” in this case a malicious script that enables remote access to a server. Home routers are particularly vulnerable, especially older models that have not had updated software and protections.
/snip
In interviews, administration officials said they believed the code was part of a vast Chinese intelligence collection effort that spans cyberspace, outer space and, as Americans discovered with the balloon incident, the lower atmosphere.
The Biden administration has declined to discuss what the F.B.I. found as it examined the equipment recovered from the balloon. But the craft — better described as a huge aerial vehicle — apparently included specialized radars and communications interception devices that the F.B.I. has been examining since the balloon was shot down.
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Telecommunications networks are key targets for hackers, and the system in Guam is particularly important to China because military communications often piggyback on commercial networks.
/snip
Microsoft planned to publish a blog post on Wednesday with detailed indicators about the code, to allow the operators of critical infrastructure to take preventive steps.
In a coordinated announcement, the N.S.A. is expected to publish a technical report about Chinese intrusions into a wide swath of American critical infrastructure. The U.S. report is not expected to refer directly to the Guam incident reported by Microsoft, but it will describe a broader range of Chinese-origin threats.
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I wonder if China is feeling pressure to move now, before the election cycle really ramps up. I can see the whole Biden-China relationship being part of the election discussion, which may put a damper on some of China’s more obvious aggressions. So, strike before our weak and friendly administration comes under fire, or is it just the culmination of years of preparation?
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Bsue – I broke down and ordered some freeze dried cheese for my stash. I could dehydrate it, but drying cheese is a royal PITA and the results aren’t nearly as good as the dehydrating.
Have you thought of doing that?
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Text from one of my NASA buddies (Test Director);
Having major shaker/ amp problems. Want to come to Houston for a side job? 😉 😉
HA! This was of course a joke but he indicated that he wished he could get me to come over since I could get the job completed before Tom left California. FWIW; This is the first time I’ve heard from them in a while, I repaired the DMA 4030, over the phone about 3 times in 2020-2021. Still waiting on that check. 😀
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I see that the movie about St. Pio, aka “Padre Pio,” is due to come out June 2.
The movie follows the young life of St. Padre Pio, a Franciscan priest, mystic, and stigmatist. It takes place after World War I upon his entry into the Capuchin monastery in San Giovanni Rotondo.
The trailer, which LaBeouf narrates, depicts Padre Pio celebrating Mass, praying, contemplating his vocation, and facing the heated political challenges of that time.
I’m hoping for a sequel which covers his later years in the Capuchin monastery.
If you’ve never read his biography, it’s fascinating reading. He knew as a young man he was called to be a priest, and God kept him in his little village in Italy. He gathered quite a following, and people waited for hours for him to hear their confessions. He was able to tell people of sins that they had forgotten – people he’d never met before. Through a screen. When he began to be too popular for the higher-ups to be comfortable, they’d’ try to move him to another location. Every time, he’d become seriously ill and only recover when he returned to his home monastery.
He is possibly one of the most famous stigmatists in the Catholic Church, carrying the wounds of Christ for 30 years. He tried to cover them with fingerless gloves, so that during mass folks would focus on Christ instead of his hands. I watched an interview with a man whose father had the blessing of being close to Pio. He acquired one of the scabs from the stigmata, and had it framed as a relic and it hung on their wall. Pio told him he wouldn’t be able to keep it. That relic was on the wall for years – until Pio died, then it slowly disappeared.
His fellow monks could hear banging and fighting in his room at night. When asked about it, Pio would refer to battling the devil. He described black dogs that would appear in his room to terrorize him. Pio was also known for bilocation, including appearing in the air before the bombers who were sent to bomb his village I’ve seen the picture of those flyers posing with Fr. Pio, whom they recognized. I’ve seen a video of him in a procession in a town miles away from his home (remember, he never left his monastery).
There is so much more to this saintly man, and you can tell he’s one of my favorites. He’s a modern monk, passing away in 1968.
One of his famous quotes is one I try to remember and live: “Pray, hope, and don’t worry. Worry is useless. God is merciful and will hear your prayer.”
I’m just hoping they don’t ruin this bio the way they Hollywood-ized the supposed bio of Fr. Gabriel Amorth in the recent movie, “The Priest’s Exorcist”. That was just sad.
BTW – participating in this movie prompted Shia LeBeouf to convert to Catholicism. The sanctity of the Traditional Latin Mass made that much of an impression.
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SuperDave, we warned you that they’d try to drag you back…
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The C&C is finally up:
QR CODED ☙ Thursday, May 25, 2023 ☙ C&C NEWS
Roundup:
Landscapers busy maintaining and beautifying the plant life somehow chopped right through our internet cable late yesterday, so I’m working valiantly with something approaching dial-up speeds using my cell phone as a hotspot. I’m thankful for having that much, but the roundup will be a skosh shorter today, since every stages of preparing your C&C roundup ground to a crawl this morning.
In today’s edition: feedback from the DeSantis twitter space announcement; London Mayor falling down; Dr. Buttar dies after claiming poison and making an ominous prediction; Nebraska bans castration and sterilization of children; Trump’s lawyers push for meeting with grandma Merrick; pandemic QR code menus die a slow death; and a reverse rescue video to cheer your day.
*THE C&C ARMY POST*
MULTIPLIER UPDATE: As far as I can tell, we blew up the FBI Whistleblower Multiplier by around $200,000 yesterday, so far, with C&C donations continuing to roll in this morning. Believe it or not, one of our C&C readers knows the guys and said they were incredibly honored and grateful. I hope to get more detail from them soon.
In case you missed it yesterday, here’s the link again: https://www.givesendgo.com/KyleSeraphin
Michael Schellenberger correctly noted that not one single corporate media outlet has interviewed the whistleblowers before demonizing them.
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Then Mr. C. discusses the DeSantis announcement. He states the Dems were giddy over the crashing of his Twitter space announcement. Supposedly, it was a failure. I’m thinking: “So many people logged in to hear the announcement that they crashed a site? If Biden was to make a major announcement, would he be able to get enough interest to do the same?” I see it as a victory of sorts. But that’s just me.
Mr. C. says that DeSantis’ reading of his announcement wasn’t, well, inspiring, but that he did better with Q&A time. I guess he’s like Trump, better unscripted. And Elon states that Twitter signups skyrocketed.
Here’s a link, in case you’re interested: https://twitter.com/jchilders98/status/1661500249351790593
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#5 Tedtam, cheese never crossed my mind. I’ll have to check in to that one 😉
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If I got a freeze dryer, I think I’d focus on meats and cheeses. Bang for the buck, as they say.
I hear that drying/FD’ing brassicas like cauliflower and broccoli can intensify their sulfphur flavor. Maybe I’ll buy some FD broccoli to see if it’s edible. Those may be some veggies that just have to be frozen or fresh.
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From the “Suddenly & Unexpectedly Department,” the “Belated Announcement Division”:
Yesterday, the UK Express ran an intriguing story headlined, “Sadiq Khan Left ‘Barely Conscious’ and Carried Off Stage After Suffering Heart Attack.”
It’s old news, sort of. London Mayor Sadiq Khan released his book this week, in which he reveals that in November 2021 he was briefly hospitalized for a baffling heart attack that came on suddenly and unexpectedly while he was speaking at the COP26 annual conference in Glasgow, Scotland. Fortunately he was discharged quickly after the hospital determined it was a mild incident.
Why did he keep it a secret until now? Was it a narrative issue?
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Tedtam, I did some veggie mixes yesterday that had both in them. Never crossed my mind to taste test… Might have to unseal one of those bags and give it a try 😉
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More from the S&U Department:
This story is in honor of the late Dr. Rashid Buttar, one of Biden’s so-called “disinformation dozen” during the pandemic for speaking out about covid vaccines, who recently passed away. He died days after after claiming he’d been poisoned with “200 times” what was in the vaccine. Nobody really knows what he meant, but it seems possible that he was describing shedding at the hospital. On the other hand, he seemed to connect his ominous comment to a time right after his CNN interview, which doesn’t sound like shedding to me.
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https://twitter.com/Perpetualmaniac/status/1661225903794581505
Back in October 2021 — the same month Mayor Khan got his nearly-fatal booster shot — fully-jabbed CNN anchor Drew Griffin interviewed Dr. Buttar about vaccines, and pressed the doctor to say whether Griffin had “a time bomb in me?” As you can see in the clip, Buttar replied, I hope not, but probably.
A short fourteen months later, anchor Griffin’s turbo cancer time bomb exploded, and he died suddenly and unexpectedly in December, 2022. Although CNN described Griffin’s death as coming after a “long battle with cancer,” Griffin worked full time right up until the day before he died and nobody noticed he was sick.
So. Both men are now dead. It’s weird, right?
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Bsue – let me know what you find out on the brassica flavor.
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Trump on the move – legally speaking:
On Wednesday, President Trump’s attorneys sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, requesting a meeting to discuss all the DOJ’s unfair, politically-motivated prosecutions, particularly the one related to the classified records scandal. https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F64726afa-6f77-4e40-96cd-874292a9a2c7_1330x1254.png
Don’t know how much good the letter by itself will do, but it starts a paper trail and is the opening move in what prove to be a quite interesting legal battle.
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Hubby and Handyman are banging around upstairs again. Hubby forgot to put in a floor drain in the upstairs master bath, so he resolved that problem yesterday. Now they can continue to put down the flooring.
If I ever decide to move and have the option to build my own house, I will insist on floor drains in every wet area. I’ve seen too many homes flooded from broken supply lines or, in MIL’s house, kids who broke into her house and did the wet bandit thing.
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Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation ran an $8.5 million deficit and saw the value of its investment accounts plummet by nearly $10 million in the most recent tax year, financial disclosures show. The group logged a $961,000 loss on a securities sale of $172,000, suggesting the charity weathered a staggering 85 percent loss on the transaction.
you have to try extra, extra hard to be that stupid,
The financial losses come after a year of missteps and setbacks for the embattled charity. BLM raised just $9.3 million in its 2022 fiscal year, down 88 percent from its haul the year prior. Black Lives Matter was forced to shut off its online fundraising streams in February 2022 due to compliance and transparency issues in several liberal states. The group has blown through two-thirds of the $90 million it raised in the wake of George Floyd’s death in the summer of 2020.
plus,
It’s unclear if Black Lives Matter paid out lucrative contracting fees to Cullors’s friends and family past June 2022. The charity brought on a new board of directors last summer led by nonprofit adviser Cicley Gay, who has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy three times since 2005.
This column was good for plenty of laughs. Nobody could make this stuff up.
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Texpat – I saw that yesterday, and yes, I laughed.
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving group of humans.
Gonna head out and get some gardening done before it gets real hot. After that, I’ll do my treadmill time. I was going to go grocery shopping, but I guess I’ll do all of my dirty/sweaty work first and then shower. Then I’ll be able to go out into the public.
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Ken Paxton seems to leave a trail of legal and ethical debris behind him wherever he goes, no matter the good things he does for conservatism. It doesn’t appear the long list of charges this time could be all politically motivated. He originally came into office as a relative unknown while still embroiled in an SEC violations case.
We have seen enough high profile, craptastic phony legal charges against Donald Trump to make any intelligent person utterly cynical about what “justice” means in America anymore. However, Paxton’s newest problems arise from a lengthy investigation conducted by House Republicans. This fact doesn’t give me a lot more confidence given the outrageous betrayals perpetrated by House Republican members in this session alone.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Republican-led investigation on Wednesday accused Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton of committing multiple crimes in office — including felonies — during an extraordinary public airing of scandal and alleged lawbreaking that plunged one of the GOP’s conservative stars into new political and legal risk.
For more than three hours, investigators presented findings alleging Paxton sought to hide an affair, misused his office to help a donor, skirted protocols “grossly outside” norms and built a culture of fear and retaliation in his office. Investigators told the GOP-led House General Investigating Committee that there was evidence that Paxton repeatedly broke the law over the years, including by misusing official information, abusing his official capacity and retaliation.
A Texas House committee heard stunning testimony from investigators Wednesday over allegations of a yearslong pattern of misconduct and questionable actions by Attorney General Ken Paxton, the result of a probe the committee had secretly authorized in March.
In painstaking and methodical detail in a rare public forum, four investigators for the House General Investigating Committee testified that they believe Paxton broke numerous state laws, misspent office funds and misused his power to benefit a friend and political donor.
Their inquiry focused first on a proposed $3.3 million agreement to settle a whistleblower lawsuit filed by four high-ranking deputies who were fired after accusing Paxton of accepting bribes and other misconduct.
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Super Dave
I took the photo several years ago. There were about fifteen cars of that riprap that sat on that siding for several months. I always wondered about its ultimate destination. It could have been railroad-owned and destined for a river bridge embankment. Some of those bigger rocks could be rightly called boulders.
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17 Tedtam
If I ever decide to move and have the option to build my own house, I will insist on floor drains in every wet area.
Anyone who doesn’t do it is lacking common sense. Every kitchen, bathroom and laundry area should have floor drains. People have to remember to pour water into those drain traps to block the sewer gas.
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In the recent I-10 bridge replacement over the Brazos, there is a feeder-turnaround (u-turn) under the bridge. The embankment under the bridge is a typical concrete embankment, but they covered that entire apron with three foot-sized concrete riprap which had been recycled from the old highway pavement. They didn’t have that under there before.
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#15 – I tasted one each of broccoli and cauliflower… completely dry…. they didn’t taste strong at all… they didn’t taste MUCH at all LOL
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How odd? This just popped up over yonder. From Memory Lane Photos.
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Morning, chickadees! I’ve been clearing away a vine that spread into my yard from 80-y.o’s adjacent. I forget its name but while it is very attractive with dark green leaves, it has grown under, over, and through the fence between our property lines. There is also a long bed between my driveway and the west side of the house that hosted that vine when we bought Chez Harp in 1995. All those years I kept the growth trimmed and under control, but last few years it took over, and now I am trying to fix it. Only problem is I am older and it is hard work. Oh well, it’s not like I don’t need the exercise. (Yes, I concede that I may not be able to do all my own yard work one of these years…)
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The weekly effort, (local fishwrap) says that 4 local students were inducted into Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society.
Daughter was/is a Phi Kappa Phi member.
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This guy is a pig.
Controversial rock frontman Roger Waters is back in hot water after seemingly cosplaying as a Nazi SS officer — and comparing deceased Al Jazeera journalist Abu Akleh to Anne Frank at a recent concert in Germany.
and,
Perhaps most controversial was the inclusion of Anne Frank, the Jewish teenager killed during the Holocaust, and Abu Akleh, an Al Jazeera journalist who was fatally shot last year while covering a raid by the Israel Defense Forces on a Palestinian refugee camp.
plus Waters is very popular with his ex-band members,
In February, the rabble-rousing rocker gave an interview for Germany’s Berliner Zeitung, in which he doubled down on his prior comments comparing Israel to the Third Reich, and also defended Russian President Vladimir Putin over his decision to invade Ukraine.
He was subsequently eviscerated on Twitter by Polly Samson, the wife of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour.
The “Kindness” author accused the band’s cofounder of being “anti-Semitic” to his “rotten core” and labelled him a a “Putin apologist and a lying, thieving, hypocritical, tax-avoiding, lip-synching, misogynistic, sick-with-envy, megalomaniac.”
Shortly thereafter, Gilmour, 77, liked and retweeted his wife’s Twitter hit piece with the message: “Every word demonstrably true.”
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The theory I posted here a few days ago would be correct if this Variety magazine story is true.
The mystery surrounding Tucker Carlson’s ouster from the airwaves at Fox News — and his future plans in media — are coming into sharper focus.
On April 26, Carlson spoke by phone with one of Fox Corp.’s eight board members, who told the host that his recent benching was a condition of Fox News’ settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the conversation.
The unnamed board member told Carlson that the condition does not appear in any of the settlement’s documents, and instead was a verbal agreement. If Fox didn’t comply, the settlement was off, Carlson was told. Dominion had plenty of leverage given that the $787.5 million deal to settle Dominion’s defamation suit against the network wouldn’t officially close until late-May.
Dominion was looking for the best way to maim the conservative news network, and forcing Fox News to cut ties with the most-watched personality in cable news would deal a potentially insurmountable blow and lead to a viewer exodus, according to Carlson’s understanding.
“That condition was intended to hurt Fox, and Tucker is just collateral damage,” says a source familiar with the matter. “Dominion wanted to punish Fox, and it’s working.”
Dominion and Fox Corp. both strongly dispute that the decision to take Carlson off the air was directly linked to the settlement.
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Every kitchen, bathroom and laundry area should have floor drains. People have to remember to pour water into those drain traps to block the sewer gas.
I agree. Especially if your house has two stories. Our rental units near downtown had problems because they were plumbed much as most homes are – the upstairs shares a drain with the downstairs fixtures. If the downstairs sink/toilet/tub stopped somewhere in the drain line, the upstairs unit would continue to drain water – and flood the downstairs, where it would all back up.
It’s cheaper and code accepted to plumb that way, but the Dome is different. The plumbing inspector commented that it looked like a forest – because every fixture has its own line to the sewer. None of the inside drain lines are shared. Only one fixture will back up, unless the main itself is clogged.
I think sprinkler systems should also be mandatory. Hubby and I just shake our heads when we hear stories about houses – and especially apartments – that go up in flames before the fire department can show up. Sprinkler systems require extra work and expense, but when you consider the alternative…
For some reason, folks think that if one sprinkler head goes off, they all go off. Nope, they are heat sensitive, so when the temperature in one area violates the heat limit, that one head will go off. The whole house won’t get flooded, and that water will contain more damage than it will cause. We have our house plumbed for it, and we have the heads…somewhere. Hubby just has to hook them up. Given that the dude is dead to the world when he falls asleep, that’s a safety issue. I’ve set off the smoke alarms when he’s been asleep, and he never even flinched. If he’s ever home alone and the house catches fire…well, I DO keep the life insurance paid up.
As far as pouring water down the floor drains, yes, we occasionally have to do that. IIRC, though, there is a roll-up floor drain “plug” that came out as we were building our house. You know those noise makers that you blow into and they unroll, then reroll? That’s what these do, too. When enough water hits them from the top, they unroll to drain. When the draining water disappears, it rolls back up. That keeps the sewer gases from infiltrating the home, even when the water plug is gone.
So…new house (if ever) will have: (1) separately plumbed drain line, (2) floor drains, and (3) sprinkler system.
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Finished gardening for today. Compost tea all ’round, refurbed one tub and set up two smaller containers. Put up on half-a$$ed trellis for cuke and nasturtiums (if/when they come up). Watered everything and sprayed Bt on everything, especially my tomatoes. Admired my happy flowers – they make me smile. I have beautiful purplish flowers in a low container, and some bright orange-yellow flowers on tall stalks. They look like fireworks. So pretty.
So, now off to run errands. I think I’ll treadmill later, hopefully while the canner is running…but I have Latin class tonight…we’ll see.
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PS: Hubby forgot to plumb the upstairs floor drain when we built the house, but he corrected that oversight yesterday. We can now lay the floor in the bathroom.
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Heh.
“The average age of the declared Democrat field is 73.3 years old.
The average age of the declared GOP field is 58.2 years old
The fake media will never admit to it, but things are changing… The Democrat party is basically a corporatist party made up of fascist white ladies, perverts, child abusers, big business, millionaires, billionaires, joyless school teachers, student loan deadbeats, useless public union employees, Satanists, along with the lazy, neurotic, mentally ill, and addicted.
The Republican party is now made up of normal people—the working class, families, the mentally stable, small business owners, and people who don’t want Democrats having sex with their kids. Those values cut across all racial, age, region, religion, and class lines.”– John Nolte at Breitbart -
Just got this from my pastor:
https://annunciationcc1.flocknote.com/note/21702004/video/525048641
People are just ugly, especially the lefties.
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We’ve got a beautiful sunset in the western sky tonight, much to be enjoyed in the quiet of our neighborhood. Such things make evenings peaceful after busy days balancing things on the to-do list. Every day has a to-do list, just not necessarily written on paper to be checked off. 🙂
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I’m thinking Hammie would volunteer to be down there at his Church with a baseball bat and a .45. -
Or do it on his own.
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In my church, there would have been at least fifteen old white guys simultaneously tackling and dragging the scum out to curb.
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My Latin teacher studies martial arts. He’s gonna let Father know he knows some moves that could be useful.
The Saturday vigil mass is usually observed by a much smaller group than the Sunday masses. There would be fewer men. It is sometimes referred to as the geriatric mass, because of folks like it better than getting up on Sunday morning.
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