CarolAnn

It was a middle of the road trustworthy news source when?

I groom a Maine Coon almost every day. It ain't a task for the weak and helpless, let me tell you.

LFN just needs to stop posting selfies. That would solve the problem.

*snip* My crockpot and my Instant Pot have wifi connections. I'm aiming for all my major and minor appliances hooked up through my wifi - along with my thermostat.

Biggest fight I ever had with my biological father was over my grandmother's ashes. He kept them in his closet behind his Hot Wheels collection.

Duh.

Let's see if I can put this in a way that won't get me crucified. Meh, not a chance. There are a fair number of women like me - I have noticed they all tend to be around my age, as well - who, while in complete agreement that some men need to learn how to keep their peckers to themselves and stop being misogynistic manipulating predatory assholes, also believe that women need to do a couple of things: Stop allowing the label of "victim" to be applied to them and stop demanding special treatment in cases of sexual transgression; Fight like hell to change the world but, at the same time, understand that the current world is not what they would wish and act accordingly; Take common sense precautions to protect themselves in this not perfect world; And the one that gets the most rotten tomatoes thrown at me - remember that accusation does not immediately confer guilt. I know women who would walk through Detroit at night wearing a bikini just to make a point. No shit. No, what you are wearing does not give any man the right to lay a hand on you. Realistically, however, you just set yourself up. You are a dumbass. If you were carrying $10K in cash you would go miles out of your way to avoid South Central Los Angeles. Why is taking steps to avoid sexual assault any different? It may not make a difference - nuns in full habit have been raped from time immemorial - but wearing the bikini where it is appropriate to wear it and not where it isn't might just be common sense. If you play the victim you will be treated like a victim. End of discussion. The media not releasing your identity, you needing a safe anonymous space, merely shows your weakness to your attacker. It's OK for your accused - but not yet convicted - attacker to be named and to be smeared all over the news but you get to hide? What if you are wrong and his life is destroyed? It's been fairly well proven that recognition is unreliable in criminal cases. Oh, but it's all right because someone hurt you....bullshit. Double standards are double standards regardless of whether the crime is rape or grand larceny or arson or mass murder. If you are right, and you know you are right, and especially if you have proof that you are right, get out there and kick ass. If he hurt you make sure he knows he did not destroy you. Rape and sexual harassment are about power, and if you hide out and lick your wounds for too long you have given your attacker all the power. The only way stigma gets destroyed is to take it out of the dark and burn it on the town square. Hold your head high and make sure everyone knows you believe there is no shame in being assaulted, only in perpetuating the idea of victimhood on your entire sex. Don't even get me started on the US Title IX sexual assault on college campuses bullshit. Oh, and if you didn't protest and you kept your mouth shut or accepted a bribe when some sorry ass piece of shit predated on you, you can just continue to keep your mouth shut when the shit hits the fan and he's been destroyed in the media. You are part of the problem, not the solution, and you need to just go away and yes I'm talking to you Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow (who both have a couple of powerful parents themselves). Particularly when you continue to make money for him in film after film, year after year. This is why I am an unsuccessful feminist and likely to remain one.

I'm still trying to figure out why I should care one way or the other.

Someone decided about 100 years ago to rename it Mt McKinley after President McKinley. It just went back to its original name.

His ASS was late?

I'm sorry, Joey. I grew up with a menagerie - dogs and cats and horses and goats and whatever else you can think of. My father taught us that we were responsible not only for their lives but also for their deaths in the sense that were must make sure there was no suffering at the end for them. He was not a religious man but he took the biblical message that humans were stewards to the animals very seriously. I have fostered special needs animals for most of my adult life and I have had to make that decision many times. I wish I could tell you it gets easier as time goes by, but it doesn't. Every animal I have lost has left a mark on my heart. What I can tell you is this: all life is finite, and to have something that loves us unconditionally during that life is a gift beyond value. We speak about the unconditional love our pets give us, but we don't always recognize how much we love them and what that teaches us. We should, because that love is infinite.

No. There's only one issue. In the United States, it is absurdly easy to obtain firearms legally or illegally, and to also obtain mechanisms that increase a firearm's lethality legally or illegally. We are willing to place limits around every right we have from buying fertilizer in bulk to not wearing our shoes across a dirty airport floor to hollering "fire" in a crowded theater - except one. A right that is linked to militia service which 99% of civilian firearms holders will never see. Written with an eye to 18th century weaponry - hardly AR-15s and semi-automatic handguns subsequently made automatic. As Bishop Dan Edwards stated, as Americans we have no constitutional right to food or medical care but we are fanatically jealous of our capacity to kill, because this is what makes us matter. I can kill, therefore I am. Not a flattering opinion of Americans, but I believe he is correct. There is no other reason for us to hang on to pieces of metal that have one reason for existence - death. When poll after poll from multiple polling organizations across the political spectrum reveal that Americans want at least small changes to gun laws - the ability to stop people with psychiatric diagnoses from getting guns, closing the internet and guns show loopholes, make gun laws standard across the country because this patchwork method doesn't work - Congress won't act because the NRA opposes even these small compromises. Americans understand it won't stop all tragedies, but it can't hurt. I know that if 20 first graders being executed in cold blood in their classrooms doesn't change anything, the chances of Las Vegas making a difference are slim. There seems to be unlimited "thoughts and prayers" out there and precious little stomach for taking the hard stance that might make some small difference. Somehow or another I don't think our deified founding fathers - who are always pulled out and dusted off when the second amendment is challenged - quite envisioned dead children or concert goers being picked off like fish in a barrel in their "intentions" in composing the Bill of Rights in 1789.

I can agree with that, for sure. Just don't tell Emily.

She may not want a normal life, but she would still have to sleep with him. Still not getting it. Of course, there was the chick who swore Charles Manson was innocent and had to be stopped from marrying him by the state of California. Takes all kinds, I suppose. Personally, I have never been a fan of shock for shock's sake. Marilyn Manson has no relevant message other than "I will shock you." Pointless. Not that I'm unshockable - I see a difference between not being surprised that someone would kill 50+ people from the 32nd story of the Mandalay and being hardened enough to not be shocked at the bloodshed. His only "message" is to scream counterculture, which is very, very blah. I must be old. Or intelligent. Or possibly completely stupid. It's a tossup.

A biography released in 2015 discussed his past heroin usage in some depth. While it wasn't authorized, it was a book that he cooperated with, so there is some basis to believe it.

He's supposed to restart here in Dallas on the 15th. If he cancels that show I'm going to have a completely distraught young lady on my hands. I may have to smack her in the head with a stick and bury her to put her out of my misery. I fail to see the attraction, but she is adamant that she would have his babies. She's a lesbian. I'm obviously missing something here.

He's already a poster child for all the drugs fit to use.

I gotta find a book.....

Take my word for it, Lardy, my dear - you are light years from David Letterman, and for that you should be thankful.

It is? News to me....

Meh. Just release it all into the Thames. Then you don't need plans. Should be a viable plan over here soon, just with a different river.

Did they export the bags along with?

Woo! Thanks!

I don't even watch on a phone or a tablet. I do have to admit that someone is getting me all wrapped up in the Premier League, so now I"m going to have to start getting up at the crack of dawn to watch matches....but first I have to get a satellite box on the TV in the living room....I'm embarrassed to admit how much dust is on the back of that damn thing.

Stop talking about my sex life on here.