Getting a little tired of those snowy woods. How about some snowy crocuses?
This time last year I had daffodils blooming. This year I have the leaves but no blooms so far.
Will it ever warm up? In 2014, spring begins with the vernal equinox on March 20 at 12:57 P.M. EDT. Note that day light saving time will have started (March 9). Spring is still a little more than a month away. Even then, we could still get a blizzard.
However, the end of the week supposedly will get up to 60 degrees. Call in sick early. Avoid the rush. Make a dentist appointment and cancel it. Do whatever you have to do to seize the day.
War of words: Russian news anchor claims Marines in Iwo Jima Memorial are gay after CNN called a Belarusian WWII memorial ‘ugly’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2556049/Prominent-Russian-news-anchor-suggests-U-S-Marines-depicted-Iwo-Jima-Memorial-gay-CNN-calls-Russian-WWII-memorial-ugly.html#ixzz2tV4BySRz
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
So, about this Florida shooter story. I’m astonished with the verdict – the jury’s inability to find him guilty of murder after he shot up a carfull of kids and ran away and showed little remorse.
I’m hoping the mistrial is due to a singular nutty juror. And that Florida is not as backwater prejudiced as people are seeing it as being.
@Rick Bentley
The prosecutor was too ambitious. Should have charged him with 2nd instead of 1st degree murder. Slam dunk.
Well, that dance isn’t over yet. She’s going to prosecute again.
Juries sometimes get confused over the “premeditation” concept. They tend to think of it as a kind of advance planning (which it can be, but isn’t necessarily). I suspect the jury “hung” on that element of the 1st degree charge.
@Scout, what is the deciding factor as far as premeditation? What determines ‘degree?’
@Starryflights
Have seen many Russian statues in Russia as well as Hungary. Many are very large and very dramatic. As noted in the article, the Russians, British and all the other European nations involved in WWII see that war far differently than we do and their statuary reflects that. Interesting that in Budapest, they took down all the Russian statues and put them in a park outside the city. When I asked a Hungarian officer why they didn’t melt them all down and make them into bells or some other statues, his reply was, “No, no, we leave them here to remind us to never allow this to happen again.”
Crappy diem! As to the trial in Florida–“Stand your ground” is a place where only cowards and fools go when they have no where else to go. Wait until some legislators’s kin is harmed (God forbid) because of this law and then perhaps things will change since it seems they are not otherwise enlightened enough to change the law after the Trayvon Martin affair.
Ted Nugent is at it again.
His new term for President Obama is “subhuman mongrel”.
It was evidently used at a rally for a person running for gov. of Texas.
@George S. Harris
So far, every case that the media presents as a SYG case…..ISN’T.
The law is fine.
The Trayvon Martin affair was not a stand your ground case.
Yet it was treated like one.
I would place the blame for both the Zimmerman cases and this case squarely on the shoulders of Florida state attorney Angela Corey. She screwed them both up by overcharging is each case.
I might have agreed with you on Zimmerman, but not on this case. Dunn’s story is completely unbelievable. He shot up the car – 10 bullets- and then fled the scene. It’s cold blooded murder.
This is a real problem in Amewrica, that a hateful mentally ill man is able to so easily carry a gun. Same argument with the 71 year old guy in the movie theater. We’re living in an age where a lot of people are getting the lines between fantasy and reality blurred. We’re only going to see more of this. I understand the arguments made against gun control. But I tell you. we’re increasingly living in a world where people are unhinged from reality, and we’re going to be seeing a lot more of this kind of thing. I don’t think the current level of gun proliferation and “gun rights” is sustainable.
On the much more narrow question of why Dunn shot up a car, we know two things :
1. He had just been to his son’s wedding. He was estranged from his son, and he left the wedding early. Then later he’s got some kid about the same age thatbhis son is or once was disrespecting him. You don’t need a degree in psychology to imagine that transfer of rage from his son towards Jordan Davis.
2. He hates black people. His prison correspondance speaks for itself. He thinks he’s a hero for shooting a black kid.
Here’s what Michael Dunn was doing with his right to bear arms … he had been threatening people for years, and looking to have people killed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itwx2Vb6aNI
I agree Rick, but is it 1st degree murder? Angela Corey has a clear record of overcharging in racial cases like this, and a history of losing. This guy should, and very may well be behind bars for the rest of his life. But 1st degree? Ms. Corey is letting politics cloud her judgment in my humble opinion.
by the media and Al Sharpton…. you can ‘treat’ ANY case as this-or-that and then argue why this or that law needs to be changed. But what sense does that make?
Heck, just take a look at Huffington Post today, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-al-sharpton/repeal-stand-your-ground_b_4804323.html
So far I have yet to see a single legal case where SYG has been targeted as a legit example of why SYG should be changed.
I don’t see how either of those entities could treat the Zimmerman case like a stand your ground case. Sharpton only wanted hm to stand trial. He never declared his guilt or innocence before the trial. The media, perhaps you are correct.
Zimmerman is a flawed man. I do think he should have stood trial. The verdict was up to the jury.
“racial cases like this”
I’m not sure that we should call it a racial case just because Dunn is a bigot.
“Sharpton only wanted hm to stand trial. He never declared his guilt or innocence before the trial. ”
Of course he wouldn’t! If he had it would be counterproductive – would have reminded everyone that during the Tawana Brawley fiasco, he actually ACCUSED THE DA not only of coverup, but OF RAPE.
Well, I think Rev Al has grown up a little since then. He needed to.
We can only blame him for things that he does though.
Some acts seal your salvation.
Moon, I do find Sharpton generally reasonable and likeable, but if he really wanted to grow up, he’d look back and apologize for perpetuating the Brawley hoax. Anyone rational can see that the girl wasn’t raped, and that Sharpton and others went totally bezerk.
Al Sharpton is generally reasonable? Wow!
I lived in the NYC during the 80s and am very familiar with Rev. Al. Tawana Brawley is the least of his crimes. Look up Freddy’s Fashion Mart. The man has blood on his hands and is unrepentant about any of his crimes. The only MSNBC show he should be on is Lockup.
He has been generally less inflammatory in recent years. Maybe he learned from past mistakes. Maybe it is an act. Just saying he isn’t the old Sharpton of Duke Lacrosse player days. I was as mad at him then as the next guy.
So I guess the answer to the question “have you stopped beating your wife?” is yes. I’m not saying Al Sharpton ever beat his wife. But why is everyone so eager to forgive him when he is unrepentant. He never ever paid the judgement against him for the Tawana Brawley lawsuit. (Supporters of his paid it when the Rev was going to run for president.)
The man is scum, though and though. That he is less blatant about it now does nothing to bring his victims back to life.
Well, that’s your opinion and you are entitled to it. He just doesn’t provoke my ire any more. He can be reasonable and I encourage him to use his talents to be a voice of reason rather than a provocateur.
I’m looking for expressive bumper stickers for my car. You can make your own for not a lot of money. I was thinking of putting “There’s No God/Deal With It” on my car. I thought better of it though. 20 years ago I was driving around with a sticker that said “Vote Democratic” and I used to get almost run off the road by angry right-wingers. Who were sometimes screaming at me before they did it.
Another one I would kind of like to have but won’t risk would be “I’m Not Gay, But My Boyfriend Is”.
Moon, you guys ought to make up some Moonhowlings bumper stickers. I would pay for 25-50 of them as a donation to the blog. And happily drive around with one. http://www.stickersbanners.com/faq.html
If I had the same guts that I had 20 years ago I would ride afound witb “Abortion in the First Trimester/Is Fine With Me” (maybe with a baby’s face to the side)
You sure have a way of getting my attention, Rick.
I used to have one that said, “Don’t like abortion? Have a vasectomy.” I got tired of being keyed. One A-hole had the nerve to come up into my driveway early in the morning and slice away at my bumper sticker. This went on for a while until he or she got the whole thing. I had replacements, but it just got tiresome. I now keep my political opinions to myself….well…sorta…No one keys my blog.
Does anyone have a car they want to sell for a grand or less? If so, give me a holler.
Hah! You lived out my fantasy! And it ends up with angry people hacking at your car!
“I need to hack away at this bumper sticker, to save the unborn. It’s a dirty job, but someone has to do this”.
“Jesus told me to vandalize your car”.
I think I know who was doing it. I can’t prove it though and it was a long time ago. My son was a little less settled now than he was then. He tried to catch the person but it required son being up too early in the day, if you get my drift.
You are exactly right if it was the person I am thinking of. I am sure he thought Jesus did tell him to come up and drive a nail in my tire too.
I was honestly shocked at how angry a “Vote Democrat” bumper sticker was making some guys circa 1993. Super hot screaming at me with spit coming out and then cutting me off. They really had a major issue with anyone voting Democrat. Your sticker presumably would have made their heads explode.
Oh yea. That was back in the days of Jocelyn Elders being the anti-Christ.
I got cursed a lot for my legged fish with DARWIN written in the inside perimeter. I think I was called a secular humanist. Whatever happened to that ‘slur?’
Don’t believe everything you think
How about that?
Now O’Reilly’s term is “SP” (Secular Progressive).
It’s all part of the “culture war”.
That is just stupid, isn’t it?
“Atheists Repent Before It Is Too Late”
I am not sure who you think is an atheist.
“Jesus Loves Obamacare”
I expect He does. He was big into healing the sick. Think about how much easier it would be to treat leprosy under Obamacare.
“Atheists Always Panic When The End Draws Near”
Their end or THE end, Wolverine?
Matthew 6:5 and 6:16 – no spiritual beliefs on bumper stickers.
Just to help out:
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.
“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.
Their end, Moon. Kicking the bucket. Crossing the bar, as Lord Tennyson called it. Sort of like the old adage about there being no atheists in the foxholes. Ever see the photos of some of our ground troops being baptized by the chaplains just before the launch of the second Iraq War? The chaplains asked, and soldiers going into battle responded.
Have you ever watched a crab on the shore crawling backward in search of the Atlantic Ocean, and missing? That’s the way the mind of man operates -H. L. Mencken
“Confessing to the endless sin
The endless whining sounds
You’ll be praying till next Thursday
To all the Gods that you can count”
– Ian Anderson, from “My God” on Jethro Tull’s “Aqualung” LP
And from the back cover of that LP :
..1 In the beginning Man created God; and in the image of Man created he him.
…2 And Man gave unto God a multitude of names,that he might be Lord of all the earth when it was suited to Man
…3 And on the seven millionth day Man rested and did lean heavily on his God and saw that it was good.
…4 And Man formed Aqualung of the dust of the ground, and a host of others likened unto his kind.
…5 And these lesser men were cast into the void; And some were burned, and some were put apart from their kind.
…6 And Man became the God that he had created and with his miracles did rule over all the earth.
…7 But as all these things came to pass, the Spirit that did cause man to create his God lived on within all men: even within Aqualung.
…8 And man saw it not.
…9 But for Christ’s sake he’d better start looking.
Protests held against Arizona anti-gay bill
Feb 22, 2014 11:40 AM
Los Angeles (AFP) – Hundreds of activists rallied in Arizona on Friday to protest the passage of a bill that would let vendors deny service to gay customers on religious grounds.
The measure grants legal protection to business owners who want to refuse service to gays and others because doing so would violate his or her religious beliefs.
Hundreds of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual activists and their supporters rallied outside the state Capitol building in Phoenix, while others gathered in the southern city of Tucson to protest the measure.
http://news.yahoo.com/protests-held-against-arizona-anti-gay-bill-164040572.html
Arizona is a hotbed of hate.
It certainly sounds like there is a lot of hate brewing there.
Why don’t they just not serve Indians, Jews, Blacks or Mexicans while they are at it?
Mencken had nothing against churchgoing – but only if it was honest. Not for show.
You should have posted all the lyrics – the beginning of My God is apropos
“Made Him bend to your religion….”
How could serving a hamburger or a cocktail to a gay person violate anyone’s religious beliefs? (unless their beliefs forbade the server to handle meat or alcohol – but then the problem isn’t that the purchaser is gay). Does the Arizona law permit that kind of action on religious beliefs?
“It’s against my religion to acknowledge that you’re same-sex attracted, and not hiding in a closet over that fact. Please eat somewhere else; your very existence points out the absurdity of my world view, and makes me feel uncomfortable. Single mothers and Jews, you’re next”.
Excellent response, Rick. I think this topic deserves its own thread.
While we’re on the homophobia issue, Jason Collins is about to be signed to a short-term contract by the Brooklyn Nets, who are short on frontline players right now. So he’ll be the first openly gay player active in the NBA.
The NBA is less homophobic than the other sports. It’s no secret within the league that star players are gay (Russell Westbrook) or bisexual (Tim Duncan) and nobody has issue with it, to include sharing a locker room. This correlates to something larger. I think black Americans are less homophobic than white ones generally (which is not obvious from the outside looking in). But I’m not going to go on about this issue at length. it’s yesterday’s fight. Homophobia is dying out.
When Paul Pierce was younger, maybe 10 years ago? he was in the sports news for making comments to a reporter to the effect that he wouldn’t want to play with or against a gay man. (I can’t find them online, but it was news at the time). Now, he’s on the team that’s bringing Collins in, and I would presume that he has no issue with it. The times changed, quickly.
Funny thing about atheists. They are always talking about God.
And the hypocrites. They’re always yapping about God, too.
What hypocrites would those be?
I’ll talk about God for you Wolverine … I’ll tell you what I really think about “God”.
The whole point of choosing to “believe” in a “God” is just a semantic shell game that some people choose to play. To me, anyone who says that their belief in God provides answer or meaning is deluding themselves, and has deliberately chosen to turn their brain off.
I may have this story incorrect, but something like this is true. In some Hindu sects, in past millenia, children were taught that the world did not fall in space because it sat on the back of a large tortoise.
“But why doesn’t the tortoise fall?” the children would inevitably ask? Because, they were told, it sits on the back of an even larger tortoise.
“But why doesn’t that one fall?” Ah, because it sits on the back of a tremendous elephant.
“But why doesn’t the elephant fall?” And at that point the children were told that the elephant was so large that it was everything – it could not fall. And that was that – the mystery was now explained.
Most people’s God is analogous to that elephant. You take the sum total of all that’s unknown and unexplained, paternalize (or possibly maternalize) it, label it “God”, and pretend that you now have a good framework to understand what’s real. Or just to move forward and cope with life.
Hearing people argue about the exstence of “God” seems pointless to me. There’s certainly much that we don’t know, there’s certainly “something” out there. Do we really need to argue with each other about whether to associate that void or that cause with our daddies? Not to me.
So Wolverine, I am not an atheist. I consider that whole debate to be silly. I make no argument as to whether there is or isn’t a creator. I just don’t talke any particular organized religion seriously.
Again, we are all in fact aware of the universal truths – that we are alone and unaware of any purpose for our existence of for self-consciousness. We are in varying states of denial of this, and define our lives in large part by how we choose to cope.
You can be mad, sad, happy, or glad about it, but we don’t know why we’re here and can discern no particular purpose for existence. So we invent our own.