91 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 6-13-20”

  1. Good morning everyone.
    I suppose the residents of Chasz still send money to Seattle for utilities???

    I see that the City of Greensboro is having a “Juneteenth” celebration. Don’t know what it’s about. I have heard of “Juneteenth” before, but never connected it to anything.

    Carry on, as much as you can.

    Liked by 2 people

  2. Good morning!

    Those are gorgeous yellow flowers. They look similar to the coreopsis here but may be something else entirely.

    The weather report said we’d have a stretch of low humidity with no rain days yet we had another major pour down late yesterday when Art was driving home. Today is suppose to be very nice but more rain is now scheduled for this weekend. It is time to mow while I can.

    I will call my friend Karen and see if she will answer. Either way, I will have more to pray about as I mow.

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Morning! Beautiful flowers up there!!
    I just missed it! Husband was cleaning off the garage doors and a bear went running by….the dog decided she would place chase….thankfully husband called her back but he said it was a beautiful sight to see that light brown bear running through the forest…. 🐻

    Liked by 5 people

  6. Those are the some of the wildflowers I planted last year in front of our kitchen window. I don’t know what kind they are, but these are what would have been in the prairie before everything was plowed under.

    Liked by 3 people

  7. Chas- Juneteenth is a celebration that started when the blacks in the South (Texas in particular) heard that they were free:

    “Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day and Cel-Liberation Day, is an American holiday celebrated on June 19. It memorializes June 19, 1865, when Union general Gordon Granger read orders in Galveston, Texas, that all previously enslaved people in Texas were free” (Wikipedia).

    Liked by 1 person

  8. Oh, concerning the flowers: the yellow ones bloom first. Now we are getting purple, orange, white and soon, red and blue ones.

    Like

  9. Good morning. I am going to try to keep my mind on household projects — finishing up one and starting another — this morning.

    Several people posted last night on yesterday’s thread after I’d gone to bed, so I answered over there this morning. But not being certain whether people check old threads the next day, I’ll repost what I just wrote, bolding the names of those I addressed:

    Cheryl, 10:18pm, thank you. I hadn’t heard that Christian myth spelled out in words; there are some, though, who give the impression that that is so, now that I think about it.

    I have heard some Christians who have bought the lie that all depression is sin, and if one is depressed, it’s because of a sinful attitude.

    Like one needs to repent of depression. Ugh.

    DJ, 10:43, thanks. And you’re right: when the decline is fast, you feel like you can’t catch your breath. WAIT! .., but there’s little to no wait. The end is there right after it seemingly began.

    RKessler, with the taxes: yes, it is rather scary to contemplate trouble with the IRS. My dad got audited years ago after an innocent mistake. I think it had something to do with gift-giving. They were relentless, sitting at our kitchen table night after night for I don’t remember how long — a week or two? — grilling him and I don’t remember what else. It seemed to take forever, because the mistake apparently snowballed, and he needed more documentation and…

    I only remember how stressed he was, and how I worried he might die of a heart attack after all that. Obviously, that didn’t happen, but it taught me to be wary of the IRS. You don’t want to be on the hook with them.

    Kevin, 10:38am, I meant to thank you for your prayers for Karen’s family and for me. I appreciate it more than words could ever express.

    Thank you to all of you who are praying. We are grateful and uplifted.

    Liked by 3 people

  11. I called my friend and we were having a pleasant conversation. She started talking about covid and I thought, here we go again into complaints about the Governor and President, but I was quick to blame all the new cases on lack of social distancing and the protests. I gave examples of how people are not observing social distancing orders so she could not get into a rant. Then her cat started vomiting and our conversation ended abruptly. She was sounding better but said she’d hurt her back dealing with the cat litter boxes. They really should not have three cats unless they are willing to get someone to help care for them.

    Liked by 1 person

  13. Can’t remember when I’ve enjoyed sleeping in as much as I did today.

    Those flowers are beautiful. Were they planted from seed? My wildflowers never did much but produce scraggly green leafy things that the gardener continues to whack down as weeds.

    rkessler, I’ll ask the TP about the cyst when I go in next, he did quite an extensive hands-on check of the entire area and didn’t mention anything like that. I need to get out my exercise instructions today and get to it.

    Junteenth is celebrated here usually, but it was a bigger deal in years past I think. There was a huge gathering at one of our local parks though it died down after a while. This year the longshore workers are doing an 8-hour stop-work period in honor it the day.

    Liked by 2 people

  14. I thought coreopsis for the flowers too. There is an area beside the road here, across the street from my pond, that has wildflowers including those. I don’t know if they were planted there at some point or if they simply grow wild, but there’s a decent variety of wildflowers and thus also of insects.

    Liked by 2 people

  15. This morning I ran into a young man who has been on my mind (and in my prayers) several times since. I was photographing insects on the trail, and the young man stopped and said, “How do you do it?” Not sure whether he meant how do I find something to photograph, how do I take the photo, or what, I turned around and said, “How do I do what?”

    He went deeper, instantly. “How do you find purpose?”

    Whew. Only in Jesus. But that didn’t seem the best lead-off line, so I said, “Sir, we were created to have purpose” and I thought we might be heading into a long conversation. Certainly he went to the heart of the matter quicker than any total stranger has ever done in a conversation with me.

    I don’t know if he heard “religious answer” and that was a turnoff, if he realized he had just shown his vulnerability to a total stranger, or what, but he waved his hand in a dismissive gesture and turned and walked away.

    I called after him, “Sir!” Then, “Sir, are you OK?” He waved his hand again and kept walking. He was shirtless, and his pants were practically down around his ankles. I called my husband and told him about the encounter, but I kept praying that he would run into another Christian, that my asking if he was OK was somehow enough for a significant human encounter.

    I often see the same people on the trails more than once. I may well see him again. If I’d had time to think, I might have said, “That is a really good question!” I saw him as desperate and wanting an answer, but I don’t really know what he wanted. But I know what he needs.

    Liked by 4 people

  16. DJ @1:00 pm Those flowers are beautiful. Were they planted from seed?

    Yes. One of the few successful outcomes of my brown-thumb gardening.

    Liked by 4 people

  17. I suppose I need to have a talk with my gardener and his weed whacker. 🙂

    My cousin came over to deliver the dog meds she picked up for me and we sat for an hour or more visiting on the front porch.

    The knee is kicking up again with some pain today, I did a couple of the exercises early today, watered in the backyard and did pull the 2 empty trash bins up from the curb. I iced the knee a couple times. But it’s feeling pretty uncomfortable and stiff again so I’m thinking it might be a good time to give it some more rest. Probably the ‘workout’ at PT last night followed by whatever I did this morning/today, even though I was still trying to be as gentle as I could.

    Liked by 1 person

  18. Cheryl, you responded well. “That’s a good question” also is a good way for the next time should God bring your paths to cross again.

    I struggle with these encounters especially with people I know. Take my cousin. Raised Roman Catholic but *something* happened to turn her quite decisively against religion or Christianity or the “church” specifically.

    Today we were speaking of the mess the country is in (she’s quite liberal but not an outspoken one and agrees this seems to be a precarious path the nation is on). I said my thought is that our problem is a deep spiritual one more than a political one, but I could see her silent ‘brush off of that notion. I had also mentioned sin, perceived the same reaction, there’s almost a visible flinch.

    Hmmm.

    I feel I’m a poor evangelist in these situations, I can’t seem to get the knack of “leading” and listening along a particular path that doesn’t veer off into another, unrelated branch. I think asking questions is a good. And I think I was feeling agitated today about the political landscape so vented and talked too much about my own opinions and ideas on where the nation, politically, was headed.

    I keep trying to revisit these episodes to learn from them, on how I might approach all of this better the next time. It seems to be learned skill for me, one I’m not learning too quickly. 🙂

    Liked by 4 people

  20. 6 Arrows – It seems that when some people bring up that scripture about believers not grieving as unbelievers do, that they are implying that grieving deeply (and/or long) is somehow from a lack of faith. I don’t believe that. Although my grief over losing Hubby has been very deep, and continues (although not as acutely as in the first year or two, it is still there), my faith and trust in God have grown deeper. Despite the grief, there is the hope and assurance that Hubby is with Jesus.

    I liked what Cheryl wrote about death being an enemy. Death, and the separation it causes, was not God’s original design. Grieving, missing our loved ones, and the weeping and sobbing that can come with those feelings are natural, and even healthy.

    Liked by 5 people

  21. Earlier this evening, Nightingale, Boy, and Gabby (Boy and Gabby are allowed to play together again) had a little funeral for a baby bird. Boy and Gabby had found it, and wanted to take it to our neighbor (the daycare lady) who sometimes takes care of injured animals, including birds. Unfortunately, exuberant doggie Janie was outside with them, and wanted to play with the bird, and that is what led to Baby Bird’s demise. 😦 (Janie had grabbed it by the head.)

    *******
    I had to shake my head at a Facebook post from my cousin Tom. Apparently, BandAid has announced that it will come out with bandages in varying skin shades. Tom and his wife think this is ridiculous. I pointed out that if they had done this a few years ago, no one would think much of it, but since it is being done at the current time, during the current circumstances, it is seen by some as a “politically correct” move.

    Quite frankly, I was surprised that they hadn’t done this before now. It makes sense.

    Liked by 2 people

  22. Yes, and I hear so many people say, “Well, death is a part of life.”

    No, not as it was originally intended — which is why it’s so excruciatingly hard and ugly.

    Liked by 4 people

  27. I know for a fact that suggestion about varying shades of Bandaids was sent to the company over 30 years ago. I attended an Assembly of God summer camp with a girl who sent it to them.
    I would have thought it had already been done.

    Now I hear that some in Colorado are wanting to change the name of an area and the airport. I don’t know what Mr. Stapleton did but apparently it was horrendous.

    Liked by 4 people

  28. Pastor Dickard has sent over a short outline of the sermon he will preach this morning.
    Which, BTW, I won’t hear.
    But he has a statement, in passing, that seems relevant for these times.

    “God is not taken by surprise.”

    As Kim points out above, Ain’t nothing safe.
    There is nothing too trivial to become a blood letting issue.

    Somebody, something, is behind this. It won’t be the communists that bring this country down. I think evil has put on a tie and combed his hair.

    Liked by 3 people

  29. Chas, have family members looked for a way to get you connected to your church’s livestream? Surely it’s possible with one of your devices.

    Liked by 2 people

  30. A quick Google search reveals Benjamin Stapleton was a member of the KKK and, being elected mayor of Denver, then appointed Klansmen to offices in the city, including chief of police. Talk about evil putting on a tie and combing his hair, that describes the KKK perfectly.

    Liked by 2 people

  31. One of the larger cities in southern Ontario is named Kitchener, after Lord Kitchener, British Secretary of State for War during the First World War. But the city of Kitchener was not always named that. From 1854 to 1916, it was named Berlin – Ontario has a London and a Paris and once had a Berlin. The reasons why its inhabitants renamed the city during WWI are obvious, although 100 years later, Berlin is no longer synonymous with the enemy. But, the story demonstrates that place names being changed due to negative associations is not a sinister new phenomenon.

    Like

  32. “A black man was shot and killed by police”

    After resisting arrest, stealing a cop’s taser during a struggle, and then firing the taser at police as he tried to flee. Only then was he shot, and justifiably so. This is on him, not police.

    Liked by 1 person

  34. Morning! Yes…as Paul Harvey would have said “and this is the rest of the story”….thanks AJ…
    The Stapleton neighborhood was given an ultimatum…”change the name in ONE week or we are going to march on your area”…threat? Oh no “it’s a promise”!!! Thugs and the new “mafia” is what it is. Did you hear about the cop surrounded by ANTIFA in Denver…they were set on killing this man…thankfully he escaped back to the station….this is crazy and it is anarchy…it is not longer a stand against “racism”….there is a movement to take over our society and our rule of law has been demanded to stand down! Gun sales are off the charts…just saying….

    Liked by 3 people

  35. Law enforcement, from the FBI (https://www.ajc.com/news/fbi-finds-evidence-antifa-involvement-national-unrest/qVI3U9wb8Q6u1QEvVsJ7AJ/) down to local police (https://www.greeleytribune.com/2020/06/04/greeley-police-says-no-truth-to-rumor-of-antifa-presence-in-greeley/) have not found evidence that Antifa is involved with these protests. In fact, the Twitter account that posed as Antifa calling for invasion of white neighbourhoods was a fake account set up by a white supremacist group. That is a textbook move, literally, as in 1930’s Germany, Hitler’s Brown Shirts often used misdirection to blame Communists for the trouble the Nazis were causing.

    Like

  36. One of the planks in the platform of BLM (no, not bureau of land management) is to defund the police. From several years back it has been the goal. No, it is not about stopping racism, it is about growing racism.

    Liked by 2 people

  37. And the bandaids I have to use due to a glue allergy are pure white. Very ugly and they stand out and since they’re fabric-like, they get dirty in about 2 seconds and look very gross.

    Liked by 3 people

  38. This is a forwarded message I got yesterday. Of course it happens to be from someone with “boots on the ground” and not some linked report. I don’t believe for one moment Antifa is not involved.

    Kim Please pray for my best friends husband Dave right now. He is on Martin Luther King Blvd patrolling area right by Quebec All of sudden when he was at a traffic stop . A group of 300 of Antifa. Surrounded his car chanting kill that cop!! Pray Kim pray !
    he was able to throw patrol car in. Reverse & backed out of that and he and 3 other officers got away and headed to precinct. They are locked in there standing guard!! Dear God!! Help them!!
    Dave is already on no sleep. Cathy sent this picture to me before he left today. She was screaming frantically on the phone to me asking for everybody to pray for those Police officers🙏🏽🙏🏽This is happening right now!!

    Liked by 2 people

  39. Yeah, ignore what you’ve seen with your own eyes. Ignore those college aged rioters dressed in black and screaming for anarchy. Ignore the fact that no white supremacists have been arrested, it has to be them. 🙄

    Give me a break Roscuro. Their involvement has been documented in this from the start. It’s not white supremacists that created the CHAZ zone, that’s Antifa. Take a look at their Twitter feed, their involvement is well documented, and not just in the US. They posted pictures of their activities and involvement throughout all of this. The only people who don’t see it are the ones willingly ignoring it.

    https://twitter.com/antifaintl?lang=en

    ———-

    And I’ll take the head of the DoJ’s word against the DC field office any day.

    https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/ag-barr-evidence-antifa-foreign-actors-involved-sowing/story?id=71066996

    “Attorney General William Barr said Thursday that the the federal government has evidence that the radical left-wing antifa movement as well as other extremist groups have “hijacked” legitimate protests around the country to incite violence, and said certain “foreign actors” are seizing on the unrest to sow discord in the U.S.

    “While many have peacefully expressed their anger and grief, others have hijacked protests to engage in lawlessness, violent rioting, arson, looting of businesses, and public property assaults on law enforcement officers and innocent people, and even the murder of a federal agent,” Barr said. “We have evidence that antifa and other similar extremist groups, as well as actors of a variety of different political persuasions have been involved in instigating and participating in the violent activity.”

    Liked by 3 people

  40. Nancy Jill, I see so many forwarded messages on FB that I believe none of them. They often repeat the same story but just change the details of names and locations to make it seem that it is happening all over. Unless one knows personally the person who wrote the original message, it cannot be relied on. And if course, there might have been an officer surrounded by a mob somewhere, but that it does not mean the mob was antifa. They could have been the average, everyday, run-of-the-mill hoodlums looking for trouble. It is easy for a mob to whip themselves into a frenzy with little provocation. My youngest sibling used to have a sign on her bedroom door that stated, “Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.”

    The Real, it is law enforcement who are being targeted by these protests, and yet they are the ones making the conclusions about Antifa linked to above. As for Barr, he concedes outside influences, but only mentions antifa, although it is white supremacists that law enforcement has arrested for trying to stoke violence: https://www.ajc.com/news/with-ties-white-extremism-accused-plotting-mayhem-protests/GdtpTjwVaapgVZihVtNWeI/

    I couldn’t care less whether antifa was involved or not. I just found those links by trying to confirm the story about the trapped officer, which I could not. The Communists in 1930s Germany were no better than Antifa today, by the way. I remember Youngest, who read the details of the political fight between Communists and Nazis in that time period, saying that the Communists certainly were not in the right. But that did not make the Brown Shirt’s tactics of inciting violence and then blaming the Communists in any way better. The lesson to learn from history is in a time of conflict between two sides, trust neither.

    Like

  41. One local PD and an FBI office with an ax to grind hardly encompass all of law enforcement. They are the tiniest minority. I wouldn’t expect some podunk little town to have a local Antifa chapter, so no surprise there.

    As for that FBI DC office who can’t seem to find Antifa involvement, or Russian collusion, because there was none despite them claiming there was and fraudulently getting warrants based on lies….

    They’re lying, again.

    They have an ax to grind, and a distraction from their own criminal activities is about what I would expect about now.

    Guess which FBI office most of these hacks worked/work from?

    That’s right, DC. An office rotten from top to bottom.

    https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/press/rep/releases/judiciary-committee-authorizes-chairman-graham-to-issue-subpoenas-related-to-oversight-of-fisa-process-crossfire-hurricane-investigation

    ———-

    Not very many white supremacists punks have been arrested, the same cannot be said of Antifa thugs where in NY alone hundreds have been arrested. Same for Philly. And Minneapolis, and Atlanta, etc., etc….. The numbers don’t support you or the media’s claims on this.

    Liked by 1 person

  45. The question surrounding the shooting in Atlanta has to do with the end result of police shooting and killing a man who was fleeing and armed with a taser, a non-deadly weapon.

    Liked by 1 person

  46. Last I heard there was an effort to find the recording that would provide more information about the initial contact police had with the man, what exactly took place that led up to the struggle.

    Liked by 1 person

  47. So good morning everyone, this is a lively one.

    My knee is a little better this morning, but I was up at around 3 a.m. to take something for it.

    I agree, Chas you should be able to hook into the church service somehow? It’s not the ideal but it’s all we have in these circumstances. Most of us have gratefully relied on that weekly time.

    Liked by 2 people

  48. The Real, if the system is so broken that clear evidence of a threat against law enforcement gets deliberately ignored by law enforcement, then the system must be broken indeed. I was looking for information on a specific story, which I did not find, but in researching, I avoid websites with names like Legal Insurrection, since the use of a term like insurrection automatically signals an intention to provoke reaction. On the principle of Proverbs 22:24-25, “Don’t make friends with an angry man, and don’t be a companion of a hot-tempered man, or you will learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare”, I avoid those kinds of sites. Any factual information it might possibly contain should be available elsewhere, with original documents and confirmed, named first hand sources being preferable.

    Liked by 1 person

  50. The AJC, if the one here in Atlanta, has been pretty liberal for years. It is possible there could be the slightest bit of spin on how they report things. Got a big salt shaker?

    Like

  51. This is the closest I can come to finding a mention of Denver in connection with Antifa in these present riots: https://denver.cbslocal.com/2020/05/31/fbi-joint-terrorism-task-force-investigating-rioting-denver/

    ‘On Sunday, CBS4’s Kathy Walsh asked Denver Police Chief Paul Pazan if he felt groups such as Antifa were involved in the rioting in Denver.

    ‘Pazen blamed “individuals that infiltrate these peaceful marches and conduct criminal behavior.”

    ‘“We certainly wouldn’t categorize anybody who has engaged in this type of behavior with groups like that. Again, these are individuals and we focus on individual criminal behavior,” Pazen said.”‘

    So, there are hoodlums taking advantage of the situation, but the suggestion of organization is refuted by law enforcement. As I was seeking to convey above, mobs do not need deliberate organization to become dangerous.

    Like

  53. We were surprised to hear through all this that Atlanta no longer has a jail. They had already been reforming this city to be a black utopia. There was a program on our local public broadcasting about what it means to defund the police. They want to no longer pay officers who are on administrative leave or give retirement to those who have done certain things. They want money to go to funding programs to help people upfront to learn to do the right thing like more training against domestic violence, etc. It sounds good if it works. Of course there was no mention of God and church in the discussion.

    Like

  54. Roscuro, you can usually tell things from the names of some websites. I do the same, I’ll search elsewhere.

    I have no problem with training police on how to better de-escalate situations. I’m quite sure that’s been part of the PD process for a while anyway, but if there are ways to improve on all that, by all means.

    It’s not always possible to do that, however, incidents unravel at lightning speed, a ‘calm down’ chit-chat isn’t typically going to ensue or work in those situations. And officers are under a great amount of pressure also in those circumstances. They are unpredictable and so much can go wrong, I can understand how they might feel a fear for their lives at any moment.

    But as I told my cousin yesterday, I don’t think any of those re-training techniques are going to satisfy the de-funding crowd anyway.

    Like

  55. Janice, a nearby community here closed its jail some years ago for economic reasons. But that does not mean there is not a jail, as there is a very large provincial one. It appears the Atlanta downtown jail was closed last year for a number of reasons, a lack of inmates and increase in costs being among them: https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/atlanta/mayors-legislation-to-close-atlanta-city-detention-center-approved-by-city-council/951039988/. Nevertheless, it seems there are other jails, as Fulton county suggested relieving overcrowding at its jail by using Atlanta’s old downtown facility: https://www.11alive.com/mobile/article/news/a-tail-of-two-atlanta-jails-can-a-near-empty-jail-overcrowding-in-another/85-985eaccd-0cc0-4aed-a13d-8e109090a009.

    Like

  56. The concerns about the police are similar here. There have been a number of shootings by police in Toronto that have fueled demonstrations in the past, and the First Nations and Inuit communities also have longstanding grievances. I witnessed racism from the police when I was in Nunavut. I also saw the social problems of the community first hand. Basically, it was a case of an arrogant and angry man who was ill equipped to show patience in any situation, whether privately or publicly, being the senior officer on one side, and a community deeply impacted by many different social on the other. A toxic mix, and one that made you feel like you were sitting on a powder keg. It was really the Inuit elders that kept the peace, not the police, and I trusted the elders more than the police.

    Like

  58. I attended a meeting the other morning and the leader prayed for all of us AGAINST the spirit of fear which is overtaking the world. As Christians, we should be seeking peace–first in our own relationship with God and then helping to bind up wounds–and they are many: spiritual, cultural, emotional, political, sociological and whatever else.

    I have to ask myself–how am I doing in this?

    And this is mixed.

    Liked by 2 people

  59. Michelle, as James teaches, the lusts of humanity draw us away to what the devil offers. “For where envy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every kind of evil.” (James 3:16). The opposite of envy and selfish ambition is to consider others more important than oneself (Philippians 2:3).

    Liked by 1 person

  61. I enjoyed attending church in Virginia with son and family before heading to town to enjoy the gathering of believers for worship in my church. Both good messages.

    Liked by 3 people

  62. Kizzie, 9:20pm last night, thank you for sharing that.

    I didn’t end up going to see Karen yesterday. Mike didn’t call — not at all surprisingly — and with the family picture-taking yesterday and probable additional family time afterwards, it would have been a little awkward, as a non-family member, to step in for a visit, though we all know each other so well. I wouldn’t want to impose.

    It was such a touching blessing, though, to see Karen’s oldest daughter and son-in-law in church this morning. Tears sprang to my eyes as soon as I saw Beth, her husband (a preacher) at her side.

    We spoke at length after the service, both of us weeping at times. I was trying so hard to keep from crying so I wouldn’t start a chain reaction and make her feel worse, but, well… you know it didn’t happen that way.

    The saddest part was when Beth told me something about the initial diagnosis that I didn’t know. All I knew was Karen was told Stage 4 uterine cancer with a spread to the lungs.

    What I didn’t know until today was that she’d been given at that time — early May — about 6-12 months to live.

    Months.

    Three weeks later, after her first chemo treatment with the most aggressive cancer-fighting drugs there are, Karen’s tumors had grown, she was too weak to withstand a second treatment, and she was given a new timeline of 2-4 weeks, with hospice care set up three days later.

    Beth could hardly choke that out between her tears. The initial 6-12 month estimate made her think she’d have a lot more time with her mom.

    I asked Beth if it was OK if I hugged her — social distancing and all — and she immediately held out her arms to me. We embraced and cried together, her husband standing nearby with tears filling his eyes, too.

    She says the hardest thing for her mom is seeing the kids crying, knowing how hard it is for them, even as they all walk with the Lord and know Karen will be at eternal peace with Jesus.

    Beth also requested prayers for her dad. We both agree he appears to be doing well on the outside, but she noted, “…but knowing him, I know he’s internalizing a lot.”

    Please keep them all in your prayers. This is such a dear family to me.

    Thank you. ❤

    Liked by 4 people

  63. My personal take on this most recent event here is that if the man tazed the officers then he could have grabbed their guns and shot them or someone else could have. There are plenty who would. He was already proving that he was able to grab the tazer which showed utter disregard for their authority. But at the same time, the officers in Atlanta are suppose to walk on eggshells and tiptoe around or ignore bad behavior especially right now. I presume that is why the police chief resigned. She was being humble in accepting responsibility that what she had told the force was not effective in preventing that incident from happening. I really hated hearing that he is a father of four. It is telling that most all these events stem from some form of substance abuse. This one was alcohol. He was drunk, but it could have been any other substance that changed his behavior to be so far out of bounds. As Michelle said, the root of the evil is Satan and he chooses the weaknesses and substance that will work best to create chaos and death.

    Liked by 2 people

  66. You fight with police, and steal a cops taser, then fire it at him, you’re getting shot. I don’t care where you are, you’re getting shot. And it’s justified.

    ————

    Nope. No Antifa here….

    Liked by 2 people

  67. Thanks for posting that video, AJ. It verifies the logic I used before I had heard all the ramifications of what he did. By shooting him they may have saved another life from a hit and run drunk driver. Not justifying the shooting but if people are in the habit of drinking and driving they will eventually have accidents. We were hit by one and God watched over us and made the seats break rather than have our heads smash through the windshield.

    Liked by 1 person

  70. Good reminder in today’s sermon from Matt. 11:28, 29 (“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest … “)

    We also were reminded that the world won’t “suffer” Christ and how we’ve had a very smooth ride here in the U.S., but that is not the norm. “Are you ready for it not to be a ‘smooth’ ride, where being a Christian is not in vogue?”

    Pretty much where we are, and I can’t help that a part of what God is doing here is to wake us up.

    We also were reminded to love our enemies. I had some conviction on that point.

    I surely do need to hear the law and the gospel every single week.

    Liked by 2 people

  71. AJ- I received an email supposedly from you that had an odd email address: guminghu21 79@v ip. qq. com. I hadn’t clicked on it, but Mrs L tells me she did. Thought you should know.

    Like

  72. Peter,

    Sent you an email.

    That email belongs to a Chinese messenger service. (I googled it) It wasn’t from me. No one else that I’ve checked with has received it. I sent a response with some info I was given and that we should both change our email passwords to something new. I already did.

    ————–

    Anybody else get this email supposedly from me? And don’t click it please.

    Liked by 1 person

  74. I received a similar e-mail from someone I know. (Not from here.) I didn’t open it because, as in Peter’s case, something just looked out of place.
    Can’t be too careful.
    But I haven’t changed anything here.

    Liked by 1 person

  75. In the past, I have mentioned that we live on a private lane that ends in a dead end. (It ends with my neighbors’ driveway, which is a large circle.) My neighbors own several acres that extend past their backyard (which is actually more of a field or meadow, with woods behind) and are on the other side of our backyard. Years ago, they also bought a rental property that is actually on the main road, but its backyard connects to their home property. Last year they bought the only other house, besides ours and theirs, on the lane – the one across the lane from us. So their property loops around us, front and back.

    They now refer to their collective property (particularly the property connected to the lane, as “The [Their Last Name] Compound”. Nightingale says our property is “The [Our Last Name] Island”. 😀

    The neat thing for us is that Boy and Gabby are allowed to play and roam all over the combined properties (except for the rental property). There is even a lovely brook they love to play in and by. A little while ago, they were sitting on the steps of the house across the lane. Other times they are on one of our porches, or in their “fort” under our back porch.

    I am so glad we are allowing them to play together again.

    Liked by 3 people

  77. I happen to be one of the very best couch cushion and blanket fort makers on the east coast. 🙂

    Not kidding. I used to do crude architectural drawings before starting. Give me 3 couch cushions, 4 pillows, and 2 blankets and I’ll build you a sanctuary, a mansion in which to hide away from the world.

    Give me a sectional and I’ll make it a castle.

    Liked by 6 people

  78. I forgot to say that they had a plaque made that says “The [Their Last Name] Compound” which is affixed to a tall tree stump. (The stump was cut at an angle, and the plaque is on the flat surface,)

    Liked by 2 people

  80. Those neighbors are currently renovating the house across the lane, which they intend to then rent out. Gabby’s mom is planning on her and Gabby living there. She has helped with a lot of the work in the house.

    Liked by 2 people

  81. Chariots of Fire is on, one of my favorites

    Caauht part of it a couple months ago on TV — late at night — but I just couldn’t stay up to watch the whole thing, it was a work night. Former boyfriend and I saw it in the theater when it was released

    But I haven’t seen it since then, I don’t believe

    Liked by 2 people

  83. All right, I know not everyone likes insects. I won’t go into gory details on insect life and behavior. But Flickr has a group or two where you commit to posting 100 photos over the course of a year, and you decide what your theme will be. One woman is doing 100 photos taken out her back door–and to me most of them look alike.

    I chose to do 100 photos of insects, and to make it a bit more challenging, I committed to not including two photos of the same species. (I also said I might occasionally slip in a “creepy crawlie” that isn’t an insect, and so I’ve included a snail, a spider, and a red velvet mite.) I knew I’d be able to get 100 species, since I’ve probably gotten close to that many each of the last two years, and with the Raynox close-up lens I can take clear photos of smaller insects than I could photograph last year. But I thought it would at least be a bit of a challenge to get that many.

    I was wrong. Insect season doesn’t get going until spring. I did find one insect in January, but I didn’t post my second photo until March 7. So I’ve really only been posting photos to the group for three months and one week. And it turns out that even with the “one photo per species” rule, I’m being selective: That insect isn’t interesting enough. That isn’t a good enough photo, so wait and see if I get a better one. I have two or three insect species that I put in the “100 insects” folder in my account but I’m waiting to see if I can get a better shot of it (and if I don’t, I may post the one I have)–but I’m now up to 99 insects. (Well, technically 95 insects since I posted some that weren’t insects.) And we haven’t even half finished June, and butterfly season has barely started. I haven’t even seen an adult monarch butterfly yet, and have only been able to photograph one species of swallowtail. So I’m going to wrap up my participation in the group before we finish June, and get none of the insects of July to September.

    Next year I think I’ll make myself a new challenge: again 100 different species . . . but I can’t include any I included this year, and I’ll stick to insects only. That should allow me to include more summer species, and thus more butterflies and dragonflies. I don’t know if I’d be able to do it a third year with no repetitions, but I wouldn’t be shocked if I could. (I will allow myself to do the same species as I got this year if it’s a different form. For instance, I included a monarch caterpillar, so next year I could do a butterfly instead–or a chrysalis, or even an egg. And even this year, I’ve included similar insects if I think it’s likely a different species, for instance different ants. If it happens that both ants are the same species, well, I know there are several species here, and they can at least represent that fact.)

    I did know we had lots and lots of species of insects, and that I could get 100. But I didn’t know I’d reach 100 by mid-June–and reach 100 when I’ve left out 10-20 species I’ve photographed but didn’t like the photo well enough to include it! (One was on the side of our house, for instance, and the photo is OK but I prefer natural settings. And another, I don’t like the way it’s holding its wings. One or two others aren’t as sharp as I’d like.) In several cases, I held off on posting the first photo of the species and later I got one I liked and posted it.

    I never imagined someday I’d be taking photos of insects (other than butterflies). But it’s addictive once you get started, since they come in such a huge variety of body shapes and colors, with some being really weird and interesting.

    Liked by 1 person

  85. The gal who is coming to garden here tomorrow was at my door at 9 this morning. She said that after church she wanted to change her clothes here – fine. It was encouraging that her first comment was “You’ve been working!” But I never said that I would be here and she never asked me when she was making the plan. So I plan on being gone.

    Liked by 1 person

  89. Cheryl – Nightingale was thrilled to see something today that she had never seen before (nor I – and I didn’t get to see this one, either 😦 ) – a Hummingbird Hawk Moth was buzzing around some flowers in our yard. Unfortunately, she was not able to get a photo of it.

    Liked by 1 person

  90. Kizzie, I’ve seen (and photographed) two species of hummingbird moths. But they are really, really difficult to photograph, and I have far more failures than successes with that species. (I had only seen it once, maybe twice, before we moved here, but it turns out they’re a summer visitor to one of the ponds I visit. I still don’t see a lot of them, but I see several over the course of a summer.) The first time I saw it was at the zoo several years ago, and I spent 20 or 30 minutes trying to get photos, and only got one I really like.

    See, that’s another interesting species I probably won’t get to include in the 100 photos group. I may or may not get a good photo of it this summer, but unless I get a good photo of it in the next week, I probably can’t include it. And I probably see 30-40 species of butterflies here over the course of a summer, and so far I’ve only photographed six or eight species. The rest will have to wait till next year.

    I also have a really lovely damselfly–lovely because it’s an unusual color for an insect, purple. The thing is, it’s so tiny that you only realize it’s purple when the photo is enlarged on the computer screen later. In the field it looks black and just like any of dozens of other damselflies. I got a mediocre photo of it last year, and hoped for a better one another time. I got a shot of it again this week, but it’s even worse than last year’s photo. (The purple doesn’t show very much and it has a lot of debris on it.) I’d love to put a purple insect in that 100 group . . . but I’ll wait till I actually have a good photo of it.

    Liked by 1 person

  91. How would you like it if your purpose in life was to be eaten by a bird or some such.
    You get to pollinate a plant or two, then you are dinner.

    Like

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.