Tag News

Tales from the heart

Michael 7 Comments

I have a confession to make. The last few weeks I’ve taken advantage of a random quote by fifth century Pope, St. Celestine I. Celestin founded the Vatican diplomatic corps. Imagine, 2,000 years ago the world already needed diplomats for countries to speak kindly to each other. Probably because like today, it was difficult to understand what was going on when everyone was shouting, so they needed experts at listening and whispering.

I’ve contrasted those Monday posts with Thursday’s Good News of the Week feature. Proof that even as the world’s former greatest civilized country crumbles in despotism, they are pockets, very large pockets of good in the rest of the world. They’ve been fun looking up and selecting 5 or 6 examples of, if not happy news, at least news that doesn’t want to make you throw up every time tangerine face pops up from his recharging pad and says something more stupid than you thought it could get.

The truth is, they are both easy subjects to pull together 500 words that don’t sound like 500 words of gibberish, aka what a text based social media post passes for nowadays. There were easy and I needed easy.

I am wrapping up a significant creative project that I’ll be announcing sometime in September and a lot of my creative fuel has been spent on that. At the same time, I’ve been involved with a series of speech contests again, this time as organizer and chair rather than contestant. Contestant by far is the easier gig.

With all that going on, I’d typically still be able to think up a few original thoughts to share with you but for the fact that I have all that going on while I’m running at about 60% capacity. Earlier this year, I noticed my walks were getting more difficult. To make a long story short (too late), after ruling out joint, muscle, strength and stamina, and respiratory concerns, the last organ to be looked at was heart.

As a lifelong member of the “I have a heart murmur club” I knew I had a valve that was not like the others. I also knew they can stay a nuisance for a lifetime or shift into problem gear over a very short time. Mine decided to shift. In the process of checking that out, they also uncovered a slightly uncooperative heart artery.

As this post is being published, I will be prepped for a cardiac catheterization, angioplasty, and deeper look at the mitral valve. Supposedly this will all take just a few hours, and I’ll be home to peruse today’s Reader sometime this afternoon.

I’ve taken Celestine’s quote, “We are deservedly to blame if we encourage error by silence,” to heart (no pun intended) and do not want to be also responsible for misunderstanding encouraged by silence. I hope by next week I can be more myself on Monday posts. I think I’d like to continue taking the easy way out on Thursday though and stick with Good News Thursday releases. There’s always room for good news, even if they do their damnedest to suppress it in Washington, DC.

Good New This Week – Nature Edition

Michael 7 Comments

In Monday’s Moment of Motivation and yesterday’s Uplift post at ROAMcare.org, we visited nature for some positive uplifting news. In this week’s good news of the week post here, nature also is this week’s focus.

I wonder what our vaccine czar would have to say about this one. In South Africa, rhinos are being vaccinated with radioactive isotopes to stop poachers. The isotopes are harmless to the animals but can be detected at airports and borders. Some 20 rhinos have been tested in advance of mass vaccinations.

Also on the animal front, In Amsterdam, the Netherlands, the city is spending about 100,000 euros “animal stairs” to help cats and other animals climb out of the canals instead of drowning when they find themselves at the wrong end of the canal wall. As innovative as this sounds, it is not the first such installation. Amersfoort installed a similar contraption for their cute but clumsy furry friends. Amersfoort is also the home town of abstract artist Piet Mondrian. That has nothing to do with this story but I like Mondrian and that’s not a fact you get to slip in just anywhere.

Over in England, an analysis of the government’s 13million pound species recovery project reveals some positive news. It that it has turned the tide for some of its most endangered plants and animals, including the first hatchings of the red-billed chough in over. 200 years.

Shifting from fauna to flora, lotus flowers are blooming in Kashmir’s largest lake, having been freed from underwater silt that strangled them for over 30 years. in 1992, flooding dumped thousands of tons of sediment into the lake, burying the lotus stems. A staggering 8 million cubic meters of silt has been removed to allow the lotus to flower again.

And it took some digging, but there’s good nature news even in the U. S.. Off Key Largo (one of my favorite movies and songs although neither has anything to do with the other, sort of), staghorn coral have spawned in mass for the first time in 2 years. In 2023, a bleaching event left marine biologists worried over the reefs’ future. Biologists have been working to strengthen the environment to support the tenuous breeding of the coral. Reef researchers across the world are now experimenting with cross breeding of corals in captivity to try and create hardier genotypes.

So once again we proved that there is good news in the world, you just have to go out in the world to find it. Out in the world nature for all its tenuous grasp on survival, is in much better shape than people. There is much life hiding in nature, and there are many times we’d do well to emulate how naturally nature lives. We talked about that in Hidden in Plain Sight.

Girls just wanna have…

Michael 11 Comments

Let’s do something different this week and find some other people who have taken Pope St. Celestine’s challenge with the words, “We are deservedly to blame if we encourage error by silence,” and see how they are speaking out.

You may not realize it because the mainstream media is not covering it as they cower under the threats of being sued by Adolph Trumtler, but there are protests happening all over the country challenging the authority of the orange authoritarian. A protest last week in Columbus, Ohio saw bunches of people holding hands and creating a human chain calling it Hands Along High Street stretching — are you ready — 8 miles!

What do you do with your spare time? There’s a lady in Florida who goes out and protests every week. Last Thursday she “marched” with the sign, “Girls just wanna have funDING for scientific research.” I put ‘marched’ in quotes because I’m not sure how far she can get. See, she is turning 105 years old this week! Happy Birthday!

Last week Washington, DC joined Los Angeles in the “list of American cities invaded by America.” Protesters in DC joined their California brethren marching against the camouflaged invaders, surrounding the more vulnerable of their fellow citizens from abuse by the leaf-patterned mobsters. By the way, why do the toy soldiers were camouflage in the cities. With what do thing they are blending in?

They weren’t invited but they are going anyway. Seven European leaders and the Secretary General of the United Nations announced this weekend that they will accompany Ukraine President Zelenskyy when he meets with the grifter-in-chief to express their thoughts, prayers, and guaranteed, continued support for the Ukraine.

From the office of the other dictator, just yesterday Russia has agreed to enact a law that it would not “go after any other European countries and violate their sovereignty.” Of course, we know that Russian law has as much authority as. U. S. Senate resolution, so there is that.

So there are some people out that not encouraging error by their continued silence, some unexpected, some likely complete fabrication – Russian law for sure, some absolutely remarkable – yes I’m talking about our new favorite centenarian who is doing her part to contribute to the possibility of their still being a USA  even after she goes.

📷 = MSNBC

Faithfully yours

Michael 5 Comments

Even though I’m still reeling from some of the most dictatorial events of all time that have happened and are happening in this country this week, I still have faith that I can find good news to celebrate. (And yes they are dictatorial. Find a German who was around in 1932 and ask if there is any difference between then there and here now.) (Anyway…)

What good went on this week?

The Wellbeing Research Centre releases its annual report on countries’ relative happiness. They polled 100,000 people from 147 countries on their perceived quality of life. This year’s report found Finland taking the top spot (for the eighth successive year), with Denmark, Iceland and Sweden, and The Netherlands rounding out the top five. Surprises included Costa Rica (sixth) and Mexico (tenth), both in the top ten for the first time. Other countries making it into the top ten are Norway, Luxemburg, and Israel. The good ole USA comes in at 24th. (In ‘Freedom” the U.S. comes in at #115. That puts us behind some democratic stalwarts like Mongolia (113), Venezuela (103), and Russia (102).)

From just as recently as 2021, statues in London honoring men have outpaced those honoring women.  Since then, more statues honoring women have been unveiled than in the entire second half of the 20th century. These included war heroes, pop culture icons, medical pioneers, and even royalty (Queen Elizabeth II, England’s longest reigning monarch, received her first statue in 2023.) Why should we care about what happens in London. Because women do things. So do all kinds of humas who are not white and/or orange males. Besides, they scored higher than us on the happiness scale so they must know something.

In April, the Salt Spring Island (B.C.) office of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) received the request from an out-of-town family to check on their elderly father who they’d not heard from. Officer Cst. Lloyd found the senior who appeared to have been living in unhealthy conditions, reluctant to engage, and adamant that he did not need help. The officer stayed with him for over an hour and developed a rapport with the older gentleman. In time, he agreed to be transported to the hospital to be checked. Last month, the man showed up at the RCMP Salt Spring Island office to share the news that he had unknowingly been bleeding internally for some time and, according to doctors, would have succumbed in the next 24 hours had it not been for the intervention of Officer Lloyd. No word if Officer Lloyd was fully masked and decked out in battle gear. I kind of think not. Canada also ranked ahead of us (way ahead of us) on the happiness scale.

Descendants of the Maya in Belize (aka indigenous people) are reviving an old game (even older than the NFL – oh my!). Pok-ta-pok, today the national sport of Belize, is billed as the world’s oldest team ballgame. It’s more curious news than good news but I wanted to bring it up because even though Belize came in one space behind the U.S. on the happiness scale, they ranked #1 in freedom. See what happens when you are nice to your indigenous neighbors.

I have faith you enjoyed this roundup of good news. Hmm. Did I use ‘faith’ properly, or could another word been better. Check out what we wrote about faith in An Article of Faith, this week’s Uplift post at ROAMcare.

Oh, if you’re interested, here’s is a link to the World Happiness Report dashboard compiled by the Gallup organization from this year’s wellbeing report.

Discouraging error by silence

Michael 5 Comments

 

Just like last Monday, I had fifth century Pope St. Celestine I, founder of the papal diplomatic service and speaking of the words, “We are deservedly to blame if we encourage error by silence,” in mind as I prepared today’s post. I intended to follow the good pontiff’s advice and call out some of the more egregious errors of the week but there were just sooooooooo many!

It truly is too difficult to narrow them down to a chosen few. Do we skip the top cur and go with the Vice-dingaling-in-chief having a river level raised so he can go rafting on his sixth vacation of the year?

Maybe we should think hard about this when the orange menace and the red menace get together and say the Ukraine will have to give up some land without asking the Ukraine. Sort of like when the wannabe king-in-chief says for 60 years people have been wanting a proper ball room at the White House so he will build one that is 3 times bigger than the current ballroom and cover it in gold. The manchild has a thing about gold and getting other people to pay for it.

Let’s consider how the Department of Injustice is opening an investigation against the people who prosecuted, and won, the case against sphinctermouth when he was a regular citizen. This follows the pattern of “retribution” it has sought since the swearing in ceremony (the one it refused to place its hand on the Bible for) in January. And yes, I said sphinctermouth. Watch a video of it talking. If you can ignore the orange makeup and the accordion playing pantomime, and concentrate on his lips (like it does when watching its press secretary talk) you will see that classic sphincter movement.

CarrotFace continues his purge of FBI agents who had worked on the January 6 investigations. This was only days after Homeland Security released plans to lower the minimum age of masked avengers, errr wannabe secret police to 18 and raised the maximum age to unlimited. Perhaps the lure of full student loans reimbursement didn’t bring in the number of new recruits they were hoping for. But then you have to have gone to school to have incurred student debt.

Now we come to the two most egregious happenings. In the running for top disgusting distraction, was the plan to destroy two satellites orbiting the earth measuring carbon dioxide release and other climate altering effects. Not just taking them offline, but destroying $750million dollars of state-of-the-art climate monitoring equipment.

But perhaps the single most egregious occurrence of the week was discovering the Library of Congress had restored parts of the Constitution to the official online version of the U.S. Constitution. Why? Because sometime in the dark of history, not to mention the dark  of the night, a couple key sections of Article I were removed. Those parts included the right to habeas corpus that protects people from detention without just cause, the foreign emuluments clause addressing gifts to government employees (like prez), and several references to Congressional powers.

Don’t encourage errors by silence. Open your mouth and call your representatives. They may be beyond help but they’ll at least let you talk. Remind them that they likely will be out of a job by next year, if not voted out by the people, forced out by the kakistocracy. You can try your senator too but they are all just too far gone. Both parties have become dead ducks.

There is good news though. I will post some Thursday.

The root of all goodness

Michael 6 Comments

In keeping with what I started last week, I’m loading up on good news from around the world. We really do have to go around the world for this because that’s where we find the good news.

Remember when the orange menace decried wind power being bad for birds? Certain Scottish cranes would like to have a word with him. Efforts to restore wetland and peatland areas have helped to return the country’s largest bird that have been gone for centuries. What’s that now about wind power? Wind power is Scotland’s fastest growing source of energy in the country, producing more than the country uses. They’ve been expanding on and off shore windmill farms and are intent on doubling wind produced energy by 2030. And after a 1,000 year absence, the cranes are back. Causation? Or just correlation? Does it matter to the birds?

By the way, in neighboring England, even though natural gas powered electricity continues to be the largest source at 30%, wind is gaining and now contributes 29.2%. Experts say estimate wind will take the number 1 space by the end of the year. No word on missing birds there.

In a rare moment of doing something that doesn’t line their pockets, a bipartisan bill has been introduced to the US Senate. The bill proposes to protect American call center jobs and make sure customers know whether they’re talking to a real person or artificial intelligence. Under the bill, call center employees must disclose their locations at the beginning of all interactions, and share whether AI technology is being used. I’d rather have the Consumer Financial Protection Center back but hey, at least it’s something different coming out of the upper chamber than the usual trend of trying to name everything in town after Dumbbell Donny.

Do you have a telescope? For the first time in 15 years, this Monday you will be able to see the underside of Saturn’s rings using a basic telescope. Saturn will be visible with its iconic rings on 11 to 12 August allowing stargazers to see the flat undersurface rather than just the band. Maybe not good news but something to look forward to besides rising prices.

There is good news coming out of Yellowstone Park. Back in 1995, when the government cared about our natural wonders, the gray wolf was reintroduced to the park area. Now, 30 years later, a direct benefit from this action has been noted. For the first time in over 80 years, young quaking aspens are in the northern section of Yellowstone National Park. The unexpected return of this iconic tree is being attributed to the return of the gray wolf. How? The loss of the gray wolves from the park in the 1930s allowed the elk population to balloon to an estimated 17,000 by the end of the twentieth century. The elk would eat the emerging aspen sprouts, never allowing the tree to flourish. Returning the apex predator wolf species returned the park to balance and now tree, wolf, and elf are flourishing.

Those trees could not have survived 90 years of lost growth without strong roots. We also need strong roots to flourish. Can we make adjustments to keep us growing? Yes! And we talk about strengthening our roots and growing great in this week’s Uplift post Growing Greatness.

 

 

 

What’s in a word

Michael 6 Comments

I met a friend for lunch last week. He said, “how ‘bout the Dive Bar.” “Sounds good to me.” Now, you might think a dive bar is an odd place for a meal, but notice in its first appearance in this tale, the D and B are upper case. Hmm. A proper name. And in fact, this Dive Bar is a far cry from a dive bar (where lunch can also be had if you don’t mind a microwaved frozen pizza).

The Dive Bar has a beautiful bar, horseshoe shaped, trimmed in walnut, high tops in wood and marble, comfy banquettes, dim lighting. It features a separate dining room with a wall of windows that bathe the space in natural light. When it feels like letting its hair down and recalling its namesake, an entire separate bar upstairs hosts happy hours, karaoke nights, and bar specials so the lower level remains up scale. Truly, the Dive Bar is not a dive bar. You can’t always rely on your expectations and assumptions. There could be untold millions who have missed on out a fabulous lunch because they didn’t want to eat at a dive bar.

Fifth century Pope St. Celestine I, founder of the papal diplomatic service said, “We are deservedly to blame if we encourage error by silence.” I am following the good pontiff’s advice and calling out some of the more egregious errors of the week. Think of it as real news. Or maybe stupid news. Don’t worry though. Thursday I will return with the good news from the week.

My favorite piece of erroneous thought this week comes from our favorite source of errors and little thought – yes, Mr. Orange-Aid himself, the dingiest, the dongiest, the dingdong-in-chief. When asked about the weak jobs report, the bozo of all bozos said (out in public mind you), “We’re doing so well – I believe the numbers were phony so you know what I did? I fired her.”

That narrowly beat out Last week’s headline news: “Federal officials to repeal Obama era climate change findings.“

Of course, anyone who grachatated the sixth grade knows that’s not how math and science work. But that’s okay. These are the same people who told you illegal immigrants are on Medicaid. I suppose they got sick from eating all the dogs. Sorry – that’s old news.

Okay. Here’s a sneak peak at some good news. Not really news, more like good people. I discovered a new Instagram account this week. beverlymahone  She goes by Auntie Bev and she is retired journalist who has features a word of the day series on that site on TikTok. Word of the Day accounts are nothing new but she brings a new twist to it, calling out words that you may hear on the news and finding words that explain what you hear on the news.  For example, a word I did not know existed, but it does – trumpery. Looks good but is worthless. She also corrects misunderstandings about words, like when Donnie the Driveler claimed he made up the word “equalize,” reminding everyone that it’s been around since the 1500s. My kind of Word of the Day site.

I’ll see you with good news from this week on Thursday. Don’t go away!

Random acts of randomness

Michael 11 Comments

Over the weekend we worked on Moments of Motivation for the ROAMcare site for September and October. It’s a good thing we’re almost done with the year because I’m not so sure I can keep a positive enough outlook to find another 9 or 10 somethings to feel motivated over.

Here are some random thoughts that gave me pause this weekend.

The US has more guns than people. We currently stand at 1.2 guns per person. I know for a fact that neither I nor my daughter have any, so someone is walking around with over 3&1/2 guns. Actually, there are some walking around with way more than their 1.2 allotment. Late last week, local firefighters responded to a house fire but had to wait an half hour or so until the 20,000 rounds ammunition stored in the building stopped exploding before being able to move in to fight the fire. Crews salvaged more than 100 firearms.

Dingy Donald was in Scotland last weekend to play golf at his newly acquired second golf course there, drop in on his original course there, and visit a third that somebody else still owns. I guess because the American taxpayers paid about $10 million in transportation, lodging, staffing, and security, he figured he owes us something, so he also paid a short visit with the European Union President to sign the new tariffs deal. After signing the deal that lowered tariffs to 15%, the grifter in chief said, “We did it.” Oh, care to take a guess what the tariffs rate with the EU was before the orange menace was crowned…err sworn in. If you said 15%, give yourself a piece of Belgian chocolate.

In the interest of fairness (I suppose) news came over the weekend that not all violence is gun violence. Eleven people were stabbed at a Walmart in Traverse City, Michigan on Saturday in what a Michigan sheriff said appeared to be a random act. No,I don’t think so. The stabbings were done with a folding knife. So this random dude decided to go Walmart with a knife in his pocket, decided to take it out, decided to open it, and decided to slice and dice his nearby fellow shoppers. Does that sound random to you? The sheriff may have trouble with his overall view of life though. He also mentioned to reporters, “Eleven is too many.” Hmm. No word on what the right amount for a weekend stabbing spree would be.

And lastly, on the international front. On Friday, the Russian parliament (who knew they had one?) passed a law to make it illegal to search the Internet for “extremist materials,” punishable by a fine up to the equivalent of US$64. No word on what constitutes extreme. According to an article in the AP “the official definition of extremist activity is extremely broad.”

Okay, that last one did it. I can whip out another dozen Motivation Moments now no problem.

A flood of information

Michael 5 Comments

Quick, name a devastating flood that happened in the US recently. Did you say Texas? Did you know there have been seven fatal floods and flash flood in the US since the Guadalupe River valley was flooded on July 4. There were another three in the two weeks preceding the Fourth of July Texas floods.

Indeed, the Texas July 4 flood was the most devastating, but to those who lost loved ones in Maryland, West Virginia, or New Jersey, devastation is not a relative term. Why do we not think of these or those in. North Carolina, New York, or New Mexico.

I though about all these places because of local flooding that has been happening here in my neck of the woods over the past few weeks. We’re sort of used to them. We see flash flooding routinely, and though not as often, river flooding occurs regularly also. We haven’t had a deadly flood for a few years. Those in my neighboring states of West Virginia, New Jersey, New York, and Maryland can no longer say that.

I have my thoughts about the dearth of information surrounding these floods when there should have been a flood of information. Let’s stick with that. Considering these areas will not have emergency funds funneled to them by our benevolent leader, we bear the responsibility to care for our neighbors.

In yesterday’s Uplift we talked about what it means to be a neighbor, to share your humanity, to let your goodwill flow, it was British theologian Richard Whatley who spoke of neighborliness as “an ongoing flow of goodwill.”  He identified five steps to being a good neighbor: be generous, be ethical, be fair and honest, be kind constantly, and be peaceful.

Is a neighbor just the guy next door? Your neighbor is your fellow man who deserves your neighborliness. How do we that? We have suggestions in Will you be my neighbor?

What’s wrong with this picture

Michael 9 Comments

I am having a hard time this week with a post. Not true. I’m having a hard time this week coming up with an intelligent post. I’ve taken a swipe at this over 3 or 4 days. Most of the world has gone crazy and I’m worried about putting something intelligent out into the ether.

The craziness for me culminated Sunday morning when I read the news report that the governor’s mansion in Harrisburg Pennsylvania was the target of an arsonist. Someone had scaled a 7 foot iron fence carrying homemade incendiary bombs, broke into the banquet room, and set off his explosives. He later “surrendered” and confessed he did it because he “hates the governor.” He also had a small sledgehammer he planned to beat the governor with if he had a chance.

Is it coincidence the arson targeted the room where Governor Shapiro with his family and guests had used just hours earlier to hold their Seder dinner on the first day of Passover? Is that why the lunatic “hates the governor”? Or is it because Charcoal Charlie has a nifty little criminal record and maybe resents Gov. Shapiro from his time as state attorney general. Or could it be that the ding dong was having a boring Saturday night and was hoping to come up with something to impress the bar crowd and random acts of violence are always in style among that class of primate.

But let’s not stop at one ding-a-ling with a match and a pocketful of explosives. That was almost sane compared to what else is going on in the world. The federal “government” “refuses to say” what their plans are (translation = “refuses”) to bring back a mistakenly deported man, who is most likely only one of thousands mistakenly deported people.

Measles continues to spread primarily in Texas but also in significant numbers in 4 other states, even though it was declared eliminated in the US in 2000. Of the 700+ confirmed cases reported to the CDC through last Friday, 97% were in unvaccinated patients. For those interested, it’s not just children. 198 of the 712 reported cases, that’s 28% are in adult patients.

Random shootings continue. Helicopters and planes are falling from the sky. The House of So-called Representatives passed a budget plan that includes cuts to even more social services. The stock market is in shambles. Through it all, Daffy Donald has spent millions pursuing his personal favorite pastime, combining golf while screwing whoever is handy, this time the American taxpayer, who is footing the bill for these excursions this year through March 31 to the tune of $26,127,531.

And I’m worried about putting something intelligent out into the ether.