2024: CLICK https://twitter.com/BidenHQ/status/1781023747241116149 to hear [1:21] to hear Kerry Kennedy announce, “President Biden has been a champion for all the rights and freedoms that my father and uncle stood for. That’s why nearly every single grandchild of Joe and Rose Kennedy supports Joe Biden. That’s right, the Kennedy family endorses Joe Biden for president.”
MILITARY HISTORY: [4:56] – A grenadier was an assault-specialist soldier who threw hand grenades in siege operation battles. So what does that have to do with pomegranates?
WOMEN’S SPORTS: Two days after the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the WV law that says you must compete in the category that matches your sex, five middle school female athletes in West Virginia made their own ruling by unanimously refusing to throw shot put against a male who calls himself “Becky.” CLICK https://twitter.com/Riley_Gaines_/status/1781150007858470913 [1:15] to watch. They did the same for the discus event.
GRAMMY NOTES: Mama Buzz and I are hoping Bootz will catch the stamp collecting bug, so we can share our hobby with him. To that end, I made him a page of stamps about the Apollo program and made some suggestions about fun things he can do with them. He got out his world map to look for Fujeira and Guinea.
CATHOLIC: After a particularly difficult Confession, a priest said, “Never be ashamed of what you bring to Confession. When I see someone in the confessional, I see a saint in the making.”
PHILATELY: [3:41] – I just stumbled across this very fun YouTube channel. In this, episode one of season one, I learned I’ve been mispronouncing philately my whole life. I also learned about the French symbol for justice and the Phrygian cap. I have been an on-again, off-again stamp collector since college. One of the achievements of my 2024 Organize and Declutter Project to date has been finding my collection and getting back into the hobby again. I love that, for small amounts of money and space, I can collect beautiful pieces of art and history!
TRANS: Another angry, unstable “trans identifier” has been arrested, this time thankfully before carrying out her plan to shoot up a school so “he” can be famous. Excerpts from the shall-remain-unidentified person’s 129-page “manifesto” are posted above.
GRAMMY NOTES: I remember the first night of repeat birthing class. Only one of the couples was having their 3rd. The rest of us besieged them with questions. If I am not mis-remembering, this is where I heard this story in answer to, “Will I ever be able to love #2 as much as I do #1?“
“I wondered the same thing. Then, one day, I went into the nursery to find my precious and much beloved son banging his new sibling on the head with a toy car. Mama Grizzly rose up inside and I literally wanted to murder the little bastard! So, yeah. You’ll be able to love the new one just fine.“
BORDER: More than 175,000 illegal aliens are currently squatting in New York City. Many are being housed in hotels, receiving free food and medical care. It’s costing NYC tax payers billion$. A bunch of them, about 1,000 Africans, took over City Hall yesterday to protest the city moving them into cheaper shelters. They want permanent housing and work visas. Ninety-five percent of them are healthy, military-aged men.
CATHOLIC: There is NO mention in the Bible of Mary ever sinning, just of allegedly having had normal sexual relations with her husband … something we know is based on an ignorant reading of Scripture.
MEDIA: Sarcastic amusement abounded in response to this riveting piece of jerknalism –
Wow. He looked at his phone? HIS PHONE???? Impeach!
I heard that one time just like outta the blue, Trump kinda looked down and then like kinda looked straight at his lawyer and then like looked down again. It was unbelievable.
Wow this is like January 6 all over again.
Did he perhaps inhale and exhale sometime near this happening too? If so, that probably deserves its own story.
TRUMP: The Five comment on the first criminal trial of a U.S. president. [11:28] – I’m outraged that the judge wouldn’t let him go to Barron’s graduation! Sheesh!
GRAMMY NOTES: It really griped my mother when people would ask if her husband was her son. He was 3 years older than she was. So, when the first grandkids started talking, we all wondered what grandfather name would be right for him. We called him “Pop”; the rest of the world called him “Bob.” One of the clever little grands blurted out “Bop” one day. It suited him to a tee.
CATHOLIC: Mama Buzz and I both noticed the number of adult conversions has risen dramatically in our own parishes. Today, I saw this article saying that it’s happening all over the world!
The Archdiocese of Baltimore reported welcoming 663 new Catholics into the Church, which represents an increase of about 50% over last year.
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles reported that their class (2,075) broke their previous record (1,508) set in 2016 by an increase of 38%.
In France, there were more than 12,000 baptisms. And, surprisingly, the 18-25 age-group, which is usually the period of greatest loss, now represents 36% of the newly baptized.
Despite deadly persecution of all Christians by Muslim extremists, the Roman Catholic Church in Nigeria is also growing.
The Archdiocese of Sydney, Australia, welcomed 266 catechumens into the Church, an increase of nearly 60% from 2021.
In Shanghai, China, Easter Sunday saw an additional 470 catechumens enter the Church. In Beijing, 142 were baptized on Easter Sunday, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. And on April 4, Bishop Jin Yangke of Ningbo inaugurated a new church in Wenling, dedicated to St. Francis Xavier.
KISS of PEACE: If you have two minutes, start this interview at 23:45 and listen to 25:40. I’ve never heard of anyone being impacted at all by the Kiss of Peace … so wow.
SCOTLAND: [4:19] – This jerk dismisses everybody who complains as “far right.” I’m thinking “far right” should be added to the list of terms that are automatically classified as “hate speech.”
GRAMMY NOTES: Ditto coming home at 1 a.m., tired out from a long-awaited date night, only to have the exhausted baby sitter report, “I saw a bug on the baby.” We were up until 3 a.m. lice combing and shampooing every head; stripping, changing, and washing all the bedding; and vacuuming every nook and cranny of the house.
ABORTION: Pro-aborts used to pretend it was all about their compassionate concern for the suffering of women in unplanned pregnancies (“safe, legal, and rare”). Then, they moved on to cheering for women who had the guts to choose themselves over their offspring (“shout your abortion”). Now they’re finally telling the truth, which is simply “We don’t want you.”
BROKEN, NOT BROKEN: Some people are so needy that they can only like people who are broken. They act like they are your best friends while they’re trying to fix you, but real friends would rejoice with you when you begin to heal. These people resent you once you are no longer fulfilling your duty to make them feel good about themselves. Because they also can’t be honest enough to admit to themselves or others that they only liked you when you were a hot mess, they become passive-aggressively nasty. You are left with only two choices: go back to being a hot mess or get out of their lives. I am so glad that God gave me the strength I needed to choose the latter.
IDAHO: The state’s Supreme Court of Idaho unanimously upheld recent affirmed a law banning the use of student IDs for voter registration and in-person voting. The court said the bans are “reasonable exercises of the legislature’s authority to enact conditions on the right of suffrage under Article VI, section 4 of the Idaho Constitution.”
GRAMMY NOTES: Mama Buzz sent this to me. I should not have been chewing when I read it! As soon as it prints, it will be prominently displayed in my office/studio where I indeed have a ridiculous amount of art and craft supplies. LOL
BREAKING! Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “in recent years, and even more so in recent weeks, Israel has been preparing for the possibility of a direct attack from Iran.
He warned Tehran that “whoever harms us, we will harm them. We will protect ourselves from any threat and we will do so with steadfastness and determination.“
BORDER: [1:29] – Back when Democrats were still in favor of laws.
GEORGIA: A federal judge has dismissed a legal challenge to Georgia’s voter citizenship verification requirements. Georgia will continue to verify voters’ citizenship status.
LOW-RIDER: According to the Urban Dictionary, this is a term for youth of the sort who used to drive slowly in vehicles modified to ride close to the ground; usually Mexican-American types.
SYDNEY: A 40-year-old man started randomly stabbing mall shoppers with a six inch blade before a lone female police officer killed him with a single shot to the chest.
TEXAS HERO: On Friday evening, we talked with our Texans. Our 8 yo grand-daughter told us about how, earlier that afternoon, while their dad was driving her and her little sister (6 next month) from school to a play date, two cars collided right ahead of them. Our son-in-law (retired Army) jumped out of their car, rescued the mom and two little ones from their car, which had turned over, then administered first aid to the teen whose car was still upright, but who had been hit in the face by flying glass. Imagine being a little girl and watching your daddy being a real live hero! My heart is bursting! ❤
GRAMMY NOTES: My mommy mentor told me that my baby should be totally spoiled for about six months. “How will I know when she’s ready to begin learning discipline?” “Oh, you’ll know!” I remember thinking of this advice when we visited relatives. I gave her a bowl of cereal with milk. She looked right at me, cocked an eyebrown (her name) and pitched the contents across the entire length of the table.
Harvard has rewarded its former president, “Dr.” Claudine Gay, for plagiarizing her Ph.D. thesis by letting her resign, while continuing to (a) receive her $900,000-a-year salary and (b) continue teaching a graduate-level course on “Reading and Research.” IOW, she will be doing a tiny fraction of the work she (allegedly) did as Harvard’s president, while still making nearly a million dollars a year.
The principal of Creekside Elementary School in Sammamish, WA, denied a petition by two students to start an interfaith prayer club after school to “bring students together to serve their community.” Principal Allison claimed that all the funding for school clubs was allocated in October, so this new club could not be allowed to start in February. However, she had permitted an LGBTQ Pride club to start just the week before. The kids’ parents are suing on behalf of their offspring, alleging Allison’s actions violated both the Free Exercise Clause and the Free Speech Clause.
TRANS: A male nurse in Austria has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for brutally murdering the elderly paralyzed man for whom he was providing home care. Though biologically and legally male, the perp identifies as female, so was referred to as a woman in court by witnesses and the defense. He reported that his murderous rage was triggered by his patient’s “transphobic” remarks, which so enraged him that he went to the kitchen and retrieved multiple knives which he used to stab his paralyzed patient eleven times in the upper body, abdomen, face, and head. His attorney told the court that he was in a fragile emotional state, because his boyfriend had just dumped him. A blood test revealed he had alcohol in his system.
GRAMMY NOTES: When my daughter was about 4, she and our neighbor’s kid were playing together when a lady walking by stopped and remarked, “Aww. Black and white playing together! Isn’t that nice?!” My dd looked at her friend and said, “She’s not black; she’s brown.” The friend nodded and said, “And she’s not white; she’s pink.” Racism has to be taught.
PPIs: A study entitled “Proton Pump Inhibitors and Cancer Risk: A Comprehensive Review of Epidemiological and Mechanistic Evidence” was published in Journal of Clinical Medicine a few weeks ago. It reported that long-term use of Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPIs) is linked to increased incidence of stomach cancer.
Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are used by millions of people every day to treat acid reflux, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), and peptic ulcers. They work by reducing the production of stomach acid. They are routinely prescribed for more than 3 months at a time; some are even available OTC (Prevacid, Prilosec, Nexium) with no doctor or pharmacist over-seeing their use.
The justification for the epidemic of PPI use is that “stress causes excess acid.” I don’t know how doctors and nurses can repeat this lie with a straight face. EVERY first year biology student knows that our bodies have two autonomic nervous systems; the normal (rest and digest) state is call the para-sympathetic, while the stress (fight or flight) state is called the sympathetic. IOW, chronic stress cannot cause excess acid, because it slows down all digestive processes.
The reason that stress causes acid indigestion is that it slows down mucous production, allowing the protective layer of mucous required by the stomach lining to thin. We only produce acid when we eat, but if our stomachs do not have a sufficient mucous layer, the acid irritates the stomach lining, which causes pain, inflammation, heartburn, and reflux. Personally, I think it’s malpractice that they routinely treat insufficient mucous by reducing acid; we need that acid to properly digest our food and stay healthy!
I have chronic PTSD and have suffered from acid indigestion for most of my life. I recently learned to successfully control it by taking mucilaginous herbs with every meal. Since I started doing this, I have not needed any of the umpteen antacids I used to suck down daily. On the few occasions when I still get heartburn, I take alginate. When this natural product (made from algae) mixes with acid, it swells up and forms a gel raft that floats and physically blocks acid from going up my throat. Once my food is digested, the gel gets digested and I’m good until my next meal.
Alginate I use: Life Extension Esophageal Guardian Berry @ https://www.vitacost.com/life-extension-esophageal-guardian-berry. This stuff a very pleasant, berry-flavored chewable. Thought not as amazingly delicious as Reflux Gourmet, it is carry around for use away from home.
Alginate I use: Reflux Gourmet @ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NKNL3RJ. This stuff has the consistency of honey; you have to squeeze it on to a teaspoon and suck it down. The Mint Chocolate tastes like a bite of hot fudge on mint chocolate chip ice cream. No lie!
PFAs: PFAS are a class of more than 12,000 widely used synthetic chemicals resistant to water, stains, and heat. They are called “forever chemicals” because they do not easily break down, but instead accumulate in humans, animals, and the environment. They have been linked to endocrine disruption, thyroid disorders, infertility, and more. A recent examination of 18 popular brands of bandages found toxic levels of organic fluorine in 65% of those marketed to white people and 63% of those marketed to people with black and brown skin.
Worst: More than 250 ppm of organic fluorine in the absorbent pad or adhesive flaps
Band-Aid OURTONE Flexible Frabic BR45 Bandages
Band-Aid OURTONE Flexible Fabric BR55 Bandages
Band-Aid OURTONE Flexible Fabric BR65 Bandages
Care Science Antibacterial Flexible Fabric Adhesive Bandages
Equate SKIN TONE Antibacterial Bandages Flexible Fabric (darkest shade)
UP & UP Flexible Fabric Bandages found at Target
Worse: More than 100 ppm of organic fluorine in the absorbent pad or adhesive flaps
ARIZONA: On Tuesday, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the state’s 160-year-old near-total abortion ban is enforceable. The 1864 law says abortion is a felony punishable by two to five years in prison for anyone who performs one or helps a woman obtain one.
Black men are punching random women in New York City. Salon blames it on white MAGA voters.
Dolton, Illinois has voted to pay ex-Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot $400/hour to investigate their own mayor, Tiffany “Super Mayor” Henyard, who has been accused of corruption. Pause and ponder the idea of Lori Lightfoot investigating another Black woman for corruption.
Charles Barkley called people who watched the eclipse “losers” because “we’ve all seen darkness before.”
Scotland passed a new law making it illegal to “misgender” a “trans” person. Police complained they couldn’t get any real policing done, because they were overwhelmed by the 8,000+ complaints of “misgendering” they received during the first week the law went into effect.
NPR has been publicly funded for 25 years. In 2021, the D.C. newsroom was staffed by 87 registered Democrats and zero Republicans.
MAKE AMERICA FAIL: Biden said he canceled the order because oil is too expensive. Meanwhile, Harris is out pimping for votes with promises of using taxpayers’ money to pay off student loans.
“If you paid undergraduate loans for more than 20 years or graduate loans for more than 25 years, those loans will be completely forgiven regardless of your income, and even if you did not graduate. And forgiveness will be automatic for the vast majority of the 25 million people that we believe will benefit from this approach.”
SEATTLE: The Borderline Dance Team and West Coast Country Heat were both scheduled to perform at the Emerald City Hoedown in Seattle on Saturday. A small group of convention goers complained that they felt “triggered and unsafe” by the patriotic teams’ American flag-themed outfits. Ordered to nix the red, white, and blue or else, the groups both chose not to perform. One of the members said, “We’re a patriotic group. We support our military, our veterans, our first responders.”
GRAMMY NOTES: “I love how we moms sound like a post office delivery driver/office administrator … drop off this kid, pick up this kid, circle back for that kid, grab food for dinner, pick up everyone to be home in time for dinner. :)” … except that one time when I had such a complicated schedule that, after I turned off the car at one stop, I spent some time checking my planner, then got out and locked the door … with the car keys still in the ignition … and got stuck waiting for 2+ hours for Dearest to rescue me with his key.
“A full moon is a complete rounded circle. Which is made up mostly of gases. And that’s why the question, the question is why or how could we as humans live on the moon. Are the gasses such that we could do that. The sun is a mighty powerful heat that is almost impossible to go near the sun. The moon is more manageable and you will see … that NASA is going back to the moon.”
Rep. Brown is the Democratic Chief Deputy Whip for the U.S. House of Representatives and the Congressional Black Caucus whip. She currently sits on three Congressional Committees — Judiciary, Homeland Security, and Budget – where she is the senior Democrat. She also chairs the Judiciary Subcommittee for Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security. Reread that list and ponder our future.
In the past, she served on the House Science Committee and on the Subcommittee that oversees space policy and NASA. During that time, she famously asked NASA scientists whether they could drive the Mars rover to where Neil Armstrong placed the American flag. (FACT CHECK: Armstrong planted the flag on the moon. We have not landed any human beings on Mars.)
In 2010, she pointed out that, “Today we have two Vietnams, side by side, North and South, exchanging and working. We may not agree with all that North Vietnam is doing, but they are living in peace.” (FACT CHECK: After we abandoned South Vietnam, the Communists running North Vietnam conquered the south. Today there is only one nation, Vietnam.)
Another of the erudite Democrats’ geography lessons concerned “countries like Europe.” But, to be fair, our First Black President (who wasn’t Bill Clinton) has also referred to “countries like Europe.” (FACT CHECK: Depending on how you count them, there are about 50 countries within the continent of Europe. N.b., Europe shares a land mass with the continent of Eurasia.)
SCRABBLE TOGETHER: Some conservative sites are mocking this as “Scrabble for Snowflakes.” I am no snowflake, but I am very much looking forward to buying Scrabble Together. We enjoy cooperative games and this one looks like a great one to play with the grandkids. My only complaint is that I’m going to end up paying a lot to get it shipped to the U.S., since it is only being released in Europe.
GRAMMY NOTES: Forty-five years and four months ago, Dearest and I met for the first time. Later, we attended Engaged Encounter with 17 other couples. The first activity was for each couple to stand up and introduce one other to the group and say where you had met.
Couple after couple said, “We met in a bar.” People started to snicker, then, as couple after couple also said, “We met in a bar,” everyone got very interested to see if the streak would continue. And it did … until us.
We were at the very end of the fourth row of seats, so went last. When we got up, my quiet guy said, “This is Chrissy.”
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