Liking This Mashup

First Day Of Mowing This Year

Mow. Mow. Trim Plants. Skim Dirt (it didn't rain that much this winter, so less dirt than usual). Light watering. Some sidewalk trimming. Cutting more ivy out of the trees. Addison the Dog came over from next door and spent some time exploring the basement.

Really Enjoyed Dancehall Last Night

Thursday a week ago was a little off, but last night was great! A videographer was there too, so in a few days there will be a video!

Slowly getting to know the songs (it's been 2 1/2 years, but I'm a slow learner). Here are a couple of songs I liked:





One song we haven't heard in like forever is this:

Robert Mercer’s Secret Adventure as a New Mexico Cop

Cash for conceal and carry:

Until a few months ago, Mercer, 71, ran what is arguably the world’s most successful hedge fund. He employs a phalanx of servants and bodyguards and owns a 203-foot yacht named Sea Owl. He was the money behind Breitbart News and Steve Bannon, whose fiery populism helped propel Trump to the White House, as well as the data firm Cambridge Analytica, which shaped the campaign’s messages. Shortly after the election, Mercer donned a top hat and welcomed the president-elect to a costume party at his seaside mansion on Long Island. What was a guy like that doing in the desert, wearing a gun and a shiny badge?

I was surprised when I first heard about Mercer’s sojourns in Lake Arthur, but then I’m used to his surprises. During the two and a half years I’ve covered Mercer, I’ve come to think of him as a hard-right version of that guy in the beer commercials, the Most Interesting Man in the World. There seems to be an inexhaustible supply of incredible-but-true Mercer stories, including his pioneering research that begat Google Translate, his funding of a stockpile of human urine in the Oregon mountains, his million-dollar model train set, and his habit of whistling constantly, even during work meetings. The common threads in these stories are a fierce intelligence, a wide-ranging curiosity, and an utter indifference to the judgment of others. The story of his adventures in Lake Arthur, which hasn’t been previously reported, adds yet another strand. It shows just how far a man of means will go to get something he can’t buy: the right to carry a concealed firearm anywhere in America.

What Happened in Wisconsin When NRA Lobbyists Wrote the Gun Laws

Ghost Ride The Whip (For The Church Set)

A demonstration of God's power:

Atlanta mom Bakari Warren wanted to prove to her children, ages 5 and 7, that God was real.

And so she crashed her Ford SUV to prove that God would keep them safe, reportedly closing her eyes and letting the car cross over a busy intersection, crashing into a utility pole.

“The children told the officer that their mom wanted to prove to them that God was real and God would protect them,” a Norcross police officer told a local TV news station.

Clarity

Skiing on Mars

Don't eat the orange snow:

Skiers and snowboarders were met with orange-tinted snow in Sochi, Russia, this weekend.

The usually powdery white snow turned colors due to a sandstorm that blew across the Sahara Desert in North Africa.

"We're skiing on Mars today," exclaimed one social media user as he skied down the slopes.

The sandstorm made its way through Greece up to Russia and was so big that it could actually be seen via NASA satellite imagery.

The Athens Observatory said on Friday that this is one of the largest transfers of desert sand to Greece from the Sahara ever.

The African dust covered the entire country and concentrations were the highest in the last 10 years, according to the observatory's meteorological service.

The red dust caused limited visibility for people as they tried to make their way down the slopes in Sochi.

"Death of Stalin"

Dark humor. Nevertheless, I was puzzled when other people in the theater were laughing. I guess I'm in a morose mood these days.

Still, some funny bits.

Sacramento "March For Life" - March 24, 2018

I went down with Wei to attend the Sacramento "March For Life." It was a little hard on me - I was having a bit of a relapse on Friday and Saturday, but the effort was definitely worth it. The march started at Crocker Park and went a fairly-short distance to the west steps of the California State Capitol building.

When the Sacramento March For Life reached the California State Capitol on Saturday morning, an error became apparent. An inferior megaphone made it impossible to hear the city’s leading politicians speak. The audience chafed in frustrated, enervating silence.

Then several things happened for the better. A louder megaphone was brought in. The audience dwindled to a more intimate size. And most importantly, politicians stopped speaking and high school students began testifying. Suddenly, things got much more interesting (see video above).

One of the speakers (the young woman under the ‘Am I Next’ poster in the video thumbnail picture) praised the rally for being so diverse. Myself, I thought it was still pretty white. But no question, the rally’s most die-hard participants tended to be from the young cohort. Their moral clarity was fierce.

High school students see perfectly well how their lives are being sacrificed to provide for the comfort and convenience of gun fanatics. They will soon become the votingest young generation America has ever known. And they know exactly who their mortal enemies are:

On the march we passed by 555 Capitol Mall (the building on the left) - the Sacramento lobbying headquarters of the National Rifle Association (NRA).

Speaking here was Dr. Richard Pan, my representative in the California State Assembly. Could. Not. Hear. A. Single. Thing. He. Said.