Republican State Legislatures Assume Leadership of Insurrection.

We got bombed with another foot or more of snow.

I'm not familiar with cabbage soup. Did you create it yourself, Rev?
Normlly, I only eat cabbage in cole slaw. (I think that there's cabbage in cole slaw. Whatever it is, it isn't cooked.)
Don't like sauerkraut.

Cabbage is more of an Eastern European thing, I always believed;
although it's also in St. Patrick's Day boiled dinners, but I've never had one.

I guess St. Paddy's is coming up fairly soon.
Boston has no shortage of Irish folks, but not in the North End where I grew up.
We leaned more toward lasagna than boiled dinners and more toward red wine than beer.

I did have a good Irish friend years ago who probably drank close to a case of beer each day.
Never showed it. He was one one the best softball umpires in all of Massachusetts.
He was also a fellow union rep. He was also well over three hundred pounds. (So were his sisters.)

He was also a practicing Catholic (I'm getting quite repetitious) , unlike most of the rest of us miscreants,
and despite his love for beer, he gave it up cold turkey during Lent.
Again, I'm no expert, but I think Lent is the time between Mardi Gras and Easter.
The first day people smear ashes on their foreheads. Even I've done it, just for humorous effect.

The one day in that span that he strayed, with full Papal dispensation according to him, was St. Patrick's Day.
That would have been asking too much. No beer on St. Paddy's is worse than no oxygen to an Irishman.

He died at 51, which wasn't particularly shocking.
They named a race after him at Rockingham Park, but thorobred racing is dying in these parts and the track has been demolished.
 
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Sorry to hear about your snow. I’m ready for Spring.

It’s been a rough few days here. Been iced in for a few days trying to nurse a sick dog. My outside dog became an inside dog for the last few days of her life. Sadly today we had to have her put down as she was in much pain. The vet doesn’t know why but her kidneys started failing last week. Medication and specialized care didn’t bring her out of it. I’ve shed a tear to two the past two days when it became apparent she wasn’t going to pull through. I waxed philosophical about it all on a Facebook post.



This is the first winter I’ve tried the cabbage soup. We really like it. I saw a recipe come by on some social media feed. I like cabbage in all of its forms…but then my mom and dad were in Germany during their formidable years. My first three siblings were born there. So my mom made a lot of German dishes when we kids were growing up. She taught me to make sauerkraut and I still make it because it’s better than anything a person can buy. I have two crocks I use to ferment it in. My mom would laugh at me if she could see how little they are.

Not preaching this Sunday. We’re going to Norman to see our offspring tomorrow morning. We claimed to him that we’re coming up to watch a basketball game but it’s a ruse to get to go see him…and make him spend a weekend with us. ;)

This is the recipe I loosely follow for the cabbage soup. Recipes like this are suggestions and I use what I have on hand.

1 pound of hamburger
1/2 head of raw cabbage, coarsely chopped
1 cup celery, diced
1 cup white or yellow onion, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups beef broth
1 - 14 oz diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
few shakes of black pepper
½ teaspoon salt (optional)

Brown and drain your hamburger before adding to your stock pot. Add everything but cabbage to the pot. Simmer for 15-20 minutes. Add cabbage and cover. Simmer for another 15-20 minutes until cabbage is at the tenderness you desire. Taste broth to see if more salt is needed. Serve.
 
Thank you sir.

Yesterday was a good day... Got to see my boy and ...

What a day it was in Sooner sports. Men (basketball) won in OT, we were there, women (basketball) won on a buzzer beater 3 pointer, we were there, and softball won in extra innings, down one, on a walk off two run homer. I livestreamed the radio softball broadcast after we got back to our vehicle from the girls basketball game just in time to hear the last half inning.

Also our high school girls won in the first round of Area. Thanks to a good friend for keeping us updated.

Did I mention that I got to see my boy...;)

BOOMER!

This morning as I sit here in the lobby of our hotel and read the “news” I can’t help but to worry about our world. I’ve never been “proactive” on any of this political stuff as some and generally have been a guy that deals with whatever comes along.

So … I push the thoughts of what is going on to the back of my mind, focus on the upcoming week and what I need to do for my students to be successful, planning to start my week by attending worship services in a few minutes with my family in a country that is, for now, still the most free place I know of. Thankful for that.
 
I'm curious, Rev.

In what way is America more free than all the more modern democracies in the world? Our's is the oldest continuous one and thus the most obsolete, isn't it?
I always felt that Western Europe seemed pretty free when I was there. Japan, So. Korea, and Taiwan seem to be pretty free.
In all seriousness, what do you think makes us special? Some of our states don't even want to give women autonomy over their own bodies. Is that freedom?

Is it possible that we define freedom very, very differently?
Please understand that I'm not asking this in a belligerent way.
I'm genuinely interested in your point of view.

Why is America the most free place of which you know?
 
Why America is the most free place I know of…

I guess I generally consider three main things when I consider the “freedom” of a particular country or state. And yes, I would expect that our views of “freedom” would be different.

Religion — The places you mention are all very good places as far as a persons freedom to practice his religion is concerned. The only places in the world I would consider living are very good for this as well. I love Asian culture and have very good friends in Japan and South Korea. Our church has sent support to a church in Japan for building construction and disaster relief. The religious friends that I have in Europe enjoy plenty of freedom as well. Even my religious friends in Ukraine have been free to assemble and worship as they wish. I received pictures of them gathered in a basement to worship this past Sunday morning though. Sad.

Canada… I have two good friends in the New Brunswick area who risk jail time every time they preach what the Bible has to say on the sinfulness of homosexuality. “Hate speech” their government wants to call it. IMO, It is no more “hate speech” than when a preacher preaches on the sinfulness of adultery or fornication…or theft or self-righteousness. One of those friends was arrested last year for violation of Covid policy as he met with more than 10 people (I think it was 18) at a worship service. Knowing what these two friends of mine have gone through, Canada is kind of a scary place for a man of my conviction.

Firearms ownership — Most people I know carry a pocket knife. When I empty my pockets at night my keys and spare change are in my left pocket and my pocket knife and wallet are in my right pocket. I don’t know how many times a day I use a pocket knife. There are several lying on my dresser to choose from each morning. As common as putting a pocket knife in my right pocket is putting my pistol either in an ankle holster for a tucked shirt (in which case I also carry a pocket gun in my right hip pocket) or in an inside the waistband holster for an un-tucked shirt, butt forward on my left side. It’s just what I do. I shoot 3-5 times a week for relaxation. I keep a target in my back yard for shooting. I have several thousand rounds of ammunition for target shooting and keep an adequate supply for hunting.

Ever since concealed carry became available in Oklahoma I have taken every class needed to maintain my certification and I have also increased that training and stay CLEET (Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training) certified. That is the same certification that all law enforcement officers (sheriff, Highway Patrol, city cops, etc.) must have. I do this so I can carry at the school where I teach and a few other places that the regular CCP doesn’t apply.

Here’s where I will always be an advocate for keeping firearms ownership inexpensive. Growing up we were not wealthy. Living here in rural Oklahoma I was afforded the opportunity to be introduced to hunting. Like most kids I started out hunting squirrels and rabbits. Deer hunting came when I was about 13 years old. I could mow a few yards for $5 and spend $2 for 200 rounds of 22 ammo and be set for the small game season from May 15 until the new year. I could save enough to spend $10 on a box of 30/30 bullets and $5 on a deer tag and have a chance of getting some “good” meat for the freezer. I have since learned that I like squirrel better than deer but that’s a different story. My point is that if it was like it is in almost any other country in the world I would have never been able to participate and enjoy what has been my life long hobby because of the cost. And my story is far from unique when it comes to this. So many my age, older … and even of the generations younger than me want to keep affordable firearm ownership and access available for their kids. It is simply not that way elsewhere.

Upward mobility — I know I’ll get some kickback on this one but I still believe in the American Dream. My family lived it. My mom’s side were Choctaw Indians, her grandfather coming over from Mississippi on the trail of tears. My dad’s side hillbillies from Tennessee. Both sides poor, cotton hoers and cotton pickers even through my mom and dad’s generation. Dad and his family share cropped and got by. My mom and her family hired out to people right here where I live. Dad joined the military to escape and to try to better himself. He was in the re-occupation of Germany (where my first three siblings were born) and fought in Korea and Vietnam. Luckily he wasn’t injured too badly (he has two purple hearts) and was able to better himself. My cousins thought he was rich. I know you can get a laugh out of that knowing a soldier’s salary in the 60’s and 70’s. Plus by then there were 5 of us kids. I say this to tell how poor people here (SE OK) were. But succeeding generations have done better. Mobility has definitely been upward. If my son doesn’t blow it he will have the opportunity to study abroad this year, something no one in my family thought possible a generation ago. If he doesn’t blow it he will very likely be much more successful than me in the type of living he could earn. He’s got to keep his nose clean and work hard, but that’s how the American dream is realized, I believe.

I’ll be the first to admit that there are some other countries where upward mobility is achievable through hard work, but it is still very possible for someone of meager beginnings to achieve great things in the US. I do love this place so I will also admit to bias.

We have our problems but I believe we’re still a great country. That belief is reinforced when I visit with my friends and family (and foreign exchange students…I could tell you some stories there) living in other places in the world.

I know you weren’t being belligerent in asking. I’m sorry the response was so long. But this is one of the reasons I came to frequent political message boards in the 90’s. I really wanted to know how people who believed differently from me came to that way of thinking. Just a big dumb 3rd year Math teacher, I couldn’t believe someone would rather vote for Bill Clinton than George HW Bush. After that election I had to know why. I discovered fullpolitics.com (I think,that was it) and I’ve learned a lot and perhaps I have softened my rightwing edges just a bit by having discussions such as this with people. Sadly, there are fewer and fewer people who can carry on a civil discourse if they are on opposing sides of the issues.

So as I sat in that Hotel lobby that Sunday morning I was musing over the plight of my brothers and sisters (in the religious sense) in Ukraine and thinking how lucky I was to have an opportunity to be enjoying such a great weekend with my kid and have so few worries. I was thinking of what he has ahead of him if he takes advantage of it and I was wondering if my dad ever thought that was possible for one of his grandkids as dad was growing up. I was thinking that everywhere I’ve traveled in the US there was a congregation of people of like faith that I could assemble with and worship. And I was thankful.
 
As you know, I am a lapsed Catholic turned secular humanist.

My left wing credentials come more on the basis of being socialist-leaning in economics than in being socially liberal. I tend to be socially conservative.
Even still, publically demeaning homosexuals seems like a hate crime to me. We're not a theocracy. The Bible has no official status in the laws of our land.
Shooting off your mouth in public shouldn't put you in prison, of course, but at the very least, a fine for public disturbance seems reasonable to me.

Further, you discretely avoided the abortion issue. To a person of my values, the conservative Christian stance on abortion is outright misogynist.
That's how my wife feels. That's how my daughter feels. That's how my late mother, who still considerd herself Catholic, felt.

As for guns, you're from Oklahoma. They're a big part of your culture.
I am not a gun hating liberal. I also have a concealed carry permit in a place where they're a hell of a lot more rare and harder to get than in Oklahoma. (My daughter is a BPD detective who ran some interference for me.)
I carry the permit, but never the gun. It creates an unsightly bulge in my clothes.
OK, I'll give you that one. Foreign countries are a little too paranoid about firearms. No question.

I don't hate America. It could be the best tract of real estate on the planet.
I'm disappointed with America's failure to join the modern world in terms of social responsibility.
We have a libertarian streak that looks to me like anarchy and an unwillingness to be governed, even by ourselves.
And yet those same folks are ok with government in the bedroom and in the doctor's office and in the curriculum planning.

Then, of course, the discussion turns to our Constitution.
Everyone thinks of the Bill of Rights and other amendments when they think of the Constitution.
They don't think about the original articles which gave us the most inefficient form of government on the face of the earth.
Further, rural conservatives are vastly over represented in government relative to their numbers, which means that urban liberals like myself are under represented.
Also, we can go back to the origins of this thread where the Constitution gives states the right to undermine democracy in the electoral process as they're doing right now.

All these things are reasons, Rev, why I can't share your true believerism, I guess.
My freedom to own guns doesn't make all these more important issues (to me) go away.
I want a National Health Service like the UK's.
I want labor unions to have the leverage that they used to have.
I want teachers to have the academic freedom that conservative states try to strip away from them.
And I want the public transportation that more modern nations have.

I do love America, but it's mostly the abundant food (though it's getting expensive) that I love and the urban cultural centers that stimulate my imagination.
If Italy had the American version of Italian food that I love, and the American version of Chinese food to go with it,
I probably would have been ok with my family staying there as well. (Although they still wouldn't have our good steaks.)
Still, soccer does suck compared to baseball. There's no denying that.:)
 
Whew... It's been a busy week. It's the last week of the quarter and grades are due. I needed to give one more test to two of my classes for a fair grade assessment and coming off of a week where we missed three days due to ice it was hard to squeeze them in. Also this week was the first week of formal baseball practice for us so I've been going to work and coming home like a guy with a real job. Because it has been so busy this week has flown by.

I knew that we would have different views on the things discussed in the previous two posts. It's what makes the world go 'round, so they say. I really didn't try to side-step the issue of abortion issue, I just knew there wouldn't be any common ground there. While the women in your life view a conservative Christian stance on abortion as "misogynist," every woman in my life (my wife, late- mom, sister, aunts, girl cousins, etc.) views it as murder. So I left that out of my part of the discussion.

As I look at this paragraph:

I want a National Health Service like the UK's.
I want labor unions to have the leverage that they used to have.
I want teachers to have the academic freedom that conservative states try to strip away from them.
And I want the public transportation that more modern nations have.
Click to expand...

I am not opposed to National Health Service for those who need it but do not want a system like Canada's (again, anecdotal but just going off of my friends' issues there).
I think labor unions threw the baby out with the bath water and the filthy Republicans took advantage.
Yes, some conservative states are being ridiculous about some of the educational issues, mine included.
Public transportation? Are we talking transcontinental? Just wondering because I don't like driving in cities and have been able to get around in them using mostly the public transportation available.

I'm looking forward to a good weekend. The weather tomorrow is supposed to be great so I will likely take the boat out and try to find a hungry fish. Some storms may move in Saturday but they could hold off until Sunday so I may get to be out of doors on Saturday as well.

Right now the wife and I are going to look at a 4 month old puppy to see if we connect.

Baseball > Soccer any day of the week. ;)
 
He’s here. He’s getting used to our yard and our beagle. He’s a Kemmer Cur. Black with brindle feet and head. Good looking dog. I haven’t had a puppy in several years so I’m a bit nervous.
 
Take good care of him.
I've never had a working dog, so I can't offer any suggestions and can only wish both of you well.

Mine have all been spoiled rotten house pets, not terribly unlike my kids.
 
Saturday has been a good day. Woke early and went to the fenced yard to visit the new puppy and “old” Beagle. lol post a couple of pics of the dog when I can. I had texted pictures to my son for name referrals and it looks like the new puppy shall be called “Nate.” Don’t know where he got that name from but my son has named every pet critter that we’ve had since 2004.

Hooked up the boat and went fishing for a few hours. It was slow but I caught two large White Bass before the morning was over. Came home and filleted them. I had some chicken thighs in a brine to cook in the smoker so I threw the sand bass fillets in with them. Let them brine for an hour then onto the smoker. Just took them off and they are delicious…just did a taste test as we’ll likely have them for supper tonight. The thighs should be done in about 20 or 30 minutes.

Thanks for the well wishes concerning the new pup. My dogs (and cats for that matter) are spoiled, just not house pets. Other guys that raise dogs for hunting laugh at me when I tell them about buying doggy treats for my hunting dogs. They can’t believe that I take the dogs on the boat fishing with me just for the company. My wife buys them day beds to sleep on in the summertime out in the yard. Yes, they’re a bit spoiled too. ;)

Here is a recent picture of one of the cats. He has a lot to worry about… :)

 
My dog thinks that people in their seventies still need chaperoning.
She sleeps in the middle. Good thing it's a king-sized bed.

You're too young to remember fur stoles.
They were sort of halfway in size between a short cape and a scarf, and women wore them over their shoulders and around their necks.

When I'm on MY recliner, my dog climbs onto the headrest and drapes herself around me like a living stole.

I like cats, but the wife is allergic to them. Has to take antihisitamines when we're at our daughter's place
 
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Opening day of Spring baseball and ……. We got rained out. Oh well, it’s 43° out there and I’m in my warm living room. :) The team we were supposed to play tomorrow already called and cancelled but we’re looking for a last minute replacement game. We have a travel tournament next week so we’d like to get in a game or two before then.

I am happy that I’ve gotten the pitching machine repaired. I got it going properly last week. I decided that if I put new wiring from the machine to the remote switch that if it still didn’t work right it had to be in the circuit board or one of the internal circuit breakers. It worked and the kids have been wearing it out. Who doesn’t like to hit a baseball?

The third quarter is ending. I have to have my grades posted before tomorrow. That means that in nine weeks I will be out for the summer. We went to Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire last summer. Maybe we’ll go more straight north this year to the Dakota Badlands. Always wanted to see Mount Rushmore.

I also have to consider that I have a puppy to train this year. Squirrel season opens in May so I plan to get him in the woods ASAP. I really need to take him 3 days a week. I got this season’s squirrel tails ready to ship. There were only 74. I can tell that my boy was gone for most of the year. I’ll ship them off to Wisconsin tomorrow.

Spring break is next week. Have a pretty good chance of snow this Friday and Saturday. Gotta love the weather…
 
Season opened today. 45° at game time. We won 11-0…then won the JV game 5-3. Our pitcher couldn’t find the zone in the first inning of the JV game so they scored three runs on 5 walks and a groundout. He got in the groove and shut them down after that. Freshman … got real potential.

We have a game Thursday, which will likely be our best day of weather yet, then probably won’t play Friday. I have things to tend to before the bad weather moves in anyway.
 
I don't expect to be seeing much Red Sox baseball this year, Rev.
Perhaps I should take an interest in the amateur games myself.
 
I’m watching college games of some schools I’ve never heard to fill my baseball void, and, of course I’m working with my high school team which helps also. We have a good core of Senior boys who are playing their last season. Hoping it’s a good one for them.

My sports tooth will be satisfied with the conference basketball tournaments and through March madness but I surely hope MLB gets things settled so they can kick things off by May, if not before.
 
I'd rather see the season cancelled than see the players fold, though.

I've been a huge baseball fan all of my life, but the most important work of my life was as a union rep.
I guess that's where my heart is.
 
I'm hoping for a season...but I am on the player's side on this one. There is no reason someone playing professional baseball should have to sleep in his vehicle. This happened to a friend of mine a few years back. I do hate some of the stupid stuff I see coming out of these "negotiations" though. Banning the shift...and the bunt. If they haven't done it yet I know I read an article where these were a couple issues that were being negotiated. Ugh... It's like when they told the referees to swallow the whistle on over the back calls on rebounds in basketball.

Travelling two hours south today. We'll be near the Texas line playing baseball. At least we have nice weather for it. Sixties today, snow tomorrow. Oh well, gotta love Spring baseball. Looking forward to getting to play a good team though. Needing to learn to get over the hump against the teams like we're playing today. They are a state torunament contender in the class above us.
 
There's a tentative agreement in the news, but I don't know details as far as remuneration.
Looks like they're getting rid of the Zombie runner in extra innings and going with the DH everywhere.

It was silly to have different rules when the AL and NL haven't actually existed for decades.
They're just brand names owned by MLB now. There's only one actual major league in terms of corporate structure.
 
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