Philosophy of Life

Encouragement 2 Minutes

Nebraska Filly brought this open to our sister site Marica is a Honey Badger and it resonated with me so much, I asked if I could bring it here!

“A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full.. The students responded with a unanimous ‘yes.’

The professor then produced two Beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed..

‘Now,’ said the professor as the laughter subsided, ‘I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things—-your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions—-and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car. The sand is everything else—-the small stuff.

‘If you put the sand into the jar first,’ he continued, ‘there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and mow the lawn.

Take care of the golf balls first—-the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the Beer represented. The professor smiled and said, ‘I’m glad you asked.’ The Beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of Beers with a friend.

Thanks Filly for this thought provoking lesson!

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Published by pat frederick

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136 thoughts on “Philosophy of Life”

  2. Ah! When I ran across this, it resonated with me, too. It makes so much sense!!! Good morning, Pat!

    Dang it! I guess I won’t be weed-eating today since it is thundering and raining again and has been much of the night. Bummer! I didn’t use the O2 last night and decided to use the oximeter to test my level – yeah, no good! Started at 72 and moved up to 76 but that’s still not good enough….(oh, my! that was a BIG boom of thunder! A LOT of big booms!)….so I’ll have to go back to using it at night. During the day, it stays up in the 90’s so I’m good there.

    I think Wheezer must have bad teeth – he has a problem eating the chunky cat food so I chopped up the chunks real small this morning and he was able to eat more. I think I’m just going to go back to regular canned tuna once I finish up the canned food I have on hand – it simplifies things.

    “Russiagate Opens the Door to Covid”

    Clandestine, Aug 03, 2025

    “Even though Russiagate was one of the most egregious crimes ever committed, it pales in comparison to what they did in 2020. After the Russia hoax failed, they quickly transitioned to Covid. Tulsi already confirmed in May that she was looking into C19 origins. She knows.

    Once the public have digested Russiagate, have seen that a Deep State exists, and have seen that the MSM are corrupt, they will be more willing to believe the disturbing revelations about Covid.

    Then once the public are told the truth about the man-made origins of Covid, why Fauci’s pardon begins in 2014 (Ukraine), mail-in ballots, 2020 election fraud, etc., the masses will be demanding justice, not just here in the US, but worldwide.

    We aren’t talking just treason and sedition, we are talking international crimes against humanity, which is an entirely different ballgame. It would likely be above the jurisdiction of the DOJ, and there are other countries’ militaries who have been demanding justice for C19, namely Russia, who directly alleged Obama, Clinton, Biden, and Soros, are the main “ideologues” responsible for the creation of C19 and the US bioweapon network. The same people who Trump alleged is behind the Russia hoax.

    Trump and Putin both want to prosecute the same people. If you think Trump and Putin have never talked about this, you are mistaken. As for how it all shakes out, we will have to wait and see, but we will have to cross this bridge eventually.”

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Morning Filly!

      something woke me at 10:30 last night, and i couldn’t fall back to sleep until after midnight. that’s why we slept in this morning!

      our pond is back to pre heavy rain levels–we can use some of your rain!

      Liked by 1 person

  3. “Origins of Medical Harm”

    Brownstone Institute, By David Marks  August 3, 2025

    ENTIRE ARTICLE: “The level of compensation doctors receive from Medicare is currently under renewed scrutiny; these standards are mirrored by health insurers. The quantity of reimbursement weighted to specialists is likely to shift towards primary care physicians. Reconfiguration of doctors’ fees is overdue, although they are determined by a secretive American Medical Association committee. 

    Analysis and debate about the ongoing healthcare crisis emphasize misdirected funding rather than considering how to revitalize the ethics of medicine. The Hippocratic Oath clarifies the priorities essential for the mindset of a physician. Despite its primary warning, first, do no harm, damage done to patients is rampant. Resolution of this tragic dynamic appears insoluble. 

    When decisions are made by any medical organization with financial interests, the primary impetus of the Oath is lost; the AMA’s control over payment schedules reinforces and exemplifies a corrupt institutional flaw. The harm done by the business of medicine needs to be evaluated and controlled.

    The seemingly intractable conflict of interest undermining medical care is directly tied to a profit-oriented model in mitigating human suffering. Dispensing treatments with earnings in mind is a form of profitable planned obsolescence and ultimately a methodology that degrades patient autonomy and vitality. 

    Although there is often consensus among critics of the healthcare system about its numerous faults, approaching the central issue of profiting from illness is virtually avoided. 

    In an attempt to broach the topic of money and medicine, the AMA’s Journal of Ethics presents a self-justifying analysis. The following excerpt exposes how this inherently conflicted view of healthcare depends on the illness of the nation. 

    Stripped to its core, medicine is a service industry, the product of which is health care. As such, the practice of medicine, not unlike the provision of any other service, is deserving of professional remuneration. Viewed in this light, medicine and money are sensibly interrelated and by extension indivisible. Less clarity exists, however, about the question of whether medicine should be a conduit to wealth accumulation. (emphasis added)

    The industry couldn’t be clearer about its relationship to money. The giant leap from fair compensation to wealth accumulation is easily appraised and confirmed; a swelling of profits is directly tied to the surge in chronic illness. 

    The degradation of individual and societal health spirals downward while the most powerful controllers of the medical and pharmaceutical industries thrive. The healthcare system is fatally compromised by its financial standards and practices. As long as poor health is monetized, the crisis will remain unresolved. 

    The largest and most important economic sector of the United States ignores the admonition, do no harm. Reversal of this travesty is dependent on challenging an infrastructure that denies the importance of caring without injury. Procedures and treatments are rewarded while preventative and curative methodologies remain undervalued. 

    Ongoing disasters in healthcare are uncontrolled, including iatrogenic disorders, unnecessary surgeries, prescription drug abuse, and vaccine failures and injuries. This exploitation is virtually ignored. Merciless mayhem is tolerated and marginalized, obscured by the deeply flawed, unethical profitability of medicine. Ultimately, there is a single disastrous outcome: disease is treated rather than cured.

    Price fixing, violating antitrust statutes, financing promotional bonuses, and suppressing competitive views about how to mitigate illness and dysfunction are inherently repressive strategies of the medical industry. This dynamic is enhanced and supported by the modus operandi of the pharmaceutical giants. To retain control of an enterprise whose boundless assets are provided by the sick and dying, the profession does not tolerate internal dissent and humiliates alternative methodologies. 

    It is no secret that the mainstream healthcare system and its proxies have disparaged, degraded, and shunned traditional healers, dismissed folk remedies, and minimized the importance of dietary nutrition. The claim that superior, contemporary, science-based symptomatic remedies are vastly more powerful than lifestyle choices or natural medicines is a morally despicable ruse, justifying the continued use of deadly concoctions and procedures.

    The medical industry has proven that it is incapable of self-regulation by its amoral promotion of tainted drugs and through its unprincipled leveraging of oversight agencies. When confronting the failures of corporate medicine, reversing the disastrous course of the mercenary business model built on the suffering of Americans requires a revolutionary approach.

    Although advances in biomedicine have strengthened the ability of physicians to combat some diseases and effectively face emergencies, the guiding compassionate principles of medical care have, for the most part, been lost. Despite the noble intentions of many practitioners, the disastrous prognosis for this corrupt and inverted system is apparent. There can be no cure for this abject failure without a full, head-on attack on the medical establishment and a renewal of ethical priorities. 

    Practicing medicine is most effective as a selfless endeavor; the healing arts thrive when extricated from material preoccupations. Organizational dynamics that diminish the empowerment of physicians must be eliminated.” 

    Liked by 1 person

    1. i think the fees have become astronomical is healthcare. it’s a money making business–that’s it. it’s profit driven, not patient driven. the patient is almost an afterthought.

      Liked by 1 person

  6. “The idea of botanical sexism has been around since at least the mid-aughts, cyclically appearing each spring or summer alongside allergy season. “Male plants have been popular because they don’t produce messy fruit or seed pods—but they are responsible for most of the pollen in the air,” an NPR reporter wrote in a 2006 article.

    If that ain’t blatant sexism, nothing is. But then again, it was on NPR…”

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Just The News: “FBI Director Kash Patel on Saturday floated the possibility of the FBI directly releasing more Russia collusion probe documents.

    “In 2017/18, I proved the Steele Dossier was fictitious intelligence, weaponized by corrupt FBI officials to deceive a federal judge and unlawfully spy on then presidential candidate Trump’s campaign- all paid for by his opponent. The media called me a liar. Now I’m the FBI Director: We just uncovered burn bags/room filled with hidden Russia Gate files, including the Durham annex, and declassified them,” Patel wrote on X.

    “Once again, I released the prior FBI’s own documents and exposed the truth. The same media is calling me a liar again. Maybe this FBI will release more docs directly, from FBI HQ… so we can see who is lying- wouldn’t want to deprive the fake news of more bogus Pulitzers,” he added.”

    Liked by 1 person

  10. TheseTruths
    TheseTruths(@thesetruths)Offline
    Wolf
    August 4, 2025 01:04

    [Texas] Governor Abbott Statement On House Democratic Quorum Break
    “Governor Greg Abbott today released the following statement outlining the legal consequences that House Democrat members face for breaking quorum, including the potential loss of their seats and felony violations. This letter is also being sent directly to the individual members who have fled Texas. The Governor’s full statement is as follows:”

    Real Texans do not run from a fight. But that’s exactly what most of the Texas House Democrats just did. Rather than doing their job and voting on urgent legislation affecting the lives of all Texans, they have fled Texas to deprive the House of the quorum necessary to meet and conduct business.

    These absences are not merely unintended and unavoidable interruptions in public service, like a sudden illness or a family emergency. Instead, these absences were premeditated for an illegitimate purpose—what one representative called “breaking quorum.” Another previously signaled that Democrats “would have to go by an extreme measure” of a quorum break “to stop these bills from happening.” In other words, Democrats hatched a deliberate plan not to show up for work, for the specific purpose of abdicating the duties of their office and thwarting the chamber’s business.

    That amounts to an abandonment or forfeiture of an elected state office. When the Governor calls a Special Session, our Constitution provides that the “Legislature shall meet.” TEX. CONST. art. III, § 5 (emphasis added). It’s not optional. It’s a duty. The absconded Democrat House members were elected to meet and vote on legislation—not to prevent votes that may not go their way. Every session, legislators on both sides of the aisle find themselves on the losing side of a legislative vote. And every session, most of those legislators find a way to disagree agreeably and behave like adults, rather than going AWOL.

    This truancy ends now. The derelict Democrat House members must return to Texas and be in attendance when the House reconvenes at 3:00 PM on Monday, August 4, 2025. For any member who fails to do so, I will invoke Texas Attorney General Opinion No. KP-0382 to remove the missing Democrats from membership in the Texas House. In that Opinion, the Attorney General considered “whether Texas law allows for a determination that a legislator has vacated office” if they intentionally break quorum. The Attorney General concluded that “whether a specific legislator abandoned his or her office such that a vacancy occurred will be a fact question for a court.” He further concluded that “through a quo warranto action, a district court may determine that a legislator has forfeited his or her office due to abandonment and can remove the legislator from office, thereby creating a vacancy.” That empowers me to swiftly fill vacancies under Article III, Section 13 of the Texas Constitution.

    In addition to abandoning their offices, these legislators may also have committed felonies. Many absentee Democrats are soliciting funds to evade the fines they will incur under House rules. Any Democrat who “solicits, accepts, or agrees to accept” such funds to assist in the violation of legislative duties or for purposes of skipping a vote may have violated bribery laws. See TEX. PENAL CODE § 36.02. The same could be true for any other person who “offers, confers, or agrees to confer” such funds to fleeing Democrat House members. I will use my full extradition authority to demand the return to Texas of any potential out-of-state felons.

    It looks as if a court would have to determine if they have vacated their office.
    I doubt that this announcement will sway any of the Dems, but this is excellent. 🍿

    Liked by 1 person

    1. JUST NOW – PRESIDENT TRUMP: “We’ve cut drug prices by 1,200%, 1,300%, 1,400%, 1,500%. I don’t mean 50%. I mean 1,400%, 1,500%, because we’re going favored nations. We want the same price as Europe gets.”

      “We’ll be dropping drug prices. It will start over the next 2 to 3 months by 1,200, 1,300. And even 1,400%, and 1,500%, but not just 50% or 25%, which normally would be a lot because the rest of the world pays much less for the identical drug.”

      Liked by 1 person

  14. “Woke” Bioethics TyrannyAn extreme absurd example illustrates an underlying moral and ethical failure

    Robert W Malone MD, MS, Aug 04, 2025

    EXCERPT: “Sometimes it is necessary to push a moral philosophy to the extreme before its flaws become clear to all. And then once that happens, it gets much easier to recognize and reject less extreme examples that grow from the same root. At other times, true believers in a flawed moral philosophy will voluntarily advocate for an extreme example without being pushed, and in doing so, inadvertently reveal the absurdity of their proposition.

    Plato wrote of Socrates’ use of the logical reasoning method of reducing a philosophical assertion he opposed to the point of absurdity, giving rise to the debating method known as an apagogical argument. This involves attempting to establish a claim by showing that following the logic of a proposition or argument would lead to absurdity or contradiction.

    The focus of this essay is the philosophical position that, in the case of public health, it is acceptable to mandate that members of society accept a medical treatment without granting personal informed consent, justified as necessary to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number. I argue that the proposition that the majority or the State has the right to impose a medical procedure on the minority is both flawed and repugnant to an ethical society. The self-evident recent embodiment of this flawed and repugnant logic is the mandated “emergency use authorized” experimental gene therapy products marketed as COVID vaccines. But, as any parent of a school-aged child or hospital-based health care worker can attest, mandates to accept medical procedures (ergo, “vaccination”) without full informed consent are ubiquitous.

    These mandates were and are a form of coercion and compulsion. Moreover, the use of government-sponsored propaganda to cause people to accept a medical procedure typically involves coercion, compulsion, and enticement, and governments used all of these during the COVID-19 crisis to “overcome vaccine hesitancy”- defined as unwillingness to accept injection with an emergency use authorized experimental medical product whose side effects include cardiac damage and death.

    The next step in the logical progression with this thinking involves the development and deployment of medical “vaccine” products that surreptitiously spread within the general population by infecting or otherwise immunizing non-consenting individuals once the product is introduced into the population. In the historical case of live attenuated polio vaccine, this was accomplished with knowledge and quiet endorsement by public health officials without informed consent by most others, as the “live” vaccine strain is shed in the feces of the vaccinated and typically infects family members and other close associates…..”

    https://www.malone.news/p/woke-bioethics-tyranny

    Liked by 1 person

  15. Just The News: “The increasing number of migrants crossing the English Channel to try to come into the United Kingdom illegally – a 73% increase from 2023 and 898 alone Wednesday by boat – is sparking protests in the region and comes just days after President Trump, while in Scotland, warned leaders to “get their act together” on the matter.

    The most recent figures from the United Kingdom’s interior ministry, known as the Home Office, show the number of illegal channel-crossers so far this year is 25,436 – a 51% increase compared with this point last year (16,842) and 73% higher than in all of 2023 (14,732), according to The Guardian newspaper. 

    “On immigration, you better get your act together,” Trump, who has significantly curbed illegal migration since taking office in January, in large part by tightening U.S. border security, told UK leaders on his Scotland trip. “You’re not going to have Europe anymore.”

    Reform UK Party leader Nigel Farage posted a video of migrants arriving last week in boats and said the public had enough. 

    “898 illegals crossed the English Channel yesterday,” he wrote on X Thursday. “This means more hotels, more costs and more people who should not be here. The public have had ENOUGH!”

    UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently had an opinion piece published in The Sun where he said that his government was taking massive steps to combat illegal migration, including freezing the assets of gang leaders from other countries in the UK and returning 35,000 people to their home countries. The migrants are coming in large numbers from Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Poland and China. 

    Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron put together a deal last month in which Paris would take back individuals who got across the Channel but are not eligible for asylum in the UK. London will accept those who qualify for asylum through a legal process in exchange. 

    Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp criticized the deal, saying it “will not even make a dent,” in the Uk’s  massive immigration problem, the BBC reports. Meanwhile, recently announced plans to provide accommodation for individuals seeking asylum in the UK, sparked anti-immigration protests in the English towns of Epping and Waterlooville. 

    Over a thousand demonstrators in Waterlooville on Wednesday carrired UK flags and signs that read “Stop the Boats,” according to the BBC. In Epping, pro-immigration and anti-immigration protesters clashed at hotels being used to accommodate migrants. 

    In June, an anti-racism protest collided with an anti-migrant protest in Dublin, Ireland. Demonstrators on the anti-racism side had signs that read “Blame the Government, not migrants” and “Dublin stands against racism”, while protesters on the anti-immigration side wore hats that said “Make Ireland Great Again,” according to the Irish Times.

    Ultimate Fighting Championship star Conor McGregor in March announced his bid for president of Ireland, with his main priority being tackling the amount of migrants coming into the country. McGregor made headlines in 2023 for speaking out against the current Irish government, specifically over the significant surge in immigrants entering the country.

    “He has also been in the news for being found liable in a sexual assault lawsuit in Dublin last year.” 

    Liked by 1 person

  16. EXCERPT: “Texas state lawmakers plan to reevaluate the purpose of the Upper Guadeloupe River Authority (UGRA) after it was revealed that after nine years, no river monitoring system was implemented even though it had the funds to do so.

    At a state legislative hearing in Kerr County on Thursday, Bill Rector, president of the UGRA Board of Directors, said that the UGRA had reserve funds to pay for a system it wanted to implement but instead applied for third party grants that were denied since 2016.

    The UGRA monitors the Guadeloupe River in Kerr County and flood gages, and shares the data with the U.S. Geological Service and National Weather Service. The UGRA attempted to implement flood prediction warning systems and studies and applied for grants through the Texas Department of Emergency Management in 2017, 2018 and 2019, which were denied, he said. It also participated in a flood plan, but no outside funding came, he said. The UGRA is funded by taxpayers.

    In 2023, the UGRA “renewed its focus on flood warning strategic planning,” Rector said, invited a hydrologist, “resolved to develop software solutions” and add additional rain stream gages. A plan was presented to the board last November, which was approved. It also applied for a Texas Water Development Fund grant to cover half of the cost and only received funding for 5%. The board rejected that proposal.

    Rector said the board spent nine years applying for outside grants to not implement a flood warning system while continuing to collect taxpayer money. This year, Rector said, they realized “time was of the essence” and proceeded with reserve funds to begin the project. It began June 4, one month before the catastrophic flood that killed 108 people in Kerr County, including 37 children.

    Had the project been implemented years earlier, new sensors would have been in place delivering real time data accessible 24/7 to the county emergency manager, Rector said. The emergency coordinator would have been able to monitor river levels and send alerts to residents. This didn’t happen.

    State Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo, said, “This line of questioning is very disturbing, … we’ve had little girls in bunks, we have people dying, and we’ve got officials that are charged with the responsibility for their protection who are in their beds, they’re sick, they’re waiting for somebody else,” referring to the county officials who were absent when flood waters came, The Center Square reported…..”

    https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/watch-texas-lawmakers-reevaluate-river-authority-over-lack-flood

    Liked by 1 person

  17. Just The News: “Wisconsin public officials cannot hide private text messages and messages on private messaging apps involving public business and they are accountable for legal fees in cases where the court finds the records should be released, a Wisconsin appeals court ruled.

    The ruling came in Midwest Environmental Advocates v. Prehn, a case involving whether former Natural Resources Board Chair Frederick Prehn had unlawfully withheld public records that included text messages with then-Gov. Scott Walker regarding Prehn’s plans to remain in office after his term.

    “This decision is a win for the people of Wisconsin,” Midwest Staff Attorney Adam Voskuil said in a statement. “It strengthens our democracy by ensuring that government officials conduct their business with openness and transparency. Had Prehn’s arguments been accepted, the public records law and our state’s commitment to open government would have been significantly weakened.”

    A lower court had ruled that the case did not require legal fees be paid because the records were released during the legal proceedings before they were complete.

    “The ability to recover attorney’s fees is vital for journalists and for other groups and individuals who are forced to take legal action to secure their rights under the public records law,” Midwest Staff Attorney Rob Lee said in a statement. “We are pleased the court’s decision maintains this important component of public transparency and open government in Wisconsin.”

    Liked by 1 person

  18. the format makes it a harder read–but some interesting stuff i didn’t know.

    Winston

    August 4, 2025 8:11 am

    Reply to  Winston

    An excerpt from the video’s transcript. NOT EVEN close to the whole story of the Epsteins and associates as covered in the 1000 page “One Nation Under Blackmail” two volume book by Whitney Webb:

    Ghislaine Maxwell, her father was Robert Maxwell. Robert Maxwell was the fix it man before Jeffrey Epstein was the fix it man. He had ties to the KGB, the Stasi, the Mossad, MI6 and CIA. He corrupted a prominent US senator here, Senator Tower, who was a drunk with a propensity, by the way, for young girls, into helping Israel put spy software into our into our nuclear military bases. To give you all you got to know about Robert Maxwell, he died under mysterious circumstances, too. Fell off his boat, drown, that kind of routine. This was 1991. He had stolen about a billion dollars (£460 million) from the pensioners of the various media publications that he controlled and owned…MI6 was the one who funded his investments to buy these publications. That’s how he went from nobody to somebody quick. But where does he get his funeral? He gets an official state funeral buried at the Mount of Olives in Israel with every prime minister, president, and leader of their intelligence operations present at his funeral. This is a man who never wasn’t born in Israel, never lived in Israel, never a citizen of Israel, didn’t die in Israel, and yet Israel gave him a funeral as if he was, you know, the second coming of the founder of Zionism. So that’s not a coincidence when Ghislaine Maxwell magically shows up arm-in- arm with Jeffrey Epstein. In fact, the yacht that he fell off of, Robert Maxwell, was named the Lady Ghislaine after her. So she helps continue the Maxwell gray space fix it man with the new fix it man Jeffrey Epstein.

    John Tower

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tower

    He was the first Republican elected to the U.S. Senate from Texas since Reconstruction. Tower is known for leading the Tower Commission, which investigated the Iran-Contra Affair in the Reagan administration. 

    According to “The Assassination of Robert Maxwell: Israel’s Superspy” by Gordon Thomas and Martin Dillon, Tower became the liaison for Robert Maxwell, a British publishing mogul and super-agent for Mossad, to the White House and to US government operations. The relationship began in 1984, and the soon-to-be retired Tower “told Maxwell that his fee as Maxwell’s personal consultant would be $200,000.”[citation needed] Tower received his fee in four separate payments of $50,000 into a Swiss bank account. Tower arranged for Maxwell to meet with leadership of Sandia National Laboratories, a US nuclear lab. Maxwell sold to Sandia a copy of PROMIS software that had a backdoor which was accessible by Israeli intelligence, giving nuclear details to Israel. Shortly after retirement from the Senate, in 1985, Tower took Maxwell’s request for American help in arming Iran, and relayed it to President Reagan as a means to trade for American hostages held in Lebanon. “Two days later the former Senator reported to Maxwell that his meeting with President Reagan had produced a positive response.”

    One propeller pitch controller malfunctioned on a two engine plane on landing approach. BAD!:

    Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 2311 (5 April 1991)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Southeast_Airlines_Flight_2311

    The flight, operating a twin-turboprop Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia, crashed north of Brunswick while approaching the airport for landing. All 23 aboard were killed, including astronaut Sonny Carter and former U.S. Senator John Tower.

    Because they were not required at the time, the aircraft did not have a cockpit voice recorder or flight data recorder.

    Liked by 1 person

  21. “Brennan and Clapper Don’t Have A Statute Of Limitations Defense Because They’re Continuing The Conspiracy — ‘John Brennan and James Clapper are known liars and are digging themselves into an even deeper hole,’ White House spokesman Davis Ingle told The Federalist.”

    The Federalist, By: Breccan F. Thies, August 04, 2025

    John Brennan and James Clapper

    ENTIRE ARTICLE: “There is a lot of talk about whether former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper are protected by a statute of limitations in their roles in fabricating the Russia hoax.

    But, as current CIA director John Ratcliffe pointed out, “The statute of limitations doesn’t start to run until the last act in the furtherance of that conspiracy,” and the two Russia hoaxers just restarted the clock on July 30, when they decided to pen an op-ed in The New York Times filled with even more lies in an apparent cover-up.

    As The Federalist reported, the lie that then-candidate Donald Trump was Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “preferred” White House occupant was largely built on a six-word sentence fragment that had numerous possible interpretations and was lifted from an unreliable source.

    That did not matter to Brennan or Clapper. The Obama administration had to get Trump, so they manufactured a lie that would effectively steal a fully operational presidency from the American people. “There was no peaceful transfer of power in 2017,” as The Federalist’s Shawn Fleetwood wrote, because Clapper, Brennan, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey, and apparently Obama himself, were hellbent on using the American intelligence apparatus to backfill validity into fake Hillary Clinton campaign opposition research.

    But it was not just dirty tricks in order to rig an election. The hoax, peddled dutifully by the corrupt co-conspirators in the corporate media for years, hung like an albatross over Trump’s first term, shredding the right of Americans to have the president for whom they voted.

    On Wednesday, Brennan and Clapper once again tried to pull the wool over the eyes of Americans by claiming that, despite all the evidence to the contrary, actually their scheme was totally above board. Their panicked diatribe was in response to DNI Tulsi Gabbard releasing records showing no underlying credible impetus for connecting Trump to Russia, and that the lie was pushed heavily by the likes of Brennan, Clapper, Comey, and others over the heads of career intelligence officers warning them of the lack of credibility.

    In their op-ed, Brennan and Clapper falsely claimed that the infamous “Steele dossier,” which is a document filled with fabrications and slander against Trump purchased by the Clinton campaign, was never included as a source for their Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) scheme. “We have testified under oath, and the reviews of the assessment have confirmed, that the dossier was not used as a source or taken into account for any of its analysis or conclusions,” they wrote.

    Except that is not true. Sure, they testified as much under oath. In 2017, Brennan testified that the dossier was “not in any way used as a basis for the intelligence community assessment.” But the Steele dossier was the foundation of the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign, as well as being the basis for illegally obtaining a FISA warrant to spy on Trump campaign official Carter Page.

    The report declassified by Gabbard last week details the dossier’s inclusion in the main body of the ICA, and further states that “by devoting nearly two pages of ICA text to summarizing the dossier in a high-profile assessment intended for the President and President-elect, the ICA misrepresented both the significance and credibility of the dossier reports. The ICA referred to the dossier as ‘Russian plans and intentions,’ falsely implying to high-level US policymakers that the dossier had intelligence value for understanding Moscow’s influence operations.”

    Brennan and Clapper’s op-ed may not be under oath, but it advances lies they told under oath. When asked about restarting the clock on any kind of statute of limitations that could protect them, White House spokesman Davis Ingle told The Federalist, “John Brennan and James Clapper are known liars and are digging themselves into an even deeper hole. President Trump is appreciative of [Director] Gabbard and Ratcliffe’s commitment to transparency and ending the weaponization of government against Americans.”

    Noting that he does not “think statute of limitations are going to impact” the ability to prosecute Brennan, Clapper, and others, Ratcliffe said that “part of why this is so important is that the people behind this are still furthering the conspiracy.”

    “They conspired against President Trump, they conspired against the American people. So, I’ll leave it to Pam Bondi and our DOJ and Kash Patel and our FBI to investigate the conspiracy to do what, and what charges that they’re capable of bringing,” he added.

    Gabbard has already referred documentation of the Obama officials’ conduct to the Department of Justice to be pursued as a criminal matter.”

    Liked by 1 person

  22. EXCERPT: “With the federal route closed under the Trump administration, transgender males seeking admission to women’s sports are turning to state courts. There, fuzzy and sometimes absurd definitions in state and local policies might still force sports organizations to deny the reality of male advantage and surrender competitive fairness and safety for female athletes.

    Two trans-identifying male athletes are suing sporting event organizers after being told that they were not permitted to compete in the female category. One suit is in New York, and the other in New Jersey. The same lawyer, Susan Cirilli, is representing both plaintiffs. Cirilli did not respond to my request for comment.The New Jersey Lawsuit

    In New Jersey, Sadie Schreiner is suing Princeton University, two of Princeton’s senior athletics administrators, and the timing and results company from the track meet in early May. Schreiner alleges that, despite registering for and checking in as present to compete in the women’s 200-meter race, he was not on the list of competitors posted shortly before the race.

    Schreiner spoke with John Mack and Kimberly Keenan-Kirkpatrick, Princeton’s director of athletics and director of track and field operations, respectively. According to Schreiner’s suit, one of them (the filing does not specify), said, “I do not want to assume, but you are transgender” to explain why Schreiner was not in the women’s race. Keenan-Kirkpatrick then offered to organize a separate race for Schreiner, a consideration the suit describes as “a further biased response.”

    “State anti-discrimination laws that protect people on the basis of their ‘gender identities’ are much stronger for male athletes who want to compete in female-only sports,” says lawyer and author Kara Dansky. New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination is the basis of Schreiner’s suit. The law prohibits discrimination because of “sex, [and] gender identity or expression,” amongst many other attributes.

    The law’s definition of “gender identity or expression” is worse than circular: it’s a linguistic three-body problem. Not only does it use the phrase “gender identity or expression” in the course of defining the same phrase, but the law at no point defines “sex.” Yet it includes “sex assigned at birth” in the definition of “gender identity or expression.”

    This renders completely hollow Schreiner’s offer to “to take any physical tests that would further demonstrate her [sic] gender.” First, there is no such test that would demonstrate, or reveal, or confirm gender. Even if there was, the NJLAD does not state how one proves his “gender identity or expression” for the purpose of enforcing the law…..”

    https://thefederalist.com/2025/08/04/prepare-for-a-wave-of-state-court-battles-over-men-in-womens-sports/

    Liked by 1 person

  25. Funny – after all the brouhaha of moving my mailbox….I saw the carrier put the mail in my box and continue to the residences to the west….then I saw him go back down the road to the east….the ENTIRE reason for moving the box was so that he would not have to turn around and go back to the east!!! WTF??!!??

    Liked by 1 person

  28. EXCERPT: “The voting bloc that swung to the Republican side last November to give the GOP control of the White House and Congress was men under 30, who have traditionally voted Democrat by large majorities. They shifted by double digits from Biden in 2020 to Trump and Republicans in 2024.

    But congressional Republicans are doing nothing for young men to retain their support, and they may return to the Democrat Party if this inattention by the GOP continues. For younger men and for fathers who have sons in high school, a top issue is the opportunity to compete in college sports.

    Trump issued an executive order on July 24 to warn colleges against eliminating more sports teams in non-revenue, or Olympic, sports. Observing that “the future of college sports is under unprecedented threat,” Trump ordered the protection of college sports that are not money-makers for colleges, which is virtually every sport except football and basketball.

    Bipartisan legislation to save college sports, called the SCORE Act, will be debated in the House when it returns after the August recess. Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Cory Booker, D-N.J., have also teamed up from opposite sides of the aisle in the Senate to produce similar legislation.

    But it is former President Bill Clinton’s Department of Education regulation that makes men’s college sports an endangered species on the verge of extinction. Called the “proportionality test,” it requires that colleges eliminate men’s sports teams until the proportion of men in competitive sports at a college does not exceed the overall percentage of men enrolled in academic classes there.

    This quota fails to recognize that an opportunity to play sports is often what men look for in deciding whether to go to college, in contrast with the typical reasons why women make that decision. Women’s overall enrollment has increased to 60 percent at many colleges, so the quota forces cutting men’s teams down to only 40 percent of sports competitors.

    The Olympic sport of men’s wrestling is an example. It is safer than football and better for physical conditioning and weight control, and is booming in high schools now. Participation has increased by 25 percent since 2022, to attain a 45-year high of nearly 300,000 boys competing in this high school sport.

    A half century ago there were 155 Division I college men’s wrestling teams, but today there are only 79. That is nowhere near enough to support the demand for wrestling by boys who graduate from high school and are looking to attend college to continue their love of this terrific sport…..”

    https://thefederalist.com/2025/08/04/gop-should-save-college-sports-for-the-young-men-who-elected-them/

    Liked by 1 person

  29. Liked by 1 person

  30. Freedom Ring
    August 4, 2025 12:19 pm

    Truth Social

    India is not only buying massive amounts of Russian Oil, they are then, for much of the Oil purchased, selling it on the Open Market for big profits. They don’t care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine. Because of this, I will be substantially raising the Tariff paid by India to the USA. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!! President DJT

    Aug 04, 2025, 8:50 AM

    Like

  31. EXCERPT: “There are about 2.5 billion Muslims in the world. That’s more than 30 percent of the world’s total population. In 2020, the number was “only” 2 billion, an increase of nearly 25 percent. The total world population grew by about 3.5 percent during that time, from 7.85 billion to 8.15 billion. In the case of Christianity, the increase was 8 percent, from 2.4 billion to about 2.6 billion.

    In the case of Christians, the growth is primarily due to those who have embraced the faith of Christ—especially in the Far East, among the younger, more educated: in South Korea, Japan, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, etc., and among those who are descended from these countries but already live in the Western world.

    Every year, about 15 million people convert to Christ. At the same time, 11.7 million leave Christianity and convert to another religion or become unbelievers or atheists.

    Of course, all of this is based on estimates, especially in relation to Islam. After all, it is gaining ground in many areas of the world where the recording and processing of demographic data and statistics is less precise. According to Guinness, between 1990 and 2000, 12.5 million more people converted to Islam than to Christianity. At the same time, many people also leave Islam (primarily for Christianity), but they often hide this, since according to the beliefs laid down in the Quran, those who leave Islam are subject to the death penalty.

    So, we don’t know exactly whether Christianity or Islam is currently leading in the number of converts, and we are also on the verge of deciding which of them is the world’s largest religion. But there is no doubt that the power and momentum are with Islam. Far more Muslim children are being born than Christian.

    Moreover, secularization and abandonment of faith dominate the Christian cultural sphere. This can only be compensated for in the short term by the strengthening of Christianity in the Far East, especially since the populations of these countries (Japan and South Korea in particular) are decreasing at an alarming rate.

    In the Christian world, abandoning faith primarily means becoming an atheist — or at least an agnostic — turning away from faith and spirituality. But there is also a growing trend of converting to Islam, which Western people, for now, choose of their own free will. In addition, the intention of Islam to convert (let’s use this as a euphemism instead of “conquer”) is also very strong.

    In the program “Political Hobbyist,” we have shown several videos in recent weeks where Islamic scholars, imams, and religious leaders say that their goal is complete dominance, that all people in the world become Muslims. And that all means are permitted for this, and even their religion explicitly requires them to do so.

    Some of them even add that there is no need for fighting or war; Westerners are slowly converting to Islam of their own accord.

    This is indeed a growing phenomenon. Even if, alongside many other worrying moments, we trivialize it, ignore it, and try to refute it with statistical magic. (These are also used with pleasure by the Western media.) But why is this? Why is a religion that despises and prohibits almost everything that the West has achieved, fought for, embraced, lived, and enjoyed over the centuries so appealing to many Westerners? And one that demands submission and significantly restricts their rights, lifestyle, and personal freedom, everything that it has achieved and gained? We will find the answer soon…

    “Islam is a religion of peace” — you would think that even the most depraved progressive liberals wouldn’t believe this today. In comparison, not only do they believe it, but there are still those who say it. Or, if they don’t say it like that anymore, because perhaps they too feel that they are becoming an object of ridicule, they still call for the fight against Islamophobia…..”

    https://rmx.news/article/islams-rising-momentum-why-the-west-is-converting-while-christianity-retreats/

    Liked by 1 person

  32. Flopping Aces Profile picture
    Flopping Aces
    @FloppingAces
    Aug 3 • 7 tweets • 1 min read •
    Read on X
    Senate Democrats tried to extort President Trump for $1 BILLION just to confirm his nominees.

    Trump’s response?
    “Go pound sand.”
    Here’s what Senator Mullins just revealed—and what’s coming next 🧵
    1/7
    Senator Markwayne Mullins:
    “I’ve spoken with President Trump a lot in the past 24 hours. Senate Democrats demanded a billion dollars in pet projects to move forward his nominees. Trump told them to pound sand. NO DEAL.”
    2/7
    Let that sink in:
    Democrats are holding up government appointments unless Trump gives them a $1B taxpayer-funded bribe.

    That’s not governing. That’s ransom.
    3/7
    This isn’t about partisanship. It’s about breaking the cycle of swamp blackmail.

    Every delay = another day Americans get stuck with:

    – Vacant leadership
    – Bureaucratic chaos
    – Backroom deals
    4/7
    Mullins says Trump has had enough.
    The GOP is now preparing to change Senate rules to end this obstruction racket once and for all.

    If the Left insists on playing dirty, we change the rules they’ve abused.
    5/7
    The swamp’s playbook:

    1. Obstruct
    2. Delay
    3. Demand cash
    4. Blame Trump

    We’re done playing along.
    No more payoffs.
    No more hostage politics.
    Just results.
    6/7
    Mark this moment:
    Senate rule changes are coming.
    The swamp’s extortion scheme just hit a wall—and that wall is President Trump.

    Stay tuned. The fight’s just getting started. 🇺🇸

    Liked by 1 person

  33. goodness boasberg thinks he’s king, doesn’t he?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. WTF? The Texas Democrat lawmakers were given a dedicated $40 MILLION JET that costs $15,000 per hour or more to rent.

      They raised the funds and are having their trip orchestrated by out-of-state actors.

      Remove them from office and investigate for BRIBERY.

      All of this done to break a quorum in the Texas Legislature to block a vote on redistricting.

      This is from Gov. Abbott’s statement posted earlier. I hope it will apply.

      In addition to abandoning their offices, these legislators may also have committed felonies. Many absentee Democrats are soliciting funds to evade the fines they will incur under House rules. Any Democrat who “solicits, accepts, or agrees to accept” such funds to assist in the violation of legislative duties or for purposes of skipping a vote may have violated bribery laws. See TEX. PENAL CODE § 36.02. The same could be true for any other person who “offers, confers, or agrees to confer” such funds to fleeing Democrat House members. I will use my full extradition authority to demand the return to Texas of any potential out-of-state felons.

      Liked by 1 person

  36. NF: I kind of find this hard to believe – I eat this all the time!!! It’s the only mac-n-cheese I eat!

    “Kraft Dinner has been called a de facto national dish of Canada. Packaged in Quebec with Canadian wheat and milk, and other ingredients from Canada and the US, Canadians purchase 1.7 million of the 7 million boxes sold globally each week and eat an average of 90 million boxes of Kraft Dinner each year. The meal is the most popular grocery item in the country, where “Kraft Dinner” has an iconic status and has become a generic trademark of sorts for macaroni and cheese. It is often simply referred to, and (as of 2023) is now marketed by the initials K.D. 

     As Kraft Dinner has a different name in Canada from the United States and other markets, the Canadian marketing and advertising platform is a made-in-Canada effort that cannot be easily adapted to the US market.”

    Liked by 1 person

  42. Just The News: “U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on Monday announced guidance directing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to prevent foreign men from entering the country if they seek to participate in women’s sports.

    The move could prove contentious ahead of the LA Olympics as it would effectively bar the participation of transgender athletes.

    “Men do not belong in women’s sports. USCIS is closing the loophole for foreign male athletes whose only chance at winning elite sports is to change their gender identity and leverage their biological advantages against women,” USCIS Spokesperson Matthew Tragesser said in a statement. 

    “It’s a matter of safety, fairness, respect, and truth that only female athletes receive a visa to come to the U.S. to participate in women’s sports,” he added. “The Trump Administration is standing up for the silent majority who’ve long been victims of leftist policies that defy common sense.”

    The policy will apply to 0-1A, E11, and E21 alien visas.”

    Liked by 1 person

  47. Maintenance worker walking down the cable of Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, 1947 by John Gutmann.

    Happy elephants!

    Liked by 1 person

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