Dear readers, if the last few postings of my blog have come out overlapped or otherwise confused, my apologies. If so, I don't know if that's a result of bugs in my own system or what. Even I myself cannot get a clear posting when I open the blog via the internet, though things look just fine when they are being posted. I probably should ask an expert to come in to take a look. I also have not been able to renew my virus scan, so that may be part of the problem.
Here's my younger daughter with a sign she made for the No Kings march.
Here was the
No Kings crowd in NY City.
And here were No Kings demonstrators marching in Washington. DC.
'No Kings' protests live updates: Springsteen performs at Minneapolis rally as millions take to the streets across the U.S.
Bruce Springsteen, Bernie Sanders and Jane Fonda are at the Minneapolis rally. Tens of thousands more marched through Times Square in NYC and past the Lincoln Memorial in D.C.
Donald Trump has made sure that his name stays in the headlines. He always gets folks talking, not only here in the US, but all around the world. He may sleep a lot during the day and he often gets confused, and he also frequntly repeats or even contradicts himself. But whatever Trump says or does, then you and I will hear all about it, and so will people everywhere. One of his latest remarks is: "I don’t want a stupid person being president." Hmm.
Here's a West Virginia vista found not far from where we live now. We live in such a beautiful region.
Regarding the daffodils found growing along the roadside, as shown in a previous post, an alert blog reader has noted:
"Daffodils grow from bulbs, not seeds so it’s intriguing to find them in uninhabited places."
Someone must have planted the bulbs there years ago.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s highly unusual decision to remove officers from a one-star promotion list has spurred allegations of racial and gender bias.
Pete Hegseth, the grossly unqualified Secretary of War, whose own military service has consisted of National Guard duty and who had even ordered strikes on surrendering Caribbean boaters--an actual war crime--still has the nerve--the unmitgated gall--to bar promotions of black and female officers who have actually served in the US armed forces, served honorably. Hegseth needs to start out now beginning in boot camp and let's see how far he gets. He would probably be booted out of boot camp.
So do we really have to wait almost 3 more years to get rid of these birdbrains and incompetents? In fact, birds are actually much smarter.
New poll: Majority of Americans say US military action against Iran has gone too far
The US had no reason to attack Iran to begin with, except that Bibi Netanyahu wanted to postpone his corruption trial and thought that would be a great diversion. A very befuddled, very suggestible Donald Trump agreed and also promised to keep the plan a secret. But now with Iranian missiles falling too close to home for Israel, it's high time for a complete ceasefire on all sides. Let's just have everyone just stop attacking and killing each other for now. Then, over time, we may almost forget what the fighting was all about. That's actually what happened between the US and Vietnam. And we also need to remember that Germany, Japan, and China were once implacable foes of our country, led by evildoers beyond redemption, but no longer, though China still remains suspect.
Simply stopping the Iran war for now, just to talk things over, is the best way to stop hostilities. To keep on attacking relentlessly just invites more retaliation. Call the talks a pause, a ceasefire, a break, or whatever, just stop the killing and keep on extending the talks until finally everyone forgets what the fighting was all about. And then everyone may also soon forget about Netanyahu and whatever he was actually accused of doing, now becoming just a footnote in the history books.
By saying this, I don't mean to imply that Iran and its leadership are blameless or shining paragons of virtue. Iran does not elect its leaders by a completely fair and democratic system. Women there do have the right to vote and can run for office, but, in fact, few women are in leadership positions. (We can say much the same thing about the USA.) Iranian women also wear headscarves and flowing garnents covering their bodies. as is done in many Muslim countries allied with the US.
Washington Post
March 27 (Reuters) - The U.S. military has fired over 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles in four weeks of war with Iran, burning through the precision weapons at a rate that has alarmed some Pentagon officials and prompted internal discussions about how to make more available, the Washington Post reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
If there is now a pause, then a ceasefire, it means we don't have to worry about running out of missiles.
In Iran, American and Israeli flags are still being set ablaze.
Better to burn flags than to fight.
AP,
- Two officials from Pakistan described the 15-point U.S. proposal broadly, saying it addressed sanctions relief, a rollback of Iran’s nuclear program, limits on missiles and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped.
- Iran issued its own plan via state TV, which includes a halt to killings of its officials, means to make sure no other war is waged against it, reparations for the war, the end of hostilities, and Iran’s “exercise of sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.”
The 2 sides should just continue talking about their own ceasefire plans and what each side hopes to achieve, then simply persist even longer with these talks. But in the meantime, they aren't killing each other and are no longer destroying important structures and just creating more excuses for retaliation. So the 2 sides should just keep on talking and talking, ---then start talking some more. Maybe the 2 sides will even become friends eventually, as has happened in prior wars.
President Donald Trump has been toying with renaming one of the world’s most critical shipping routes after—who else—himself. Speaking at an investor forum in Miami, Trump casually referred to the Strait of Hormuz as the “Strait of Trump,” before quickly correcting himself, then insisting it wasn’t actually a slip
Here's an answer to a reader's question about my views on abortion, though that has not been a prominent issue right now nor recentky discussed here.
I believe that an individual life begins at conception. I consider that a fact. So no, I do not support abortion, which does away with (kills) that incipient life in its earliest essential stages. Contraception is fine, as egg and sperm do not then unite to form the beginning of a specific human being. Many early embryos are lost spontaneously, so the particular persons they would have become are lost. They never had a chance to live, which may be fortunate or unfortunate, depending on what sort of persons they would have become and the lives they might have led.
In Honduras, where abortion has not been permitted, unexpected pregnancies often lead to births of children who then become cherished family members. It happens all the time. People adapt to all sorts of unwanted and unanticipated events, including divorce, disability, and the loss of family members--or the arrival of a newborn they had never wanted but who then becomes a cherished family member. Look at the families of people you know or even at your own family. Any number of well-known, successful, and famous people might have had their life cut short if abortion had been more readily available. Individual lives, actual people, that's all we've got. And they all start out in the very same way.
Nor do I support the death penalty, sometimes a hard position to argue in a specific case. Death will come to us all, but I believe everyone should have a chance to live as long as possible, even a fetus just starting out in the womb, even someone on death row--I support human life from womb to tomb. Most conceptions are often somewhat of a surprise, though rarely completely unanticipated. And certainly, every person conceived is totally unique, born with special qualities that are very unexpected in so many ways which make them just who they are. And that's how it's always been ever since time immemorial.
