news headlines
A. "The upcoming hurricane season is looking explosive" says AccuWeather this morning.
B. From the MiddleEast, "Israeli forces hospital raid highlights Hamas's return to areas IDF says it has cleared."
C. POLITICO, "Justices were skeptical of abortion pill arguments. Anti-abortion groups have backup plans."
D. AXIOS. "Religious service attendance across the U.S. is dropping."
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D: so, what else is gnu? Religious service attendance across the US has been dropping for decades, DECADES. Attendance plummeted during the COVID pandemic, people realized (1) that sleeping in Sundays was a real treat, and (2) that quitting church, which they had long wanted to do anyway but couldn't get up the courage, had been accomplished for them painlessly by pandemic isolation rules; and they weren't about to go back.
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B: Israel and the IDF had d well better stick to their determination to destroy Hamas and remove the existential threat, or the ongoing pogrom of horrors will quickly resume. Hamas has not shown and will not show any inclination to back off their aim of destroying Israel and killing every Jew. The object of war is not ceasefire but victory, to destroy the other side. At the end of the Battle of Berlin a German general came out with a white flag and tried to negotiate with the Russian general, but the goal was not a negotiated ceasefire but the unconditional surrender of evil; and nobody was shedding tears about the innocent German civilians. Just so now, the Hamas evil needs to be eliminated as a threat and the world shown that such evil will not be tolerated. In the past, my sympathy was with the Palestinians, but the cruel, merciless, deliberate atrocity of Oct 7 changed all that and I'm not going back. Right or wrong in retrospect, the 1948 creation of the state of Israel is now a historic fact and it must be honored.
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C: I understand and sympathize with both sides of the abortion issue that has been settled in so many other countries, that is so bitterly divisive in the U.S. I agree that the U.S. Constitution does not guarantee the right to abortion, but, with a long memory and a strong sense of history, my ultimate view is absolute hatred of authoritative government that tells people what to do, makes decisions for people that they can make themselves.
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A: the notion of an explosive hurricane season is frightening. It's a factor in and facet of progressive climate change around the world. How powerful is it scientifically possible for hurricanes to become? 500 mph? 1,000 mph? There's a limit, but I don't think nature has come anywhere near such limits yet. Generations after us are in for seasonal nightmares of hurricanes that rival EF5 tornadoes, which Category 5 hurricanes have not done yet.
What's our hurricane escape plan? We watch the weather news on television (locally, Channel 13 is exemplary). We try to keep one car tank full. We keep a case of bottled water and a supply of food and essentials like batteries, toilet paper and toiletries, underwear, clothing, eyeglasses, hearing aids & batteries, eating utensils including a can opener, ready for instant grabbing. Also wallets, credit cards, a bit of cash. The beginning of June, most of that supply will go into our intended "get away car." Which direction we head and where we go will depend on facts at the Time. We learned with H.Michael that return home is iffy, so we intend to be prepared to go long and stay long. What about returning? Linda is determined that we'll always return home to Panama City; I am trying to be more flexible.
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Life at 88&c includes two sets of "ears," electronic hearing aids. One set battery powered with changeable batteries (312); the other set rechargeable but don't wear regularly because the charge in the right one only lasts about an hour - - though I have to wear that set for phone calls because it directs the phone sound into the center of my brain; and I can't understand phone conversation with the other hearing aids. Jiminy Jeepers.
Life is Good and Every Day Is A Beautiful Day.
RSF&PTL
T88&c
pic: gnu pinched online