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and not have to answer questions, even to a policeman about whether they are coming from or going. IT IS ONLY THE WOMAN's BUSINESS. Why does this even come up, and with all the FREEDOM, FREEDOM (including people who say they have freedom not to infect other people through Covid), every single United States citizen should be shouting that women are free to travel. But some Republicans do not think so. Republicans block bill to protect women who travel to other states for abortions. Republicans want to say that anyone who objects to women being able to travel out of state is radical. I'm sure if some of these people lived around the time when slavery was legal and some slaves travelled to *free* states would have thought that was radical too. And how the heck would this even be enforced? Have traffic stops at state lines where every women would be questioned about where they were going and coming from and what purpose for going into another UNITED STATES state? Sheesh. It's interesting to note that apparently there was a chance when covid was rampant that President Biden might mandate vaccinations for interstate travel-the article, from Daily Wire, says that would have likely violated the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. Well, SO WOULD STOPPING WOMEN. Are Republicans really wanted to put out a standard that definitely sets women as less deserving of citizenship than men? Not all Republicans, apparently just the House Republican Representatives, because there are Republican Senators who know this would be unconstitutional My view is that it should not depend upon companies to cover travel expenses to get to a state where women are treated as equal citizens of the United States. In fact, criminal kooks like Texas Republican Legislators went to pass legislation that And this is already happening. My guess is that Texas no longer wants to be business friendly and is wanting to chase off qualified professional employees that will live elsewhere, especially women who believe their lives are in danger due to the radical legislation re: abortions. Back to my original premise. I saw the other day someone on a chat board mention that they had been stopped for speeding and the woman driving was asked where she was going (she was in a different state than she lived in). The question is, does this sort-of "SHOW US YOUR PAPERS" have to be done? Even if were a man being asked, is this a legitimate question given the context? ACLU Adding- The Republican party wants to pretend that they are not trying to prevent women from travelling freely to other states. HELLO_ TEXAS! Rolling Stone

SBC.NET Seems that Southern Baptists were much more humane and loving in the past than the so-called *christian* monsters in the SBC now.

WFMZ.Com This isn't even about abortion but the same procedure used to treat a miscarriage as an abortion. Republican kooks in Texas not only are pro-death but for some reason have no problem with scaring doctors into not doing procedures WHEN A FETUS DIES through miscarriage. Do not vote for these Republican monsters. Reminder that the same type of thing happened in Ireland that is why abortion is legalized there.

I happened to be looking out about half an hour ago to the east and the yard looked like it was orange. A cloud overhead looked sort of orange and I couldn't figure out why. Got a call a bit ago from a friend of mine who told me there is a wildfire off 67 near Stewarts. I asked more precisely whether that was before or after, going west, the road that goes to Fossil Rim, and she said it was after towards Stephenville. Incidentally, I greatly appreciate the concern of reaching out to make sure I knew about the fire. One thing for sure. When I listen to the scanner, it is clear we have a great fire department. The department sets up a command center, and send people around to various locations when a fire is spotted or reported on. On the pic below, you can see not only the main fire which was around 51, but another one that started off to the left. Pictures taken south of Hwy 67 and the wind was blowing from the south to north so the fire was blowing north From Texas A&M Forestry Service on Twitter You could not even see the sun through the smoke in the sky. Like an oven outside, but, surprisingly, seems that not having the sun beating down on the yard and having a *cover* helped the plants Listening to the scanner They are around FM 205 and 1009 5:52 pm North side of 51, lost 2 structures, evacuating people Brush truck on CR 1008 6:55 pm 51 and CR 1005 - 7:44 pm Aerial planes dropping water every 20 minutes, fire at 4500 block of CR 1008 7:47 pm Tuesday, July 18 - Seems there are still fire around 205. 1004 hay bales on fire (8:47 am) Texas A&M Forest Service shows this as called Chalk Mountain and 10% contained as of 11:59 am Update from around 8:00 am Wednesday July 20 10:26 am from where I can see it looks a whole lot better. Still appears to have hotspots on 205. A bit ago SomcoFire said on the scanner that air drops about to be made (presumably Forest Service). Also getting in some more dozers. Hico FD helping near Cottonwood Baptist Church (51) Thursday July 21 2022 Update for July 27 2022 07/27/2022 Chalk Mountain Fire Morning Update Chalk Mountain Fire Wildfire News – 55 min. ago Chalk Mountain Fire Update July 27, 2022 10:00 a.m. Chalk Mountain Fire Stats: Size: 6,746 Acres Containment: 40% Location: 4.6 miles SW of Glen Rose, TX Start Date: July 18, 2022 Cause: Under Investigation Resources Assigned Total personnel: 309 Engines: 22 Dozers: 10 Handcrews: 5 The Southern Area Blue, Type-I Incident Management Team assumed command of the Chalk Mountain Fire at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, July 20, 2022. Current Status: Firefighters continued making progress on the Chalk Mountain Fire yesterday as the total containment increased to 40 percent yesterday while the acreage remained the same. The primary area of emphasis is the northern perimeter near the intersection of FM 205 and the northwestern edge of the fire. Visible smoke was observed in this area throughout the day as hotspots interspersed with unburned fuel are causing flareups. Aerial resources spent the day cooling this area, allowing ground crews the chance to work these hotspots. The fire continues to smolder and creep through this area. Throughout the remainder of the fire, crews spent the day gridding for and extinguishing hotspots on the interior of the fire and focused much of this gridding in and around homes. The eastern and western edges of the fire are being monitored for remaining hotspots, and fire officials are pleased with the progress in these areas. Fire conditions across the region remain at a critical level. Soil moisture remains completely depleted to a depth of at least eight inches. This means the moisture normally present in the ground is not available to slow the spread of fires. This lack of moisture is facilitating the smoldering and the burning of roots across the Chalk Mountain Fire. Fire Weather: Hot and dry conditions will persist throughout the week. An upperlevel ridge remains in place across much of Texas that is holding this heat in place. Temperatures will climb to as high as 104 degrees today with south winds expected at 8-12 mph gusting to 20 mph. Relative humidity will drop to nearly 20 percent. The current rain free streak at DFW is at 54 days (5th driest ever) with no rain expected.        Evacuations and Closures: There are no current evacuations or closures impacting the Chalk Mountain Fire. Contact the Somervell County Sheriff’s Office for the most current information on evacuations and closures: Phone: 254-897-2242 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Somervellsheriff Safety and Notifications: Personal responsibility and prevention of the next ignition is of utmost importance in preventing the next wildfire. Refrain from parking vehicles on dry grass and make sure all power equipment is in good working condition. Do your part to help our firefighters. Wildfires are a NO DRONE ZONE. If you fly, we can’t. Flying a drone near a wildfire can shut down all air operations. Fire Information: Fire Information Line: 817-381-5914 Email: 2022.chalkmountain@firenet.gov Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lssimt Inciweb: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/8255/

Disgusting. Many women have pregnancy complications that could cause them to die and require an abortion. Mouth-breathers who glorify death by taking away an actual living woman's health are sick. And, hypocrites unless they go after the military next. Newsweek

I've watched every single one of the January 6 hearings, in which a bunch of people stormed the Capitol of the United States, showed contempt for police (um, what ever happened to the Blue Lives Matter mantra?), injured people, put out a noose to hang Vice President Mike Pence, and then ran roughshod through the Capitol, including smearing poop inside the building, stealing things and looking like they were not only trying to obstruct a constitutional event but were going to injure or kill congresspeople. It is extremely clear by the last one I saw, Day 7, that Trump was trying anything he possibly could to stay in power and spit on the peaceful transfer of power. He knew it was a lie that the election was stolen, had plenty of challenges that he lost in court, tried to obstruct justice by calling Raffensberger in Georgia, and said he was going to go to the Capitol with people he knew were armed and dangerous. Decent people turned away in disgust at what he and his followers did, and in fact, a whole bunch of the people involved in January 6 have already been arrested, charged, and some serving jail sentences. (more than 840 at last count) . The most recent one Anyway, here are the videos from past hearings. Next one is supposed to be on Thursday night - and here is the latest news from the committee 6/9/2022- 1st hearing (from CBS and Youtube Transcript from NPR: part of that 6/13/2022 - 2nd hearing Transcript from NPR- part of that 6/16/2022 3rd hearing Transcript from NPR- part of that 6/21/2022- 4th hearing Transcript from NPR- part of that 6/23/2022 - 5th hearing Transcript from NPR -part of that 6/28/2022 - 6th hearing Transcript from NPR - part of that 7/12/2022 - 7th hearing Transcript from NPR - part of that

Everyone who lives in Somervell County knows that the heat this summer has been extraordinary. There have been excessive heat warnings for a lot of days that tell people to stay inside. I concur but there are still things that have to be done outside if, as I do, you have agriculture or have to feed cattle, etc. I have a section of the yard where I have been attempting for the last year to create a privacy buffer between me and the neighbor. One way I decided to do it is by planting Texas Sage near the fence line. Texas Sage is supposed to grow up to 6 feet tall and 5 feet wide, and does well in heat and drought conditions. Hah, BUT I feel that even Texas Sage has found itself challenged by the unrelenting sun and heat every day. So I got an idea to get some shade cloth to put along the fence that would, at least in the morning since the sun comes from the east then, give some shade to the plants. It is not a permanent solution, and will probably take it down over the winter, but if it could give a leg up to those plants, all the better. (Also got a whole lot of free mulch from the dump). Several days ago I was out after about 6:30 at night when it was (pretend with me) cooler, and was attaching the cloth. In order to do this, I had to be crouching down part of the time to secure the cloth through a grommet to the bottom of the wire fence with some ties. I came up and there were two Somervell County cops on the other side of the fence. One asked me if I had been on that side of the fence on that (the neighbor's property). Maybe it was the heat, but this annoyed me a little and I said, emphatically, "No. I am on MY side of MY property". Then one of them asked if I had seen anybody over on that side. Now, when the neighbors had come home up their driveway, I thought I had heard a little bit of chatter but wasn't really paying attention. Occurred to me when the cops asked that maybe they saw me putting up the shade cloth and mistakenly thought I was on their side. Then the cop asked if I had seen a man in a white t-shirt. I hadn't actually seen anyone but apparently when the neighbors got home, they saw a guy standing in between their house and an area on the other side of my fence which they use to drive 4 wheelers. When they saw him, he ran off into the woods towards MY yard. At that point the cops had not seen him themselves but they did after a bit and the guy ran again into the woods. I had gone into the house by then, we have cameras all over it, and, of course, being Texans, guns, so I figured if he had actually come here, I would be able to see him and possibly identify him. They never found him, that I know of, but here's what I wonder. That day there was another one of those heat advisories and no one in their right mind would be out running around anybody's neighborhood on their own, without a vehicle. There was no car or visible means to show how the heck that guy ended up next door so I doubt he was out looking to rob people. How would he even do a getaway and why would he purposely be trying to rob a house at a time when most people either would be home or coming home AND THEN HAVE NO WAY TO LEAVE except on foot. For that reason, I think he knew someone in the house and maybe wasn't supposed to be there and ran out when he heard the adults coming home. But who knows? I will say as a coda to this that the shade cloth seems to be helping those plants.

Yahoo Here's the reportLost-Not-Stolen-The-Conservative-Case-that-Trump-Lost-and-Biden-Won-the-2020-Presidential-Election-July-2022.pdf

AP

Decent people with ethics do not require that 10 year old girls must carry babies to term when impregnated by a rapist (or any other age of women for that matter). Anyone that does feel that way, ie, that rapists have more rights than a girl or woman, has something seriously wrong with them, and should be shunned, even if they pretend they are somehow righteous people. Have read in the past week or so about the 10 year old girl in Ohio who was raped by a man, and, because Ohio now has made abortions illegal, had to travel to Indiana to get an abortion done. Show me ONE decent moral person who believes that a 10 year old rape victim should be forced to carry a baby to term. The doctor who treated the rape victim and provided abortion services was harrassed by the Indiana AG, who went on trash network Fox *News* to defame her and question her license, even though abortion is LEGAL in Indiana, and the doctor had to send him a cease and desist letter. So far as I know this is the first time a right granted to US citizens has been taken away by a group of kook SCOTUS. What about women who have ectopic pregnancies?  AP Or Lupus? Also from that same article is the side effect where a woman has to be close to death herself to get an abortion. It is beyond ridiculous that the Republican nutjobs in power in some states do not have any type of, at least, exemptions for abortion. More than that, how ridiculous that so many people who could not bring themselves to get vaccinated or wear face masks to help prevent the spread of covid, all crying out the whole time about their rights to be jerks, do not apparently see the hypocrisy when it comes to what should be private medical decisions by women. P.S. Dan Patrick showing on this because, remember, he wanted the elderly to sacrifice their lives in favor of businesses staying open. So, PRO_DEATH.

According to KCENTV, the fire is 40% contained and people in Walnut Springs may possibly be asked to evacuate (not yet) Bosque County is south of us and earlier today when I was out in the yard, a jet flew very fast overhead towards there. About 10 minutes ago, 3 jets came from the south so I assume they are either getting more water or fire retardant.

Before I post this link, have to say that if YOU OR I got a subpoena, we would almost certainly have to comply. We could, I think, take the 5th amendment not to answer questions, but we would still have to be here. I was subpoenaed a few years back in a lawsuit against Glen Rose Medical Center by the Turks and had to pay for my own attorney. As I recall, I could set certain parameters, such as how long the deposition would be, and a mutually agreeable date, but that was IT. Since when does Congress get to act like some entitled jerks that get to pass laws that affect everybody else but they get to skate out of obeying the law. Newsweek

Besides the fact it has been hotter than usual, some of the plants I have in the front yard have taken a real beating. The only reason I could imagine for it was that deer were coming along in the middle of the night and chewing down the plants, including the flowers. I had one pot with caladiums that seemed to be lunch for something, plus it was struggling a bit with the heat. I moved it under a tree in a shady part of the yard. About a week ago I went out to look and the leaves had been eaten off in the middle of the night. Since I knew that there should be a before leaves eaten and after, I looked at the yard video and found the deer. We had recently gotten a motion detector in the yard that sprays water if something comes across its path and it is kind of hilarious to see how quick the deer jumps away. Since using this motion detector have had no problems with deer eating the plants in the yard anymore.

SO HOT here now, under a heat advisory through Friday evening, and it will be over 100 degrees every day for at least a week. And that only brings us to the middle of July. Time to bring up one of my favorite things about living in this county and that is the Somervell County Transfer Station where I can get a free truckload of mulch. I have done this twice already this summer (really should have started in March) and it has done wonders for the trees and bushes in the yard. Whereas before I would water, the water would quickly evaporate due to the hot dry winds blowing through the yard, now the trees are actually green and some of the crepe myrtles are blooming. Hub set up the lawnmower with a cart so that I can drive to exactly where I want to put mulch, so I get a bunch from the back of the pickup, put it in the cart, and then place it around the trees I'm trying to save. The first time I did this, in the last 3 weeks, I waited till a day it would not get to 100 degrees to do it. Really, the trees needed a second layer of mulch, so waited again for another day of below 90 and actually where it would be below 100 for a few days, and did it again. I read some years back from a prominent DFW gardener that said the secret of gardens in Texas is Mulch Mulch Mulch and I heartily agree. I feel very lucky that we have such a great dump here, and appreciate the lady who is always there at the window checking in residents, with a cheerful smile. And the people who help get the pickup loaded via front end loader. All good!

I wrote about why I'm an atheist on my old blog, Salon, in 3 parts, going to copy the information to put it all here. I wrote this in 2010 so that was 12 years ago. Why I Am Now An Atheist Part 1- Religious Background Why I'm Now an Atheist- Part 2- Feminism and Women in Religion Um. Thanks. :) I also do not believe that being a woman physically is a curse, that being able to have children, or feel pain during childbearing, is a curse, or that women should be blamed, like Pandora opening the box, for all the world's evils. I've read a number of stories where women have been in abusive relationships and have been told by religious *authorities* to basically put up with it, and wait on god. That's absurd. If a woman genuinely feels that she is being abused, she can make her own decision about whether to get out or not. Again, her OWN decision, because she is an adult, not a child that needs to be told what to do. And I don't want to hear "If people would actually follow the example of God's love...". Belief that one should treat each other kindly and with love is an ethical position that anyone can have; conversely there are plenty who profess to be moral that don't follow loving precepts. From Alternet I've wondered before it was all simply a desire for power. That is, one who wants power must have others to be powerful over. If you can convince half the world that you have a right, simply because of your sex, to have the power and they cannot, because god says so, why wouldn't you do it? But why does any woman buy into this? When I started really considering whether a book had the right to dictate how I should be perceived, only because I happen to have been born female, I decided it could not. That goes for any so-called holy book or any religion or philosophy. To me, a book only has power over you to change how you perceive yourself if you allow it to. If there are women that want to be submissive to the men in their lives, they can be. But because America is a nation of laws, others that do not want to live this way do not have to and can, in good stead, reject that choice of life. I prefer relationships that are based on love, respect and equality. That gets me to the heart of my philosophical argument I had with myself regarding a just god. I don't believe that if god exists, he or she would make a distinction based on a flawed book between male and female, that he would punish a woman just for eating an apple that represented knowledge, or create physical problems and pain. If that were 1, then god would be no better than an abusive husband. I do not see any evidence among religions that claim to speak for god that women are treated consistently better. Is there any reason to have male dominance over women aside from claims for it, or justification based on a book? No. If god existed, and god were good, he or she or it would have made sure that everyone, male or female, was treated fairly and that if there were those that sought to lord it over others were stepping out of bounds, they would be snapped back. Instead there are a host of evils that are done to woman in the name of religion. Therefore, I reject religion as an artifice of humans designed for various earthly ends. Why I'm Now An Atheist- Part 3- Why Even Say Anything Publicly? I'm the same person I was before, didn't suddenly grow hooves, or change my basic moral and ethical beliefs. The only thing that changed is that I no longer believe in god. This is not a bad thing. In fact, there's a real mental freedom that comes with this. I don't believe in a vindictive god that would condemn me to an eternity of torment because of jealousy. I do believe in treating people well during their lives and having the best, happiest, most appreciative, and ethical life one can, because this is when it counts to show love to others. Not later. Now. I don't believe that a god would want me to lie about worshipping him or her IN CASE I'm wrong. As Bertrand Russell said "But sir, you didn't give us enough evidence." People will then often say, "But surely it's better to remain an Agnostic just in case?" This, to me, suggests such a level of silliness and muddle that I usually edge out of the conversation rather than get sucked into it. (If it turns out that I've been wrong all along, and there is in fact a god, and if it further turned out that this kind of legalistic, cross-your-fingers-behind-your-back, Clintonian hair-splitting impressed him, then I think I would choose not to worship him anyway.) Douglas Adams Everyone is an atheist in his or her own way. If one doesn't believe in the god/gods of another religion, that one is atheist in that regard. I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours. ~ Stephen Roberts I really didn't talk directly much on this site about what I was thinking, but instead about other issues that illustrated issues I was grappling with. Like, why, since the pledge of allegiance was altered in only 1954, should anyone stand and say it in its new religious guise? It's a marriage of obeisance to a piece of cloth and god (graven idol anyone?) It also doesn't seem fair that since we are a country that has freedom of religion, which includes freedom from religion, that secular government should include a marriage of church and state. (I may feel extra strongly that way because I was raised as a baptist, which STILL has in its belief statements that church and state should be separate.) I don't see anyone being forbidden to do private religious activities in taxpayer spheres as long as they aren't imposed on the public. (Like children praying in school-who stops them unless they try to stand up and lead the class?) If there are those that want to be religious and worship one god over another, I am not trying to stop them. Again, we have freedom of religion in this country and that includes, for example, Islam. I began recently, though, to feel that I wanted to express myself on this. I"m not ashamed of calling myself an atheist. I am a moral, ethical person. I starting feeling like anyone that thought maybe I was would consider that I was trying to hide it. In this country, though, why would anyone with a difference in beliefs or opinion feel compelled to not treat beliefs as normal and part of life? I know a lot of people who start their meals with a prayer, don't have any problem with telling me how they feel about their god, and, in fact, as in the case of evangelists, consider it their mission in life to do so. I want to express my opinion as well. I'm an American and proud to live in this country where I can speak up, even when I am not sure that my views are popular.

Absurd (from AbovetheLaw) Oh no! An unelected official who took it upon themselves to spit on the Constitution is sad that 100 people are peacefully outside the house? Um… didn’t the Supreme Court say something about this? That’s from Madsen v. Women’s Health Ctr., 512 U.S. 753 (1994), where the Supreme Court ruled that you can go hurl insults outside the homes of abortion clinic workers all you want. The Supreme Court staffer in charge of security seems to think that disturbing a nurse is OK, but that the Constitution wouldn’t cover annoying attempted rapists or known sexual harassers (if such people were even on the Supreme Court!!!) simply by virtue of them being on the Supreme Court.

www.governorgregabbott.com

Business Insider No free speech for you if you support Facebook/Meta. I quit Facebook some 4-5 years ago, deleted all my data on there and have been extremely happy about that choice.

Ohio

Sheesh. Makes it even more important for parents to take an active part in their children's education, read and consider what the children are being taught and make sure to teach them the truth. The slave trade should not be glossed over with such a ridiculous phrase.

Denon Record Courier

Business Insider

I try, I really try, NOT to read anything about Lauren Boebert, who seems like an exceptionally terrible Republican. And that's saying something. But she apparently is clueless about not only the constitution but the history of this country. She thinks the *church is supposed to direct the government". Oh, yeah, which church? Which sect? Which flavor? Does that mean Jews? which Jews? Muslims? Buddhists? Even within the bounds of the general term christianity, which she is probably referring to, there is not one standard for the religion. Plus, the constitution is godless.

EEOC says no