Twenty Years After Columbine - Parkland

Before November of 2016, I was extremely proud to be an American.  Then, with three million less votes than his rival, the people in America somehow put an idiotic "reality" television personality into the White House.  The man runs a huge realty-based business, but has frequently declared bankruptcy; he has been fined multiple times for breaking the laws of this country, both personally and professionally; he "buys off" people who complain; and he has no background in government at all.  Yet he is in charge of "running" our country.  Less than a month after he entered office, this pile of crap made it much easier for people with a history of mental illness to purchase weapons.
   Yesterday was both Valentine's Day and Ash Wednesday.  Yesterday, in Parkland, Florida, about 45 miles north of Miami, a 19-year-old man walked into a school and killed 17 people.  That is the 18th time an armed person has discharged a weapon in a school since January first of this year.  The accused was an ex-student, who had been expelled from the school and not allowed to return "for disciplinary reasons."  His Mother had passed away last year, he had moved into a home with family friends, and they thought he was depressed due to his Mother's death.
  The young man was armed with an AK-15 type of automatic rifle.  How did he purchase it?  When did he purchase it? Why did he purchase it?  It was described as his "prized possession."  He used it to bring terror and death - 17 killed and 14 wounded...  And this is is 20 years after the Columbine shooting.  An AK-15 bullet can pierce the protective hardened metal helmet of a soldier at 500 yards.  Think of what a round can do up close and personal to a student or a teacher - the effect is similar to tiny grenades in one's body.
     It sickens me.
   Yesterday afternoon, on the Senate floor in Washington, D.C., our nation's capitol, the junior Democratic Senator from the state of Connecticut, Chris Murphy, spoke.  He was in Connecticut at the time of the shooting of the Newtown elementary school...  He said, "Turn on your televisions right now and you are going to see scenes of children running for their lives.  Let me just note, once again, for my colleagues: This happens nowhere else other than the United States of America.  This epidemic of mass slaughter, this scourge of school shooting after school shooting, it only happens here.  Not because of coincidence, not because of bad luck, but as a consequence of our inaction.  We are responsible for a level of mass atrocity that happens in this country with zero parallel anywhere else."
   The following is a quote from The New Yorker today:   "The key concept in that excellent peroration (Senator Chris Murphy's quote) was responsibility.  Even with the blood of defenseless children flowing along the corridors of schoolhouses, the U. S. Government has abdicated its duty to protect.  And that, it bears repeating ad nauseum, is a national disgrace."
     I agree completely.

   

Photos - Winter in the Northern United States

Albany, New York

Fairbanks, Alaska

Bismark, North Dakota

Chicago, Illinois

Crested Butte, Montana

Cape Elizabeth, Maine

Marquette, Michigan

Voice Recognition

I walked out into the kitchen a few minutes ago, to re-fill my juice (having slightly over-peppered my breakfast), and paused as I heard a voice I know coming from the television.   Beatrice, my room mate, was watching television, and I asked, "Do I hear Mark Warner?," and she said, "Yes."  That made me think about voice recognition...
   Growing up, Mom and Dad's voices always meant comfort.  I grew to recognize the voices of the Presidents during their terms of office, and I always could say who was giving the news - especially Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather.  After a year of the 45th administration, I recognize the voices of Senators, Congressional Representatives, ex-FBI and ex-CIA agents, and I really delight in hearing the sound of the voice of Richard Painter, George W. Bush's ethics lawyer.
   I still recognize the voices of  certain stars of stage and screen - mostly from the 1930s through the mid-1970s.  That's where I remember most singers and musical groups from, too - even though I was born in 1956.  I have disconnected from the movies, television, and music since about 1980.  I enjoy a few television shows - mostly Australian, British and Canadian - and a very few movies.  And, being in my early 60s, I now shudder at 99% of today's "music."
   In any event, it's always nice to be able to hear voices of reason on MSNBC....

Photos - 2018 Winter Olympics

Yes, it's that time again - 

2018 Winter Olympics from 

PyeongChang, South Korea

2018 Mascots - Soohorang, the white tiger, and Bandabi, the Siberian bear

Opening Ceremony fireworks and lights

Pita Taufatofua carries the flag for Tonga

Elana Meyers Taylor returns with the US bobsled team;

she won silver and bronze in 2014

Seventeen year old Red Gerard seems to fly as he wins the USA's

first gold medal of 2018 in slopestyle skiboarding

The Nigerian bobsled team: Ngozi Onwumere, Akuoma Omeoga,

and Seun Adigun

The first gold medalist of this year's Games - Charlotte Kalla of Sweden,

in Cross Country Skiing

Intriguing Bits of Genealogy

I find history and genealogy fascinating.  I was astounded, and delighted to find that my sister (and I) are eighth cousins of her husband.  My husband and I were twenty-third cousins.  When my sister brought Jim home (to Florida, from Colorado), my parents, sister and Jim went on a two week vacation, going to favorite beaches and the Everglades.  Everywhere they went, folks assumed that Jim was the son of my parents, and that Kathy was his lady friend. Jim looks/looked a lot like my father.  And we're related through families that were early immigrants to New England.
   In assisting another couple with their family trees, we discovered that I was related to the wife through my Mother's family, and to the husband through my father's family.  I happily call them both cousins, and we stay in touch.
   Earlier this week, I had to laugh out loud when I discovered another, unknown to me, family connection.  Mom is from Chincoteague Island in Virginia, and the families there married folks from nearby states and counties.  The Truitt family from Sussex County, Delaware and from Worcester County, Maryland has married into the family tree on Chincoteague many times.  Dad's family pretty much started out in New England, then hit Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri.  I was filling in missing information on Dad's side of the family, when I stopped short and laughed. 
   My second-great-grandfather was Benjamin Nocks, and his brother was named William. Uncle William's second child, Lucy Alice (called Alice), married a man named Peter Truitt. In Indiana.  Peter Truitt's parents were born in Worcester County, Maryland. - And, yes, they are related to the Truitts who married into Mom's family in Virginia.
    That made me start thinking - is there a genetic trait, or subconscious stamp, that draws men and women together?  Here's a Nocks girl who marries a man who is one generation away from the watermen of the Eastern Shore in 1875.  Then, Dad, a Nocks Kansas farm boy joins the Navy, and gets sent to the Eastern Shore in 1947, where he meets and marries a waterman's daughter, with some of the same blood that his Aunt Alice married...
   I really have no clear idea - but it's something for me to ponder when my mind is otherwise disengaged....

Unusual Coats on Thoroughbred Horses

It used to be that all thoroughbred horses in the stud book were given few coat colors - chestnut, bay, brown, black, or grey.  Of course horses have many different coat colors, but those were the ones the thoroughbred owners and breeders used.  Due to cross-breedings, we now have many thoroughbreds of color.  Their are palominos, a few white, many roans, a few with large white markings (like pintos), and five brindles... 

 

Osage Murders - Photos

Osage Dancers  1917  Gray Horse Dance Hall

Osage Gusher  circa 1915

Charles Whitehorn, found shot in his car

(the "first" listed murder)

(above) Sisters (l to r) Minnie, Anna and Mollie

 (below, l to r) Anna, mother Lizzie, and Mollie 

(below) Mollie's first husband, by Osage law, Henry Roan

 (below, l to r) Sister Rita and her serving maid, Nettie Brookshire

 (below) Rita's husband, William E.  "Bill" Smith

Bill & Rita Smith's house before the explosion

 (below) Bill and Rita's house after the explosion

Except for the Osage Dancers in the top photo - and, most importantly, the

sister Mollie Burkhardt - all people pictured were murdered between 1921

and 1923.  Mollie was being poisoned; the intervention of the FBI saved

her life.  **There were originally 24 murders "listed" - the author of the

book discovered many, many more....  Only 6 were solved.**