The Message Forum is an ongoing dialogue among classmates. The goal is to encourage friendly interaction, including interaction among classmates who really didn't know each other. Experience on the site has revealed that certain topics tend to cause friction and hard feelings, especially politics and religion. 

Although politics and religion are not completely off-limits, classmates are asked to be positive in their posts and not to be too repetitive or allow a dialog to degenerate into an argument. 

Forums work when people participate - so don't be bashful! Click the "Post Response" button to add your entry to the forum.

Jim Bedwell

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

Well, well, well,

Now, as July is dawning, we are told that our Commander-in-Chief is DEPENDABLY ENGAGED, from 10:00AM to 4:00PM,  SO.......what happens to our country if at 3:00AM the White House aides rush into Biden's bedroom, to tell him that the Chinese are attacking Taiwan, or N. Korea has fired a misslle headed toward our west coast?

What kind of instantaneous response is Biden going to be able to muster? (Please call back during regular business hours........Low blow, huh?}

And hearing Jill Biden say that "We must remember how Joe has conducted himself for the past 4 years," rings hollow, since 'the past' is now water under the bridge, and the main question we have now, at this point, is how can our president handle what looms before us in upcoming years, as we know that dementia DOES NOT IMPROVE, BUT WORSENS as time goes on.  Remembering what Joe has done previously, has little meaning as we face what is coming down the tracks super quickly. 

I also heard this morning that even though Obama and Pelosi and others are saying that they are sticking with Biden, ACTUALLY behind closed doors, the BIG WIGS are discussing options that may be offered at the upcoming Democrat convention, as Biden throws in the towel, possibly with a forced effort's smack in the face upon him, no matter what Jill or Hunter or grandkids may be saying.

On another note:

I find it funny that the Democcrats don't know, at least many of them, seemingly, that it is perfectly okay to have a conservative Supreme Court in the US.   There hasn't been one in so long, many of them think the concept is un-American and totally wrong.

Lowell Tuttle

A large manufacturing company trying to find a new location (I mean very large, like Toyota or GM or Boeing,) I would be wary of the power grid in Texas.

Whose fault is that?

Basically, ERCOT and the legislature's style Texas grid....including the burgeoning bitcoin business...

Bitcoin mining will have taken up almost 50% of the grid growth for the whole State of Texas, with the ability to profit from shutting down during peak times and being paid for doing so.

I am just not sure we know what we are doing here.   

I have a portable 5500-watt generator.   Works great, but I have had it fail on my due to not starting it frequently enough...mainly during the 2021 freeze...I would like to have it "electrified into" my power box so I could just plug it in there and turn off my AC...I think it could power most of the rest of the house if I watch what I turn on and keep on.   I am possibly wary of an electrician doing that would tsk tsk me to getting a new power box, so that would be some 2000-3000.   

Full generator power is (for me) not warranted enough for just using it a few times a decade..That's as long as you can expect that 15,000 to 25,000 expense to last...plus high cost maintenance, another questionable entanglement with the HVAC/service/contractor community...

My next upgrade has to be pex pipe into the house and throughout the attic...I forget how your plumbing is piped in homes in the Dallas area.   Is there a difference in piping between pier and beam and slabs up there?  Is your plumbing underneath or attic placed?   Pretty sure underneath on pier and beam is preferred for not freezing and cooler water in the summer.   Ramblin...

Lawrence (Lance) Cantor

Lawrence (Lance) Cantor

David Cordell

There seems to be a good bit of talk about how Jill Biden is the main person who is keeping President Biden in the campaign. I am waiting for a conservative cartoonist to portray her as Lady McBiden.

David Cordell

Bob D. said: 

What is the big deal about posting AI segments? How is it different from copying a piece from Wikipedia or a Google search result?

David C. responds:

I don't like AI posts. With Wikipedia, at least there is a reference ("This is from Wikipedia"), and you can decide whether or not Wikipedia is an adequate source. With Google searches, you just find something, and you can decide whether it is valid. However, I don't trust Google to be a fair broker of information. I strongly suspect that the algorithms favor one partiulr political persuasion. As far as I can tell, AI is anonymous. Even if sourses are provided, you still have to wonder how those particular sources were selected. Accepting AI passages without suspicion is worse than accepting statements from the "government" without suspicion.

David Cordell

Lowell,

I think our pipes are in the slab. Houses in my neighborhood are almost 40 years old, and a lot of them are having big-dollar issues with their cast iron sewer pipes.

About bitcoin and other so-called digital currencies -- I hate them. I see no societal value in them. Anyone who talks about how efficient they are supposed to be should factor in the societal detriment of generating electricity needed to "mine" them. Environmentalists should be raising holy hell. The  whole idea is dumb. Any related discussion of blockchain technology is just a smokescreen so people will say, "Uhh, Ok. I guess I understand. I think. Well, maybe not, but don't explain anymore. My head hurts."

How much has digital currency improved my life? Zero. Compare that to the invention of stay-on-tabs to replace pop-tops on soda cans. Now that's technology that improved society, even if it rendered a Jimmy Buffett lyric anachronistic. ("Grandpa, what's a pop-top? Why did the singer cut his heel? Didn't he have shoes?")

That said, I wsh I could go back a few years and speculate about $1000 in Bitcoin as one of my (not-very-good) students suggested. 

I know what you're thinking: "He's just bitter because he missed the boat." Yeah, OK. I'm bitter. But I still contend that digital currencies are dumb.

Jim Bedwell

First we heard that...........

Masks work.

The vaccine will prevent the spread of the virus.

Then we heard that........

The inflation is just transitory.

The border is closed and secure.

Now we're hearing from the White House press corps..........

Joe does not have Alzheimer's or dementia.

And that doesn't include all the hoaxes, just a few of which are.........

Trump said this or that (wrong), e.g. Charlottesville, etc., ad nauseum.

Trump colluded with the Russians in 2016 (HilLIARy did).

Hunter's laptop was Russian disinformation.

Trump promoted an insurrection on Jan. 6.

Trump is guilty and deserves to be a convicted felon.

Yet people will still vote for Joe Demento or his replacement. Dems lie 24/7 these days.

Lowell Tuttle

Lance.   I think Beryl is going right into or just slightly North of Cozumel...But, it will be a few more days.   Susie and I went on our only cruise in February of 2021...Covid was shutting them all down...We were delayed getting out by fog in Galveston and were forced to only be able to go to Pruven? I forget.   On the return, the ship was heading directly into a huge Norther.  The going was tough, but thanks to the spirit of the fearless crew, that big minnow made it.   

The waves from the ship were shooting up to almost deck level...and we were jumpin those waves...

You will have a nice tailwind...I am guessing you get back an hour or so ahead of schedule.

David Cordell

Well, Biden is toast. They're turning on him. The press. The donors. Now elected officials, led by Lloyd Doggett.

"Moderate" Democrat Maine Congressman Jared Golden: "Trump is going to win, and I'm OK with that." Golden is in a district that Trump carried in 2020. They are starting to worry that down-ballot Democrat candidates will get massacred.

Of course, I don't want Biden to withdraw. I think he is a great candidate for the Dems -- almost as good as Trump for Republicans.I just hope and pray that our adversaries don't take advantage of us  too much in the next seven months.

Wayne Gary

My wife watched part of the debate and being a retired RN watched Biden's movements.  After thhe debate she looked up other videos of of him walking.  To her his walking and facial movements appear to be early signs of Parkensons.  I heard the Dems are saying Biden is healthier than most Americans. To Jill denial is a river in Egypt.

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

Gee Whillikers!

I hear there are 15 Democrats who have lined up phone calls to Prez Biden.  Wow!

Et tu Brute?

Jim Bedwell

David C,

Yeah, I figured months ago that the Dems would have to replace Biden (formerly just Joe Defecto, now Joe Defecto-Demento) on their ticket. But, like you, I hope he can fend that off!!! Thank God Michelle Obama has zero interest in being President, or else we might get the final fatal blow to the republic in the form of Obama IV.

And the Dem voting base is still rock solid. About a third of our country in always going to vote Dem, maybe up to 40% - Biden's totally inexplicably-understandable approval rating in polls is still in the mid-30's. The Dem voters will remain loyal to the 24-7-lying Pravda-esque corrupt legacy media, no matter what happens; they're all in bed together, just not bed-well - their voters need to be-dwell elsewhere obviously, rather than in their longstanding house of cards.

David Cordell

Yes, should Biden withdraw, the only person whom Black people would accept as his replacement nominee would be Harris, unless Mrs. Obama is willing to serve. Not likely, but I think she would beat Trump.

Here is a very remote possibility and a scary thought. Biden withdraws and resigns early enough to allow Harris to be president before the election. Independent voters think, "Well, let's give her a chance for a full term." She polls better against Trump than Biden does.

Yikes!

David Cordell

A post from one of my 28 first cousins

Paul Petersen had an enthusiastic stage mother who pushed him into show business. He began performing, as an eight-year-old, as one of the original Mousketeers on "The Mickey Mouse Club" in 1955.

At age 12, Petersen was cast as Donna Reed's son on her popular sitcom, "The Donna Reed Show". With Carl Betz as his highly practical doctor dad and Shelley Fabares as his older pretty sister, the foursome became the ideal nuclear family for late 50s/early 60s viewers. Paul and his alter-ego, Jeff Stone, literally grew up on the show. By his teens, the good-looking, dark-haired lad had become a formidable heartthrob. Fan clubs sprouted up everywhere. So popular were both Paul and Shelley that they spun off into recording careers, groomed to become singing idols despite their modest voices. She scored with the #1 hit, "Johnny Angel", and he had a few minor hits with "She Can't Find Her Keys", "Keep Your Love Locked", "Lollipops and Roses" and "My Dad".

The fun ended, however, after the show's demise in 1966. His All-American teen typecast didn't fit the bill as the dissonant Vietnam counterculture took hold. Feeling lost and abandoned, Paul eventually was forced to give it all up and went through a period of great personal anguish and turmoil. Wisely, he enrolled at college and started writing adventure novels (penning 16 books in all). For 10 years, he ran his own limousine service. His biggest accomplishment to date, however, has been to give back, selflessly, to an industry that unceremoniously dumped him. In essence, "A Minor Consideration" is an outreach organization that oversees the emotional, financial and legal protection of kids and former kids in show business. Among the issues Paul deals with are better education, and stricter laws regarding a 40-hour work week. For those who have "been there, done that" and are experiencing severe emotional and/or substance abuse problems, he offers a solid hand in helping them find a renewed sense of purpose. Today, Paul is rightfully considered "the patron saint of former child actors". (IMDb)

Happy Birthday, Paul Petersen!

David Cordell

Tommy, you added the word "all". Most people understand generalizations and the concept of voting blocs. Besides, I know of some prominent Black people -- Republicans -- who won't vote for the Democrat nominee, no matter who it is.

David Cordell

By Sarah Bahari

A sacred piece of American history is tucked into the seventh floor of the downtown Dallas Public Library.

One of the original copies of the Declaration of Independence rests behind a glass display case at the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library. It is the only known copy west of the Mississippi River.

But how, exactly, did Dallas acquire the prized document?

On the evening of July 4, 1776, printer John Dunlap produced an estimated 200 copies of the Declaration of Independence from his Philadelphia shop. Over the following years, most copies were lost; in fact, just 26 known copies exist today.

In 1968, one copy was discovered in a backroom box of the shuttered Leary’s Book Store in Philadelphia. That print may have languished in storage for more than a century, according to the Dallas Public Library. Because of that, it is often called the “lost copy.”

Soon after it was found, the document was auctioned for more than $400,000, according to a 2014 report by KERA. The highest bidders were a pair of Dallas executives, Joseph Driscoll and Ira Corn, Jr.

In 1982, with the help of 15 additional donors, the city of Dallas acquired the document, which was first displayed at Dallas City Hall before moving to its home at the library, KERA reported.

“It is not going to perish. It’s going to be around. And it’s free,” Dallas’ former city manager George Schrader told KERA.

“And it brings to people who otherwise wouldn’t have access an enormous amount of information and services,” Schrader said of the library. “It is, and maybe this is something that I want it to be, it’s the corporate memory of this community.”

On its website, the library thanks the Friends of the Dallas Public Library for its permanent display.

“This is the fundamental legal document that established the United States of America,” the library wrote. “As such, its importance cannot be overemphasized.”

What does the Declaration of Independence say?

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Holly Hobby

Forty-three years ago today, RJ and I laid eyes on each other for the first time.

Exactly one year later on on the same July day we were married.  According to him, “The biggest, most difficult accomplishment of my life was convincing Holly to marry me.”   While I would never agree his biggest accomplishment was convincing me to marry him, in part, it is true.  I had no interest in marriage. Especially not to some hottie young lawyer with an ego bigger than the Antarctic Desert.

Floating above my head was cartoon bubble where I imagined myself at the wheel of a station wagon packed with overly excited, impatient, insolent, quibbling, screaming children, at least two them threatening to kill each other. In that same cartoon bubble was the image of a woman with whose hair appeared straight out of mug shot (with a face to match).  A bedraggled, rapidly aging woman with no time for a career of her own.  A woman married to a man clearly married to his job.  I just couldn’t.  So. For eleven months and twelve days I kept the poor guy twisting in the wind; at the same time overwhelmed with guilt. I loved dating him. I loved being with him.  I just didn’t want to get married.  Since then, a thousand times plus I've thought "what an idiot!" Not him. Me. 

Reminding me of that temporary delusion yesterday was the inadvertant stumbling upon a long forgotten photo album in the attic; one neither RJ or I even knew existed.  It was that old.   You know, the kind  whose photos continue to withstand  decades of extreme temperature and lack of attention.  The kind replaced by digital storage ; the kind , so ancient, your kids gasp saying something like, "that's hilarious!"  The  kind whose brittle, yellowing photos remain  permanently stuck to flimsy, cracking  yellowing plastic page insets holding each image within. 

I watched RJ stare at  (the attached ) pic of me, kindly trying not to laugh. ” WHAT was with your HAIR!?”    "Well, your's  doesn’t look much better, bro.”   

Speed forward to earlier tonight over dinner with friends when one asked, “what do you think is the secret to a happy lasting marriage?”  Without missing a beat, RJ purveyed his sage wisdom:  “even though you’re married, no matter how rough it gets, always treat each other as though you’re dating.”   Clearly, every one of our friends were greatly impressed. Inspired, even. 

Once I stopped choking on a sip of champagne I said, WHAT?!   I’M the one who, 43 years ago, agreed to marry you ONLY if YOU  PROMISED,  "no matter how rough it gets we will ALWAYS treat each other as though we’re dating.”  (And we have).  That got a laugh, mainly because, busted, RJ shrugged his shoulders and laughed, “okay. Okay.  She’s right.  The woman has me so well trained  (no matter what it is) I end up convinced  I’m the one who thought of it!"

David Cordell

Tommy,

Have you never heard political pundits refer to "Black voters" or "woman voters"?

Have you never heard one say, "The abortion issue is going to hurt Trump with woman voters"?

Did you hear anyone say that Biden's illegal gambit to "forgive" student loans would help him with young voters?

All women voters? All young voters?

You're just trying to stir up trouble.

Wayne Gary

I just got to laff at Linked In

I got 2 messages from different colleges stating the could help me complete my college degree. They would give me credit for work experience and credits from other colleges.  I got my BS 50 yrs ago from a better school than the 2 trying to recruit me.  The schools were Texas Tech and Arizona State. 

Wayne Gary

I just got to laff at Linked In

I got 2 messages from different colleges stating the could help me complete my college degree. They would give me credit for work experience and credits from other colleges.  I got my BS 50 yrs ago from a better school than the 2 trying to recruit me.  The schools were Texas Tech and Arizona State. 

David Wier

"In the absence of any modifier, "all" is understood."

The way I read it, "in general" was understood.

When I hear "Black Voters", "Women Voters", or "Young Voters", that's the way I hear it also. I don't believe that anyone could possibly understand "all" in that use.

To me, the only thing Trump stands for that I totally agree with is his stand against abortion. There are also other items I lean toward, but this whole political climate, as it stands, really has me shaking in my boots. The Supreme Court's ruling of immunity can easily be understood as "leaning toward" making the president a king and/or dictator. Who's (the court) to say what is an official or non-official act?

I wish I had downloaded the cartoon/meme I saw yesterday to post it here. It was Joe Biden calling Seal Team 6 and saying "Do you hear that, guys? I'm immune. Take him out". The president does have to protect our republic at all costs. Anyway, it made me smile a little.

A humorous post much less direct than that, on Facebook, a couple of years ago, caused a MAGA Republican friend of my wife for 20 years, to block us both and dumping us as friends. I mean, after all, we were the kind of people who are ruining our country (she said).

Of course, non-political me - what do I know? (Please excuse the rambling)

OK - soapbox down.

:)

Wayne Gary

With the Presidential Immunity the one thing that is overlooked is impeachment by House and conviction by Senate.  That still stands.

David Cordell

Tommy,

Here is a great video of a story about Trump told to a Black woman (Sage Steele) by a Black man (Congressman Wesley Hunt, R-Texas) with another Black man (Congressman Byron Donalds, R-Florida) listening intently. The two Congressmen are not among the "all" Black people concept that you inferred. I am pretty sure that they won't be influenced if the Democrats choose to jettison VP Harris.

This video might might horrify some Democrats with delicate sensibilities. 

Trump story