Back To School

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The homeschool classes that I teach resume today.

This term I am scheduled to teach the following middle-school and high-school courses:

About That Dead "Refugee" Toddler

What is truth? Hard to tell in the Orwellian times in which we live.

From the beginning, I've had some doubts as to the explanation for that dead toddler-refugee on the beach. The photo looked staged to me.

But appearances are not proof of anything, are they? So, until now, I've not opined anywhere other than at Infidel Bloggers Alliance earlier today, that I have my doubts about that photo.

Over the weekend, I found the following on the web....

From The Muslim Issue:

Lie after lie after lie, that’s the reality behind the so called “poor refugee from a war zone” who sent his own wife and small children to their death, even when he had no reason to do so since he never lived in a war zone, had funds to sustain him for over one year and was safely settled in Turkey for THREE years.

The Abdullah Kurdi lies are unfolding when his stories kept constantly changing, depending on who he told his tale to. Abdullah never was on the ship on which he supposedly was the only survivor. It was all lies. Adullah claims he “did not mind” that his wife and children died so his story could be told to the world? What story? The usual migration fraud, initiated by terrorists and funded from Saudi Arabia. Abdullah Kurdi is not the only one encouraged to lie and relocate to a non-Muslim country. This is how the Israel wars started.

Since Kobani doesn’t have ISIS occupation where Abdullah Kurdi has his relatives, he had no problems flying there safely by plane two days ago, to attend a funeral. No real war zone then.

VANCOUVER, Sept 3
Reuters

The family of two Syrian toddlers who drowned as they tried to reach Greece had not yet applied to enter Canada, the extended family said on Thursday, despite earlier reports that their refugee application had been rejected.

A photograph of Aylan Kurdi’s tiny body in a bright red T-shirt and dark shorts, face-down in the surf, appeared in newspapers around the world, prompting sympathy and outrage at the perceived inaction of developed nations in helping refugees....

Read the rest HERE.

Also see Family of drowned toddler Aylan Kurdi had been given FREE housing in Turkey, while father’s story is full of holes. Excerpt:

...[Abdullah Kurdi's sister Fatima] said that while he was still in the water, Abdullah saw his wife’s dead body floating in the water ‘like a balloon’, causing him to struggle to recognise her.

Sobbing uncontrollably Abdullah yesterday recalled his terror when the flimsy and overcrowded dinghy overturned, causing the night to be pierced by the screams of his fellow Syrian refugees as he clung on to his wife.

‘I was holding her, but my children slipped through my hands,’ he said.

‘We tried to cling to the boat, but it was deflating. It was dark and everyone was screaming. I could not hear the voices of my children and my wife.’

The wife was ‘a balloon’ in less than three hours? The rate of decay to a dead body in water is not instant. Obviously Abdullah had no idea how dead people in water decay and he knew at some point they would bloat, so he described his wife in a condition of decay that takes days to mature. Here from The Forensic Library is a description:

Bloated (2-6 days)
This stage of decomposition includes the first visible signs of decay, namely the inflation of the abdomen due to a build-up of various gases produced by bacteria inside the cadaver. This bloating is particularly visible around the tongue and eyes as the build-up of gases cause them to protrude. The skin may exhibit a certain colour change, taking on a marbled appearance due to the transformation of haemoglobin in the blood into other pigments....

Read the rest HERE.

Also see this (Click directly on the image to enlarge it):

So, what is the truth about the circumstances leading up to that dead toddler-refugee on the beach?

Additional reading about the migrant crisis in Europe: 'Just wait…' Islamic State reveals it has smuggled THOUSANDS of extremists into Europe.

Labor Day Weekend

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Traditionally, Labor Day weekend marks the end of summer.

To mark the traditional end of the season, here is "Summer" from Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons:


Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend! Here's weather that allows for good grilling and some outdoor fun.

The Migrant Crisis (With Addendum)

Flashback to February 2015: Islamic State threatens to flood Europe with refugees

NOW

Train to Germany at the Keleti Railway Station in Budapest, Hungary

As "the world" clamors for Western nations to take in the four million (mostly Muslims, as Viktor Orban, the Prime Minister of Hungary has pointed out) fleeing Syria and the Magreb, the Arab world's wealthiest nations — the Gulf states of Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain — are doing almost nothing.

The West is blamed for not doing enough for these millions. Meanwhile, the wealthy Arab world largely escapes blame for doing nothing.

Additional reading, which includes a photo essay: We can't cope with this tide! Europe's despairing leaders bring back border controls with free-movement zone on brink of collapse.

Thousands of migrants emerge from the hold of a ferry onto the streets of Greece's capital, Athens 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3220341/We-t-cope-tide-Europe-s-despairing-leaders-bring-border-controls-free-movement-zone-brink-collapse.html#ixzz3klI0bdj6
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

ADDENDUM: Collapsing Immigration Policies and the Rise of Global Nationalism by Tammy Swofford at The Last English Prince.

Today's Recommended Reading

See Who Shot the Sheriff? by Roger Simon at PJ Media.

If the actions of the mass murderer Dylann Roof dealt a death blow to the Confederate battle flag, should not the actions of killers Shannon Miles and Vester Lee Flanagan deal a death blow to Black Lives Matter?

At Hillsboro High School, Girls Want Their Bathroom Back

Lila Perry, senior and transgender student at Hillsboro High School

Many of the girls and their parents at Hillsboro High School have had enough of the transgender agenda and the resulting insanity.

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (September 1, 2015):

The Zoning Nazis

Governmental regulation at the local level is out of control. To the point that one's own children home from college for the summer are not allowed to park in one's own driveway in Cobb County, Georgia, without obtaining a special permit!

'Parking War' Armistice Signed Between County, Kennesaw Family: The family will have to apply for a permit to allow four cars to be parked in their driveway before next summer, lest hostilities recommence (dated July 21, 2015) in its entirety:

Musical Interlude

Although I'm mainly a traditionalist when it comes to art appreciation, I do like some abstract art.

Enjoy this video set to "Sonata in A Minor for Arpeggione and Piano, D. 821: I. Allegro moderato" by Mstislav Rostropovich and Benjamin Britten, Benjamin Britten (hat tip to Farmers Letters):


[about the artist Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (1866-1944]

Open Thread

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So, what's on your mind?

Please opine on the topic of your choice according to the parameters below:

Curt Schilling And Islam

On August 25 2015, Major League Baseball star Curt Schilling posted the Tweet below, which he deleted after approximately ten minutes and for which he apologized:

Because Schilling posted the above, ESPN pulled Schilling from the network's Little League World Series assignment.

Additional reading...Curt Schilling and the Death of Free Speech: He told the truth. He apologized. It still wasn’t enough.

A Fool And His Money Are Soon Parted

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Contrary to what many people may believe, the Ashley Madison online dating service was not exactly a free service.  See THIS about the fees involved.

Now comes this information: Ashley Madison was a bunch of dudes talking to each other, data analysis suggests.

Mark Twain was a genius:

Recommended Reading

See Frank Luntz on the Hatred of the Establishment Revealed by a Pro-Trump Focus Group: "This is real. I'm having trouble processing it. Like, my legs are shaking" at Ace of Spades.

Is this the way for the GOP to cope with "the Trump problem"? See Lindsey Graham on Donald Trump: "I'll beat his brains out" in South Carolina.

In your view, how is this playing in Peoria?

FEATURED QUESTION: BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP

(This blog post is lengthy and, therefore, will remain here for a few days so that readers will have time to consider the topic before leaping to taking a position. Also, please see the blog post published on Saturday, August 22, 2015; I am seeking advice about a personal matter)

Donald Trump's immigration plan has ignited a firestorm of discussions about the matter of illegal immigration, a problem that can and should be laid at the feet of both the Democratic and Republican Parties. Stories such as this one add more fuel to the fire: DHS Kept Secret the Release Of Violent Criminal Illegal Immigrants: Local law enforcement ‘perplexed’ over controversial policy.

Trump's published statement about immigration reform contains the following:

Advice Needed

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A few days ago, a beloved member of our extended family committed suicide. He was twenty-five years old and leaves behind two children under the age of seven; one of the children is a toddler.

There was no warning that a suicide was coming: no drugs, no alcohol, no financial problems. I'm not sure about the status with his girlfriend and mother of his children, but I believe that the young man and his longtime girlfriend had recently separated.

Gestation At 19 Weeks

(with a hat tip to Adrienne)

Walter Joshua Fretz

Learn more by reading THIS ARTICLE.

Now, if you care about human lives, please watch all of the video below:


If you cannot bear to watch the video, please read the YouTube blurb below the fold:

Yes, It's Servergate

Less than two minutes in length and a good summary of Hillary's failure to obfuscate how much trouble is looming for her:

Hillary Clinton's Private Server

According to the Daily Beast (August 12, 2015):

Underlying all this is the question of why Hillary Clinton decided to employ her own private email and server to handle so much of her official State Department business. This is, to say the least, highly irregular—not to mention a violation of numerous U.S. government rules and regulations—so there had to be a compelling reason to do this. What was it?

There are only so many reasons that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would have been using a private server in the first place.  A few possibilities:

Musical Interlude

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From childhood, I have loved the music composed by Franz Joseph Haydn.

The Haydn motet below speaks to the time in which we are living right now:


Musical Musings provides the following information about Haydn's Insanae et vanae curae:

Open Thread

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So, what's on your mind?



Here's my first contribution to this open thread (hat tip to Mustang of A Texas View):


Please opine on the topic of your choice according to the parameters below:

What A Relief!

(For politics, please scroll down. There are active threads below)

The past several weeks, Mr. AOW has been having a lot of trouble with swelling of the stroke-affected foot and ankle, and the doctor was concerned that Mr. AOW might have a deep vein thrombosis (DVT).  Wednesday afternoon, it was confirmed by ultrasound that Mr. AOW does not have a DVT.

Summer 2015 has been a rough ride. We've been lurching from one home-front crisis to another! More details forthcoming when I have the energy to post that information.

The Animas River Spill (Updated)

3,000,000 gallons of polluted mine waste water were released:

The Animas River after the spill caused by the EPA

For your consideration (Click directly on the image below the fold to enlarge it):

The Hillary Clinton Story

Why is it that so many think that it's Hillary Clinton's turn to sit in the Oval Office? Her long history of deception and duplicity goes way back and continues now as well:





Additional information to add to the Hillary Clinton story:

1. Hillary Clinton to give her private email server to Justice

2. CLOSE CLINTON aides now being investigated over ‘TOP SECRET’ emails Hillary denied she sent!

[with thanks to Jon Berg for the first video and to Mustang for the second video in this blog post]

Hillary Clinton's Heroine: Eugenicist Margaret Sanger

Before proceeding, please take a few moments to watch this video:

Video: Art of the Storm

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A metaphor for our times?

Open Thread

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So, what's on your mind?

Go HERE for the discussion thread about Thursday's GOP debates.

Here is your chance to opine according to the parameters below:

The GOP Debate

Parse the Fox News event — live or later — in the comments section of this blog post.

Pre-debate comments are also welcome.

Please adhere to the following parameters:

Resilience And Survival

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(Photo by Amanda Voisard/For the Washington Post)

Never underestimate the power of Mother Nature!

From This 390-year-old bonsai tree survived an atomic bomb, and no one knew until 2001:

The Iran Nuclear Agreement Is Not A Treaty

(with thanks to Infidel Bloggers Alliance for the information in this blog post)

Basically, according to John Kerry, "We're saying the Iran Treaty isn't a treaty because it's impossible to pass a treaty anymore."  

Watch the short video below the fold.

Political Satire And Ghouls

One of my recent Facebook finds:

This may or may not be satire: D.C. Residents Say Take Down Jefferson Memorial, Rename Washington, D.C.

Clearly, this is not satire (dated July 22, 2015):

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A group was fed up with waiting, so they got a shovel and dug up a patch of grass next to Nathan Bedford Forrest’s grave and statue in a public park in the Medical District.

The group says they wanted the statue and remains removed for a long time, because he was a Confederate soldier, a KKK leader and a slave trader.

“If he’s gone, some of this racism and race-hate might be gone,” said Isaac Richmond with Commission on Religion and Racism. “We got a fresh shovel full, and we hope that everybody else will follow suit and dig him up.”...

Musical Interlude

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J.S. Bach's Harpsichord Concerto in A-moll BWV 1065 [Minor] is a glorious piece:

Open Thread

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So, what's on your mind?

A link to get the discussion here started, should any of you care to pursue the topic:

Fox lowers threshold for early debate: The change serves to guarantee the presence of candidates such as Lindsey Graham and Carly Fiorina.

Starting at 5:00 P.M. EDT on August 6, the AOW household will be glued to our television set.

Please opine on the topic of your choice according to the parameters below:

Debbie Wasserman-Schultz Spills The Beans

The more accurate title for this blog post might be "Debbie Wasserman-Schultz Tries To Hide The Beans." Heh.

On July 30, 2015, on MSNBC, the DNC Chairwoman could not or would not answer the question "What's the difference between a Democrat and a Socialist?" Please watch the short video below (Wasserman-Schultz's stammering and deflection begin around time marker 0:57):


Rough excerpt from the transcript below the fold:

How Do You Interpret This Photo?

The Waving Man, Fairfax County's local icon of days gone by:

Photo taken circa 1976, in Fairfax County, Virginia, by T. Wayne Gauthier

Andy also directed traffic at the local Little League games:

Cell Phones In The Operating Room?

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Illustration by Michael Hirshon

Sometimes one opens the newspaper and is gobsmacked by a story that is not political, a story that makes one say: "What is this madness? And whatever happened to common sense?"

The story below the fold is one such story, and it illustrates that there really may be an addiction to modern technology.

From Kaiser Health News (dated July 14, 2015):

Jobs That Americans Won't Do?

The reality now may be more about illegal aliens getting jobs that Americans would do if given the chance.

Recent data from Pew Research Center, not a bastion of conservatism, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a unit of the United States Department of Labor, is grim.

From Illegal Immigrants Outnumber Unemployed Americans:

The number of illegal immigrants in the United States totaled 11.3 million in 2014, outnumbering the 9.6 million Americans who were unemployed in the same year, according to data from Pew Research Center and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

“An estimated 11.3 million unauthorized immigrants lived in the U.S. in 2014,” says a Pew report. “The new unauthorized immigrant total includes people who cross the border illegally as well as those who arrive with legal visas and remain in the U.S. after their visas expire.”

Of those 11.3 illegal immigrants, 8.1 million are participating in the labor force. “Unauthorized immigrants make up 5.1% of the U.S. labor force,” Pew says. “In the U.S. labor force, there were 8.1 million unauthorized immigrants either working or looking for work in 2012.”

In 2014, there were 1.7 million more illegal immigrants living in the United States than there were unemployed Americans. According to the BLS, the average number of unemployed Americans in 2014 was 9.6 million. The BLS defines an unemployed individual as someone who did not have a job but actively sought one in the past four weeks.

The executive action on immigration President Obama put in place in November of 2014 is set to help more illegal aliens become active in the labor force....

Read the rest HERE.

Meanwhile (dated July 22, 2015), Obama Admin Plans More Executive Action on Immigration: Proposed rule expands number of illegal immigrants allowed to stay in country.

Is it any wonder that Donald Trump poll numbers are so high?

On Hiatus

I need to reduce my stress levels right now. Therefore:

I still to plan to co-host The Gathering Storm Radio Show every Friday at 3:00 P.M, EDT. I will also be making blog rounds on an intermittent basis.

Obama's Inexcusable Response To The Chattanooga Jihad Attack

Eli Arnold is pictured planting a flag outside the Chattanooga National Guard recruitment center targeted by Mohammed Youssef Abdulazeez.

From No explanation by Obama on flags not lowered to half-staff for Chattanooga shootings (dated July 20, 2015):

The White House provided no explanation Monday amid questions over why the president had not ordered flags across the nation to half-staff in the wake of a Chattanooga, Tenn., shooting that killed five servicemembers.

Spokesman Josh Earnest said President Barack Obama offered condolences last week and may speak to veterans at VFW conference Tuesday about the shooting, but he had no further comment.

Obama has issued presidential proclamations that lowered flags at federal facilities and military bases after many mass shootings, including attacks at the Washington Navy Yard, Fort Hood in Texas, and Sandy Hook elementary in Connecticut. The lack of a proclamation following the deaths of four Marines and sailor in a possible terrorist attack Thursday by a 24-year-old Muslim man rankled some and spark online outrage.

“I don’t have more information about the status of the flag over the White House,” Earnest said, responding to a question at a daily briefing Monday with the press....

Read the rest HERE.

Let us remember that Obama ordered the lowering of United States flags when Nelson Mandela died in 2013. But not for five of our servicemen slaughtered right here on our home soil?

Obama, the Commander in Chief, hasn't so much as picked up the phone and spoken to the families of our fallen in Chattanooga!

GRRRRRR!

Related reading: Fallujah-in-Chattanooga by Tammy Swofford.

Concluding portion:

Lance Corporal Skip Wells was a highly trained, professional United States Marine. He was “armed” with a cell phone. He used his “weapon” to text the last known words attributed to him:

ACTIVE SHOOTER

This is the real tragedy. It is the tragedy of an unarmed U.S. Marine.

Read the entire essay HERE.

Sociology Today: New Concepts Of Equal Rights

According to University Researchers: We Have to Accept People Who ‘Identify as Real Vampires’, we must cease discriminating against vampires. Well, not quite vampires, but rather people who claim to be vampires. Excerpt from the link:

Sociology researchers are now insisting that we as a society start accepting people who choose to “identify as real vampires” — so that they can be open about the fact that they’re vampires without having to worry about facing discrimination from people who might think that that’s weird.

Sunday Break From Politics

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Our hostas bloomed heavily this year. I've never seen them this lush! All that snow and ice during the winter — and a rainy spring — brought us this beauty:

Four more photos below the fold.

Open Thread

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So, what's on your mind?

To discuss Thursday's jihad attack in Chattanooga, Tennessee, please go to THIS THREAD, the post just below this open thread.

Here is your chance to opine according to the parameters below:

Motivation And Investigation (With Addendum)

The following appear to be the last words of Chattanooga jihadist Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez’s brief-lived blog, published on July 13, 2015:

"To give us a complete understanding of the message of Islam, and the strength the live by this knowledge, and to know what role we need to play to establish Islam in the world."

A blog post in his name also stated:

This life is short and bitter and the opportunity to submit to Allah may pass you by

Read all of Abdulazeez's blog posts HERE.

About the investigation: William Killian, the DoJ Official Leading #Chattanooga Jihad Shooting, Previously Vowed to Criminalize Criticism of Islam.

Also see DOJ: Social Media Posts Trashing Muslims May Violate Civil Rights.

The impromptu memorial at the Military Recruiting Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee:

Photo credit: Kevin Liles for the New York Times

ADDENDUM: The faces of the fallen Marines in Chattanooga. Please take a moment to look and to read.

Click directly on the photos below to enlarge them:

Multiple Shots Fired In Chattanooga: Armed Forces Career Center AND Navy Recruitment Center

What I've been following and posting about today at Infidel Bloggers Alliance....

FOUR MARINES KILLED!

From Reuters:

Worth 1000 Words

With a hat tip to Geeez:

My lightly edited comment to Z's post:

Video: Who Owns You?

Remember the following the next time you try to decide for which political weasel to vote:

The High Costs Of Sanctuary Cities

Click directly on the image to enlarge it:

Additional information and my personal story below the fold.

Musical Interlude: Song from π!

I find this fascinating and astounding:


According to the YouTube blurb:

Pi Song I wrote to help me memorize pi - I figured it would be easier to remember a melody than a string of numbers.

Open Thread

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So, what's on your mind?

Here is your chance to opine according to the parameters below:

Interesting Take On Obergefell v. Hodges

Please take a few moments to read and to consider the following excerpt from The trouble with the ‘dignity’ of same-sex marriage, which recently appeared in the Washington Post (emphases mine):

Video: How To Insult A Progressive

The inimitable Pat Condell (hat tip to Infidel Bloggers Alliance):

Quotation Of The Day: The Global Economy

Comment by Bocopro, who typed in the following to this post at Western Hero and particularly appropriate now that Greece has defaulted on a 1.6 billion euros debt payment to the IMF and has rejected the European Union's bailout offer:

Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Puerto Rico . . . these are the rumblings of what before long will be a great global Vesuviusing, with nationally fatal pyroclastic flows, intercontinental ashfall, planetary climate disruption, mass migrations, riots, starvation, hysteria, disease, and unending strife.

China, Russia, Europe, South America, and the US will flounder and drown in the morass of debt in the gazillions while their GDPs barely make it to the brazilians. Hurricanes of speeches and tons of promises won’t prevent a single balloon payment or cancel an ounce of debt.

Debts are like bastard children, begot in pleasure of the flesh, then brought forth in great pain and handicap. To promise fabulous socialist entitlements based on flawed arithmetic is to enslave the next generation who will inherit the budget shortfalls. And interest on debts grows without nourishment or watering.

The US central government seems to believe that a day will come when all debts are forgiven and everyone will live in some kind of utopia where self-replicating, self-repairing machines provide us with all our needs sans cost, where exactly-the-right-size Levis suddenly appear on shrubberies and meatball sandwiches flow from giant cornucopias in converted supermarkets.

At seven-point-five decades, I may already be safely under ground when the debt tsunami hits, but my grandkritters and their lot will be forced to pay for the mismanagement of thousands of politicians who tried to run cities on splenda, states on saccharine, and nations on nutrasweet.

Our entitlement systems, whether the leftistas choose to believe it or not, are not sustainable unless we discover the trick to turning hot air into gold. As Hamlet tells us: “I eat the air, promise-crammed. You cannot feed capons so.”

Meanwhile in China: BROKERAGES ANNOUNCE PLAN TO PROP UP SHARES.

Also see this (Click directly on the graphic to enlarge it):

Please discuss in the comments section. Got a crystal ball to check so as to see what's coming next?

Independence Day Weekend 2015

Hillsdale College's choir singing "America the Beautiful":

O Ship Of State by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882):

Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
We know what Master laid thy keel,
What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel,
Who made each mast, and sail, and rope,
What anvils rang, what hammers beat,
In what a forge and what a heat
Were shaped the anchors of thy hope!
Fear not each sudden sound and shock,
’Tis of the wave and not the rock;
’Tis but the flapping of the sail,
And not a rent made by the gale!
In spite of rock and tempest’s roar,
In spite of false lights on the shore,
Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea!
Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee.
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith triumphant o’er our fears,
Are all with thee,—are all with thee!

Recommended Reading

See Supremes ruling – turning nice neighborhoods into ghettos, posted June 30, 2015, at Bunkerville's site. Excerpt: