For what it's worth, I admire most of your posts very much.

If you rec something, the button changes to 'undo' if you change your mind.Or am I missing something

Do you mean you wish you could do a thumbs down?

Very good post.

I think Schieffer's going senile, and I'm almost 70 so that's not ageism. You might've noticed how poorly he handled his duties as moderator during the presidential campaign debate. Maybe he's been hanging around too many Republicans; they're the worst kind of influence.

Bless Rosa Parks and Dr. King. They helped change the nation a great deal for the better.

OK, so who can offer a link to a petition? I haven't checked my email yet today, and if I find one

I'll hurry back here with it. But just in case the cupboard's bare, anyone feel free to beat me to it.

Word direct from the agencies involved suggests there may be no electric bill help for the poor this summer, perhaps no heating help next winter either, or at least severely delayed and restricted. Maybe when we start finding starving people frozen to death in their homes or by the bunches under bridges and woodland Hoovervilles, maybe then people will rise up and make their voices heard.

Thanks for this post.

Tomorrow I'll try to catch up on the others I had to postpone from the previous week.

You and UrbScotty and a few others are not to be missed! I always learn something, and that gives peace to my soul in a very troubled world.

Good reminder

From what I hear, Jesus didn't wear a Rolex or ride around in a Rolls either.

You're welcome to ask; but no, it was a blood disorder.

And ever since, you might say I've been cheating death although that's a terribly secular way to put it. For all the perils I've survived w/o a scratch or at least minimal injury, I'm totally convinced of guardian angels. One of the reasons I like a fence around a house is because at midnight (when Irish custom says the spirits are nearest) I can go out and bless all four corner posts and ask for protection. A Jesuit priest once explained to me that I'd conducted an exorcism because when I moved to the kind of extremely old house I've always favored, I could sense disquiet. So after prayers with lit candles, I just said quietly something along these lines: "Whoever remains in this house with me, know that I do not seek to disturb or displease you in any way. I ask that you return the indulgence, and if you've been held here for whatever reason beyond your time but you wish to go, depart in peace now with all blessings upon you. If you wish to stay, welcome."

I did that at my present home almost 8 years ago even before I learned the 1847 log cabin around which the rear half of the first floor is built had been slave quarters for many years. A lot of people around here still consider it haunted, but the only effect I've ever felt in that regard is that I never feel alone.

It was a terrible time. I've never much believed in 'the good old days'.

Bad as things are, TODAY is the good day.

F'instance, one year before my birth, medical science learned how to treat the deadly disease I was born with. A few months earlier and I wouldn't have made it.

Every day my gratitude grows for having grown up with so much good Catholic influence.

But it's kind of funny; as a child, if I knew I'd done something awful, my reaction was to wonder "How am I going to explain THAT to the pope?" Just in case he ever asked me about it or found out. My parents, nuns, and the priest didn't worry me too much because they were known quantities I knew how to get along with, or at least around. But that guy in Rome was an awful long way off and a total stranger to me, so he was the one I really watched out for!

As for sleepy prayers

I used to be an awful insomniac. So I'd say my prayers, including goodnight to Jesus; then follow up with BTW, which I figured was okay to fall asleep on because I'd really already finished and said g'night. After that, either God might reward me with the sleep I desperately needed, or the dark one might send me to sleep to shut me up!