Joe Arpaio is a carbuncle on the ass of humanity and deserves to be under his own jail.

I'd launch into a diatribe of his crimes, but you probably are already quite knowledgable there so I'll save my breath.

Those voting guides are going to cause a lot of churches to lose their tax exempt status, and it can't happen soon enough to suit me. Even though I'm a cradle RC temporarily visiting the local UMC, where I've warned them they're going to bring the righteous wrath of the ACLU down on their deserving heads. Yes, that almost invariably falls on deaf ears and gets me chewed out for a heretic sometimes.

Though I am pleased to see the recent arrival of a younger pastor who seems free of such idiocy. He also stresses that everyone's invited to participate in appropriate groups because he knows what a bunch of xenophobic geese most of these MidWesterners are. There are a precious few members of existing groups who've even made a point to invite me individually, and I've thanked them from the bottom of my heart; but also had to tell them there are enough in the other camp that all hell would break loose if I tried to participate. I've already been sternly warned, including by the previous pastor!

All too true.

Jesus said his kingdom was not of this world. And the founding fathers at best were deists. Thomas Jefferson referred to Christianity as the most stupid religion possible.

The rightwingers are bibliolators and self-worshippers; they worship their own beliefs and a book they don't begin to understand. If Jesus appeared before them and they knew it was him but he told them to clean up their act, they'd stone him w/o batting an eye. They certainly don't seem to know what he said about Pharasaic heresy.

The crazy never stops, does it?

Small minds are always horrified at bigger ones, aren't they? Poor little babes!

You've apparently failed to understand the difference between a group and a forum.

This is a GROUP, specifically for the promotion of the President's policies. GD is where you want to take your arguments and complaints if you wish to continue to have them posted. As one of the mods so aptly said, "We like our peace here." So if you want to argue or criticize President Barack Hussein Obama, do it elsewhere. Not here, understand? Nobody owes you a sweet plea to behave yourself in our living room.

You realize I'm gonna steal that altered slogan, don't you?

Yes, We Cannabis!

It is a totally double standard. If President Obama walked on water, somebody'd be shouting,

"Look! He can't swim!"

As for bigger pictures, I read one comment in GD or FB, can't remember which now but it wasn't a compliment - that the Democrats keep playing multi-level chess in a country that only knows how to play checkers. Well, we need to move the nation forward, not revert to the lowest common denominator. For instance there are parts of the new farm bill that I don't like and hope will get fixed along the way. But I'm not going to run around with my hair on fire at the least sign of smoke because soooo often I've seen things turn out better than I could've expected. I don't believe the majority of Dems would play games only for the sake of political theatre, yet that occasional impression has so often turned out to be a superb sleight of hand that I'm willing to wait and see. I make sure they know what's important to us - as if they need to be told! - and I think that's their true end goal.

For instance, Harry Reid's recent defiance of the fast track aspect of TPP; is it at least barely possible we're watching a little bit of good cop/bad cop gamemanship? Yes it would be delightful if politics could be done in the simplest most straightforward fashion; but when you've got madmen obstructionists, you have to finesse where you can.

Too many of 'them' are so drunk on hubris, they lack the sense for that.

And it will be their eventual downfall. W/o even broaching 'shoulda/woulda/coulda', there won't be a single damn thing anyone on earth can do to stop it when the pressure valve bursts.

Thanks, everyone, for all the kind words and recs.

I really did want to encourage others - in addition to celebrating a bit.

Will send a separate reply to the poster who asked about red yeast rice. I swore to my doctor long ago that I'd never take a statin no matter what because they do a number on the liver. Big Pharma just wants to protect its market share, and they don't care who they kill doing it. Anyone who does take a statin really needs to switch to red yeast rice or at least take an herb like milk thistle to offer some liver protection. Dr. Weil said on Dr. Oz' show this year that there's another herb that will help offset the bad side effects of statins, but I don't remember what it was. That info will be somewhere in the WebMD database, though, for anyone who cares to look. For those who might not know, both these men are tops in their field of cardiology and practice at major western medical clinics. They simply know that the more we rely on healthy lifestyles and diets, the less likely we are to need their intervention services.

As for diet, basically I still eat everything I ever did, just a lot less of it. I have a jelly donut every Sunday morning at Sunday school, on that day only, and at least once a day I have a little piece of chocolate. Instead of 2 chimis for lunch, 1 instead, etc. And of course the ability to become more active was crucial. The only major thing I cut out entirely, and that years ago, is sodas diet or otherwise. Haven't entirely weaned myself off cured meats but try to save them for occasional treats only.

Basically I'm trying to say that if a lazy little glutton like me can do it, it's not an impossible dream.

Hate to brag, but my yearly checkup went fine!

Almost 7 years ago the right rear tire on my van blew out, and I took a sudden side trip down the hill and into the woods. Left me pretty banged up, including a TBI. Since I was rattled anyway and barely able to walk for a long time, I gained a lot of weight, my cholesterol shot up, etc.

But as soon as I regained enough balance, I started pushing myself physically and mentally. Started taking red yeast rice for the cholestrol, etc. Now my weight's much closer to normal, and the good/bad cholesterol has moved almost into the perfect range. BP and blood count etc were excellent. I really feel good. Doc thinks adding fish oil to my regimen will finally get the cholesterol into the perfect range by next year's checkup. Contrasting this to where I was a few years ago makes me feel very, very good. Well worth the effort. I've even donated 3 big garbage bags of my 'fat' clothes. Only 2 more sizes to go. Losing that much weight took so long that it's not likely to pack back on.

Thanks - but in all fairness, it's such a big target, who could miss?

Snowden chose to lie down with dogs; he'll get up with fleas. If he gets up at all.