The Wonder Woman film opens finally on June 2, 2017 and I (Rob) can't wait! Gail Gadot stars as Wonder Woman/Diana Prince and the film is apparently set in World War 1. Here's the extended 3 minute movie trailer and it looks amazing!
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/SUK-yUl5B8A
One of the best, ever commercials just came out from Orbitz featuring two of our favorite celebrities: Randy Rainbow and Miss Richfield 1981. What happens when you mash up Randy Rainbow, Margaret Cho, Bianca del Rio and Miss Richfield 1981? An air-mazing adventure! At Orbitz, we believe that no vacation day should go un-traveled, so book a travel deal today and go see this #GreatBigWorld!
Video: https://youtu.be/77bZFgjM3l8
Churchgoers in Central Virginia know this, because they took a major financial loss for buying bonds to construct Jerry Falwell's church... and guess who paid Falwell's debt?
Did you know the Moonies bailed out Jerry
Falwell's empire? In the late '90s, Liberty University and Thomas Road
Baptist Church were drowning in debt. Out of desperation, Falwell
contacted Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Moon sent a delegation to Lynchburg, Virginia
where they met with Falwell for 7 days. Moon agreed to purchase
Falwell's debt for pennies on the dollar.
The biggest losers in the
deal were people that bought bonds to construct their new church
building; they have never been re-paid.
SO, think before you donate to a church.Make sure they actually ARE doing good for others. Churches that also promote hatred and intolerance against LGBT people like Falwell's should be shut down. Unfortunately. people (who lost a lot of money) continue to attend and give this con-artist more money they can't afford.
Just goes to show how corrupt
Falwell was, and now his two evil sons.
"Beyond the
Times, Moon-affiliated entities are linked by a complex web of
interlocking directorships and nurtured by a seemingly endless flow of
cash from the Far East. That has enabled them to buy new businesses such
as the Nostalgia Network cable channel and even help bail out the Rev.
Jerry Falwell's foundering Liberty University."
Do you rely on Overtime to pay your bills or save money in a bank? It may be the end of it. Did you know? On May 3, 2017:10:44 AM ET the
U.S. House passed a bill that affects overtime pay. Basically, it
REMOVES overtime pay and substitutes it with time off at Regular pay.
HOW does this HELP people???
Do you get paid for overtime work? The House of Representatives just passed a bill you may want to know about.
The measure, backed by Republicans, would let employers give workers
paid time off instead of time-and-a-half pay the next time they put in
extra hours. The vote tally was largely along party lines, with no
Democrats voting in favor of the bill. Six Republicans also voted
against it.
G.O.P. leadership has touted the
legislation, called the Working Families Flexibility Act, as an attempt
to codify flexibility for employees. "I don't think there's
anything more powerful than giving them more control over their time so
that they can make the best decisions for themselves and their
families," Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington said Tuesday
morning in a press conference held by Republican leaders in the House.
The Trump administration also came out in support of the measure on Tuesday, May 2, 2017.The White House said in a news release that the president's advisers would recommend Trump sign the bill into law if it was presented to him in its current form.
But Democrats stand in strong opposition. Their chief concern is that employers
have the final say on when comp time can be used, which means bosses
can defer compensating employees for overtime work.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts -- a Democratwho has made workers' protections her flagship cause and sits on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions -- called the bill a "disgrace" on Twitter.
Republicans, who hold 52 seats in the upper chamber, will need eight
Democrats to vote in favor of the legislation to avoid a filibuster. The House bill is sponsored by Rep. Martha Roby of Alabama. Sen. Mike
Lee of Utah has introduced a similar bill in the Senate, but it's still
in committee.
The
American Health Care Act, which narrowly won passage in the House on
Thursday, could transform the nation’s health insurance system and
create a new slate of winners and losers.
Here's an article from the NEW YORK TIMES outlining who benefits and who suffers...
While
the Senate will probably demand changes, this bill, if it becomes law
in its current form, will repeal and replace large portions of the
Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). It will change the rules and subsidies
for people who buy their own insurance coverage, and make major cuts to
the Medicaid program, which funds care for the poor and disabled.
Any
sizable change in our complex health care system leaves some people and
businesses better or worse off. For some, insurance will become more
affordable — or their taxes will be lower. Others will lose out on
financial support or health care coverage. You can see how you might be
affected in our summary of winners and losers.
Losers
Poor people:
Many states would be expected to roll back their expansions of the
Medicaid program to cover childless adults without disabilities. The
bill would also substantially reduce subsidies available for Americans
just over the poverty line, the group that benefited most from
Obamacare’s subsidies. Poor Americans are much more likely to become
uninsured under the bill, according to the Congressional Budget Office, and those who retained coverage would pay much more of their limited incomes on premiums and deductibles.
Older Americans, in most states: The same factors that make the bill better for many young Americans make it worse for those who are older.
Insurance companies could charge a 64-year-old customer five times the
price charged to an 18-year-old one, to cite the most extreme example.
The changes in the subsidy formula would also require older middle-class
Americans to pay a much larger share of their health insurance bill.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that far fewer older Americans
would have insurance coverage under this bill than under the Affordable
Care Act.
People with pre-existing health conditions, particularly in some states. The bill allows states to waive rules on minimum benefit standards and rules that prohibit insurance companies from charging higher prices to customers with a history of serious illness — or even minor diseases. And it could mean their insurance covers fewer medical services.
The benefit changes could also affect Medicaid beneficiaries, and they
could mean cutbacks on coverage for mental health and drug addiction
treatment. States that waive the rule about prices would be required to
set up a program for high-risk customers, and would get some federal
funding to do so, but the details are unclear.
Hospitals: Assessing an earlier version of the bill, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that some 24 million fewer people
would have health insurance in a decade. Some of those people would
still have medical emergencies and require hospital care. Obamacare made
substantial cuts in how much Medicare pays hospitals, on the theory
that they would make up the difference with more paying customers. The
Republican bill does not restore any of the Medicare cuts. Hospitals in
poor communities where a lot of people signed up for Medicaid would
probably experience the biggest hit.
Planned Parenthood: The
bill would prevent Planned Parenthood from receiving any federal money
for one year, a major hit for a health care provider that relies
substantially on payments from Medicaid and the Title X family planning
grant to provide contraception, cancer screenings and other women’s
health services. The bill would also seek to reduce access to abortions,
by preventing federal subsidies from going to any health plan that
covers abortions.
Winners
High-income earners:
The bill eliminates two taxes on individuals earning more than $200,000
or couples earning more than $250,000: a 0.9 percent increase on the
Medicare payroll tax, and a 3.8 percent tax on investment income. It
also allows people to save more money in tax-excluded health savings
accounts, a change most useful to people with enough money to have savings.
Upper-middle-class people without pre-existing health conditions:
The Affordable Care Act cut off subsidies to help people buy their
insurance at an income of around $48,000 for a single person. The
American Health Care Act would let people get government subsidies much higher up the income scale
— up to about $150,000. But the bill allows states to waive rules on
minimum benefit standards and rules that prevent insurance companies
from charging higher prices to customers with pre-existing illnesses.
That means, over all, the gap between the tax subsidies and the cost of
needed care could widen, even for some people who will get extra
financial help.
Young, middle-class people without pre-existing health conditions:
The bill would change how insurance companies price their products in a
way that would lower prices for young customers. It also gives them a
flat subsidy that is, in many cases, higher than what they would receive
under Obamacare. There is some variation by region, and people with pre-existing conditions could be charged higher prices in some states.
People who wish to go without insurance:
The bill would eliminate the individual mandate, which charges a tax
penalty to Americans who can afford insurance but do not obtain it.
People who want less comprehensive health coverage:
The bill allows insurers to offer health plans with higher deductibles
and co-payments, a change likely to lower premiums. Customers in states
that waive benefit rules may also be able to buy plans not covering as
many medical services, like maternity coverage.
Large employers:
The bill eliminates Obamacare’s employer mandate, which required large
employers to offer affordable coverage to their workers. If the bill
becomes law, companies that do not wish to cover their workers will face
no penalty. It frees all large employers of the complex reporting
necessary to enforce the provision. It also pushes back enactment of a
tax on high-cost employer health plans.
Medical device companies, indoor tanning companies and a few other medical industries: The bill rolls back taxes on devices, tanning,
prescription drugs and health insurance products. Some of those
industries may lose a little as well — insurance companies, for example,
may have fewer paying customers.
Being a huge comic book fan and collector and having grown up reading comics in the 1970s and
1980s, I had to get the 445 page collection of the revitalization of the Justice Society of America collection called "All Star Comics." The Justice Society of America was created in the 1940s and featured superheroes of the Golden Age, like the original Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Dr. Fate, Wildcat, Dr. Midnite, Hourman, Wonder Woman and Superman.
DC Comics had the brilliant idea in the late 1950s to make these old characters superheroes of "Earth 2." The current iterations were on "Earth 1."
When the JSA was revitalized in the 1970s, all of those characters came back, although in their 50s and 60s, and were joined by new, young heroes like a grown up Robin (Batman's partner), Power Girl (counterpart to Earth-1's supergirl), Star Spangled Kid (an actual character from the 1940s who was "transported" to the 1970s), and a new character called the Huntress (daughter of Earth-2 Batman and wife Catwoman - yes, they married on Earth-2).
The stories were great, and it's pretty much all inclusive (there are references to the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" saga, but they couldn't reprint those here without including all 12 issues and you can get them separately). The stories, characterizations, and art work was great.
It's an Outstanding collection of Earth-2 heroes as they should be, and I will always treasure it in my collection to read over and over again.
By popular demand it's "Terrible real estate agent
photographs" revisited! Realtors actually posted these pictures of houses for sale on ads.
Whenever
houses are being sold we're always curious to see how much people have
cleaned them up (because we have gone in many as paranormal investigators). Just look at these houses in actual real estate ads:
Image#1: Would you use this bathroom? It's too late for just air freshener. The growth in the bathroom looks quite established. This was actually on a a realtor's website as a "selling point." We'd be afraid of flies, wasps, ticks and fleas!
Image 2
Image #2: Someone actually lived in this room. Really. For some reason, a realtor decided that the "space" was important to show as a selling point. Perhaps after everything is removed and fumigated. They should have done that first!!
Image#3: After the Great Plague of 1665, came the less famous Bubonic Bedroom Blight of 1704. You would think they would paint over it before photographing it...
Image #4: No Extra Charge for the Body. They should probably have fished the body out of the pool before the buyers move in.
If you have a dog that whines, barks and suffers from anxiety here are a couple of things you can try
to alleviate it. Being dog dads, we've tried a lot of things.
If you didn't know, when you adopt a dog, or move to a new residence, those can trigger the development of separation anxiety. Eventually they calm down.
Here are some things we have done to help and some additional ones from the ASPCA:
1) Leave the Radio or TV on - noise makes the dogs feel like they're not alone. 2) Get a larger stuffed animal, like a child's toy, that resembles a dog and put it in their bed. 3) Put a piece of your clothing in their bed, so they are surrounded by your scent (when you leave). 4) 1 hour before leaving, give a benadryl (1/2 under 50 pounds, 1 50 pounds and over) to make them groggy. They'll be more likely to sleep or bark less when you do leave.
5) Offer your dog a
puzzle toy stuffed with food that will take him at least 20 to 30
minutes to finish. Like a KONG® stuffed
with treats and then spray cheese or
spread low-fat peanut butter over the opening. If you FREEZE it beforehand, it takes a LOT LONGER to get to the treats.
(Remove these special toys as soon as you return home so that your dog only has access to them when he’s by himself)
6) Gradually accustom a dog to being alone by starting with many
short separations that do not produce anxiety. Then gradually
increasing the duration of the separations over many weeks of daily
sessions (recommended by the ASPCA).
7) A good way to start reducing Anxiety- Grab the car keys and sit for an hour.
A dog enjoying a Kong toy
Teach your dog that when you pick up your keys or
put on your coat, it doesn’t always mean that you’re leaving. You can
do this by exposing your dog to these cues in various orders several
times a day—without leaving. For example, put on your boots and coat,
and then just watch TV instead of leaving. Or pick up your keys, and
then sit down at the kitchen table for awhile. This will reduce your
dog’s anxiety because these cues won’t always lead to your departure,
and so your dog won’t get so anxious when he sees them.
Here's an exclusive article from Vanity Fair magazine about a priest who "gets it." He seems to totally understand what Christianity should be. And it's not the kind that the current Administration is expressing. Christians should applaud this man who stands up for their religion to set it straight and re-claim it from extremists. If you're a Christian -you should follow him on Facebook and Twitter. Just look at this interview.
Meet the Catholic Priest Whose Twitter Puts Trump to Shame
On
his active social accounts, Rev. James Martin, S.J., preaches that
Jesus disapproves of the Muslim ban, the Mexican wall, and United’s
decision to toss that doctor off the plane.
Rev. James Martin at the Cherry Lane in New York City, 2010.
Photograph by Thos Robinson.
Donald Trump’s presidency has put a lot of liberals in an apocalyptic mood, and Rev. James Martin
is here to help. At a time when the term “conservative Christian” feels
increasingly redundant, the New York City–based Jesuit priest’s Twitter
and Facebook accounts offer a refreshingly progressive, if scrupulously
Catholic, perspective on the news of the day.
So while he’s not about
to sing the praises of Roe v. Wade, Martin is perfectly willing to slam Gitmo as “American apartheid,” the Muslim ban and the Mexican Wall as “manifestly unchristian and against the Gospel,” and Trump’s environmental policy as “the opposite of Catholic social teaching.” As for United Airlines’ decision to beat up a passenger who wouldn’t give up his seat, Martin said that highlighted “the morality of capitalism and the ills of the corporate culture.”
"It's hypocrisy to call yourself a Christian and chase away a refugee or someone seeking help." Pope Francis. Let all who have ears listen
Little
wonder, then, that he’s picked up over 100,000 followers on Twitter and
half a million on Facebook. “My social-media strategy has changed not a
bit,” he says. “It’s the world that’s turned. I think it makes what I’m
saying seem more radical, but it’s always been the same message.”
That message aligns very closely with the one espoused by his fellow social-media-savvy Jesuit, Pope Francis,
who earlier this week tapped Martin to serve as consultor to the
Secretariat of Communication—Vatican-ese for “P.R. consultant.” “I am
really on board with the way he’s proceeding and what he’s focusing on,”
Martin says of Francis. “I think it’s fantastic.”
Martin, who also serves as an editor at large for the Jesuit-run America magazine, spoke to Vanity Fair in the lead-up to Easter about what the Gospels can tell us about politics in Washington, Rome, and beyond.
Vanity Fair:
Those of us in the media joke about “hot takes,” where you weigh in
quickly on a topic that everyone’s talking about, but you do a
legitimately good job of that. What’s your approach to covering the
news?
Rev. James Martin, S.J.:
People are hungry naturally for a moral perspective. That’s their
conscience desiring some kind of moral compass. The Gospels are always
relevant, and Jesus’s way of looking at something is my way of looking
at something. There are some questions that cry out so much for a
Christian perspective that, when you find them, they take off on social
media.
TWEET: James Martin, SJ
Using this tragedy in this way is reprehensible.
But there are different ways of looking at the Gospels. How would you describe the Jesuit perspective, specifically?
That
Jesus’s message is essentially one of love, mercy, and forgiveness, and
that his approach was radical inclusion. He was in particular concerned
with the marginalized, which is why I’m concerned with the
marginalized.
Do you find that people are more receptive to your social-media ministry than they were before Trump was elected?
Yes, I think that’s accurate.
Do you have a sense of why that is?
Yes,
it’s because a lot of the issues that are being talked about are moral
issues. How we treat refugees and migrants, how we treat the poor, how
we treat the sick, how we treat people in other countries, how we treat
the environment. These are all moral issues that were in the news
before, but people feel more strongly about them since the last
election.
Do you think people in Blue America are also looking for a religious authority that they can relate to?
I
would say, not to put too fine a point on it, that the religious
authority they can relate to is Jesus. That’s the authority that I’m
bringing them. When Jesus talks about welcoming the stranger, he
couldn’t be any clearer.
But different Christian groups have totally different interpretations of a story like that, don’t they?
Sure,
but that’s always been the case. The parables were interpreted
different ways even in Jesus’s time. I would say this: there are certain
stories and passages that are open to interpretation. There are certain
stories and passages that are not. Jesus could not be any clearer in
Matthew 25 where he says, “If you don’t welcome the stranger, care for
the sick, and help the poor, you’re not helping, welcoming, or caring
for me.” You cannot be any clearer.
Now
what that means and how that plays out is up for interpretation. The
fact that we do need to welcome them, and help them, and care for them
is not up for interpretation.
The rest is politics, I guess.
I
want to be clear about this: I am not a political person. I am very
careful about not mentioning even the words Republican or Democrat. I
try not to mention names of politicians, because it’s wrong for a church
to take sides. If preaching the Gospel has a political effect, then so
be it.
What about Vatican
politics? You’re aligned with Pope Francis, but even within the Vatican
he has conservative rivals, at least one of whom is said to be close
with Steve Bannon. How does that work?
The
Holy Spirit gives us different popes for different times. John Paul,
Pope Benedict, and Pope Francis are very different kinds of people. It’s
O.K. that they have focused on different things. That said, I’m rather
shocked that some people who consider themselves traditionalists and who
said in the past that any disagreement of any sort with the Pope is
tantamount to dissent are now disagreeing all over the place. It’s
rather ironic, to put it mildly.
What’s your social-media diet like? Any guilty pleasures?
I follow Elizabeth Windsor, the fake Queen Elizabeth account. And KimKierkegaardashian. That’s a mix of Kim Kardashian and the Danish existential philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. Those are the two that make me laugh.
What would you say to people who have had a crisis of faith over the past few months?
Well, I would say our faith does not rest on Donald Trump.
He was not nailed to the cross, put in the tomb, and raised from the
dead after three days. That’s the first thing. Focus on the essentials.
The
second thing is to look at the Easter message, which is an appropriate
thing to talk about this time of year, as a sign for us of what God can
do. I think the message of Easter is that life is stronger than death,
love is stronger than hatred, and hope is stronger than despair.
I
often invite people to consider the disciples on Good Friday and on
Holy Saturday who were terrified, despairing, and cowering behind closed
doors because they could see nothing good coming from this. What Easter
Sunday shows us is that there are always surprises in store for us.
Nothing is impossible with God.
I
often say to people who thought that the church could never change, that
the way the church was run would always be the same: “Look at Pope
Francis.” How can you doubt that the Holy Spirit is at work in a
powerful way?
I thought Saint John Paul and Pope Benedict
were excellent popes. Pope Francis is doing something new. This is what
God does on Easter. God does something surprising. The God of surprises
is one of my favorite ways of looking at God.
When we visited Mexico a couple of years ago, we saw some locals with a hairless dog. The breed goes back to the Mayans and their breed name is Xoloitzcuintli. It turns out they come in tiny, small and medium sizes, and they were almost extinct, according to Animal Planet.
Now, the Los Angeles Times reports that that breed is "all the rage" in Mexico.
From Dogster.com: Interesting things about the Xoloitzcuintli
The name Xoloitzcuintli is pronounced “show-low-eet-SQUINT-lee.” It
combines “Xolotl” (after the Aztec god) with “itzcuintle” (Aztec for
“dog). You can call them Xolos (show-lows) for short!
Xolotl, the Aztec god of lightning and death, was said to have made
these dogs from the “bone of life,” giving them healing powers. They
safeguarded against spirits and intruders, healed people, and were
sacrificed and even eaten on special occasions.
Clay statues of dogs resembling today’s Xoloitzcuintli were interred
in Mayan, Colima, and Aztec burial sites dating back 3,000 years. The
dogs were believed to guide their master’s souls through the underworld.
The dogs were found throughout Mexico and parts of Central and South America.
Hairless dogs were first described by Columbus in his 1492 journal.
After the Spanish Conquest, Xolos were almost lost, surviving mostly in remote areas.
In 1887, the AKC registered them as the Mexican Hairless, but
numbers and interest remained low so they were dropped from AKC ranks in
1959.
The gene that causes hairlessness in the Xolo is the same as that in Chinese Cresteds,
and the Xolo may descend from ancient Asian hairless dogs. It is a
single dominant gene (dogs with two copies die as embryos), so all
hairless Xolos have one hairless gene and one coated gene. The same gene
causes some dental anomalies, such a crooked teeth and missing
premolars and incisors.
The hairless dogs often have short coarse hair on top of their head, feet, and on the end of the tail.
We're both big fans of the 80s-90s TV show "Murder She Wrote" and the mystery book series has been as great as the TV show. I (Rob) have now read the 45th out of 47, and it was amazing. It's called"The Ghost and Mrs. Fletcher" by Jessica Fletcher, Donald Bain and Renee Paley-Bain. The mainstay characters were in the novel like Mrs.Jessica Fletcher, mystery novelist; Sheriff Mort Metzger; Dr. Seth Hazlitt; Eve the newspaper owner/reporter, and Mara the bakery owner. The story involved the death of a man who owned an historic house that's supposed to be haunted. But the mystery is much deeper that could be imagined, and the twists and turns were really engaging. I read this book in 3 days (usually I read a book every 2 weeks). Truly one of the best mysteries I've read. 5 + out of 5 stars!
Here's the book summary: In the USA Today bestselling Murder, She Wrote series—make
room for Jessica Fletcher as she cleans house to catch a killer who
hasn’t got a ghost of a chance.
Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher
Jessica’s friend, Eve Simpson is
the town’s premier real estate agent and has recently taken on the task
of selling one of Cabot Cove’s oldest properties—the Spencer Percy
House, built in 1805 by a sea captain for his young wife. Its current
occupant, Cliff Cooper, a crusty former carpenter, is convinced he’s
about to die and wants the house sold so he can give the proceeds to his
grandson, who spent much of his youth there. But Eve’s got
quite a challenge on her hands. Not only is the building in deplorable
physical condition, it is also rumored to be haunted. When
Cliff’s deadly premonition becomes a reality, Dr. Seth Hazlitt is not so
sure the man died of natural causes. As Jessica tries to get to the
bottom of Cliff Cooper’s death, a medium hired by Eve attempts to rid
the house of the alleged apparition. But if Jessica isn’t careful, she
may be the one who joins the ranks of the dearly departed.
In Ruthie Visit Part 4: we'll explain about our weird ghostly feelings in Poe's Baltimore Row House. Since all three of us are mediums, which means we can get messages from
people who passed, or sense energies in places from people who lived
there in the past, Poe's house had an interesting attraction that others
couldn't experience, but we did.
Rob, Ruthie and Tom investigating
UNDERSTANDING THE 2 TYPES OF HAUNTING - First, you need to know that there are two types of energy from people who passed.
1) Residual Haunt - that is, an emotional thumbprint left in a place, from people who lived in a place. It could be happy energy from good times, or bad energy from a traumatic life or event.
Edgar Allen Poe and Black Cat
2) Interactive Haunt - This is actually an Earth-bound ghost that interact with the living and communicate through moving things, cold spots, noises, etc.
Ruthie got an impression of Poe burning papers in this fireplace
GHOSTLY HEADACHE TIME! - The energies at the Poe house were residual in nature. There was no actual ghost there, but the energy DID hurt! In fact, there was nothing on the first floor of the house but when we walked up to the second floor, and went in the front room, both Tom and Rob got searing headaches from residual energy. Ruthie also felt it, too, and she actually saw an image of Poe himself tossing papers into the fireplace.
I'm a simple guy who enjoys the simple things in life, especially our dogs. I volunteer for dog rescues, enjoy exercising, blogging, politics, helping friends and neighbors, participating in ghost investigations, coffee, weather, superheroes, comic books, mystery novels, traveling, 70s and 80s music, classic country music,writing books on ghosts and spirits, cooking simply and keeping in shape. You'll find tidbits of all of these things on this blog and more. EMAIL me at Rgutro@gmail.com - Rob