File this one under: Random Musings

Somedays it just seems like having made it to a new day is a major accomplishment. This isn't one of those for me, but, I did think it was worth mentioning. Maybe not. We look at the task at hand and it's goal: Make something productive of the day before us, Thursday, October 11, 2018. I would like to break a story that you haven't heard yet. However, I don't really have one, therefore, I will do my usual tip-toeing through whatever it is that comes to mind. That photo was taken in Vernon Parish, Louisiana. That's where I grew up. It didn't include a location, but, it sure reminds me of many of the little creeks we used to visit. One, in particular, Brushy Creek, was within 10 minutes of our homeplace. I used to fish there. Typically, it was for sun perch. I used to hunt squirrels in and around that creek. That's right. We didn't like rodents per se, but, we actually never thought of squirrels as being that, we only thought of them as being smother fried with gravy by our Granny Mac. I know I probably saw a few snakes on that creek. We never thought about it that much. If we did see one, we let them go their way and we continued on our way. We've been conditioned over time to think about a scene like this one as being infested with snakes and all other kinds of danger. So much so, I probably wouldn't have let my grandchildren even think about going to a place like that without close supervision. Yet, my brother would often go there to fish, barefooted. Sometimes I wonder if the shift towards being protective has been of much help to subsequent generations. I really do. What say you?

These are some hate driven times we are living in. The story about a new accuser of Judge Kavanaugh was broken by two reporters for a major magazine. This story could not be verified by anyone including the FBI. Now the two reporters who ran with the account given to them have owned up to the fact they did no investigation of the allegation before publishing it. They went with it because they thought it followed a pattern. Journalists? No verification. No proof whatsoever. Another writer for a mainline TV show bragged "I'm just glad we were able to ruin Kavanaugh's life." She has since expressed regret and called it an inappropriate attempt at sarcastic humor. A professor made this comment regarding the outcome of the confirmation process, "Republican senators supporting Kavanaugh deserve miserable deaths while feminists laugh as they take their last gasps." She shared this gem on Twitter. Then we have the Minnesota teacher who tweeted out this bit of hate, "So who's gonna take one for the team and kill Kavanaugh?" She actually wrote 'whose' but I corrected the teacher because it was hard to read. She is on paid leave pending an investigation. This is only a sample of the vitriol that has come to define our discourse today. Interestingly enough, the left-leaning folks always seem very willing to accept the 'just joking' excuse when it is one of their own. I happen to believe these threats are real because they are backed up by the frenzy being whipped up by influential instigators. Some believe this will ultimately end in acts of violence. It could. Let's hope not.

We have family in the Florida panhandle. Two of them are in law enforcement, therefore, they are in the middle of the fracas brought on by Hurricane Michael. Our prayers go out to them, their families, and to all of those in the path of this significant storm. I haven't been watching but some have commented how the weather reporting entities have backed down some on their reporters holding on for dear life in a 20 MPH wind. I suppose this came as a result of so many of them being exposed in the most recent storms. Most of us just want the facts. We don't feel bad at all when the predicted killer storm turns out to not be as ferocious as thought, however, they seem to somehow want to vindicate their predictions regardless of the outcomes. For them, they had better be careful because there are some 250 million plus cell phones out there capable of capturing real-time footage. They are supposed to be watching for us but we have had to become watchers of the watchers if that makes sense. Sometimes the proverbial fox guarding the hen house comes into play. I'll let you think about that one for a while. Have a great rest of the day and may God bless us all is my prayer. Amen. ...More later.