Mother’s Day Around The World

Today is Mother’s Day in the U.S. and many other countries, however not all countries celebrate it today.

For whatever reason, possibly a wish to disassociate themselves from British traditions, the pilgrim fathers who first travelled to America didn’t seem to take Mothering Sunday with them.

1914 is when the celebration date was set here. But seriously, Call your Mother!

SMOD 2016 -or- Getting Away

Now that Donald F. Trump is the presumptive GOP nominee for President, there are those of us in the #NeverTrump camp that are looking at options. The Mayans let us down in 2012, but NASA brings us hope with its Near Earth Object Program website.

Sentry is a highly automated collision monitoring system that continually scans the most current asteroid catalog for possibilities of future impact with Earth over the next 100 years.

Currently there is one object being tracked (FG50) that is large enough (150m diameter) to cause significant damage. It has a 1 in 220,000 chance of impact with Earth. Unfortunately, it isn’t a global killer. It would have about 4 times the destructive force of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

This means that it would have to be a direct hit on Washington, D.C. for our purposes. That increases the odds to something like being hit by lightning on a sunny day while holding a winning Powerball ticket.

OK, well maybe not. A secondary option is to follow the advice of celebrities and just get away. Not being a huge fan of Canada, I’m providing you with some additional options. Here are 9 affordable places to retire overseas, and here are 10 more.

When Theft Isn’t

While we’re sure our eight black-robed masters have lost their minds, they aren’t the only ones. Judges in Italy have overturned a conviction for stealing about $4.50 worth of food from a supermarket.

Mr Ostriakov, a homeless man of Ukrainian background, had taken the food “in the face of the immediate and essential need for nourishment”, the court of cassation decided.

I can tell you firsthand that Europe isn’t the rosy place for the middle class poor that liberals here would like you to believe. Unfortunately what has happened there is just what we’ve been warning about for years that would happen here (and has to some degree). Once the government starts meeting all of your needs, people no longer see a reason for personal charity. Those who don’t have enough to eat and cannot get help from the government are left to their own means. Still, theft is theft and this ruling does nothing to fix the problem.

School exits Park used for Jesus Lunch

A Wisconsin school district will no longer have a lease on a public park where students gather for a weekly Bible study event known as the “Jesus Lunch.”

City attorney Matt Fleming has indicated that the city believes the District’s authority to enforce school rules in Fireman’s Park is questionable, and that the city has no interest in litigation to resolve the ambiguities in the language.

For now the lunches will continue since the school district no longer maintains the lease, but the Bored and Angry Atheists Freedom From Religion organization plans to monitor the situation to make sure no one hears any religious message outside the walls of their local church.

The Three Laws of Voting in 2016

1. #NeverTrump
2. #NeverHillary (unless it violates the first rule)
3. #VoteYourConscience (unless it violates the first two rules)

CALL YOUR MOTHER

Oh yeah, Open Thread.