Rusty Syringes

Now that the electoral dust has settled and President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration Jan. 20, 2021, is set in stone, it is time to move forward, cease the extreme political rhetoric and strike a tone of respect and compromise as this great American, who has dedicated his life to public service, takes his rightful place as leader of the free world. It is a time for healing and fence-mending, a time to isolate the radical extremes, find common ground and get behind our new president after four years of toxicity, dysfunction, darkness and embarrassing our country on the world stage. President-elect Biden has accomplished greatness in his distinguished career, helping to bring health care to those who otherwise would not qualify for it, for example. Here is a bullet list of what Biden already has done for this country: Reviving Our Economy * as Vice President, oversaw implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009, then the biggest economic recovery plan in our country’s history. helped rebuild the American economy and save the American auto industry, lifting us out of the Great Recession. * brokered Senate negotiations between Democrats and Republicans to pass the Budget Control Act of 2011 and avert a federal government shutdown. * led a review in 2014 of federal employment and training programs that reach more than 21 million people per year, retooling $1.5 billion in grants to align with job-driven training best practices. Expanding Access to Healthcare * helped pass Obamacare (Affordable Care Act), guaranteeing health coverage for Americans with pre-existing conditions and 20 million who were previously uninsured. * helped launch a “Cancer Moonshot” initiative in 2016 to accelerate efforts to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer. Advancing Women's Rights and Gender Equity. * sponsored the original Violence Against Women Act in 1994, leading to a major decline in intimate partner violence, from 2.1 million victims in 1994 to 907,000 in 2010. * oversaw the confirmation of Ruth Bader Ginsburg as the second woman in the history of the Supreme Court in 1993. * as chair of an all-male Senate Judiciary Committee, advocated the addition of Senators Dianne Feinstein and Carol Moseley Braun. Climate Change * cosponsored proposed legislation to curb greenhouse gas emissions in 2007. * called for American participation in UN climate negotiations in 2005. * introduced one of the Senate’s first climate change bills, in 1986, leading to the creation of a task force on global warming. * utilized his experience working across the aisle to establish a pragmatic plan to cut carbon emissions and secure a sustainable future (click here to read more). * oversaw dispersement of $90 billion for clean energy as part of the 2009 Recovery Act. solar power increased 20x between the years 2008 and 2016. Promoting Peace and Security * secured the passage of arms limitation agreements in 1979 between the United States and the Soviet Union, reducing the risk of global nuclear disaster. * advocated for economic sanctions against South Africa’s apartheid government. * pushed for U.S. intervention in the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s, ending ethnic cleansing and bringing peace to the region. * supported expanding NATO to include Warsaw Pact nations Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, advancing the cause of an undivided, democratic and peaceful Europe. Protecting our children * served as primary sponsor of the PROTECT Our Children Act of 2008, helping law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute child predators. * sponsored and introduced the Criminal History Background Checks Pilot Extension Act of 2008, allowing volunteer organizations – such as children’s sports groups – to obtain national and state criminal history background checks on their volunteers. Policing and criminal justice reform * Co-authored the 1994 crime bill, which has been credited with decreasing levels of violent crime, but also increasing rates of incarceration. Biden has recognized flaws with the original bill and his proposed policies look to address many of the concerns that resulted (click here to read more). Stopping Far-Right Judges * as ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, blocked Jeff Sessions from becoming a federal judge in 1986. * blocked the nomination of Robert Bork, who wanted to roll back advances in civil rights, to the Supreme Court in 1987. It is clear a brighter tomorrow is just around the corner for this country, and I look forward to all the great things this administration will accomplish in the next eight years.

YOU'RE FIRE!

There are six ways to get to China Elementary School from Pinewood. The Highway. The Back Way. The Other Back Way. The New Back Way. The Other New Back Way. The Other, Other New Back Way. Or at least that’s what my preschooler son, Curt, and I call them. It took us a good part of the fall to discover them all. This morning, Curt and I got up early and took The New Back Way, a school year-end favorite due to its having three train crossings. Curt, 5, is in love with trains, so we decided to have breakfast by the tracks in China, a sleepy town of about 1,100 people just west of Beaumont on U.S. Highway 90. The New Back Way snakes through rural neighborhoods and turf farms. We pass the house where we picked up our puppy, Jack. We see old barns, stray dogs and an abandoned, vandalized convenience store out in the middle of nowhere. We see drilling rigs go up and down. We talk about why we have to stop when a school bus stops. We speculate which trucks use diesel gas. We wonder whether the fat hawk will be in his usual power-line sitting spot. If a train comes, we stop and watch it pass. Today was Curt’s last day at a school we were willing to take on two mortgages last year to get him into. Through four seasons, we made the 20-minute drive between Pinewood and China Elementary School. At first, we mostly took The Back Way (a U.S. 90 frontage road) and The Highway (U.S. 90), but every now and then we took The Other Back Way, a dusty, scary, mostly unpaved section of Old Sour Lake Road. I stopped taking The Other Back Way, the quickest route, after spending $700 on new struts for my SUV. Early on during the school year, it was all about listening to a different “daddy CD” every morning. It was interesting to witness what he liked. I let him pick whatever he wanted. He loved Coldplay, Los Lobos and Led Zeppelin, but Korn and the ###### Surfers didn’t make it a half mile before Curt hollered for it to be shut off. In recent months, the music has stayed off, and we mostly take The New Back Way, also known as Reins Road before curving and becoming Moore Road, with the conversation focused on whether there will be a train that day. It’s a school year that saw the death of Curt’s pawpaw, my dad. It’s been a year of bats and bobcats, floods and horseflies, frustrating car breakdowns and the rise of a backyard treehouse, built to fulfill a promise made regarding toilet usage and diaper abandonment. It’s a school year that started with stressful uncertainty and ended with a new ballgame, one in which a bright, happy boy, whom some knuckleheaded professionals gave little chance of normalcy, beat the odds and will go off to a mainstream kindergarten this fall. But it won’t be at China Elementary. It will be at Sour Lake. Sadly, there are no train tracks along the way. This morning, we got to the tracks by 7 a.m. and saw not one but three trains. There was an eastbound one that stopped on some parallel tracks and two westbound trains that rocketed past. Curt was elated. Our morning trips to school, which started in Beaumont in January 2005, have been a father-son bonding experience. It’s not easy taking a little guy off to school and leaving him for the day, but we had to do it. Diagnosed with autism and way behind on his speech, early intervention was critical. He stills hold my hand on the walk to class. Before I go, he still wants to be picked up and get “a kiss on both cheeks.” But the changes have been bittersweet over the past year. A year ago, he was still pooping his diapers at night. Now, he's writing complete sentences, doing chores and devouring beautiful world around him. Hey, there goes my new friend I don’t want this time to end But I know it won’t be long Before he grows up and he’s gone Next year, the drive won’t be the same. It will be half the distance and void of trains. Hopefully, our walk-to-class routine won’t change. But some day, he won’t want to hold my hand anymore. Then he won’t want me to walk him to class anymore. Maybe he’ll want to take the bus instead of having Dad take him to school. With every little step like that, I’ll be letting him go. Nevertheless, like it was with me and my father, our relationship will continue to grow and change. The great adventures are yet to come, the camping, the sporting events, the traveling, the navigation through life’s maze of discovery and hard knocks. And, like it was with me and my father, who died in January, I know it’s OK to let him go, because I know he’ll always come back to me. Hey, there goes my old friend I don’t want this time to end But I know it won’t be long Before he grows up and he’s gone

RIGHT IN THE GULF OF MEXICO

No joke here. He'd not been heard from recently regarding a league, and today it was posted on his Facebook page that he died June 12. He last posted on Facebook in April. From what I knew of him - and I spent a couple days hanging out with him sometime around 2004 - he was a very sweet, gentle, hippy kind of guy. From what I remember, he worked as a baggage handler for American Airlines, hurt his back and went on disability. I have some memory of tragedy in his life regarding his wife and perhaps a child, killed in a car accident. His health recently has been up and down, from what I understand. I met him and torridjoe in Seattle sometime around 2004. They came up from Portland to visit. We partied and then went and watched some football the next day at a sports bar, and an old Geek named flipya4real joined us. Obviously he loved The Grateful Dead. And weed. He was like the wonderfully strange uncle you wanted to hang out with more than you got a chance to. That's the best I can do on his obituary here. Hopefully some of you Silverbacks can fill in the gaps.

Seeing as so many of you are absolutely fascinated with my life's cat-rescue aspect, not to mention that so many of you here love cats, it seemed fitting to dedicate an entire thread to these precious creatures. Here, we can share stories and rejoice in their love! I never wanted a cat, but my wife (34C) back in 2014 found a tiny one darting across a busy street, barely missing getting squished. Out of respect for my not wanting a cat, she left it with the vet. I came up to visit it the next day, and she looked up at me with these beautiful blue eyes and went "Mew?" That was that. Today, we have five of our own. My wife opened a yoga studio and lounge in early 2015. Two years later, she took in a couple of strays, who were quickly adopted. We became very active in a local cat-rescue group. The yoga studio doubled as a cat lounge. People would come from all over to visit the cats and adopt them. We've adopted out more than 300 cats in the past three years. Our journey has been filled with joys and heartbreak. We've rescued cats from terrible hording situations and neglect. People will throw kittens in trash bags and dump them on the side of the road. Some have come to us with purple paws, meaning they were going to be used as bait for dog fighting. Some of our fosters succumb to illnesses such as FIP, a cruel disease for which there is almost no chance of recovery. One of our favorite fosters were these two little guys: https://ibb.co/QdKLkQ0 We got a report a few years ago of two weeks-old kittens found in a Target parking lot. One was fount shivering in a puddle, while the other had washed down a drain, which took several people to pull the grate and extract the kitty. We had to bottle feed them for weeks, and one of them almost died twice. Kittens that young are fragile and can die quickly from things like hypothermia. But these little guys survived and grew into delightful kitties. https://ibb.co/4gX60vZ Eight or so weeks after we got them, they were eligible for adoption, which came quickly. Now they're fat, fluffy lovable adult cats who bring lots of joy into their forever homes. https://ibb.co/7nCSRHZ

The one I've got now is pretty good, so I'm going to stick with it.

I will go with whatever the majority decides on this. I will go through my Rolodex and reveal every single alias I have or have ever created, with maybe the exception of one.

Who you got? Sleepers? Busts?

I gave you all I can on this subject. You've curiously stuck around longer than most of the other ... subjects.

After attacking someone out of nowhere, he retreats into his safe place and claims that your responses to his attacks were what started things in the first place. His comments are like rice cakes - all the same size and painfully flavorless.

You ever see ... "The Truman Show?"

This is all I can divulge regarding a complex and elaborate social experiment created under the Clinton administration.

All of them except yours ...

So go find another board to post your boring, repetitive comments.

You're an alias. It's pretty obvious. Silverbacks can sniff 'em out a mile away. Deal with it.

I think he's a bot programmed to spit out a limited number of comments when I post something. You are a messed up dude. You're a troll. Unbelievable. Etc.

I think he really, really means it this time.

Oh, why you look so sad? Tears are in your eyes Come on and come to me now Don't be ashamed to cry Let me see you through 'Cause I've seen the BDS, too When the Sanctuarians troll you You don't know what to do Nothing you confess Could make me love you less I'll Hand by you I'll Hand by you Won't let nobody hurt you I'll Hand by you So if you're mad, get mad Don't hold it all inside Come on and talk to me now Hey, what you got to hide? You love it in the poo Here I'm not like you When you're standing at the crossroads And don't know which post to choose Let me come along 'Cause even if you're wrong I'll Hand by you I'll Hand by you Won't let gutterboy hurt you I'll stand by you Take me in, into your darkest BDS hour And I'll never desert you I'll stand by you And when When the night falls on you, baby You're feeling all alone You won't be on your own I'll Hand by you I'll Hand by you Won't let TK hurt you I'll stand by you Take me in, into your darkest BDS hour And I'll never desert you I'll Hand by you I'll Hand by you Won't let Joe Biden hurt you I'll Hand by you Won't let BLM hurt you I'll Hand by you I'll Hand by you Won't let Antifa hurt you I'll Hand by you Take me in, into your darkest hour And I'll never desert you I'll Hand by you

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/clarissajanlim/man-car-anti-asian-violence-rally-diamond-bar

That's none of your business.

HT is under the hilarious notion that I rooned the Sanctuary, despite the sheer sparseness of my posting over the years. He says he obtained this information from an inside source. In other words, he's an idiot.

FOX gets pwned for criticizing Harris https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/fox-news-kamala-harris-salute-131210503.html

I took my suspension like a real man and didn't use an alias and an unblocked device to sneak back in here to soothe the kind of emotional desperation and anxiety you have experienced during your suspension.