GOP (Symbolically) Crushes 'Cap and Debt'

THE MSM HASN'T A CLUE; HAS FAILED US MISERABLYBUSINESS INSIDER: We're now in unchartered territory.

NATIONAL JOURNAL: GOP Votes Resoundingly, No more blank checks.

Executive Pay Increases in Tennessee Focuses On HCA's Obscene Fat Cats

GAMING THE TAXPAYER FUNDED HEALTHCARE SYSTEM WAS NEVER MORE PROFITABLE FOR HCA ET AL

I NO LONGER SUBSCRIBE TO THE TENNESSEAN---where I cut my teeth writing and reporting---but very occasionally skim my neighbor's paper delivered outside her door before the dawn's early light. This morning I snuck outdoors in my nightgown early and perused the headlines as I sat on my steps sipping my coffee. Two things caught my eye.

First this on executive pay increases for Tennessee execs in 2010. Rarely does much of anything disgust me anymore; however the gargantuan executive pay and increases of the top two CEOs both in the healthcare business (which fattens its coffers off Medicare and Medicaid, ie taxpayers monies)---HCA and Community Health Systems---really made me wince with disdain and disgust. How utterly, utterly ridiculous! I thought to myself.

I mean, how does this kind of hubris happen, even if it is paid in stock options? Why praytell aren't stockholders raising hell and doing something about this kind of outrage? Do stockholders and corporate boards hold anyone accountable anymore or are they all in bed together? Does everyone buy and hold stock for just a quick buck with absolutely no regard for what management is doing or the fact the company is being run into the ground?

To be clear, HCA the biggest, most disgusting culprit has gone public, then private, then public again last year. They wouldn't have gone public again unless they smelled a ton of money that could be made gaming some system. It's clear from the pay of their latest CEO that momentarily have made lots of money off their stock.

Still, what do these kind of payouts to CEOs do to the morale of the thousands of people who work for these companies and struggle to make ends meet and who aren't getting raises themselves? How can a fat cat CEO really lead? It can't be good for morale. It can't ultimately be good for every day stockholders either.ough It's time stockholders and taxpayers stopped these fat cats from skimming the cream off all the profits.

Read the whole thing.
Enough is enough... Declare me hereby thoroughly disenchanted and disgusted!

Summertime: We Come To The River For Many Reasons...

....TO GET OUT OF THE CITY, unwind and relax, tell tall tales and laugh mostly at ourselves with people who have a great sense of humor, and if we're lucky, to catch a few fish.....

This is one of those weekends that I---as a woman---am vastly outnumbered., being the only female at a fishing party involving three generations of guys. We're having so much fun. When I can't take any more, I steal away for a good hike in the nearby mountains. Today I wore myself out climbing. Finally the rain has passed for now, it's cool and the sun is shining brightly. Welcome relief!

Wounded Warriors Team Up Recently With NFL Celebs to Climb Kilimanjaro

THEIR AMAZING CLIMB HAS ENDED BUT MEMORIES, sense of accomplishment and camaraderie of their heroic feat will live on and on.

I've been aware of this climb for weeks, since former Titans head coach Jeff Fisher, one of the NFL stars picked to hike and help others to the top of Kilimanjaro, sent media updates back to Tennessee from Africa.

This is the kind of story that warms one's heart, for truly it shows that physical and mental injuries don't have to limit us to the extent they once did. Wounded Warrior Project has been a godsend to many injured vets coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade or more. This climb is only one of the programs this organization has sponsored.

Full story here. Way to go guys and gals!

Michelle Glams Up Fit For a Queen

MEANT TO POST THIS EARLIER, but life has been happening at a blistering pace today. I'm late to the Obama party for the royals---and now it's even later, as I wind down on my way to the SoHo for a weekend of fly fishing.

In a nutshell, I heart Mrs. O's dress and think she looks fabulous....Nothing is more beautiful, imo, or feminine than an off-the-shoulder design for a tres dressy affair. Add black and you're ready to entertain royalty.

Michelle looks like a mill. Like her hair. Love her sedate earrings. And hate to admit, I really like the unexpected, edgy necklace, even around the queen. It may be controversial, but I still like it.. She has the dress, the height to pull it off, and in this case she's successful. The Obamas are an imposing, attractive couple who own the world right now. (And I wouldn't vote for him---ever.) But they are a striking twosome.

Did Kate Blow Michelle Out of the Fashion Water In London?

FIRST, IT'S ANOTHER DAY WITHOUT WIFI AT HOME AND IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD though we did wake up with electricity, and for now it's a beautiful day. But more bad weather is on the way. I've run over to 'Whole Paycheck' for a little wireless while Comcast works on our outage problems.

Am tired of posting dramatic photos from Joplin of dark, ominous clouds and think a little fashion might lighten things up a bit, especially since more ominous clouds are on the way.

The headline at The Daily Mail is something to the effect that tanned Duchess Kate blew Michell out of the water in the fashion department.

Is it true?

Off hand I'd say she did. Best part is Kate did it with a British designed dress---Reiss---which she paid under $250 for. Anyone who thinks good looks requires an expensive price tag (or guarantees a beautiful presentation)is living in the land of couture myth. A $5,000 dress does not in any way avert a fashion disaster. Style and taste always trump cost.

I like Kate's dress, but I don't love it. Don't think the nude color is as becoming, though she carries it off with her Seychelles honeymoon tan. The cut and cross design are just enough and not too much going on for her small frame. I like her kitty heel shoes and purse and think the overall effect is lovely.

I agree with Liz Jones that her hair is a bit too long and could use a trim. Long, shiny hair is fabulous, but knowing how long is long enough is a trick every woman needs to learn. The Duchess looks fabulous at her age with her beauty genes, so it would be hard for her to miss. I give Kate an A- to a B+ in the photo above. Like the rest of the world I can identify with her style preferences, especially since
I'm built a lot like her though a good deal shorter.

Now as for Michelle, I'm not wild about her hot pink, over-sized bolero and flouncy bedspread-print dress. Her style on me would make me---and indeed Kate---look like I/we had escaped from a freak show. It would wear me rather than the other way around. Having said that, I don't hate her look either. It's definitely in keeping with Michelle Obama's look. For a woman her stature and size, she carries it off more times than not.

Michelle is more than willing to take a fashion risk whether it works out or not. And sometimes it doesn't. So while I'm not crazy about anything I've seen her in on this trip so far, I'm not repulsed by any of it either. She's a good looking woman who knows who she is and clearly has fun dressing...some would say she has too much fun. But that's another story.

So, yes, Kate rules above. But Michelle's still in the race. I'll be on the look out for something I love on the First Lady during this tour. Surely she has lots more up her sleeve. But hopefully no more over-sized, hot-pink boleros.

Tuesday, More Weather All Around

I'M BEGINNING TO GET SPOOKED TALKING ABOUT THE WEATHER. In the wee hours of the morning today, the darkest hour before dawn, one of the worst isolated thunderstorms I've ever seen and heard blasted through West Nashville, lighting it up like a Christmas tree and booming like it was the end of the world.

Before it was over, the power was out---no electricity, no internet, no lights, no nothing, and heard a blast from an electrical transformer nearby. My blackberry charged overnight so I saw the time was 4:45 am. Afterwards, I cranked up my little solar/wind-up radio from Brookstone and connected with the outside world. Then Martha yelled from her place, Do you believe that storm!? Again!

Later I left for several hours and by the time I got back around noon, NES had restored power and the sun was shining. Tonight is fairly calm, but more strong storms are predicted for to Wednesday and Thursday. No one is looking forward to more of this, least of all the poor people in the mid-West and Missouri who are reeling from tornadoes and wild storms.

Eerie Night In Tennessee

SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS are forecast again tonight as lightning strikes all around. Then deadly calm, and sounds of cicadas and tree frogs.

Neighbor Martha hollered over there's a tornado warning north of Nashville where one has been spotted a little while ago. The recent spate----swarm, as Drudge calls it---of deadly tornadoes in the South and Mid-West has left everyone on pins and needles.

Don't think I'll sleep in my nightgown tonight, in case I/we all have to make a quick get-away. I can never remember a time when there was ever anything quite like this viral outbreak of such deadly proportions. Like a big hurricane year, this is one for the record books. And it's not over yet.

In The Wee Hours Of The Morning.....

....I WOKE UP WITH AN EERIE FEELING as strong gusts of wind whoosed through my half-open windows and evil-sounding thunder clapped in the distance. As the wind got worse and thunder louder, I lay shivering in my nightgown wondering What would I do if I suddenly heard the roar of a tornado and had only minutes to act? Would I go get neighbor Martha as I fled? Take refuge in my car? Head down the hill to the creek culvert that goes under the big 4-lane highway nearby? Sleep with my clothes on nights where nasty weather is predicted, like again tonight, for fast escape?

I live on the second floor of a two-story 4-unit condo building where I normally feel extremely safe. My second floor location allows me to keep my windows and French doors to the deck open whenever I like; I simply don't worry about break-ins. Not that they couldn't happen, it's just that strategically it's much less likely. I'm also on higher ground here, such that the historic flooding that overwhelmed Nashville last year and came all around, mercifully, didn't come close to our building.

See this and this.

I actually felt guilty that flooding came so close yet we were so unscathed while thousands of others were devastated.

Anyway, I must have fallen back to sleep as I reviewed possible escape routes in my mind. But this morning seeing the news of the horrendous devastation in Joplin, Missouri last night, I can only pray for mercy and compassion for its people and families and know that only by the Grace of God go any of us.

As next-door neighbor Martha left for work this morning, I met her outside on the steps and said, Martha we really need to get a tornado plan so let's think about it and talk some more.

She agreed but said she didn't like the culvert idea....for obvious reasons if the creek is high....the culvert would be underwater. Still, it the water going through the culvert is not high, it would still be my first---get low as possible---choice. We're going to tour this possibility later today and size up our alternatives---including prayer and knowing, when you're time is up, it's up. Still we God gave us brains to make preparations for the worst in the eventuality it happens.

Sunday, The Pre-Incarnate Christ In the Old Testament

CrossReference+ Episode 8 from HeadHeartHand Media on Vimeo.

Totally Agree With Pippa's Diet Which Eliminates Most Carbs, Gluten and Sugar

SOMETHING TO CHEW ON: THE DIET THAT SHOOK UP TENNIS @ WSJ (HT:TOM)ABOVE, THE BREADLESS SANDWICH AKA A SALAD

LET'S FACE IT, AT HER YOUTHFUL AGE, KATE'S SISTER PIPPA would still look fabulous even without the Pilates---which undoubtedly tone her body---and even without her disciplined diet.

Still, it's terrific she's starting these habits early, in her twenties. That's because if she continues the low-to-no carbs shtick, which essentially eliminates the deathly gluten as well as too much insulin in the body, and if she stays off sugar, by the time she gets to middle age, she'll still have her great figure, strong bones, good looks and wonderful vitality, just like her mother.

The real test of any sustained lifestyle habit is years later when you're the same weight you were at 21, have all your teeth and healthy bones with the energy of a 18-year old. Conversely, bad lifestyle habits---regular sugar consumption in myriad forms, gluten and carbs and lack of vigorous, regular exercise and sleep deprivation--not to mentions cigarettes and too much booze--start to age and decay us from the inside out and weigh on body and soul, not to mention our looks, sooner rather than later.

I didn't wise up about diet and nutrition in earnest until my early thirties. I learned over time to gauge my energy and looks by what I'd done and eaten the day before. I don't eat any of the stuff Pippa shuns---except very, very occasionally---and when I do, I feel it the next day and vow Never Again!

There are many universal myths floating around the world, but none more potentially life-threatening than myths about diet and disease. Since I'm about to run out the door for a while, let me tell you the biggest food myths of all time:

Myth 1. Simple carbs may be bad, but complex carbs are vital for energy and we should eat them every day.

Utter hogwash! Simple as well as complex carbs mess up your blood sugar, set up food cravings, and rob our energy. They also cloud our minds and depress our emotions. That's why when I have a rare helping of brown rice, which has virtually no gluten, I have it at an evening meal. It always guarantees I get sleepy earlier. But who wants to feel tired and sleepy all day?

Myth 2. We need carbs for energy, especially when we exercise a lot.

Oh yeah? Not on your life. I've found after years of high and low-altitude hiking that sustained energy never comes from eating carbs or sugar. Carbo-loading is a myth. Instead I get my energy from dried unsulphured fruits----figs and plums, proteins, non-starchy veggies with lots of olive oil and water. Sure a few nuts and seeds thrown in are fine, but carbs from grains are deadly and are not the answer to energy. Fats, proteins, non-starchy veggies and sugars found in dried fruits, along with water, are where it's at.

Myth 3. A Low fat diet prevents heart disease and obesity.

Hogwash cubed! Truly the biggest myth of all is the low-fat myth which has spawned a global obsession with low-fat food products with no nutritional value and plenty of toxins and salt. Eating natural fats like olive oil, (not awful stuff like margerine) meats and even butter are so much better for us and give us vital energy that lasts all day. It's the gluten and insulin from carbs and sugar that clog our veins, cloud our minds, set us up for Alzheimers, cancer, multiple sclerosis, depression and many other diseases too numerous to mention.

AND, our obsession with low fat synthetic foods for weight control are laughable. If you don't believe me, try it for a few weeks and see for yourself.

Besides eating fruits, all kinds of proteins and lots of non-starchy vegetables---kale, brocolli, fennell, zuchinni, squash, cucumber, avocado etc----I drink lots of room temperature water and a glass of red wine several times a week. I have a dry, dry martini about once a year, and have grown to dislike most all other alcohol except a dry red. White wines including champagne leave me feeling bad-to-wretched the next day. Red wine leaves me energized, ready to climb a mountain in the morning. Moderation is the key. I also drink black coffee in the morning.

I almost never eat sweets or desserts in any form, unless I make something like an apple crisp or pumpkin pie occassionally. It's the surest way I know to feel miserable for a day or two. If I'm going to sin on sugars, make it fermented sugar in the form of red wine. And leave the ice cream and cake to the de-energized dead and dying.

Like I say, Pippa looks fabulous, as does her sister, Kate. But the real test of their radiant looks and health will be how they feel decade after decade.

After Saturday's Rapture Comes Obama's Fantasy For Israel and Palestine, Then War

OBAMA AS WOODROW WILSON PROMISING FOREVER PEACE RIGHT BEFORE RISE OF HITLER, NETANYAHU AS REALIST AND STATESMAN



JUST IN CASE THE WORLD DOESN'T END SATURDAY, there's something that should really concern us: President Obama wants to dictate/negotiate Israel back to the dark ages. Don't you remember when Israel was only nine miles wide in some places, before The Six Day War in 1967?

James Lewis writing at American Thinker gets right to the point:

Obama has just given an eager world his fantasy answer for the last sixty years of Arab-Israel conflict. The Great One's long-awaited solution is for Israel to pull back to the cease-fire lines of the 1948 War of Independence, or what Obama, in a moment of historical amnesia, calls "the 1967 borders." People have fought and died over those borders since 1949, not 1967. Make that sixty years of regular warfare

He continues,

Robert Frost wrote that "Good fences make good neighbors." It's also true that "bad fences make bad neighbors." The Green Line is militarily dreadful, as the map shows. Obama's proposal is therefore strategically destructive.

What's worse, by raising impossible expectations in the Islamic world, expectations that are bound to be disappointed, Obama will end up making things much worse rather than much better. We'll be very lucky if a major Middle East war doesn't break out in the next few years, among emerging nuclear powers.....

The "1967 borders" are an invitation to catastrophe, just as the Peace of Versailles led to Hitler and World War II. Woodrow Wilson came back from Versailles announcing Peace Forever to a skeptical American public. But the Germans and the French (and V.I. Lenin) knew better. They knew there would be another war.

Like Woodrow Wilson, Obama yearns for that grandstanding photo-op. This whole administration is driven by one Himalayan ego.

Read the whole thing then pray for the rapture Saturday because there will be war in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas et al before the end of the year. 100% guaranteed.

Barry Rubin has more at Pajamas.

From the Ever Ridiculous The Sky Is Falling Crowd: May 21 Doomsday Complete With Rapture Is Beyond Ridiculous

WE MUST TRULY BE GOING OVER THE EDGE, if anyone really takes all this nonsense seriously.

So what does the true Master of the Living, Eternal Universe say about the second coming? From Matthew 24:36,

But of that day and hour knoweth no man, not the angels of heaven but my Father only.

So anyone who pretends to know is manifesting ignorance and arrogance beyond measure.

Briefly, A Few Words On DSK and AS

MEN WHO WANT THEIR CAKE & EAT IT TOO ARE IMMATURE BORES

IF YOU HAVE TO ASK WHAT OR WHO THESE INITIALS STAND FOR then you haven't been living on the same planet I have the past few days or you've been in some sort of drug or alcohol-induced stupor.

Nothing really surprises me anymore when I take time to reflect on the fallen state of our world and our innate sinful human nature, though I'm often momentarily shocked.

Two cases in point of shock, but not surprise, are the Dominique Strauss-Kahn caper with an African immigrant chamber maid at the Sofitel Hotel last Saturday (it was all about power and domination, not sex) and the love-child revelation of Arnold Schwarzenegger (to assuage his gargantuan ego and need for exotic excitement) with a woman on his household staff, whatever that means---I'm not sure I really want to know.

Both DSK--who's about-to-be- the erstwhile head of the IMF and a blogger at the HuffPo (oh that Arianna loves to smooze with anything that reeks of power!)---and AS are victims of their own grandiose sense of self-importance, power, privilege, false sense of superiority. Both these married men are victims of their own hair-raising sense of entitlement. Each is a master of their own decaying universes and examples that prove having it all in the worldly sense ain't really what's it's cracked up to be.

It never has been.

Neither is being a ladies man what's some say it's cracked up to be. When I think of womanizing men my antenae go up and---rightly or wrongly---I think of things like this. Ugh.

If you stop and coonsider it, is anyone really surprised by DSK or AS? Certainly Maria knew her husband was a womanizer on some level for years, maybe even before she married him. Maybe she thought she could reform him. Even so she had to be caught off-guard by how close it's been playing out to her everyday life. The fact that Arnold lived a double life with another woman in their home has to be incredibly painful to the core. And deeply embarrassing.

I could go on, but mercifully won't.

There is Shakespearian drama in falls such as these men may finally experience. Getting by with stuff for decades doesn't mean we will get by with them forever or there will never be any consequences. In fact delayed consequences and falls are often the worst kinds of all.

I don't delight in any way in watching all this unfold. In seeing grown men shatter themselves and fall on their own pitards. None of it is pretty, though perhaps somewhat instructive as cautionary tales. I think I should also add in this fallen world, but by the Grace of God go any of us.....

Last Week, This Week

LAST WEEK was the perfect, low-energy week to be knocked off my computer first by Comcast, then Blogger. I say low energy because there simply weren't any things happening here or abroad that piqued my interest enough to learn more and write about. My enthusiasm was---and still is somewhat---at a low point around the announcements of GOP hopefuls who will or won't be candidates for president next year, especially in the aftermath of Osama bin Laden's dramatic demise May 2.

Newt? Trump? Romney? Huckabee? My eyes glaze over. Paul? I doubt it, I really do. Sarah Palin? She's completely fallen off my radar and frankly too much of a political celebrity to be a viable candidate for anything in the foreseeable future. President Obama is a shoo-in unless something very, very unforeseen happens.

Conservatives should spend time and money getting a majority elected in the Senate and keeping and expanding it it in the House.

But that was last week, and this is now. I plan to come back bright-eyed in the morning and catch back up with myself online. Writing about all that yawning has got me doing it in earnest!

Sunday, Christ In the Old Testament

CrossReference+ Episode 7 from HeadHeartHand Media on Vimeo.

HE'S BEEN INVOLVED AND ACTIVE ALL ALONG, SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME.

Two Outages This Week

EARLIER THIS WEEK I began having internet problems. Comcast---excuse me, X-finity---was having area-wide trouble as many users were getting knocked offline over and over again. By the time that was finally resolved late Thursday and wifi was re-established, Blogger had gone into lock down mode for two days and didn't allow access to writing and editing its blogs. Anyway, that's why my writing has been so skimpy for the past few days. Hope to do better over the weekend.

Navy Becomes Reese

WOULD MUCH RATHER SURVEY REESE'S LATEST SASSY LOOK than think about Arnold and Marie's divorce and what a terrible and historical skirt chaser he is. (A good friend of mine tells me she was once in his sights in a hotel in Canada and he doesn't like to take NO! for an answer. She continued to flee at which time he brought in his body guard-thugs who surrounded her in the elevator. She stood her ground and got away from him and them scared half to death. Her chilling tale has always stuck with me; can't imagine how Maria has put up with him and this for so long.)

Anyway I think Reese looks adorable and sassy here. I like her hair, shoes, and most of all her female swagger! And love that dress! Wouldn't change anything at all....except perhaps round out the top of the bodice a tad to be more heart shaped/softer, and take up her hem about an inch. But only an inch. Then again, I could be talked into leaving it alone.

It's refreshing to see her look so cute in a dress with a decent length. Reese has good genes, but she obviously takes good care of herself and that great figure. She's clearly enjoying being a woman these days.

Monday Yawn

TUESDAY UPDATE: RON PAUL SUPPORTERS NOT AMUSED BY HIS LATEST BILL

TWO MEN I HAVE A SIMILAR REACTION to tonight after skimming the news: Paul McCartney who's getting married again, and Newt Gingrich who's tossing his hat in the ring for the presidency. While I wish them both well, I can't help but be totally blase.

Surely McCartney has a better chance to find wedded bliss this time around, after his last fiasco. I certainly hope so cause he looks like such a sad sack these days. Gingrich, on the other hand, doesn't have even a remote chance to beat Obama next year. He's not electable. So his redundant campaign thing makes me wince, then walk away wondering what in the world is he thinking?

Both men make me yawn. Then yawn again. And you know what two yawns back-to-back mean, don't you?.....it's time to hit the sack!

Happy, Glorious Mothers Day!

WHETHER OR NOT YOU HAVE CHILDREN OR GRANDCHILDREN, IT'S STILL A GOOD DAY TO GIVE THANKS AND COUNT OUR BLESSINGS!

Sunday, Jacob Wrestles All Night With The Angel of the Lord

INTERESTING READ: THE HEMORRHAGING OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN AMERICA

CrossReference+ Episode 6 from HeadHeartHand Media on Vimeo.
WONDERFUL STORY FROM GENESIS 32:21-32. Happy Mother's Day!

At Fort Campbell, Obama Gives Credit Where Credit's Due

VDH: Thoughts On A Surreal Depression
THERE'S NOTHING THAT MAKES ME HAPPIER TODAY than knowing President Obama and VP Biden both flew to Ft. Campbell, Kentucky yesterday to spike the football and give a rousing round of thanks to the soldiers and commandos who took part in the amazing operation that found and put an end to Bin Laden last week in Pakistan.

If it'd been me, I'd have brought a whole plane-load of cigars...

How Big a Financial Win Is the Kentucky Derby Today For Louisville

HOW BOUT $435 MILLION?

To wit, from the Fiscal Times:

By the numbers, the Derby takes place on a grander and grander scale. Its economic impact on this old river city was at least $217 million, according to a study by Wilkerson & Associates in 2001, the last year the study was done. That’s a number economists here say has doubled over the past ten years.

In 2009, for example, 153,563 people gathered beneath Churchill Downs’ iconic twin spires on Derby Day and bet $21 million. Throw in the wagers that came in from far-flung tracks, off-site betting parlors and online, and $155.9 million was bet on Derby Day that year, $104.5 million alone on America’s greatest race.

The numbers were even higher in 2010. Last year a record crowd of 155, 804 was on hand, despite inclement weather early on, and total wagering from all sources, including on-track and off-track betting, was $112.7 million, a 7.8 percent increase from 2009.


And how much did Mine That Bird pay for a $2 bet?

More than $127 million was paid out to those holding winning tickets for Mine That Bird. There weren’t many of them: The gelding went off at stratospheric odds of 50-1, which meant he paid $103.20 for a mere $2 bet. Last year Super Saver went off at odds of 8-1 and paid $18 for a $2 win ticket.

We'll see what happens this year.

A Funny Thing Happened On My Way Back to Middle Tennessee

REALLY, I CAN EXPLAIN EVERYTHING ABOUT BEING AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER FOR THREE WHOLE DAYS. You see, just when I thought it was time to come home, a friend kidnapped me right on the Virginia/Tennessee line and forced me---FORCED ME I TELL YOU!---to go fly fishing on the South Holston for two days. Never mind it was cold, rainy, and mostly out-of-Internet range, when it came to a couple days of fishing on one of the most productive rivers in the East, he wouldn't take no for an answer. Some friend.

And so reluctantly.....very reluctantly....I veered my car off I-81 down past the Bristol Speedway--which mercifully wasn't having a big NASCAR race at the time---and headed towards Elizabethtown.

A tough detour, but somebody had to do it!

For the next two days I listened to the delicious sounds of water rushing around my waders. And any day of fishing---even a mediocre one---is better than the alternative.

So now, YES, I'm finally home doing laundry and trying to catch up with myself after two weeks on the road seeing children, grandchildren, friends and even strangers along the way. But I have to say the last few days were great fun too balance off big city hustle and bustle. Whew!

See, wasn't that a good reason to be gone from blogdom for a while?

On The AT

IT RAINED HARD IN CENTRAL VIRGINIA LAST NIGHT. Today it's cool and sunny. What's a girl to do with the AT outside her door and a great mountain to climb before moving on down the highway towards Tennessee?

Leon Panetta's Amazing Coup After Obama's Endless Foot Dragging: Or What Really Happened Before Bin Laden Was Captured and Killed?

PREPARE TO BE ASTOUNDED---IF IT'S TRUE: PANETTA, GIBBS CLINTON AND DALEY VERSES OBAMA AND JARRETT

WE'VE ALL SEEN THE ABOVE PHOTO OF SUNDAY NIGHT AT THE WHITE HOUSE PLASTERED EVERYWHERE BY NOW. We've watched and read how it came about over the past many months.President Obama briefed the nation on the death of Bin Laden. Since the dramatic events in Pakistan two days ago, new details of the operation are emerging by the hour.

So are you ready for new details you surely haven't heard in the MSM the NYT, even on Drudge---yet?

Thanks to a comment here today by Greg Cotham with a fascinating link, I'm posting a new version of the story which I believe may be a credible account of what really happened behind the scenes to make this operation in Pakistan come about and wildly successful.

Fasten your seat belt folks and read on, read what The Washington Insider has to say.

Here's Greg's comment which begins somewhat tongue-in-cheek:

"White House Insider" has already begun the novel. And it is delicious gossip about Obama hesitating/refusing to give the order, followed by Panetta/Hillary/Gates/Daley joining forces to cover each other and give the order (to go after Bin Laden). Panetta, especially, pushed the operation and ran it from CIA. When the operation was too far along to be aborted, Obama was pulled off the golf course and brought back to the situation room (and briefed on what was going on with the Navy SEALS in Pakistan). Your photo clearly shows Obama in golf clothing and golf jacket.

Greg included this link from SocyBerty. It's long and I'm not familiar with the source, but I dug in. The more I read, the more credible it seemed. It's one great story, if it's true.

It's late and I'm fading. Will be back in the morning with more. Meanwhile, do read the link.

Navy SEALS, Coolest Guys On Earth

BUSH ERA INTERROGATIONS HELPED LOCATE BIN LADENI'M WITH TONY DOKOUPIL writing today @ The Daily Beast: Navy SEALS are the coolest military men in the world. Very, very few make it to the elitest SEAL Team Six because it involves taking such major physical and mental abuse over and over again. To wit:

SEAL TRAINING is two years—the same as astronaut training—and it includes an agonizing combination of brain and brawn work, topped with five days of simulated battle stress. The men call it "Hell Week," a regime of bullets, bombs, and extreme endurance tests. Men can ring a bell to quit at any time, and two out of three do so. Right now there are only about 2,500 SEALs on active duty in a range of missions worldwide, virtually all of them secret. The best of those are invited to join SEAL Team Six, as it's popularly known—the team that picked off three Somali pirates from 100 yards on rough seas. And the team that finally got bin Laden.

The SEALs originated as "frogmen" clearing beaches during World War II, moved on to bridge demolition during Korea, and gained fame (along with the SEAL name) during Vietnam. But the modern SEALs were born in the aftermath of the Iran hostage crisis as a specialized counterterrorism force. The initial results were underwhelming....

Read the rest of the piece and give thanks that this tough-guy cadre of fighting men exists to serve our country. Who among us doesn't have a new appreciation? I certainly do.

Below, many are called, very few chosen....no one who wants it easy need apply.

Just Another Dull Sunday Night in the White House Situation Room

WHITE HOUSE MODIFIES STORY AHEAD OF VIDEO RELEASE
UPDATE: PRESIDENT TO GO TO GROUND ZERO THURSDAYMORE @ WHITE HOUSE DOSSIER
ALSO, FROM THE DAILY MAIL:

THE PRESIDENT WATCHED via a video camera fixed to the helmet of a U.S. commando as America's nemesis was killed by a single bullet to the head . The dramatic footage of the ferocious battle in a Pakistani hideout - relayed to the White House by satellite link - is also said to show the Al Qaeda leader using a woman, thought to be one of his wives....

Now that'll get your blood pumping late on a Sunday night at the White House....gives new meaning to the expression satellite TV. If I didn't know better I'd say they were watching the finals of NCAA basketball.

Who knew?

Meet Seal Team 6 True Professionals Who Got Bin Laden In 40 Minutes

IS IT TRUE? COWARD BIN LADEN USED WOMEN AS A SHIELD
BRYAN PRESTON: BIN LADEN IS DEAD, I BLAME BUSH!PLANNED FOR A YEAR, EXECUTED IN 40 MINUTES

MEMBERS OF TEAM 6 are all "black" operatives. They exist outside military protocol, engage in operations that are at the highest level of classification and often outside the boundaries of international law. To maintain plausible deniability in case they are caught, records of black operations are rarely, if ever, kept.

The development of SEAL Team 6 was in direct response to the 1980 attempt to rescue the American hostages held in Iran. The mission was a terrific failure that fell apart at many points and illustrated the need for a dedicated counter-terrorist team capable of operating with the utmost secrecy.

MORE @ Business Insider

We Finally Get Bin Laden

HATS OFF TO PRESIDENT OBAMA---IN THE ROLE OF TRUE LEADER---WHO FINISHED THE JOB---WITH SO MANY GOOD DETAILS---THAT PRESIDENT BUSH STARTED A DECADE AGO! FURTHERMORE, U.S. SPECIAL OPS TROOPS TOTALLY ROCK!

Several outstanding highlights of this noteworthy operation come to mind:

First, the United States stood on its own two feet, and when confronted with the evidence, acted unilaterally. None of this wimpy, one world government silliness.

Second, we killed him. Period. We took no prisoners which would have required of the U.S. government long, expensive, drawn out procedures.

Third, we immediately disposed of his body AT SEA so his burial place wouldn't become another dismal shrine---a little mecca for extremist worship and bowing and scraping to an evil anti-hero.

My hats off to the Obama administration for pulling it off, pulling the trigger and getting the job done. My hat's also off to former president Bush for starting this long, drawn out search.

AND, the special ops Marines who did the operation totally rock! They're the real heroes! We got Saddam. Now Bin Laden. Next we need to get Qadaffi on the double....a real triptik of terror.

Sunday---The Royal Wedding: Longing and Looking for A Good King

WONDERFUL POST THIS WEEK AT THE GOSPEL COALITION casts the royal wedding in a new light and more godly perspective. Longing and Looking for a Good King says what we all secretly long for is a good king to reign over us and the world.

Heaven knows we've enough bad and controversial 'kings' in our day. We certainly didn't have the good king image in Prince Charles or even the ever-jovial queen consort, Prince Phillip. We wouldn't have it in randy Prince Harry.

No, but Prince William and his beautiful, graceful Princess Katherine fit our hopes, dreams and projections to a T! They bring out our collective longings for a benevolent king who'll rule kindly and fairly over all the earth. From the piece:

It’s not enough to have a king with the proper line of succession, or with the legal right to rule; people want a good king. They want a king with some dignity, who doesn’t bare a checkered past of divorce and sex scandals. And it’s not just the king’s subjects who care. Hundreds of millions are watching.

Of course in reality no earthly king can completely fulfill our soul's longings. King Saul, the first king of Israel, failed miserably. And even the apple of God's eye, King David had many trials, temptations and heartbreaks. But he knew how to humbly repent and stay in fellowship with God in ups as well as downs. And David ruled over a prosperous and favored kingdom.

And so The Royal Wedding this week, brings up our deepest longings for a Good King and Utopian world that will never be fulfilled this side of heaven and Christ's Second Advent one day.

Till then, we must live with imperfection and our intense longings which are indicative of the deeper reality embedded in each of our human souls for a good king.