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Posted in Believe it or not!, Inspiring

Pro Bono (that means “free legal”) Work Offered to Easterners

Posted on by Katharine
Hurricane Sandy: 10/30/2012
Hurricane Sandy: 10/30/2012 (Photo credit: ccho)

Been asked to share this from NOVO Law Firm PC:

My heart is breaking as I look at photos of the damage from Hurricane Sandy – water in the streets, electrical fires, Tatiana’s fallen façade, flooded basements and disabled vehicles – so many dreams are in shambles.  I hope you have all made it through safely and started the return to normal.
While my home and office remain without power [ . . . ] I am beginning to have some reception and have mobilized my staff to assist those who are less fortunate.
Please feel free to email or call me at  917-226-6405 (by the way, I do not have your telephone contacts at the moment).  Also, please collect the contact information for everyone who suffered serious damages and wants help.  We will need their name, address, telephone, email and a brief description (loss of motor vehicle, flood-damaged basements, injuries, loss of business, etc.).  Make sure to tell everyone to take photos before they clean up and repair.
I will help everyone pro bono to apply for government aid/compensation and to submit insurance claims.  Via email, I am able to assist as early as this week.  Feel free to share my information and this offer with anyone that may need it.
Okay, everyone! Take photos before clean-up, if you think you need legal help, and if you need help with getting legal help, who knows? These folks might be it . . .
Posted in Believe it or not!, Health, Herbs

State Senators Seek A.G. Opinion on Marijuana Vending Machines

Posted on by Katharine
English: Snack Machine
Snack Machine (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dear Friends,

Today The Arkansas Family Council held a press conference announcing they are working with State Senators Jeremy Hutchinson and Johnny Key, who are seeking an opinion from Attorney General McDaniel on whether or not the proposed Issue 5 would open Arkansas up to marijuana vending machines.

Marijuana is dispensed through vending machines in California. Some people are trying to get Connecticut to permit vending machines under its marijuana program. Vending machines seem to be the future of the ‘medical’ marijuana industry.

These machines are basically high-tech snack machines that sell marijuana and marijuana-infused food instead of potato chips.

Having read the measure, I don’t think there’s anything in Issue 5 that would prohibit vending machines. Hopefully Attorney General McDaniel’s office can shed some light on how widespread vending machines might become if Issue 5 passes, next week.

For instance, if Issue 5 passes, can a marijuana dispensary put a vending machine offsite somewhere? Can a dispensary in Magnolia or Jonesboro contract to put a vending machine at a convenience store across town? Can a dispensary put a vending machine out front for people to use in the middle of the night, when the dispensary is closed?

We don’t sell beer out of vending machines. We don’t sell cigarettes out of vending machines. I don’t know why anyone would be comfortable selling marijuana out of vending machines.

You can see the website for the marijuana vending machine (“Med Box”) popular in California here: http://www.thedispensingsolution.com/

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Posted in Believe it or not!, Good ol' days

The Last Snowing Hurricane

Posted on by Katharine
From his vantage point high above the earth in...
From his vantage point high above the earth in the International Space Station, Astronaut Ed Lu captured this broad view of Hurricane Isabel. The image was taken with a 50 mm lens on a digital camera. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Lewis and Clark had just started out for points unknown.

Jefferson was President and was incumbent during the soon-coming election. Clinton was his running mate. George Clinton, that is.

The Electoral College had new rules to try out.

Then it hit.

No one alive had ever seen anything like it.

With no means of early warning, and few places out west for evacuation, many died.

People venturing outdoors the next day were shocked at being able to see nearby villages, a view normally obstructed by dense woods.

In some locales, the snow was 3 feet deep. And in some places it stayed on all winter.

Fruit trees laden with fruit snapped off at ground level; potatoes froze beneath the earth.

Ships in eastern harbors dragged anchor or broke the chains to their anchors and crashed together or floated to sea, killing many sailors.

Steeples, chimneys, and even entire roofs blew away.

Most trees were flattened, ruining the ship-building industry for years.

Estimated as a category 2-3, it landed near Atlantic City, which was 50 years in the future at that time.

It was the Atlantic snowing hurricane of October 9-10, 1804.

And though these were more primitive times — no snow-plows, for instance — the election was carried out in a timely manner.

Posted in Coffee-ism, Inspiring, Wisdom

Meet a New Coffee-Loving Friend Today

Posted on by Katharine
English: Making of Latte art of cappuccino on ...
Making of Latte art of cappuccino on Coffee Right in Brno, Czech Republic. Výroba Latté artu na Cappuccinu na Coffee Right v Brně.

Just met a new blogger, a young missionary in Czech Republic. So far, what he has written is great reading. Thought you’d enjoy taking a peek and wishing him well. Here he is:

______________

Divine Addiction

I don’t think it’s a very big secret that I love coffee.

Like for real, I have a serious love affair with caffeinated beverages, hot or cold. Whenever I go into a coffee shop, I have a routine.

I myself am a barista, so I already know the best way to prepare these beverages, but I must decide what the flavor combination will be, so I stare at the board, pretending to make a decision based off of what I see there, but what I am really doing is having a discussion with my taste buds and trying to negotiate a compromise between their opposing demands.

Finally, when we all come to a conclusion, I then scan the pastries to decide what would best go with that drink. (The pastries I see may or may not affect the treaty that my taste buds and I have signed.) Once that has all happened, I lay this request at the mercy of the barista behind the register, pay for my order (including a tip; if you want a good drink, you MUST tip) and then find the place that I want to hunker down and celebrate this magnificent creation I am about to receive.

Crazy, right?

____________

Okay, friends, GO HERE to read the rest of this great post all the way from Czech Republic. You’ll like it, I think.

Posted in Believe it or not!, Inspiring, Scripture

Get Grace

Posted on by Katharine

Gift Box

You hear them all the time: people who have fantasies about what they wish God would be like, making up definitions of Bible stuff.

Some of these people have actually read the Bible.

Some have attended church and heard a preacher who decided to redefine something to fit his message, and because of that, think they understand it.

Beware: It will never stop

Grace is not mercy. Mercy is when a judge feels sorry for you or thinks it would be more improvement for society for you not to go to jail; you don’t get what you deserved.

Now, Christians don’t get what we deserve. That is true. But that is not grace. It is mercy. Mercy and grace are not the same things.

Or, why would Paul pray that “grace, mercy, and peace be unto you”?

Paul had too much to say to waste parchment by being redundant.

Still, because we do not grasp what in the world grace is, some of us assign it the definition that belongs to mercy.

So, since we do get mercy, anyway, and we tell folks we get mercy, what is wrong?

What is wrong is that we rob them of also getting grace.

That’s what.

We rob them of the only way to walk with the Lord in the Light of His Word.

Serious stuff.

Life altering stuff.

The essence of actual life.

As opposed to the fabricated life, the fake life, the hypocritical life.

Grace.

You need it.

God provided that you can get it.

And the clueless can keep you away from it.

And they don’t even know that about themselves.

Grace is the power of God doing things in you.

Grace is the power of God doing things with you.

Grace is the power of God doing things for you.

Grace is the power of God doing things through you.

“Stand in His strength alone.
The arm of flesh will fail you, ye dare not trust your own.”

Grace is that strength.

Get that strength.

Go boldly to the Throne of Grace and get grace to help you in your time of need. (See Hebrews 4:16)

Like when someone refuses to get off your case, you can be kind to them, anyway.

Or when someone takes away your things, you can offer them even more.

Or when you are so tired you can hardly move, you can keep moving.

Strength.

God’s strength.

Working in, with, through, and for you.

Out of His great mercy, He does not destroy us.

But He offers to do our doing FOR us, to live IN us, to walk this life WITH us, to work THROUGH us.

Oh, and it’s a gift.

You just have to ask.

Get that grace.

Posted in Health, Home School, Inspiring, Wisdom

Did You Learn to Swim in a Sewer?

Posted on by Katharine
English: Mind that Fence. As the sign says at ...
Mind that Fence. As the sign says at Maltby sewage works, ‘Health and Safety is no accident’, perhaps the loose temporary fence panel could learn a lesson from this.

They say life out there is sink or swim.

They say we learn to socialize by socializing. You know — make enough social errors and you’ll learn, eventually.

What if our children are, instead, just learning to like the smell of sewage?

Or that it is good?

I never could get used to it.

People kept splashing sewage all over me.

Told me I was too sensitive.

Sighs.

I kinda wish more were. How about you?

Anyway, I found a Stream of Water that is Alive and cordoned off the section of sewer where it was entering, for my children to learn to swim.

Also gave them swimming lessons, instead of just throwing them in and hoping.

Made more sense to me.

How about you?

____________________

photo credit: Wikipedia