Can you identify who said the following? Scroll down for the answer.

"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest [the U.S.] become bankrupt.  People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance."

Lynda

"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." Aldous Huxley

Answer:
--Cicero, 55 BC and the brackets should actually read "Rome."

Thank you Lynda, for an enlightening History lessons!  Too bad the American people, many of which are graduates of the public education system, and our so called called intelligent leaders, many of whom are graduates of the private school sector, are clearly not paying attention to what they should have learned from history!

Good morning!  I'm feeling bright eyed and bushy tailed today and I'm SO hApPy about this!!! See, a few weeks ago, I was tested for Sleep Apnea and found to have a mild case.  A machine was ordered and last week, I finally received it!!  I was told not to panic if it took awhile to sleep through the night with it, but most people adjust within thirty days.  I was told that even a few hours would make a world of difference.

So here it's been five days, and I'm already feeling so much better!  I can feel myself regaining energy!  So if any of you are feeling exhausted in the morning when you wake up, I'd highly suggest looking into Sleep Apnea.  To think that a simply machine that helps you breath while you sleep, can improve your health, without drugs, is awesome!

((((Huggs))))

Santa has gone and I realize I'm behind in updating my blog.   Be right back with an update and while you wait, here's a few pics for your entertainment.

Be forworned dear friends, the above picture is of my 16 yo daughter who starts college this month and my 11 yo unschooled son who has decided to grow his hair down his back.  I know many of you will cringe at the concept that I'm going to allow this.  I have my moments of wishing he wanted to be more conventional myself but ultimately, it is his hair and it's beautiful hair to boot. 

Other famous men have grown thier hair and on this note, I'll also mention that he has his father's full support (more so then me!) My spouse tried to grow his hair when he was a teen and came across a major road block;  pre-mature balding.  He was near bald by 19.   My spouse's opinion is to let him enjoy it while he has it and his sister's love it too.

I'll continue to post pictures and hope you all don't freak out too much.   Now,  off to change the winter scene and update this blog!

C ya soon!

Vicki ~ the unconventional mom

Hi Everyone!  We're back from our short jaunt to our home in the Georgia mountains where we got to experience a bit of winter magic.  Grap a cup of hot chocolate and stay warm as I share a few pictures of our day waking up to snow!

So have you heard about the Cincinnati Zoo?  It seems they had joined forces with the nearby Creation Museum in Kentucky for a Christmas Celebration and then due to intolerant people, withdrew the joint ticket.
Things like this are such a shame.  Intolerance is such a double edged sword.  One should really be careful when they choose to wield it.  Oh.  Kudos to the Creation Museum for offering the savings, anyway. 

Get the Museum/Zoo Discount Anyway

While it's true that Ben Franklin wasn't happy with Congress's choice of the Bald Eagle for our national bird, it's unlikely that he actually "lobbied" on behalf of the turkey. I know that most turkey lovers spin
the story differently but my sources, who will remain unnamed, paint a different picture of how this all went down. After Congress had made its decision, Franklin merely suggested that the turkey would have been a better choice than the Bald Eagle. In his eyes the eagle was nothing more than a scrounge and a mooch, and in some ways he was right. Bald Eagles do hunt, but they often scavenge and are more  than happy to steal food from any creature it can. Franklin may not have lobbied for the Wild Turkey over the eagle, but I wish he had. Here's why.

First of all, our national bird should not have "bald" in its name. Believe me, of all people, I'm the last one who will by mean to the follicly-challenged . I feel their pain. But back in Franklin's day, the United States was a young country. For better or worse, balding is the sign of aging, not of youth. The last thing the brand spanking new USA needed was to align itself with a bald bird. It's too old school and it
sends the wrong message to the rest of the world.

Another problem is that after closer investigation, the Bald Eagle isn't even bald. Its head is totally covered in white feathers. Claiming to be bald just to impress Congress is clearly fraudulent. It's like drinking with a fake ID. The Wild Turkey, on the other hand, truly is bald and proud of it. Like Kojak and Mr. Clean, the turkey's baldness only makes it more self-confident. It struts around with its chest puffed out, ready to take on all comers. It's the perfect image for a cocky new country.

Speaking of feathers, the Bald Eagle has nothing but a basic color scheme. It has brown feathers and white feathers, and that's it. Pitiful. The turkey has a large variety of differently colored feathers. Its huge tail can be fanned out to display an assortment of rust, tan and warm brown shading, while its body is some kind of indescribable metallic color. But it's the head of the turkey that really sets it apart from most other birds. Depending on the mood or attitude, the coloring of the bird's face can change from white to red to blue (really). How much more patriotic can a bird get? A turkey's face also has something very important that no eagle has. It has a hunk of skin - called a "snood" - hanging from its forehead. After the American Revolution, this country was desperate to impress other nations, especially England. Nothing would have impressed the Brits more than knowing that our national bird had its own snood.

In a foot race a turkey would blow an eagle away. While the turkey can run in excess of twenty MPH, the best an eagle can do on land is stumble about. Eagles can't run and they walk awkwardly as if they are wearing some other bird's shoes, on the wrong feet. Turkeys are capable of flight speeds that approach fifty-five MPH. Though an eagle may fly over one hundred MPH, it can only hit those speeds in a dive, which means gravity is doing most of the work. It doesn't get points for that.

Many eagle lovers may say that the eagle's hunting skills are a sign of bravery and toughness. After all, eagles are capable of catching and eating animals as large as a raccoon, a beaver, or a young deer. So
what? Wild Turkeys eat mostly vegetable matter. Take it from me, nothing is tougher or braver than facing three meals of vegetarian food day after day.

When it comes to reproducing, turkeys have it all over eagles. A single mother turkey can easily hatch and raise a dozen or more baby turkeys all by herself. In a good year a Bald Eagle pair will most likely raise only two eaglets. If a third chick should hatch, the big, muscular eagle parents become so overwhelmed that they often let the extra chick starve. Nice, eh?

Let's not forget about the turkey trot. Has there ever been a dance named after the Bald Eagle? I've never heard of the eagle trot, eagle tango, or eagle rumba. Finally, there is talking turkey. When we want to
be honest and candid, we talk turkey. Nobody talks eagle.

No, Ben Franklin didn't lobby for the Wild Turkey to be our national bird, but he should have; it's a better choice. However, even I have to admit that upon landing on the moon, if instead of saying:
"Houston...the Eagle has landed," Neil Armstrong, had said: "Houston...the Turkey has landed," it would have lost some of the historical impact. But it would have been funnier.

I may be starving, but I still have my sense of humor. Happy Thanksgiving everyone,

Ranger Bruce 

Sequoia Ministry