Not an unusual sight. The lake has bass (largemouth and peacock), catfish and sunfish. I should also include a gang of snapping turtles which are very shy and in the 20+ years we have been here, I still haven’t been able to get a photo of them.

I have another outdoor camera coming. Officially designated as the Grilling and BBQ cam, the main job will be to keep an eye on the smoker or the grill while yours truly is inside enjoying AC and a tall cold mug of water. But also I want something that can be positioned as needed for whatever emergency may happen or back up for one of the regular cameras.

This has been a great return for my investment. Being able to check what is going on outside the house without having to break perimeter is a tool you need to have.  My total investment is under $300 over 2 years and you can’t beat that.

This from Slate:

We’re Raising Our Daughter Gender-Neutral, but She Only Wants Pink Dresses
Where did we mess up?

My husband and I have a frequent disagreement on our 3-year-old and her love for dresses and all things pink! For the first two years of her life, she was constantly mistaken for a boy because she wore gender-neutral clothes. We direct her towards books and other media that do not represent traditional gender roles (no sparkle princesses!). We ask friends and family to refrain from commenting on her appearance and clothing, if they can help it, and to instead focus on skills or interests. However, our daughter adores the color pink, insists on wearing dresses, and is currently obsessed with accessories. I am fine with this, though I hope it will be a phase.

After a few battles about wearing her sole pink dress when it was dirty, my daughter and I did some online shopping together and she chose a few more dresses to order (all of them were pink, obviously). My husband is unhappy that I encouraged her obsession by purchasing the dresses and letting her wear some of my old jewelry. He gets annoyed when dresses get tangled while climbing a rock or running and says that dresses and accessories aren’t suitable for doing most things. I appreciate his commitment to raising our daughter without gender stereotypes, but I also want to encourage her to make her own choices. I feel like if we push back too hard on her love for dresses and jewelry, it will backfire, and she will only become more obsessed! Help!

This question reveals something very dark and malicious.

Whenever I had heard talk about “gender-neutral” parenting, the idea was that the child is raised gender-neutral until the child decides what he/she wants.

This little girl clearly has chosen to be a girly-girl.  That’s what she wants.

Mom and dad refuse to accept it.  They are disappointed that their daughter wants to be a girl in pink.

Why?  Why would they be disappointed in that?

Because this was never about the little girl choosing what she wanted to be.

This is everything about the parents waiting to be acknowledged and praised for having a gender-neutral, androgynous, or even transgender daughter.  Notice how the mother says, with an almost palpable sense of pride, “For the first two years of her life, she was constantly mistaken for a boy because she wore gender-neutral clothes.”

You can tell that they are terrified that their daughter will continue to act like a girl who likes girl things, and then they can’t parade around their gender-neutral woke parenting around.

I’d go so far to say that they are upset that they are missing out on basking in all the glory and praise of having a “stunning and brave” transgender child.

Their daughter isn’t a daughter to them.  Their daughter is an opportunity for them to demonstrate to the world how woke they are as parents.

This is child abuse.

This case is so full of irony you could spread it on toast.

Family of Seattle BLM protestor who got hit and killed by car sues the city

The family of Summer Taylor, a ‘defund police’ protester who was killed on the I-5 freeway this year by a car during a protest, held a press conference today announcing a lawsuit against the City of Seattle and the State of Washington. They have alleged that there was police abuse during demonstrations and that state patrol failed to protect protesters on I-5 and that was what resulted in Taylor’s death.

Summer Taylor, 24, was hit by a car while protesting on I-5, which had been closed by the Washington State Patrol for the purpose of demonstrations after multiple nights of protesters shutting down the freeway.

The man that hit her is Dawit Kelete, an immigrant from Eritrea in Africa.  He is another BLM activist and drove the wrong way up a ramp and hit the two women, and that what he did was not a political statement.

So what we have is a white, BLM activist, struck and killed by a black, African immigrant BLM activist, who was driving recklessly, the wrong way, down a closed highway, while protesting the police.

The family of the deceased is suing and going to get slammed by Warren v. DC and the established No Duty to Protect like a white Jaguar into a pink-haired white woman.

They are going to be almost as disappointed in the outcome of their suit as they are in their daughter’s life choices.

Not even a  discussion, but comments were traded at different social media locations about the Antifa Vehicle Intercept L.A.  and the guy reaching inside. Some of the comments were into the category of “just shoot the a-hole” and I figure some of you agree. But is that the best strategy.  I am going to quote myself from Facebook:

If you are not considering your local LEO and DA into your defensive plan, you have don’t have one.
Like Eli said, in LA you would probably be arrested for murder/attempt of murder, bail at $1 million and then trial.
In Polk County, Fl. the Sheriff would complain it took you too long to shoot.

And at the end of the day, it will be your word against the attacker.  A shot or a stab in the hand is much harder to defend that a bruise.  Claiming the status of  a seriously wounded victim with a bullet hole in the arm is easy but much more difficult for a purple welt in the same extremity. A District Attorney will have a tough case to make for what amounts to a booboo applied during an physical attack against somebody strapped to a seat.

De-escalation also applies to whatever the local prosecutor can or cannot do to you. Can a shot in a case be defendable in court? More than likely yes, provided you have a deep enough bank account and are ready to put your life and your family’s life on hold for a year or more.

Let’s be fiscally responsible, shall we? .

I know it is not Memorial day, but I bumped into this illustration and I found it moving.

I think of Memorial Day as WWII/Vietnam/Desert Storm and the Wars of Post 9/11.  I never thought that Veterans from the Civil War and WWI would be sharing memories of those who fell, but they surely did.

I am gonna say it: They never assimilated and they exercise the schemes from the old country.

Tell me you don’t want to buy the ladder.