Don’t they know it’s the 21st century?

Romanian Orthodox Church believes morality supersedes politics.

From Voice of Europe

‘Romania drops compulsory sex ed from schools after Church outcry’

By Michael Lord

3 June 2020

The Romanian Parliament voted to drop mandatory “sexual education” from school programmes today after it was condemned by the Romanian Orthodox Church.

Romania’s Parliament, with support from President Klaus Iohannis, initially passed legislation two months ago which made it compulsory for schools to teach sexual education to their students a minimum of once every six months, or once per semester. The law was supported by MPs from Iohannis’ ruling National Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party. Supporters claimed that the aim of the programme was to combat sexually transmitted diseases and reduce instances of pregnancy among minor girls.

The Romanian Orthodox Church condemned the legislation, however, calling it an attack on the innocence of childhood. The Church also opposed the law on the basis of children’s rights and freedom of conscience. This led Parliament to repeal the law in its original form today.

More than 80% of Romanians adhere to the Romanian Orthodox Church.

Iohannis will now put forward revised legislation which makes no reference to sexual education. It will instead speak of “education for life” which includes classes aimed at preventing sexually transmitted diseases and teen pregnancy. Parents will also be required to consent in writing to their children being taught these courses, according to a report by Balkan Insight.

 The repeal and the new bill are being supported by some of the same MPs who had backed the original law mere weeks ago.

Romania’s approach to sexual education stands in sharp contrast to educational programmes in Western Europe, where it is often strongly emphasised. Last month, a British school was forced to apologise after parents learned that 11-year-old students were being asked to define terms like hardcore pornography, transsexual pornography, and sexting as part of a sexual education course, as previously reported by Voice of Europe.

https://voiceofeurope.com/2020/06/romania-drops-compulsory-sex-ed-from-schools-after-church-outcry/

Viking wisdom

“A man should never move an inch from his weapons when out in the fields, for he never knows when he will need his spear.”  -- from the Norse poem Havamal.

Dalby Springs, Texas

One day about 60 years ago, I got in from school and, after putting my books away, went into the kitchen. My mother was already working on supper.

I noticed a fruit jar with what appeared to be red water sitting on the window sill. I asked my mother what was in the jar.

“That’s mineral water from Dalby Springs,” she said. “It’s good for you.”

I thought, It’s red. Water is supposed to be clear. I’m not drinking it.

My mother talked about Dalby Springs now and then. I think maybe she had relatives there, or near abouts there. Or maybe Dalby Springs was an interesting place because of the curative springs.

I didn’t visit Dalby Springs until 2002, when talking with and researching residents and landowners whose homes or farms or ranches would be flooded if Dallas-Fort Worth water districts got their way and had a 64,000-acre-foot lake dug and hacked and scoured into parts of Red River, Titus, Morris and Bowie counties in Northeast Texas. I had an idea of writing a magazine story on the people who lived in the area and how their ways of live would be destroyed by city folk who wanted thick green lawns and golf courses at the expense of people who did not like or trust cities.

Shirley Shumake was my guide to the area. Her brother Max founded Save Our Sulphur, named after the Sulphur River, which flows across several Texas and Arkansas counties before joining the Red River. Dams near Cooper and Texarkana already impound thousands of acre feet of the Sulphur River. The Dallas area gets much of Cooper Lake water, pumped through six-foot-tall concrete pipes stretching underground about 80 miles. Residents of the affected counties saw no reason their land should succumb to flooding just to satisfy the egos of people who seem to want more and more of what belongs to somebody else.

Shirley showed me around Dalby Springs, what there is to be seen these days. What most impressed me was the wall of a rent house owned by Dickie Dalby, great-great-great-grandson of Warren Dalby, the first settler in what was to become Dalby Springs.

A wall in a bedroom of the rent house was part of the original log cabin Warren Dalby built in 1842. History, right there to see and to touch. If I remember correctly, all of the Dalby cabin is preserved behind more modern walls.

I never wrote the magazine article, but here is a piece from The Handbook of Texas Online:

“Dalby Springs is a community eleven miles from DeKalb in southwestern Bowie County. It was named for the nearby Dalby Springs. Settlement in the area began in 1839 with the arrival of Warren Dalby and his family. In the 1850s the springs were discovered to have medicinal properties, and as word spread, people began to visit the area to drink from the springs. Buildings were erected to accommodate travelers, and in 1860 a post office was established there, with Joseph G. Dalby as postmaster. By 1884 the town had a church, a school, five mills, five gins, and a population estimated at 250. During the 1890s a newspaper called the Guest was published there. By 1900 the community's population had fallen to 186. It continued to be reported at about that level until the 1950s, when it fell to fifty. In 1984 Dalby Springs reported an estimated population of sixty and no rated businesses. In 1990 and in 2000 its population was estimated at 141.”

https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hnd03

Murder most foul in Dalby Springs

In July 1865, with the body of a man who had been shot to death, and a murder suspect, but no elected judge for the county or judicial district, Dalby Springs residents appointed a trial chairman, a secretary, a guard on the defendant, 12 jurors and an attorney for the defense and prepared to try one of their own.

Attorney A.H. Latimer had asked district military judge B.W. Gray of Mount Pleasant to conduct the trial, but Gray did not respond. At that time, Texas was under military control of the U.S. Army, with all previous office holders who served under the Confederate government ousted from their positions. The Army-appointed officials ruled as they saw fit.

From U.S. Roots:

“On July 18, 1865, 60 citizens of Bowie and surrounding counties met and wrote, ‘We have only one recourse and feel that our lives, our property, and the safety of all those looking to us for protection demand our speedy action in the premises.  We will proceed to the trial of the accused according to the law and evidence, not admitting any evidence for or against the accused that would be excluded at a trial before a regular court.'

“Warren K. Dalby was required to act as chairman and William E. Estes was required to act as secretary and Luke C.Powell was required to detail a guard and take charge of the prisoners.  A. H. Latimer was appointed to act as assistant chairman and they proceeded with the trial.

“The prisoner was introduced and a jury of 12 men of lawful age selected.  The records read ‘J. M. McCowen, Harvey Daughterty, James. Easton, William Hall, T.P.Curbow, J.J. McClusky, W.H. Harrison, S.R. Proctor, K.H. Willowford, R.P. Lumpkin, Joe Hudgins and W.S. Proctor were duty empaneled.’

“The prisoner was informed that he was charged with murder to which he pleaded not guilty.

“W.E. Estes was appointed to act as attorney for the accused and G.D. Dalby was appointed secretary to fill the vacancy.

“Witnesses were F.M. Fulgham, Captain James Clark, R.S. Greenhaw, D.B. Burks, J. Thomas, William Greenhaw, L. C.Powell, Thomas Treen, James Phillips, J.L. Criner.

“The witnesses testified they saw the slain man and the accused riding off into the woods on their horses and saw a gun on the accused.

“They said they had seen the accused and slain man's wife together on many occasions.

“The case was submitted to the jury who gave a verdict, ‘Guilty of murder in the first degree.’

“The convicted man ‘was ordered to be kept in close confinement until the next day when he was to be hung by the neck until he was dead.’ Soon after the trial and conviction, a pine coffin was made by some members of the citizen's court and the coffin was placed in a two horse wagon and driven by a Negro named Ferry.  The convicted man was made to get into the wagon and they were driven to the spot where the murdered man's body was found.  The wagon was followed by the group of citizens and the convicted man was blindfolded and hung on a tree.  He was then buried in a grave which had been dug under the tree.

“The wife of the murdered man had been kept tied to a bed post since the discovery of the murder.  After the trial, she was set free and according to documents, ‘she left Dalby Springs and was never heard from again.’"

http://www.usroots.com/~jmautrey/towns/dalbysprings.htm

(The murdered man’s wife admitted she and the accused were involved in an affair and further admitted that she was aware of his intentions,)

Red Lick wants its own control

“The City of Red Lick was incorporated in August of 1997 in an effort to maintain local control over the issues that we face.  As of the 2010 U.S. Census, we had 1008 residents.  Our population is made up of families that have been here for several generations and also new families that have moved here because Red Lick fits their needs.  We are a residential community with a great school that consistently performs with the highest of marks.  We are serviced by an all-volunteer fire department that trains hard and has dedicated leadership and excellent response times.  The Council has managed to keep the tax rate as one of the lowest in the County.”

http://www.cityofredlicktx.com/

Red Lick is in Bowie County Texas, which is up in the northeast corner of the state. One story attributes the town’s name to observations of deer licking the red clay that is the dominant soil makeup in the area.

Demographics from federal census show the population breakdown of 94 percent White, and 3 percent African American. Other races each make up less than 1 percent of the population. For every 100 women age 18 and older, there are 88 men.

Median family income is $60,313. About 4 percent of families and the same percentage of the overall population lives below the federally-determined poverty line.

The Handbook of Texas Online says:

 Red Lick is a small town located off Farm Road 2148 about seven miles west of Texarkana in northeastern Bowie County. The community began in the 1860s and was named by residents who observed that a nearby red clay hill served as a salt lick for area deer. By the late 1800s social life centered around the Red Lick Methodist Episcopal Church, South, founded in 1885. The Bob Bonner family donated land for the wooden structure that also functioned as a lodge hall and school. Eventually a cemetery was located on an adjacent tract to the north. Church records in the early 1890s listed seventy names, and in 1906 church trustees included members of the Hargis, Earnest, Edwards, Medley, and White families. In 1909 a fire destroyed the church, but the congregation constructed another two-story building on that site. That structure suffered heavy damage in June 1935 when a tornado hit the community. Red Lick maintained its country school throughout the decades just prior to and after World War II. Farm Road 2148 was built through the area in the 1950s. In 1968 the church name was changed to Red Lick United Methodist Church. No population figures were available for Red Lick throughout most of the twentieth century until 1990, when the village had an estimated 448 residents. The Methodist church received a historical marker in 1992. Residents, concerned over the encroachment of nearby Texarkana, voted to incorporate Red Lick in 1997, and in 2000 the town had a mayor and council and a volunteer fire department. The population was 853.

https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hlr53

MLB Network censors its own documentary

In the official baseball network’s piece on Hall of Fame pitcher Randy Johnson was a short segment in which a Johnson fast ball killed a pigeon that flew between him and home plate. Pigeon, baseball, poof, a cloud of feathers.

Johnson said, “I got a letter from PETA saying, ‘If you ever do that again … No, I’m just kidding.”

In its attempt at maintaining political correctness, MLB closed caption had Johnson saying, “I got a letter saying, ‘If you ever do that again … No, I’m just kidding.”

To MLB, accuracy takes second place to possible bleats from the sheep at PETA.

Crazy guy in the bathroom

On Saturday my wife and I drove to Sarasota to finish paperwork on a car she bought a week ago. Thirty-minute drive, ten minutes reading and signing stuff.

Five minutes into our drive home, my wife pulled into a convenience store parking area. This was a no-name store, a decade or so old, in need of paint,  outside cleanup and window-washing. My wife got out of the car and went into the convenience store. She did not say why she stopped, but I had a pretty good idea. I have a condition that in medical books is listed as “I GOTTA PEE NOW!” Usually I get about five minutes before the side effect “TOO LATE” arrives. That side effect never has arrived, but the condition hits only when I am at home (so far, knock on wood) and only a few steps from a bathroom. In Sarasota, my wife returned after only a few minutes, started the car, and we drove away.

A few blocks down the street, she pulled into a McDonald’s, parked the car and went to the restaurant. This time she returned after about a minute. Starting the car, she said, “A sign on the door said the inside is closed, so there is no bathroom open.”

A few more blocks, she pulled into a named convenience store, new, bright paint and clean windows. This time, my wife was gone for more than five minutes, maybe more than seven, so I figured the store’s bathroom was open and functioning. My wife returned, and we were on the road again.

“I apologize,” she said. I said what I always say when she suddenly pulls into a convenience store and we don’t need gas: “You don’t have to apologize.” It happens to most people who, ah, get up in years.

“The first one we stopped at,” my wife said, “I asked the man inside if there was a ladies room. He said there was. He pointed all the way across the store. ‘It’s outside,’ he said. Then he said, ‘There’s a crazy guy in there, but just knock on the door and he’ll come out.’”

My wife was not exactly looking forward to all that, but sometimes necessity overrides everything else.

“I went to the place outside,” she said. ”There was a sign on the door saying the rest room was not working and it was closed. I went inside and told the man. He said it wasn’t really closed. ‘Just knock on the door. He’ll come out.'

“I am not knocking on a door where a crazy guy has made his home. What’s he going to say when I say, ‘Uh, listen. I really need to come in and use your bathroom’? ‘Sure. Just let me tidy things up a bit’”? As far as he is concerned, that is his home.”

I agreed with my wife. I also wondered for a moment why the store owner hasn’t contacted police and had the crazy guy removed? I know that is a hassle and would not be good publicity on TV news, a couple of police cars, lights, and possibly two or three police pulling the crazy guy from what he decided is his home. A no-win for everybody.

But, how long can store people say, “There’s a crazy guy there, but just knock on the door and he’ll come out”? A dozen or less knocks, the crazy guy might become upset. Then there is a real no-win for everybody.