Online story: " A member of the Illinois Army National Guard and his suburban Chicago cousin have been arrested on charges of conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq, the U.S. Attorney's office said in a Thursday statement." -- Hmmm..Chicago.... you have to wonder.. not if they looked like they could be Obamageddon's sons, but whether they are Obamageddon's sons...

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Online headline: "Florida high school requires bathroom escorts for students" -- Hmmm... That's the way to teach teens how to grow up an be prepared to go out in the world being responsible for themselves....

Update to the above - Same online story: "In the face of complaints, the bathroom policy is being slightly modified. Starting Friday, students who have disciplinary or academic issues will be the only ones required to have an escort take them to the bathroom." -- Why are these people still in school? Wait a minute.. our MCSB brought in a Florida administrator to the MCSD Superintendent's position........

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A Gallop Poll lists the "happiest countries" in the world...here are the "Top 10":

Paraguay - 89
Colombia - 84
Ecuador - 84
Guatemala - 84
Honduras - 82
Panama - 82
Venezuela - 82
Costa Rica - 81
El Salvador - 81
Nicaragua - 81

The US is "ranked" number 15... Mexico is "ranked" number 40.. Question 1: why are Central/South Americans from the "happiest Countries" fleeing to the US? Question 2: Why are American churches sending missionary/medical teams to those countries?

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Online story: "When he arrived on Capitol Hill in January, freshman Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., discovered something he had no clue was going on. Hundreds of federal employees spend their entire workday -- not doing the business of the government, but working for their unions. * "Waste on an egregious level by federal employees who are taking taxpayer monies and using it for purposes other than the reason they were hired," Hice said. * It's called "official time," and it was sanctioned into law by Congress in 1978. Lawmakers voted to allow federal employees who are union members to spend part of their day addressing union issues. * According to the Office of Personnel Management, in 2012 (the most recent year there are statistics for) federal workers spent 3.4 million man-hours on union issues and not the work they were hired for. OPM estimates the cost to taxpayers was more than $157 million.

What's more, at two government agencies that would seem least able to afford a loss of manpower -- the Veterans Affairs Department and IRS -- hundreds of workers spent 100 percent of their time doing union work. At the VA, 259 employees worked solely on union issues. At the IRS -- which only disclosed their statistics when the National Review sent them a Freedom of Information Act request -- the number was 201." -- Good grief.. 1978... CARTER! Kennedy! O'Neill!

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Additional irksome info on above: "According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 939,000 federal workers belonged to a union in 2014. Another 139,000 were covered by collective bargaining agreements, but weren't in a union. That brings the total number of employees covered by the unions to 31.6 percent of the total federal workforce. Hice -- who will introduce legislation in the House Thursday to limit "official time" -- doesn't think it's fair that the other 68 percent of federal employees are doing government work every day, while some of their union colleagues are getting paid to not do the work they were hired for." -- Good grief... We wondered... well .. not really.. about why our mail is so slow, and paper work takes so long.. it's just about to get worse now that the actual government workers who work are going to question their own work habits.

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At the Disney Store..."Frozen" place mats..reg $6.95..now $4.00; Doc McStuffins placemat reg $6.95... Now .99... Wonder when Al Sharlatan will accuse Disney shoppers being racist?

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L-E headline: "Bergdahl charges stoke fresh criticism of prisoner swap" -- Doh!

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Online story of June 2014: "President Obama said Thursday he would make “absolutely no apologies” for ordering the controversial prisoner swap to rescue Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the last American prisoner of war in Afghanistan." -- You know... I just wish we could hear Obamageddon say, "absolutely no excuses" ... about anything...once...

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Online headline/story: "CBS “Research Department” Apparently Located in West Wing * CBS News Monday helped celebrate the fifth anniversary of Obamacare by citing a statistic it said its “research department” had uncovered. * Note, the citation in small print for the news that 16 million Americans had been insured under the law. It says, “Source: The White House.” * Here’s where the research came from. * The report by anchor Scott Pelley goes on to cite other good news for Obamacare but unfortunately must acknowledge that Americans don’t like it. However, they just want to fix it, not repeal it like those awful Republicans keep doing!" -- Guess Obamageddon now delivers Kool-Aid by spoonfeeding...

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Online headline: "Superhighway: Russian official proposes road that could connect London to NYC" -- Hmmm... wonder when our Mayor TomLYINGson's friends will finish a feasibility study to connect Columbus? Well, she could use the $244K Queen TT Lounge at the RiverWalk as a tourist destination incentive.

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Online quote source: "“You are a product of your environment. So choose the environment that will best develop you toward your objective. Analyze your life in terms of its environment. Are the things around you helping you toward success - or are they holding you back?” - W. Clement Stone -- Another from the series of "words of wisdom" that will not be posted on the walls of government entitlement offices... or cited by Obamageddon or Al Sharlatan.

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While vacating this week.. we talked about the Mid-Bay Bridge to the Gulf.. it's about 7 miles long.. I mentioned having crossed the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana. My bride asked how long it was..I didn't know, but looked it up.. 23.87 miles, and it's the longest continuous bridge over water in the WORLD. I found the info on a "Top 10 Longest Bridges" website. One bridge drew instant attention from me .. the Vasco de Gama Bridge in Lisbon, Portugal... why because it is 10.7 Miles, designed to withstand 155 MPH winds and earthquakes 4 times stronger than any that have ever hit the are.. impressive, huh.. but wait there's more.. it was started and finished in 3 YEARS! That's less time than it's taking to connect Whitesville Road and Veterans Parkway with a 2/3s of a mile widening project of Whittlesey Rd!

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L-E's "Quotable": “To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.” - Theodore Roosevelt 26th U.S. President (1858-1919)" -- Hmmm... definitely not a quote hanging from the walls of the Department of Education, the DNC, the ACLU or the MCSB.