The fungus like growth of the Epstein story

From the beginning of the Epstein death reports (called a suicide but most thought it was murder) in 2019, I've puzzled that the public and our ghoulish media were more interested in a few teen women being used as sex toys by rich men than the millions of women and girls trafficked over our own border to make money for rich cartels in Mexico and their partners in crime in the U.S. The proportions seemed out of whack.

 
Now as more and more is uncovered, the "cancelling" of careers of prominent (mostly) men sounds strangely familiar going back to the Tulip Mania of the 17th century, the MacMartin Preschool scandal in the 1980s, DEI hysteria in the 2000s, the "me-too" movement and the Ivermectin ban for Covid stories in the 2020s.

Recent disclosures (by whom?) brought out that Epstein was also interested in the sexual transitioning of children and funded academics those maiming experiments then became standard care in many prominent university hospitals. More careers down the toilet.

 
I smell a giant hoax mixed with evil and lust to keep these stories going to make more money for the two bit players who want their cut of the profits. The growth of this story is an expanding poisonous black fungus. Frankly, I don't see how one guy got that rich and so diversely evil. Perhaps it's been franchised and may be the cover up for something/someone else to keep us busy looking away from the actual story?

The State of the Union, February 24, 2026

Can't believe we watched the whole thing--the SOTU--one hour and 48 minutes (I can hardly stand for 10 minutes). Even Spectrum Cable early news today led with the beating up of the few Democrats that showed up, and not the important news of Trump's successes. Usually, it is a rather bland and middle of the road source, good for weather, but the lead matters whether in print, video or audio. Every news program, writer, essayist, dramatist and entertainer has a bias, but please be a bit more subtle and remember who pays your salaries. You are a capitalist.

I have a 2" x 3" 60 p. "The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America" on the desk behind me. I just read it--very short and sweet put together by a genius class from the past. Democrats were absolutely wrong in not agreeing that their responsibility is to represent the citizens of the U,S, and not foreign and alien peoples, criminals and agents of other nations. But not a one of them would stand when the President asked them who they represented. Shocking. Outrageous. But completely in character by the (no longer) fringe element of their party. Their hatred for Donald Trump is being manipulated to destroy the Constitution and everything it says.

Affordability and inflation

I'm not sure why anyone thought that if Trump stopped the rampant inflation that things would actually go backwards. We crunched numbers when we sold our home in September which we bought in 2001 and based on 2 decades of inflation and all our improvements and repairs, we lost money. Yes, prices were up, but it just wasn't a recent thing.

 
The Biden era inflation was real--I saw food increase 40% on items I was accustomed to buying. I didn't buy a house or a car or fancy clothes, so I can't speak to that. Those grocery prices have not increased under Trump but they haven't gone down either, and I don't think they will.

 
Also real was the Covid shut down of the economy and throwing money at people who could have been working but weren't. Both parties (remember PPP--that was Trump) were responsible for the irresponsible throwing free money at people who wanted to be at work. It also created the ripe fraud atmosphere such as we have now in Minnesota and California, but which probably is robbing us all.

My advice is the same as it was 25 years ago. If prices are too high and you don't feel rich, stop eating out, taking destination vacations, buying clothes you don't need, and give up those manicures. Maybe someday if you work hard and save like your grandparents did, you'll live like they do,

Finally, know that Democrats will scream no matter what. Don't listen to their complaints. They are sliding into the Communist mind set of their fringe. They hate Trump (and their fringe are using that mental state against them) and if he could walk on water they would complain he can't swim.

Jeanne's 90th birthday party

We had a fabulous weekend in Indianapolis celebrating with Bob's siblings (Rick, Debbie, Jeanne and Bob, L to R seated) and families his sister's 90th birthday. It was touch and go for us with getting last minute approval that Bob could travel. Nothing like all those hugs to make one feel good. Thousands of photos, but this one of the sibs with spouses is a favorite. This is a group that really loves to party. Thank you, Kimberly Rosenberg for the photo. Our niece Joan had planned a lovely dinner party held in the school gymnasium and there were many of her siblings, children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews and friends. We stayed in a hotel along with brother Rick and his wife Kate from Arizona. Bob's sister Debbie brought her children and grandchildren, her partner Gary, and her friend Sue from California. We're so glad we went.  Even the weather cooperated.

  

Use of the word Jehovah

This morning in my devotions I was reading Ps. 104. Fabulous. The book was, "Meditations in the Book of Psalms" by Erling C. Olsen. Mr. Olsen wasn't a priest, pastor, or professor, but a businessman. His work began as a radio broadcast in the depths of the Great Depression in the 1930s. Eventually those broadcasts were distributed in print and then in book form (1939) that went through many printings, and I found it (4th ed. 1967, 1985 printing) in one of those "little libraries" that are sprinkled around the country. Some items are delightfully dated, like comments on the current news, which was the Depression.

 
Use of the word Jehovah really stopped me, yet it was common in the 40s and 50s when I began reading the Bible and still appears in favorite hymns. So, I asked AI when did Protestants stop using "Jehovah," why, and who decided what was the right transliteration (we generally have trouble agreeing on anything including baptism and communion, or even Ash Wednesday which is today.

 
Catholic Answers had the most convincing response (I always check AI's responses since a slight rewording of the question can make a huge difference and AI didn't tell who and when).
"In Hebrew the name of God is spelled YHWH. Since ancient Hebrew had no written vowels, it is uncertain how the name was pronounced originally, but there are records of the name in Greek, which did have written vowels. These records indicate that in all likelihood the name should be pronounced “Yahweh.”

Shortly before the first century A.D., it became common for Jews to avoid saying the divine name for fear of misusing it and breaking the second commandment (“You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain” [Deut. 5:11). Whenever they read Scripture aloud and encountered the divine name, they substituted another Hebrew word, “Adonai” (which means “Lord” or “my Lord”), in its place.
Eventually Hebrew developed written vowels, which appeared as small marks called vowel points and were placed above and below the consonants of a word. In the sixth or seventh century some Jews began to place the vowel points for “Adonai” over the consonants for “Yahweh” to remind the reader of Scripture to say “Adonai” whenever he read “Yahweh.”

About the 13th century the term “Jehovah” appeared when Christian scholars took the consonants of “Yahweh” and pronounced it with the vowels of “Adonai.” This resulted in the sound “Yahowah,” which has a Latinized spelling of “Jehovah.” The first recorded use of this spelling was made by a Spanish Dominican monk, Raymundus Martini, in 1270."

 
There's more to this interesting word study. https://www.catholic.com/qa/is-gods-name-yahweh-or-jehovah

But if you're reading an English Bible translation you're not saying anything the way Christians spoke in the first century. God knows when you call on his name, no matter the language.

The Democrats battle over ICE and DHS

Democrats in Congress don't like how DHS is obeying the laws they put in place. It's a form of TDS--but the shutdown they demand to stop ICE arresting violent criminals in Democrat sanctuary cities is hurting those who protect your air travel and clean up the damage of hurricanes, fires and floods of the non-Trump years. That's what hate and revenge can do. Something about "cutting off the nose to spite the face. "

"One of the most cited origins of the phrase involves Saint Æbbe the Younger, an abbess in 9th-century Scotland. According to legend, when Viking raiders threatened her convent, Æbbe and her nuns disfigured their faces by cutting off their noses and upper lips to make themselves undesirable to the invaders. While their actions were intended to protect their chastity, the Vikings, enraged by the defiance, burned down the convent, killing all inside. This tale exemplifies a self-destructive act intended to thwart an enemy, aligning closely with the idiom’s meaning. Source: theidioms.com"

I don't specialize, I just fill in the gaps

"When I graduated, one of my favorite professors pulled me aside and told me I wasn't done learning. My education framed the house, and I would spend the rest of my life finishing the house. I've never forgotten that, and strive to learn more and fill in the gaps of my knowledge. I also remember a quote by the science fiction author Robert Heinlein: "Specialization is for insects." And so I do not confine my research to a single area, as I've found that knowledge is interconnected, and that specialization closes one off to life's richness. " (from the author's comment about, "The Development of the Canon" by Kristofer Carlson, preprint 2019)

I like that. I've got a lot of gaps in my education and I certainly don't specialize. Now I have to look up Robert Heinlein, but not until I figure out all the other canons.

The killer was not a woman--Canadian school shooting

Wake up, Canadian liberals and U.S. Democrat crazies. People identified as trans have a very high rate of violence and murder. They are mentally ill and instead of helping them, you are egging them on. They consume large amounts of prescription drugs that drive them crazy and get horrible advice from peers, doctors, teachers, celebrities and the internet. They have been lied to by academics, drug companies, media, and political powers, to say nothing of the so-called LGB community which decided to adopt them and the XYZs to increase the funding base for their agenda.

Check the Epstein files. He was funding "science" intended to create these Frankensteins (or his own fetishes), using vulnerable children and gullible parents over 15 years ago.

Tumbler Ridge mass shooter ID'd as 18-year-old transgender ex-student Jesse Van Rootselaar

Jeffrey Epstein Was Into 'Trans Kids' - by Matt Osborne

February 10, St. Scholastica

On February 10 Christians honor Saint Scholastica, sister of Saint Benedict. She was born in the 5th century and is known mostly for her famous twin brother and a miracle at the end of her life. If I were to write about her, I'd have to include the word "traditionally" in just about every sentence, because there just isn't a lot known about her. If you have a famous sibling, spouse, grandparent or cousin, you may know the feeling. Although being a Saint, she may have just prayed about it if she felt overlooked.

At The Estates where we live in an apartment, I've noticed a lot of widows and widowers, of course, but also sibling groups, twins, cousins, in-laws, and former neighbors. One woman told me that as children she and her cousins always played together in the neighborhood and then went on to establish careers and families, seeing each other only on special occasions because of distance or busy lives. Now they have breakfast together daily. Women who used to carpool their kids' swim team or soccer club together now 40 years later share stories of the old days at table. I would have expected that at Pinecrest in Mt. Morris, IL where my parents lived. Dad and his Uncle Orville were able to enjoy their final years together sharing stories because they were close in age and Dad had been his best man.

I actually do have a first cousin once removed on Dad's side, Joy, right here in Columbus. I saw her in 1993. We really should get together while there is time.

https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/february-10-saint-scholastica-virgin/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholastica

https://faith.nd.edu/saint/st-scholastica/

Cardioversion

 Today my husband went to Riverside (Ohio Health) for a cardioversion. Although he had 4 stints in 2020 and 2021, in recent months he had developed atrial fibrillation. My personal, non-medical opinion is it was due to the stress of moving.

"Cardioversion is a medical treatment that uses quick, low-energy shocks to restore a regular heart rhythm. It's used to treat some types of irregular heartbeats, called arrhythmias. An example is atrial fibrillation (AFib). Sometimes cardioversion is done using medicines." Mayo Clinic

I spoke with the doctor after the successful procedure about the causes and future care.  Got a little of this and a little of that. Mostly things we can't change like genes and age.

Cardioversion: Procedure, side effects, and recovery 

The hospital is constantly under construction. When we got there today the Red parking garage/drop off had a detour, so we had to return to the main road and go around the building to get to the drop off. In 1980 a book was published titled, "The Hospital that Ate Chicago." I think there's one in Columbus.

                    

 

Ash Wednesday, 2026

It's hard to believe we're talking about Ash Wednesday already. I should have read our pastor's meditation before I bundled up and went out to scrape ice off the car and move it slowly around the neighborhood. I needed this reminder,

"In a couple of weeks we will mark a Christian holiday called Ash Wednesday. For some of you this might be a new experience. For others, it might be deeply familiar. But whether this is new for you or a long-established habit, Ash Wednesday confronts us with a truth we have worked hard to forget. “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

It’s a stark and sobering reminder. And we don’t only hear these Biblical words, we feel them. We experience them as they are marked onto us in the sign of an ashen cross on our foreheads. Our mortal bodies are marked with the sign of Jesus’s cross. And it’s a reminder of a truth that our hearts so deeply need.

 
We need it because some of us are sick and dying, and we need to know that Jesus has gone ahead of us. We need it because it helps us make sense of the ridiculousness and tragedy of the world around us. We need it because it reminds us to live for the eternity that lasts and not for the trivia that fades. We need it to remind us that earthly power is so often corrupt, but God’s power is infinitely different and greater. In this and many other ways the Holy Spirit applies the truth of the cross to each of us individually, applying the same profound truth to each different moment of need in each of our hearts.

We need this reminder because we never really do forget. Our mortality and deep need will not always be at the front of our minds, but the ache is always there. And Ash Wednesday speaks to us with merciful candor. The crosses on our foreheads are there to name the problem we know we have. But crosses are not just crosses. They are Jesus’s empty cross. They are the sign of the death which has been put to death, so that life might triumph and go on forever and ever and ever." Senior Pastor Steve Turnbull, Upper Arlington Lutheran Church, Feb. 5, 2026.

I will be rereading this many times.