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The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack the...

Five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova has announced her retirement. "Tennis -- I'm saying goodbye," she wrote in an essay that appeared Wednesday in Vogue and Vanity Fair. Sharapova turned pro in 2001 at age 14. She won Wimbledon in 2004, the US Open in 2006, the Australian Open in 2008 and the French Open in 2012 and 2014. She is one of only six women in the professional era to win each major tennis title at least once. She made 10 Grand Slam finals in all, going 5-5. For a while, Sharapova was as big a star as her...

The Father "has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light" (Col. 1:12). You are the recipient of a very special inheritance. Perhaps you've had the disappointing and annoying experience of receiving in the mail an envelope that identifies you as the winner of a large sum of money or some other fantastic prize, only to open it and discover you hadn't won anything at all. It was simply a ploy to get you to enter a contest or purchase a product. In a world filled with deception and unfulfilled expectations, it's wonderful to know that...

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Border Patrol agents in southern Arizona have uncovered another illegal tunnel running under the U.S.-Mexico border, the latest in a series of discoveries and the result of renewed efforts targeting underground smuggling routes. The tunnel, according to Customs and Border Protection, ran about 30 feet into Nogales, Arizona. No arrests were immediately made in connection with the tunnel, a CBP official confirmed to ABC News. It’s the third time since December that agents have thwarted a suspected underground smuggling route in the area, according to Border Patrol. Similar tunnels used for drug trafficking have recently been found...

Longtime MSNBC host Chris Matthews may want to start polishing up his resume, because on Friday he committed his third major faux pas in less than seven days by mistaking one black man for another. In the oft-used words of the president: “Not good.” He specifically mistook Sen. Lindsey Graham’s primary challenger, a South Carolina Democrat by the name of Jaime Harrison, for Republican Sen. Tim Scott. As he was speaking on a panel that included Harrison, a clip appeared on the screen of Scott standing by Graham. After one of his fellow panelists made some remarks about Sen. Bernie...

The cruise ship Diamond Princess was quarantined for over two weeks resulting in more coronavirus infected passengers than if they would have disembarked immediately. Rather the opposite to what was intended. This according to a study conducted at Umeå University in Sweden. “The infection rate onboard the vessel was about four times higher than what can be seen on land in the worst infected areas of China. A probable cause is how close people stay to one another onboard a vessel,” says Joacim Rocklöv, Professor of epidemiology at Umeå University and principal author of the article. After a person travelling...

Last week an article from the Federalist Society about Greta Thunberg popped up on my computer. It was by David Harsanyi and titled, “The Tragedy of Greta Thunberg”. The following is the first two paragraphs of his article: “Sixteen-year-old Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg lives in the healthiest, wealthiest, safest, and most peaceful era humans have ever known. She is one of the luckiest people ever to have lived. In a just world, Thunberg would be at the United Nations thanking capitalist countries for bequeathing her this remarkable inheritance. Instead, she, like millions of other indoctrinated kids her age,...

The New York Times on Ash Wednesday displayed more sudden respect for religion, at least of the left-wing variety, in an opinion piece by veteran journalist, presidential historian, and former editor-in-chief of Newsweek Jon Meacham, “Jesus May Be the Best Hope Against an Amoral President.” The text box: “Religious history can inspire activists in the Trump resistance.”

It's cold tonight, and I sit at my desk, wishing it were warmer. Even with central heat and air, winter is a difficult time. My sinuses are inflamed, my knuckles are dry and red, and my joints are sore with the cold. Every year I dread it more. And now environmentalists like Jeff Bezos want to make it colder. It's no accident that Shakespeare wrote of "the winter of our discontent" (Richard III) and of "the icy fang / And churlish chiding of the winter's wind" (As You Like It). Shakespeare, who lived through some of the coldest decades of...

Several media outlets -- namely National Public Radio -- are touting a tall tale that climate change is decimating bee populations throughout North America. The (false) alarm is based on a February 7 study published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The study, however, is deeply flawed and does not change the very low likelihood of climate change seriously impacting bee populations. After examining the study, titled “Climate change contributes to widespread declines among bumble bees across continents” -- one immediately notices that there is a key issue missing that is not discussed in the paper...

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department shared graphic photos of the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and eight others, a law enforcement source familiar with the situation confirmed to CBS Los Angeles Thursday. That source said they had not seen the images, but said they were trying to track down the origin of the photographs. According to the Los Angeles Times, the photos were of the crash scene and the victims’ remains, though it was not immediately clear if the deputies took the photos or if they received them from somebody else. One...

Some states received test kits that were inconclusive or only partially accurate. Other states said they were hamstrung by testing criteria so narrow, it limited who they could screen for the new coronavirus. For more than a month, officials throughout the country have been asking the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to enable more widespread testing for the never-before-seen infection, as coronavirus cases around the globe rose past 82,000. But technical difficulties reduced the number of laboratories in the U.S. with working test kits to only about a dozen, including CDC headquarters in Atlanta. That delayed results for suspected...

The Social Security Disability Insurance system was established as a social safety net program for workers who lose the physical or mental ability to work at a sustainable gainful activity level. It has become so much more than that. But a new rule from the Social Security Administration will improve the integrity and purpose of the Disability Insurance system. The inability to communicate in English does not render someone unable to perform work, but under the Disability Insurance program’s qualification standards, it does make it easier for them to receive benefits.

Before Sonia Sotomayor, the “wise Latina” as she once referred to herself, was nominated by President Barack Hussein Obama in May 2009 and confirmed as Supreme Court justice that August, her legal expertise and judgment were being questioned by those noting her high reversal rate by the court she was being elevated to: Three of the five majority opinions written by Judge Sotomayor for the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals and reviewed by the Supreme Court were reversed, providing a potent line of attack raised by opponents Tuesday after President Obama announced he will nominate the 54-year-old Hispanic woman to...

Bulgaria says it is tightening security along its border with Turkey to prevent an inflow of illegal migrants amid reports that Ankara may be relaxing its border controls to allow Syrian refugees to enter the European Union. "Forces have already been deployed at the border and measures to protect the maritime border have been intensified," Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said on February 28 during a government meeting. Amid an escalation of the Syrian conflict, Turkish media reported that hundreds of migrants were flocking to Turkey's borders with Greece and Bulgaria after a senior official was quoted as saying Ankara had...

The United States and the Taliban signed a historic deal Saturday aimed at winding down America’s longest war. With Secretary of State Mike Pompeo watching over, U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and the Taliban’s political chief, Abdul Ghani Baradar, signed a deal in Doha, Qatar, to begin the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. In exchange, the Taliban is assuring it will not allow Afghanistan to be used by terrorists to attack the United States. Despite the milestone, a long road remains before peace in Afghanistan, including intra-Afghan talks where the entire deal still has the potential to collapse. “This...

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Share0 Trump has voiced support for congressional term limits. During the 2016 presidential campaign that he would push for a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on members of Congress. After he became President in 2018 he tweeted: I recently had a terrific meeting with a bipartisan group of freshman lawmakers who feel very strongly in favor of Congressional term limits. I gave them my full support and endorsement for their efforts. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/991028027785138177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E991028027785138177&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rightjournalism.com%2Fvideo-president-trump-suggests-the-senate-should-pass-term-limits-for-his-presidency-of-25-years%2F Last night there was an interesting moment when he suggested that maybe the Senate should limit his presidency on 25 years so that he...

U.S. Expected to Sign Deal With Taliban to Withdraw Troops From AfghanistanAfghanistan has become America’s longest, now nearly invisible, warThe New York Times and others reluctantly acknowledge that the nearly 20 year war in Afghanistan may be coming to an end - at the hand of President Trump, the man they swore would lead us into World War III. But wait! After more than a year of talks, the deal would lay out the beginning of the end of the United States’ longest war. But many obstacles remain. There it is, there’s still hope: “many obstacles remain.” Though the Taliban...

A sea of red MAGA hats and chants of “four more years” filled the parking lot of the North Charleston Coliseum on Friday, a day before South Carolina’s highly anticipated Democratic primary. “This is like Republican Woodstock,” said S.C. GOP Chairman Drew McKissick.

TEHRAN - The Foreign Ministry, in a travel advisory issued on Saturday, urged Iranians not to visit South Korea over fears of exposure to the coronavirus...