A RIFT IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY? 'Establishment' candidate taking heat from Tea Party challenger. This could get interesting as a populist (Tea Party) Republican takes on an establishment (Old Guard) Republican for the right to challenge the incumbent Democrat.

RED TORTOISE, BLUE TURTLE: Observations on the Chinese space program.

[I]f two tortoises are in a race, no matter how slow they’re moving, you should put your money on the one that is at least moving in a straight line.

The winning tortise is the determined one....

YES, VIRGINIA, the EPA is at war with America. Especially
rural America.

UNEXPECTEDLY, OF COURSE: University to decrease jobs after state increases minimum wage.

YOU MUST BE A HOMOPHOBE if you're disturbed by intersex fish.

I’m disturbed by the blatant hetero-normativity of Pennsylvania’s Dept. of Environmental Protection. How do we know that these asexual fish haven’t simply decided to be gender neutral “intersex” after a period of questioning?

Surely as Amercans, the environmentalists are beyond this bias against the transgendered.

HOBBY LOBBY: It's time for employer-based health insurance to go. "Health coverage decisions shouldn’t be made by the government or by employers. They should be the sole province of individuals."

Yes.

GRASPING AT STRAWS, ARE WE? A Republican victory in the mid-term elections means Obama is winning.

Dana Milbank is spinning so hard it's no wonder he's dizzy.

GO TO THE LIBRARY, check out a drone.

HOUSTON CHRONICLE: The rocket's red glare tape.

NEWS THAT'S NOT NEWS: Resentment Behind the Waning Patriotism of Liberal Americans.

Losers do tend to be resentful.

NO, IT'S NOT BUSH'S FAULT; these are failures Obama owns.

A FINE SUMMER'S DAY IN THE FOREST THAT IS OUR HOME:

Can't get any better than today....

VIRGINIA 'CLIMATE' FORECAST: Hazy, with a 100 percent chance of nothing.

SUNDAY FAMILY PHOTOS:

Shadow - the patriarch

Diamond - aka Ivana the Terrible

Daisy Mae - Shadow's sister (believe it or not)

Rusty - our latest 'kitten'

SO YOU WANT TO BE AN AMERICAN? take the citizenship test.

I took the short version (and just barely passed). I took the long version and did only a little better. Read the questions carefully; I missed several simply because I misread the question.

My guess is that Millenials (and younger) will have a hard time passing, simply because Civics and American government is no longer taught in our public schools.

IT'S HARD when even union members don't want to be union members.