DEMOCRATS, DEFAULT IS NOW ON YOUR PLATE: House passes debt ceiling plan.

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Senility is A-OK.

THE COVID LOCKDOWN SCOLDS KILLED PEOPLE — and they still have no shame.

HOW IT STARTED: How it's going.

Blue checks on Twitter are simply signals to ignore the twit....

NEARLY 700 PROFESSORS protest a bill requiring students to study the Constitution.

FROM FOX NEWS "the professors argue the legislation 'violates core principles of academic freedom' and 'substitutes ideological force-feeding for the intellectual expertise of faculty.'"

House Bill 96, would require students to take a 3 credit-hour course covering America's founding and history. Required reading for the course would include the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Emancipation Proclamation, at least five essays from the Federalist Papers, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail and the Gettysburg Address.

We now know who to fire when tenure is revoked.

ARMED ELDERLY MAN steps in when neighbor's delusional son attacks her with shovel. From the comments (bones56):

Best to leave us old folks alone,we've reached the point where life in prison doesn't mean much to us. I can't run, can no longer fight but I can still pull a trigger. I will take your life in a second.

Agreed.

NORTH CAROLINA SUPREME COURT hands Republicans big win.

Not just Republicans; Americans.

THE BATTLE FOR SCHOOL CHOICE CONTINUES: Trapped in the public schools.

THE ANSWER IS OBVIOUS: "Which pathogen has harmed more children?"

SPRING 2023, WEEK 9: This has to be the weirdest spring since I started this annual series way back when(ever). Always before when the blooming began, it began all at once; flowers, trees, brush all at once, then 2-3 weeks for everything to fill out.

This year has been different. No sychronization, start, stop, pause, restart, and all independently. That said, let's start this post with the usual view from the deck.

A lot has changed since last week; trees are much fuller at their crowns and the trees in the background on the other side of the pond have significantly turned greener.

The fire pit/barn/lawn view is similar. Grass is greener, fuller, and in need of mowing again. Ground cover is still sparse, but that's mostly a result of my chipping up a pile of tree limbs to add to the mulch pile. And finally, the trees are beginning to fill in with leaves after being bare for so long.

Along the opposite side of the road from our house, the foliage has finally begun to fill in. The crowns of all the trees along that stretch of our road have finally begun to bud out and I expect significant growth in the next week.

Our very hardy dogwood has now lost all its blooms and nearly completely filled in with leaves. Its companion, which I was sure had died, has just begun to blossom so maybe it'll be good for another year.

Here's a final shot of the neighborhood, looking down the road. It's looking a bit like summer -- still a bit too cool, but summer nonetheless.

Until next week....