I want it to be, so I think it should.

Today's Tids Issue 3,340

Opening Stuff:

Life only becomes difficult when you worry too much about it, or fail to take action to meet it head on. O, there are scary moments, sad moments, empty times, but they always pass, they really do; unless you let them remain and take hold. Life is up to us.

When the North Winds blow In May, a hot Turkey Sandwich with mashed pot and Gravy warms the day.

Osama Bin Laden really spent a lot of time fortifying his hate against America. Maybe he saw too many false images of our great country as portrayed in the movies, TV and literature; listened too intently to anti-USA preachers against a free society. Because, if Osama ever got inside the heart of this country, to the families who only strive for the good, who abhor the loudly shouted glamour of a hedonist minority, perhaps he may have been able to make the distinction. A man who met, who knew real Americans could never have had such hate.

The soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.

The Question:

Give me 10 synonyms for Hedonist. Bonus: See if you can answer this quartette of quickie Questions – Who founded the Red Cross in 1881?; What was the name of the boy killed by Leopold and Loeb?; Who was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic?; Who was the first winner of the TV program The Survivor (Now in its 31^st Season)?

The Headlines:

--Merkle Nixes Ukraine Hope For EU Membership.

--China data Strong, Oil Prices Jump; Best Buy Joins List Of Big Box Stocks Reporting Strong Results; Soft PMI Data Has Euro Stocks Slipping..

--Remadi Takeover Provides ISIS With Cache Of Weapons From Tanks To Millions Of Rounds Of Ammo; Islamic Group takes Palmyra, And Fears Of Destruction Of Priceless Historic Ruins Grow; ISIS Style Groups Building Strength In Afghanistan..

--Letterman Says Thans, And Walks On Home.

--California: Too Much Oil, Not Enough Water; Governor Issues Second Emergency

--Couple Found In Burned DC Mansion Had been Held Captive For Days; Young Boy Appears To Have Been tortured As Part Of Extortion Scheme.

Food critics are often rapturous over the pronouncements of wll known chefs, b lindly following their whims, urging we the palate deprived peasants to follow aimlessly into their sacred kitchens. But, I have to tell you that once I asked a well known and extolled chef why he and others like him always put fruit atop pork dishes. He replied, “Pork has no taste.” Pork has no taste! Egads, how could anybody follow such deprived prima donnas preaching blasphemy? No taste!

A society flounders amidst opposing perceptions.

Ahmed Zayat is riding high on the horse these days, but there are some who say he is the rear end. The extolled owner of the current favorite great horse American Pharaoh is tied to some pretty nefarious gambling operations including a guy named Rubinsky who pleaded guilty to illegal bookmaking operations along with another couple of infamous clowns , the brother’s Jelinsky. Apparently Pharaoh’s owner was staked to $3 Million for his own gambling habit by Rubinsky and still owes $1.6, which the media satr owner says he has no intention of repaying. There are parallel universes in the US of A to which most of do not belong.

Knowing sign language is pretty handy.

I see where President Obama as the Graduation Speaker at the Coast Guard Academy told the newly anointed officers that Climate Change was the biggest threat to national security. He inferred that it could be the cause of the uprising by the poor in 3^rd world nations and of course the resultant recruiting pool for ISIS.

To be honest, at least we knew from his writings as a Senator and before, that President Obama had a clear objective for his presidency. Oh, he tried to disguise with political rhetoric for all, but he was intent on changing traditional Free Enterprise America, bringing it towards a Euro-Socialist style of dependency. And, implementing well known left leaning wish lists. You can dislike him, but you can’t say that he he didn’t have an objective set forth for his tenure in the White House. But Hillary, has no apparent objective other than to be extolled as the first Woman President. She just wants the office, because she certainly hasn’t portrayed herself as anything other than a very eager and calculating candidate.

The president should be preaching about the black on black problems in the inner cities. Black, white and tan knowledgeable sources all agree that the real problems are not police assaults but the innocuous killing of each other in the deprived communities. Police are only there making arrests or tempring fired=s because they are needed and called buy good people living in fear of their own community. That’s where the effort of a good president would be, instead of one in there currently helping condone the divide in  America. Maybe if Obama got inside the real heart of this country…

Or, is that a global warming problem too?

There is no truth to the rumor that the ACLU has banned the use of the term White House.

I think that JP Morgan, CitiCorp, Barclays and RBS should give back their billions of “Bailout” Money…maybe in the form of a distribution to all of the small investors who really suffered in 2007-08. There needs to be some kind of death penalty for breaking trust. This is no different than blacks killing blacks in their own community.

The Answer:

For your information, a Hedonist is one who seeks pleasure above all other values. Some of the synonyms are Debauchee, Glutton, Gourmand, Lecher, Libertine, Profligate, Sensualist, Voluptuary, Pleasuremonger and yes, Epicure. Just in case you are writing a novel about innate depravity. Bonus: Clara Barton founded the Red Cross; Bobby Franks was the tragic victim of L&L; Amelia Earhart was first to cross the Ocean; Richard Hatch was the first winner of this program that seems to have gone on forever…without me, for sure.

Sign on the lawn of the local rehab center: “Keep off the grass”>

Very intelligent people often misperceive reality when it gets in the way of their own conceptions.

With the release of the papers, everybody is now brushing up on what Bin Laden thought, while ISIS just keeps on learning and improving and growing from its own mistakes. Osama was a man; ISIS is a virus.