Speaking of yurts,

I really like them. Part of my personal long range disaster plan - which I hope never comes to pass - would be to rebuild with either a yurt or dome house either one. If anything bad enough happened to trigger much insurance, you'd be starting from scratch anyway. This 100-yr-old house would cost over a quarter mil to rebuild, and you can bet I don't have that kind of insurance! I'm in the slow process of archiving irreplaceable family photos and storing them in a variety of places including the Cloud. Anything else except life itself can be replaced.

At my age I need less than before too. For instance, clothing. A few outfits appropriate for church and funerals at any season, and the rest is purely circumstantial. When I worked in health care I developed a tremendous fondness for non-medical style scrub tops, and when I counted those recently it turned out I'd accumulated 44. In summer I stick almost exclusively to sleeveless smocks (just counted 14 of those) and shorts, in winter fleece tops and bottoms mostly. If it all went away, I could do fine with a lot less.

What my greedy little heart really wants now is a $5K ELF. Now that would be a very practical expenditure!

All part of the GOP plan to strangle the poor

At some point somebody will have to set up visible, accessible centers to provide the needed service. But the godforsaken GOP will do everything except blow themselves up to stop it.

Thanks for understanding.

Just tell your friend to hang on awhile. New York's non-profit verification is not handed out lightly, and that has already been accomplished. I believe they're completely legit despite certain political and personal differences I might have with the founder. It must be trying to be called every name in the book by naysayers with subterranean motives, and I can overlook his occasional testiness. He's probably being nicer than I would be under the same circumstances.

Just remind your friend that he/she should let the organization know when first applying that their need is dire if this is the case. That should move them at least closer to the head of a very, very long line. PFS is also looking to open direct distribution centers around the country, as their original plan of mail order delivery unfolds. I've visited the PetFlow page, and they carry only the best brands. Accepted recipients have to open an account on PFS when duly registered, and they have the opportunity to make their information public but are not required to do so. The pets' page does require photos and a short description for donors to peruse. When PSN is operational, again shortly after Labor Day, the recipient will be expected to maintain a certain level of communication there since this is where the most future operational funds will be generated - but again, I'm sure steps will be taken to maintain their privacy. No one in his right mind these days advertises exact location or even actual name, in my opinion. If you're at Marc Okon's level I suppose you can afford to release your real name, but most of us really can't. It should be enough that the organization itself knows who and where you are, not the general public. They've even said that recipients w/o access to a computer are excused from participating in PSN. A lot of people here don't have computers or internet, and our rural library might not be rare in their refusal to allow email or uploads of any kind.

Again, I'll keep an eye on the PFS web page and do a separate thread at the opportune time. But it wouldn't hurt your friend to apply now. Or anyone else for that matter.

K&R and bookmarked for easy reference.

Since I've always followed the financial news whether I had $ or not, I knew this damned housing bubble would burst sooner than later, and I'd been preparing for the fallout a long, long time. That's why I'm comparatively comfortable from a frugal standpoint, but even that would never have been possible w/o President Obama, and don't think I don't know it. He helped save my bacon (and everyone else's) and that's the main reason I owe him such a huge debt of gratitude, too much ever to repay. It's also why I consider it a joyful duty to defend him.

Most people in rural areas are poor, and it's not because they're the lazy parasites their beloved overlords have called them. I remember Harry Truman saying something about how long would it take for a man being whacked over the head with a 2x4 until he figured out exactly who was on the other end of it? When and if that happens, Katy bar the door.

The people around here are nowhere near figuring it out yet. But I wonder if a few, even the worst off, have at least a slight inkling when they see that even with my very modest means I've managed to live pretty well by comparison, and that w/o debt. It seems to mystify as well as anger some, and w/o just cause they've poured their bile out over my head on many an occasion. I can only hope one day they'll realize the wisdom of Dr. Howard Dean's assertion that only a fool lets the Republicans handle the nation's $. Truer words never spoken.

Not just the attention span of gnats

It's those huge blinders amounting to blindfolds they wear.

Thanks for the (happily usual) great OP

There's a generally nice and fairly smart recent retiree where I live who once wrote her first letter to the editor of our local weekly (from what I've seen), and she told about how her insurance company had claimed her Medicare supplement policy would skyrocket out of her reach under Obamacare. I almost felt sorry for her, the terror was so palpable. I hope by now she knows better. I thought about calling her but decided not to, because people in that state of near-hysteria don't listen to anything new to them. It's like horses rescued from a burning barn charging back in - THEY WILL! - because that's the only safe place they know.

But I do hope that by now she's found out better for herself, unless she was too traumatized to look outside the corral her owners had penned her into. I do know that if I ever see her again, I'll try to take her aside and ask what she thinks of Obamacare now. But even if she admits it saved her bacon, she'll still complain that it's going to wreck the country. If she ever realizes that it represents a high degree of financial salvation instead, she'll complain that it murders the innocent unborn; if she ever finds out that's not true, there'll always be something else until that wonderful man she's been taught to fear and hate is out of office.

And just think about it - she's one of the nicest and smartest people I know around here.

You know what I think the majority of what's left of the GOP will do when they finally throw in the towel? They're going to claim Obamacare is a misnomer, that they forced it through Congress over the fierce objections of that black foreign-born Commie Muslim.

Worse yet, half their sheeple will swallow that Big Lie whole.

True progressives are not ignorant

But wolves in sheep's clothing like to pose as progressives, that's all. I don't believe for one second that a real progressive of any depth would behave as the posers do. And we all know that some of the false claimants are outright plants.

Amen to that

The hour seems late, with fascist storm clouds surrounding us at times, but we shall overcome; not 'someday', but moving forward NOW.

When I first retired and moved

to this little flyspeck remote town in the MidWest, I was lucky that I got insurance at all with my chows. They've been on a growing number of companies' hit lists. That's not the reason I got the two dogs I have now, small ones, but believe me - unless the chows had perceived a threat to me, these two small dogs would be the liklier pair to bite. The JRT is just as fearless as a chow, and I think perhaps as protective. I don't think she'd really make breed standard, either, because she's a bit overgrown. During the recent firecracker season, her first, she literally roared and charged the fence every time fireworks exploded anywhere. Had to keep her inside more because she stayed in such a fury. More than a mere watchdog, she is.

Well, Keninison screamed - no dog likes that.