SIGNS MOCKING CALIFORNIA’S NEW SANCTUARY STATUS APPEAR ALONG HIGHWAYS
by Kevin Ryan

California rang in 2018 with a new “sanctuary state” law going into effect that prohibits state and local law enforcement officers from inquiring about a person’s immigration status, from arresting persons because of civil immigration warrants, or from participating in a joint task force with federal officials to enforce immigration laws.

No sooner had the law had gone into effect than someone put up very official looking signs mocking the policy. At least 15 signs appeared in various locations welcoming felons, gang members, and cheap labor, because “Democrats need the votes!”

The Banksy-esque street art was quickly removed by Caltrans, but not before images of the signs went viral on social media. It’s not clear who was responsible for the prank.

Illinois: The Governor of Illinois is jogging with his dog along a nature trail.

A coyote jumps out and attacks the Governor’s dog, then bites the Governor.

1. The Governor starts to intervene, but reflects upon the movie “Bambi”
and then realizes he should stop because the coyote is only doing what is natural.

2. He calls animal control. Animal Control captures the coyote and
bills the State $200 testing it for diseases and $500 for relocating it.

3. He calls a veterinarian. The vet collects the dead dog and bills the
State $200 testing it for diseases.

4. The Governor goes to hospital and spends $350.00 getting checked for
diseases from the coyote and getting his bite wound bandaged.

5. The running trail gets shut down for 6 months while Fish & Game
conducts a $100,000 survey to make sure the area is now free of dangerous animals.

6. The Governor spends $50,000 in state funds implementing a “coyote
awareness program” for residents of the area.

7. The State Legislature spends $2 million to study how to better treat
rabies and how to permanently eradicate the disease throughout the world.

8. The Governor’s security agent is fired for not stopping the attack.
The State spends $150,000 to hire and train a new agent with additional
special training re: the nature of coyotes.

9. PETA protests the coyote’s relocation and files a $5 million suit
against the State.

Texas :

The Governor of Texas is jogging with his dog along a nature trail. A coyote jumps out and attacks the dog.

1. The Governor shoots the coyote with his State-issued pistol and keeps jogging. The Governor has spent $0.50 on a .45 ACP hollow
point cartridge.

2. The Buzzards eat the dead coyote.

And that, my friends, is why Illinois is broke and Texas is not.

If you promote a culture where there are no moral absolutes, don’t be shocked when people act as if there are no moral absolutes.

“Again, if there is no objective truth to which we can appeal, all truth is relative and therefore does not exist. There can be no good or evil in such a world. Martin Shkreli is, to the horror of our society, actually acting on the foundational ideas that our culture is now promoting.”

Hit the road @ 9:15 with Jake and headed to Las Vegas. We turned south on NM104 and did a total of 256 miles on a very cool circle tour of our area. Jake had never been on these roads and he was impressed. On the last leg of our ride, we stopped at Penny’s Diner, a place that Jake has passed by in the past, something he won’t be doing in the future.

Great day!

This is a wonderful story and it is true. You will be glad that you read it, and I hope you will pass it on.

It happened every Friday evening, almost without fail, when the sun resembled a giant orange and was starting to dip into the blue ocean.

Old Ed came strolling along the beach to his favorite pier. Clutched in his bony hand was a bucket of shrimp. Ed walks out to the end of the pier, where it seems he almost has the world to himself. The glow of the sun is a golden bronze now.

Everybody’s gone, except for a few joggers on the beach. Standing out on the end of the pier, Ed is alone with his thoughts…and his bucket of shrimp. Before long, however, he is no longer alone. Up in the sky a thousand white dots come screeching and squawking, winging their way toward that lanky frame standing there on the end of the pier.

Before long, dozens of seagulls have enveloped him, their wings fluttering and flapping wildly. Ed stands there tossing shrimp to the hungry birds. As he does, if you listen closely, you can hear him say with a smile, ‘Thank you. Thank you.’

In a few short minutes the bucket is empty. But Ed doesn’t leave. He stands there lost in thought, as though transported to another time and place .

When he finally turns around and begins to walk back toward the beach, a few of the birds hop along the pier with him until he gets to the stairs, and then they, too, fly away. And old Ed quietly makes his way down to the end of the beach and on home.

If you were sitting there on the pier with your fishing line in the water, Ed might seem like  ‘a funny old duck,’ as my dad used to say. Or, to onlookers, he’s just another old codger, lost in his own weird world, feeding the seagulls with a bucket full of shrimp.

To the onlooker, rituals can look either very strange or very empty. They can seem altogether unimportant ….maybe even a lot of nonsense.

Old folks often do strange things, at least in the eyes of Boomers and Busters. Most of them would probably write Old Ed off, down there in Florida … That’s too bad. They’d do well to know him better. His full name:  Eddie Rickenbacker. He was a famous hero in World War I, and then he was  in WWII. On one of his flying missions across the Pacific, he and his seven-member crew went down. Miraculously, all of the men survived, crawled out of their plane, and climbed into a life raft.

Captain Rickenbacker and his crew floated for days on the rough waters of the Pacific. They fought the sun. They fought sharks. Most of all, they fought hunger and thirst. By the eighth day their rations ran out. No food. No water. They were hundreds of miles from land and no one knew where they were or even if they were alive.

Every day across America millions wondered and prayed that Eddie Rickenbacker might somehow be found alive. The men adrift needed a miracle. That afternoon they had a simple devotional service and prayed for a miracle.

They tried to nap. Eddie leaned back and pulled his military cap over his nose. Time dragged on. All he could hear was the slap of the waves against the raft…suddenly Eddie felt something land on the top of his cap. It was a seagull!

Old Ed would later describe how he sat perfectly still, planning his next move. With a flash of his hand and a squawk from the gull, he managed to grab it and wring its neck. He tore the feathers off, and he and his starving crew made a meal of it – a very slight meal for eight men. Then they used the intestines for bait. With it, they caught fish, which gave them food and more bait….and the cycle continued. With that simple survival  technique, they were able to endure the rigors of the sea until they were  found and rescued after 24 days at sea.

Eddie Rickenbacker lived many years beyond that ordeal, but he never forgot the sacrifice of that first life-saving seagull… And he never stopped saying, ‘Thank you.’ That’s why almost every Friday night he would walk to the end of the pier with a bucket full of shrimp and a heart full of gratitude.

Reference: (Max Lucado, “In The Eye of the Storm”, pp…221, 225-226)

PS: Eddie Rickenbacker was the founder of Eastern Airlines. Before WWI he was race car driver. In WWI he was a pilot and became America’s first ace. In WWII he was an instructor and military adviser, and he flew missions with the combat pilots. Eddie Rickenbacker is a true American hero. And now you know another story about the trials and sacrifices that brave men have endured for your freedom.

As you can see, I chose to pass it on. It is a great story that many don’t know…You’ve got to be careful with old guys, you just never know what they have done during their lifetime.