Always on duty. Who was the bigger clown? ... Thx Dr. H!

Here is the foursome with the 9:12AM starting time last Sunday at the Vineyard Golf Course on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts:

 

 

Flower from Heaven ...

A Flower from Heaven

 

 

Do this just because it makes you feel good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

"My   dad always told me if you have 5 true friends in  your lifetime,
Then  you  had a great  life"  
 
Eight  minutes starts now!!!!!

 
    
Have  faith!  You are blessed, beautiful, happy and  loved!    Have a   good  day!

Burning man not for me... Thx Marge R!

The annual revelry in the desert brings in millions of dollars, despite its anti-capitalist vibe.

Money is frowned on at Burning Man, the annual desert bacchanal that runs through Monday in Nevada. Participants are instead supposed to adhere to the festival’s feel-good philosophy of giving gifts like glow bracelets, sparklers, and vodka shots.

The group that puts on Burning Man, meanwhile, rakes in millions of dollars from selling tickets and parking passes to more than 60,000 attendees. It’s a complex operation with a full-time staff and a huge budget that dwarfs many big businesses.

Burning Man has long been led by its co-founder, Larry Harvey, who helped build it up from an informal gathering on San Francisco’s Baker Beach in 1986 to an international happening. Ostensibly, it’s an art event and free-zone for “radical self-expression.” In reality, the event’s vibe has morphed into a mix of flower power, around-the-clock rave, and Silicon Valley wheeling and dealing.

Earlier this year, Burning Man’s owners fulfilled a promise to place the event—long operated by a private company—under the control of a non-profit organization. The switch was partly intended to mollify critics who accused the organizers of hypocrisy for espousing an anti-corporate ethos while operating Burning Man as a business.

In a blog post, the organizers said the change would allow the event to survive beyond the lifetime of its owners. “Our mission has always been to serve the community,” they wrote, “and a non-profit public benefit corporation is the most socially responsible option to ensure and protect the future of Burning Man.”

Details about the new ownership structure are complex and, at least for now, mostly shielded from the public. What is clear is that the event continues to cash in on people’s appetite for baking in the heat on a dry lakebed during the week preceding Labor Day.

Burning Man’s organizers don’t say how much money they make in ticket sales. But it’s pretty easy to calculate—around $25 million—based on what they say publicly about the number of tickets sold (63,000) and their cost (anywhere from $190 to $650), plus $40 parking passes. The event also collects fees from commercial photographers and filmmakers, according to various reports.

A spokesman declined to comment about Burning Man’s finances or its switch to being a non-profit. Instead, he pointed to an annual statement by the event’s owner showing the substantial costs of organizing the revelry.

Last year, salaries ate up just over $7 million, according to the financial document. Fees for use of federal land cost another $4.5 million while taxes cost $1 million. Building a temporary city in the middle of nowhere is expensive. Toilets cost nearly $1 million (think of hundreds of porta-potties), medical services ate up $450,000, and dust abatement (i.e. trucks with water) burned through $260,000. Meanwhile, building “The Man,” a giant wood statue that is traditionally set ablaze on the event’s final night, cost $400,000 for labor, pyrotechnics, and timber.

In all, Burning Man said it spent $26.8 million in 2013. That figure includes money to support artists and donations to Nevada schools and charities.

With the change to non-profit status, Burning Man will have to make public its revenues and the salaries for top staff members. But those disclosures won’t be made until next year, along with additional details about the shift in ownership. It is unclear, for example, whether the non-profit bought out Burning Man’s original owner, Black Rock City LLC. Another possibility is that the company’s board, led by Harvey and five other shareholders, voted to donate their stakes.

Technically, Burning Man will remain under Black Rock City LLC, which Harvey helped to establish 24 years ago. But that company is now a subsidiary of the non-profit, known as Burning Man Project.

The goal is to expand Burning Man by creating events outside of Nevada. Whether they’ll use the Burning Man name is unknown at this point.

John Law, a Burning Man co-founder who had a falling out with Harvey, complained about some of the changes at the event. Although he praised the artists, and free thinkers who still attend, he took issue with how it has become a “commodity” and a “Disneyland for attorneys and accountants on ecstasy.”

“It’s become Silicon Valley’s vacation,” Law said.

Indeed, the influx of wealth is a big point of contention among long-time attendees. Tech executives, in some cases, arrive in private jets and spend their time in luxury camps catered with sushi and tended to by personal valets. How much extra money, if anything, the event collects from such camps is unclear.

Law sued Black Rock City LLC in 2007 in an unsuccessful attempt to dissolve the partnership and put the “Burning Man” name in the public domain so that it could be used by anyone who wanted to. Ultimately, the case was settled in arbitration with Black Rock City buying out his stake in the event.

All the money now collected at Burning Man was inconceivable to Law when he cut ties with the event nearly two decades ago. At the time, he said it was in debt and that his credit cards were maxed out. If it was up to him, it would have remained much smaller and idealistic, in keeping with what he saw as it original mission.

“Burning Man becoming one of these financial behemoths—it’s pretty ironic,” Law said.

Whataguy! I agree Ramey H! Thanks good friend!

Almost didn’t watch this, but part way through I wanted to stand up and salute with this guy. Where was the news media on this one?

 

Once  again, I am rejuvenated in my faith of all the goodness that still resides  in America.

 

You have to see this. I think this guy is GREAT!!!

 

God  Bless America!

 

http://www.pickleballchannel.com/2014/05/memorial-day/

skegley.blogspot.com

Thanks Lyle S's friend

어떤 닭을 원하시나요  꽃으로 만든 닭

30 sexconds with God ... Thx Nita E!

       A Minute With God

       My name is God. You hardly have time for me. I love you and   will
       always bless you. I am always with you. I need you to spend 30
       secs. of your time with Me today. Don't pray, just praise. Today
       I want this message to go across the world before midnight. Will
       you help? Please do not delete it and I'll help you with
       something that you are in need of. Just trust me, a blessing is
       coming your way. Please drop everything & pass it on.
       Why do we feel sleepy in prayer, but stay awake through a 3 hour
       movie?

       Why are we so bored when we look at the HOLY BOOK but find it
       easy to read other books?

       Why are prayers getting smaller, but bars and clubs are expanding?

       Why is it so easy to worship a celebrity, but very difficult to
       engage with God?

       Think about it, are you going to forward this or are you going
       to ignore it because you think you will get laughed at?

       Forward this to all your friends. 80% of you won't. God said if
       you deny me in front of your friends, I will deny you on the day
       of judgment.

       When one door closes, God opens another. If God has opened doors
       for you, send this message to everyone...

       God has no BLACKBERRY but he's my favorite contact.

       He is not on FACE BOOK but he is my best friend.

       He is not on TWITTER but I still follow Him, and even without
       the INTERNET I am always connected to him.

       He is not on gmail but he's always online.

       Forward if God's been good to you!

       God has been very good to me, He has given me a wonderful
       family, great friends and so much more.

Alan Simposon gets an earful on Social Security! Good going Patty Myers of Wyoming! Thx Nita E!

This woman knows what she is talking about and surely those of us who feel the same can join her and come up with some fight that will get back what is ours.  

 

 

 

 

You need to read this!

I Think SHE IS PISSED!

I don't think  'pissed' really covers it!!!!

 

Alan Simpson, the Senator from Wyoming, calls senior citizens the  "Greediest Generation" as he compared "Social Security" to a Milk Cow with 310 million teats.

 

Here's a response in a letter from PATTY MYERS in Montana ... I think she is a little ticked off! She also tells it like it is!

............................................................................................

 

"Hey, Alan, let's get a few things straight!!!!!

 

1. As a career politician,

you have been on the public dole (tit) for FIFTY YEARS.

 

2. I have been paying Social Security taxes for 48 YEARS (since I was 15 years old. I am now 63).

 

3. My Social Security payments, and those of millions of other Americans, were safely tucked away in "an interest bearing account" for decades until you political pukes decided to raid the account and give OUR money to a bunch of losers in return for votes, thus bankrupting the system and turning Social Security into a Ponzi scheme that would make Bernie Madoff proud.

 

4. Recently, just like Lucy and Charlie Brown, you and "your ilk" pulled the proverbial football away from millions of American seniors nearing retirement and moved the goalposts for full retirement from age 65 to age, 67. NOW, you and your "shill commission" are proposing to move the goalposts YET AGAIN.

 

5. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying into Medicare from day one, and now

"you" propose to change the rules of the game. Why? Because "you" mismanaged other parts of the economy to such an extent that you need to steal our money from Medicare to pay the bills.

 

6. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying income taxes our entire lives, and now you propose to increase our taxes yet again. Why? Because you  "incompetents" spent our money so profligately that you just kept on spending even after you ran out of money. Now, you come to the American taxpayers and say you need more to pay off YOUR  debt.

 

7.To add insult to injury, you label us "greedy" for calling "bull$hit"  to your incompetence. Well, Captain Bull$hit, I have a few questions for YOU:

       

 1. How much money have you earned from the American taxpayers during your pathetic 50-year political    career?

       2. At what age did you retire from your pathetic political career, and how much are you receiving in annual retirement benefits from the American taxpayers?

       3. How much do you pay for YOUR government provided health insurance?

       4. What cuts in YOUR retirement and healthcare benefits are you proposing in your disgusting deficit reduction proposal, or as usual, have you exempted yourself and your political cronies?

 

It is you, Captain Bull$hit, and your political co-conspirators called Congress who are the "greedy" ones. It is you and your fellow thieves who have bankrupted America and stolen the American dream from millions of loyal, patriotic taxpayers. And for what? Votes, your job and retirement security at our expense, you leech.

 

That's right, sir. You and yours have bankrupted America for the sole purpose of advancing

your political careers. You know it, we know it, and you know that we know it.

And you can take that to the bank you miserable SOB .

 

NO, I did not stutter.

 

P.S. And stop calling Social Security benefits "entitlements."   WHAT AN INSULT!!!!

I have been paying in to the SS system for 45 years. It's my money-give it back to me the way the system was designed and stop patting yourself on the back like you are being generous by doling out these monthly checks.

 

EVERYONE!!! 

If you like the way things are in America delete this.

 

If you agree with what a Montana citizen, Patty Myers, says, please PASS IT ON