johnsrealmonline.com Blog

I’m up in the hills of North Carolina, having spent the night in Boone. I took some photos, but since I left my adapter at home, I am unable to put them online right now. I probably will tomorrow.

I wish everyone a happy Memorial Day!

To everyone who has served in our armed forces at anytime in our nation’s history, I say ‘thank you.’ To everyone who has lost a loved one, you have my deepest condolences.

French voters have rejected the EU constitution.

Even though many of those who lobbied against it did so because they wanted even more socialism, and others lobbied against it due to their own racist and/or elitist tendencies (they don’t want to be in a league with Turkey), it is good news for the United States. And, even though Tony Blair wanted it, this development may be good news for him too. Now he’s off the hook on holding a ratification election (which may have resulted in defeat, which would have further impaired him).

Happily, Jacque Chirac now finds himself in a world of hurt. It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

This article about the closing of Stony Fork School caught my attention. A remnant of another time, it’s sad to see the school go.

This is pretty disturbing:

PONCHATOULA, La., May 24 – Two decades ago, Hosanna Church was one of the fastest growing congregations in the cypress flats of Tangipahoa Parish on Lake Pontchartrain’s northwest rim, and its pastor, Louis Lamonica, was a beloved figure.

“That man could really preach,” said Bill McCormack, a resident of Ponchatoula who attended the church as a boy. “He was an awesome local icon.”

But by two years ago, when the church finally closed after a ferocious falling-out between the pastor’s son and successor, Louis Lamonica Jr., and his family, the congregation that once neared 1,000 had dwindled to 10 or 15 troubled souls from a handful of families.

And now, many of them, including Louis Lamonica Jr. and a deputy sheriff who once lived on the church grounds, are behind bars, accused by the police of a litany of ungodly offenses, including sexual abuse of perhaps two dozen children and the mutilations of cats for satanic rituals.

Eddie Robinson, assistant pastor at the 5,000-member Harvest World Outreach Ministries in nearby Hammond – to which many Hosanna members migrated – says what happened is clear. He told congregants on Sunday that a prophecy of “witchcraft” problems had been revealed in recent weeks.

“When the leadership of that church kept the enemy out, everything was fine,” Mr. Robinson said. “But when the leadership of that church let the enemy in, things began to change.”

The authorities – who got the first whiff of trouble six weeks ago when a woman, Nicole Bernard, 36, called the Sheriff’s Office from Ohio to say she had fled the town to save her child from sexual abuse – are still trying to piece together what happened.

Nine people have been arrested in the past week. A dozen computers have been seized, at least some of which the police believe contain child pornography, as well as dozens of videotapes, hundreds of computer disks and eight large boxes of documents and photographs. Inside the shuttered church compound, in a “youth hall” behind the sanctuary, the police found the faint imprint of pentagrams on the floor that someone had apparently tried to scrub away. Some of those arrested, the police said, described rituals within those pentagrams involving cats’ blood and people dressed in black robes.

Read the whole article. Yes, Virginia, evil does exist.

Recent events concerning TennCare (and conservative efforts to “save” it) has led Glen Dean to create a poll on whether or not healthcare is a right.

In a bizarre development in the State Senate, Republicans are fighting recent cuts to TennCare while Democrats are vowing to keep them in place. Republicans Jim Bryson and Diane Black are pushing to divert even more money to TennCare. Democratic Senate Leader Jim Kyle says that the Republicans are trying to “put more money into a health-care system that has failed us.”

A broken clock is right twice a day, goes the adage, and here we see proof. Suddenly, Democrats are pushing to remove people from the TennCare rolls. Republicans have betrayed their conservative principles and seemingly embraced socialized medicine. Some prominent conservatives in this state have also done the same. It’s a shame to see this happen for purely partisan reasons. If they want to criticize Bredesen for breaking his vow to scrap TennCare altogether, then I will support them 100%. However, they simply want to pour even more money of our money down the TennCare hole and expand the welfare state, just so they can look like heros. Despicable. As much as I hate to admit it, I’m going to have to cast my lot with the Democrats on this one.

I’m starting to wonder if it’s even worth running a Republican for governor in 2006…

As French voters appear poised to reject the EU constitution, Jacque Chirac is hatching a plan to screw with Tony Blair.

Those of you who have followed my blog for a while may recall that I became engrossed with Jeopardy last year during the record breaking reign of the now famous Ken Jennings, and how sad I was when he finally lost.

Tonight the 74 time champion returns to play in the finals of the Ultimate Tournament of Champions, facing Jerome Vered and Chris Rutter in a three day contest for $2 million.

Guess who I’ll be rooting for.