sad but true
I sent this joke above to a friend who answered -
' So what about your 40's, 50's and 60's then ???
Three men left Nigeria with no money, no passports, and no hope except one: survival. Their destination was the Canary Islands. But they didn't travel as passengers. There were no cabins. There were no beds.
A huge oil tanker named Alithini II , sailing under the flag of Malta, he was hiding near the rudder of that oil tanker, right above the sea, his body was just inches away from the water and death was standing in front of him.
The ship had left from Lagos , Nigeria and was to reach the port of Las Palmas in the Canary Islands of Spain . Eleven days.
Eleven nights. Amid the roar of the engine and the cold Atlantic winds, they held on to an iron rod. They ate whatever little they had. They drank salty seawater filtered through their clothes. They could sleep only for a few minutes, because one wrong move meant falling into the endless ocean.
When the ship arrived in Las Palmas, they were found barely conscious:
There was severe dehydration in the body, they were burnt by the heat of the sun and salt. But he was alive. Eleven days hanging between the sky and the sea. Eleven days challenging the impossible.
They were called "stowaways".
At the time of his arrival, he was severely dehydrated and in shock. But the truth is, they were much more than that—they were survivors. It became a major example for Spanish authorities and human rights activists of the lengths people would go to, risking their lives to escape poverty and conflict.
Because when hunger takes hold and the future looks bleak, some people decide to risk everything in the hope of a better life. They had nothing. But he had faith. And sometimes... that's all it takes to keep breathing.
Share this story with someone who feels like they can't go on anymore. Because there are people in this world who hold on to life with such strength that even the sea could not take it away from them.
Dear John: Scientology destroyed my sister-in-law’s life.
They turned her into a hollow eyed zombie. She looks 20 years older than she is. Once wealthy, she is now surviving on a pittance. Her eyes are vacant and have the thousand yard stare.
She is incapable of a normal conversation: frightened, uncomfortable and awkward. She dresses like a poor housewife from the 1950’s, completely oblivious to the world around her. She has no soul, no will and no brains. She acts like a moron, as if she’s waiting for every decision to be decided for her. She has no friends, except vague relationships with a few other soulless kooks. She never married or had children. She is not allowed a phone, or internet access. She didn’t used to be like this at all. She was the opposite of this in every way. The answer is a highly destructive cult.
JB: I attended a meeting in London once and they were determined to keep me and my 2 friends there as long as possible and when I said we must go as the car was running out on the meter, they offered to go find the car and feed the meter in order to keep up there longer to brainwash us. I IMMEDIATELY pull away FROM ANYTHING that want to ' hang onto me' and we left - but only after a bit of a scene and only after I pointed out we were gay ( there was a quick intake of breath on ther part ) and that I was a journalist looking to write an article on Scientelogists for a gay magazine, and BOY - did they let us go real quick after that. I told them their belief structure was not of God if they believed LGBT are evil as we are all God;s children and their belief structure was unworthy.
THEY DIDN'T LIKE THAT.
Generations of children have sung "Pop Goes the Weasel" without realizing the nonsense lyrics are often linked to a grim history of grinding factory labor and pawning winter coats.
While there is no single agreed-upon origin, historians have narrowed the lyrics down to two leading theories that actually make sense of the nonsense. The first theory points to the Industrial Revolution and traditional weaving. In the textile
industry, a "weasel" was a mechanical yarn-measuring device, often called a clock reel. It consisted of a large wooden wheel used by spinners to measure yarn. When the spinner wound a certain length of yarn (usually a "skein" or "snap"), the internal wooden gears would slip, causing the machine to make a loud "pop!" sound.
A wooden spinner's weasel, a device used in textile production to measure yarn. The machine's internal wooden gears were designed to make a loud 'pop' sound once a specific length of yarn was wound. Photo by Michael Barera is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Under this interpretation, "That's the way the money goes, pop goes the weasel" simply describes a weaver working hard at the machine to make a living.
The second, more widespread theory traces the song to mid-19th century London, relying heavily on Cockney rhyming slang. In this dialect, "weasel and stoat" means a coat, though this slang only dates back to 1930. The word "pop" was common slang for pawning an item—popping it into the pawnshop.
In this context, the rhyme tells the story of a poor Londoner who spends all their money on food or drink. The line "Up and down the City Road, in and out the Eagle" references a famous real-world pub in London called The Eagle. When the patron runs out of money, they have to pawn their winter coat ("pop goes the weasel") to afford cheap food like "tuppenny rice and treacle."
The rhyme originated in England as a dance tune in the 1850s and quickly crossed the Atlantic. In America, new verses were added, including the famous lines about a monkey chasing a weasel around a cobbler's bench. This Americanized version was likely just silly imagery intended for children, completely disconnected from the working-class struggles of London. Despite these later interpretations of working hard and going broke, at its root, "Pop Goes the Weasel" was likely just a popular nonsense song.
I once overheard a woman asking someone to kill her husband.
It was the first and only time I told my wife to stop talking because I was listening to someone sitting nearby. At first, I couldn’t believe what I had heard. I had to see who the man was.
I wasn’t sure how, so I stood up, took off my sweater, and tried to get a good look. He knew I had heard everything and winked at me. What did that mean? Was he a police officer, or not? My mind was racing with questions.
I decided to go to the bathroom to call the police. As I reached for my phone, the man followed me in and showed me his badge. I looked closely at it. It appeared real, but for a moment, I thought it had been stolen. We exchanged a few words, and he said, “Don’t mess this up. I have everything on tape, and now you’re on it too. Just be careful when we leave the restaurant.”
I was in shock.
To make a long story short, he ended up paying for her food, and when they went outside, she was arrested in the parking lot. It felt like I was living a real-life TV show. In my effort to do the right thing, I almost made things worse.
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You make, and take, from the news that which you wish to see and hear. You observe what you want and comment of things that affect you personally. If you don't like something, do not read it and move on but do not shy away from what IS going on in the world of which - you are a part. World news is so easy to find these days and differing opinions not hard to find. Having an opinion is vital and being a ' don't care' person helps no one. So open your mind - open your heart - open your awareness and ALWAYS be open to new ideas.
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