Rich Taylor

Retired manager rapid transit career. Patriot, Vietnam Vet.

[Rich Taylor @Richard00051572]

@lunadreaamy 95

[Rich Taylor @Richard00051572]

@TheFive @JesseBWatters Same oh same oh. Our president is on again off again. Either finish the goal, if you have one, or get out and stop. Always the same. Gates of hell, f their s up. Wolf syndrome near .

[Rich Taylor @Richard00051572]

@ThrillaRilla369 The thrill is gone

[Rich Taylor @Richard00051572]

@Aestheticsn1 76901

[Rich Taylor @Richard00051572]

@Hazalizy 195

[Calvin and Hobbes Fan Account @Calvinn_Hobbes]

On December 31, 1995, Bill Watterson published the final 'Calvin & Hobbes' comic strip. #CalvinandHobbes

[Rich Taylor @Richard00051572]

@HarmeetKDhillon So talented.

[Ben Sasse @BenSasse]

Friends-

This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die.

Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do.

I’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, “Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.” Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all.

Still, I’ve got less time than I’d prefer. This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad. I can’t begin to describe how great my people are. During the past year, as we’d temporarily stepped back from public life and built new family rhythms, Melissa and I have grown even closer — and that on top of three decades of the best friend a man could ever have. Seven months ago, Corrie was commissioned into the Air Force and she’s off at instrument and multi-engine rounds of flight school. Last week, Alex kicked butt graduating from college a semester early even while teaching gen chem, organic, and physics (she’s a freak). This summer, 14-year-old Breck started learning to drive. (Okay, we’ve been driving off-book for six years — but now we’ve got paper to make it street-legal.) I couldn’t be more grateful to constantly get to bear-hug this motley crew of sinners and saints.

There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn’t the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come.

Not an abstract hope in fanciful human goodness; not hope in vague hallmark-sappy spirituality; not a bootstrapped hope in our own strength (what foolishness is the evaporating-muscle I once prided myself in). Nope — often we lazily say “hope” when what we mean is “optimism.” To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they’re gonna bury their son.

A well-lived life demands more reality — stiffer stuff. That’s why, during advent, even while still walking in darkness, we shout our hope — often properly with a gravelly voice soldiering through tears.

Such is the calling of the pilgrim. Those who know ourselves to need a Physician should dang well look forward to enduring beauty and eventual fulfillment. That is, we hope in a real Deliverer — a rescuing God, born at a real time, in a real place. But the eternal city — with foundations and without cancer — is not yet.

Remembering Isaiah’s prophecies of what’s to come doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings. But it does put it in eternity’s perspective:
“When we've been there 10,000 years…We've no less days to sing God's praise.”

I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight. One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more. Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape.

But for now, as our family faces the reality of treatments, but more importantly as we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned….For to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9).

With great gratitude, and with gravelly-but-hopeful voices,
Ben — and the Sasses

[Kevin W. @Brink_Thinker]

In 2017, retired Marine staff sergeant Jose Sanchez, who lost part of his left leg in Afghanistan, ran the entire Boston Marathon carrying an American flag!

Thank you for your service 🫡

[Rich Taylor @Richard00051572]

Do you remember when you joined X? I do! #MyXAnniversary

[Rich Taylor @Richard00051572]

@ksatnews They used 1,000 gallons of spilled chemicals to contain factory fire?

[Love Music @khnh80044]

Such beautiful voices in this Father-Daughter duet...so uplifting and heartfully sung!😍❤️

[liminal @Liminal1988]

My therapist told me this, and it changed my life:

[Chris Martz @ChrisMartzWX]

Okay. Let’s talk some facts.

The Camp Mystic flood disaster in Texas is very unfortunate, and I hope that all of the missing girls are found.

The usual suspects are exploiting this tragedy to score political brownie points. Some left-wing activists are blaming this flood on “climate change,” others are blaming the deaths and missing persons on inadequate warning caused by low staffing at the National Weather Service (NWS) caused by Trump administration federal RIFs. ✂️

First of all, staffing cuts played no part in this tragedy. 🙅‍♂️

The NWS issued a flood watch for Kerr County more than 12 hours ahead of the flood. They also issued a flash flood warning for Hunt and Ingraham THREE HOURS before the Guadalupe River began to climb. There was plenty of lead time with respect to the forecast and issuance of warnings.

The flood was caused by the remnants of Tropical Storm Barry becoming embedded into a broad mid-level trough over central Texas. These remnant lows are typically slow-moving and drop heavy rain over a large geographical area where the troposphere destabilizes. 🌧️

This particular one stayed quasi- (fairly) stationary, and caused massive flooding along the Guadalupe River, something that has happened many times before. In 1987, a flash flood on the same river killed 10 teenage campers from the Pot O Gold Christian Camp, with another 33 swept away who survived. 🏕️

🔗 https://t.co/j4YWLPCheO

Camp Mystic is built on a floodplain. It is on sediment that has been deposited by hundreds, if not thousands of floods over the last millennium.

The event has nothing to do with climate change.

And, the tragedy had nothing to do with DOGE cuts.

If you are someone who has exploited this catastrophe because you just don’t like Trump, you need to take a serious look in the mirror. 🪞

[Brenden Dilley @WarlordDilley]

Something is happening with our culture...

[🏴‍☠️Nasdorachi🏴‍☠️ @Nasdorachi]

@creepydotorg the Earth is a globe, This map is flat.

scale is off because of this, but it still works for what it needs to do.

if you want an accurate depiction of continent size on a flat map. here you go:

[Christopher Hale @ChristopherHale]

“If you think the world is selfish and rotten, go to the cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer overlooking Omaha Beach. See what one group of men did for another on D-Day, June 6th, 1944.” — Andy Rooney

[U.S. Army @USArmy]

Today, we honor the courageous men and women who gave their lives in service to our Nation.

We will never forget their sacrifice, and we will continue to carry on their legacy, today and always.

#MemorialDay

[Brit Hume @brithume]

Remember this when you hear (endlessly) that GOP tax cuts will only benefit the rich: About 40% of U.S. households pay no federal income tax. It's not easy to design a tax cut for people who don't pay any. Trump has tried by proposing no tax on tips, overtime and Social Security. But the underlying reality remains: tax cuts inevitably benefit those who pay taxes.