Architecture Wednesday: 9 Sterling Cove Road

This is a smallish home, on Monhegan Island, was built in 1963, but has been completely updated and refurbished. And, being on an island, while there are other houses nearby, you will love the seclusion as your new house is only reachable by boat.

There are three bedrooms—the primary suite is upstairs—and two full baths in just under 1500 square feet. The home has been substantially renovated by the current owner with all new interior finishes, as well as a new well and septic, and the home was added to the electrical grid.

The property includes the old ice pond on the island, and there are great views of the Atlantic Ocean which is just steps away. The house is being sold fully furnished for just $1,395,000.

Plus, you know, the cost of the boat to reach the house from the mainland if you don’t already own a boat.

Dwell

Vote Blue. Here's Another Slew of Reasons Why

Here we are again, with a wee taste of the lunacy, racism, criminality, and bigotry and hate inside the GOP …

WASHINGTON DC

House Speaker and Good Christian Nationalist Mike Johnson went down to Mar-Illegal this week and came back to tell us that he is proposing a bill to make it illegal for undocumented immigrants to vote and the Cult cheered.

Of course, none of them made note of the fact that it’s already illegal for undocumented immigrants to vote.

You cannot fix stupid … and liars.

COLORADO

Don Wilson, a Republican state representative left a loaded, semiautomatic handgun in a bathroom at the Colorado Capitol on Tuesday night at the same time that Democrats are trying to ban firearm possession in the building and the GOP is fighting them.

And yet the Wilson’s idiotic actions have proven why the Democrats stance in needed when even a so-called legislator can’t keep track of a loaded firearm.

KENTUCKY

Brian Ormes, a Republican candidate for state House of Representatives was arrested and booked for first-degree strangulation, menacing and fourth-degree assault with no visible injury.

According to Fort Wright police, the incident happened on Monday night when a 17-year-old male reported being assaulted by Ormes  inside the Walmart. Police say Ormes admitted to being in an altercation with juveniles because of their unruly behavior in the store, which he said impacted the safety of his child.

So he strangled a kid?

FLORIDA

While family and friends distributed posters of George Riley Jr., a missing Republican Party of Florida executive director, it was discovered that he was holed up in a Hampton Inn, where authorities say he trashed his room.

Riley was kicked out of a room at the Hampton Inn in Kissimmee after a desk clerk observed him “under the influence;” employees of the hotel had talked to Riley in his hotel room and found that he had “urinated and vomited throughout.” The assistant general manager noted that Riley was purchasing alcohol while staying at the hotel, and that he had bought so much booze from the store inside the hotel that the manager had to order more.

The party of Family Values, pissin’ and pukin’ …

ARIZONA

After the Arizona Supreme Court upheld their 1864 abortion law, which calls for 2-5 years in prison for anyone involved in performing an abortion, Kari Lake fired off a statement saying that she disagrees with the decision and hopes that the voters will overturn it in a referendum this November when her Senate race is also on the ballot against Ruben Gallego.

There’s just one big problem for lying, hypocritical fraudster Kari Lake … when she was running for Governor in 2022 she said the exact opposite repeatedly, saying she hoped that the Supreme Court would “do the right thing” and overturn Roe.

Huh, Kari Lake is a liar? Go figure …

IOWA

Governor Kim Reynolds signed a bill into law this week making it a crime for an undocumented immigrant to be in Iowa. The law, which takes effect July 1, has elevated anxiety in Iowa’s immigrant communities and mirrors part of a Texas law that is currently blocked in court.

Even local police officers in the state are confused about the bill; Des Moines Police Chief Dana Wingert says immigration status does not factor into the department’s work to keep the community safe and that most police agencies are “not equipped, funded or staffed” to take on federal government responsibilities.

But, hey, the Governor wants Brown people arrested.

LOUISIANA

The Louisiana House Committee on Education advanced House Bill 121 by GOP Representative Raymond Crews that prohibits the use of transgender and nonbinary youth’s chosen names and pronouns in public K-12 schools without parental permission. In addition, House Bill 122 by GOP Representative Dodie Horton would limit discussion of gender and sexuality in public K-12 schools.

The Legislature approved both bills last year, though then-Governor John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, vetoed them, and Republicans were unable to overturn his action. But now Louisiana has a GOP Governor, Jeff Landry, who  filed a card in support of both Crews’ and Horton’s Hate Bills.

GOOD NEWS

MAINE

After a fiery debate over a bill to protect health care workers who provide abortion and gender-affirming care from out-of-state lawsuits crossed a line in the Maine House and lead to lawmakers censuring two Republicans.

GOP Representative Michael Lemelin claimed that the mass shooting that killed 18 people last October in Lewiston, Maine and the recent winter storms were God’s revenge for “immoral” laws adopted by legislators, and he described the shield bill as “inspired by Lucifer himself” another GOP lawmaker, Shelley Rudnicki, announced that she agreed with Lemelin’s remarks.

House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross told Lemelin and Rudnicki that the remarks were “extremely offensive and intentionally harmful to the victims and the families of the Lewiston tragedy, the House of Representatives, and the people of Maine.”

But, hey, God …

KANSAS

Democrat Governor Laura Kelly vetoed a bill that would ban transgender minors from receiving gender transition surgeries and hormone therapy, setting up another veto override fight over GOP efforts to regulate the lives of trans residents.

Kelly says the bill dictates to parents how to best raise and care for their children, adding that the legislation is not a “conservative value, and it’s certainly not a Kansas value” and “tramples parental rights.”

The measure passed in the Senate 27-13 with a veto-proof majority. The House vote was still two votes short of a veto-proof margin. But if two House Republicans who were absent from the initial floor vote now vote to override, the House would gain the two-thirds majority necessary.

And that’s just a small taste of GOP lunacy ... pardoning traitors for political points; gibberish speakers; anti-military criminals; lunatics and Big Liars; Christian Nationalist Nazi sympathizers; party over country fools; unfit for political office; liars and flip-floppers; and Arizona.

So what do we do? We ...

The Pedophiles Are Inside The Churches ... Still

I don’t follow rightwingnut and faux Christian, Tomi Lahren, on Twitter, but I do see her posts every so often, where she rants about the LGBTQ+ community and drag queens sexualizing and grooming children. And every time she posts her nonsense, I ask her—though she never responds because it doesn’t suit the Hate Narrative she pushes, why she says nary a word about so-called Men of God, Men of Faith, who groom and abuse children and are arrested and imprisoned for such.

So, here’s some info for Tomi, that I will share to her page, and no doubt not hear a word about it …

CALIFORNIA

Jose Andres Lopez, A retired Orange County pastor, was sentenced to 186 years to life in prison for sexually abusing two young girls with whom he is related from 1991 to 2020.

ALASKA

Dwight Chris John, age seventy-one, who served on the governing board of a Christian & Missionary Alliance church, has been charged with six counts of Sexual Abuse of a Minor in the 1st Degree, seven counts of Sexual Abuse of a Minor 2nd Degree, Sexual Abuse of a Minor 3rd Degree, and three counts of Incest. The Investigation is ongoing.

CALIFORNIA

Michael Sasser, a Modesto man who stepped down from his role as a church youth leader a month before his arrest has pleaded guilty to three counts of child molestation for acts that occurred during a period of months in 2022 and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

KANSAS

Joseph Heidesch, s former private Catholic school teacher at St. Thomas Aquinas High School, pleaded guilty to one felony count of sexual exploitation of a child and 25 counts of breach of privacy for secretly recording video of more than 100 girls and will spend five years in prison with no chance of parole.

VIRGINIA

Scott Asalone, now 66, A former Loudoun County Catholic priest, has been sentenced to eight years in prison for the sexual abuse of a 14-year-old child; Asalone is required to register as a sex offender for the remainder of his life.

TEXAS

Daniel Savala, who’s accused of sexually abusing multiple men in the Assemblies of God’s Chi Alpha Campus Ministries, has also been arrested in Houston on sex abuse charges involving minors.

It’s the second arrest in an investigation started in April by Waco Police Department’s Crimes Against Children Unit. On May 23, Chris Hundl, former leader of the Chi Alpha chapter at Baylor University and pastor of Mountain Valley Fellowship in Waco, was arrested on identical charges in Waco. According to police records, Hundl drove two boys to Savala’s residence in Houston where Savala “masturbated both children” in his home sauna.

OHIO

Robert Auxter, a former Monroe pastor at Grace Lutheran Church was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of Gross Sexual Imposition, which are third-degree felonies. Auxter is required to register as a tier 2 sex offender.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Daniel Kellan Mayfield, youth pastor at Gowensville First Baptist Church faces new charges of video recording girls—as young as 14—in the bathroom of the church he was fired from recently. He was also charged with using his phone to video record a woman while she was showering at her mother’s home in Greenwood County.

PENNSYLVANIA

Brandon S. Dasilva, a former youth pastor in Ephrata man is charged with possessing child pornography—and it’s not his first offense; he was also charged in February 2021 and failed to register his Twitch account and email address with Pennsylvania State Police, which was a condition of a prior conviction.

MAINE

Raymond K. Chang, a 36-year-old pastor at “Resurrection Church” was arrested on a warrant alleging he sexually assaulted a child. The victim reported being sexually assaulted by Chang multiple times from when she was 12 to 14 years old. The affidavit quotes the victim as saying that she reported the sexual abuse to a family member and in response the family got together with members of Chang’s former church—which is not named in the affidavit—and she was told to apologize and to forgive Chang.

CALIFORNIA

Steven Brian Arey, a former youth pastor in Tulare who was working for the California Department of Corrections at the time of his arrest in 2019, was sentenced to 300 years in prison on 20 counts of lewd acts with a child under the age of 14.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Kevin Straughan, a former minister of Agape Ministries Church, is accused of strangulation and sexual assault and is being investigated for similar charges in Florida. Straughan has been indicted on several charges, including four counts of sexual assault and second-degree assault of children. Police said the victims were people he knew, including children.

TEXAS

Michael Anthony Romero, a former employee of a Magnolia church, has turned himself in and confessed to ‘inappropriate behavior with adolescents’ during his time at the ministry.

OHIO

The Rev. Michael Jude Zacharias, a Roman Catholic priest who has led parishes in Mansfield and Fremont, has been found guilty on all five counts of sex trafficking, two of which involved victims who were minors. Zacharias admitted to having had sexual relations with several men but maintained that the sex never involved anyone younger than 18 but a nine-page affidavit accuses Zacharias of “grooming” victims to use their drug addiction as a way to perform sexual acts on them.

MISSISSIPPI

Daniel Paul Harris, a Mississippi educator who, with his wife, founded the Kaimen Center to provide activities and experiences for children and adults of varying disabilities, was arrested and charged Thursday with two counts of molestation involving a child, two counts of sexual battery and one count of unnatural intercourse.

CALIFORNIA

Stephen McCurtis, pastor at Maricopa Community Church, has been charged with committing lewd and lascivious acts upon a child after a girl alleged McCurtis kissed and touched her inappropriately. The girl when she was 12 & 13 at the time. McCurtis denies touching the child intimately but told a deputy that he kissed her but claims he was not the pursuer, that the 13-year-old girl pursued him.

LOUISIANA

Jacob De La Paz, who left his employ at St. Thomas More High School abruptly, has been arrested after a video surfaced showing him shirtless and apparently saying sexually suggestive things to student he tutors. He has been charged with the federal crime of enticing a minor to produce child pornography or child sexual assault material.

IOWA

Jordan Dee Andrew Webb, who served as a missionary in the Caribbean island nation of St. Lucia, was found guilty of one count of second-degree sexual abuse with persons under the age of 12, a Class B felony; incest, a class D felony; and child endangerment, an aggravated misdemeanor.

See, Tomi, not one drag queen or gay person in the bunch, and yet these people, many of whom have been arrested, charged, tried and found guilty, or admitted guilt, will every appear on your timeline, because you just want to push forward the rightwing, GOP, faux Christian, lies about LGBTQ+ people.

But we see you, and we know who’s grooming children.

h/t JoeMyGod

The Bad and The Good ... Monday May 23, 2022

These really are the easiest posts to compile because there are dumb people everywhere and it seems they are all trying to out-dumb one another with fear and loathing, but there are some bright spots … so here goes:

BAD

MICHIGAN

Republican Jacky Eubanks, Thing 45’s pick for a state Senate seat. is promising to ban all birth control if elected:

“I guess we have to ask ourselves, would that ever come to a vote in the Michigan state legislature? And if it should, I would have to side with it should not be legal. People believe that birth control—it’s better because then you won’t get pregnant and you won’t need to have an abortion, but I think it gives people the false sense of security that they can have consequence-free sex, and that’s not true and that’s not correct. Sex ought to be between one man and one woman in the confines of marriage.”

Welcome to the 1950s and, please, one reporter, just one, please ask Jacky if she’s ever had sex outside marriage.

WASHINGTON DC

Catherine Glenn Foster, president of the Americans United for Life campaign group, was summoned by the GOP  as an expert witness during a House judiciary committee meeting on access to abortion and said this:

“In places like Washington D.C. [fetuses] are burned to power the lights of the city’s homes and streets. The next time you turn on the light, think of the incinerators.”

She was not questioned about where she gets her facts by any one ion the GOP because … ignorance and fear are the talking points.

VIRGINIA 

GOP Delegate Tim Anderson is threatening to file a restraining order against Barnes and Noble and Virginia Beach Schools to enjoin them from selling or loaning the books Gender Queer and a Court of Mist and Fury because he says they are obscene though neither book fits that definition, and neither book is pornography.

Barnes & Noble has yet to respond to the legal action but, as a private business, they are allowed to sell what they wish to sell and are under no obligation by anyone to move materials out of their facilities.

Still, to the GOP, Gay is Bad.

OKLAHOMA

The state Legislature gave final approval to a bill that prohibits nearly all abortions starting at fertilization, which would make it the nation’s strictest abortion law.

The bill is modeled on one that took effect in Texas, which has relied on civilian instead of criminal enforcement to work around court challenges, but it goes further than the Texas law because it also subjects abortion providers and anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion to civil suits from private individuals.

The GOP will force women to have babies, but not give a damn about the child once its born.

KENTUCKY

The state’s GOP Representative Thomas Massie cast the only vote against a House resolution honoring Jewish Americans’ heritage and denouncing a rise in violence motivated by antisemitism. The resolution passed the House with 420 votes with Massie’s ‘No’ and either Republicans abstaining from voting.

He voted No to simply denounce a rise in Hate Crimes, and ‘No’ against honoring Jewish American’s heritage.

Let that sink in.

NEW JERSEY

GOP State Senator Edward Durr has introduced legislation that would prohibit teachers from bringing LGBTQ-related instruction into classrooms from kindergarten through sixth grade, while students in seventh through 12th grade can “only” be exposed to LGBTQ topics if a parent gives consent.

If the bill is passed, parents would be allowed to sue schools that employ educators who violate the law by incorporating topics such sexual orientation or gender identity into the curriculum without a parent’s consent.

They will freely teach Hate, though.

GOOD

MAINE

When no adults would revive the community Pride parade in Belfast, Maine, a group of motivated Belfast Area High School students stepped up to make sure that the event—which has been on a pandemic hiatus—happens this year.

The city’s first-ever Pride parade and festival took place in 2016, and became an annual tradition, but no adult organizers had come forward this year to keep the tradition going after being canceled for the last two years due to COVID.

So, twenty high school students secured a permit from the city of Belfast, found sponsors, raised money for banners, flags and other expenses and grappled with the procuring of liability insurance.

That’s the future, y’all.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

GOP Governor Chris Sununu announced he would veto a piece of legislation, the “Parental Bill of Rights,” that critics say could require New Hampshire schools to out LGBTQ+ children to their parents.

A Republican with common sense? Who knew?

AMERICA

About two-thirds of Americans say they do not support overturning Roe v. Wade, and also shows that two-thirds of Democrats say the contents of the SCOTUS leak make them more likely to vote in November, as compared to just 40% of Republicans who said so.

This survey showed that voters would cast their ballot in favor of a Democrat in their local congressional district if the election were held today.

Vote Blue!

WYOMING

GOP Senator Cynthia Lummis, a Republican representing Wyoming in the U.S. Senate, speaking at commencements of several schools, including the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Education, and said that “the existence of two sexes, male and female” was a “fundamental scientific truth.”

She was roundly booed by the students, the educated students.

That is also the future, y’all.

Remember, We The People have to make the Good News happen by speaking up and standing up and shouting out and voting to remove those people from office who are out to harm women, People of Color, and the LGBTQ+ community in their quest to take this country backwards.

CAST A GODDAMNED VOTE!

Architecture Wednesday: Retreat on a Pond's Edge

It takes a lot of walking to get to this place, and it took a lot of walking through the property’s dense forest and around massive boulders to the pond’s edge on the remote ten-acre plot  before owners, Stephen Peck and his husband, John Messer, decided where they wanted to build their home.

For visitors to get to the home, you first drive down a long winding gravel road, through dense forest, until you arrive at a small parking area, and then you take a narrow boardwalk slipping between trees and enormous boulders until you reach the house that Peck and Messer sited the home on the edge of a secluded pond in Maine.

The main living space features walls on each side of the open-concept living area framed in floor-to-ceiling windows to balance the couple’s desire for a modern home with the durability required for Maine’s extreme weather variations. The concrete fireplace hearth extends to form a seating area in the corner with views into the dense woods and down to the waterfront.

Also on this floor is the primary bedroom, hovering above the forest floor, with its own wall of glass to frame the views into the surrounding woods and the pond’s edge. There is an en suite bathroom is clad in Brazilian marble and a sunken tub with its own amazing forest views.

On the lower level, a small study takes in the mossy foreground while a guest suite and a second study are connected by a covered boardwalk and a cantilevered screen porch. A large deck lines one side of the home, which is mostly built on piers, and was created to make the house feel lifted above the ground.

Peck designed the home, and its pathways through the woods and boulders to make guests, and the owners,  feel like they are truly leaving the world behind as they wander up to the house.

 Dwell   Elliott Architects

Bobservations

I love me some HGTV and the other night they debuted a new show called Celebrity IOU where a celebrity helps a friend who needs a remodeling project done, and they do it on the sly.

First up was Brad Pitt, who wanted his make-up artists garage studio turned into a guest cottage, storage space and make up spot. Brad was there to help with the design and some, some, of the labor. As the show started it was those twin brothers—I forget their names and can’t be bothered to look them up—and Carlos said:

“Ooh, those brothers could come work on our house.”

“Are you kidding? Brad can come work on our house.”

“Oh, he’s okay.”

During the opening of the show, Bard talked about his make-up artist and friend, and they showed pictures 0f the two of them working on films together for the last thirty years, Young and blond Brad Pitt? Check. Long-haired Pitt? Check. Tatted Pitt in Fight Club? Check.

We watched the whole show together and the reveal to Brad’s friend, who was sweet and funny, and then Carlos says to me:

“Is that Brad Pitt?”

Seriously, an hour-long show, he didn’t hear the name Brad Pitt that was said dozens of times, or even see Brad Pitt or even notice the old photos of Brad Pitt.

Is.That.Brad.Pitt.

Oy.

It appears that the government stimulus checks may be delayed because _____wants his signature on them so that we can all thank him.

I’d like his signature, not on a check, but on every single mother**king COVID-19 death certificate. That’s all.

Interesting … March 2020 was the first March without a school shooting in the U.S. since 2002. So, clearly the virus saved some loves.

Virginia Democratic Governor Ralph Northam just signed a bill that adds sexual orientation and gender identity to the state’s nondiscrimination law.

Virginia will join 20 other states, D.C. and Puerto Rico that explicitly ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and is the first Southern state to enact these protections.

Maine’s Democratic Governor Janet Mills saw a significant approval bump from last fall showing that Mainers are more likely to trust the state government to respond to the coronavirus outbreak than the federal government.

The same poll showed a further drop in approval for Republican Senator, _____ lover, and lying flip-flopper Susan Collins since last fall.

Win.Win.

During a church service on March 22, Bishop Gerald O. Glenn got his congregation at Richmond’s New Deliverance Evangelistic Church to stand up and prove how many were there despite warnings against gatherings of more than 10 people, saying:

“I firmly believe that God is larger than this dreaded virus. You can quote me on that.”

Glenn died Saturday from COVID-19 complications.

Sorry, not sorry.

You can quote me on that.

_____ said he would soon set up an advisory council of doctors and businessmen to recommend when to reopen America.

Yes, his daughter, Sweatshop Barbie, and her husband, Slumlord Kushner, are on the list.

Below is my list which I think is better.

_____ and three of his adult children, Junior, the Dumb One and Sweatshop Barbie, have filed a notice of appeal in federal court after last week suffering a major defeat over a bid to keep a fraud and deceptive trade practices lawsuit out of the public judicial system.

Part of the original SDNY ruling declared that long-secret tapes of the president culled from the archives of The Celebrity Apprentice must, finally, see the light of day. Tapes that allegedly showcase then-game show host Trump engaging in racist and sexist commentary.

And now, a quartet of Palate Cleansers … I’ve been watching movies under lockdown, some good, some bad. One was A Simple Favor, a twisty, turn-y black comedy about murder and insurance fraud and Blake Lively, who I find hot, you know, for a woman.

But that film also starred one Dustin Milligan [upper left] as a hot stud—and he delivered—along with Henry Golding [upper right]as a perhaps not-so-grieving husband. Milligan brought the pecs and abs, while Golding brought the charm and sex appeal and British accent.

I also watched Mortal Engines, a kind of futuristic, science fiction Steampunk tale of cities on wheels …and in the sky … and in the water … trying to survive after global devastation. It featured one Robert Sheehan [bottom right] as the sultry good guy in guy liner and Regé-Jean Page [bottom left] in sexy dreads who …SPOILER ALERT …gives his life for the fight.

Lockdown with any of these four would be, well, um, let’s just say I wouldn’t argue against it.

Tuesday Thought #2