My heroes keep dying, Lord may they rest in peace...

 President Jimmy Carter has passed away. 

He lived to be 100.  He lived to vote for the Kamala Harris.  And he died before having to deal with the second tRump term. 

As a lil 8 year old Polt in 1976, I became aware of Jimmy Carter.  We had an 'election' in my Third Grade class.  I asked mom who she was voting for, she said Jimmy Carter, so that's who I voted for in class.  And I don't remember the tally, but he won. 

I dont remember a lot about his four years, but I KNEW, even at 12 years old, I did NOT want Reagan to win in 1980.  I didn't like what policies he was espousing.  And plus, Jimmy was my guy from four years ago.  And how sad I was when he lost.

Unlike his administration I remember a LOT about Carter post White House.    He was, in all honestly, not a very good President.  But he was THE best ex-President of my lifetime, and arguably ever.  Monitoring elections around the world, starting the Carter Center to help with causes he cared about, fighting disease and poverty, building freaking homes, into his 90s (!), through Habitat For Humanity.  He was a Christian, all his life, and he lived the Christian life...unlike so many professed "Christian" nowadays. 

I always admired Jimmy Carter.  He was indeed a hero of mine.  I am saddened tonight to hear of his passing.  But I am relieved he is no longer in the body that was failing him, and that he's now reunited with his beloved Rosalyn.  They were only apart a little over a year...I'm sure that was too long an separation for them both. 

I'm also relieved that it will President Biden who is there during his funeral, and not the orange shitgibbon.  And as an unintentional middle finger to the Felonious Narcissist, federal law demands that flags fly at half mast for a month after the passing of a President or former President, so, thanks to President Carter, the flags will be at half mast during tRump's inaugural.  Surely an appropriate symbol for the beginning of what's going to happen over the next 4 years. 

I've donated to the Carter Center before.  I decided months ago that when he passed I'd make a donation right then.  So when I'm done with this, I'm donating $100, one dollar for every year of his life.

But anyway, back to what really matters...

Godspeed President Carter.   Rest forever in peace.  May the blessings of your memory comfort all your family and friends.

POLT

Check this out, real quick, don't know if everybody know (Part 3183)...

 Check This Out!

Today is Betty White's 100th birthday, bless her soul.  

Did YOU do the Betty White challenge?    I did, to both the animal shelter in the county I live in and the county I work in. And at one of them, they had a listing of people who contributed and their amounts and any little message they left, I think this is something they did all the time.  Well, there were SO MANY contributions, all in Betty White's name, it brought a tear to my eye.  One person, who remained anonymous, donated $500!

I'm sure Betty would have loved this.  And I'm sure she and her beloved Allan Ludden are together looking down, smiling and holding a puppy each.  

POLT

Old friend Charity, cruel twisted smile.....

I like to donate to charities.  It helps others, and makes me feel good too.  But I get so much CRAP in the mail from charities, both those I have donated to and those I have NEVER donated to.  So for the entire month of November, I donated to no charities.  But I kept all the stuff I got from ANY charity from November 1st to the 30th.

I threw away the envelope it came in and the return envelope.  EVERYTHING else I kept, and kept on a pile.  THIS is that pile:

So what did I received from these charities?   I got 1 calendar, 2 world maps, 3 sheets of gift tags, 4 notepads, 3 sheets of wrapping paper, 11 Christmas cards and matching envelopes, several nickels, dimes and even quarters, and countless return address stickers. 

What charities did I get requests from? Here we go:

Easter Seals
Nation Foundation For Cancer Research
Alzheimer's Association
The Hope Center
American Cancer Society
Shriner's Hospitals
The Special Olympics
USO
American Cancer Society (again)
American Heart Association
Smile Train
Multiple Sclerosis
AARP Foundation
Central Pennsylvania Food Bank
Catholic Relief Services
Habitat For Humanity
University Of Texas Anderson Cancer Center
March Of Dimes
Sloan Kittering Cancer Center
American Leprosy Missions
Salvation Army
American Red Cross
American Diabetes Association
Covenant House
Parkinson's Foundation
Food For The Poor
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
Alzheimer's Association (again)
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
National Multiple Sclerosis Society
Catholic Relief Services (again)
The Special Olympics (again)
American Indian College Fund
St. Labre Indian School
National Law Enforcement Officer Memorial Fund
Guardian Circle
Children's Appalachian Project
San Mar
Mothers Against Drunk Driving
Central Pennsylvania Food Bank (again)
USO (again)
Smile Train (again)
Salvation Army (again)
American Parkinson's Disease Association
Lifepath Christian Ministries
Alzheimer's Association (yet again!)
Easter Seals (again)
Habitat For Humanity (again)
Red Cross (again)

So eleven of these mailed me stuff twice, and one did it three times!  What a waste of money!  And this is all just in ONE MONTH!  This is not atypical either.  And this is just ME!  How many other people are they mailing stuff to needlessly?

Seriously, if these places would stop wasting so much money on paper, envelopes, ink and postage, they wouldn't need to solicit so much money in the first place!




POLT

The Polt's Palace Official Charity For February Is....

The American Civil Liberties Union

With tRump running roughshod over the Constitution and the Congressional Republicans salivating at the prospect of shredding the social safety net so they can give tax cuts to the 1%, we, as a country, are going to need the ACLU and what they do for us more than ever!  If you can, make a donation...before the CheetoFurher tried to outlaw them.

POLT

Gonna shave in the cave, with my cousin....

So, because of where I work, I'm not allowed to have a full beard...which is okay, cause I don't really want to have a full beard anyhow.  But I CAN grow a goatee, and have for...well years.  Saturday, since I was doing the Halloween costume thing, I went head and just shaved the goatee off.  It's the first time I was totally clean shaven, with no facial hair, in...well, over ten years at least.

I did this to go with the costume, sort of, but also because the next day was November first.  And I decided to do what I could to help No Shave November.  I'm still going to shave, but I'll let the goatee grow.  And it's for that reason that I'm not setting up a support/donation page.  That reason and also because I'm not at ALL sure I'll be able to go the entire month without at least trimming the goatee.  Normally, after like ten days, two weeks MAX, the hairs start to irritate me and I have to trim it.  So we'll see how long I last.

If you're a guy, and want to do it as well, go right ahead.  If you're a gal, and want to help, I guess you can stop shaving your legs or pits for the month?  I don't know.  If you want to contribute monetarily, you can do so to your local cancer society.

POLT

The Polt's Palace Official Charity For October Is:

The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank


With Thanksgiving coming up next month, I decided to donate money this month to an organization that helps feed those who are in need.  If you've got the money and inclination, I urge you to donate to a similar organization in your area.

POLT

The Polt's Palace Official Charity For September Is:

The Parkinson's Foundation

The father of a good online friend of mine recently died of Parkinson's Disease.  I contributed to a donation of group of online buds gave in his honor.  But this month, I'm making another donation to the charity anyway.  Not officially in anyone's name, but in unspoken memory of my friend's father.

Contribute if you can, to this worthy charity.

POLT

The Polt's Palace Official Charity For April is:

Red Cross Nepal Earthquake Relief

The devastation that's taken place over there is heartbreaking.  They're going to need simple necessities: water, food, blankets, medical supplies, etc.  And the Red Cross, and their associated charities, can get these items to them.

I urge you all to donate to help those affected by this tragedy, if you can.

POLT

The Polt's Palace Official Charity for March is:

Your Local PBS station!

I donated to WITF out of Harrisburg.  I urge you all to find your local PBS station and donate to them!  We want to keep Big Bird and Downton Abbey and NOVA and Frontline and PBS Newshour, etc all on the air, don't we?

POLT

PS
and yes, I know there wasn't a charity for December, January or February....but there were some unforseen expenses here at the Palace that kept donation to charities from happening.  But now, we're back and donating!

The Polt's Palace Official Charity for November is:

The Wounded Warrior Project
http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/

Since Veteran's Day is in November, it just seemed appropriate.  If you're able, donate and help those wounded vets who were there for us.

Also, because of the holidays, and because I'd like to make the donations at the beginning of each month instead of the end of it, there will be no Official Charity for December.  But we'll have a new one posted in January!

POLT

The Polt's Palace Official Charity 

for October is:

The American Cancer Society.
http://www.cancer.org/index

This is due to October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and also, in addition to already knowing over half a dozen women who either had breast cancer or are breast cancer survivors, I just found out in the last week yet another person I know has breast cancer.  

Donate if you'd like to and if you're able, please.

POLT

It's the end of the month, which means it's time for my monthly charity donation.

Since I've been diagnosed as being diabetic in 2000, and since I'm pretty sure when I see the doctor in two weeks, she's gonna put me on insulin, I thought for my second ever donation, I'd contribute to the American Diabetes Association.

And I recommend, if there's any Palace readers out there looking for someplace to donate money to, you choose that site as well.  I've included the webpage later on here in the post for easy reference for you all.  And to anyone who does contribute, thank you.

http://www.diabetes.org/

POLT

So August has passed, and I was not given an ALS Icebucket Challenge (and please allow me to emphasize here I am *NOT* complaining about that!  Not even a lil bit!).  However, I think the idea behind it was a good one. I waited to see if someone would challenge, but now that they haven't (again, not at ALL upsetting to me, I promise!), and it's kinda petered out, I decided now was the time to just go ahead and donate on my own.  

So today, I donated $100 to ALS.  I recommend that every Palace reader who was not challenged or has not yet donated, go to http://alsa.org/ and donate a lil bit, whatever you can financially, to a good cause.   

I'm going to try, if I can financially, at the end of each month, to so donate to a different charity each month.  And I'll note it here when I do it, so maybe some Palace readers can donate as well.  I think it'd be a good thing if the Palace had it's own small group of charity donaters.  And even if I'm the only one, well, still, its better to give it to charity than to just have me horde it myself.

POLT