MyCounty-Line.com Issue #81 September 2014

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2014

Volume 7 Issue #81

National News and Opinions mixed with Local Small Town History and Story Telling.

Representing the Small-Town Conservative Viewpoint, Values & Patriotism!

Published by Mike W. Norris dba Wolverine Design ● PO Box 1156 ● Eastland, Texas 76448 ● http://www.MyCounty-Line.com

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©September, 2014

Issue #81 In This Issue:

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On The Cover Small Town Texas Conservative Michael Ramirez Tumbleweed Smith Treasure Hunters Love Lessons Huddle Up! Kayla’s Corner Distribution Map Our Great Faiths Texas History B.C. Wizard of ID Sickness & Health

COVER ART:

Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty

Photo ©2014 A&E

I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for All. B:510-152550100200

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www.MyCounty-Line.com Phil Robertson “Duck Commander”

The County Line

Phil Alexander Robertson was born April 24, 1946. Robertson is a professional outdoorsman, hunter, businessman and reality television star on the popular A&E television series Duck Dynasty. He is also featured on the television show Buck Commander, a hunting program on the Outdoor Channel.

He attended Louisiana Tech University, where he played football with Hall of Famer, Terry Bradshaw. Robertson turned down an opportunity to play professionally with the Washington Redskins and went on to receive a bachelor’s degree in physical education and a master’s degree in general education and spent several years teaching.

Robertson is a devout Christian and regularly speaks at White’s Ferry Road Church of Christ in West Monroe, Louisiana. He is married to his high school sweetheart, “Miss Kay”, and have four children – Alan, Jase, Willie and Jep Robertson.

The Robertson clan makes no excuses about their faith in God. Mr. Phil’s early married life to Miss Kay was rocky as a result of his self-professed addictions to sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. But all that came to an end when he accepted Jesus Christ into his life and has since made Faith the cornerstone of his family and business endeavors – right next to duck hunting.

The elder Robertson is frequently the center of controversy due to his plainspoken, straight to the point, God-fearing nature. His views on the Bible, Faith and God frequently tweak the nerves of political correct watchdogs and his redneck conservatism has been know to light fires under Liberals’ seats nationwide.

Recently, A&E officials suspended Robertson from his Duck Dynasty reality show due to comments he made during a GQ interview for their January 2013 issue. In that interview, Robertson quoted the Bible as defining homosexuality as a sin.

Robertson’s suspension was lifted within days after a social media outburst of support demanded his reinstatement.

The reality show, Duck Dynasty, has broken several ratings records on both A&E and cable television as a whole. The fourth season premiere drew 11.8 million viewers; the most-watched nonfiction cable series in history.

The Robertson family connects with a large segment of the American public and that is why this back woods outdoorsman from the swamps of Louisiana has gained so much notoriety and publicity.

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by Mike W. Norris

The Words of the Duck Commander: Phil Robertson Sean Hannity sat down on September 2nd with Phil Robertson of A&E’s Duck Dynasty fame for a one-on-one discussion of Christianity, Terrorism, Good and Evil. As expected, the wisdom of Phil Robertson came unfiltered and without hesitation.

I, for one, find it thoroughly refreshing to hear someone speak the plain truth from their heart instead of how the majority of our elected representatives can’t seem to grab a coherent statement with both hands!

I ask you to please enjoy the following words of wisdom from Mr. Phil: Hannity New video surfaced earlier today showing the brutal execution of captured American journalist, Steven Sotloff,

by ISIS terrorists. This comes just two weeks after the radical Islamic group posted a similar video documenting the beheading of journalist James Folley. How should America deal with the simultaneous rise of radical Islam around the globe and a rising tide of anti-Semitism and anti-Christian behavior as we saw “convert or die” in Mosul?

Joining me now, the patriarch of Duck Dynasty, the author of the brand new book “UnPHILtered - The Way I See It”, the one and only Phil Robertson.

How are you my friend?

evil, that you got there in front of you. The Lord’s Prayer says “deliver us from evil”, I think you’re a preacher at heart, I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know. But if anybody could cut off somebody’s head, like that, and then put children’s heads on stakes...

Isn’t that evil in our time and how should we deal with it?

Robertson World wide, planet wide, Biblically speaking, two groups of people...the Children of God and the whole world is under the control of the Evil One. That’s 1st John 5:19.

Ephesians 2 said, look, the Evil One works in those who are disobedient.

Robertson Doing good, good to see you, man.

Hannity Welcome aboard. You don’t leave home without it. You brought your Bible with you.

Robertson I never leave home without my Bible and my woman, Hannity. That’s good advice for you.

Hannity That’s good advice? I’m never allowed to go out alone?

My wife would get bored!

Robertson Safety! Safety! Woman and Bible. Got it?

Hannity Now you dedicated this, your book, to Ms. Kay, which I thought was really nice. Let me ask you first, I wrote a book once “Deliver Us From Evil” about, I think good people have a hard concept understanding evil. That book talks about Published by Mike W. Norris dba Wolverine Design ● PO Box 1156 ● Eastland, Texas 76448 ● http://www.MyCounty-Line.com

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Galatians 3, they are prisoners of sin.

2 Timothy 2, the Bible says that they have been taken captive by Satan to do his will.

Listen, let me show you one…I got the old...hey America! Declaration of Independence, that’s my bookmarker.

Don’t forget that. Listen to this, Sean. Solomon, one of the wisest men on Earth, if not the wisest. He’s speaking of wisdom. Whoever finds me, wisdom, finds life. Watch...and receives favor from the Lord. But whoever fails to find Me, this is the God of the Bible, harms himself.

Now listen to this, on this ISIS thing... all who hate me, love death.

So you scratch your head and you say to yourself, well why is that when we’re not even over there in the Middle East, why do they continue to slaughter each other when we’re not even on the premises? They can’t blame us. We left Iraq. You say what happened in Egypt, Syria and Libya.

They just slaughter each other. All who hate me, love death, Sean.

Hannity What is the answer? Is the answer -- I think the only answer is I think they are at war with us wether we like it or not. I think most people would prefer to live in peace. Most Americans are just leave us alone and we’ll leave you alone. They’re not going to leave us alone, they’re not going to leave Israel alone.

So that leaves us with two options.

Do nothing and then get ready for the next attack. Then we’ll have another report that says they were at war with us, we weren’t at war with them.

Robertson In this case you either have to convert them....which I think is next to impossible. I’m not giving up on them but I’m just saying -- either convert them or kill them. One or the other.

I think converting them maybe that time has come and gone. So I think that with this ideology that we’re faced with, this is like street gangs, street thugs on steroids. If you think about it, most of the wars we’ve fought they were not asymmetrical like this one. This one is not like a country with a standing army and we line up and do battle with a certain amount of rules that they violated.

“I would rather preach the gospel of Jesus to them; However, if it’s a gun fight and a gun fight alone, if that’s what they’re looking for, me personally, I’m prepared for either one.”

But you say this is more like world wide gang warfare. But this gang is well armed and well organized.

I think, in my opinion, we’re gonna have to deal with this group way more harshly than we have up to this point.

Hannity Because they’re so harsh. Now I know there are going to be people who always want to jump on you.

You say “convert them or kill them” and they’re going to say, “there goes Phil Robertson again!”

No, no...I know the media, I know how they’re going to act.

“UnPHILtered: The Way I See It”, why do you think, because you talk alot about political correctness, Biblical correctness, about lifestyles, about, you know -- some people view you as controversial. I don’t, I kind of see you as a minister. That’s your calling. Why do you think so many people view you controversial?

Because I see you as coming from a religious point of view.

Robertson When Jesus came to the Earth, Sean, he never made a mistake -- for crying out loud, not one mistake. And he would convict people of their sin.

And he said they hated me, and it was predicted from prophets, they hated me without reason. And then he told all of us, like they hated me, they will hate you, also. They will hate you, he said, when that comes, and when

Robertson I would much rather have a Bible study with all of them and show them the error of their ways and point them to Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of having your sins removed and being raised from the dead. I would rather preach the gospel of Jesus to them; However, if it’s a gun fight and a gun fight alone, if that’s what they’re looking for, me personally, I’m prepared for either one.

Hannity Let me ask you about the book

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they exclude you, when they insult you, and when they reject your name as evil because of me, Jesus said, listen, rejoice, be happy, because great is your reward in heaven.

What people fail to understand coughing up sin and confessing it and giving it to the only one that can remove it, for crying out loud, we’re all sinners.

America, here’s a news flash. All of us have sinned, every last one of us. Some people want to zero in on specific sexual sins. Look, it’s all sin. Whether you lie, whether you steal, whether you rob, whether you rape, look, it’s just all sin. One little white lie does you in as fast as being sexually immoral.

Hannity “UnPHILtered, The Way I See It.” Phil Robertson, I had a great time down in West Monroe. Thank you for having me.

Hannity Appreciate everywhere.

it.

Robertson See you, dude.

Hannity So if Miss Kay wears something that you don’t like and she asks you, you’re going to tell her the truth?

Robertson Yes. Hannity Good luck to you.

Robertson Look, when I was 28, when I was 28 I had to cough up my sins, and up until that time I thought the last thing I want to hear is somebody preaching the death and resurrection of Jesus. I was thinking, I saw a preacher coming, I headed the other way.

I put that in my book. I hated people like me because I had to come to a reckoning with the god of creation and the one who made me. So coughing up my sin was not fun. I was immoral. I got drunk, I got high.

Hannity You don’t care one bit if your show is a success.

When you were out for, what, nine days, you didn’t care.

Robertson No. Hannity Not even a little bit.

Robertson Always remember this. Television, fame, money -- listen, here is a news flash for America. Fame cannot remove your sin. And all of the money you ever amass cannot raise you from the dead. And contrary to what Obama has said about Obamacare, Sean, it’s not going to keep you out of the ground, dude. And not only that, you’re going to spend a lot of money to have it. What I’m giving the American people is eternal health care, and it’s free. Give me a break.

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, Chuck Norris - The Man

In God We Trust United We Stand

By Chuck Norris

Follow Chuck Norris through his official social media sites, on Twitter @chucknorris and Facebook’s “Official Chuck Norris Page.” He blogs at http://chucknorrisnews.blogspot.com.

Obama, the Islamic State and Christian Crucifixions

Pundits and news agencies have questioned the validity of reports that the Islamic State is beheading children in its conquest of Syria and Iraq. But there is one fact that can’t be contested: The Sunni-dominated al-Qaida splinter group is on a war rampage using some of the most heinous and barbaric means to exterminate anyone who opposes it, particularly Christians.

In 2011, President Barack Obama declared, “The long war in Iraq will come to an end by the end of this year.” The only thing he didn’t count on was that the terrorist enemies of the U.S. decided not to also call it quits on the war.

Last Wednesday, Obama called it quits again with combat operations in Iraq -- or the dropping-bombs-and-not-calling-it-combat-operations operations.

From his vacation spot on Martha’s Vineyard, Obama declared: “We broke the (Islamic State) siege of Mount Sinjar. We helped vulnerable people reach safety, and we helped save many innocent lives. Because of these efforts, we do not expect there to be an additional operation to evacuate people off the mountain, and it’s unlikely that we’re going to need to continue humanitarian airdrops on the mountain. The majority of the military personnel who conducted the assessment will be leaving Iraq in the coming days.”

I guess we should be relieved again that we’re “pulling out of Iraq,” and the Islamic State will retreat from its tyrannical rampages, right? Not a chance.

While Obama was politicizing the success of his in-and-out combat mission, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon “called on the international community to do even more to provide protection,” according to UN News Centre.

Why? Because just two days before Obama spoke about mission success, the U.N. refugee agency reported that “an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 people remain trapped on the Mountain.”

A “profoundly dismayed” Ban added that the Islamic State remains carrying out “barbaric acts,” which he said, in UN News Centre’s words, “include accounts of summary executions, boys forcibly taken from their homes to fight, (and) girls abducted or trafficked as sex slaves.” Even those

who manage to get off Mount Sinjar “remain exposed to,” Ban said, “a perilous odyssey” to freedom.

How perilous? Here’s what we know about the Islamic State’s horrific acts over the past few months: --In July, CNN reported on various Iraqi village residents’ descriptions of horrific attacks by Islamic State fighters. The militants “seize local men and pillage homes and places of worships,” according to Human Rights Watch directors in Iraq.

--CNN also reported that the Islamic State killed 40 Shiite Turkmens, “including children,” in four communities in Kirkuk, Iraq, last month.

--The Islamic State slaughtered 270 Syrians, including national guard members, security guards and employees in the Shaer gas field.

--UN News Centre reported: “According to the human rights team at the UN Assistance Mission (for) Iraq, at least 757 civilians were killed and 599 injured in Nineveh and Salah al-Din provinces, north of Baghdad, and Diyala, in the east, between 5 and 22 June. ... At least an additional 318 people were killed, and 590 wounded, during the same 17 days in Baghdad and areas in the south.”

--Some 500 Yazidi community members in Sinjar and the surrounding areas were executed by the Islamic State, according to Adama Dieng, Ban’s special adviser for the prevention of genocide.

--The U.N. also reported that some 1,500 Yazidi, Christian and Shabak women and girls were abducted by the Islamic State.

--CNN reported: “At least 2,400 Iraqis died in violence in June,

according to the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq. Of those, the United Nations said more than 1,500 were civilians, including 270 civilian police officers, and almost 900 were members of Iraqi security forces.”

--UN News Centre reported that the Islamic State “has broadcast more than a dozen videos showing beheadings and shootings of hors combat soldiers and police officers, as well as apparent targeting of people based on their religion or ethnicity, including Shia and minority groups such as Turcomans, Shabak, Christians, and Yezidis.”

And what are we to make of the Islamic State’s summary crucifixions?

The Telegraph reported in June that a Syrian man survived “after the jihadists raided his village and nailed him to a cross for eight hours.”

Eight others were not so fortunate.

They died from what is regarded as one of the most heinous, horrifying and painful methods of torture and execution in human history.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the men were crucified “in the main square of the village, where their bodies” remained for three days.

CNN reported in May that of seven public crucifixions in Raqqa, Syria, two adults were left on display -- though they were allegedly shot before they were tied to crosses.

A member of a recently formed anti-Islamic State activist group in Raqqa said, in CNN’s words, “The remaining five victims were children under the age of 18, one of them a seventh-grade student.”

Many say these crucified

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individuals were Muslim, but others say they were former Muslims who had converted to Christianity. The latter group adds that Islamic State members wouldn’t crucify other Muslims; they save that extreme form of punishment and humiliation for those who refuse to renounce their Christian beliefs and return to Islam, using crucifixion as a mockery to them and even their crucified savior.

Usama Hasan, senior researcher in Islamic studies at the Quilliam Foundation, explained to BBC News that this form of punishment comes from a very literal, or fundamentalist, reading of the Quran. Verse 33 of the fifth book of the Quran says: “Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth (to cause) corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land. That is for them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment.”

The Islamic State’s monstrous brutalities include the summary killing of men, women and children, including by crucifixion. All of that was before the world heard of the beheading of courageous U.S. journalist James Foley, which demonstrated just how psychotic and cruel the Islamic State is.

We can build further on the Islamic State’s horrors and crimes against humanity and then conclude by explaining why President Barack Obama’s laissez-faire mentality toward U.S. enemies is not only emboldening them but also drawing the U.S. closer and closer to another world war.

Reuters reported last week, “Refugee Samo Ilyas Ali has nine children to feed but he can’t focus on the future because the sounds of women and children crying out for help while being buried alive by Islamic State militants in northern Iraq often consume his mind.”

Just two weeks ago, Islamic State terrorists came in the night

with machine guns and began to dig ditches for mass graves in Ali’s village. A tearful Ali, who is a 46year-old former grocer, explained: “We did not understand. Then they started to put people in those holes.

Those people were alive. After a while we heard gunfire. I can’t forget that scene. Women, children, crying for help. We had to run for our lives.

There was nothing to be done for them.”

If you still believe that the Islamic State wouldn’t brutally murder children in cold blood, consider a recent Anglican Communion News Service report. An emotionally distraught chaplain and Canon Andrew White explained that the 5-year-old son of a founder of Baghdad’s Anglican church was “cut in half during an attack by the Islamic State.” White explained: “I’m almost in tears because I’ve just had somebody in my room whose little child was cut in half. I baptized his child in my church in Baghdad.

This little boy, they named him after me. He was called Andrew.”

Do routine beheadings really seemed far-fetched -- of even children -- for such a barbaric group as the Islamic State? Or do we somehow expect this extreme terrorist group among extreme terrorist groups to spare children and send them all to an orphanage, only to see them grow up and be the group’s archenemies?

No wonder a large number of Christians fled the northern city of Mosul after the Islamic State’s message -- convert to Islam, get out or be killed -- was broadcast by loudspeakers from the city’s mosques. The Islamic State’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, said that for Christians who don’t convert or leave, “the only option is the sword.”

Special advisers for the United Nations explained: “These reports are shocking in the extreme. They show, in very clear terms, the complete absence of humanity of the perpetrators of these crimes.” They are grave violations of human rights

and international humanitarian law.

Yonadam Kanna, Iraq’s most prominent Christian politician, said, “This is ethnic cleansing, but nobody is speaking up.”

There’s even a more appropriate word for it: genocide. And no one is speaking up?

Kanna’s words bring me back to Edmund Burke’s words: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

If you think Obama’s duck-anddodge, in-and-out, out-of-sight and out-of-mind “don’t do stupid stuff” war strategy is going to make the Islamic State dissipate and disappear, think again.

Consider the words of Adam Taylor, foreign affairs reporter for The Washington Post. He described the growth of the Islamic State radicals as already “worryingly global. (Its) distinctive black-andwhite flag was flown in London last week, and leaflets supporting it were handed out in the city’s Oxford Street on Tuesday. An American was arrested at a New York City airport this month after authorities were tipped off by his pro-Islamic State Twitter rants. The group has began publishing videos in Hindi, Urdu and Tamil in a bid to reach Indian Muslims. There are credible reports that the group is hoping to target Asian countries -- and Indonesia is so worried that it banned all support for the Islamic State.”

This isn’t fear-mongering. It’s the global reality of the war on terror -- not an “overseas contingency operation” as Obama calls it.

To show how clueless our president is to the Islamic State’s brutalities and mission, consider that in an interview with The New Yorker in January, Obama used the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team and its key player, Kobe Bryant, as an analogy to suggest that the Islamic State was not a significant threat to the U.S. or world.

Our president said: “The analogy we use around here sometimes, and

I think is accurate, is if a jayvee team puts on Lakers uniforms that doesn’t make them Kobe Bryant. I think there is a distinction between the capacity and reach of (an Osama) bin Laden and a network that is actively planning major terrorist plots against the homeland versus jihadists who are engaged in various local power struggles and disputes, often sectarian.”

Obama’s “don’t do stupid stuff” foreign policy is never going to cut it -- ever. Actually, it is working us right back into a war by avoidance, indecision, conciliatory compromise and wimpy passive-aggressive unilateral decisions that have no basis in war strategy or reality.

Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf said it best: “Do what is right, not what you think the high headquarters wants or what you think will make you look good.”

Lastly, my wife, Gena, and I join with millions of other Christians around the world to pray for Christians and peace-loving Muslims. We pray for their protection, deliverance and freedom.

And for Christians abroad in the war-torn Middle East, I add these words from Jerry Newcombe -- prolific author, producer and columnist -- who couldn’t have put it better about those who kill in the name of God: “Jesus said to His followers that the day will come when men will kill you and think they are offering a service to God. They are deceived in thinking that God is pleased with this offering. ... A harshness indeed, like the kind that could kill innocent Christians, even children, in Iraq and Syria. This barbarism should be a wake-up call to the West.”

Follow Chuck Norris through his official social media sites, on Twitter @chucknorris and Facebook’s “Official Chuck Norris Page.” He blogs at http://chucknorrisnews. blogspot.com. To find out more about Chuck Norris and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www. creators.com.

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11Michael Ramirez

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, Political Cartoonist

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12Tumbleweed Smith

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, Bob Lewis

By Bob Lewis 50 Years of Romance and Radio

When Jerry Snyder of Weatherford was a young nighttime DJ working at the station by himself, he put a record on the turntable and left the station to get a donut. Somehow the door locked when he left and when he returned he couldn’t open it. He looked through the window and saw the record was about to end. He didn’t know what to do, so he just sat down on the curb in front of the station and listened on his car radio.

He heard the record end followed by the repeated scraping sound as the turntable arm’s needle hit the dead spot on the record. Jerry ate his donut while pondering his fate.

It wasn’t long before the manager of the station drove up and asked Jerry how he was doing. Jerry, the newest employee at the station, said, “Not very good. Am I fired?” The manager said, “No, let’s go inside and get the thing back on the air.” They did just that and the incident was never brought up again. Jerry kept his job at the station.

Jerry became a successful radio personality and did what he calls theater of the mind. He created different characters and gave each of them a special voice. Very few people have enjoyed radio as much as Jerry. He was the number one DJ in Austin when he noticed a salesman’s check stub in the break room. Being a curious guy, he looked at it and quickly learned that the real money in radio was in sales. So he switched from announcing to sales. He was very good at it and when he acquired enough money he started buying radio stations. He bought six of them and each one was highly profitable. He sold his last one a couple of years ago but kept the building and turned it into a palatial

home, complete with a radio studio where he produces a weekly hour long program and sends it out on CD to about thirty subscribers. He plays music, has short features and uses the voices of all the characters he created.

At one of his stations a 16year-old DJ got locked out of the station during his shift and there was nothing on the air. Jerry, recalling his early days in radio when he had a similar experience, went to the station and found the teenager sitting on the steps of the station. Jerry sat down beside him and asked, “How’re you doing?”

The teen replied, “Not very good.

Am I fired?” Jerry said no. They went inside, got the station back on the air and all was forgiven and forgotten.

Jerry and his wife Glynda just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. They met when Jerry

walked into the office were Glynda worked. He was immediately smitten. Glynda was engaged to a guy named John at the time but apparently it wasn’t very serious because she accepted an invitation from Jerry to go on a date.

Jerry asked her if she took dictation. She said she did and Jerry dictated a letter to her: Dear John: I’ve met a really nice guy in the radio business and we’re going to get married. Enclosed is your photograph and ring. That was his proposal and they were married three months later. Family members and friends they met during their radio years attended their anniversary celebration.

Tumbleweed Smith is a writer and broadcaster who lives in Big Spring with his wife Susan. His website is tumbleweedsmith. com. Tumbleweed Smith rolls around Texas looking for people with unique stories.

Contact him at ts@tumbleweedsmith.com

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13Treasure Hunters

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, Jerry Eckhart

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By Jerry Eckhart To see more of Jerry’s treasure finds, search Facebook for “Jerry Eckhart” Treasure Symbols, What Do They Mean?

Last month, I wrote about one of the most common symbols in treasure hunting, the turtle. Now, I want to tell you about one of the most confusing, the turkey track. I don’t know exactly how it came to be known as the turkey track.

It just as well could have been called a chicken track or a bird track.

You have probably seen similar tracks in the mud along lake or tank edges.

It looks like a stick Y with a long center bar in the middle of the V part of the track, thus giving it three toes on one side and a long toe on the back side.

Most of the time the track is used as a directional symbol. You can go in the direction the three toes are pointing or you can go in the direction of the back toe. The direction you choose will depend on which direction the track is on the map or carving. If you choose the correct direction, it will lead you to another symbol, either carved on a tree, or in stone. Occasionally you will find a pile of stones.

The forward direction is only good if all the toes of the track are the same length. If one toe is longer than the others, that is the direction you will take.

Often the sum of the toes, four, will indicate the distance you have to travel to reach the next marker. This could be in feet, miles, steps or varas, depending upon the date of the map your are using. If there are more than one track on a map, it probably means to double the distance and go in the direction of both unless one track changes direction. That would mean for you to go to the next sign, then change direction to the direction the second track is pointing.

I must remind you that each symbol of any kind you find has only the correct meaning in the mind of the one that placed it on the map, etc. Only when you can successfully determine what a person was thinking can you be sure you are on the right track. (pun intended) There is one confusing term in Spanish measurements. This is the term “vara.” It is usually taken to mean the stride of a man of average height. In the days of Spanish explorations of the United States, the men were much shorter and smaller. I have seen suits of armor that were barely five feet tall. Any six footer of that day would have been considered a giant. With the average height of a Spanish explorer only being five feet, their stride would have been much shorter. The average stride of that day would have been anywhere from 26 to 29 inches. Today’s average stride is about 32 to 34 inches. Another thing to consider is that the term “vara,” in early Spanish meant a goad or a pole. This would refer to the goads used to prod oxen on their way. These were about five feet long.

In reference to all traveling distances, one must take into consideration the difference in distances and try to determine how the term was used. It might

be a good idea to step off the distance between two known signs and see how that would convert to varas. If one measurement does not work out, try another. Begin with the shortest and work up to the longest.

Turkey tracks can lead into some interesting situations. I once spoke with a man, who found a series of symbols on a large boulder. On top of the boulder was a turkey track pointing east. He looked east but found nothing. He returned to the boulder and looked on the east side. There was another turkey track pointing down. He took that to mean dig. He did so and four feet down, (note the 4 as in the 4 toes) he found an old trackerja@hotmail.com via www.treasurenet.com metal ax head. It was badly rusted and looked as if it had been there for Treasure symbols are often grouped years. I got to examine the carvings together and again, only make sense and saw where he had dug, but the to the one who drew it. The general man had lost the ax head years before. thinking is that most treasure symbol Nothing else was located and no other maps were designed to refresh the signs were found. What the meaning memory of the one who made it rather of the ax head was, I have no idea. than give explicit directions to others. |These little blurbs about the ~je meaning of treasure symbols are only a few. In each case, it is up to you to determine what they mean according www.MyCounty-Line.com to what else in in the story or on a map.

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14Love Lessons Learned So Far

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, Vicki Stiefer

By Vicki Stiefer How to Spot the Good Man under the Bad Habits

You’ve got a man, and you love him, but you don’t love the dirty clothes he leaves on the floor. Maybe he refuses to put his dishes in the dishwasher or fails to take out the trash, even if it is sitting on the porch ready to go in the bin.

I was shocked the first time I watched my husband walk past a full trashcan.

Why didn’t he bag it up and put a new liner in there? Can’t he see it’s full? The truth is, he CAN see that it’s full, but it’s not a priority to him at that moment.

Men are simple creatures. Full belly, roof over the head, etc…and they are pretty much happy. He’s not a dead beat when he walks past the over flowing trash can even though I still accuse him of being just that sometimes.

From one controlling wife to another, I had to learn that men work on their own timeline. Of course it wasn’t until he sat me down face to face and told me so. I know your timeline has gotten you through many a hard time, but men don’t have a lot of choices in life. Think about it for a second. They can basically work or go to jail. Women have a lot of choices. They can work or stay at home or do both whether they have kids or not. So a man stays primarily focused on bringing home the bacon!

When he does get home, the first thing he’s thinking about is most certainly not the trash or any other chore you see and need or want him to get done. Don’t get me wrong here, I am by no means telling you to let your man take a pass on helping around the house because he brought home the bacon today. There’s a difference between blatantly ignoring household chores and a difference of opinion. So do that chore yourself or learn how to better fit it into his timeline.

How about asking? Patience is a must! It drove me bonkers to let the trash build up for even a day. I want that mess taken out every single day, but not my man. He would rather take it out when the bag has reached maximum capacity. “That’s good business sense baby,” He would say, “ I’m getting the most out of my money.” Is it an excuse? Maybe, but so what if it is? Life is too short to argue about the little things. Pick your battles and learn to let things go. I know I’m asking a lot. I struggle with this every single day.

Men and women are so very beautiful together when things work out. They dance this amazing choreography together and they are the only two people in the world who hear the music. Have you ever noticed the older couple sitting down to a meal and they don’t really speak at all. If you watch them, though,

they dance out the choreography. He passes her the salt shaker while she hands him a napkin. After that first bite she instinctively knows he needs the ketchup and he passes the creamer for her coffee because he knows she takes 3 instead of 4. It’s about being together and just knowing the other person. It takes time.

Take a minute and reflect on why you got married. Did you marry him so he would take out the trash in a timely fashion? Did you marry him because he puts his dirty dishes in the dishwasher right away? Personally, I married him because he can reach high things on the shelf and kill spiders! I’m kidding-well kind of kidding. He does come in handy. I married him because I’m crazy about him. I’m crazy about his eyes sparkling blue like the ocean in the sunshine. I’m crazy about the way having his arm around me makes me feel safe. I married him because I

like the way he makes me feel.

Things will get done eventually and they don’t have to be done the second you see that they need to be done. You are a lucky woman if you have a good man and the only thing you can find wrong with him is his lack of organization and his uncanny ability to memorize sports stats but forget your birthday. He comes home to you every night and that says a lot about him. He’s faithful, loyal and isn’t that one of the main reasons you married him? Not to mention that he made you laugh and he liked the way you smiled? You can admit it. I bet he still loves those things about you.

So give your big strong man a break.

He’s got his own timeline and it’s not wrong, it’s just different than yours.

It’s worth sitting down to discover. ~vs

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By Matt Swinney

of us just occasionally reaches out and turns the channel to the next game. It Ah, the fall barrage of Sports. When I was a wee young sports fan, my drives the women in our lives crazy. seasons changed not as nature changed but around the family vacation and my No talking is necessary because…

Dad’s TV viewing habits. Family vacations were often a trip to the Astrodome well the game is on. to watch the Houston Astros play another round of great baseball. I know, my how the mighty have fallen, but that’s another article. The smell of the I think football is more than a sport. concessions, the green turf and the anxiety of maybe catching a foul ball filled It certainly brings Texas together me with such excitement, most years I would have been okay with giving under the header of “Friday Night Santa Claus the year off. Wait, did I just write those words? Santa Claus has Lights”. Sports are a chance for family never taken a vacation to my knowledge and who am I to suggest it? Sorry, members of all ages to participate my white bearded friend, no rest for the weary. and feel like they are contributing.

Parents and Grandparents are in the Growing up we stayed at a hotel directly across from the ballpark and walked stands cheering on, someone is on the right over. I was a king in his castle surveying the fields from my lofty perch field and someone may by working in not too bad seats. It doesn’t take much whether it’s a game on TV or even concessions. It’s always been that one of my softball games to take me back to those times. Sports meant family kind of arrangement in some way; time, father son time, good times. Back then of course I didn’t really get all of someone in the stands, someone on the the nuances of the game. It was simply fun to be with family at a fun event. field, etc. Our society needs sports.

We need to watch sports. We need to I always knew fall was back because it was time to go shopping for school discuss sports. We need to review the clothes and Dad would start camping out in front of the television. 50 bazillion coach’s challenge with the referees. college games scheduled in the final week of August each year, high school We need to eat the wings and drink football was just heating up and pro football pre-season games had already the beer. We need to gather around started. We watched so much football I started to coach imaginary players in my sleep. There is no other aggression like it. The brits claim it’s not a real sport because of the pads and that their game of Rugby is much more civilized. Well, as I snort at their snobbery I remember I would much rather see a player get up from a bad hit wearing pads then take it on the chin and float away to meet his maker. Nevertheless football has never disappointed me.

The politics surrounding football, some of the rules and a lot of the attitudes disappoint me but the sport has never left me cold. My Dad and I can sit in a room together for an entire day and never speak a work to each other. One The Fall Barrage of Football Makes Me Misty with Joy

a plate of nachos and watch the most talked about super bowl ads and then we need to discuss those ads with our friends and on social media. Then we need to tune in to ESPN and watch their analysis. When I hear someone, and it’s usually women, who says, “What’s the fuss, it’s just a sport.”

Was it just a sport when you were doing the Super Bowl Shuffle in 1985?

Sports melt over and commingle with everyday life. You can’t put them in a box and every Saturday and Sunday that I spent watching sports with my Dad he taught me the ins and outs of the game. I don’t know if he realized he was teaching me about life. And for the record, I did master the Super Bowl Shuffle. Long live the game!

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Corner, Kayla Salyers

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By Kayla Salyers

Introducing Kayla Salyers

I’m very proud to say I am now part of the wonderful County-Line Journal.

If you have received a call asking about advertising with us, that was me! I am in charge of the advertising sales and client services. Working here I get the chance to be a part of this wonderful team, and work directly with the owner and publisher of this publication, the one and only Mike Norris. Ever since I have become a part of this publication I have felt nothing but like a family with the crew around here.

I am not very familiar with this area, but I’m growing into it.

All my life I have moved place to place, mostly every three months. I always stayed going between Houston and Brownwood, but I decided to break the chain and moved to Cisco. It’s different staying put here, but I’m growing very fond of it.

I was born in Brownwood, Texas. I have a sister, Abby, a half brother, Cory, and a half sister, Joy, who is just two years old! My mom, Jaime, is a pre-k teacher and my step-dad, Josh, works in the oil field business.

I lost my dad, Kevin, in February of 2009 to a tragic house fire. A year ago my sister, Abby, blessed me with a beautiful niece, Elizabeth. I am a very big family person, even though I don’t see everyone as often as wanted.

I am proudly engaged to the most loving and caring man, Nicholos, and we are very blessed and grateful to say we are expecting a little boy on October 22nd of this year! Time is going by so fast!

With so many new things happening in my life, I am excited to be involved with the County-Line and I look forward to working with this growing community of readers and advertisers.

~Kayla You can reach Kayla by: Phone: (254)433-2695 or by eMail: kayla@mycounty-line.com

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18The County Line

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■ , Mike W. Norris The County Line Distribution Area

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■ Our

Four Great Faiths, by mwnorris

Our Four Great Faiths

•

Faith in God

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

“Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.”

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you

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says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.”

Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.”

Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

And there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue. And falling at Jesus’ feet, he implored him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying. As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?”

When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!”

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses.

From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. ~mwnorris

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20This Week In Texas History

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, by Bartee Haile

By Bartee Haile OUTLAW TOO SMART FOR HIS OWN GOOD

On Sep. 4, 1881, Isaac “Ike” Stockton turned in a member of his own gang for the murder of a Colorado lawman and collected a sizeable reward for the back-stabbing betrayal.

Born too late to fight in the War Between the States, the Stockton boys grew up on a ranch in north Texas. Ike had a head on his shoulders, which made him even more dangerous than younger brother Port, the trigger-happy type who never tired of killing.

From childhood it was hot-headed Port that got into trouble and Ike that got him out. Cast for life in their respective roles, each brother would play his part until the day he died.

The older Stockton was the first to leave home and his sibling did not catch up with him until 1874. Ike was working a “straight” job at the time tending bar in Lincoln County, New Mexico. They remained in the area for the next two years, marrying and starting families, before one of Port’s shooting scrapes forced them to relocate.

Port had too much to drink, as usual, and in a fit of intoxicated temper gunned down an unarmed patron in a Cimarron saloon. Ike found out his brother had been thrown in jail for the hanging offense and in short order masterminded a late-night escape.

The Stocktons pulled up stakes and moved with their wives and children to Trinidad just over the state boundary in Colorado. Two months later, drunken Port shot a second defenseless man to death, on this occasion over a game of cards, and again was slapped with a murder charge. But ever reliable Ike rushed to his rescue and broke his brother out of another jail.

Port’s volatile and often violent behavior forced the two families to stay on the move for the next four years. With his welcome completely worn out in southern Colorado, he doubled back to the New Mexico Territory and settled into a seemingly peaceful rut on a small cattle spread not far from Farmington.

But Port being Port could not keep from making enemies. He looked out the window of his modest cabin on Jan. 10, 1881 and saw Alf Graves riding by with several of his hired hands. The very sight of the rancher made Port’s blood boil, and he ran outside with his Winchester cocked and loaded to confront the passerby.

As Bill O’Neal tells it in Encyclopedia of Western Gunfighters, “after a brief exchange of words, he (Graves) pulled a gun and began firing.

He pumped five slugs into Stockton, and Port sank to the ground.”

Ike Stockton was a man of many talents, but he could not bring his 22 year old brother back from the dead. He resisted the temptation to go gunning for Port’s killer and instead went quietly about his latest business of playing both ends against the middle.

Taking full advantage of his considerable charm and undeniable intelligence, Ike had convinced the decent, law-abiding residents of Durango, Colorado that he was one of them and their benefactor to boot.

The more skeptical inhabitants wondered where Ike’s money came from, but even they had to admit that unexplained cattle disappearances had decreased dramatically since he had come to town.

Behind his smiling and respectable front, Ike was actually the biggest

rustler southwestern Colorado had ever seen. In a few short months, he had turned a ragtag assortment of open-range riffraff into an efficient criminal organization that kept New Mexico cow thieves on their side of the state line while leaving the herds in Colorado free for their taking.

Everything was going according to the surviving Stockton’s plan until the day in August 1881 that Bert Wilkinson shot to death the town marshal of Silverton. It so happened that the nineteen year old killer was a junior member of Ike’s gang, and he could not risk the teenager talking to keep his neck out of a noose.

Ike, as part of his civic duty, volunteered to track down Wilkinson and deliver him for the stern punishment he so justly desired. Since they knew all the fugitive’s hiding places, Stockton and his right-hand man, Marion Cook, had no trouble locating Wilkinson, who never suspected a lynch mob was waiting for him in Silverton.

Twenty-five hundred dollars richer and a potentially

incriminating voice permanently silenced, Ike congratulated himself on a dirty job cleanly done.

Back in Durango, there was a new sheriff in town. Barney Watson dug up an old murder warrant, signed by the territorial governor of New Mexico, with Ike Stockton’s name on it. Now all he had to do was wait for the inevitable return of the two-faced felon.

Ike refused to go meekly to jail on Sep. 30, 1881. He reached for his holster, but Sheriff Watson and his deputy beat him to the draw.

They fired simultaneously and both bullets hit the same leg shattering the thigh bone.

A frontier doctor sawed off Ike Stockton’s leg that night in a desperate attempt to save his life.

The operation was a success, but the patient died the next day – the same year as his brother. ~bh

“Texas Depression-Era Desperadoes,” Bartee’s new book, plus ten different collections of his columns are available at the “General Store” on his web site barteehaile.com.

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23The Wizard of ID

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, by Parker & Hart

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www.PeachyTurtle.org

September 2014

Greetings, All! jumping to their feet and rushing the window I asked Ruthie what she wanted me to talk for a look. about in this month’s update and she was a bit Since the building is co-ed, we joked about aloof. So she left it up to me.... how many guys were probably setting up webcams in their windows to keep an eye on the pool. That observation pretty much sealed it Back to School for the girls who claimed to be too embarrassed Sherrie moved back into the dorms at Tarleton to be seen in public in bathing suits. a few weeks ago and for the first time, Ruthie Maybe they will loosen up a bit...or maybe was able to go into her dorm room and have they just playing it safe for the parental a look at where our daughter will be calling visit. were Either way, Sherrie should have an “home” for the next several months. Her enjoyable 2nd year at Tarleton. freshman year, Sherrie’s dorm had no elevator Speaking of which, she came home this week to her floor, and obviously, that left us unable and informed us that she was hired by the JTAC to get Ruthie up to her room to check it out.

It’s just as well because the one time I visited Tarleton newspaper staff as a writer. How about her dorm it looked like parts of New Orleans that?!? Maybe next summer she’ll actually after Katrina! Sherrie insisted that it was “her want to help me out with the newspaper here at roommate” that was the chief mess maker but home??? We shall see... prior experience suggested otherwise.

Her new dorm is pretty luxurious by my Meanwhile, Back at Home standards...nicer than most hotels that Ruthie Ruthie has had a semi-good run lately. She and I have stayed in! A central living area with wakes up each morning with about a 40/60 windows overlooking a pool, built-in kitchen shot at feeling good. Most days, she is only up and dining room with separate bedrooms and long enough to eat a light breakfast and then bathrooms. Four girls sharing a third-floor, she goes right back to bed. Except on dialysis two-bedroom, two-bath condo over-looking the days, where she has to go to the center whether pool! Talk about living in the lap of luxury. I, she feels like it or not. myself, while sitting in the recliner looking out Generally, after lunch, she starts feeling better. the window at the pool and watching a handful You can tell when she’s feeling better because of scantily clad college girls enjoying the late she smiles talks more and occasionally summer sun, was seriously considering going laughs. Butmore, for the most part, she spends most back to college! of her time feeling down and sad.

Ah, to live those few short years over With Sherrie off to school, it’s basically just again... me and Ruthie around here. She is no longer It was a really good visit with Sherrie. Nana receiving weekly physically therapy or speech went with us and Ruthie was happy to get therapy and her home health care nurse visits out of the house. We met two of Sherrie’s every two weeks. During the time that I’m roommates, both from the metroplex area, and working on the paper, Ruthie is mostly left we all laughed as we tried to encourage the on her own to watch TV or take a nap. Her girls to make use of the pool. My argument attendant’s schedule is all screwed up because still stands, how on earth could you live in such she’s young and is also taking classes. We opulence and not make the time to enjoy your still see her three days a week, but it’s only on surroundings....

Monday, Thursday and Friday – leaving Ruthie During our stay, I kept the girls appraised of feeling lonely in the middle of the week and on the cute guys joining the ladies at the pool... the weekends. but the girls remained calm with none of them We’ve tried several times to encourage people

Follow Ruthie’s Progress online:

www.facebook.com/sherriesmom

to drop by and see her, family and friends alike.

But everyone seems too busy.

Over the years, we’ve opened our hearts and our story out to you guys...by taking the time to read these updates, you’re helping us deal with the hardships and unexpected surprises as they come along. But Ruthie has always been a social butterfly and I see that part of her slowly fading away.

She doesn’t seem to like talking on the phone anymore and I can’t hardly get her to call the folks back in Georgia.

Mom and I had a heart-to-heart talk the other night about how many times people in our own family drive back and forth to Eastland but hardly ever drop by to see her.

The closest person to a sister that she has texts me once a week or so, but since school is back up and going she has no time to just drop by and visit.

It’s a lonely world around here.

Facebook helps because there is at least some sort of interaction...but that only works for me.

Ruthie needs face-to-face time and all I can do is keep inviting people to come by. I can’t go out and round them all up and drag them over here.

So that’s about the jist of it. This week, Ruthie and I will celebrate our 21st anniversary.

Twenty-one years In Sickness & In Health and we treasure every day. We just wish we had more people to share the good times with so the bad times wouldn’t get us down so much.

Know what I mean?

Donations may be made to: Farmers & Merchants Bank

Ruth Norris Benefit Fund

930 East Main Eastland, TX 76448 (254) 629-3282 Credit Card donations can be made online at:

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