Blair Castle International Horse Trials and Country Fair is Scotland's leading equestrian event, running over four days in August each year and attracting in excess of 40,000 visitors. Olympic medallists compete alongside amateurs in the four International event classes, whilst British Showjumping and showing classes provide a platform for riders in other disciplines to compete on Blair's hallowed turf.
The Bruadar Country Fair runs alongside the equestrian activities on the Saturday and Sunday, featuring displays of both traditional and more modern countryside pursuits. A large shopping village houses all sorts of attractions and bargains in over 200 stands.
Located in the East Valley of Phoenix, Tempe is home to Arizona State University and the US Airways Group's corporate headquarters. Enjoy driving around Tempe in the Jeep Compass SPORT and explore all that this wonderful town has to offer. With a thriving downtown that offers numerous retail shops, nightclubs and restaurants they have something for everybody. If you are a runner come visit in January and take part in the Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon & 1/2 Marathon with a courses that go through Tempe, Phoenix and Scottsdale. If you aren’t up for that kind of strenuous activity, point your Jeep Grand Cherokee to the Tempe Center for Arts to enjoy their art gallery and diverse calendar of performing arts. Enjoy this small town with a big city feel in your Jeep Compass SPORT. Try one out today.	
I have another post from Vegas today. As seen in this post, I like to keep my travel outfits simple and comfortable. Instead of my go to pixie pants and top, I opted for a casual jumpsuit to travel to Vegas in. I needed something that wouldn't let me freeze on the plane but would also work in the Vegas heat. It’s a bonus that this jumpsuit feels like pajamas! We had a very early flight so I knew I would be curling up in my seat on the plane and trying to sleep a bit. I’m still not great at taking photos on vacations. I’m too busy having fun to step aside and take a lot of pictures.
This jumpsuit is way more than a travel outfit. I wore it yesterday for a fun lunch with some of my aunts. The keyhole back adds a special detail to this one. You can wear a lace bralette and it will peek thru the back! With some jewelry and heels, I know I’ll wear it to a girl’s dinner or even a date. I love jumpsuits and truly think you can wear one for almost any situation. They have gone from simply a trendy, fun item to a closet staple for me. Don’t be discouraged if you try on a few and don’t like how they fit. Not every jumpsuit works for every person. I have a short torso so I’ve tried many that are too long on me. Give yourself a little time and you’ll find one for you!
The best part of the jumpsuit? It's now gone on sale and is under $50! This jumpsuit will get you thru the summer and easily go into Fall!
Pope Francis certainly got a warm reception, adoring crowds, incessant, respectful media, an unprecedented address to a joint session of Congress.
"There is another temptation which we must especially guard against, the simplistic reductionism which sees only good or evil," the pope told one of the most bitterly divided legislative bodies in history. "Or, if you will, the righteous and sinners. The contemporary world, with its open wounds which affect so many of our brothers and sisters, demands that we confront every form of polarization which would divide it into these two camps."
If life were a movie, then Speaker John Boehner would have leapt up and resigned on the spot, the way that the corrupt senator played by Claude Rains in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" bolted from the Senate chambers, tried to shoot himself, then returned to publicly confess his guilt.
Life is not a movie, alas, and Boehner waited until the next day, quitting, not so much in opposition to the right wing schismatics who have destroyed his party as in submission to them. While the resulting disarray might temporarily thwart their efforts to bring the United States government to a standstill, the long term is thought to be an even more bitterly divided government, assuming such a thing is possible.
Our leadership certainly seemed unmoved by the pope's heartfelt appeals, keeping with the central tenet of extremism: you don't change in light of facts or rhetoric, but merely cherry-pick the facts and arguments you believe help your case. For instance, when the pope issued an unequivocal call for an end to capital punishment, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's reply was a masterstroke of convolution.
Pope Francis handed out plenty of manna to feed the entire political spectrum — something for everyone! — and you could argue he is just putting the same old my-way-or-the-highway theology in a shiny new box.
Was the pope's visit a feel-good waste then? My gut, or at least my hope, tells me it was not. Anyone living in a generation where the civil rights of gay people took such a dramatic turn has to believe in the cumulative effect of time and argument. Change happens the way Mike Campbell went bankrupt in "The Sun Also Rises": "Gradually and then suddenly."
So those who habitually deny science and boost big business can argue against climate change. But climate change is still real. The evidence of it manifests itself day by day, and having the head of the Catholic Church start focusing on the fate of the planet instead of what goes on in its bedrooms can't be a bad thing. Maybe not this week. But over time. I'm old enough to remember when recycling seemed a concern that granola-gobbling oddballs cared about. Now it's almost kind of a secular religion.
Of course, I'm only doing what everyone has been doing: spinning the pope my way. Consider this, said by the pope in Philadelphia's Independence Park:
The first part seems a big thumbs up to the Kim Davises of the world, who twist being demanded to respect the civil rights of others into an infringement of their own religious liberty. But the second part seems to be telling the Kentucky clerk to issue the marriage licenses.
As much as religion is used by those trying to argue they have no choice, religion, as Pope Francis reminds us, is a vast treasury where you choose what to emphasize, finding whatever it is you seek. Davis chose to stand in the doorway barring gays, citing Scripture. But she could have just as easily cited her Christian faith as requiring her to sing "Ave Maria" at those gay weddings, despite her personal objections. The choice, as Pope Francis points out, except when he doesn't, is yours.
"...having the head of the Catholic Church start focusing on the fate of the planet instead of what goes on in its bedrooms can't be a bad thing." Perhaps not, but a change in focus on what goes on in bedrooms with regard to contraception is probably the single biggest thing that the Pope could do, himself, to positively affect the fate of the planet when it comes to global warming, as well as some other global problems.
As a Catholic (though with a faith of homeopathic strength) I'm rooting for the Pope. The first few minutes of his speech to Congress, which I listened to on my way to the doctor, struck me as platitudinous and banal. However, he apparently made a stronger impression later. I think it's amazing that he dares to confront politicians with realities they're adept in avoiding or denying. I'm afraid that the lasting effects of his speech will be that Catholics don't have to agree with the Pope on most matters. The infallibility doctrine covers only faith and morals. Who's to judge what falls under those rubrics...if he doesn't?
On the matter of Papal infallibility Lord Acton, himself a Catholic, once wrote "Catholics are too sensible to go crazy every time a Pope does." That certainly seems to be the case regarding sexual matters. As Gary Wills had pointed out in a number of articles, there is little if any scriptural justification for a celibate priesthood and the ban on contraception. Or prohibiting abortion for that matter.
Good column, Mr. S. It's a start but the Pope has to give more than lip service to womens roles though. Now if only the medieval minded Cardinals and Bishops didn't stand in the way.
On the other hand, it afforded a relatively Trump-less media week. One could be cynical and believe with Napoleon that "religion is a great thing for keeping the people quiet," or Stalin, who asked how many divisions the Pope had. However, this Pope does seem to be pressing some humanistic levers, even though his Church is a profoundly retrograde institution. I'm inclined to go along with Neil's gut and believe the visit was not just a feel good waste of time. But change will indeed be slow.
It seems the pope supports that crackpot Kim Davis in Kentucky, based on what he said on the plane back to Italy.
So now everyone can have a reason to dislike him, not just the climate change deniers & the capitalists.
I was disappointed that, speaking about clerical sex abuse and the coverups thereof, he gave us the same old my-heart-is-heavy bullshit without any promises for concrete action.
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