I'm double dipping. This is coffee again. Can you find him?

It's their first year of life still so I'm keeping them indoors, under light this winter. I'm cutting back some on light and water until spring though.

I am posting this with the intent of soliciting help. The following is from pages 13 and 14 from Project 2025. I'm reading it in an attempt to understand what is coming for me as an American. As an Atheist, I have many thoughts on and disagreements but I also see in this (and this whole 2025 book) how the right is hooking the religious.

I'm interested in anyone willing to read the following's take or opinion on any or all of it. Help me parse this. We (Americans) need all ideas we can get to counter this type of nonsense. The whole pdf is linked if you want to read it all (it's 900 pages and I will get through it, Spaghetti Monster Damn It).

Without poisoning the well further, see below from the pdf (linked above). Cranakis

PROMISE #4 SECURE OUR GOD-GIVEN INDIVIDUAL RIGHT TO ENJOY “THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY.”

The Declaration of Independence famously asserted the belief of America’s Founders that “all men are created equal” and endowed with God-given rights to “Life, Liber

An ode to the old Finnish joke from their Winter War against Russia in 1939-1940. When Russia attempted to take over Finland while the rest of the world was busy with Germany;

A Russian commander on the invasion front pushing into Donbas comes to an open field with a forest on the far side. He has a full compliment of infantry with armored transport for all of them and an impressive line of tanks. Once he has set up operations, he sends two BMPs with troops,and a tank escort across the field. His coms officer reports hearing some unencrypted traffic on the radio. "2 Ukrainians can beat 20 Russians."

"There are only 2 of them, too easy" the Russian commander says.

Halfway across the field, two ATGMs slam into the tank causing an instant fireball. 2 FPV drones already in the air head toward the BMPs, disabling them, troops pile out. As more drones arrive dropping grenades on the surviving troops, th

Its good to hear her speak. A sane adult. The full interview had some further policy detail. I'm encouraged. I hope she keeps opening up. Its refreshing.

“Not everybody has Secret Service,” she said. “Members of the LGBTQ community don’t feel safe right now, immigrants or people with an immigrant background don’t feel safe right now. Women don’t feel safe right now.”

cross-posted from: https://reddthat.com/post/25361855

Another gardening lesson in not giving up: The progression of pictures here are 3 of the same plant, a Trepadeira Werner pepper, taken over the course of this year.

1st pic: I grew them from seed indoors and a few days after putting them out in early April, I found the local deer had visited and eaten the plant down to the stem. I considered it a loss but didn't deal with it or pull the plant up. I just walked away, then went out of town for a bit the next day.

2nd Pic: When I came back into town it had new leaves so I figured I'd let it try again for kicks. It had fallen over under its weight so I staked it up. I did try a few things to keep the deer away, I think with moderate success.

3rd Pic is from last week. I see some evidence of deer nibbling but I believe the heat of the pepper may be keeping them away from it now. I'm still blown away rem

I picked up Asimov's Guide to the Bible recently and have been really enjoying it. I found this bit about Christmas in the chapter on Luke really interesting. It's not a short read but an insightful and in-depth take. It gets to a few points that have always bugged me about the birth story; such as "Why is Jesus of Nazareth born in Bethlehem?" "Why would there be a census in the winter/why Dec 25?"

Here's Asimov's telling from the book, from the chapter on Luke:

TLDR: ::: spoiler spoiler He wasn't born in Bethlehem. Both the authors of Matthew and Luke needed Jesus to be born in Bethlehem to fulfill OT prophecies so they each figured out a (different) way to work it in. None of it happened in the winter. The 25th was chosen so that Christian converts would not feel left out during Saturnalia (although I bet they did feel left out of the sexy stuff and felt salty). :::

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Bethlehem

One might suppose, instead, that Luke made use of the well remembered census m