That there is an all powerful supreme being that demands our worship or else we will suffer for all eternity after our death.

My GF worked for a thrift shop, and when I picked her up after work she was admiring a 2 foot statue of Venus that had just been donated. So I bought it for her. That evening she was cleaning it up and noticed the wooden box at the foot of the figurine was hinged, but locked. I opened it with a bent paper clip and inside was a bag containing - a butt plug and anal beads. Then we figured out that if you twisted the head, it pulled a dildo out of the body.

Gas bubbles from rotting vegetation are the likely cause in this instance. See this article for an explanation:

Lake Ice - Gas Holes

Looking for an explanation, yes? It's a linguistic convention, totally. I mean, you know, we add a lot of unnecessary words, like, serious. It's superfluous verbage. Look, I know it seems to be a recent thing, but it's, like, been going on for a long time, right?

A non-amicably seceded Texas is doomed as a country. No food, drugs, or medical supplies from the rest of the country. No parts to repair their oil wells or vehicles (made by businesses in other states). Companies like John Deere would be forced to brick all equipment in Texas. Then the US government imposes sanctions on any country doing business with Texas, and businesses outside Texas are restricted from doing business in Texas. Nobody comes to their rescue when the power grid fails in an ice storm or a hurricane blows through the state.

Face it. States are too interdependent to cut ties with the rest of the country.

Funny how the same people supporting this law oppose universal school breakfast/lunches, subsidized neonatal/child healthcare, and funding for extracurricular programs.

Keep doing what I have been doing - dragging MAGA fence sitters back from the brink one by one. The ones who have adopted Trumpism as their religion are too far gone. But there are a lot who just need to be taken by the hand and shown a better path.

When you see MAGA BS, challenge it with well-reasoned arguments. The object really isn't to change the mind of the poster. It's to prevent them from changing the minds of others.

Isn't this illegal? The Stolen Valor Act of 2013 prohibits false claims of earned military awards and medals if the intent involves tangible benefits. Obtaining public office is one such benefit, isn't it?

My wife's family made fun of me the first couple times we met because I never go anywhere without my Leatherman and a pouch with my daily survival gear on my belt. I told them I like to be prepared. I took a few months of ribbing about my "murse". But then we went her niece's kid's birthday party at a park. Kid got a remote control car, but the battery compartment was screwed shut. Guess who has a screwdriver? 20 minutes later her niece got stung by a wasp. I provide a little dauber of Sting-eze and some antihistamine. Now anytime someone needs a tool, first aid, or whatever, they come looking for me. I've removed splinters, opened cans and bottles, pulled out staples, sewed a broken bra strap - and nobody pokes fun about the stuff on my belt.

They are trying. AB 2200 aims at laying the groundwork for universal healthcare. Minimum wage just went up to $16 for everyone and $20 for fast food workers. There are experiments going on in several cities with guaranteed income. But everything comes with a cost, and the state is having budget problems. There have been job losses associated with the wage increases. Employers have begun to get very picky about who they hire for even minimum wage jobs. Hours have been cut.

Even Democrats realize one state can't offer free stuff without attracting every freeloader in the country. Someone has to pay for the benefits, and if they tax those folks too heavily, they'll find another place to live. There's a real limit to how many social programs can be offered before they break the piggy bank.

Once we stopped being regularly exposed to pathogens associated with raw unrefrigerated meat, we lost our immunity.

Think of it like traveling to a country with low water quality standards. If you drink the water, you get cramps and diarrhea. The locals have immunity and their babies have immunity because antibodies to the pathogens are passed in mother's milk. That gives the babies enough immunity to avoid illness when they start drinking the water. Frequent subsequent exposure to the pathogens maintains their immunity.

But if a person with immunity moves to an area with higher quality water and then moves back after many years, they can experience intestinal distress from the water because they lost their immunity.

This video makes me not want to buy anything from Nichia. Nakamura invented a commercially successful product they made billions from, and Nichia rewarded him with nothing.

Same in NCAA and FIBA. The moment the ball enters the cylinder from below, it's the same as going out of bounds. Play stops and the ball is awarded to the team that did not touch the ball last.

I've been to a funeral where the guests wrote their farewells on slips of paper, which were then anonymously read by an officiant before being placed in a large ceramic pot with a small fire. It was much better than the traditional "Would anyone like to say something" followed by uncomfortable silence. People were much more willing to write down their thoughts for someone else to read.

Lose? Nah. If he doesn't win the election, we'll get Insurrection 2.0. Then he's either imprisoned, dead, or we get to live in a dictatorship.

Trump's conviction isn't going to be the big turning point of this election. What happens after his conviction will. If he continues to spew vitriol about the judge, prosecution, and jury, eventually one of his followers will commit an act of retribution. That puts Trump in a difficult spot, because his core likes this kind of stuff. He will want to show his support, but if he does, it will again show he encourages domestic terrorism. If he does anything other than condemn the attack, his support among moderates will fall away, just like it did after Jan. 6th. If he does condemn the attack, his core may protest, like they did when he changed his opinion on the COVID vaccines.

The 14th Amendment, Section 3, was written to prohibit anyone who participated on the losing side of the Civil War from holding office. None of those prohibited were convicted of insurrection. This is very much like the age requirement for the President. It's a qualification - must not have committed insurrection or given comfort to those who did. You might argue that Trump himself did not directly participate, but he's certainly given plenty of comfort to those who did, with promises of a Presidential pardon.

As a qualification, it requires no judicial intervention unless challenged. Trump is free to challenge the grounds on which he is disqualified from the ballot, but being convicted for insurrection is not a requirement. These were things discussed during the ratification of the 14th, as was whether the amendment applied to the President (it does). I guess we'll see just how principled the "originalist" conservative judges are.

The most prevalent has got to be, "We prayed and -insert name- recovered - it's a miracle!

And if the person dies: "It's the will of God."

You've got more than three. There's the A-hole, P-hole, V-hole, M-hole, two N-holes, and two E-holes. Then there are the manufactured holes: two H-holes when you make a fist, a TT-hole if you squeeze them together, a BB-hole if you're on the heavy side, and two T-holes for those with foot fetishes. There are up to 3 bonus holes if you have one or more of the various medical stoma, and two extra bonus holes if you're blind and have prosthetic eyes.

But you can get by with only one if you tie those sausages together end-to-end.

Give it to a retirement home. Seriously. Us old farts still like playing those old games. I was not happy when my granddaughter used my Mario Cart disk for a teething ring.