Autumn Ash – 2024
Figs
Came across someone referencing the “God Hates Figs” bumper sticker as presumed “religious nuts” online today.
Those are generally folks against religious nuts – Westboro Baptist Church had a domain for god hates fags. There was a coordinated effort online to overrun their message board (they shut it down eventually) and god hates figs came up as a joke. You can find all sorts of biblical citations showing that god hates figs. Far more than those showing that god hates people of a specific sexual orientation. Someone bought a domain, and there you have it. God hates figs.
Not saying there aren’t people who took it seriously – but it’s meant like the “dangers of dihydro-monoxide” thing. A bit of a riff on people who use the Bible to justify hatred.
The Best Medal?
I’m not sure if this is tripling down, quadrupling down, or what … but Trump’s made more statements about how he’d prefer a Medal of Freedom because Medal of Honor recipients are gravely injured or even killed.
Beyond the incredibly absurd notion that he’d qualify for a Medal of Honor — his assertion boils down to this: a Medal of Honor winner gave something significant of themselves. They put themselves into an incredibly dangerous situation to allow the rest of us to enjoy our Constitutionally protected freedoms. They earned that medal, often with their own body or even their own life.
Medal of Freedom winners also did something — but the person to whom Trump was referring? Was a doctor, who did what many other doctors do without being awarded medals. The ‘extra’ that got the medal? They gave money. Some of which went to Republican campaigns and conservative causes. Now, I presume even DonOld realized you couldn’t actually award a Medal of Freedom to someone for donations to his campaign. She (and her husband) also gave money to research centers fighting substance abuse, medical research, and Holocaust remembrance — not a bad thing, but there’s a huge difference between giving your life for something and giving your time and money for something.
Of course DonOld would rather be lauded for handing over some money (or, in his case, creating a charity to allow him to get praise for handing over other people’s money to beneficial causes) than actually have to give something of himself.
https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/medaloffreedom/
The following individuals received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Trump on November 16, 2018:
MIRIAM ADELSON. Miriam Adelson is a committed doctor, philanthropist, and humanitarian. She has practiced internal and emergency medicine, studied and specialized in the disease of narcotic addiction, and founded two research centers committed to fighting substance abuse. With her husband, Sheldon, she also established the Adelson Medical Research Foundation, which supports research to prevent, reduce, or eliminate disabling and life-threatening illness. As a committed member of the American Jewish community, she has supported Jewish schools, Holocaust memorial organizations, Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, and Birthright Israel, among other causes.
Hazelnuts – Finis
Well, the cluster of five nuts I’ve been tracking are some of the nuts from the ground.
Hazelnuts – Almost Ready
The cluster of hazelnuts I am tracking is almost ready …
PEX-A
We are installing a new water filtration system, and 1″ PEX-A isn’t easy to get into a bend support. First attempt kinked pretty badly — luckily heating it up seems to restore its shape. It’s hot enough when the material becomes translucent.
Who Deserves Benefits?
I blame Reagan for the public “knowing” who actually deserves benefits. Instead of showing the “welfare queen” as an extreme outlier who got caught and prosecuted because that’s an important part of government function along with “success stories” of people who survived on welfare for a few years whilst they got job training and reentered the workforce?
They wanted people to think that was a norm – your hard earned money is being stolen by the government and handed over to these frauds. Since there are so many lazy people out there stealing your money, odds are decent that anyone person getting benefits is a fraud. Obviously the people you like aren’t frauds – you are a good, loving, considerate person who wouldn’t like frauds. So it is conveniently all those people you don’t like stealing from us all.
And people manage to find something to create an ‘other’. If everyone has the same skin color, those folks are the wrong religion, descend from Irish/Italian/whatever immigrants, or are a bunch of McCoys/Hatfield’s/whatever’s.
For some reason, the ten thousand dollar toilet seats in the military budget didn’t get people thinking that military contracts are a scam misappropriating your hard earned money.
And the military one is kind of a straw man too – they eventually started 3d printing the thing and cut the cost to a couple hundred bucks (https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/the-air-forces-10000-toilet-cover/2018/07/14/c33d325a-85df-11e8-8f6c-46cb43e3f306_story.html).
Rainbow
Handmade Crochet Hook
Anya carved me a crochet hook! It works quite well — she borrowed it to make me a scarf.
Peach Butter
While peaches are on sale for a buck a pound, I made peach butter — puree peaches in a food processor, then cook it for about 12 hours on low in a slow cooker. Leave the lid off for the last hour (or three) to allow it to thicken up. It’s great on a peanut butter sandwich.
