Is that Hanford, CA? lol, I remember the drinking water problem there.

I just hope they eventually cast some fully Britishized actor originally out of Hong Kong… one trained in certain things Hong Kong actors are known for. I want a kung fu Doctor. :p

From the driver’s seat of a semi, Colorado feels like bits and pieces of its neighboring states smooshed together. You got Utahrado, New Mexirado, Wyomirado, and, yes, Nebraskarado, which is probably where the Midwestern Coloradans live. The only part where I really feel like I’m in a distinct state is the high mountain forests that shoot down the middle of the state.

Denver is probably where it is because it’s right at the intersection of quite a few of these biomes. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn it’s been a major trading center for about as long as humans have roamed the continent.

Coastal part is The South. Inland, you get Southwest. Then there’s the panhandle, and while I don’t know much about what the locals think of it, from the driver’s seat of a semi it’s indistinguishable from the flatter parts of Oklahoma. (Meanwhile, one of my favorite truck stops is in the hilly part of Oklahoma: the Chocktaw travel center in Stringtown.)

“Midwest” was once called “West”. Like, Ohio was “The West”, with “The West” meaning anything west the coastal plain.

Then people went even further west, but they still wanted to call the west of the past “West” so they called it “Middle West”.

You kind of see the same thing in Asia. To Europe, Jerusalem was in “The East”. Heck, even Constantinople was in “The East?” Then people saw just how much East there was. So… Middle East?

Great Plains and Midwest are almost synonymous.

Semantics.

This seems like a no-brainer to me… though it probably isn’t. Obviously you have a constitutional right to sleep, wherever you can make space for yourself. If these cities and downs don’t want people sleeping outside, they need to provide indoor space for people who haven’t actually committed crimes. We treat our criminals better than we treat our homeless.

Our democracy is a great democracy the way an antique car is a great car: great in its time, but it’s time for an upgrade.

It’s a shame smart people abandoned the Church. Romans makes it clear that Gentile Christians are not to be held to the Law of Moses, but that rather extensive part of Deuteronomy that deals with bodily fluids and rashes and stuff makes it equally clear that, even if we’re not meant to follow those exact rules, basic sanitation and disease control is part of the unwritten Law of God. Coupled with the idea that all authority comes from God (not just their particular authority, as this was written at a time when Rome was still ruled by pagans with pretentions of personal godhood), a compelling argument could have been made that staying home, masking up, and getting the vaccine is what Jesus wants you to do.

But there is nobody left who is either able or willing to make that argument.

What’s interesting is how this contradicts Deuteronomy. In that, if a man has “a semenal emission”, he is unclean, and must depart the camp until nightfall, at which point he must wash himself, his clothes, and his bedding with water, at which point he can re-enter. Deuteronomy basically says you have to leave any time you contact any kind of bodily fluid., with the only exception being the blood of a “clean” (kosher) animal that you know how it died. Roadkill: gotta stay outside until nightfall, and then clean up.

That’s because their chief weapon is surprise… surprise and fear.

Although, and I haven’t watched the video, usually when people are singing the praises of the Inquisition, they are usually explicitly not talking about the Spanish Inquisition. Instead, they are talking about the Papal Inquisition, which was a separate institution.

The idea is that, prior to the Papal Inquisition (the professionalization of inquisition), “Heresy” was a charge that was often levied by secular authorities against political enemies, with the “heresy” being a vague charge that could mean anything. The Papacy took that out of their hands, requiring that charges of heresy be investigated and tried by church officials supported by Rome.

Of course, there were definitely problems that the apologists don’t talk about. The accused weren’t told exactly what they were accused of, nor were they allowed to face their accuser. They are often imprisoned for months with no idea why, expected just to confess to whatever it is they did (which resulted in quite a few unrelated confessions). Torture was often used to extract confessions, and though confessions extracted through torture were not allowed to be used as evidence, they had no problem accepting formal confessions given the following day (based on information gained through torture).

That said, if, not knowing who was accusing, you managed to name your accuser as someone who had beef with you, that was often enough to exonerate you. And if you did confess to heresy, all you had to do was say “I won’t do it again”, and you were off the hook… the first time. If they had to come back, you were turned over to secular authorities for punishment… and the secular punishment for heresy was burning (on the Continent; in England it was often hanging).

That said, back to the Spanish inquisition, which was a real piece of work, itself. It was under the control of the King, not the Church, and so was just as political as the ad-hoc institutions of the past. And though Jews were officially not under the jurisdiction of the Inquisition (since the Inquisitions mandate was to investigate heresy, and heresy is deviation within a particular religion, not being a totally different religion), Spain had required all their jews to convert or leave, and so Conversos were often targeted for investigation.

All they have to do is, instead of calling it a “law”, call it “militia regulation” instead. “Militia” is the entire arms bearing populace; if you own a gun, you are, by definition, part of the Militia. And the 2nd amendment doesn’t merely say “everyone has a gun”; it does so in context of maintaining a “well regulated militia”. All the right to “keep and bear arms” does is prevent them from requiring we store our arms in a central armory (which was one of the controversies over the matter in England when the right was in development).

I would say we also have a right to own a car. That doesn’t prevent them from requiring we maintain the capacity to bear responsibility if we should accidentally exercise that right improperly.

Something tells me this isn’t exactly religious.

Because I played Dragon Quest and Zelda, I developed an unfortunate predilection for walking into strangers houses and smashing pots and vases and stuff. Took years of therapy to break that habit. :(

I still can’t even look at a barrel.

I’m pretty sure my brother reached numbers like this for Ghostbusters (TV edit) when he was a little kid.

Very midwest. Sounds like my grandmother’s jello with celery in it.

More accurate than you might think.

Donald Trump and his followers look more like Doctor Who villains by the day. I half expect them to unveil a new military unit that is vaguely salt shaker shaped.

Discomfort stimulates growth, but the actual growth happens during periods of recovery. That is true of the body, and I have little doubt it is true of the mind, as well. I’m not saying people should never step out of their comfort zone. But just like we shouldn’t be judging people at the gym because, from our perspective, they should be able to do more, we should be extending compassion to those of us who have difficulties in the mind, particularly considering we can only know our own perspective, not theirs. I mean, you wouldn’t expect a guy in a wheel chair to be doing leg presses, would you?