"It's now possible for a flight attendant to get a pilot pregnant." - Richard J. Ferris

Sometimes the reality exceeds expectation. We woke up to a freezing rain that wasn't supposed to start until mid-day that had the steps so slippery Pam's dog took a header on the way down for his morning dump. All the local schools quickly changed from the announced 2-hour delay to full closure.

A local resident posted something on the Veneta community page:
"Which headline would you rather see? 'Homeless freeze to death' or, 'Veneta opens warming center'"
(For those of you in places like AZ, warming centers are what they sound like, shelters that open when the temps drop to freezing or below.)
I do NOT want anyone to freeze to death! However, I wonder if those spearheading the movement have considered the unintended consequences. Q: If you build a warming center what will you have? A: More homeless than a community w/o one. And what will you need to do when you see this influx of homeless? What will be associated outcomes? And the results of those actions?
When Helping Hurts

I heard Cokie Roberts on NPR this morning giving a brief explanation of why the founders set up the electoral college as the means by which we get our president. Very good, and made sense. If it were not for that system the president would be chosen by about four states and minorities - racial and social - would lose their voice.

It's generally accepted now that the Balkans War included mass genocide that the rest of the world conveniently ignored because getting involved was deemed too messy.
Syria can be no less, and Assad & Putin are war criminals by any U.N. definition.
Remember the "red line?" The Syrians certainly do.

We watched the third installment of the documentary on Scientology last night. (We record it to watch when it's convenient.) We can't figure out why that group hasn't been prosecuted for any number of crimes, from kidnapping, to theft, to fraud. Federal charges would include mail fraud.

We heard today that viewership for the Hallmark Christmas movie channel is up 50% of last year. I'm sorry to say my wife is a statistic.

We MAY have goats!! Marta posted pictures and a video on Facebook of births. One of the three does had a doeling and a buckling. Another do had triplets (yay!!), all three bucklings. The third doe should give birth this coming weekend. She said we'd get the first two bottle babies and, if I understand correctly, the third of triplets qualifies, so there's one. And I *think* one of the bucklings from the other of today's kidding also qualifies (bucklings will become wethers). And/or kids from this upcoming birthing.

We wait impatiently!!