Just need to vent...

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speaking of needing to vent, there were no wise men (Magi) at the birth of God's son. they didn't arrive until some time later .... maybe as much as weeks old.
Herod - the political leader of the area was trying to have the child killed ... but not knowing the young family had fled to Egypt - Herod, not wanting "kingship" competition made sure every child was slaughteed in the area - up to 2 years of age.
Matthew 2 NIV - The Magi Visit the Messiah - After - Bible Gateway .
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That's a bit hyperbolic based on the source. The past administration didn't want to let anyone in, even legally. The pandemic gave them an excuse to block those trying to get in legally. That didn't stop the people who felt the need to come to the US. That administration might even have cut aid to those people's home countries.

They closed the doors, turning what was a steady stream of legal immigrants that the system could handle into a Black Friday back up at the local big box store. The current crisis is because of that. Ending the policy could lead to problems for the system, because of that volume of people that have been waiting for a chance to legally enter. The current administration is taking steps to address. Will have to wait and see if it is enough. Either way, the back up of immigrants is a temporary situation.

There are other issues in the system that need to be addressed, and have for years. Those extend beyond a single border. Between the politicians that want to appease their base by being tough on immigrants, and the ones taking donations from businesses that rely on illegal labor, it hasn't happened.

Maybe they were just outside during the birth.

 

There are not enough bus and airline seats to export them to Democratic states. Better still, those states will put them to work.

Bob Wilson

 

It does that a lot

 

Australia's position on this issue is, and long has been, appalling. I did a lot of work to help unseat the government that delighted in the inhumanity of it, and the new government is - far too slowly - improving the situation.

Britain keeps seeking to model its immigration policy on that disgraced Australian system.

 

This just is not true.

 

That, and popular misconceptions compound the error by always depicting three magi when the Bible gives no hint how many there were, only listing three types of gifts.

My sister lives in the southeast corner of Arizona. She or her friends have frequent and often frightening encounters with illegals. Recently, a truck driver was stopped on the way to their small, remote town by a bunch of men who ran out on the road. He managed to get away without running over any of them, but was scared half to death by that close call.

But it is not true that border patrol isn't trying. Locals have huge respect and appreciation for the efforts of the patrol. And they are all frustrated by the lies and lack of support from Washington.

 

could that have even been possible? after a Jewish child is born there was an animal sacrifice required - many days later, where the levitical law states it needs to be a spotlessly pure 'lamb'. if peasants were unable to afford a lamb - there was provision (as it says in that same chapter) of a couple pigeons or turtle doves. if the magi had already gifted frankincense Myrrh & gold - the young couple would have been able to easily afford a lamb for the sacrific.

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Yep, we don't know how many the Magi were...just that they were wise men from the east (probably Persia). They did bring 3 gifts and they visited Jesus in a house, not in the manger. Since evil King Herod had all the babies 2 years old and younger killed, the visit could've been when He was as old at 2.

 

Freeloader!

 

That one looks much happier than any of mine.

I've been dealing with a frozen hummingbird feeder the past couple days. Lacking a nearby outlet to power an incandescent nightlight for warming, I taped an instant hand warmer pack to the underside, under a rag to reduce heat loss away from the feeder. Combined with having it indoors overnight, it remained unfrozen all day yesterday.

It ls less cold today, so put it out without a new heat pack. Hoping it will be warm enough to not need to be brought indoors overnight again.

 

Reduced contact area. Light probably doesn't draw enough current to have ramifications. If it's loose enough to make intermittent contact (you'd notice the light flickering, and sizzle-y sounds from the connection) the contacts could get pitted from the arcing, and you might see some discoloration of the plastic. You could see the same discoloration if the connection weren't intermittent, but the load were something heavier, like a space heater.

Oh wait, I didn't spot at first that it's across two receptacles.

Well, still pretty benign ... even if it's a polarized plug, with a wider blade for neutral, well, you just had to turn it around. You'd have the wide blade in the neutral slot of the receptacle to the right, narrow blade in the hot of the recep to the left.

 

Being essentially benign, maybe it's a 'feature': I'm often frustrated by being unable to use one or more positions of a power strip or the like, because of some oddly-shaped wart plugged in at one spot. Maybe this allows more options in those cases.

Or maybe it doesn't, as the additional 'positions' are between existing real ones, not beyond them. I'm too lazy to prove whether that never helps, or ever could.

If you had some wart with polarized blades, this would give you the choice to plug it in either wart up or wart down.

Of course a plug with a ground pin would only go in the 'real' spots.

 

A couple of my outlet expanders have the same 'feature'. It looks benign to me, as the right and 'wrong' contacts are wired together internally.

On one, an unpolarized plug on a light string suggests the slot spacings are not quite identical, but plenty close enough. On another, a polarized extension cord plug fits fine either way and suggests that unit does have identical spacings.

 

Less benign are the goofy "fits-any-national-plug-shape" receptacles like AC₁ and AC₂ shown here:



... where if you happen to plug in a North American plug, you're guaranteed to have the hot and neutral swapped, and I don't even know how many other plug styles they get right or get wrong.

 

Back in the 00s, these were common in China (which uses multiple plug standards), but not in Britain.

My Dad was coming to visit, and asked what kind of adapter he needed. I very helpfully sent him a picture of one of those, and told him he had to find plugs with prongs that exact shape. He spent most of a day looking for them.

This is up there with the time I told him "that green stuff" at his first Japanese meal was mashed peas and he took a large spoonful.

The pranking, I should emphasis, was very much two way. At this merry time of year, I am reminded of the time that he'd used a meat thermometer cooking the turkey. When I asked what the hole in the breast was, he told me that was where the turkey had been shot. Also, when I was a kid, and we had a not-top-of-the-range car with blanked-out buttons, he convinced me that one of the blanked-out buttons was a remote control to turn traffic lights green.