A new low.

The Y has stepped up once again, allowing us to hold the Christmas Toy Giveaway. They approved our dates. Drop-off is Dec 11th, the Giveaway is the following day, on the 12th. We have donations coming in already.  I am picking up one donation and meeting another person at the storage place before we protest tomorrow. 

The other leader, Kathy is a driving force. She lives in town and has been hauling stuff to storage every other day. An old friend, Jill has jumped on board too. It almost seems to be going too easily. People are volunteering to help. People from last year. New people too. 

Like last year, this is moving along under its own momentum. Last year, it all came together in about 3 weeks. None of us can even imagine what can happen with two months of lead-in and publicity. 

Remember, I told you I was going to try to over winter some pepper plants. I pulled up my four biggest plants, plopped them into an old galvanized wash tub full of potting soil. I lugged it inside to the basement, set it under the fluorescent light and left it to decide what it was going to do. 

After a week, it seems like it is kind of happy where it is.  That little experiment might be successful too.

My sister messaged this evening to tell me that there was a large bear crossing to our side of the road. "Watch your chickens!" she warned. He did not come chicken bothering. In fact he never happened by at all. 

All this babbling, all of it is because I am sick about current events. Nidal Hasan did a horrible thing. A radicalized army officer opened fire inside a Ft Hood in processing center, killing 13, wounding 32 more. I remember the horror of that day. Tim's daughter was in processing at Ft Hood, and it was a sickening wait until the phone call came that she was okay. She wasn't in that building. 

So yes. I understand. It was a heinous crime, a brutal betrayal of the oath Hasan took to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic".

But to live stream his execution by firing squad? My God.

Remember how sickened we were at the brutal public executions carried out by ISIS and the Taliban? The stonings, the beheading? We thought they were barbarians. 

And yet, here we are. This public debacle allows us to be added to the list: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen, and now the US. 

I watched Hegseth almost gleefully making his big announcement in California, acting as if the military was chomping at the bit to witness this, as if he was doing this for them. 

I suppose that barbarians are 'high t', something that seems very important to Pete Hegseth's Department of War. Interesting tidbit of info: any soldier over 30 is required to disclose whether they wake up with erections. 

(Republicans are way too interested in other people's genitals, in my opinion.) 

So...here we are. Hasan is scheduled to be executed on Dec. 3rd. Between now and then, we got midterms. Can it be stopped? I don't know. 

Vote.