Comments on: Open thread 1/20/2026

By: AesopFan

AesopFan — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 06:46:43 +0000

@ Kate – this is true; I was being somewhat facetious!

By: Kate

Kate — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 13:13:03 +0000

AesopFan, the problem with no snow in the mountains or on the plains is what will happen to the water supply in the summer. This is not good.

By: SCOTTtheBADGER

SCOTTtheBADGER — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 10:36:35 +0000

Huxley: Fruit bats can give kittens a run for their money in the cute department.

By: AesopFan

AesopFan — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 08:45:48 +0000

@ Mike Plaiss > “Wish we were getting that here. Here being Vail, where I’m on a ski trip. Slopes have what I presume to be man made snow on them, but no snow at all anywhere else.”

I’m down the mountain from you in the “anywhere else” and I am FINE with not having any or not very much snow!
However, I hope you still have a good time, and come back when there is more of the real stuff.

By: FOAF

FOAF — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 06:15:14 +0000

AD: “For ugly clothes and ugly haircuts, the 1970s are second to none. A few of the dames look presentable.”

Q: How do you keep kids off drugs?

A: Show them pictures of how people dressed in the 1960s and 70s.

By: huxley

huxley — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 04:54:19 +0000

Re: Bat World Sanctuary

There is a lot more going on with unusual human-animal relationships than I realized. People have been semi-domesticating animals outside the usual livestock/pet range for a long time, but I think we’ve cranked it up a notch in the past few decades.

Today I ran into the Bat World Sanctuary, which takes care of bats who can’t be returned to the wild. They even have a special elderly bat hospice, if you can believe that.
________________________________________________

–The Dodo, “33-Year-Old Bat Loves to Curl Around His Caregiver’s Arm and Fall Asleep”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRnlUUvCTTs
________________________________________________

Bats can be surprisingly cute, even old ones.

By: Kate

Kate — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 01:55:23 +0000

My daughter says her location outside of Washington, D.C., may get 20 inches. This might cause a real government shutdown.

By: Mike Plaiss

Mike Plaiss — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 00:12:24 +0000

Wish we were getting that here. Here being Vail, where I’m on a ski trip. Slopes have what I presume to be man made snow on them, but no snow at all anywhere else.

By: Kate

Kate — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 00:01:40 +0000

Yep, Barry Meislin, we may get 10″ of snow on Saturday. This would be better than the ice storm to our south; we’re hoping to stay in the snow zone. I doubt this is caused by a solar flare, however. 🙂

By: Bob Wilson

Bob Wilson — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 22:57:56 +0000

From the elections have consequences department

DOJ Rules Century-Old Statute Prohibiting Shipping Handguns Through the US Mail Unconstitutional

The USPS rules put gun owners in a bind if they were, for example, moving across the country. Many leftist states have laws against carrying firearms in cars. The woke UPS and FedEx have recently enacted rules that they won’t ship firearms.

“In a monumental development for gun owners, the Department of Justice has acknowledged that one of the oldest federal gun control laws on the books is unconstitutional. The DOJ Office of Legal Counsel issued a memorandum last week titled, “Constitutionality of 18 U.S.C. § 1715.” The statute at issue concerned the federal prohibition on sending handguns through the U.S. mail enacted in 1927.

Handgun owners can’t use the U.S. mail to ship their firearms to themselves, say during a move or for a hunting trip or competition. Astute gun owners will be aware of the potential perils of lawfully traveling through certain parts of the country with a legally-owned firearm, despite the federal protections provided by the Firearm Owners’ Protection Act – making mailing a firearm preferable in many instances. Moreover, handgun owners can’t use the USPS to ship their firearm directly to a manufacturer or gunsmith for modification or repair.