True.

Something I learned from climbing: sometimes retreating is more dangerous than advancing.

_________________
When you can do nothing what can you do?

Best caption by, apparently, former Prime Minister of Belgium



https://twitter.com/guyverhofstadt/stat ... 6118477825

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“It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people.”

- Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens

LOVE that caption Frelga!

Trump is barefacedly and openly conspiring with Russia. He is doing Putin's dirty work for him. Why would anyone not be questioning his motives? It's so bizarre.

Er...



https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status ... 9591206913

_________________

“It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people.”

- Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens

Oh, God.

_________________
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

I'm preeeeetty sure he intended for that to be taken as a joke, even if it's pretty obvious to anyone watching that it's not actually a joke.

_________________
I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists

I've noticed Trump says a lot of things 'as a joke' that he really means.. like trying out President for life. He's testing the waters, putting ideas in people's heads.. that's not really a 'joke'.

So how many of you south of the border have called their elected representative to demand that they stop ripping immigrant children from their families and incarcerating them in inhuman conditions? Just wondering.

_________________

My elected representatives (House rep and both senators) are fighting this.

_________________
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

I'll do it when I'm back behind an American IP. If I do it from here it'll probably flag as something to be ignored. Though my House rep is fighting, one of my Senators is fighting, and the other Senator is a worthless lump of protoplasm that we're going to fire when he's up for re-election.

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When you can do nothing what can you do?

So are mine.

Meanwhile.
NPR



I am tempted to create a Twitter account that would post appropriate Biblical quotes in response to so called conservatives. For example.

Matthew 23:27
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.

Except for the "appear beautiful" part.

_________________

“It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people.”

- Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens

Or, hey, here's a better one.

Leviticus 19:33-34 “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”

Via the Twitter of God https://twitter.com/TheGoodGodAbove/sta ... 5648144384

_________________

“It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people.”

- Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens

[likes Frelga's post]

_________________
When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes The Rose.

https://twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/10 ... 3401312257

ThinkProgress

_________________

“It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people.”

- Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens

_________________
When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes The Rose.

Must everything be so damn partisan now??

_________________
I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists

Republicans in Congress refuse to do anything about American children gunned down in schools. Why would they lift a finger in this case? These kids aren’t even American, and that is apparently all that matters to their base.

Bill O'Reilly. Actual Bill O'Reilly.

_________________

“It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people.”

- Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens

I used to dismiss equating the Republican base with fascists as over-heated rhetoric.

I've changed my mind.

I also tried donating to the ACLU but my credit card froze up. Probably because I'm out of the country and it flagged as possible fraud. I did manage to sign a petition.

BTW, Jeff Sessions is a Methodist. The Methodist clergy are bringing church charges against him. I'm not sure what that means but it would be certainly be fun if our Bible-quoting baby snatcher of an AG got excommunicated.

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When you can do nothing what can you do?

The numbering of children has been disproven by Snopes. The number on that kid's t-shirt was put there by the retail manufacturer, not the U.S. government.

But it is the absolute truth that border patrol agents are saying they are taking the children for baths in order to separate them from their parents. And some detention centers are being told not to comfort the children when they cry. Others say they've been told it's okay to hold them or hug them.

I am at a 4 day long Christian retreat, and one of the things we talked about yesterday was the terrible harm lack of physical affection can cause for children:

https://www.npr.org/2018/06/15/62025432 ... eparations

_________________
When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes The Rose.