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misfitwashere · 2 months ago

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September 19, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

SEP 20

Yesterday morning, NPR reported that U.S. public health data are showing a dramatic drop in deaths from drug overdoses for the first time in decades. Between April 2023 and April 2024, deaths from street drugs are down 10.6%, with some researchers saying that when federal surveys are updated, the decline will be even more pronounced. Such a decline would translate to 20,000 deaths averted.

With more than 70,000 Americans dying of opioid overdoses in 2020 and numbers rising, the Biden-Harris administration prioritized disrupting the supply of illicit fentanyl and other synthetic drugs. They worked to seize the drugs at ports of entry, sanctioned more than 300 foreign people and agencies engaged in the global trade in illicit drugs, and arrested and prosecuted dozens of high-level Mexican drug traffickers and money launderers.

In March 2023 the Biden-Harris administration made naloxone, a medicine that can prevent fatal opioid overdoses, available over the counter. The administration invested more than $82 billion in treatment, and the Department of Health and Human Services worked to get the treatment into the hands of first responders and family members.

Addressing the crisis of opioid deaths meant careful, coordinated policies.

Also today, markets all over the world climbed after the Fed yesterday cut interest rates for the first time in four years. In the U.S., the S&P 500, which tracks the stock performance of 500 of the biggest companies on U.S. stock exchanges, the Nasdaq Composite, which is weighted toward the information technology sector, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, an older index that tracks 30 prominent companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges, all hit new records. The rate cut indicated to traders that the U.S. has, in fact, managed to pull off the soft landing President Joe Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen worked to achieve. They have kept job growth steady, normalized economic growth and inflation, and avoided a recession.

As they have done so, the major U.S. stock indices have had what The Guardian's Callum Jones calls “an extraordinary year.” Jones notes that the S&P 500 is up more than 20% since the beginning of 2024, the Nasdaq Composite has risen 22%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gone up 11%.

Bringing the U.S. economy out of the pandemic more successfully than any other major economically developed country meant clear goals and principles, and careful, informed adjustments.

And yet the big story today is that Republican North Carolina lieutenant governor Mark Robinson frequented porn sites, where between 2008 and 2012 he wrote that he enjoyed watching transgender pornography; referred to himself as a “black NAZI!��; called for reinstating human enslavement and wrote, “I would certainly buy a few”; called the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a “f*cking commie bastard”; wrote that he preferred Adolf Hitler to former president Barack Obama; referred to Black, Jewish, Muslim, and gay people with slurs; said he doesn’t care about abortions (“I don’t care. I just wanna see the sex tape!” he wrote); and recounted that he had secretly watched women in the showers in a public gym as a 14-year-old. Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck of CNN, who broke the story, noted that “CNN is reporting only a small portion of Robinson’s comments on the website given their graphic nature.”

After the first story broke, Natalie Allison of Politico broke another: that Robinson was registered on the Ashley Madison website, which caters to married people seeking affairs.

Robinson is running for governor of North Carolina. He has attacked transgender rights, called for a six-week abortion ban without exceptions for rape or incest, mocked survivors of school shootings, and—after identifying a wide range of those he saw as enemies to America and to “conservatives”—told a church audience that “some folks need killing.”

That this scandal dropped on the last possible day Robinson could drop out of the race suggests it was pushed by Republicans themselves because they recognize that Robinson is dragging Trump and other Republican candidates down in North Carolina. But here’s the thing: Republican voters knew who Robinson was, and they chose him anyway.

Indeed, his behavior is not all that different from that of a number of the Republican candidates in this cycle, including former president Trump, the Republican nominee for president. Representative Virginia Foxx (R-NC) embraced Robinson’s candidacy, and House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) welcomed “NC’s outstanding Lt. Governor” to a Republican-led House Judiciary Committee meeting “on the importance of election integrity.” “He brought the truth with clarity and conviction—and everyone should hear what he had to say!” Johnson posted to social media. Robinson spoke at the Republican National Convention.

The difference between the Democrats and the Republicans in this election is stark, and it reflects a systemic problem that has been growing in the U.S. since the 1980s.

Democracy depends on at least two healthy political parties that can compete for voters on a level playing field. Although the men who wrote the Constitution hated the idea of political parties, they quickly figured out that parties tie voters to the mechanics of Congress and the presidency.

And they do far more than that. Before political thinkers legitimized the idea of political opposition to the king, disagreeing with the person in charge usually led to execution or banishment for treason. Parties allowed for the idea of loyal and legitimate opposition, which in turn allowed for the peaceful transition of power. That peaceful exchange enabled the people to choose their leaders and leaders to relinquish power safely. Parties also create a system for criticizing people in power, which helps to weed out corrupt or unfit leaders.

But those benefits of a party system depend on a level political playing field for everyone, so that a party must constantly compete for voters by testing which policies are most popular and getting rid of the corrupt or unstable leaders voters would reject.

In the 1980s, radical Republican leaders set out to dismantle the government that regulated business, provided a basic social safety net, promoted infrastructure, and protected civil rights. But that system was popular, and to overcome the majority who favored it, they began to tip the political playing field in their direction. They began to suppress voting by Democrats by insisting that Democrats were engaging in “voter fraud.” At the same time, they worked to delegitimize their opponents by calling them “socialists” or “communists” and claiming that they were trying to destroy the United States. By the 1990s, extremists in the party were taking power by purging traditional Republicans from it.

And yet, voters still elected Democrats, and after they put President Barack Obama into the White House in 2008, the Republican State Leadership Committee in 2010 launched Operation REDMAP, or Redistricting Majority Project. The plan was to take over state legislatures so Republicans would control the new district maps drawn after the 2010 census, especially in swing states like Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. It worked, and Republican legislatures in those states and elsewhere carved up state maps into dramatically gerrymandered districts.

In those districts, the Republican candidates were virtually guaranteed election, so they focused not on attracting voters with popular policies but on amplifying increasingly extreme talking points to excite the party’s base. That drove the party farther and farther to the right. By 2012, political scientists Thomas Mann and Norm Ornstein warned that the Republican Party had “become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.”

At the same time, the skewed playing field meant that candidates who were corrupt or bonkers did not get removed from the political mix after opponents pounced on their misdeeds and misstatements, as they would have been in a healthy system. Social media poster scary lawyerguy noted that the story about Robinson will divert attention from the lies about Haitian immigrants eating pets, which diverted attention from Trump’s abysmal debate performance, which diverted attention from Trump’s filming a campaign ad at Arlington National Cemetery.

When a political party has so thoroughly walled itself off from the majority, there are two options. One is to become full-on authoritarian and suppress the majority, often with violence. Such a plan is in Project 2025, which calls for a strong executive to take control of the military and the judicial system and to use that power to impose his will.

The other option is that enough people in the majority reject the extremists to create a backlash that not only replaces them, but also establishes a level playing field.

The Republican Party is facing the reality that it has become so extreme it is hemorrhaging former supporters and mobilizing a range of critics. Today the Catholic Conference of Ohio rebuked those who spread lies about Haitian immigrants—Republican presidential candidate Trump and vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance were the leading culprits—and Teamsters councils have rejected the decision of the union’s board not to make an endorsement this year and have endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris. Some white evangelicals are also distancing themselves from Trump.

And then, tonight, Trump told a Jewish group that if he loses, it will be the fault of Jewish Americans. "I will put it to you very simply and gently: I really haven't been treated right, but you haven't been treated right because you're putting yourself in great danger."

Mark Robinson has said he will not step aside.

—

#heather cox richardson #letters from an american

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eventuallyaugust · 8 months ago

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bbtr plot timeline

everything happened in bbtr (both private and public)*

2022

JANUARY

• chapter 1-24 took place (yes, all of that is just in january)

• matchmaker was filmed for the remaining weeks of the month

FEBRUARY

• matchmaker eps were released two days apart (1st ep was released on 5 and ep 5 ended on 14; valentine's day)

• the show garnered all of attention locally and globally, making the pair getting shipped together more often

• several matchz photoshoots happened to promote the show, including attending some variety shows together as a pair

MARCH

• seol blowing a party for sakura and moas have a field day when seol posted an ig story being in sakura's bday party, showing off her tattoos

• fans trended yunjin and seol in several various social media platforms due to a photoshopped photo of them together (the original was a photo of oddz with sakura and eunchae between the pair)

APRIL

• bighit started to tease moas about a potential seol solo album with a teaser photo of a burning car

• seol joined in the fun by posting several pics of her being in the studio

• kmoas caught seol and umji shopping together in public, making a dating rumor spark between them which was later denied by bighit and bpm entertainment

MAY

• lesserafim debut date

• reports of txt seol caught outside lesserafim's debut show cheering on the girls

• seol threw a debut party for the girls in private

JUNE

• on the first day of the month, seol posted several pics of her and some pride flags before ending her post with a pic of her showing off a pride pin, causing a sort of backlash from the homophobes

• yunjin posted for the pride month and it caused a minor inconvenience for them because of the fans shipping them together

• bighit started releasing photo teasers for seol's solo debut

• something happened to seol and bighit announces her hiatus from the group on the last day of the month

JULY

• seol's hiatus announcement on the last day of the first week

• seol's supposed solo debut release was postponed

• a sudden hate train on seol started on the third week from different fandoms while seol is on hiatus

• bighit instantly announced that there will be an action for the people making malicious comments and posts to seol

• hybe caterers was filmed with seventeen, le sserafim, fromis_9, txt without seol, and several other idols.

AUGUST

• seol's hate train continued until the first week of the month because of txt

• two txt members got into a heated argument in the dorm one day,

• two txt members started acting cold one another, making the fans notice the odd behavior between the two

• there was a noticeable drought of replies from txt in weverse

• moaville has been in the shambles without seol

• seol finished recovering but decided going against her initial decision of announcing her return

SEPTEMBER

• txt made up from the fight and celebrated yeonjun's birthday

• good boy gone bad photo teasers were released on the third week and fans were both upset and disappointed that seol wasn't on the teasers

• following the gbgb photo teaser releases, a sudden hate train on seol manifested in several social media platforms, saying seol won't fit into the concept since it'll be all boys

• bighit surprised everyone by posting gbgb photo teasers of seol, including the group photo teasers she was edited out of for surprise purposes

• multiple fandoms were surprised and shock at the sudden change in seol's appearance

OCTOBER

• good boy gone bad was released on oct 1st

• noticing several changes in seol with eyebrow piercing and new tattoos, moas claimed that seol's entering 23 year old curse along with yeonjun, and they loved everything about the mv and the visuals, glad that seol isn't in hiatus anymore

• an anonymous source revealed the reason why seol has undergone in a hiatus, making her name trend so much txt needed an extra layer of security in public

• following the unprecedented leak of the reason of her hiatus, another hate train manifested

• gbgb promotions was cancelled on the third week of the month due to the threats seol was receiving

NOVEMBER

• everything was quiet in this month with minimal responses in weverse from soobin and yeonjun, but not the other members

• no selca, no halloween costumes, nothing

DECEMBER

• seol never got to debut for her solo album up to this month

• seol "came home" by posting a few selcas of her wearing a christmas pajamas and santa hat, greeting her fans a merry christmas

• seol released a cover of a christmas song: rockin’ around the christmas tree by brenda lee

• bighit released a statement of seol's departure from the group and company on the last day of the year

2023 (will be doing a separate post)

*note: i am very aware that gbgb was released on may, but i will change the release date for plot purposes ONLY and nothing more

*another note: i might write some to explain on some events on what had truly happened each month & this is not proofread.

#eventuallyaugust #bound by the rules #bound by the rules plot #txt extra member #txt additional member #txt 6th member #txt oc #txt sixth member #txt oc: oh hyunseol #eventuallyaugust's library #eventuallyaugust's bbtr #bound by the rules miscellanous #bound by the rules extras #idk if i still have motivation to write the scenes #all i know is that it'll take time #but i'll try not to do everything at once

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todaysdocument · 2 years ago

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Claim by Albina Bassani, 1/13/1913, detailing the clothing, jewelry, and money she lost when the Titanic sank; and claiming that the Oceanic Steamship Navigation Company owed her compensation.

Record Group 21: Records of District Courts of the United States

Series: Admiralty Case Files

Transcription:

United States District Court Southern District Of New York

Fol. 1.

In the matter of THE PETITION OF THE OCEANIC STEAMSHIP NAVIGATION COMPANY, LIMITED, for the limitation of its liabilities as owner of the steamship Titanic. NOW COMES ALBINA BASSANI as claimant herein, pursuant to a monition duly issued by this court on the 4th day of October, 1912 and for her claims pursuant to the said monition by her proctor Andrea Pelmori respectfully shows and alleges to this honorable court.

FIRST:- On information and belief that the Ocean Steamship Navigation Company, Limited was at all times hereinafter mentioned the owner of a certain steamship known and designated as Titanic, and that as such owner was a carrier of passengers for hire by said steamship from Liverpool to the port of New York.

SECOND:- That heretofore and on or about the 11th day of April, 1912, your claimant herein for value duly became a passenger upon the said steamship Titanic, owner, controlled and operated by the aforesaid Oceanic Steamship Navigation Company, Limited at Liverpool and embarked at the aforesaid place for the port of New York, being a first-cabin passenger.

THIRD:- That while en route from the aforesaid place of embarkment to the said port of New York and while your said claimant was a passenger upon the aforesaid steamship Titanic the said steamship while en route from the place of embarkment as hereinbefore stated, to the port of New York, the said Titanic collided with an iceberg on or about the 14th day of April, 1912, as more fully set forth in the petition for an order appointing a commissioner to receive proofs of claim and directing a monition to issue en-

[page 2]

Fol. 4

joining suits duly filed in the office of the Clerk of the United States District Court in and for the Southern District of New York on the 4th day of October, 1912, and that subsequent to the said colliding of the said steamship Titanic with an iceberg, as hereinbefore states, the said steamship sank and your deponent is one of the surviving passengers.

FOURTH:- By reason of the calamity and sinking of the said steamship Titanic your claimant as a passenger lost the following personal property and moneys which she now claims is justly due to her, that is to say:

Dresses and other wearing materials and apparrels for which primarily consists of stylish, tailor-made gowns for which your deponent paid a sum equal to cur- rency in the United States of $400. and that the same is the reasonable value thereof. "

5. Bedding and linen and other apparatus for the bedding purposes, $300 and that the same is the reasonable value thereof.

Hats, bonnets and hear gear, $100 and that the same is the reasonable value thereof.

Shoes, slippers and other foot gear, $50 and that the same is the reasonable value thereof.

Tools and implements which your claimant uses in her daily vocation of a lady in waiting for ladies by whom she is employed at divers times, $250 and that the same is the reasonable value thereof.

Jewels for personal adornment, $1500 and that the same is the reasonable value thereof.

Toilet articles $40 and that the same is the reasonable value thereof.

Money. $250

Total claim $2890

Albina Bassani Claimant.

#archivesgov #January 13 #1913 #1910s #Titanic #law #legal claims #lady in waiting

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beardedmrbean · 6 months ago

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CAMBRIDGE, MASS. (WHDH) - Hundreds of Harvard students walked out of the university’s commencement ceremony Thursday, sending a defiant message after weeks of protests and a decision by the Harvard Corporation not to give degrees to 13 seniors who participated in the recent pro-Palestinian encampment in Harvard Yard.

Commencement participants gathered early Thursday morning and formal ceremonies began near 9:30 a.m. The walkout happened near 11 a.m.

Outside Harvard Yard, protesters gathered earlier in the day. Some held pro-Palestinian signs. Another group held a sign reading “Harvard against antisemitism.” Overhead, a plane towed a sign that said “Jewish lives matter.”

Once they took to the streets, graduating students in caps and gowns held more signs and Palestinian flags and chanted.

Protest follows decision to not give degrees to some seniors

The Harvard Corporation, which serves as Harvard’s governing body, announced it voted to confer 1,539 degrees this year. In doing so, the corporation overruled a vote from faculty members who recommended degrees to the additional group of seniors who participated in the pro-Palestinian encampment. Though the 13 seniors were allowed to participate in the commencement ceremony, they will not receive their diplomas for the time being.

“We respect each faculty’s responsibility to determine appropriate discipline for its students,” the corporation said in a statement. “Monday’s faculty vote did not, however, revisit these disciplinary rulings, did not purport to engage in the individualized assessment of each case that would ordinarily be required to do so, and, most importantly, did not claim to restore the students to good standing.”

The Harvard pro-Palestinian encampment formed as part of a wave of demonstrations on campuses across the country beginning in April.

From Boston to Los Angeles, student demonstrators occupied campus spaces and at times clashed with counter-protesters and police as they called on university and college officials to divest from companies doing business with Israel.

While Harvard and the encampment on its campus avoided the kind of clashes seen elsewhere, university officials were critical of the demonstration and repeatedly warned demonstrators would face consequences.

Harvard demonstrators voluntarily ended their encampment on May 14, taking down the last such encampment in the Boston area. At the time, protest organizers said the university promised leniency for more than 60 students facing disciplinary action for their involvement.

Scheduled to take place less than 10 days after the encampment ended, Thursday’s commencement followed a flurry of activity in recent days.

On Monday, the Harvard Corporation said, the faculties at Harvard’s schools received a list of degree candidates from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Registrar, who is tasked with certifying that students have met requirements and are in good standing to get a Harvard degree.

The corporation said the faculties amended the list, adding 13 seniors who Harvard’s disciplinary board previously determined violated the university’s policies by participating in the encampment.

“Because the students included as the result of Monday’s amendment are not in good standing, we cannot responsibly vote to award them degrees at this time,” the corporation said in its statement, explaining its decision to reject the faculties’ recommendation.

The corporation said it understands “that the inability to graduate is consequential for students and their families” and said it fully supports the faculty’s plan to provide expedited review of student disciplinary cases.

The corporation continued, saying it will promptly consider conferring degrees “if, following the completion of all FAS processes, a student becomes eligible to receive a degree.”

The Associated Press on Thursday reported supporters of students demonstrators said the Harvard Corporation’s decision violated an agreement between university officials and protest organizers to end their encampment.

In a statement to the AP, the Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine coalition said the corporation, with its vote, “has proved itself to be a wholly illegitimate body and [Interim President Alan] Garber an illegitimate president, accountable to no one at the university.”

“Today’s actions have plunged the university even further into a crisis of legitimacy and governance, which will have major repercussions for Harvard in the coming months and years,” the statement continued, as reported by the AP.

The pro-Palestinian encampment at Harvard and the events since the encampment ended marked the latest moment of tension in a school year where the Harvard community has seen protests, criticism, and concerns raised about discrimination and hate in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned in January amid allegations of plagiarism and backlash over her testimony at a congressional hearing about antisemitism on college campuses.

She was replaced by Garber, while Harvard seeks to find a permanent replacement.

#nunyas news

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blackbutlercharacterpoll2023 · 2 years ago

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The following is the lineup for the polls by date, made using a random number generator. New characters introduced in chapter 199 will automatically be added to the end of the roster.

April 19th - April 26th

Chlaus

Rian Stoker

Lord Ackroyd's son

FOL Orphanage staff

Timber

Claude Faustus

Tanaka

Conny

Emily

Baldroy / Bard / Baldo

Finnian / Finny

Sharpe Hanks

Mabel

Burnett

April 20th - April 27th

Soma's elephant

Beast

Sophie Smith

Theodore

Finny's hat

Funtom Corporation's unicorn suit

Karl Woodley

Oscar

Chris Heathfield

Sieglinde Sullivan

Fred Abberline

Stella Rose

Charles Phipps

the orphan that called Sebastian an old guy

April 21st - April 28th

Nick

Joanne Harcourt

Purple House dorm master

Agni / Arshad Satyendra Iyer

Yana Toboso

Grete Hilbard

the Mad Dog of Venice

Abbie

Johnny

Mina

Rachel Phantomhive

Charles Phipps's chicken

Haku

Sascha

April 22nd - April 29th

Jumbo

Mrs. Mayell

Goethe

the Rowdy Count

Georg von Siemens

Margaret Connor

Cedric Brandel

Mathilda Simmons

Wendy

Sam / Old Man Sam

Grelle Sutcliff

Ellery Nixon

Eric Slingby

April 23rd - April 30th

Edward Midford

Luka Macken

Queen Victoria

Lord Ackroyd

Layla

the other children in the lab Finny was kept in

Betty

Reaper trainees

Green House dorm master

Vincent Phantomhive

Drossel Keinz

Kelvin

Lawrence Bluewer's sisters

Charles Grey

April 24th - May 1st

Margaret Turner

Akashi

Snake

Edgar Redmond

Derrick Arden

Ronald Knox

Aurora Society member

Bloodbath Johnny

Wilde

Soma Asman Kadar

Claude's birds

Sebastian's silverware

Chef Rickman

Susannah Connor

April 25th - May 2nd

Susan

Artie

Damian

John Brown

Saneatsu Nekoma

Peter

Lawrence Anderson / Pops

Chef Wollest

Chris Heathfield's maids

demon Crow

Nina's assistants

Ludger

Prince Albert puppet

Miranda

April 26th - May 3rd

Blavat Sky

Vicar Rathbone

Julius Pitt

walking stick shopkeeper

Grimsby Keane

Ciel's horse

Edward V

Jay the Undertaker

Gregory Violet

Canterbury

Jeremy Rathbone

Doctor

the cat from the live action movie

Henry Barrymore

April 27th - May 4th

Lawrence Bluewer

Prince Albert

Higham

the Panzer

the train kidnapper

Donne

Heinrich

Chef Lach

Dagger

Doll / Freckles

Sam's grandson

Bitter Rabbit

Japanese man with a katana

"Ciel" Phantomhive / Our Ciel / O!Ciel

April 28th - May 5th

Mey-Rin

Undertaker's mourning lockets

Webster

Purple House prefect from Vincent's year

Patrick the Grey Wizard

Diedrich

Johann Agares

Bronte

Carter

Othello

the cultists

Baldroy Jr.

John Brown's horse

Sphere Music Hall staff

April 29th - May 6th

Jackknife Haywood

Nina Hopkins

William's death scythe

Angela Blanc

Wolfram Gelzer

McDowell

Ronald's lawnmower

Arthur Randall

Aleister Chamber / Viscount of Druitt

Keats

Annie

Terry

Hao

Maria

April 30th - May 7th

Irene Diaz

Polaris

beggar boy that Soma gives a necklace to, mother, and baby brother

kenpo master

Red House dorm master

Ran-Mao

Shiori Genpou

Cedric K. Ros

Lau

Clayton

William T. Spears

Patrick Phelps

Japanese woman with a lunchbox

Oliver

May 1st - May 8th

Arthur Conan Doyle

the bear

Grelle's chainsaw

Trancy / Former Head Trancy

Richard

Aristocrat of Evil with the scarred face

the archeologist

Joker

Jan

the cats Sebastian rescues from the rain

Hilde Dickhaut

Rin

Cloudia Phantomhive

"Deer"

May 2nd - May 9th

King's Bear prostitutes

McMillan

"Her"

Undertaker's death scythe

Daniel

Ginny

Sieglinde Sullivan's father

Charles Bennett Sato

demon Ciel

Ada

Arnold Trancy

Ciel Phantomhive bizarre doll / Real Ciel / R!Ciel

Arihito Genpou

Thomas Wallis

May 3rd - May 10th

Chef Tarpin

Queen Victoria (Season 1)

Lau's ladies

Fennian

Harold West Jeb

Nicholas

Professor Sullivan / village crone

Anne Drewanz

CGI horses / driver

Margaret Connor's father

Ciel Phantomhive child / R!Ciel child

Jane

Paula

Wordsworth

May 4th - May 11th

Maurice Cole

Alexis Leon Midford

bizarre dolls

the turnspit dog

the "werewolves"

O!Ciel's land renters

priest

Pluto

Sebastian the dog

Red House prefect from Vincent's year

the Sebastian Roomba

bizarre doll horses

Baldroy's cow

Undertaker

May 5th - May 12th

Hanae Wakatsuki

the iceberg

Alan Humphries

Ash Landers

Thompson

Snake's unnamed snakes

Milly

Munemitsu Aoki

Alois Trancy / Jim Macken

Elizabeth Midford / Lizzy

Aurora Society purified water seller

Drossel's dolls

the timetable guy

Herman Greenhill

May 6th - May 13th

Azzurro Vanel

William's pigeons

Joanna

Reaper managers

Dove

Countess Trancy and her baby

German countryman

Scotland Yard officers

Haku's henchman

Lorraine McDowell

demon "pet" (the xenomorph)

Hannah Annafellows

Angelina Dalles / Madam Red / Aunt An

Pitt

May 7th - May 14th

Vincent Phantomhive's staff

Paul Jones

Francis Midford

Sebastian Michaelis

Cheslock

Phantomhive family ring

James

Edward Abberline

Baron Ridley

Sebastian's owl

#poll schedule #black butler character poll #poll info

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fanatsrit · 7 months ago

Note

WHY IS YOUR TAG DANATSCRIT WHAT HAPPENED TO THE F

april fols

#letterbox

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frmartinshomiliesandreflections · 7 months ago

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5th April >> Fr. Martin's Reflections / Homilies for Today's Mass Readings (Inc. John 21:1-14) for Easter Friday: ‘Come and have breakfast’,

Easter Friday

Gospel (Except USA)

John 21:1-14

Jesus stepped forward, took the bread and gave it to them, and the same with the fish

Jesus showed himself again to the disciples. It was by the Sea of Tiberias, and it happened like this: Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee and two more of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said, ‘I’m going fishing.’ They replied, ‘We’ll come with you.’ They went out and got into the boat but caught nothing that night.

It was light by now and there stood Jesus on the shore, though the disciples did not realise that it was Jesus. Jesus called out, ‘Have you caught anything, friends?’ And when they answered, ‘No’, he said, ‘Throw the net out to starboard and you’ll find something.’ So they dropped the net, and there were so many fish that they could not haul it in. The disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord.’ At these words ‘It is the Lord’, Simon Peter, who had practically nothing on, wrapped his cloak round him and jumped into the water. The other disciples came on in the boat, towing the net and the fish; they were only about a hundred yards from land.

As soon as they came ashore they saw that there was some bread there, and a charcoal fire with fish cooking on it. Jesus said, ‘Bring some of the fish you have just caught.’ Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net to the shore, full of big fish, one hundred and fifty-three of them; and in spite of there being so many the net was not broken. Jesus said to them, ‘Come and have breakfast.’ None of the disciples was bold enough to ask, ‘Who are you?’; they knew quite well it was the Lord. Jesus then stepped forward, took the bread and gave it to them, and the same with the fish. This was the third time that Jesus showed himself to the disciples after rising from the dead.

Gospel (USA)

John 21:1-14

Jesus stepped forward, took the bread and gave it to them, and the same with the fish.

Reflections (7)

(i) Easter Friday

Several of Jesus’ first disciples were fishermen on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus called them from their fishing to become his followers, promising to make them fishers of people. When Jesus was crucified and all their hopes in him were dashed, they returned to Galilee and went back to their fishing. Today’s gospel reading suggests that they had lost their touch as fishermen. Perhaps their hearts weren’t really in it. It is hard to go back to what we once did when, in the meantime, we have found something much more fulfilling. Yet, there is a short statement in the gospel reading which would change everything for the better, ‘There stood Jesus on the shore’. The risen Lord would not allow his disciples to go back. He had vitally important work for them to do. He began, however, by helping them with their fishing. His suggestion to throw their nets to starboard resulted in such a huge catch of fish that one of the disciples, the beloved disciple, immediately recognized the stranger on the shore as the Lord. ‘It is the Lord’, he said. Having helped them with their fishing, he then invited them to breakfast, ‘Come and have breakfast’. By very simple gestures, he was drawing them back into communion with himself. They may have abandoned him, but he had not abandoned them nor had he changed his plans for them. The Lord is always standing on the shore of our lives, regardless of what we have done or failed to do. He is always at work from within our own experience drawing us into communion with himself. He remains faithful to us, even when we are unfaithful. Having drawn us to himself, he then sends us out to share in his work of shepherding, the work of serving others in love, and he gives us his Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to empower us to do his work.

And/Or

(ii) Easter Friday

In this morning’s gospel reading we find the disciples returning to their occupation as fishermen. Jesus had called them away from their profession some years earlier. He had called them to follow him and to share in his work of drawing people into God’s kingdom. However, now that Jesus had been crucified, there was nothing to do but go back to what they knew best. They were returning to their past. However, a little bit like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus who were heading in the wrong direction, these disciples were facing in the wrong direction; they were heading back to where they had been. The risen Lord now stood on the shore of the Sea of Galilee to redirect them, to renew the call he had made to them by the Sea of Galilee some years earlier. He first established communion with them, the communion they had broken by abandoning him in the hour of his passion and death. He did so by the simple invitation, ‘Come and have breakfast’. We are often tempted to go back to where we have been, even if it is only in our memories. Yet, the Lord is always calling us forward. Even when we have failed him in various ways, he continues to call us to begin afresh, and to cast our net in a different direction. Our relationship with the Lord always has a future that is full of hope. Easter is a season when we are invited to recognize the Lord on the shore of our lives calling out to us to follow where he is leading us.

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(iii) Easter Friday

John’s gospel draws heavily on the imagery of light and darkness. Only four verses into the gospel we have that ringing declaration, ‘the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it’. That image of light and darkness is there in today’s gospel reading. The disciples are out on the Sea of Tiberias fishing at night, in the darkness. After the disaster of Golgotha, they have gone back to their former occupation. Yet, they seem to have lost their touch; in the darkness of night, they catch nothing, they labour to no avail. Their professional failure on this occasion harks back to their personal failure during the passion of Jesus when they showed themselves unfaithful to him in various ways. The dark night of failure is something we have all experienced in different ways at different times. Yet, with the coming of the dawn, Jesus stands on the shore, although the disciples did not recognize him at first; the light was shining in the darkness. In response to the word of this stranger, the disciples cast their nets again and this time they catch a huge number of fish. The word of the Lord brings light into their darkness, and their labour bears rich fruit. We are reminded of an earlier saying of Jesus in John’s gospel, ‘those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing’. Today’s gospel reading reminds us that the Lord’s light always shines in our darkness, whatever form that darkness takes. We are being assured that our failures need not have the last word. The Lord remains in communion with us, and if we seek to be in communion with him and are open to his word, he will work powerfully to bring new life out of our failures.

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(iv) Easter Friday

In the gospel reading this morning the risen Lord comes to a group of his disciples. All of the disciples in that group had failed him during the time of his passion, except one, the disciple Jesus loved. In spite of their failure the risen Lord comes to them. At the time of his coming they were failing again, failing to catch fish, even though they were experienced fishermen. Jesus came to them in the night of their failure. His presence had a transforming effect on them. In response to his word of invitation, they caught a huge haul of fish and they would soon become fishers of people, sharers in his missionary work. Jesus went on to speak a second word of invitation to them, ‘Come and have breakfast’. He, thereby, entered into communion with those who had broken communion with him. Jesus did not reproach his disciples for their failure. He called out to them, spoke inviting words to them, built communion with them. The Lord relates to us as he related to those disciples. In the dark night of our own failures, the Lord stands on the shore of our lives; he comes to us, not to reproach us, but to speak a life-giving word to us, an inviting word, a transforming word. We pray that we would hear that word of the Lord as spoken to each of us this Easter season.

And/Or

(v) Easter Friday

This morning’s gospel reading makes reference to the shore of the Sea of Galilee. The disciples had an unproductive night of fishing on the Sea of Galilee. The gospel reading tells us that as the darkness of night gave way to the light of dawn, ‘there stood Jesus on the shore’. We could savour that verse, those of us who are fortunate to live on the shore. Wherever we live, by the sea or inland, in beautiful or dismal surroundings, Jesus is always standing on the shore of our lives. Like the disciples in the gospel reading, we don’t always recognize him. Even those who had been with Jesus for the previous couple of years did not recognize him on the shore; they presumed he was dead and that they would never see him again. One of the disciples went on to recognize the stranger on the shore, the disciple Jesus loved, the beloved disciple. After the wonderful catch of fish he exclaimed, ‘it is the Lord’. We often need others to point out the Lord to us. In our sorrow, our brokenness, our sense of failure, we can become blind to the Lord who sees us with eyes of love. It is then that we need someone to show us what we cannot see. This is part of the season we are called to render each other; we can open up each other to the Lord, to reveal the Lord to each other.

And/Or

(vi) Easter Friday

In this morning’s gospel reading we find the disciples going back to their work as fishermen in the aftermath of Jesus’ crucifixion. The journey they set out on when Jesus called them from their fishing by the Sea of Galilee had come to an end. Now they could only go back to where they had been before Jesus called them. There can be times in our own lives when we feel that we have gone backwards rather than forwards in our relationship with the Lord. Perhaps something happens in our lives that undermines our faith and our hope. Yet, in the gospel reading, the journey of faith that the disciples thought had come to an end was, in reality, only beginning. Their Lord who had been crucified was alive with a new and risen life. He came to his disheartened disciples and renewed his call to them. That call took the form of a simple invitation, ‘Come and have breakfast’. It was an invitation to a renewed communion with him. It was that renewed communion which would be the basis of the renewed call to go forth and become fishers of people, shepherds of the Lord’s flock. In those moments when we feel that we have gone backwards and that our faith has grown weak, the Lord comes to us too. As he did for those disciples by the Sea of Galilee, he invites us into a renewed communion with him. One of the ways we respond to that invitation is through our presence at the Eucharist, where the Lord says, ‘Come and eat’. We may drift from the Lord in various ways but he is always calling us back into communion with himself and from that communion he sends us out as his messengers of Easter hope.

And/Or

(vii) Easter Friday

The gospel reading this morning gives us a picture of the disciples beside the Sea of Galilee. It was Easter; the Lord had risen. Yet, it didn’t feel like Easter to the disciples. As far as they were concerned, Jesus was dead, and, so they went back to their fishing, but they seemed to have lost their knack for fishing. They caught nothing that night. Their efforts bore no fruit. There are times in our own lives when, even though it is Easter and the Lord is risen, it does not feel like Easter. Perhaps some important hope we had has been dashed; something we have invested a lot of time and effort in does not come to pass; life is not as we had hoped it would be or expected it to be. Yet, even when it does not feel like Easter in our lives, the Lord is there, just as he was standing on the shore of the Sea of Galilee in the early morning when the disciples seemed very lost. It took one the disciples to recognize the presence of Jesus and to help the others see what he saw, ‘It is the Lord’, he said. Sometimes we need someone else to help us to recognize the Lord in situations where he seems to be absent, someone whose sensitivity to the Lord’s presence is a little stronger than ours is at the time. These are the people who help us to see that all is not as dark as it seems. We thank God for such people in our lives and we ask the Lord to help us to be such a person for others.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

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