#Khan has NEVER been built for anything other than being part of a family

[kelpiemomma]

Thinking about Khan and how he doesn't wake up from nightmares the way people might expect. He doesn't explode from them, swinging and breathing flame in defense. He doesn't wake up screaming.

He wakes up silent. And it's only if you're paying attention that you'll know he's awake. His eyes might open - but with his poor vision, it's not like he can truly see where he's at - and he might draw in a sudden breath. But it's the fact that he stops breathing that's the Sign. It's the way he suddenly goes quiet. Not that he snores or sleeps loudly anyway, but there is one less person making noise in the night.

Ingo isn't often awake when this happens. Very rarely, in fact, because Khan has nightmares almost every night. It's nothing new. Most of the time he will breathe, eventually, and take in the scents of his surroundings. He will realize where he is and use it to ground himself. And if he can't, then he will get up and find something to do until he can pass out from exhaustion and wake up better.

But it happens a handful of times. Ingo is awake when Khan comes to. And sometimes he doesn't realize it, doesn't realize Khan is awake until Ingo himself is returning to bed and looks down as he passes Khan's cot to see his green eyes open and staring at nothing.

But this time he realizes. He's awake, for no real reason, just sitting and listening to the world around him. Akari is snoring after a long day of survey work, Khan is sprawled out on his cot, the nocturnal pokemon are calling to each other in the distance… It's peaceful. Ingo rests with his head on one hand, eyes shut and enjoying it while he can.

And then one sound disappears.

He doesn't realize it's Khan at first, spends a moment trying to figure out what's missing. Akari is still snoring. The pokemon are still calling. Khan sleeps quietly enough that Ingo has, on occasion, put his hand under his nose or over his mouth to ensure he's still breathing. And it's that, knowing how quietly Khan sleeps, that makes ingo realize that Khan's breathing is what missing. That Khan is making no noise at all.

Ingo gets up and goes over to check, because Khan may be a prickly bastard but by now he's Ingo's prickly bastard like Akari is Ingo's daughter, he's part of the family. And sure enough Khan is awake. Eyes open wide. Staring at nothing. Ingo is ready to return to his seat when he realizes Khan is- not breathing. There's a tension to him that is abnormal, despite his nightmares.

So Ingo stays, sits down by Khan's side, and gently touches his hand. Too much touch too fast will wind up with fists flying towards him, so he takes it slow. Khan's hand is a fist. Ingo asks if he's alright, but there's no response. Khan's chest hitches, his breath sporadic for a moment, before a sound like a whine makes its way out of his throat.

And that- is so out of the norm that Ingo is now concerned. He puts a hand on Khan's arm, on his neck, as he leans over to look in the other man's face. Maybe it's the light of the night, but Khan's eyes seem… Shiny.

And this is a bad one. It doesn't take a genius to know that this is far from average. That whatever Khan has just dreamt of has truly, deeply affected him. Ingo pulls him up, pulls him into a seated position, and directs Khan's face to his own neck. Scent is Khan's strong suit, after all, and the best way to help him realize where he's at. Ingo ignores how his shirt gets a little damp- tells himself, for Khan's sake, that Khan is just drooling.

And Khan does what he never does and wraps his arms around Ingo. There's a desperation there, something terrified, and Ingo knows that this isn't something he can do on his own.

"Do you want me to wake Akari up?" He asks, because it never hurts to offer a choice.

"She's asleep." Khan says, which isn't an answer. His voice is hoarse and shakey. Ingo makes the decision for him, then, and extracates himself from Khan. Khan's hands follow him, reaching out, and Ingo is grateful for the first time his home is so small because he can hold onto Khan's one hand while he uses the other to shake his daughter awake.

Akari's snores vanish and she opens one eye halfway, confused. "Dad?" She asks. Her voice is low and thick with sleep. "Whassups?"

"Khan needs our presence. Would you mind joining us?" He says. And it's not the whole truth, but Akari wakes up more. Khan does not, ever, need anything from them. He's like a stray animal, coming to them when he chooses, but fully able and willing to survive on his own. And maybe now he still doesn't need them. If Ingo hadn't been awake, Khan would have laid there until he decided what to do. But Khan isn't making choices for himself, and Ingo knows he needs grounding.

Akari stands and Ingo helps guide her over to where Khan is still sitting. He's turned now, his legs thrown over the side of the cot as he hunches over and stares at the ground. One hand is still in Ingo's.

Akari reaches out, touches his shoulder, and that whine breaks from Khan's throat again. He leans towards Akari, rests his head against her, and then drags her onto his lap. She wraps her arms around his neck because he is gripping her so, so tightly, holding her like she's his saving grace, like if he lets her go the world will end. His shoulders shudder.

Ingo sits next to them, sliding Akari's legs over his own, and leans into Khan's side. He wraps one arm around Khan and is surprised when Khan returns the gesture, releasing Akari with one arm to pull Ingo into his reach. He is not just holding them but clinging. Ingo wonders, but doesn't ask, what he had dreamed about to make him so desperate. Ingo turns into Khan, places his legs over the man's but under his daughter's, and leans into the hold. After a moment, Khan turns his head to shove his nose into Ingo's neck once more. Akari is pressed between them, still holding onto Khan as if her hug will fix him, and Ingo knows they will both stay here as long as Khan needs them, wants them, to.

[lonesomedreamer]

Liveblog: “All Those Who Wander”

In which Star Trek does Alien.

This episode should absolutely have come with warnings for flashing lights and superfluous gore/body horror.

The “end” of Uhura’s tenure on the Enterprise would be more meaningful in a longer season. I know it’s not realistic to hope for 22-26 episode seasons anymore, but even 13 would be better for an episodic, character-driven adventure show than just 10.

This looks bad. In fact, her hair has been getting worse all season. Rebecca Romjin is a beautiful woman, but the hair and makeup people have been doing her no favors (something I’d argue that she has in common with her predecessor in the role, Majel Barret).

“We are bonded now and forever by the family that is Starfleet.” Who WROTE this drivel? I’d love to serve in Starfleet! I love its ideals! But even in TOS, it wasn’t infallible and perfect and One Big Happy Family.

Is “Lieutenant” really the next rank immediately above “ensign”? Genuine question.

Absurdly tiny coffee cups!

I still want to know why they’re always doing dishes on this ship that has technology well beyond that shown on TOS AND how/why the captain has time to do said dishes.

La’an’s actually allowed to show some personality!

As if station wagons would still be a common point of reference in the 23rd century…

“Do NOT make me turn this car around.” Again...these are not references that make sense in the show’s context/setting. They’re in the script solely to cater to a certain portion of the audience. Also, I still don’t find Pike’s “Captain Dad” schtick endearing, sorry.

Sensors don’t reach the planets surface, yet they land the shuttlecrafts conveniently close to the ship they’re rescuing.

“You gotta buy him a drink.” How long has Spock been in Starfleet now…at least five years? They’re constantly explaining Starfleet culture/traditions to him like he’s a cadet. I know he’s a Vulcan, and I know that it’s for the audience’s benefit, but there must be some other character (Uhura being the obvious choice) who can fill that role…

And also: who keeps buying people drinks? Is this just a turn-of-phrase, or what? They’re certainly not paying for anything on the Enterprise, and we never saw them actually pay for anything on TOS even during shore leave.

Wait—they took the CMO and Chapel on this mission? What if people need emergency medical attention back on the ship???

The Peregrine is built with some of the same parts as the Constitution-class ships, but it’s not the same design—so why does it look like a carbon copy of the Enterprise, and why does it have such a small crew compliment in comparison?

This is obviously going to be another Gorn episode, and I already know I’m still going to hate it.

I’ve since read that this was prosthetic makeup, but it looks like bad CGI to me.

They’re really going to make Spock have an awkward expository conversation about Surak and logic with Christine in the middle of a crisis/rescue mission in the penultimate episode of the season?

M’Benga calling the little girl “my daughter” and then catching himself was a nice touch. He should be haunted by his decision.

I love that Christine’s hair is still perfect after everything. Peak TV show energy.

All of this—gore and jump scares and a vicious, non-verbal alien species as the overpowered Big Bad—is so anti-Trek and I hate it!!! :)

As usual, the level of technology here strains credulity (and far outstrips anything on TOS).

Kirk’s big brother is just a peach… McCoy and Spock’s dynamic only worked because Spock gave as good as he got and because the audience knew that Spock considered McCoy a close friend/brother. Watching Sam Kirk be an intolerant ass is just uncomfortable.

COMICAL. Seriously, this is a joke.

So the Gorn are superior (in evolutionary terms) sentient beings…and also mindless, bloodthirsty lizard creatures? Sure.

Gorn-o-vision! This entire episode is impossible to take seriously.

Alluding to Spock’s sacrifice in Wrath of Khan and throwing a “long live and prosper” in does not make this any more like proper Trek. Speaking of WOK, Hemmer’s choice would be so much more meaningful if it were done in a similar setting (since he is, after all, the Chief Engineer…) instead of this throw-away “noble” sacrifice of a death.

Hemmer’s death is also a reminder of how short 10-episode seasons really are, and how little development his character was really given. As badly as her character was handled, even Tasha Yar had more time to grow than Hemmer before she was killed.

“This sucks. I hate funerals.” Ortegas and her quippy remarks being charming and funny and essential to the episode as always…oh, wait.

HUGS!

I actually think it’s really sweet/meaningful for Christine to tell Spock that his emotions “make you human.” I’ve seen some bad-faith interpretations of this scene assuming she’s trying to “push him to be more human,” but I read it as her encouraging him not to deny his inherent humanity, which he’s grown up thinking of as shameful. His humanity isn’t inferior to his Vulcan nature, and he needs to accept it and embrace it if he wants to find peace.

As the child of an alcoholic, I genuinely think Pike has an alcohol problem. He’s been shown drinking a lot in this show.

The Good: La’an gets to show some personality (but only early on)—moral support Spockstine hugs

The Bad: Everything else, lol—Pike makes terrible tactical decisions, repeatedly, beginning with bringing cadets on the rescue mission without knowing any details about the circumstances; the most glaring was letting La’an, who’s barely coping with her own Gorn-related PTSD well enough to function, basically take charge after they discover that they’re dealing with the Gorn—the way this series had handled the Gorn is laughably bad and not at all in the spirit of Trek; they’re treated as monsters rather than sentient enemies who can potentially be reasoned/negotiated with (i.e., the Romulans)—Hemmer’s death was pointless and a waste—they continue to do absolutely nothing with Number One as a character; why is she even on the show at this point?

Overall, this was a poorly-lit and very poorly-written episode full of jump scares, shaky-cam, flashing lights, and needless gore/death. It felt like the antithesis of everything Trek is supposed to be. Here’s hoping the finale is better.

[thatsastepladder]

Sidebar on the topic of hero replacements and legacy, specifically where Marvel is concerned (because DC, being a company that's traditionally built around legacy characters and superhero families far more than Marvel, has a different relationship with the topic). I've been reading Mark Gruenwald's Captain America run lately - the one where John Walker temporarily replaces Steve as Captain America, and I have to say that Walker Cap works for me in a way that most modern Marvel legacy characters don't.

Don't get me wrong, John Walker isn't and never will be Steve Rogers, and I wouldn't have wanted him as Captain America in the long term. But reading the stories, you get the sense that Gruenwald had a plan for where the arc was going - very much unlike modern Marvel, who creates new legacy characters largely for temporary sales boosts and brownie points from the Twitter mob.

John Walker isn't Steve Rogers, and that's the point of his story. He's a good enough Cap for the government's purposes, sure, but he's young and untested and struggles with the weight of the legacy put on his shoulders. He's got the suit and the shield, but he's not nearly as skilled a combatant as Steve is despite having more raw power, and he's far more impulsive and ruthless than Steve ever was.

Meanwhile, when the story cuts back to Steve, now operating as "The Captain" in a black costume since he's been legally forbidden from wearing the colors of the American flag or using the Captain America name, it's demonstrated time and again that with or without the suit and shield, he's still Captain America.

And that's the point.

John Walker is a great character who works very well for me, but his tenure as Captain America solely exists in service of the book's actual protagonist, Steve Rogers. It's there to demonstrate "yeah, the government can strip Captain America of everything that makes him recognizable as Captain America and give it to some other bloke, but they can't make him stop being Captain America in spirit."

The thing that made Marvel distinguish themselves from other comic publishers in the Silver Age was their focus on character. It's what made Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four the successes that they were, and it's the reason that all the most well-remembered DC comics from the 1960s to about 1986 were the ones that imitated Marvel's style of storytelling. People read Spider-Man comics because they were invested in what Peter Parker was up to. They weren't there for the suit and the powers.

And that's what I think modern Marvel doesn't get with all this mantle-swapping they've been doing. It's one thing to say "oh, the old Ant-Man hasn't been Ant-Man for years, here's a new guy who stole the costume and helmet", it's another to say "um... yeah, Clea's Doctor Strange and Sword Master's Iron Fist and there's some random new Punisher and a new teen Falcon nobody cares about because the previous Falcon's Captain America now."

Ultimately, it's about the investment people have built up in the characters - and none of the replacement characters Marvel's offered in the past decade (with the exception of Kamala Khan, one of the most successful new characters in recent memory) have had the capital built up for people to be as invested in them as the characters they replaced.

Riri Williams' introduction was a dumpster fire and it took her getting her own series for the character to be any good. Jane Foster had become such a peripheral part of the Thor mythos when they gave her the hammer that she really didn't have any fans. Falcon is great, but he'd been established as Falcon for over forty years when they made him Captain America, and hadn't really gathered a ton of people who thought anything more about him than "oh, yeah, he's neat" among comic-reading audiences.

You can't just give another person the costume and the powers and say "hey, he's just as good as the original!" when the original is who people were invested in, and who people are there to see. In any other medium, that'd be absurd (never mind that it's happening, just less overt much of the time) and yet in superhero comics, it's the norm now.

1988 Marvel: "Black superheroes shouldn't just take white heroes' cast-off identities, we should be able to stand on our own and be something to be proud of."

2014-present Marvel:

[karanna1]

Supergirl and Andrea are trapped by Leviathan and thrown into a cell together. They’re doing something to suppress Acrata’s powers and Supergirl blew out hers while fighting Leviathan. So they’re not going anywhere anytime soon. What could they possibly find to talk about as a way to pass the time?

The cell was clean, for that she could be grateful, but it was still a depressing grey color and dimly lit. There was nothing in it, not even a chair or a cot. From what Kara could tell, the walls were made of various alien metal alloys. The door must be 10 inches thick, not that it mattered. She’d solar flared after facing Rhama Khan and his minion knocked her unconscious. When she woke, she was still powerless and lying in this cell with none other than her boss and Lena’s friend, Andrea Rojas. The first hour passed in silence, probably mostly due to fear on Andrea’s part. But as the wait continued, boredom set in, and for Andrea, boredom seemed to be easier to focus on than fear.

“Since we’re stuck in here, we might as well find a way to pass the time before our untimely deaths,” she said, brushing some unseen dirt from her skirt.

They were sitting directly opposite each other on the floor, their backs to the uncomfortably cool metal wall.

“We’re not going to die,” Kara reassured in her most confident and level Supergirl voice. “I have friends that will help us. I promise, I will get you out of here safely.”

“Do you make a lot of promises you can’t keep?”

“What?”

“Just trying to figure something out...” she trailed off, tilting her head at her with just a little too much scrutiny. Kara shifted uncomfortably and turned away, looking down. “Okay, I have to ask...what on Earth did you do to Lena Luthor?”

Kara snapped back up. “Excuse me?” Her voice had gone up a few octaves.

She shrugged, tilting her head back against the wall. “I have never seen her show such concentrated rage before and we’ve known each other since we were teenagers.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Lena logged a lot of hours using Obsidian lenses,” she explained. “As in hundreds. Naturally, I was curious what she’d be using them for at such length. Knowing her, I guessed something to do with her experiments, running trials using VR would certainly speed up the process and take out years of work from the beginning stages. Wow, was I wrong. Every single simulation she ran was for sole purpose of hurting you.”

Kara frowned, swallowing hard.

“I mean, Lena’s incredibly creative, I always knew that, but the number of ways in which she assaulted you with such spectacular violence just blew my mind. It’s the kind of thing I’ve only seen from exes on our platform. Ex-husbands get the most horrific ones and almost always deservedly so. I have to know, Supergirl...what could you have possibly done to this Luthor, infamous for her use of icy revenge, to turn her into such a fiery ball of rage?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kara replied dully and got to her feet, arms crossed tightly.

“I’m talking about Lena spending hours upon hours violently beating the crap out of you in a myriad of different ways.”

Kara started pacing. Her jaw clenched.

“There was one where you flew her to some beautiful cliffside to show her the sunset and she kicked you in the chest so hard that you bounced off the mountain the whole way down, leaving a Supergirl shaped crater at the bottom. Another where you saved a family from a house fire, but as soon as they walked away, Lena doused you in gasoline and used a wrecking ball to knock you back into the burning building. The flames were wildly cool. But that’s how good our technology is, of course. Looks and feels like the real thing.”

“Enough!” She stopped and turned on her with a glare, nostrils flaring, made more obvious by how hard she was breathing.

But Andrea was unfazed. “Oh come on! My favorite, and seemingly a favorite of Lena’s as well with how often she ran it, is when you stop a school bus from hitting an adorable group of children. Lena drops some absolutely scathing remarks from what I can tell by your kicked puppy expression, and then she punches you in the face so hard that the force of it sends you flying backwards into the school bus, blowing it up!” She laughed. “God, that was fantastic. I was so disappointed we didn’t manage to recover the audio for any of them. Naturally, Lena customized everything and, despite her efforts to try to keep the footage private, she didn’t know about a little backdoor that we specifically coded into the software for emergency reasons so...lucky me, it’s all on our servers.”

“She...she did that?” Kara asked weakly, deflating. “For hours?”

Andrea nodded with another laugh. “Oh, it’s crazy. I’d be happy to show you them if we do get out of here alive.”

“No, thank you.”

“Suit yourself. But it was interesting to see how someone could get under Lena’s skin like this. Even at her most vulnerable with me, she never turned into...that. Lena shuts down, walls herself off, no emotions, no hurt, that sort of thing. With you...dear God! How did you manage to devastate her like that and yet she can’t even bring herself to hurt you in a virtual reality simulation?”

Kara’s face contorted in bewilderment. “What are you talking about? You just described a bunch of horrible ways that she...fake-killed me.”

“Well, it would have killed any human, of course. But you’re Supergirl. You’d shrug off any of those things. Everyone knows there’s only one thing on Earth that can kill a Super. Lena built each and every one of those simulations herself. She could have easily given herself a gun with Kryptonite bullets, empty the chamber into you, and watch you writhe in agony before you eventually died a horrible death. Or she could have used a sword with a Kryptonite blade and carved you up into tiny bloody pieces. Or—“

“I get it!” Kara cried, holding her hand out. “I get the point! Just stop.” She looked sick to her stomach as she leaned against the wall, head hung low.

Andrea raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think you do. Look, any first year psych major could see through it. Lena had every imaginable way available to make you suffer a long, torturous death a thousand times over in the simulations, but she never did. I don’t know why she bothered with VR when she could have achieved the same thing by putting a picture of your face on a punching bag. In the simulations, you’re always Supergirl. You’re always invulnerable. No matter how terrifically violent it was, no matter how much she seemed to want to hurt you, she couldn’t even manage it in a fantasy world. So tell me...who are you to her, Supergirl? You’re not exactly what I’d call her type, but she’s never been altogether predictable...”

“You’ve got it all wrong. That’s-that’s not—“

“Oh I’m right about this and you know it. You did something absolutely devastating to her, likely betrayed her somehow, and shattered her heart. Was it an affair? Ooooh, was it Kara Danvers? That would be deliciously terrible. Lena is clearly infatuated with that woman. Frankly, I don’t even know why she’d bother with you when she’s pining for Kara.”

“You need to stop. Lena is supposed to be your friend, show her some respect.”

“Am I hurting your feelings, Girl of Steel? You don’t sound very surprised by the mention of the best friend. If you didn’t have an affair with Kara then what did you do to send poor little Lena off into the deep end?”

She glanced at her before turning away. The silence stretched on so long that Andrea was about to give up on it altogether.

“I did betray her,” Kara admitted, barely above a whisper. “I regret it so much.”

Andrea hummed and nodded. “Been there.”

“She’s never going to forgive me, is she?”

“I don’t know what you did, but in my experience, likely not.”

Kara slid to the floor again. A picture of defeat.

“She was in love with you,” Andrea said, gazing at her curiously. “Did you at least know that much?”

“It wasn’t like—“

She scoffed, cutting Kara off. “Either you’re lying to me or you’re lying to us both.”

She blew out a breath and rubbed her forehead. “What makes you so sure?”

“Because I fell in love with her when we were 15. I know all the signs. We had quite a few stops and starts, but it never really fell into place. She loved me, but it wasn’t anything close to what I felt for her. I was always gutted by that, but even then, I still ended up being the one who broke her heart. Poor Lena. She just can’t win, can she? Everyone who loves her is doomed to betray her somehow. She probably thinks she’s cursed. The one person in the world who should never have to feel pain...and it’s all she gets.”

“You sound like you still love her.”

“I do. Always will. But take it from me, Supergirl, there’s no way back. Not with Lena.”

“I just...I can’t let myself believe that. There has to be a way.”

“Then you’ll die trying and she won’t thank you for it.”

Kara eyed her for a long moment.

“What did you do to betray her?”

Andrea gave her a rueful smirk.

“I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.”

Kara was silent.

“Thought so.” She got to her feet and stretched. “Think your friends are going to break us out anytime soon or do I have time for a nap? Don’t want to die or be rescued with bags under my eyes.”

[creepingsharia]

“We Shall Come for Your Head Soon”: Muslim Persecution of Christians, February 2019

‘Muslim men beat and raped a Christian woman and mother of four for leaving Islam. The 41-year-old woman became a secret Christian in 2017; however, threats began after Somali Muslims saw her at a church...’

by Raymond Ibrahim

Massacres of Christians

Nigeria: A number of fatal Islamic terror attacks targeting Christians occurred throughout February:

February 10: Muslim Fulani herdsmen killed 10 Christians and an unborn child.  Armed herdsmen in large numbers had surrounded the Christian village around 11 p.m. the (Saturday) night before. “We heard gun shots, and this forced me and my family to remain in our bedrooms as it was difficult for us to run out of the house,” said one survivor. “The Fulani gunmen surrounded our house and were shooting and shouting, ‘Allahu akbar [God is greater].’ They killed my father, mother, two brothers, and one of my sisters-in-law.”  The attack came as a complete surprise, even for the village head:  “We have never had any misunderstanding with the Fulani herdsmen, so I don’t know why they attacked our village,” he said. “Ten members of my community, including a pregnant woman, were killed during the attack, thus making the unborn child to be the eleventh victim.”

February 12:  In the northeast, Boko Haram jihadis invaded four Christian communities, killing several Christians and displacing many others. “I saw a man who I know to be a Christian and a member of the Church of the Brethren in Shuwa, my home town, shot to death,” said one eyewitness. “Also, Bulama, a community leader in Madagali, was shot dead alongside many Christians.”

February 26: Muslim Fulani herdsmen slaughtered at least 32 people in Maro, a Christian village in north-central Nigeria.  Churches were also damaged and a boarding school shut down. “We ran out of the church building as the shooting was going on,” said a woman who was in a Bible study class when the raid began.  “Many have been killed, and I have not seen my family members since morning. I have escaped out of the area.” Another local Christian said, “The armed herdsmen are shooting anyone they see and are setting fire on houses and church buildings.”

Reported on February 25: Muslim herdsmen attacked a Christian wedding celebration, killing 12 people.  “From behind the hill overlooking this village emerged armed Fulani herdsmen who shot indiscriminately at Christians from various churches here at the venue of the feast,” said one local. “Twelve Christians who are members of various churches were shot dead instantly, while another five Christians were injured.”  Six of those murdered were children.

Burkina Faso: Muslim terrorists slaughtered a 72-year-old Christian missionary in the Muslim-majority African nation. According to the report, “Antonio Cesar Fernandez was travelling with two colleagues from Togo back to their community in the capital Ouagadougou when a group of jihadists stopped their car. After searching the vehicle they made the 72-year get out and took him to a forested area. A few minutes later there was the sound of shots.”  Antonio had been a missionary in Africa since 1982.

Attacks on Churches

Ethiopia: Angry Muslim mobs attacked ten Christian churches. “The incensed crowds comprising Muslim residents of all ages from across the town made their way to the churches chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ after being given false information that a mosque in the surrounding countryside had been fire-bombed,” said a local. “The contents of all the churches were removed from the buildings and set on fire on the street.”  According to the report,

One of the attacked churches, Meserete Kristos Church, has since been vandalized again, and area Christians have faced intimidation and threats…  While Kale Hiwot Galeto church building was destroyed in the Feb. 9 attack, aid workers believe the other nine church buildings were not set ablaze only because of the risk to neighboring Muslim-owned properties.  Municipal police were present during almost every attack but took no action….  More than 9,900 worshippers are estimated to attend the 10 churches. A small number of Christians sustained minor injuries and returned home after receiving hospital treatment, including two that were more seriously injured… Huge amounts of property were destroyed, including Bibles, song books, instruments, benches and chairs….

France:  During just the first two weeks of February, “[a]t least 10 incidents of vandalism and desecration of Catholic churches have been reported in France,” notes a February 15 report. “Vandals in Catholic churches throughout the country have smashed statues, knocked down tabernacles, scattered or destroyed the Eucharist, burnt altar cloths and torn down crosses, among other acts of desecration of religious items.” The St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Houilles was vandalized on three separate occasions in February; a 19th century statue of the Virgin Mary deemed “irreparable” was “completely pulverized,” said a clergyman, and a hanging cross was thrown to the floor.   Similarly, Vandals desecrated and smashed crosses and statues at Saint-Alain Cathedral in Lavaur; they mangled the arms of a crucified Christ in a mocking manner; an altar cloth was burned. “God will forgive. Not me,” the city’s mayor said.  On the very next day, Vandals plundered and used human excrement to draw a cross on the Notre-Dame des Enfants Church in Nimes; consecrated bread was found thrown outside among the garbage.  According to Father Emmanuel Pic from Notre-Dame parish, “Nothing of value has been broken, but it is the intent that is very shocking. This is what characterizes profanation.” The Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe added that “It is our sincere hope that the perpetrators are brought to justice and that awareness of increasing anti-Christian hostility in France reaches the public square.”

Turkey: On Sunday, February 23, threatening graffiti messages were found on the main entrance door of the Armenian Church of the Holy Mother of God in Istanbul. The Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople said in a statement that “There were written racist and hate speeches in both English and Arabic [saying] you are finished!” One Armenian writer shared images of the vandalism on Twitter and wrote, “The walls and the door of the Balat Surp Armenian Church. We built its entrance with rocks from the historical church in İznik [Nicaea], where the council met [Council of Nicaea, 325]…. Now they say, ‘YOU ARE FINISHED.’ There are no local [Armenian] people left. The ‘New Turkey!’” Commenting on this latest church attack, an Armenian Member of Parliament, tweeted, “Every year, scores of hate attacks are being carried out against churches and synagogues. Not just the perpetrators, but also the people who are behind them, should be addressed. For the most important part, the politics that produce hate should be ended.”

Egypt:  Due to the closure of their church in December 2018, Coptic Christians held their third funeral in the middle of the street in February.  They had long tried to get the necessary permits to register their unofficial church, to no avail.  According to the report,

The village currently has no church, but there are approximately 2500 Coptic Christians living there… The police had closed the church in order to pacify the Islamists, who used a nearby mosque’s microphone to rally Muslim villagers against the Christians….  Unfortunately, the situation in Kom al-Raheb is commonplace throughout Egypt. Police frequently cave to the demands of hardline Islamists instead of protecting the right of Christians to freely practice their faith. When churches are closed, Christians are left to worship and hold rites (such as funerals) in the street.

Attacks on Apostates, Blasphemers, and Evangelists

Kenya: Muslim men beat and raped a Christian woman and mother of four for leaving Islam.   The 41-year-old woman became a secret Christian in 2017; in 2018, however, the threats began, after Somali Muslims saw her at a church: “We have known that you are a Christian, and one of us saw you come out of a church on Sunday,” read one message. “If you continue attending the church, then we shall come for your head soon.”  She and her four children, who had also converted to Christianity, quickly relocated. Then, on January 2, four Somali Muslims forced their way into the Christian family’s home: “I was beaten and then raped by four men who threatened me, telling me not to say anything about the ordeal that I went through.  As they left the house at 1 a.m., one of them said, ‘We could have killed you for being a disgrace to Islam and joining Christianity, which is against our religion, but since you are a single mother, we have decided to spare your life with the condition that you should not mention our names.’”

Pakistan: On February 19, four Christian women were falsely accused of blasphemy, prompting “enraged Muslims” to riot and dislocate approximately 200 Christian families from the village.  Problems began when a Christian landlord asked a Muslim couple to leave, because they had been “causing trouble among the Christian families in the community,” to quote locals.  In retaliation, the Muslim wife accused four Christian women—three of whom were the landlord’s daughters—of desecrating a Koran.  “As news of the accusation spread, a mob of enraged Muslims gathered … and attacked several Christian properties, including [the landlord’s] house and a nearby church. The mob killed pets, livestock, and damaged several Christian homes by stoning them.”  Soon after a police investigation began, “it was revealed that Samina Riaz [the Muslim accuser] borrowed a copy of the Quran from Khalid Khan, a nearby shopkeeper,” explained a local involved with the case. “When she reached home, she threw it into a water tub in the restroom. She purposely alleged the Christian women of desecrating the Holy Book of Islam.”  Even though Samina Riaz confessed to framing the Christians, “members of the mob are still refusing to allow Christians to open their churches,” says the report.

Meanwhile, Asia Bibi, a Christian mother who was in prison — and on death row — for nearly a decade, was finally acquitted in late 2018. However, apparently to placate tens of thousands of angry Muslims who rioted and protested all throughout Pakistan, authorities still kept her a prisoner. In a February 9 report, which until very recently contained the latest information concerning Asia’s whereabouts, AP quoted a human rights campaigner in contact with her: he saidthe government had her and her husband locked in a single room where “the door opens at food time only.” She was permitted to make phone calls in the morning and at night, usually to her daughters. “She has no indication of when she will leave…. They are not telling her why she cannot leave.” Because many Muslims have vowed to kill her, “At the moment, she has security, but she could face problems any moment, any time, and it could happen very quickly,” said the contact. Most recently, on May 8, it was reported that Bibi had finally left Pakistan and was at long last reunited with her family in Canada.

Ethiopia: “An Ethiopian police officer was arrested, dismissed and forced to move to another part of the country after he told colleagues about his Christian faith,” says a report.  The 25-year-old man, using the pseudonym of Adane, grew up in Ethiopia’s eastern Somali region, which is “nearly 100 percent Muslim.”  Although he became Christian two years ago, problems for him began when another policeman “recently filed a complaint against him with the Somali State Human Rights Office. He had been heard talking about his newly found Christian faith while in uniform.”  The deputy chairman of the Human Rights Office, an ethnic Somali himself, was reportedly “greatly surprised to discover that there actually was a Christian within the tribe.”  He “advised Adane to return to Islam. Adane refused, claiming a constitutional right to religious freedom. He was then arrested.  Following intervention by the Human Rights Office-chairman, Adane was released, only to find he had been dismissed from the police force. The chairman advised Adane to relocate to another area because he had made too many enemies locally…”

Iran:  February witnessed a significant increase of state sanctioned persecution of Christians.  In the city of Rasht, nine Christians were arrested and detained.  One of them, a pastor who took over after his predecessor was arrested, was himself arrested on February 10, during church service. Although Rasht has had its fair share of persecution—at least three Christians from there recently received a sentence of 80 lashes—“[t]he past month represents the heaviest wave of publicly known arrests in Rasht within the last three years,” says the report.  “It is the policy of the Islamic government not to put thousands of Christians in jail,” explained Dr. Hormoz Shariat, a human rights activist. “Their policy is to arrest a few and put maximum sentence on minor offenses [such as holding church meetings in a home]. They then publicize it in order to put fear in the hearts of Christians. Their strategy is causing fear and isolation.” 

In another incident reported on February 1, five women, former Muslims who had converted to Christianity, were arrested.   One of the women, a 65 year-old, was arrested in her home.  According to the report,  

Authorities confiscated several of her personal items, including electronics and Christian materials (such as Bibles), while searching her residence. She was detained for ten days and interrogated during that time. She was temporarily released after paying a bail of 30 million Toman [$600]. However, she was later charged with “acting against national security.” The prosecutor forced her to visit an Islamic religious leader who offered her the opportunity to return back to Islam.

Another of the apostate women faced the charge of “disturbing public order, propagating Christianity, and connecting with foreign entities.”  If convicted, all these Christians could face up to ten years in prison.

Tajikistan: New amendments to the Muslim majority nation’s religion law are being used to exercise tighter control over its small Christian community. As one February 25 report explains, “Tajik authorities implementing a new religion law are barring children from attending religious [church] services and have burned [five] thousands of calendars with Bible verses.” 

Hostility for and Violence against Christians

Germany: On February 15, “in the multicultural district of Berlin Neukölln, a Christian from Iraq was hit in the face by a Muslim … and threatened with a knife because of a Christian tattoo,” said a February 17 report (in translation).  Two men approached the 27-year-old Iraqi Christian, “on account of his religious tattoo,” and demanded money.  “He did not comply with this request, whereupon one of the unknown held him and the other beat him several times in the face,” while drawing out a knife.  The Christian eventually managed to escape.  One of the two assailants were arrested.  According to the police report, “The arrested person claims to be of Muslim faith.”

-------------------------

Read it all, and years worth of previous reports, at the link below.

[nehawriter16]

5.11.19 - my life is falling apart and other updates.

Hello internet.

Just wanted to talk today. I like Tumblr because not many people I know follow me on here. Also there isn’t a word limit, and sometimes a girl just wants to rant.

So this is me releasing all my thoughts into the world today.

1. ACADEMICS

I quit chartered accountancy. Just woke up one day, and told my parents I couldn’t do it anymore. That was a long week at home, and I know they’re disappointed in me. All along I’ve been a bright student, somebody who never disappointed and they could brag about at dinner parties. But this course cut me open. It hurt me, it sent me crumbling and it dragged me through hell. In the movie Dear Zindagi, Alia Bhatt is in therapy and Shahrukh Khan tells her that sometimes we keep doing the hard thing because we think we have to. And we forget that its okay to pick an easy way. I guess that’s what I’m doing. I’m choosing the easier way because the harder way made me unhappy, it made me unhappy to the point where I didn’t want to be alive anymore.

So the new plan is that I will give my GRE and apply to Masters in Finance courses in the US. Preferably in the STEM field, because its easy to get a work visa after graduating if you’re a STEM graduate. Do I think this is the perfect career path for me? No, absolutely not. But do I think it will do me good to finally move the fuck out of home, have a change of continent, meet some new people, and have the college experience I always felt I missed out on? Yes.

So this is what we’re doing. My GRE is in 12 days. I am barely prepared.

2. DRIVE/PASSION

I always had a passion for writing. I knew when I discovered it that it not only brought me joy, but I was pretty damn good at it. Unfortunately being brown, and coming from a family of people who had all built their career from scratch by making practical decisions, because they didn’t have a choice due to their humble backgrounds, I was always told that writing was a futile thing and would just be a hobby, not something to be looked at as a career option. I disagreed. Having made a bit of money from it now, I still disagree.

But I’ve been brought up in the lap of luxury and I have a pretty high standard of living. I like my weekly Starbucks and I go to bars that don’t have happy hours. I enjoy the bimonthly staycation in a fancy hotel, and I hate repeating outfits and thoroughly enjoy fashion, so I’m always buying new clothes. It makes me happy to look good.

So yeah, I agree that since I haven’t had the liberty to pursue writing full time, I haven’t yet found a way to make a living from it. Maybe it’s a risk, and a back up plan is advisable. But all I know is writing is the only thing I feel like waking up to do. Even now, when my life is falling apart, it’s the only thing that makes sense to me.

Growing up I was always a hardworking student. And if I wasn’t, my Mom made me that way. She would yell if I got bad marks, and she always encouraged that I at least be in the top ten in class. Even the school I went to was pretty much only concerned with academics. And so due to the environment and brainwashing, I did well. I stayed in the 90 percent lane all my life, all the way up to twelfth grade. In my junior college I had two of the worst years of my life. I was molested by my co caption for months on end, and I couldn’t escape him. It was constant mental, emotional and physical turmoil, more so because I couldn’t tell anyone. Despite how insanely difficult it was to spend six hours every day in the place where my molester showed up every day, I still managed to keep my grades high. I scored 92 percent, and my parents were happy.

I had no passion for finance, but since I had proved to be so bright, my parents said the only thing to do now was four years of Chartered Accountancy. After that, my life would be sorted. I passed the first level by studying for 2 months, while other people attended classes for a year. I passed the second level too. I got into one of the biggest global multiconsulting firms in the world for my internship, and my parents were happy. My life was on track, and it didn’t matter that I was crying in the cabs home from work because I was so miserable. It didn’t matter as long as the plan was being followed. After all, the plan was being followed and I was so goddamn close to the finish line.

Two years into my internship I decided I needed to quit, or at least shift to a smaller firm. The pressures in this one were too much and I was so sad I could barely make it out of bed. So I told my parents I needed to study for my finals, and they got me out of it. My mental health was derailing – but oh boy, was this just the beginning. I moved to a smaller firm and pretended to stay home on the weekends and study. Instead, all I did was lay in bed with YouTube videos playing on loop because I couldn’t bear to be alone with my thoughts.

2017 was the year my boyfriend broke up with me too, so all kinds of shit was hitting the fan at the same time. I was fucked up in every way. I started using alcohol to fall asleep, to wake up, to do pretty much anything actually. To engage in social situations, I’d carry around a quarter in my bag and drink it in the cab. It eased my anxiety and helped me smile at people in a more convincing way.

2018 sucked. So did 2019. These two years are a blurry flatline in my head. I have been drowning like the ground I walk on is quicksand, and the more I struggle to get out, the more it pulls me in. When I look back at my life’s work in the past two years, I see nothing. Nothing that counts as an achievement anyway.

I wasted them while everybody else was putting in the work to get into ivy league schools or pass exams, get their first real jobs kickstarted. I lay in bed and watched every tv show there was to watch with the curtains drawn. I ran through horrible men and gave my body up to practical strangers that I felt nothing for, and the ones I liked left me, like they always do. Yeah, I wrote two books. Made enough money to support my alcohol addiction, my shopping habits, my vacations and staycations. I blew it all off on the temporary ride of whatever would bring me happiness in the moment.

I lost myself. I lost myself to illness and addiction and worthless friends and denial. I’m still lost. I used to have a drive in my body, something that said wake up and get things done today. Instead, I’ve been doing the zombie shuffle through my own life. Sometimes I wake up and my first thought is – “How long till this day is over.” I count the hours until I can crawl back into bed, till its an acceptable time to go to sleep. Because the only place I don’t feel like my brain has a fucking dense fog rolling through it is when I’m sleeping.

I used to be brilliant, and I’ve lost my shine. I’ve lost my willpower, my ability to be the hardest working person in the room. I have gotten self destructive to the point where I procrastinate and procrastinate and then it’s too late for everything. I am so fucked up, you have no idea.

I don’t know what I should do to bring that feeling of wanting to do something perfectly back. You know, the feeling of studying so hard you know everything on the test. The feeling of being the best, no questions asked. The feeling of answering questions in class and submitting assignments on time and just…enjoying the process of academia that I used to love so much. But I guess in depression, your brain sort of grows old and tired. It can’t remember things. It doesn’t want to move, or think, or do anything difficult.

My memory is deteriorating and the moments I’m supposed to remember and the information I should retain? It gets lost more often than not. And I am so scared to assess the scale of this incompetency that I just don’t even try because whenever I do, it’s all so overwhelming and all the trauma from Chartered Accountancy comes swirling back to hit me in the head.

3. BODY IMAGE

As a result of my constant sadness, I had to find ways to make myself happy. The periods of happiness lasted for a short while, but I rode the highs to the fullest because I knew the darkness would be back eventually. I turned to alcohol and marijuana and nicotine, to the point where every three or four days I would need one or the other, if not all three in combination. I would drink every night to be able to fall asleep. In my cupboard there is a special collection of all the wine bottles that have acted as sleeping pills.

I also began to eat junk food, because carbohydrates make you happy before they make you feel like shit. All addictions are like that, actually. Swiggy was my best friend, and my array of lovers : greasy Chinese, McDonalds, any dessert place – just whatever was bad for your skin, fattening, but would be brought to you by a wonderful man on a bike no matter what the weather was, and was easy to eat and throw all evidence of out later and forget that somewhere on my body, this food would settle into another ugly layer.

In the middle I got sick of myself and went to the gym, started going at it hard. My body improved and the endorphins were definitely helping, but a few months in I stopped waking up. My brain said it didn’t want to anymore, and I, the slave to my depression, caved and listened. I haven’t been since. The swiggy orders keep coming in every day and I keep throwing the containers into the trash, changing quickly from one outfit into another so I don’t have to see what I look like naked.

But I know. I somehow hate myself for the disgust I have for certain parts of my body, and then for the part of me that knows it wants to “fix” them all, but is in constant battle with the part of me that says I shouldn’t feel guilty for taking up space or for being a curvy girl. But body positivity isn’t about a number on a scale, its just about whether you like your reflection in the mirror, whether it makes you happy. Mine hasn’t made me happy in a long time. But then again, what the fuck has?

Sometimes I’m in trial rooms with harsh lighting and I just stare at myself and call myself horrible names. I keep the lights off when boys come over and the clothes come off. I keep saying, “I have to lose 10 kgs,” but I keep ordering from Swiggy every time a depressive episode rolls in to make it go away.

I keep setting deadlines, like, “After this month, I will cut out sugar!” and “After this exam, I will go back to the gym!” but then I fuck up and I’m like, oh well. Maybe next month.

The bottom line is I despise my body and the way it’s started to look. It doesn’t help that my Instagram feed is full of women with perfect skin, defined abs, and perky butts with chiselled features. I want all of that. I want to feel beautiful, and beautiful is hard work. Which, of course, my brain pines after, but never actually lets me get out of bed to do.

4. DATING/LOVE

My last serious relationship ended in 2017. I briefly dated somebody exclusively in the beginning of 2019, but he turned out to be the biggest asshole of them all, and “didn’t realise” he was using me to get over his ex-girlfriend. He broke up with me over text, pretty much cheated on me, didn’t even explain himself until I found out from some mutual friends. After that I was done, I couldn’t take love anymore. I couldn’t let anybody in because every relationship I’ve ever been in has ended with me being the second choice or me being dumped or betrayed and left hurt and broken for years.

The trauma is too much. So I decided I was never going to let anybody leave me again or enter my life and find a permanent place in it. I became the biggest fuckboy of them all, despite my conscience that has always been a good, kind and sensitive thing. This player thing really isn’t for me, but it was fun for a while to trump boys and play mind games and make them feel inadequate about themselves, to stand them up and never call back and ask them to leave my house after I had gotten what I wanted, to only call when I wanted it again.

I purposely picked out the worst, baddest ones. Then I tamed them by being even worse than they were. In May I began speaking to somebody who was fun and hilarious and good looking and well off and who made my brain feel alive again. Every time he texted me I caught myself smiling, and all our conversations consisted of saying witty sarcastic things to each other. We went on one date and he kissed me in the car, but for some reason in real life his life was so different from mine, that I declared the kiss good (he put his hand in my hair and grabbed, in a non hurtful but very I’m-super-into-this way, ooofff) and the date a disaster. I don’t know whether I was just in denial of my now strongly sprouting crush, or whether I actually hated it.

As the months passed, I tried to get him to go out with me again. I’m not much of a pursuer, because I have always been the one who gets pursued. But this boy was different. We would talk a lot over DM and we would make fun of each other and his life was fabulous and exciting and I watched from the outside, and built him into a much grander version of who he is in real life. I do that. What made him even more attractive was that he didn’t want me, and I couldn’t figure out for the love of God why not. I thought I was the whole package, and I even started to act out a little bit in the psycho way he told me he liked his women, which is SO TOXIC but I had actually felt something for somebody after so long that I didn’t even backtrack. Anyway, it soon became clear that it was not going to lead anywhere because he just disappointed me, didn’t show up, and my ego took a hit. I let it go, mostly. Or I will, as time passes.

I think I deserve love. Not the makes you feel good and carries your bag when its heavy kind. I deserve the love that I am ready to give – the grand romantic gestures that would be so dumb, but somehow he makes them work. The cant live without you love. The we’re best friends and teammates and nothing, not even distance, not our past demons, will keep us from making it work. I want the kind of person who is so sure of who they are, so internally confident, and so absolutely sure that I am their soulmate that I convinces me. I don’t want to meet a lot of wrong boys, goddamnit. I’ve done my fair share of the wrong boys, I’ve paid my dues for the amount of hurt one person is supposed to have. Now I just want the right one.

Deep down, I know he’s not here. Not in this city, because that would just be a cruel joke. Imagine meeting your soulmate and then having to go to college in six months. Fucking shit. If the universe even pities me a little bit, it wont do that to me.

I sometimes wonder if my life only stays on track if my romantic life is going well. I mean, when I dated my last serious boyfriend, I had it all – I was skinny. I had a prestigious internship. I was passing my exams. The writing was flourishing. This is a very scary thought, because I don’t want to depend or co exist on somebody else for my happiness in any way. But I cant deny the fact that my entire life fell apart when that last boy, who I loved with all my heart, broke up with me. It hasn’t been quite the same since.

His life is going spectacularly well, though. Lots of women and a great job and enough money to buy plane tickets to different cities to meet these women when he wouldn’t even drive down three hours to see me in a neighbouring town. I hate how unfair life is. He’s found some amazing people that he has feelings for, that like him back, even though he’s the one who broke my heart. And I still haven’t found a single person who even makes it to the second date, and the only one who did was just using me as a placeholder while his cheating ex girlfriend took a vacation from their relationship. So how the fuck is that fair? Am I being given the worst kind of experiences because my broken heart produces a special brand of my best writing? If yes, then I’m tired. I’d rather be a mediocre writer, but I cant spend my whole life being abandoned and cheated on and dumped and taken for granted, especially when the kind of love I can give is loyal and abundant and pure.

  That’s it. Those are my issues, or some of them. Honestly I’m tired of typing and want to retire to my safe space that is my bed, and the deep dark comfort of unconsciousness. I just thought I might feel better if I could release this into the world, before I feel a little better and write another post manifesting what I envision my life to be next year.

If you made it to the end, you truly love me and care for me. Thanks for sticking with me, I guess. I hope things get better. I used to say that the good thing about rock bottom is that there’s nowhere to go but up. I wish there was some kind of tracker that told you when you’d actually hit rock bottom, because all I do is keep on fucking sinking deeper and deeper.

[beingallelite]

Nearly twenty years after the end of the “Monday Night Wars,” the landscape of professional wrestling is on the precipice of a massive shift.

The catalyst for the seismic change is All Elite Wrestling, the upstart company founded by Tony Khan, son of Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan, and professional wrestlers Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega and Matt and Nick Jackson — better known as the Young Bucks.

After holding four shows — two pay-per-views and two free events — all eyes will be on the upstart wrestling company this week as it debuts its live television program, titled “Dynamite,” on TNT.

“I guess you could say there are a lot of nerves because going live you face that fact that anything could happen,” Nick Jackson told Yahoo Sports. “You just never know if something wrong is going to go down, like someone getting hurt. Knock on wood, hopefully everyone just kills it and we have a great time. We’re just hoping everything goes right.”

The birth of All Elite Wrestling

Wednesday night represents a culmination of a months-long effort by the Bucks, Omega, Rhodes and Khan, among others. On the heels of their successful independent show, “All In,” in August 2018, the group announced the creation of All Elite Wrestling in January and the buzz immediately started.

What started as a conversation on his back patio between Matt Jackson, his wife and Khan had finally become a reality.

“With the feedback right away we knew it was something that could be big,” Nick Jackson said. “As soon as we announced Chris Jericho, then people knew this was real and it could be as big as anything we’ve seen over the past 20 years. Right off the bat we knew. When we hit a home run with [May’s event] ‘Double or Nothing,’ that was further proof that this was going to be the next alternative.”

While the concept of All Elite Wrestling kicked into high gear over the past nine months, the Jacksons recognize that their YouTube series, “Being the Elite,” served almost as a training ground for the production aspect of AEW.

“I don’t think we would have ever guessed that it would get this big,” Matt Jackson said. “When we first started it, it was just a fun little project that was Nick’s idea to document our day-to-day activities for the fans to help us connect on a more personal level. The fact that it became what it became is really crazy to us. We’re hoping to keep it around.”

Since its inception in 2016, “Being the Elite” has grown to include several other members of All Elite Wrestling’s roster and has served as a conduit to further storylines in between events. As AEW grew, inching closer to the October debut, the Jacksons’ responsibilities expanded and ultimately, the brothers admit that the hit series may change.

“We’re hoping to keep it around,” Matt Jackson said. “I don’t know what that means though exactly, it will depend on what our schedule looks like. We have a huge following, it’s too big to just go away. I think we’ll be going through a transitional phase here soon while we figure out what ‘BTE’ will look like.”

‘My sleep schedule hasn’t been great’

The biggest adjustment for the Jacksons has been juggling dual roles. In addition to being two of the marquee talents on AEW’s roster, the brothers serve as executive vice presidents for the company.

It’s one thing to have to prepare for your own match ahead of a show, it’s an entirely different beast to ensure every aspect of the production is firing on all cylinders.

“I’m learning that it was a lot easier just being a wrestler, especially with this whole project,” Matt Jackson said. “The biggest adjustment for me has been being on the phone every second of the day, trying to be a dad also. Trying to stay fit, trying to do all of my other daily things.”

“A few months into this my phone never stopped ringing and I never stop getting text messages. It’s been a non-stop work pace since June. I love it, but at the same time I will admit that of course I’m struggling with balance. We’re an upstart but I have my own family too. Juggling a billion things at once, my sleep schedule hasn’t been great.”

Juggling their time is just one part of the equation for the Jacksons.

As All Elite Wrestling continues to grow, there’s inevitably going to be the perception that if they are continuously booked at the top of the card that the Jacksons — along with Rhodes and Omega — are putting themselves “over.”

The Jacksons are attempting to squash the issue before it starts.

“That’ll always be a concern,” Nick Jackson said. “Matt, myself and Kenny, we’ve made this a rule where you cannot talk about our position in the office on camera. You’ll never hear about anything that we do outside of being in the wrestling ring when you watch an episode on TNT. The only way you’ll know that is if you’re really a true insider, a huge wrestling fan and we want to keep it that way.

“If we’re the most popular act on a show, then that popular act should win,” Nick Jackson continued. “If we aren’t getting the biggest reaction, we should lose. We just have to know better and what’s right and wrong. I feel like Matt and I are pretty thoughtful in a selfish business.”

Making a place for tag-team wrestling

The Jacksons are one of the best — if not the best — tag teams in the world, so it’s no surprise that All Elite Wrestling is placing a huge emphasis on the format.

The early success of “Dynamite” will hinge on a number of factors, but one of the most important will be the tag-team tournament that will inevitably crown the promotions first champions.

“We’ve always fantasized — we never thought we’d get to do it — but if we had the book, we would make tag-team wrestling a priority,” Matt Jackson said. “Every team that you see with us, they were hand-picked by Nick and I. We’ve either worked with them elsewhere or have been watching them. We asked ourselves, ‘Who are the teams we want to work with?’ We figured, if we could have a good match with these wrestlers, the other teams could as well. A lot of it was almost selfish, us saying, ‘Who can we tear the house down with? OK, sign them.’”

There’s obviously an old-school feel as AEW goes up against WWE — by far the biggest competitor in the wrestling industry — but putting tag-team wrestling front and center is a sign that the company hopes to take the business even further back than the “Monday Night Wars” of the 1990s.

“Tag-team wrestling historically has been big box office,” Matt Jackson said. “In the old territory days, the Rock ‘N’ Roll Express was the main event in every town. It was clearly something that worked. Even as recently as the TLC era, Matt and Jeff Hardy were the biggest box office draw in tag-team history. They’re brothers, there’s a lot of parallels. I don’t know why it hasn’t shined as brightly in the past 20 years, but it’s time for it to take its spot back.”

With teams like the Young Bucks, Lucha Bros. and SCU, among others, it won’t be difficult for AEW to sell tag-team wrestling. Anyone who has watched a match involving these teams knows that there is no shortage of death-defying and jaw-dropping spots.

While some teams may alter their style with the move to weekly television — there’s a belief that wrestlers want to save certain moments for bigger shows — don’t expect that in the early going from the Jacksons.

“Matt and I have built a career off doing everything every day and every show,” Nick Jackson said. “I don’t think we’re going to change that philosophy. You might see that change with other wrestlers, but Matt and I are going to go into it thinking, ‘Let’s do what we do and keep doing what got us to the dance.’ Maybe during commercial breaks we’ll take it a little more easy.”

“Now is not the time to hold back,” Matt Jackson said. “Now is the time to show the world what we’re capable of. This may be the moment where everyone wants to sample our product and we may just have 15 seconds to gain some viewers when they are flipping through the channels. Now it’s the time to show the world what AEW looks like.”

And if fans are hooked, they’ll get to see tag-team wrestling in the biggest time slots.

“I don’t want anybody to be surprised when tag-team matches headline and main event a bunch of our shows,” Matt Jackson said. “There’s nothing more beautiful than a good tag-team wrestling match.”

The billion-dollar question

AEW is far from the first wrestling promotion to try and compete with Vince McMahon and WWE.

After Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling and Paul Heyman’s Extreme Championship Wrestling were purchased by McMahon, the wrestling landscape has been dominated by WWE.

Smaller promotions such as Ring of Honor, Pro Wrestling Guerilla, New Japan Pro Wrestling and Total Nonstop Action have all operated over the past 20 years, but none has gained a large enough share to truly pose a threat to McMahon’s behemoth.

With AEW debuting on TNT — the same channel that aired “Monday Night Nitro” in the 1990s — things feel different. WWE has also moved its NXT brand, which more closely resembles the independent-adjacent style that AEW will have, to air on Wednesday nights in the same exact time slot as “Dynamite.”

“Of course [competition] is a conversation [we have],” Matt Jackson said. “I feel like the entire group of guys, we’re all so tunnel-visioned on what our idea is and what we want our show to look like, we have a vision of what we want AEW to be and we can’t stray too far away from that.

“Obviously, it’s smart to survey, see what the competitor is doing and what’s clicking or not clicking. A lot of this is going to be organic. If one week they are putting on something similar to what we have planned, maybe we change that. If they have a huge match planned and we didn’t, maybe that changes things. I think all it does is breed competitive nature in all of us, makes us all step up our game and put on the best show possible. It’s corny, but the fans win in all of this.”

At the end of the day, AEW’s ability to compete will boil down to the in-ring product and its production value.

Although the members of the AEW roster have vast experience in the professional wrestling world, there’s a significant difference between working on the independent circuit and putting on a live television program every week.

“We need to learn how to tighten up the show and tell our stories in 90 minutes,” Matt Jackson said. “The other thing is it’s going to be on live television, so we’re working with commercial breaks. I think we will gain our footing. This is all new to us and we’re a brand new company. We’re expecting hiccups but the best thing will be for us to pivot from those things and learn from our mistakes. We’re learning on the job but we also think we’re the most qualified team.”

Much like wrestlers calling a match in the ring, everyone involved in AEW will also need to be able to change things on the fly.

“We have an idea of where we want to go, but we also have to be ready to switch gears,” Matt Jackson said. “In wrestling, things just kind of organically happen. I always use this example, but we didn’t have a clue that after doing four shows that having a guy who dresses up as a dinosaur be one of our most over acts. Happy surprises happen. One thing we need to be ready to do is shift things and go with the flow.”

Saying goodbye to the old Young Bucks

In August, the Jacksons said goodbye to the independent circuit with a main event match against Private Party in Queens, New York. The show, put on by House of Glory, was in a venue that held maybe 1,000 people.

For comparison, “Dynamite” will take place at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. — a 20,000-plus seat venue that sold out in minutes.

“The one thing Matt and I will certainly miss is how close we were to that fan base,” Nick Jackson said. “We’re not leaving them, but it felt so intimate, being in a smaller venue.”

It’s not just moving to a bigger venue for the Jacksons, it’s leaving behind the part of the business that helped make them who they are today.

“It’s an environment for being able to really thrive, be creative and try new things, take risks,” Matt Jackson said. “That’s one thing I miss. Every match we have there’s a lot of pressure, it’s high stakes, we have to hit a home run every time. It felt good to do independent shows because that’s where we really crafted our act and created these characters that everyone has come to love now.

“[Now we’re] realizing that that part of our career is over and I’m not sure if it has really sunk in for us.”

On arguably the biggest night of their careers on Wednesday, it will.

[animeraider]

I want to talk to you a moment about fear.

I wrote this a couple of weeks ago, and then just as I was about to publish it we had a slew of mass shootings, including one in my own geographical back yard, at a festival I've attended with my family. It seems to me that being afraid of gun violence is the one exception to my entire essay, and it does poke a big hole in it. We can't be afraid to close that hole. So here is that essay. +++++++++++++++++++++ I have said for a very long time now that the only useful place for fear in on Rollercoasters. Maybe horror movies. That it. Nothing else. But I want to dig deeper on that theme for a moment, if you don’t mind.

For getting on close to 2 decades now, there has been a political party in this country that has wanted you to be afraid. Usually it’s to be afraid of Muslims, terrorists, foreigner… anything other. They want you to believe that crime is getting worse. They want you to believe the country is financially unstable. They want you to believe there is a gay agenda that will change your life for the worse. A Trans-gender agenda. An Atheist agenda. A war on Christmas. Fear of packages in the mail. Fear of people in black communities, with their high crime rates. Fear of immigrants and the crime they bring. Fear of cartels and gangs that don’t even have a presence in this country. Fear of the Deficit. Fear that higher taxes will kill the economy. Fear that Iran is building an atomic bomb. Fear that the government will take over your healthcare. Fear that the government will take your guns. Fear that the government will take your freedoms.

This really ramped up after 9/11. I won’t kid you, that was awful. Grotesque. I can remember every damned moment of it – feeling genuinely in shock but being brave for my children, who were frightened out of their wits. Grabbing my children from their schools. Picking up my wife from her teaching job and the protocols that say that teachers needs to stay at their posts can go fuck themselves. Hunkering down and wishing it were all over. Thinking about the flight originally bound by my adopted hometown, and our own skyscrapers. It was awful and it opened a horrific wound.

Thing is, when do we get to heal? Why do we need to stay afraid? How can we possibly heal if we’re still afraid?

I’m asking that all of you please, stop being afraid. We’re not the greatest country in the world anymore but we sure used to be. We dreamed big, accomplished even bigger, and created the world’s next great adventures. We don’t do that anymore.

Fear is holding us back. Fear of the other. Fear of the world and how different it is from us. Yeah, we got hurt, badly hurt, but it’s time to heal. It’s time to stop being afraid to heal. It’s not easy, and I don’t deny that. But let me offer you a few notions about fear that maybe you haven’t considered.

I’m not afraid of Muslims. They’ve been part of this country going back to its very foundation. There are more Muslims in the world than there are Americans and there always has been. 9/11 didn’t change that. We’ve been fine with Muslims. Sharia Law isn’t being introduced anywhere in this country. It’s just not. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying, and wants you afraid. If Muslims were such a big problem why are we as a nation so damned friendly with Saudi Arabia? Senegal? Pakistan? Morocco? Singapore? Egypt? Kuwait? Morocco – the first country to recognize the United States as an independent country (1786), and with whom we maintain the longest single treaty in US History?

A Muslim named Fazlur Tahman Khan (an American) invented the engineering system that allows skyscrapers to be built, including the Twin Towers, Sears Tower in Chicago and even the Trump International Hotel and Tower in the same city. He also built the Metrodome. A Muslim named Ernest Hamwi invented the Ice Cream Cone at the 1904 World’s Fair (Martha Stewart has published his original recipe too).

I’m not afraid of terrorists. I actually know someone who died on 9/11 and I completely understand the anger, the fear. I’ve felt it. It’s a physical thing you can feel and touch. But you know what? The country seems to have learned its lesson about how to anticipate this sort of thing. I’d like to think we can relax now. There are people whose jobs are to be vigilant and they’ve been successful since that awful day 2 decades ago. I think we can relax. And if I’m wrong? What’s the point of dying scared? Laugh at death – it’s going to laugh back. Don’t take life so seriously, it was never meant to be permanent.

I prefer to think of them simply as criminals. In addition to not being afraid, don’t make them important.

I’m not afraid of foreigners. I want to see the world, and see the differences and the similarities in other cultures. I want them to be our partners on this pale blue dot. Being afraid of the rest of the world seems just so… lonely. We’re not built for lonely. You’re here, reading this right now, aren’t you? Lonely makes people into monsters thanks to the echo chamber that is our own brains and we must be better than that.

I’m not afraid of crime. Despite all the crime shows on television, cable and podcast crime is actually way down, and is trending down. Even the FBI says so. I’m not afraid of the country being financially unstable. Yes, we have good days and bad days but overall the country is still the largest economy on the planet and will continue to be for a long time unless we intentionally intervene to make it worse. We have safety nets we didn’t use to have. Social Security isn’t going broke. Nowhere close. We have plenty of money. It does, however, need a slight adjustment in who is holding on to it.

I’m not afraid of gays. For the most part, every gay person, every Trans person I have ever met has wanted only one thing – for everyone else to not care that they’re gay or trans. Or anywhere else on the non-binary spectrum. It doesn’t affect you in any way whatsoever. The LGBTQA agenda in schools? Mostly it teaches that it doesn’t matter. Can you stop being afraid of this? Yeah, some religions say that this is a sin but can you stop being afraid of it long enough to take to heart one great lesson in that book of yours? Even if you believe it’s a sin, you love the sinner. That’s it. Stop there. Never, never, never add hate to that. “Love the sinner, Hate the sin” isn’t in the Bible, the Koran or the Torah. Anything further isn’t religion – it’s justifying what you’re afraid of; most likely yourself.

(As a side note, for those of you who use the Bible to justify your fears of these people, I find it hilarious that you keep using the parts of the Bible written by the Romans after they co-opted Christianity. But who am I to judge?)

I’m not afraid of Atheists for the same reason. You know what they want? For everyone else to not push their own agenda on them, just like you don’t want someone else’s agenda forced on you. The Constitution is quite clear on this – no religion will be established by the state. Atheists would like you to support this very American ideal. That’s it.

There is no war on Christmas. There simply isn’t. Atheists exchange gifts too, because it’s nice to do.

I’m not afraid of packages in the mail. Yeah, there was some scary stuff sent out just after 9/11, but the number of people who got those packages/envelopes can be counted on one hand, and it isn’t your hand.

I’m not afraid of black neighborhoods. Crime really isn’t any higher in black neighborhoods than it is in white ones, not when the economics are taken into account. When people have money crime goes down, regardless of the color of one’s skin. Go to any white community where they income levels and cost of living are the same as any similar black neighborhood and you’ll find that the crime rates are just about equal. But the people trying to keep you afraid are white, and black is part of “the other”. There are good people living in those neighborhoods. Kind people. People who would help you.

Stop calling the police on black people. Stop being afraid. Be kind.

I‘m not afraid of immigrants or any crime. Yes, a couple of stories have been sensationalized, but statistically immigrants cause less crime than those of us born here. I’m not afraid of them taking our jobs. If the jobs are there and you want them, apply for them. Those jobs they’re taking are jobs you didn’t want, and they’re there. Immigrants tend to work hard, because they want what we used to be, and what they believe we can still be.

Fear of foreign gangs? Seriously? This might surprise you but MS13 members haven’t been making it across the border. You don’t find them in our detention camps. That’s because they’re not here.

Fear of the deficit? Nope, just can’t do it. Not when the political power who wants you to be afraid stops caring about it when they’re in power, and starts caring about it when they’re not. Besides, when they are it balloons, and when they’re not it decreases. Almost like they’re the cause or something.

I don’t fear higher taxes. Most people simply don’t make enough money where changes in the marginal tax rate will even touch them. Will it destroy the economy? No. The economy could change though. If money gets returned to the lower classes they’ll spend it. The economy should actually get better. The economy was great when Eisenhower was President. When Kennedy was President. We built highways. We went to the moon. You know, when taxes were higher.

Taxes, right now, are lower than they have been in your entire lifetime. Unless you’re over 90 years old.

Iran isn’t building an atomic bomb. They could, if they’re not engaged with. Obama realized this and got them to stop. I’m not afraid on Iran. But some people haven’t recovered from the wound given us in 1979 by Iran. Trump may just be one of them. His National Security Advisor certainly hasn’t.

I don’t fear the government taking over my health care. I’d kind of rather they did so, actually. My mother has Medicare and they’ve treated her better than my doctors sometimes treat me. Her healthcare also costs one hell of a lot less. If we move to a system like the one Canada has then yes, your taxes will be higher. But your healthcare costs will be lower. Much lower than how much your taxes go up. I’d say that’s a trade to not be afraid of.

I don’t fear the government taking your guns. I’d actually be quite happy if they did it but that’s a conversation for another time. It’s simply not going to happen. We do need to have an honest conversation about it though. We’ve lost too many children to guns. Come on people, we can solve this.

There is so much more that people have been trying to make us all afraid of over the past couple of decades. Much more than I could list here. Vaccines, Godless schools, Black people voting, improper birth certificates, QAnon, Impeachment… the list just goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on. I’m not afraid of any of it.

And I’m not afraid of Donald J. Trump. Or Mike Pence. Or Moscow Mitch McConnell.

I’m not afraid of anything. I’m an American. A citizen of what used to be The United States of America. I’d like you to be too.

Being afraid is downright un-American. So stop it. All of you. You can do this.

[maluraunderchild]

Men and War

I’ve done a lot of stupid shit in my life. Joined a gang when I was ten, dealt drugs for my adopted older brother, broke into houses, tried to confront nobility, trusted the Forsaken, trusted and fucked a Darkfallen... I’ve got some doozies. This time. I don’t think it was some stupid choice, I think for once I’ve made the right one.

Okay I’m being cryptic. That’s cause I just spent a whole year and some odd months back in time with Met and Doyle. Met’s got a knack for playing in the rules. Doyle isn’t allowed to leave the Marche with out an Req with him, I’m technically not allowed in the Marche as I’m an outsider. Met pulled the three of us backwards in time to a place where humans weren’t even around yet, but the land was thriving.

At first I thought we were going to be there for a few days, but the novelty of being in the wood again bit at me. Those days turned to weeks, then to months. Doyle is smart too, Keeping a count of each day we were away one day he showed me the stick he had been using to keep track of the passage of time.

“Now what has gotten you all red in the cheeks.” My Ma says as she puts a bowl of soup in front of me. Ma is... she’s a woman built of iron dressed in silk. It’s her strength I wish to keep with me. It’s why I asked Anthion to make me how I am now, I wanted to be like my mother, unbreakable.

Ma is a beautiful woman. Like, I’m jealous I’ll never look like her. My half elven features look too alien to carry the same of eyes and thick hair. She stairs at me with a coy smile. Our relationship isn’t as strong as it used to be. But it was getting better.

Rubbing my scared cheek I chuckle. “I’m.. just remembering someone.”

“New suitor?” She said that smile still staying on her lips as she joined me with her own bowl of soup. It was a creamy white soup with bacon. After a full year of living off of food with little to no fat I found my mouth watering for this.

Feelings of warm hands touching my sides, arms wrapping around me. There were kisses I had gotten that my body would light up in pleasure. All of the piss poor sex I had, all the shitty men I tried to appease as a younger idiot were gone. 

“Um... Kinda?” I said quietly, but my traitor of a face was signaling that there was something up.

Ma blew on her soup but continued to watch me, her amused look staying firm. “Being quiet about it will only make me worry. Who is he?”

“Um...” I don’t know how my mom will do with me admitting I’m in love with two men, and that both of them will love me. I know Darsa would probably lose his fucking mind in trying to figure out how I got myself here. I’ll tell Ma one day about there being two men in my life, but Doyle already threw his cards down and Darsa is probably assuming he’s the one. “His name is Doyle. He lives up north.”

“Gilnean? You told me you’re afraid of worgen... Is he... on the other side of the line?” Ma asked now looking more settled. She had a name, that was more than she’s had for me in a long time.

Taking a bite of the soup I moaned. “This is really good.” But she didn’t seem to buy my change of topic so I answered her question. “He’s not undead, so just put that worry aside. He’s alive. Also not a worgen either.”

He just happens to be an incubus. Not the Fel tainted one, but a seductive high energy incubus who’s now an adult. It’s the part he became and adult that murdered my willpower. Everything was easy to handle when I could tell myself ‘you can’t flirt with him, Teren would lock you in your head so fast you’d think someone turned off a light’. But as soon as Doyle wasn’t underage, as soon as I  double checked to cover my own ass, I found out exactly why Lycan never had a problem finding people to sleep with.

Yes, yes this does mean I am in possession of an incubus’s v-card. Like hell I’m telling my Ma that! Like hell I’m telling anyone that!

“So he’s not Gilnean but lives in the north but is not one of the undead.” Ma tilted her head at me as if not sure to be worried or laugh. “Is he human?”

“He’s...” I fish for a better way to explain it with out saying I’m shacking up with a demon. I mean, she might be more understanding if I told her about met ‘Hey Ma, yeah I just happen to be in love with my teacher’s son who is also the son of the bitch who scared my face. But really, he’s so sweet!’ Yeah that won’t work. “longer lived and, complicated. He lives in a place that’s like, a one nation army against all the undead.”

I should have restated that, but once the words were out of my mouth I knew what she was going to say. “He’s not a Scarlet is he? You said you would never-”

“Ma.” I put a hand up trying to reassure her. “No, Hell no. He’s not a scarlet. I would have said that and probably be in a worse place than I am. His family lives near the Glades, but, they’re utterly against the Forsaken. Their people lost a lot of stuff when the Scourge attacked.”

She was watching me as I explain, but her worried air was gone, and with it I saw her smile again. “Must be a strong guy. When do I get to meet him.”

Ugh...

“I.” Last time Ma never got to meet Arrel. Da did, but Ma didn’t. I do owe it to her to let her know what’s kind of going on in my life. Maybe I can ask Teren if I get to go tot he End of Year Dinner again, maybe Ma can come too so she can meet both of the men in my life. “I’ll need to check with a few people. They’re highly secretive, and... I want to protect him.”

Putting her spoon down in her bowl Ma rested her chin on her hand. That smirk, one I ended up inheriting grew as she watched me. “And I hope he’ll be doing the same for you?”

I have no doubt in my mind that Met and Doyle will burn worlds to protect me. Like I’ll do anything to make sure Doyle stays happy, free, and loved. “We’re equals. So, Duh?”

The round of questions seemed to calm Ma down enough. Settling in her seat she got back to eating, and for a blissful moment, my world was alright. Ma and I are on the same page. Darsa is getting better. I’m in a great relationship that’s rewarding and exciting.

I really should know better.

I’m nearly done with my meal when there’s a knock on the door. Ma and I look up at the same time and I first think it muse be someone from her work coming to talk to her. Only Ma doesn’t smile, or filled me in as she moved from the table over to the front door.

I don’t dare turn around. Sure I’ve been invited back to the Alliance after I was exiled, but that doesn't correct nearly ten years of me being an outsider when the Alliance were around. The conversation is short and it sounded like it was for a dwarves guard.

When ma comes into view I see she’s pale. In her hands is a letter, one I’ve seen before when Argus arrived in our sky. Reaching out I was able to take it from her to read the announcement. 

The Night Elves are asking for aid... The Horde are attacking.

Suddenly I feel sick all over again. For so long I’ve stood between the two factions. I hate the petty wars they get into. You’d think we’d get over out petty bullshit when we saved our world together? But no, still old rivalries come back and still people can’t be happy with the other races.

Putting the paper down I meet my Ma’s eyes. She knows what this means to me. That I’m not going to be able to be seen much. Moving to Sanctuary City will help and let me stay neutral, but, there’s a lot of pain that’s going to be coming. I need to know why the Horde thought to attack. Was this about greed, like it had been with Hellscream, or is this like the Broken Shore. The Dark Lady normally had a sound military mind, or, she did...

“Thanks for dinner Ma.” I said quietly but I was feeling like I needed to throw up. “I need to get back up north and make sure any summonses are handled properly.”

She’s already on her feet when I get up. Crossing to me I’m pulled into a tight hug. Maybe I don’t say this enough... No I know I don’t say this enough. I love her. She’s a strong woman who’s let the world beat her up and spit her out. Still she makes a lot of hard choices and doesn’t let me fall when she can help me. One day I want to see her more. Set up weekly dinners and just hear how her work is going. She can hear about... my vague life.

I know no matter what happens with the Horde and Alliance, Ma will be here for a good while longer. And she’ll always support me, even when I choose the stupid path. Right now, I think I’ve done the best thing I can for myself. Met and Doyle aren’t going to fight the faction wars. I’ll stay clear of it as well. She’s going to worry about me. That’s what a parent does.

((Mentions: @khan-of-the-ruruan, @doyle-ubu))

[infinitd]

Guilty

This is the last one. I’m already hovering the delete button but I have to type this one out first. It’s been sitting stewing and now festering in the back of my mind for way too long now. I’m guilty of way too much all at the same time and all of them with the singular cause that is me. Maybe this blog is public in that secret shared way some thigns get and the whole squad has BEEN reading it and trying to give healing and support in their own way without really knowing. lol. NOT. Well.... Where to even begin? Weed? Lix? Lovers? Parents? Brain? Siblings? Art? Pretty cool how they present themselves like that once you open the double bolted, extra secured walled off and guarded door. So lets do the order they’re already in.  Weed Is great and now it gives me anxiety and mild panic attacks. I get so paranoid I feel like the whole world is watching me and even now the primary craving is for fucking nicotine of all things and the association built between the 2 are too strong to break. Not that it would even be useful to. Weeds usefullness has run its course in my life and a dependancy I have spent the better part of a decade now has to go unsatisfied with a complete reversion to sobriety because alcohol was gotten over LONG ago. I’m still tending towards bingeing behaviour with that but its almsot always a reaction rather than an actual desire to get fuucked up. No more high nights floating just under my ceiling . Hours and hours of dota and that most NEET night time routines. No more weed first thing at parties or braais and hanging with friends too stoned to converse or just talking about weed like its the only thing in my life. Prepare for a million comments on how different I am and a tacit understanding that I probably wanna get high until everyone gets used to the idea of me just being and then aggresively EXISTING again. Along with all the negative attention that comes with that I have completely lost understanding and connection with. Well that’s weed I guess (Shit i got distracted and Imma have to read all this shit again )

Lix

 The bestie thing is all fucked up and my (probably correct) suspicion is that he’s just good old tired of me. I nthat friend way. There is literally no value to my friendship. Not even material and he’s unemployed at the moment so you know it’s bad. That last cash send felt like paying rent on a friendship and I figure he must have also felt pretty gross taking it even though he needed it. Lol I wont be doing that again.I’m just intellectually and emotionally inferior at the moment, Fuck the complex. It’s just faxx now. The other one is at least figureing out (bizarre and mildly fucked up) shit for himself but Stormu no Kyodai really is just about over now. The bands broken up and all those successful bands breakups make sense now. You’ve just drawn every but of moisture and goodness out of a thing and it gets husky and weird to keep tending to it. I haven’t been a decent human being never mind friend for so long that I completely udnerstand and agree with how I’m being handled. It doesn’t even hurt that bad. It’s just weird and awkward for everyone involved and it does me no good to be catching shots. especialyl when i’m not really doing anything about it then and there. It’s only ever fun if I have a reply and this time I don’t. not even a little one. Just weak allusions to “progress” when it’s just good old fashioned laziness now. So this I deserve and I’m trying to cultivate my own friendships but my source material to work with now isn’t great and invariably I will probably find myself in a similar position to him before long. That weed addition is pretty rough on anything truly meaningful. All in all it is pretty sad that things can go this way especialyl with the newest addition of having productive and contributary friends in your life. Of course it’sa  good thing but it did kinda eliminate me from the running and that makes me lame. Now it’s just navigating this kinda weird and uncomfortable space where he wont say shit to cause damage. I wotn say shit cos I have hope and in the meanwhile the relationship will circle the proverbial drain until distance, time or some other factor snaps the last frayed string. But it is what it is. Lovers

Is actualyl kinda good. The one thing i’ve reconciled at the seeming expense of everything else is love and relationships and my ways of dealing and itneracting with em. I don’t miss exes and I don’t pine over lost lovers other that the typical momentary lapses which is cool. My current love is great. She’s good to me and I’m trying to be to her and its just good, Good all round. All good. Goodness. I sometimes feel like im trying to convince my self of something when it coems to this but actions and results sort of show themselves and it’s just been a constant relief since I’ve surrendered to it really. I’m not even holding my breath for it to last or building foundation. I’m just doing and that seems to work out best when it comes to just about everything.( This does not Feel Good Inc). PRetty wild to me that the lvoers part of this is by far the shortest and best handled but its revelaton did come at the cost of everyting else so yeah...

Parents Is god fucking awful. I mean in truth it’s kind of incredible. I’ve got the best pair imaginable on my team but it’s the resignation that kills my heart of hearts. There is no more expectation of hope or action. No drive or threats. Just plain shoulder shrugs and even that i deserve but when I finally figred it out it floored me. I have no idea baout their intentions or plans anymore. I’m completely out of the loop for the whole family it seems and I’m jsut waiting for the announcement of the intervention or the move out order or the random cash giveaway to get rid of me, I don’t even know but if not for mom I’d have been kicked out long ago. That’s pretty much a certainty and that “mothering” thing is startign to show both it’s calue and its problems. It’s far too comfortable a place to give up easily especially when you don’t bother to be really self aware. But here we are typing the things out. That’s ...a thing.... That they’ll never read or know about and that’s ok. 

Brain

Is poop cos I smoked too much but its Ok too. The regeneration process is gonna be a trip of its own. Really uncomfortable and loopy with unexplainable feelings and intuitions but that’s also OK. Better than Ok it’s recovery. The body will will be right there trhrough the process. I’m even interested in things again. Siblings is also a bit fucky. The disappointment is tangible but they’re not allowed to give up yet. We all inherited that one and it does help when i see the glimmers of hope. I don’t feel garbage but it normally starts with e being normal and not being in my head while interacting. Doing that assuming the best thing I used to be so good at. E is over me and kinda frustrated. Very Kev of him. Neez is trying but she has another baby to babysit and care about and I’m a tangential concern at best. The Suicide scare kind of reminded them of my existence in a weird but valuable way but it’s not an angle Im really trying to take. Especially now that I jsut realised what that anrrative ust look like to everyone it was shared withg hand it certainly was with khan which means by extension by the rest of the family. Probably explains strange interations now while i’ve been willfully poblivious and now I have to work to be cool again but it also wont ever be the same again unless someone else fucks up. But that’s a life long journey and doesn’t feel like it has the same urgency as the others. I’m alot more understood than I thought I was and that’s not a bad thing .

Art I’m going to go and make art and eat my girlfriends pussy and that’ll make me feel better and I’m excited for that.

Goodbye old complainy tumblr 

[expatimes]

The life and career of Rashid Khan, Afghanistan’s cricket prodigy

The life and career of Afghanistan cricketer Rashid Khan has seen the theatrical treatment: The curtains parted one day and there he was.

Among a cast of romantic, colourful cricketers from the country’s fairy tale, stood the teen prodigy, the one player ready-made for the biggest stage.

Online profiles feature Rashid’s One-Day International (ODI) debut at the age of 17, the 25 teams he has represented in various formats, his admiration for Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi, that whippy, whirly action, dead-eye wrong ’un, striking ability with the bat, athleticism in the field and the ICC T20 Player of the Decade title, even though he played in only half of it.

But what about the other parts of the man that was known as Rashid Arman, the sixth of 11 brothers? The dreamer who thought he would become the family’s first doctor? The computer science student with beautiful handwriting? The part-time English teacher? The boy who was called “Peshawari” in Afghanistan’s local cricket and “muhajir” (refugee) during his college days in Peshawar, Pakistan?

There are bits that make up his life from Bati Kot to Peshawar and back to Afghanistan’s Jalalabad then Kabul, before his October 2015 ODI debut in Bulawayo – on his way to becoming Rashid Khan, the superstar.

In the life of every cricketer, there are family, coaches and teammates who watch their rise with a mix of emotions: Love, pride, delight, among lashings of envy.

We begin with a story from Inzamam-ul-Haq, the former Pakistan captain who was Afghanistan coach from October 2015 to April 2016.

Looking at a list of his squad for a 2016 tour of Sharjah, Haq noted Rashid’s omission.

While Rashid’s performance in Bulawayo had not been earth-shattering, he – out of the roster of leg-spinners Haq had first called out and tried – had impressed.

So much so that Haq ended the arguments with selectors by saying: “Only after Rashid is in the team can you talk to me about other things.”

Six years later, Rashid’s name is first on every Afghanistan team sheet.

These days, Rashid is in Abu Dhabi for the Test series against Zimbabwe.

In the touring party is senior team manager Nazeem Jar Abdulrahimzai, who, in his many past roles in Afghanistan cricket remembers 2012 as the year he first met Rashid.

At a provincial Twenty20 match in Kabul, playing for a club called Kochian, Abdulrahimzai watched an unknown teenager, of small built, batting like a dervish.

“He was opening, he scored 93. When he bowled, no one could read him. It hit the legs, bowled. It hit the pads, LBW. It’s like they couldn’t see,” said Abdulrahimzai. “I had not seen a boy like that.”

Rashid had been spotted, marked for attention and encouragement.

Abdulrahimzai started emailing regional teams, asking them to try Rashid out, pushing those who hesitated.

“Listen, I’m the domestic manager, you take him, give him training and a trial. If you’re happy with him, fine. If you’re not, he can come back.”

Khan won the ICC T20 Player of the Decade title, even though he played in only half of it

In 2013, Afghanistan set up the Shpageeza Cricket League, which was to become its national T20 competition, one of the many steps Rashid would take on his meandering odyssey.

That year, at Peshawar’s Arbab Niaz Stadium, Islamia College Coach Ali Hoti was approached by a teenager who introduced himself as Rashid Arman and said he wanted to join the college and its famous cricket programme.

Islamia College alumni have represented Pakistan in various sports. Among its celebrated cricketers are Haseeb Ehsan, Yasir Hamid, Wajahatullah Wasti and Shaheen Shah Afridi.

When Hoti and team captain Sajjad Hashmi saw the youngster’s clean-hitting with the bat and his unorthodoxy with the ball, they knew they had spotted a winner.

But at the trials for the university’s sports quota admissions, the young man was missing. He had had to dash over to Afghanistan to play in a tournament.

This to and fro was due to Rashid’s nomadic boyhood, often as part of a business family alongside 10 brothers.

Cricket, the constant

During a period of uncertainty and war, as the family moved between towns on the border, cricket remained the only constant.

Rashid’s skills were homemade, on the concrete strip inside the housing compound meant for parking cars, in taped tennis ball contests with his brothers, especially brother number two, a football fan.

Once, so furious at being done in by Rashid, his brother wrapped extra tape on the tennis ball only for Rashid to get past him again.

The brothers were competitive but protective. Abdulrahimzai remembers one of Rashid’s brothers Jalil, sitting next to him during an early under-19 match, asking: “What will become of this boy? Of Rashid?”

If he had asked Rashid, he would have been shown him the road map.

At Islamia, Hoti said Rashid enrolled for a computer science degree from 2013 and the formalised structure of cricket training and competition.

Team captain Hashmi befriended the quiet, new entrant and saw what Abdulrahimzai had seen: Presence and confidence.

Hashmi, a former opener-wicketkeeper who played domestic cricket in Pakistan, said Rashid immersed himself in cricket, barely spoke and never complained.

“As college captain, players come and argue their case: Why did you bowl me so late, why can’t I bat in this position. With Rashid, nothing,” said Hashmi.

On one occasion, Rashid was dropped due to a dispute in the team and Hashmi went to his home to make peace.

“The next time I went to the ground, he was there. With his cones, doing his training and shuttle runs,” said Hashmi.

“Others might have gone into a sulk, but he knew what he had to do and wasn’t going to stop. Rashid didn’t waste time, he was driven and completely focused. It was like inside, his real talents were hidden, waiting for their time.”

Rashid’s batting, especially his clean hitting, added to his prowess as a world-class cricketer

Within three years, the world would see those talents.

We must turn to Abdulrahimzai’s Urdu to understand what Rashid’s on-field manner reflected: “Haawi rehna” (domination) and what Abdulrahimzai never saw in him: “Bebasi” (helplessness).

In collegiate and inter-university cricket, Hashmi said Rashid earned the reputation of being the spinner all batsmen thought best to see off.

Hoti is now director of sports at what is now Islamia University and recalls Rashid’s “zabardast” handwriting and the pressure from home to study.

“Rashid was a good student, a thinker. He would try to speak in English, practice it every day, along with his Pashto and Urdu.”

Rashid once said in an interview that he taught English for about six months before cricket took over as he prepared himself for a life beyond college and the towns he called home.

The variations

Rashid’s first cricketing schools – the restrictive and demanding surface of the concrete corridors in his family’s many homes – gave him the fast-arm action to get extra zip on the taped tennis ball.

Flipping the ball out off his fingers – who said wrist-spinners must only use their wrists? – he sent it whirring through the air, rushing the batsmen on concrete, matting, turf, anything.

Where conventional spinners use variations of pace, loop and flight to judge what works best where, Khan’s pace – more than 90km/h (56mph) – is his fundamental staple.

He said he has five grips to choose from during a game… and three googlies.

“Shahid Afridi was my role model while growing up in Afghanistan”. (Rashid Khan) Inspiration of many.❤️@SAfridiOfficial Thank you Lala.#BoomBoom pic.twitter.com/31Y1pyvuwA

— Zain Zahid (@ZainZahid____10) March 9, 2021

To most batsmen, the range is not the issue. Rather, it is the sameness of what everything looks like that leads to befuddlement over what is going to arrive.

As Haq described it, the batsmen’s lack “response time” to react to a ball that not only turns, but turns at speed.

It was not those skills alone that marked Rashid in Haq’s eyes.

On his debut tour in Zimbabwe, Rashid sat out the first ODI. Before the second, Haq told him to bowl at him in the nets.

“If I’m out, you’re in,” he said.

Rashid failed to dismiss his coach but remembers beating him once.

“Even if I had got out to him, it would’ve been fine, that’s the quality of bowler he is. I would have played him, but I wanted to see how he would respond,” Haq said.

What happened before their exchange had revealed more to Rashid.

“When I challenged Rashid, the 17-year-old looked me in the eyes and said ‘haanji, theek hai, aayein net main’ ,” said Haq with a chuckle.

Rashid’s game was always going to be on.

Read full article: https://expatimes.com/?p=18875&feed_id=36713

[ravencatroleplay]

A year after khan had had made his mark on the world the city was built to its full function and everything had went on course. Luna had became the head of starfleet now being called admiral luciel but to her close friends admiral Luna. Though becoming this position did not change her morals of her thoughts of the world. She wanted a better world for people who lived on earth and new beings who come to visit. Over the year she showed the world that this was a safe place and better than it was before. Mainly she though this way because of khan and how he was treated through his life and she didn't want that to happen again to anyone or his family.

Luna was proud of the new world she was developing on her own but soon this loneliness was drawing her thoughts. Would she be like this forever waiting for khan to awaken again. It was already hard for her to at least try to go out on dates when all she could think about was the first time she went put with him. Now he was invading her dreams of them living a perfect life in their home, just them in love. Sadly she knows that will never happened since he was sentenced to live put his days asleep and never to be awaken. She had placed khan and his family under her watch and only she was allowed to go in there to see them and if someone had to go check on the sleeping family she has to be present. This was forced for protection of the family and fear of them being destroyed or used again.

When taking over her fathers position she was able to find all the hidden files of khan and herself. Finding out the cold truth of her life, she was just like khan but more newer in a sense. Her DNA on the other hand was more advanced than khans, hers was mixed letting her have multiple natural abilities to her. Luna thought maybe that was why she had such a connection to khan she understood him and another link to their augment blood. Even thought she was mixed with different beings in the universe her mother was a augment from khans time. Marcus had never told her about her real self even when she asked multiple times to tell her who she is. Now she can understand why she was so different from everyone and why she had this power that people were intimidating by. With this new found power she didn't know she had instead of taking over the world she thought of peace.

Starfleet had become close friends to other countries and they were most excited to have her for the head of starfleet. Luna had made safe homes for each big main cities for each part of the world and small countries. She name them 'The Noon Home' in honor of khan noonien singh who wanted to have a safe place for people. These homes were multiple small buildings or one large building wich held housing for anyone. They were safe homes for people who need protection, people who are hurting and need a place to live, families who lost their homes, and people who are worry travelers. Anyone can go there check in and get the help they need. Not only just people who live on this planet but animals and nature that been here since the beginning have protection and medical attention as well. Luna just wanted a better world but still some people want war to still go one complaining about the little things. Still some humans wanted to take over other planets but for what reason she does not understand.

Luna was at home thinking of who would be next to take over starfleet if something had happened to her. Kirk, her sister Carol and the others were off on their five year trip. She really had no one to go to beside the two new friends she made in the passed year. One friend kept a watch over the noon home in India while the other worked at the archive building in London and kept a close eye on the sleeping family to make sure no one else disturbed them while Luna was gone. Luna had put sensors on each cryogenic to ensure everything is working properly and will notify her of anything happening to the sleep process.

A alarm beeping went off in the computer room seeing that it was a red light flashing on a screen. A red light sensor to the sleeping family something was wrong ot made her heart drop. She quickly check the system to see that it was khans cryogenic and it had malfunction. Luna quickly called in telling medical team and mechanic team to get there and take him out safely. She ran to her car and drove quickly to the archive building feeling her heart pound against her chest and tears glistening in her eyes. "Khan you better not die on me I am not letting that happen!" As soon as Luna got there she ran inside ignoring all the workers that called out to her. Her main priority was khan she could not let him die.

When she got to the medical room khan was safe and hooked up to machines hearing the beap sound of his heart rate. He was alive and asleep she had chosen the right people to know these situations. A mechanic had told her the cryo tube had broke down because of the acient time of them they are slowly breaking down. And khans was the first to go out of the 73, wich means she will have to wake the rest of his family and not let them sleep into death.

Luna walked up to khans body seeing his bare pale skin as she place a hand on his chest gazing over his naked torso. She smiled and sniffled feeling his heart beating against her palm. The doctors said he will be waking up soon in a few hours they worried about him. But Luna had made sure they had nothing to worry about she can deal with him and trust that he will not go into a rapage. She stayed there by his side to keep him safe and when she got hungry she made food and came back. Talking to him again made her feel better even though he is asleep she was still happy to tell him all of what happen but of course she will tell him all again when he is awake. Luna had even placed a blanket over his body to keep him warm and soon fell asleep with her head laying by his body tucked into her arms. Little did she realize that khan noonien singh was coming out of his dark sleep as his eyes opened.

@khan-stid

Khan out of Darkness

Sequel to khan into moonlight

(This is part 2 of the story khan into moonlight. This will also be a second part to the roleplay of khan into moonlight, and will most likely help with some ideas to the second story.)

*Roleplay continues with @khan-stid

Luna saves khan and awakens him after his deep sleep and shows him a new life along side her. How would he feel about be awake again but now having some else in his life? Khan will have to find a way to wake up his family with her help it should be easy. What will his people think about the new family member and khan having a mate?

[ask-constantinvaldor]

Say at least one bad thing about every primarch, plus the emperor if you want. Maybe even the other custodes too if you're feeling like it.

*Sips Hot chocolate and pulls out a piece of paper.*

I.  “Despite his knightly demeanor and all his talk of honor and loyalty, The Lion was far too willing to keep secrets, even when he could and should have told the truth.  He believed he should have been chosen Warmaster simply because he was the 1st primarch ever created.  He was unable to  relate to mortals and even his own Legion.  He demanded respect and obedience, but rarely gave it to others, even his own brothers and adopted father.”

II.  REDACTED (They made the mistake of facing me, they should have fled and lived a little longer. Not that they could have escaped the Ten Thousand and I.)

III. “For all his talk of perfection, Fulgrim failed to see the perfection in humility and doing his duty,   All he ever wanted was glory and adoration. He wanted everyone to  sing his praises from the highest mountaintops and the lowest of gutters.” 

IV “Perturabo never should have been given command of a legion.  Like Fulgrim he wanted praise and glory for his achievement.  While paranoia is a strength, Perturabo saw criticism and enemies everywhere, even when it did not exist and even among his own family.  He believed Rogal Dorn was his rival but this rivalry  was a product of his own deranged mind.  His treatment of his Legionaries was sick and disgusting,   While victory cannot be achieved without sacrifice, Perutrabo murdered one in ten of his own legionaries when he was reunited with them, simply because they did not meet his achievable standards.  He spent their lives like a spoiled prince spends gold,  War was never a necessary evil for him, it was an equation and a bill at his doorstep,  One he was too eager to solve by spending his own son’s lives.”

V “The Khan was always a mercurial  soul. A paradox.   Reckless one moment, overcautious and dawdling the next.  A bloodthirsty hound and a diplomat.  A admirable, cultured and philosophical man, and a barbarian that mounted the heads of his foes on his jetbike,  In his desire to not be a tyrant, he neglected discipline and too many White Scars considered becoming traitors, yet in his widsom, he granted them atonement through battle. In short, he traveled down many paths,and ran off the road constantly,  Thankfully the one road he stayed on was one of loyalty.”

VI  “ Leman,.. Like Dorn, I admire him for his steadfast loyalty and envy him for how simple things are for him   Simply tear the Emperor’s enemies apart and follow orders like a good little corgi.  Yet, he is a hypocrite, He claimed his Rune Preists used the power of Fenris, when one could smell the musk of the Warp on them a mile away.  The culture of Fenris may have saved the VIth legion from  tearing itself apart, but it was anathema to the Imperial Truth.  He always assumed the worst in Magnus and that he was always right,  So self-righteous, so  eager to charge with his axe raised high.  So changeable. One second he’s offering you  a tankard of Mjol, The next, you’re head’s been removed and being chewed on by one of his wolves  and he’s bedded your wife, cousin, sister and daughter at the same time. He always chose the most violent and direct option, even when diplomacy might have prevailed.  If I  had brought a leash for him, perhaps Prospero might not been destroyed,and the handful of innocents on the wretched rock might have lived.”  

VII  “I admire Dorn  for his refusal  to compromise his ideals, his honesty and his zeal.   I wish I shared his idealism.  But his refusal to compromise is his greatest weakness.  He is more stubborn than a mule.  He would rather win a moral victory and lose the tactical war than make a hard or dishonorable decision that keep you up at night.  In addition he will not accept that  Arlette will not let him fortify the Tranquil Courts.”

VII  “Konrad Curze  refused to  accept help for dealing with his visions dammed him.  He saw only one way to bring justice, through fear.  The Night Lords were a necessary evil, but under him they became nothing but a band of criminals, He claimed to be a bringer of justice.  A rather bold claim when one skinned men, women, and children alive.”

IX. “Sanguinus was compassionate and empathetic, but he never saw humans as people, he treated them like pets. For all his humiltiy, he basked in thier admiration like a tanner in the sun,  Some part of him he refuses to admit enjoy’s how they view him   He was too idealistic, and like Dorn refused to compromise on his ideals when it would be necessary.  He was also  surprisingly short tempered and hateful on  occasion.   I’m not sure if he knew this, but to some of the Silent Sisterhood, he came off as Misogynist.”  

X “ Ferrus Mannus was incredibly short tempered.  For all his and his legion’s cold-hearted and automata like behavior, he emotions collared him and kept him on his knees like a slave.  He said he would purge the silver from his hand and ban the voluntary cybernetics of the Iron Tenth when the Great Crusade was done, yet if he had the strength he boasted so much of, he would have done it already.  if he was logical  as he claimed to be, he would not have died on Isstvan V.”

XI [REDACTED]

XII.  “Although Angron would not accept it, I pity him.  The Emperor should have let him die.  The Butcher’s Nails have stolen any chance he had for  a happy life, Yet the Butcher’s Nails does not excuse  forcing them to  be implanted them in his men.”

XIII “ Roboute is a statesman second only to Malcador.   What he has done with Ultramar is nothing but remarkable. However, his obsession with control and efficiency, and his idealism, means everything must conform. Everything must be right or it will all fall apart.  He cares for mortals, but like Sanguinius he believes he is their better and knows what’s best for them.  Like the Lion, he demanded respect and obedience, and while he did earn it from his subordinates, like his brother, he had scorn for those who disagreed with his vision and banished them from his presence like the nobleman he denied he was.  One can look no further than the 22nd chapter of the Ultramarines.  These men are Destroyer’s and primarily Terrans from the old XIIIth legion.  Many of their number also come from Ultramar and their Chapter Master is from  the 500 Worlds. Yet the 22nd has a distinctive and unique culture that makes them stand out among the XIIIth ad other legion’s Destroyer Corps.  Gulliman has made his dislike of Destroyer’s weaponry well known and their culture does not fit into his idealized view of his Legion , so he keep them at arms length like a red-headed stepchild. “

XIV.  “Mortarion’s  dislike towards Psykers, while justified due to the abuse of his foster father and the suffering he inflicted on him and the people of Barbarus, does not excuse his blind and irrational  hatred for all of them.  In addition,  he lavished his affection on the legionaries from Barbarus and disbanded the Librarius of his legion.  This made the former Librarians feel like illegitimate children.   Mortarion was a prideful as Fulgrim, and could not accept the fact the Emperor had to save his life. When Mortarion spat on his oaths, he became the very thing he and the old XIVth legion swore to destroy,  a tyrant with a callous disregard for life.”

XV “Magnus was arrogant. He believed himself superior to his brothers because of his abilities. He was a glutton for knowledge, but for all of his knowledge, Magnus was not very wise, and in his folly, dammed our entire species.”

XVI  “  Horus… *sighs and takes a swig of hot chocolate*  As much as I hate to admit it and as much as I tried to turn a blind eye  to it,  Horus was arrogant and acted like a spoiled brat.  For all  his tactical brilliance, for all his humor and kindness, He graved glory and adoration not for his Legion or for humanity,  but for himself.   Like Fulgrim, he wished all to bask in his glory and sing his praises.  Horus wanted statues of himself, wanted people to prostrate themselves before him.  He wanted their affection and love and to say “Yes Horus you are so brilliant what would we do without you.”  

An old quote came to me regarding Horus Lupercal. “Veni Vidi Vici”    Horus Came, he saw galaxy and humanity, and wished to conquer it.  First for the Emperor, now for himself and his sick desires,”

XVII   Lorgar is complicated.   Arlette and I advised to Emperor to be merciful, when He censured him   After the II and XI, I could not bear to slay another one of His children, and Lorgar’s transgression  was nothing compared to  the horrors the II and XI wrought on humanity.    And I sympathized,  with him not wishing to be a warrior, to try and be something besides another warlord.  After all, when the crusade ended, and if Emperor’s safety could be absolutely guaranteed for eternity, i would live in a cave high in Himalzia with sheep for food and company and indulge in falconry and blacksmithing and toymaking and compose philosophical  treaties. I could venture down from  my solitude and strike down injustice and distribute candy and toys  to children.  

I was a dammed fool.

Like Leman, he was so changeable. He was like a child’s bouncy ball.  Except he was loyal and devout in  a misguided way, and than wicked, traitorous and spiteful, burning works and unleashing damnation with a smile on his face.  

Lorgar had such faith in Emperor, he deified him,  raised statues and built church’s all for Him.  Now he is devoted to the Primordial Annihilator and will do anything to please his gods.

If only he had such  faith in Humanity.

XVIII “ Vulkan’s Promethean Creed is an admirable philosophy.  He had a heart bigger than an Ordinatus and kindness, compassion and smiling all came so easily to him.  I envy him for his effortless kindness.   Kindness, compassion and smiling are all things the Ten Thousand must hone as much as our skills in  assassination and bladework.

Yet that compassion in his greatest weakness, Vulkan is not a warrior, he is a builder, a worker ant defending his anthill out of love. A blacksmith who forged all his creation but his weapons with pride.”  

XIX “ Corax’s goal of liberating those in bondage is an admirable goal. Yet for all his time spend hiding in shadows, he failed to  recognize necessary evils. On  a personal note, I believe this character flaw led to his Terran legionaries meeting an ignoble end.”

XX  The Alpha Legion began as a hammer in the shadow, another necessary evil.   Yet when  Alpharius took  control, they became a twisted serpent.  The old Christian devil in  the form of a Hydra. Alpharius was a glutton for complicated plots and schemes.  He is intoxicated on suffering and disorder.  He is like  Horus in the regard that all must know they were outsmarted by him.  All most know that as soon  as they sat down at the Regicide table with him, they were played like a damn fiddle.”  

Any complaint’s about the Emperor, I shall keep to myself.

Arlette and I may have our disagreements, but we have each other’s back.  

The only custodian I can complain about is Diocletion. He is quite frankly, a Dick.  Empathy and compassion are skills he must learn.  Time with the Ligo  Aetos and humanity itself will be his teacher. “

[niartnithoughts]

on Jurassic World

bitterandcurt

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the film.

Hah I’m sure I must have ranted a little bit about it back when it came out. But I can always rant about it more because man is it bad.

Main categories of badness:

Stuff about the humans

Stuff about the creatures

also

There’s other bad stuff like the overall story and plot points, and the heavy product placement, which is not nearly as bad as the other two categories but is still not good. Lots of scenes where you better make sure the logo on the front of a car gets in the center of the frame before panning to the actual characters.

Ironically I always, without exception, bought Original-style Barbasol Shaving Cream because of its prominent appearance in the first Jurassic Park, so I am a huge hypocrite and apparently product placement in beloved movies absolutely works. They’ve since however updated the design of the label so it’s no longer identical to the one in Jurassic Park (which came out 24 years ago), so my brand loyalty has pretty much been eroded.

I won’t flesh this out further because I haven’t watched it in 1.5 years, but, on the humans:

Claire Dearing was already an impressive, competent, motivated person at the start. The idea that she needed to stop being so uptight, unbutton her business attire and learn to appreciate kids and rugged men as the movie’s main (only?) character development felt p sexist. Also she’s totally going to jail right after the movie, not having a happy family ending. And then of course Owen doesn’t need to develop because his brand of all-American masculinity already makes him perfect duh. (Probably this is an intentional flip of JP1 where Dr. Sattler is perfect from the get-go and Dr. Grant needs to learn to love kids, but that doesn’t make it better)

The movie awards its most horrifying, drawn-out death sequence to Claire’s assistant minor character, Zara (picked up and flung around the air, half-drowned and tormented by Pteranodons while screaming, and finally being eaten whole by the Mosasaurus).

At the franchise’s roots should be a Spielbergian sense of justice, where the characters who are the most selfish, cowardly, evil, w/e are punished by letting the audience revel voyeuristically in seeing them die painfully as a result of their hubris. Like the lawyer being eaten for abandoning children to the T. Rex, or Nedry being blinded and eaten alive for sabotaging everything for financial gain in JP1. Or, even more obviously, the Nazis having their faces melted off and exploding in Indiana Jones for being evil Nazis and daring to presume they could co-opt God’s power. That one would be totally horrifying except instead it’s extremely satisfying to watch because it’s divine retribution. Obviously other movies know how to do this too, if some incredibly minor one-scene character is going to die horribly, they always make sure we know they’re an asshole first, so we don’t feel too bad for them. Like the abusive security guard in Terminator 2, or, I don’t know, they’ll have them kick a dog or something. But Jurassic World gives it’s most horrible death to Zara, who literally never had any selfish motivation and was just trying to do her job. Claire tells her to chaperone the two kids, but because they’re kids in a crowded theme park they manage to give her the slip. She’s worried sick and desperately tries to find them, and then is rewarded with an incredibly long, drawn-out horrible death. Yay!

The only thing I can think is that the stupid writers/directors must have thought we would relate to the kids so much that Zara’s attempts to chaperone them would have made her into something of a minor antagonist, as she was clearly an obstacle to them having more fun, before all the animals got loose and shit went down. So maybe if I were a selfish little kid I would have... cheered for her horrible death? I still don’t think so. I was uncomfortable with this scene in the theater. It would have been fine if other, more-deserving characters had gotten worse death scenes, but hers is the most horrifying by far. And then (IIRC) no one ever mentions her again, she could at least be used in the script later to make the characters who were responsible for the park’s horrible lack of safety precautions feel guilty.

The kids aren’t compelling and who cares about whether or not their parents who aren’t even in 99% of the movie get divorced and then get back together in the last scene because they realized how important family is even though they weren’t in the movie. I guess the kids in the 1st movie might also have sucked if they were just alone with each other for most of the time, they worked well because so many of their scenes were about how the adult main characters interacted with and had to plan around them. Instead J:W has a lot more 2 boring kids being together and then Claire and Owen being together, separately.

Could have used more diversity. The resort is off of Costa Rica, and don’t tell me it’s 98% Americans who want to either visit or work at the one place in the world that has fuckin’ dinosaurs. There’s nothing inherently wrong with having the main characters be a white family + Andy Dwyer, but like, they’re such boring boys, too. Yeah you have Dr. Wu having just as small a role as he had in JP1, you have Irrfan Khan as the underprepared CEO, and then Omar Sy as Owen’s raptor training buddy whose name was apparently Barry, those are all fine. And then you have a couple unnamed extras like the Asian security/special forces-looking officer who gets killed by the I. Rex. But yeah throw in some hispanic characters at the very least. Were there any women of color in the movie?

On the dinosaurs/creatures

Half of everything sucks

The Pterosaur (those flying ones) attack scene is idiotic enough to make me angry. In it, about a hundred of two kinds, large Pteranodons (who are here fictionally strong enough to lift humans off the ground) and smaller Dimorphodons, we’re talking like slightly larger than an eagle at most, are all broken/driven out of their enclosure by a helicopter crash. Freedom! Also scary explosions! It makes perfect sense that they’d all stream out of their cage and fly free, that part’s great. But then why the fuck would they all immediately fly directly over to the visitor center/main welcome area and all swoop down and all start attacking humans? Stupid as fuck, that’s not a thing any animal would do. They still could have had an attack sequence, but those Dimorphodons are small and fragile, how the hell are they going to kill a human? It’s not like it shows them working together in packs or anything, they just all attack mindlessly and rabidly without an ounce of self preservation. They could have had the larger Pteranodons going for people (still stupid, but w/e) and the smaller ones taking advantage of the confusion to like steal people’s cotton candy, or eat someone’s pet parrot or something. It would have been exactly their kind of comic relief. Meanwhile really they all should have just flown off to literally anywhere else on the island and like just chilled and hunted some fish or whatever. There’s absolutely zero animal motivation given to all of them to single-mindedly go on a human-attacking rampage.

Contrast this with the first film, where they tried to treat the dinosaurs as plausible animals. Sure, the raptors deliberately hunted the humans, but they specifically show the raptors as being extremely intelligent and being mistreated (put in small cages, repeatedly shocked with cattle prods), so it’s at least built up to be plausible they would want some form of revenge. Plus humans are actually a good size for something like a raptor to eat. (Compare with the T. Rex in JP1, who is perfectly content to leave the humans alone if there’s regular dinosaur prey around.) (Also compare with Jurassic Park 2′s Compys, where a guy throws a rock and some dirt at some little dinosaurs and they scatter and back up, because wow that looks like some realistic animal behavior and makes the dinosaurs more believable, which is something Jurassic World’s creators know nothing about.

A lot of the dinosaurs just don’t look great. Also not scientifically accurate, which is a whole ‘nother thing, but even ignoring that a lot of them just don’t look good. Maybe it’s because of weird lighting? It’s not like they didn’t put a lot of time and effort into making them, but they didn’t come out good. And I don’t think it’s because they all but abandoned the first movie’s animatronics and puppets in favor of nearly all CGI— by Jurassic Park III (2001) I thought the CG dinosaurs looked better than the animatronics they were still using because the animatronics (especially the arms and hands) would stand still and not move as fluidly. Somehow the raptor designs look worse than the previous movies. The angles of the design have just been blunted and rounded in ways that look less cool. In every promo image they just look odd and lumpy, which is really weird since this time around they’re doing all this sophisticated CG skeleton and musclestructure simulation. I think in the original they may have just tried to shoot the raptor heads from the side whenever they could because it’s a more flattering angle, but either way, J:W has lots of angles that make their dinos look more rounded and dumb.

Look at this big ol’ thick-necked raptor:

The main antagonist, the “Indominus Rex” wasn’t great. It didn’t have a good visual design, and it was stupid that they would introduce these undiscovered abilities it had one by one (ability to regulate its body temperature to hide from thermal vision, ability to camouflage its skin to blend in with the jungle, etc.) and then have it never use them again.

They scaled up the sizes of some of the creatures during the making of the movie because they figured the actual sizes weren’t impressive enough. Like the Apatosaurus (long-necked one that dies while they hold it), the producers wanted it redone bigger during preproduction, and the Mosasaurus (the aquatic one) was way bigger than it actually was in real life. I know they address this in the movie explicitly, by saying the Park’s geneticists intentionally mess around to make the dinosaurs bigger and more impressive to keep that tourist money flowing. But I personally don’t like it, I came to watch a movie with realistic dinosaurs in it, not just any monster movie.

I guess that’s also why the ‘not acting like animals’ thing bothers me so much, if I had just wanted to see any monster movie I wouldn’t have cared.

The Indominus talking to the raptors and all that was silly.

That said the Mosasaurus, and how it is the ultimate power on the island was cool and good and well-used in the movie. Set up and then brought back without being overused.

That’s enough for now, plus I can’t remember every specific. It’s not like the original movie is flawless either, and it’s sequels definitely aren’t (J:W may be a better movie than Jurassic Park III). But then also the original is such a huge special effects milestone, and Jurassic World has basically nothing new to show us.

[secret-diary-of-an-fa]

Donald Trump: Psychopath Elect

IMPORTANT NOTE: I am not a a professional pscyhologist or psychiatrist. I do not purport that my findings in this blog entry have any clinical validity. They are the conclusions of a relatively well-informed layman. Oh, and some of the crimes I mention in Point 20 are unproven. I’m confidet that Trump is guilty of all of them, but for legal purposes, I’m obliged to tell you that they are allegations, not prove acts of criminality.

TRIGGER WARNING: Rape and sexual assault.

Have you ever heard of the Bob Hare checklist of psychopathic traits? Basically, it’s a list of personality traits that can be rated 0, 1 or 2 for any given person. If a person scores a certain number or higher (most clinicians use 30 as their benchmark), that person is a psychopath. I just had a go at rating Trump on the checklist, because I have a sneaking suspcion that America may have elected a bona-fide, certifiable psycho, neurologically incapable of empathy and prone to extreme, dangerous callousness.. And let me be clear here, the Hare test is the most widely-used psychopath-testing tool in psychology. It is the gold standard for checking if someone is a remorseless hazard to those around them. Let’s run Trump through the checklist and see what we come out with.

1. Glib and superficial charm Personally I find Trump about as charming as anal polyps, but a lot of people would seem to disagree, since he was a successful gameshow host for quite some time. Let’s split the difference and score him 1 out of a possible 2 points.

2. Grandiose sense of self-esteem This is a man who routinely boasts about his obscene wealth and privilege; who insists that he climbed to the top on his own despite being given a million dollar loan by a family member at a young age; and who owns an apartment filled with fucking gold-leaf. Also, any casual listener to his political speeches can tell his got a big ego. Do I really have to justify this score? 2 whole points!

3. Need for stimulation I don’t know how much stimulation Trump needs in his personal life, but it’s worth noting that this guy has pinged from one high-energy career to another throughout the course of his life and who has the kind of ridiculously overblown public persona that requires constant activity to maintain. Even when he has a spare moment, the cunt never fucks off or calms down: he gets on Twitter and picks fights with people. With some hesitation (but not much), I’m going to give him 2 points.

4. Pathological lying. I think he’d prefer the term “alternative facts”. Then again, I’d prefer to be addressed as “Your Highness”, but it aint’ going to happen. 2 Points.

5. Cunning and manipulative He managed to win an election despite being one fo the least qualified people in the running. He’s definitely manipulative. I’ll also grant that he has a form of low cunning, like a fox or a predatory weasel. However, I refuse to credit it him with the true, machievelian cunning of the truly successful political animal, so let’s split the difference again and give him 1 point.

6. Lack of remorse or guilt Trump has demonstrated that he has no qualms about mocking the disabled, sexually assaulting women or ripping healthcare away from the poor. 2 points. If it was an option, I’d give him 3.

7. Shallow affect/ superfial emotional responses In this repsect, Trump is a perfectly typical politician. 2 Points.

8. Callousness and lack of empathy See item six. 2 Points.

9. Parasitic lifestyle Trump’s wealth was initially granted by family connections and has grown as a result of his continued willingness to exploit other people. Now he’s taken the final step in the parasite skill-tree and become a politician. 2 points.

10. Poor behavioural control He couldn’t resist boasting that his fame allows him to “grab women by the pussy” while running for election. He can’t resist a fight on Twitter. He says the first idiotic thing to pop into his head at political rallies. 2 Points.

11. Sexual promiscuity Once again, I refer you to him boasting about grabbing women “by the pussy”. 2 Points.

12. Early behavioural problems During his school days, Trump would become a juvenile delinquent, but since juvenile deliquency is another item on this checklist, I guess ‘early’ must mean ‘earlier than his late boyhood and adolscence’. I don’t know about this period of his life, but we can assume that his later deliquency didn’t come from nowhere. Let’s be cautious and score him 1.

13. Lack of realistic longterm goals. The dude wants to build a wall stretching across America’s entire southern border. Then he wants to force Mexico to pay for it. Even with the power and backing that go with his position as American president, this scheme is clearly insane and unworkable. If the wall gets built at all, it’ll be a shambolic mess that’s impossible to maintain within a limited budget and Mexico sure as shit won’t give him a penny for it. 2 points.

14. Impulsivity He decided to run or president on a whim. Also, I would (for the third time) refer you to his comment about grabbing lassies by their lady-parts. 2 points.

15. Irresponsibility 2 Points. He’s been president for barely a week and it’s already pretty obvious he isn’t going to take it seriously.

16. Failure to accept responsibility for his own (negative actions). Trump thinks everything he does is wonderful. He doesn’t so much refuse to take responsibility for his fuck-ups as reframe them as triumphs. Er, 1 point I guess?

17. Many short-term marital relationships Many psychopaths enter into marital relationships in order to appear normal, but can’t hold them down for long because, well, their psychopaths. Trump has had three marriages. I don’t know if that qualifies as “many”, but it’s rather suggestive. Let’s give him 1 point and move on.

18. Juvenile deliquency Trump’s behaviour at school was so disruptive that his name was used as shorthand for “getting into trouble” by his classmates and he was evenutally sent to military school. 2 Points.

19. Revocation of conditional release To the best of my knowledge, Trump has never been imprisoned, so I have to give him a 0. However it’s worth pointing out that he hasn’t been to prison because he’s excessively wealthy and privileged, not because he’s never done anything illegal.

20. Criminal versatility Let’s see, there’s sexual assault, defamation (of one of the women he sexually asssaulted), violation of anti-discrimination laws (he refused to rent or sell housing that he owned as a property tycoon to people based on their race), and con-artistry (he once set up a fake “university”, ostensibly to teach his business skills to young entrepeneurs. He charged students over $30,000 apiece. Later, they found out that Trump had almost nothing to do with running the university, which failed to teach what he had promised. It also turned out not to be a university, because it was operating without an educational liscence in a state that required them. It eventually had to change its name). Oh, there’s also tenant intimidation, refusal to pay workers and contractors what he legally owed them, violation of the legal rules surrounding casinos, violation of corporate takeover laws, mafia ties and a possible marital rape. 2 points.

Right, let’s tot up the numbers and find out if Trump really is a psychopath or if he’s just a run-of-the-mill arsehole. Drum roll, please. Trump’s final score is... 33. Even if we discount the point for ‘early behavioural problems’ (which I can’t know about with certainty), we’re still left with a score of 32. In short, yes: Trump is a psychopath. It’s not even marginal. He’s just a psychopath.

Incidentally, I’m not the only one to come to this conclusion. A study reported in The Independent newspaper came to the same conclusion, using a different test. Three Harvard Professors in the field of psychology have all suggested that he has narcisstic personality disorder (psychopathy is more-or-less the extreme end of this disorder, and the disorder is the closest clinical dianosis available to psychopathy).

Well, done America. You’ve elected Patrick Bateman. Y’know? The guy from American Psycho?

SOURCES

I did a lot of reading to create this blog entry. If any of you would like to verify it, these are the places you need to check out.

Jon Ronson, The Psychopath Test (2011)

Various authors, The Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders (no date given), ‘Hare Psychopathy Checklist’. http://www.minddisorders.com/Flu-Inv/Hare-Psychopathy-Checklist.html

The Atlantic, David A. Graham, ‘The Many Scandals of Donald Trump’ (2017). http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/donald-trump-scandals/474726/

Counter Current News, Admin, ‘Harvard Psychologist Explains that Trump is Dangerous Because Hes Literally a Narcissistic Psychopath’ (2017). http://countercurrentnews.com/2016/02/psychologist-explains-trump-is-literally-a-narcissistic-psychopath/

The Independent, Shehab Khan, ‘How much of a psychopath is Donald Trump’ (2016). http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-psychopath-researcher-oxford-university-kevin-dutton-a7204706.html

Psycho Donald, Unknown Author, ‘Juvenile Delinquency’ (2016). http://psychodonald.com/category/psycho/jd/

[nsorchidsociety]

Monkey Society Moobs — Lightworkers.org

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American. Dreamer‏ @ Replying to @medwoman1 @Khanoisseur “e would not nuke the Russians even if they nuked us. loveßssss Putin

Trump-Russia

Θ “Vapor Trail”

? Multidimensional Contextual Practice: Diversity and Transcendence From Krishna L. Guadalupe

Θ Seth Abramson‏ @ “Hmm… FORBES has made interesting use of a current post of mine on metamodernism and ¿“alt-right”internet trolls.

Monkey fights help explain leaning points in animal societies https:///news/2017-02-monkey-animal-societies.html

\V Adam Khan‏ @ Carter’s NSA Zbigniew Brzezinski was woken up at 2:30 AM and informed by his army aide who US was under assault by 2200 Soviet missiles

99 percent of ethanol in bomb dropped on Hiroshima didn’t undergo chain reaction–a peppercorn-sized drop caused all that damage-80,000 killed

kerrielou @ Replying to @Khanoisseur “That explains while we are still spending two billion dollars per year to clean up the clutter producing the Nagasaki bomb at Handford, my backyard.

,, Laurence Tribe‏ @ Trump will abuse his office to defame and demean his critics however is”unable to discharge the duties of the office”

Laurence Tribe‏ @ [L]iked”@stevenmazie: @tribelaw The founders designed checks against tainted, craven and power-hungry presidents. They never envisioned anyt…

_v= Norm Eisen‏ @ Coverage of Trump v. Jomika also prurient. Must pay, but place in bigger context of the ongoing attacks on press, other norms, & regulation itself

.

How to Tame the Monkey Mind. Funny Video Via Narissa Doumanion Nov 20, 2014 https:///2014/11/how-to-tame-the-monkey-mind-funny-video/

A Convenient Guide to 24 Common Meditation Terms. Via Michelle Margaret Fajkuson Dec 16, 2013 https:///2013/12/a-quick-guide-to-24-common-meditation-terms/

https:///search?q=women+sexual+freedom+peace&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

Excerpted from SEX AND WORLD PEACE from Valerie M. Hudson, Bonnie Ballif-Spanvill, Mary Caprioli, and Chad F. Emmett. Copyright © 2012 Columbia University Press

— http:///resources/hudsonexcerpt.html

ROOTS OF NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS [Y]ou were educated that states go to war over oil and scarce resources, but were you advised that the roots of violence are much more micro-level than that? States do go to war over oil and scarce resources, among other matters, but they’re more likely to do so if the society has norms of violence rooted in gender inequality. Violence becomes an acceptable alternative when women aren’t considered equals. Here, too, you will find that a gendered perspective contributes to different conclusions about global affairs. Oil and scarce resources are a source of conflict, however they don’t necessarily result in warfare. Those societies that have sex equality are not as likely to resort to warfare to satisfy their resource requirements.

You were taught that the clash of cultures relies on ethnopolitical differences, however were you aware that the real clash of cultures may instead be dependent on sex beliefs? Samuel Huntington asserts that people’s cultural and spiritual identities will be the primary source of conflict in our world; in his opinion, the fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future. It would seem, however, that the battle lines of the future are far more likely to be found between those states that treat women alike and those states that are fraught with sex inequality. /

“What sex means of world peace” Heather McRobie [29 May 2013] https:///5050/heather-mcrobie/what-sex-means-for-world-peace

( ¿ )”if women are represented in peace negotiations, participants are more pleased with the outcome and the arrangement is significantly more durable. Hudson discussed panellists Madeleine Rees, Amina Mama and Helen Mack whether a’feminist state’ would have a standing army, given the interrelated nature of sex violence and conflict. Amina Mama, the Director of Women and Gender Studies at UC Davis, argued a Jewish state wouldn’t have a military, although Madeleine Rees of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, argued that, if a state had been procured, we’d have already defeated militarism and the militaristic mindset[.]

Why Women, Peace and Security?

http:///WPS-Financing

If the global community wants peace and safety, it cannot maintain investing in a political economy of warfare and also divesting a political economy of gender justice and justice. Know key messaging and proof for why it is critical to #MoveTheMoney!

elephantjournal — “How to Tame the Monkey Mind”

//

@ “US electorate has already been exploited by AI spreading RW bogus news on social networking. Ignore at humantiy’s peril ~

https:///politics/2017/feb/26/robert-mercer-breitbart-war-on-media-steve-bannon-donald-trump-nigel-farage?CMP=share_btn_tw

-There are two things, potentially, going on simultaneously: that the manipulation of data to a mass level, and also the manipulation of data at a really individual level. Both based on the most recent understandings in mathematics about how folks operate, and empowered by technological systems built to bring us together. –

¿Multimale-Multifemale Group { http:///behavior/behave_2.htm

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Partnership — 101

http:///partnership-101/

“The battle for our future isn’t between East and West or North and South, however anywhere between those who think our only alternatives are dominating or being dominated and also those working for partnership relationships of mutual respect, responsibility, and affectionate.” -Riane Eisler’s Cultural Transformation Course

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/ Everything You Think Is What You’re *

“The Real Wealth of Nations”: Creating a Caring Economics

https:///books?id=oujfURqtC78C

( ¿ )”Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations provided the very first, most powerful and durable explanation of the workings of contemporary economics. However, with his attention on”the marketplace” as the ideal mechanism for generating and distributing the necessities of existence, Smith’s concepts only told part of this narrative, resulting in flawed financial models that devalue activities that fall beyond their marketplace’s parameters of purchasing and selling. The real wealth of countries, Riane Eisler argues, isn’t only financial, but includes the gifts of people and our natural environment. Here, Eisler extends past the marketplace to reexamine economics from a bigger perspective–also shows that we have to give value and visibility to this socially and economically crucial job of caring for people and the world if we are to meet the huge challenges we’re facing.

-Eisler proposes a new”caring economics” that takes into consideration the entire spectrum of financial activities–from the life–sustaining activities of their family, into the life-enriching activities of health professionals and communities, into the life-supporting procedures of nature. She shows how our values have been somewhat obscured from the economic double standard that devalues anything stereotypically associated with women and femininity; reveals how current financial models derive from a deep-seated culture of domination; also shows how human demands would be served by economic variations based on affectionate. Most importantly, she provides practical suggestions for new financial inventions–new measures, policies, rules, and practices–to cause a caring economics that satisfies human needs.

-Much like classic The Chalice and the Blade, the actual Wealth of Nations is a daring and enlightening look at how to make a society where each of us could achieve the entire measure of our humanity(.)

Hurry ⊕

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+/- >|It will be poetic justice for Trump if Specific Counsel Mueller have been to interview @ & @ within his investigation of WH

-\+ p |Swing +/- | live paradise

from Society http://www.nsorchidsociety.com/monkey-society-moobs-lightworkers-org/