#Minister take oath

[townpostin]

Jharkhand Minister Hafizul Ansari Faces Allegations for Disrespecting National Anthem

Complaint filed by BJP youth wing officebearer Rahul Dubey for alleged disrespect during the national anthem. Jharkhand Minister Hafizul Ansari has been accused of disrespecting the national anthem in a complaint filed at Argora police station in Ranchi. RANCHI – Jharkhand Minister Hafizul Ansari faces allegations of disrespecting the national anthem, as a complaint was filed against him by BJP…

[hobidreams]

minis: december 1872.

shouldn't we all get a chance to be happy?

pairing: joseon king!yoongi x reader (side story) words: ~1400 note: this takes place a few months after the epilogue + a few years before the last mini!

moonlit throne index. this is drabble 48. start from the beginning?

Staunchly loyal and fiercely protective, Royal Guard Jung Hoseok’s life had long revolved around two things since the untimely passing of his wife: his beloved, precious daughter, Aera, and the royal family he had sworn to protect with all of his life. For as long as he could remember, his oath meant doing everything in his power to ensure his king remained physically safe, even if Hoseok was powerless to alleviate the emotional turmoil that plagued jeonha for most of his life. But he’d seen how things had changed in the past year, for both his king and his friend, the su-uinyeo-nim he respected and had always considered part of the royal family, official titles or not. He’d been blessed to witness the happiness that finally had the chance to blossom between two people that deserved it most.

And with that change, that tidal shift, in swept the pure force that was Seong-min, jungjeon-mama, into Hoseok’s life.

The first time he had seen her, the strong emotion that thundered through him had been of surprise.

Despite knowing that appearances were often deceiving, he had expected… a girl. A young, bright-eyed girl who had been pampered her whole life like jeonha’s former betrothed, Beom-su, had been. Instead, though she was still more youthful than he, there was a certain hardness in jungjeon-mama’s eyes. An edge that spoke of a clever mind and a stubborn resilience, tempered only by the social decorum she was a careful expert in. Hoseok had been instantly fascinated (in his professional capacity, he told himself). Hopelessly unable to keep the corner of his eye from wandering back to her whenever he stood guard in her vicinity in the months since her marriage to jeonha.

More than once, Hoseok had caught her mask slipping: an upward, amused quirk of her lips when jeonha scolded a particularly annoying minister, the quick flash of a lethal glare in her eyes when someone disrespected one of the people she considered her own. Hoseok couldn’t help the swell of his own pride at catching one of those moments, then keeping his lips sealed about them. Especially when she began to turn towards him (coincidentally, he was sure) to give her candid reaction before she molded herself into the regal ruler once more.

All of these thoughts, Hoseok very much kept to himself, even though he was one of few that had been entrusted with the truth of the platonic relationship between the king and the queen. He was the leader of the Guard. He was just being protective. Every time he brought her fruit was just part of his duties. Every time he went to the market personally to purchase what she sought. And she only continuously called for him because he was reliable.

Oh, but now, standing before her for the very first time in the warm lamplight of her sitting room, the collar of her chima slightly more ajar than it would ever be in public, Hoseok is discovering that perhaps all that interest was less appropriate than he convinced himself it was.

“Guard Jung,” Jungjeon-mama calls, and he is terrified that she can hear his heart speed up at her voice that sounds far too intimate in this space, “do you have the yakgwa I requested?”

“Good evening, jungjeon-mama.” Hoseok’s sleeves pull slight friction against the rest of his uniform. “I have it, yes.”

Seong-min pulls her sharp eyes up from her book, and gives him one of her trademark stares that often means she’s seeing more than she lets on. “Then what are you waiting for?”

“I…” He stands firm at the threshold of her chambers, his feet frozen to the ground, his pulse stuttering. His entire body is stiff in a way it’s never been before. Not when he’s spent most of his life honing his muscles to respond to him exactly he way he wants. But he shouldn’t go any further here. It wouldn’t be right.

More than anything, Hoseok is frustrated with himself. He’s a goddamn soldier. He should be able to spit out his thoughts. But the way she’s looking at him is making words jumble in his mind. “May I just leave them here?” He finally gets out after a beat of tenuous silence, like the coward he’s never known himself to be.

“No.” She offers no further explanation. Just taps a slender finger twice on the wooden desk right before her to indicate exactly where he should put the delivery of cookies. “Close the door behind you.”

The scrape of the door behind him feels like the sharpening of an executioner’s blade for what he is doing. But that was a direct order from his queen. With his left hand, Hoseok clenches the box so hard he has to remind himself to relax.

“I do not think I should be doing this,” Hoseok says, even as he steps further inside. Maybe that could absolve some of his guilt.

“And why is that?”

Hoseok swallows. The floor creaks under his foot. “Propriety, of course. An unmarried man should not be alone with a young woman, much less one of your stature, jungjeon-mama. Confucious’ teachings and decorum and…”

“What are you afraid will happen?”

The pure, easy amusement that beams from her face stuns him into silence. He’s never seen it so unabashed before. He’s never seen it aimed at him before. His heart lurches in a way it hasn’t done in years.

“Nothing, of course,” he mutters, trying to gather himself, but he is so close to her now, so close he can start to smell the faint sweetness of whatever fragrance she’s brushed across her skin today. He climbs one set of low stairs to the next platform. “I am only concerned with what the others will say. I do not wish for your reputation to be tarnished but the palace halls hum with gossip and—”

“Hoseok.”

She cuts him off, saying his given name so smoothly, it’s as if she’s called him that a hundred times before. Or maybe that’s only in his delirious mind. But there is no denying how she commands him to keep moving with her eyes alone, as if putting him under a spell as he approaches her, step by trembling step.

When Hoseok leans down to set the small wooden box upon the table, her hand is faster than he. Before he can make his escape, Seong-min grabs a fistful of his uniform, pulling him towards her with one firm tug. She leans her face into him, the distance between them eviscerated in a moment. He looks into her deep, beautiful eyes, seeing himself reflected there with a pang of desire shooting straight into his heart. She could kiss him, he realizes. He could kiss her.

“Let them talk.” Her voice is a half-whisper, brimming with conviction and desire as her breath brushes warm and sweet over his mouth. “I will still have what I want.”

And before he can shatter propriety into a million tiny splinters and give into what he suddenly wants more than anything in the entire world, Seong-min loosens her hand.

She straightens, adjusting the knot on her chima and patting away a speck of dust on the silk. As if she isn’t aware of the heat in his gaze, she opens the lid of the box as if she had only just finished reading her book. “Thank you for this, Guard Jung.”

“I, uh, ah, right. Right. Yes.” Hoseok backs away immediately, retreating away into the shadows as if that could hide the furious red heat creeping over his cheeks.

“I’ll call on you again, for more.” She bites into a cookie that leaves crumbs at the corner of her mouth. She smirks when he watches her slowly lick them away even as he is attempting to escape, fixated on the pink dart of her tongue. “Soon.”

Despite not being a clumsy person in general (at least compared to Eunuch Kim), Hoseok nearly falls over completely, so desperate to be alone to collect his poor mind and stop the pounding in his ears every bit as much as he wants to stay with her. “I-I will attend to your needs to the best of my abilities, jungjeon-mama.” He’s nearly at the exit. Sweet freedom from the chances of embarrassing himself further, though he will certainly replay this moment in his mind for days and weeks on end.

When Hoseok finally throws open the door and all but hurls himself out after a rapid bow, Seong-min only watches and laughs. When only the clean scent of him lingers, she touches her fingers gently to her bottom lip, where they almost met. “I’ll very much look forward to that, Guard Jung.”

a/n: I love Seong-min 🥺I make no promises to write more of these two but they've been living rent free in my brain for years... so maybe more to come 👀

[waitmyturtles]

Hot Take: Be On Cloud and Sammon out GMMTV-ed GMMTV with that lame-ass 4 Minutes finale

(TW: Ummm, this ended up being a rant, so don't read this if you enjoyed that finale.)

WOW.

This is not the central thesis of this post at all, but I need to get this off my chest, FIRST OF AWL: GET AN ORIGINAL OST. WOW.

LIKE, ACTUALLY, I want to not get into this, but I actually need to talk about this for a second. ICONIC OSTs like, SAY, "Why Don't You Stay" or "Just Friend" (OR THE DARK BLUE KISS THEME SONG, THE BEST ONE) are meant to invoke THE SHOW FROM WHICH THAT SONG HAILS, AND THE FEELINGS THAT THAT PARTICULAR SHOW MADE ONE FEEL. WHAT THE FUCK WAS 4 MINUTES THINKING?! THIS SHOW WAS NOT KINNPORSCHE. NOT AT ALL. I FELT NO KP FROM 4 MINUTES. I hope Jeff Satur sues BOC for copyright infringement. ANYWAY.

I mean, this is gonna be messy, but in yet another case of shippy roooooomance, a kind of rooooomance that's supposed to leave us feeling like the central couple is worth redeeming against both the obstacles that the story gives them, AND/OR a weak script as well (I wrote about this recently during a rewatch of The Eclipse), I mean, BOC and Sammon just threw an otherwise really amazing storyline to the dogs.

We were supposed to get a lot of moral and ethical loops closed here. I would have been okay with a Ton Kla redemption! I would have been okay with Korn living the rest of his life in pain and suffering for neglecting Ton Kla! Instead, they're both "redeemed" by their own deaths?! I get Win being upset, but Win, you knew who you were sleeping with! Come awn!

AND. I'm supposed to believe that Great is worth redemption because he threw a corrupt government minister under the bus and prevented his parents from coming back to Thailand, while we see him walking away from a woman having a heart attack???? Like, THAT'S NOT GOOD!!!! He's had a messy life, but he's not necessarily a good person, folks!!! HELLO!!! "He's a good person?!" TYME?? Like, Great's hot, BUT LIKE, DON'T BE LIKE THAT, TYME, GURL, ACTUALLY LOOK THRU AT WHO YOU'RE DATING.

ALSO, TYME, HIPPOCRATIC OATH, DUDE. I KNOW YOU WANT THAT GUY DEAD, AND HE DESERVES BAD THINGS, BUT YOU CAN'T MAIM HIM PURPOSELY, HOMEY, YOU'RE ABOUT TO BECOME A PROFESSOR.

And LIKE, WHAT THE FUCK, putting a whole new story point about Warit's kidnapping from some dude named Wanchai who we don't even know, and finding out that Warit is a general?!?! It was JUST CONFUSING.

Also, Den dating a patient. I know medical ethics are probably different in Thailand, but they cannot be THAT DIFFERENT, friends, they can't (right? right?).

And. Finally. TYME GOT SHOT MULTIPLE TIMES IN THE CHEST AREA. He survived after two months of recovery?! HE SURVIVED POINT-BLANK SHOOTING?!?!?!??!?!?! AND GREAT SURVIVED HIS POINT-BLANK SHOOTING, TOO?!?!?!?!

LISTEN. LISTEN. I get that BOC wants GreatTyme together. JesBible are a good pair. It's fine Great and Tyme are together. It's nice.

But there was an ACTUAL storyline, told WONDERFULLY for seven episodes, that had these characters in moral and ethical chokeholds that could have received different and very much more appropriate endings. This is fiction, of course, but the moral and ethical prisons these characters were in were very real-to-life by way of what humans value, and how you balance those values against the real-time decisions that humans need to make for themselves and their families.

Instead, BOC took the wild GMMTV playbook of late (The Eclipse, 23.5, Only Friends, Wandee Goodday, even Last Twilight and My Precious) and just railroaded ethical explorations for, my GAWD, guitars and boats. GUITARS AND BOATS! If either Great or Tyme had died, how would the story have expressed regret, uncommunicated feelings, unsolved mysteries?

The ending sucked the mystery out of this series, and frankly, made light of the fact that we were not in a Series Y for seven-eighths of a runtime, only to truly suck us back into Y territory -- real, sugary, cheesy Y territory, GUITARS, THE KP OST OMG -- that just clashed with the tonality of what was shaping up to be a great queer crime murder mystery show. GMMTV already does this. BOC did not need to go there.

Funny that some of us are watching Kidnap now, and commenting (I'm stealing @shortpplfedup's words here) that Kidnap is not a crime BL, but a crime BL. Kidnap knows what it is: it is shaping up to be a fun, unserious Y series that's centered around two himbos not really understanding the consequences of their decisions, and being googly while doing it. It seems to be taking its unseriousness seriously. Good on GMMTV for taking initiative there.

4 Minutes? 4 Minutes needs moral closure, not sappy romance. I could have used a hint that we were gonna get punked earlier. I wouldn't have taken this show as seriously as I did if I had known otherwise.

[camisoledadparis]

THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … February 3

Francis Douglas (R) with his brother Alfred

1867 – Francis Douglas, Viscount Drumlanrig (d.1894) was a Scottish nobleman and politician, the eldest son of the 9th Marquess of Queensberry.

He was educated at Harrow School and later served as a private secretary to the Liberal politician and Prime Minister Archibald Primrose, Lord Rosebery. Thanks to Rosebery's patronage, on 22 June 1893 he was raised to the Peerage of the United Kingdom as Baron Kelhead, of Kelhead in the County of Dumfries. This provided him with a seat in the House of Lords.

Drumlanrig's father served in Parliament from 1872 to 1880 as a representative peer, but in 1880 he refused, as an atheist, to take the religious oath of allegiance to the Queen. He was not allowed to take his seat and was never again chosen as representative peer by the Scottish nobles. His son's accession to Parliament as the 1st Baron Kelhead precipitated a bitter dispute between them and also between Queensberry and Lord Rosebery, who became Prime Minister in 1894.

In October 1894, eighteen months after his ennoblement, Drumlanrig died in what may have been a hunting accident or suicide. He was unmarried and his younger brother Lord Percy Douglas became heir to his father's titles.

It was speculated at the time, and evidence suggests that Drumlanrig may have had a homosexual relationship with Rosebery, and further, that Queensberry had threatened to expose the Prime Minister's supposed proclivities if his government did not vigorously prosecute Oscar Wilde in the affair stemming from Wilde's relationship with Francis Douglas's younger brother Lord Alfred Douglas. Rosebery was, by most accounts, happily married until the death of his wife in 1890, though gossip that Rosebery was homosexual or bisexual was indeed widespread. Queensberry believed that, as he phrased it to Lord Alfred in a letter, 'Snob Queers like Rosebery' had corrupted his sons, and held the Prime Minister indirectly responsible for Drumlanrig's death.

 Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas

1874 – Gertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France. (d.1946); Like the cubist paintings she knew so well, Gertrude Stein was multi-faceted, complicated and occasionally impenetrable. So much as been written about her it is difficult to know exactly what to make of this extraordinary woman, whose long and happy life with Alice B. Toklas she once summed up by writing,

"I love my love with a p because she is peculiar."

In her youth in Baltimore, Stein met Claribel Cone and Etta Cone, who held Saturday evening salons which she would later emulate in Paris. The Cones shared an appreciation for art and conversation about it, and modeled a domestic division of labor that Stein would replicate in her relationship with Alice B. Toklas.

In 1903, Stein moved to Paris, where she spent the rest of her life. From 1903 to 1914 she lived there with her brother Leo Stein, an art critic. It was during this period that she became well-known. Much of Gertrude Stein's fame derives from a private modern art gallery she assembled, from 1904 to 1913, with her brother. While living in Paris, Gertrude began writing for publication. Her earliest writings were mainly retellings of her college experiences. Her first critically acclaimed publication was Three Lives.

Stein met her life partner Alice B. Toklas on September 8, 1907, on Toklas' first day in Paris, at Sarah and Michael Stein's apartment. Soon they were traveling Europe together, and eventually living together. During the 1920s, the salon at 27 Rue de Fleurus, with walls covered by avant-garde paintings, attracted many of the great writers of the time, including Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, Thornton Wilder, and Sherwood Anderson. While she has been credited with inventing the term "Lost Generation" for some of these expatriate American writers, at least three versions of the story that led to the phrase are on record, two by Ernest Hemingway and one by Gertrude Stein.

Was she a genius, a fraud, a bitch, a saint, over-rated, under-rated or a little of each? What she was more than anything else was honest, scrupulously so, perhaps the most honest writer of her time. Her early fiction, Q.E.D. and Three Lives, offers us the first realistic portrait of Lesbianism in the English language that is not veiled in misty metaphor or drowned in sickly sentiment. The very act of creating these books required an heroic courage that is inconceivable today. What she risked in breaking new ground, in writing about a subject scarcely known, no less understood, was the creation of works destined to cause shock and be called "ugly." As she later wrote in her inimitable style, "...When you make a thing, it is so complicated making it that it is bound to be ugly, but those that do it after you they don't have to worry about making it and they can make it pretty, and so everyone can like it when the others make it."

Other books include Tender Buttons and The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. Her essay "Miss Furr and Miss Skeene" is one of the first homosexual revelation stories to be published. The work evinces Stein's growing involvement with a homosexual community, though it is based on lesbian partners Maud Hunt Squire and Ethel Mars. The work contains the word "gay" over one hundred times, perhaps the first published use of the word "gay" in reference to same-sex relationships and those who have them, and, thus, uninformed readers missed the lesbian content.

Gertrude Stein was a first. We keep her memory with a g. Because she was so gay.

1927 – Kenneth Anger, American Underground Filmmaker, born (d.2023); One of America's first openly Gay filmmakers, and certainly the first whose work addressed homosexuality in an undisguised, self-implicating manner, Kenneth Anger occupies an important place in the history of experimental filmmaking. His role in rendering Gay culture visible within American cinema, commercial or otherwise, is impossible to overestimate.

In 1947, Anger gained instant notoriety with Fireworks, a homoerotic nightmare/reverie in which a muscle-bound sailor enjoys posing for the protagonist's (Anger's) delectation, but then, with four others, bashes the youth in a public restroom. Despite the horrific scenario, the ending suggests redemption with milky fluid spattering Anger's body, a sympathetic sailor's crotch spewing white sparks from a Roman candle, and Anger resurrected, wearing a flaming Christmas tree headdress.

Some early Anger works never made it to the controversial screening stage because negatives were confiscated and destroyed by self-policing labs to which he had sent film for processing. Conversely, other viewers were overly appreciative of Anger's eroticism, pirating and showing his films in nightclubs during an era when Gay porn was largely unavailable.

Similarly, the pervasiveness of iconic Gay imagery in Anger's work, such as the leather-clad bikers of Scorpio Rising (1963), often caused his films to be grossly oversimplified as depictions of homosexual "pathology," rather than understood as critiques of American mass culture, particularly as it was propagated by Hollywood movies and the rock-and-roll music that Anger used for his soundtracks in pioneering ways, critically anticipating the music-video genre.

In unfinished film projects such as Puce Moment (1949), with its close-up sequence of women's gowns, and Kustom Kar Kommandos (1965), in which a youth caresses a hot-rod with a powder puff, Anger inventories American culture's most fetishized objects, evoking a profoundly camp sensibility. Elsewhere, in Eaux d'artifice (1953), whatever Gay content does exist—Anger cites Ronald Firbank's novel Valmouth as inspiration and has likened the fountain imagery to sexual water-sports—is subordinate to the film's elegant visual abstractions.

Although Fireworks and Scorpio Rising had earned him a reputation as an underground Gay filmmaker, through the late 1960s and 1970s, Anger's films expressed less specifically Gay content. His longtime fascination with the writings of occultist Aleister Crowley, which had imparted a dark, ritualistic atmosphere to even his earliest films, propelled works such as Invocation of My Demon Brother (1969) and Lucifer Rising (1973). Collaborative projects with Mick Jagger and Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page recalled Anger's earlier professional engagements with Jean Cocteau, Anaïs Nin, and other iconoclasts, but the results fell short of Anger's expectations and, indeed, abilities.

Through the 1980s, Anger became known to a broader public through the film adaptation of his lurid book Hollywood Babylon (1958), which chronicled scandals of the film industry. Hollywood Babylon is, in essence, a counter-accusation of indecency and intemperance against America's self-righteous film establishment, an institution that at mid-century was so fearful of scandal that only underground filmmakers risked depicting overtly sexual content and exploring radical cinematic forms.

1938 – Emile Griffith (d.2013) was a former boxer who was the first fighter from the U.S. Virgin Islands ever to become a world champion. He is perhaps best known for his controversial third fight with Benny Paret in 1962 for the welterweight world championship. Griffith later won the world middleweight title and claimed an early version of the junior middleweight world championship, a claim that has not been universally recognized although some consider Griffith a three-division champion fighter.

Griffith as a youth never dreamed of becoming a boxer and was discovered by accident. As a teen he was working at a hat factory on a steamy day when his boss the factory owner agreed to Griffith's request to work shirtless. When the owner, a former amateur boxer, noticed his frame he took Griffith to trainer Gil Clancy's gym. Griffith won the 1958 New York Golden Gloves 147 lb Open Championship. He turned professional in 1958.

The infamous Emile Griffith/Benny Paret fight, which was nationally televised by ABC, took place on March 24, 1962 at Madison Square Garden. In the sixth round Paret nearly knocked out Griffith with a multi punch combination but Griffith was saved by the bell. After the round his trainer Gil Clancy got into his face and told him "when you go inside I want you to keep punching until Paret holds you or the referee breaks you! But you keep punching until he does that!". In round 12 Griffith knocked Paret unconscious yet Paret stood, still propped up against the ropes while Griffith struck Paret repeatedly over the next several seconds before referee Ruby Goldstein stopped the fight. Paret never regained consciousness, and he died ten days later.

Sports Illustrated reported in its April 18, 2005, edition that Griffith's rage may have been fueled by an anti-gay slur directed at him by Paret during the weigh-in. Paret called his opponent a maricón, the Spanish equivalent of "faggot"; Griffith nearly went after him on the spot and had to be restrained. The media at the time either ignored the slur or used euphemisms such as "anti-man". The 2005 article pointed out that it would have been career suicide for an athlete or any other celebrity during the 1960s to admit that he was gay.

Griffith reportedly felt great guilt over Paret's death, and suffered nightmares about Paret for 40 years.

After retiring from boxing, Griffith worked as a corrections officer at the Secaucus, New Jersey Juvenile Detention Facility.

In 1992, Griffith was viciously beaten and almost killed on a New York City street, after leaving a gay bar near the Port Authority Bus Terminal. He was in the hospital for four months after the assault. It was not clear whether the violence was motivated by hatred of gays.

Griffith was quoted in Sports Illustrated as saying "I like men and women both. But I don't like that word: homosexual, gay or faggot. I don't know what I am. I love men and women the same, but if you ask me which is better... I like women."

Griffith died July 23, 2013, at a care facility in Hempstead, New York. In his final years, he required full-time care and suffered from dementia pugilistica. His adopted son, Luis Rodrigo Griffith, was his primary caregiver

1950 – Ron Woodroof (d.1992) was an American who created what would become known as the Dallas Buyers Club in March 1988. Contracting the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the 1980s, he created the group as part of his efforts to find and distribute drugs to treat HIV at a time when the disease was poorly understood.

He sued the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over a ban on a drug he was using.

Woodroof was born in Dallas, Texas. His first marriage was to Mary Etta Pybus on June 28, 1969, in Dallas; and they had a daughter born in 1970. They divorced in 1972. On May 6, 1972, he married Rory S. Flynn in Dallas. They divorced in 1973. He then married Brenda Shari Robin on October, 1982, in Lubbock. They divorced on March 4, 1986, after he was diagnosed with HIV.

He had a mercurial personality. One reporter writes that "Woodroof took guns to his doctor’s office, prompting Dr. Steven Pounders to 'fire him as a patient.'" Woodroof later sent the doctor roses, and the doctor took him back.

Some of his friends told reporters he was gay or bisexual. Accounts differ on whether he made homophobic comments. Reporter and screenwriter Craig Borten has said Woodroof was "as racist and homophobic as they come" while friends reportedly claim the opposite.

Seven years following his diagnosis of HIV, Ron Woodroof died on September 12, 1992 from pneumonia brought on by AIDS. Woodroof's final years became the basis of the 2013 film Dallas Buyers Club. He was portrayed in the film by Matthew McConaughey, who was critically acclaimed for his performance and won many awards, including the Academy Award for Best Actor.

1956 – Nathan Lane, (n�� Joseph Lane) is an American actor of stage and screen. He is best known for his roles as Mendy in The Lisbon Traviata, Albert in The Birdcage, Max Bialystock in the musical The Producers, Ernie Smuntz in MouseHunt, Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and his voice work in The Lion King and Stuart Little. In 2006, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2008, he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

When he was 21 and told his mother he was Gay, her reply was: "I'd rather you were dead." Lane shot back: "I knew you'd understand".

His professional association with his close friend the playwright Terrence McNally includes roles in Lips Together, Teeth Apart, The Lisbon Traviata, Bad Habits, Love! Valor! Compassion!, and Dedication.

Lane, who came out publicly after the death of Matthew Shepard, jokingly describes himself as "one of those old-fashioned homosexuals, not one of the newfangled ones who are born joining parades." When he was asked once by a reporter whether he was Gay, rather than providing a blunt yes-or-no answer, he famously declared, "I'm 40, single and work a lot in the musical theater. You do the math."

He has been a long-time board member of and fundraiser for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids, and he has been honored by The Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, and The Trevor Project for his work in the Gay community. Lane resides in New York City with his long-time partner, producer Devlin Elliott. Nathan and Devlin married in November 2015.

1969 – Paul Babeu is the elected sheriff of Pinal County in the U.S. state of Arizona. First voted into office in 2008 by defeating the Democratic incumbent, Babeu became the first Republican Sheriff elected in the history of Pinal County. He has received national media attention for speaking out against illegal immigration, the unsecured U.S. border with Mexico, and Operation Fast and Furious gun smuggling facilitated by the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

In October 2011, Babeu announced the formation of an exploratory committee to run for U.S. Congress, but later decided against running. Babeu won reelection to a second term as sheriff on November 6, 2012.

In February 2012, Babeu was accused of threats of deportation by a Mexican man who described himself as a former boyfriend of Babeu. A spokesman for Babeu denied the allegation and described them as "sensationalist". The spokesman confirmed that Babeu would continue to run for U.S. Congress.

The day after the story broke, Babeu, then a surrogate for Mitt Romney's campaign, officially acknowledged his sexuality but denied the charges. Babeu claimed his sexual orientation was the only factual statement from the allegations. Later, in May, he told openly gay journalist Don Lemon he wants to provide a bridge between the GOP and LGBT communities. He later won reelection as Sheriff of Maricopa County Pinal County by a large margin.

1976 – Daniel Allen Cox is a Canadian author and screenwriter. Shuck, his debut novel about a New York City hustler, was a Lambda Literary Award and a ReLit Award finalist

Cox is a former Jehovah's Witness and model/actor in gay pornography. From 2008 to 2011, he wrote the column "Fingerprinted" for Capital Xtra! in Ottawa, Ontario. He is openly gay.

Krakow Melt, the second novel by Cox, about Polish pyromaniacs who fight homophobia, was released in 2010 and was excerpted in the US-based national gay and lesbian newsmagazine The Advocate. In 2011, Istanbul-based publisher Altikirkbes acquired Turkish-language rights to the novel for an underground literature imprint featuring Lydia Lunch. The novel was nominated for the ReLit Award, the Lambda Literary Award and the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction. Cox's third novel, Basement of Wolves, was released in 2012.

In a cover interview for Xtra!, the author revealed a collaboration with Bruce LaBruce on the screenplay for the director's film, Gerontophilia. Cox's script One Shut Night was named one of five finalists in the 2013 NYC PictureStart Film Festival short screenplay contest, with the announcement of a stage reading directed by Peter Kelley.

Tattoo This Madness In, his novella about LGBT Jehovah’s Witnesses who use Smurf tattoos to rebel against their faith, was nominated for a 2007 Expozine Alternative Press Award.

2014 – Don Franco (b.1923), a lifelong gay activist, died on this date. He was 90.

At approximately 1:30am on Saturday, Dec 9, 1978, Toronto police stormed the Barracks, a small bathhouse focusing on BDSM. They tore the place apart and arrested 26 men, including Franco. In response, Franco joined the newly formed Right to Privacy Committee and helped organize a series of public demonstrations, which resulted in the police getting fewer guilty pleas than they would have liked.  But that wasn’t the end of it. A police sergeant then took it upon himself to call various Toronto schools and give them the names of the six school teachers arrested in relation to the Barracks raid, including Franco’s. Franco enlisted the help of minister Brent Hawkes, who called for the sergeant to be disciplined. The teachers’ union also stood by Franco and the Toronto Board of Education chairperson, Fiona Nelson, issued a statement in support of Franco.

Still that wasn’t the end of it. Franco had a makeshift dungeon off the bedroom of his home and regularly advertised for partners in The Body Politic. A policeman, posing as a potential partner, responded to his ad, came over and arrested Franco during an initial conversation. Six more officers then burst in and confiscated several garbage bags full of Franco’s belongings. In a possible attempt to target Franco, they were trying to stretch the law concerning “common bawdyhouses” to include his apartment.

Franco was close to retirement and worried that a conviction might lead to losing his pension. He didn’t back down, and dozens of hearings later he was acquitted of the charge. He retired with full pension. His was an important early victory in the struggle for gay rights.

In a time when the fight for rights was savage, Franco was involved with just about every protest, group or movement. He was connected to varying degrees with AIDS Action Now, the Ontario Coalition for Gay Rights, the Campaign for Equal Families and the NDP, just to name a few. He got little credit for the work that he did and didn’t profit from his good deeds, but he is one of a select group of people who were involved in almost the entire history of the fight for gay rights in Canada.

His strength and passion seem to have pervaded other aspects of his life as well. He taught in high schools for approximately 40 years and was one of those rare teachers whose students, even years later, would come back to visit and thank for his contribution to their lives.

[loveerran]

The account of the 2000 Stripling Warriors in the Book of Mormon (Alma chapters 56-58) is one of the best known and most cited stories in LDS lore. They are the focus of lessons and talks, are featured in artwork and music, and are mentioned nearly every mother's day because of a passage relating how they learned faith from their mothers.

The parents of these young men were Lamanites who had buried their "weapons of war" and made a covenant to never again take a life, not even in self defense. When they were faced with destruction, the Nephites offered them shelter in the land of Jershon. Many years later, when the Nephites were themselves threatened in an existential war, these parents began to question their covenant to not take up arms. Ultimately, they chose to keep their promise to God, but many of their young sons (who had not taken the oath) chose to fight in defense of the Nephites. They became known as the Stripling Warriors.

The Stripling Warriors are held up as examples of righteousness and obedience. The account relates how, in at least two key battles, none perished. One of the primary takeaways is that if we have faith and are obedient, we will be preserved until our work on the earth is finished.

This belief in the preservation of the righteous is related in Alma 57:25-27 following one of those key battles:

25 And it came to pass that there were two hundred, out of my two thousand and sixty, who had fainted because of the loss of blood; nevertheless, according to the goodness of God, and to our great astonishment, and also the joy of our whole army, there was not one soul of them who did perish; yea, and neither was there one soul among them who had not received many wounds.

It is interesting to me that the heroes of the story, those who were righteous, obedient and blessed, were all wounded. Some severely. And in that fact I see a metaphor for mortality in general: Even the most righteous, who exercise faith and endure to the end, will be wounded along the way.

Wounds acquired in mortality are not a sign of evil or lack of favor with God. We're all wounded. Some of us may have even fainted with the loss of blood. The Savior invites us to minister to and care for each other, much like the Good Samaritan of the parable

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Harry Litman at Talking Feds:

On May 29, 2010, Hungary was a liberal democracy with a free press, robust civil liberties, judicial independence, and a multi-party political system. That day, Viktor Orbán, who previously had been Prime Minister, returned to power after a free and fair election driven by voter discontent over the incumbent government’s handling of the 2008 financial crisis. In his years out of power, Orbán had established an iron grip on the Fidesz party, and had remade it in his image into a right-wing populist body. In short order, Orbán’s government, having commandeered the legal and political system, eviscerated judicial independence, installed a loyalist judiciary, attacked and undermined the free press, enacted election laws that hugely advantaged Fidesz and put an end to free and fair elections, labeled dissenters foreign agents and restricted their activities, and overhauled the constitution to centralize and consolidate power. Propped up by these perversions of democratic rule, Orbán remains in power 15 years later. The international community and European Union have relatedly condemned Hungary’s democratic decline, but to no avail. Orbán’s moves have sufficiently weakened opposition parties that they lack the means to topple him within the new ground rules he has established, even though his popular support now sits under 30%. Large scale demonstrations in October called for an end to elements of Orbán’s oppressive rule. But, of course, there’s an immense difference between protesting from the outside for a restoration of democracy and using the tools of a vibrant democracy to change the party in power. Donald Trump, who returns to official power at noon today, has consistently expressed admiration for Orbán as a “tough” and “smart” leader and a “strongman.” In his debate with Kamala Harris, he rebuffed Harris’s assertion that world leaders didn’t respect him by citing Orbán, “one of the most respected men.” After his election victory, Orbán and Trump had a phone call, after which Orbán announced “big plans for the future.” Then last month Orbán came to Mar-A-Lago to visit with Trump and Elon Musk.

Trump will take his oath of office as President today, and if past is prologue, he will be lying. In the last few months, even before taking office, Trump has used strongarm tactics to bring both houses of Congress to heel. He has laid plans to reconstruct the government under the dominant principle of loyalty to his personal interests, and to punish any official who defies him. He has attacked the free press and seduced and intimidated their owners to grovel. As of this very day, America is a backsliding democracy.

The overriding question becomes whether different forms of resistance can limit the backsliding and preserve a core of constitutional rule to nurture back to full health after Trump leaves the scene. Even though it seems to wash over in the majority of citizens, it is no exaggeration to say that the future of American democracy is on the line. A bitter lesson of the Trump age is that the constitutional rule that we had taken to be iron law, molded in the very words of the constitution, in fact is underpinned by softer cultural norms that Trump has been able to shred. Only 10 years ago, the prospect of a Hungary-like devolution of the world’s strongest and most enduring democracy would have been laughable. Now we can actually see the descending path to authoritarianism and the benchmarks along the way. Because they depend ultimately on norms and the shared dedication of the people, democracies are fragile. When a constellation of weaknesses combines with the ascent of power of a vicious strongman, they can be gutted. It happened in Hungary, and it can happen here.

Agree 100% with Harry Litman here: What remains of a democracy in the USA is now officially resembling Orbán-era Hungary.

[ideas-on-paper]

A brief history of Camille Desmoulins

It's March 2nd today, which means it's the birthday of my biggest writing muse: Camille Desmoulins, 18th-century journalist, French revolutionary and the man who called the Parisian people to arms, resulting in the Storming of the Bastille.

Despite essentially causing such a major historical event, Camille is largely glossed over by historians, and not many people know about him as a result. However, that doesn't mean he didn't have any influence on the revolution, and he contributed to it the same way as famous personalities like Robespierre, Danton, and Saint-Just did. So, in honor of his 264th birthday, here's a little history of the man gracing my profile pic.

The early years

Camille was born in 1760, in the commune of Guise in the province of Picardy. At fourteen years of age, he obtained a scholarship to study at the Collège Louis-le-Grand in Paris, one of the most esteemed elite schools in France. There, he met Maximilien de Robespierre, and despite the boys being two years apart in age and having very different personalities - Maximilien was more calm and secluded, while Camille was lively and impulsive - the two bonded over their mutual love for classical history and philosophy.

After graduating from Louis-le-Grand, Camille began to pursue a career in law, being admitted to the Parlement of Paris in 1785. However, his stammer and lack of connections to the Parisian legal community impeded his success, so he instead took up writing as a journalist, with a primary focus on political affairs.

The Estates-General and the call to arms

When King Louis XVI convened the Estates-General in 1789, Camille was present at the procession on May 5th, writing a comment about the event. The Comte de Mirabeau, presenting himself as a middleman between the aristocracy and the Third Estate as well as a patron for Camille, even employed the latter as a writer for his newspaper for a time.

However, the mingling of the three estates was not well received by the king, and he tried to regain control over the members who had dubbed themselves the National Assembly by closing the Salle des Menus Plaisirs where the deputies met to them. Instead, the National Assembly held their meeting in the Jeu de Paume (which was normally used as the tennis court of Versailles), where the members from various estates swore the oath to not part until they had devised a new constitution for France.

Eventually, the king was forced to relent, but that didn't keep him from concentrating his troops in Versailles and Paris. When he dismissed finance minister Jacques Necker - who was very popular among the people and considered an advocate for their interests - the atmosphere in Paris took a turn for the worse.

The Parisians were angry, worried, and in fear, and in this situation - on July 12th, 1789 - Camille took the opportunity to leap onto a table in front of the Cafe de Foy in the Palais Royal. There, he delivered a passionate speech, even losing his usual stammer in the heat of the moment, calling the people to take up arms to defend themselves against the imminent massacre of the king's troops* and put on cockades so they recognize each other.

Following Camille's example, the people took green leaves from the trees lining the Palais Royal and stuck them to their coats. However, since green was associated with the Comte d'Artois, the conservative brother of the king, the color of the cockades quickly shifted to red and blue, the colors of the commune of Paris (white was added later to represent the king, in an attempt to reconcile the factions). Bad news for Camille's leaf cockades…

*The king most likely didn't plan to massacre the citizens, but the presence of so many troops, a good deal of them foreign, made the populace very anxious.

Journalistic career and the Girondins

After being present at the Storming of the Bastille, Camille continued to be politically active, publishing radical pamphlets and newspapers such as La France Libre, Discours de la lanterne aux Parisiens, and Révolutions de France et de Brabant. He joined the Club des Cordeliers led by Georges Danton and became part of the radical leftist Montagnards, the "Mountain" party of the National Convention, consisting of members such as Maximilien de Robespierre, Jean-Paul Marat, and Louis Antoine Saint-Just.

In 1790, Camille also married Lucile Duplessis, whom he had known for several years and harbored strong feelings for. However, despite Lucile's mother being a good friend of Camille's, her father repeatedly denied the couple his blessing, being of the opinion that Camille couldn't support a family with his meager income as a journalist. (Indeed, in the days prior to the revolution, Camille often had to live in poverty due to his difficulties establishing himself as a lawyer.) After gaining popularity as a journalist, however, Lucile's father finally allowed the lovers to marry, the marriage taking place on December 29th with Robespierre, Jacques Pierre Brissot, and Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve being present as witnesses.

However, success and bliss were not meant to last: After the massacre at the Champs de Mars on July 17th, 1791, Camille had to go into hiding, putting his journalistic activities on halt for the time being. When he took up his work again in 1792, he wrote a few papers viciously attacking the political faction of the Girondins and specifically their leader, Jean Pierre Brissot. In his works, Camille accused them of betraying the republic and counter-revolutionary acts*, which majorly contributed to the arrest and subsequent execution of many Girondin leaders, including Brissot. However, Camille came to regret his role in their deaths: During the trial, he was lamenting "Oh my God! My God! It is I who killed them!", collapsing in the courtroom when the death sentence was announced.

*The Girondins had acquired a reputation of intending to harm the revolution with their actions, on one hand due to their pro-war attitude (the war with other European empires had taken its toll on the Republic of France), and on the other hand due to the party's indecisiveness concerning the judgement of the king (some of them argued for clemency or a milder punishment).

Vieux Cordelier and downfall

After 1793, Camille had a notable change of heart, becoming one of the voices in favor of clemency instead of terror. In what would become his most well-known and popular journal, Le Vieux Cordelier, he argued against imprisoning citizens based on the mere suspicion of counter-revolutionary activities, condemning the brutality of the Reign of Terror and even directly addressing his old friend Robespierre to moderate his approach.

However, this only ended up making Camille another prime target. Robespierre initially tried to defend Camille from the Jacobin Club calling for his expulsion, but this changed when Danton's secretary, Fabre d'Églantine, was exposed for financial fraud. This cast a poor light on Danton and his allies, including Camille, and it was what made Robespierre support legally persecuting them. Charges of corruption, royalist tendencies, and conspiracy against the revolution were brought forth against them, resulting in the arrest of Camille, Danton, and the rest of the Dantonists.

The trial itself took place from April 3rd to 5th, and was obviously aimed at getting rid of the political threat that Danton and his allies posed. By decree of the National Convention, the accused were not allowed to defend themselves, in addition to being denied the right to call any witnesses. The guilty verdict, which was essentially prescribed due to the nature of the trial, was passed in the absence of the defendants to prevent unrest in the courtroom, and the Dantonists were scheduled to ascend the scaffold on the very same day.

In Luxembourg prison, Camille wrote a last letter to his beloved wife Lucile, with spots from tears being visible to this day. However, it should never reach her, as Camille was informed that Lucile had also been arrested on his way to the scaffold. He went wild upon hearing the news, and it took several men to get him into the tumbrel. Of the fifteen Dantonists guillotined on April 5th, 1794, Camille was the third to die.

Lucile, who had been arrested on the charge of conspiring to free her husband, followed him only eight days later, being guillotined on April 13th, 1794. She left behind her not even two years old son, Horace Camille Desmoulins, who was raised by Lucile's mother and sister. In 1817, Horace emigrated from France to Haiti, where his gravestone can be found to this day.

And that is the story of Camille Desmoulins: the man who ignited the spark of the French Revolution, but eventually got disgusted by its brutality, leading to his tragic end.

Camille may be a bit overlooked as a historical figure, but that does not make him less interesting or important.

So, in all due honor: Happy birthday, Camille! 🎂

[empirearchives]

Gaudin’s description of Napoleon

Martin-Michel Gaudin was Napoleon’s Minister of Finance. He entered the world of finance at the age of 17 and achieved the highest rank a non-aristocrat could achieve in finance administration pre-Revolution (“first clerk”). During the Revolution, he was the Commissioner of the National Treasury. He left government in 1795 and resisted further governmental recruiting attempts until Napoleon (who he had never met) approached him in 1799. Gaudin describes their first meeting in his memoir:

I found a personage who was known to me only by the high reputation he had already acquired; of low stature, dressed in a gray frock coat, extremely thin, yellow complexion, eagle-eyed, with lively movements [...] he came to me with the most gracious air.

“You have,” he said, “worked in finance for a long time?”

“Twenty years, General!”

“We need your help badly, and I’m counting on it. Come on, take your oath, we’re in a hurry.”

This formality completed, he added: “The last minister of the Directory will be informed of your appointment. Meet in two hours at the ministry to take possession of it, and provide a report on our situation as soon as you can, as well as on the first measures to be taken to restore the service which is lacking everywhere. Come see me this evening at my house on rue de la Victoire (that’s what rue Chantereine was then called), we will discuss our business more fully.”

I withdrew to carry out the orders I had just received.

(Source: Gaudin, Mémoires, souvenirs, opinions et écrits du duc de Gaète, pp. 45-46)

Historian Pierre Branda on their partnership:

“Intuition, good advice or genius? Bonaparte’s choice was judicious, because Gaudin would successfully occupy this ministerial post for the entire duration of the Consulate and the Empire, including the Hundred Days. With such longevity, he was undoubtedly one of Napoleon’s most appreciated ministers. It is true that the two men were often in perfect agreement.”

(Source: Le prix de la gloire: Napoléon et l’argent, pp. 197)

[us-cj]

DONALD TRUMP'S BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP ORDER IS CONSTITUTIONAL AND SAVES DEMOCRACY -- SORRY LIBS

Few issues ignite national debate as intensely as immigration, particularly during the Trump era.

When then-candidate Donald Trump criticized birthright citizenship on the campaign trail in 2015, it sparked widespread controversy. Voices on both the Left and the Right issued swift condemnations.

Fast forward to Tuesday, when news broke that President Trump was considering ending birthright citizenship via executive order. Once again, many critics condemned the idea, asserting that birthright citizenship is constitutionally guaranteed.

But if birthright citizenship is indeed rooted in the Constitution, why wasn’t the 14th Amendment applied to illegal or temporary immigrants before the 1960s?

The doctrine of birthright citizenship—the notion that citizenship is automatically granted to anyone born within U.S. borders—is absent from the Constitution’s text.

The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, collectively known as the Civil War Amendments, were enacted to ensure newly freed slaves were recognized as citizens with equal rights under the law. These amendments were designed to address the specific circumstances of the Reconstruction era, not to provide an open pathway to citizenship for children of non-citizens.

It’s no coincidence that the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment is part of the exact text as the Equal Protection Clause. Before the Civil War, state citizenship often conferred national citizenship. After the war, Congress sought to nationalize citizenship, ensuring that freed slaves could not be denied their rights by states resistant to Reconstruction.

The 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause reads:

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”

Critics of birthright citizenship argue that proponents often ignore the key phrase: “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” This phrase fundamentally limits the scope of who qualifies for automatic citizenship.

Michigan Senator Jacob Howard, the amendment’s author, clarified this intent during debates in Congress. He stated that “jurisdiction thereof” excluded individuals such as “foreigners, aliens, and children of ambassadors or foreign ministers,” emphasizing that the term referred to “full and complete jurisdiction.” This understanding was widely disseminated and accepted at the time.

The distinction between territorial jurisdiction and political jurisdiction is critical. While anyone on U.S. soil must follow American laws, this does not confer full political jurisdiction. For example, an illegal immigrant is not granted the right to vote, serve on juries, or claim other rights reserved for citizens. Full political jurisdiction is only granted through naturalization when an individual takes the Oath of Allegiance to the United States.

Legal scholars of the late 19th century supported this interpretation. Judge Thomas Cooley wrote in The General Principles of Constitutional Law in America:

“A citizen by birth must not only be born within the United States, but he must also be subject to the jurisdiction thereof; and by this is meant full and complete jurisdiction to which citizens generally are subject, and not any qualified or partial jurisdiction, such as may consist with allegiance to another government.”

Howard echoed this view in 1866 when he introduced the citizenship clause, referring to the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which stated:

“All persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States.”

Attorney General George Williams further reinforced this understanding in an 1873 legal opinion, explaining that “jurisdiction” meant “absolute and complete jurisdiction,” excluding even children of aliens born on U.S. soil. At the time, Native Americans were also excluded because their allegiance lay with their tribes.

Senator Lyman Trumbull, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, clarified that “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” meant “not owing allegiance to anybody else and being subject to the complete jurisdiction of the United States.”

This principle was upheld in Elk v. Wilkins (1884), where the Supreme Court affirmed that children born to individuals owing allegiance to foreign governments were not automatically granted U.S. citizenship. Only with the consent of the sovereign people can jurisdiction—and thus citizenship—be conferred.

It wasn’t until United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898) that the Court ruled children born in the U.S. to legal immigrant parents with permanent residence qualified for citizenship under the 14th Amendment. This decision did not extend to children of illegal immigrants, and no precedent has since established such an interpretation.

Moreover, Article 1, Section 8, Clause 4 of the Constitution grants Congress plenary power over naturalization. Section 5 of the 14th Amendment also grants Congress authority to enforce its provisions. In 1924, Congress, not the executive or judiciary, extended citizenship to Native Americans.

As of now, no law passed by Congress explicitly grants jurisdiction—or citizenship—to children born in the U.S. to illegal immigrant parents. No SCOTUS decision forces the president to enforce what the executive bureaucracy itself created. Therefore, Trump can unilaterally rescind what the executive created.

[humansofnewyork]

(30/54) “We were at the eighteenth birthday party of our daughter Ahang when we learned that a crowded movie theater had been set on fire in the town of Abadan. The arsonists had locked the exits from the outside, and four hundred people were killed. It was the largest act of terrorism in the history of Iran. Later it would be discovered that the arsonists were religious fanatics. But Khomeini was able to convince much of the country that the fire had been started by SAVAK, at the order of the king. The riots continued to grow. And the king began to panic. He called for the formation of a new government and fired his ministers. He wanted to replace them with upright people. People who could inspire confidence. People who could not be corrupted. And there was one member of parliament that was trusted most of all. He lived in a simple house. He drove a beat-up car. Nobody could question Dr. Ameli’s integrity. The king asked him to join the new administration as Minister of Information. In his new position he would be responsible for investigating the Abadan fire. If he discovered something that implicated Khomeini, I knew he would become a marked man. I drove to his office. I begged him to turn down the position. I told him: ‘Things have become too dangerous. Let’s stay low, let’s keep in our bunker. Once things have calmed down, we can reemerge. We can take a stand and make our case to the people.’ Thirty years earlier we had sworn an oath, to give our lives for Iran. The years had changed him in so many ways. There was white in his hair now. He was a respected leader. He’d written and spoken on every facet of Iran’s society and history. His thoughts had evolved. His policies had evolved. But his ideals had never changed. Every choice he made, he made for Iran. Every choice. He listened politely while I made my case. He knew. Deep in his heart he knew. He knew even better than I did. If something happened to the king, he was done. He’d have no protection. He’d have no support. But he had already made his decision. He was going to serve.”

 ما سرگرم جشن هجدهمین زادروز دخترمان آهنگ بودیم که دریافتیم سینمای بزرگی در شهر آبادان به آتش کشیده شده است. آتش‌افروزان درهای خروجی را از بیرون قفل کردند، و بیش از چهارسد تن را سوزاندند. این بزرگترین کار تبهکارانه‌ی تروریستی در تاریخ ایران بود. دیرتر آشکار شد که آتش‌افروزان از تندروهای مذهبی بودند. خمینی و یاران تبهکارش به سادگی توانستند به بسیاری بباورانند که آتش‌سوزی کار ساواک بوده است و به فرمان شاه. پیروانش بیش از پیش خشمگین شدند. شورش‌ها رو به فزونی بود. شاه ترسیده بود. نخست وزیر را برکنار کرد و دولت جدیدی سر کار آمد. می‌خواست دولتی درخور اعتماد مردم باشد، دنبال درست‌کردارانی می‌گشت که به عنوان وزیر خدمت کنند. کسانی که آلوده به فساد نبودند. آنانی را که به درستی شهرت داشتند. دکتر عاملی پزشکی توانا، استاد دانشگاه و نماینده‌ی مجلس بود که در خانه‌ای ساده به سادگی می‌زیست و خودروی فرسوده‌ای را می‌راند. مردی ستودنی بود. شاه از او خواست که به دولت جدید به عنوان وزیر اطلاعات و جهانگردی بپیوندد. در آن جایگاه وی سرپرست بررسی حادثه‌ی آتش‌سوزی سینما رکس آبادان بود. او بود که باید تبهکاران را پیدا کند و چنین کاری جانش را در خطر می‌انداخت. هنگامی که شنیدم به او چنین پیشنهادی شده است به دیدنش رفتم و نگرانی‌ام را یادآوری کردم و گفتم بهتر است که ما در سنگر خود بمانیم. سی سال از سوگندی که در همراهی با او برای جان باختن در راه ایران یاد کرده بودم، می‌گذشت. موهایش اندکی به سپیدی گراییده، گرانمایه‌ای ارجمند بود. درباره‌ی تمامی زمینه‌های جامعه و تاریخ ایران نوشته و سخنرانی داشت. اندیشه‌ها و سیاستش پخته‌تر شده و آرمان‌هایش همچنان استوار و پا بر جا بودند. هر تصمیم و گزینشش برای ایران بود. او ‌به سخنانم با ادب و بزرگی همیشگی‌اش گوش داد. می‌دانست، در ژرفای قلبش می‌دانست که اگر سلطنت شاه به خطر افتد، کار او نیز تمام است. از من بهتر می‌دانست که دیگر پناهگاهی نخواهد داشت. ولی او راهش را برگزیده بود. باید خدمت می‌کرد.

[zindagi-dard-hai]

Let's say you are the Prime Minister of India, what would you do at the very moment after you take your oath?

PARTY OFC 💝😍🍸🍹🍺🎆🍾🍻🎊🎉🎵

Benchoo 5 saal ke liye billionaire 🎀🎀🎀

[kissi-shayar-ki-ghazal]

Let's say you are the Prime Minister of your country, what would you do at the very moment after you take your oath?

me tho so jaungi

Kl se desh smbhalnge guysss

[girlactionfigure]

🟦DEF. MIN. THREATENS - Real time from Israel  

ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

( VIDEO - the Green Prince, son of Hamas founder, speaks at the Oxford Union )

✡️FAST of the 10th of Tevet - the 10th day of the Jewish month of Tevet, in the year 3336 from Creation (425 BCE), the armies of the Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem. Thirty months later—on 9 Tammuz 3338—the city walls were breached, and on 9 Av of that year the Holy Temple was destroyed. The Jewish people were exiled to Babylonia for 70 years.

Asarah B'Tevet (this year, January 10, 2025) is observed as a day of fasting, mourning and repentance. We refrain from food and drink from daybreak to nightfall.

✡️BEFORE SHABBAT (Erev Shabbat) - Parshat Vayechi - Genesis 47:28 - "Vayechi," means "And he lived”. Jacob lives the final 17 years of his life in Egypt. Before his passing, he asks Joseph to take an oath that he will bury him in the Holy Land. He blesses Joseph’s two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, elevating them to the status of his own sons as progenitors of tribes within the nation of Israel.

▪️HOSTAGE BODY IDENTIFIED.. After completing the identification process, the IDF informed the Al-Zaydana family this morning that their son Hamza, who was kidnapped in the Gaza Strip, was killed in Hamas captivity. 

May the dead receive mercy, and the family receive comfort in the final confirmation.

▪️ON THE CHAREDI DRAFT.. Will draft orders be sent to ultra-Orthodox Jews based solely on age?  Will first orders be sent to all those liable for conscription without distinction?  What will be done with those who do not enlist within the quotas in the next two years?

.. RELATED: IDF general who founded the Haredi brigade is rescued from a restaurant in Bnei Brak after being confronted by charedi rioters.  3 arrested.

▪️DEFENSE MIN. THREATENS.. Defense Minister Katz: "I instructed the IDF to present me with a plan for the complete defeat of Hamas in Gaza, if Hamas does not release the hostages by the time President Trump takes office.   We must not be dragged into a war of attrition against Hamas in Gaza, while the hostages remain in the tunnels. We must change the method of operation to eliminate Hamas and end the war.”

▪️AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL.. suspends Israeli branch after Israeli branc rejects claims of 'genocide' in Gaza.

▪️ALL NATURE RESERVES.. in the north have re-opened, with the last Nachal Ayun re-opening tomorrow.

🇬🇧UK THREATENS CHABAD.. The British regulator has issued a warning to a London-based Chabad organization that raised thousands of pounds in donations for an IDF soldier serving in northern Israel. The warning requires Chabad to consider whether to return the funds raised as part of the donation, arguing that purchasing military equipment and transferring military supplies to non-British armed forces could be considered a violation of the law.

♦️HOUTHIS ASSASSINATED?  A security source told Maariv that a number of Houthi leaders were killed in mysterious airstrikes in recent days. The Houthis suspect that there are spies in their ranks, which has led to a large wave of arrests in their capital Sana’a.  They were killed in airstrikes while traveling.

🎗️HOSTAGE DEAL NEWS.. President Biden on the negotiations for the deal: ''There is some progress, it can be done before January 20th’’.

[deadpresidents]

Have any Vice Presidents later run for Governor or other office besides President after their terms?

Yes. Not counting those who served as President or ran for President following their time as Vice President, or the seven Vice Presidents who died in office (George Clinton, Elbridge Gerry, William R. King, Henry Wilson, Thomas A. Hendricks, Garret Hobart, and James S. Sherman), here are the VPs who sought other offices post-Vice Presidency:

•Aaron Burr (1801-1805): Lost race for Governor of New York in 1804 during his Vice Presidency. •Daniel D. Tompkins (1817-1825): Lost race for Governor of New York in 1820 during his Vice Presidency. •John C. Calhoun (1825-1832): Resigned the Vice Presidency to join in the U.S. Senate from South Carolina (1832-1843); Served as Secretary of State (1844-1845) in the last stretch of the Tyler Administration; Elected again to the U.S. Senate from South Carolina (1845-1850) after serving as Secretary of State.

•Richard M. Johnson (1837-1841): Lost race for the U.S. Senate in Kentucky in 1842; Served two separate terms in the Kentucky House of Representatives (1841-1843; 1850) after his Vice Presidency. Died two weeks into his second post-Vice Presidential term in the state legislature.

•John Tyler (1841): After serving as Vice President and President, and following Virginia's secession from the Union in 1861, Tyler was elected as a delegate to the Provisional Confederate Congress. Tyler was also elected to a full term in the Confederate House of Representatives but died just before taking his seat in February 1862.

•George M. Dallas (1845-1849): Appointed U.S. Minister to Great Britain (1856-1861) by President Pierce and served under Presidents Pierce and Buchanan before being replaced early in the Lincoln Administration.

•John C. Breckinridge (1857-1861): Elected to a U.S. Senate seat from Kentucky while still Vice President. After administering the oath of office to his successor as Vice President, Hannibal Hamlin, Breckinridge was immediately sworn into the Senate by Hamlin. Although Kentucky remained neutral during the Civil War, Breckinridge supported the Confederacy and joined the Confederate military while still a sitting Senator, resulting in treason charges in November 1861 and, a month later, unanimous expulsion from the Senate. Breckinridge became a general in the Confederate Army and served as Confederate President Jefferson Davis's final Secretary of War.

•Hannibal Hamlin (1861-1865): Briefly served as Collector of the Port of Boston (1865-1866) after being appointed by President Andrew Johnson. Elected U.S. Senator from Maine (1869-1881). Served as U.S. Ambassador to Spain (1881-1882) under Presidents Garfield and Arthur.

•Andrew Johnson (1865): After his brief Vice Presidency and nearly four years as President, Johnson lost races for the U.S. Senate (1869) and U.S. House of Representatives in Tennessee. Elected as U.S. Senator from Tennessee in 1875 and died in office.

•William A. Wheeler (1877-1881): Wheeler was considered as a candidate for the U.S. Senate from New York on several occasions following his Vice Presidency but never made a serious bid for election.

•Levi P. Morton (1889-1893): Served as Governor of New York (1895-1896).

•Adlai E. Stevenson (1893-1897): Lost race for Governor of Illinois in 1908.

•Charles W. Fairbanks (1905-1909): Fairbanks was the Republican nominee for Vice President on a ticket alongside Presidential nominee Charles Evans Hughes in 1916 but they lost to incumbent President Woodrow Wilson and Vice President Thomas R. Marshall.

•Charles G. Dawes (1925-1929): Served as U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain (1929-1931), appointed by President Hoover.

•Henry A. Wallace (1941-1945): After being dumped as Vice President in favor of Harry Truman when Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for a fourth term in 1944, FDR appointed Wallace Secretary of Commerce where he served from 1945-1946 under Roosevelt and Truman

•Alben W. Barkley (1949-1953): Elected to the U.S. Senate from Kentucky after his Vice Presidency and served from 1955 until dying in office in 1956.

•Richard Nixon (1953-1961): After losing his first bid for the White House in 1960, Nixon also lost a race for Governor of California in 1962 after leaving the Vice Presidency before making a remarkable comeback to win the Presidency in 1968.

•Hubert H. Humphrey (1965-1969): Elected to his former seat in the U.S. Senate from Minnesota and served until dying in office (1971-1978).

•Walter Mondale (1977-1981): U.S. Ambassador to Japan (1993-1996), appointed by President Clinton. In 2002, Mondale lost a race for U.S. Senate from Minnesota when he was the last-minute replacement on the ballot after Senator Paul Wellstone was killed in a plane crash.

[scotianostra]

On May 11th 1685 Margaret Lachlane, or McLachlan, and Margaret Wilson were put to death.

The sins of our past are sair tae bare at times and this is certainly one that qualifies as such, what makes it all the more sad is that they had been reprieved, but the distance from Edinburgh to Wigtown but for reasons unknown it never made it to save the women.

Here’s the background, some of you might know but not all, back in 17th century religion was very important to most people in Scotland, indeed the worldover. The reformation waa over and Protestants were in the vast majority, especially in the more populace lowlands. By now The Stuart Monarchy ruled both Scotland and England, having survived a civil war in which Charles I lost his head, eventually his son, Charle II was invited back to take the throne. You would have thought that Charles II had learned his lesson, his old boy had tried to enforce the English form of the Protestant religion in Scotland but failed, young Charles tried again but the Scots were not having it, many Scots signed what is known as The National Covenant that pledged to defend “their” true religion against innovations like those down south. Many were put to death for refusing to swear allegiance to the King and “his” prayer book. Over the years there were many battles and lives lost, it is now known in Scotland as “The Killing Time"

ny way the people thought it might come to an end in February 1658 when Charles II died, those who had been hiding from persecution started returning to their homes, including the young Wilson girls who were sheltered at the home of Margaret McLachlan, a 63 year old widow who lived at Drumjargan in Kirkinner Parish. A local man betrayed them when they came into Wigtown, and the two girls were taken prisoner. At the same time, Margaret McLachlan was seized while at prayer in her own home, and held in custody with them. The women were required to take the Oath of Abjuration which had earlier been administered to everyone in the County over the age of 13 years. This had been introduced on 25 November 1684 by the Privy Council, in order to catch sympathisers of Richard Cameron. In a public declaration at Sanquhar Cross, Cameron had denounced the King as a tyrant and declared war on him.

Refusal to swear the Oath allowed execution without trial; men could be hanged or shot; a new sentence had been introduced for women: death by drowning. The women refused the Oath and were brought before the Commission. The Commissioners, Grierson of Lagg, Sheriff David Graham (Claverhouse’s brother), Major Windram, Captain Strachan and Provost Coltrane of Wigtown, have been described as “five of the most vicious scoundrels in Scotland”.

Margaret McLachlan with Margaret and Agnes Wilson were found guilty on all charges and they were sentenced “to be tyed to palisadoes and fixed in the sand, within the flood mark, at the mouth of the Blednoch stream, and there to stand till the flood over flowed them, and [they] drowned”. Agnes Wilson (aged only thirteen at the time) was reprieved, when her father promised to pay a bond of £100, a fortune in that day.

A pardon was issued in Edinburgh, dated 30 April 1685, for both women

It remains a mystery what happened to it, since no record of it remains beyond the Council Chamber. They were taken out and tied to stakes in the waters of the Bladnoch on 11 May 1685. The older woman was tied deeper in the river channel forcing young Margaret to witness her death, in the hope that she would relent. Instead, she seemed to take strength from the older woman’s fate, singing a psalm, and quoting scripture.

The events are recorded in the Kirk Session records of both Penninghame and Kirkinner parishes, vouched for by elders and ministers who were present on the day, and the records confirmed by the Presbytery of Wigtown. The Penninghame records say that Margaret Wilson’s head was held up from the water, in order to ask her if she would pray for the King. She answered that she wished the salvation of all men, but the damnation of none. When her watching relatives cried out that this proved she was willing to conform, Major Windram offered her the Oath of Abjuration again, but she refused, saying “I am one of Christ’s children; let me go”.

The Kirkinner records state that Margaret McLachan’s head had been “held down within the water by one of the town officers by his halberd at her throat, til she died”. A popular account adds that the officer said “then tak’ another drink o’t my hearty”. Legend has it that for the rest of his life the man had an unquenchable thirst, and had to stop and drink from every ditch, stream, or tap he passed, and he was deserted by his friends.

Likewise the constable named Bell, who had carried out his duties with a notable lack of feeling, allegedly said, when asked how the women had behaved, “O, they just clepped roun the stobs, like partans and prayed”. Clepped means web-footed, partans are crabs. Bell’s wife bore three children all with “clepped” fingers, and the family was referred to as “the Cleppie Bells” which was believed to be the sins of the father being visited on the children.

It was not only women who died, William Johnstone, John Milroy and George Walker were hanged in Wigtown the same year, for refusal to take the oath, but Margaret Wilson, due to her young age has become the most famous of the martyrs and is the subject of a famous painting by the English artist John Everett Millais called The Martyr of Solway.

Art conservators have x-rayed the painting and found out that Millais had originally painted the upper torso of the young woman naked. However when the painting was exhibited in 1871 there were strong puritanical views on nudity in paintings and Millais’ work offended Victorian sensibilities. It was badly received and was the butt of many negatively critical reviews. Hence it was painted over to save the Victorian eyes of such a sight!

The photo is from Stirling Old Town Cemetery a monument to the Wigtown Martyrs, further afield a Victorian statue of Margaret Wilson’s martyrdom is on display at Knox College, University of Toronto, Canada, as seen in the second pic, the third pic is the Martyrs' Grave, Wigtown parish church, Dumfries and Galloway.