#and this is why I believe hell is a necessary and also the death penalty

[kayyqua]

god gave us free will and this is the shit ppl have decided to do with it

[traumacatholic]

Hello, I am a Catholic myself, recently a Catholic family member has told me that purgatory doesn’t exist because when God died all of our sins were washed away. I tried to research it and this is what I found on Quora:

“To say that purgatory is a necessary purification is to deny that the grace of God is sufficient. 1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

Another passage which clearly excludes the idea of purgatory is, …their sins and transgressions I will remember no more (Hebrews 10:17). If, as the Bible says, God no longer remembers the sins of those who are in Christ, He does not punish them for these sins. To do so would be saying that Christ had not made full payment for them and that God the Father still remembered them. (See also Romans 5:8-11; Hebrews 10:14-18; Psalm 103:12).

"Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past." (Romans 3:24-25)

John 2:1-2 says, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”

If purgatory is true then the 'catholic' Christ didn't accomplish anything on the cross, wasted his time and died for nothing. The 'catholic' Christ should have hired a pro instead of doing the job himself. The Christ of Christianity is the Pro. He got the job on the cross done right the first time. And.....He did it for free!

Purgatory is a man-made money-making thing invented by the unbiblical rcc.Heb1:3 "When He had by Himself PURGED OUR SINS.".Rom8:1 "There is therefor now NO CONDEMNATION to them that are in Christ Jesus.". Psalms49:7 "None of them can redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him.".Dont forget Prov10:12 which never mentions purgatory. Acts4:12"Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Listen, we are PURGED OF OUR SINS ( not some, ALL ) by the blood of Jesus Christ. Heb1:3,Rom8:1 and John5:24. Remember "there is no more condemnation when Jesus passed over our sins and paid the ultimate penalty for us." Why didnt the apostles ever discuss purgatory? 2Cor5:8There is no mention of pur. here. In Luke16:19-31, Jesus reveals there is a great gulf between hell and paradise that people cannot pass from one to the other. Catholics defend purg. by quoting the uninspired 2Mac12:40-46 where a "sin offering" is offered for dead soldiers who had committed the sin of idolatry. This not only contradicts the Bible, but also catholic teaching, because idolatry is a "mortal sin" that would confine a person to hell. An ex-nun said the only purgatory that exists is the priests' pockets.”

I am a bit confused, if possible do you think you can explain where it comes from please? Thank you for your account and everything you had done ❤️

I know I haven’t responded to every point put forth, but I feel this should give you a good place of reference, and I would strongly recommend you spending your own time going through parts of the Catechism that relate to Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture, how Catholics understand sin (as there is variations between Catholics and other denominations) and about the Sacraments. In essence, purgatory is found both in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. A lot of Protestants only believe in their version of the Bible and look only to the Bible for answers. Whereas as Catholics we look to both Tradition and Scripture.

~~

The three states of the Church. “When the Lord comes in glory, and all his angels with him, death will be no more and all things will be subject to him. But at the present time some of his disciples are pilgrims on earth. Others have died and are being purified, while still others are in glory, contemplating in full light, God himself triune and one, exaclyas he is”. (CCC 954). It cites; LG 49; Council of Florence (1439); DS 1305.

“Also, if truly penitent people die in the love of God before they have made satisfaction for acts and omissions by worthy fruits of repentance, their souls are cleansed after death by cleansing pains; and the suffrages of the living faithful avail them in giving relief from such pains, that is, sacrifices of masses, prayers, almsgiving and other acts of devotion which have been customarily performed by some of the faithful for others of the faithful in accordance with the church's ordinances.” - https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/ecumenical-council-of-florence-1438-1445-1461

All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo a purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. (CCC 1030).

The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirly different from the punishment of the damned (see also: Council of Florence 1439, DS 1304, Council of Trent 1563, DS 1820, 1547, DS 1580. As well as Benedict XII, Benedictus Deus (1336), DS 1000). The Church formulated her doctine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Council of Florence and Trent. The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts ofScripture, speaks of a cleansing fire.

“If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.” 1 Corinthians 3:15

“so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:7

To understand this doctrine and practice of the Church, it is necessary to understand that sin has a double consequence. Grave sin deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life; the privation of which is called the “eternal punishment” of sin. On the other hand every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory. This purification frees one from what is called the “temporal punishment” of sin. These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin. A conversion which proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete purification of the sinner in sucha way that no punishment would remain. (CCC 1472). Here it cites: Cf. Council of Trent (1551): DS 1712-1713; (1563: 1820.

As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgement, there is a purifying fire. He Who is truth says that woever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in tis age nor in the age to come. Fromt his sentence we understand that certain offences can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come. ~ St. Gregory the Great.

This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead, already mentioned in Sacred Scripture: “Therefore [Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin.” (2 Macc 12:46). From the beginning the Church has honoured the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may obtain the beatific vision of God. (C. Council of Lyons II (1274) : DS 856). The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead:

“Let us help and commemorate them. If Job’s sons were purified by their father’s sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them.” ~ St. John Chrystotom

“In full consciousness of this communion of the whole Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, the Churc in its pilgrim members, from the very earliest days of the Christian religion, has honoured with great respect the memory of the dead; and “because it is a holy and wholesome thougt to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins’ she offers her suffrages for them (CCC 958) (LG 50;)

“And because he considered that they who had fallen asleep with godliness bad great grace laid up for them.  It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.” (2 Macc 12:45-46)

~~~

Here’s a collection of quotes that other Saints had to say with regards to Purgatory:

“Then we make mention also of those who have already fallen asleep: first, the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, that through their prayers and supplications God would receive our petition; next, we make mention also of the holy fathers and bishops who have already fallen asleep, and, to put it simply, of all among us who have already fallen asleep, for we believe that it will be of very great benefit to the souls of those for whom the petition is carried up, while this holy and most solemn sacrifice is laid out” ( St. Cyril of Jerusalem

Catechetical Lectures 23:5:9 [A.D. 350]).

“Weep for those who die in their wealth and who with all their wealth prepared no consolation for their own souls, who had the power to wash away their sins and did not will to do it. Let us weep for them, let us assist them to the extent of our ability, let us think of some assistance for them, small as it may be, yet let us somehow assist them. But how, and in what way? By praying for them and by entreating others to pray for them, by constantly giving alms to the poor on their behalf. Not in vain was it decreed by the apostles that in the awesome mysteries remembrance should be made of the departed. They knew that here there was much gain for them, much benefit. When the entire people stands with hands uplifted, a priestly assembly, and that awesome sacrificial Victim is laid out, how, when we are calling upon God, should we not succeed in their defense? But this is done for those who have departed in the faith, while even the catechumens are not reckoned as worthy of this consolation, but are deprived of every means of assistance except one. And what is that? We may give alms to the poor on their behalf” (St. John Chrysostom

Homilies on Philippians 3:9–10 [A.D. 402]).

“Temporal punishments are suffered by some in this life only, by some after death, by some both here and hereafter, but all of them before that last and strictest judgment. But not all who suffer temporal punishments after death will come to eternal punishments, which are to follow after that judgment” (St. Augustine The City of God 21:13 [A.D. 419]).

“That there should be some fire even after this life is not incredible, and it can be inquired into and either be discovered or left hidden whether some of the faithful may be saved, some more slowly and some more quickly in the greater or lesser degree in which they loved the good things that perish, through a certain purgatorial fire” (St. Augustine Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Charity 18:69 [A.D. 421]).

[betweentheracks]

Updates//Recent Inactivity

Hello all! This is me finally taking some time to sit down and offer up a rundown on how life is currently going as a means of explaining my inactivity. This is a personal post that is guaranteed to be both rambling and emotional so if that is not your cup of tea, I understand and happily advise you just skip over this post as it is not relevant to the actual content this blog was intended for.

EDITED: After reading this back I now realize this is really just me spilling the tea on my own life and is laughably dishy in details which is extremely not my usual stance on my personal privacy. But idk, it was cathartic so I'm leaving it as is despite the urge to redact 70% of what I say.

I'll start with the good news that I am officially out of lockdown and have remained COVID-19 free since my return home from the hospital. This also means my son finally was allowed to come home to me which is dazzling and exciting and also a little terrible too. He's at a precocious age where tantrums are the cool way to communicate and having been gone for so long completely thrashing his established routine has caused friction. He came home and his parent was not the same as when he left; is much weaker and less energetic than before, paler and shaky - but also there's the addition of my best friend having moved in to assist and take care of me/him while we all do our best to muddle through.

The readjustment has been rough and a lot of this week has made me incredibly thankful to have practically zero memory of how I was as a child. There have been injuries: I have been whacked in the face with the metal cover for a floor vent while dozing on the sofa instead of paying rapt attention to whatever silliness he was showing off to me, there was his complete dismissal of me asking him to stay back and away from the hot oven as I pulled lunch from it's fiery jaws only to then be faced with a toddler quickly approaching with his hand raised to touch so I naturally made a move to block him and in the process I let go of the oven door which slammed upward and clamped my arm tightly between it and the inside cavern of the oven while it was set to a roasty 400 degrees Fahrenheit - earning me a mangled arm with burns of varying degrees, and then we also had that fit where it seemed like a much more grand idea to scale the babygate cordoning the stairs and I had to rush up them to stop him from tumbling face first down two flights and of course did the falling all on my own and did it backwards then slammed painfully into the wall of the landing. This all happened within a 48hr time frame and makes me wonder why I am so catastrophically inclined.

I have bruises that range the majority of my spine courtesy of the wall and stairs, two minor first degree burns on my forearm that are in the shape of an equals and quite large despite the lack of actual pain I feel from them, and the underside of my forearm was instantly blistered then popped then melted down into a horrid glob of skin mush and sticky red-orange and is a second degree burn that I have been assured is no real cause for concern as long as I tend it with care. In all, I managed to escape my momjuries relatively unscathed and with a child that was scared senseless at having hurt his momma and is quick to listen and never stops cuddling me in the time since. Here's hoping he isn't significantly traumatized from this since exactly none of this is especially his fault and is due to my clumsy, accident-prone status in life.

So yes, The Toddler has returned home to me and after some happenings we have settled and are happy. However, his blast from the past father has suddenly just decided to reemerge after more than a year of radio silence and static and has slapped me with a custody petition. Hooray. While I have no worries on this matter due to my mother working for one of the top custody lawyers in the state and snagging him as my representation, and the utter lack of competency on my estranged baby daddy's end clearly being displayed in literally anything and everything the idiot does/says, I do have to now go through the overhaul of a custody case and that is just so weak and exhaustive. Not to mention the basis of his claims that I am not fit to raise a child are founded in my health concerns and the crazy work schedule I keep; ironically, my health is making it so that I have much less insane hours and makes this fairly moot but to each their own I guess. Also worth noting on this matter is that he only did this now because he was recently placed under penalty for child support back pay and nothing in this world matters to him like his money and this is his special way of getting one over on me for tampering with his meager earnings. (He's a wannabe musician - the soundcloud rapper sort, just so we are all on the same page here). If I thought for even a second this was a genuine desire to be an active and stable parent I would be a lot less pressed to act in favor of making it legally binding that he can only see him under a supervisory condition and share time evenly, but it just is not believable in the slightest.

So the thing is - my health is actually quite dismal presently. I'm due in for open heart surgery on the 8th of April and until then I have been doing my utmost to mind all the nagging I get from doctors, PT specialists, the surgeons that will be slicing and dicing me, and my in-family medical practitioner that sometimes remembers he is also my brother and not just an MD. But like, you guys, this surgery is terrifying and technically is two surgeries rolled into one. They'll be cracking my chest open and then stopping my heart while they lift it from where it sits sweetly unhinged and lopsided in my body and very finely shave away some of the excess muscle that has built up around the wall of my heart as well as some unfriendly scar tissue that has lingered since my last surgery years ago. Granted there is no accidental slip that nicks my ugly gargantuan heart and renders me as good as dead, once this first part is finished the other surgeon will need to be deft and very quick to place this ventricular assisting piece in the valve that has all but given up on functioning altogether and do so in the time remaining before the time limit for my heart being essentially unplugged from by body is up, which would also feasibly mean my death. Lots of exciting and terrible sounding consequences, am I right?

Well let's bear it in mind that I am just below 30 in age and therefore not duly experienced in the realm of facing down my own mortality via making all necessary legal arrangements and managing my affairs and assets so that, in event of my untimely death, the custody case still doesn't stand a chance of snatching my son away to the sad misfortune of being raised by a man that has stated openly he only has interest in his kids so far as what they can do for him/get for him in terms of benefit and that he would be unwilling to be hypocritical and never deter his children from drugs and a lifestyle of extremely questionable moral integrity and hygiene alike. Eugh. But I also have had to make sure there is a DNR in place just in case things go wrong during the operation, my will has also been finalized and notarized, all my savings and financial/material assets have been squared away to come into my child's inheritance when he is of age and, most importantly, a document that states clear and direct instructions for him to be placed in care of my mother or, if she is unwilling or incapable, he will be under custodial order and guardianship of my best friend whom he has always viewed as a pseudo-dad anyway. Legally binding and even in light of the paternity petition this document supersedes parental right by way of the provided evidence I have submitted to prove a lack of parental credibility. That's right, I spent days lowkey stalking and sleuthing about to capture what I needed to show this man for what he actually is and I have precisely zero guilt or shame for doing it; this is my child on the line and that means momma doesn't have to play by the rules of snitches getting stitches or whatever other scary street rules he tosses at me as idle threats. (He's done this routinely for all the years I have known him, and it is somehow both pathetic and hilarious because he knows for a fact that, if I wanted, I could throttle him in less time than it would take for him to form a rational thought between his drug soaked braincells - I was also a person of less than savory character not too long ago and can handle myself very well. But I digress because I am losing my track of thought.

After the surgery I will have so damn much PT and rehab, all of which will be specific to varying parts of my body that will need to be reworked and strengthened. Weeks, months of it really. This surgery is major and hits heavy enough that I will be in the hospital for at least 10-14 days just recovering from it without taking into consideration any number of complications that could pop up. Hell, if they get in there and find a situation worse than they currently have an understanding of in the limited capacity of cardiology tech can provide of such a gnarled beastly heart and realize they can't really do anything with it after all, I'll be added to the transplant list. I think this is more daunting to consider than the surgery, honestly.

In that way that doctors have about them, I was "comforted" by being informed that this was an inevitability and I would have been faced with this in a matter of years - less than a handful actually - but the way COVID-19 chewed through me sped it up. I'm sure my years of substance issues were also very helpful in this endeavor, but either way I still am unsure whether I feel better knowing this or not? Mostly I think I feel conflicted and hopeful tempered with the caution of life being super shady in the ways it has often brought me to the doorsteps of dying in situations that seem like odd chance. I also am gifted with being so capable in jinxing myself that I brought myself to COVID-19 ("The way life is going I'll probably square up with Rona next week or some bullshit." Positive test flagged within the following week) and also into labor ("Watch me go into labor on Labor Day since that would be the sort of universal pun that would strike my bad penny having ass." Indeed hatched my youngling on Labor Day of that year) by saying some things within the scope of my bad humor that instantly manifested as reality so I'm not taking any risks here lol.

The gist is that life is really stirring up the winds over here and so I haven't been online and posting anything that would make my blog valid in a fat minute. I do apologize for this and also for the fact that this post took me nearly a week to type up, but when things calm a little I will be back in full. For the time being I will be sporadic and do what I can when I can!

Thanks to anyone that read this mess all the way here! And a big thank you to all of you still supporting me!

[ochibuogwu5]

JESUS CHRIST CRUCIFIED ON THE CROSS OF CALVARY IS THE ONLY MEANS OF HUMAN SALVATION IN THIS ENTIRE UNIVERSE

JESUS CHRIST CRUCIFIED ON THE CROSS OF CALVARY AS THE ATONEMENT OF HUMAN SIN SI THE ONLY MEANS OF HUMAN SALVATION:

Jesus Christ Crucified on the Cross of Calvary *as the atonement for human sin/flesh* Is The Only Connection/Mediator between Human Being & God; The Creator of all human beings and the Universe!!!

  "For there [is only] one God, and [only] one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, Who gave Himself as a ransom for all [people, a fact that was] attested to at the right and proper time." (1 Timothy 2:5-6 ampc)

  "Jesus said to him, I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except by (through) Me." (John 14:6 ampc)

  While every other religion/ideology/philosophy/channel/method leads to eternal death(hell-fire)

  This is not a human ideology/judgement/decision/philosophy/pronouncement but the judgement of God thus

"While he was still speaking, behold, a shining cloud [composed of light] overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, This is My Son, My Beloved, with Whom I am [and have always been] delighted. Listen(follow/obey) to Him!" (Matthew 17:5 ampc)

  "But as it concerns the Son, He(God the Father) says to Him, *Your throne, O God, is forever and ever (to the ages of the ages), and the scepter of Your kingdom is a scepter of absolute righteousness* (of justice and straightforwardness).

 9. You have loved righteousness [You have delighted in integrity, virtue, and uprightness in purpose, thought, and action] and You have hated lawlessness (injustice and iniquity). Therefore *God, [even] Your God (Godhead)*, has *anointed You with the oil of exultant joy and gladness above and beyond Your companions.*

 10 And [further], *You, Lord, did lay the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the works of Your hands.*

 11 They will perish, but You remain and continue permanently; they will all grow old and wear out like a garment.

 12 Like a mantle [thrown about one’s self] You will roll them up, and they will be changed and replaced by others. But You remain the same, and Your years will never end nor come to failure.

 13 Besides, to which of the angels has He ever said, Sit at My right hand [associated with Me in My royal dignity] till I make your enemies a stool for your feet?

 14 Are not the angels all ministering spirits (servants) sent out in the service [of God for the assistance] of those who are to inherit salvation?" (Hebrews 1:8-14 ampc)

  Then Peter who was an eye-witness when God the Father pronounced this eternal choice, decision and judgement of HIS re-affirmed this judgment and decision of the Father thus

 "For we were not following cleverly devised stories when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah), but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty (grandeur, authority of sovereign power).

 17 For when He was invested with honor and glory from God the Father and a voice was borne to Him by the [splendid] Majestic Glory [in the bright cloud that overshadowed Him, saying], This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased and delight,

 18 We [actually] heard this voice borne out of heaven, for we were together with Him on the holy mountain" (2 Peter 1:16-18 ampc)

  Repent from sin/unbelief/any other channel or religion/philosophy that you are using as a means to get access to the God who created all human being and this universe; then surrender your life inside the crucified life of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary so that He can replace that old-life/nature/flesh you inherited from Adam's disobedience WITH HIS NEW CREATION LIFE RELEASED ON THE CROSS AFTER HE SAID "IT IS FINISHED" (John 19:30)

  It is this NEW CREATION LIFE ALONE that can begin to live a consistent and progressive holy, pure, pleasing and acceptable lifestyle to GOD THE FATHER, fresh every second on this earthly sojourn till eternity by faith (every second; we agree afresh in our hearts/mind/mouth that our old-life died with Jesus on the Cross permanently and became replaced by the COMPLETE NEW LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST which He used to live on this earth from conception till ascension without sin/disobedience to the perfect-will of His Father hence this SAME LIFE is now living through our mortal-bodies in every/any sector/phase/circumstance of this earthly living that we are currently engaging by the Power of His Holy Spirit)

thus

 "For God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins. Then, in exchange, He poured God’s goodness(ETERNAL LIFE) into us!" (2 Corinthians 5:21 TLB)

 therefore anybody who has believed that this *exchange on Calvary happened in his/her own life will boldly declare every second of his/her earthly life both in deeds, words, actions, decisions and lifestyle whether privately or publicly thus

 "For I(put your full-name here) through the Law [under the operation of the curse of the Law] have [in Christ’s death for me] myself died to the Law and all the Law’s demands upon me, so that I may [henceforth] live to and for God.

 20 I(put your full-name here) have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

 21 [Therefore, I do not treat God’s gracious gift as something of minor importance and defeat its very purpose]; I do not set aside and invalidate and frustrate and nullify the grace (unmerited favor/ETERNAL LIFE) of God. For if justification (righteousness, acquittal from guilt) comes through [observing the ritual of] the Law, then Christ (the Messiah) died groundlessly and to no purpose and in vain. [His death was then wholly superfluous.]"

(Galatians 2:19-21 ampc)

  AND understanding the VALUE OF THIS EXCHANGE ON THE CROSS OF CALVARY FURTHER will always manifest this lifestyle in deeds and words thus

"But far be it from me to glory [in anything or anyone] except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) through Whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world!"

(Galatians 6:14 ampc)

  " *From now on* let no person trouble me [by making it necessary for me to vindicate my apostolic authority and the divine truth of my Gospel], for *I bear on my body the [brand] marks of the Lord Jesus* [the wounds, scars, and other outward evidence of persecutions—these testify to His ownership of me]!"

(Galatians 6:17 ampc)

  This is why Jesus defined our every second agreement with our position inside His Crucified body on the Cross even after being born-again as the only means of being His genuine disciple/follower thus

"And He said to all, If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself [disown himself, forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, refuse and give up himself] and *take up his cross daily and follow Me* [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also].

 24 For whoever would preserve his life and save it will lose and destroy it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he will preserve and save it [from the penalty of eternal death]."

(Luke 9:23-24 ampc)

  NOTE:

Unless a human being *sees/accepts within his/her mindset/heart that he/she died with Jesus on the Cross of Calvary when Jesus was crucified about 2021 years ago*; such a person *cannot receive or manifest this New Creation Lifestyle*; no matter how many *sinners prayers that you say when you encounter a new preacher* or fasting and prayers that you engage or family-cleansing/deliverance that all the prayer-warriors in this universe can conduct in your family or how many hands of anointed men/women of God that were laid upon you or theological studies that you have/undergo or religious titles/activities that you engage e.t.c.

 You will still be *struggling with sin because the flesh; who is the producer of any type of sinful-products (lies, fornication, anger, fear-of-death, bitterness, jealousy, greed e.t.c.) has not *been uprooted and replaced*

  The only remedy for uprooting this producer(the flesh) which we inherited from Adam's disobedience not because of any sin that we committed by ourselves is *death with Jesus on the Cross of Calvary* and it is not biological death or wearing a crucifix/cross but by *a consistent heart to heart agreement of seeing yourself dead with Jesus on the Cross and replaced with His New Life of Resurrection* just as it is only those children of Israel who *gazed consistently upon the molded bronze serpent were healed while those who were trying to kill the snakes that bite them or heal themselves with their own medicine/logic died in the wilderness* thus

"And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert [on a pole], so must [so it is necessary that] the Son of Man be lifted up [on the cross],

 15 In order that everyone who believes in Him [who cleaves to Him, trusts Him, and relies on Him] may not perish, but have eternal life and [actually] live forever!" (John 3:14-15 ampc)

 MANIFESTING LIKE JESUS CHRIST WHILE ON EARTH:

what do we need to do in order to manifest the *power that Jesus expressed while on earth* since He now lives through our mortal bodies ?

 Just remain conformed(agree within your mind, free-will, emotions, heart, mouth, deeds, thoughts, decisions and actions) to your personal death with Jesus on the Cross of Calvary by faith (whether physical, mental and spiritual engagements in a deliberate daily study of the Holy Bible to see how Jesus handled all the issues of life both in the old and new testament as well as prayers) then the Power of His Resurrection(the Holy Spirit Power and lifestyle; fruits, gifts and services) will flow through your mortal-body effortlessly and endlessly thus

"That I may *know him*, and the *power of his resurrection*, and the *fellowship of his sufferings*, being *made conformable unto his death*;" (Philippians 3:10 KJV)

 AND

 " *Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus*, that the *life also of Jesus* might be *made manifest in our body* ". (2 Corinthians 4:10 KJV)

Abbah Father, your word declared that no human being can come to Jesus Christ You Son unless You draw him/her to Jesus by the outpouring of your Holy Spirit revelation hence we implore You to reveal the reality of Jesus death on the Cross and His resurrection upon all human being in this our generation much more than we can write, think, pray or imagine in Jesus name. Amen.

[silverquillsideas]

My thoughts on the ending of banana fish

Banana Fish ended on the 20th, and then onward, a lot of posts have been made regarding the ending and what people thought about it. I’ve seen mostly negative posts, where fans were openly hostile to the ending and I get where they are coming from. There was the occasional positive response, and I understand their views too.

My stand on BF and whether the ending was justified falls on the grey area. I tend to oscillate between hating the ending, and liking it for being a powerful, emotional, and haunting experience. Why can’t I decide? Because I’ve got questions I just can’t justify in my head. I can’t come to a reasonable conclusion because of the loose ends that I feel were left in the manga by the author.

This is not meant to be an emotional rant, please bear in mind. I finished the manga back in July, and I’ve had months to ponder over these questions, and reached no conclusion.

Hence, I’ll just place the specific issues I personally had, and hope that, I’ll eventually figure out why it was created the way it was.

I’ll divide this post in 3 parts :

1. The events leading up to Ash’s death

2. Ash’s choice to die

3. The role that other characters played, and why the author chose to ignore their “fates” if you will, and only deemed it necessary for ash to meet his end in that way

I’d like to thank @angofwords, @lynxash @yoru-no-gaspard @ash-callenreese @saishii , with whom I discussed this over months, and finally @shu-kaku, who practically kicked me in the butt to get me to write this post, because I wouldn’t shut up about the  arguments :’D 

Also, to @zaenaris and @soso1777, my replies have been abysmally late, but here is what I had planned to say in response to you both.

A. THE EVENTS LEADING UP TO ASH’S DEATH

The battle at Mannerheim’s institution finished with Dino, Foxx and Mannerheim dying. Blanca, Sing, Ash, Cain, and all the gang members return safely, with few casualties on their side.

Afterwards, there were clearly two days before the manga ended : Day 1 , where Sing confronted Yut Lung, and Ash and Blanca talked in the park.

Day 2 : where Eiji leaves for Japan, Sing gives Ash the letter, Ash gets stabbed, the story comes to an end.

My question is regarding the behaviors of the characters in these two days, or rather, how Yoshida-sensei chose to write them.

Firstly, Sing Soo Ling, the very competent gang leader, who knew that his brother, hell bent on hating Ash for being a “monster who killed Shorter” and apparently on the mission to “harm Sing” , was missing, never once thought of tracking him down? Provided he had two days at hand? Sing had cleared his animosity with both Ash and Yut Lung, and I’m pretty sure, as a gang leader, he had conveyed both these details to his underlings. Therefore, it’s unlikely, that Lao, could NOT have heard it from at least one person in the gang (even if he was not a part of it anymore, I’m sure he had people close to him), if not from Sing directly. Lao was the only family member Sing had in the Chinese gang, so it seems a very far stretch that he would not have made any effort to get him back in the ring.

Ignoring the above question, assuming Sing was very busy, or the question escaped his mind, my second problem, Lao Yen Tai.

He was under the impression that Ash was a deadly enemy to Sing. His goal : kill Ash anyhow, even if he died in the process, so that Sing could be saved.

So, on that day, he followed Ash around (there is no other way he could have known Ash was at the library)

This is him spying on Ash and Sing talking in the reading room : 

Ash and Sing then went outside, and argued loudly for sometime. Lao, of course, followed them, and saw Sing and Ash yelling at each other. Sing ran away, very much unharmed, and alive, after yelling at Ash Lynx’s face. Lao saw the whole thing.

So, my question is, Lao DID NOT come out of nowhere, he was observing the whole exchange. If Ash Lynx was bent on killing Sing, or fighting him one on one, he had plenty of room to do so, but he didn’t. so, why didn’t Lao, go after his brother, and try to clarify the situation before going at Ash on a suicide mission? The excuse that he was “scared and confused and wanted to protect Sing” breaks down here. Logically speaking, Lao should have followed Sing, instead of going at Ash with a dagger. But Yoshida mysteriously chose to overlook this.

Third question : the blatant disregard for reality, in the following situations :

1 A gunshot going off, no one comes to investigate

2 Ash drips blood all over the staircase and goes back to the reading room 

No one notices

3 A human being bleeds out, sitting in a chair, in what I’m assuming is the Rose Reading room of the NYPL, which is very much NOT CARPETED and no one notices the blood (~3 to 4 L of bleeding is needed for an average human to collapse and die) in fact, in the screenshot I see, there is NO BLOOD, running out on the floor, not even a single splotch. 

Very interesting choice on both the author’s and animators’ parts

4 Also, since the anime time-line is the present day, I’m assuming there will be stuff like surveillance cameras present, so, my question is, what were the security people doing?

The readers are expected to keep the sense of reality suspended for all of the above points.

B ASH’S CHOICE TO DIE

First off, I’m a staunch believer, that Ash wasn’t suicidal, and that he didn’t actively go out and seek situations that would put him at risk of dying. I don’t know how the fandom views him as, but to me, Ash is an extremely resilient human being, and he wouldn’t give up his life just like that unless something major was at stake.

Ash says in ep 13, at the pier, that “there were times I felt that death would be a better option than what I was going through at those moments”

This is not the statement of someone who was trying to give up his life willingly, but only considering that choice under extreme situations. Ash had gone through a lot, more than any one of us, and especially me, who has had zero experience of depression or CSA or trauma of that nature, can fathom. And of course, there were times he felt that death would end his suffering, but also, he had a strong desire for survival and freedom from all that he was going through, and the goal to get revenge on those who had wronged him. 

In Angel Eyes, he says this to Shorter, and I think that’s proof enough of how Ash was ready to bend his horrible destiny to his favour and survive whatever he was going through. 

With all of that out of the way, I’ll point out the reasons which (according to me), served as his reasons to choose to die:

Why Ash did not seek medical help/call out to someone : Ash’s legal status was still that of a criminal, a gang leader, and whatever might have been his reasons for committing those crimes (ie -for survival), the law wouldn’t see him as anything but that.

The reason Blanca prevents him form going after Eiji to the hospital after he is shot, is precisely this :

There would be too many questions about who he was, what he did, etc, and invariably, the police would’ve been called on him by the hospital staff, since he was technically being treated for a potential homicidal would (a stab to the abdomen). Ash would’ve been questioned by the staff, asked for records, etc. If the police got involved, he’d have been taken into custody after being recognised. Even if Jenkins and Charlie stood up for him, and his status as a victim in the Club Cod trials was taken into account, Ash would not have been able to escape some sort of legal penalty, imprisonment or otherwise.

On further questioning, the names of his accomplices, ie, Eiji, Blanca, Max, even Sing, would come into the light. That was a mess I’m sure Ash wanted to avoid.

Any sort of contact with legal or law enforcement was a big no no in Ash’s current situation, and remember that the police were already looking for Ash at that time, and how Eiji refused to give them his location.

Let’s assume that Ash goes to the hospital / is taken there by people who saw him bleeding out, and he is eventually tried for his crimes. His case is widely publicised, since he is the biggest witness/victim in the Club Cod case. The Corsican foundation was still active, and Ash Lynx was still a successor of Dino Golzine, who had previously bought legal custody of Ash from the state of New York, which means, Ash’s identity as A J Callenreese, was no longer valid. The Corsican hotshots would still come after him, one day or the other, in order to go after Dino Golzine’s empire.

I’m excluding petty gang violence from being a threat to Ash, since at this point, all the major street gangs of NYC were Ash’s allies.

The Govt officials being tried by the court were also potential enemies. Club cod trials would mean more exposure of the politicians, more risk of Ash being the target of thugs or assassins in revenge (like it happened before with Kippard, where he sent the female assassin after Ash in the hospital)

Considering all of this, it’s obvious to me why he didn’t want to drag his life on, especially after the stabbing was done.

A more poetic explanation would be : to keep Eiji safe. It’s needless to elaborate. Ash had already made up his mind that he would remove himself from Eiji’’s life altogether, since he couldn’t risk putting Eiji in the position where they would have to look behind their backs all their lives, or be on the run, or worse still, his enemies tracking back to his friends, including, Eiji, Max, Sing, (or even Blanca), to hold them as leverage to get back at Ash. 

Yes, I do agree that his decision was majorly influenced by this wish to keep Eiji safe, forever, by choosing to get himself out of the picture, but only because he was put into the place of choosing in the first place by the author. 

I don’t agree with stuff like destiny, or fate, or paying for your actions because of a mysterious force in the universe decided so, because all of those are apt for ballads and fairy-tales, not real life. The above were reasons I could come up under realistic settings. In an ideal black and white worlds, all crimes are punished and all wrong doings are judged fairly, but not in the world we live in , and certainly not in Banana Fish’s world, where the “good guys” paradoxically suffer much more than the “bad guys”.

I’ll also don’t agree with Yoshida on Ash having to “pay for his crimes, as he had blood on his hands, so he had to die” mindset that she allegedly had. If that logic is applied, then I don’t see why she applied it selectively to Ash and not to Banca, Yut Lung, or Sing or any other person involved in gang life.

Instead of that, I’ll see Ash’s death as his choice, and his alone, not because he had to pay, but because he had decided to let go of all this continuous tug of war with his life and end it on his own terms. I don’t think Ash would’ve liked to suffer alone, all his life, in imprisonment by the state (if he was caught), or being held captive by another Golzine/Foxx wannabe.

I respect and agree with his choice, even if it’s not possible for us to ever know for sure why he did it.

C. THE ROLE OF OTHER CHARACTERS

The best possible outcome for Ash’s story, as I see it, would be taking up Blanca on the offer, or at least, if not go to Caribbean, then let Blanca provide him means to remain in NYC in a safer way.

Blanca is an anomaly in Yoshida’s world. He’s the only person who mysteriously remains alive, despite being an assassin, and committing perhaps even more crimes than Ash. He not only escapes his work related enemies, but the entire USSR (during 1980s) and manages to remain under an alias/ second identity. He escaped from the Kremlin, and its ruthless organization, the KGB 

If living such a double life is possible in Yoshida’s world, then why did the author not find a similar way out for Ash? It looks a feasible option to me at least.

Second comes Yut Lung. His situation is made prey clear in the manga. The whole fiasco with Banana Fish was cleared up, the Lees died, Yut Lung got his revenge, and struck up a potential friendship / truce with Sing. It’s made clear that he repented his decisions to go after Eiji, or to get Ash to acknowledge his worth as a rival, by whatever means he could. 

He let down Sing and Blanca by how he acted, who were the only two positive influences in Yut Lung’s life at that point. He would not have gone after either Ash or Eiji afterwards. So his status as Ash’s enemy was nullified.

The options open to Ash at that point (if the very stupid Lao fiasco did not happen) :

1. Live his life as a gang leader, and always stay on the lookout for his life from his enemies

2. Remove himself slowly from the violent life and maybe assume a different identity like Blanca did to escape all of that for good.

But under no circumstances can I see Ash and Eiji reuniting immediately after the canon events. Anonymous communication, or though friends like Max or Ibe-san, that I can picture, but not ash risking Eiji’s safety by meeting him. Not until years have passed, and Ash’s life became somewhat stabilised, if that were even possible.

It would have hurt, sure, but his unnecessary death could be avoided.

TL;DR : 

My point is, I wouldn’t have been confused by Ash’s death or even agreed with it, if only it had been written in a more natural fashion, in accordance with the rules Yoshida set for the ENTIRE manga. She wrote Ash to be a superhuman being, dodging bullets from automated weapons, surviving gunshot wounds that would be fatal on other people, and being able to completely override the effects of anesthetic drugs, in the final battle at Mannerheim’s (as a med student, that is one fact the I find ridiculous, only because its so unrealistic, and impractical) and lots of other fantastical characteristics.

So, his death at the end felt like the author had already decided on having a certain ending, and then lazily arranged the characters and scenarios to fit her choice.

That’s why, my stand on the ending will remain ambiguous, because I cannot accept all these logical fallacies and call the ending realistic or well thought out. Did it pack a punch and make me cry? Yes. Was it haunting and emotional? Yes. But was it a justified or logical ending? No.

The decisions on Ash’s part were consistent with his overall characterisation, but not the circumstances which lead him to make that choice. The arguments that “Ash’s past will definitely catch up to him one day, so death was the best option” is pretty ambiguous. Even if it did, choosing Lao to stab Ash as an example of it, was poorly thought out in my opinion.

The points I wrote above are subject to faults, of course. This is just one way to look at it. Feel free to counter my points, I’m not a US citizen, and I don’t know how politics, law or gang life works there, hence, my reasoning is based off common sense and parallels under similar situations. Maybe I am wrong in certain aspects too. I’d love to hear what you all think.  

[chromecausation]

why atla’s ending is bad

so this post has likely already been made before, but I’m new to tumblr so what the hell. I recently finished watching atla, and I thoroughly enjoyed the series. This post is in no way about how the series itself is bad; I really did enjoy the series. Rather, it is about how the ending does a grave disservice to aang and the philosophical theories in question.

One of the reasons I love atla is that it is willing to ask the hard psychological questions: the scene in the library about how everybody thinks their war is justified? That is an amazing scene, it recontextualizes the entire series up until that point and forces us to ask: is fighting the fire nation really as justified as we claim? This question is brought up even more as we actually meet people who live within the fire nation: we see that they are not taught history as it actually happened and they are often ruled by fear. They are not the monsters that they seem to be. However, and this is the huge however, atla refuses to actually address the biggest question of the series: is it morally correct to kill someone in the service of a greater good? 

Up until this point in the series, atla mainly avoids this question by making all forms of bending essentially the same: sure, they all have different animations and such, but at the end of the day they all serve as different ways to knock people backwards until everyone is far away enough that they seem defeated. Obviously, this is a children’s show, so it makes sense that they would do this. But, while its ok to knock around enemy henchmen, no one (even kids) is going to buy that one of the greatest firebenders of all time is properly subdued by a kid, especially when aang is shown to be clearly weaker in some of the bending forms than he would like. So, the philosophical question of killing has to be brought to the forefront. However, while the writers seemed to get that killing had to be brought up at some point, they narratively structured the story to prevent the question from actually being brought up at all. 

At the core of this question is the push and pull between consequentialism and deontology, the two major schools of thought on what defines a moral action. Consequentialists (broadly speaking) argue that an action is right if the consequences brought about by that action are right. Deontologists argue (broadly speaking) that an action is right if the action itself is right, regardless of the consequences. This post is not going to go into a full-throated analysis of either philosophy, but will simply state that despite what everyone on the internet likes to claim after having read the trolley problem briefly, there are some legitimate benefits to deontology (and consequentialism can often lead to some things that we would think of as morally dubious.) 

Anyway: suffice it to say, aang is a deontologist. He is focused on doing right actions because they are inherently right, and he doesn’t believe in bending his principles just because it would be convenient or because it could lead to a better outcome in that specific instance. Principles are principles for a reason, goddamnit, if you bend them all the time, how useful are they? And despite the fact that a lot of people here on tumblr would definitely describe themselves as consequentialists, we applaud aang throughout the series for his decisions to be morally upstanding, even when it makes his life harder. 

Here’s the issue though: deontology, even though it has some serious benefits (I am somewhat of a deontologist and pacifist myself) it also has some serious downsides. Sometimes, when you stick to your principles, bad things will happen. Sometimes, those bad things will happen because you weren’t willing to stop them. And while there is a larger argument that can be made about how sticking to what is right leads to a better world overall, that doesn’t help the fact that in the moment, deontology can seem like a really sucky philosophy.

The writers of the show never actually make aang face that issue with deontology, and they trivialize it as a philosophy. Throughout the second half of the third season, aang is portrayed as not having the stomach to kill ozai, or not wanting to do what needs to be done. It is implied that aang is weak for his beliefs, that he must overcome his weakness and pacifism to become the strong avatar the world needs to undo the horrible damage of fire nation imperialism. The issue with this, though, is that it never confronts the actual issue at play? What if (ignoring energy-bending entirely for a second) aang is entirely right to not want to kill ozai? 

I posit that a non-murdery approach to the final battle is the actually correct decision for the world. The fire nation has been steeped in fear and anger for over a century, and their leaders have based all of this division and fear and nationalism on the idea that might makes right, that if you are strong and just and powerful enough, it is your right to spread this glory to the rest of the world. If aang were to beat ozai handily and murder him, all that he would prove is that the firelords were right all along: it is the right of those who have power to control those who are powerless. Aang killing ozai just proves that ozai was right all along. The only way to break the fire nation cycle of fear is to prove that there are other ways to approach conflict, to prove that a non-violent approach is not just preferable to killing someone, but is actually what is necessary for the world to heal and grow?

It is at this point that the readers who have read this far into this abominably long post say, “but wait chromecausation, aang didn’t kill ozai. That was the whole fucking point of the final episode!” And to those of you still reading: kudos, you have my gratitude. My issue is not actually with the ending of the story (despite the title of this piece) but the way that it was presented. 

Because I just recently watched avatar (and I had seen some spoilers earlier on tumblr so i knew that something called energybending was coming), I realized that energybending was introduced AS A CONCEPT in the last 2 episodes, and it was explained as aang was using it to defeat ozai. This is literally the definition of a deus ex machina, a plot device that solves a previously insurmountable problem that arrived out of basically nowhere. I really really hate that the entire conflict of the series is solved through deus ex machina. It cheapens all of the struggles, and it makes the conclusions of the story that much weaker. 

Think of how all of the arguments aang had with sokka, zuko, katara, the other avatars, and like a billion other people would have gone if it were known that energy-bending were a possibility. Instead of being “hey I don’t want to kill the firelord because it is morally wrong, even if that is a more dangerous path to take, but I think it will be better for the world as a whole” it becomes “hey instead of killing the firelord, I would like to take this equally easy option to not kill him but subdue him instead.” (The reason I say equally easy is because killing the firelord is shown to be fucking difficult to do). The existence of energy-bending renders the whole point of the argument moot, because of course in a vacuum it is better to not kill people. (I say of course here because the moral discussion at play is not whether retributive punishment is better than rehabilitative punishment, or whether the death penalty should exist. Those moral discussions rest on the premise that the victim is helpless and we in the position of power must decide their fate. The moral question here is whether aang should try to kill the firelord, because if he tried to hold back with bending so that he didn’t kill ozai, aang might actually lose the fight). Energybending does not exist with enough screen time for us to learn if it has drawbacks or is difficult to do. We are told that it is difficult, but so is killing the firelord during sozin’s comet; we need to actually see it in action first or discuss it ahead of time to actually know what the stakes are. Instead, with it being presented at the last minute, it seems like aang is given a cheat code out of his moral dilemma. He is never forced to confront the actual consequences of pacifism, and is never given the chance to prove why it is a good idea to stick to your principles even when you don’t have a deus ex machina up your sleeve. 

I believe that aang was right to not kill the firelord, but because the mechanism was energybending, it means that aang is never forced to confront the idea that pacifism and deontology require a difficult route and that there is a good chance he will not succeed. Conversely, he is never given the chance to prove how his way of thinking is better for actually breaking the fire nation cycle of fear. Imagine, instead of energybending, aang was forced to learn all of the techniques taught to him by his teachers. When fighting ozai, he must take a heavy blow that he must heal through waterbending he is taught from katara. He is only able to dodge attacks because of the seismic sense from toph, and he must become comfortable enough with fire that he can redirect ozai’s lighting, as shown by zuko. This techniques are shown to be incredibly difficult, and by clearly setting up a path where aang is forced to take the more difficult route in order to stick to his convictions, it would strengthen the moment when he actually does, as well as provide a nice way to remember the journey along the way. If it were shown that aang had a way to kill ozai and chose not to, instead choosing to rely on his skill, it would show that he is committed to his convictions. Instead, the use of energybending almost implies that all of the knowledge up until this point was useless. What is the point of learning to bend if the only way to defeat ozai is through energybending?

Finally, I will say this: aang needed to defeat ozai in a way that did not rely on murder so that he can finally join the ranks of the avatars before him. When conversing with the previous avatars, it is clear that they think that aang should kill ozai. However, the actual words they speak matter too: aang must make a decision, he must serve justice. The other avatars do not actually speak on whether or not aang should kill ozai, but rather they speak to his conviction. Up until this point, aang is a kid who has the world thrust upon his shoulders, and he is trying the best he can, but at the end of the day he is still a kid. He doesn’t want to kill people because the monks told him it was wrong, and while he feels deeply that he wants to uphold that, he also doesn’t want to kill people because he is young and it would scar him. I choose to see the meetings with the avatars not just as them arguing for aang to kill ozai, but them also having a meta discussion with aang: he must make an actual moral commitment, and stick to the path he has chosen. In order to claim the mantle of avatar, he must strike out on his own and become an independent person with independent beliefs who is willing to talk to the avatars as an avatar. When aang walks back from the battle with ozai, he is able to talk to the other avatars on an equal level because he has committed to his own path and succeeded. He is no longer dependent on guidance; even though he is young, he is a fully realized avatar. By introducing energybending, the writers rob aang of that ability. They prevent him from joining the ranks of the avatars as someone deeply committed to pacifism even when there are no more tricks up your sleeve, and this is a damn shame. 

[sage-nebula]

YGO - Between Dreams and Reality

Notes: This fic was commissioned by the lovely @chiazu with the prompt, “Wishshipping, hurt/comfort, Yuugi has nightmares about Jounouchi dying during the duel with Malik after Battle City.” Thank you so much for the commission; I hope you enjoy the fic!

Something was wrong.

Yuugi didn’t so much know this as he felt it, deep in his chest and shivering under his skin. He wrapped his arms around himself and took a gulp of hot, stifling air as his eyes strained to see through the darkness around him.

Something was missing.

His head pounded as he tried to force himself to see even two feet ahead. Nothing. There was nothing but pitch black above, around, or below. He scuffed his shoe and found that it slid with minimal resistance. The ground was smooth, at least. Metal, maybe, but with no light aside from a few dancing embers here or there he had no way to see---

Hacking coughs burned his throat and forced him to double over, first standing, then kneeling. He couldn’t see the smoke, really, but he could smell it, could feel it as it seared his throat with every necessary, aching breath. Yuugi braced himself on hands and knees, his fingernails scraping against what felt like metal grating, scraping for something, anything---

(---a hand to hold, a sleeve to grasp--)

---to help him get his bearings.

But there was nothing, nothing---though there was, there was something . . . it was because there was nothing that he knew there was something missing. He wiped his mouth with a shaking arm as his coughing subsided, and once more lifted his head to see through the---

A rush of furious heat slammed into him, forcing his stinging eyes shut as he doubled over again. In contrast to the gloom around him, everything behind his closed eyes was gold---burning, blinding gold that scrunched his face in pain. It hurt to see, hurt to breathe, hurt to think the heat was so oppressive, but that---that wasn’t---

An inhuman cry rent the air, and in that moment Yuugi knew he wouldn’t have been able to breathe even if he wasn’t trapped in a burning nothingness.

He wrenched his eyes open and looked around frantically, blinking past the tears that streamed down his cheeks. Nothing, nothing, nothing; the air was orange-gold now, the embers sparking like specks in the smoke, but he couldn’t see---couldn’t see anything---

A whimper, a dying croon in contrast to the agonized keening from before. The last breath of a slain dragon to tell Yuugi that it was no longer that something was missing, but that someone was lost. A choked gasp from his raw throat came out like a sob, and he squeezed his eyes shut as he put his forehead to his knees---

“. . . ake up! Yuugi!”

Yuugi woke with a sense of disorientation so strong and sudden that for a second he wasn’t sure where he was.

But that was silly. He was in his room---he was always in his room, or at least he usually was when he first woke up. He wasn’t on his knees, bent over in an endless expanse, struggling to breathe through ungodly heat. He was lying on his back in his bed, sweat sticking his pajamas to his chest and his bangs to his face, the room dark but still lit by the gleam of moonlight through his window blinds. And there was nothing wrong, nothing missing, no one lost, or dead, or dying. Everyone was home where they should be, perfectly fine.

Everyone . . . Yuugi swallowed hard, and grasped his bed covers in a tight fist.

But he wasn’t alone. In the endless expanse of his dreamscape he might have been, but here he always had another with him. The Spirit of the Puzzle, Yuugi’s “Other Self”, took spirit form beside his bed, and leaned over in concern.

“Is everything all right, partner?” he asked.

Yuugi smiled weakly. “Yeah. Everything’s fine.”

His other self’s frown didn’t waver. “You seemed disturbed. Was it a bad dream?”

“It . . . yeah. Something like that.”

Yuugi was never sure how to describe his dreams. “Nightmare” was the technical term, he guessed, but he never dreamed of things like serial killers chasing him, or showing up to class stark naked. Instead, his dreams took the form of shapes and colors, sensations and sounds rather than anything concrete. He could remember the feeling of the heat scorching his every breath, could feel the weight of despair and panic in his bones, could still hear the agonized keening of the dying Red-Eyes Black Dragon ringing in his---

Yuugi reflexively scrunched his shoulders up to block his ears, even though there was no sound in his room. He didn’t want to hear that sound ever again. Not even in his own memory.

“You don’t look well,” his Other Self said, and Yuugi forced his shoulders to relax as he sighed through his teeth. The concern was nice, but as much as he didn’t ever want to hear a Red-Eyes Black Dragon die again, he also didn’t want to--- “If you tell me what’s wrong, I could help.” ---talk about it.

“That’s okay,” Yuugi said, and he forced another smile as his Other Self’s frown grew. “It was just a bad dream. I’ll be fine by morning.”

“Mmm. If you say so. But if you have another, we’ll need to talk about it.”

Yuugi rolled his eyes. “Okay. If you say so.”

“I do,” his Other Self said. “And if you say no that time, we’ll play a game for it.”

For a second, Yuugi thought he heard wrong. But when his Other Self continued to stare at him as seriously as ever, Yuugi shoved himself up into a half-seated position and demanded, “Are you serious?”

Finally, his Other Self’s frown gave way to a little smirk. “If that’s what it takes. Is it?”

Yuugi huffed, and flopped back down on his bed, turning his back to his Other Self. “I can’t believe you. Me? Of all people?”

“What’s wrong with it? It wouldn’t be a Shadow Game,” his Other Self said, and Yuugi was glad his back was turned so that nothing of how his stomach turned at the phrase would show on his face. “And the Penalty would only be that you would have to tell me what was bothering you.”

“Just a Penalty for me, huh? Because you know I’d lose?” Yuugi muttered.

His Other Self hummed a moment before he said quietly, “No . . . I don’t think I do.”

Yuugi furrowed his brow. He’d meant what he’d said as something of a joke. His Other Self was ridiculously skilled at gaming, but it wasn’t as if Yuugi himself was a slouch, and enough loud pep talks from Jounouchi had encouraged him to be less self-deprecating. But the seriousness with which his Other Self had responded was . . .

It was strange, but not as much as the way his heart dropped when he thought of Jounouchi and his aggressively uplifting encouragement, the faint echo of the Red-Eyes’ death cry resounding again in his memory. He clutched his blanket tighter for support before he asked, “Hey . . . Jounouchi-kun’s okay, isn’t he?”

“He seemed fine when we saw him today,” Yuugi’s Other Self said, and Yuugi released a sigh of relief. “Why? Did something happen?”

“N . . . not recently,” Yuugi said, but even after he said it it felt like just as much of a lie as his initial denial was. It had been only a week since Battle City had ended and they had all returned home---only a week since Malik had tried (both directly and indirectly) to kill Jounouchi three times, and succeeded on the last, if only temporarily. But Yuugi felt as if Battle City had aged him by years, no matter how ridiculous that sounded. Maybe he was experiencing the inverse of what his Other Self felt.

“All right,” his Other Self said dubiously. “But if you have any concerns, you should ask him at school tomorrow.”

“I will,” Yuugi said, even though he knew he wouldn’t.

As he always did when he was anxious about something, Yuugi got to school early the next day. He sat in his desk, his shoulders feeling like they were holding a coiled spring between them, tapping his foot against the floor. His Other Self didn’t say anything about it, but Yuugi could feel him watching with rapt attention. It was simultaneously the best and worst; he appreciated the concern, he really did, but being watched so closely did nothing to ease his anxiety.

“Mornin’, Yuugi!”

But that did.

The instant Yuugi looked up and saw Jounouchi’s sun-bright smile, the spring that had been lodged between his shoulders broke and fell away. For the first time since he had woken from that awful dream the previous night, Yuugi felt himself able to smile genuinely, every muscle in his body relaxing.

He might have heard a Red-Eyes Black Dragon die, but that didn’t mean it actually happened.

“What’s up?” As he always did, Jounouchi tossed his own bag onto his desk before making his way to Yuugi’s, not missing a beat. He leaned back against the desk, half-sitting on it, his arms loosely crossed as he leaned over to look down at Yuugi. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah,” Yuugi said, and his answer was automatic, but it was also true. Now he knew for sure: Everything was okay.

Jounouchi watched him for a second, lips pressed tightly together, before he leaned down closer, eyes narrowed in a shrewd look. On instinct Yuugi pulled back, but that only caused Jounouchi to lean even closer, so close their foreheads were nearly touching.

Up close like this, Jounouchi’s eyes looked like they had flecks of gold in them.

“Hmm . . . okay,” Jounouchi said finally, apparently having discerned something from staring at Yuugi up close. “But if anything comes up, you tell me, all ri---aagh, what the hell---?!”

Jounouchi leaped back, swinging behind him, frantically trying to brush something off his neck. The something became clear a moment later as Bakura skipped out of the way of Jounouchi’s flailing hands, and stepped in front of Yuugi’s desk, smiling brightly.

“Good morning,” he said, holding up the shoelace he’d used to tickle the back of Jounouchi’s neck.

“Morning, Bakura-kun,” Yuugi said, returning his smile.

Jounouchi, on the other hand, was not so amused. He yanked his jacket down to fix where it had been rumpled, and then demanded flatly, “Bakura, what the hell?”

“Sorry. You were so distracted I couldn’t resist,” Bakura said, his smile never wavering as he slipped the shoelace into his pocket. “I had to take the opportunity where I saw it.”

“Oh yeah?” Jounouchi said, and there was a light in his eyes now, a challenging arch in his eyebrows, that gave Yuugi enough warning to scoot his chair back. “Then maybe I can’t resist doing this!”

On the last word he launched himself forward, and threw his arm around Bakura’s neck. Holding him in a headlock, he began furiously mussing Bakura’s hair with his fist.

“Jounouchi-kun!” Bakura gasped, half-laughing as Jounouchi smooshed his hair down into his eyes. “Stop, I give up, I’m sorry!”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Jounouchi said, and he released Bakura from what Yuugi could tell had been a painless noogie with one final muss of his hair. By now, Bakura looked as though he’d walked to school through a tornado, and no amount of attempting to flatten his hair back into shape would help him. Yuugi bit down on another smile.

Everything was fine. There was nothing he could do to stop his dreams; he’d learned a long time ago that they would repeat as many times as his subconscious felt it necessary, and that the most he could do was try to decipher what they meant, and then live with that meaning. But as exhausting as it was to be woken by nightmares, even the same one, night after night, all that mattered was that everything in the waking world was as it should be.

Honda and Anzu crossed the room to join them, Anzu handing Bakura a comb so he could try to fix his hair, Honda throwing a playful punch Jounouchi’s way that Jounouchi batted to the side. As he fended off Honda’s roughhousing, Jounouchi glanced Yuugi’s way and tossed him another grin.

Yuugi smiled back.

Yes, everything was exactly as it should be.

[tiredmoonslut]

The tragedy of Octavia Blake

It’s odd, in a weird way -- I almost like Octavia more this season.

Don’t get me wrong, Blodreina is a psycho. But as a writer, I see her less as a threat to the characters we love and more as an example of what becomes of a girl who was penalized simply for being born. For being forced to grow up with 80% of her life spent beneath a floorboard. For having nothing but her hardened mother and ever-loving brother as company. I see Octavia less as a girl who’s become a threat and more as a girl who saw no other way out than to be a threat because of the mental illness looming above her since she was a child. I mean, we already knew in S1 that she was claustrophobic, and perhaps -- if she’d been treated differently and nurtured by the people of the Ark instead of ostracized for being a second child, that’s as far as the damage would have gone. But that’s not how it happened.

We all know s1!Octavia was a little obsessed with connection. Boy-crazy, wanting to kiss everyone. This was purely because she’d never gotten to DO any of it before. She never thought she would be able to. Meeting Lincoln grounded her in that way (pun very much intended). It was like she said, he was her home. With Lincoln there were no penalties for being alive, there was just being loved, and respected, and held up as a valued, important person by more than just her brother. Indra helped further this. Sixteen years of unreleased energy and pent-up anger and resentment of her situation was stoked and honed into a weapon, a cutting edge. I choose to believe that this is how she became such a good fighter in such a short amount of time. She had the drive, the fire.

Indra was Octavia’s way to being accepted by a community. “Okteivia kom Trikru” became a promise, that she had a place. A society where she wasn’t frowned upon. But then she got stripped of this promise simply because she loved her brother more. Imagine the level of identity crisis a girl in her circumstances would come to after that. Not Skaikru, not Trikru, barely one of the delinquents.

Then Lincoln died. I believe this was really the match that lit her gasoline trail of mental illness on fire. “He was my home”. When Jasper tried to console her with the same advice she gave him, and she said it wasn’t the same? She was right. At least Jasper was still a part of something. Still belonged somewhere. For Octavia, she wasn’t Lincoln’s, she wasn’t Indra’s, and because of the circumstances, she also wasn’t Bellamy’s. That last bit was probably the final straw. Her brother, her one and only constant, is now the one responsible for Lincoln’s death?

Being more or less accepted by Indra once again helped a little, but it didn’t (couldn’t) undo the scars left by Lincoln’s death at Bellamy’s hand. All she had left was rage. Rage that continued to be sharpened and practiced and mastered, ultimately birthing Skairipa. “Death from above” became her outlet, beginning with Pike. It was how she dealt, it became her new promise. No matter how alone she became, she was still a warrior, still a killer. When you’re mentally ill and alone, that can sometimes seem like enough.

But then the survival of the human race (sans Spacekru) became her responsibility, for no reason other than circumstance. This is where the contrast between Osleya and Blodreina becomes obvious. Octavia is broken. She has been since Lincoln died. But with Indra, and her slow-building forgiveness of Bellamy, the possibility of putting her pieces back together became more likely. More of a concept. Wonkru was born entirely from Octavia’s hatred for societal barriers. Societal barriers were the reason behind everything she went through as a child. The conclave for the bunker was her key opportunity to break this cycle, to be the one who changed everything. To be connected. Skaikru and Trikru never completely fit who she was -- and that was simply because Skaikru and Triku needed to exist. If she won the conclave, that wouldn’t be necessary. Wonkru was her answer. Her promise of unity. Of connection.

That’s the entire motivation behind her speech in 4x13. From the ashes, they will rise. Wonkru was her promise. But despite its idealism, it was naive. Twelve warring clans who’ve grown comfortable with separation won’t take the idea of unity without issue. So Octavia is forced to internalize the leadership she’s been a victim of. This (plus whatever the hell happened during the Dark Year) are what made Blodreina. The fire. The resentment. She reconciled those things with blood. With fear. If she could not have Wonkru how she’d originally conceived it, she’d have to make it so. She’d have to stop living on the idea that they were all one and begin living on, if you aren’t Wonkru -- you’re my enemy. This was the true moment that Octavia Blake and Blodreina kom Wonkru diverged into separate entities. The bunker became an amalgamation of the ruthlessness that was her namesake, that was the Red Queen. All the pieces fell in the wrong places, and she became something else. Carnal, ruthless. Broken.

Now that the damage is done, there’s no going back to Octavia. You cannot save someone who is already dead. Octavia has become an enemy of Wonkru, an enemy of Blodreina. And Octavia was not the last one standing in Octavia’s metaphorical arena, Blodreina was. The girl who believed in perfect unity and chased butterflies and loved openly and trusted her brother to keep her safe couldn't win a war, not in Blodreina's head. Only the warriors could.

This is why Octavia’s story remains fascinating and riveting to me. From a writer’s perspective, it’s a tragic masterpiece. The complete and utter deterioration of one’s core personality made manifest in a leader. The seeds of Blodreina weren’t planted in the six year time jump, they were planted all the way back in season two. And everything that’s happened since then has watered and cultivated those seeds into poisonous, metaphorical plants.

Ultimately, at the end of the day, Octavia’s story is meant to be a tragedy.

[miraimisu]

Hii can I request number 42 from the prompt list? Love your writing! : )

Well, to be honest, I didn’t really know what to do with this one, which made me take so long to finish it. It was a bit of a handful to work with, and I’m not really convinced? But all’s good what ends good, right? ♥ And thank you so much for the kudos, I’m so blessed!

“That man’s ego, dude.” spoke Kaminari, who stood right beside an observing Uraraka. “I can see it growing the more hits he lands on poor Mineta. “Man, the nerve of that guy.”

Uraraka spared sideways glance at Kaminari, who seemed to be stiffling in some laughter from seeing Mineta run for his life. It was a pretty hilarious display indeed, but his words had sparked something inside Uraraka.

“It’s not like he is so egocentric.” spoke she, flinching as Bakugou hit the little guy square in his head. “I’d say he is working on it.”

“Working on it?”

Kaminari turned to look at Uraraka in awe. What had gotten into her? She had always been on Bakugou’s back to make him realize how much of a dick he was towards everyone, mostly Deku. Besides, she was always saying those weird things that clearly showed she knew Bakugou more than she appeared to. Was this another one of her wise assumptions?

“Look at him.” ordered she, and Kaminari complied easily to her command. The brunette frowned. “I want you to try to remember what old Bakugou would have done against an opponent like Mineta.”

And the blonde easily saw the old him. Younger Bakugou was a brash, rude guy with no consideration for others’ lives– well, not like that had changed much, but this Bakugou was a slightly softer version of the same person. He was not going easy on Mineta, but he sure wasn’t fixing to have him killed on the spot, like he would have done before.

Uraraka leant on the railing that separated the training field from the spectator’s side. “He doesn’t wanna win, like he was obsessed with before– he just wants to fight, as in training. He has respect for who he’s fighting with.”

Kaminari eyed her warily. Her face was constricted in a rather uncharacteristic grimace of concentration. Her eyes were fixated on Bakugou’s rampaging form, who was dodging Mineta’s spheres with ease. They twinkled with passion and interest, a glint so mesmerazing that he could only wonder what had changed.

“You know,” started he, looking from Uraraka to Bakugou. “you two are full or surprises, sometimes.”

Uraraka blinked at her classmate and laughed sheepishly. “Well, I just like to think he’s more than a pair of hands. He sure is a handful, though.”

As in cue, Bakugou landed another mortal blow on Mineta at the rythm of his characteristic death penalties. Kaminari sighed. “Roger that.” his frown just got deeper despite the lighthearted conversation. “But what made you feel so sure about him? I mean, I know that he is a bit of all bark but no bite, and that he’s pretty decent to Kirishima–”

“DIE, YOU LITTLE BITCH!”

A big explosion made the teenagers grasp the bars tighter, unfazed, and their hair moved along to the ripple. “–but I would have never had so much hope on an egocentric bastard like him.” continued he after the embers had died down. “It’s not like he had given many signs of social improvement these months.”

“Well, you may not notice!” exclaimed Uraraka, a faint blush adorning her cheeks. She had no real reason to be defending Bakugou, but in the same was as she always tried to sympathise with him, she had the urge to jump to defend him and she had no clue as to why, really. “But just look at him again. Mineta is still alive!”

Kaminari stared at the limping form of Mineta and sighed. “At this rate, he might not be.”

“It’s not about Mineta.” retorted Uraraka, pointing at how Bakugou was taking his time to think about strategy, and how to avoid the sphere barier that Mineta had built. There were some splooches of blood near the teen and she couldn’t believe that Kaminari didn’t see the situation as she did. “The fact that he’s being so meticulous shows that he wants to fight, not necessarily win.”

There was a light silence between the spectators as the fighters shared some words among them.

“… just as he did with you, right?”

Uraraka’s head spun to his and her neck almost snapped in shock. Her mind straight ran all the way to their fight at the Sports Festival and inmediately understood a few things. Kaminari still seemed to wanna prove his point. “He didn’t dismiss you either. He actually defended you.”

This prompted her to cross her arms and fully face him, a curious trimmed eyebrow arched in curiosity. “Care to elaborate?”

Kaminari leaned back from the railing to fully face her, too– the nuclear fight was reaching its climax on the background. He was about to say something when, suddenly, a chill got the best of him and successfully shut his mouth.

“It’s not my right to say. I wouldn’t do justice to his words, honestly.” now, with that kind of phrasing he sure sounded more ominous than necessary. He only let out a little hum, then leaned back on the railing. “Just know that he defended you back then, and I’m sure he still would.”

Uraraka was left a bit in the cold with such anticlimatic words. However, the point still prevailed. “Well, then he has grown as I said, huh.”

Both watched Bakugou start spitting on Mineta’s family thombstone– Mineta was having tons of fun biting the dust. “Yeah… I guess you are right.”

Then, the blonde turned to the pair of watchers, starting a tantrum at the glimpse and startling both of them. He sure had energy for his emotional rampage. “Hey you two! What the hell you doin’ there!”

Kaminari instantly grabbed the towel he had brought with him and jumped to the field, making his way to Bakugou with a troubled smile. “Dude, you sure beat the shit out of Mineta…”

The boy in question only moaned behind them, and it was impossible to know who Bakugou’s next words were referred to. “Shut it!” yet his next ones were hissed at Uraraka. “Oi, and what are you doing standing there like a moron?”

She only let her cheek land on her right hand, smiling– some things would never change. “Just watching the kids play.”

He was quick to step nearer her and look up with a piercing glare only she could dismiss as non-menacing. “WHO THE FUCK YOU CALLING A KID, URARAKA!”

She giggled as he was strained and taken away from anything easily flamable. Uraraka jumped to the field as well with a towel in hand, approaching the boys. “Kaminari, wanna go give Mineta a hand?”

“Sure thing!” as Uraraka gave Bakugou the towel for him to dry off the sweat, Kaminari happily padded to Mineta, and easily swung him on his shoulder. “C'mon, lil’ buddy – you could use some good healing!”

As the purple dressed boy was taken away, Bakugou cleaned some sweat off his forehead. “‘The hell is wrong with that guy?”

She shrugged. “Kaminari’s happy-go-lucky charm, let him be.” her eyelashes fluttered at him when there were no injuries on his skin. “You sure did a number on Mineta.”

Bakugou gritted his teeth. “Shut it. What a loss of fucking time.” and she chuckled, because of course he’d be pissed at an easy win and all he wanted now was to tear her chords off her throat, because that laugh was annoying and made his heart do things.

Things he… couldn’t bear. He stared down at her as she looked up the sky, probably to ignore the awkward silence that had fell on them. Bakugou only brushed some mild injuries with the towel. “I still don’t know why I didn’t fight you instead of that pisshead.”

Uraraka openly giggled at his impatience and held out her bandaged hand to prove her point, all before Bakugou set himself on fire– he couldn’t stand people laughing at him. “I don’t think it’d be fair for me to fight a powerhouse like you with these buddies in this condition.

He put the dirty towel on her shoulder – to which she flinched, since no one liked to be treated as a hanger – and took her wrists. Bakugou analysed them warily, looking at them in absolute hatred– they had robbed him of a good fight. Her covered skin tingled in delight with his touch. Gentle touch because worsening the condition of her little hands would delay his desired fight– and also, because it was her and he would always be a bit of a softie with her in privacy.

“We could have sparred without using quirks.” he threw them off afterwards, all traces of gentleness gone and all switched with renewed determination, his ignited orbs burning in hers, and licking the flames of her chocolate irises. “You still owe me a rematch, bubblehead.”

Uraraka was torn between slapping him for being impatient or squealing at his endearing impatience. He was so double edged that she was left smiling, wondering what made her feel so attracted to him in the first place. Still, there were leftovers of his touch that made her heart flutter– it always fluttered in his presence. “You want some martial ass-kicking, don’t you?”

He grabbed her wrists again, his fingers subtly rubbing her injured hands– it all to prove his point. She sighed at his wicked smirk. Yeah, those little things were what showed that he was more than an ego nebula floating around her, more than the shell of a shallow man.

“I don’t know if these guys here can actually punch.” one of his hands teasingly grabbed her waist while the other held one of her hands up– it all to intimidate her, and drew her close, prompting a healthy blush from her. His voice was a bit loud, clear, deep, and slightly mocking and subtly concerned all in one brash package. “But I know you can do some badass throws and tackles, ain’t that right?”

Uraraka’s blush only spread when glancing at his bloodlust, hellfire eyes, and withdrew from his arms with an effortless wiggle. Her arms crossed and her head turned a bit to hide the redness of her eyes. Bakugou seemed a bit heated too. “Wait ‘till I recover and I’ll show you, Bakugou.”

She darted out of his presence with him trailing behind like a fly attracted to a dim, faint and flickering light. “Oi, you’re taking my damn towel!”

The mentioned towel was thrown to his face from the exit of the hallway, and he smirked at the faint smell of her orange shampoo, then basked in its familiarity, wrapping around him like a shield. Everytime they touched, everytime he held her minimally close, that damn perfume would come chasing at him and knock his senses off for a while.

Yeah, he was a good winner, damn stubborn, extremely hot-headed and short-tempered. But when it came to Uraraka… man, wasn’t he a sucker.

Because he fell like he did all things in life: fell hard, intensely, passionately, and fast, and was intoxicated hook, line and sinker.

Too much for an egocentric man like him– he became much more when she was around.

[peppermint-shamrock]

The Quiet Game

Atem dramatically tears off the headphones, repeating again that he won’t forgive Sozoji, pissed off enough that he’s gonna do this game without having to go change his clothes first.

Sozoji notices the change in attitude and doesn’t like it. Atem challenges Sozoji, asking if he’s a coward before announcing that they’re going to play a game. Sozoji is weirded out by the behavior, wondering if it’s really Yuugi. Atem continues, explaining what the game will be – the quiet game. You know, the “game” that every parent makes their kids play when they just want the kids to shut up for once so they can have a moment’s peace. Only with dancing clown toys and psychological torture.

Atem somehow procures the “Sound Pierrots”, clown toys that dance when detecting noise. Reminds me of the “Yacker Tracker” my 4th grade art class had, but a creepy clown instead of a stoplight. He places one in front of each of them (Sozoji and himself, as Hanasaki is out of the picture), saying that the first to make their clown dance (by making noise) loses. Sozoji asks what happens if “Yuugi” loses. In response, Atem says:

He…does this a lot. Way to escalate things quickly there, Atem. It is entirely unnecessary to stake your life in a situation like this. There are times in this series where it is necessary. Like next chapter. But not here – you’re just creating problems for yourself on the off-chance that you lose. For someone so terrified of losing…maybe not putting life-or-death stakes on everything would help? Although that fear of losing hasn’t quite been established in canon yet, perhaps this habit does stem from that…the fear of losing is so great that he cannot distinguish between high-stakes and low-stakes, so it’s just nothing to him to bet his life because he won’t “allow” himself to lose.

And when you think about it it’s kind of silly for him to bet his life because he is, in fact, dead, and has been for a long time – so betting his life is indeed not much of a high-stakes situation after all. However, I don’t think he knows that at this time, although it is pretty amusing to think of him actively tricking the opponent into thinking he’s offering something so extreme when he’s really offering nothing. But again, I don’t think he knows he’s dead, and even later when he does and still bets his life, I think…I think it’s something he recognizes on a rational level (and while brooding), but not really on any other level, so he just…isn’t thinking about that when he’s betting his life, because he doesn’t feel dead when he’s in control of Yuugi’s body.

And then when you think about it more, you realize he’s actually betting Yuugi’s life all these times, whether he means to or not.

Anyway, Atem then states that Sozoji will face a penalty game in the event that Sozoji loses. Sozoji accepts, and the game starts. In the silence, Sozoji fumes to himself about how the karaoke room shouldn’t be silent, and thinks about how if he wins, he’s going to brutally beat Yuugi worse than Hanasaki.

Sozoji then spots the headphone jack resting on a glass of water (Sozoji believes it to have landed there accidentally when Atem ripped out the headphones, but it wouldn’t be that out there to suspect that Atem purposefully set that up), and gets excited, thinking it will soon fall and make noise. However, it fails to fall, and instead, Sozoji’s clown starts dancing, due to Sozoji’s heartbeat (increased by his excitement and frustration) getting picked up by the microphone in his hand, and getting played over the speakers. Sozoji realizes this, and Atem inflicts the penalty, causing Sozoji to hear his own heartbeat at an agonizingly loud volume.

That would definitely freak me the hell out, honestly…not to say that the other illusions so far weren’t also pretty terrifying, but I think this one would be the worst for me.

Atem then leaves with Hanasaki, supporting the latter as he’s definitely passed out by this point, and commenting on the fittingness of the punishment as he usually does, pointing out an association between rock beats and heart beats.

So that was chapter 3! I like this one – the game in this one really showcases how Atem uses the character of the opponent against them – in this case, Sozoji is done in by the very thing he uses to torment others. But, it is rather short, and also being a story involving Hanasaki, I can see why it wasn’t adapted. And speaking of short…if you count hair, Hanasaki is shorter than Yuugi, which is kind of amazing considering how utterly tiny Yuugi/Atem is.

Next chapter will be back to a comparison, as it’s the escaped criminal/Atem burns a guy alive one that both manga and animes adapt in some form.

[nigeiadigitalmarketingcompany]

Links 7/31/19

Digital Elixir Links 7/31/19

Yves here. We had a terrific event last night with Lambert’s Dem debate live blog. Over 400 comments, many incisive and funny.

Hope you’ll join us this evening at 8 PM EDT (Lambert opens up the post a wee bit earlier) for what the peanut gallery hopes will be a Harris v. Biden or maybe even everyone v. Biden slugfest.

Does My Cat Want Me to Lick Her Back? Atlantic (resilc). Eeew.

RNA recovered and sequenced from 14,000-year-old mummified wolf New Atlas (furzy)

Met Office: UK’s 10 hottest years on record occurred since 2002 Guardian (Kevin W)

Coke and Pepsi abandon the plastics lobby CNN (Kevin W)

Living without water: the crisis pushing people out of El Salvador Guardian (resilc). We pointed out years ago that potable water was the critical resource that would become scarce first….

Why a cure for dementia would trigger a crisis Financial Times. This article is appalling. It presupposes that a treatment would require cancer-level intervention and before and after monitoring. It also asserts that “the disease cannot be reversed,”, when small scale studies have found cognitive improvement for some with relatively short-term (12 weeks) consumption of silica water. See https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22976072

China?

Hong Kong protests: ‘I’m in Australia but I feel censored by Chinese students’ BBC (David L)

Please Stop Beating Us’: Where Were Hong Kong’s Police? – Video New York Times (UserFriendly)

China, U.S. Resume Trade Talks Amid Trump’s ‘Rip-off’ Accusation Bloomberg

Lambert notes per below “Cooling off period”:

JUST IN: #HongKong issues storm signal no. 8. stock trading to shut after 15 minutes @business

Hong Kong Starts to Shut Down as Tropical Storm Approaches: https://t.co/32OdJdjSzY

— Fion Li (@fion_li) July 31, 2019

Your Next iPhone Might Be Made in Vietnam. Thank the Trade War. New York Times (UserFriendly)

China Covertly Subverting Trump Reelection Free Beacon. UserFriendly: “Congratulations democrats, now every electoral loss is illegitimate.”

China Is On Track To Beat Its Peak-Emissions Pledge ars technica

North Korea ‘fires two ballistic missiles’ BBC

Brexit

EU must give way over backstop, says Johnson after rebuff by Varadkar Guardian. Resilc: “This will go smoothly.”

The Politico morning European newsletter version, emphasis theirs. Maybe Johnson believes his bullshit about bullying the EU?

MORE OF THE SAME: The U.K. will leave the EU at the end of October, come hell or high water. Boris Johnson’s EU counterparts have got the message he has repeated one way or another every single day since taking office as prime minister last week. Now it’s being directed to his Irish colleague Leo Varadkar. “On Brexit, the prime minister made clear that the U.K. will be leaving the EU on October 31, no matter what,” Downing Street said in a readout of the pair’s call Tuesday.

Varadkar’s response: The Irish government said Varadkar refused point blank Johnson’s request to reopen divorce talks. “Noting that the Brexit negotiations take place between the U.K. and the EU, the Taoiseach explained that the EU was united in its view that the Withdrawal Agreement could not be reopened,” a statement from the Irish government noted drily.

The backstop has to go, Johnson repeated. But it won’t, was Varadkar’s answer. The Irish leader “emphasized to the prime minister that the backstop was necessary as a consequence of decisions taken in the U.K. and by the U.K. government,” Dublin said.

Brexit causes UK car industry investment to crash to ‘pitiful’ £90m Guardian

Quarterly Bulletin No.3 2019 Central Bank of Ireland. PlutoniumKun: “On Brexit. Revises growth prediction from 4.1% to 0.7% in the event of a no-deal (worse than previous predictions).

”

US Anti-Abortion Group Uses Big Data to Manipulate Argentinian Women: Report teleSUR (furzy)

Syraqistan

Bahrain Follows U.S. Lead on Executions LobeLog (resilc)

Intra-Afghan talks only after U.S. agrees to withdraw troops: Taliban Reuters (resilc)

Imperial Collapse Watch

On Costliest U.S. Warship Ever, Navy Can’t Get Munitions on Deck Bloomberg

Bolton Proposes and The President Disposes American Conservative (resilc)

Pentagon Study Shows Violence Has Skyrocketed in Africa Intercept. Resilc: “At the DoD it’s called market development….”

Trump Transition

The Trump Administration’s Death Penalty Cult Nation (resilc)

U.S. judge tosses Democratic Party lawsuit against Trump campaign, Russia over election Reuters

Federal Judge Overturns IRS Donor-Disclosure Change Wall Street Journal

While Trump spews hate, I continue to do my job GreenwichTime (UserFriendly). Rep. Tlaib, originally in the Washington Post.

Jeffrey Epstein’s life ‘in jeopardy’ as powerful pals ‘don’t want their secrets out’, victim’s lawyer claims Sun (resilc)

2020

Who won the Democratic debate? Winners and losers from July 30 CNN (UserFriendly). Cillizza is not following the house party line…..

It’s Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren v the ‘No We Can’t’ Democrats Guardian (resilc, furzy)

Stephen Colbert Hits Longshot Democrats for Spewing ‘Republican Talking Points’ at CNN Debate Daily Beast (resilc). When you’ve lost Colbert…..

Can Someone Please Vote CNN Off the Stage? Bloomberg

Next one goes to CNN: Who wrote these terrible debate questions? https://t.co/QMk2nYFtn8

— Slate (@Slate) July 31, 2019

Coalition to air anti-Medicare for All ads during Democratic debates The Hill (UserFriendly). A pox on them.

Democrats Are Veering Left. It Might Just Work. Politico

A Guide To Bad Faith Arguments Against Bernie Sanders Medium (UserFriendly)

Democrats fail to address working-class issues during the second Democratic debate Vox (UserFriendly)

More Presidential Candidates Taking Strident Pro-Caviar Stance To Appeal To Democratic Socialite Wing Of Party The Onion

How Joe Biden’s privatization plans helped doom Latin America and fuel the migration crisis Grayzone

Stop Suing Patients, Advocates Advise Memphis Nonprofit Hospital System ProPublica (UserFriendly)

Apple put an iPhone in everybody’s pocket — now its growth depends on putting devices all over our bodies CNBC

Equifax is going to rip you off again BoingBoing (resilc)

‘Do ‘Big Four’ Tech Monopolies Deserve Their Antitrust Investigation? Yes Federalist. UserFriendly: “When the libertarians are calling to break up big tech….”

Regulators Found High Risk of Emergency After First Boeing MAX Crash Wall Street Journal. Grr, the Journal put this up just as I was turning in, otherwise I would have posted on it. From the summary:

An internal risk analysis after the first of two Boeing 737 MAX airliner crashes showed the likelihood was high of a similar cockpit emergency within months, according to a Federal Aviation Administration official familiar with the details and others briefed on the matter.

The regulator’s analysis, not previously reported, showed that it “didn’t take that much” for a malfunction like the one confronted by the pilots of the Lion Air flight that crashed into the Java Sea last year to occur, one of the people briefed on the analysis said.

Class Warfare

We Should Thank Amazon for Letting Us Have Jobs New York Magazine (resilc)

DoorDash Tip-Skimming Scheme Prompts Class-Action Lawsuit Seeking All Those Tips That Didn’t Go To Drivers Gizmodo

How Over 25 People Got Scammed Into Working At A Nonexistent Game Company Kotaku (Kevin W)

Private Equity’s Next Leveraged Buyout Might Be the Oval Office American Prospect (resilc). Where have they been? Over half of Wall Street revenues comes from PE. That includes “Government Sachs”. Rahm did a turn in a PE firm.

Globalization Isn’t Dying, It’s Just Evolving Bloomberg

Antidote du jour. Lawrence R from the Pleasant Lake newsletter> “Male Eastern Forktail (Ischnura verticalis). Odonate males are usually more brightly colored than females and are more often seen at the water.”

And a bonus (Bryan W):

Do not attempt to outsmart a Sulphur-crested Cockatoo. It won’t work. pic.twitter.com/CABkzq9Dw7

— Helen Dale (@_HelenDale) July 26, 2019

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

Links 7/31/19

from WordPress https://ift.tt/2T3u0wh via IFTTT

[clauscrayon7-blog]

On Forgiveness: What It Is, When It Works, and How It Can Connect Us All

“For most of my life and career, I thought about people who disagreed with me in very black-and-white, simplistic terms,” says Sally Kohn. “I was good; they were bad. I was right; they were wrong. I was kind; they were mean. I was caring; they were hateful.”

It’s pretty understandable. Kohn’s life’s mission has been to fight for the underdog. The author and commentator has spearheaded social movements for the betterment of marginalized people. She’s been at the head of a leading women’s organization. So the temptation to paint her adversaries in a negative light was always there. And when she pivoted to media, she contributed to Fox News as a progressive pundit. There you’d find Kohn—a jovial, queer social justice activist—sharing camera shots with Sean Hannity and Megyn Kelly. As surprising a juxtaposition as it may have been, it also allowed Kohn to confront her own “imperfections, thoughts, and biases,” she says.

“I had this experience at Fox News, and ever since, of getting to interact with people who usually we don’t get to interact with in our hyperpolarized world,” she says. The more interaction she had, the more her binary outlook began to disintegrate as she “realized that they we’re not that simple.”

You could say Kohn’s time as a Fox contributor was a catalyst for how she moves through her career—and world—now. There’s no more black-and-white. In its place are endless shades of grey. In her book, The Opposite of Hate, Kohn writes with curiosity and empathy about what drives people to hate. (She traveled to Rwanda, Palestine, Israel, across the US, and elsewhere to gather stories.) If there is one lesson in the book (and there are far more than that), it is that we are all kaleidoscopes—and it’s up to us to recognize our complexities. As Kohn tells us, it’s “more emotionally enriching to see the world and to see people as they are.”

Of course, when you appreciate the nuances of a person, the dynamic details of their character, the complex narratives of someone’s life that eventually become their biography, it’s a whole lot easier to understand where they’re coming from. Kohn has met and interviewed hundreds of people and knows firsthand that we’re all “coming at life differently,” she says. And most fascinating of all, forgiveness isn’t just possible; according to Kohn, it might just be the “bridge that connects all of us.”

A Q&A with Sally Kohn

Q

How do you define forgiveness? And what makes for successful forgiveness?

A

I think of forgiveness as a measure of how much we value ourselves and how much we value others. Everyone makes mistakes. It’s one of the most common expressions of our humanity—our fallibility. So when we make mistakes or when others make mistakes, do we react with compassion or condemnation? I think which way we respond reflects our beliefs about one another. Someone says something that hurts us and we immediately write them off, though we would want them to understand if we did the same thing.

Or on a bigger scale, as a society, we overprosecute and overpenalize petty crimes, which are mostly committed by poor people, especially poor people of color. And we underprosecute and underpenalize so-called white-collar crimes, even though they actually cause greater harm to more people. And at the root, this tends to boil down to the ways in which we divide our world into us versus them and are socialized to think of ourselves and people like us as fundamentally good while those “others” are inherently less than. That takes lots of forms across race and class and nationality and religion, and even just neighborhoods. We’re more forgiving of people we think are like us. But it relies on these fictionalized divisions between us and, underneath, the myth that there are good people and bad people. So it’s only when “good people” do bad things that we grant them forgiveness.

It’s only when we understand that we all contain the capacity for good and bad that we start to comprehend forgiveness as a bridge that connects all of us, a lifeline we all depend on.

Q

What are the underlying human qualities of forgiveness?

A

Forgiveness involves what psychologists call perspective taking. Basically, where we imagine ourselves in the other person’s position. And that’s simply easier to do with people who are like us or people whose stories and lives we’ve been most exposed to through our media and culture. That’s why when a partner has an affair with some stranger, we’re quicker to forgive our partner but hold a grudge against the stranger. Or if our teenager does something bad, we almost reflexively blame their friends. Because forgiveness is necessary to human survival and cohesion. It’s how we stick together.

But then to broaden our forgiveness also requires curiosity. We have to be genuinely, generously curious about why someone did what they did—and try to give them as much of the benefit of the doubt as possible. And we also have to be curious about ourselves, interrogate our own thoughts and feelings, and acknowledge our own imperfections. Ultimately, the act of forgiving is recognizing that the other person isn’t just the bad thing they did. And you’re not just the good things you’ve done. Forgiveness honors that complexity.

Q

Is everyone capable of forgiveness?

A

I hope so. We live in a deeply unforgiving moment, in part because we’re so polarized but also because we’ve really attacked complexity and nuance in our media and politics and culture and social media. But we have to remember our common humanity and that no person is disposable. It was Sister Helen Prejean, the anti-death-penalty activist, who said, “We are all worth more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.” If we all want that to be true for us—and I think we all desperately do—then we have to believe it of others.

Q

What about for the most heinous offenders? For instance, in your book, you write about the Rwanda genocide. So many of the Tutsis were close to the Hutus who murdered their loved ones. Where does forgiveness play a role there, if at all?

A

Let’s be clear, these are the hardest of the hardest of cases. And in my book, I really wrestle with this. If someone killed my daughter, I don’t know that I could ever forgive them. For all the research and reflection and writing I’ve done on this, I’m not sure I could do it. I’m startled by and in awe of people who do. Like the Tutsi woman I met in Rwanda who invited me into her home to meet the Hutu man who’d murdered her husband and children, a man she now calls her friend. Whom she served tea to and laughed with. She says she’s forgiven him. In the middle of a whole country that went through the unimaginable and has tried to forgive and move on. Like I said, I don’t know that I could be that strong, that understanding. But it does make me think that I can be a hell of a lot more forgiving than I have been.

Q

Do we define unforgivable in the same way?

A

I’m not sure we know what that means anymore. I grew up in political movements that were fighting to reform our abusive, punitive criminal justice system based on the moral philosophy of forgiveness and the idea that all of us deserve a second chance—or sometimes even a third or fourth—even if we’ve committed heinous violence. And yet nowadays sometimes we want to throw people out because of something they tweet. That’s just antithetical to my understanding of humanity. To say people are unforgivable is to say that people can’t change. And I know people can change. That’s why we’re a fairer and more just and equitable world today than we were fifty years ago. And that’s why I believe we’ll be a better world still fifty years from now. Because change is possible for all of us.

Q

Are people who forgive happier? Do they find peace in forgiveness?

A

There is ample scientific evidence that, yes, forgiveness makes us happier. To pick just one example, spouses who report being more forgiving of their partners also report being happier in their marriages. But importantly, the opposite seems to be true: Holding a grudge not only makes you less happy but is bad for your health. So it turns out there are moral, societal, and spiritual benefits to forgiveness and personal wellness benefits, too. Plus, in general, we know there are overwhelming health benefits to doing things for others, and forgiveness is one of those things we do for others that makes us feel better, too.

Q

You recently said that “we only hate those we don’t believe we have the potential to forgive.” Can you explain that?

A

I’m not talking about the way we casually use the word “hate.” I mean real hate. And really when we truly, deeply hate someone or some group of people, we’ve decided they’re beyond redemption—that whatever reason we have for hating them is indelible and beyond repair. Within that, there are different kinds of hate. Maybe it’s something you did to me specifically and I’ve permanently written you off because of it. Or maybe it’s more of a categorical kind of hate, even an unconscious kind that’s based on my unexamined biases toward a whole group of people. Either way, in practice, this is like the sort of nonforgiveness of others extended out infinitely. Ultimately, hatred, especially explicit hatred, is the ossification of a sense that those others are unforgivable.

Q

What else is important to know about forgiveness?

A

It’s really important that we distinguish between anger and hate. Sometimes we conflate the ideas, but they’re fundamentally different. Anger is an active emotion: It motivates us to make change. Whereas hate is permanent resignation. So for instance, if I’m angry at my partner, that tells me I have to do something. Maybe I have to explain how I’m feeling, or maybe I have to apologize for something I did. Or probably both, right? Anger is a motivator to action; it tells me there’s some problem I have to solve. But if I hate my partner, if I really truly hate her, that’s it. I’m not bothering to work it out; I’m leaving. Hate means I’ve permanently given up on someone or some group of people, that I can never find the good, that I can never forgive. We tend to think hate and anger are related, but they’re almost polar opposites. Hate leads only to hate. Anger believes in the power of change, including the capacity for forgiveness.

Sally Kohn is an author, a columnist, an activist, and a TV commentator. Kohn previously worked for more than fifteen years as a community organizer, and she is the author of The Opposite of Hate: A Field Guide to Repairing Our Humanity. She received a joint degree in law and public administration from NYU. She received her undergrad degree from George Washington University.

Source: https://goop.com/wellness/mindfulness/defining-forgiveness/

[dansmonarbre]

So a stupid little song got me thinking about abortion today.

Side note: I try not to think about abortion because it makes me angry.

I gave myself a penny and decided to try and write this down.  This is just what I believe.  Mayhap it will allow me to reference it from now on and avoid knee-jerk, angry typing in the future. 

You cannot make abortion illegal or limit it in any way shape or form.

Yes you can, you say?  Well, you can, but it will not accomplish what you would like it to accomplish.  People will not stop having abortions if it is illegal.  Does making something illegal ever stop anyone from doing something that they feel they need to do?  Wealthy people will continue to have all the abortions they want without fear of reprisal.  That’s what wealthy people do.  Poor women will go back to having unsafe abortions, go back to going to prison, and go back to dying for having the audacity of being a woman with a reproductive system.

The illegality of certain things is a an hilarious practical joke that the government has pulled on you in order to keep certain people in jobs that a more highly evolved society would consider obsolete.

Do you know why Keith Richards is still alive, in possession of his faculties, and still rocking like a young man?  It is because he gets the good drugs, the clean drugs, administered by a physician, and in a safe environment.

I’m getting sidetracked.

I understand that people believe that life is sacred.  I understand that they believe that every person is imbued with a unique soul from the point of conception.  That they believe we all have a unique path set for us by our creator.

If you believe that, you really shouldn’t have an abortion.

Seriously.

If you think I should believe that, without any sort of scientific evidence that god or souls exist, you should be ashamed of yourself.  Your ego is out of control, and your contact with reality has slipped your grasp.

Also, if you believe those things, I do hope you are also opposed to the death penalty, are a vegetarian, are not a member of the NRA, disapprove of the military, and cry when you step on an ant.

And if any of the things I am typing make you upset, I assume you’ve forgiven me and presented your other cheek for me to slap.

Don’t be a hypocrite.  If you want to force your beliefs on everybody, you should at the very least not be a hypocrite.  You’ve already stepped way past the line of decency, so don’t piss on the line as well.

And here’s something for you.  I wish abortion wasn’t necessary.  I really do.  I wish all pregnancies were safe.  I wish women did not get raped and deceived by men.  I wish young people knew how to use birth control.

If you want fewer abortions, be smart about it.  Educate children about sex.  Educate children about how to use birth control.  Educate children on the incredible responsibilities involved in being a parent.  Teach young men about consent.  Teach them consequences for their actions.  Punish rapists, not their victims.

And maybe actually be PRO LIFE, not just anti-choice, which is really what you are.  You are not about protecting life.  You are about punishing women.  If it was about life you would be about improving the quality of it.  You’d be about increasing wages, universal health care, better and free education, paid maternity leave...you’d be about making it so bringing a life into this world was the safest and easiest choice a woman could make.

This is about bodily autonomy.  And a dead man should not have more bodily autonomy than a living woman.  Put your organs and your corpse on the line for the greater good, and make it required of everyone in spite of their religious beliefs, if you’re going to even broach this life is sacred argument.

I honestly don’t believe there are enough abortions.  The world is overpopulated and we’re slowly choking ourselves to death.  Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.  You can do a lot of things that you have no clue how to do properly, and raising a child is much more complicated than riding a unicycle.  And all these babies you’re saving...well, their lives will all be forfeit if you cannot get your shit together and do something about this planet we’re living on and the air we’re breathing.

Until such time, though I doubt it will ever come, that you can prove your beliefs about life you should mind your own business.  I don’t go around protesting and lobbying politicians to put an end to your rituals and weekend get together that seem ridiculous to me.  I don’t try and pass laws that would put people that believe in god or creationism into insane asylums or prisons.  Do me the same favor.  Stay the hell out other people’s lives.  It is not much to ask.  Hardly anything at all.

[networkingdefinition]

States Quotes

Official Website: States Quotes

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• A child born to a Black mother in a state like Mississippi… has exactly the same rights as a white baby born to the wealthiest person in the United States. It’s not true, but I challenge anyone to say it is not a goal worth working for. – Thurgood Marshall • A sincere and steadfast co-operation in promoting such a reconstruction of our political system as would provide for the permanent liberty and happiness of the United States. – James Madison • A State would be happy where philosophers were kings, or kings philosophers. – Plato • After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, the United States would enter, in a formal way, what had been up to that date strictly a European conflict. Marcus Garvey’s prophecy about the European scramble to maintain dominance over the whole world was now a reality. – John Henrik Clarke • All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the State. – Albert Camus • And before our current legislature adjourns, we intend to become the first state of full and true choice by saying to every low and middle-income Hoosier family, if you think a non-government school is the right one for your child, you’re as entitled to that option as any wealthy family; here’s a voucher, go sign up. – Mitch Daniels • And I just think that we’re at a point in our economic life here in our state – and – and, candidly, across the country, where increased taxes is just the wrong way to go. The people of our state are not convinced that state government, county government, local government has done all they can with the money we already give them, rather than the money that we have… – Chris Christie • And I think musicians can better run this state than politicians. And, hell, beauticians can better run the state than politicians. – Kinky Friedman • Arrogance, ignorance, and incompetence. Not a pretty cocktail of personality traits in the best of situations. No sirree. Not a pretty cocktail in an office-mate and not a pretty cocktail in a head of state. In fact, in a leader, it’s a lethal cocktail. – Graydon Carter • As a state we are so uniquely positioned in so many ways. Our geography, our placement in the country, and our history positions us to be the state that propels energy efficiency as an industry. – Jennifer Granholm • As a Zionist youth leader in the 1940s, I was among those who called for a binational state in Mandatory Palestine. When a Jewish state was declared, I felt that it should have the rights of other states – no more, no less. – Noam Chomsky • As Commander in Chief of the United States Military, I will never send our sons and daughters and our brothers and sisters to die in a foreign land without telling the truth about why they’re going there. – Howard Dean • As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both before and after. – Arthur Conan Doyle • As most New Yorkers have done, I have given serious and generous thought to the state of my apartment should I get killed during the day. – Sloane Crosley • As states subsist in part by keeping their weaknesses from being known, so is it the quiet of families to have their chancery and their parliament within doors, and to compose and determine all emergent differences there. – John Donne • As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion, – as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen, – and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries. – John Adams

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'State', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_state').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_state img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); ); • Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between church and State. – Thomas Jefferson • Bravo can’t be responsible for the mental state of every single person that comes onto their network. – Bethenny Frankel • But I contend that if we’re providing total medical coverage for every man, woman, and child in Iraq, shouldn’t we at least be doing the same thing for every man, woman, and child in the United States? – Tony Campolo • But there is a big difference in working for the West and working for a totalitarian state. – John le Carre • Canada and the United States are also working at the World Trade Organization and in our own hemisphere with negotiations for a Trade Area of the Americas to try to help countries create a positive climate for investment and trade. – Paul Cellucci • Character is the only secure foundation of the state. – Calvin Coolidge • Childhood, after all, is not an ending, but rather a state full of potent curiosity. – Rachel Cusk • Children today will grow up taking for granted that an African-American or a woman can, yes, become the president of the United States. – Hillary Clinton • Church and state should be separate, not only in form, but fact – religion and politics should not be mingled. – Millard Fillmore • Close alliances with despots are never safe for free states. – Demosthenes • Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. – Winston Churchill • Cuba is like going to a whole other planet. It’s so different but it’s so similar to the United States, to Miami. It’s like a doppelgaenger. It’s the mirror image. And I have no doubt, that once Cuba becomes democratic, that it will be the favorite tourist destination for Americans. – Henry Louis Gates • Death is not natural for a state as it is for a human being, for whom death is not only necessary, but frequently even desirable. – Marcus Tullius Cicero • Decency must be an even more exhausting state to maintain than its opposite. Those who succeed seem to need a stupefying amount of sleep. – Quentin Crisp • Deep down, the Iraqi people want the United States out. And their self-determination should be respected. – Peter Camejo • Delaware State has established itself as an institution of excellence in its own right and attracts a diversity of students from various races, socio-economic status and locations. – Michael N. Castle • Does the novel have to deepen the psychology of its heroes? Certainly the modern novel does, but the ancient legends did not do the same. Oedipus’ psychology was deduced by Aeschylus or Freud, but the character is simply there, fixed in a pure and terribly disquieting state. – Umberto Eco • During my travels in Iraq, Israel, Gaza, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, Europe and all over the United States, I have seen and heard the voices of people who want change. They want the stabilization of the economy, education and healthcare for all, renewable energy and an environmental vision with an eye on generations to come. – Michael Franti • Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion. – Thomas Jefferson • Even when I’m in quite a happy state of mind, I like writing really sad songs. I think a lot of people do. – Ellie Goulding • Ever since Israel has been a nation the United States has provided the leadership. Every president down to the ages has done this in a fairly balanced way, including George Bush senior, Gerald Ford, and others including myself and Bill Clinton. – Jimmy Carter • Every body continues in its state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line, except insofar as it doesn’t. – Arthur Eddington • Every one must act according to the dictates of his own reason, and mine tells me that civil powers alone have been given to the President of the United States, and no authority to direct the religious exercises of his constituents. – Thomas Jefferson • Far less wealthy industrialized countries have committed to end child poverty, while the United States is sliding backwards. We can do better. We must demand that our leaders do better. – Marian Wright Edelman • Flipping the dial through available radio stations there will blare out to any listener an array of broadcasts, 24/7, propagating Religious Right politics, along with what they deem to be “old-time gospel preaching.” This is especially true of what comes over the airwaves in Bible Belt southern states. – Tony Campolo • For centuries the death penalty, often accompanied by barbarous refinements, has been trying to hold crime in check; yet crime persists. Why? Because the instincts that are warring in man are not, as the law claims, constant forces in a state of equilibrium. – Albert Camus • For people who have no critical acumen, a state is a mythical entity, for those who think critically it is a rational fiction, created by man in order to facilitate human coexistence. – Friedrich Durrenmatt • For ‘Power of 10,’ you can look at the methodology at CBS.com, it’s a company called Rasmussen Reports. We poll thousands and thousands of people for each question, a real cross section of the United States. – Drew Carey • Forty percent of the United States drains into the Mississippi. It’s agriculture. It’s golf courses. It’s domestic runoff from our lawns and roads. Ultimately, where does it go? Downstream into the gulf. – Sylvia Earle • I am Al Gore, and I used to be the next president of the United States of America. – Al Gore • I am an opponent of Saddam Hussein, but an opponent also, of the sanctions that have killed a million Iraqi children and an opponent of the United States’ apparent desire to plunge the Middle East into a new and devastating war. – George Galloway • I am neither frustrated nor planning anything other than being the best Secretary of State I could be. – Hillary Clinton • I am tolerant of all creeds. Yet if any sect suffered itself to be used for political objects I would meet it by political opposition. In my view church and state should be separate, not only in form, but fact. Religion and politics should not be mingled. – Millard Fillmore • I beg you to speak of Woman as you do of the Negro, speak of her as a human being, as a citizen of the United States, as a half of the people in whose hands lies the destiny of this Nation. – Susan B. Anthony • I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute – where no Catholic prelate would tell the president (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishoners for whom to vote – where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference – and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the president who might appoint him or the people who might elect him. – John F. Kennedy • I believe in the absolute separation of church and state and in the strict enforcement of the Constitution that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. – Al Smith • I believe in the American tradition of separation of church and state which is expressed in the First Amendment to the Constitution. By my office – and by personal conviction – I am sworn to uphold that tradition. – Lyndon B. Johnson • I believe in the separation of church and state and would not use my authority to violate this principle in any way. – Jimmy Carter • I believed what my father taught me about the separation of church and state, so when I was President I never invited Billy Graham to have services in the White House because I didn’t think that was appropriate. He was injured a little bit, until I explained it to him. – Jimmy Carter • I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear. – Barack Obama • I contend that Bush would be a lot more moderate if there weren’t some fundamentalists breathing down his neck every time he wants to establish the state of Israel, every time he wants to do justice for the Palestinian people. – Tony Campolo • I do not like broccoli. And I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I’m President of the United States and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli. – George H. W. Bush • I do think voters do take into consideration – particularly early state voters – take into consideration a wide range of factors, including electability, and they know that part of electability is the total package that you’re presenting. – Elizabeth Edwards • I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute. – Rick Santorum • I don’t have any affirmations, I don’t have any of that stuff. My natural state is to look at things as possibilities and as opportunities. – Michael J. Fox • I don’t think anyone really is interested in reading about my emotional state. It’s not even interesting to me. – Larry David • I first learned that there were black people living in some place called other than the United States in the western hemisphere when I was a very little boy, and my father told me that when he was a boy about my age, he wanted to be an Episcopal priest, because he so admired his priest, a black man from someplace called Haiti. – Henry Louis Gates • I grew up in Danville, Illinois, right in the middle of the state. – Dick Van Dyke • I grew up in the southern United States in a city which at that time during the late ’40’s and early ’50’s was the most segregated city in the country, and in a sense learning how to oppose the status quo was a question of survival. – Angela Davis • I have lived in the United States for half of my life, my entire adult life. – Sheena Easton • I have pushed the boat out as far as I should in terms of taking on too many things. I’m getting older and I just could not take it any more. I am now monitoring myself very closely and I’m just trying not to get into that sort of state again. – Stephen Fry • I have walked majestically with kings and queens and presidents and other heads of states. – John Henrik Clarke • I mean, what’s great about touring is that’s what you do. You’re in a constant state of motion and then you stop to do a show and you move onto the next city. All you have to do is do the show. That’s the only responsibility that you have. – Margaret Cho • I neither will aspire to nor will I accept, the position of president of the council of state and commander in chief. – Fidel Castro • I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection… and finally, that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacifick temper of the mind, which were the characteristicks of the divine Author of our blessed religion ; without an humble imitation of whose example, in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation. – George Washington • I said we are going to balance an $11 billion budget deficit in a $29 billion budget, so by percentage, the largest budget deficit in America, by percentage, larger than California, larger than New York, larger than Illinois. And we’re going to balance that without raising taxes on the people of the state of New Jersey. – Chris Christie • I started this charity, Fashion for Relief, in 2005, after Hurricane Katrina happened. New Orleans was actually the first place I visited in the United States. It was one of my first big jobs, a shoot for British Elle. It was April 14, 1986. – Naomi Campbell • I think Hell exists on Earth. It’s a psychological state, or it can be a physical state. People who have severe mental illness are in Hell. People who have lost a loved one are in Hell. I think there are all kinds of different hells. It’s not a place you go to after you die. – Al Franken • I think it’s fair to say that diplomacy today requires much more of that if you’re the United States of America than it did 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago. – Hillary Clinton • I think the time has come for the United States to do even-handed justice. – Tony Campolo • I think the United States and the secretary of State should be concerned about the poverty in this country – people without health insurance. The United States should stop being the empire and be concerned about other countries. You’ve got to be more worried about your own people. – Hugo Chavez • I think there ought to be a strict separation or wall built between our religious faith and our practice of political authority in office. I don’t think the President of the United States should extoll Christianity if he happens to be a Christian at the expense of Judaism, Islam or other faiths. – Jimmy Carter • I want to make it clear that the black race did not come to the United States culturally empty-handed. The role and importance of ethnic history is in how well it teaches a people to use their own talents, take pride in their own history and love their own memories. – John Henrik Clarke • I wish Obama would focus on governing the United States and would forget his country’s imperialist pretensions. – Hugo Chavez • If anybody ran a business like that they would be out of business quickly, and Barack Obama’s leadership is driving this business, the United States of America, toward a fiscal cliff. – Chris Christie • If torture is going to be administered as a last resort in the ticking-bomb case, to save enormous numbers of lives, it ought to be done openly, with accountability, with approval by the president of the United States or by a Supreme Court justice. – Alan Dershowitz • Illegal immigration continues to be a major problem in the United States. We have people waiting to come here legally. And we should not be rewarding people who have come here illegally. – John Barrasso • I’m in charge of the State Department’s 60,000-plus people all over the world, 275 posts. – Hillary Clinton • I’m President of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli! – George H. W. Bush • In 1988, as an unknown candidate, totally unknown, I won Iowa, came in second in New Hampshire, won South Dakota. I was ahead in every Super Tuesday state the day after South Dakota. The only problem was I didn’t have enough money. I had a million dollars left, and Al Gore had three and Michael Dukakis had three and it was lights out. – Dick Gephardt • In fact, looking at the darkest sides of the United States has only made me appreciate the things that we do right, the things that we do beautifully. We are, for all of our mistakes and all of our crimes, a remarkable place. – Junot Diaz • In his years in Washington, Senator Kerry has been one vote of a hundred in the United States Senate – and fortunately on matters of national security, he was very often in the minority. – Dick Cheney • In many respects, the United States is a great country. Freedom of speech is protected more than in any other country. It is also a very free society. – Noam Chomsky • In short, it is the position of the people of the United States, as expressed by their representatives in Congress, that Israel’s fight is our fight. And so shall it be until the last terrorist on earth is in a cell or a cemetery. – Tom DeLay • In the 20th century, the United States endured two world wars and other traumatic and expensive military conflicts; the Depression; a dozen or so recessions and financial panics; oil shocks; a flu epidemic; and the resignation of a disgraced president. Yet the Dow rose from 66 to 11,497. – Warren Buffett • In the late 1990s, some of the worst terrorist atrocities in the world were what the Turkish government itself called state terror, namely massive atrocities, 80 percent of the arms coming from the United States, millions of refugees, tens of thousands of people killed, hideous repression, that’s international terror, and we can go on and on. – Noam Chomsky • In the United States, the government is bailing out banks, intervening in the economy, yet in Latin America, the Right continues to talk about ‘free markets.’ It’s totally outdated; they don’t have arguments; they don’t have any sense. – Hugo Chavez • In the United States, the Supreme Court’s decision of 1954, outlawing segregation in school systems, was greeted with mixed feelings of hope and skepticism by African-Americans. – John Henrik Clarke • In the United States, there is a restaurant called The Outback Steakhouse, and I could survive in there for several weeks at least, sustaining myself on bloomin’ onions and, I’m sure, their legitimate and very Australian cuisine. In the real Outback? I give myself about 14 minutes. – Steve Carell • In the United States, though power corrupts, the expectation of power paralyzes. – John Kenneth Galbraith • Isil poses a threat to the people of Iraq and Syria, and the broader Middle East – including American citizens, personnel and facilities. If left unchecked, these terrorists could pose a growing threat beyond that region, including to the United States. – Barack Obama • It is not a question of religion, or of creed, or of party; it is a question of declaring and maintaining the great American principle of eternal separation between Church and State. – Elihu Root • It is not differences of opinion; it is geographical lines, rivers, and mountains which divide State from State, and make different nations of mankind. – Jefferson Davis • It used to be you needed to have a very large sophisticated state before you could even have a nuclear weapon… Now the technology is widespread enough. It doesn’t take very many people to be able to cobble together a devastating attack, and all it takes is one. – Dick Cheney • It was one of the compromises of the Constitution that the slave property in the Southern States should be recognized as property throughout the United States. – Jefferson Davis • It would be foolish to suggest that government is a good custodian of aesthetic goals. But, there is no alternative to the state. – John Kenneth Galbraith • It’s sort of well-known that anytime any catastrophe happens anywhere in the world, they can count on the United States for help. – Morgan Freeman • It’s time for the people of the Empire State to strike back. – Andrew Cuomo • I’ve been on every interstate highway in the lower forty-eight states by now and I never get tired of the view. – Steve Earle • I’ve been to all 50 states, and traveled this whole country, and 90 percent of the people are good folks. The rest of them take after the other side of the family. – Jeff Foxworthy • I’ve used the prestige and influence of having been a president of the United States as effectively as possible. And secondly, I’ve still been able to carry out my commitments to peace and human rights and environmental quality and freedom and democracy and so forth. – Jimmy Carter • I’ve written important articles on prevention, on the concept of the preventive state, how the law is moving much more in an area of trying to prevent wrongs than trying to deal with them after they occur. That will be my academic/intellectual legacy. – Alan Dershowitz • I’ve, we have in this state, like many other states, we’re experiencing an enormous budget deficit that we’re trying to grapple with. But we will have progress despite the deficits. – Jennifer Granholm • Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private school, supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the church and state forever separate. – Ulysses S. Grant • Let us not say that we will decide on a political basis at the national level that no State is competent to regulate the practice of medicine in that State if they decide to allow a doctor to prescribe marijuana, because that is what we are talking about. – Barney Frank • Let’s make two things clear: Isil is not “Islamic.” No religion condones the killing of innocents, and the vast majority of Isil’s victims have been Muslim. And Isil is certainly not a state. – Barack Obama • Marriage is the most natural state of man, and therefore the state in which one is most likely to find solid happiness. – Benjamin Franklin • Marriage should be viewed as an institution ordained by God and should be out of the control of the state. – Tony Campolo • May peace rule the universe, may peace rule in kingdoms and empires, may peace rule in states and in the lands of the potentates, may peace rule in the house of friends and may peace also rule in the house of enemies. – Virchand Gandhi • Most governments in the United States in a hundred years have not respected the peoples of Latin America. They have sponsored coup d’etats, assassinations. – Hugo Chavez • Most of the ancestors that I can trace were born here in the United States of America. And then it goes back to slavery. And I’m sure my ancestors go all the way back to Africa, but I feel more of an affinity for America than I do for Africa. I’m a black man in America. – Herman Cain • My experiences in film and theatre in the States have been much more rigorous-in England there’s an environment of, Let’s try this. – Kim Cattrall • My idea, as the whole world knows, is that the capitalist system now doesn’t work either for the United States or the world, driving it from crisis to crisis, which are each time more serious. – Fidel Castro • My name became known because I was, one might say accidentally the target of state repression and because so many people throughout the country and other parts of the world organized around the demand for my freedom. – Angela Davis • Nevada’s one of the most conservative states in the Union, but you can do what you want in Vegas and nobody judges you. – Drew Carey • Never underestimate the power of the State to act out its own massive fantasies. – Don DeLillo • New Jersey is to New York what Santo Domingo is to the United States. I always felt that those two landscapes, not only just the landscapes themselves but their relationships to what we would call ‘a center’ or ‘the center of the universe,’ has in some ways defined my artistic and critical vision. – Junot Diaz • New York State is upside down and backwards; high taxes and low performance. The New York State government was at one time a national model. Now, unfortunately, it’s a national disgrace. Sometimes, the corruption in Albany could even make Boss Tweed blush. – Andrew Cuomo • No matter how corrupt and unjust a convict may be, he loves fairness more than anything else. If the people placed over him are unfair, from year to year he lapses into an embittered state characterized by an extreme lack of faith. – Anton Chekhov • No religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States. – James Madison • Now, in New Jersey, we have more government workers per square mile than any state in America. But since I’ve been governor we now have fewer people on the state payroll at any time since Christie Whitman left office in January 2001. That’s the right direction, Mr. President, not the wrong direction. – Chris Christie • Once you get to the Enlightenment, the way that powers get to be hyperpowers isn’t just by conquest. It’s through commerce and innovation. Societies like the Dutch Republic and the United States used tolerance to become a magnet for enterprising immigrants. – Amy Chua • One doesn’t become a soldier in a week – it takes training, study and discipline. There is no question that the finest Army in the world is found in the United States. – Daniel Inouye • One of my goals upon becoming Secretary of State was to take diplomacy out of capitals, out of government offices, into the media, into the streets of countries. – Hillary Clinton • One side-effect of the so-called war on terror has been a crisis of liberalism. This is not only a question of alarmingly illiberal legislation, but a more general problem of how the liberal state deals with its anti-liberal enemies. – Terry Eagleton • One state retiree, 49 years old, paid, over the course of his entire career, a total of $124,000 towards his retirement pension and health benefits. What will we pay him? $3.3 million in pension payments over his life and nearly $500,000 for health care benefits – a total of $3.8m on a $120,000 investment. – Chris Christie • Our brave soldiers and support personnel are engaged in a battle as important as any the United States has ever before waged, for the success of democracy in Iraq is a crucial test of the ideals this Nation was founded upon. – Virginia Foxx • Our educational results lag behind other states, and other nations, but worse still, behind the potential of the kids and the devoted teachers in our classrooms. – Mitch Daniels • Our forces saved the remnants of the Jewish people of Europe for a new life and a new hope in the reborn land of Israel. Along with all men of good will, I salute the young state and wish it well. – Dwight D. Eisenhower • Our state is in crisis. Our people are hurting. Now is the time when we all must resist the traditional, selfish call to protect your own turf at the cost of our state. It is time to leave the corner, join the sacrifice, come to the center of the room and be part of the solution. – Chris Christie • Raising the debt ceiling is not additional spending. It is simply saying, you, the United States of America, can continue to borrow the money you need to pay the bills you have already rung up. – Jay Carney • Send forth the child and childish man together, and blush for the pride that libels our own old happy state, and gives its title to an ugly and distorted image. – Charles Dickens • Slavery existed before the formation of this Union. It derived from the Constitution that recognition which it would not have enjoyed without the confederation. If the States had not united together, there would have been no obligation on adjoining States to regard any species of property unknown to themselves. – Jefferson Davis • Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. – William Shakespeare • State formation has been a brutal project, with many hideous consequences. But the results exist, and their pernicious aspects should be overcome. – Noam Chomsky • States are not moral agents. – Noam Chomsky • Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States, the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history. – James Madison • Surveillance technologies now available – including the monitoring of virtually all digital information – have advanced to the point where much of the essential apparatus of a police state is already in place. – Al Gore • Thank God, under our Constitution there was no connection between church and state. – James K. Polk • Thank God, under our Constitution there was no connection between Church and State, and that in my action as President of the United States I recognized no distinction of creeds in my appointments office. – James K. Polk • The “establishment of religion” clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a state nor the Federal Government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another. Neither can force nor influence a person to go to or to remain away from church against his will or force him to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion. – Hugo Black • The ‘anti-globalisation movement’ is the most significant proponent of globalisation – but in the interests of people, not concentrations of state-private power. – Noam Chomsky • The civil Government, though bereft of every thing like an associated hierarchy, possesses the requisite stability, and performs its functions with complete success; whilst the number, the industry, and the morality of the Priesthood, and the devotion of the people, have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the State. – James Madison • The Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms. – Samuel Adams • The Constitution of the United States was made not merely for the generation that then existed, but for posterity- unlimited, undefined, endless, perpetual posterity. – Henry Clay • The Declaration of Independence says when government fails, the people have the right to replace it. Well, New York State government has failed and the people have the right, indeed the people have the the people have the obligation, to act. – Andrew Cuomo • The divorce between Church and State ought to be absolute. It ought to be so absolute that no Church property anywhere, in any state or in the nation, should be exempt from equal taxation; for if you exempt the property of any church organization, to that extent you impose a tax upon the whole community. – James A. Garfield • The divorce between church and state should be absolute. – James A. Garfield • The Drafters of the Constitution were intent on avoiding more than 100 years of religious intolerance and persecution in American colonial history and an even longer heritage of church-state problems in Europe. – John M Swomley • The entire North Polar ice cap is disappearing before our very eyes. It’s been the size of the continental United States for the last 3 million years and now 40 percent is gone and the rest of it is going. – Al Gore • The good Lord didn’t see fit to put oil and gas only where there are democratically elected regimes friendly to the United States. Occasionally we have to operate in places where, all things considered, one would not normally choose to go. But, we go where the business is. – Dick Cheney • The great dialectic in our time is not, as anciently and by some still supposed, between capital and labor; it is between economic enterprise and the state. – John Kenneth Galbraith • The Israeli military plays more than a critical role in defending the citizens of the Jewish state. It also plays an important social, scientific and psychological role in preparing its young citizens for the challenging task of being Israelis in a difficult world. – Alan Dershowitz • The most powerful recent innovation in government is when states aggressively use community colleges for retraining. In Michigan, where large numbers of workers were displaced from the manufacturing industry, we created a wildly successful program: No Worker Left Behind. – Jennifer Granholm • The number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the state. – James Madison • The only people who live in a post-black world are four people who live in a little white house on Pennsylvania Avenue. The idea that America is post-racial or post-black because a man I admire, Barack Obama, is president of the United States, is a joke. And I hope no one will even wonder about this crazy fiction again. – Henry Louis Gates • The only tactic liberals have is to try to intimidate people into thinking that the Tea Party is racist. The Tea Party is not a racist movement, period! If it were, why would the straw polls keep showing that the black guy is winning? That’s a rhetorical question. Let me state it: The black guy keeps winning. – Herman Cain • The planter, the farmer, the mechanic, and the laborer…form the great body of the people of the United States they are the bone and sinew of the country men who love liberty and desire nothing but equal rights and equal laws. – Andrew Jackson • The political system is broken, the economy is broken and so is society. That is why people are so depressed about the state of our country. – David Cameron • The problem of how we finance the welfare state should not obscure a separate issue: if each person thinks he has an inalienable right to welfare, no matter what happens to the world, that’s not equity, it’s just creating a society where you can’t ask anything of people. – Jacques Delors • The problem with touring isn’t the traveling and the shows, it’s the vegetal state you get into. – Julian Casablancas • The question is what will Mitt Romney do as president if his policy is simply to be hands off and let the government be made so small it can be drowned in a bathtub. In the 21st century global economy, no state alone has the ability to compete against China. – Jennifer Granholm • The ruin of a State is generally preceded by an universal degeneracy of manners and contempt of religion. – Jonathan Swift • The separation of church and state is extremely important to any of us who holds to the original traditions of our nation. . . . To change these traditions . . . would be harmful to our whole attitude of tolerance in the religious area. If we look at situations which have arisen in the past in Europe and other world areas, I think we will see the reason why it is wise to hold to our early traditions. – Eleanor Roosevelt • The Sierra Club in the United States has now really come out for population control and reduction. – Susan George • The time has come to return integrity, performance and dignity to New York and make it the Empire State once again. – Andrew Cuomo • The Union next to our liberties the most dear. May we all remember that it can only be preserved by respecting the rights of the States, and distributing equally the benefits and burdens of the Union. – John C. Calhoun • The United States and the freedom for which it stands, the freedom for which they died, must endure and prosper. Their lives remind us that freedom is not bought cheaply. It has a cost; it imposes a burden. And just as they whom we commemorate were willing to sacrifice, so too must we – in a less final, less heroic way – be willing to give of ourselves. – Ronald Reagan • The United States Constitution has proved itself the most marvelously elastic compilation of rules of government ever written. – Franklin D. Roosevelt • The United States has written the white history of the United States. It now needs to write the black, Latino, Indian, Asian and Caribbean history of the United States. – Carlos Fuentes • The United States needed a civil war to unite properly. – Umberto Eco • The United States needs to be not so much loved as it needs to be respected. Sometimes, that requires us to take actions that generate controversy. I’m not at all sure that that’s what the Obama administration believes. – Dick Cheney • The way I see it, I’m not going to Washington to be the 60th Democratic senator. I’m going to Washington to be the second senator from the state of Minnesota. – Al Franken • There are 10,000 local governments in the state of New York. Ten thousand! Town, village, lighting district, water district, sewer district, a special district to count the other districts in case you missed a district. – Andrew Cuomo • There is a hunger for the United States to be present again. – Hillary Clinton • There is a Providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children and the United States of America. – Otto von Bismarck • There’s every reason to believe there will be further attacks attempted against the United States. For us to spend so much time patting ourselves on the back because we got bin Laden that we miss the next attack would be a terrible tragedy. – Dick Cheney • There’s no doubt that the Christian right has gone to bed with the more conservative elements of the Republican Party. And there’s been a melding in their goals when it comes to the separation of church and state. I’ve always believed in the separation of church and state. – Jimmy Carter • There’s something depressing about a young couple helplessly in love. Their state is so perfect, it must be doomed. They project such qualities on their lover that only disappointment can follow. – Roger Ebert • To deny women directors, as I suspect is happening in the States, is to deny the feminine vision. – Jane Campion • To those of you who received honours, awards and distinctions, I say, well done. And to the C students, I say, you too can be president of the United States. – George W. Bush • Today’s difference between Russia and the United States is that in Russia everybody takes everybody else for a spy, and in the United States everybody takes everybody else for a criminal. – Friedrich Durrenmatt • Unfenced by law, the unmarried lover can quit a bad relationship at any time. But you – the legally married person who wants to escape doomed love – may soon discover that a significant portion of your marriage contract belongs to the State, and that it sometimes takes a very long while for the State to grant you your leave. – Elizabeth Gilbert • War is regarded as nothing but the continuation of state policy with other means. – Carl von Clausewitz • We believe in a flexible union of free member states who share treaties and institutions and pursue together the ideal of co-operation. To represent and promote the values of European civilisation in the world. To advance our shared interests by using our collective power to open markets. And to build a strong economic base across the whole of Europe. – David Cameron • We don’t have an Official Secrets Act in the United States, as other countries do. Under the First Amendment, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and freedom of association are more important than protecting secrets. – Alan Dershowitz • We have abundant reason to rejoice that in this Land the light of truth and reason has triumphed over the power of bigotry and superstition, and that every person may here worship God according to the dictates of his own heart. In this enlightened Age and in this Land of equal liberty it is our boast, that a man’s religious tenets will not forfeit the protection of the Laws, nor deprive him of the right of attaining and holding the highest Offices that are known in the United States. – George Washington • We Hoosiers hold to some quaint notions. Some might say we ‘cling’ to them, though not out of fear or ignorance. We believe in paying our bills. We have kept our state in the black throughout the recent unpleasantness, while cutting rather than raising taxes, by practicing an old tribal ritual – we spend less money than we take in. – Mitch Daniels • We in the United States should be all the more thankful for the freedom and religious tolerance we enjoy. And we should always remember the lessons learned from the Holocaust, in hopes we stay vigilant against such inhumanity now and in the future. – Charlie Dent • We must make it clear that a platform of ‘I hate gay men and women’ is not a way to become president of the United States. – Jimmy Carter • We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. – Gouverneur Morris • We were trying to get all of the planes down out of the sky. And we watched as the towers of the World Trade Center collapsed – something no one expected and anticipated. And you could sit there and see and be aware that thousands of people were at that moment being killed as a result of the terrorist attacks that struck the United States. – Dick Cheney • We’ve gotten a long way on missile defense. We know how to do it. We know how to take down incoming warheads, but we need to do a lot more work in order to be – to deploy a system that’ll defend the United States against those kinds of limited strikes that might be possible by a nuclear armed North Korea or Iran. – Dick Cheney • What I found when I became Secretary of State was a lot of doubts and a lot of concerns and fears from friends, allies, around the world. – Hillary Clinton • What the United States has to do is send a clear message to Iran that they will not be able to develop nuclear weapons. Why endure the difficulty of sanctions if they are not going to be able to develop nuclear weapons anyway? – Alan Dershowitz • When a population saves a lot, the funds are invested outside the country as well as inside. If the Japanese invest in the United States, it pushes their exchange rate down and makes their manufacturing more competitive. – Evan Davis • When I decide who to vote for as President, I ask myself who will be best for America and for the world. An important component of my answer involves my assessment of the candidate’s willingness and ability to protect Israel’s security, since I strongly believe that a strong Israel serves the interests of the United States and of world peace. – Alan Dershowitz • When Marcus Garvey died in 1940, the role of the British Empire was already being challenged by India and the rising expectations of her African colonies. Marcus Garvey’s avocation of African redemption and the restoration of the African state’s sovereign political entity in world affairs was still a dream without fulfillment. – John Henrik Clarke • When you listen to Christian radio stations – and there are thousands of them now in the United States – and when you listen to Christian television networks – and there are thousands of Christian television shows across the country – they are all politically right. – Tony Campolo • Why should a city be mandated to do something by the federal government or state government without the money to do it? – Richard M. Daley • Yesterday, December 7, 1941 a date which will live in infamy the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan… We will gain the inevitable triumph so help us God. – Franklin D. Roosevelt • You can go into neighborhoods in the United States where people dress a certain way because they don’t want to be out of touch, where boys wear pants down to their knees, which nobody has compelled them to do but they pick up the cultural norms, or where girls are improperly dressed by my eyes, but that’s what they see in the media. – Hillary Clinton • You can’t imagine parlor ballads drifting out of high-rise multi-towered buildings. That kind of music existed in a more timeless state of life. – Bob Dylan • You will find that [the] State [Department] is the kind of organisation which, though it does big things badly, does small things badly too. – John Kenneth Galbraith [clickbank-storefront-bestselling]

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[equitiesstocks]

States Quotes

Official Website: States Quotes

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• A child born to a Black mother in a state like Mississippi… has exactly the same rights as a white baby born to the wealthiest person in the United States. It’s not true, but I challenge anyone to say it is not a goal worth working for. – Thurgood Marshall • A sincere and steadfast co-operation in promoting such a reconstruction of our political system as would provide for the permanent liberty and happiness of the United States. – James Madison • A State would be happy where philosophers were kings, or kings philosophers. – Plato • After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, the United States would enter, in a formal way, what had been up to that date strictly a European conflict. Marcus Garvey’s prophecy about the European scramble to maintain dominance over the whole world was now a reality. – John Henrik Clarke • All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the State. – Albert Camus • And before our current legislature adjourns, we intend to become the first state of full and true choice by saying to every low and middle-income Hoosier family, if you think a non-government school is the right one for your child, you’re as entitled to that option as any wealthy family; here’s a voucher, go sign up. – Mitch Daniels • And I just think that we’re at a point in our economic life here in our state – and – and, candidly, across the country, where increased taxes is just the wrong way to go. The people of our state are not convinced that state government, county government, local government has done all they can with the money we already give them, rather than the money that we have… – Chris Christie • And I think musicians can better run this state than politicians. And, hell, beauticians can better run the state than politicians. – Kinky Friedman • Arrogance, ignorance, and incompetence. Not a pretty cocktail of personality traits in the best of situations. No sirree. Not a pretty cocktail in an office-mate and not a pretty cocktail in a head of state. In fact, in a leader, it’s a lethal cocktail. – Graydon Carter • As a state we are so uniquely positioned in so many ways. Our geography, our placement in the country, and our history positions us to be the state that propels energy efficiency as an industry. – Jennifer Granholm • As a Zionist youth leader in the 1940s, I was among those who called for a binational state in Mandatory Palestine. When a Jewish state was declared, I felt that it should have the rights of other states – no more, no less. – Noam Chomsky • As Commander in Chief of the United States Military, I will never send our sons and daughters and our brothers and sisters to die in a foreign land without telling the truth about why they’re going there. – Howard Dean • As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both before and after. – Arthur Conan Doyle • As most New Yorkers have done, I have given serious and generous thought to the state of my apartment should I get killed during the day. – Sloane Crosley • As states subsist in part by keeping their weaknesses from being known, so is it the quiet of families to have their chancery and their parliament within doors, and to compose and determine all emergent differences there. – John Donne • As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion, – as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen, – and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries. – John Adams

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'State', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_state').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_state img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); ); • Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between church and State. – Thomas Jefferson • Bravo can’t be responsible for the mental state of every single person that comes onto their network. – Bethenny Frankel • But I contend that if we’re providing total medical coverage for every man, woman, and child in Iraq, shouldn’t we at least be doing the same thing for every man, woman, and child in the United States? – Tony Campolo • But there is a big difference in working for the West and working for a totalitarian state. – John le Carre • Canada and the United States are also working at the World Trade Organization and in our own hemisphere with negotiations for a Trade Area of the Americas to try to help countries create a positive climate for investment and trade. – Paul Cellucci • Character is the only secure foundation of the state. – Calvin Coolidge • Childhood, after all, is not an ending, but rather a state full of potent curiosity. – Rachel Cusk • Children today will grow up taking for granted that an African-American or a woman can, yes, become the president of the United States. – Hillary Clinton • Church and state should be separate, not only in form, but fact – religion and politics should not be mingled. – Millard Fillmore • Close alliances with despots are never safe for free states. – Demosthenes • Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. – Winston Churchill • Cuba is like going to a whole other planet. It’s so different but it’s so similar to the United States, to Miami. It’s like a doppelgaenger. It’s the mirror image. And I have no doubt, that once Cuba becomes democratic, that it will be the favorite tourist destination for Americans. – Henry Louis Gates • Death is not natural for a state as it is for a human being, for whom death is not only necessary, but frequently even desirable. – Marcus Tullius Cicero • Decency must be an even more exhausting state to maintain than its opposite. Those who succeed seem to need a stupefying amount of sleep. – Quentin Crisp • Deep down, the Iraqi people want the United States out. And their self-determination should be respected. – Peter Camejo • Delaware State has established itself as an institution of excellence in its own right and attracts a diversity of students from various races, socio-economic status and locations. – Michael N. Castle • Does the novel have to deepen the psychology of its heroes? Certainly the modern novel does, but the ancient legends did not do the same. Oedipus’ psychology was deduced by Aeschylus or Freud, but the character is simply there, fixed in a pure and terribly disquieting state. – Umberto Eco • During my travels in Iraq, Israel, Gaza, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, Europe and all over the United States, I have seen and heard the voices of people who want change. They want the stabilization of the economy, education and healthcare for all, renewable energy and an environmental vision with an eye on generations to come. – Michael Franti • Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion. – Thomas Jefferson • Even when I’m in quite a happy state of mind, I like writing really sad songs. I think a lot of people do. – Ellie Goulding • Ever since Israel has been a nation the United States has provided the leadership. Every president down to the ages has done this in a fairly balanced way, including George Bush senior, Gerald Ford, and others including myself and Bill Clinton. – Jimmy Carter • Every body continues in its state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line, except insofar as it doesn’t. – Arthur Eddington • Every one must act according to the dictates of his own reason, and mine tells me that civil powers alone have been given to the President of the United States, and no authority to direct the religious exercises of his constituents. – Thomas Jefferson • Far less wealthy industrialized countries have committed to end child poverty, while the United States is sliding backwards. We can do better. We must demand that our leaders do better. – Marian Wright Edelman • Flipping the dial through available radio stations there will blare out to any listener an array of broadcasts, 24/7, propagating Religious Right politics, along with what they deem to be “old-time gospel preaching.” This is especially true of what comes over the airwaves in Bible Belt southern states. – Tony Campolo • For centuries the death penalty, often accompanied by barbarous refinements, has been trying to hold crime in check; yet crime persists. Why? Because the instincts that are warring in man are not, as the law claims, constant forces in a state of equilibrium. – Albert Camus • For people who have no critical acumen, a state is a mythical entity, for those who think critically it is a rational fiction, created by man in order to facilitate human coexistence. – Friedrich Durrenmatt • For ‘Power of 10,’ you can look at the methodology at CBS.com, it’s a company called Rasmussen Reports. We poll thousands and thousands of people for each question, a real cross section of the United States. – Drew Carey • Forty percent of the United States drains into the Mississippi. It’s agriculture. It’s golf courses. It’s domestic runoff from our lawns and roads. Ultimately, where does it go? Downstream into the gulf. – Sylvia Earle • I am Al Gore, and I used to be the next president of the United States of America. – Al Gore • I am an opponent of Saddam Hussein, but an opponent also, of the sanctions that have killed a million Iraqi children and an opponent of the United States’ apparent desire to plunge the Middle East into a new and devastating war. – George Galloway • I am neither frustrated nor planning anything other than being the best Secretary of State I could be. – Hillary Clinton • I am tolerant of all creeds. Yet if any sect suffered itself to be used for political objects I would meet it by political opposition. In my view church and state should be separate, not only in form, but fact. Religion and politics should not be mingled. – Millard Fillmore • I beg you to speak of Woman as you do of the Negro, speak of her as a human being, as a citizen of the United States, as a half of the people in whose hands lies the destiny of this Nation. – Susan B. Anthony • I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute – where no Catholic prelate would tell the president (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishoners for whom to vote – where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference – and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the president who might appoint him or the people who might elect him. – John F. Kennedy • I believe in the absolute separation of church and state and in the strict enforcement of the Constitution that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. – Al Smith • I believe in the American tradition of separation of church and state which is expressed in the First Amendment to the Constitution. By my office – and by personal conviction – I am sworn to uphold that tradition. – Lyndon B. Johnson • I believe in the separation of church and state and would not use my authority to violate this principle in any way. – Jimmy Carter • I believed what my father taught me about the separation of church and state, so when I was President I never invited Billy Graham to have services in the White House because I didn’t think that was appropriate. He was injured a little bit, until I explained it to him. – Jimmy Carter • I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear. – Barack Obama • I contend that Bush would be a lot more moderate if there weren’t some fundamentalists breathing down his neck every time he wants to establish the state of Israel, every time he wants to do justice for the Palestinian people. – Tony Campolo • I do not like broccoli. And I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I’m President of the United States and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli. – George H. W. Bush • I do think voters do take into consideration – particularly early state voters – take into consideration a wide range of factors, including electability, and they know that part of electability is the total package that you’re presenting. – Elizabeth Edwards • I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute. – Rick Santorum • I don’t have any affirmations, I don’t have any of that stuff. My natural state is to look at things as possibilities and as opportunities. – Michael J. Fox • I don’t think anyone really is interested in reading about my emotional state. It’s not even interesting to me. – Larry David • I first learned that there were black people living in some place called other than the United States in the western hemisphere when I was a very little boy, and my father told me that when he was a boy about my age, he wanted to be an Episcopal priest, because he so admired his priest, a black man from someplace called Haiti. – Henry Louis Gates • I grew up in Danville, Illinois, right in the middle of the state. – Dick Van Dyke • I grew up in the southern United States in a city which at that time during the late ’40’s and early ’50’s was the most segregated city in the country, and in a sense learning how to oppose the status quo was a question of survival. – Angela Davis • I have lived in the United States for half of my life, my entire adult life. – Sheena Easton • I have pushed the boat out as far as I should in terms of taking on too many things. I’m getting older and I just could not take it any more. I am now monitoring myself very closely and I’m just trying not to get into that sort of state again. – Stephen Fry • I have walked majestically with kings and queens and presidents and other heads of states. – John Henrik Clarke • I mean, what’s great about touring is that’s what you do. You’re in a constant state of motion and then you stop to do a show and you move onto the next city. All you have to do is do the show. That’s the only responsibility that you have. – Margaret Cho • I neither will aspire to nor will I accept, the position of president of the council of state and commander in chief. – Fidel Castro • I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection… and finally, that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacifick temper of the mind, which were the characteristicks of the divine Author of our blessed religion ; without an humble imitation of whose example, in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation. – George Washington • I said we are going to balance an $11 billion budget deficit in a $29 billion budget, so by percentage, the largest budget deficit in America, by percentage, larger than California, larger than New York, larger than Illinois. And we’re going to balance that without raising taxes on the people of the state of New Jersey. – Chris Christie • I started this charity, Fashion for Relief, in 2005, after Hurricane Katrina happened. New Orleans was actually the first place I visited in the United States. It was one of my first big jobs, a shoot for British Elle. It was April 14, 1986. – Naomi Campbell • I think Hell exists on Earth. It’s a psychological state, or it can be a physical state. People who have severe mental illness are in Hell. People who have lost a loved one are in Hell. I think there are all kinds of different hells. It’s not a place you go to after you die. – Al Franken • I think it’s fair to say that diplomacy today requires much more of that if you’re the United States of America than it did 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago. – Hillary Clinton • I think the time has come for the United States to do even-handed justice. – Tony Campolo • I think the United States and the secretary of State should be concerned about the poverty in this country – people without health insurance. The United States should stop being the empire and be concerned about other countries. You’ve got to be more worried about your own people. – Hugo Chavez • I think there ought to be a strict separation or wall built between our religious faith and our practice of political authority in office. I don’t think the President of the United States should extoll Christianity if he happens to be a Christian at the expense of Judaism, Islam or other faiths. – Jimmy Carter • I want to make it clear that the black race did not come to the United States culturally empty-handed. The role and importance of ethnic history is in how well it teaches a people to use their own talents, take pride in their own history and love their own memories. – John Henrik Clarke • I wish Obama would focus on governing the United States and would forget his country’s imperialist pretensions. – Hugo Chavez • If anybody ran a business like that they would be out of business quickly, and Barack Obama’s leadership is driving this business, the United States of America, toward a fiscal cliff. – Chris Christie • If torture is going to be administered as a last resort in the ticking-bomb case, to save enormous numbers of lives, it ought to be done openly, with accountability, with approval by the president of the United States or by a Supreme Court justice. – Alan Dershowitz • Illegal immigration continues to be a major problem in the United States. We have people waiting to come here legally. And we should not be rewarding people who have come here illegally. – John Barrasso • I’m in charge of the State Department’s 60,000-plus people all over the world, 275 posts. – Hillary Clinton • I’m President of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli! – George H. W. Bush • In 1988, as an unknown candidate, totally unknown, I won Iowa, came in second in New Hampshire, won South Dakota. I was ahead in every Super Tuesday state the day after South Dakota. The only problem was I didn’t have enough money. I had a million dollars left, and Al Gore had three and Michael Dukakis had three and it was lights out. – Dick Gephardt • In fact, looking at the darkest sides of the United States has only made me appreciate the things that we do right, the things that we do beautifully. We are, for all of our mistakes and all of our crimes, a remarkable place. – Junot Diaz • In his years in Washington, Senator Kerry has been one vote of a hundred in the United States Senate – and fortunately on matters of national security, he was very often in the minority. – Dick Cheney • In many respects, the United States is a great country. Freedom of speech is protected more than in any other country. It is also a very free society. – Noam Chomsky • In short, it is the position of the people of the United States, as expressed by their representatives in Congress, that Israel’s fight is our fight. And so shall it be until the last terrorist on earth is in a cell or a cemetery. – Tom DeLay • In the 20th century, the United States endured two world wars and other traumatic and expensive military conflicts; the Depression; a dozen or so recessions and financial panics; oil shocks; a flu epidemic; and the resignation of a disgraced president. Yet the Dow rose from 66 to 11,497. – Warren Buffett • In the late 1990s, some of the worst terrorist atrocities in the world were what the Turkish government itself called state terror, namely massive atrocities, 80 percent of the arms coming from the United States, millions of refugees, tens of thousands of people killed, hideous repression, that’s international terror, and we can go on and on. – Noam Chomsky • In the United States, the government is bailing out banks, intervening in the economy, yet in Latin America, the Right continues to talk about ‘free markets.’ It’s totally outdated; they don’t have arguments; they don’t have any sense. – Hugo Chavez • In the United States, the Supreme Court’s decision of 1954, outlawing segregation in school systems, was greeted with mixed feelings of hope and skepticism by African-Americans. – John Henrik Clarke • In the United States, there is a restaurant called The Outback Steakhouse, and I could survive in there for several weeks at least, sustaining myself on bloomin’ onions and, I’m sure, their legitimate and very Australian cuisine. In the real Outback? I give myself about 14 minutes. – Steve Carell • In the United States, though power corrupts, the expectation of power paralyzes. – John Kenneth Galbraith • Isil poses a threat to the people of Iraq and Syria, and the broader Middle East – including American citizens, personnel and facilities. If left unchecked, these terrorists could pose a growing threat beyond that region, including to the United States. – Barack Obama • It is not a question of religion, or of creed, or of party; it is a question of declaring and maintaining the great American principle of eternal separation between Church and State. – Elihu Root • It is not differences of opinion; it is geographical lines, rivers, and mountains which divide State from State, and make different nations of mankind. – Jefferson Davis • It used to be you needed to have a very large sophisticated state before you could even have a nuclear weapon… Now the technology is widespread enough. It doesn’t take very many people to be able to cobble together a devastating attack, and all it takes is one. – Dick Cheney • It was one of the compromises of the Constitution that the slave property in the Southern States should be recognized as property throughout the United States. – Jefferson Davis • It would be foolish to suggest that government is a good custodian of aesthetic goals. But, there is no alternative to the state. – John Kenneth Galbraith • It’s sort of well-known that anytime any catastrophe happens anywhere in the world, they can count on the United States for help. – Morgan Freeman • It’s time for the people of the Empire State to strike back. – Andrew Cuomo • I’ve been on every interstate highway in the lower forty-eight states by now and I never get tired of the view. – Steve Earle • I’ve been to all 50 states, and traveled this whole country, and 90 percent of the people are good folks. The rest of them take after the other side of the family. – Jeff Foxworthy • I’ve used the prestige and influence of having been a president of the United States as effectively as possible. And secondly, I’ve still been able to carry out my commitments to peace and human rights and environmental quality and freedom and democracy and so forth. – Jimmy Carter • I’ve written important articles on prevention, on the concept of the preventive state, how the law is moving much more in an area of trying to prevent wrongs than trying to deal with them after they occur. That will be my academic/intellectual legacy. – Alan Dershowitz • I’ve, we have in this state, like many other states, we’re experiencing an enormous budget deficit that we’re trying to grapple with. But we will have progress despite the deficits. – Jennifer Granholm • Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private school, supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the church and state forever separate. – Ulysses S. Grant • Let us not say that we will decide on a political basis at the national level that no State is competent to regulate the practice of medicine in that State if they decide to allow a doctor to prescribe marijuana, because that is what we are talking about. – Barney Frank • Let’s make two things clear: Isil is not “Islamic.” No religion condones the killing of innocents, and the vast majority of Isil’s victims have been Muslim. And Isil is certainly not a state. – Barack Obama • Marriage is the most natural state of man, and therefore the state in which one is most likely to find solid happiness. – Benjamin Franklin • Marriage should be viewed as an institution ordained by God and should be out of the control of the state. – Tony Campolo • May peace rule the universe, may peace rule in kingdoms and empires, may peace rule in states and in the lands of the potentates, may peace rule in the house of friends and may peace also rule in the house of enemies. – Virchand Gandhi • Most governments in the United States in a hundred years have not respected the peoples of Latin America. They have sponsored coup d’etats, assassinations. – Hugo Chavez • Most of the ancestors that I can trace were born here in the United States of America. And then it goes back to slavery. And I’m sure my ancestors go all the way back to Africa, but I feel more of an affinity for America than I do for Africa. I’m a black man in America. – Herman Cain • My experiences in film and theatre in the States have been much more rigorous-in England there’s an environment of, Let’s try this. – Kim Cattrall • My idea, as the whole world knows, is that the capitalist system now doesn’t work either for the United States or the world, driving it from crisis to crisis, which are each time more serious. – Fidel Castro • My name became known because I was, one might say accidentally the target of state repression and because so many people throughout the country and other parts of the world organized around the demand for my freedom. – Angela Davis • Nevada’s one of the most conservative states in the Union, but you can do what you want in Vegas and nobody judges you. – Drew Carey • Never underestimate the power of the State to act out its own massive fantasies. – Don DeLillo • New Jersey is to New York what Santo Domingo is to the United States. I always felt that those two landscapes, not only just the landscapes themselves but their relationships to what we would call ‘a center’ or ‘the center of the universe,’ has in some ways defined my artistic and critical vision. – Junot Diaz • New York State is upside down and backwards; high taxes and low performance. The New York State government was at one time a national model. Now, unfortunately, it’s a national disgrace. Sometimes, the corruption in Albany could even make Boss Tweed blush. – Andrew Cuomo • No matter how corrupt and unjust a convict may be, he loves fairness more than anything else. If the people placed over him are unfair, from year to year he lapses into an embittered state characterized by an extreme lack of faith. – Anton Chekhov • No religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States. – James Madison • Now, in New Jersey, we have more government workers per square mile than any state in America. But since I’ve been governor we now have fewer people on the state payroll at any time since Christie Whitman left office in January 2001. That’s the right direction, Mr. President, not the wrong direction. – Chris Christie • Once you get to the Enlightenment, the way that powers get to be hyperpowers isn’t just by conquest. It’s through commerce and innovation. Societies like the Dutch Republic and the United States used tolerance to become a magnet for enterprising immigrants. – Amy Chua • One doesn’t become a soldier in a week – it takes training, study and discipline. There is no question that the finest Army in the world is found in the United States. – Daniel Inouye • One of my goals upon becoming Secretary of State was to take diplomacy out of capitals, out of government offices, into the media, into the streets of countries. – Hillary Clinton • One side-effect of the so-called war on terror has been a crisis of liberalism. This is not only a question of alarmingly illiberal legislation, but a more general problem of how the liberal state deals with its anti-liberal enemies. – Terry Eagleton • One state retiree, 49 years old, paid, over the course of his entire career, a total of $124,000 towards his retirement pension and health benefits. What will we pay him? $3.3 million in pension payments over his life and nearly $500,000 for health care benefits – a total of $3.8m on a $120,000 investment. – Chris Christie • Our brave soldiers and support personnel are engaged in a battle as important as any the United States has ever before waged, for the success of democracy in Iraq is a crucial test of the ideals this Nation was founded upon. – Virginia Foxx • Our educational results lag behind other states, and other nations, but worse still, behind the potential of the kids and the devoted teachers in our classrooms. – Mitch Daniels • Our forces saved the remnants of the Jewish people of Europe for a new life and a new hope in the reborn land of Israel. Along with all men of good will, I salute the young state and wish it well. – Dwight D. Eisenhower • Our state is in crisis. Our people are hurting. Now is the time when we all must resist the traditional, selfish call to protect your own turf at the cost of our state. It is time to leave the corner, join the sacrifice, come to the center of the room and be part of the solution. – Chris Christie • Raising the debt ceiling is not additional spending. It is simply saying, you, the United States of America, can continue to borrow the money you need to pay the bills you have already rung up. – Jay Carney • Send forth the child and childish man together, and blush for the pride that libels our own old happy state, and gives its title to an ugly and distorted image. – Charles Dickens • Slavery existed before the formation of this Union. It derived from the Constitution that recognition which it would not have enjoyed without the confederation. If the States had not united together, there would have been no obligation on adjoining States to regard any species of property unknown to themselves. – Jefferson Davis • Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. – William Shakespeare • State formation has been a brutal project, with many hideous consequences. But the results exist, and their pernicious aspects should be overcome. – Noam Chomsky • States are not moral agents. – Noam Chomsky • Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States, the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history. – James Madison • Surveillance technologies now available – including the monitoring of virtually all digital information – have advanced to the point where much of the essential apparatus of a police state is already in place. – Al Gore • Thank God, under our Constitution there was no connection between church and state. – James K. Polk • Thank God, under our Constitution there was no connection between Church and State, and that in my action as President of the United States I recognized no distinction of creeds in my appointments office. – James K. Polk • The “establishment of religion” clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a state nor the Federal Government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another. Neither can force nor influence a person to go to or to remain away from church against his will or force him to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion. – Hugo Black • The ‘anti-globalisation movement’ is the most significant proponent of globalisation – but in the interests of people, not concentrations of state-private power. – Noam Chomsky • The civil Government, though bereft of every thing like an associated hierarchy, possesses the requisite stability, and performs its functions with complete success; whilst the number, the industry, and the morality of the Priesthood, and the devotion of the people, have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the State. – James Madison • The Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms. – Samuel Adams • The Constitution of the United States was made not merely for the generation that then existed, but for posterity- unlimited, undefined, endless, perpetual posterity. – Henry Clay • The Declaration of Independence says when government fails, the people have the right to replace it. Well, New York State government has failed and the people have the right, indeed the people have the the people have the obligation, to act. – Andrew Cuomo • The divorce between Church and State ought to be absolute. It ought to be so absolute that no Church property anywhere, in any state or in the nation, should be exempt from equal taxation; for if you exempt the property of any church organization, to that extent you impose a tax upon the whole community. – James A. Garfield • The divorce between church and state should be absolute. – James A. Garfield • The Drafters of the Constitution were intent on avoiding more than 100 years of religious intolerance and persecution in American colonial history and an even longer heritage of church-state problems in Europe. – John M Swomley • The entire North Polar ice cap is disappearing before our very eyes. It’s been the size of the continental United States for the last 3 million years and now 40 percent is gone and the rest of it is going. – Al Gore • The good Lord didn’t see fit to put oil and gas only where there are democratically elected regimes friendly to the United States. Occasionally we have to operate in places where, all things considered, one would not normally choose to go. But, we go where the business is. – Dick Cheney • The great dialectic in our time is not, as anciently and by some still supposed, between capital and labor; it is between economic enterprise and the state. – John Kenneth Galbraith • The Israeli military plays more than a critical role in defending the citizens of the Jewish state. It also plays an important social, scientific and psychological role in preparing its young citizens for the challenging task of being Israelis in a difficult world. – Alan Dershowitz • The most powerful recent innovation in government is when states aggressively use community colleges for retraining. In Michigan, where large numbers of workers were displaced from the manufacturing industry, we created a wildly successful program: No Worker Left Behind. – Jennifer Granholm • The number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the state. – James Madison • The only people who live in a post-black world are four people who live in a little white house on Pennsylvania Avenue. The idea that America is post-racial or post-black because a man I admire, Barack Obama, is president of the United States, is a joke. And I hope no one will even wonder about this crazy fiction again. – Henry Louis Gates • The only tactic liberals have is to try to intimidate people into thinking that the Tea Party is racist. The Tea Party is not a racist movement, period! If it were, why would the straw polls keep showing that the black guy is winning? That’s a rhetorical question. Let me state it: The black guy keeps winning. – Herman Cain • The planter, the farmer, the mechanic, and the laborer…form the great body of the people of the United States they are the bone and sinew of the country men who love liberty and desire nothing but equal rights and equal laws. – Andrew Jackson • The political system is broken, the economy is broken and so is society. That is why people are so depressed about the state of our country. – David Cameron • The problem of how we finance the welfare state should not obscure a separate issue: if each person thinks he has an inalienable right to welfare, no matter what happens to the world, that’s not equity, it’s just creating a society where you can’t ask anything of people. – Jacques Delors • The problem with touring isn’t the traveling and the shows, it’s the vegetal state you get into. – Julian Casablancas • The question is what will Mitt Romney do as president if his policy is simply to be hands off and let the government be made so small it can be drowned in a bathtub. In the 21st century global economy, no state alone has the ability to compete against China. – Jennifer Granholm • The ruin of a State is generally preceded by an universal degeneracy of manners and contempt of religion. – Jonathan Swift • The separation of church and state is extremely important to any of us who holds to the original traditions of our nation. . . . To change these traditions . . . would be harmful to our whole attitude of tolerance in the religious area. If we look at situations which have arisen in the past in Europe and other world areas, I think we will see the reason why it is wise to hold to our early traditions. – Eleanor Roosevelt • The Sierra Club in the United States has now really come out for population control and reduction. – Susan George • The time has come to return integrity, performance and dignity to New York and make it the Empire State once again. – Andrew Cuomo • The Union next to our liberties the most dear. May we all remember that it can only be preserved by respecting the rights of the States, and distributing equally the benefits and burdens of the Union. – John C. Calhoun • The United States and the freedom for which it stands, the freedom for which they died, must endure and prosper. Their lives remind us that freedom is not bought cheaply. It has a cost; it imposes a burden. And just as they whom we commemorate were willing to sacrifice, so too must we – in a less final, less heroic way – be willing to give of ourselves. – Ronald Reagan • The United States Constitution has proved itself the most marvelously elastic compilation of rules of government ever written. – Franklin D. Roosevelt • The United States has written the white history of the United States. It now needs to write the black, Latino, Indian, Asian and Caribbean history of the United States. – Carlos Fuentes • The United States needed a civil war to unite properly. – Umberto Eco • The United States needs to be not so much loved as it needs to be respected. Sometimes, that requires us to take actions that generate controversy. I’m not at all sure that that’s what the Obama administration believes. – Dick Cheney • The way I see it, I’m not going to Washington to be the 60th Democratic senator. I’m going to Washington to be the second senator from the state of Minnesota. – Al Franken • There are 10,000 local governments in the state of New York. Ten thousand! Town, village, lighting district, water district, sewer district, a special district to count the other districts in case you missed a district. – Andrew Cuomo • There is a hunger for the United States to be present again. – Hillary Clinton • There is a Providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children and the United States of America. – Otto von Bismarck • There’s every reason to believe there will be further attacks attempted against the United States. For us to spend so much time patting ourselves on the back because we got bin Laden that we miss the next attack would be a terrible tragedy. – Dick Cheney • There’s no doubt that the Christian right has gone to bed with the more conservative elements of the Republican Party. And there’s been a melding in their goals when it comes to the separation of church and state. I’ve always believed in the separation of church and state. – Jimmy Carter • There’s something depressing about a young couple helplessly in love. Their state is so perfect, it must be doomed. They project such qualities on their lover that only disappointment can follow. – Roger Ebert • To deny women directors, as I suspect is happening in the States, is to deny the feminine vision. – Jane Campion • To those of you who received honours, awards and distinctions, I say, well done. And to the C students, I say, you too can be president of the United States. – George W. Bush • Today’s difference between Russia and the United States is that in Russia everybody takes everybody else for a spy, and in the United States everybody takes everybody else for a criminal. – Friedrich Durrenmatt • Unfenced by law, the unmarried lover can quit a bad relationship at any time. But you – the legally married person who wants to escape doomed love – may soon discover that a significant portion of your marriage contract belongs to the State, and that it sometimes takes a very long while for the State to grant you your leave. – Elizabeth Gilbert • War is regarded as nothing but the continuation of state policy with other means. – Carl von Clausewitz • We believe in a flexible union of free member states who share treaties and institutions and pursue together the ideal of co-operation. To represent and promote the values of European civilisation in the world. To advance our shared interests by using our collective power to open markets. And to build a strong economic base across the whole of Europe. – David Cameron • We don’t have an Official Secrets Act in the United States, as other countries do. Under the First Amendment, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and freedom of association are more important than protecting secrets. – Alan Dershowitz • We have abundant reason to rejoice that in this Land the light of truth and reason has triumphed over the power of bigotry and superstition, and that every person may here worship God according to the dictates of his own heart. In this enlightened Age and in this Land of equal liberty it is our boast, that a man’s religious tenets will not forfeit the protection of the Laws, nor deprive him of the right of attaining and holding the highest Offices that are known in the United States. – George Washington • We Hoosiers hold to some quaint notions. Some might say we ‘cling’ to them, though not out of fear or ignorance. We believe in paying our bills. We have kept our state in the black throughout the recent unpleasantness, while cutting rather than raising taxes, by practicing an old tribal ritual – we spend less money than we take in. – Mitch Daniels • We in the United States should be all the more thankful for the freedom and religious tolerance we enjoy. And we should always remember the lessons learned from the Holocaust, in hopes we stay vigilant against such inhumanity now and in the future. – Charlie Dent • We must make it clear that a platform of ‘I hate gay men and women’ is not a way to become president of the United States. – Jimmy Carter • We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. – Gouverneur Morris • We were trying to get all of the planes down out of the sky. And we watched as the towers of the World Trade Center collapsed – something no one expected and anticipated. And you could sit there and see and be aware that thousands of people were at that moment being killed as a result of the terrorist attacks that struck the United States. – Dick Cheney • We’ve gotten a long way on missile defense. We know how to do it. We know how to take down incoming warheads, but we need to do a lot more work in order to be – to deploy a system that’ll defend the United States against those kinds of limited strikes that might be possible by a nuclear armed North Korea or Iran. – Dick Cheney • What I found when I became Secretary of State was a lot of doubts and a lot of concerns and fears from friends, allies, around the world. – Hillary Clinton • What the United States has to do is send a clear message to Iran that they will not be able to develop nuclear weapons. Why endure the difficulty of sanctions if they are not going to be able to develop nuclear weapons anyway? – Alan Dershowitz • When a population saves a lot, the funds are invested outside the country as well as inside. If the Japanese invest in the United States, it pushes their exchange rate down and makes their manufacturing more competitive. – Evan Davis • When I decide who to vote for as President, I ask myself who will be best for America and for the world. An important component of my answer involves my assessment of the candidate’s willingness and ability to protect Israel’s security, since I strongly believe that a strong Israel serves the interests of the United States and of world peace. – Alan Dershowitz • When Marcus Garvey died in 1940, the role of the British Empire was already being challenged by India and the rising expectations of her African colonies. Marcus Garvey’s avocation of African redemption and the restoration of the African state’s sovereign political entity in world affairs was still a dream without fulfillment. – John Henrik Clarke • When you listen to Christian radio stations – and there are thousands of them now in the United States – and when you listen to Christian television networks – and there are thousands of Christian television shows across the country – they are all politically right. – Tony Campolo • Why should a city be mandated to do something by the federal government or state government without the money to do it? – Richard M. Daley • Yesterday, December 7, 1941 a date which will live in infamy the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan… We will gain the inevitable triumph so help us God. – Franklin D. Roosevelt • You can go into neighborhoods in the United States where people dress a certain way because they don’t want to be out of touch, where boys wear pants down to their knees, which nobody has compelled them to do but they pick up the cultural norms, or where girls are improperly dressed by my eyes, but that’s what they see in the media. – Hillary Clinton • You can’t imagine parlor ballads drifting out of high-rise multi-towered buildings. That kind of music existed in a more timeless state of life. – Bob Dylan • You will find that [the] State [Department] is the kind of organisation which, though it does big things badly, does small things badly too. – John Kenneth Galbraith [clickbank-storefront-bestselling]

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[faithfacts-blog1]

What It Means to Rob God

Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.

Malachi 3:8

The most famous Scripture on tithing is found in Malachi and it tells us that a man who does not pay tithes steals from God. But does this Scripture really mean what it says? Can a man really steal from God? Would God really allow anyone to steal from Him? Would they not be struck down instantly?

I remember working with people who stole from me. I did not react immediately nor cut them off. Sometimes thieves are given a grace period and allowed to reform. It is all part of the mercies of God. It is this mercy which Christendom has taken for granted.

Indeed, a man can steal from God! And men do steal from God. It is time to repent and turn away altogether from the practice of stealing from God.

1. Ten percent of your income is the property of the Lord.

And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD'S: it is holy unto the LORD.

Leviticus 27:30

The tithe belongs to the Lord! Withholding your tithe is stealing from God. Leviticus 27:30 is a very important Scripture because it reveals that the tithe is actually the Lord’s property. Bringing the tithe to the house of God is not the same as giving a gift of something you own.

It is important to have a proper understanding of the tithe. When you think of something as belonging to another, you are less likely to want to keep it illegally. Since the tithe is not for you, presenting it to the Lord is not the same as “giving”. After you have paid your tithe and do not possess any property of the Lord, only then can you say you are giving something to the Lord. Remember this statement, “giving begins after you have paid your tithe.”

What if an armed robber robbed you in the night and came the next day to present you with gifts for your birthday? He only presents you with something he stole from you! That is what it is like when you do not pay your tithes but present other offerings to the Lord.

2. Not paying your tithe is stealing God’s property.

Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.

Malachi 3:8

God says you can steal from Him and you had better believe it!

Many people do not believe that a man can steal from God. A man can steal from God but it is dangerous to do so.

If you steal from a poor man you will probably get away with it. But if you steal from an important person, you will get into big trouble. The greater the person, the more dangerous it is to steal from him. Stealing from God is very risky business indeed because, God sees everything and knows each time you steal from Him.

Throwing your shoes at your dog will not get you into trouble. Throwing your shoes at your servant will not get you into much trouble. However, throwing your shoes at the president can get you into serious trouble. The gentleman who threw shoes at President Bush got himself into big trouble and ended up in prison. I am sure he had thrown shoes at other people before but never got into trouble!

Perhaps you have stolen from mere human beings and gotten away with it. But you will not get away with stealing from God.

3. The Bible admonishes thieves not to steal anymore.

Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.

Ephesians 4:28

Many unbelievers are thieves in one way or another. An unbeliever steals at every chance he gets. If it were not for fear of the police or prison there would be much more open stealing. God does not want you to continue the practice of stealing that you learnt in the world.

Christ has redeemed a large group of liars and thieves to Himself and He urges them to leave their old ways behind. The nature of the thief is the nature of the devil. The thief comes to steal to kill and to destroy and we all know who this famous thief is. Why would you want to pattern your life after that of a thief? Now that you are born again do not continue to steal by withholding your tithes. Indeed, God has declared that not paying tithes is stealing from Him.

4. There will be no thieves in Heaven.

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

Matthew 6:20

There will be no thieves in Heaven! When you do not pay tithes, you make yourself a thief and therefore unsuitable for Heaven. Could it be that your failure to pay tithes could actually keep you out of Heaven? What if tithing is a more important subject than we have believed? What if these Scriptures are applied literally and you are prevented from entering Heaven because you did not pay tithes?

5. Stealing the tithe destroys your relationship with God.

Listen to the word of the Lord, O sons of Israel, For THE LORD HAS A CASE AGAINST THE INHABITANTS OF THE LAND, BECAUSE THERE IS no faithfulness or kindness

Or knowledge of God in the land.

There is swearing, deception, murder, STEALING and adultery.

Hosea 4:1-2 (NASB)

Stealing always destroys relationships. God has a case against thieves. Society has a case against thieves. Stealing destroys your relationship with the society. That is why thieves are put away in prison. Thieves are put in prison because they are anti-social and it is not safe to have them living freely in our midst. A thief destroys his relationship with the person he steals from. When you steal from God it will destroy your relationship with Him.

If one of your servants steals from you, his relationship with you will be destroyed forever. No one trusts a thief. No one feels free with thieves in his house. When you do not pay tithes, you become a thief and this destroys your relationship with your God.

6. Stealing the tithe will cause your demotion.

For they know not to do right, saith the Lord, who store up violence and ROBBERY in their palaces.

Therefore thus saith the Lord God; An adversary there shall be even round about the land; and HE SHALL BRING DOWN THY STRENGTH FROM THEE, and thy palaces shall be spoiled.

Amos 3:10-11

The Scripture above shows how the anger of the Lord is released against thieves. Their strength is brought down and their homes (palaces) are destroyed. Thieves are not promoted. Thieves are not given positions of responsibility. No one gives a thief a sensitive position. You would not trust a known thief with your purse. Why do you think God would trust you with His money? God may have wanted to pass large amounts of money through your hand but He will not be able to do that because you are known to regularly steal His money.

7. Withholding the tithe robs the church of its ability to function properly.

Robbing the church of the tithe robs the church of the ability to build the necessary facilities. Stealing the tithe robs the church of the ability to employ good people to work for the Lord. Stealing the tithe is therefore a very serious crime.

I once heard someone advocate the death sentence for people who stole money from the state. His argument was simple. Someone who robs a nation of large amounts of money actually deprives the country of the roads it could have built. The lack of good roads causes many accidents and takes many lives. This fellow argued that the man who had caused financial loss to the state had indirectly murdered many people through road accidents. He also contended that money stolen from the state prevented the government from building necessary hospitals that would save lives. This, he also argued, was an indirect way in which the thief committed murder. Because of these he declared that the death penalty should be applied to people who stole large amounts of money from the state.

This line of thought can be applied to people who withhold the tithe and rob God’s house of its rightful income. In so doing, they prevent the church from doing all the things that it could have done. Souls are lost and perish in Hell because people do not pay their tithes. Do not rob the church of the ability to hold crusades and win souls.

8. Stealing brings the wrath of God upon you.

The people of the land have used oppression, and EXERCISED ROBBERY, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.

And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.

THEREFORE HAVE I POURED OUT MINE INDIGNATION UPON THEM; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord GOD.

Ezekiel 22:29-31

Often, when a thief is discovered, the wrath and contempt of society are poured out on him. Police are called in and the person is arrested.

In primitive societies, instant justice is meted out and the thief could be beaten to death.

In some societies the thief’s hand is cut off so that he will not steal anymore. All these are expressions of wrath towards thieves.

Is it any wonder that God’s anger is stirred up against those who steal from Him? Do you expect God to behave any differently towards people who steal from Him? Indeed, God is angry with all thieves who have deprived His house of what belongs to Him. When you do not pay tithes, do not expect the blessing of God. Expect the wrath of God to come upon you!

by Dag Heward-Mills