#and when you consider that Australians in general don't know or care much about 99% of American politicians

[intricatecaprice]

When Charles II of Spain died, leaving no children, one of the potential heirs was Philip V, of the House of Bourbon.

This is PhilIp V in 1700. What a baby face!

But Philip was anything but a baby. When Charles died, he didn't relax. He didn’t announce his mourning period, as might have been customary. He didn’t even advertise the funeral.

Which meant Philip had the potential to become the King of Spain AND France.

He went straight into proclaiming himself the new King.

Why?

Because he knew a war was coming.

Because Philip V was also 3rd in line to France’s throne.

So what did Philip do to convince his new subjects to accept him...?

And no one wanted that - thus began the War of the Spanish Succession.

Parties.

He decreed parties.

He gave them celebration after celebration, festival after festival. All through the war. Bourbon births, Bourbon marriages, Bourbon deaths, he created more and more dates in the year to be remembered and honoured - but this was just propaganda.

Keep the people happy, keep them having 'fun', and get them invested in Keeping Up with the Bourbons.

[sag-dab-sar]

So I was writing a debunk of a quote from "When God Was a Woman" by Merlin Stone 1976, and I came across and entire PDF of the book. I actually spent a long time skimming through it and reading sections.

I really just hate this theory of some monotheistic pre-historic Mother Great Goddess; I hate peaceful matriarchal pre-history society theory even more. Were there cultures where Goddesses reigned supreme? Not impossible but books like this seem to not actually care about religion and care much more about a gotcha-moment argument for feminism.

Its also extremely reactionary (not the word I'm looking for but close enough) to the dominance of current religions. Like you can tell just how much she can't stand "Judeo-christian" religion and values though out much of it, she mentions Islam as well at the beginning:

She eventually goes on to make the argument that the ruling elite of the "Hebrews" were actually Indo-European in origin. She takes the historical accounts of the Bible as fact way too much; I don't know if thats because the book was written in 1970s and the Bible was considered a better historical tool back then than as it is now or for some other reason. Either way the scholarly consensus (from many fields) shows that the ancient Israelites were just a Canaanite group no different from their neighbors in the Levant. They simply evolved with their own language and religion just as their neighbors did. Not that they lived in Egypt for generations and then invaded Canaan. A lot of her argument in some places relies on the idea that the Hebrews were outsiders, some coming from Egypt and invading Canaan at the behest of their God and others coming from the north Indo-Europeans/Indo-Aryans who had a male religion and the two groups combined and formed "The Hebrews" whose ruling elite were extremely antagonistic to the "Goddess Religion"

Which speaking of the Indo-European connection this was such a fucking bizarre passage that popped up when I was reading:

Like..... why did Hitler come into this discussion?

Also she makes the claims that earliest humans didn't connect sex to pregnancy and thus didn't have any sense of paternity and therefore saw woman as just magically being able to create a new human......and .... how stupid do you think our ancestors are?

The claims about aboriginal Australians is ridiculously reductive and the conclusions she draws from it are even worse. The only way to come to these conclusions is to study indigenous people through an extremely thick lens of "primitive people can't possibly understand science!" If anyones intrested in the idea you can read it here, paternity IS recognized (page 2) https://www.jstor.org/stable/2803097?read-now=1&refreqid=excelsior%3A338b1b647c8b5dd8b37523c756a9008c&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents (you can get 99 articles for free each month if you want to read it)

Anyways, one thing I REALLY hate is, Goddess Religion Theory's desire to lump all Near Eastern & Mediterranean Goddesses as all the same. Like if you want to believe that, you do you, but its not history.

I literally have a post coming out soon (well "soon") that showcases how Astarte = Asherah is 100% false from the perspective of the ancient people who worshipped them.

I don't know why authors who approach the pre-history Goddess theory insist that all Goddesses were the same. Would a multitude of Goddesses detract from their argument?? I don't see how. Its especially weird considering this isn't religious apologetics shes not writing this as a theological or historical argument. She says herself this is to help woman view the world differently and draw new conclusions. So why is a ancient monotheistic Goddess preferred over polytheistic Goddesses? That was actually what I was going to debunk, a quote that called them all the same, but basically said screw it after finding the book and "reading" huge chunks of it.

One of the most annoying things is, unlike many books I debunk making dumb claims about Mesopotamia, Stone actually cites tons of sources. BUT she does it in such a way that its hard to fact check. No footnotes or endnotes just names and quotes with a MASSIVE bibliography. So I have no way of knowing if Professor [name] is actually in a field relevant to the claims they are making. For example, she cites Jacobsen, cool he's an Assyriologist, she also cites Robert Graves .... not so cool, he is mainly a poet. These two sources aren't on the same level of credibility when speaking about ancient religion. But I only know that because I know of both Jacobsen and Graves prior to reading this; allllll the myriad of other people she mentions I don't know. Without footnotes or endnotes it would be a arduous task to look up every person she is citing to see if they actually have credentials to support the claims in a 200+ page book. Sources wise she's fantastic simply because she actually provides them, unlike most. But the method makes it extremely frustrating.

Anyways. I'm 100% okay with Goddess Worshippers please don't think I'm not. If your a monotheist and view all Goddesses as The Singular Supreme Goddess or a duotheist who views them all as facets of The Goddess, or sees them as archtypes or whatever else— thats fine. What I hate is re-writing history to try and fit these claims. The people of the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean did not view all their Goddesses as the same, please stop twisting it to fit your new religion or your political ideology.

PS, its 1am I didn't proof read intensely sorry for spelling and grammar if its messed up

[trubrookheim]

Get to Know Me Uncomfortably Well [ I don't mind X3 ]

1. What is you middle name? Alexander

2. How old are you? 22

3. What is your birthday? January 14, 1995

4. What is your zodiac sign? Capricorn

5. What is your favorite color? 1st. Black 2nd. Red 3rd. Blue

6. What’s your lucky number? 3

7. Do you have any pets? Nope, never have ;-;

8. Where are you from? Santa Ana, California

9. How tall are you? 6'0, maybe 5'11

10. What shoe size are you? Foot long ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

11. How many pairs of shoes do you own? 5, 3 work shoes, 2 sneakers

12. What was your last dream about? The only thing i can remember, was me getting killed O.O that happens alot

13. What talents do you have? Black Belt in TaeKwonDo

14. Are you psychic in any way? I can tell when friends aren’t actually doing well, even if they’re good at hiding

15. Favorite song? Harukakanata - Unlimits

16. Favorite movie? Mars Attacks XD

17. Who would be your ideal partner? Someone who tries to be positive whenever possible, and who makes others happy :)

18. Do you want children? Oh hell yes

19. Do you want a church wedding? MMMMM, not sure exactly. I wouldn’t mind it.

20. Are you religious? Agnostic 

21. Have you ever been to the hospital? Yes… many times.

22. Have you ever got in trouble with the law? Nope, i’ve only seen alot of things and had to talk to cops about it

23. Have you ever met any celebrities? Mega64, twice actually.

24. Baths or showers? Showers, too lazy to make a bath

25. What color socks are you wearing? Black and grey with red stripes on the bottom.

26. Have you ever been famous? Like once in call of duty. I won many games and the people who stayed with me told others.

27. Would you like to be a big celebrity? Nope, wayyyyy too much attention. 

28. What type of music do you like? Metal, Rock Alt. Rock, Pop, Hip Hop, pretty much everything except Country. Although, i would listen to it if I lived in the Country. 

29. Have you ever been skinny dipping? Naaaaaaaaah

30. How many pillows do you sleep with? One super soft u3u

31. What position do you usually sleep in? 60% Right side 40% Left side

32. How big is your house? Apartment, and its normal size.

33. What do you typically have for breakfast? Protein bar or eggs w/bacon or spam. 

34. Have you ever fired a gun? Yes, many in fact. Ar-15, Pump Shotgun, 22., 38. 9mm, 357. 

35. Have you ever tried archery? Nope, but i would like to.

36. Favorite clean word? Oh Ok

37. Favorite swear word? Shit

38. What’s the longest you’ve ever gone without sleep? 36 hours

39. Do you have any scars? Left side of my face, on my temple. 

40. Have you ever had a secret admirer? Yes

41. Are you a good liar? Decent

42. Are you a good judge of character? I would say so

43. Can you do any other accents other than your own? Mexican, English, Russian, Chinese, Australian

44. Do you have a strong accent? Nope

45. What is your favorite accent? English

46. What is your personality type? 

47. What is your most expensive piece of clothing? Was a Calvin Klein jacket, $95

48. Can you curl your tongue? Yep, and do this weird cross thing

49. Are you an innie or an outie? innie

50. Left or right handed? Right

51. Are you scared of spiders? Yesssssssssssssssssssssss

52. Favorite food? Cheeseburgers

53. Favorite foreign food? Sushi

54. Are you a clean or messy person? Can be both

55. Most used phrase? Ahhhhh shit or Ohhhhh boy

56. Most used word? Shit

57. How long does it take for you to get ready? 7 minutes

58. Do you have much of an ego? Ehhh, not really

59. Do you suck or bite lollipops? Succ ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

60. Do you talk to yourself? All the time

61. Do you sing to yourself? Most definitely

62. Are you a good singer? I don’t think so, out of pitch X3

63. Biggest Fear? Death or being alone

64. Are you a gossip? No

65. Best dramatic movie you’ve seen? Logan

66. Do you like long or short hair? Men: Both Women: Both

67. Can you name all 50 states of America? No, only like 35 or something. 

68. Favorite school subject? Math/Science

69. Extrovert or Introvert? Hardcore Introvert

70. Have you ever been scuba diving? Nope, i have a small fear of the water.

71. What makes you nervous? A certain someone… >////>

72. Are you scared of the dark? Yes, even if i might say i’m not and deal with it, inside i’m terrified. 

73. Do you correct people when they make mistakes? Depends on the situation

74. Are you ticklish? Yep, my sides and neck

75. Have you ever started a rumor? Nope, that’s messed up. I have had a rumor on me, ruined my highschool life.

76. Have you ever been in a position of authority? Like in videogames, as a party leader o.o

77. Have you ever drank underage? Yes, accidentally when i was 12

78. Have you ever done drugs? Weed is the only thing if it counts

79. Who was your first real crush? Back in highschool, i was 18, Rocio. Very similar to how i was, all be it a bit crazy XD

80. How many piercings do you have? None, wouldn’t mind my ears. 

81. Can you roll your Rs? Well, i am Mexican X3

82. How fast can you type? Somewhere around 70-80 words per minute

83. How fast can you run? 6min 30 second mile.

84. What color is your hair? Black/dark brown

85. What color is your eyes? Dark brown

86. What are you allergic to? Pollen, mold, dust, peanuts, cats, the skin on peaches. 

87. Do you keep a journal? Yes, but i haven’t wrote in it.

88. What do your parents do? My father used to be a salesman. My mother is an Executive manager at Macys

89. Do you like your age? Kinda? I know i’m considered young, but i don’t feel it XP

90. What makes you angry? People who try to make others angry, or who are harmful to the people i care about

91. Do you like your own name? Generic, but its okay

92. Have you already thought of baby names, and if so what are they? Boy: Chris, Leon Girl: Cassandra, Katie

93. Do you want a boy a girl for a child? I would prefer a girl, but i would be alright either way

94. What are your strengths? Perseverance, determination, loyal, protective

95. What are your weaknesses? Oblivious, a bit dense, depression, anxiety

96. How did you get your name? Not sure exactly, my father picked it.

97. Were your ancestors royalty? Not that i know of.

98. Do you have any mental scars? My father dying in front of my eyes

99. Color of your bedspread? Red

100. Color of your room? White