#geralds mailbox

[geralds-little-art-corner]

Hiya! Hope you're having a lovely day!!

Idk if you do art requests but uhh could you possibly draw the character "The Colonel" (played by Monty Python member Graham Chapman) from "Monty Python's Flying Circus" please? Uhh thanks!!

Here you go! Tbh I'm not all that good at capturing actual ppls features but I hope it's good enough 😭

[xx-the-phoenix-witch-xx]

Meow :[

(You are faced with a cat. A cute, calico cat. This cat is Gerald, Dr. Death Defying's cat. Red Thrill murdered him. Nobody knows why Red Thrill had beef with a cat.)

- @the-shack-cat

[couriwaytown]

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3 TRAILER

bshsbd HIIII yes yes yes!!!! what did you think?? i like the akira slide that was cool that was sick.!! shadow looks good, that shot w maria was good, and the "while you found family and friends, he found pain and loss" was ON POINT. YEEESSS. THE DRAMA!!!! THE EMO!!!!! THE EDGINESS!!!!!!! FUCK YEAH best part so far 10/10. drawing another paralel between Sonic and Shadow, now possible due to Sonic's new tragic backstory, that's the good shit. what did you think?

[chubcheckers]

Tied Up

Gerald, a short and chubby man in his early sixties, shuffled out to check his mailbox one morning. As he sorted through the usual bills and junk mail, his hand brushed against a strange envelope with ornate handwriting and an elegant seal. Slowly, he opened it to find an invitation to a party this weekend. Gerald’s brow furrowed in confusion as he read the details – where was this party? Who was…

[elmandolinista]

The Fish in the Envelope

The other day, a fish stranded in the mailbox of Gabriele and Gerald. Not an average fish, of course, no swordfish, no trout, and no mackerel, but a FLUXfish. The strange animal had already visited Pam Chatfield, Mikel Untzilla, Rebekka Schmidt, Aina Enciso, Sabela Baña, Sil Dubois, and The Sticker Dude. Gabriele and Gerald helped the fish to grow stronger and sent him to Italy. But as an…

[calamityandme]

I woke up today and saw R hadn’t texted me so I knew I didn’t work today.

I went to feed the outside cats when I saw a letter in the mailbox from CAP. They were requesting information about when Danny worked last at this old last job. We had sent them a separation letter last week and someone told Danny they received the email.

I called CAP and asked them about the letter we got. Come to find out they say they never got the separation letter. I re-send the letter via email.

Thirty minutes later we get a knock on the door. It’s a person from the electric company notifying us they are shutting off our electric. I told them that we should be getting it paid by CAP but it didn’t matter. A few minutes later the electric was off.

I called CAP and told them we were shut off. We had to wait for an answer. An hour later we get a call back saying they paid the reconnection fee and that we need to call electric.

Long story short, we might have to wait a full day until the electricity comes on. The electric company said the check from CAP may take up to a day to process.

It sucks. We’ll be okay though. We won’t open the fridge or freezer unless we have to in order to keep its contents safe.

I wish I would have double checked Friday that they had gotten the email. Or that I hadn’t online shopped earlier in the week. Even though the $50 I spent wouldn’t have gotten us out of this situation.

It is a lesson that we need to be more active on our bills and keeping up with them. It’s just hard when I only made $630 last month. We’ll be fine. And maybe I will be able to get another job later this year if Danny can save up for a car.

I charged my phone up to 56% with Danny’s laptop right before it died. I have been listening to my Gerald’s game audio book to pass the time. Stephen king needs to stop using that sentence he keeps saying, something like “a woman is just a life support for a cunt” lol. That’s all I have to say so far.

I am going to choose to have a good day regardless of if we get electricity back soon or tomorrow

Update: I called again around 4 and they turned it on instantly…lol. Guess hounding them was a good thing. Danny may grill tonight for dinner. It’s a good day

[wecreatedzatt]

For once it was actually her feet that couldn’t keep up with her heart. It seemed to be unsatisfied with her pace and was retaliating by trying to escape her chest. She could feel it right underneath the surface of her skin, screaming at her to go faster - setting a rhythm for the rest of her body.

Running through the thick early summer grass was hard enough, but it was made even more difficult by her boots continuously catching on the hem of the long skirt she picked out this morning. It sent a surge of panic through her every time it tripped her up and jolted the front half of her body forward, forcing her to regain her balance over and over again. She could have taken a pause to tie it up into one of her belt loops, but the idea of stopping seemed impossible, like if she stopped she wouldn’t find her momentum again, or would miss whatever it was her heart was so anxious to find.

She had been trying to go about her regular chores in the barn, but the letter in her pocket seemed to be searing a hole right through the fabric, urging her to read it now. Everything around her was starting to feel claustrophobic and small - as if it was all trying to contain her anxious anticipation that was swelling bigger and bigger with every passing moment. She knew that at some point she would burst if she didn’t reveal the secret, so she completely abandoned her brothers and took off towards the most open space she could think of.

She could just make out her youngest brother yelling after her through the whooshing of the wind in her ears as she put distance between herself and the homestead. It was distance she had always craved, and her salvation could be right there on that paper. She knew she couldn’t wait any longer to find out.

The letter had finally arrived this morning after weeks of rising with the sun to wait on the creaky front porch for Old Mr. Gerald, the mailman to arrive. Only a few days into this routine he had stopped putting the letters into the mailbox at all. Instead, he stood on the other side of the gate with his hand outstretched anticipating her impatient, greedy snatch for whatever correspondence had come that day. Her father was quite an important member of the town and typically had several envelopes addressed to him. After furiously sifting through that stack of mail she always came up short in finding any addressed to her.

This morning though, there it was - delicate black lettering spelling out her name across the soft brown of the envelope. Pure excitement rose from her toes and flooded her cheeks with colour the instant she laid her eyes on it. She would’ve ripped it open right then and there but her mother was standing behind her yelling that the chickens wouldn’t bring their own eggs over to the house for breakfast.

Quickly she gave the crisp letter a sniff then stuck it into the folds of the orange skirt to keep it close until she could find time to open it up and know once and for all what was to come for her in this great world.

At this point she’d been running so hard and so fast that there wasn’t breath left in her to give, but the edge of the homestead was in reach. Her favourite place to be - as close to the rest of the world as possible.

As she arrived, she allowed the weight of herself to catch on the sturdy old brown wooden fence that stretched the entirety of her parent’s property. It had been in the family for years, passed on from generation to generation, each one expanding it and making it into something new, but always they upheld the integrity of the family name.

It was odd to her that here on the precipice of change, she was thinking of her past - what quite literally lay behind her now. She let the memories of where she had come from wash over her for a minute. Suddenly she wasn’t so eager to open the letter. Suddenly she wanted to sit with what had been before moving on to what could be.

The bottom of her worn farm boots found the edge of the lowest crossbar of the fence and she hoisted herself up to look over at everything that lay ahead of her.

Fields and fields of gold spanned in front of her and only stopped going when it finally met the crystal clear blue horizon way in the distance. The sun still hadn’t made its full journey to the top of the sky yet, and bright rays shot across the fields making the gold sparkle as if it were the type of treasure that could be made into a crown. To the right of her was a small spanning of trees where the light breeze blew through, circling around the vibrantly green leaves before it reached her sweat-covered brow.

Here she was standing on the edge of before and after, and for one small sliver of time in her life, she decided to not rush through any of it. She allowed herself to be content just where she was.

[theyearoftheking]

Book Fifty-Eight: Lisey’s Story

“Memories screwed up perspective, and the most vivid ones could annihilate time completely while they held sway.” 

I’m going to be honest. I’ve really hit a slump here, and am finding it hard to retain my enthusiasm for this project. I will continue on, because I want to end 2020 being able to tell people I read every word Stephen King has ever written; but right now the struggle is real. 

Lisey’s Story intensified the struggle. I thought it was long, meandering, and it took too damn long to get to the point. I’m not even sure there was a point. And it includes one of the most graphically creative uses of a can opener I’ve ever heard of. I’m still covering my chest and wincing just thinking about it. 

Lisa “Lisey” Landon is still mourning the death of her husband, famous writer, Scott Landon two years after his death. She’s still going through his office, trying to bring herself to donate his manuscripts and assorted sundries when her sister, Amanda, goes into a self-cutting and eventual catatonic state. 

Lisey and her other sister Darla don’t know what to do about Amanda. She has a history of harming herself, and her most recent bout of mania was the result of an ex-boyfriend coming back to town with a new wife. Lisey and Darla finally decide to call Greenlawn, the local mental health facility to see if they have a bed for Amanda. Come to find out, prior to his death, Scott had called Greenlawn, and convinced them to keep a spot open for Amanda, just in case. So, Lisey and Darla get Amanda committed, and the entire process dredges up memories for Lisey.

She is drawn back to her memories of Scott, especially some of the ones she can’t explain. She can’t explain why he was so insistent they not have children, or the strange disappearing acts he’d sometimes do, or how he was so quick to heal, or the weird catatonic states he’d go into- so similar to Amanda’s. Scott told her about how his brother went crazy, his dad had to chain him up in the basement (as you do), and after he was eventually killed, Scott transported him to a mythical place called Boo’ya Moon to try and bring him back to life. He was unsuccessful, so he just buried him there instead. 

In the midst of all these memories, Lisey starts getting strange phone calls from a man named “Zack McCool,” demanding that Lisey donate Scott’s papers to his alma mater. Lisey is annoyed, and politely tells “Zack” to go fuck himself. He retaliates by leaving a dead cat in her mailbox. And then when Lisey still doesn’t donate the papers, he drugs her, ties her up, and attacks her breast with a can opener. *Shudder*

Once Lisey wakes up, she heads to see Amanda, teleports to Boo’ya Moon, and Amanda is cured. Then, they head back to Lisey’s and wait for John Doolin, aka: “Zack”. Come to find out, Doolin spent time in a mental health care facility with Gerd Allen Cole, a man who shot Scott (Ha! Rhymes!) at a groundbreaking ceremony for a new campus library. So, Doolin picked up Cole’s mantle and ran with it. Well, until he ended up shot, and his corpse was dropped at Boo’ya Moon. 

Amanda is cured, the stalker is gone, and Lisey is free to finally get rid of Scott’s belongings. The final chapter of the book concludes with a chapter of his life Scott wrote just for Lisey- all about killing his dad. So romantic, right?

This book was chock full of Steve universe references:

Castle Rock

Derry

“Happy Crappy”

Lisey is from Cleave’s MIlls

Gilead

Dark Score Lake

Chambray work shirts

Norris Ridgewick

Andy Clutterbuck

“Lit out for the territories” 

And the most 2020 reference of all, was when Scott was dying and Lisey had to visit him in the isolation ward. “We think he has some exotic pneumonia, possibly even the Bird Flu, but whatever it is, we haven’t been able to identify it...It’s really doing a number on him. As the saying is. Just a mask should be enough, Mrs. Landon, unless you have cuts...”

Ah, the quaint old days of Bird Flu. #nostolgia 

In case you couldn’t tell, Lisey’s Story just bored the crap out of me. It was too long, and I just didn’t care by the end of it. 

Total Wisconsin Mentions: 38

Total Dark Tower References: 54

Book Grade: D

Rebecca’s Definitive Ranking of Stephen King Books

The Talisman: A+

Wizard and Glass: A+

Needful Things: A+

On Writing: A+

The Green Mile: A+

Hearts in Atlantis: A+

Rose Madder: A+

Misery: A+

Different Seasons: A+

It: A+

Four Past Midnight: A+

The Shining: A-

The Stand: A-

Bag of Bones: A-

Black House: A-

The Wastelands: A-

The Drawing of the Three: A-

The Dark Tower: A-

Dolores Claiborne: A-

Nightmares in the Sky: B+

The Dark Half: B+

Skeleton Crew: B+

The Dead Zone: B+

Nightmares & Dreamscapes: B+

Wolves of the Calla: B+

‘Salem’s Lot: B+

Song of Susannah: B+

Carrie: B+

Creepshow: B+

From a Buick 8: B

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon: B

The Colorado Kid: B-

Storm of the Century: B-

Everything’s Eventual: B-

Cycle of the Werewolf: B-

Danse Macabre: B-

The Running Man: C+

Cell: C+

Thinner: C+

Dark Visions: C+

The Eyes of the Dragon: C+

The Long Walk: C+

The Gunslinger: C+

Pet Sematary: C+

Firestarter: C+

Rage: C

Desperation: C-

Insomnia: C-

Cujo: C-

Nightshift: C-

Faithful: D

Gerald’s Game: D

Roadwork: D

Lisey’s Story: D

Christine: D

Dreamcatcher: D

The Regulators: D

The Tommyknockers: D

Next up is Duma Key, which I’ve heard great things about. And the first ten pages are already more promising than Lisey’s Story. So there’s that.

Until next time, Long Days & Pleasant Nights,

Rebecca

[tulipscomeinallsortsofcolors]

how does mail get to wick hills if the location changes all the time? do they have a post office?

YALL HOW HAVE I NEVER TALKED ABOUT WICKHILLS POSTMAN I LOVE HIM SM

he literally has his own custom white noise generator i made called “The Unsettling Post Office”

nobody knows who the postman is. sometime people see him out the window, but if you go out the door to say hello, he’s somehow made it all the way back to his truck already and is driving away, or he’s just poofed entirely

in general everybody can agree he is a pretty generic looking guy, but nobody ever quite gets a good look at his face.

The post office has normal post office hours, but you go in and everything is suspiciously automatic? theres signs giving you directions on how to fill stuff out (was that sign there before i needed to know this is cant quite remember) and some kind of bizarre postal-self-checkout machine that looks like an 80′s ATM crossed with a phone booth and a little slot to drop your mail

theres all kind of funny theories about who what The Postman is, if its a mantle passed on from person to person or if its one guy who made some ill-advised comment about loving his job in front of a Good Neighbor -

but the general consensus is that he’s definitely not fae (he doesn’t seem bothered by the protections on the houses, and some of the mailboxes literally are steel)  but he’s probably not totally human

I call him Gerald

[geralds-little-art-corner]

Happy Halloween™️

trick or treat !!

I SWEAR IR SAYS TRICK PLEASE I HAND DREW THE FANCY LETTERING 😭😭😭😭

[xx-the-phoenix-witch-xx]

(The handwriting is messy and there's a couple things crossed out)

Deer dear Pheonix Witch,

My spelling isent very good, Im trying to get it rigt right.

Im sorry I havent writen to you in a wile, Ive been busy Ive been having a hard time. Im doing beter thogh. I've been sober. Cherri's proud of me, and Im happy.

I hope your doing good to. I should visit the mail box more not just to leave this leter.

Thank you for takeing care of Cherri.

Bon Bon asked me if you took good care of peple, I said you did, be cause you were always nice to me. Thank you.

-Kobra

*a letter appears on the ground next to the mailbox with a single black feather lying on it, it is addressed to Kobra Kid*

Dear Kobra Kid, I thought I'd try out writing you a letter, it's not something I've done before, but I enjoy receiving letters from killjoys, and the dead always get excited when I deliver their mail. It is good that you're doing better. I'm proud of you too. Fixing yourself up isn't easy, but it's worth it, as far as I've seen. I've seen too many people give up and end up here, it's far easier to make things right from your side of the coin than mine. I'm doing fine, thanks for asking. Nothing much ever changes here, except for the occasional visiting ghosts, so I'm always alright. Tell Cherri and Bon Bon hello from me, and all your other friends. Tell Fun Ghoul he's doing very well at not dying as much. Tell Party Poison they should visit again sometime, I miss them. Pat Gerald for me.

XOXO the Phoenix Witch

[couriwaytown]

This is true and real of you

BSBDDHBSHSBDHD thanks tc <33 i wasn't really bettjng on it but like you said, would've been nice to be proven wrong. i knew the va choice was a bad one from the start but hoo boy...... that was one i really wanted to be proven wrong :/

[mobiusmobster]

What's Gerald's favorite colour, food, outfit :D

why is he like this

[multiverseforger]

Walter Joseph Kovacs was born on March 21, 1940, the son of Sylvia Kovacs, who was a prostitute, and an unknown father only known to Kovacs as "Charlie". His mother was frequently abusive and condescending towards him. In July 1951, at the age of 11, Kovacs became involved in a violent fight with two older bullies, and subsequently his living conditions were finally looked into. He was removed from his mother's care and put in "The Lillian Charlton Home for Problem Children" in New Jersey, where he rapidly seemed to improve, excelling at scholastics as well as gymnastics and amateur boxing. In 1956, after leaving the Charlton Home when he was 16, Kovacs took a job as a garment worker in a dress shop, which he found "bearable but unpleasant" partly because he had to handle women's clothing; it was here that he acquired a certain dress fabric that he would later fashion into the mask he wears as Rorschach. In 1962, Kovacs scavenged the material from a rejected dress that had been special-ordered by a young woman with an Italian name. Though Kovacs learned how to cut and fashion the material successfully with heated implements, he soon grew bored with it, as it served him no real purpose at the time.[14]

Two years later when buying a newspaper on his way to work in March 1964, Kovacs read about the rape and murder of Kitty Genovese, who he believed was the Italian woman who had rejected the dress. Ashamed by what he read about the unresponsiveness of her neighbors, Kovacs became disillusioned with the underlying apathy that he saw as inherent in most people. Inspired by Genovese's fate, Kovacs returned home, made "a face [he] could bear to look at in the mirror" from the dress's fabric, and began fighting crime as the vigilante Rorschach. Initially, Kovacs left criminals alive, but bloodied, for the police to arrest, leaving a calling card in the form of a Rorschach test at every crime scene. In the mid 1960s, he teamed up with Nite Owl II, a partnership which proved highly successful at battling organized crime.[14]

In 1975, an investigation into the kidnapping of a young girl named Blair Roche led to the transformation of the "soft" Kovacs into the ruthlessly uncompromising Rorschach. He tracked the kidnapping to a man named Gerald Grice. At Grice's shack, Kovacs found evidence Grice had killed the girl and had fed her remains to his dogs. Discovering this, Rorschach suffered a psychotic breakdown, killed the dogs with Grice's meat cleaver and waited for his arrival. When Grice returned, Rorschach hurled the corpses of the dogs through his windows, handcuffed him to a stove, and poured kerosene around him. Leaving Grice a hacksaw, Rorschach told him that his only chance to escape would be by cutting off his hand. Rorschach then set the shack on fire and left. No one emerged.[14] During a later psychological evaluation, the vigilante stated that Kovacs went into the shack, but that Rorschach came out.

When the Keene Act was passed in 1977 to outlaw vigilantes, Rorschach responded by killing a wanted serial rapist and leaving his body outside a police station with a note bearing one word: "never!"[15]

In WatchmenEdit

By 1985 and the events of Watchmen, Rorschach is the vigilante who continues to operate in defiance of the Keene Act, the rest having retired or become government operatives. He investigates the murder of a man named Edward Blake, discovering that he is the Comedian. He believes that someone is picking off costumed superheroes,[16] a view that strengthens when Doctor Manhattan is forced into exile[17] and when Adrian Veidt, the former vigilante known as Ozymandias, is targeted in an assassination attempt.[18] Rorschach questions Moloch, a former supervillain who unexpectedly attends Blake's funeral, who tells him what little he knows.[19] Later, after reading a note written by Moloch telling him to come over for more information, Rorschach visits him again, only to find him dead, shot through the head. The police, tipped off anonymously over the phone, surround the house. Rorschach scolds himself for falling into such an obvious trap, and is arrested after a fight, in which Rorschach tries to escape by jumping through a window, but is unmasked. After the unmasking, Rorschach is revealed to be the red-haired man who, in addition to being the first character to appear in the series, was shown several times in the early chapters carrying a sign reading "THE END IS NIGH".[18]

Rorschach is sent to a prison where many of its inmates are criminals he put away, including Big Figure, a dwarf crime boss who is hungry for Rorschach's blood. During his incarceration, he is interviewed by the prison psychologist Dr. Malcolm Long. Long believes he can help rehabilitate him; instead, Rorschach's explanation of his life and his justifications for his uncompromising worldview lead Long to question his own views.

One day during lunch, one of the inmates attempts to attack Rorschach with a shiv, whereupon Rorschach throws the boiling-oil contents of a deep-fryer into his face in self-defense.[14] As the guards grab and begin to beat him, Rorschach hoarsely yells at the watching crowd, "None of you seem to understand. I'm not locked in here with you. You're locked in here with me."[20] After the inmate dies, the prison breaks out in a riot. The Big Figure and two of his associates try to kill Rorschach, but he outwits and ultimately kills them all in rapid succession. Rorschach's two former colleagues, Nite Owl II and Silk Spectre II, begin to take his "mask killer" theory seriously and break him out of jail to follow up on it.[21]

After the prison break, Dr. Manhattan comes back from his self-exile to transport Silk Spectre II to Mars.[21] After acquiring a spare costume from his apartment, Rorschach, along with Nite Owl, enters underworld bars to find out who ordered the assassination attempt on Veidt. They obtain a name, a company called Pyramid Deliveries, and then break into Veidt's office. Nite Owl correctly deduces Veidt's password and finds that he runs Pyramid Deliveries. Rorschach, who has been keeping a journal throughout the duration of the novel, realizes that they may be no match for Veidt. He makes one last entry in his journal, stating his certainty that Veidt is responsible for whatever might happen next, and drops it into a mailbox.[22]

Nite Owl and Rorschach fly out to Antarctica.[22] There they learn the true nature of the conspiracy and Veidt's motivations: to unite the world against a perceived alien threat and stop the possibility of a nuclear holocaust. Veidt then reveals that he set his plan into motion well before they arrived.[23] Doctor Manhattan and Silk Spectre II arrive at the base after viewing the carnage Veidt's false alien has wrought on New York City. Despite their mutual horror, Nite Owl, Silk Spectre II and Doctor Manhattan all agree to keep quiet about the true nature of the events when the United States surprisingly does enter into a peace accord with the Soviet Union.

Rorschach states the others must be joking, and leaves to tell the world. Dr. Manhattan confronts him outside, telling him he cannot allow Rorschach to reveal the truth. Refusing to compromise his principles, Rorschach understands he will be killed. He removes his mask and demands that Manhattan just "do it", which he does.[24]

In the final scenes of the comic, Rorschach's journal has made it to the offices of the New Frontiersman, a right-wing newspaper. Outraged by the new accord between the Soviet Union and the United States, the editor pulls a planned two-page story. He leaves it to his assistant Seymour to decide how to fill that space, and Seymour begins to reach for the paper's "Crank File," which contains the journal. The outcome is ambiguous.[24]

Events of Doomsday ClockEdit

The events of Doomsday Clock begin with Robert Redford winning the 1992 election by using the details of Kovacs' journal, which he gained from the New Frontiersman, leading the citizens of New York to rally against Ozymandias, while the United States faces an inevitable nuclear war.[

[typingtess]

NCIS: Los Angeles Season Ten Rewatch:   "Hit List"

The basics:  The off-the-books rescue of Mosley's son has a Mexican drug cartel literally gunning for the Mosley, her son and the team while the Justice Department is after the same group except Mosley's son.

Written by:  R. Scott Gemmill wrote/cowrote “The Only Easy Day”, “Brimstone”, “Breach”, “LD50”, “Found”, “Borderline”, “Absolution”, “Archangel”, “Tin Soldiers”, “Impostors”, “Cyberthreat”, “Honor”, “The Watchers” and both sides of the NCIS Los: Angeles/Hawaii Five-0 “Touch of Death” episodes, “Recruit”, “Free Ride”, “Wanted”, “Ravens and The Swans”, “Impact”, “War Cries”, both ends of the “Deep Trouble” season five finale/season six premiere, “Inelegant Heart”, “Praesidium”, “Traitor”, “Active Measures” (season seven premiere), “Blame It On Rio”, “Internal Affairs”, “Matryoshka” part one,  “Talion” (season seven finale), “High Value Target"/“Belly of the Beast” (season eight premieres), "The Queen’s Gambit”, “Under Siege”, “Unleashed” (season eight finale), “Party Crashers” (season nine’s premiere), “This Is What We Do” (episode 200), “Các Tù Nhân”, “Goodbye Vietnam” and "Ninguna Salida" (season nine finale).

Directed by:  Eric Pot directed “Resurrection”, “Windfall”, “Traitor”, “Internal Affairs”, “Home is Where the Heart Is”, “Forasteira” and "Reentry".  Pot is a First Assistant Director for the program.

Guest stars of note:  Gerald McRaney returns from "Superhuman" as Retired Navy Admiral Hollace Kilbride.  Erik Palladio's CIA Officer Vostanik Sabatino appears unhandcuffed from the mailbox in "Unleashed".  Jeff Kober returns from "To Live and Die in Mexico" as Harris Keane as does Aiden Berryman as Derrick Morgan.  Joining the series in recurring roles are Esai Morales as NCIS Deputy Director Louis Ochoa and Peter Jacobson as John Rogers.  Sheila Cutchlow as Patricia Lexington, Diana Lu as Madee, Saul Huezo as P/A, Peggy Lu as Nin, J’Antonio Baguez as Hector Leyva, Mark Dippolito as Lonny McKay, Catherine Curry as Lemonade Kid and Olga Aguilar as Nanny.

Our heroes:  Have both Mexican Drug Cartels and the Justice Department after them.

What important things did we learn about:

Callen:  Gets a strange call from stranger voice who is possibly Hetty. Sam:  Add Thai to the languages Sam speaks. Kensi:  Uses her lip-reading skills to protect the team. Deeks: Varsity Ultimate Frisbee Champion. Eric:  Has a worry meter. Nell:   Helps Rogers set up in the gym. Hetty:   Has an enemy in John Rogers.

What not so important things did we learn about:

Callen:  Thinks of himself more as Baretta than Matlock. Sam:  Willing to take Derrick on his boat if the kid or Mosley need some time. Kensi:   Sugar fan, not a fan of grease. Deeks:  Going to spend the rest of the day sweating Skittles. Eric:  A Harry Potter fan. Nell:   Helps Kilbride make Rogers’s gym experience as unpleasant as possible. Hetty:   Missing – again.

Who's down with OTP:  Kensi and Deeks are taste-testing wedding cake as the big day nears.  That's about it.

Who's down with BrOTP:  This is episode is more about preserving the team, not the bromance.

Any pressing need for Harm and Mac:  No but only because a lot of the members of the team need civilian lawyers, not JAG officers.

Who is running the team this week?  It is a full house of babysitters for the team as Mosley and Adm. Kilbride return and NCIS Deputy Director Louis Ochoa and AUSA John Rogers join the mix.  Harris Keane even makes an appearance.

Mosley watch:  In the opening credits both in her solo shot, at the collaboration table.  Nia Long is both listed in the credits and appears in the episode.

Fashion review:   Callen is wearing a dark blue button-down shirt.  Brown henley for Sam early in the episode, grey zip up hoodie and white tee at his boat.  Kensi is flashing the guns again with a pink/red tank top.  Deeks is wearing a cornflower blue tee.  Eric is in a reddish-brown tee with a plaid short-sleeve shirt and shorts.  Black dress with vertical white stripes for Nell.  

Music:   "Thunder & Lighting" by Chi Coltrane is playing in the teaser.  "Lloviedos Siglos" by Keny Moron and Gerald Flores is playing outside of Hector Leyva's home.

Any notable cut scene:  Eric is upset returning to Ops after the Admiral called him one of the Von Trapps for wearing shorts.  Nell tells Eric Kilbride is jealous of Eric's dancer's legs – "a young Nureyev."  Nell did some digging on Rogers.  He is not Mr. Rogers evil twin.  Hetty and Rogers clashed "heavily" over Benghazi.  Hetty wasn't really involved in Benghazi – at least Nell and Rogers can't prove that.  Hetty supported the CIA Officers on the ground when Rogers started investigating what happened.  Rogers was looking to crush Hetty on Benghazi but she was not directly involved.

Eric realizes Ochoa is there to protect Hetty.  Nell hopes he is there to protect all of them.

Quote: Kilbride:  "Yeah, I see you, too, you beady-eyed bastard." Kensi:  "I take it you know that guy." Kilbride:  "Unfortunately." Deeks:  "I take it you're not besties?" Kilbride:  "Well, he doesn't like me, but he really hates Hetty." Callen:  "Oh, that's a real confidence builder." Eric:  "Um, just so we're all on the same page, what should my level of panic be at this point?" Deeks:  "I'd say, on the panic spectrum, some place between mild apprehension and blind hysteria." Eric:  "I can do that.  Uh, we have a case, I think. LAPD wants Callen and Sam to come to a motor vehicle collision site, but they won't say why." Callen:  "Well, I love a mystery." Kensi:  "What do you want us to do?" Sam:  "You read lips, don't you?" Kilbride:  "Terrible gift to waste."

Anything else:   Enjoying the good life, a man is on a chair float in a pool, drinking a beer.  He gets a call on his cell.  Dropping the beer can into the pool, he moves to get out of the pool, which has a dead woman on the pool steps and a dead man in a pool lounge chair.  

Pool guy leaves the gated home in his rather old and filthy (inside and out) four-door sedan.  He sees a young girl selling fresh lemonade from a home-made stand.  A nanny is sitting behind the girl.   Leaving the vehicle in the middle of the street, Pool Guy asks for some lemonade but is really getting out to kill the two possible witnesses.  Just as he pulls out his gun, a car plows into the killer's old car.  The nanny screams when she sees a bloody arm pop out of the damaged car's trunk.

Kensi and Deeks are trying possible wedding cake samples.  Deeks is not happy with the cake tasting – it is bad for his blood sugar.  Kensi has four more cake samples.  He wants her to pick but she wants to know what he likes.  Deeks likes when Kensi chooses.  She wants him to participate.  Deeks says the cake doesn't matter and knows immediately that's a mistake.  It is.  Deeks explains that nobody likes wedding cake.  Brownies, rice krispies treats ("best things on the planet"), apple pie – all things people like.  Wedding cake, not so much.  Kensi stuffs one of the samples into Deeks's mouth.  It is mango and he thinks it is delicious.

Harris Keane is at the gravesite of the NSA Officer who gave the team the Intel that led to Hetty's (and his) rescue.  Callen shows up, asking if Keane has heard from "her".  They joke about Hetty and Cher – Harris was sorry to hear Sonny died – but Keane does not know where Hetty is.  The last time he saw her was in Los Mochis, outside the hospital where Callen, Sam and Deeks were being treated.  Callen is stunned at first but realizes Hetty would be there.  Keane said Hetty told him she wanted to see Mexico and left him once the team was secure.  He hasn't heard from her since.

Eric is walking on the second floor of the office, talking to someone on the bluetooth.  LAPD wants Callen and Sam to check out the accident in the teaser, Eric tells Nell who just walks up the stairs.  Nell thinks Deeks could help.  As they walk into Ops, Adm. Kilbride introduces "Technical Operator Eric Beale and Intelligence Analyst Nell Jones" to Deputy Director Ochoa.  Ochoa introduces the two to AUSA Rogers, who is looking for Mosley.

Mosley is in the shooting range.  Sam joins her, asking about how things went with Hetty in DC.  Mosley tells Sam she didn't even see Hetty in DC, which is probably telling.  Sam wouldn't read much into things.  Sam asks about Derrick, who is doing well according to his mother.  They are reconnecting as mother and son.  Unfortunately, Derrick misses his father and there is nothing she can do about that.  

Sam tells Mosley she did what she needed to do and things for Derrick would have ended badly if he stayed with Spencer Williams.  Sam offers to take Derrick for a day on the boat.  Mosley is genuinely grateful for the offer – the reunion has been hard.  Sam reminds Mosley that nothing worth having is easy – what matters is their future together.  Nell interrupts with news of Ochoa and Rogers, who is there as a special prosecutor.

Callen, Sam, Kensi and Deeks are looking from the bullpen at Mosley's office.  She is there with Ochoa, a female DOJ staffer and Rogers.  Sam thinks the presence of a special prosecutor is bad.  Callen wonders why Hetty didn’t warn the team.  Adm. Kilbride arrives – he believes Hetty didn't know about any of this.  He asks about her location and when the team doesn't react let alone respond, he complements Hetty on training the team well.  The Admiral takes a sip of coffee and nearly spits it out – it is Cinnamon Surprise, "fair trade and sustainably harvested, cage-free," according to Deeks.  According to Kilbride, flavored coffee is one of the many reason people hate California.

Rogers turns around in Mosley's office and looks straight at the Admiral.  "Yeah, I see you too, you beady-eyed bastard," the Admiral growls.  The Admiral has a history with Rogers, who doesn't like him but really hates Hetty.  Eric arrives, asking about his level of panic.  Deeks measures it as somewhere between mild apprehension and blind hysteria.

Callen and Sam are off to the accident site.  Kensi asks what she and Deeks should be doing.  Sam assigns her some lip reading.  "It's a terrible gift to waste," according to the Admiral.  With the agents out of the bullpen, the Admiral asks about Eric's clothes and if he is undercover was "one of the Von Trapp children."  Eric nervously tries to answer.

In Mosley's glass office, she is being interrogated by Rogers about her relationship with Spencer Williams.  She does not want to answer.  Ochoa doesn't think she has to answer.  Neither does Rogers but not answering makes her look guilty, especially during a congressional hearing and in the court of public opinion.  Rogers asks again about Spencer Williams and the child Mosley shared with him.  Ochoa says it could be a sign of Mosley's commitment to a sting to take down Williams, earning a derisive laugh from the female DOJ aide.  That earned the aide a withering look from Rogers.

Rogers hopes NCIS staffers have their stories straight.  Ochoa thinks the best stories are the true ones – easier to keep those stories straight.  Rogers asks Mosley when was NCIS told Derrick was considered a kidnapping victim.  Ochoa makes it clear Derrick was a kidnapping victim and that his abduction was well documented.  Nell knocks – a Mrs. Patricia Lexington is here to see Mosley.  Mosley lawyered up and there is another random person in the super top secret office.

Lip reading, Kensi tells Deeks about Mosley lawyering up.  Deeks keeps turning his head to see what's going on in the office.  Kensi yanks his head to look at her – make it pass as if they're talking in the hallway, not watching what's going on in the office.  Kensi is having a hard time reading Rogers's lips – he has his back to her.  Facing her, Kensi is able to read that Rogers plans on "drowning" Hetty in "her moat of lies" – a statement Deeks finds eloquent – "along with everybody else involved with Mexico."

At the accident scene, Callen and Sam debate what Mosley might do.  Sam would like to believe that since the team helped her get her son back, she'd protect them but she didn't protect them in  Mexico.  As they near the car, Callen and Sam see Sabatino.  Greeting NCIS, Sabatino looks back fondly on the last time he worked with Sam.  Getting handcuffed to an ATM.  

Sabatino know about what happened in Mexico including Arlo Turk's long undercover persona was burned.  Turk provided the largest amount of cartel intelligence of any field operative in the system.  "Head's are going to roll" according to Sabatino and he hopes the team keeps their heads.  Callen asks if Sabatino knows where Hetty is.  Not only does Sabatino not know where Hetty is, he doesn't want to know.

Showing mugshot of the Pool Guy on his phone, Sabatino asks Callen and Sam if they know who Pool Guy is.  When Callen and Sam can't ID him, Sabatino explains that Pool Guy is Lonny McKay, a career criminal and one of Sabatino's CI's and one of the dumber ones.  McKay was arrested six blocks from the crime scene after a texting tourist hit McKay's car with the dead bodies in the trunk.  The bodies are a model Olga Tusova and Brian Collins, the West Coast Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy – and the youngest.  

While all quite sad, Callen isn't sure why Sabatino called – "unless you miss us."  Sabatino has McKay's phone.  Sam isn't sure why the CIA is working a car accident.  "Who says anything about working?" Sabatino replies.  Callen looks at the phone – there is a cartel hit list with Collins and the NCIS team – unidentified as of yet but photos of them with Arlo in Mexico.  Arlo Turk has been ID'd, so has Mosley.  The bounty on Mosley and her son is $1 million and the hit list for all of them is online.

McKay isn't going to be much help.  He took the job to get in with the cartel.  He was moving the bodies as proof he belongs.  Sam thinks they should let McKay play it out.  Sabatino disagrees – the money would be wired to an offshore account from a country with no financial disclosure laws.  Callen thinks McKay could be paid in cash.  Sabatino disagrees but even if they paid in cash, it would be unmarked bills delivered by a no-name courier.  

Sam wants the website with the hit list taken down and Sabatino has the NSA working on just that but it is on the Dark Web.  Sam thinks if they fake Mosley and Derrick's deaths, Callen adds they could have them removed from the hit list.  Sabatini finds the synchronized logic adorable.

On the big screen in Ops is the info from McKay's phone and the cartel hit website.  There are photos of Mosley and Derrick – each have a $1 million bounty.  Collins was killed for $150K.  Nell says none of the team members are in any facial rec databases so bad actors at other agencies can't find or track them.  Kensi asks if Mosley knows about the hit list.  She does not.

Rogers walks into Ops with a subpoena.  Kensi passes it on to a lawyer – Deeks.  Deeks is LAPD, he doesn't do federal subpoenas.  He passes it to Eric who is just a tech op and there is intelligence data in the document.  He passes it to Nell who can't help – "way above my pay grade."  Rogers is not amused.

With Ochoa in Hetty's office, Kilbride is stunned NCIS can't find Hetty.  "She may be small but somebody has to know where she is."  Nobody does.  Kilbride can't imagine Hetty would leave her people unprotected willingly.  Ochoa wants a comprehensive narrative by the team to cover what happened in Mexico.  Kilbride asks if that includes Mosley – good luck with that.

Rogers arrives with Nell.  He wants all secured conversations recorded while the team was in Mexico.  He also wants the personnel files of all the staff involved.  Kilbride asks if Rogers also wants a pedicure.  Ochoa asks Nell to set up Rogers in the gym.  As Rogers leaves, Kilbride calls Nell back – she is to make sure the entire staff knows what while Rogers and his people are working in the gym, the gym and the nearby shooting rage are fully operational.  He'd like both areas to be active.  "Very active."

Patricia Lexington, Mosley's lawyer, is looking at a strategy of throwing Hetty under the bus to save Mosley.  Mosley wonders if Hetty would do that.  Since Hetty has survived decades at her job doing some out of the box things – it is likely that is how she lasted so long.  Lexington reminds Mosley that Hetty is at the end of her career.  With Hetty missing, it could be easy to pin this all on her.

Mosley sees Kensi and Deeks staring at her.  Mosley comes down to see them just as Callen and Sam arrive.  Before Kensi and Deeks can tell Mosley about the hit list, Callen and Sam explain how Derrick is being protected.  Mosley is stunned by the news.  Eric arrives with a location of the hit list server.  The team is going  to shut things down.

Callen and Sam arrive at a Thai seafood restaurant.  After getting some grief from the owner, Sam is able to get her to help by asking in Thai.  The owner calls a her granddaughter who runs the restaurant's business from her laptop.  She leaves to get it.  When Callen and Sam follow the young woman, she has already dumped the laptop in an industrial kitchen fryer.  Callen tries to rescue it while Sam looks for the girl.

Outside of the restaurant, Deeks is enamored with the smell of grease.  He thinks it will sop up the sugar in his system.  Kensi is anti-grease.  Callen wants the two of them to look for the woman on the run.  Callen sees Kensi and Deeks before they see the woman.  Sam chases her into a gym where she plays the victim.  Several of the gym members try to take on Sam.  As the woman escapes through the gym's back door, she runs into Kensi and Deeks.  They yell freeze and the woman runs.  "They always run, they always run," Deeks notes as they chase he down an alley.  The woman jumps on a car and tries to climb a fire escape but Deeks Captain Americas her off the fire escape using a trash pail top as a weapon.

Mosley is packing up her weapons against the advice of her lawyer – who is a friend and also a mother.  By grabbing her guns and running with Derrick, Mosley is doing everything the government is accusing of her according to Lexington.  By grabbing her guns and running with Derrick, Mosley believes she's protecting her son.

Ochoa arrives and assures Mosley her son has a protective detail.  Mosley believes the only way Derrick will be safe is with her.  Noting that she started a private war in a foreign country to retrieve Derrick, she will not be allowed to do the same on US soil.  Mosley wants to get her son.  Ochoa agrees to have the protective detail bring him to the office (where a child is being brought to a super-secret location) but Mosley isn't leaving the building.  Mosley warns Ochoa that she is getting her son and the she does not react well to being cornered.  Ochoa thinks it will be hard for Mosley to protect her son from a prison cell – "now stand down."  She does.

In interrogation, Sam shows the young woman – Madee – all the people killed by her internet run hit list.  The woman said she did not kill anyone.  Sabatini watching from the main room agrees.  The photos are fake.  Callen pushes the photo of a 12-year old victim in front of Madee.  That photo is from a screen grab of Eric's favorite slasher movie.

Sam tells Madee that the hit list makes her an accessory to over 20-murders.  She is a serial killer.   Madee explains she is paid to maintain the list.  The family restaurant is failing and maintaining the site was a way to bring money into the business.  Sam explains the woman's family will be charged as accessories.  Madee confesses – she meets a man once a week at Echo Park.  He has a list of what he wants posted.

Nell walks into Ops.  She has the laptop.  While Eric is looking for any footage of Madee meeting the cartel member in Echo Park, he won't look at the laptop – which smells – it is literally fried.  Nell sees Madee meeting with the cartel member in a security camera scene.  Just as Eric starts to look for a screenshot he can run through facial rec, Ochoa and Rogers arrive.

Rogers has questions for "you" according to Ochoa.  Eric needs some guidance on you being singular for each of them or you being plural for Eric and Nell as a team.  Rogers is not amused.  Singular – Eric.  The questions are about Mexico.  Eric provides a history of Mexico.

Admiral Kilbride is babysitting Derrick, who is busy playing video games.  The Admiral likes sports – baseball.  Derrick likes football – soccer – not US football.  Mosley arrives.  Nell is not far behind.  Madee's contact is Hector Leyva, known as "the knife" in cartel circles.  The team is on his way to Leyva's last known address.

Kensi and Deeks are in the alleyway behind the Leyva house.  Deeks is not happy they always relegated to backstreets and alleys.  Kensi reminds him they are always there in case the bad guy runs.  Deeks agrees but notes the bad guys always run.  He thinks they are Callen and Sam's labrador's retrievers.  Deeks finds this a bone of contention.  Kensi is more interested in the term "bone of contention".  Callen would prefer they both be quiet.

Going into Hector Leyva's home, there are several women surrounding a younger man who seems in charge are sitting in the front yard.  He won't cooperate but calls for Hector to come down.  Callen and Sam enter the house and it is not the best maintained place in Los Angeles.  As they go deeper into the house, the women and the younger man pull out their weapons and start to follow.  

Going upstairs, Sam passes a room where a young man with a rifle is waiting.  He fires at Sam, setting off a long gun battle.  Kensi and Deeks take out the two women from the yard.  Callen takes out a random guy downstairs and the fellow he spoke to at the door.

Callen starts walking to the stairs.  With rifle guy still in his room, Callen shoots through the downstairs ceiling/rifle guy's floor.  He races from the room only to be shot by Sam.  Checking through the house, Callen and Sam walk into a room full of knives, cleavers and other weapons hanging from the ceiling.  They open a bathroom door to find Leyva in the bathtub wearing headphones playing a video game.

Eric is being questioned in the gym around people jumping rope, doing dead weight lifts, wrestling and playing basketball.  Eric makes a Harry Potter reference and is super nervous.  Rogers starts asking about the shooting in "Getaway" just as several members of the tactical team start firing high-power weapons in the shooting range.  

Ochoa doesn’t understand why an old case is being brought up.  Rogers wants to understand everyone's role on the team.  He wants to know why a technical operator was in the field with an agency weapon.  Eric explains he was on assignment.  Rogers asks if Hetty gave him the assignment.  Eric reluctantly says yes.  Rogers wants to make it clear that two people are dead and Ochoa stops him.  Eric is there to answer questions about Mexico, nothing else.

Rogers changes his questions to the "illegal and unsanctioned" case in Mexico when the female DOJ aide passes him a note.  Ochoa advises Eric not to answer.  The note is about the shootout at Leyva's house.  Four are dead.  "You people are making it too easy."

Callen questions Leyva, who plays dumb about computers but smart about his rights.  Sam asks if he knows about being an accessory to murder – Collins was on Leyva's hit list and the dead woman with him makes it premedicated.  That's 25-to life times two.  If they can prove a drug cartel was involved, that's domestic terrorism.  That's Gitmo.  Leyva lawyers up but since this is domestic terrorism, he gets one in two-weeks.

Kensi arrives, the women had cop-killer ammo – the chosen way of killing by cartel hitmen and hitwomen.  The people after Mosley are not putting their faith in contractors – they are after her themselves.  The good news is they stopped this attempt but "there will be others."

Sam is working on his boat, Michelle, with Otis nearby.  Mosley arrives with Derrick.  Derrick is going to stay with Sam for a while.  Mother and son share "I love you" before Derrick goes on board.  Sam promises Derrick will be safe.  He also promises that "this too will pass" when it comes to her troubles and dealing with Derrick.  Mosley thinks it is has been a long time since she was a mother.  Sam disagrees – she was always a mother.  Sam tells her nobody believes Derrick's abduction was her fault but "Mexico was another matter."  

Mosley explains things are different for women.  Sam never had to choose between his career and his children.  Michelle did.  She didn't say to judge Sam.  She is just so worried about screwing up things with son.  Sam assures Mosley that nothing is happening to Derrick as long as Mosley fixes things for the boy, herself and the team.

Rogers gets into his vehicle and finds Mosley in the back seat.  She wants to know from Rogers what she needs to do to make this all go away.

Ochoa meets with Callen.  Mosley and Hetty are on administrative leave while the DoJ looks at the Mexico trip.  Ochoa knows about Hetty and Callen being close.  He is leaving Callen as acting team supervisor.  He is also leaving LA – Ochoa is going to DC to do some damage control.  He warns Callen that the team needs to be extra careful – even in other cases.  Callen's involvement with Anna, who is under investigation, and Joelle, rogue CIA Agent, mean celibacy is probably the best way to go in the future.

As Ochoa leaves, Callen's phone rings.  A strange voice says hello to Callen.  It is Hetty with a code.  He speaks Romani to her and she answers. Hetty warns Callen to keep the team safe – she won't be around for quite a while.  She disconnects.

What head canon can be formed from here:   Sam makes a statement at the accident scene about allowing the team to risk their lives in Mexico.  Wonder how much the team know about Mosley's actions in Mexico.

Episode number:    This is episode number four of season ten (though it was filmed fifth).  It is episode 220.

[babylon-crashing]

hughes’ offensive and defensive magic

... from: Michael M. Hughes, Magic for the Resistance (2018)

Resistance magic is not always nice.

While many popular books on witchcraft claim that magic should only be used for healing and “positive” ends, I strongly disagree. Magic has always been used for self-defense and in defense of others. The idea that it should not be used defensively or to inhibit the actions of others is a twentieth-century invention, and the entirety of the historical record, from ancient times through the present, makes that abundantly clear.

When I published the Trump binding spell, I expected to encounter resistance from fundamentalist Christians and orthodox religious types. After all, in their view, all magic is evil and the work of the devil, including magic done for healing and positive outcomes (benefica). I even baited them a bit by throwing in the phrase, “demons of the infernal realms,” knowing it would tie their underpants into knots and send them into paroxysms of prayer for their beloved “Christian” president.

But it takes a lot of work to conjure demons, as any competent ceremonial magician knows, and they're not just going to do what you ask them—like any employee, they won't work unless they're paid. And as I've stated elsewhere, I prefer to work respectfully with cooperative and helpful spirits, not the lowlife dregs of the astral realms.

However, as I replied to some of my fundamentalist critics, I would be absolutely delighted to have the cooperation of any and all infernal spirits willing take a whack at the horrid demons infestmg Donald Trump—the demons that make a man believe grabbing women by the pussy is kosher, for example, or the demons that make him enjoy mocking someone with disabilities. The demons that make him believe dumping coal waste in mountain streams is morally acceptable seem especially malign.

Not only did I expect harsh criticism from the religious right, I egged them on. Their overblown reactions even helped further empower the binding spell (because that's how magic works). What I did not expect was a wave of blowback from the witch and Pagan communities.

Many of my Pagan critics pointed to the threefold law of Wicca as their reason for condemning the spell. This law says that any negative magic (malefica) you do comes bouncing back at you with three times the consequences. If you curse someone and they break their leg, the bad mojo is gonna come careening right back at you and break your legs and your arms and burn down your house. It's a variant of karma, just with a moralistic edge against what is presumed “bad” magic.

I respectfully pointed out that the threefold law was very likely the creation of Gerald Gardner, one of the originators of modern witchcraft, and didn't appear until he inserted it into one of his novels in the middle of the twentieth century. And many witches, particularly non-Wiccans, don't consider it part of their tradition anyway. While I do acknowledge the reality of karma, my experience is that it is a much more complex phenomenon than the simple equation "do bad—get hurt." First, who defines what is good and positive or bad and negative? Like most ethical issues involving complex human beings and their societies, it is far from simple to label most actions simply good or bad.

Just think of something as simple as owning a pet cat that you've rescued from a shelter. A good act, right? Absolutely—both you and the cat would agree. But that cat requires food, which means meat (and please don't try to turn your cat vegan). So the fact that you saved the cat means many animals, most of which are raised in horrid factories, are suffering and dying to feed it. If you let the cat outside—which you may feel is a positive experience for your pet—it might kill endangered songbirds.

Some of my witch critics said binding spells were inherently negative because they aim to thwart the target's desires and intentions. That any magic inhibiting someone's will is, by definition, harmful. It's a good point, so let's examine it with a couple of thought experiments.

• Your child is being stalked by an adult with a history of abusing children. You have done everything you can to get police to detain or restrain him, with little success because you don't have actionable evidence. You know the abuser is still actively seeking your child because you saw him sitting in his car across from the school playground where your child was playing.

• A state senator is on the verge of passing legislation to pave a local wetland to put up a strip mall. The wetland has been declared critical for protecting the local watershed from nearby farm runoff. In fact, your well draws water from an aquifer that is threatened by the development.

• You just moved to a small rural town. You and your partner are married and have adopted two mixed-race children. A local fundamentalist minister is whipping his congregation into hating you because “marriage is between a man and a woman,” and “children need a father and a mother, not two mothers.” Your children are increasingly bullied to the point where they dread going to school. The teachers have tried to help, but the minister's hold on the parents is too strong. Today you opened your mailbox and found a letter threatening to kill you and your children if you “disgusting perverts” don't move out of town.

• The drug your mother needs to stay alive has gone from five dollars per pill to two hundred dollars, all thanks to a pharmaceutical company CEO. You have no idea how you're going to pay for the life-saving medicine.

So ... would binding spells or hexes be okay in those situations?

Yes, those are extreme examples. But every day corporations, politicians, corporate executives, lobbyists, cops, judges, ministers, lawyers, and other authorities make decisions that cause serious harm to accent people, animals, and ecosystems.

Witchcraft and magic are tools. When you, someone you love, or a place with great beauty and spiritual power is threatened, why would you not use all the tools at your disposal?