#tim blackwell

[d-criss-news]

🎵 Darren Criss plays Joel Jivin'!

Glee superstar, singer-songwriter and Emmy-award winning actor Darren Criss joins us live in the studio to play a game of Joel Jivin'!

[gummyartstradingcards]

[mitjalovse]

Are those weird musical players understood as anything else than circus freaks? Tiny Tim, for instance, tried to, for instance, to be seen as a legitimate musician. I mean, his second album contains some fine material, yet who paid attention to his other side then? They wished for the funny falsetto guy. Then again, there's something highly ironic about a couple of choices on this LP. Look, him covering the old rock chestnut that was released during the time rock was seen as a novelty? Yes, I'm sure Tiny Tim sort of understood his own place on the scene more than anyone would be willing to admit. Sadly, many continue to comprehend him as a weirdo, so hear me out – he should've released his second album before the debut. Yes, but would anyone give him a chance to show another side?

[alittlebitofloveliness]

Shepard Angst Fic

Y'all are getting this here before I edit it and post it on ao3 tomorrow because I am desperate for external validation and because I NEED folks to cry over my self imposed Shepard sibling angst.

**************

“Angel!”

Angela Shepard is no stranger to yelling. The name Shepard carries with it the guarantee of a temper hotter than the late Autumn sun and the vocal cords to make sure the whole street knows it. Ma is only ever happy when she’s hacked off, Curly has never once been quiet for longer than three seconds back to back, and she herself wears fury like socy girls wear their hair ribbons. 

So yes, she’s no stranger to yelling– but she ain’t never heard Curly yell like that. He doesn’t sound mad, he sounds scared– and that is infinitely worse. There isn’t a lot that scares Curly Shepard, or any Shepard really. They’ve all seen too much.

“Goddamnit Angel,” Curly roars again, “get out here and bring the first aid kit!”

That spurs her to action and she snatches the small first aid kit out from under the bathroom sink and hightails it to the living room.

Curly is there, wide eyed, Tim propped up against him. For a second Angela doesn’t realize what the problem is. When she does, her brain refuses to let her believe it.

A dark stain is spreading rapidly across the side of Tim’s shirt, even as Curly half drags half carries him over to the couch and deposits him on it as gently as he can. Despite how careful Curly’s being, a pained grunt still forces its way out from between Tim’s clenched teeth.

“Call Manuel,” Curly orders, naming Tim’s second in command, “get him to bring the truck back now and be ready to drive. And get Sylvia down here too.”

Running to the kitchen, she dials Manuel’s home number and hurriedly explains the situation, cold terror making her harsher than usual. She doesn’t bother trying to get ahold of Sylvia- Sylvie knows everything that happens on the east side, she’s probably already on her way.

“What happened?” She demands as soon as she gets back to the living room. Curly’s hands are slippery with blood and he’s got a wad of rapidly reddening gauze pressed tightly against the wound in Tim’s stomach. Her older brother’s face is twisted in pain, his breathing even more laboured than it was a minute ago, tight gasps forcing themselves out from behind clenched teeth.

She’s seen knife wounds before, of course she has. Connor Tyrril from the Brumly gang had died from an infected knife wound last year, and Tim and even Curly had been sliced before, long gashes that eventually faded into rough scars– but never anything like this. The slashes they’d sustained in the past were meant to hurt, but this wound was very specifically meant to kill. 

She doesn’t know what to do. 

“Who did it?” She demands, hands fluttering uselessly. Curly seems to have a handle on what to do, his wide eyes at odds with his steady hands, counting under his breath as he applies pressure, but Angela doesn’t have a clue how to help and isn’t even sure that she can. “What happened?”

“A few of the boys from Tiber street apparently weren’t too fond of Tim’s latest shipment,” Curly explains, pressing a new piece of gauze over the others, already soaked through with blood. 

“Names Carlos.”

“Dustin Blackwell and Ian Forrester. Tried to fight ‘em off but they had about seven buddies backing ‘em.”

“They’re dead.” Angela vows, horrified to feel the way her eyes are stinging. She means it too. If anything happens to Tim those assholes are dead, juvie and jail and records be damned. The steely look buried under the panic in Curly’s eyes tells her he agrees.

Tim groans, despite how hard Angela can tell he’s trying to hold it back, and Curly stiffens, hands jerking slightly and tearing another horrible sound from Tim’s throat.

“Go see if there’s any more gauze somewhere,” he orders, pressing the last of the stuff over Tim’s wound, the fabric reddening as if by magic, “grab some of my t-shirts if you can’t find any.”

Angela runs to do as she’s bid, wishing she could do something, anything else. For all Curly is usually the last person who should be left in charge of anything, let alone any sort of crisis, right now he seems to be about the only person who knows what to do and Angela can’t help but cling to it like a lifeline. She can’t fix Tim, but she can sure as hell help Curly help him and if all she can do is grab t-shirts, you can best believe she’ll grab the whole stack in her drawer and Curly’s too.

She can’t have been gone more than thirty seconds but Tim is noticeably worse when she returns, sweat beading on his forehead, his skin looking closer to grey than its usual light brown. 

“Hold this for me,” Curly nods to the wad of gauze he’s pressing on with both hands, “don’t worry about hurtin’ him, just press as hard as you can. I’m gonna check his pulse.”

Tim lets out an almost inhuman scream the second she touches him, and it’s almost enough to have her jerk away and apologize if that wouldn’t render the whole thing useless. Curly waits until Angela’s hands are pressing hard beside his before he deigns to move one away, deftly pressing two fingers under Tim’s neck with one hand, counting under his breath. It seems like a long time before he stops counting even though the clock says it wasn’t more than a minute, and the tightness in his jaw belies his anxiety. 

Not good then- or getting worse.

“Well?” She snaps, too full of fear to know what to do with it, trying to hide behind a more familiar anger.

“It’s slow,” Curly snaps right back, her twin in soul and temperament and right now a visceral type of fear, “and gettin’ worse. He’s fucking bleeding out, Angel what’d you expect!”

“Shut up! He ain’t gonna bleed out! Shut up!”

Curly glares a second longer before his mask slips just a bit and she sees herself in his blue eyes. For a second they’re three years old again and Tim is in the reformatory and they’re both so hungry and alone and scared it feels like nothing will ever be okay again. Then she blinks, and Curly’s jaw tightens, and they’re back to now, in a no less horrible present.

“Damnit,” Curly snarls, but his voice breaks, “where the fuck is Manuel?”

“Quit arguin’” Tim speaks for the first time since Curly dragged him in and Angela could sob. His voice is the same gruff bark it’s always been, just as steady as it always is despite his laboured breathing, even as his lean form has started to shake uncontrollably under her hands, making it hard to keep the gauze and now one of her own t-shirts pressed against his wound, “and listen’ to me.”

Curly watches him with wide eyes, forever in awe, the way he’s always been, always willing to follow Tim anywhere, even off a cliff. Of course, Angela can't exactly blame him when she’s the exact same way.

“L-listen,” Tim repeats, his black eyes shining with an emotion Angela can’t place, and she is listening because its Tim talking and he always knows what to do. He’s going to tell them what to do and he’s going to be okay. They’ll do what he says and everything will be fine. “Listen.”

He swallows, grimacing as he lets out another strained breath before his sharp eyes focus on them again. 

“You’re good kids,” he says, fierce, so fierce, and Angela blinks because that isn’t right, it isn’t a plan, it isn’t a way to fix this. And it isn’t even true. She and Curly are about as far from good kids as it’s possible to be.

“You’re good kids,” Tim repeats with conviction, like he can hear what she’s thinking, “don’t let nobody tell you otherwise, savvy? I’m damn proud of you. Both of you.”

“Tim-”

“Good kids,” His eyes have taken on an almost glassy quality, “My kids.”

His entire body goes limp. Angela screams.

Manuel chooses that exact moment to burst through the door, Sylvia on his heels, and there's no time, no time for anything anymore except for Curly to grab Tim’s shoulders and Manuel grab his feet, and Angela try to keep pressure on that fucking stab wound all the way to the truck and then to the hospital until a team of nurses rolls Tim away on a gurney. Even then, the only reason they manage it is because Sylvia and Curly both half drag her away.

“Let go, I’m goin’ with him!”

“You can’t.” Sylvia’s voice cuts like a blade. “They ain’t gonna let you in the operation’ room Angel, so quit havin’ a fit and come sit in the waitin’ room.”

“Shepards stick together.” Angela turns to Curly for support but Curly doesn’t seem to be all here right now, staring vacantly into space and trembling like a leaf. “Right Curls?”

“C’mon,'' Sylvia shakes her head when Curly doesn’t answer, “We aren’t doin’ much good for ol’ Timmy in this parking lot, and we won’t do much more in the waitin’ room but at least there’ll be a place to sit.”

Unable to argue, Angela follows Sylvia inside, Curly trailing dreamlike after them, and they sit in the waiting room and do just that: wait. Manuel had left as soon as the doctors got Tim inside so he isn’t there with them, but Angela can’t find it in herself to care. Tim runs a gang, not a family. Manuel knows that as well as any of them.

Angela squeezes her hands into fists to stop the tremble in her fingers. Wonders how Sylvia can still be so unfeeling when her best friend has just been stabbed. Decides she doesn’t care. Watches as Curly slowly returns to himself, pulling out a cigarette and offering her one. They both pretend it’ll stop their hands from shaking. They’re both wrong.

She wants to do something. To start a fight or cause a problem, maybe kick up a fuss in the food court or swear at a nurse, do something to assuage the fear and the anger burning it’s way through her chest, do anything that isn’t just sit here and wait.

You’re good kids, Tim’s words echo in her head every time she’s about to get up and do something, keeping her rooted to the stupid plastic chair, doomed seemingly forever to the horrific purgatory of the waiting room. She isn’t a good kid, but Tim thinks she is, so she can be, at least for now, at least until she knows he’s okay.

“Anyone here for Timothy Shepard?”

Angela’s on her feet immediately, Curly at her side. Sylvia rises more languidly to face the woman at the nurses station, cool as ever.

“I don’t have any news yet,” the nurse says apologetically, seeing Angela and Curly’s tense faces, “I’m sorry. I just need someone to fill out the intake forms. Is he a minor?”

For a second Angela hates the warm faced woman more than she’s ever hated anyone.

“He’s eighteen,” Sylvia strolls forward, reaching a manicured hand towards the woman’s clipboard, “I’ll fill it out.”

The nurse starts to hand the clipboard to her, then freezes. “Um, I’m only supposed to give it to an emergency contact…”

“I’m his wife,” Sylvia lies smoothly, “you ain’t gonna keep me from seein’ my husband. I doubt he’s even got anyone listed considerin’ we only recently got hitched.”

The nurse checks the chart again. 

“What’d you say your name was?”

“Sylvia Shepard. Maiden name Devares.”

“Well it’s true he ain’t got anyone listed…” Angela can see the nurse crumbling, “I don’t suppose you got your marriage licence with you?”

“‘Course I do,” Sylvia reaches into her cleavage and pulls out the forged marriage certificate Curly had made a few months back when Sylvia needed Tim’s help opening a bank account, “there, see?”

The nurse glances at it and finally passes over the clipboard. 

“My apologies Mrs. Shepard.”

Angela winces. Sylvia is many things, but she ain’t a Shepard, and she sure as shit ain’t Tim’s wife. Still, the charade has worked wonders in the past, and it’s working wonders again now.

“Thanks.” Sylvia offers her a perfunctory smile and turns on her heel, strutting back to her seat, Angela and Curly trailing behind.

“What’s takin’ so long?” Curly mutters to her, while Sylvia purses her lips, flipping through the forms, “we’ve been here an hour. How’s he still in surgery?”

Angela doesn’t know, so she doesn’t answer.

They wait.

Sylvia finishes filling the pages with her chicken scratch handwriting and returns them to the nurses desk. An ambulance arrives with some broad sporting a gunshot wound. Nurses bustle, doctors hustle, people come in and out of the waiting room, and still, they are not called.

Curly’s knee bounces more with each passing minute. Sylvia looks so bored Angela could slap her. Something somewhere is beeping and Angela is going to lose her mind.

“Family of Timothy Shepard?”

He hates being called Timothy, is all she can think this time, when a doctor gives them a practiced sympathetic look and tells them Tim's finally out of surgery and they can see him. He says a bunch of other stuff too, but Angela doesn’t understand half of it, and she isn’t really listening anyway because they can see Tim now and everything's gonna be okay.

Then they walk into the hospital room and Angela’s world shatters.

She is used to Tim being many things- tough and smart, the type of responsible someone only becomes when you walk the fine line between being a father and a brother. She is used to his rage, the one thing he inherited from both parents, is used to the cold fury he tries to mask it with, with the almost inhuman level of self control he wields like a knife. She is used to Tim fighting, lying, cheating. To Angela, Tim has always been untouchable, larger than life. Not a hero, no, but not a villain either, instead something amorphous and not entirely human, more powerful than anyone else she knows. Now though, for the first time in years, he looks entirely, brokenly human. 

And small. That isn’t right, Tim isn’t small, has always towered over her and Curly, even now they're going on thirteen and have finally started to properly grow. 

He’s lying on a pillow, his brown skin still has that same bloodless grey tinge as earlier, even though at least two of the tubes plugged into his arm seem to be giving him more, which is good since half the blood in his body is still on the couch in their living room. Even still, what use is the hospital blood if it isn’t making him better? There’s a bag on clear fluid- what do they call that again? An IV?- in a needle beside the blood going into Tim’s arm, and a tube taped under his nose. At first Angela thought there was a sheet pulled up to his chest but when she stumbles forward she realizes with a jolt of horror that those are bandages wrapped so thoroughly and tightly around Tim’s entire chest she can hardly tell where they end and the actual sheets begin.

Somewhere, somehow, the doctor is still talking, Sylvia taking in each word with sharp eyes and looking anywhere but Tim, but Angela can’t hear anything over the roaring in her ears. Curly trembles almost imperceptibly beside her and she knows he feels it too, the horrible wrongness that hangs in the air, making this room one of nightmares.

Angela isn’t stupid. She knows she’s seen and lived through a lot of terrible things, faced horrors that most kids never dream of. Still, this has to be the worst thing that has ever happened to her.

Finally, the doctor leaves and the room is pitched into silence.

Sylvia pulls out a pack of cigarettes and lights one carefully, admiring the slight glow of the tip for a second before taking a long, slow drag. Only once she exhales, blowing a cloud of smoke that almost seems to fill the tiny room, does she look at Tim.

Something grim and dark settles in Sylvia’s hazel eyes, hardening more and more with each breath she watches the tube force through Tim’s lungs. The look sends a chill through Angela, a horrible itch starting at the back of her mind. Next to Tim, Angela probably knows more about Sylvia than anyone in the world, but right now she hasn’t got the slightest clue what she might be thinking. 

“Curly,” Sylvia says, in the same husky drawl as usual, disarmingly nonchalant, “you got your switch on ya?”

Curly blinks. “‘Course.”

“Give it here.”

Her tone leaves no room for argument and Curly doesn’t try to, pulling the blade from his pocket and placing it in Sylvia’s waiting palm. Manicured nails wrap around it with practiced ease and that horrible itch in the back Angela’s mind suddenly becomes painful.

“What-” the words die on her lips. She can’t bring herself to ask what Sylvia is going to do. She knows what she’s going to do. The dark haired girl has never been one to get angry, but she always, always gets even. An eye for an eye. A humiliation for a humiliation. A stab wound for a stab wound.

A life for a life.

Without another word Sylvia turns on her heel and stalks away, letting the door slam behind her.

Then it’s just Angela and Curly and the boy in the bed that is supposed to be their brother but isn’t. 

There's a horribly ugly fake leather armchair in the corner of the room Angela drags it closer to Tim’s bed and perches on the armrest, Curly half collapsing into the chair itself. 

She’d thought the waiting room was bad but this is worse, sitting beside Tim but being unable to reach him, watching him fighting a fight that for once neither she nor Curly can fight with him, no matter how much she wishes she could.

He’s going to die. 

The thought rises, unbidden, from the part of her mind that is forever young and terrified and hopeless and immediately she knows it to be true. The earth is round, the sky is blue, and her big brother is going to die.

Panic flares in her chest but the more she tries to tamp it down, to banish the thought back to the depths of wherever it came from, the more it demands to be heard.

He’s going to die. Tim is going to die and there is nothing she or Curly or this entire fucking hospital can do about it. Tim is going to die. She and Curly will lose the only real family they’ve ever had and her whole shitty life will get so much worse without anyone to take care of her. Curly will go off the rails, will end up in jail or dead too and then she will truly be entirely, unequivocally, alone.

“Angel?” Curly’s voice is plaintive, small, and she knows he feels it too, “what are we gonna do?”

She knows what he really means, what he’s really asking. She doesn’t have any answers.

Instead she reaches out a trembling hand and Curly grabs hers like a lifeline, squeezing her fingers so tight her bones creak. Angela hangs on just as tightly.

They haven’t done this in years, not since they were seven or so, have barely touched at all in the intervening years, both too used to physical contact meaning pain to ever really be comfortable touching anyone. Now though, the pressure of Curly’s hand in hers feels like the only thing tethering her to the earth. 

They stay like that, hands clasped together in a silent vigil, until Tim wakes up.

It’s neither a slow, nor a pretty process. First a machine starts beeping like crazy and then half a dozen nurses and doctors rush in and kick her and Curly out again into the hallway, but when all is said and done and they’re allowed back in the room, Tim’s black eyes are open and the breathing tube is gone from under his nose. 

Angela Shepard doesn’t believe in miracles, but in that moment it feels like she’s been granted one. Then again, she thinks, as Curly starts mouthing off in an attempt to hide the unshed tears in his eyes, Tim has been the cause of nearly every miracle she’s ever witnessed, and this one is no different.

As Tim starts to yell and Curly’s unmistakable donkey laugh fills the room  Angela can’t help but chide herself for being so stupid. Tim Shepard never lost a fight. Just because this one looked a little different didn’t make it any different.

[langfield]

things i want in double exposure 2 ( self indulgent ) ( not that serious ) :

- blackwell’s ten year highschool reunion or a special event where they invite back former students to show off the school’s success rates. max decides to go back and either takes amanda, vinh, or moses with her depending on who you romanced, or if you didn’t romance anyone at all. cue lis:1 cast meeting the lis:de cast!

- safi being cryptic on crosstalk and occasionally messaging max privately … depending on if you accepted her or not affects the information she gives you about what’s happening

- if romanced, vinh tries stepping down as abraxas president and is rather happy about it … until it’s revealed that diamond has disappeared from caledon, forcing vinh back into the position. it’s a whole thing! max helps him actually start making changes to abraxas, since he’s now capable of doing so

- conclusions for the amanda and vinh romance arcs that are interesting and complex and different. give me max and vinh engaging in a fwb relationship for a while ( due to their fear of losing each other ) and slowly slipping into dating. have them talk about reggie and safi. give me max slowly winning amanda over in time, with her genuinely making an effort to be there for amanda without overstepping her boundaries, with her learning to communicate her own. give me the ‘i kissed both vinh and amanda’ conclusion too! and most importantly : if you romanced neither or only one of them, let max actually befriend them both and become close to them over time

- on top of that : more moses. way more moses and max, thank you

- max realizes she was in love with safi arc. she realizes she always will be, in a way, because that’s how it was with chloe … but she can still find love with other people too. i need the game to make it so clear that max has always been capable of loving more than one person at once! this is normal and very queer of her

- more of reggie, loretta, and gwen. thanks <3

- yasmin, whether she’s president anymore or not, is increasingly overbearing with max. she is always texting her and asking her about safi, is always talking about how good max and safi were for each other — how max can convince safi to come home and understand. tries to relegate herself as max’s mother due to a combination of missing safi dearly, genuinely caring for max, and a selfish desire to keep max at caledon so that when safi returns, she’ll return home to yasmin specifically. she is rather manipulative and pushy about this, and frequently inserts herself into max’s life

- amanda backstory because lord knows she needs it. was she a caledon student at some point, ever? how did she end up working at the snapping turtle? maybe have her grow closer to another character, like gwen or something to give her more of an ‘in’

- maya okada flashback of some sort involving her, safi, and vinh. those three also deserve more backstory and lore, without the lucas stuff

- safi checks in on max through a variety of disguises. not necessarily the caledon cast we know, but some of the background characters ( rowan, alice, shiloh, tim, etc ) … also bonus morally ambiguous ‘safi disguises herself as vinh or amanda to try and kiss max’ scene

- alderman storyline gets picked back up and is actually a major plot now. max desperately tries to figure out how to bring him back once she realizes he’s still nonexistent despite the combined timelines

- lots of max just healing tbh : getting to speak about her past to the other characters, starting to ingrain herself into caledon more, familiarizing herself with her powers again, etc. little things. double exposure is all about max accepting that she hasn’t healed and needs to, so now show me the healing!

- safi dragging diamond around to search for other people like them, trying to train diamond’s powers and sort of being really bad at it ; cue a slowburn friendship between them that has highs and lows. safi is all for embracing the powers but diamond, much like max used to be, is too scared of them … they go back and forth a lot and by the end of things, taught each other many important lessons that have shaped them both as people

- obviously, safi meeting alex and daniel ( & sean, depending ), and navigating these new relationships. old choices matter here!

- safi visits arcadia bay without max ( be it the ruins of it or the bustling town ) and learns about her. she discovers that there’s something particularly special about this town in terms of powers, and there’s canon confirmation from the game ( via safi’s own investigating ) that rachel amber had powers too. and that she has since become the bay ( rachel amber is god theory canon )

- cue rachel amber dreams <3 i think everyone with powers gets one at some point. just because

- safi goes on this roadtrip and repeatedly uses her shapeshifting powers throughout the journey, much to diamond’s discomfort. she will mostly be max if max rejected her, or she’ll mostly be vinh if max accepted her ( since she MOSTLY shapeshifts into vinh during the game ) … but there are appearances from others as well. maybe at some point she shapeshifts into maya and breaks down over it?

- chloe comes to caledon after the storm and meets the caledon gang. many ways this could play out! it’s very messy emotionally though for both max and chloe. they get closure one way or another

- safi yuris out on the road with everyone. most notably alex and diamond by accident. maybe chloe somehow? daniel is also a little trans, don’t worry about that too hard

- if you saved the bay, we finally find out what nathan’s fate is and if he’s really still in prison or not! maybe we’re given more information about the jefferson-prescott trial, because god do i want it

- victoria. the game makes a point to emphasize how close her and max are, despite the distance between them. we find out that both of them coped very poorly with what happened in arcadia bay and have grown closer for it. if chloe’s alive, we get the chloe/victoria situation of our dreams that max has to grappe with. she is mostly happy for them, a bit jealous in a sopping cat way, but also finds it very funny that she has slept with them both. #chasefield canon #chaseprice canon

- vinh, at some point, embraces acting again. we see him navigate student productions and reaching out for auditions in plays — and see him wrestle with wanting to stay in caledon for max’s sake versus wanting to leave it behind still. safi parallels because vinh and safi have always been so similar despite the stark differences

- langfield kiss. langfield obsessed with each other. langfield grossly infatuated. clear the searches!!!

bonus. double exposure gets a dlc and it’s just the powered people meeting up for real and dancing around a fire like witches about it. or something. it’s very profound trust me

[dailyanarchistposts]

Footnotes, 151-200

[151] Jean Hardisty, Mobilizing Resentment (Boston: Beacon Press, 1999), 107–108; Rob Boston, “If Best-Selling End-Times Author Tim LaHaye Has His Way, Church-State Separation Will Be…Left Behind,” Church & State Magazine, February 2002.

[152] Mariah Blake, “Stations Of The Cross: How evangelical Christians are creating an alternative universe of faith-based news,” Columbia Journalism Review, May/June 2005.

[153] Elias Canetti, Crowds and Power (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1973), 22.

[154] Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents, edited and translated by James Strachey (New York: W. W. Norton, 1961), 67.

[155] Ibid., 66.

[156] Steve Blow, “Turning Textbooks into the Good Book,” Dallas Morning News, March 5, 2006.

[157] Mary Ann Zehr, “School of Faith,” Education Week, December 7, 2005.

[158] See www.ed.nces.gov.

[159] Laurel Elizabeth Hicks, Old World History and Geography (Pensacola, FL: A Beka, 1991), 247, as cited in Frances Patterson, “Teaching Religious Intolerance,” Rethinking Schools Online, www.rethinkingschools.org.

[160] Hicks, Old World History and Geography, 210, as cited in Patterson, “Teaching Religious Intolerance.”

[161] Hicks, Old World History and Geography, 213 and 214, as cited in Patterson, “Teaching Religious Intolerance.”

[162] Patterson, “Teaching Religious Intolerance,” 2.

[163] Jerry Combee, History of the World in Christian Perspective (Pensacola, FL: A Beka, 1997), 86.

[164] Patterson, “Teaching Religious Intolerance,” 2.

[165] Hicks, Old World History and Geography, 47, as cited in Patterson, “Teaching Religious Intolerance.”

[166] Combee, History of the World, 279.

[167] Hicks, Old World History and Geography, 212, as cited in Patterson, “Teaching Religious Intolerance.”

[168] Heritage Studies for Christian Schools 6 (Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press, 1998), 41.

[169] Kurt S. Grussendorf, Michael R. Lowman, and Brian S. Asbaugh, America, Land I Love—Teacher Edition (Pensacola, FL: A Beka, 1994), 636.

[170] Ibid., 631.

[171] Ibid., 630.

[172] Ibid., 593. Italics added.

[173] Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, Glorious Appearing: The End of Days (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 2004), 10.

[174] Ibid., 12.

[175] “UnCommonSense,” J. Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio Secretary of State, www_sos.state_oh.us.

[176] Ibid.

[177] Ibid.

[178] Ibid.

[179] Andrew Welsh-Huggins, “Ohio Televangelist Takes to Politics,” FortWayne.com, December 3, 2005, www.fortwayne.com.

[180] Sarah Posner, “With God on His Side,” American Prospect, November 2005.

[181] Jim Bebbington, “An Empire of Souls,” Columbus Monthly, May 1993, 35, quoted in G. Richard Fisher, “Rod Parsley: The Raging Prophet,” Personal Freedom Outreach, 1999.

[182] Posner, “With God on His Side.”

[183] Walter Lippmann, Liberty and the News (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920), 64.

[184] William Lobdell, “The Prosperity Gospel; Pastor’s Empire Built on Acts of Faith and Cash,” Los Angeles Times, September 19, 2004, B1.

[185] Ibid.

[186] Andre Gumbel, “Scandal, Sex and Sanctimony,” New Zealand Herald, September 18, 2004, B16.

[187] Paul Crouch Sr., Praise the Lord, November 7, 1997, quoted in “Paul Crouch and TBN,” On Doctrine, www.ondoctrine.com.

[188] Lobdell, “Prosperity Gospel.”

[189] Gumbel, “Scandal, Sex and Sanctimony.”

[190] Benny Hinn, Praise the Lord, October 19, 1999, quoted in “Paul Crouch and TBN.”

[191] Benny Hinn, Larry King Live, quoted in “Benny Hinn—Truth or Consequences, Part 3,” Let Us Reason Ministries Apologetics Index, www.apologeticsindex.org.

[192] Gumbel, “Scandal, Sex and Sanctimony.”

[193] Paul Crouch Sr., Praise-a-Thon, April 2, 1991, quoted in “Paul Crouch and TBN.”

[194] Gumbel, “Scandal, Sex and Sanctimony.”

[195] William Lobdell, “Ex-Worker Accusing TBN Pastor Says He Had Sex to Keep His Job,” Los Angeles Times, September 22, 2004, B1.

[196] Lobdell, “Prosperity Gospel.”

[197] Ibid.

[198] Mark A. Beliles and Stephen K. McDowell, America’s Providential History, 19

[199] Ibid., 3.

[200] Ibid., 214.

[whats-in-a-sentence]

More generally, these researchers emphasize, the central principle of special relativity is that no observational vantage point is singled out over any other. Thus, they propose (and many agree) that if they egalitarian treatment of all constant-velocity observers could be squared with the experimental results on entangled particles, the tension with special relativity would be resolved.¹⁷

17. The mathematically inclined reader should note that, at its core, special relativity claims that the laws of physics must be Lorentz invariant, that is, invariant under SO(3,1) coordinate transformations on Minkowski spacetime. The conclusion, then, is that quantum mechanics would be squared with special relativity if it could be formulated in a fully Lorentz-invariant manner. Now, relativistic quantum mechanics and relativistic quantum field theory have gone a long way toward this goal, but as yet there isn't full agreement regarding whether they have addressed the quantum measurement problem in a Lorentz-invariant framework. In relativistic quantum field theory, for example, it is straightforward to compute, in a completely Lorentz-invariant manner, the probability amplitudes and probabilities for outcomes of various experiments. But the standard treatments stop short of also describing the way in which one particular outcome or another emerges from the range of quantum possibilities – that is, what happens in the measurement process. This is a particularly important issue for entanglement, as the phenomenon hinges on the effect of what an experimenter does – the act of measuring one of the entangled particle's properties. For a more detailed discussion, see Tim Maudlin, Quantum Non-locality and Relativity (Oxford: Blackwell, 2002).

"The Fabric of the Cosmos" - Brian Greene

[betterthanapokeintheeye]

30 gifts for 30 days of November - Day 29

This is the twenty ninth of thirty Better Than a Poke in the Eye recommended gifts for the book lover in your life, even if that book lover is YOU!

Today’s recommendation is: Long Live the Pumpkin Queen by Shea Ernshaw .

Rachel fell in love with Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas and recommended a novelisation of it earlier in this list.  Long Live the Pumpkin Queen is a sequel book continuing the story and Rachel is hoping it appears in her stocking this christmas.

Jack and Sally are truly meant to be... or are they? Newly crowned, Sally is thrown into the role of Queen of Halloween Town. Cast into the spotlight and tasked with royal duties, Sally can't help but wonder if all she's done is swap her captivity under Dr. Finkelstein for a new cage.

When Sally and Zero accidentally uncover a long-hidden doorway to an ancient realm called Dream Town, she unknowingly sets a chain of sinister events in motion, putting herself, and the future of Halloween Town, in jeopardy. Can Sally discover how to be true to herself and save Halloween Town, or will her future turn into her worst nightmare?

Long Live the Pumpkin Queen - Shea Ernshaw R.R.P. £7.99

You can purchase it through our online bookshop or through any of our affiliate links.  

Better Than a Poke in the Eye Bookshop .org

Amazon UK

Foyles

Waterstones

WHSmith

Blackwells

Forbidden Planet

[d-criss-news]

Via Ricki-Lee, Tim & Joel's Instagram Story (September 6th, 2023) Link

[thanksforthedinosaur]

charli xcx - von dutch

takanashi kiara - do u

猫又おかゆ - ネコカブリーナ

justin timberlake - no angels

ariana grande - supernatural

blu detiger - disappearing (feat. magdalena bay)

empress of - lorelei

machinedrum - zoom

terror jr - 3 strikes (terror's version)

kenya grace - someone else

clear eyes - not awake

ethanuno - amarte como yo

babebee - next2u

oston - wtf u want.

hailey knox - 11th hour

leanys - la verdad

dee holt - make a move

sophie cates - feel it

st. vincent - flea

jackie hayes - happy ending

fletcher - pretending

lyn lapid - cruise control

hkfiftyone - corpse (i still feel but i wish that i didn't)

beyoncé - alliigator tears

gglum - splat!

holly humberstone - down swinging

bel - nos despedimos

hazel english - jesse

phoebe go - leave

spiderblush - big deal

hana vu - hammer

wormy - steve m. grocery - annie dirusso version

rosie tucker - maylene

lightning bug - opus

superfan - 75 germany

the goalie’s anxiety at the penalty kick - wild rose

chastity belt - laugh

lucy rose - over when it's over

waxahatchee - bored

laura elliott - need

prinze george - smackdown

la dispute - fourteen

adrianne lenker - free treasure

abby holliday - immortal

owen - virtue misspent

bad bad hats - my heart your heart

bee blackwell - dumb

somoh - problem child

hannah grae - screw loose

tim kinsella & jenny pulse - apple

thank you, i'm sorry - sneaking off

annabel - defense mechanism

vial - bottle blonde

ride - portland rocks

diiv - soul-net

yung lean - ghosts

flo milli - never lose me (feat. sza & cardi b)

justend - rollercoasting

nyota parker - whatchu say ?

tierra whack - snake eyes

[beardedmrbean]

Five former leaders of the Pennsylvania corrections officers’ union have been charged with theft after investigators say they used union funds to pay for personal expenses and hid the transactions.

PennLive reported the criminal charges, made last month in a Harrisburg court, on Thursday. Two former union presidents and three ex-vice presidents are charged.

The transactions — which allegedly totaled more than $23,000 among the five men — were made between 2015 and 2019 and included iTunes purchases, wineries and vineyards, and luxury venues in Las Vegas, the Harrisburg-area newspaper reported.

The five men used union credit cards to make the personal purchases, submitted vague expense reports and attempted to block any questioning from other leaders, police say. The charges came after the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association’s own audit of questionable credit card purchases.

Charged are former union President Jason Bloom for unlawful transactions totaling $8,286.48; former President Roy Pinto for $2,030.50; former Executive Vice President Tim Walsh for $5,834.58; former Western Region Vice President Larry Blackwell for $2,488.02; and former Eastern Region Vice President Robert Storm for $4,422.13.

The Associated Press left messages seeking comment Friday with attorneys representing Bloom, Blackwell and Storm. Walsh’s attorney’s office declined to comment. No attorney for Pinto was listed in the online court docket.

Bloom was suspended without pay from his position at a state prison, and the other four do not work for the government anymore, according to Maria Bivens, a state Department of Corrections spokesperson.

The current union leadership says none of the men are still involved with the union.

[maddyisabstract]

Here's my Dragonmeet 2023 Haul!

You can find links to all the games below:

Coiled Space Training Manual by Aethercorp Games

Onira’s Slumber by Jean Verne

Stealing Your Heart by Joshua Fox

Menagerie of the Void by Eran Aviram

From Hell’s Heart I Stab At Thee by Jonathan Sims

Scribe by Frederic Walker

Apothecaria by Anna Blackwell

Tangled Blessings by Cassi Mothwin

Talking Thunder by Eleanor Hingley and Stardust & Sigil

D12 and Delve by W.H. Arthur

Overisles, and Inspirisles dice by Hatchlings Games

Thousand Year Old Vampire by Tim Hutchings

Giveaway dice and tray by DnDice, courtesy of Penance RPG, plus the adorable octopus

[eddsworld-enchanted-era]

Eddsworld Enchanted Info Masterpost!

-=-Characters-=-

The Main Cast:

Edward “Edd” Harpwing

Relations: Tord’s adopted brother, twin to Ded Harpwing. Nephew to Sharpay Harpwing, adopted son of Pat and Pau Harpwing. Best friends with Matt Hiddengrove and Tom Blackwell.

Info: He’s a silly, fun prankster who’s almost always on a caffeine/sugar rush... or at least, he was, until it happened. Now he’s quiet and reserved, a far cry from his former self. You can usually find him cooped up in his room throwing himself into his work, or mulling over some classified documents that no one’s quite sure how he managed to get a hold of.

He’s been trying to pretend everything’s fine, but he’s so obviously barely holding together.

He cries a lot more often now.

Goals: Trying to find Tord again, or at least confirm that he’s still alive - he’s worried about his brother, after all.

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

Thomas “Tom” Blackwell

Relations: Twin to Timothy Blackwell, best friends with Matt Hiddengrove and Edd Harpwing - former friend of Tord Harpwing

Info: Just classic stupid Tom. He's a bit edgy, a little snarky, but extremely loyal. The kind of guy who would absolutely cut a bitch for Edd and Matt.

He's heard tales of a rising army lead by a horned man in red, and he's bitter as hell. He must have missed.

Well, he won't miss the second time around, will he?

Goals: To find Tord - he knows goddamn well that harpoon shot didn’t kill him, and he wants his fucking revenge.

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

Matthew “Matt” Hiddengrove

Relations: Best friends with Edd Harpwing, Ded Harpwing, and Tom Blackwell - former friend of Tord Harpwing.

Used to “adventure” with the Harpwings as kids after his mother mysteriously fell ill.

Info: A bit vain and selfish. He acts dumb and naive as a cover for himself, he’s actually extremely intelligent. Do not get on his bad side if you know what’s good for you. he and his zombeh army (recruited from the ASDFLand zombehs) will fuck you up.

Goals: To prove that he's not what everyone thinks.

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

-=-The Typo Bros!-=-

Sharpay "Pay" Harpwing

Relations: Brother to Pat Harpwing, uncle of Edd, Tord, and Ded Harpwing. friend to Tim Blackwell and Pau Harpwing.

Info: Depressed, slutty, alcoholic, feeling lost and alone and as though he's been left behind by everyone he's ever cared for - what isn't wrong in Sharpay's life? That's the question he asks himself every day, but never seems to find a good answer.

Some days he wonders why he's still hanging on.

Goals: To find something worthwhile for himself.

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

Timothy "Tim" Blackwell

Relations: Friend to Pay, Edd and Ded Harpwing. twin to Tom Blackwell, acquaintances with Pat and Pau Harpwing, and formerly Tord Harpwing.

Info: Pretty, happy, smart, and a successful guitarist - what isn't right in Tim's life? He's almost the exact opposite of Sharpay, so it's anyone's guess as to how the two became friends.

The two date on and off, though when they're on, they'd never dare admit it.

They're terrible for each other romantically, but you know what they say - opposites attract.

Goals: To be world famous for his music, and to help Sharpay out.

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

Ded "GMan" Harpwing

Relations: Friend of Tim Blackwell, twin to Edd Harpwing, adopted brother of Tord Harpwing. Nephew to Sharpay Harpwing.

Info: Lazy and easygoing, Ded just wants to vibe with his geckos, man. He doesn't wanna deal with this shit.

He doesn't even know what a Red Army is - though, the rumored descriptions of the top members seem somewhat familiar.

His close friends call him G Man, like the Half-Life character - though in his case, the G stands for Geckos.

His favourite drink is, surprisingly, Dr. Pepper.

Goals: To become a herpetologist specialising in geckos, salamanders, and other kinds of lizards.

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

-?-The Rumored Warriors-?-

Patryck "Pat" Harpwing

Relations: Husband to Pau Harpwing, adoptive father to Edd, Ded, and Tord Harpwing. Brother of Pay Harpwing. Acquaintances with Tim Blackwell. Vaguely aware of Tom's existence.

Info: "...Isn't that above your clearance level?"

Goals: To serve the Red Army, and to keep his husband safe.

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

Pau "Daddy Eyebrows" Harpwing (maiden name Arakajime)

Relations: Husband to Pat Harpwing, adoptive father to Edd, Ded, and Tord Harpwing. Friend of Pay Harpwing, acquaintances with Tim and Tom Blackwell.

Info: "All you need to know is that he's a damn good shot with that rifle."

Goals: To serve the Red Army, and to keep his husband safe.

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

The Red Leader, otherwise known as

Tord Harpwing.

Relations: Adopted brother to Edward and Ded Harpwing. Enemy to Thomas Blackwell. No longer cares for Matthew Hiddengrove.

He's trying to disconnect from his past.

Info: "Du kan ikke vet det. Ikke ennå."

Goals: Total control.

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

~/\~Summary!~/\~

A fan-era that picks up where The End Part 2, the final episode of Eddsworld Legacy, had left off, adding some newcomers and a whole entire world of secrets and surprises and little background details.

Edd, Matt, and Tom are dealing with their own feelings and the aftermath of what they call 'the incident'.

Sharpay is finally learning to live life, Tim's career is picking up, and Ded's chilling with his pet geckos and drinking waaaay too much soda for his own good.

But what happens when Tord and his army rise like a phoenix from the ashes? (er, the molten metal and shattered glass.)

Find out soon!

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

Extra notes: no, this will not focus on the neighbours. at least, not as part of the main cast, or even as secondary characters - there's an in-universe reason for this (Eduardo and Mark are in a bit of a depressive funk after Jon's untimely demise, and don't leave the house much. It's a rare sight, they'll mostly be in the background) and an out-of-universe reason (I suck balls at writing the neighbours LMAO... and also I don't really like them. Plus there's already too much fan-content revolving around them anyhow.)

There's a discord, join it here!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

To save the news, shatter ad-tech

I’m coming to the HowTheLightGetsIn festival in HAY-ON-WYE with my novel Red Team Blues:

Sun (May 28), 1130h: The AI Enigma

Mon (May 29), 12h: Danger and Desire at the Frontier

I’m at OXFORD’s Blackwell’s on May 29 at 7:30PM with Tim Harford.

Then it’s Nottingham, Manchester, London, Edinburgh, and Berlin!

Big Tech steals from news, but what it steals isn’t content. Talking about the news isn’t theft, and neither is linking to it, or excerpting it. But stealing money? That’s definitely theft.

Big Tech steals money from the news media. 51% of every ad-dollar is claimed by a tech intermediary, a middleman that squats on a chokepoint between advertisers and publishers. Two companies — Google and Meta — dominate this sector, and both of these companies are “full-stack” — which is cutesy techspeak for “vertical monopoly.”

Here’s what that means: when an advertiser wants to place an ad, it contracts with the “demand-side platform” (DSP) to seek out a chance to put an ad in front of a user based on nonconsensually gathered surveillance data about a potential customer.

The DSP contacts an ad-exchange — a marketplace where advertisers bid against each other to cram their ads into the eyeballs of a user based on surveillance data matches.

The ad-exchange receives a constant stream of chances to place ads. This stream is generated by the “supply-side platform” (SSP), a service that represents publishers who want to sell ads.

Meta/Facebook and Google both the “full stack” of ads: they represent buyers and sellers, and they operate the marketplace. When the sale closes, Googbook collects a commission from the advertiser, another from the publisher, and a fee for running the market. And of course, Google and Facebook are both publishers and advertisers.

This is like a stock exchange where one company operates the exchange, while serving as broker and underwriter for every stock bought or sold, while owning huge amounts of stock in many of the listed companies as well as owning the largest companies on the exchange outright.

It’s like a realtor representing the buyer and the seller, while buying and selling millions of homes for its own purposes, bidding against its buyers and also undercutting its sellers, in an opaque auction that only it can see.

It’s a single lawyer representing both parties in a divorce, while serving as judge in divorce court, while trying to match one of the divorcing parties on Tinder.

It’s incredibly dirty. These companies gobble up the majority of every ad dollar in commissions and other junk fees, and they say it’s because they’re just really danged good at buying and selling ads. Forgive me if I sound cynical, but I think it’s a lot more likely that they’re good at cheating.

We could try to make them stop cheating with a bunch of rules about how a company with this kind of gross conflict of interest should conduct itself. But enforcing those rules would be hard — merely detecting cheating would be hard. A simpler — and more effective — approach is to simply remove the conflict of interest.

Writing on EFF’s Deeplinks blog this week, I explain how the AMERICA Act — introduced by Senator Mike Lee, with bipartisan cosponsors from Elizabeth Warren to Ted Cruz (!) — can do just that:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/05/save-news-we-must-shatter-ad-tech

The AMERICA Act would require the largest ad-tech companies to sell off two of their three ad-tech divisions — they could be a buyer’s agent, a seller’s agent or a marketplace — but not all three (not even two!). This is in keeping with a well-established principle in antitrust law: “structural separation,” the idea that a company can be a platform owner, or a platform user, but not both.

In the heyday of structural separation, railroad companies were banned from running freight companies that competed with the firms that shipped freight on their rails. Likewise, banks were banned from owning companies that competed with the businesses they loaned money to. Basically, the rule said, “If you want to be the ref in this game, you can’t own one of the teams”:

https://www.eff.org/es/deeplinks/2021/02/what-att-breakup-teaches-us-about-big-tech-breakup

Structural separation acknowledges that some conflicts of interest are so consequential and so hard to police that they shouldn’t exist at all. A judge won’t hear a case if they know one of the litigants — and certainly not if they have a financial stake in the outcome of the case.

The ad-tech duopoly controls a massive slice of the ad market, and holds in its hands the destiny of much of the news and other media we enjoy and rely on. Under the AMERICA Act’s structural separation rule, the obvious, glaring conflicts of interest that dominate big ad-tech companies would be abolished.

The AMERICA Act also regulates smaller ad-tech platforms. Companies with $5–20b in turnover would have a duty to “act in the best interests of their customers, including by making the best execution for bids on ads,” and maintain transparent systems that are designed to facilitate third-party auditing. If a single company operated brokerages serving both buyers and sellers, it would need to create firewalls between both sides of the business, and would face stiff penalties for failures to uphold their customers’ interests.

EFF’s endorsement of the AMERICA Act is the first of four proposals we’re laying out in a series on saving news media from Big Tech. We introduced those proposals last week in a big “curtain raiser” post:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/saving-news-big-tech

Next week, we’ll publish our proposal for using privacy law to kill surveillance ads, replacing them with “context ads” that let publishers — not ad-tech — control the market.

Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in Hay-on-Wye, Oxford, Manchester, Nottingham, London, and Berlin!

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/25/structural-separation/#america-act

EFF's banner for the save news series; the word 'NEWS' appears in pixelated, gothic script in the style of a newspaper masthead. Beneath it in four entwined circles are logos for breaking up ad-tech, ending surveillance ads, opening app stores, and end-to-end delivery. All the icons except for 'break-up ad-tech' are greyed out.

Image: EFF https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/05/save-news-we-must-shatter-ad-tech

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en