Anyway all kids are idiots. Kids who we bomb in foreign nations are exactly like these dummies. Kids we starve would act like this, against their own self interest if they could.
Reposted from http://ift.tt/2jtR9cC.
For our third anniversary my wife and I spent a few days staying in a northern California B&B. It was run by what I thought of at the time as an “older couple”, though they were probably not much older than we are now.
Carol was the personable one who greeted us on arrival and said hello when we were coming and going. George was quieter, less in evidence. He brought the breakfast tray to our cottage each morning, but left it at the door. The few times we spoke with him we noticed his thick accent; Carol told us that he was from Hungary, having been one of those who made it out in ‘56.
We only had one real conversation with George. It was after we’d been there a few days, when he’d relaxed enough to open up a bit. I don’t remember how we got on the topic, but we ended up discussing politicians, and political protest (this was during Reagan’s second term, and the local community was outraged over plans for offshore oil drilling).
“Eh,” he said. “The thing with politicians is, every now and then you have to take a few of the worst of them and hang them from a tree.” He grinned at us, raising his eyebrows. “Nothing else works. Then afterwards, whenever they start getting too full of themselves, all you have to do is point at the tree.”
I’ve thought about that conversation from time to time. Lately I’ve been thinking about it more.
Reposted from http://ift.tt/2kq5iqw.
by Natsuki_y
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Reposted from http://ift.tt/2kSC1S5.
A thought via Ken Fletcher courtesy of
Heather Richardson, professor of History at Boston College: please read and consider.I don’t like to talk about politics on Facebook– political history
is my job, after all, and you are my friends– but there is an important
non-partisan point to make today.What Bannon is doing, most
dramatically with last night’s ban on immigration from seven
predominantly Muslim countries– is creating what is known as a “shock
event.”Such an event is unexpected and confusing and throws a
society into chaos. People scramble to react to the event, usually along
some fault line that those responsible for the event can widen by
claiming that they alone know how to restore order.When
opponents speak out, the authors of the shock event call them enemies.
As society reels and tempers run high, those responsible for the shock
event perform a sleight of hand to achieve their real goal, a goal they
know to be hugely unpopular, but from which everyone has been distracted
as they fight over the initial event. There is no longer concerted
opposition to the real goal; opposition divides along the partisan lines
established by the shock event.Last night’s Executive Order has
all the hallmarks of a shock event. It was not reviewed by any
governmental agencies or lawyers before it was released, and
counterterrorism experts insist they did not ask for it. People charged
with enforcing it got no instructions about how to do so. Courts
immediately have declared parts of it unconstitutional, but border
police in some airports are refusing to stop enforcing it.Predictably, chaos has followed and tempers are hot.
My point today is this: unless you are the person setting it up, it is
in no one’s interest to play the shock event game. It is designed
explicitly to divide people who might otherwise come together so they
cannot stand against something its authors think they won’t like.I don’t know what Bannon is up to– although I have some guesses– but
because I know Bannon’s ideas well, I am positive that there is not a
single person whom I consider a friend on either side of the aisle– and
my friends range pretty widely– who will benefit from whatever it is.If the shock event strategy works, though, many of you will blame each
other, rather than Bannon, for the fallout. And the country will have
been tricked into accepting their real goal.But because shock
events destabilize a society, they can also be used positively. We do
not have to respond along old fault lines. We could just as easily
reorganize into a different pattern that threatens the people who
sparked the event.A successful shock event depends on speed and
chaos because it requires knee-jerk reactions so that people divide
along established lines. This, for example, is how Confederate leaders
railroaded the initial southern states out of the Union.If
people realize they are being played, though, they can reach across old
lines and reorganize to challenge the leaders who are pulling the
strings. This was Lincoln’s strategy when he joined together Whigs,
Democrats, Free-Soilers, anti-Nebraska voters, and nativists into the
new Republican Party to stand against the Slave Power.Five years
before, such a coalition would have been unimaginable. Members of those
groups agreed on very little other than that they wanted all Americans
to have equal economic opportunity. Once they began to work together to
promote a fair economic system, though, they found much common ground.
They ended up rededicating the nation to a “government of the people, by
the people, and for the people.”Confederate leaders and Lincoln
both knew about the political potential of a shock event. As we are in
the midst of one, it seems worth noting that Lincoln seemed to have the
better idea about how to use it.
Reposted from http://ift.tt/2kSG9BL.
Be brave, friends. Today while I was out grocery shopping, a stranger, completely unprovoked, decided to say racist, xenophobic insults to me. He told me that they were building a wall and to go back where I’m from, multiple times with spite in his face. I am an American citizen. I was born in the United States and have lived here my whole life. And I am Asian. I was shocked and terrified, and now, angered. There is no place for racists in the U.S. I belong here, and I will fight for equality for as long as hateful people like that exist. I will be at the Women’s March on Washington tomorrow.
Reposted from http://ift.tt/2kMjJWO.
Reposted from http://ift.tt/2klJInh.
I’m still here and quite busy!! Here’s a coloring page of a broody female dodo, who doesn’t quite like the look of you, a hungry mid-17th-century sailor.
#coloring #ink #bartelsintern #dodo #extinction #bird #extinctbirds (at Cornell Lab of Ornithology)
Reposted from http://ift.tt/2k95kRt.
Salt marsh at Cheesequake State Park (by me)
I love the subtle variations in color of coastal marsh grasses.
Reposted from http://ift.tt/2jsSHyK.
i drew this as a thank you gift a while back. it’s a red-breasted nuthatch because this year has been crazy for this species…so many o___o
Reposted from http://ift.tt/2jjmLBx.
Tufted Flower Kisser by S.J. Trinidad & Tobago Nature
Via Flickr:
The Tufted Coquette can easily mistaken for a huge bumblebee, it is our smallest bird on Trinidad & Tobago. Also a contender for the second smallest bird in the world, beaten in size only by the Bee hummingbird of Cuba.
Reposted from http://ift.tt/2jAFPJX.
“If you listen, you learn; if you talk, you don’t.”
R.I.P. John Hurt, who has passed away at the age of 77.
Reposted from http://ift.tt/2jz787F.
For those who don’t know, my dad was born originally in France and didn’t move to America until he was six. His entire family is European and Jewish.
All my life, I’ve been raised to know that the entirety of that side of the family experienced head-on the effects of being a Jew in Europe during World War II, but I’ve only ever been given bits and pieces of information about what they actually went through.
My dad today sent me an email giving a quick overview of what Henri and Suzanne – his parents – went through.
I want to post these stories here for me to be able to find easily, and also because I feel like it’s important information for anyone to read if they’d like to. We hear statistics about the Holocaust all the time, but it’s different to get specific names and stories.
So, if you’re interested, my dad’s email is under the cut.
Reposted from http://ift.tt/2kwmKqU.
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