Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"Sometimes people ask me how I know all the random shit I know (with varying levels of politeness and belief in its veracity) and all I got is 'I have ADHD, an internet connection, really good research skills, and zero self-regulatory mechanisms'" -- rahaeli (rahaeli), 2022-07-27

[Sometimes when it's a younger person asking how I know so much random stuff, I point out that I have a 30-40 year head start on them at the accumulating-shiny-facts game, so it's maybe less that I'm amazing than that I'm old.]

"I was taught to strive not because there were any guarantees of success but because the act of striving is in itself the only way to keep faith with life" -- Madeleine Albright (b. 1937-05-15, d. 2022-03-23; US ambassador to the UN 1993-1997, US secretary of state 1997-2001), Madam Secretary, 2003

"in Birmingham last year some guy approached the group of friends I was with and started trying to guess our genders and I was like 'dude. we're goths. the gender is goth.'" -- Lindsay (LLBroadwell), 2022-07-21

"ngl one of the scariest things recently has been me posting 'the fascists are gonna kill us no matter how respectable we are, I'm gonna do drugs and have weird sex til I'm executed'
 and having a friend link me a letter between 2 gay men in 1930s Germany that was essentially that."
  -- Nikki 'Planetary (GO!)' Ophan (NikkiOphan), 2022-07-24

"When you engage in 'good faith debate' on topics like the right to bodily autonomy, all you're doing is ceding the idea that the subject itself is debatable.

"This causes further harm to those already being harmed, and positively reinforces the behavior of those causing the harm.

"Practice saying, "the right for human beings to control their own bodies is not up for debate with me, and if you disagree, we have nothing further to discuss," and leaving it at that."

-- the apocalypse, but make it fashion. (ElleArmageddon), 2022-07-21

"Reminder that the fascist's goal isn't to win the debate, it's to make his extreme ideas seem debatable. It's the stage they want. Don't let them have it." -- Michael Hall (mhall119), 2022-07-21

"With life and all I've been through, I do have a belief in goodness, a good spirit. I think what people have done with religion is personified good and evil, so good's become God with 'o' out, and evil's become Devil with a 'd' added. That's my theory of religion." -- Sir Paul McCartney (b. 1942-06-18)

"Programming should now be referred to as 'torturing sand into thinking'." -- Ryan Castellucci (ryancdotorg), 2022-07-17

"when programs have bugs that's the sand fighting back. they have the power of billions of years of vast, horizon spanning deserts on their side." -- signal eleven (widdr), replying to Ryan Castellucci

"be gentle with who you had to be because that's who got you to who you were meant to be" -- Pussy Lobby (girldrawsghosts), 2022-07-21

"As a kid I played soccer. I loved it, but couldn't understand why, around second grade, suddenly the boys were getting good and we girls were still shitty.

"Then, 8th grade, witnessed a boys practice. They did drills. They did practice shots, passes, steals, etc

"They would like up, with 3 or 4 balls each, and kick and kick and kick, practicing specific motions.

"They would practice calling shots. Calling passes. Outside pass, inside pass, that thing where you scoop it using one foot onto the other, hop with a twist, and kick it backwards

"Do you know what 100% of all our practices were?

"Running laps to lose weight, and scrimmaging.

"We would spent 1/2 hr just running laps, not allowed water bc 'water makes you weak'.

"Then we were given a snack, and spent the next 20-30 mins 'scrimmaging' aka having a fake match

"In professional sports, the number one difference in male vs female performance is their access to training.

"Rich people have kids better at sports bc they hire pros, start early, and invest in gaining skill.

"It's not about strength. Not even weight lifting."

-- Babe of Swolls Solidarity (Babe_of_Swolls), 2022-07-18 [Note that the thread she quote-tweets, that this is a response to, is also very interesting (awkwardlefty_cj rebutting Helen Joyce on sex differences in ballet and other dance) and I'll probably quote from that thread at some point too.]

"'Nonbinary is just a phase!' I heard the same shit about bisexuality in the 2000's and all of those kids I knew then are still queer." -- Alptraum (AlptraumG), 2022-07-17

"Proud goth bi/pan enby here! Guess what: none of those things are a phase for me

"(But even if they were... the moon has phases and she is beautiful)"

-- Edgar Allan Bitch (Saf) (edgar_a_bitch), 2022-07-19

[It's that last parenthetical observation that I love. Also, kind of unrelatedly (but also not), today would be the feast day of Saint Wilgefortus (aka St. Uncumber or St. Ontkommer), if her origin hadn't been debunked a few hundred years ago (alas).]

"The Republican Party today is a zombie party. Its leaders go through the motions of governing in pursuit of traditional Republican goals, wrestling over infrastructure spending and foreign policy, even as real power in the party has leached away to Trump. From the uneasy and sometimes contentious partnership during Trump's four years in office, the party's main if not sole purpose today is as the willing enabler of Trump's efforts to game the electoral system to ensure his return to power." -- Robert Kagan, "Our constitutional crisis is already here", 2021-09-23, The Washington Post (Opinion)

"Our legacy newsrooms report on transgender care and lives as if we are question mark on this earth: should we exist or not?

[...]

"Every major medical association has come to a consensus about transgender medicine. Media outlets fuel extremist debates about our lives anyway."

-- Kate Sosin (shoeleatherkate), 2022-07-15 (quoted bit is third tweet in thread)

"There is a deep wisdom in the way the Jewish calendar unfolds. Our festivals and fast days are waypoints along the journey we travel each year. 17 Tamuz marks the beginning of the descent toward Tisha b'Av. At Tisha b'Av, we mark the beginning of the ascent toward the Days of Awe.

"In Hasidic tradition there's the idea that often in order to rise, one first has to fall. Yeridah tzorech aliyah: one has to go down in order to be able to go up. Descent for the sake of ascent . This drama plays itself out in a variety of places in Torah -- for instance, in the Joseph story, in which 'descent for the sake of ascent' is a recurring motif. The downs are necessary precursors to the ups.

[...]

"It can be tempting to want to paper over the places that hurt. To look on the bright side, to put on a happy face, to focus on the positive. I do these things all of the time. But 17 Tammuz and the weeks which follow are an opportunity to let ourselves experience moments of descent, together."

-- Rabbi Rachel Barenblat (velveteenrabbi), 2014-07-09

[To my friends observing Tzom Tammuz, may you have an easy fast.]

"there is no ceiling that can prevent a cat from shenanigans" -- Beef or Disco (theSkinShrimp), 2022-07-10 (yes, there is context)

"Swann was frequently arrested and jailed for throwing balls, without ever being charged with specific crimes. Police would arrest Swann and participants as 'suspicious characters,' according to Joseph, or charge them without evidence for associated crimes like vagrancy or 'keeping a disorderly house,' a law often associated with sex work. At one point, after being arrested and jailed, Swann sought a presidential pardon from then-president Grover Cleveland. He gathered lawyers and even collected signatures from community members to support his innocence. While he did not receive the pardon, he's recognized as the first person to take legal steps to defend the right to assemble for a queer party." -- Colleen Grablick (colleengrablick), "Dupont Residents Push To Dedicate Swann Street After William Dorsey Swann, The First Self-Described 'Queen Of Drag'", 2022-07-14, DCist.com

[Today is International Non-Binary People's Day. So here's a reminder that various cultures, ancient and current, had or still have non-male/non-female genders.]

"[...] The word 'non-binary' may have only come into public use more commonly in the last five years, but prior to that many other associated words were used to describe existing outside of binary gender and also expressions. Gender non-conformity has existed since humans have been here.

"In 19th Century Italy, many were called femmenielli, and alongside the Hijra community in South Asia, there are countless examples of indigenous ways of being outside the binary, and in many parts of pre-colonial African countries too. Sure, none of these communities were using this exact word, at that exact time, but the conception of being something beyond a man or a woman is certainly not a 21st Century phenomenon. This isn't to say the dialogue surrounding non-binary identities hasn't shifted and expanded, in many ways it has, but more to note a specific frustration I have with the framing of these identities as 'new', and the implications that this has on being a Black non-binary person.

"I do not think it is a coincidence that things are often seen as 'just beginning to exist' when they are placed within frames of the West and/or whiteness. Did we mean to say 'non-binary was new', or did we just mean to say 'non-binary is now something I see more white, western, middle class people talking about'. [...]"

-- Travis Alabanza, "Non-Binary People Aren't A New Phenomenon -- We've Been Here As Long As Humans Have Existed", 2018-05-12

"The Trump movement might not have begun as an insurrection, but it became one after its leader claimed he had been cheated out of reelection. For Trump supporters, the events of Jan. 6 were not an embarrassing debacle but a patriotic effort to save the nation, by violent action if necessary. As one 56-year-old Michigan woman explained: 'We weren't there to steal things. We weren't there to do damage. We were just there to overthrow the government.'

[...]

"It would be foolish to imagine that the violence of Jan. 6 was an aberration that will not be repeated. Because Trump supporters see those events as a patriotic defense of the nation, there is every reason to expect more such episodes.

[...]

"We are already in a constitutional crisis. The destruction of democracy might not come until November 2024, but critical steps in that direction are happening now."

-- Robert Kagan, "Our constitutional crisis is already here", 2021-09-23, The Washington Post (Opinion)

"Literally every patient's family that goes on vacation is coming home w/covid. Kids missing camp & parents missing work after just taking a vacation.

"Didn't have to be this way if we had masking, ventilation standards & rapid testing to exit isolation bf day 10.

"Thanks CDCgov"

-- snarky pediatrician (snarkypeds), 2022-07-08

"me: this time i will write something accessible. it will be like a pop song
 beta reader: this is clearly more like john cage
 me: no look it has fight scenes
 beta reader: arnold schoenberg
 me: kissing
 beta reader: satie
 me: battles
 beta reader: glass
 me: taylor swift
 beta reader: [Castle (Nathan Fillion) I-don't-even-know-what-to-say animated GIF]"
  -- Karen Osborne (karenthology), 2022-06-06

[It's Karen's birthday today. Go buy her books! I loved the first two and am very much looking forward to reading the next! (excerpt from Architects of Memory, 2020)]

"When our theology and politics as Christians is completely preoccupied with how other people might be sinning rather than how our own sin contributes to the problems of our world, that is when we know we our religion is about control rather than redemption." -- Rev. Benjamin Cremer (Brcremer), 2022-07-08