Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"Amid America's #COVID19 disaster, I must come clean about a lie I spread as a health insurance exec: We spent big $$ to push the idea that Canada's single-payer system was awful & the U.S. system much better. It was a lie & the nations' COVID responses prove it. [...]

"Here's the truth: Our industry PR & lobbying group, AHIP, supplied my colleagues & me with cherry-picked data & anecdotes to make people think Canadians wait endlessly for their care. It's a lie & I'll always regret the disservice I did to folks on both sides of the border.

[...]

"You learn a lot about a healthcare system when a global crisis hits & different nations have different results. Canada's single-payer system is saving lives. The U.S. profit-driven corporate model is failing.

"I'll regret slandering Canada's system for the rest of my life."

-- Wendell Potter (wendellpotter), president of The Center for Health and Democracy, former vice-president of CIGNA, 2020-06-25

"you think I'm being rude

"what's happening is I'm just not softening the language of my lived experiences to accommodate you anymore

"learn the difference"

-- human barometer, M.M. (laurenancona), 2022-05-05

Clarke French (mlcfrench), 2022-05-05:

One thing I'm looking forward to about eternal life with the Lord is the end of 'strong' passwords and two-step authentication. Selah.

RevDaniel (RevDaniel), replying to mlcfrench:

Peter at the Gate: I've sent your temporary passcode to your mobile device.

Me: Uh...I didn't bring my iPhone.

Peter: ah...well...see...that's going to be a problem....

[Happy Mother's Day, Buddha's Birthday, or Truman Day, to everyone celebrating one or more of those!]

"Funny to think that anxiety used to help our ancestors avoid predators and now, after millenia of biological evolution, it prevents me from answering the phone without sweating from my eyeballs." -- Len Pennie (Lenniesaurus), 2022-05-03

"'I don't know enough to speak intelligently about the topic' is a phrase I will say freely and without the slightest bit of shame. Nobody needs my freezer burned take on everything. Sometimes the holy ghost says hush and read a book." -- Ryan Ken (they/them) (Ryan_Ken_Acts), 2022-02-24

"[...] In a case of life and death, where a complex decision needs to be made, who do you trust more to make a decision as to whether your situation is life threatening enough to warrant an abortion:

"A rabbi who shares your religion, your community, your values, deeply knowledgeable in your tradition, knows you, knows your particular situation, knows any extenuating circumstances, and knows how to be flexible in application if necessary?

"Or three Christian dudes on a committee, all of whom think abortion is mamesh murder, all of whom got their job through political connections and patronage, who very likely wanted this job specifically to deny as many applicants as possible, filling out a checklist

"Don't send the American political system to do halakha's job, particularly on pikuach nefesh"

-- Rabbi Akiva Weisinger (MisfitTorah), 2022-05-04

["Pikuach nefesh" -- the principle that preserving a human life trumps nearly every other rule of Judaism (in context: including preventing harm to the living person carrying a fetus (which is considered potential life IIUC)).]

"American politics is designed to keep the marginalized utterly exhausted" -- Elle Em (ellle_em), 2022-05-03

"Reading through the leaked decision. Alito makes it clear that Obergefell and Lawrence will be overturned. This means same sex marriage will be illegal again in 30+ states, and homosexuality illegal in 12. It's not if, but when. This is a stage 5 cancer diagnosis for LGBT rights.

"Most states are gerrymandered to the point where changing the state legislature is impossible. Those same states generally prohibit voter initiated ballot initiatives. The notion that they can be brought back at the state level is a fantasy that only SCOTUS believes.

"It's also worth mentioning that Alito's arguments clearly open the doors to the return of sumptuary and cross dressing laws. [...]"

-- Brynn Tannehill (BrynnTannehill), 2022-05-02, regarding the leaked draft of a Supreme Court opinion

"Given good yarn, good workmanship, and good care, a knitted shawl and outlive its knitter, providing warmth and pleasure to several generations of family and friends." -- Martha Waterman

[Eid Mubarak to everyone celebrating Eid-al-Fitr today!]

"There is a significant moral difference between a person who commits a violent crime and a person who tries to cross a border illegally in order to put food on the family table. Such migrants may violate our laws against illicit entry, but if that's all they do then they are trespassers, not criminals. They deserve to have their dignity respected." -- Madeleine Albright (b. 1937-05-15, d. 2022-03-23; US ambassador to the UN 1993-1997, US secretary of state 1997-2001), "Memo to the President Elect: How We Can Restore America's Reputation and Leadership", 2008

[A blessed Beltane and/or a happy Labor Day to everyone celebrating one or both of those!]

"Two 30 something dudes beside me in a coffee shop courtyard whispering about how 'women shouldn't wear high-waisted bikini bottoms, because those things aren't ever sexy.' Apparently, they 'look like neon diapers,' and are 'an actual insult to men.'" -- Maria Dahvana Headley (MARIADAHVANA), 2022-04-05

"There needs to be an actual clothing line "Insult to Men" comprised of all the clothing women love to wear without regards to men's preference.
Crocs and neon diapers all 'round." -- M. C. Matz (evacide), 2022-04-05

"By trying to erase you they actually acknowledge that you exist." -- Blair Peters, MD (he/they) (queersurgeon), 2022-03-26

"The world is full of strife - from the pandemic to the crisis happening in Ukraine - on remembrance days like Yom HaShoah, it is so important to stop and reflect. The call to action these survivors put forth today is not only one of remembrance, but one of action, a reminder that we do not have to be bystanders. We can all stand up in our own way and we can choose to not let our collective history repeat itself." -- Gideon Taylor, president of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (quoted in "Survivors unite to deliver message on Holocaust remembrance" by Luis Andres Henao, Associated Press, 2022-04-27)

"I think we'll look back on the last decade as a time when social media gave previously marginalized groups the ability to speak directly to elites and, as a result, elites lost their minds." -- Michael Hobbes (RottenInDenmark), 2022-04-27

From Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast by Heather Rose Jones (heatherosejones), Episode 197 - "Hey Hollywood! Historic Couples who would Make Great Happy Movies", 2021-03-20 ( audio 0:40:55 | transcript)

Context: talking about a dearth of happy-ending WLW historical romance movies:

For this episode, I've chosen female couples who met, loved, and established a happy life together. I make no judgements about whether that life included a sexual relationship as long as there was a loving partnership. For some pairs, it was indeed an "ever after" not parting until death. For others, personalities and circumstances intervened and the happiness turned out to be only "for now." But any of them could be given a non-tragic, non-depressing treatment on the silver screen. And these are just the women who also did something interesting enough to end up in historic records. Quiet happy couples don't attract much notice, but quiet happy movies could be made about them nonetheless.

And much farther down, the bit I wanted to share for Lesbian Visibility Day:

I did an entire episode on 19th century American actress Charlotte Cushman and her rather tangled love life. Despite the drama and occasional infidelities, I don't think it can be argued that Cushman had anything other than a happy and positive life. She was a blazing star on the stage, the center of a vibrant and creative artistic circle of queer women, and finished her life in a series of triumphal performance tours even while suffering from breast cancer, resting at last with her life partner, sculptor Emma Stebbins at her side. I've said it before and I'll say it again: it is a crime and an embarrassment that we don't have an entire extended mini-series about Cushman and her circle. This is a community packed full of female couples with happy endings. Let's look at a couple more of the stories that can be told here.

"All those months Republicans spent wailing about inflation and high prices might've seemed a little more genuine if they didn't all suddenly lose their tongues the moment Greg Abbott unilaterally and unnecessarily created a supply chain crisis all to score a cable hit on Fox." -- Brian Tyler Cohen (briantylercohen), 2022-04-16

"A Christian who has not yet felt the joy that Christ gives, must doubt his Christianity" -- Archimandrite Athanasios Mitilinaios, translated by John Sanidopoulos

[To my Orthodox relatives, friends, and anyone else who stumbles across this while celebrating Easter today: Χριστος Ανεστη! A joyous Easter to you! Christ is risen!]

"It is physically impossible to exceed the 70-pound domestic weight limit for a small flat rate box.

"The interior dimensions (8 5/8" x 5 3/8" x 1 5/8") are ~75.333 in^3.

"If you filled the box with pure osmium, the densest substance known to man, it would weigh ~61.48 lbs.

"Should have said densest substance on Earth. Fill it with neutron star and you'll be approx. 30 trillion kg overweight.

"Had to post this correction before neiltyson popped in with an 'Actually...'"

-- Paul Sherman (PaulMSherman), 2022-04-20

"I want a weirdo super person who's sort of accidentally a villain whose backstory is they wanted to exceed the limit so they started doing weird physics experiments and hijinx ensued." -- rmd (rmd1023), 2022-04-21

People can't bring toothpaste on a plane because of an attack 20 years ago but we don't have to wear masks anymore for a disease that has killed way more people than that attack" -- Budrino (Budrino), 2022-04-17

I know this is late for the seders -- I didn't see it early enough, and then it took me a while to track down the source -- but hey, it's still Pesach, so before it gets even later, here are Steven Richard Sheffey's (stevesheffey) "Top ten signs you might be at a Republican seder" (2022-04-10):

1. They refuse to answer the four questions without a subpoena.
2. They demand a recount of the ten plagues.
3. They defend not increasing the minimum wage on the grounds that according to Chad Gadya it still costs only two zuzzim to buy a goat.
4. The afikomen is hidden in the Caymen Islands.
5. They refuse to open the door for Elijah until they see his immigration papers.
6. They attack Moses for negotiating a deal with Pharoah because why would we negotiate with our enemies?
7. They don't understand why the Egyptians didn't cure the plagues with hydroxychloroquine.
8. They omit the parts about slavery from the Haggadah because it reminds them of Critical Race Theory.
9. They keep saying "when do we get to the miracle of the Jewish space lasers?"
And the number one sign that you might be at a Republican seder:
10. They end the seder by singing "Next year in Mar-a-Lago."