Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

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"The problem is not that George Santos may or may not have been a drag queen in Brazil. The problem is that he is a hypocritical fraud for supporting Florida's Don't Say Gay law and opportunistically aligning himself with a party that falsely claims drag queens 'groom' children." -- No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (NoLieWithBTC), 2023-01-19

"'Why aren't people making the kind of old-world classical sculptures and oil painting I like anymore?' I dunno dude why aren't you providing an artist with a full time salary and residence on your property so they can focus on nothing but making one painting for three years." -- Kelly Turnbull (Coelasquid), 2023-01-14

"Separating king and country is difficult for modern American Christians to comprehend because too often we incorporate nationalism and patriotism into much of our religious expression, and even our faith. It's not uncommon for churches to celebrate the Fourth of July, adorn their sanctuaries with American flags, and incorporate America and American nationalism into songs of worship. But for the very first followers of Jesus, these types of ideals and symbols would be alarming and even considered blasphemous.

"The challenge for Christians is to simultaneously honor the virtues of sacrifice, service and freedom without idolizing the sin of nationalism, to celebrate bravery without romanticizing violence, and to realize that our salvation comes from the Prince of Peace and not the wars of men."

-- Stephen Mattson, "When Patriotism Becomes Idolatry", 2018-01-23

"I believe there is one Supreme most perfect being. [...] I believe He is pleased and delights in the happiness of those He has created; and since without virtue man can have no happiness in this world, I firmly believe He delights to see me virtuous." -- Benjamin Franklin (b. 1706-01-17, d. 1790-04-17), "Articles of Belief and Acts of Religion", 1728

[I got this from Wikiquote, as shown above. But note that the elision there, the ellipsis, is like thirteen paragraphs. The sense is preserved but a lot of nuance about what he believes the nature of the deity is, is skipped over. I've linked to the full text.]

"Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals." -- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (b. 1929-01-15, d. 1968-04-04), Letter from a Birmingham Jail, 1963-04-15

[And this'd be why talking about structural racism is both a bigger deal than whether any one person is a bigot, and why it's so frustrating that mentioning the existence of structural racism makes so many people get defensive as though they were personally attacked.]

"Your healing
 can't be dependent
 on the people who harmed you
 finally being honest.
 
 Heal anyway."
  -- K.J. Ramsey (kjramseywrites), 2022-11-09

"Laws of Physics implies Outlaws of Physics" -- Brian Bucklew (unormal), 2023-01-11

[Today is the first day of 2023 on the Julian calendar.]

"We're so afraid of demonstrating hubris, so afraid of the shame of being told we flew too high, so paralyzed by the fear that we won't fit in, that we buy into the propaganda and don't do what we are capable of." -- Seth Godin, The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly? (2012)

"I've got no particular desire to play ten minute solos. Those were never valid anyway in my book -- never. It was just a cheap way of building up a tension in the audience...A solo should do something; it shouldn't just be there as a cosmetic. It should have some aim, take the tune somewhere. I'm not saying I can do it, but I try and take the tune somewhere." -- Jeff Beck (b. 1944-06-24, d. 2023-01-10)

"Even when inequities are highlighted, knowledge seems to suppress action: In one study, white Americans felt less empathy for vulnerable communities and were less supportive of safety precautions after learning about COVID's racial disparities. This attitude is self-destructive and limits the advantage that even the most privileged Americans enjoy. Measures that would flatten social inequities, such as universal health care and better ventilation, would benefit everyone-and their absence harms everyone, too. In 2021, young white Americans died at lower rates than Black and Indigenous Americans, but still at three times the rate of their counterparts in other wealthy countries.

[...]

"In the spring of 2020, I wrote that the pandemic would last for years, and that the U.S. would need long-term strategies to control it. But America's leaders consistently acted as if they were fighting a skirmish rather than a siege, lifting protective measures too early, and then reenacting them too slowly. They have skirted the responsibility of articulating what it would actually look like for the pandemic to be over, which has meant that whenever citizens managed to flatten the curve, the time they bought was wasted. Endemicity was equated with inaction rather than active management. This attitude removed any incentive or will to make the sort of long-term changes that would curtail the current disaster and prevent future ones. And so America has little chance of effectively countering the inevitable pandemics of the future; it cannot even focus on the one that's ongoing."

-- Ed Yong (edyong209), "The Pandemic's Legacy Is Already Clear: All of this will happen again", The Atlantic, 2022-09-30

"There's something about approaching universal truths with the simplicity of the acoustic guitar. You can take it anywhere, and it helps me reach listeners of all ages and walks of life." -- Jim Croce (b. 1943-01-10, d. 1973-09-20)

"If Mr. Putin feels backed into a corner, he has only himself to blame. As Mr. Biden has noted, the United States has no desire to destabilize or deprive Russia of its legitimate aspirations. That’s why the administration and its allies have offered to engage in talks with Moscow on an open-ended range of security issues. But America must insist that Russia act in accordance with international standards applicable to all nations." -- Madeleine Albright (b. 1937-05-15, d. 2022-03-23; US ambassador to the UN 1993-1997, US secretary of state 1997-2001) "Putin Is Making a Historic Mistake", The New York Times, 2022-02-23

"cat ownership is hearing a single soft clink from across the house and yelling GET AWAY FROM THE BUTTER" they/themily (e_davishale), 2023-01-07

raginrayguns:

I wanna plug a tree into the power grid so it can grow real fast. I want to breed an absurdly fast-growing tree that consumes more power than any plant in evolutionary history has ever had access to

identicaltomyself:

The tree is RED HOT. It sucks in carbon dioxide with whirling fans. The roots tunnel down to the water table with pounding jack hammers and pull up water which is pumped into the red hot leaves at 200 psi to be transpired as LIVE STEAM. Screw photosynthesis, we have HIGH VOLTAGE.

raginrayguns:

#transarborealism

2017-09-07

Today is
Gregorian: 2023 January 07
Julian: 2022 December 25 -- First day of Christmas
Hebrew: 5783 Tevet 14
Islamic: 1444 Jumad t-Tania 14
Persian: 1401 Dey 17
Mayan: 0.0.0.13.0.10.3.9
Indian (civil): 1944 Pausa 17
Coptic: 1739 Koiak 29 -- First day of Christmas
Discordian: 3189 Chaos 07

[Merry Christmas to old-calendar Orthodox folks! And to Copts, if any are reading this!]

"The Epiphany story is about how God is found not at the centre of power but at the margins, not in the certainty of cultural and religious safety and conformity, but beyond the boundaries where new relationships and discoveries are made, where the elite bow down and kneel before a small child, and where refugees on the move will soon need to flee for their lives." -- Katherine Hedderley, "Pay Attention" (an Epiphany sermon)

[Yes, I know Christians look all too often toward conformity, cultural safety, and power when we should be looking at the margins and the marginalized, the wild places, and everywhere. That'd be why we need reminders like this one.]

For Western / new-calendar Orthodox Christians, to day is the feast of the Epiphany/Theophany, aka Three Kings Day. For Coptic and old-calendar Orthodox Christians, today is Christmas Eve.

"If you're 50 years old or younger, give every book about 50 pages before you decide to commit yourself to reading it, or give it up.

"If you're over 50, which is when time gets shorter, subtract your age from 100 -- the result is the number of pages you should read before deciding whether or not to quit. If you're 100 or over you get to judge the book by its cover, despite the dangers in doing so."

-- Nancy Pearl (Nancy_Pearl)

[Today is the 12th day of Christmas for folks celebrating on the Gregorian calendar or the Revised Julian Calendar (the New Calendar in new-calendar Orthodox churches). Twelfth Night, and the end of Christmastide, is tonight. So Epiphany is tomorrow ... and old-calendar Orthodox Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas to everyone whose Christmas is nearly over or nearly begun!]

"As we enter January's toxic diet culture, a reminder that BMI isn't a measure of health, but was invented by a statistician based on white men, in the 1800s when Ketchup was branded a medicine, cocaine was available in every pharmacy and vibrators were prescribed for 'hysteria'." -- Marina Politis (she/her) (marinadpol), 2023-01-01

[Today is the 11th day of Christmas, for folks who celebrate it on the Gregorian calendar. Old-calendar Orthodox Christmas is around the corner.]