You know, I don’t know a single liberal who complains about MAGA not liking them. Not one.
Yet every MAGA-moron thinks they are owed our… respect? Interest? Friendship?
Why? For what? A) why do they want us? They hate us. B) oh because “unity”? Please we elected a Black man and you spent 8 years being as divisive as possible claiming shit about his religion (not a qualifier regardless) or birthplace (his mother was a US citizen by birth, he’d have qualified regardless – the way that John McCain and Mitt Romney both did, neither of whom was born in the US).
Honestly, what is the deal? Why do you want people you hate to like you?
We went down to the park, where the lake drains under a footbridge into a stone-lined gully that someone generous might call a creek. Usually it’s a trickle at best, but it poured last night, and the water was still moving pretty briskly.
As we got closer, I heard kids yelling, so we went over to have a look. I was nervous, because earlier this summer we’d seen a mother cat and her kittens hanging out a few times in the (then bone dry) spillway. We hadn’t seen them in over a month, but I didn’t want to think of them being there when the water started coming down.
Instead, when I looked over the side of the bridge, I saw a skinny kid (maybe 8-10 years old) carrying an enormous catfish clasped in both arms.
The catfish had to be the length of this kid’s torso, and it was flopping around trying to escape, but the kid doggedly kept climbing over mud and slippery rocks until he reached the lake and chucked the fish in. And behind him came… another kid, holding a fish.
When the lake flooded, it must’ve washed a bunch of these catfish downstream, where they collected in pools. Now the water levels are starting to go down, and the fish are trapped, doomed to dry up and die. Not on these kids’ watch. As we watched, they rescued four fish, and one of the adults present said there were at least six left. The kids showed no sign of stopping. This is the kind of thing you love as a kid, a life or death mission you can throw your heart and soul into while getting gleefully covered in muck and slime. I was tempted to offer my assistance, but this was their Quest, and I did not want to impose.
When we continued on, the Great Fish Rescue was still going strong. Godspeed, kids. In a time of such great discord and meanspirited behavior, you will live on in my memory as a beacon of goodwill.
the children will grow up and move on and in the time of their greatest need will be attended by an utterly massive catfish
I really don’t care if this is harsh, but i hope to G O D that ukraine will be able to strike hard, fast, and widely enough to completely cow russia back into its weakness in the 90s. Barring that, since russia openly flaunts a military alliance with three countries, i hope ukraine can also gather allies on its side (the baltics seem the most reliable but i hope sweden and finland can join) to put more boots on the ground.
The Baltics are too small to do enough on their own, but if 🇸🇪 & 🇫🇮 join, than I expect 🇳🇴 to follow. As Poland’s on the list of Putin’s fantasy conquests after 🇺🇦 (he will go for Moldova first as the last non-NATO country in his path, than the Baltics, than Poland), I expect that if 🇸🇪 & 🇫🇮 join in with 🇺🇦, they will follow suit. Honestly, Polish boots on the ground alone would be enough to end the war with an Ukrainian victory & that’s before adding in 🇸🇪, 🇫🇮 & 🇳🇴 militaries. Ironically for all the effort Putin has done in dismantling the broader NATO alliance, an alliance of these peripheral nations on their own would be enough to destroy his conventional forces if more distant parts of the alliance like the USA & Germany weren’t acting as restraining bolts. I don’t think he will use the nukes the way he threatens too, so I think we should just call the bluff already.
“came back wrong” but it’s food that you heated up in the microwave
OK SO
For anyone who hasn’t heard my Microwave Rant:
Microwaves are designed to be used at a broad range of power levels. If you’re getting bad results reheating your food, and you’re doing everything on full blast, try a lower power setting! 50% power for twice the time, just give it a shot. It gives the heat time to spread evenly, and prevents overcooking of parts that are exposed to more radiation.
People complain about reheated pizza a lot – that’s bc overheating the crust makes it tough and chewy. I usually do pizza on 30% power for THREE times as long because it’s especially vulnerable – and my crust always comes out nice and tender.
I think there’s a good metaphor for Came Back Wrong here too: if you actually take the time to do your necromantic ritual and/or unholy experiment right, and don’t rush it at 100% power, you’re likely to get better results.
Since reading this post and following its advice, my microwaved good comes out so much better.
Since reading this post a d following its advice, my necromantic rituals have come out so much better.
It is everything. There’s not one answer. I could talk about this forever so instead I set a five minute timer on my phone and wrote a list of as many of the many things that are causing this on a systemic level that I could think of:
It’s parents not reading with their kids (a privilege, but some parents have that privilege to be able to do this and don’t.)
It’s youtube from birth and never being bored.
It’s phasing out phonics for sight words (memorizing without understanding sounds or meaning) in elementary schools in the early aughts.
It’s defunding public libraries that do all the community and youth outreach.
It’s NCLB and mandating standardized tests which center reading short passages as opposed to longform texts so students don’t build up the endurance or comprehension skills.
It’s NCLB preventing schools from holding students back if they lack the literacy skills to move onto the next grade because they can’t be left behind so they’re passed on.
It’s the chronic underfunding of ESL and Special Ed programs for students who need extra literacy support.
It’s the cultural devaluing of the humanities in favor of stem and business because those make more money which leads to a lot of students to completely disregard reading and writing.
It’s the learning loss from covid.
It’s covid trauma manifesting in a lot of students as learned helplessness, or an inability to “figure things out” or push through adversity to complete challenging tasks independently, especially reading difficult texts.
It’s covid normalizing cheating and copying.
It’s increasing phone use.
It’s damage to attention span exacerbated by increased phone use that leaves you without an ability to sit and be bored ever without 2-3 forms of constant stimulation.
It’s shortform video becoming the predominant form of social media content as opposed to anything text-based.
It’s starting to also be generative AI.
It’s the book bans.
what did I miss.
Cannot believe I forgot to also blame charter schools, voucher programs, and the conservative push to lower the teenage working age and get poor kids tracked out of college prep and into vocational training for this. i have let everyone down
As a horror guy I vehemently do not support hatred towards romance girlies. Sister genres in my opinion. We both enjoy familiar tropes. We both enjoy interesting relationship dynamics explored between two or more people. We both enjoy werewolves.
amhrancas 