If you ask me I don't want "good Christians" in government to counter the "bad Christians" I just want a separation of church and state like they promised us in third grade
I have a burning desire to binge watch YouTube but I’ve been getting playback errors on every video so I have to refresh every time a new video tries to play and it’s just infuriating enough that I can’t watch an entire season of hermitcraft because I am so mildly inconvenienced
and it wasn't just the once. striking coal miners were killed by coal companies (and police) for decades
Power and Powerlessness by John Gaventa is a great read if you're interested in the politics of poverty. I used chapter 4 of this book for a paper on Harlan County
Harlan County, USA is a documentary worth watching on coal striking from the perspective of the strikers. warning for some gun violence and i think i remember some nudity but its in a medical context. te film also highlights the women's role in the strike. its a fantastic watch
I've been lightly following the Bricks & Minifigs situation and every time someone talking about it is shocked that the police aren't being helpful I get another grey hair.
If no one's told you before, I'm glad I finally get to tell you: the cops do not exist to help or protect you the individual.
In 2005 the Supreme Court made an official ruling that essentially boils down to "cops do not have a legal duty to protect you from harm" after ruling that the police officers who failed (chose not) to enforce a restraining order are not responsible for the murder of three children by their father who was not allowed to visit or be anywhere near them.
Policing in the US has a long and dark history. I think a majority of people are aware of the roots in slave patrols in the southern regions and the downstream effects of racism in the force. But I think far fewer people are aware of how policing developed in the north.
Boston is often credited as the first "real" birth of policing as we know it. In Boston, companies in port would hire men to acts as guards for their product to discourage theft and other crime in the area. (These men were often criminal themselves but that doesn't really matter in this history lesson.) At this time in America there were also night watches. Stealing a quote from Time; "Policing in Colonial America had been very informal, based on a for-profit, privately funded system that employed people part-time. Towns also commonly relied on a “night watch” in which volunteers signed up for a certain day and time, mostly to look out for fellow colonists engaging in prostitution or gambling." Except the issue with this was it was voluntary and many of the men who volunteered chose to spend their watch drinking or engaging with prostitutes, so they lost community support over time.
Eventually, companies that were hiring guards saw an opportunity. Communities wanted better protection and they didn't want to have pay workers, so if they could convince the public and the government to fund law enforcement, they would get guards for free. Of course it wasn't all funded by tax dollars (and still isn't today) so if the shiny new police department happened to place most of its force closer to the companies that brought the idea forward, is that really so unfair?
And today, just as police in America are still heavily rooted in racism, the laws they enforce most often are to the benefit of corporations and large companies. Not citizens.
So, remember: just because you aren't doing anything wrong, or are the victim of a crime, the police (legally) aren't there to help you.
I hope the Mansell family are able to reclaim their property and I hope Bricks & Minifigs get what they deserve. But when penguinz0/MoistCritical/Charlie talks like he's shocked that the police aren't helping and he's baffled how they just aren't enforcing the law... I cringe a little.
It is, obviously, unsavory for police to be this blatant about not caring about citizens and I imagine the backlash will make the local department straighten up for a little while. But it won't change anything systemically.
I only have a minor in Criminal Justice but the history of police is taught in the intro level classes and even the most conservative professors openly say the same things. My history of policing class was taught by a former cop who was very proud of his time as a cop and correctional officer and he openly mentioned the roots in both corporate meddling and slave patrols.
You gotta be tough if you're gonna be stupid. You can do stupid shit all you want but you're not going to avoid suffering consequences.
If you can't be tough, you gotta be nice. People can forgive a lot of stupidity if you're polite about it and pleasant to be around.
You can't tell whether you're stupid or not. There is literally no way to know in advance, for absolute certainty, whether the thing you're just about to do is genius or stupid before it either splendidly succeeds or blows up in your face.
people don’t enjoy shipping anymore. the point of shipping isn’t the catharsis of watching them kiss onscreen, it’s grabbing the characters and mashing their faces together like you’re five years old playing Barbie in your room again. it’s to take one moment of eye contact in canon and read that over and over and over again with twenty different writers’ interpretations of the characters internal monologues if they were in love. it’s to see the characters interact and cheer because you know that’s another moment to add to your list of canon compliant fic ideas. you’re stressing yourself out, this is supposed to be fun!
fun thing about getting older as a dedicated lifelong non-athlete: i'm as fast and limber as I've ever been! which is not very. technically I'm in the best shape of my life. that is to say, middling
actually going from deeply-unwell-teenager to reasonably-functional-adult has inured me to the Common Laments of Aging:
"I can't run as fast as I used to" running is sweaty & gross hard pass
"i miss having stamina" you had STAMINA???
"ugh back pain" my inner teenager-with-scoliosis-and-mysterious-bone-pain is unphased
"ugh neck pain" do most people not spend the majority of their lifecycle hunched over screens from puberty onwards? if not that's my bad
"I used to be able to pull all-nighters" chugging energy drinks and depriving your brain of sleep to perform miserable labor is fucked up actually, and shouldn't be normalizd in or outside of college. given half a chance corporations would have your 60-year-old aunt hopped up on caffeine pills retouching powerpoints at 4am. thank fuck we're not expected to be 21 forever
"I used to be so flexible" why
"my metabolism 😭" kill your inner fatphobe, enjoy the comfy extra padding/circulation, buy a cool new wardrobe, and go forth, eat well, and GIVE NARY A FUCK.
"I miss having young knees" that one's valid
In conclusion my personal fitness goals remain, as always: to be able to carry multiple grocery bags, and go for a nice little walk (not jog!) around the neighborhood.
other superheros get training from their mentors, from the super secret society, from alien tech,from the monks or they have some kind of military background.
phantom, on the other hand, got training from the firefighters in his town after he crashed on their cases one too many times and they decided that "yup, if your gonna try to help, might aswell give you some training so you could be useful.", he got training from the paramedics because they were worried he wouldn't know how to help an injured human, he got training from his local town detective who smokes too much and gives him cookies when he can help with his Ghost senses and figure out if this was a human crime or a ghost crime.
titsay
snowghoul
germansingergirl
theartofmadeline
romaincrisis
