Christos Kurios

Matt, in my 40s, married. Christian. Business manager. Amateur gunsmith and engraver. One time hacker. Retro computer gaming enthusiast. This is an outlet for politics, creative work, and other interests. Check out #my work and #my art for my projects.

[leaveyourego]

"Open your mind. Open your mind to the possibility that the power to define duty is the power of life and death. And if people impose duty on you, maybe they're not doing it for your best interests or the country's best interests but for their own best interests. [...] Force yourself to think about a world in which each man got to set his own duty and no one could tell anyone what to do, what was right, what was wrong; the only rules were the Ten Commandments."

-Stephen Hunter, 1998, Time to Hunt, p. 75

[laivindur]

[leaveyourego]

A little help, or a total salvation

So I had a guy looking to get hired as a barback or possibly a stewarding position here. Talking with him and the hr recruiter before the interview, he's open about having a felony DUI on his record. He's a middle aged man trying to get his life together, support his family. I know the high likelyhood that he'll relapse or otherwise fall back into sin, I can't save him, but I want to help him. We're going to in our small earthly way.

But this isn't about that. He's wearing one of those patron saint medals, and my heart goes out to him. I felt that when I noticed it. If we take it at face value, and I choose to, here's a guy in trouble, who has caused trouble for himself and others, reaching for salvation. The man knows he's drowning. And it just bothers me that the Roman answer is to offer him an icon, to reach to just another guy, instead of Christ Jesus directly; the Son of Man who has already conquered sin and death, who has opened the door for anyone who believes to come into His presence.

The man is drowning. Point him to a Life Preserver, the one who has that power, not someone else who seems just a little better than a drowning man at treading water.

[leaveyourego]

No politician believes in anything.

The pivot you're seeing right now is stark evidence of that fact.

They're trying to get us into the 'reconciliation' phase.

Suddenly Trump sounds like the 'president of peace' again? He cares about flattened apartment buildings now? (His son in law is Lebanese Christian and he had no clue Israel is repeating Gaza there until yesterday??)

Vance is pushing back against netanyahu? The same guy that said it was "excellent" when we bombed an apartment building to get one guy on a watch list?

That's just one issue. They never had any intention of fulfilling the retributional anger they stoked in their followers prior to 2024's election. They still upped the war budget to 1.5 trillion at a time when inflation was a primary issue for their supporters.

Your grievances at the voting booth do not determine the direction of the country, only the direction of the propaganda.

[scarabesque-returns]

Israel is determined to drag us into war

[leaveyourego]

New IPS screen for the old GBA. It's one of the few electronics that I still have from my youth. This is a Japanese unit I got imported a few months before they were released in the states. In the aughts I'd added a frontlight, but ended up hating it because it washed out the colors so bad.

Next part of this nostalgia project is to replace the batteries in this Naki handle:

I'm planning on going to two A cell NiMH batteries from the AA cells in here. I was hopeful that I could cram some C cells in here, but there's not quite enough room.

[fivepoint-12]

Can anyone in NYC cut the eruv (the fishing line strung around the entire island so jews can pretend they are avoiding by sabbath)?

The rabbis check it on Thursday so Fridays work best.

[leaveyourego]

yougottabekiddingme.jpg

[leaveyourego]

Kind of difficult to debate mormons because we don't agree on facts and sources.

[dark-magician-girl-meets-world]

Me: I don't know. I just don't think there's much comedic potential to the idea of a "pizza samurai"

PIzza Samurai, entering physical existence due to the sheer willpower which I still spend thinking about him: I will defeat you with my New York Style martial arts Pepperōnin, also real now: Prepare to get sliced

[mexicain-sans-frontiers-v2]

[leaveyourego]

[der-einsame-abenteurer]

[leaveyourego]

[fictionalauthorityii]

Point 1: The Chomskyites will eventually have to concede that the tail wags the dog - i.e. Israel has more influence over the US than vice versa.

Point 2: The retarded philosemites who desperately try to pin Israel's intransigence on Netanyahu can't explain why this exact scenario played out in 1982 under Menachem Begin. They can only hope you are ignorant of history.

From Ronald Reagan's autobiography, An American Life:

"On August 4, two days after I'd met with Israeli Foreign Minister, Yitzhak Shamir in the Oval Office and appealed to him in the strongest words I could think of for Israel to use restraint, I was awakened at 6:30am by my national security advisor. He said that the Israelis had just moved into new positions within West Beirut and were shelling the city with a savage ferocity that was killing more and more civilians. Outraged, Phil Habib telephoned me from Beirut and said that the shelling was so intense and so unrelenting that he was unable to get to meetings he had scheduled to negotiate a settlement to the dispute. I decided to appeal personally to Menachem Begin to stop the fighting and abide by the ceasefire so that Habib could complete his work. I suggested to Begin that if he didn't, he could expect a drastic change in Israel's relationship with the United States. 'This disproportionate bombing of West Beirut,' my message stated, was exacting 'unacceptable human costs and making negotiations impossible.' If it continued, I said, it would be impossible for me to defend the proposition that Israel used American-made weapons for defensive purposes only...Each time I communicated with them, however, I emphasized my personal committment and that of the United States to the support of Israel. I supported its right to defend itself against attack, but appealed for Israel not to go on the offensive unless it was the victim of a provocation of such magnitude that the world would easily understand its right to retaliate. Israel's response was, in effect: Mind your own business. It is up to Israel alone to decide what it must do to ensure its survival."

It is important to understand that Reagan is candidly admitting that Israel was using American-made weapons for offensive purposes, which is a violation of the Foreign Assistance Act, Arms Export Control Act, Leahy Laws, etc. In fact, Reagan admitted Israel was in violation in his autobiography:

"Technically, Israel had violated an agreement with us not to use US-made weapons for offensive purposes, and some cabinet members wanted me to lean hard on Israel because it had broken this pledge. We sent a note to the Israeli government criticizing the raid, and delayed shipment of several additional military aircraft as a show of our displeasure."

Point 3: It should now be clear why Israel favors moving away from military aid to a "partnership." Israel wants to remove what they call the "golden handcuffs" so they can cleanse all of their neighbors without the US using its military aid as a carrot to exert any influence over it. However, abandoning aid in favor of a partnership creates a dependency on Israel for US national security. This will further tie the US's hands in restraining Israel so as to avoid any disruptions to its own defense ecosystem.

[scarabesque-returns]

Outrage over Spielberg's 'Disclosure Day' remarks about Christianity

Steven Spielberg has ignited a fierce online debate after suggesting his new Disclosure Day film could prompt Christians to reexamine some o

I doubt yet another gay little alien movie will have the kind of impact he hopes.

[leaveyourego]

they wish there was outrage over this for the free marketing

[scarabesque-returns]

Companies are cashing in on consumers' unwillingness to bargain shop

Sentiment surveys confirm that consumers are very aware of rising prices, and they are complaining about them. People hate inflation.

Big news. Prices keep rising because consumers keep paying them.

[leaveyourego]

Life hack: Stop wasting money on groceries!

[oldfriendsseniorfrogsanctuary]

Very interesting that some presby churches will have a nursery/"childrens sermon" thing going on. Is that a covenant child or not man come on

[mtndewloyalist-xx]

And so the first brick in the narrative comes tumbling down

[oldfriendsseniorfrogsanctuary]

we don't do that but we also don't use the Westminster confession.... its all coming together....

[scarabesque-returns]

Mine does a hybrid service where the kids are present for the worship portion, but go have their own Sunday school during the sermon. That way they only miss the part where they wouldn’t be worshipping or learning anyway, and they get real Bible instruction at their level.

[leaveyourego]

That's what ours does. Depending on who's present though, the kids sometimes stay for the sermon.

[leaveyourego]

The blessing and curse that are hospitals

[leaveyourego]

What Is Jared Kushner Actually Building on Sazan Island?

A $1.4 billion resort on a former Soviet submarine base, brokered aboard a Rothschild yacht, financed by Gulf sovereign wealth — surrounded

[leaveyourego]