A Christmas Eve Confession & Absolution

Holy God, as Christmas Eve dawns
we find little joy in our hearts.
We have lost so many things
and given up so much
in trying to protect the world around us
and the loved ones we hold so dear
but cannot hold.

None of us are at our best.
We are frustrated with ourselves,
with our family, with all our fellow children of God.
Our spirits are faint and fraying.
Yet still, you are on your way.
Just as you came at Christmas,
you will now not leave us
without mercy and comfort.

We cry out:
Come, O come, Immanuel!

Holy God,
Our holiday meals are made with tears
and our gifts wrapped with tired hands.
We are struggling to stay connected
in this time when the safety of all
requires distance from each other.
All around your beloved world, too many tables
will have empty seats at Christmas.

What should be a time of celebration
only feels like mourning.
Yet still, you are on your way.
Just as you were born and laid in a manger,
you will find us not where we think we should be
but right where we are.

#jaeyong AU — 𝑪𝑶𝑴𝑷𝑳𝑬𝑻𝑬 ༄
⠀
⠀ ❥ ҉ 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑒 — 𝐎𝐍𝐅
0:45 ———⊙————— 3:45
↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺
⠀

↳ wherein jaehyun is the new boy at school and loner taeyong falls head over heels.

𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐑:
this story belongs to me. the characters used obviously are not, and any occurrence in this story that could relate to any real life event is purely coincidental. I also DO NOT own ANY of the photos used in this AU.

now, I'm sure you all know this but:
𝟏. do not comment, just quote.
𝟐. do not copy or steal.
𝟑. ignore the timestamps.
𝟒. ignore any typos I make.
𝟓. I am from Australia so I may use some Aussie slang in my writing.
𝟔. 𝑒𝑛𝑗𝑜𝑦!

𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆!
there will be angst. if the story triggers you in any negative way, do NOT continue. this is not a horror nor thriller, but inside may contain certain elements that may be triggering for some.

Re-reading this piece,

“After communism fell, the promises of western liberalism to transform central and eastern Europe were never fully realized – and now we are seeing the backlash.”
https://t.co/rnlRNa72fd

“Across central and eastern Europe, many of the democracies that emerged at the end of the cold war have been transformed into conspiracy-minded majoritarian regimes.”

No single factor can explain the simultaneous emergence of authoritarian anti-liberalisms in so many differently situated countries.

Yet resentment at liberal democracy’s canonical status and the politics of imitation in general has played a decisive role.

The very conceit that “there is no other way” provided an independent motive for the wave of populist xenophobia and reactionary nativism that began in central and eastern Europe, and is now washing across much of the world.

The enthusiastic copying of western models, accompanied as it was by the evacuation of Soviet troops from the region, was initially experienced as liberation.

But after two troubled decades, the downsides of this politics of imitation became too obvious to deny.

To celebrate the one month anniversary of this article, I thought I would do an update of everyone on this chart.

I even color coded them accordingly. 🤓
🔴 Trump
🔵 Distribution
⚪️ Ops
🟢 Tech
🟠 Former Intel
🟣 LARP

THREAD
#RIPQ #StupidCoup

This is a thread I have been wanting to write, but it needed to come from a place of logic and truth and not just words. It is yet another one of my Christianity threads. However, this one will really focus on politicians that use Christianity to attain power.

We have politicians who in one tweet say very divisive words like “radical left” and their next tweet is a Bible quote, think Rubio. I have explained in the past that many Americans call themselves Christians based upon the fact that that they are white and American only. “I am

an American and a proud Christian.” This is Christian nationalism. They don’t actually follow Jesus or what he represents. It’s the same as someone who is born in Iraq, they are Muslim based upon it being the predominant religion of the country. There are those that practice

their religion and others that do not.
But what I want to highlight is the evil that comes from those who only use a religion for power. And it really highlights two things.
1. Evil using religion
2. The literal meaning of the Bible.
Now theologians and Biblical scholars

state that the Bible isn’t literal. It’s what they study. But we have evangelicals who say that it is a literal word of God. But there are issues here. They don’t take the whole Bible literal, they choose parts to take literally. But here’s the issue. If these people say we must

My 12 favourite quotes from Phil Fisher, from his wonderful book 'Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits'

Aside from Buffett/Munger, Fisher is the investor that has had the most influence on me and I would recommend his book to anyone:

"More money has probably been lost...

...by investors holding a stock they really did not want until they could 'at least come out even' than from any other single reason... Especially so when you consider foregone reinvestment gains."

"If the growth rate is so good that in another 10 years the company might well have quadrupled, is it really of such great concern whether the stock might or might not be 35% overpriced? Maintain the position and don't worry about losing a small part of the gain."

"If a company has changed for good it deserves to trade at a P/E premium to its history and will probably continue to do so. For young companies in particular many investors will mistakenly view them as overvalued...

…Stocks that at first glance appear to the highest priced may, upon analysis, be the biggest bargains."

TIGER INSIDE FIX with VISU

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( @/arcturusjae )

ㅤ"Don't~tie me, tie me up, tie me, tie me up!"

Part Jaewon berakhir saat kelima member mengangkat kedua tangan mereka serempak seperti dalam keadaan terikat, sebelum Yoonwoo mengambil alih dan mulai membawakan

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ㅤ
ㅤ"Hwesaek jeonggeul dan hanaye Rule,"

Suara lembut sang adam mulai mengalun, seraya dirinya berjalan ke tengah-tengah formasi sambil menurunkan tangannya perlahan dari posisi awal. Yoonwoo berdiri tegap selagi pundak dibuang ke belakang,

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ㅤ
satu tangannya yang bebas diarahkan ke depan sebelum melangkah ke sisi kiri formasi sesuai ketukan lagu.

ㅤ"...Geugeon nal deo jageukhaesseul ppun,
Dallyeodeureo geochilge, Let's growl~"

Yoonwoo menggesturkan tangannya ke arah

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ㅤ
seperti tengah menyihir seseorang, sebelum ia membungkukkan badannya sedikit ke depan, lalu menghempaskan kedua tangannya ke atas sebelum ia mengakhiri part awalnya kali ini.

ㅤ"So bring it on, bring it on, bring it

This is a song called Alice’s Protocol. But Alice’s Protocol isn’t the name of the protocol: that’s just the name of the song. That’s why I called the song Alice’s Protocol.

1/

You can send anything at all
With Alice’s Protocol.
You can send anything at all
With Alice’s Protocol.
Send your files from A to B
Just don’t forget your private key
You can send anything at all
With Alice’s Protocol.

2/

Now it all started two Thanksgivings ago, two years ago at Thanksgiving, when my friend Alice wanted to send a file to her husband Bob.

3/

But Bob has a no-good scheming friend called Eve. Let me tell you about his friend Eve. She’s a no-good scheming friend of his, and she likes to listen through walls and under windows and around doors.

4/

So my friend Alice (you remember Alice?), she didn’t want no listening through walls and under windows and around doors, so she decided to encrypt her message with Alice’s Protocol.

5/

Star Trek S1E02 "Who Mourns for Adonais?" #TOS #StarTrek https://t.co/LIkzMGcPIi has interesting features 1) sexism tempered by female crew members' competence, (2) advancement of Ancient Aliens theory & 3) use of Pre-Modern anti-Muslim slur 4) appearance of Walter Koenig: Chekov

For the 1st time, Michelle Nichols as Uhura performs a technical task. In previous episodes, she basically was a receptionist or a switchboard operator.

After Scotty the Chief Engineer oogles Leslie Parrish as Lt. Carolyn Palamas on the bridge, Capt Kirk basically states that women won't go far in Star Fleet because they end their careers for marriage. She's part of the landing party where she & Kirk exchange these lines:

Apollo changes her miniskirt uniform into an alluring evening gown and does her hairdo quite elegantly. The camera gives viewers multiple shots of her the remainder of the episode.

Despite her being tempted by the life Apollo offers her, she does her duty as a Star Fleet Officer and spurns him, thus draining him of his power so that the Enterprise's crew and the landing party could free themselves.

On our new podcast, we interviewed @angie_rasmussen, one of the leading virologists, who has been a guiding light during the pandemic. Thread here to summarize, transcript and audio https://t.co/Q6CabBsKCM @cuttingforstone /1

Current status
"We're essentially experiencing the equivalent of a 9/11 every day in terms of number of deaths; our hospital systems are overburdened. ...We're going to be dealing w/ this for some time to come, even after people get the vaccine, certainly #LongCovid is real." /2

On her strong efforts for dispelling misinformation
"My philosophy about public health is that you can't have it without the engagement of the public. And my philosophy about communication is that information empowers people to decide for themselves" /3

The diagnosis of #SARSCoV2 reinfection is very challenging and Dr. Rasmussen provides the best and complete explanation for why that's the case. One dimension of that is being able to culture the virus in a BSL (biosafety level)-3 lab /4

Many are not familiar with what BSL-3 and 4 labs are all about. Great summary here from her extensive experience. More in podcast/transcript on her response in BSL-4./5

Remembering those we lost in 2020

Soumitra Chatterjee (Nov 15)
SP Balasubrahmanyam (Sep 25)
Bhanu Athaiya (Oct 15)
Irrfan Khan (Apr 29)

#Thread

Rishi Kapoor (Apr 30)
Basu Chatterjee (Jun 4)
Jagdeep (Mar 29)
Saroj Khan (Jul 3)

B Kannan - Cinematographer, Tamil, Malayalam (Jun 13)

Budal Krishnamoorthy - Actor, Filmmaker, Kannada (Dec 19)

P Krishnamoorthy - Art Director, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada (13 Dec)

Zero Babu - Singer, Malayalam (Oct 21)

Theatre

Usha Ganguly (Apr 23)
Ratnakar Matkari (May 5)
Ebrahim Alkazi (Aug 11)
HG Somashekhar Rao (Nov 3)

Kishori Ballal (Feb 18)
Ranjit Chowdhury (Apr 4)
Nishikant Kamat (Aug 8)
Yogesh Gaur (May 29)

Philosophers if they were muppets, a thread I made so I wouldn’t have to think about it anymore:

Machiavelli is Ernie

John Locke is Hoots the Owl

Karl Marx is the Grouch

Hume is Fozzie Bear (credits and legal responsibility go to @KreetzTristan for this one)

Foucault is Bert

So I finished reading The Velvet Rage today( I think it was Owen Jones who first put it on my radar) and it's been on my wishlist for a while, I had some extra cash thanks to some stocks I'd invested in so I decided to treat myself.
I have some thoughts™ (thread)

First off, the beginning chapters of this book are very good. They describe an experience growing up gay that I as a self identified queer man can vibe with. Even in a supportive household queer kids learn all too quickly what is and isn't acceptable parts of themselves to show

It stresses the book is writing very clearly about the gay male experience and acknowledges that the broad strokes it paints with could apply to lesbians too but are expressed in different ways. No acknowledgement is made however in highlighting the exp of non cis, non white gays

Topping that off, the book feels horribly upper middle class; talk of clients from executive backgrounds being ashamed of who they are. That may not be the experience of every gay. Theres also an assumption that most gays come from a home with a caring mother and distant father

It takes a certain view on non-monogamy and promiscuity, framing it as a symptom of trying to overcompensate for a lack of validation in teen years and while that's certainly probably the case for some, it doesn't frame anything other than monogamy as intrinsically rewarding.

Happy Monday readers, it's Dark Phoenix week! Over the next ten issues, we'll explore what is perhaps Claremont's most celebrated story that depicts the ascension of Jean Grey to the role of Dark Phoenix.

It's UXM #129-130, in which we are introduced to multiple X-mainstays!

I warned late last week that these threads will include heavy topics, because I find it difficult to adequately discuss the D.P.S. without acknowledging its commentary on agency, sexual violence, & how privilege corrupts.

Please stay safe & mute me until Sunday if you need to!

Our first issue starts off where we left off on the shores of Muir Island following the team's defeat of Proteus!

It's incredible to think that just last issue, the team met their most dangerous opponent yet, but Proteus was only but a primer for what the team will face next.

Our team officially drops from 7 to 6, with Banshee, after many issues depowered following an injury, officially leaving the team to remain with Moira on Muir Island.

Scott's attempts to make up his membership losses are rebuffed not once- but 3 times by Jamie, Alex, & Lorna!

It's almost like Claremont was clearing the decks to make room for some new members on the team...