i have to head to the grocery store for my fortnightly supplies run in a minute here and i'm trying to formulate a plan for if that pack of anti-mask goons shows up who have been roaming the state livestreaming themselves pestering people in grocery stores

i'm sure the store itself would try to keep them out but what if i'm the unlucky shopper wiping down my cart in the lobby right as they show up and start causing a scene before the cops come
i'm not even remotely scared of them but i don't really want an assault charge so is there a way i can ruin just their video? can i play copyrighted disney music on my phone really loud or something
it's just a group of horrible old conspiracy theorist ladies and one or two gigantic nazi biker thugs and they're not going to hit a white woman on camera, i won't be in danger from anything but the germs
if they are in fact streaming live is there anything i could verbally communicate to their audience directly that would encourage them to turn off the stream and not donate to the streamers? "these people are scam artists and you are being scammed by them" that sort of thing
brian said i should just abandon my cart and hustle out and wait in the car for them to leave but i don't like the feeling of being chased out of my own neighborhood store! that's MY store! they're the ones who should leave
probably the funniest thing to do is just pretend they aren't there and continue shopping around them totally unbothered. if they follow me ask them a question about what kind of papayas i should get and just refuse to acknowledge anything out of the ordinary is happening
them: i see you're wearing a mask, you dumb fat bitch, you're sheeple and it's a plandemic!
me: oh i like your shoes! where did you get those? those look really comfortable
them: i bet you're a socialist muzzle nazi!
me: so do you have any plans for Valentine's Day
i worked with toddlers for many years so i can just not engage with their escalating emotional intensity. i'm not worried i'll lose it and start screaming. i could try sportscasting like janet lansbury lol. "oh you're feeling upset right now! you have a lot of mad feelings!"
loris Malaguzzi tells us there are 1000 languages of childhood. maybe i can encourage them to paint a picture of their angry feelings or sculpt their resentment from butter
anyway now brian's coming with me even tho he's supposed to be pruning the apple trees and he can deal with them. silly to have to bring tormund giantsbane to the damn green grocers with me to prevent harassment but here we are
these people aren't going to stop and eventually there's going to be an actual all-out brawl in one of these stores. that's what they want and that's what they're going to get. somebody's going to shove one of them and things will rapidly escalate
we'll be lucky if it ends in citizens arrests and some black eyes and no gunshots
in the parlance of the preschool tho, "hurting bodies is not available right now"

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Imagine if Christians actually had to live according to their Bibles.


Imagine if Christians actually sacrificed themselves for the good of those they considered their enemies, with no thought of any recompense or reward, but only to honor the essential humanity of all people.

Imagine if Christians sold all their possessions and gave it to the poor.

Imagine if they relentlessly stood up for the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner.

Imagine if they worshipped a God whose response to political power was to reject it.

Or cancelled all debt owed them?

Imagine if the primary orientation of Christians was what others needed, not what they deserved.

Imagine Christians with no interest in protecting what they had.

Imagine Christians who made room for other beliefs, and honored the truths they found there.

Imagine Christians who saved their forgiveness and mercy for others, rather than saving it for themselves.

Whose empathy went first to the abused, not the abuser.

Who didn't see tax as theft; who didn't need to control distribution of public good to the deserving.

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I’m torn on how to approach the idea of luck. I’m the first to admit that I am one of the luckiest people on the planet. To be born into a prosperous American family in 1960 with smart parents is to start life on third base. The odds against my very existence are astronomical.


I’ve always felt that the luckiest people I know had a talent for recognizing circumstances, not of their own making, that were conducive to a favorable outcome and their ability to quickly take advantage of them.

In other words, dumb luck was just that, it required no awareness on the person’s part, whereas “smart” luck involved awareness followed by action before the circumstances changed.

So, was I “lucky” to be born when I was—nothing I had any control over—and that I came of age just as huge databases and computers were advancing to the point where I could use those tools to write “What Works on Wall Street?” Absolutely.

Was I lucky to start my stock market investments near the peak of interest rates which allowed me to spend the majority of my adult life in a falling rate environment? Yup.