bananajamma

[Ian Jayne @ianjaynee]

I'm an atheist, and I talked to my wife about it last night.

I was already an atheist when I met her, so naturally I ended up with someone who was also an atheist. But over the past couple of months, I've been having dreams where someone is talking to me, along with these weird signs. I chose to ignore them because I didn't believe in any of that.

Our life is fine. Actually, it's better than a lot of my peers'. We got a new house this year, our child is healthy, and my relationship with my wife is stronger than ever. Seven years strong.

So why would I believe in God? We're not struggling financially or emotionally, and we're all healthy. There's no need for us to believe in a supernatural being.

But these past few months, out of nowhere, I've felt this calling that Jesus is real. It gives me goosebumps, but not from fear. More like a sense of awe or shame. Like He loves me so much, even though I'm so small and unimportant. And then, for some reason, all my beliefs that God isn't real just disappeared. Suddenly, I wanted to come back.

I don't fully understand why I feel this way, but I do. I want to return.

I hid it from my wife because I knew she'd laugh at me. That's how I used to be too. But I've been seeing so many signs telling me to trust in Him and tell her, that God is trying to save her through me. I still couldn't do it because of our old beliefs.

But last night, I finally did. I told her I'm starting to believe in Jesus Christ.

(This is going to be a long post, so I'll just shortcut what we talked about.)

She didn't laugh. I didn't expect her reaction at all. For context, the conversation about God started around 2 a.m., though I tried to bring it up around 1 a.m. There were a lot of detours because I didn't know how to say it. But she said she'd keep an open mind about God, since she never expected me to become a believer out of nowhere.

This Sunday, we're going to church for the first time as a family. I'm very excited.

[Dr Charlie Ward @DrcharlieWardQ]

BREAKING 🚨: Kmele Foster: “It's one thing to not think capitalism isn't working, ideally. It's another thing entirely to insist that it is oppressive, that it is bound up with white supremacy.”

Jemele Hill: “How is it not?”

Kmele Foster: “I've always preferred Adam Smith's description of capitalism as the natural system of liberty. The idea that people can own property, that they can exchange it freely with one another for profit, that they can find ways to put their resources to good use and profit in a way that is actually beneficial to everyone else, that there can be gains from trade that are mutually beneficial. These are foundational ideas that have created more wealth than any other system in human history. That is what capitalism is. That is not white supremacy.”

Jemele Hill: “Do you think capitalism has always worked that way?”

Kmele Foster: “I’ve actually just described the basic facts of the economics.”

Hill: “That ain't how it's always worked.”

Kmele Foster: “Slavery is an institution that is older than writing. It predates capitalism. The notion that white supremacy and all these other things are bound up with capitalism in an intrinsic and fundamental way is so absurd and laughable, it barely needs to be defended.”

Jemele Hill: “How was it absurd?”

Kmele Foster: “It barely needs to be defended.”

Jemele Hill: “What do you mean it barely needs to be defended?”

Kmele Foster: “You actually have to articulate what the connections is. How are these two things the same? I'm talking about private property, the right to exchange and sell with whomever you like. What does that have to do with white supremacy?… What is the white supremacy dynamic of private property?”

[Roger morris @Rogermo48927819]

@rustyrockets Strikes me a bit odd how prince Andrew, Bill Clinton and Bill gates are not in jail considering how many time they’ve visited Epstein island.
Could it be a case of you speak out against digital IDs and the Covid death jabs and this is what you get!

[FeelGoodThoughts @feelgoodtale]

For the last 9-months, my wife, Brooklyn has been pregnant with a very sick baby boy. Three or four months ago, we learned that the baby had severe hydrocephalus. Back in the old days, hydrocephalus was called, 'water on the brain' - too much brain fluid. Ultimately, we were referred to Cincinnati Children's Hospital, where we were told by several of the most highly regarded fetal specialists in the country that his condition was dire. The baby's condition was 'off the charts bad'. It was so extreme that the specialists stopped measuring and monitoring his fluid level because, at that point, it didn't really matter. The MRI's were sickening to look at.

We were told, pointblank, that there was over a 90% chance that the baby would either die shortly after birth or have such severe cognitive impairments that any quality of life would be hard to imagine. We had a meeting with palliative care regarding the use of life sustaining measures and had detailed, awful, and emotional discussions about the ethics of when we might need to remove or cease such measures - which would result in the baby 'passing away peacefully'.

Brooklyn relocated to Cincinnati and lived in a hotel close to the hospital - in case she went into labor. I commuted back and forth. On July 8th, Brooklyn did indeed go into labor. Literally, 15 minutes before they wheeled her back to start the C-section, we had another meeting with doctors regarding the use of a breathing tube and at what point we might need to remove that tube and let the baby go to Heaven. Guess what? The baby came out crying - which was the sweetest sound I ever heard.

In a nutshell, Charlie Schnarr stayed in infant intensive care until yesterday - when we all came home. He seems to be a normal, beautiful baby doing all the things that babies do. He has mild ventricular enlargement, but we can deal with that with checkups.

How did this happen?!

The doctors said, 'We do not have and cannot come up with a medical explanation for what we've witnessed here'. Somehow his brain found a way to naturally clear the blockage or re-route the fluid that was causing the oppressive back up of brain fluid. During the last week, I heard the words, 'divine intervention' and 'miracle' more times than I could count. Nurses with decades of experience and esteemed, nationally admired doctors were flabbergasted but jubilant. Because of the domino effect of friends, family, clients, colleagues and even strangers praying and asking others to pray for us, I do not doubt that there were thousands of people praying for us.

I'm a practical person that certainly believes in science and medical technology, but I absolutely know, from the bottom of my heart, that God was involved in this. I give ALL of the credit and glory to Him. Prayer is positively powerful. God is real, and He still performs miracles."

📷: Nick Schnarr

[Tucker Carlson @TuckerCarlson]

Under pressure from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Trump administration may be within days of launching a nuclear strike on Iran. The target would be Pickax Mountain in central Iran, where Israeli intelligence claims the Iranian government has restarted its nuclear enrichment program. No conventional weapon in the American arsenal can penetrate 300 feet of solid granite to destroy the tunnels where enrichment is supposedly taking place. The only military option is a nuclear strike. Netanyahu has been pushing hard for one. “Bibi calls Trump about it every day,” says an informed observer.

Netanyahu is cornered and desperate. After last week’s election results, he can’t form a government unless Trump intervenes directly in Israeli politics and brokers a deal with other parties that gives Netanyahu 61 seats in the Knesset. Otherwise, he is out as prime minister and on his way to ignominy, investigations and possibly jail. Netanyahu must stay close to Trump. He needs this war.

To that end, he’s applied maximum pressure to his closest allies in the administration, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and CENTCOM commander Brad Cooper. Both oppose a negotiated settlement to the war they’ve so grievously mismanaged; both are pushing to restart major combat operations. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA director John Ratcliffe are also following Netanyahu’s lead, as are leaders of the Democratic Party. In a recent meeting on the subject, former president Barack Obama said he opposes the current Iran peace deal being drafted in Doha.

The rest of America’s longtime allies in the Middle East are terrified by the prospect of more war. On September 27th, Netanyahu flew secretly to Abu Dhabi to enlist the UAE in his lobbying effort for a final attack on Iran. The Emiratis refused. After eight months of conflict, Gulf economies are teetering. So are global energy and fertilizer markets. They won’t recover soon. Globally, there are a total of about 850 supertankers used to transport oil from producers to the rest of the world. In October alone, 11 of them were badly damaged in Hormuz. At this pace, a global depression is imminent. A nuclear strike would radically accelerate the destruction. Fallout from a ground explosion at Pickax Mountain would contaminate the Persian Gulf, poisoning the water supply for 100 million people.

And those are just some of the immediate consequences for the region. The rest of the world is every bit as exposed. No country other than the United States has ever used a nuclear weapon in war. Some would like to. An American nuclear attack on Iran would set a new precedent. The Russians have already told at least two other governments that an American nuclear strike on Iran would free them to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine. Pakistan and India would be tempted to do the same against each other, as would North Korea against Seoul. After the first nuclear strike, World War Three is inevitable. That war would be short and final.

We’ve been sleepwalking toward this moment for months. Since February, the administration has quietly rewritten America’s nuclear doctrine to make first use of so-called “battlefield nukes” easier and therefore more likely. No one in Washington in either party seems bothered by this. Now we’re on the brink of it.

Close observers say Trump is likely to decide by next weekend whether or not to use nuclear weapons. That would be November 7, six days from now. To his credit, he’s hesitating. At the moment, Trump is listening to his vice president, JD Vance, and to his envoy and friend Steve Witkoff, both of whom argue a deal with Iran can be made.

They’re right, though it won’t be simple. The Iranians are famously frustrating to negotiate with under any circumstances, and elements of that government have become more radical since Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his family were killed in February. After decades of isolation, even relatively moderate Iranian leaders seem confused by how decisions are made in the West. (There is a widespread belief in Tehran, for example, that the United States government controls Israel.) But overall, people who have spoken to decision-makers in Iran say there is consensus there that more war is bad for everyone and a deal is worth making.

One group that hasn’t been consulted so far is the global population — the hundreds of millions of people who will be killed along with their children if Trump is pushed by Netanyahu into launching a nuclear strike next week. Now would be the time for them to speak up.

[ハミ・ジェジェ @HamiJeJe]

ムスリムの皆さんへ。
日本に来たなら、日本の文化とルールに合わせてほしい。ヒジャブを外し、豚肉を食べ、酒を飲む——そんな極端な話をしているのではない。ただ、自分の宗教的都合を日本国民全体に押し付けるな、という話だ。
日本は世俗国家であり、特定の宗教の戒律を公共の場に強制する文化はない。豚肉も酒も、日本では日常の食文化だ。それを「ハラームだから」と周囲に拒否を強いたり、学校・職場・イベントで特別扱いを要求したりするのは、逆に日本人の自由を侵害している。宗教の自由は「自分で守る」ものであって、「他人に守らせる」ものではない。
モスクについても同じだ。日本は土地が狭く、住宅密集地が多い。大規模な宗教施設が突然建てられれば、騒音・交通・景観の問題が必ず起きる。しかも日本では宗教施設の建設に対する地元合意が重視される。勝手に「宗教の権利だ」と押し通すのは、日本社会のルールを無視している。
さらに根本的な話がある。日本では火葬率が99%を超える。これは土地の制約と、長年の仏教・神道の慣習によるものだ。イスラム教の土葬要求は、この現実と真っ向からぶつかる。少数の都合で日本の葬送文化を変えろ、というのは筋が通らない。
不満があるなら、選択肢は明確だ。日本に来たのは自分の意志であり、日本を自分の国の延長線上に変える権利はない。合わないと感じるなら、帰国する自由もある。
最後に一つ。日本は日本人の国だ。これは「排他」ではなく、どの民族国家にもある当たり前の前提だ。自国の文化・言語・慣習を守りたいと思うのは、日本人だけでなく、どの国民にもある感情だ。それを「差別だ」と非難して、日本のアイデンティティ自体を否定するなら、そもそも日本に来る意味がわからない。
文化は相互尊重で成り立つ。一方的に「受け入れろ」と要求するだけでは、共生は成立しない。

[bananajamma @HannahMariaa]

@oskar_lothbrok @DrJesseMorse Amen 🙏🏻

[J.K. Rowling @jk_rowling]

I'm seeing quite a bit of comment about this, so I want to make a couple of points.

I'm not owed eternal agreement from any actor who once played a character I created. The idea is as ludicrous as me checking with the boss I had when I was twenty-one for what opinions I should hold these days.

Emma Watson and her co-stars have every right to embrace gender identity ideology. Such beliefs are legally protected, and I wouldn't want to see any of them threatened with loss of work, or violence, or death, because of them.

However, Emma and Dan in particular have both made it clear over the last few years that they think our former professional association gives them a particular right - nay, obligation - to critique me and my views in public. Years after they finished acting in Potter, they continue to assume the role of de facto spokespeople for the world I created.

When you've known people since they were ten years old it's hard to shake a certain protectiveness. Until quite recently, I hadn't managed to throw off the memory of children who needed to be gently coaxed through their dialogue in a big scary film studio. For the past few years, I've repeatedly declined invitations from journalists to comment on Emma specifically, most notably on the Witch Trials of JK Rowling. Ironically, I told the producers that I didn't want her to be hounded as the result of anything I said.

The television presenter in the attached clip highlights Emma's 'all witches' speech, and in truth, that was a turning point for me, but it had a postscript that hurt far more than the speech itself. Emma asked someone to pass on a handwritten note from her to me, which contained the single sentence 'I'm so sorry for what you're going through' (she has my phone number). This was back when the death, rape and torture threats against me were at their peak, at a time when my personal security measures had had to be tightened considerably and I was constantly worried for my family's safety. Emma had just publicly poured more petrol on the flames, yet thought a one line expression of concern from her would reassure me of her fundamental sympathy and kindness.

Like other people who've never experienced adult life uncushioned by wealth and fame, Emma has so little experience of real life she's ignorant of how ignorant she is. She'll never need a homeless shelter. She's never going to be placed on a mixed sex public hospital ward. I'd be astounded if she's been in a high street changing room since childhood. Her 'public bathroom' is single occupancy and comes with a security man standing guard outside the door. Has she had to strip off in a newly mixed-sex changing room at a council-run swimming pool? Is she ever likely to need a state-run rape crisis centre that refuses to guarantee an all-female service? To find herself sharing a prison cell with a male rapist who's identified into the women's prison?

I wasn't a multimillionaire at fourteen. I lived in poverty while writing the book that made Emma famous. I therefore understand from my own life experience what the trashing of women's rights in which Emma has so enthusiastically participated means to women and girls without her privileges.

The greatest irony here is that, had Emma not decided in her most recent interview to declare that she loves and treasures me - a change of tack I suspect she's adopted because she's noticed full-throated condemnation of me is no longer quite as fashionable as it was - I might never have been this honest.

Adults can't expect to cosy up to an activist movement that regularly calls for a friend's assassination, then assert their right to the former friend's love, as though the friend was in fact their mother. Emma is rightly free to disagree with me and indeed to discuss her feelings about me in public - but I have the same right, and I've finally decided to exercise it.

[bananajamma @HannahMariaa]

@AcePrimero @digijordan Hmm I like this argument. Can you give me scripture?

[Owen @Owennfa]

HYPOTHETICALLY... IF I BOUGHT MY HOUSE FOR $140,000 IN 2005 AND THE COUNTY NOW SAYS IT'S WORTH $510,000, WHERE EXACTLY DID I "MAKE" $370,000?

Did I sell it? No.

Did a check show up in my mailbox? No.

Did anyone actually hand me that money? Not even close.

But my property tax bill still climbs every year because, on paper, my house is suddenly worth way more than I paid for it.

That's the piece that never sat right with me.

This isn't income.

It's not cash in my account.

It's a number some appraiser assigned to my house, and now I'm getting billed off that number.

If my 401k doubles and I never sell, I haven't actually realized that gain.

If my paycheck stays flat, the IRS doesn't suddenly decide I owe more because someone estimates I'm "worth" more.

So why is a house treated differently?

WHY AM I TAXED ON MONEY I NEVER ACTUALLY RECEIVED?

A house isn't just a number on a spreadsheet. It's where my family lives.

I can pay the mortgage off completely, own it outright, and still get hit with a bigger bill every single year, because of a valuation I had zero say in and never cashed out.

At some point you have to ask what "owning" something even means if the price of keeping it can rise because of money that never touched your hands.

THIS ISN'T ABOUT WHETHER THE HOUSE WENT UP IN VALUE.

IT'S ABOUT BEING TAXED ON A GAIN I NEVER TURNED INTO CASH.

More people are starting to ask the same question.

[Alana Mastrangelo-Wrask @ARmastrangelo]

I bought this @GE_Appliances fridge in March 2020. Six and a half years later, it’s dead. The repair quote is $2,350, which means it's time to buy a new fridge.

Meanwhile, the white fridge in my garage that looks like it's from WWII is still running strong.

For the price of one brand-new GE fridge, I could buy 30 used white fridges on Facebook Marketplace that will all still be alive after I'm gone.

What happened to us as a nation?

[bananajamma @HannahMariaa]

@postlogix @Leonajardinho So true I would’ve paid 1100 for a ct scan, instead said I don’t have insurance. Paid 300. Another procedure rhat would’ve been 1500 cost me 537. Such a scam.

[Leo @Leonajardinho]

CAN SOMEONE ACTUALLY EXPLAIN HOW THIS IS LEGAL.

A coworker pays $340 a month for health insurance through our employer.

That's over $4,000 every single year taken straight out of his paycheck just for basic coverage.

Last month, he had severe abdominal pain and went to the urgent care clinic.

Total bill for bloodwork and an ultrasound: $1,400.

He submitted the claim thinking his insurance would cover it.

Their response: "You haven't met your $5,000 individual deductible yet, so you owe the full amount. Also, that specific facility was out-of-network."

So he paid $1,400 out of pocket on top of the $4,000 he pays annually, just to get diagnosed.

You aren't paying for healthcare. You're paying a mandatory monthly subscription for the privilege of paying full price when you actually get sick.

[Owen @Owennfa]

HOT TAKE: If corporations only pay taxes on what's left after expenses, I should only be taxed after paying rent, groceries, and bills.

[🇺🇸Lionel🇺🇸 @LionelMedia]

Can we please have this woman run for anything so that we can elect her and ultimately make her POTUS?

[bananajamma @HannahMariaa]

@praying_medic1 You mean for murdering someone. Yes.

[Overton @overton_news]

Scott Jennings just dragged CNN’s Sara Sidner into the deep end during a debate about White South African refugees.

Sidner was melting down over the Trump administration’s proposed plan to assist Afrikaner refugees facing persecution.

She thought she had won the argument when she said:

“There is NO genocide happening in South Africa.”

But that wasn’t the point Jennings was making.

Regardless of whether the situation meets the definition of genocide, the administration had determined that this group of people was facing violence and discrimination based on race.

Therefore they qualify as refugees into America.

JENNINGS: “It is simply, in my opinion, a reprioritization of the refugee program.”

“There doesn’t need to be a genocide occurring for the administration to conclude that there’s some sort of racial discrimination and violence occurring against a population of people.”

Sidner began to unravel.

The amount of vitriol being directed at these refugees simply because they don’t fit the racial narrative that the left wants to promote is pretty wild.

[bananajamma @HannahMariaa]

@ThrillaRilla369 Never heard about this, I’ve heard her husband got 1.2 million from go fund me.

[Amelia @amelia_tweetz]

They took memory cards from us and made us pay for storage. They took CDs and DVDs and made us pay for streaming. They took software you could buy once and turned it into a monthly subscription. They took ownership, convenience, and basically everything that used to be a one-time purchase… then somehow made us pay for it every month.

[ThePersistence @ScottPresler]

If hormones or hormone imbalances are dangerous enough to lead to murder,

then why are doctors allowing for children to be injected with hormones that aren’t meant for their bodies?

Why are children allowed to be prescribed puberty blockers?