R.J.A. Gilbert

Anarchy among honorable men is better than Democracy among thieves.

[R.J.A. Gilbert @TaleMasterTOV]

The greatest of all sins is a man's ability to decide that the truth is not important or not what they want to hear, so they turn away and look elsewhere.

The second greatest sin is a man's ability to convince other men that a lie is better than the truth.

[R.J.A. Gilbert @TaleMasterTOV]

@oregoncitizen_ I have had two Democrat candidates knock on my door, but I have not yet seen the Republicans.

Is that just not a thing they do anymore?

[Die In Place 🗽⚔🇺🇲🪂🪖 @DieinPlace]

Men need to sue their gov't employer everytime they think they get passed over for DEI reasons.

[R.J.A. Gilbert @TaleMasterTOV]

There are nurses who make $100 an hour because they work where they are needed. They still don't want to work in some places. I don't think pay is the issue.

For starters, we had a lot of good nurses who left the field entirely--either by heart attack...or because they watched a co-worker go to the "shot clinic" right before having a heart attack. There's no "pay better" to bring those nurses back.

[R.J.A. Gilbert @TaleMasterTOV]

I have not watched either, but I can say, from the backlash I have experienced, CR has done more damage.

BBT causes people to compare me to characters on the show, which is annoying, because low-INTs tend to treat people IRL like we are those characters in their shows.

OTOH, CR has ruined DMs that I play with. We now have scripted encounters that don't make sense but are expected to be epic battles every single time. There's no more "oh, it's a couple goblins, let's parlay" because the goblins always have to preclude a BBEG complete with mood music and high-stakes (but still scripted) almost-TPK abilities.

[R.J.A. Gilbert @TaleMasterTOV]

@KelemenCari The Thieves' Guild is a complex network of factions, each thinking they can exploit the others for their own game.

Thus, if it suits most of the Guild to loot and pillage, they will all support the looting and pillaging...but some are quietly positioning themselves for more.

[The Dank Knight 🦇 @capeandcowell]

Cool. She deserves everything that comes her way. Keep voting for your own demise, Europe.

And good luck finding Americans who want to die to save your broken country that you’ve handed to the invaders.

[R.J.A. Gilbert @TaleMasterTOV]

@Prozpxr @unheardparent There is only one.

[SMB Attorney @SMB_Attorney]

This is awesome 😂

This sounds insane until you’ve been on enough date nights where you spend $250 to discuss the kids’ schedules in a different building.

The backstory is pretty great!

A married couple in San Diego wanted to get dressed up and go to a wedding. Problem was, they’d reached the age where nobody they knew was getting married anymore.

So they built a website where you can buy tickets to strangers’ weddings.

And the economics actually make sense.

The couple getting married has already committed to a venue minimum. Someone cancels. Now there’s an empty chair and a dinner they’re paying for either way.

Meanwhile, another couple would happily pay to eat, dance, have some cake and watch a best man make a series of increasingly questionable decisions with a microphone.

The hosts approve the guests. Guests verify their IDs. Everybody agrees to the arrangement.

Which is arguably more vetting than your cousin’s new boyfriend received.

Apparently one bride said the paying strangers brought so much energy to the dance floor that she wished she’d invited more.

Of course they did. Those people specifically bought tickets to be there. Half your actual guests are attending under a treaty negotiated between their mothers.

I love businesses like this. Find something people already paid for but can’t fully use. Find someone else who wants it. Make the introduction.

This guy just wanted to take his wife dancing and accidentally identified a liquidity problem in the wedding market.

Cue Vince Vaughn!

[Crazy Moments @Crazymoments01]

"A welfare check on a quiet street turned into something Sheriff Daniel Hayes will never forget. Neighbors hadn't seen the young mother at 214 Willow Lane for two days. They told dispatch a baby had been crying on and off, then suddenly everything went silent. Silence was what worried them most. Hayes, a 20-year veteran, arrived expecting a routine knock and a tired parent who simply hadn't answered the door. He knocked hard and announced himself. No movement. No sound. He forced the door open and stepped inside, calling out as he moved down the hallway. The air felt heavy. A faint smell of heat and stillness hung in the rooms. In the back bedroom, he found a baby girl lying in her crib. She was weak and dehydrated, but her eyes were open. When she saw him, she didn't cry. She just stared. "You've been around a long time, haven't you?" he said softly as he moved closer. In the next room, he found her mother. She had passed away in her sleep from a sudden medical event. Later reports estimated she had been gone for at least 36 hours. The baby had been alone the entire time. Training took over first. Hayes checked her breathing and pulse, then called for medical assistance. After that, he carried her outside to the front porch, away from the scene inside. He lowered himself into an old wooden chair and held her carefully against his chest. "It's alright," he murmured. "I'm here now. You're not alone right now." The child's small fingers wrapped weakly around his shirt. Her head rested under his chin as he waited for the ambulance. "You held on so long," he whispered. "We're going to get you warm. We're going to." His partner captured the moment from a distance. The photo shows a seasoned sheriff sitting on a porch, cradling a baby as tears fall down his face. Years of experience hadn't prepared him for the weight of that afternoon. The girl, later named Lily, recovered at the hospital. Hayes and his wife opened their home to her while relatives were located. When her grandparents were finally found, the handoff was quiet and full of emotion. Now she visits every month. The uniform that carried her out of that house is no longer just a symbol of authority to her family. Some calls end when the report is filed. Others change a life long after the sirens fade.

[R.J.A. Gilbert @TaleMasterTOV]

When I lived with my step-sister, she had two horses.
The first was a rescue that she never should have bought. He hated women because of his previous owner.

She couldn't get near him despite her wanting to (he was a beautiful Arabian stallion). He would get out of his field and I would have to go after him because he respected men.

At one point, he snuck onto her front porch in the dark and, when she came out to check on him, he grabbed her with his mouth and threw her against the house.

She traded him for a gelding. He was very gentle and let her ride him, which is all she ever really wanted. A complete 180 in personality.

[R.J.A. Gilbert @TaleMasterTOV]

I know an elderly woman who, about 10 years ago, killed a woman when her car rammed through a beauty parlor. She insisted she thought she was pushing on the brake, but the car lunged forward. The police took one look at her and decided it was her age and that she should not have been driving. They suspended her license and charged her with manslaughter.

A few months later, Toyota recalled the car she had been driving. Apparently they discovered that its accelerator would sometimes go full-throttle and stick even when the driver was pushing hard on the brake. By that point, she had already plea bargained, permanently lost her license, and settled with the family.

I asked her why she didn't bring up the development with Toyota to re-open her case and get back her right to drive. She said she couldn't even get into a car anymore without shaking; why would she want to ever drive again?

So, to this day, she has an innocent death on her record despite most people knowing it probably was not her who did it.

[R.J.A. Gilbert @TaleMasterTOV]

@RachelMoiselle Was the deeper irony of your statement intended?

[R.J.A. Gilbert @TaleMasterTOV]

@stockmom You will know if there is a recall on the truck she was driving that gets announced in the next few days.

[R.J.A. Gilbert @TaleMasterTOV]

@ReviewsPossum I solved this with zombies...and a state religion that brainwashed the citizens into believing that they were "serving the king" by donating their bodies to necromancy.

[R.J.A. Gilbert @TaleMasterTOV]

@glennbeck Not if the bots have their way.
https://t.co/s47cF14MEt

[Wolfgang Richter @WolfgangRichtEU]

I cried tears of joy as I woke up and saw the protests in France.

These young kids are embodying the Western tradition of protest, demanding their fair share of the economic pie.

The solution is simple: tax the rich. But Macron (who is a former banker) won’t do it. Now he faces these young brave people! Beautiful.

Whatever is destroyed, these young industrious Frenchmen will be able to rebuild.

Vive la France, vive la République!

Have a wonderful Sunday,

Wolfgang

[R.J.A. Gilbert @TaleMasterTOV]

@Essiee04 Better education is when your news feed admits that "protesting for better education and a future" just burned down several historic buildings and many irreplaceable pieces of art that was hundreds of years old.

[Larissa Phillips @larissaphillip]

Nine-year-old on my farm, explaining to me the plot of a book she is reading about a girl living on her uncle’s horse-training farm, and a horse that nobody can tame…

Her: “I’m still reading it, but I’m pretty sure that the girl is going to tame the horse and then they’ll win the race.”

Me: “What makes you think that?”

Her (with a knowing shrug): “I’ve read a lot of horse books. That’s how they usually go.”

[Shiloh 🥀 @ShilohxxJulia]

There is an explanation. They are not charging her pending toxicology results and a vehicle inspection. Pretty sure she’s saying the truck malfunctioned in some way.

It’s horrific, and if intentional or due to DUI, she should be held accountable. But in this country we are innocent until proven guilty.

[EKO @EkoLovesYou]

An old ape named Shift finds a dead lion's skin floating in a pool. He sits down with a needle and thick thread, and every time a bird flies over, he stops sewing and waits for it to pass. He knows exactly what he's making, and he doesn't want anyone in the sky to see it.

C.S. Lewis wrote that scene in 1956, in the last Narnia book. It's the one most of us never got to as kids. I only read it a few years ago.

When his friend Puzzle the donkey comes back from market, Shift ties the skin onto him and tells him to stand in the shadows. Then he tells the whole of Narnia that Aslan has come back.

Lewis tells you how it works. No one who had ever seen a real lion would have been taken in for a moment. It only works from far away, at night, by firelight, with the donkey kept quiet while the ape does all the talking.

Puzzle gets scared and says what if the real Aslan comes. Shift laughs and says Aslan never turns up nowadays. Right then there's a crack of thunder and the ground shakes under them. Puzzle says it's a warning. Shift says yes, it's a sign, and it means Aslan approves.

Now Gerwig's Aslan has Bowie's face and Meryl Streep's voice. The lion who sang a whole world into being in The Magician's Nephew, the voice so deep it shook the ground, talks like someone else now.

Shift did the same thing. He kept the lion's face and changed who was talking.

Lewis is gentle with the donkey, and I want to be too. Puzzle isn't evil. He's tired and trusting, and someone he believed kept telling him he wasn't clever enough to judge for himself. Lewis saves his anger for the ape with the needle.

A dad told me he was reading that first chapter to his kids and had to put the book down, because it read like these Hollywood headlines.

Pick up the real books. Read all seven out loud, every night, until your kids know that voice. A child who has heard the real lion can't be sold a donkey in a skin.