Bookworm Bean

Books, craft & photos. 'Book buying psychopath' according to an X friend. 'Ipsa scienta potestas est' (knowledge itself is power) Francis Bacon

[Bookworm Bean @BookwormBean]

200 years on Shelley's still right "the House of commons is not a representation of the people" but exercises sovereignty 'in contempt of them in a hospital for lunatics" #brexit #Parliament

[Bookworm Bean @BookwormBean]

@EchoesofWarYT What a very brave man

[Echoes of War @EchoesofWarYT]

Private Carlton Barrett was possibly the smallest man in his regiment.

5 feet 4 inches tall. 125 pounds.

On the morning of June 6, 1944, he landed at Omaha Beach in neck-deep water, machine gun fire cutting the surface all around him. He made it to shore.

Then he turned around and went back in.

A soldier was drowning. Barrett pulled him out. Then another. Then another. For hours, under constant fire, this 125-pound man waded back into the surf again and again, pulling drowning men to safety and physically carrying the wounded to evacuation boats offshore.

But he didn't stop there.

He ran dispatches the full length of the fire-swept beach. He found soldiers paralyzed by shock and calmed them back into action. He appeared wherever the crisis was worst, doing whatever needed doing, treating rank and personal safety as irrelevant details.

He did this for hours without stopping.

His Medal of Honor citation says his courage had "an inestimable effect on his comrades." That is military understatement for: this small, anonymous man held that section of beach together through sheer force of will.

He survived the war.

His comrades later said his life darkened after he came home. He lived quietly and died in 1986 in California, largely unknown outside of military history circles.

5 feet 4 inches. 125 pounds. He went back in.

Remember him.

[The Telegraph @Telegraph]

British households could spend around £1.4bn subsidising European electricity bills in 2030 as part of Ed Miliband’s green energy push, a report has warned.

🔗: https://t.co/eKt4l3tNGs

[Bookworm Bean @BookwormBean]

@FlavellG Morning Gillian

[Bookworm Bean @BookwormBean]

Cat says I am handing you this s card because I want this chair @Alichat66 @FlavellG @rose1_scarlett

[Undine @HorribleSanity]

Today’s Vintage Ad With Unexpected Cats seems oddly apologetic. “Yeah, we’re not the Presidential, but buy our crappy chair anyway.”

[Robbie @Robbie_Reasons]

The Somerset Farmhouse of 1 North Street, Williton were approached by a "food influencer" that wanted to charge them £2,000 for a review.

They put out a video of Sally eating a sausage roll instead 😆.

Lets make Sally and the Somerset Farmhouse famous for free.

[IMPERATOR @IMPERATORAUS]

Does a civilisation have a right to exist?

The answer is no.

A civilisation exists only so long as it has the power, the virtue, and the will to exist.

This is the hard realism of history, the principle Thucydides captured in his History of the Peloponnesian Wars when he wrote that "the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must".

Every civilisation – Eastern or Western – was forged by war, tempered by religion, and stabilised by law. Yet none of the people who lived in those empires imagined that their world could vanish within a single lifetime, since decline always arrives more swiftly than those living through it can comprehend.

The paradox is that we study the past yet remain blind to the present.

Every civilisation believes it is the exception – until it isn't.

Civilisations do not die because they are conquered, they die because they surrender. Strength fades first in memory, then in custom, and finally in the character of a people.

When a people abandon the moral and religious foundations that formed them, when institutions decay, when borders dissolve, when wealth replaces virtue, and when comfort dulls duty, decline follows with astonishing speed – not as a sudden catastrophe, but as the final stage of a long defeat.

The West's achievements are extraordinary, but past greatness guarantees nothing.

Our ancestors built something remarkable, but they cannot save us.

We must save ourselves.

Cities can be remade, but once your civilisation is gone, it's gone forever.

[Jonathan Slater @slater57649]

He’s probably out cheating on me

[J&L Historical @Jason_R_Burt]

After making their first combat jump 82 years ago today, paratroopers Forrest Guth and Floyd Talbert of Easy Company pose for a photo with some locals in Normandy, France.

[Bookworm Bean @BookwormBean]

Binky has some catching up to do @Alichat66 @FlavellG @rose1_scarlett

[Undine @HorribleSanity]

Our #Caturday Feline of the Week is Peter, TERROR TO RATS. (Gloucester Journal 1943, via @_newspapers)

[Evan Amato @SirEvanAmato]

George (the guy behind OSP) is doing a great job shedding light on overlooked classics

Way too often we focus on the obvious: Tolkien, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Dumas, etc. But there’s a whole universe of forgotten classics out waiting to be rediscovered.

This is one of them 👇

[Bookworm Bean @BookwormBean]

@JillWitherjay17 @A1an_M I didn't do eggs but I did mushrooms in lard. If I fry an egg for my mother, I always do it in lard.

[Bookworm Bean @BookwormBean]

. If you are interested in learning about mediaeval history, please listen to Fortune's Wheel Podcast. I am still catching up - only about 150 episodes to listen to!

[Fortune's Wheel Podcast @WheelPodcast]

It's a long time coming, folks, but a NEW EPISODE is finally out. Please forgive the lengthy absence. My spring has been busy with extended hospital stays for my kid and wrapping up another school year, but I may be back for the long haul once again.

This is EPISODE 210: "Many Wept For Joy" and this episode sees, at long last, the arrival of the crusaders before the mighty walls of Jerusalem.

https://t.co/QqcChqrehc

[Fortune's Wheel Podcast @WheelPodcast]

It's a long time coming, folks, but a NEW EPISODE is finally out. Please forgive the lengthy absence. My spring has been busy with extended hospital stays for my kid and wrapping up another school year, but I may be back for the long haul once again.

This is EPISODE 210: "Many Wept For Joy" and this episode sees, at long last, the arrival of the crusaders before the mighty walls of Jerusalem.

https://t.co/QqcChqrehc

[Medieval Military Medicine @MedMilMedicine]

“You okay? I hate it when they fight.” - 13th century, British Library, Royal MS 12 F XIII, f. 42v

[Bookworm Bean @BookwormBean]

An excellent essay from the best book club. Please read the essay and join the club.

[Athenaeum Book Club @athenaeumbc]

https://t.co/T1iuRVUwbe

[Athenaeum Book Club @athenaeumbc]

https://t.co/T1iuRVUwbe

[Eastern Bloc Visuals @eastblocvisuals]

You're an East German border guard Harry

[Lord Hanson of Flint Labour Peer & Minister @RTHondavehanson]

In a corner of parliament at the far end of the Royal gallery a box lies permantly open containing sand from all five Normandy beaches -a reminder to both houses of the sacrifice & the cause of freedom fought for by brave service people on DDay June 6 th 1944. #DDay

[History Today @HistoryToday]

When #SamuelPepys’ diary was first published in the #19thcentury it was an instant hit, but rumours soon spread about what had been cut and why.

⌛️ Last chance to read this archive article for free

https://t.co/qOwCFRfbgx