@FeelsGuy2003 The issue with Christian leaders is they try to have a disconnect between religion and politics, only for the institutions to be vulnerable to political infiltration (true for all Christian denominations).
@Lavader_ I never get why people try to argue this point. Just because something wasn’t 100% one ideology doesn’t mean that ideology wasn’t the biggest cause. It’s like blaming the guy who did the title page for ruining a group project when one person did the majority of the work.
USA. Summer. It is 95 degrees outside, and I am shivering inside a sandwich shop.
I have discovered how Americans forge strong souls.
Outside, the sun is trying to kill everyone. Inside this small restaurant, it is winter. My breath does not fog, but it is thinking about it. A man near me is eating a cold sandwich while wearing a jacket. In summer. Indoors.
In Japan we would simply turn it down. Americans do not turn it down. And now I understand them better than they understand themselves.
This cold is not an accident. This cold is a gift.
The owner has built, inside his shop, a second season. He invites you in from the brutal heat and hands you the one thing the sun has denied you all day: a reason to be cold. To endure it is to be tempered. You walk in soft and sweating. You walk out sharp and clear, a slightly stronger person than you were.
So I did not complain. I removed my outer layer and offered it to the woman at the next table, who was hugging herself. She said, "Oh, no, I'm fine, thank you." She was not fine. Her lips were blue. But she, too, understood the training. She would not break first. I respected her deeply.
The owner asked if everything was okay.
"It is perfect," I said, through my teeth, which were chattering. "Thank you for the winter."
He said, "...I can turn the AC down if you want?"
I told him no. A man does not ask the mountain to be shorter.
I stayed two hours. I ordered a hot coffee to survive. Then a second one, to hold. By the end I could no longer feel my hands, but my spirit had never been clearer.
So now, on the hottest days, I seek out the coldest rooms. I sit. I shiver. I sharpen.
And when I finally step back out into the summer heat, and it wraps around me like a warm bath, I feel it.
Reborn.
A man who has survived the winter, in August, indoors, for the price of a sandwich.
@KaiSchwemmer The people who say this just do it for attention.
Yeah, turns out I’d rather vote for the party that doesn’t hate me and western civilization.
Watched the Backrooms movie.
Pretty decent, though the ending was a bit weak. The movie was a good adaptation of the backrooms.
Hope Kane Pixels keeps on making more media!
The incredibles is my kids favorite movie. I’ve watched it quite a few times recently. Its writing is incredible, especially for a kids show.
Robert Parr, Bob Everyman, Mr. Incredible. Father figure bigger than life, provider strongest man in his families life. Spent his youth saving others now works for an insurance company that “helps” people after the disaster has struck. He struggles being unable to help when his company won’t pay out for disaster he wishes he was thwarting. The suffocating world of law and regulations has him forgetting who he really is. He’s beaten down hoping to fulfill his purpose once more.
Helen Parr, elastigirl, she’s a mom. She can roll with the punches, take on new rolls, catch a screaming child and shield her family. She’s flexible. Her primary heroic roll is holding the family together. Supporting her husband while resisting the urge to blow cover adapting with the times.
Violet Parr, like the flower shrinks away from view. A moody teenager she puts up barriers between herself and the world, turning invisible. Unsure of her social standing both in her peers and in wider society.
Dash parr. The young boy, brash and sure of himself. He wants to race through life, get there quicker, what boy doesn’t? Competitive without an outlet, held back just like his father.
Jack Jack, a baby, infinite potential, infinite powers. Undifferentiated abilities which represent all of us at this stage.
Mirage, seductress. She offers Bob what he wants more than anything in the world, the recognition of his greatness. What she offers isn’t real.
(She delivers the most sexually charged scene in all of Disney “how does this fertile island compare?”)
Syndrome, boy genius, resentful. He can’t stand that some people are worshiped. He has a hatred of the hierarchy. He wishes to place himself atop it, reap the rewards, then destroy the hierarchy when he’s done. He stands as societies unwillingness to acknowledge the truly exceptional. His own considerable talents wasted on a life long vendetta.
Because the past inflation doesn’t go away.
It’s good that inflation is lower, but that doesn’t mean prices went down. It means they are going up slower. You’d have to look at wage growth compared to inflation to see whether prices went down.
@DrewPavlou In addition, the funds wouldn’t solve anything. People would just take advantage of the benefits and aging demographics will make it unsustainable. They treat the state’s only role as both a neutral distributor of benefits and a bastion of progressivism.