Carried Mercy

remarkably unremarkable purveyor of thoughts, ideas, and all the additional context

[Carried Mercy @justahomemaker]

“For myself, I find I become less cynical rather than more - remembering my own sins and follies; and realize that men's hearts are not often as bad as their acts, and very seldom as bad as their words.” J. R. R. Tolkien

[Carried Mercy @justahomemaker]

@AConcernedPare2 I love a 40 min sermon. 20 min feels way too short. Too shallow.

[Jackie Chea ⚖️ @Fair_and_Biased]

If Rubio runs in 2028 & nothing major changes in the meantime, I’ll be completely behind him.

Rubio consistently shows MORAL CLARITY.

[Carried Mercy @justahomemaker]

@kristenrudd SAME!

[Carried Mercy @justahomemaker]

@tnglngx480156 Or add a few drops of this laundry aid to do the same

[John Ʌ Konrad V @johnkonrad]

How the FIFA tournament matters more than you realize:

Earlier this week I spoke with someone close to senior European defense officials.

He tried lecturing me. My response?

The greatest gift FIFA gave America is not soccer. We don’t care about soccer. It’s sharing pints with Europeans. I did so myself.

The general consensus among the Europeans I met was awe: awe at how large and wealthy and well run America truly is, and at how kind and helpful the average American is.

One match I attended was Guyana versus the UK. I never entered the stadium. I worked the restaurant, the pub, and the Bass Pro next door, which is where the real tournament was happening anyway.

“We were worried about racism turning violent,” one Brit told me. The Americans laughed out loud.

The consensus among the Americans was also surprise. Lots of questions about the death of free speech and the migrant crisis. Not one Brit defended Keir Starmer. Not one.

These were UK patriots who paid serious money to cross an ocean and cheer their team. They told us about the beauty of the English countryside, the pub culture after work, and, after some prodding from me, their proud maritime tradition.

By the end of the night everyone wanted to invite a British family over for a barbecue, and the Brits were eager for us to visit their homes.

And it wasn’t just the English. I met other Europeans and had the same conversations. Friends of mine had many more.

The bottom line: absolutely nobody on either side of the Atlantic cares about the utter bullshit like this.

Some were supportive of Trump, some weren’t, but everyone agreed on one thing: he’s the only politician and commander in chief willing to say things out loud that others only whisper.

The conclusion we all reached is that the media, the academics, and the euro-lib elite are frothing at the mouth about nothing. America is not evil.

The other conclusion: Europe isn’t evil either. But Europe is governed by anti-American ideologues who have dug in their heels on the most unpopular positions their own voters can name.

So I told that someone close to European defense officials: nobody gives two craps about your concerns.
FIFA let us see past your lies. It gave us a clear view straight into the souls of your people.

We’ve got Russia probing, Iran burning, and China knocking at the door. You can join up with us or you can take a hike, but you no longer have the power to lecture us, to call us arrogant, to call us evil.

You lost that power because now we know, unequivocally, that your views do not represent the people you claim to represent.

And your people know it too. The more you lecture us, the more your own citizens roll their eyes and tune you out.

You are sovereign nations and I don’t have any more influence over your anti-American leaders than you so it’s your choice:

Join team America or wither away on your own.

That’s your choice but we won’t apologize anymore if you pick the latter.

“Senior European defense officials” have ruled as emperors of the moral high ground for decades, the media bowed to your wisdom and insight. No longer.

The emperor has no clothes, and the whole pub saw it.

[Freddy🇩🇪 @FreddyLA7]

Tennessee❤️

When people told us at the beginning of our road trip that people in the South are different, we didn’t really know what they meant. But after spending several weeks here, we finally understand.

The hospitality here is just something else. Everyone knows everyone, and it feels like people are living one big shared life. Someone is always stopping by, doors are always open, and everyone is welcome.

One guy told us he hasn’t locked his house in 23 years. When we were out on the lake, we met some people who immediately invited us to their lake house to hang out. They offered us drinks, chicken wings, and made us feel completely at home. It’s a kind of hospitality I’ve never experienced before.

When we got back to the dock late that night, one of the guys on the boat said something that really stuck with me:

“You don’t have to live in some big, exciting city. What matters is the people who live there. That’s what makes you happy. I’ve lived in many places around the world, but nothing comes close to Ocoee, Tennessee. And you know the best part about living here? We’re going to do the exact same thing again tomorrow.”

We will be back.

[Carried Mercy @justahomemaker]

@ZarkFiles The mom in me lost some years of my life just reading this. My goodness

[Carried Mercy @justahomemaker]

@OldHollowTree The number of buried stone walls in western Massachusetts always astonished me. So much forest now was once farmland. I can’t even imagine it! So glad trees are there again

[Carried Mercy @justahomemaker]

@ZarkFiles This blesses me so much to read.

[Garren Shipley @GarrenShipley]

@FreddyLA7 That's why we're citizens, not subjects. :)

[Carried Mercy @justahomemaker]

@Avonleebythesea WHY would someone get rid of this. !??????

[Carried Mercy @justahomemaker]

@FreddyLA7 SAVED THE BEST FOR LAST!!!

[Carried Mercy @justahomemaker]

@FreddyLA7 @WalkFromDems I’m so glad you chose not to let the negative folks ruin the enjoyment of so many of us who were blessed by seeing our country through your eyes.

[Carried Mercy @justahomemaker]

@Heminator Not to mention I get to choose when I leave!

[Sensurround @ShamashAran]

I have now read this highlighted sentence seventeen times because I assumed I wan't actually reading what was written. Surely my eyes didn't actually read this. Maybe someone accidentally pasted in dialogue from "The Onion." back when it was funny. But no.

She is saying that she delayed reporting a rape because she agreed with the accused, politically.

This is one of those moments where, if your IQ is over 85, your brain quietly excuses itself from the room.

We have apparently reached a point where politics has become the emotional-support animal for basic human survival instincts. "Yes, this person committed one of the worst crimes imaginable against me, but we both liked the same tax policy. Awkward."

If your political identity has become so central that it can outweigh reporting your own rape, congratulations: you hve joined a cult. Cults are famous for making people subordinate reality, morality, and self-preservation to the interests of the group.

I hate cults. I hate them a lot.
They don't ask you to ignore facts all at once: they ask for one tiny compromise after another until one day you discover you're explaining away things that should be absolutely indefensible.

What's sad isnt just that people end up there. It's that many of them don't even realize it. They sincerely believe they're making a principled decision when, from the outside, everyone else is wondering why the obvious isn't obvious anymore.

At least religious cults usually promise enlightenment, salvation, eternal life, or an alien spaceship hiding behind a comet. Political cults dont even offer that. They ask you to sacrifice your judgment, your relationships, sometimes even your own well-being in exchange for cable-news talking points, in favor of a politician who will sell you out for a pack of gum.

That's a spectacularly bad trade.

At some point, "my team" has to lose to "the person who committed a violent felony against me." That's not supposed to be a close game.

[Carried Mercy @justahomemaker]

I just moved away from a very catholic area in New England. In the 7 years I lived there, I was not invited to go to church once. Not once. I find that…. Astounding.

[Carried Mercy @justahomemaker]

@catsandcoffee84 I love the brand American Tall.

[Carried Mercy @justahomemaker]

@SketchesbyBoze Complete and utter concur.

[Carried Mercy @justahomemaker]

@NathanielRMart Where oh where did you find this mug!? I’d love to acquire it !

[Carried Mercy @justahomemaker]

This was a phenomenal read and the analogy of cradle Americans is brilliant

[Eli Steele @Hebro_Steele]

"There is a phrase in the Catholic Church for a certain kind of believer: the cradle Catholic. It means the one who was born into the faith, baptized before he could speak, raised inside the rituals so completely that he never had to choose them. He did not convert. He did not study his way in or have a come-to-Jesus moment that brought him to the church door as a grown man. The cradle Catholic was simply always there. And the church has a quiet worry about him, an insecurity, because the thing you are handed in the cradle is the thing you are most likely to take for granted. The convert had to earn the faith and so he knows exactly what it is. The cradle Catholic risks practicing out of habit a thing he has never once had to defend.

"I have come to think there is such a thing as a cradle American, and that many of us now are one. We were born into freedom the way the cradle Catholic was born into the faith. We did not convert to freedom. Most of us under seventy did not serve in the armed forces or march for it or risk our families. We were born into this land where the rights were already written down and the laws made. And like the cradle Catholic, we are in danger of losing the greatest thing we have ever been given, because a freedom you have never had to defend is a freedom you do not know how to defend."

Link below.