whitebuffalo

the only way out is in.

[whitebuffalo @krswonson]

Now what? Honest question.

[James Li @5149jamesli]

We aren't voting our way out of this.

[Brian Massachusetts @BuraianUFO]

“The Nordics? Great people. Tremendous people. Very tall. Everybody talks about the Zeta Reticuli aliens, total disaster, low energy. But the Nordics? Incredible. Beautiful spacecraft. The best spacecraft. Frankly, they’ve never seen interdimensional trade deals like mine.”

[whitebuffalo @krswonson]

@NickHintonn Bill Cooper could have been being used to spread deception like he realized he was being used to propagate alien invasion theories

[whitebuffalo @krswonson]

@JoeConchaTV Child predatory sites? Wtf is this?

[whitebuffalo @krswonson]

@WhiteyNorthcutt

[whitebuffalo @krswonson]

@redatheart0 @ReasonablePete Their letter correspondence is interesting. Haven't read it all

[d @doberes]

Moebius

[Fuck You I Quit @fuckyouiquit]

Commercial advertising, product placements, and corporate-sponsored promotions are explicitly prohibited on national parklands. The White House lawn is a unit of the National Park System. It also violates standard Anti-Vending and Solicitation Laws as well as misuse of public funds and government endorsement ethics. Everything this administration does spits in the face of our laws. Everything is a grift.

[Republicans against Trump @RpsAgainstTrump]

CNN aired a montage of Trump’s past claims that the U.S. was on the cusp of a deal with Iran, with Anderson Cooper noting that today’s announcement marks the 39th time he’s made a similar claim.

[whitebuffalo @krswonson]

@leptokinesis Stunning and brave

[whitebuffalo @krswonson]

@Rivers92124 @TheMaineWonk

[whitebuffalo @krswonson]

@TheMaineWonk You try doing that shit after pounding a fifth of old granddad

[whitebuffalo @krswonson]

@nickventuri @starmexxx As my cow farmer uncle told me when I complained of the smell of cow shit on his farm, "it smells like money".

[Nick Hinton @NickHintonn]

Imagine if they did this on a mass scale and told everyone to worship a false messiah

[The Culturist @the_culturist_]

Tom Bombadil is the most mysterious character in The Lord of the Rings.

He's the oldest being in Middle-earth and completely immune to the Ring's power — but why?

Bombadil is the key to the underlying ethics of the entire story, and to resisting evil yourself...

Tom Bombadil is an enigmatic, merry hermit of the countryside, known as "oldest and fatherless" by the Elves. He is truly ancient, and claims he was "here before the river and the trees." He's so confounding that Peter Jackson left him out of the films entirely.

This is understandable, since he's unimportant to the development of the plot. Tolkien, however, saw fit to include him anyway, because Tom reveals a lot about the underlying ethics of Middle-earth, and how to shield yourself from evil.

The hobbits meet Bombadil early on in their quest, before they reach Bree and the Prancing Pony Inn. He rescues Merry and Pippin from Old Man Willow, and invites the hobbits to stay at his house in the Old Forest.

There, the hobbits realize something strange about him: the Ring has no power over Bombadil whatsoever.

When he wears it, he remains visible. He treats it as a plaything, making it disappear with a magic trick. Indeed, at the Council of Elrond, Gandalf rejects the idea of giving the Ring to Tom, for he would likely misplace it or forget about it entirely.

So just who is he, exactly?

When Frodo asks this very question to Tom's wife Goldberry, she simply responds "He is." It's a cryptic answer that echoes God's famous answer to Moses in the Book of Exodus: "I am who I am."

Thus, many theorize that Bombadil is God, some kind of angelic being, or even the spirit of the Music of the Ainur (due to the fact that he is constantly singing). But Tolkien's letters reveal something considerably more interesting…

In April 1954, Tolkien wrote:

"The story is cast in terms of a good side, and a bad side, beauty against ruthless ugliness, tyranny against kingship… but both sides in some degree, conservative or destructive, want a measure of control.But if you have, as it were, taken a 'vow of poverty', renounced control, and take your delight in things for themselves without reference to yourself… then the questions of the rights and wrongs of power and control might become utterly meaningless to you, and the means of power quite valueless…"

So, Bombadil is a representation of what it means to take pure delight in the world around you — to experience people and things simply as they are, without any thought for what they could be or how you could use them. And this is why the Ring has no power over him.

To Bombadil, the One Ring is simply a ring, and the possibilities of what can be achieved through its power are of no importance. He is able to resist its evil precisely because he is entirely content with the world around him.

At the end of the story, having accomplished what he set out to do in Middle-earth, Gandalf pays Tom a visit before returning to the Undying Lands:

"I am going to have a long talk with Bombadil: such a talk as I have not had in all my time."

If Bombadil is the epitome of simply enjoying life and being, Gandalf is the epitome of doing. He guides the hobbits, fights the Balrog, and runs up and down Middle-earth to help destroy the One Ring.

But now that he's finally liberated from doing, he immediately heads to Bombadil's. He does so with a sense of relief, as if he's at last able to access a purer and higher mode of being — a sort of innocence that cannot be fully experienced by those consumed by doing.

Of course, by this Tolkien doesn't disparage the value of action. The entirety of LOTR displays the importance of rising up against evil, even in the face of all odds. But with the inclusion of Bombadil, he does remind readers that fighting isn't all there is.

Bombadil reminds us that while it's important to strive and *do*, it is just as important to occasionally step back and *be*. Indeed, your ability to do so plays a crucial role in helping you resist the allure of evil…

Read the full piece here:

https://t.co/aqK2daehIL

The unsung hero of The Lord of the Rings...

[whitebuffalo @krswonson]

@leptokinesis And metal is often influenced by the esoteric.
https://t.co/hskf2nMjis

[whitebuffalo @krswonson]

@NathanBnewsin @1011_News Wtf

[whitebuffalo @krswonson]

@KingofJUCO You havent had runza until you eat one in memorial stadium that has steamed itself in the vendors box.

[The Best @TheBestqueenx]

When your government tells you; "we're all in the same boat!"

[whitebuffalo @krswonson]

@leptokinesis I am the kudzu that blankets and regenerates

[whitebuffalo @krswonson]

@BrickCenter_ Trash behavior