Tammy Taylor

Loving life as a retired teacher-librarian, passionate reader, yogi, gardener, and beach lover

[Tammy Taylor @ttaylor217]

@TMacPhils So Tom, the game tonight on our Fios is in Spanish. Commercials are in English. Anyone else?

[Tammy Taylor @ttaylor217]

@realDonaldTrump @elonmusk

[Tammy Taylor @ttaylor217]

Insurance companies and the government have not been helpful in any significant way. Watch and share this video. https://t.co/1xRsUKQGkq

[Tammy Taylor @ttaylor217]

Insurance companies and the government have not been helpful in any significant way. Watch and share this video. https://t.co/1xRsUKQGkq

[Tammy Taylor @ttaylor217]

Sharing this post from Hot Springs, NC- a small town on the Appalachian Trail. The community is friendly and welcoming to all. Sadly Hurricane Helene devastated the town. In spite of all the help from many individuals and groups, the town is a long way from being open.

[Linda @turtledumplin]

Our side lost because of the intolerance of the tolerant left. If you don’t see that, then we will keep losing.
People didn’t vote for Trump, they voted against you.
They voted against your “if you don’t agree with me then you’re my enemy” mentality.
They voted against your need to have an echo chamber or risk being canceled.
They voted against being attacked for a difference in opinion.
They voted against being called pedos, racists, homophobes, Nazis simply for disagreeing with you.
They voted for the right to keep YOU out of decisions for their children.
They voted against having to walk on eggshells for fear of offending someone.

I don’t care who I piss off by saying this, step out of the tunnel vision and have a civil conversation with folks and take responsibility for your part in pushing people, who are on the fence, to vote against you.

[Konstantin Kisin @KonstantinKisin]

For my British and European friends who are "shocked" and "surprised", here are 10 reasons you didn't see this coming.

Read this short post and then read the replies from our American friends who will confirm what I'm saying.

1. Americans love their country and want it to be the best in the world. America is a nation of people who conquered a continent. They love strength. They love winning. Any leader who appeals to that has an automatic advantage.

2. Unlike Europeans, Americans have not accepted managed decline. They don't have Net Zero here, they believe in producing their own energy and making it as cheap as possible because they know that their prosperity depends on it.

3. Prices for most basic goods in the US have increased rapidly and are sky high. What the official statistics say about inflation and the reality of people's lives are not the same.

4. Unlike you, Americans do not believe in socialism. They believe in meritocracy. They don't care about the super rich being super rich because they know that they live in a country where being super rich is available to anyone with the talent and drive to make it. They don't resent success, they celebrate it.

5. Americans are the most pro-immigration people in the world. Read that again. Seriously, read it again. Americans love an immigrant success story. They want more talented immigrants to come to America. But they refuse to accept people coming illegally. They believe in having a border.

6. Americans are sensitive about racial issues and their country's imperfect history. They believe that those who are disadvantaged by the circumstances of their birth should be given the opportunity to succeed. What they reject, however, is the idea that in order to address the errors of the past new errors must be made. DEI is racist. They know it and they reject it precisely because they are not racist.

7. Americans are the most philosemitic nation on earth. October 7 and the pro-Hamas left's reaction shocked them to their very core because, among other things, they remember what 9/11 was like and they know jihad when they see it.

8. Americans are extremely practical people. They care about what works, not what sounds good. In Europe, we produce great writers and intellectuals. In America they produce (and attract) great engineers, businessmen and investors. Because of this, they care less about Trump's rhetoric than you do and more about his policies than you do.

9. Americans are deeply optimistic people. They hate negativity. The woke view of American history as a series of evils for which they must eternally apologise is utterly abhorrent to them. They believe in moving forward together, not endlessly obsessing about the past.

10. America is a country whose founding story is one of resistance to government overreach. They loathe unnecessary restrictions, regulations and control. They understand that freedom comes with the price of self-reliance and they pay it gladly.

[James Lucas @JamesLucasIT]

The mesmerizing perfection of nature 🧵

1. Sunflowers are made up of hundreds of tiny flowers aligned in near perfect symmetry.

[Gad Saad @GadSaad]

I explained this in The Parasitic Mind but let me try again: History is defined by the narration of how group A took over the land of group B. It is the fundamental feature of human history in that every square inch on earth was at some point occupied by someone else. In the same way that water chisels away at rock formations creating new landscapes, history is replete with the river of blood spilled fighting for contested land. But what allows for the flourishing of civilization is that eventually, the winners and losers of a particular battle, move on. We are no longer at war with Germany, Italy, and Japan. We've become friends. My family was forced to flee Lebanon, our homeland; our home was stolen by Palestinians; my parents were kidnapped by Fatah; we dealt with many horrors. But I harbor no ill will toward Palestinians. We moved on because that is the only choice that allows us to flourish and live dignified lives. The problem facing Israel and its enemies is that the latter are never willing to move on. It is canonically prescribed. Hence, there can never be peace until the end of times because there is no room for the possibility of turning the page. Hence, war continues forevermore because one side is never willing to accept the status quo. If Israel's enemies were to do what 117 billion people have done prior to them (i.e., every person who has ever existed on earth), namely accepting reality and moving on, the Middle East would see a historical renaissance. There is no region that is as rich historically and culturally as the Middle East. It is filled with astounding natural and human capital that is shackled by religious doctrines that oppress its people. If ever Israel's neighbors decide that there is a room for a tiny Jewish state in the region, and if they decide that the region is enriched by not being cleansed of all of its minorities (including the dwindling Christian communities), the Middle East will forevermore shine as a beacon of cultural richness. Have a great Sunday.

[Tammy Taylor @ttaylor217]

@goodreads The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese.

[Tammy Taylor @ttaylor217]

I highly recommend Emily for any of the services she offers. Her skills, knowledge, and professional manner are excellent. I especially loved the Thai foot massage I recently had! https://t.co/7KzDTMfjgV via @MassageBook

[Dr. Simon @goddek]

🧵THREAD: Avicenna, a Persian scientist who lived over 1,000 years ago, conducted a remarkable experiment. He placed two healthy lambs in separate cages, but only one could see a wolf in a third cage nearby. The results of this experiment were nothing short of astounding.

[@amuse @amuse]

You can be arrested in the UK if you retweet this. Please don’t retweet it.

[Buzz Patterson @BuzzPatterson]

Welcome to tonight’s chapter of “Buzz’s Bedtime Stories!” This is the first of two where I’ll detail Bill Clinton’s complicity in the attacks of 9/11.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was a recently retired Air Force colonel, pilot, and a wet-behind-the-ears pilot for Delta Air Lines. I was scheduled to fly that morning from Atlanta to New York’s LaGuardia Airport with a departure around 9:30 AM. As I was kissing my wife and children goodbye for a few days, I noticed the living room television in the background and witnessed the impact into the first World Trade Center tower. Katie Couric and NBC were speculating that it was a small, private aircraft that had somehow wandered off course and collided with the tall tower. I sat down on the couch and told my wife, “There is no way.”

It was a crystal-clear blue day in New York City, absolutely perfect for flying. Pilots refer to this as “visual flight rules.” The aftermath of the first attack was demonstrably more devastating than anything a private small craft could produce.

As we sat there, I watched the second aircraft hit the sister tower. Same immediate damage, and a convincing display of force. “That’s a lot of jet fuel,” I said. “We’ve been attacked.” It was yet to be determined who the attackers were, but we’d quickly learn that it was racial Islamic terrorists seeking to undermine the U.S. and kill Americans. And I immediately knew that my former boss, President Bill Clinton and his administration were largely to blame.

A few years previously, I’d been assigned to the White House and was Clinton’s Air Force Military Aide and carrier of the “nuclear football.” The “dereliction of duty” of the Clintons had come home to roost.

The Delta Operations Center called me and said, “You’re not going anywhere. Stay home and hunker down.” The nation’s airspace had been completely closed with the exception of Air Force and Navy fighters that screamed across the silent skies over Atlanta searching for new attacks are eerily remembered. The republic of the United States had been forced to its knees by a group of terrorists operating from caves in Afghanistan. 

When the airspace over the nation was reopened three days later, I resumed my trip for Delta and flew the original trip, or “rotation,” from Atlanta to NYC. As we were making our final descent into LGA, I looked to my left and saw the attack scene in downtown New York. Just over my shoulder. It was still on fire, and the smoke billowed hundreds of feet into the sky. It was quiet and sobering. I asked the passengers on the left side of the jet to take a look and remember.

Now, 23 years later, it’s important to remember exactly what happened and how we got there. As the military aide to Bill Clinton, I was privileged to see the same intelligence that our president and senior staff members were privileged to see.

When I first arrived at the White House in the spring of 1996, I immediately began seeing message traffic that suggested there were Al Qaeda plans to pull off a significant attack on U.S. assets involving the hijacking of American targets of the Trade Center, Pentagon, Chicago’s Sears Tower, and Los Angeles. As a pilot, that fact obviously raised the hairs on my neck. And I started paying attention to the commander-in-chief and the decisions that he made.

In the next chapter of “Buzz’s Bedtime Stories,” we’ll specifically address what Clinton knew, when he knew it, and the toll that Americans, then and now, were forced to endure.

Never forget.

[Tammy Taylor @ttaylor217]

@ElonMNews Yes

[Julie Keat @JulieKeat]

I’m watching the @readingrainbow documentary on Netflix. Kids books used to just be stories. Now we have themes and messages in #kidsbooks —all useful—but where are the story writers today?

[J.K. Rowling @jk_rowling]

You’ve asked me several questions on this thread and accused me of avoiding answering, so here goes.

I believe a woman is a human being who belongs to the sex class that produces large gametes. It’s irrelevant whether or not her gametes have ever been fertilised, whether or not she’s carried a baby to term, irrelevant if she was born with a rare difference of sexual development that makes neither of the above possible, or if she’s aged beyond being able to produce viable eggs. She is a woman and just as much a woman as the others.

I don’t believe a woman is more or less of a woman for having sex with men, women, both or not wanting sex at all. I don’t think a woman is more or less of a woman for having a buzz cut and liking suits and ties, or wearing stilettos and mini dresses, for being black, white or brown, for being six feet tall or a little person, for being kind or cruel, angry or sad, loud or retiring. She isn't more of a woman for featuring in Playboy or being a surrendered wife, nor less of a woman for designing space rockets or taking up boxing. What makes her a woman is the fact of being born in a body that, assuming nothing has gone wrong in her physical development (which, as stated above, still doesn't stop her being a woman), is geared towards producing eggs as opposed to sperm, towards bearing as opposed to begetting children, and irrespective of whether she's done either of those things, or ever wants to.

Womanhood isn't a mystical state of being, nor is it measured by how well one apes sex stereotypes. We are not the creatures either porn or the Bible tell you we are. Femaleness is not, as trans woman Andrea Chu Long wrote, ‘an open mouth, an expectant asshole, blank, blank eyes,’ nor are we God’s afterthought, sprung from Adam’s rib.

Women are provably subject to certain experiences because of our female bodies, including different forms of oppression, depending on the cultures in which we live. When trans activists say 'I thought you didn't want to be defined by your biology,' it’s a feeble and transparent attempt at linguistic sleight of hand. Women don't want to be limited, exploited, punished, or subject to other unjust treatment because of their biology, but our being female is indeed defined by our biology. It's one material fact about us, like having freckles or disliking beetroot, neither of which are representative of our entire beings, either. Women have billions of different personalities and life stories, which have nothing to do with our bodies, although we are likely to have had experiences men don't and can't, because we belong to our sex class.

Some people feel strongly that they should have been, or wish to be seen as, the sex class into which they weren't born. Gender dysphoria is a real and very painful condition and I feel nothing but sympathy for anyone who suffers from it. I want them to be free to dress and present themselves however they like and I want them to have exactly the same rights as every other citizen regarding housing, employment and personal safety. I do not, however, believe that surgeries and cross-sex hormones literally turn a person into the opposite sex, nor do I believe in the idea that each of us has a nebulous ‘gender identity’ that may or might not match our sexed bodies. I believe the ideology that preaches those tenets has caused, and continues to cause, very real harm to vulnerable people.

I am strongly against women's and girls' rights and protections being dismantled to accommodate trans-identified men, for the very simple reason that no study has ever demonstrated that trans-identified men don't have exactly the same pattern of criminality as other men, and because, however they identify, men retain their advantages of speed and strength. In other words, I think the safety and rights of girls and women are more important than those men's desire for validation.

I sincerely hope that answers your questions. You may still disagree, but as I hope this shows, I’m more than happy to have this debate.

[Tammy Taylor @ttaylor217]

@PhilliesNation Wish we could hear Tom and Kruk instead of the Spanish broadcast on NBCsp - we have Fios…

[Tammy Taylor @ttaylor217]

@paladinseven @TMacPhils Fios user here with the same problem.

[Tammy Taylor @ttaylor217]

@Phillies @JasonKelce @fcoxx_91 @bryceharper3 @kschwarb12 @Eagles Why are we hearing the Spanish broadcast on NBCSP+? We see Tom and Kruk but the audio is the Spanish radio broadcast!