A fire broke out backstage in a theatre. The clown came out to warn the public; they thought it was a joke and applauded. He repeated it; the acclaim was even greater. I think that's just how the world will come to an end: to general applause from wits who believe it's a joke. ~Søren Kierkegaard
“The quality of ideas seems to play a minor role in mass movement leadership. What counts is the arrogant gesture, the complete disregard of the opinion of others, the singlehanded defiance of the world.”
― Eric Hoffer, The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
"I'm a percussionist. Noise is my business."
--Dave Hurwitz, prolific classical music critic on YouTube
The Texas Quote of the Day:
"In a word: liquor. The cowboy was nothing if not gifted in inventing euphemisms for his drinking materials. Among the others were wild mare's milk, tonsil paint (alternately, tonsil varnish), forty rod, gut warmer, boilermaker and his helper, prairie dew, red disturbance, scamper juice, tanglefoot, Taos lightning, lightning flash, honeydew, jig juice, bumblebee whisky, coffin varnish, conversation fluid, neck oil, scorpion Bible, stagger soup, strong water and Brigham Young cocktail."
----- Jerry Flemmons, "More Texas Siftings," 1997
"Civilization is like a thin layer of ice upon a deep ocean of chaos and darkness."
Werner Herzog
@edgarblythe,
edgarblythe wrote:
"Civilization is like a thin layer of ice upon a deep ocean of chaos and darkness."
Werner Herzog
Reporter: What do you think of Western Civilization? M. Gandhi: I think it would be a good idea.
Shaun King
4h ·
I need you all to understand something.
The conditions on the ground in Gaza are absolutely the worst they’ve been since Day 1.
Every single person I know is literally starving to death. Some of my friends can’t even keep their pants up with belts they’ve lost so much weight.
They’ve shown me what they look like and they are skeletons. I’d be shocked if they weigh 100 pounds.
I can’t find formula for babies.
I can’t find medicine for elders.
Everything is gone.
Rotten vegetables are now expensive.
Infested flour or rice is now expensive.
And America knows this.
The world knows this.
The bombs are as bad as ever.
The bullets are as bad as ever.
Except now everyone is STARVING.
Clean water is impossible to find.
Medicine hardly exists.
Blankets and covers are all being used to cover dead bodies and now people are too cold at night.
I swear Israel and America intend to kill them all.
Let me explain something that I just don’t think people understand…
EVERY single item that gets into Gaza can now only come through Israel and Israel alone.
ZERO aid is getting to the North and they are being killed in numbers that we won’t fully grasp for months.
Israel was allowing their own businesses to SELL commercials good to Palestinians, which was evil, to see Israelis now making money off of Palestinians, but it was all that was available so people did what they had to do.
Now Israel has stopped ALL commercials goods from entering.
And it’s creating a panic and a crisis where nothing is left. And what’s left is either spoiling or so rare that nobody can afford it.
To make it plain; I know some men in Gaza that used to be wealthy. Not American wealthy but wealthy for Gaza. Those men are now starving in a way I’ve never seen before.
"All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once."
- Terry Pratchett.
Helen S Fields
Helen_Fields
Leave Twitter? Absolutely not. Everything that unfolds in the next 4 years is going to be foreshadowed on here. It will unfold here in real time with running commentary. The dark forces and the light will be right here trying to forge connections. Leave now? There’s never been a more interesting, compelling or vital time to be on this platform. Colour me long haul.
@edgarblythe,
"May you live in interesting times."
--attributed to a Chinese curse
“The baby will talk when he talks, relax. It ain't like he knows the cure for cancer and just ain't spitting it out.”
― Justin Halpern, Sh*t My Dad Says
′′ I have chosen loneliness to defend myself. I protect myself from humanity around me, from this loud and intrusive humanity. I live surrounded by animals, trees, flowers. I have horses, donkeys, rams, goats, pigs, chickens, ducks, geese, pigeons. Then of course dogs and cats. I don't even know how many there are...
I feel much closer to nature and animals than humans. I confess I hate most of the human species. I accepted the cause of animals to finally make sense of my existence here. I'm trying to explain to the man that cruelty inflicted on animals is unworthy, unacceptable, inhumane precisely...
I don't give a damn that the world remembers the divine B. B., that wasn't divine at all.”
Brigitte Bardot
"Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There was never a democracy that did not commit suicide."
— John Adams
"Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted." --Ralph Waldo Emerson
“It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.”— James Baldwin
Shaun King
·
My closest friends and their families in Gaza are all starving to death. All of them. Every man, woman, boy, and girl.
I swear by Allah it is one of the most evil things I’ve ever seen. My friends are now desperate and panicking in a way that I’ve never seen before.
For the past 14 months, behind the scenes, I’ve made hundreds of trades and purchases and deals to get families food, tents, medicine, clothes, blankets, supplies, etc.
Some days were harder than others but now NOTHING I do works. Nothing. There is hardly anything to buy or trade left.
I am so completely and utterly ashamed of this world and its failed systems to prevent such a thing. Forced starvation is a war crime. It’s the first war crime. It’s a war crime all over the world.
And not a single international law body is doing a thing about it.
I was going to say that our world systems have failed but what I now know is that they were not built to succeed. They were built to protect powerful nations and they are doing just that right now.
“I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat, or a prostitute.”
― Rebecca West, The Young Rebecca: Writings, 1911-1917
If folks can't imagine you as human, then all the policy in the world is irrelevant.
unknown
Angela Belcamino
AngelaBelcamino
·
I’ve had Covid 4 times. Imagine how many more times I would’ve gotten it if I was unvaccinated.
Trust the science.
- eb
There is a kind of sadness that comes from knowing too much, from seeing the world as it truly is. It is the sadness of understanding that life is not a grand adventure, but a series of small, insignificant moments, that love is not a fairy tale, but a fragile, fleeting emotion, that happiness is not a permanent state, but a rare, fleeting glimpse of something we can never hold onto. And in that understanding, there is a profound loneliness, a sense of being cut off from the world, from other people, from oneself.
— Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse
