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mariacallous · 4 months

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With the benefit of long memories, we can confidently say that never in the history of the Palestinian-Israeli tragedy has the situation been as dire or perilous as it is today. But never has there been greater clarity about the essential components of a future peace settlement.

What sets apart the recent atrocious events—the horrific Hamas attack on Israel that killed over 1,100 people and the ongoing, belligerent Israeli response on Gaza, which has killed over 25,000 Palestinians—is that they have reopened deep wounds for both peoples: for Israeli Jews of the Holocaust; for Palestinians the Nakba, or “catastrophe.” Both peoples are in psychological turmoil, and emotions are exceptionally raw.

When the cannons eventually fall silent, the reckonings will begin. Hamas is currently enjoying a spell of popularity among traumatized Palestinians, but will it ever be forgiven for the death and destruction it recklessly—and almost certainly knowingly—provoked? Caught woefully off-guard on Oct. 7, 2023, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have the country behind him in pursuit of Hamas, but for how long will he be able to stay the course once a semblance of normality is restored?

Sooner or later, after decades of suffocating Israeli occupation, there was bound to be a seismic explosion, but not necessarily in the form it took. Hamas could have chosen instead to emulate the largely nonviolent border protests it had itself orchestrated some five years earlier, but to greater effect this time in light of its resourceful thwarting of Israel’s electronic surveillance barriers. Had they come unarmed in their thousands to explain and not to kill, Palestinians’ pleas for freedom and equality could instantly have been broadcast across the land and further afield and could have had a profound impact on the political climate in Israel and fostered new political currents.

By choosing a violent path instead, Hamas instantly nullified its long-term strategic goal to be accepted by world governments as a legitimate interlocutor in any discussions about the future. While the group might claim some tactical benefits, Oct. 7 will be seen as a massive act of self-sabotage when the dust settles.

In its vindictive reflex response, the Israeli war cabinet likewise abandoned the strategy that had been pursued for years of bolstering Hamas’s rule in Gaza to forestall the prospect of a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza under a unified leadership. The new aim—to destroy every vestige of Hamas—was not the outcome of rigorous strategic thinking but a spontaneous lashing out by the supposed guardians of Israel’s security.

The new goal is not just ill-thought-out. It is also unattainable, although it is not beyond Israel’s leaders to keep moving the goal posts to enable them at some point to declare victory. Rather than destroying Hamas, the relentless battering of Gaza and its entrapped inhabitants is more likely to act as a recruiting sergeant for the organization. This, in turn, is Israel’s own act of self-sabotage.

Israel also had choices. In the light of the new era in which the state had acquired official relations with a growing number of Arab countries, a robust, inclusive, regional response could potentially have been swiftly devised. The outcome would almost certainly have been less destructive and more effective than Israel’s unilateral military response. It might have avoided the deaths of thousands and led to the release of the Israeli and foreign hostages captured by Hamas on Oct. 7.

For all this, the prospects of a new peace process emerging from the ashes of the present wretchedness may, ironically, have been enhanced by recent events, for two main reasons.

First, the common fallacy that the Palestinians are a defeated people and that the Palestinian issue could be sidelined has been exposed as the nonsense it always has been. Second, the related illusion that the conflict could be managed or contained has been shattered. It cannot be. It has to be resolved, for otherwise there will be more explosions with the resulting toxins continuing to overflow into the rest of the world. There is no way of resolving this conflict without Israel fully ending its decades-old occupation of the West Bank and the siege of Gaza, so that the Palestinians may be free to exercise their self-determination and live in freedom and dignity.

Since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, every seismic explosion of violence related to the conflict has sparked moves toward peace, even if, in some cases, they ultimately failed to reach fruition: The 1967 war itself prompted a steady evolution in Palestinian attitudes toward accepting a Palestinian state alongside Israel instead of in place of Israel; the 1973 war led to the Egypt-Israel peace treaty six years later; the First Intifada in 1987 culminated in the Oslo Accords in the 1990s, which, at the time, were widely believed to herald a new era of peace based on two states; and the Second Intifada in 2000 triggered the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, with its offer to Israel of full recognition by all 22 members of the Arab League, in exchange for Palestinian statehood on the West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

As for the future, the wheel need not be reinvented. Peace between sovereign states can only be achieved through a cooperative relationship between the Arabian Peninsula and the Levant. This is the only course of action to end the current nightmare of violence and brutality.

All the vital ingredients for such a settlement and peace in the Middle East were set out in the aforementioned Arab Peace Initiative, which has also been endorsed by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. It urgently needs to be revived—and revised if warranted—and energetically promoted from within the region to the Israeli and Palestinian people who, in the wake of Oct. 7, both need credible assurances of their safety, security, and acceptance in the region that—in the end—is their home.

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svu-bracket · 3 months

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law and order svu worst episode of all time final ranking

confess your sins to be free

burning with rage forever

silent night hateful night

4. revenge

5. real fake news

6. rape interrupted

7. guardians and gladiators

8. PC

9. undiscovered country

10. american tragedy

11. broken rhymes

12. secrets exhumed

13. head

14. avatar

15. mea culpa

16. home invasions

17. intimidation game

18. fallacy

19. zebras

20. the 500th

21. fast times @ the penthouse

22. unstable

23. king of the moon

24. info wars

#standings worst eps #good work team #see u next week for 2 new brackets!

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justinspoliticalcorner · 11 days

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Martin Pengelly at The Guardian:

The former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani’s troubles deepened on Friday when he was suspended by WABC radio, for trying to use his show to discuss the lie that the 2020 presidential election was lost by Donald Trump because of electoral fraud. John Catsimatidis, a New York billionaire, Republican donor and owner of WABC, told the New York Times: “We’re not going to talk about fallacies of the November 2020 election. We warned him once. We warned him twice. And I get a text from him last night, and I get a text from him this morning that he refuses not to talk about it. “So he left me no option. I suspended him.” Giuliani said he had been fired.

In a lengthy statement, the former mayor said: “I’m learning from a leak to the New York Times that I’m being fired by John Catsimatidis and WABC because I refused to comply with their overly broad directive stating, word-for-word, that I’m ‘prohibited from engaging in conversations relating to the 2020 presidential election’.” A copy of a letter from Catsimatidis to Giuliani, dated 9 May and obtained by the Guardian, said Giuliani was “prohibited from engaging in conversations relating to the 2020 presidential election on your programs broadcast on WABC … and otherwise in your capacity as an agent of the station.

“These specific topics include, but are not limited to, the legitimacy of the election results, allegations of fraud effectuated by election workers, and your personal lawsuits relating to those allegations.” Claiming “a clear violation of free speech”, Giuliani said he would address the situation further on social media on Friday night. But he went on to say the move by WABC came “at a very suspicious time, just months before the 2024 election, and just as John and WABC continue to be pressured by Dominion Voting Systems and the Biden regime’s lawyers”.

[...] Catsimatidis told the Times that at the close of his WABC show on Thursday, Giuliani tried to speak about the 2020 election but was cut off by station employees. “Look, I like the guy as a person, but you can’t do that,” Catsimatidis told the paper. “You can’t cross the line. My view is that nobody really knows [about the 2020 result] but we had made a company policy. It’s over, life goes on.” In his statement, Giuliani accused Catsimatidis of “telling reporters I was informed ahead of time of these restrictions, which is demonstrably untrue.

WABC radio suspends serial election denier Rudy Giuliani for persistently disobeying directives to not discuss 2020 election lies.

#The Big Lie #Election Denialism #WABC #Radio #Conservative Talk Radio #Rudy Giuliani #John Catsimatidis #2020 Presidential Election #2020 Elections

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i-am-aprl · 6 months

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The Guardian had a copy of “Letter to America” posted, but once these TikToks went viral, the Guardian took it down, which has only led to more interest in the letter and conspiracies from TikTokers who say this is part of the media and the powers that control it trying to silence the truth.

The letter from the Guardian:

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,

"Permission to fight (against disbelievers) is given to those (believers) who are fought against, because they have been wronged and surely, Allah is Able to give them (believers) victory" [Quran 22:39]

"Those who believe, fight in the Cause of Allah, and those who disbelieve, fight in the cause of Taghut (anything worshipped other than Allah e.g. Satan). So fight you against the friends of Satan; ever feeble is indeed the plot of Satan."[Quran 4:76]

Some American writers have published articles under the title 'On what basis are we fighting?' These articles have generated a number of responses, some of which adhered to the truth and were based on Islamic Law, and others which have not. Here we wanted to outline the truth - as an explanation and warning - hoping for Allah's reward, seeking success and support from Him.

While seeking Allah's help, we form our reply based on two questions directed at the Americans:

(Q1) Why are we fighting and opposing you?

Q2)What are we calling you to, and what do we want from you?

As for the first question: Why are we fighting and opposing you? The answer is very simple:

(1) Because you attacked us and continue to attack us.

a) You attacked us in Palestine:

(i) Palestine, which has sunk under military occupation for more than 80 years. The British handed over Palestine, with your help and your support, to the Jews, who have occupied it for more than 50 years; years overflowing with oppression, tyranny, crimes, killing, expulsion, destruction and devastation. The creation and continuation of Israel is one of the greatest crimes, and you are the leaders of its criminals. And of course there is no need to explain and prove the degree of American support for Israel. The creation of Israel is a crime which must be erased. Each and every person whose hands have become polluted in the contribution towards this crime must pay its*price, and pay for it heavily.

(ii) It brings us both laughter and tears to see that you have not yet tired of repeating your fabricated lies that the Jews have a historical right to Palestine, as it was promised to them in the Torah. Anyone who disputes with them on this alleged fact is accused of anti-semitism. This is one of the most fallacious, widely-circulated fabrications in history. The people of Palestine are pure Arabs and original Semites. It is the Muslims who are the inheritors of Moses (peace be upon him) and the inheritors of the real Torah that has not been changed. Muslims believe in all of the Prophets, including Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon them all. If the followers of Moses have been promised a right to Palestine in the Torah, then the Muslims are the most worthy nation of this.

When the Muslims conquered Palestine and drove out the Romans, Palestine and Jerusalem returned to Islaam, the religion of all the Prophets peace be upon them. Therefore, the call to a historical right to Palestine cannot be raised against the Islamic Ummah that believes in all the Prophets of Allah (peace and blessings be upon them) - and we make no distinction between them.

(iii) The blood pouring out of Palestine must be equally revenged. You must know that the Palestinians do not cry alone; their women are not widowed alone; their sons are not orphaned alone.

(b) You attacked us in Somalia; you supported the Russian atrocities against us in Chechnya, the Indian oppression against us in Kashmir, and the Jewish aggression against us in Lebanon.

(c) Under your supervision, consent and orders, the governments of our countries which act as your agents, attack us on a daily basis;

(i) These governments prevent our people from establishing the Islamic Shariah, using violence and lies to do so.

(ii) These governments give us a taste of humiliation, and places us in a large prison of fear and subdual.

(iii) These governments steal our Ummah's wealth and sell them to you at a paltry price.

(iv) These governments have surrendered to the Jews, and handed them most of Palestine, acknowledging the existence of their state over the dismembered limbs of their own people.

(v) The removal of these governments is an obligation upon us, and a necessary step to free the Ummah, to make the Shariah the supreme law and to regain Palestine. And our fight against these governments is not separate from out fight against you.

(d) You steal our wealth and oil at paltry prices because of you international influence and military threats. This theft is indeed the biggest theft ever witnessed by mankind in the history of the world.

(e) Your forces occupy our countries; you spread your military bases throughout them; you corrupt our lands, and you besiege our sanctities, to protect the security of the Jews and to ensure the continuity of your pillage of our treasures.

(f) You have starved the Muslims of Iraq, where children die every day. It is a wonder that more than 1.5 million Iraqi children have died as a result of your sanctions, and you did not show concern. Yet when 3000 of your people died, the entire world rises and has not yet sat down.

(g) You have supported the Jews in their idea that Jerusalem is their eternal capital, and agreed to move your embassy there. With your help and under your protection, the Israelis are planning to destroy the Al-Aqsa mosque. Under the protection of your weapons, Sharon entered the Al-Aqsa mosque, to pollute it as a preparation to capture and destroy it.

(2) These tragedies and calamities are only a few examples of your oppression and aggression against us. It is commanded by our religion and intellect that the oppressed have a right to return the aggression. Do not await anything from us but Jihad, resistance and revenge. Is it in any way rational to expect that after America has attacked us for more than half a century, that we will then leave her to live in security and peace?!!

(3) You may then dispute that all the above does not justify aggression against civilians, for crimes they did not commit and offenses in which they did not partake:

(a) This argument contradicts your continuous repetition that America is the land of freedom, and its leaders in this world. Therefore, the American people are the ones who choose their government by way of their own free will; a choice which stems from their agreement to its policies. Thus the American people have chosen, consented to, and affirmed their support for the Israeli oppression of the Palestinians, the occupation and usurpation of their land, and its continuous killing, torture, punishment and expulsion of the Palestinians. The American people have the ability and choice to refuse the policies of their Government and even to change it if they want.

(b) The American people are the ones who pay the taxes which fund the planes that bomb us in Afghanistan, the tanks that strike and destroy our homes in Palestine, the armies which occupy our lands in the Arabian Gulf, and the fleets which ensure the blockade of Iraq. These tax dollars are given to Israel for it to continue to attack us and penetrate our lands. So the American people are the ones who fund the attacks against us, and they are the ones who oversee the expenditure of these monies in the way they wish, through their elected candidates.

(c) Also the American army is part of the American people. It is this very same people who are shamelessly helping the Jews fight against us.

(d) The American people are the ones who employ both their men and their women in the American Forces which attack us.

(e) This is why the American people cannot be not innocent of all the crimes committed by the Americans and Jews against us.

(f) Allah, the Almighty, legislated the permission and the option to take revenge. Thus, if we are attacked, then we have the right to attack back. Whoever has destroyed our villages and towns, then we have the right to destroy their villages and towns. Whoever has stolen our wealth, then we have the right to destroy their economy.

And whoever has killed our civilians, then we have the right to kill theirs.

The American Government and press still refuses to answer the question:

Why did they attack us in New York and Washington?

If Sharon is a man of peace in the eyes of Bush, then we are also men of peace!!! America does not understand the language of manners and principles, so we are addressing it using the language it understands.

(Q2) As for the second question that we want to answer: What are we calling you to, and what do we want from you?

(1) The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam.

(a) The religion of the Unification of God; of freedom from associating partners with Him, and rejection of this; of complete love of Him, the Exalted; of complete submission to His Laws; and of the discarding of all the opinions, orders, theories and religions which contradict with the religion He sent down to His Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Islam is the religion of all the prophets, and makes no distinction between them - peace be upon them all.

It is to this religion that we call you; the seal of all the previous religions. It is the religion of Unification of God, sincerity, the best of manners, righteousness, mercy, honour, purity, and piety. It is the religion of showing kindness to others, establishing justice between them, granting them their rights, and defending the oppressed and the persecuted. It is the religion of enjoining the good and forbidding the evil with the hand, tongue and heart. It is the religion of Jihad in the way of Allah so that Allah's Word and religion reign Supreme. And it is the religion of unity and agreement on the obedience to Allah, and total equality between all people, without regarding their colour, sex, or language.

(b) It is the religion whose book - the Quran - will remained preserved and unchanged, after the other Divine books and messages have been changed. The Quran is the miracle until the Day of Judgment. Allah has challenged anyone to bring a book like the Quran or even ten verses like it.

(2) The second thing we call you to, is to stop your oppression, lies, immorality and debauchery that has spread among you.

(a) We call you to be a people of manners, principles, honour, and purity; to reject the immoral acts of fornication, homosexuality, intoxicants, gambling's, and trading with interest.

We call you to all of this that you may be freed from that which you have become caught up in; that you may be freed from the deceptive lies that you are a great nation, that your leaders spread amongst you to conceal from you the despicable state to which you have reached.

(b) It is saddening to tell you that you are the worst civilization witnessed by the history of mankind:

(i) You are the nation who, rather than ruling by the Shariah of Allah in its Constitution and Laws, choose to invent your own laws as you will and desire. You separate religion from your policies, contradicting the pure nature which affirms Absolute Authority to the Lord and your Creator. You flee from the embarrassing question posed to you: How is it possible for Allah the Almighty to create His creation, grant them power over all the creatures and land, grant them all the amenities of life, and then deny them that which they are most in need of: knowledge of the laws which govern their lives?

(ii) You are the nation that permits Usury, which has been forbidden by all the religions. Yet you build your economy and investments on Usury. As a result of this, in all its different forms and guises, the Jews have taken control of your economy, through which they have then taken control of your media, and now control all aspects of your life making you their servants and achieving their aims at your expense; precisely what Benjamin Franklin warned you against.

(iii) You are a nation that permits the production, trading and usage of intoxicants. You also permit drugs, and only forbid the trade of them, even though your nation is the largest consumer of them.

(iv) You are a nation that permits acts of immorality, and you consider them to be pillars of personal freedom. You have continued to sink down this abyss from level to level until incest has spread amongst you, in the face of which neither your sense of honour nor your laws object.

Who can forget your President Clinton's immoral acts committed in the official Oval office? After that you did not even bring him to account, other than that he 'made a mistake', after which everything passed with no punishment. Is there a worse kind of event for which your name will go down in history and remembered by nations?

(v) You are a nation that permits gambling in its all forms. The companies practice this as well, resulting in the investments becoming active and the criminals becoming rich.

(vi) You are a nation that exploits women like consumer products or advertising tools calling upon customers to purchase them. You use women to serve passengers, visitors, and strangers to increase your profit margins. You then rant that you support the liberation of women.

(vii) You are a nation that practices the trade of sex in all its forms, directly and indirectly. Giant corporations and establishments are established on this, under the name of art, entertainment, tourism and freedom, and other deceptive names you attribute to it.

(viii) And because of all this, you have been described in history as a nation that spreads diseases that were unknown to man in the past. Go ahead and boast to the nations of man, that you brought them AIDS as a Satanic American Invention.

(xi) You have destroyed nature with your industrial waste and gases more than any other nation in history. Despite this, you refuse to sign the Kyoto agreement so that you can secure the profit of your greedy companies and*industries.

(x) Your law is the law of the rich and wealthy people, who hold sway in their political parties, and fund their election campaigns with their gifts. Behind them stand the Jews, who control your policies, media and economy.

(xi) That which you are singled out for in the history of mankind, is that you have used your force to destroy mankind more than any other nation in history; not to defend principles and values, but to hasten to secure your interests and profits. You who dropped a nuclear bomb on Japan, even though Japan was ready to negotiate an end to the war. How many acts of oppression, tyranny and injustice have you carried out, O callers to freedom?

(xii) Let us not forget one of your major characteristics: your duality in both manners and values; your hypocrisy in manners and principles. All*manners, principles and values have two scales: one for you and one for the others.

(a)The freedom and democracy that you call to is for yourselves and for white race only; as for the rest of the world, you impose upon them your monstrous, destructive policies and Governments, which you call the 'American friends'. Yet you prevent them from establishing democracies. When the Islamic party in Algeria wanted to practice democracy and they won the election, you unleashed your agents in the Algerian army onto them, and to attack them with tanks and guns, to imprison them and torture them - a new lesson from the 'American book of democracy'!!!

(b)Your policy on prohibiting and forcibly removing weapons of mass destruction to ensure world peace: it only applies to those countries which you do not permit to possess such weapons. As for the countries you consent to, such as Israel, then they are allowed to keep and use such weapons to defend their security. Anyone else who you suspect might be manufacturing or keeping these kinds of weapons, you call them criminals and you take military action against them.

(c)You are the last ones to respect the resolutions and policies of International Law, yet you claim to want to selectively punish anyone else who does the same. Israel has for more than 50 years been pushing UN resolutions and rules against the wall with the full support of America.

(d)As for the war criminals which you censure and form criminal courts for - you shamelessly ask that your own are granted immunity!! However, history will not forget the war crimes that you committed against the Muslims and the rest of the world; those you have killed in Japan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Lebanon and Iraq will remain a shame that you will never be able to escape. It will suffice to remind you of your latest war crimes in Afghanistan, in which densely populated innocent civilian villages were destroyed, bombs were dropped on mosques causing the roof of the mosque to come crashing down on the heads of the Muslims praying inside. You are the ones who broke the agreement with the Mujahideen when they left Qunduz, bombing them in Jangi fort, and killing more than 1,000 of your prisoners through suffocation and thirst. Allah alone knows how many people have died by torture at the hands of you and your agents. Your planes remain in the Afghan skies, looking for anyone remotely suspicious.

(e)You have claimed to be the vanguards of Human Rights, and your Ministry of Foreign affairs issues annual reports containing statistics of those countries that violate any Human Rights. However, all these things vanished when the Mujahideen hit you, and you then implemented the methods of the same documented governments that you used to curse. In America, you captured thousands the Muslims and Arabs, took them into custody with neither reason, court trial, nor even disclosing their names. You issued newer, harsher laws.

What happens in Guatanamo is a historical embarrassment to America and its values, and it screams into your faces - you hypocrites, "What is the value of your signature on any agreement or treaty?"

(3) What we call you to thirdly is to take an honest stance with yourselves - and I doubt you will do so - to discover that you are a nation without principles or manners, and that the values and principles to you are something which you merely demand from others, not that which you yourself must adhere to.

(4) We also advise you to stop supporting Israel, and to end your support of the Indians in Kashmir, the Russians against the Chechens and to also cease supporting the Manila Government against the Muslims in Southern Philippines.

(5) We also advise you to pack your luggage and get out of our lands. We desire for your goodness, guidance, and righteousness, so do not force us to send you back as cargo in coffins.

(6) Sixthly, we call upon you to end your support of the corrupt leaders in our countries. Do not interfere in our politics and method of education. Leave us alone, or else expect us in New York and Washington.

(7) We also call you to deal with us and interact with us on the basis of mutual interests and benefits, rather than the policies of sub dual, theft and occupation, and not to continue your policy of supporting the Jews because this will result in more disasters for you.

If you fail to respond to all these conditions, then prepare for fight with the Islamic Nation. The Nation of Monotheism, that puts complete trust on Allah and fears none other than Him. The Nation which is addressed by its Quran with the words: "Do you fear them? Allah has more right that you should fear Him if you are believers. Fight against them so that Allah will punish them by your hands and disgrace them and give you victory over them and heal the breasts of believing people. And remove the anger of their (believers') hearts. Allah accepts the repentance of whom He wills. Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise." [Quran9:13-1]

The Nation of honour and respect:

"But honour, power and glory belong to Allah, and to His Messenger (Muhammad- peace be upon him) and to the believers." [Quran 63:8]

"So do not become weak (against your enemy), nor be sad, and you will be*superior ( in victory )if you are indeed (true) believers" [Quran 3:139]

The Nation of Martyrdom; the Nation that desires death more than you desire life:

"Think not of those who are killed in the way of Allah as dead. Nay, they are alive with their Lord, and they are being provided for. They rejoice in what Allah has bestowed upon them from His bounty and rejoice for the sake of those who have not yet joined them, but are left behind (not yet martyred) that on them no fear shall come, nor shall they grieve. They rejoice in a grace and a bounty from Allah, and that Allah will not waste the reward of the believers." [Quran 3:169-171]

The Nation of victory and success that Allah has promised:

"It is He Who has sent His Messenger (Muhammad peace be upon him) with guidance and the religion of truth (Islam), to make it victorious over all other religions even though the Polytheists hate it." [Quran 61:9]

"Allah has decreed that 'Verily it is I and My Messengers who shall be victorious.' Verily Allah is All-Powerful, All-Mighty." [Quran 58:21]

The Islamic Nation that was able to dismiss and destroy the previous evil Empires like yourself; the Nation that rejects your attacks, wishes to remove your evils, and is prepared to fight you. You are well aware that the Islamic Nation, from the very core of its soul, despises your haughtiness and arrogance.

If the Americans refuse to listen to our advice and the goodness, guidance and righteousness that we call them to, then be aware that you will lose this Crusade Bush began, just like the other previous Crusades in which you were humiliated by the hands of the Mujahideen, fleeing to your home in great silence and disgrace. If the Americans do not respond, then their fate will be that of the Soviets who fled from Afghanistan to deal with their military defeat, political breakup, ideological downfall, and economic bankruptcy.

This is our message to the Americans, as an answer to theirs. Do they now know why we fight them and over which form of ignorance, by the permission of Allah, we shall be victorious?

#saved for later #bin laden #osama bin laden #gaza #palestine #the guardian #free palestine #israel #jerusalem #فلسطين #i stand with palestine #arab #America #Usa #americans #letter to america

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reinekes-fox · 7 months

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Blood of Beasts

@0nelittlebirdtoldme its so short :(

"There is no escape." I took his hand and turned the palm upwards, the silver glint of his tattoo enough to make my skin tingle painfully. "We knew that when they took us." I showed him mine, only fine scars that trailed like cracks through marble now reminded me of my Seven Star. "The only way out of the Silver Guardians is death," I smiled, showing my teeth, "Either way. I'm sorry I left you behind, I really am. You're my brother and now we're on different sides, unfortunately.", I paused and glanced at the huge monastery and last bastion against us vampires, Saint Michon. Still beautiful. For a short time I had been truly happy there. "You know what they would do to me if they caught me." We had both seen what the Silver Guardians did to the hapless vampires unlucky enough to fall into their hands alive. Chained for eternity, starving for eternity only for our horses to become accustomed to the undead spawn... Even then I had felt pity, a feeling that had stuck with me and for which everyone else had hated me.

Of course, they were monsters, the fact that one of them had got involved with my mother proved that more than enough, killing people and just trying to take over the world, but now I was one of them. Probably no one was surprised when I ran away, I had just left Felix a message that I was looking for my father. I hadn't found him, but I had found others of my blood, the blood of Chastain. And now I had returned, on the side of the dead.

"I know what they teach us about vampires," I began, not sure where I was going with this at all: was I trying to convince Felix to take the same step as me? A risky gamble on whether to resurrect as a nobleblood or a wretch? No, I would never be able to forgive myself if it didn't work out for him, "and part of that is clearly true. But... I still have feelings, just a little different.... a bit displaced but I don't have much desire to slaughter a village or something like that. I get along great with our chronicler, a really nice guy, was really young when he was turned too. Well, all this blood drinking and people wanting you to bite them is really annoying, always wanting to be with you but we're used to that." A grim smile at this old inside joke between us, remembering me of days long gone. Something that had only made sense after we had been enlightened about our true nature as half-vampires: at least until then I had succumbed to the fallacy that I was just insanely good looking. Not that this wasn’t true too…

"I'm here to say goodbye." Harsh words and ones I never imagined to say. I always imagined that we would die together, as brothers.

#empire of the vampire #writing

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hypertextdog · 1 year

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no, no. i'm a POSTSTER. it's diff. and you would NEVER understand. YOU'RE a poster. at best. and a Poseur at avg. iff we're being real. you die cause of organs and your heirs get material things -- whatever. like that will last. ever heard of "half life" idiot ? no yea no no yea no definitely yea no yea no but like entropy? you know entropyyea. yea,yea thats the idea. yea the thermodynamic kind not the informatic. yea. i mean in some dialectical s they're actually different,manifestations of the same idea. but yea soWHEREAS i die cause of adventurous happy-go-lucky attitude and drafts fly out from in me like confetti -- i die in public, blood and chunks everywhere and outside snd 100, 120 children all frilly and well dressed and bored out of their minds, hip hip hooray and they explode from their picnic blankets and apple orchard Jamborees and dying greatgrandparents hospital embraces, they come to where my corpse is littering out draft after draft into the public water supply drafts like "making a beautiful girl argue for her right to listen to t swift and if she uses even 1 fallacy i hijack the flight we r on", uncaptioned link to decade old mystery ytp "scout [tf2] gets gaylifted" with only a "#real" to its.name, higher level stuff like "me when i see a hottie: hey cream puff, see some thing you like / him: ugh / hot guy but not to me (narrating sultry as he types a tweet super slow with his meatfingers): Never read marx, but I lowkey and sincerely think i got the gist ffom Bluey / hottie: NEED😻 / me: ugh" too and that sort fo thing. and the children catch them -- the posts -- like bubbles or dandelion, they're the talk of the town, they trade them like gogos crazy bones, they all go out to recess and leave notes on my posts, and even after i am gone i am loved. and i have left behind a blogger's legacy. and you leave behind, what?-- years from now. cash? house?. yea. whereas tormented boarding school youth, hampered + still moving on from squilliam in 2023, clambering inside following 1oclock bells? they make frantic desperate deals of my posts like on last 2mins of sharktank, after my late drafts are banned for proving a "distraction in class" -- lie groaning hungry for postmortem notes and faves in the dark bottom drawer of the teachers desk. and the invisible hand of my postster's legacy, my guardian posting angel reaches down and compels a junior boardingschool misbehaveant, blond and bracesed and he doesnt understand what hes getting himself into, to sneak inside with phoneflashlight during lunch or labor day or yes perhaps even schoolclosed for prolonged duetoweatherconditions. and Eric locates these moribund posts while urbexing, and photocopies and uploads them to his living blog on the night and in fact at the very moment of the first ever "poster's eclipse" in lgbt history. such that within days, my dead ass goes viral

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gr3y-plays-ttrpgs · 2 months

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omg your failgirl pi is in city of mists that’s the perfect system for it! tell me about them?

:DDDD yes!!!! city of mist my beloved

okay so your average loser private detective woman. once-successful but couldn't really hold onto it, raised religious, barely speaks to her family anymore, recovered alcoholic, got dumped by her gf, mostly sticks to lower-profile safer cases but can't resist any opportunity to help someone, has a long-suffering assistant, chainsmokes constantly.

one day, she got in too deep or messed with the wrong people or something and died, except she woke up afterwards with complete amnesia and weird powers, aka awoken with the rift of the church grim (a sort of guardian spirit in the shape of a dog)

now she's even more of a loser. looks dead and awful constantly, and she forgot her address so she sleeps at the office and has been wearing the same clothes for several weeks. her physical form just sort of dissolves into smoke a little occasionally, which is helpful when getting through narrow spaces or getting shot, but didn't protect her from losing two fingers. she gets mostly controlled visions of future potential deaths or what people saw before they died, which are useful for information and making her enemies really uncomfortable. she has built-in pathetic fallacy as her powers make the weather awful anytime she's in a stressful situation. one of the other party members is her ex, but she doesn't know because she forgot and her ex hasn't told her. she's consumed exclusively black coffee since her death.

i could keep yapping for ages but this post is already too long, here's her playlist:

#in short she's currently a thin shell of a pathetic and cynical but goodhearted detective around a big roiling mass of ghostly dog problems #trying very hard to keep it together and keep her friends alive and solve her own murder (?)#blake grimshaw

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wheretheharekissesthefox · 1 day

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The thing about the tadpoles:

So, there's something that keeps me up at night ever since my first playthrough, and I must share it with you all or otherwise I'll combust.

The tadpoles, right? Whenever you kill someone with a True Soul Tadpole™, it crawls out of its host or you can substract it from the corpse.

So, two things:

1. Why don't your companions drop a tadpole when you kill them so that you can use it for yourself? (After all, Minthara drops a tadpole when you decide to kill her and save the Emerald Grove. She can be a companion if you decide otherwise).

2. Why can't you just kill your companions and yourself, wait for the tadpoles to crawl out or substract them, revive everyone, and continue the story tadpole-free?

In a game where you have so many possibilities (even choosing between absorbing the tadpole or literally eating it!), why isn't that an option?

It would have made an interesting storyline because you're no longer under the influence of the Absolute, but it would still be a world-ending threat that must be destroyed. It would have been an interesting way to play around with your companions' loyality too; would they still help you against the Absolute if they'd be tadpole-free? What other way would there be to destroy the Absolute without the tadpole powers (and Gale's orb)? Halsin, Jahira and Minsc (and the Nightsong) aren't tadpoled and they still help you on your journey, so why can't the rest of the group be tadpole-free too?

I understand that the tadpoles in your and your companions' brains are the reason for the entire journey and the solution to kill the Absolute, but it would have been an interesting way to see how said journey would go tadpole-free, free of the Absolute's calling, without the need of the artefact and the Guardian/Emperor, but also without the tadpole's powers.

"But that's not the point!" some of you may cry out now. You're right, it's not, but then, the game shouldn't give us the option to collect tadpoles from corpses except from your own and your companions' because that's a fucking plot hole, folks!

I said what I said. Larian Studio committed a locial fallacy and now, I have to be mad about it for the rest of my life, thank you very much.

#baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #my ramblings #rambles #plot hole #spoilers #the tadpole problem

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queen-feisty-pants · 1 year

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Theory: Spy x Family and the Politics of Handkerchiefs

Since Eden College seems to be a guardian of sorts of conservatism and tradition and an institutional means of maintaining the status quo, I can’t help but feel as though there’s more to the story that Mistress Schlag uses to justify giving Tonitrus bolts to students for forgetting their handkerchiefs.

Of course, we don’t have any comments from Anya during these panels to confirm whether or not this story is true. Considering her crocodile tears in the final panel in the images above and her sadistic glee in punishing students for the most minor infractions, this woman is probably untrustworthy and cannot be taken at her word. On top of that, this “forgotten handkerchief to imprisoned rebel pipeline” narrative is far too simplistic to be plausible, and the subject of her story is a teenager, somebody far more complex than the cause-and-effect relationship that she’s establishing. If there’s even an iota of truth to this story, things have been taken out of context and twisted to support this bizarre narrative.

To understand the underlying political undertones of Schlag’s story, its simplistic logic needs to be broken down. At first glance, the case could be made that its formatting is meant to be accessible to her audience of small children; while they’re not stupid, they obviously still can’t engage in higher level thinking. As a result, the “plot” of her story is:

No handkerchief —> Bullying —> Making trouble at school —> Unemployment —> Joining the resistance —> Imprisonment

And the underlying message/logic she wants to convey is:

No handkerchief —> Delinquency and criminality

Thus, the handkerchief - or rather, adhering to the rule mandating it - is necessary for stability and acceptance.

Now, this kind of reasoning is absurd… In addition to committing a slippery slope logical fallacy, this reasoning doesn’t account for students’ needs and individuality. To be clear, children do need structure and discipline. They need to learn to be organized and prepared. In fact, as much as it pains me to say this, I can even allow for some of the Tonitrus bolts that Schlag handed out. Underaged smoking is never okay (especially not on school property). Loitering on campus with one’s uniform in disarray during school hours and joking about beating up first graders is simply unacceptable. However, to punish very minor infractions that, let’s be real, shouldn’t even be considered infractions, such as bringing a bag of chips or a deck of cards to school or even forgetting a handkerchief, is an abuse of power; it’s simply nonsensical and not conducive to students’ growth.

It’s also important to note many things that she glossed over or simply overlooked. First and most notably, she said that the student’s sudden change in behavior was the result of the bullying he suffered at the hands of this classmates. While you can argue that she didn’t need to elaborate on the bullies since they aren’t the focus of her story, it’s almost disturbing how she doesn’t seem to frame the bullying in a negative light, when, in fact, one would think that it would be a far greater offense than, say, bringing a bag of chips to school. Minimizing the bullying decontextualizes the change in the student’s behavior. Behavioral changes in the face of trauma is unsurprising, after all. One has to wonder whether the student was already a target of bullying or whether he became one from this point onward. Furthermore, we don’t know in what way he became a troublemaker. We’re left to wonder about the context, nature, and severity of these supposed offenses. Finally, she leaves out at what point the student was unemployed. Was the student immediately forced to look for work upon expulsion, or did he complete his education elsewhere first and then decide to try to enter the workforce? This leads to the most important question and the purpose of this post: How does one jump from being unable to find a job to joining the resistance?

This is where the political nature of an Eden education comes in. Eden is a school primarily for the children of the Ostania’s elite, who arguably contribute to the nationalistic, conservative, and conformist sentiments that have gripped the country. Such a school would naturally have to be aligned with the parents’ beliefs in order to have their patronage. As I stated above and has been exhibited throughout the story, Eden is a guardian of these values. It provides a good (albeit strange) education, but it also fosters an environment that further instills these values within their students.

This leads one to wonder about the unfortunate subject of Schlag’s story. Here are some questions that are food for thought: When the student became a “troublemaker,” was he really engaging in problematic behavior and not taking his education seriously, or did his bullies push him to the point of changing so that he could stand up for himself? If Schlag’s nonchalance towards the bullying is the norm for Eden, there’s a chance the bullies weren’t really punished, which means that Eden, in effect, was protecting them. Challenging the bullies, then, would be challenging the values that Eden promotes… including the beliefs that the elite expects it to perpetuate amongst its students. Considering that the student’s tragic fate is imprisonment for being a member of the resistance, it’s possible that this ordeal led him down the path of fighting against the status quo they want to keep in place; it’s not a stretch, since, as we’re aware, Ostania seemingly has a policy of intolerance towards opposition to the system. And perhaps his expulsion and unemployment can be attributed to his unwillingness to adhere to and maintain the status quo.

Schlag’s story isn’t a cautionary tale meant to guide the kids at all. It’s a threat that students who don’t strictly adhere to the rules that Eden uses to help maintain the status quo will be cast aside. The handkerchief, then, is a symbol of sorts of the attitude needed to keep the current system in Ostania in place. The handkerchief is political.

(Again, though, this is just a theory.)

#spy x family #spy x family theory #spy x family theories

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