#without ever using evidence from the books and if we don't accept their /analysis/ without issue then we're projecting 🥴

[fromtheseventhhell]

it's wild to see people say stuff like "sansa is a politician, arya is a warrior" while not being able to point out a single political act sansa has achieved, and not being able point out any of arya's "warrior skills" that isn't the handful of fencing lessons with syrio she received for like five months max lol

Politician!Sansa and Warrior!Arya are two fascinating ends of a fanon ouroboros; Neither concept exists outside of the other and neither concepts are based on the books. This fandom is just so attached to the idea of Sansa being this incredible politician, with intelligence above every other character, that her having nothing in her own chapters to support that idea doesn't stop them. That's why Arya's intelligence, skills, and entire character arc get reduced to her being nothing but a walking, talking weapon. Like you said, her "warrior" capabilities are essentially the handful of lessons she had with Syrio where her most important + relevant lesson was how to observe her surroundings. Her only "combat" training with the FM was her defending herself with a staff when she lost her eyesight. There's nothing to suggest that she's going to be a warrior, in fact we get the exact opposite. We get constant reminders of Arya's small stature and lack of strength that prevent her from fighting/defending herself in certain situations. All her kills rely on sneak attacks/stealth and she's never been in an outright swordfight with anyone. George even refrains from calling her a warrior like Robb and Jon. Brienne and Asha are examples of female characters who are actual fighters and if you compare their chapters, you can see the difference.

But then Arya's entire existence is antithetical to fanon!Sansa's. Her Harrenhal arc is what people pretend Sansa was doing in KL, her relevance to the North gets transferred to Sansa, and her intelligence and political activeness are erased so that Sansa can shine. They'll write essays on how Sansa is the most intelligent, politically savvy character and how Dany/Jon/Tyrion's arcs only exist to highlight her own ruling arc but the second someone asks them for evidence from the books, it's crickets. I don't understand why their enjoyment of her character hinges on her being the most important/intelligent one. No Arya stan is under the illusion that she's going to be the political character or outclass Dany, Jon, or Tyrion. It's just part of her story so we acknowledge it. Arya is going to have her political arc in Braavos and Sansa is going to have her political arc in the Vale, they aren't mutually exclusive. The only issue is that some people want Sansa to be the only one with a political arc and that's not the story that George is telling.

#ask #anon #arya stark #asoiaf #anti sansa stans #boring yawning sloppy! #so many /political Sansa/ takes are just Stansas going /Sansa is soooooo much more intelligent and composed then Arya/ #without ever using evidence from the books and if we don't accept their /analysis/ without issue then we're projecting 🥴 #people refuse to treat them like separate characters and judged them as a unit and that's why we get such shitty takes about them #Arya getting reduced to being a prop and a sidekick when she's one of the best written characters is so exhausting #this wouldn't be an issue if people actually read the books but I guess that's too much to ask 💀 #why would you need to read the source material to analyze it???

[tarotjourney2021]

The Spiritual Community is getting on my nerves

Spirituality is weird, it's like a cult, but without giving it the title. It creeps on you, very vague, hidden, and tucked away. Wouldn't tell you much, but suggests it. Suggests it so obviously, right in front of my face, but it makes you question if I've imagined it, or if I am the kind of person who believes in such things.

I could almost swear, I've had an awakening. I was me one minute, the next minute this me has become a cast-away image of a blind confused person. The one way I can describe it, is 'I woke up'. There is a transformation happening that I cannot put in words, and as big as the earthquake that happened, everything and everyone else look exactly the same.

I almost feel like I have come to realizations, not that I am a scientist or special or anything, that I thought, of course, everyone else realized the same thing, but when I talk to them, I can see very clearly that they are similar to the old me. But I have changed, oooh I have changed, in what seems to be a split second... but when I look back, I know it started very subtly a very long time ago. All the signs were there, I was pulled to things that I have rationalized away, but underneath it all, it's all been there, but I didn't see it, I couldn't see it.

I've been depressed for as long as I can remember. In 2nd grade, I was already built-in with the desire to not be here. I never wanted to be here, never wanted to be alive. I know this sounds suicidal and for a while, I thought I was, but I wasn't. I just don't care to be here, I so don't care to be here, that I couldn't believe how much work you need to put in, just to be alive. Dealing with other people, people in my own family, weighed so much on me. My mother was terrifying. She was always upset. She blamed everything in life on us, she was miserable because of us. Everything was terrible because of us. I believed her when I was a child, I believed that I was to blame for everything. I carried the shame she wanted me to carry. I still carry some of it, the logical side of my brain still likes to carry some guilt, as a precaution ... just in case in some psychological analysis, it turns out that I contributed to her being who she is.

I heard a few people say, that everything in my life, I have manifested. This, on some level, makes sense. I do believe in past and upcoming lives, and in souls reincarnating themselves in different people. This sounds crazy to the person I used to be, in my religion, it wasn't mentioned, and not you weren't supposed to be asking too many questions.

At this moment, it makes much more sense to me how manifestation works, because if I have manifested everything in my life, even the painful things, from a previous life, or karma from a previous life. I have a side of me that can be cruel, really, brutal. I probably unleashed that part in a previous life. And now I am paying for it in my health, my mental health, and my physical health. I am 36, and I feel like I barely lived, because I've always been sick. Terrible migraines, that would stay for days, I couldn't do anything. The pain was always the most terrible pain I would ever have. I feared it so much. I still do.

Then with time, my mental health started declining too. I have been depressed. Bed-ridden depressed for months. The act that I would put up to hide it, you would think I am Angelina Jolie in 'Salt', very well and able of hiding her emotions. But many times, I wouldn't bother hiding it, even from people at work, I just didn't have the strength. Hiding things requires strength, a lot of emotional strength, that has been waining. In one of Anodea Judith's books, she talks about the demon of the throat chakra, lies. And my throat chakra has been blocked, that's the one thing it was apparent was blocked. I couldn't stop stuttering. It was embarrassing. It is still embarrassing when I do it, but luckily I don't stutter as much anymore, I think people barely notice it. Most people.

But I had to lie, cause no one would understand. My life ended up being dependent on it, no one could know what I was doing, everything was illegal. Anything that strikes a beautiful chord with you is illegal. You can't love, you definitely can't fall in love with someone outside your religion. It's illegal, there is a punishment, you could lose your life for falling in love under their law. You can't have pleasure, that too is illegal. Your body is a sin to be covered. Your voice as well, shut that up too. They had all their twisted absurdities to explain it all away. I don't think any of them actually tried thinking. Why would they? Their brain is only designed as a vessel to memorize what they have been told, it's a memory reserve. Even though productivity rule #1, is that your brain is not made for storing things, it is made to think. But how dare I think and cast doubt, I must submit. To who? To them?

Anyways, I lied so many times, I used up my reserve of lies, it's like that Denzel Washington in that pilot movie, he couldn't tell one more lie. Just one more lie to save himself from prison. I defended my lies, I was lying to protect my right to live, really live. And now I am unable to tell any more lies, about who I am, what I think, and what I feel. If you ask me, I would tell you, I have no energy left to hold up a lie anymore, to polish anything. Most people can handle a bit of bluntness, even when you take them aback. They call me open, honest, and vulnerable. I doubt I am any of these, I am just tired, too tired to play along.

I think I have paid quite a bit of my karmic debt, that's why I have earned this new beginning, and have earned my depression letting go of me a bit, even though it does like to glare at me from a distance, it is quite unnerving, especially with me being the only one who can see it. If it strikes again, I know I will have to either go back to the everything-is-okay dance, even with myself or bare it all again, how embarrassing.

Anyways, back to the title of this post, my gripe with the spiritual community. It doesn't seem to acknowledge mental health issues. It almost acts as if I am imagining my depression, that it is not real. Sounds too close for comfort to the religion I grew up in, several religions in fact. It is something 'we tell ourselves. A couple of spiritual guides and healers have said something similar, including my therapist if I can call what she does therapy. Healing is a more appropriate word, it insinuates what to expect, but she kept using the word therapy, that I thought someone who does therapy is a therapist.

I need a real therapist, and maybe have a healer on the side to add extra polish. I can't entirely rely on her to help me back on my feet.

I was offended, by their views on mental health, very condescending and problematic. It made me realized how much of a religion-like religion this is. They wouldn't call themselves part of a religion though, not openly. But the similarities are too obvious. The same religious structure with a few edits, the same look rebranded to fit with the times. I just ran away from one religion, and I am all too eager to jump into the next one. But I do like to adopt a 'scientist' mentality, which is an archetype of the way of thinking. Apparently, this mentality doesn't like to rule out any possibility, listens to all arguments, and just proceeds with what makes sense at the time, but when more evidence tip the scale in one direction, then they are open to change their minds and adopt the better-proven theory. It is difficult for a Taurus to change her mind about something, that's probably part of the reason why I am having such a hard time fully accepting this. This new spiritual world, and count myself part of it. Me and those weirdos belong to the same club? No.

Sometimes I am all in, just today I was browsing Etsy for more crystals believing those bracelets can cast their magic on me. I want to go to New Orleans, to get to know the black magic community there and elsewhere. Wanting to buy candles from witches, believing that the mix of my magic and theirs would do the trick. Who am I? This is absurd.

I do believe though that there is a part of the spiritual community that would work for me. I need to find my tribe, just like I am looking to find my tribe among the physical world. I feel like I am almost there, even though I still feel so alone and isolated, I almost feel dead.

One thing the spiritual community needs to do more of, is to talk like they got some sense. They say too many ridiculous things for me to take in all at once. I am a beginner here, talk to me like I am a muggle. Also, fake spiritual people should seriously stop it, they are ruining it for everybody.

#spiritualawakening #spirituality #spiritual journey #tarot cards #tarotdaily #fools journey #tarotcommunity #spiritual community #tarot

[tthael]

Hi, english is not my first language so if I don't make any sense you know why. I'm sorry if i gave you the wrong impression with my ask.I've never read the book so "the shape" of these characters for me personally comes from the movie where Richie is gay. I've recently found out that people that read the book consider him bi. That's why when i read a fic where it's not explicitly stated i always wonder. I saw that you have a tumblr so i was like why not ask.

Hi nonny! Thank you for coming back to clarify, I’m sorry for the defensive tone of my response. Thank you very much for reading my stuff. Nothing about the phrasing of your question was what made me respond that way, just the topic, because I know it’s a hot button issue in fandom at the moment. Nobody wants to be responsible for erasing a sexual minority or a canonical sexual identity--and while in the book Richie’s sexuality is only coded, I’ve been told that André Muschietti explicitly stated that the film portrayal of Richie is gay. So of course, I think that film!Richie is portrayed as gay, and if I were to write Richie based on the film alone, I most likely would write him as gay.

The thing is, I don’t really write exclusively film!Richie. I think that there’s a very rich vein of characterization to be found in the book, which is of course door-stoppingly long, and compared to the limited amount of screentime the movies could spend on each of the Losers, not to mention the changes to their backgrounds the films made (looking at you, tween!Ben who suddenly morphs into adult!Mike), I like to pull from the greatest evidence pool available. That’s why I like to include the teenage werewolf, I like to include Stan’s bird book of North America, I like to include Eddie’s fascination with cars and trains and other mechanical transportation, I like to include Bev’s mother as having been alive during Bev’s childhood, I like to include Ben’s outrunning the track team out of spite, I like to include Bill’s uncanny charisma and his compelling nature, and I like to include Mike with a kinder more curious childhood than he’s allowed in the film. Also, I studied literature in college and I’m just more comfortable with analyzing that than I am analyzing film.

I also really liked the film casting for the adult Losers! It’s very shallow of me but I like how they look, I think they’re all very attractive, and I’m more interested in writing with their physicalities in mind than I am in, say, the actors for the 1990s miniseries. This is a personal preference, just because I myself do not enjoy Bill’s ponytail or Richie’s mustache or Bev as a brunette. I’ve also only ever seen clips of the miniseries. And honestly, I like Bill Hader as Richie in glasses, despite book!Richie wanting to wear contacts as an adult; I find without glasses I have difficulty perceiving him as the character. So I can’t claim to be a book purist--I like writing about the 2016 setting and those are mostly the faces of the Losers I see in my head. I tweak them sometimes--I don’t think I’ve written Richie with blue eyes yet, for example.

So I blend the canons when I decide what to draw on for the fic. That means that, for me, unless it’s explicitly stated, I probably don’t have an intention one way or the other when I write Richie’s sexuality. So far I’ve always written him as a man who loves men, and always as involved and in love with Eddie. I know that for some people that won’t be good enough, that for some people it’s very important to them to see their characters explicitly identify as one label or the other, but I’m afraid that just isn’t a priority for me in my portrayals.

This is informed by 2 things: 1) I like to write the Losers as 40-year-old adults in 2016, and we know that Richie produces a host of problematic content in his career. This of course shouldn’t mean that my portrayal of Richie /should/ be problematic and that’s not my intention--instead, I’m suggesting that when I write Richie, I write a lot about self-loathing and internalized homophobia, and so I focus a lot more on his attraction to men, which in my fic he’s usually not comfortable with, than any potential/past attraction to women. Of course I don’t feel that self-loathing is the necessary response to same-sex attraction, but I also think of the Losers as adults of a certain age who might not always be accurate or thoughtful in discussing the changing world of sexual identities (finding words for them specifically, filling the lexical gap).

I wrote a scene in Things That Happen After Eddie Lives where Richie runs across a gender non-conforming person and initially reads them as female, but then during the conversation remembers that isn’t always the case these days and switch to trying to avoid pronouns for them or trying to refer to them with gender neutral pronouns. But Richie and Eddie still call Jordan and Sarah lesbians, without asking whether they’re a romantic pairing of two bisexual people, or without considering that Jordan might be a man. Richie even wonders if “girlfriend” is being used romantically or platonically the way that women of previous generations do. I have a bead on Jordan’s and Sarah’s identity--but only because Jordan’s me! I think that, as a man born in 1976, growing up extremely closeted, and never engaging in the wider discussion around LGBTQ culture in a constructive way, Richie might be prone to simplification. This, of course, doesn’t mean I’m opposed to a Richie who openly identifies as strictly gay or strictly bi!

2) The second thing that informs the ambiguity of my portrayal of Richie’s sexuality is my own experience with my sexuality and gender. I am closeted in real life. In recent years I have tried a number of identities that, at the time, I believed to fit, but the labels were never clear-cut for me. I am coming to accept, slowly, that in the same way the physical body doesn’t grow to exact neat clean specifications, I might never be able to describe myself accurately and totally in one term. That’s all that I’m willing to share about my experience at this time. My personal philosophy is much like the one Eddie professes when he comes out in Indelicate: it doesn’t seem important to me that people know my preferences unless I’m a) sleeping with them or b) actively dating and trying to put myself out there.

Again, some people have completely different experiences! For some people being closeted is intolerable and having an identity--a word for what they are--really helps them self-actualize and live their truth! For some people, they’re very excited about their identity and participate in Pride events and take joy in asserting that this is who they are to the world! For some people, they never have the awareness that this or that idle feeling might mean they actually /don’t/ fit with how the world sees them. And while I’m a great advocate of self-exploration (comes of being vain as I am), some people don’t do that, and that’s fine!

I know that ambiguity is not a neutral answer when it comes to these questions. In the summer of 2019 when the Good Omens miniseries was released, many fans reached out to author Neil Gaiman asking for confirmation that the angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley were gay. Gaiman said, “Theirs is a love story.” He said, “They’re not human and I can’t ascribe human sexual identity to them.” He said, “My coauthor is deceased and I can’t make such confirmations without him.” (These are not direct quotes and I don’t have sources, I’m sorry, it’s been a year.) This was not satisfactory to all parties. For some people explicit confirmation of that gender identity is important. And why shouldn’t it be? Their own is important to them.

But I’m from a school of literary analysis where I welcome different interpretations of my works, which are in this case of course derivative and dependent on evidence from the canons I draw on. I write Richie in love with Eddie, and that’s enough for me. If it’s not for the reader, either I feel there’s ample room to interpret my Richie the way they prefer--not just limited to gay or bi! After the first sex scene in TTHAEL Richie is stunned by how he enjoyed that far more than any other sexual encounter he’s ever had, and I think that’s welcome to interpretations of Richie with demisexuality /or/ Richie just finally having fulfilling sex with a man because he’s gay or bi /OR/ Richie has had good sex before but this was just WAY better because he likes sex better when he’s in love with his partner. And every portrayal of Richie I write is slightly different, so Richie from Indelicate might have different sexual attraction/orientation than Richie from Automatic - Mechanical - Pneumatic or Richie from TTHAEL. BUT I don’t want to say that my interpretation is the only valid one--just know that when I write Richie, I write him as a man in love with another man. If I were to write a story about Richie involved with someone other than Eddie, I would tag for it up front.

Again, I know this is a very long answer and probably not as concise or clear as you might like it to be. Thank you so much for coming back around to explain your logic, I apologize for my wariness the first time around, thank you for asking these questions in good faith. “Why not ask” is of course the simplest way to settle an issue and I don’t want to discourage anyone from asking me questions about my fic. If there are other things you have questions about, please don’t hesitate to ask, either here or by sending me a private message, I  don’t mind either way.

#my fic #things that happen after eddie lives #tthael #now what i'm gonna say may sound indelicate #indelicate #nwigsmsi #automatic - mechanical - pneumatic #a-m-p #Anonymous

[dukereviewstv]

Duke Reviews Tv: Smallville 1x12 Leech

Hi Everyone, I'm Andrew Leduc, And Welcome To Duke Reviews TV Where We Continue Our Look At Smallville By Talking About Episode 12 Of Season 1, Leech...

This Episode Sees Superman Fighting Iceman As A Kid Named Eric Summers (Played By Shawn Ashmore, Who Not Only Played Iceman In The X-Men Films But Is The Brother Of Aaron Ashmore Who Will Play Jimmy Olsen On The Show From Season 6 To Season 8 And His Younger Brother In The Series Finale) Who Receives Clark's Powers During A Meteor Rock Lightning Strike Between The Two Of Them, Will Clark Get His Powers Back?

Let's Find Out As We Watch Leech...

The Episode Starts In A Forrested Area, Where Clark And His Geology Class Are Out To Collect Rocks, And It's Here We Meet Eric Summers, Who Is Flirting With A Hot Girl Named Holly Who's Boyfriend Tells Him To Back Off But When His Teacher Dad (Who's An Asshole) Enters, He Tells Eric To Get Back To Work Before He Leaves...

With A Storm Approaching, Eric's Dad Is Trying To Find Him As He's Not On Board The Bus And Offering To Go Look, Clark Goes Out To Find Him...

(Start At 2:42, End At 3:42)

The Next Day, Unable To Get The Truck Out Of A Ditch, Jonathan Asks Clark To Push It Out Of The Ditch Only To Discover Clark Lying In The Mud With Blood Coming Out Of His Nose Which Leads Clark And His Parents To Believe That The Lightning Took Away His Powers As Both His Strength And Speed Are Gone...

Meanwhile At The Summers Household, Eric Has Breakfast With His Parents Only For His Dad To Lecture Him About Yesterday, And When He Tries To Hit Eric He Blocks Him Using Clark's Powers...

Having A Hard Time At First At Adjusting To Being Normal, Clark Goes To Check On Eric To Ask If He's Feeling All Right And If There's Anything Different About Him To Which He Says No And He Feels Great, So, Clark Walks Off As Eric Lifts The Highest Weight Number Possible On A Bench Press...

But As Eric Has A Good Time With His New Powers, Lana Discovers That Nell Is Selling The Flower Shop And The Building Next Door, The Talon Theatre And Is Mad At Her For Not Telling Her As The Theatre Has Memories For Lana...

Meanwhile At The Luthor Mansion, Lex Is Visited By Roger Nixon, Who Gives Him Some Analysis Him And A Few Experts Have Come Up With About The Porsche Incident, But Doubtful About Roger's Experts Lex Offers Him 10 Million A Name While Roger Believes That This Will Make One Hell Of A Story But Lex Warns Him That If He A Word They'll Have A Trust Issue...

Later That Night, Lex Talks With Clark About The Porsche Incident At The Kent Farm Asking Him To Tell Him The Truth About What Happened That Day...

(Start At 2:24)

The Next Day...

(Start At 0:00, End At 1:27)

Realizing That The Lightning Strike Took Clark's Powers And Transferred Them To Eric, It Has Clark Wondering If Those Years Keeping His Secret Was Worth It As Everyone Is Treating Eric Like A Hero...

But Realizing That Lightning Doesn't Strike The Same Place Twice (Unless You Have A Delorean Time Machine But That's A Different Story) Both Jonathan And Martha Believe That Clark's Powers Aren't Coming Back Anytime Soon And That He Should Just Live His Life And Do The Things That He's Always Wanted To Do Without His Powers...

With Chloe And Pete Praising Eric, Whitney Asks Pete And Clark To Join Him And A Friend In A Game Of Basketball After School Which Pete Tells Whitney That Clark Doesn't Play But Clark Tells Whitney That He'll Be There...

(Start At 1:23, End At 2:26)

Meanwhile In Metropolis, Lex Meets With Victoria And Her Father, Sir Harry Hardwick Who Arrive Late Because They Were Closing A Deal, Reconsidering His Deal With Sir Harry, Harry Tells Lex That It Doesn't Matter As The Deal Is Off As He's Just Bought Cadmus Labs And That With The Profits Of The Patents, He'll Buy Luthorcorp Outright...

Back At The Talon Theatre, Lana Tells Clark That The Reason She's So Sentimental To The Talon Is That Her Parents Met Here And Because Of The Sale She Feels That Every Evidence Of Her Parents Existence Is Being Slowly Chipped Away But Telling Her That Sometimes Letting Go Means Moving Forward, Lana Stops The Subject As Clark Is Really There For Her English Notes As He Fell Asleep During Class...

Wondering If He's Okay As He Seems Less Clark Kent-Like, Clark Tells Lana That He Just Woke Up And Realized That His Life Had Changed And To Kick Back And Accept The Fact That He Can't Control Everything...

Returning Home After School, Eric's Mom (Who Needs Serious Acting Lessons) Tells Eric That People Have Been Calling All Day, But While Eric's Mom Seems Slightly Happy About This, Eric's Dad Wants To Take Him To A Doctor Before Taking Him To A Colleague In Metropolis Where They'll Most Likely Study Him...

Of Course, Freaking Out At The Idea Of This, Eric Tells His Dad That He's Not His Personal Science Experiment And That He's Not Going Anywhere, Before Lightly Pushing Him And Speeding Off...

(Start At 1:30)

Going To The Hospital With His Parents, Clark Runs Into Lex, Who Apologizes Saying Nothing Is What It Seems As Of Late And Plead Temporary Insanity...

(Start At 1:33, End At 2:14)

With Jonathan Stopping By To See Eric's Parents, He Discovered That They're Frightened Out Of Their Wits...

(Sarcastically) Oh, Yeah, Frightened Out Of Their Wits Eric's Dad Just Wants To Experiment On Him No Wonder Eric Is Having A Fit Right Now, If I Were Eric I'd Probably Do The Same Thing Only Difference Is That I Wouldn't Do What Eric Did At School...

Asking If They Were Ever Frightened Of Him, Jonathan Tells Clark That Aside From A Few Tantrums And Holes In The Wall, He Was A Good Kid But Unlike Clark, Eric's A Teenager That's In Way Over His Head...

Martha Comes In To Tell Jonathan And Clark That The Police Were At Eric's House And When They Tried To Restrain Him, They Couldnt. Knowing That He Has To Stop Eric Despite How He's Feeling Right Now, Clark Realizes That If Eric Has All Of His Strengths That He Might Also Have His Weaknesses...

There's Only One Problem, They Don't Exactly Keep One Lying Around The House So Where Do They Find One But Luckily Clark Knows One Place....

Back In Metropolis, Lex Meets With Sir Harry And Victoria As Harry Tells Him That He Discovered That Cadmus Labs Is Worthless, Revealing That He Planted False Information On His Computer, Knowing That Victoria Would Steal It...

Telling Sir Harry That His Father And Him Will Be Buying His Company In The Morning, Sir Harry Leaves While Victoria Asks Lex How He Could Do This With Lex Telling Her That She Did This All Herself, Slapping Lex On The Face Before She Leaves...

Visiting Lana At The Talon, She Tells Clark That She Heard About What Happened With Eric Which Leads Clark To Ask Lana To Borrow Her Necklace, Saying That He'll Give It Back To Her...

Visiting Eric's Parents At Their House, (That Looks Like Eric Bana's Hulk Ran Through It) Clark Asks Eric's Father If He Knows Where Eric Went Which Makes Him Remember About Eric Saying That He Was Going To Get Rid Of It In The One Place Where It Began To Which Surprisingly Clark Knows Where...The Smallville Dam...

Confronting Eric At The Bridge, Eric Smiles That Eerie Mystique Smile From The First X-Men Movie Without The CG Yellow Eyes...

Before Falling Right Off The Bridge...

Looking For Eric's Body, Eric Eventually Finds Clark...

(Start At 1:23, End At 3:17)

With Eric Being Taken To The Hospital, Clark Is Officially Back To Normal As Jonathan Talks With Clark About How His Gifts May Be Apart Of Him But They Don't Define Him And How Seeing Eric With His Powers Made Him Realize How Special He Was, Which Leads Clark To Remind Jonathan That While Eric Had His Powers He Didn't Have His 2 Strongest Points: Him And Martha...

Back At The Luthor Mansion, Lex Gets A Phone Call From Lionel And Congrates Lex For A Job Well Done. After Hanging Up, Lex Gets A Visit From Nixon Who He Tells That His Experts Were Wrong, He's Closing The Book On The Crash And The Kents Are Off Limits But Before Nixon Goes He Hands Lex Pictures Of Victoria With Lionel In Bed...

Okay, 2 Things...

#1..

And #2...

Back At The Talon, Clark Returns Lana's Necklace To Her And Gives Lana The Box Of St. George That Lex Gave Him...

(Start At 0:39)

And That's Leech And It's A Good Episode....

The Story Was Good, The Characters Were Good, It Was Just A Good Story, I Also Give It Credit For Being A Beginning And An End, A Beginning For Both Lana's Journey To Revitalize The Talon Theatre And Nixon's Obsession To Discover What The Kents Are Hiding And An End To Lex's Relationship With Victoria, But It's A Good Episode And I Say See It...

Till Next Time, This Is Duke, Signing Off...

#smallville #the wb #the cw #tv reviews #Tv #tom welling #kristen kreuk #michael rosenbaum #Smallville Season 1

[debra2007-blog]

The fatal flaw in the 9/11 cover-up!!

(Long but worth the read)

September 11, 2021

9/11 was one of the most pivotal events in world history. Its impact will be felt for years to come. You owe it to yourself to go beyond the sound bites and the simplified official story. This is an extremely complicated story with numerous players and motives.

Why can no one name the hijackers or prove they flew the planes?

Know how to tell the difference between the truth and lies of 9/11? If they're talking about hijackers having done the dastardly deed, you know they're part of the sinister cover up extravaganza, wittingly or not.

In order for the people of the world to be convinced that Islamic hijackers were responsible for terrible tragedy of 9/11, we need to see some evidence. Not hearsay, innuendo, aspersion or promises of evidence, but real evidence.

Otherwise, the whole subject is rightly regarded as a ruse, a setup to conceal the identities of the real culprits, the ones who sit smugly in front of the TV cameras and plot their cynical war on terror — otherwise known as the war on the peoples of the world.

As President Bush continues to insist that his word be accepted as truth on numerous questions, time after time his statements have been revealed as blatant falsehoods. Yet he continues to repeat them, and the whorish corporate media continues to accept them.

Why hasn't either the Bush administration or some element of law enforcement in the United States issued a single solid piece of evidence connecting the hijackers to the hijacked airplanes? Why don’t the alleged hijackers appear on the airport security videos? Why aren’t there credit card records of their ticket purchases?

Why did FBI director Robert Mueller say very publicly to the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco that nothing on paper connected Arab terrorists to 9/11? I mean, 19 years have passed. And the feds produced 19 names within 72 hours of the disaster. Notice a mathematical inconsistency here? All that has happened since is mere vigilante hysteria, hypothetical scenarios trumpeted ad nauseum by America’s notoriously brainwashed Zionist press.

Seven or eight of the names on that original list have been found living comfortably in other countries. Why hasn’t the FBI made any attempt to correct the errors made on that original list?

And why, after much hullabaloo about Colin Powell using phony information in his remarks to the United Nations about the reasons for war, hasn’t the U.S. government produced a single conclusive piece of evidence to back up its claim that 9/11 was the work Osama bin Laden and other Islamic terrorists? Not a single piece!

If you disagree, tell me what it is!

There's a simple answer to this, you know. It's because there isn't any evidence. And why is that? Because those pseudo-Muslims revealed to be so publicly incompetent at piloting jerkwater training planes had absolutely zero chance of flying sophisticated jetliners into anything narrower than the Grand Canyon, never mind executing tricky maneuvers with extraordinarily complicated machinery.

The unknown men who played the roles of the so-called Arab terrorist hijackers were really recruited by either American and/or Israeli intelligence services in a scheme set up as a diversion to inflame dumb Westerners against the Islamic world. The purpose was to divert the world’s attention from the Israeli genocide and dispossession of the Palestinians by blaming the attacks on Muslims.

But that was only half the objective. The other half was to enable our despicable cabal of neocon gangbangers to fleece the American public with an endless array of no-bid contracts to enrich the conscienceless billionaires who are really driving the war machine.

You know how the Bushista American government uses anything for PR to supposedly authenticate its own evil agenda. If they had any concrete evidence against the hijackers — if they even possessed all their correct names — we would have heard about it by now. There would be an avalanche of TV shows about them, unlike that Jewish claptrap hate crime against Muslims that appeared on NBC one night.

After 20 years, with the whole world knowing that eight of the 19 names on the hijacker list are fraudulent, the FBI has made no attempt to substitute new names. And why is that? Because the identities of the hijackers were constructed with mostly stolen papers, for some of the patsies designed to take the heat. In any case, and whoever they were, there is no evidence they ever got on the planes.

But nothing. Instead we have one minor player convicted in Germany, then the conviction was overturned, partly because Americans refused to help with the prosecution.

We have the so-called 20th hijacker and assorted other preposterous character actors languishing in jails on trumped up charges. We have security camera film at the Pentagon, which surely reveal that no jetliner hit that building, locked away in Ashcroft's vault under the phony aegis of national security. We have all the rubble of the World Trade Center, which surely would have revealed the use of nuclear explosives creating shattered beams in odd places, instantly carted away with no forensic investigation. We have transcripts — but no recordings — of these phony cellphone calls, some from people who may not have even existed.

And we have the famous stand down, in which America's air defenses suddenly evaporated — the only time in our history this has happened.

We have Marvin Bush sitting suspiciously on the board of directors of the security company that had the contract for the Twin Towers.

We have Larry Silverstein, who conveniently leased and insured the towers shortly before the big hits, telling officials to "pull" a relatively intact tower, which then fell identically to the two structures that were struck by airplanes, creating the impression that that's the way all three came down.

We have billions of dollars of windfall profits made by savvy investors in the days before 9/11, and an FBI investigation that insists nothing was amiss with these spectacular deals. Of course, we don't get the details. Only "assurances" that the trades were not suspicious, despite patterns and results that were unprecedented in the entire history of financial trading.

We have reports from firemen of explosions at the base of the Twin Towers BEFORE they fell, and the seismographic evidence to back up these assertions.

We have leader after leader saying they didn't know such a thing could happen when the government had been studying the problem for ten years. It had held at least two major drills simulating such a possibility.

And we have a president sitting in a ghetto classroom in Florida, at possibly the most pivotal moment in American history, pretending to read a book that he was holding upside down.

Perhaps most tellingly of all, we have the tragic tale of John O’Neill, rabidly honest FBI investigator, prevented from following his leads about Osama bin Laden because of the danger he would have discovered the links from Afghanistan back to CIA headquarters. Just review the way he was prevented from conducting his probe of the Cole bombing, and prevented by digging into other leads by the same guys — namely insiders Louis Freeh and Thomas Picard — who prevented significant reports from other FBI agents from seeing the light of day.

So, how does all that make you regard the supposedly impartial government panel investigating these matters? When they talk about Presidential Daily Briefings months before the event, or chitchat with presidential flunkies who leak out these pseudo revelations about this and that tidbit of essentially trivial information. And especially when they talk about the dastardly hijackers (without being able to name them) as if there is no question of their guilt. Talk about your misleading urban legends! This one is the champ.

Well, no sense feeling surprise. We knew this commission was a set-up from the get-go. Recycled Watergate investigators, even. Part of the same bunch that has run the country and covered up everything for the past 30 years or more.

Surely you didn't expect a real investigation. Thomas Kean declared at the outset of his hearings that Osama bin Laden was guilty. End of discussion. As soon as he made that statement, there was no way the hearings could be legitimate.

Asserting that genuine Arab hijackers did not carry out the attacks of 9/11 requires analysis of two concomitant categories: the history of American (and Israeli) involvement (and subterfuge) with Arab terrorists, and methods of remote control of aircraft, or other means of piloting the aircraft.

The remote control aspect continues to be a bone of contention among legitimate pilots, with some asserting only real pilots could have made such extemporaneous maneuvers and others insisting only remote control could have accomplished such a feat. An interesting new perspective on this debate can be found here:

A third natural area of study in this regard would be the intimate histories of those whom officials claim to be the hijackers, including putting the microscope on their behavior in the days and weeks before the tragedy.

Many researchers claim the name al-Qaeda was made up in middle ‘90s by a variety of American functionaries (one of them being none other than Richard Clarke) as an all-purpose villain the U.S. could blame as a convenient reason for its military adventurism. And a group of Israeli provocateurs was recently discovered trying to create their own faux version of al-Qaeda.

How many more hints do you need? The absence of any relevant arrests or discovery of any clues to the hierarchy of this supposedly worldwide terror group should tell you a lot.

Al-Qaeda doesn’t exist except for when they want it to, to blame for any sort of strategic terror they have created themselves for some political reason, like influencing the elections in Spain. Hah, that one really backfired.

Why haven’t American intelligence operatives gone to these foreign countries to interview these named hijackers who turned out to be alive? Simple. Because they knew the list was fiction in the first place, and the Arab-types who have been named as terror gurus are mostly their own employees, or people who have been set up by them.

It is a celebrated fact that Mohammed Atta and some of his friends were seen in nightclubs in the hours before 9/11, certainly a fact that argues against them being able to carry out their supposed missions because they were motivated by Islamic religious zeal. So their appearance in strip clubs blows the whole story that they were devout Muslims giving their lives to Allah. Devout Muslims don't drink, never mind cavort with strippers.

If we knew who the hijackers were, we'd know their names, wouldn't we? Or is it now worth bombing other nations and murdering thousands of innocent people because we say we know who the hijackers were, even though we don't know their names? It is the great shame of the American people that they have approved of the murders of thousands of people because of that blatant lie.

Many of the men who were fingered as 9/11 hijackers received preferential treatment from American immigration officials when it came to entering and leaving the U.S. on numerous occasions. Many of these same names reportedly trained at various U.S. military installations.

What has resulted after 19 years of work by America’s crack intelligence agencies, besides the persecution of Muslims throughout the world?

Well, hundreds of innocent people have been unjustly imprisoned and tortured at Guantanamo. All of them innocent, hapless dupes rounded up in a Rumsfeld-ordered dragnet in Pakistan after U.S. planes had (inadvertently or otherwise) allowed the Taliban fighters to escape with the Pakistani army from Afghanistan.

Two pathetic flunkies have been arrested and held without due process. One of them, the notoriously pathetic shoe bomber who was obviously a deranged personality and not a member of any terror network, was ceremoniously sentenced to life in prison.

Other than that, no al-Qaeda kingpins have been even named, never mind apprehended. No clue about how the 9/11 attacks were engineered has ever emerged. This is simply not consistent with being able to name all 19 hijackers the day after the attacks. It is a case of pretending you have all of the information instantly, and then pretending you no information for the next two years. What a smell!

This means two things: that the list of 19 names was a total fabrication, and that the worldwide terror network called al-Qaeda is also a total fabrication, the wet dream brainchild of the CIA and the Mossad to be trotted out as an excuse for a whole string of terror attacks — Madrid, Bali, Riyadh, Istanbul, etc. — that were really carried out by the CIA and the Mossad themselves, cleverly involving designated patsies to give the operations a suitably foreign flavor.

Al-Qaeda does not exist except as a bogeyman invented by Western powers to justify their evil agenda. There were no hijackers flying those planes on 9/11. And honest FBI agents have been prevented from publicizing that fact.

If you disagree, prove it! The world knows you can’t, though the high-tech mass murder by the United States and Israel spreads around the world because of this falsified version of events.

History will show — and the public will soon realize — that those who are telling these lies not only allowed 9/11 to happen, but planned it for their own personal advantage.

The only question that remains is will the American public awaken to this murderous, treasonous scam before the perpetrators achieve their objective and bury the whole planet in the flames of their insane perfidy.

Just remember. If they’re talking about the hijackers, they’re part of the cover up, whether they know it or not.

Much more productive would be analyzing the tiny hole in the Pentagon, how the ejected material in the WTC photos prove there were unexplained explosions, or how those emotional cellphone calls could not possibly have been made as government flunkies have presented them.

But you won’t hear the official 9/11 commissioners talking about any of that, because they are definitely part of the cover up. You can obviously tell, because they keep talking about the hijackers.

Other than a general alert to citizens of the world about the basic lies that continue to underlie all political debate in the United States at this time, there is another, more pressing reason to discuss and contemplate all these matters at this time.

The Secret History of 9/11 - Full Documentary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVh9WgGxuIY

The Truth Behind 9-11 Attack [Part 1 of 9]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arub097L5Co

The Truth Behind 9-11 Attack [Part 2 of 9]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK7qJTCvAHE

The Truth Behind 9-11 Attack [Part 9 of 9]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ5AxjjDv-U

Mysterious Deaths of 9 11 Witnesses (MUST SEE) - THESE ARE NOT COINCIDENCES

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suQitX2GmTU

This Computer Simulation Explains How the Twin Towers Fell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzInIjD6nKw

This is the 9/11 Cover Up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzkd0C2t2s8

9/11 Firefighter Blows WTC 7 Cover Up Wide Open

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQrmkOWhH48

Remembering 9/11 | National September 11 Memorial | United States

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTpYlm79Fis

9/11 Memorial Video (2020)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bgzm4klQXOw

Alan Jackson - Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning) (Official Audio)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zj6rMcVNQbw

Pray for the families that lost their love ones from such a senseless evil act of life. We must hold those that let this happen accountable and that includes our GOVERNMENT!!!

SEEK THE TRUTH. RESEARCH THE TRUTH. FOR YOU SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH AND THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE!!

May Yeshua the Messiah bless you,

Love, Debbie

[mayeeeee]

CASK OF AMONTILLADO

SUMMARY

One night, Montresor asked Fortunato if he wanted to drink the best wine that ever existed in the world – the Amontillado. Unbeknownst to the latter, Montresor was actually plotting to kill him. Montresor planned this for quite some time after deciding that he has had enough of Fortunato’s insults.

Knowing that Fortunato has a weak spot for wine, he introduced to him the best wine in the world in order to lure him into their family’s wine cellar. Making the Amontillado sound like the best wine one could ever taste, Fortunato agreed to be taken to the wine cellar in order to taste the Amontillado. Excited and curious, he went and drank with Montresor on the way. It was cold and dark but they still went deeper and deeper ignoring the skulls around them.

Fortunato didn’t feel any amount of fear nor hesitance in going deeper in the unfamiliar tunnel as Montresor made him drink wine as they walked. When they stopped upon a hole, Fortunato was already very drunk and didn’t have the energy to stop Montresor when he chained him up. Montresor then used bricks and piled it up to block Fortunato and trap him there.

A century later after the incident, Montresor mentions that nobody has ever touched the bricks where he trapped Fortunato.

ANALYSIS

Montresor’s intentions

People may describe him to be irrational for murdering Fortunato (he actually is) but at the same time, I would like to think of this as him protecting his family. It may seem as if Fortunato did nothing but hurt Montresor’s pride but in another perspective, he may have been afraid of humiliation as he is not the only person carrying that name. As a clan, Montresors may have a reputation to protect and Fortunato taunted that.

Weaknesses of both characters

I’m sure it added more spice to Fortunato’s characterization but I found his obsession towards alcohol was too unrealistic. But since this is a fictional story, I guess it’s fine. But I can’t help judging Fortunato for how gullible he is when he agreed to go to the wine cellar without sensing an inch of suspicion towards Montresor. I have personally met a lot of people who would definitely go loco for alcohol but not to the point of deciding on something stupid before even getting drunk. I must take note of the fact that Fortunato didn’t die mainly because of his weakness towards alcohol – it was his pride and ego that led him to his death.

This leads me to Montresor’s weakness as well. Both of them have big egos and aside from Montresor murdering Fortunato because he hurt his pride – he also did the same thing by challenging and tempting Fortunato with Amontillado. Pride definitely brought both characters down more than the alcohol did.

Moral of the story

Speaking from experience and how I related to the story, I can say that I have learned how to respect people’s emotions. We all have a different level of sensitivity and there are times when people tend to forget that people can be offended by things that don’t seem offensive to them. Montresor showed great value over his name and if Fortunato respected that, then he could’ve avoided getting on Montresor’s nerves in the first place. Another thing is that, communication is the key to every argument. I doubt that Montresor made Fortunato well aware of what he felt and thought hence the latter pushed even further.

REFERENCES

http://stephanietrinidad.blogspot.com/2013/12/montresors-downfall.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TF_sMg5pKI

THE GOD STEALER

SUMMARY

Philip and Sam are on a trip to the mountains in order to find an authentic god. Philip is an Ifugao who fled to Manila in order to live a new life as a Catholic and with him is Sam, an American who wanted to bring home with him a god as a souvenir. Philip wanted to help Sam to thank him for giving him a raise at work.

When they got to their destination, Philip’s grandfather greeted them warmly by throwing a party in Philip’s honor. But during the party, they find out that nobody wanted to sell their gods. Not wanting their trip to go to waste, Philip suggested that he steal his grandfather’s god instead. But then his grandfather died after Philip stole the god.

After the incident, Philip decided that he won’t return to Manila because he felt responsible for this grandfather’s death – the person who loved him the most. When he informs Sam, he is already dressed in a traditional Ifugao clothing while he carves a new god to replace the one which he stole. The two bid their farewells and Sam takes the old one to America as a souvenir.

ANALYSIS

Colonial Mentality

According to research, people with a colonial mentality believe that they are inferior ethnically or culturally as a result of colonization. For a person like Philip, this means an instant and unthinking rejection of all things Filipino, as well as an instinctive and unquestioning support for all things American or white. Philip experienced this and thought of his own ethnicity as something of lesser value than those who live in the city. Modernization was brought to Manila by colonizers and because colonizers look down on the locals – Philip may have desired the need to be “equal” to them by being one of them.

Ifugaos and importance of gods

People value their religion but there are some people who value their religion a lot more than others typically do. Ifugaos are known to be very religious people and rely on their deities on everything that they do. Some of these gods are responsible for their harvests and has great influence on medicine and their system of politics, which I think is colorful and just as meaningful as other religions. But of course, some people may find it odd that they worship idols and trees or animals – but I think it’s alright to find it odd when you don’t understand it but that doesn’t give you the license to disrespect what they believe in. Ifugaos have a lot of practices that aren’t all that familiar to the majority but thanks to F. Sionil, readers are given a glimpse of how important it actually is to them.

REFERENCES

https://wearekubo.com/the-effects-of-colonial-mentality-on-filipino-american-mental-health/#:~:text=People%20who%20possess%20colonial%20mentality,for%20anything%20American%20or%20white.

https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/249316529341515065/

https://www.slideshare.net/tinelachica04/eng-7-the-god-stealer

SIX FEET OF THE COUNTRY

SUMMARY

Set outside of Johannesburg, this story follows a man and a wife, two “sort of” farmers, and their reaction to the knowledge that a refuge from Rhodesia has fled to their land and died from overexposure. “Six Feet of the Country” is told from the perspective of the husband, Bass. He regards himself and his wife as pseudo-farmers because he makes most of his money from a “luxury-travel agency” and bought the farm—ten miles outside of Johannesburg—as an idyllic distraction for his wife, Lerice, who is an aging former actress.

One night, Bass is alerted that something terrible has happened in the barracks where the young servant boys--all black--sleep. Reluctantly, the man travels to the dorms. There, he’s informed that another young boy whom he has never seen before has died, likely from a combination of pneumonia and heat exhaustion. He learns that the mysterious boy was the brother of Petrus, one of his trusted employees. Petrus, distraught over the death of his brother, tells his employer that the boy traveled from the extremely poor area of Rhodesia to the big city, looking for work.

Petrus’s family wants to give the boy a decent burial and pay dearly for the expense. But the day of the funeral, they learn that the body in the coffin isn’t that of the young boy. They demand a refund for the funeral home’s mistake, and to have the body of their loved one back. But the funeral home, run by white Afrikaners, refuses, saying that they (technically) already did their job; that they buried the wrong body is not their concern. Petrus and his family exhort their white employers to intercede on their behalf. Bass and Lerice attempt this, but they are neither rich nor influential enough to overcome South Africa's racist bureaucracy. Petrus’s family then must live with the knowledge that their loved one wasn’t properly buried six feet underground, i.e. he was not afforded even “six feet of country.”

ANALYSIS

It is with a heavy heart to say that black people were mistreated a lot back then, it's like they aren't humans at all. They were forced to work at jobs that needs a lot of physical strength and it leads to slavery. I remember, I read somewhere that black people had their own time to go out unlike the white people who can go out freely and wander endlessly. I also read somewhere that in public transportations, there's specific spaces for blacks and whites. Justice was also for white people back then. I'm not surprised because that was during the Apertheid System where they separate white and black people. Just like this story, Petrus and the other farm workers were not treated nicely. Petrus only wanted a proper burial for his brother but they had to pay for his brother's body only learning that the body they gave him was not his brother. It's so cruel of a human to do that. His boss couldn't also help him because they have no money to overcome the racist mindset of South Africa. So then, Petrus and his family had to accept the fact that they couldn't even bury his brother's body. They can't even give justice to his brother. Apertheid system was not necessary and so is racism. It is sad to say that this still exists today and is evident in different countries. It is just too inhumane to kill a black people just because of their skin color. I don't get why they hate people that are not of the same skin color as them. It's not like they wanted to be born like that. It's so sick to hate, mistreat, and kill black people.

REFERENCES:

https://www.supersummary.com/six-feet-of-the-country/summary/

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/96335.Six_Feet_of_the_Country