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battyaboutbooksreviews · 3 months

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🖤 Black History Month ❤️

💛 Queer Books by Black Authors 💚

[ List Under the Cut ]

🖤 Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender ❤️ Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta 💛 Warrior of the Wind by Suyi Davies Okungbowa 💚 I'm a Wild Seed by Sharon Lee De La Cruz 🖤 Real Life by Brandon Taylor ❤️ Ruthless Pamela Jean by Carol Denise Mitchell 💛 The Unbroken by C.L. Clark 💚 Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova 🖤 Skin Deep Magic by Craig Laurance Gidney ❤️ The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi 💛 That Could Be Enough by Alyssa Cole 💚Work for It by Talia Hibbert

🖤 All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson ❤️ The Deep by Rivers Solomon 💛 How to Be Remy Cameron by Julian Winters 💚 Running With Lions by Julian Winters 🖤 Right Where I Left You by Julian Winters ❤️ This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story by Kacen Callender 💛 The Weight of the Stars by K. Ancrum 💚 This Is What It Feels Like by Rebecca Barrow 🖤 Son of the Storm by Suyi Davies Okungbowa ❤️ Black Boy Joy by Kwame Mbalia 💛 Legendborn by Tracy Deonn 💚 The Wicker King by K. Ancrum

🖤 Pet by Akwaeke Emezi ❤️ You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson 💛 Once Ghosted, Twice Shy by Alyssa Cole 💚 Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron 🖤 Let's Talk About Love by Claire Kann ❤️ A Spectral Hue by Craig Laurance Gidney 💛 Power & Magic by Joamette Gil 💚 The Black Veins by Ashia Monet 🖤 Treasure by Rebekah Weatherspoon ❤️ The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow 💛 Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James 💚 Full Disclosure by Camryn Garrett

🖤 The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta ❤️ Meet Cute Diary by Emery Lee 💛 A Phoenix First Must Burn (edited) by Patrice Caldwell 💚 Rise to the Sun by Leah Johnson 🖤 Things We Couldn't Say by Jay Coles ❤️ Black Boy Out of Time by Hari Ziyad 💛 Darling by K. Ancrum 💚 The Secrets of Eden by Brandon Goode 🖤 Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé ❤️ Off the Record by Camryn Garrett 💛 Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers 💚 Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

🖤 How to Dispatch a Human by Stephanie Andrea Allen ❤️ Black Girl, Call Home by Jasmine Mans 💛 The Essential June Jordan (edited) by Jan Heller Levi and Christoph Keller 💚 A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark 🖤 A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney ❤️ Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo 💛 Dread Nation by Justina Ireland 💚 Punch Me Up to the Gods by Brian Broome 🖤 Masquerade by Anne Shade ❤️ One of the Good Ones by Maika Moulite & Maritza Moulite 💛 Soulstar by C.L. Polk 💚 100 Boyfriends by Brontez Purnell

🖤 Hurricane Child by Kacen Callender ❤️ Quietly Hostile by Samantha Irby 💛 Coffee Will Make You Black by April Sinclair 💚 The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi 🖤 If It Makes You Happy by Claire Kann ❤️ Sweethand by N.G. Peltier 💛 This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron 💚 Better Off Red by Rebekah Weatherspoon 🖤 Friday I’m in Love by Camryn Garrett ❤️ Rainbow Milk by Paul Mendez 💛 Memorial by Bryan Washington 💚 Patsy by Nicole Y. Dennis-Benn

🖤 Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon ❤️ How to Find a Princess by Alyssa Cole 💛 Yesterday is History by Kosoko Jackosn 💚 Mouths of Rain (edited) by Briona Simone Jones 🖤 Dead Dead Girls by Nekesa Afia ❤️ Love's Divine by Ava Freeman 💛 The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr 💚 Odd One Out by Nic Stone 🖤 Symbiosis by Nicky Drayden ❤️ Thanks a Lot, Universe by Chad Lucas 💛 The Passing Playbook by Isaac Fitzsimons 💚 Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin

🖤 Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert ❤️ My Government Means to Kill Me by Rasheed Newson 💛 Pleasure and Spice by Fiona Zedde 💚 No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull 🖤 The Stars and the Blackness Between Them by Junauda Petrus ❤️ Filthy Animals by Brandon Taylor 💛 The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin 💚 Peaces by Helen Oyeyem 🖤 The Beauty That Remains by Ashley Woodfolk ❤️ Every Body Looking by Candice Iloh 💛 Bingo Love by Tee Franklin, Jenn St-Onge, Joy San 💚 The Heart Does Not Bend by Makeda Silvera

🖤 King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender ❤️ By Any Means Necessary by Candice Montgomery 💛 Busy Ain't the Half of It by Frederick Smith & Chaz Lamar Cruz 💚 Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo 🖤 Sin Against the Race by Gar McVey-Russell ❤️ Trumpet by Jackie Kay 💛 Remembrance by Rita Woods 💚 Daughters of Nri by Reni K. Amayo 🖤 You Know Me Well by Nina LaCour ❤️ The Summer of Everything by Julian Winters 💛 Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi 💚 Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyem

#black history month #queer romance #queer books #queer community #queer #book list #book blog #booklr #bookstagram #book lovers #book reader #book reading #books to read #reading #batty about books #battyaboutbooks

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fatehbaz · 1 year

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Regarding this post going around:

Recommend checking out an article by Kasey Keeler and Ryan Hellenbrand, published at Edge Effects in 2021, which, aside from addressing the Ojibwe story about the Nanabozho fighting against logging, also describes the origin of Paul Bunyan as an icon of clear-cutting timber industry and, later, as a symbol of the advent of the US federal government’s “German-style” forestry management.

Some quick tidbits from their article:

- References to Bunyan appear in local print media from the 1890s onward, but Bunyan became more widely known in 1916 after a scholarly publication about the folklore. In the same year, 1916, an important mass media pictorial representation was made in a promotional pamphlet by the marketing team of a major logging company as a move to give them a folksly and “local” charm as the corporation expanded from Minnesota to California.

- That same logging company had owned the land that would become both Paul Bunyan State Forest and Chippewa National Forest.

- The first national forest created by act of Congress rather than presidential proclamation was actually Chippewa National Forest, which has been described as “a laboratory” to solve “the Indian problem” and discipline/contain Ojibwe people.

- Paul Bunyan was a sort of icon of German folklore in the region. Ironically, even though Bunyan was originally associated with clear-cutting, it would in fact be "German-style” forestry policy that (in Minnesota and later across the US) replaced the original clear-cutting industrial extraction methods with a "modern" and "sustainable" management approach meant for "sustained yield" (which still just treats forests as a resource to be extracted for profit).

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Anyway, some images, captions, and text from the article [all text below is excerpted from the article]:

Across the Northwoods, a geography that spans the U.S.-Canada border, stories are used to make and claim space. [...] Throughout northern Minnesota, legends of Paul Bunyan, the fictional giant lumberjack, have been used to claim space. [...] Bunyan has been credited with creating Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes, the Mississippi River, and the Grand Canyon, while simultaneously logging millions of acres of forest. [...] Together, we juxtapose the history of two forests -- the Paul Bunyan State Forest and the Chippewa National Forest -- to reveal how German settlement, logging, and forestry have contributed to placemaking narratives, and how [...] nostalgia links past and present. Paul Bunyan’s literal and figurative imaginings advance American Indian erasure narratives, leading to the invisibility of these same communities today. [...] The Northwoods have been popularized and imagined as America’s version of northern Europe. [...] Across Minnesota, towns like New Ulm, New Munich, Heidelberg, and Luxemburg bear witness [...]. More recently, Native scholars Michael Dockry and Christopher Caldwell have examined [...] “the Menominee people’s profound sense of place and their intimate relationship with place.” [...]

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Ojibwe dispossession, well underway by the late nineteenth century, is not told in any Paul Bunyan story. [...] The "heroic labor" of logging formed a significant portion of Great Lakes region economies [...] on the heels of, and entangled with, Ojibwe dispossession. [...] Formally established in 1908, the 1.6-million-acre Chippewa National Forest (CNF) lies nearly contiguous with the Leech Lake Reservation. [...] [T]he CNF was the first national forest created "for the benefit of [American] Indian people." [...] In 1902 came the Morris Act. Authored by [a] Duluth congressman [...], the act "created the first forest reserve established by congressional action rather than presidential proclamation." The act established the 225,000-acre Minnesota Forest Reserve as a “compromise,” a way to tackle the “Indian problem” while allowing for timber harvest. Here, Ojibwe homelands became “a laboratory for the first comprehensive forest management plans undertaken by a federal agency.” In 1928, the forest was renamed the Chippewa National Forest, as it remains today.

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While the Chippewa National Forest forces us to consider the many ways logging and forestry has usurped American Indian peoples’ access to land, the nearby Paul Bunyan State Forest encapsulates the material legacy of symbolic myth. [...]

Officially recognized in 1935, the Paul Bunyan State Forest evolved from the site of the Red River Lumber Company sawmill. Founded in 1884, the Red River Lumber Company (RRLC) directly participated in and contributed to Ojibwe dispossession. By the end of the nineteenth century, he RRLC had purchased most of the land that comprises the present-day Pual Bunyan State Forest, milling millions of board feet of lumber at the company town of Akeley. [...]

The expansion of RRLC to California precipitated another key move: using Paul Bunyan in their marketing. William B. Laughead (pronounced Log-head), advertising manager in 1914 and a logger himself, spun another Paul Bunyan tale for the promotional booklet “Introducing Mr. Paul Bunyan of Westwood, Cal,” which included Bunyan’s first pictorial representation. This marketing campaign relied on the new and growing nostalgia for the grand logging days in the Great Lakes to keep the transcontinental corporation rooted in place.

With logging long established throughout the Great Lakes region, the ecological damage was clear. To remedy this, in the mid-1930s (German) forestry was introduced to manage timber on a sustained yield base. This, then, is the irony of the Paul Bunyan State Forest: named for an American legends who is said to have literally cleared the path for settlement, forest management now proposes to maintain the integrity of the forest. [...]

Though Paul Bunyan narratives dominate the landscape of the Northwoods, if we look closely we can see the ways Native people resist the legendary exploits. Indeed, a lesser-known Ojibwe oral story reminds us that the Anishinaabe people, their culture, and their histories will always prevail over dispossession and logging. In the story, Nanabozho, an Ojibwe trickster or cultural figure, confronts Paul Bunyan, who had already logged off most of the northeastern states before making his way to Minnesota. Nanabozho tells Paul to leave, to not log any more timber. A fight ensues, and [...] Nanabozho swings a Red Lake walleye at Paul, knocking him off his feet. As Paul stumbles, Nanabozho pulls at Paul’s whiskers, making him promise to leave the area. This is why, today, Paul Bunyan does not have a beard and why he is facing west at the statue on Lake Bemidji, as he prepares to leave the region.

This is also why we have the Chippewa National Forest, because Nanabozho and his Ojibwe kinsmen saved it from being logged. It is this contemporary narrative that highlights the complexity of Ojibwe storytelling [...].

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Images, captions, and text as published by: Kasey Keeler and Ryan Hellenbrand. “Paul Bunyan and Settler Nostalgia in the Northwoods.” Edge Effects. 2 December 2021. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks added by me.]

#abolition #ecology #indigenous #great lakes #imperial #colonial

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301-302 · 4 months

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Prospect (Christopher Caldwell & Zeek Earl | 2018)

#prospect #christopher caldwell #zeek earl #2018 #10s

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areax · 2 years

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Now this is something I have never seen in all my time in the Green. A little girl.

Prospect (2018) dir. Christopher Caldwell & Zeek Earl

#prospect #prospect 2018 #pedro pascal #sophie thatcher #filmedit #filmgifs #** ( gifs.#** ( mine.

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fundiepredictions · 5 months

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What happend in 2023

A overview of all the things that happend in 2023

January

Jeremiah&Hannah Duggar (Wissmann) announced the birth off Brynley Noelle on christmas day 2022

Lincoln Bontrager announced during a concert that he is in a relationship with Susanna (maybe Helferich)

February

John&Alyssa Webster (Bates) announced that their baby boy will be named Rhett Alan Webster

Nathanael&Katrina Wissmann (Sahlstrom) announced they are expecting baby #1 in august

Zach&Whitney Bates (Perkins) announced they are expecting baby #5 in august

Jill Rodrigues announced that her son Timothy and Heidi Coverett are courting

Hailey James Clark was born to Katie&Travis Clark (Bates)

Jill Rodrigues suffered a miscarriage

Jessa Seewald announced she suffered a miscarriage in december

March

Trace&Lydia Bates (Romeike) announced baby #1

Jackson Bates proposed to Emerson Wells and she said yes

Justin&Kristen Young announced baby #5, a boy

Rhett Alan Webster was born to Alyssa&John Webster (Bates)

Zach&Whitney Bates (Perkins) announced baby #5 is a girl

Edwin&Francesca Morton (Tuggle) had their son, Adam

Jill Rodrigues announced that her daughter Renee is courting a mystery men

April

Trace&Lydia Bates (Romeike) announced their baby is a boy

Susanna Wissmann and Drew Jerred got engaged

Jesse&Anna Maxwell (Graig) are expecting baby #1

Lillian Scout Morton was born to John&Cambell Morton (Roberts)

May

Kaylee&Jonathan Hill (Rodrigues) announced their baby is a boy

Trace&Lydia Bates (Romeike) announced their baby will be named Ryker Cruise

Rachel&Alan Businitz (Wissmann) announced they are expecting a rainbowbaby in september

Chad&Erin Paine (Bates) announced they are expecting another miracle baby

Matthias&Michelle Wissmann (Kingery) are expecting their 3th in july

Gunner Forsyth was born to Austin&Joy Forsyth (Duggar)

Apperently Josiah&Lauren Duggar (Swanson) had a 3rd child, a boy

Mary Maxwell and Samuel Hook got married

Lincoln Bontrager and Susanna Helferich got engaged

June

Nora Duggar was born to Jed&Katey Duggar (Nakatsu)

Apperantly Christopher&AnnaMarie Maxwell are expecting baby #7

Owen Wissmann was born to Matthias&Michelle Wissmann (Kingery)

Dietrich Sanders was born to Dorothy&Noah Sanders (Morton)

July

Susanna Wissmann and Drew Jerred got married

Gideon Daniel Hill was born to Jonathan&Kaylee Hill (Rodrigues)

Paul Morton got engaged to Helena Mucciolo

August

Theodore James Wissmann was born to Nathanael&Katrina Wissmann (Sahlstrom)

Josie&Kelton Balka (Bates) announced they are expecting baby #3

Lily Jo Bates was born to Zach&Whitney Bates (Perkins)

Erin&Chad Paine (Bates) announced their 6th child will be named William Gage

Lincoln Bontrager and Susanna Helferich got married

September

John&Esther Shrader (Keller) announced they are expecting #14

Jessa&Ben Seewald (Duggar) announced they are expecting #5*

We finaly learned the name of Duggar-Caldwell #4, it's Justus

Jill Dillard released her book

Ryker Cruise was born to Trace&Lydia Bates (Romeike)

Ruth Bourlier (Wissmann) had a miscarriage

Audrey Ann was born to Rachel&Alan Businitz (Wissmann)

Paul Morton and Helena got married

October

Esther Marie was born to Christopher&AnnaMarie Maxwell

Timothy Rodrigues proposed to Heidi Coverett who said 'yes'

Bobby&Tori Smith (Bates) announced they are expecting #5

Jackson Bates and Emerson Wells got married

Maverick James was born to Justin&Kristen Young

William Gage was born to Chad&Erin Paine (Bates)

November

Jeremiah&Hannah Duggar (Wissmann) announced they are expecting baby #2

Edwin&Francesca Morton announced they are expecting baby #2

Nathan&Nurie Keller (Rodrigues) announced they are expecting baby #3

December

Lawson&Tiffany Bates (Espensen) announced that they suffered a miscarriage earlier this year

George Augustine was born to Jessa&Ben Seewald (Duggar)

Susanna&Drew Jerred (Wissmann) announced they are expecting baby #1

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naoa-ao3 · 4 days

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Into the Horizon- Chapter 1

Remy takes a job to steal back a kidnapped child but trouble follows him and the girl and as he races to get her to safety he has to sacrifice his own security along the way.

Gambit wished he hadn't agreed to meet the man in a church. The man was late and he was all alone in the dark sanctuary. Well, not completely alone, the rector was somewhere around but he had been payed to stay out of the way for the night and so Gambit sat alone in the quiet of the church, surrounded by the flickering of votive candles and the little plaster saints that all smiled upwards in devotion.

He didn't like it, at night the church seemed twice it's normal size. He knew it wasn't but the shadows seemed endless and that bothered him. He wished the man would hurry up. The eyes of the saints seemed fixed on him and the giant crucified Christ at the head of the nave was eerie in the dark. He looked up at the Christ before quickly looking away. In the pew in front of him, someone had left their beads but he didn't touch them. He still had enough of that boyhood fear of God not to steal in a church.

The tiny Christ Child sitting on the shoulder of St. Christopher beamed at him, seemingly praising him for doing the right thing. He gave the plaster infant an annoyed look. "Don' know what you're so happy about." He muttered. Truth be told it annoyed him immensely to be surrounded by saints and even more to be in the shadow of that giant cross. He felt like they were all flaunting their divinity at him. Showing him what he could never attain.

God, he wished the man would hurry up. He was getting angry. He didn't go to church anymore, he wasn't even sure if he believed in anything although it was hard to forget the bible stories he had learned when he was a child. He knew the saints and he knew their stories and he knew he stories of the Bible, Old Testament and New. He knew that in the daylight hours the windows would shine through with light and he would see biblical stories illuminated in beautiful colored glass and between the windows would be the stations of the cross and he vaguely remembered the prayers for each station and how long you were supposed to stay at each one.

A loud creaking sound brought him from his memories and he turned to the back of the church to watch as a man entered, he was shaking slightly, shivering. But it wasn't cold outside. He must have been shaking from nerves. Perhaps he had never hired a thief before.

"Monsieur Caldwell?" He asked in a whisper.

The man jumped. "A-are you the thief?" He asked.

Remy couldn't help but smile a little. "I am." He wondered vaguely if that counted as a confession.

Ah, he might be an X-Man and he might be a superhero but nothing gave him a surge of pride like admitting he was a thief. There was something comforting about admitting it. He wasn't hiding it, he wasn't hiding who he was. He couldn't even remember a time in his life when he hadn't been a thief. It was part of him, over the years being an X-Man had become part of him too but nothing could ever rival being a thief.

He leaned back in the pew, he had admitted in the face of God that he was a thief and no one had struck him down. He was almost disappointed. "So, what can I do for you?" He asked.

The man sunk down in the pew in front of him. He started to genuflect but stopped, remembering that there was no service going on and instead lowered himself into the seat awkwardly. "I need help." He said.

Remy inclined his head, that was a given. "And what manner of help may I offer?" He asked.

The man fidgeted. "I need your help." He repeated. "They- they took my daughter."

Warning bells went off in Remy's head like a noon day siren. He wasn't about to get mixed up in a kidnapping. Uh-uh, no way. Not him. That was too much trouble just waiting to happen. He started to rise from his seat and maybe it was the desperation in the man's voice as he cried for Remy to stay or maybe it was the watchfulness of all of the plaster saints, silently chiding him for trying to leave but he sunk back into the pew and crossed his arms. "Who stole your daughter?" He asked.

The man sighed in relief. "I owe money to these men. They took her to force me to pay but I paid and hey still haven't giving her back. They keep asking for more money and I don't have it!"

Remy paused. "Dey say what dey gon' do to her if you don't pay?"

"They said they'd kill her!"

Ah, damn. His heart already felt for the girl. Out of the corner of his eye he spied the cheery faced little Christ Child, eyes up turned to heaven but still managing to make him think he was being watched. "Alright, give me de details. Who took your daughter?"

"Loan sharks! I borrowed money off them to pay my mortgage but when I couldn't pay them back they took my baby! It's been months now and I've given them all I have!"

Remy sighed, oh, he didn't need this in his life. "How old is your girl?"

"Six. She's so young!"

"Do you know where dey keep her?"

They man shook his head. "No, I know where their office is but I don't think she's there."

Remy got to his feet. "Well it's a good place to start. I'll find your fille and get her back to you." he cast once last look at the Christ Child and at his Virgin Mother and shook his head. "I'll find her monsieur"

And then he was out on the street, climbing over his motorcycle and kicking up the kickstand, he had a few hours before daylight and that would be enough time to go through the loan shark's office and hopefully find some information. He had the directions from Mr. Caldwell and it was no trouble finding the place. A squat little office crammed between two much nicer buildings.

Easy enough to pick the lock. Simple really, elementary work. Why he could have done it when he was a child. He slid into the dark office and flash light in hand searched files and folders and every paper he could find but found nothing on either the man or his daughter.

He was about to give up for the night and was going through the last file cabinet when he found a list of property deeds belonging to the office owners. Bingo. He sat down on the floor and spread them out. Immediately tossing aside the one for the office and another for a residential area. A third was for a warehouse and looked promising. He held it up and memorized the address. It wouldn't be hard to find. He pocketed the deed and put the others away before spying a safe. Well, just to be sure the man would pay him. . . he helped himself. A couple thousand dollars were made right at home in his pockets.

And off he went to find the warehouse and the little girl, what had Caldwell said her name was? Kathy? He had to remember that. He found the warehouse easily, it was mashed up against several other warehouses, all indistinguishable from one another in the dark but he found it none the less.

He scampered up the side of the building and into an upper level. All was dark inside as he crept along. He kept his ears peeled, listening for even the slightest sound that might betray a scared six year old girl or a giant goon creeping up on him. But in the night he heard nothing and he began to wonder if the child was even there. He opened several locked doors and found nothing. But then he stopped. He could hear something up head. It was the sound of low talking. He pressed himself up against the wall and listened.

"You know, I don't know how much longer this can go on. The old man has got to be tapped out by now." A man was saying.

Remy peered around the corner and saw two large men sitting at a folding table playing cards. He weighed his options, listening while the other man spoke.

"Yeah, I just don't wanna be the one to deal with the kid. I'd rather deal with the dad."

Deal? Were they really going to kill the poor man and his daughter once they were out of money. Remy held his breath, he had an idea. He strode forward into the circle of light the men's lantern emitted. "You two can go." He said.

The goons looked up. "Who are you?" One of them asked loudly.

Remy made his gaze as cold as he could. "I'm the one who's gonna deal with the kid."

"The old man run out of money?"

"The old man went to the police. I already took care of him."

The goons looked at each other nervously. "So you're gonna take out the kid?" One of them asked. He nodded. "Oh well, don't hurt her too much. She's a sweet little girl."

Remy remained silent. He had long since learned that the most imposing thing a man could say was nothing.

The two goons got up from their table and made for the exit. "She's in there." One of them said over his shoulder, pointing to a closet door. Remy nodded, still not saying anything.

Once he was sure the men were gone he hurried across the room to the door and picked the lock, opening the closet to see a small bundle asleep on the floor. He reached out a hand and shook the child awake. "Kathy?" He whispered. She shook slightly and looked up at him her eyes wide. "Don' be afraid, I'm here to help. Your pere sent me."

She wrinkled her eyebrows. "My what?" She whispered.

"Your papa. He sent me to find you but we've got to hurry. We don't want dumb and dumber coming back."

She looked at him, her small lips crinkled in worry and her dark eyebrows raised.

"I ain't gonna hurt you, petite but we gotta go now." he noticed she was barefoot and scooped her up in his arms. "Come on, chere." she hung on to his neck with thin arms and he ran for an exit. "If you see one of dem, don' move. Just lie still and keep quiet."

"Like I'm dead." She whispered.

He nodded. "Just like dat." It hurt his heart that one so young understood but at the moment he was grateful. They hurried on and it wasn't until they reached his bike that anything went amiss. The men spotted him and the girl and yelled for him to stop. Kathy lay limp in his arms just like he had told her and he stopped, hoping he could fool them. "What's the problem?" He asked.

"The dad ain't dead!" One of the men said. "And he didn't go to the police. Who the hell are you?!"

Remy gave the girl a squeeze and dropped her. She landed lightly on her feet ad scampered away to hide behind a pile of sheet metal.

"De name is Gambit!" He said with a grin. "And I'm here to rescue the petite princess." Ah, a thief could be a hero too. After all Robin Hood had been a hero, hadn't he? He drew a card and in he dark the goons couldn't make out what he had. All to his advantage. He charged up the card and threw it at the men, it exploded, sending them backwards. "Petite, head for my bike. I'll have you out of here before you know it and safe wit' your pere."

he heard a scuffling noise and knew the child was darting for his bike. He himself began to back away. He saw one of them men rising and tossed another card, causing a second explosion. Riding out the blast he darted backwards and scooped the little girl up, kicking up the stand and turning on the engine in one fluid motion. She made no sound and relaxed into his arms. "It'll all be over soon, mon petite chere." He said.

In the wind her hair blew and in the distance he could see the navy blue of a lightening sky. "I'm gonna take you to de church I met your papa at. He's gonna be mighty happy to see you."

She sat up a little and watched the city whip by as they sped onward, the spires of the cathedral growing in the distance.

He stopped at the corner, just before they reached he church. He had spied the flashing lights of police cruisers and cursed silently. "Merde." Kathy looked up at him, and her big blue eyes seemed to know what had happened and they filled with sorrow. He turned the bike around. "I'm sorry petite. You don't get to see your pere today." He noticed a small group of men watching him from an alley and he knew they knew who he was. "Maybe not tomorrow either."

He turned and sped off, coaxing the child to sleep and heading for the interstate. Oh, what had he gotten himself into?

If you enjoyed and would be interested in reading more, the completed fic (6 chapters) is all posted to the link below. Thanks for reading!

#gambit #fanfiction #x-men #written in 2013 #fic #ao3 #remy lebeau #chapter fic #hurt comfort #hurt/comfort #road trips #travel #fluff #link #complete #xmen #comics

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dndhistory · 7 months

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174. Various Authors - Dragon #65 (September 1982)

Another classic Dragon cover, this time by Clyde Caldwell, and starting off with a really long guest editorial by Gary Gygax, where he gripes about Origin and waxes lyrical about Gen Con for three full pages, this is the kind of backroom business that would really have been better if left out of Dragon magazine. However, 40 years later, it's actually pretty interesting to see the internal tensions in the gaming hobby in general, and I think Gary has a point, but it just feels a bit uncouth, that's all.

Moving on to actual subjects relevant to the games, Gygax gives us a section on possible new classes and subclasses for a next edition of AD&D, asking for reader feedback on them, which is pretty good. Moving to the World of Greyhawk we get more information on some regions of that setting, namely the Spindrift Sound and Isles, the Prelacy of Almor and the Kingdom of Nyrond. Again it mostly covers military matters, but there are some tidbits of lore spread throughout the article that make it more interesting than usual.

Len Lakofka and Christopher Townsend bring articles about weapon durability and alternatives on how to handle that. We get new creatures, both in Featured Creatures (Baku, Phoenix) but also some other chromatic dragons (Yellow, Orange and Purple) in a separate piece. A big highlight of this issue is also Ed Greenwood's long article on how to create law systems for your settings with some examples from Forgotten Realms. An article about how War can motivate characters during campaigns closes out the relevant D&D items.

#adnd #ttrpg #dnd #ad&d #d&d #dnd art #dungeons and dragons #dungeons & dragons #gary gygax #greyhawk #forgotten realms #ed greenwood

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aristocraticelegance · 2 months

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March reads. I'm surprised I even got through three this month. I also had my first DNF of the year, which I probably won't record any thoughts on, since I don't have anything intelligent to say about it.

The Closet, Danielle Bobker (Princeton University Press, 2020). I bought a bunch of books from the Princeton University press annual sale; this one turned out pretty good. It does suffer a bit from the problem of stitching together several loosely related research articles, but it was interesting as a history of 16th-17th century closets and their social role. I liked the sections on court favorites/court politics the most. The last chapter tries to link these early closets with the modern concept of coming out of the closet, which was a little half-baked even if it was heading in an interesting direction.

2. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, John Le Carré (1963/2005). The problem with reading old famous books is that if they're good I start going around like omg have your heard of this?? It's good?? Anyways, newsflash, John Le Carré is a good writer. It's also interesting to see elements that I first encountered in later writers. I would be very surprised if William Gibson isn't indebted to Le Carré in some way. I'll probably hunt down more of his books once I figure out what to read next.

3. Hel's Eight, Stark Holborn (Titan Books, 2023)

I bought this when it came out, and honestly I was kind of relieved to realize I was only a year late in reading it. It's the sequel to Ten Low, which I loved. I probably should have re-read it because I only vaguely remembered how it ended, but Hel's Eight was still great. The two books are a mix of Space Western/Mad Max in space with supernatural horror, or something like that. If you liked Mad Max: Fury Road, you should read these.

Short Fiction

I finally finished New Edge Sword & Sorcery vol. 1, which had some great pieces in it, including "The Pillars of Silence" by Prashanath Srivasta. I mostly read short stories during work breaks, so it can take me a while to get through anything, but I really enjoyed this volume and Vol. 0. It's nice to see a magazine with so much art too.

I also finished issue 143 of Apex Magazine. One of the reasons I don't read a ton of short fic is that my preferred sub genres are pretty underrepresented in contemporary SFF. Apex publishes some good stuff, but I've had a hard time with the last few issues, mostly because of the focus on contemporary-set stories. I did like "Chi Tam is Tired of Being Dead" by Natasha King and the reprints by Eden Royce and Christopher Caldwell.

Finally, I really liked "The Angel Azrael and the Dead Man's Hand" (Peter Darbyshire) in Beneath Ceaseless Skies #339. A Fantasy Western that gestures towards some complex setting/backstory.

#my grandfather is a big john le carre fan #so it's silly that it took me this long #books #my reading #2024 reads #march reads #hel's eight #ten low #john le carre #sff #space western #mad max #short fiction #short stories #sword & sorcery

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duggardata · 2 years

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A Much–Awaited ESOQ Update!

As of today (November 7, 2022), here are the Predictor's Estimated Sizes of Quiver (ESOQs) for the following Predictor Couples—

The Bateses—

Zach + Whitney (Perkins) Bates 9 Children

Michaela (Bates) + Brandon Keilen 0 Children (Infertility)

Erin (Bates) + Chad Paine 5 Children (Quiver Closed)

Lawson + Tiffany (Espensen) Bates 10 Children

Nathan + Esther (Keyes) Bates 10 Children

Alyssa (Bates) + John Webster 14 Children (We'll See...)

Tori (Bates) + Bobby Smith 16 Children

Trace + Lydia (Romeike) Bates 10 Children

Carlin (Bates) + Evan Stewart 10 Children (We'll See...)

Josie (Bates) + Kelton Balka 13 Children

Katie (Bates) + Travis Clark Unknown; <1 So Far (Birth Control)

Jackson Bates + Emerson Wells 13 Children

The Bontragers—

Chelsy (Bontrager) + John Maxwell 8 Children (We'll See...)

Mitchell + Brynn (Leppert) Bontrager 9 Children

Allison (Bontrager) + Jeremiah Helferich 9 Children

Carson + Carolina (Bowers) Bontrager 8 Children

Joshua + Cassidy (Bowers) Bontrager 9 Children

Denver + Praise (Helferich) Bontrager 4 Children

The Duggars—

Josh + Anna (Keller) Duggar 7 Children (Quiver Closed)

John + Abbie (Burnett) Duggar 5 Children

Jill (Duggar) + Derick Dillard Unknown; 3 So Far (Birth Control)

Jessa (Duggar) + Ben Seewald 10 Children

Jinger (Duggar) + Jeremy Vuolo 8 Children (We'll See...)

Joe + Kendra (Caldwell) Duggar 15 Children

Josiah + Lauren (Swanson) Duggar 10 Children

Joy (Duggar) + Austin Forsyth 10 Children

Jed + Katey (Nakatsu) Duggar 8 Children

Jer + Hannah (Wissmann) Duggar 11 Children (His Data)

Justin + Claire (Spivey) Duggar 5 Children

The [Quiverfull] Kellers—

Esther (Keller) + John Shrader 14 Children

Priscilla (Keller) + David Waller 9 Children

Anna (Keller) + Josh Duggar 7 Children (Quiver Closed)

Nathan + Nurie (Rodrigues) Keller 14 Children

David + Hannah (Reber) Keller 11 Children

The Maxwells—

Nathan + Melanie Maxwell 7 Children (Quiver Closed)

Chris + Anna Marie Maxwell 6 Children (Quiver Closed)

Sarah (Maxwell) + Kory Bollinger 0 Children (Due to Age)

Joseph + Elissa Maxwell 7 Children

John + Chelsy (Bontrager) Maxwell 8 Children (We'll See...)

Jesse + Anna Patrice Maxwell 6 Children

The Rodriguii—

Jill (Noyes) + David Rodrigues 13 Children (Quiver Closed)

Nurie (Rodrigues) + Nathan Keller 14 Children

Kaylee (Rodrigues) + Jonathan Hill 11 Children

The Wissmanns—

Rachel (Wissmann) + Alan Busenitz 7 Children

Ruth (Wissmann) + Ryan Bourlier 10 Children

Josiah + Abi (Rehm) Wissmann 6 Children

Bethany (Wissmann) + Daniel Beasley 10 Children

Andrew + Kori (Knuth) Wissmann 5 Children

Matthias + Michelle (Kingery) Wissmann 6 Children

Hannah (Wissmann) + Jer Duggar 15 Children (Her Data)

Nathanael + Katrina (Sahlstrom) Wissmann 10 Children

Miscellaneous—

Olivia (Collingsworth) + Dawson Aichholz 7 Children

Meagan (Forsyth) + Bobby Ballinger 8 Children

Bethany (Baird) + David Beal 7 Children

Karissa + Mandrae Collins 11 Children

Kord + Grace (Wikstrom) Etbauer 16 Children

Rebekah (Baird) + Daniel Gill 10 Children

Courtney + Christopher Rogers 14 Children

Kristin + Justin Young 9 Children

For those keeping score at home, the Largest Quivers are expected to be born to—

16 Children Grace + Kord Etbauer, Tori + Bobby Smith

15 Children Joe + Kendra Duggar, Jeremiah + Hannah Duggar (Based on Wissmann Family Data)

14 Children Esther + John Shrader, Nurie + Nathan Keller, Courtney + Christopher Rogers

#esoq

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 4 months

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By: Christopher F. Rufo

Published: Jan 17, 2024

This year’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was marked by contentious debate about the state of civil rights law in America.

On the left, as always, the failure to achieve equal outcomes along racial lines requires greater state intervention. On the right, a different critique has gained traction, most notably in Christopher Caldwell’s Age of Entitlement and Richard Hanania’s The Origins of Woke, books arguing that American civil rights law has metastasized into a “second Constitution” that has led inexorably to left-wing racialism as the nation’s new orthodoxy.

This critique has merit. The modern civil rights regime has assumed unprecedented power to reshape public and private life, regulating not only instances of outright discrimination but also the minutiae of thought, behavior, speech, and association. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 appealed to the noble principle of equality, but over time the legal structure that it helped establish has metamorphized into an intrusive “diversity and inclusion” bureaucracy that discriminates against supposed “oppressor” groups—namely whites and Asians—and imposes left-wing ideology.

The question is what to do about it. Libertarians have long argued that the Civil Rights Act compromises core freedoms of speech and association to such a degree that only repealing the law can restore them. Another faction argues that the solution to minoritarian identity politics is majoritarian identity politics—that is, if the legal regime has become a racial spoils system, then Americans of European descent must develop “white racial consciousness” and fight for their share.

Both these approaches are misguided. Some conservatives seem to have forgotten that the Civil Rights Act was a response to state-sanctioned racial injustice in the United States and that, at its best, the civil rights movement appealed to the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and the language of the Fourteenth Amendment. The libertarian proposal for abolishing the Civil Rights Act, like most libertarian proposals, is unfeasible. The white identity proposal, which I have previously criticized, is a recipe for permanent racial division, more akin to “prison gang politics” than republican virtue.

Happily, another avenue is open to us: reform. The ideological capture of the Civil Rights Act is neither fixed nor inevitable. Rather than argue for its abolition, Americans concerned about the excesses of the DEI bureaucracy should appeal to higher principles and demand that our civil rights law conform to the standard of colorblind equality. The answer to left-wing racialism is not right-wing racialism—it is the equal treatment of individuals under law, according to their talents and virtues, rather than their ancestry and anatomy. This policy does not require radical innovations. Embracing the philosophy of the American Founding—with its emphasis on natural rights and liberties—will suffice.

What would this new civil rights agenda look like in practice? First, reformers should outlaw affirmative action and racial preferences of any kind. Both policies are euphemisms for racial discrimination. The next president should rescind Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 Executive Order 11246, which established “affirmative action” and marked the initial deviation from the standard of colorblind equality. Congress should strengthen this principle by amending the language of the Civil Rights Act to make indisputably clear that the law will not permit state-sanctioned discrimination toward any racial group, whether in the minority or the majority.

Second, reformers must eliminate the “disparate impact” provisions in the Civil Rights Act of 1991 and overturn Griggs v. Duke Power Co., both of which have entrenched the doctrine that disparate group outcomes are de facto evidence of racial discrimination. This is a preposterous standard: a system of equal rights necessarily means unequal outcomes, as different groups have different preferences, talents, and capacities. Under a just system, the criterion for assessing biased treatment would not be disparate outcomes but specific, concrete discrimination, driven by animus. Much as libel law requires actual malice, anti-discrimination law should require proof that an individual or institution sought to discriminate. The change in standard would have an immediate effect, reducing the number of frivolous lawsuits and changing the incentives that have driven institutions toward racialist ideology as a defensive strategy.

Third, legislators should abolish the DEI bureaucracies in all American institutions, which openly discriminate against disfavored racial groups, impose ideological orthodoxies on American citizens, and restrict freedoms of speech and association. In addition, federal legislators should radically reduce the size of the federal departments of civil rights enforcement. Bureaucracies are designed to discover—or, if the supply is low, fabricate—whatever transgression they are tasked with eliminating. While a large civil rights enforcement apparatus may have been necessary to enforce non-discrimination law in the past, it is no longer necessary. Americans are a tolerant, cooperative people; a “night watchman” civil rights state and a competent courts system would be sufficient to resolve disputes and ensure compliance with the law.

The goal of these reforms is finally to realize a regime of full colorblind equality. The principle, first promised by the Declaration and supported today by a large majority of Americans, would mean that the state would treat all Americans equally, regardless of ancestry, and leave as much discretion as possible to individuals to determine their own futures, without the government imposing or requiring racial favoritism of any kind. Rather than pit ourselves against one another, we should aspire to a higher standard that subordinates racial faction to a broader national identity.

Americans do not have to accept the bigotries of the past or the present. In a vast and diverse country, colorblind equality is the only way forward.

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