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miley1442111 · 1 month

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hi, this is so random but can you do a story for bucky barnes from marvel? Like something angsty with him and reader being separated and she's a hydra agent but it's kind of just before infinity war. Like she was frozen too because she was a scientist and seen as a threat but also an asset and now she's like 'the new winter soldier' since he escaped hydra and she doesn't remember him, but then she does?

Thank you! 💓💓💓💓💓

thank you for submitting this, this inspired me to open up a marvel category!

I'll always find you, doll.- b.barnes

a/n: this is a fem reader but as per usual, imagine what you like :)

summary: your mission to get a hard drive from the avengers compound can only go well, right?

pairing: buckybarnes x reader

warnings: general marvel topics, mind control, fighting, hospitals, reader being seen as 'dangerous', general angst.

Everything was so loud. The gunshots, the punches being thrown at you and the ones you were throwing back. You were fighting a teenager in a spider-suit. Somewhere in the back of your head, you knew that was wrong, but you couldn’t even access the memory of your name. Only your orders remained. Get the hard drive.

You had fought your way through Agent Romanoff, Spider-boy, Agent Rhodes, Bird-man, and Bug-man. Next up was Stark and Captain America. The others were either dead or unconscious.

“You don’t have to do this, let us help you,” the Captain spoke, his shield at the ready.

“And why would I do that?” You asked, taking your knife from the holster on your waist.

“Because we have Barnes,” Stark cut in.

“Who the hell is ‘Barnes’?” You spoke, then threw the knife. It hit the Captain before he could dodge and it lodged itself in his arm. He let out a groan of pain and pulled it out, ready to fight again. Stark relied on his suit and attempted blasting you, but you were too quick, jumping out of the way.

After a long back and forth between you and the two men, Stark got close enough to drug you, and everything went black.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------

You woke up in a hospital bed with no recollection on how you got there. You rattled against the chains that held your hands, screaming for anyone. After a few hours of yelling, you realised no one was coming, and your body let itself sleep again.

You woke up again, to someone outside your room.

“You have to let me see her!” A male voice.

“No way Barnes,” Stark sighed. “She’s too dangerous like this. You’ll either set her off or make her angry-”

“She knows me,” Barnes shot back, cutting Stark off.

“Oh, you mean the woman who flat out asked who the hell you were, that woman knows you?” Stark snarled. "we have bigger things to deal with, Thanos is coming!"

You stifled a groan at the throbbing pain in your muscles. You clearly had no medication, no IV, nothing.

“I'm well-aware of our current situation Tony. I'm also aware that some part of her knows me!” Barnes argued. “Just… let me see her, please. Even if she’s asleep. Please Tony, she’s my wife.”

Who the fuck was he talking about?

Reich, Händler, Kohle, Regel, Atmosphäre, Markieren, Strafverfolgung, Haltung, Überfall, allmählich.

Rich, dealer, coal, rule, atmosphere, mark, law enforcement, attitude, raid, gradually.

They played in your head like a pulsing mantra. You had never been one for speaking Russian, so you had German words. You hated the people that did this to you. The people that tortured you, the people that wiped your memories, the people that broke you.

“Bucky, you’re going to end up killing yourself over this, don’t bother with her.”

Bucky. Your Bucky.

Your Bucky was behind that door. Your husband. The man you loved so dearly before you were taken by Hydra.

“Buck?!” you shouted, clarity pushing the fog in your brain away. You broke through your chains, the strength of the serum making it easy. “Bucky!” You screamed again, trying to get the door open.

“Y/N?! Doll?!” He shouted back, opening the door. You launched yourself at him, wrapping your arms and legs around his torso in an all-consuming hug. “I thought you were dead,” he whispered into your neck as he hugged you.

“I thought you’d never find me,” you sobbed into his neck.

“I’ll always find you, doll,” he promised, holding you tighter. You pulled back a bit, tilting his head so you could kiss him. For the first time in 60 years, you kissed your husband. It felt good. His lips felt the same as they did on your wedding day. Yes, it was a quick wedding in a courthouse in 1942. Yes, most people thought that you were pregnant, or you were using him for army benefits. But none of it was true. You adored each other. You just couldn’t wait. You were so in love with each other.

“I love you,” you grinned against his lips, the kiss tasting of salty tears, though neither of you cared.

“I love you too.”

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qqueenofhades · 1 year

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I feel like people miss that THIS is what we mean when we say tax the rich. Robert Reich's breakdown here is just so effective. www(.)youtube(.)com/watch?v=-RS_BtLB3QE&ab_channel=RobertReich

Honestly, it still absolutely boggles my mind that "tax billionaires so they pay their fair share and don't continue to financially benefit at rates wildly out of proportion to 99.9% of the world" is a remotely controversial proposition to literally anyone except the billionaires themselves, who have selfish reasons to oppose it and have spent 40 years vigorously promoting Reaganomics in order to brainwash everyone else into buying it too. Because... yeah.

#anonymous #ask #politics for ts #iirc reich was secretary of labor under clinton and he usually has good takes

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moboxcritique · 1 year

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So witchcraft is besically a f***ing N**i. I didn't know that because i always thought witchcraft is witch dress up like human, so human can't found her. Thanks explame for that but i have one question, how the f**k knows about witchcraft. Are kids like 8 or 7 years old. I understand this besically bully kids trop where bully or rich kids make fun of being weird or something but kids? It's makes no sense.

(We're discussing this ask here and this text post here)

Well no, both of those are not what witchcraft is. Witchcraft is the practice of magic, especially black magic which can harm others. The practitioners are witches. The n*zis just researched and practiced witchcraft, that doesn't mean that all practitioners are n*zis of course, but the n*zis did do that to try and extend the reign of the Reich

(For those of you just coming into this topic, I would like to make it very clear that we're not talking about the wiccan religion! We're talking about a comic where the Salem Witch Trials is referenced!)

And exactly, that's what I was saying! Kids that age can't really understand the concept of things like that, plus they could get traumatized if that stuff was shown at such a young age in reality. Again, normally people don't learn about that stuff until high school

They literally could've just bullied her or something because she had powers, they didn't have to call her witch and all that!

#mod cagney #ask #anonymous #anon ask #anon #breath of hope comic #fnaf affinity au #tw n*zi mention #tw nazi mention

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anthonybialy · 6 months

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Old Lines About New Enemies

This inherently stupid and senseless life is back to normal, or at least to reacting about what’s abnormal. Americans realize how much they miss having a president who gets demonized for success. That opportunity is presently not presenting itself, what with shoplifting serving as the only profitable industry. At least stolen goods aren’t worth much.

While the popularity of the previous president blessedly fades, the style of opposing him remains. Opprobrium bordering on slander aimed at Joe Biden’s potential replacements emphasizes that imprecise Democrats would spew the same ghastly charges about every Republican other than Donald Trump. They’re struggling to convince us the former board game peddler was uniquely terrible.

You may have heard Hitler DeSatan can’t wait to turn America into the Fourth Reich by looking for lebensraum outside Florida, which surprises all the erstwhile New Yorkers who escaped to the beach. Classifying Ron DeSantis as worse than orphan cancer is as predictable as money becoming worthless when the strategy for getting rich is handing it out. Just like a schemingly bumbling presidential incumbent will continue attempting to make everyone as wealthy as him while evading toil just like he has, the biggest threat to doubling his reign will be classified as a troglodytic bigot.

It’s too bad DeSantis’s sworn enemies are too busy figuring how to stop him, as it keeps them from learning how to please voters. I suppose it’s nice to have distinct options even though one of them sucks.

Some colorful characterization may distract from a track record new and established Floridians sure seem to appreciate. Pretending America’s favorite governor is a book-torching 700 Club fascist who personally prevented slavery from being taught during DeSantis Youth meetings is one approach to decorum. His track record explains why so many Americans are fleeing from Florida, as long as “from” means “to”.

Democrats pretending they respected the last rival candidate resembles purporting gun bans stop criminals. Nostalgic Biden voters adore reminiscing about when they expressed amity for an opponent while searching for common ground with someone they recognized wanted what’s best for the nation even if it involved believing in a different approach. Then they admitted their policies cause inflation while deflating motivation.

The only way the incumbent president’s misguided devotees would ever turn on him is if he announced his affiliation with the other side as the thing confusing him that day. Seething contempt for anyone on the other side doesn’t require knowing what they believe. A party name affects their perception of the past as much as it does the present. The future doesn’t look great for them, either.

Being wrong about being right is the lone Democratic talent. It’s refreshing to not have to defend January 6 zealous dregs who were deluded by the preeminent conman. His entire image is based on winning, which took a bit of a hit when he lost to a loser. If there’s a test for avoiding partisanship, conservatives who mocked rude Capitol stampeders passed.

We would appreciate criticism from foes of a presidential pyramid scheme if the same acerbic tone weren’t applied indiscriminately to each option. As with legitimate enterprise, liberals eschew discernment in favor of presuming everything is a racket. But foes of troublesome liberty would utter the same nasty remarks about Tea Partiers. People who want less debt are racist monsters for noticing federal waste.

The last ostensible Republican president’s enemies should realize they’re siding against their beliefs. Awareness of how Democratic Trump was and is would be funnier if two sides weren’t debating who’s better at wasting seized funds. Rants about preserving entitlements offer a change of pace from demanding unquestioned fealty. Those aren’t precisely from Thomas Sowell’s columns.

A complete distortion of ideology is fitting in his way. Trump adulated power in place of principles, demanded absolute obedience to the officeholder instead of respect for the office, and issued a wholly unsubstantiated assurance that his guidance will ameliorate society’s ills. The precise opposite of conservatism won’t deter those whose knowledge of politics consists of looking for the party label.

Despising anyone who wants the government to obey the Constitution is how liberals maintain consistency. They waver when they extend loathing to many who don’t. Republicans who copy their foes still get treated like pond scum by them, which makes serving as Lite Democrats even more infuriating. Vitriol is a matter of affiliation.

Life’s easer when you’re indiscriminate. Have you tried it? It’s easy even for those who lack precision. Start with lumping together everyone from the other faction regardless of personality or beliefs. They would call it bigoted if the situation were reversed. Liberals oppose unfair stereotypes except when they’re applying them to those with the temerity to disagree.

We’ve moved past the point of Democrats having one. Reflexively sliming whoever they’re expected to loathe is their guiding principle. Talking points about the epitome of obnoxiousness who replaced limiting government with an executive branch based around cultish worship are applied so indiscriminately that you’d think they were their policies. Politics are all just a summer camp team competition, and they hate whoever’s on the opposite side of the tug-of-war even if they’re pulling.

#Republicans #conservatives #Donald Trump #Ron DeSantis

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straycatboogie · 1 year

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2023/05/05 English

BGM: Pet Shop Boys - Liberation

The temple Saikouji, where always helps me, had made a newspaper. TBH they had taken my writing as a piece of content of that. Today I worked late, and when, this morning, I went to AEON and started reading Kenichi Yoshida's "Past of Tokyo", a person talked to me. We had met each other at the English conversation class so we were a kind of friends. He had read that newspaper and had an interest in my activity. Seeing my reading a book and writing memo in English, he said "Ah, you are always studying, aren't you?". I answered "No. I just don't know another way of spending time". I felt certainly that this is a countryside city's life. It is a narrow town so we learn each other soon. Through the newspaper, the network of this rural city's community connects us finely. In a way, it is a closed grouping. But I love this firm network. We talked a lot friendly.

People often get impressed by my activity and say that "you are always studying". But I never think I am doing so as I always write. In addition to, I never think I want to become someone through that "studying". I just do reading as a way of killing boring time, so I don't build something through this life. In short, I am just a kid. Although ordinary/normal people try to build their lives steadily with bringing children up and making their families, I can't have any interest in that kind of life so dive into vast sea of books with dreamy mind and spend my days without any responsibility. If I chose beautiful words, it could mean that I am full of curiosity of knowledge. Huge curiosity moves/controls me, and I get thirsty for unknown things. Oh, I am just a kid. Never being orthodox. I am living like a student or monk for various knowledge even though I am getting old enough. Why do I read such many books? How do I want to be?

But, as a conclusion through reading various literature by now, I think that this life is like a big white canvas. As the book I read today, "Past of Tokyo" says, I can draw freely in that white canvas (of course, unless hurting or disturbing someone's right). Life is basically free, aggressive, and dangerous. Reading "Past of Tokyo", I got impressed by the conversation between intelligent people in that novel. Kenichi Yoshida tries to express various ways of dynamism in that book. The characters talked about a lot of their imagination which go beyond the wall of their bias. That seems that they have great smartness which can't be jailed in a narrow island country of Japan. I sometimes try to put myself into some narrow jail of imagination or thoughts. That should be nonsense... I feel that it is the message of the author. People are basically free from everything. Or we can become more freely if we wish. I want to see that principle, not to be jailed by that "staying now and living here".

Today was my father's birthday (it is easy to remember because today is in Japan as "children's day"). I sent a celebration message on LINE to him. Ah, I have been suffered from our discord... since I started working at the current workplace (as I always write), he had not tried to understand my life. "Quit such a silly job!", and "I had children when I was young as you", he said these things to me. We even beaten physically and actually each other... but now, I send him messages as a bad son. Now we have good relationship. It can be a certain progress or growing up. Indeed, we had a hard time, but it will end someday. Listening to Steve Reich, I finished reading Kenichi Yoshida. After that (I was reading other books actually!), I started reading Mieko Kanai's long romance. That romance was quite interesting so I forgot passing time. I was just soaked into that splendid pleasure... what a rich time to go. This life is colored beautifully by various books to make a firm shape of it.

#diary #english #journal #tumblr diary #online diary

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theliterateape · 1 year

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An Open Letter About Ethics from Brett Kavanaugh

by Joe Janes

Hey, America!

It’s Supreme Court Justice and Catholic middle school girls basketball team coach Brett Kavanaugh. Go, Blessed Sacrament! Win one for old Coach K. And God. And for all the fetuses who hope to some day be able to grow up and play Christian basketball.

There’s been a lot of news dribbling out of the left lately about my good friend Clarence Thomas and his so-called ethics violations. First of all, let me say that Clarence is one of the best men I have ever worked side-by-side with. Or side-by-side-by-side if you consider his patriotic wife Ginny, which I do. They are the John and Yoko of the Supreme Court.

My colleague is being persecuted just because he happens to have a rich friend. Well, if that’s a crime, lock me up! I have lots of rich friends. People can’t help it if they are wealthy. Many of them are born that way. Should I judge them based on the size of their wallet? If I did that, all my friends would be poor and that’s no fun.

The liberal media has also had their panties in a bunch over Harlan Crow, Clarence’s billionaire buddy, being a history buff. I love history. If I fall asleep on the couch watching a History Channel documentary about the Third Reich, does that make me a Nazi lover? To be clear, that answer is nein. My hand was in my pants because that’s comfortable. There was nothing funny going on. It’s how I sleep.

Look, I’ve met Harlan. He’s a good guy. True American. I went with Clarence once to one of his weekend visits to Harlan’s Texas bunker. Yes, we flew down on Crow’s private jet, but you have to understand that’s just how billionaires are. It’s no different than if your aunt picked you up in her VW to take you to lunch. To us, it was nice to conveniently fly in comfort, but to Crow that was nothing but a little thing someone who likes you does. His private jet and luxury yacht are his versions of an aunt’s VW. We shouldn’t oppress him for being loaded. He’s just a regular guy. We had a fun weekend. We sat in his jacuzzi and drank PBR out of Hitler’s boot. We were just a couple of good old boys enjoying a beer naked and wet. If you hate that, you hate America. Simple as that.

Just because Harlan’s opinions often line up with Clarence’s judgements doesn’t mean he’s influencing the court. If just means Clarence knows how to pick like-minded rich friends. Like we all do. So, please stop these senseless attacks on us justices. We’re just trying to do our jobs while also trying to have a debt-free social life.

God Bless America!

Justice Brett “Coach K.” Kavanaugh

#comedy #satire #Clarence Thomas #Brett Kavanaugh #Harlan Crow

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reddancer1 · 1 year

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The Great Comeuppance?

What’s happening to Trump, Fox News, Putin and other public-be-damned scoundrels ROBERT REICH APR 3 Friends, Suddenly, it seems, people once considered invincible — beyond the law, untouchable, immune — are being held accountable for their actions. Last Thursday, Donald Trump became the first former president in American history to be indicted on criminal charges. Tomorrow he will be arraigned in a Manhattan criminal court —fingerprinted, photographed, perhaps even handcuffed. Last Friday, a Delaware Superior Court judge concluded that Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and other Fox hosts, along with their paymaster, Rupert Murdoch, had repeatedly made false claims about rigged voting machines in the 2020 election, and that Dominion Voting Systems’s $1.6 billion defamation suit should go to trial. Fox could now face the consequences of its vastly profitable lie machine. Three weeks ago, on March 17, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine. It was the first time the global court has issued a warrant against a leader of one of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council. It’s far too early to declare the age of impunity over, but this moment does feel different. Is it possible that power-crazed hubris, abject greed, and wild narcissism have finally reached their limit? That limit comes in other forms as well. Twitter is now worth just half the $44 billion Elon Musk paid for it. Election deniers got trampled last November. The charges against FTX’s Samuel Bankman-Fried keep mounting. Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes is heading to prison. For a while, it seemed as if all the guardrails were gone — that anyone rich and powerful enough and with sufficient disdain for the common good could get away with doing just about anything. It’s still largely that way. But at least some of the most conspicuously unconstrained scoundrels are for now being contained. This may be nothing more than a temporary lull in the giant 21st century storm of self-aggrandizement. The charges against Trump may well be dropped, feeding more outrage. Fox News and its dreadful hosts could prevail over Dominion. Putin will continue to pummel Ukraine, regardless. Elon Musk, wealthy fraudsters, billionaire bullies, and Republican election deniers may ultimately be successful. But I prefer to believe that the zeitgeist is beginning to shift. The wheels of justice are starting to turn. The silent majority (as Spiro Agnew called them, in a totally different context) is finally demanding and getting some accountability. Trump and the Trump wannabes — every rich and famous personage who has said “the public be damned” — is about to get a comeuppance. (Isn’t that a lovely old-fashioned word — comeuppance? It means a fate that is deserved. The word first appeared in Harper’s Magazine in 1859. It derives from the phrasal verb “come up” as in a case for judgment at a trial, or in the court of public opinion.)

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isaiahbie · 3 years

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Teaching Consent Is Not Enough

Teaching consent in a culture that views sex as a trivial, recreational activity, without a deeper understanding of the significance or sacredness of sex will only lead to more confusion and harm.

Sex and our Moral Intuitions

First, consider a thought experiment. Suppose you’re at the house of an acquaintance for the afternoon—let’s call him Jack. Jack is in a playful mood. He wants to have a water fight with you, but you don’t want to. But Jack pressures you, cajoles you, persists, and keeps asking. You make it clear that you’re not keen on the idea, and you keep saying no. Time passes, and it looks like Jack has dropped the issue. But then—splash! While you weren’t looking, Jack has hit you with a water-bomb, and is now standing there with a grin on his face, hoping you’ll retaliate. Looks like you’re having that water fight after all.

Did Jack do anything wrong by initiating the unwanted water fight? Perhaps. At the very least, what he did was annoying; at the worst, an inconvenience.

But supposing that what Jack did was wrong, how wrong was it? Was it seriously wrong? Would you be justified in claiming that Jack violated you, and that what he did was so bad that he deserves jail time for it? Probably not. The worst we could say is that Jack ruined your afternoon. What Jack did was a bit wrong. Maybe moderately wrong. But not seriously or grievously wrong. Why not?

Because it was just a water fight. Jack pressured you into a trivial recreational activity that you (and most people) normally don’t mind that much anyway. So the fact that he disregarded your wishes can’t be that big a deal.

Now, substitute “water fight” for “sex”, and we might begin to see why it seems unintelligible to so many young men today that sexual assault is a big deal. Young men have grown up in a culture that tells them that sex is a recreational activity with no deeper significance. Unsurprisingly, then, young men have come to internalize the idea that initiating unwanted sex is on par with initiating an unwanted water fight. It is just a bit of fun, and nothing that any reasonable person should get too upset about.

Two Rival Views of Sex

Let’s unpack this in a little more detail. For most of human history, sex was not viewed as a recreational activity. Until the sexual revolution, sex was viewed as a profound union of persons, suitable only for mutually loving, mutually committed relationships. Sexual activity was governed by rich courtship norms which embodied and reinforced the belief that sex is supposed to be a special, significant, or sacred act.

This is not an exclusively religious idea. The philosopher Anne Barnhill, for example, has argued that sex is like “body language.”¹ While most bodily actions (such as moving a table, or scratching an itch) are not expressive of anything, other bodily actions (waving, smiling, or hugging) send a message by default. Sex, Barnhill claims, is the same, and the ethical implication of this is that having sex with someone while attempting to separate it from love or commitment is an unfitting use of our bodies—a form of lying. It’s like giving someone a fake smile, or a “cold” hug, but much worse. Sex—an act that is so involved and intimate at a bodily level—should be reserved for a relationship that is as involved and intimate at every other level. Let’s call this paradigm I have just described, the “sacred” view of sex.

The more dominant philosophy about sex that we have inherited from the sexual revolution—stemming from the work of Sigmund Freud, Wilhelm Reich, and Alfred Kinsey—teaches us an opposite view: that sex has no inherent meaning. Having sex is like scratching an itch. Far from being a mode of body language, the outer display of which must be consonant with an inner message, sex is a trivial recreational activity. Sex is for the relieving of a bodily urge, and other people are the outlets. Accordingly, it does not matter what kind of relationship sex takes place within or who it is done with. The norms that govern sexual activity under this revolutionary paradigm are very thin: consent, apparently, is really the only norm that matters. Let’s call this paradigm the “recreational” view of sex.

Benatar’s Dilemma

Another philosopher, David Benatar, points to a tension within the “recreational view.” The phenomenon of sexual assault, he argues, presents us with a dilemma.² Assuming that sex is “sacred,” it makes sense to think of sexual assault as a heinous thing—not a minor or moderate wrong, but a most serious violation. If sex is supposed to mean something, if it is supposed to signify deep love, if it is meant to be a profound union of persons at all levels, then it really matters that people are able to consent or decline. If the act of letting another person into our most intimate sphere is supposed to be a precious experience to be carefully guarded, then it makes sense to see sexual assault—the wilful imposition on this intimate sphere—as an ugly distortion of what sex is meant to be.

If, on the other hand, sex is a mere recreational activity with no deeper significance, it becomes difficult to explain why coercing someone into sex is much worse than, say, coercing someone into a water fight. This perhaps explains the typically callous responses to sexual assault from young men who have internalized the recreational view: “What’s the big deal?” “It’s only sex!” “It was just a bit of fun.” “Can’t she take a joke?”

According to Benatar’s dilemma, our intuition that sexual assault is a serious violation implicitly assumes the “sacred” view of sex. We can believe that sexual assault is a particularly grievous wrong or we can believe that sex is a trivial recreational activity, but we cannot consistently believe both. And this, I submit, explains the trouble we’re currently having. If our condemnation of sexual assault is inconsistent with a broader cultural idea that we are tolerating, we should not be surprised that the message about sexual assault is not getting through.

If educators are serious about the flourishing of young people, and serious about addressing sexual assault, they will have to do far more than take a litigious, politically correct, “consent-based” approach to the sexual education of their students. They will need to re-inculcate in students a sense of the sacredness and profundity of sex and—dare I say it?—reintroduce students to the concepts of courtship and romance. Religious schools ought to be stepping up to this challenge with particular vigor, as their faith traditions contain some of the most beautiful articulations of the “sacred” view (the biblical description of the sexual union as two becoming “one flesh” comes to mind).

In any case, educators in all schools must be brave enough to go beyond preaching the anemic norm of consent alone. Because, as Benatar’s dilemma shows, if consent is the only sexual norm that matters, it eventually becomes hard to understand why it should matter very much.

A Possible Objection

No doubt, some will think of objections to the arguments I’ve put forward. Defenders of the recreational view might appeal to pregnancy risk to counter Benatar’s dilemma. Sex does not have to be viewed as “precious” in order to account for why sexual assault is a grievous wrong, they may argue—the fact that sexual assault victims can get pregnant is all the explanation you need.

But a little reflection should show us that this “pregnancy risk” explanation for the seriousness of sexual assault just won’t do. No one would view the rape of an infertile woman as a lesser violation than the rape of a fertile woman. Nor will it do to appeal to the fact that sexual assault is often violent or physically painful. Most women I know would rather have a leg broken than be raped, even if the rape involves less physical pain.

The real explanation for the seriousness of sexual assault is that it is an intrusion into an intimate personal sphere, the sharing of which is supposed to be a precious thing.

The Default of the Yes

If a sexually permissive culture dominated by the recreational view has desensitized young men to the seriousness of sexual assault, what has it done to young women? As many of the testimonies of sexual assault victims demonstrate,³ it has robbed them of the ability and confidence to say “no” to sex under duress, creating a culture in which the lines between consensual and non-consensual sex become blurry. Our culture’s embrace of the “recreational view” has deprived young women of the ability to say “no” mainly, perhaps, because it has deprived them of the rationale for saying “no.”

By draining sex of moral content and stripping it of the context of a loving relationship, the very idea of consent has become problematic. After all, theologian Angela Franks asks, if an act has no content, how do you know if you want it?⁴ “Without a sense of a true good in relationships,” she says, “we don’t know to what we should consent. We are left with an arbitrary act of the will.” As a result, women faced with potential sexual encounters today must contend with what Franks calls “the default of the yes.” While a woman may turn down any given opportunity for sex for idiosyncratic reasons, she can no longer invoke socially supported ways to say no.

In order to see why this is the case, let’s return to our analogies with other recreational activities. Suppose people frequently offer you the opportunity to play tennis, and suppose you frequently decline this offer from a wide variety of people. What does this say about you? It probably says that you just aren’t that into tennis. If you are into tennis, you’ll agree to playing it often, and it won’t really matter who you play it with. If, on the other hand, you say “no” to tennis a lot, you’re a bit “anti-tennis.”

Herein lies a problem for young women. For most young women are interested in sex, and don’t want to think of themselves as “anti-sex.” The sexualizing logic of the recreational view tells them that the extent to which they say “yes” to sex indicates the degree to which they are “pro-sex,” and the extent to which they say “no” to sex indicates the degree to which they are “anti-sex.” Not knowing quite what to do with this powerful, but false, dichotomy, young women end up caving in to persistent pressure for sexual activity. Young women give in, moreover, even as deeper instincts rightly warn them not to.

Final Thoughts

Over the last two decades, a great deal of work has been done on dire emotional effects of casual sex and hook-up culture on young women, in particular.⁵ We now know that the brain chemistry of females stubbornly resists the notion that sex means nothing (thank you, oxytocin).⁶ A culture-wide re-inculcation of the “sacred” view of sex might give young women the much-needed confidence-boost in those deeper instincts that speak in their best interests. According to the “sacred” view of sex, saying “no” to sex with a wide variety of people, far from being incompatible with an interest in sex, indicates a high reverence for it.

If our culture was to refamiliarize itself with this idea, it might bolster the resolve of young women. It would be even better, of course, if it obviated the need for such resolve in the first place. The uptake of “consent training” for students, without the inculcation of deeper principles, presents further dangers for young women. Absent a revival of the “sacred” view of sex, “consent education” may merely train young men to use women with a greater sense of impunity. This is unlikely to alleviate the true source of violation and regret felt by too many young women after having been sexually used.

Notes:

¹ Anne Barnhill (2013), “Bringing the Body Back to Sexual Ethics,” Hypatia 28 (1): 1-17. ² David Benatar (2002), “Two Views of Sexual Ethics: Promiscuity Pedophilia, and Rape,” Public Affairs Quarterly 16(3): 191-201. ³ Melinda Tankard Reist, “Why ‘consent’ doesn’t stand a chance against porn culture,” ABC Religion & Ethics, March 9, 2021. ⁴ Angela Franks, “Consent is Not Enough: Harvey Weinstein, Sex, and Human Flourishing,” The Public Discourse, November 26, 2017. ⁵ Mark Regnerus and Jeremy Uecker, Premarital Sex in America: How Young Americans Meet, Mate, and Think about Marrying, Oxford University Press, 2011. ⁶ Miriam Grossman, Unprotected: A Campus Psychiatrist Reveals How Political Correctness in Her Profession Endangers Every Student, Penguin Random House, 2007.

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schadenfreudich · 1 year

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I have done what feels like way too much research just for a minor mention of money, because I wanted to make sure it's not too much or too little, and really this is too much work for a short story. I don't even have to mention it, you wouldn't know which one it is most likely anyways.

But no, clearly that's important.

I looked up the currency in the Weimar Republic, decided to go with Reichsmark but specifically in the year 1924. Saw the Papiermark, which was before that and got exchange 1 trillion to 1. Which I kinda new, but also somewhat forgot, so it just fucking hit.

1 Reichsmark in 1924 was like 4,50 €, according to Wikipedia. I then looked up how much people earned and how much food costed, because apparently important, while I'm going to barely mention it.

Why do I keep doing that.

Also I do want you to know that Reich was a term used long before the second world war, WW2 is just the reason we don't use it anymore. But it will definitely happen that I use the word to describe many things before that. Because it's really just means kingdom or empire, or rich.

#i just really wanted to tell you about all the work i am putting in #for a very tiny part of a story #that i could just leave out #but also have a bit german history. because yea #i don't know. gonna find the main character a name now #-franz

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weirdestbooks · 2 years

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Secrecy and Deception Chapter 7

Rebuilding Europe

America's POV Event: Truman Doctrine Location: Joint Session of Congress, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America Date: March 12, 1947

I was tired. And I had to listen to a speech. Thankfully DC was with me, so if I fell asleep, she could tell me what I missed.

"The gravity of the situation which confronts the world today necessitates my appearance before a joint session of the Congress. The foreign policy and the national security of this country are involved." President Truman said to the Joint Session of Congress. I tried my best to pay attention, as I knew this speech was important.

"One aspect of the present situation, which I wish to present to you at this time for your consideration and decision, concerns Greece and Turkey. The United States has received from the Greek Government an urgent appeal for financial and economic assistance. Preliminary reports from the American Economic Mission now in Greece and reports from the American Ambassador in Greece corroborate the statement of the Greek Government that assistance is imperative if Greece is to survive as a free nation."

I knew that well. Greece has been speaking to me as often as he was able to, asking for assistance. He was very worried about his survival, and had every right to be. Civil Wars were a very nasty business, I knew that well. Greece said that the communists had a personification, which means that there is a very high chance that Greece could be killed and replaced by that personification.

"I do not believe that the American people and the Congress wish to turn a deaf ear to the appeal of the Greek Government. Greece is not a rich country. Lack of sufficient natural resources has always forced the Greek people to work hard to make both ends meet. Since 1940, this industrious and peace loving country has suffered invasion, four years of cruel enemy occupation, and bitter internal strife."

While no country has had much luck in terms of avoiding wars, with the Second World War, many countries had been affected very badly by them. Greece was just one example of a country still struggling because of that conflict. I am lucky, being on a different continent. It makes it easier for me to stay out of wars, and to recover from them.

"When forces of liberation entered Greece they found that the retreating Germans had destroyed virtually all the railways, roads, port facilities, communications, and merchant marine. More than a thousand villages had been burned. Eighty-five per cent of the children were tubercular. Livestock, poultry, and draft animals had almost disappeared. Inflation had wiped out practically all savings."

A fate for many of the countries occupied by Third Reich. Thankfully that bastard's gone, although I think I can speak for everyone when I say I wished he suffered more when he died.

"As a result of these tragic conditions, a militant minority, exploiting human want and misery, was able to create political chaos which, until now, has made economic recovery impossible."

And if Greece can't recover, it'll make Greece more susceptible to awful people who made big promises. That's what happened to Weimar. Even if Greece's problems were not the same, they were still similar enough that it concerned me. Greece is my friend, like Weimar was. I didn't want to lose another friend to circumstances that I could help prevent.

"Greece is today without funds to finance the importation of those goods which are essential to bare subsistence. Under these circumstances the people of Greece cannot make progress in solving their problems of reconstruction. Greece is in desperate need of financial and economic assistance to enable it to resume purchases of food, clothing, fuel and seeds. These are indispensable for the subsistence of its people and are obtainable only from abroad. Greece must have help to import the goods necessary to restore internal order and security, so essential for economic and political recovery."

I really hoped Congress agreed with this, especially since Soviet and Yugoslavia are probably working against Greece, and supporting the communist personification.

"The Greek Government has also asked for the assistance of experienced American administrators, economists and technicians to insure that the financial and other aid given to Greece shall be used effectively in creating a stable and self-sustaining economy and in improving its public administration."

Greece was very dedicated on getting help now so he didn't end up in the same state he was in now, it seems. At least that'll reassure my people that any aid we give Greece will be put to good use.

"The very existence of the Greek state is today threatened by the terrorist activities of several thousand armed men, led by Communists, who defy the government's authority at a number of points, particularly along the northern boundaries. A Commission appointed by the United Nations security Council is at present investigating disturbed conditions in northern Greece and alleged border violations along the frontier between Greece on the one hand and Albania, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia on the other."

Soviet and his lackeys were causing a lot of trouble, and I don't think this'll be the last time they do. I sighed.

I do wish that Soviet and I could have continued to have good relations, but that's looking more impossible with each day that goes by.

"Meanwhile, the Greek Government is unable to cope with the situation. The Greek army is small and poorly equipped. It needs supplies and equipment if it is to restore the authority of the government throughout Greek territory. Greece must have assistance if it is to become a self-supporting and self-respecting democracy. The United States must supply that assistance. We have already extended to Greece certain types of relief and economic aid but these are inadequate."

And Greece has made me very much aware of the fact that he thought it was inadequate. On the bright side I had gotten to laugh at the fact that Greece didn't know I knew his language, because he was making many amusing comments about my government.

"There is no other country to which democratic Greece can turn. No other nation is willing and able to provide the necessary support for a democratic Greek government. The British Government, which has been helping Greece, can give no further financial or economic aid after March 31. Great Britain finds itself under the necessity of reducing or liquidating its commitments in several parts of the world, including Greece."

Even Dad had financial issues. Who doesn't? Well, I don't, I benefited economically from this war, especially since I was just selling weapons when it started. That's why I'm one of the only countries who can provide economic aid to Greece. I'm one of the only countries who can afford it.

"We have considered how the United Nations might assist in this crisis. But the situation is an urgent one requiring immediate action and the United Nations and its related organizations are not in a position to extend help of the kind that is required. It is important to note that the Greek Government has asked for our aid in utilizing effectively the financial and other assistance we may give to Greece, and in improving its public administration. It is of the utmost importance that we supervise the use of any funds made available to Greece; in such a manner that each dollar spent will count toward making Greece self-supporting, and will help to build an economy in which a healthy democracy can flourish."

Trust me Truman. I thought, Greece will definitely be using any money and aid we give him well. He needs it, and I don't think he'll misuse this aid.

"No government is perfect. One of the chief virtues of a democracy, however, is that its defects are always visible and under democratic processes can be pointed out and corrected. The Government of Greece is not perfect. Nevertheless it represents eighty-five per cent of the members of the Greek Parliament who were chosen in an election last year. Foreign observers, including 692 Americans, considered this election to be a fair expression of the views of the Greek people."

Greece's government was a good one, albeit not perfect, but who had a perfect government? He had a government that allowed for the people to point out flaws. It would be awful if it was replaced with a communist government, a government like Soviet's that had absolutely no democracy.

"The Greek Government has been operating in an atmosphere of chaos and extremism. It has made mistakes. The extension of aid by this country does not mean that the United States condones everything that the Greek Government has done or will do. We have condemned in the past, and we condemn now, extremist measures of the right or the left. We have in the past advised tolerance, and we advise tolerance now."

But no one will practice it. Humans—and countries—like hating each other for the dumbest of reasons. There were reasonable reasons to hate each other, of course, but some of it was just so idiotic.

"Greece's neighbor, Turkey, also deserves our attention. The future of Turkey as an independent and economically sound state is clearly no less important to the freedom-loving peoples of the world than the future of Greece. The circumstances in which Turkey finds itself today are considerably different from those of Greece. Turkey has been spared the disasters that have beset Greece. And during the war, the United States and Great Britain furnished Turkey with material aid. Nevertheless, Turkey now needs our support."

Because Turkey needs money. Like most of Europe. The Second World War took a lot out of Europe, and the world as a whole.

"Since the war Turkey has sought financial assistance from Great Britain and the United States for the purpose of effecting that modernization necessary for the maintenance of its national integrity. That integrity is essential to the preservation of order in the Middle East. The British government has informed us that, owing to its own difficulties can no longer extend financial or economic aid to Turkey."

Because Dad is broke and can no longer help anyone economically. Which means it's my job to help them and provide the aid they need. That way the freedom-loving peoples of the world are safe, especially from people like Soviet.

"As in the case of Greece, if Turkey is to have the assistance it needs, the United States must supply it. We are the only country able to provide that help. I am fully aware of the broad implications involved if the United States extends assistance to Greece and Turkey, and I shall discuss these implications with you at this time."

Because providing aid means I'm tangled in their affairs. But I'm already tangled in world affairs because of the UN, and the Second World War. I don't think it's possible for me to go back into isolation, no matter how much I want to.

"One of the primary objectives of the foreign policy of the United States is the creation of conditions in which we and other nations will be able to work out a way of life free from coercion. This was a fundamental issue in the war with Germany and Japan. Our victory was won over countries which sought to impose their will, and their way of life, upon other nations."

Something that the Soviet Union seems like they want to do. They're a threat, and a fairly big one. Soviet's government has influence in Eastern and Central Europe, and who knows how much of its control it is forcing onto those countries. Especially in the Baltics. I need to get my government to make it official that we don't recognize the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states, and I need to see if I can see them. I push that thought aside. Now wasn't the time for thinking about the Baltics. That was for another time.

"To ensure the peaceful development of nations, free from coercion, the United States has taken a leading part in establishing the United Nations, The United Nations is designed to make possible lasting freedom and independence for all its members. We shall not realize our objectives, however, unless we are willing to help free peoples to maintain their free institutions and their national integrity against aggressive movements that seek to impose upon them totalitarian regimes. This is no more than a frank recognition that totalitarian regimes imposed on free peoples, by direct or indirect aggression, undermine the foundations of international peace and hence the security of the United States."

Third Reich, Japan, Facist Italy, all of them were totalitarian regimes that tried to destroy international peace. If we didn't try and stop those regimes from appearing again, we could have a Third World War. Or a Fourth World War. Protecting other democracies from non democracies was one of the best ways to stop those regimes.

"The peoples of a number of countries of the world have recently had totalitarian regimes forced upon them against their will. The Government of the United States has made frequent protests against coercion and intimidation, in violation of the Yalta agreement, in Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria. I must also state that in a number of other countries there have been similar developments."

The countries theSoviet Union was given influence over. The Soviet Union was a threat to democracy. He was a threat to freedom loving peoples. So making sure he wasn't given more influence was something that I had to do. It's why I need to provide aid to Turkey and Greece.

"At the present moment in world history nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways of life. The choice is too often not a free one. One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished by free institutions, representative government, free elections, guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression."

This way of life is something I hope all countries will one day be able to experience.

"The second way of life is based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio; fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms."

That's the kind of government Soviet had. And the kind of government that started the Second World War. It was a kind of government that shouldn't be allowed to exist.

"I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way. I believe that our help should be primarily through economic and financial aid which is essential to economic stability and orderly political processes."

It would be a lot of work, to support free peoples across the globe, but it would be a noble goal, and one that I would be happy to try and accomplish, no matter the workload it will bring.

'Just don't overextend yourself. It won't do anyone any good.'

"The world is not static, and the status quo is not sacred. But we cannot allow changes in the status quo in violation of the Charter of the United Nations by such methods as coercion, or by such subterfuges as political infiltration. In helping free and independent nations to maintain their freedom, the United States will be giving effect to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations."

Especially since the governments of certain nations seem to ignore those principles when it fulfills their own goals.

"It is necessary only to glance at a map to realize that the survival and integrity of the Greek nation are of grave importance in a much wider situation. If Greece should fall under the control of an armed minority, the effect upon its neighbor, Turkey, would be immediate and serious. Confusion and disorder might well spread throughout the entire Middle East. Moreover, the disappearance of Greece as an independent state would have a profound effect upon those countries in Europe whose peoples are struggling against great difficulties to maintain their freedoms and their independence while they repair the damages of war."

Because if Greece falls, and becomes another country under the influence of the Soviet government, then who knows what country will fall next? Which country will become the next communist state. And if it spreads across Europe, then the Soviet Union will be the master of Europe and its colonies. It's a slippery slope, and a dangerous game.

"It would be an unspeakable tragedy if these countries, which have struggled so long against overwhelming odds, should lose that victory for which they sacrificed so much. Collapse of free institutions and loss of independence would be disastrous not only for them but for the world. Discouragement and possibly failure would quickly be the lot of neighboring peoples striving to maintain their freedom and independence."

That's exactly what I'm worried about. If democracy falls...there will be horrible consequences for all nations.

"Should we fail to aid Greece and Turkey in this fateful hour, the effect will be far reaching to the West as well as to the East. We must take immediate and resolute action. I therefore ask the Congress to provide authority for assistance to Greece and Turkey in the amount of $400,000,000 for the period ending June 30, 1948. In requesting these funds, I have taken into consideration the maximum amount of relief assistance which would be furnished to Greece out of the $350,000,000 which I recently requested that the Congress authorize for the prevention of starvation and suffering in countries devastated by the war."

That's a large sum of money, but it's money that Greece needs. We aren't threatened by communism directly, not yet in any case. But Greece is. He needs that money.

"In addition to funds, I ask the Congress to authorize the detail of American civilian and military personnel to Greece and Turkey, at the request of those countries, to assist in the tasks of reconstruction, and for the purpose of supervising the use of such financial and material assistance as may be furnished. I recommend that authority also be provided for the instruction and training of selected Greek and Turkish personnel."

Because although I want to help them both, I'm not going to do everything for them. I give them the assistance, make sure they use it properly, help them use it in a way that benefits them the most, and make sure their people can continue doing that without me. A nation that relies completely on another nation is not a truly independent nation.

"Finally, I ask that the Congress provide authority which will permit the speediest and most effective use, in terms of needed commodities, supplies, and equipment, of such funds as may be authorized. If further funds, or further authority, should be needed for purposes indicated in this message, I shall not hesitate to bring the situation before the Congress. On this subject the Executive and Legislative branches of the Government must work together. This is a serious course upon which we embark."

The branches working together? Good luck with that.

"I would not recommend it except that the alternative is much more serious. The United States contributed $341,000,000,000 toward winning World War II. This is an investment in world freedom and world peace. The assistance that I am recommending for Greece and Turkey amounts to little more than 1 tenth of 1 per cent of this investment. It is only common sense that we should safeguard this investment and make sure that it was not in vain."

If the Second World War was in vain...oh I don't want to think about what it could mean for the world. It was time to be hopeful, to try and fix the world. Worrying about the possibility of it breaking wasn't going to help.

"The seeds of totalitarian regimes are nurtured by misery and want. They spread and grow in the evil soil of poverty and strife. They reach their full growth when the hope of a people for a better life has died. We must keep that hope alive. The free peoples of the world look to us for support in maintaining their freedoms."

We have to prevent strife and poverty in Europe. Oh that's going to be an absolute nightmare of a job.

"If we falter in our leadership, we may endanger the peace of the world -- and we shall surely endanger the welfare of our own nation. Great responsibilities have been placed upon us by the swift movement of events. I am confident that the Congress will face these responsibilities squarely." President Truman finished.

———————————

After waiting for the session of Congress to end, a period of time in which I might have fallen asleep, DC and I left the building, talking to each other about President Truman's speech.

"Well that was an interesting speech." DC said.

"President Truman makes a good point though. We need to support other nations, especially with Soviet's desire to gain control over more countries. Well, Soviet's government's desires. Hopefully if worse comes to worse he can actually be reasoned with." I said, before yawning. DC shot me a concerned look.

"You should get some sleep Dad. More than the sleep you got in Congress. You haven't been sleeping well ever since the war ended." She said.

"I know, I know, I'm working on it. It's just...the new stresses have made it harder, not to mention the old ones aren't going away. Speaking of old problems, has anyone heard from...from Confederacy?" I asked.

'You need to learn to say his name without all of your hesitations about it.'

I pushed the thought aside. I would eventually. Maybe. Great, now I'm concerned about Confederacy and I's relationship. Just what I needed.

"The ass says that Confederacy is hanging out in his state. He won't say the city though." DC answered. I sighed.

"Of course he wouldn't. Well as long as Confederacy isn't stirring up trouble, I'll let him be. Although we need to get him a babysitter." I said.

"Why?"

"Just in case."

"You don't trust him?" I snorted.

"Why would I? He tried to kill me. He took Penny's arm! I don't trust him."

"Then why haven't you killed him yet? He's not supposed to be alive. It would help fix all the problems you have surrounding him." DC pointed out. I froze, before sighing.

"I...I don't know." I said, rubbing my arm, before continuing quickly down the stairs. I heard DC sigh.

Regardless of what she thought, Confederacy was not the problem I wanted to deal with right now. I'll deal with him later.

'You always say that.'

Because I will. I will deal with him later.

#secrecy and deception by weird #countryhumans america #countryhumans #countryhumans kingdom of greece #countryhumans turkey #statehumans #statehumans dc

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introvertguide · 3 years

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The Sound of Music (1965); AFI #40

The next film that we reviewed from the AFI Top 100 was the most successful movie adaptation of a Hollywood play of all time, The Sound of Music (1965). The story was based on the 1949 memoir of Maria Von Trapp, who became a nanny for a retired naval officer and his children. They lived together in Austria and had to escape from the invading Nazi party right before the start of WW2. That story was turned into a musical by the dynamic duo of Rogers and Hammerstein and eventually translated to a Best Picture Oscar winner directed by the great Robert Wise. The film was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and won 5 of them. This truly is a phenomenal story with great music and I can't wait to get into the breakdown. Of course, I do need to mention...

SPOILER ALERT!!! IT IS NOT LIKELY THAT MANY PEOPLE DON'T HAVE AT LEAST AN IDEA OF THE PLOT OF THIS FILM, BUT I REALLY GO OVER THE DETAILS!!! MAKE SURE THAT YOU REALLY KNOW THE STORY AND HAVE SEEN THE MOVIE BEFORE GOING ANY FURTHER!!!

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The film opens on that iconic spinning shot of Maria (Julie Andrews) from a helicopter and establishes the beautiful hills of Austria. The whole movie is set on and around the city and hills of Salzburg, Austria. It is 1938, dangerously close to the rise of the the Third Reich and Nazi occupation, but Maria is not involved in such things at the time. She is young, enthusiastic, and completely lacking discipline. Turns out she is training to be a nun at the millennia-old Nonnberg Abbey and the Mother Abbess (Peggy Wood) is considering what to do with her. It is decided that Maria will leave the abbey for a time and work as a governess for one Captain von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) and his seven children.

On the day she arrives, Maria learns that the Captain cares for his children with strict military discipline and also that the kids have caused a lot of trouble for their previous governesses. It seems that their mother has died and their father is distant, so they act out to try and get attention. The kids put a frog in Maria's pocket and place a pine cone in her chair at dinner, but she instead thanks them for their warm welcome and they all cry out of guilt. That night, the eldest daughter Liesl (Charmian Carr) goes out and meets with a young suitor named Rolfe (Daniel Truhitte). They sing together in the rain and then she returns to the house via Maria's room. While there, a thunder storm begins and all the other children join out of fear. Maria sings with them about getting over their fears by imagining good things and the children begin to trust her. The next morning, the Captain leaves to go to Vienna giving Maria a chance to bond with the children even more.

While the Captain is away in Vienna, Maria decides she will teach the children to have fun and allow them to play. She tears down drapes and makes play clothes for the children, then takes them around Salzburg and the surrounding mountains. She teaches them how to sing, allows them to climb in trees, and piles them in a boat to go rowing. The Captain unexpectedly returns to the villa with rival love interest Baroness Elsa Schraeder (Eleanor Parker), a rich Viennese socialite and widow looking for a new husband, and mutual friend "Uncle" Max Detweiler (Richard Haydn). The Captain and his guests are greeted by Maria and the children returning from a boat ride on the lake that concludes when the boat overturns. Displeased by his children's clothes and Maria's impassioned appeal that he get closer to his children, the Captain orders Maria to return to the abbey. Just then, he hears singing coming from inside the house and is astonished to see his children singing for the Baroness. Filled with emotion, the Captain joins his children, singing for the first time in years. Afterwards, he apologizes to Maria and asks her to stay.

Impressed by the children's singing, Max proposes he enter them in the upcoming Salzburg Festival but the suggestion is immediately rejected by the Captain as he does not allow his children to sing in public. He does agree, however, to organize a grand party at the villa. The night of the party, while guests in formal attire waltz in the ballroom, Maria and the children look on from the garden terrace. When the Captain notices Maria teaching Kurt the traditional Ländler folk dance, he cuts in and partners Maria in a graceful performance, culminating in a close embrace. The children get together and sing a goodnight song to the party crowd and the impressed Max insists that Maria join the group for dinner. Confused about her feelings, Maria blushes and breaks away to change clothes. The Baroness, who noticed the Captain's attraction to Maria, hides her jealousy while convincing Maria that she must return to the abbey. Instead of joining the party, Maria leaves a note and runs back to the abbey.

Intermission

Back at the abbey, when Mother Abbess learns that Maria has stayed in seclusion to avoid her feelings for the Captain, she encourages Maria to return to the villa to look for her life. We get the very appropriate, but perhaps the most out-of-nowhere and cringy performance in the film, "Climb Every Mountain" sung by the Mother Abbess. It is convincing and Maria returns to the villa, only to learn about the Captain's engagement to the Baroness and agrees to stay until they find a replacement governess. The Captain's feelings for Maria, however, have not changed and he breaks off his engagement with the Baroness and proposes to Maria. The announcement of the first engagement, the return of Maria, the break-up, and the second engagement all happen in a single day in film and about 20 minutes of run time, so make sure to pay attention.

While they are on their honeymoon, Max enters the children in the Salzburg Festival against their father's wishes. When they learn that Austria has been annexed by the Third Reich in the Anschluss, the couple return to their home, where a telegram awaits informing the Captain that he must report to the German Naval base at Bremerhaven to accept a commission in the German Navy. Strongly opposed to the Nazis and the Anschluss, the Captain tells his family they must leave Austria immediately. That night, as the von Trapp family attempt to leave, they are stopped by a group of brown shirts waiting outside the villa. When questioned by Gauleiter Hans Zeller, the Captain maintains they are headed to the Salzburg Festival to perform. Zeller insists on escorting them to the festival, after which his men will accompany the Captain to Bremerhaven.

Later that night at the festival, during their final number, the von Trapp family slip away and seek shelter at the nearby abbey, where Mother Abbess hides them in the cemetery crypt. They are about to get cleanly away when the are discovered by the boy who was courting Liesl. Rolfe is sill a boy but is shouldering the responsibilities of a man. He lets the family get by because he can't bring himself to harm them, but he does call for backup. More brown shirts soon arrive and attempt to pursue, but they discover their cars will not start as two nuns have removed parts of the engines. The next morning, after driving to the Swiss border, the von Trapp family make their way on foot across the frontier into Switzerland to safety.

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I think the first thing to mention is the undeniably beautiful music. I absolutely love the music of this film and how each song starts off simple and just builds in complexity. The best songs either set the scene or progress the plot and are magnificently placed. From the opening song that sets the scene, to the discussion of how to deal with a woman that doesn't fit in, to the discussion of what to do when you are afraid, to putting your love and affection towards somebody who can't love you. The themes are incredibly deep when you consider the lyrics of the songs as foreshadowing the rest of the movie. The von Trapp family has to escape into the hills and they do it using their musical skills. When the family is trapped and has to keep quiet despite extreme fear for their lives, they are able to make it through because they have been taught to suppress their fear thinking of their favorite things. "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" has the young German boy talking about being a man because he is slightly older then the eldest von Trapp daughter, yet he is charged with finding the family and turning them over to the German military and he can't do it. The music serves a purpose and the movie would be far less palatable for it, despite the story being a truly fascinating real life drama.

The great actress Julie Andrews does such a good job as Maria. This was most definitely a perfect role for her and might be her greatest performance. It is between this role and the part she played in Mary Poppins the year earlier. In fact, Julie Andrews was much better known for her Broadway performances at the time of this film. Mary Poppins was the first feature film role for Julie Andrews and The Sound of Music was technically her third. She jumped on the Hollywood scene and was exceptionally lucky that musicals were popular and she was a beautiful young triple threat (acting, singing, and dancing). She is the perfect example of success being a mixture of preparation, luck, and opportunity.

One thing I forget about musicals from this time period is how quickly plot points (like falling in love and building relationships) happen. I don't mean in terms of run time, I mean in terms of time passing by in the story. Maria is sent to be with the von Trapp family and the children go from hating her to needing and trusting her in a single day. She goes from being a beloved nanny to running away to rejoin the nunnery in one evening. The captain goes from proposing to the Baroness to Maria returning to breaking off his engagement to asking Maria to marry him in a 48 hour period. The Captain and Maria return to Austria after their honeymoon and enter a singing competition to escape to Switzerland all on the same day. In terms of run time, that first day actually takes up the first hour of the film. That last night takes up the last half an hour. I doubled checked this just to make sure, but it is true: only 4 critical days are shown in the film. Maria leaves the convent and arrives at the von Trapp house. Time passes, The Captain returns to fire Maria but changes his mind and instead throws a party where Maria runs away. Time passes. Maria is convinced to return and arrives to find the Captain is engaged before he changes his mind to leave the Baroness and immediately proposes to Maria. We see them on their wedding day. Time passes. The Captain and Maria return and he is ordered to join the Navy, but he instead using the children's performance that night as cover to escape with his family. End of movie.

Despite the story being about a young family escaping the Nazis, this film has the lightest rating (G) of any best picture winner. Some films were not rated at the time that would now be considered a G rating and Oliver! in 1968 had a rating of GP (general public) that no longer exists. It seems like a movie that doesn't have at least a bit of a serious tone can't win a Best Picture and that comes with a heavier rating. It was funny that the Amazon Prime virtual copy that I saw most recently starts out with a screen that says rated G for violence, language, and adult situations.

There are some funny behind the scenes stories since there were many young children in the film. This means that many of them are still alive and can relive their memories with young fans. We are also lucky enough to have Dame Julie Andrews still working and sharing her experiences like a champ. She really is a treasure. The young girl who played the adorable Gretl von Trapp (Kym Karath) is only in her early 60s since she was only six in the film. it was actually her 4th picture, giving her more experience in film than Julie Andrews at the time. There were plenty of specials commemorating the 50th anniversary of the film back in 2015, so there are actually some really good interviews with the surviving cast that are relatively recent. I would highly suggest the 20/20 review of the film that can be found on YouTube:

NBC|ABC|20/20: The Untold Story of 'The Sound of Music - YouTube

There was some concern from the cast and the producers that a film version of a musical would not be financially viable. Other Rogers and Hammerstein musicals had been adapted to film and had not lived up to the success that was found on Broadway. Luckily, director Robert Wise used the natural lighting and countryside of Austria and Germany to slightly excuse the sudden singing of a musical that seems out of place in film. Also, he had recently directed West Side Story and knew how to best accomplish this. Then again, who wouldn't want to dance around and sing in those mountains? Wise did some things like lowering the tone of the song "Climb Every Mountain" and moving Maria through the countryside while she was singing "Confidence in Me." This helped reduce the cringe factor.

So does this film belong on the AFI top 100? Oh God yes. It is a great story adapted by the greatest American songwriting duo and directed by one of the great American directors who specialized in musicals. The list would be lacking if this film was not on it. Would I recommend it? Oh man, yes. Go watch it right now. Oh, you just saw it? Watch it again. It's that good.

#robert wise #julie andrews #the sound of music #musicals #introverts #introvert #60s #classic film #best picture #Oscar Winner #rogers and hammerstein

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jtem · 2 years

Text

I posted 518 times in 2021

403 posts created (78%)

115 posts reblogged (22%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 0.3 posts.

I added 1,096 tags in 2021

#iphone - 226 posts

#photography - 221 posts

#life blogging - 182 posts

#reblog - 94 posts

#blog - 93 posts

#text post - 70 posts

#txt post - 70 posts

#shopping - 59 posts

#boston - 45 posts

#daily inspirational quote - 36 posts

Longest Tag: 65 characters

#it exists to raise the self proclaimed nobles above everyone else

My Top Posts in 2021

Better Call Saul: Do NOT make Howard gay!!!!

Sure Howard is played kind of... sort of... well... gay.

“Is he gay or is he from Weston?”

See, there’s a, um, we’ll say “Upper class” suburb of Boston called Weston. To give you an idea of what kind of place it is, white people would often be pulled over by the police, told to get out of town. I know. It happened to me. For real. We were driving through Weston and the police pulled us over, the cop told us to leave the town. It happened to me. It’s not just a rumor I heard, I had a first-hand experience with it.

Snob-City: Weston Massachusetts.

“Snob.” Not just rich but snobs, “Upper Class.” In fact there were & are richer communities but few to none as “Upper Class.”

People who don’t want you to know that they’re rich would live next door, in Lincoln, but the people who want you to know that they’re better than you live in Weston.

Anyhow, the way that Chad or Hugh would carry themselves, coming from Weston, the way Theadore & Bradford acted & talked -- that country club, Ivy League, raised on cucumber sandwiches persona -- well. It’s gay. It’s *So* gay! But they’re not gay. They look gay, they sound gay and they even carry themselves very gay but they’re not gay. Or at least no more likely to be gay than someone who doesn’t have a stick up their ass.

“They’re not gay they’re from Weston.”

And THAT, ladies & gentlemen, THAT is Howard Hamlin.

Howard Hamlin: Born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Privileged. Overly educated. “Cultured.” A pretentious Weston type, that’s Howard Hamlin.

He's everything Kim Wexler always wished she had been!

Plus he’s a nice guy.

And who would any sane woman want to father her child, Slipping Jimmy or someone with wealth & culture? Does she pick the diplomat or the con man? The man with corporate CEOs for clients or the man with a serial killer client who comes knocking on their door at night?

So Jimmy & Kim part company. Jimmy & Kim are destined to split up. I say she pairs with Howard. That’s where she belongs. Howard is the man that a person like Kim deserves, and Howard deserves a super intelligent, competent & loyal partner like Kim.

THAT is my picture-perfect ending for Better Call Saul: Kim Hamlin. Or Wexler-Hamlin... Hamlin-Wexler...

35 notes • Posted 2021-05-14 20:34:20 GMT

Yeah I remember when Brandon Lee died after getting shot on set and all those people were arrested, tried, convicted & executed for murder. The actor who shot him, and you might try to Google his name so you can pretend that you remember it, and maybe not look quite so ridiculously hypocritical but, anyway, the actor who shot him tried to claim he was innocent but then prosecutors revealed that he had a bumper sticker supporting a Republican Senate candidate.

Oh. That was sarcasm. I feel that’s really necessary to point out, given the level of discourse emanating from Cancel Culture practicing reich wingers who pretend that they’re different than leftist as they fail to hide their animosity for anyone who doesn’t agree with their politics.

God bless. Me, that is. You all can go screw.

@worn-deplorable-warrior

@theindependentconservative

36 notes • Posted 2021-11-09 21:43:19 GMT

So am I the only one who got a ‘Ping’ off of Kyle Rittenhouse?

I’m talking GAYDAR.

And I GUARANTEE you that I don’t mean it as an insult, and it’s not a case where I find him humpy. If a guy is attracted to a guy, and thinks that he’s gay, there’s always a chance that it’s just wishful thinking -- seeing what they want to see. But like I said, I’m not thinking he’s hump material. And it also doesn’t mean that he’s gay. Someone can do something, or act or speak a way that’s associated with a gay stereotype and not be gay. But...

Does anyone else get a ‘Ping’ off the guy?

AND WOULDN’T IT BE COOL?

I mean, the entire center-right, the NRA crowd and even the MAGA folks all idolizing a LGBT teen? That would be awesome,.

“Making America Inclusive One Bullet at a Time.”

Know what? Take the win. If the kid turns out to be a homo that’s cool. If it just turns out that the right wing starts accepting men who aren’t exactly John Wayne? That’s cool too. Take the win.

63 notes • Posted 2021-11-14 00:22:17 GMT

I don’t like Alec Baldwin, or personal hygiene, so I’m going to harvest someone’s death to pretend that it makes Baldwin bad, and because it gives me tingles in places I only ever felt climbing the ropes in gym class.

JTEM, demonstrating his understanding of the right wing through the use of paraphrase

107 notes • Posted 2021-11-07 07:42:13 GMT

EXTREMELY scary thought

The Alec Baldwin accident may not have been an accident at all. It is a very real possibility that it was deliberate sabotage.

The attorneys for the productions armorer wouldn’t say that they thought it was sabotage, and wouldn’t name suspects. But they did go on “Today” and repeatedly raised exactly that, and cited disgruntled workers.

If it was politically motivated, because Baldwin is hated by the right wing, that would be terrorism.

Am I wrong?

A deliberate act was always a possibility. It’s actually the simplest explanation. That doesn’t mean it’s true, and as the attorneys they are trying to protect their client but we all know it is a possibility.

576 notes • Posted 2021-11-04 03:53:56 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #JTEM #Baldwin #kyle rittenhouse #News of the World #and stuff

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passionate-reply · 3 years

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This week on Great Albums: a Great Album that your average rock critic would actually agree with me about! Find out how Kate Bush got her groove back with her fifth LP, Hounds of Love, and whether she ever came down from that hill. Full transcript below the break!

Welcome to Passionate Reply, and welcome to Great Albums! Ever since I first conceived the idea of Great Albums, I’ve always intended it to reflect nothing other than my own personal “canon”--not necessarily a list of albums that were influential, successful, or acclaimed by anybody’s standards but my own. But in this installment, I’m making a somewhat uncharacteristic move, and diving into an album that really doesn’t need me to advocate for it: Hounds of Love, by Kate Bush, often considered Bush’s greatest masterpiece--if not one of the greatest albums of all time.

Released in 1985, Hounds of Love was Bush’s fifth studio LP. Her career had started off surprisingly strong in 1977, with the release of her debut single “Wuthering Heights,” written when Bush was only 19 years old. With a high-concept theme, based around the titular novel by Emily Brontë, it would set the template for much of Bush’s subsequent career: irreverently eccentric, high-concept art-pop with the intensely personal passion of a singular singer-songwriter. But just how much patience for that sort of thing does the general public have, beyond letting the occasional “Wuthering Heights” through as a sort of novelty hit? Bush’s subsequent work in the early 1980s met with inconsistent reception, with her fourth LP, 1982’s The Dreaming, marking a particularly low point. The first album that Bush produced all by herself, The Dreaming took even more radical creative liberties, pushing her sound into increasingly experimental territory.

Music: “Get Out Of My House”

Following the fairly cold reception of The Dreaming, Bush took several years to produce her next album, but it would prove to be the one that redeemed her career, and arguably turned her into a bigger star than ever before. Hounds of Love managed to stay true to the core principles of the Bush aesthetic: moody and introspective, full of rich and complex narratives, as well as musical risk-taking. But it honed and refined that sound into something that was also remarkably pop.

Music: “Running Up That Hill”

“Running Up That Hill” was one of the biggest hits of Bush’s career, and arguably dethroned even “Wuthering Heights” as her signature song. I think the secret to its success is its ability to balance Bush’s experimental impulses with an intuitive, deep-felt emotional quality that makes her best work resonant in an accessible way. On paper, “Running Up That Hill” is as high-concept as anything else in Bush’s catalogue--a song about making a deal with God to swap sexes with your lover, and feel what life is like in another body? But at the same time, the song has an ability to “work” even if you don’t know all of that. Who hasn’t longed for a way to bargain with supernatural forces, for a chance at the impossible? There’s a certain applicability to its themes, which I think is a chief reason why it’s inspired so many covers and reimaginings over the years. But even when one listens to the original, the stately washes of digital synthesiser and the powerful conviction that propels Bush’s vocals make it easy to sympathize with. It feels grounded and physical, rooted in the most carnal aspect of the human body. Positioned as the opening track of the album, “Running Up That Hill” feels like an obvious lead single--in the best way possible. But it’s worth noting that not everything on the album is quite so radio-friendly.

Music: “Cloudbusting”

Perhaps one of Bush’s most compelling narratives, “Cloudbusting” is also, ostensibly, fairly high-concept, portraying a heavily fictionalized episode from the life of Wilhelm Reich. A controversial figure both in life and legacy, Reich is best remembered for his work in psychology, heavily influenced by the spectre of Sigmund Freud. But “Cloudbusting” focuses on his later-life fascination with the physical sciences, and his belief that a mystical energy called “orgone” was responsible for both human emotional woes as well as disturbances in the Earth’s atmosphere. Reich attempted to develop a machine that could manipulate this energy, and hence achieve the longtime dream of technological weather control, but there’s no evidence his “cloudbuster” really worked, or that there’s any such thing as “orgone.” But Bush’s “Cloudbusting,” and its accompanying music video, portray Reich as a tragic hero, silenced by government authorities who sought to destroy what they couldn’t understand, conflating his work with cloudbusters with his censure by the FDA for his questionable medical devices.

The song was inspired chiefly by the memoirs of Wilhelm Reich’s son, Peter, with Bush explicitly portraying Peter’s naive childhood perspective on his father, and that does allow for some substantial nuance here...but at some point we have to ask ourselves what responsibility an artist has to the truth. “Cloudbusting” is the musical equivalent of a film that’s “based on a true story,” and I see no reason why music can’t be just as capable of spreading misinformation as the Oscar-bait biopics of Hollywood. Just how accurate, or how beautiful, does a work of art need to be, for us to allow a bit of playing loose with the facts for the sake of a great story?

Setting aside these quandaries presented by its subject matter, “Cloudbusting” undoubtedly delivers musically. Across its sprawling runtime, it develops and earns a sense of grandeur, building from its infectious percussion and cresting with Bush’s fragile, but assertive prayer: “I just know that something good is going to happen.” If you listen closely to the percussion tracks on the album, you’ll notice that there’s no cymbal or high-hat utilized anywhere, which helps give the album its particular hazy, meandering ambiance.

That effect is perhaps even more pronounced on the second side of the album. Hounds of Love is divided quite sharply into two sides. The first side, also sub-titled Hounds of Love, opens with “Running Up That Hill,” and finishes with “Cloudbusting,” which serves as something of a bridge between the two, combining a singable hook and a pop-like verse-chorus structure with a taste for more visionary narrative. While the first side is home to all four of the album’s singles, the second side, sub-titled The Ninth Wave, strays much further away from the standard expectations of pop.

Music: “Under Ice”

Going by the tracklisting, there are seven tracks that make up *The Ninth Wave,* though their smooth transitions and willful defiance of verse/chorus structure create a seamless oratorio or song cycle feel, not unlike many of the great “album sides” of the prog tradition. The Ninth Wave also departs from the feel of the first side in its instrumentation. While the Hounds of Love side has its fair share of exotic instruments, such as a balalaika on “Running Up That Hill” and a didgeridoo on “Cloudbusting,” The Ninth Wave is more richly baroque, with elements like that jarring violin on “Under Ice.” As it progresses, the breadth of timbres increases, climaxing in the Celtic-inspired “Jig of Life.”

Music: “Jig of Life”

The explosion of folkish, backward-looking sounds of “Jig of Life” and “Hello World,” with their fiddles, whistles, and full choir, represent its protagonist’s return to the realm of the living, after the trauma represented by earlier tracks like “Under Ice.” The abstract, though affecting, narrative presented by The Ninth Wave seems to be a tale of death and rebirth, with a narrator who drowns themselves, only to be reborn--whether literally revived from a failed suicide attempt, or metaphysically reincarnated after a passage through the realm of the dead.

Much more has been written about the themes of *The Ninth Wave* than I’m getting into here, but suffice it to say that many people consider it the relative highlight of the album. But I think it’s worth questioning that a little bit, and taking the time to look at Hounds of Love a bit more holistically. Just because the first side is a bit less overtly experimental doesn’t mean it doesn’t have just as much to offer, artistically, or that it isn’t a part of what makes this album truly great. At the end of the day, I think we can probably agree that far fewer people would have ever heard The Ninth Wave if it weren’t for those more accessible singles on side one, moving copies of the record and adding to Bush’s widespread acclaim. Without “Running Up That Hill,” Hounds of Love might have gone down in history as a fairly niche cult classic like The Dreaming, instead of the era-defining album that it got to become.

On the cover of Hounds of Love, we see an image of Bush reclining and embracing two dogs--who were, in fact, her own pets. The image’s saturation in purplish pink and Bush’s perhaps sultry expression combine to create an impression of traditional femininity, which resonates with the album’s themes of gender and sensuality. Framed in by large white borders, we might read the composition of the cover as evocative of a personal locket or memento, a sort of furtive glimpse into Bush’s more private or intimate essence, fitting for the introspective and emotional focus of much of the music. This “framing” is perhaps also evocative of the idea of the domestic sphere of life--and hence, again, of femininity.

While the title track of the album portrays the “hounds of love” as figures of menace, who are said to “chase” after its narrator, the submissive and comfortable-looking canines portrayed in the cover art seem like a foil to that idea. In the history of European art, dogs are often used as symbols of fidelity, particularly in the context of romance. Titian’s Venus of Urbino, painted in the 1530s, is often considered the progenitor of the Western “nude” as an archetype. Alongside the titular goddess, paragon of eroticism and the feminine, the painter has also included a lapdog, peacefully dozing beside her. It’s tempting to see the composition of the cover of Hounds of Love as doing something similar, invoking confident sensuality alongside a symbol of faithfulness to portray the essence of idealized love.

After the release of Hounds of Love, Bush would once again take several years to produce her next LP, 1989’s The Sensual World. More closely related to The Ninth Wave than the A-side of Hounds of Love, it was nonetheless another commercial and mainstream success for the artist.

Music: “The Sensual World”

From the mid-90s to the mid-00s, Bush took an extended hiatus from music, focusing instead on her family and her personal life. Despite uncertainty surrounding the future of her career, she would eventually return to the public spotlight in the 21st Century, and remains active, if somewhat intermittently, to the present day. At this point, it’s safe to say that Bush has a fairly enviable position, having lived long enough to become a cultural institution, and able to bask in the cult following her unmistakable and distinctive work has earned her. For as much as I’ve praised the more commercial side of Hounds of Love in this piece, I still believe in the power of the truly unfettered creative soul, and I’m still happy for Bush that she’s achieved that kind of freedom.

My favourite track from either side of Hounds of Love would have to be “The Big Sky.” In the context of the album, it stands out for its rousing, triumphant crescendo of energy--a marked difference from the languid, introspective sensibility that dominates most of the material. And it manages that without bringing the cymbals back, either! Thematically, its emphasis on weather and the sky prefigures that of “Cloudbusting,” perhaps providing a more hopeful and naive vision of what weather can do, which resists being “clouded” by political drama. That’s all I have for today--as always, thank you all for listening!

Music: “The Big Sky”

#music #great albums #kate bush #album review #album reviews #classic album #classic albums

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