#someone might want her but you want her in a deeper intellectual way. no crimes to forgive because she didnt commit any.

[luvring]

scrolling past every babygirl joke people make with a frown on my face

#💬nia.rambles #we as a society can do better than this #i think a lot of people can. struggle with What else to say #'babygirl coded charas“ specifically . talk about how easy it is to fluster them. how ur gonna annoy the shit out of them #call him a sopping wet kitten. say god hes such a dumbass im going to kiss him on the lips and serenade him #say missionary because his eyes pretty and his face handsome. say youre going to tuck his hair behind his ear #His x y z looks and cringe fail personality have captivated me. his big eyes and loser boy personality. #this is also for when ur trying to talk about female charas w/o saying girlboss/mother btw #just go god shes so fucking cool. no ones doing it like her #someone might want her but you want her in a deeper intellectual way. no crimes to forgive because she didnt commit any. #she could fix me could make me worse she could say whatever and i would heed her call like a devout follower to their god #go i need them so bad im dizzy. i could change their life #like u have the brain capacity and meme/reaction album to think of jokes outside of. 3 terms. i believe in u #& how did babygirl charas go from ironic Big (serious) muscular men to Feminine Featured(?) Easily Flustered 'Pathetic' Men. #like im sure both cases existed before but. what its turned into now....its majority the latter... Hrmm.... #< part of why i switched to saying my handsome beautiful prince etc etc. uve made me feel odd and upset.. #babygirl character just say pathetic guy . loser dude. shy and silly . errrrghhhh...

[liunaticfringe]

(via Lucy Liu's Independent Woman - Interview Magazine)

There have been many great sidekick pairings in the history of modern literature. Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, Phileas Fogg and Jean Passepartout, Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet…the list goes on. Yet, it seems there has never been a delightfully tumultuous relationship that comes close to echoing the one embodied by rogue detective Sherlock Holmes and his faithful friend and assistant Dr. John Watson. Written in the form of short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the opium-den loving Holmes would terrorize London with his intellectual, astute, and stubborn prowess, with Dr. Watson providing medical expertise and chronicling their entertaining exploits along the way.

Doyle’s works have now long been entered into the public domain, with many film and television adaptions cropping up every few years. Still, when CBS announced in 2012 that it would be turning Doyle’s works into an hour-long crime-drama series titled Elementary, it elicited an unusually high response—this was mostly due to the news that a woman would, in fact, be portraying Watson. Her name would be Joan, not John. And she’s now a fallen from grace surgeon-turned-sober companion and private detective, forfeiting her “Dr.” title in the process. The woman chosen to take on this exciting, contemporary role of Joan Watson was none other than seasoned actress Lucy Liu.

Liu, who’s best known for her roles as a fierce and ill-mannered lawyer in Ally McBeal, an ass-kicking “angel” in the rebooted Charlie’s Angels, and an equally ass-kicking bad girl in the Kill Bill series, certainly provides the yin to the yang of Jonny Lee Miller’s gritty portrayal of Holmes. Elementary chronicles the duo’s relationship as they consult for the NYPD on various criminal cases while living in a shared brownstone in Brooklyn Heights. Initially starting off in Season One as a substance-free friend to the fresh-out-of-rehab Holmes with a keen interest in solving crimes, Watson quickly transformed into a sharp and observant right-hand woman who now clearly has the aptitude to work on her own. And it appears she’ll be doing just that—the end of Season Two left viewers witnessing Watson’s decision to move out of the brownstone and start a new career as a solo private detective, seemingly fed-up with Holmes’ erratic behavior.

The warm and delightful Liu recently called up Interview from her home in New York City to discuss Elementary’s upcoming third season.

DEVON IVIE: Were you on set today?

LUCY LIU: I was running around like a maniac, yeah. It’s beautiful today, it started getting a little bit cooler again. But of course I’ve been bitten by the two mosquitos that are still alive in New York City.

IVIE: I know you were recently at New York Comic Con. How was it?

LIU: It was amazing. It’s such a spectator place. Not only do you get super fans, but you also get people who are curious and inventive and imaginative. It’s fun.

IVIE: Did you run into any cosplayers dressed as Joan Watson?

LIU: Oh, no, I don’t know about that. That’s funny! We did a panel with a huge audience so I couldn’t really see if anyone was wearing anything specific, but it’s an excuse for kids and adults to get dressed up and just be crazy. You know you’ve made it when you have super-fans out there.

IVIE: When you first read the scripts for Elementary, what was it that attracted you to the role of Joan?

LIU: I liked the fact that it was going to be about [Joan and Sherlock’s] relationship and their friendship, and bringing that into modern times. And I thought it was wonderful to change up the gender.

IVIE: Did you immerse yourself in Arthur Conan Doyle’s work as preparation at all?

LIU: I did, I did! I started reading the short stories. I never read them before so it was a really great excuse to read them. I can’t believe it was written so long ago, because it’s so current. The characters are so colorful, which is why I think there are so many incarnations of Watson and Holmes.

IVIE: Do you have a favorite story? I love “A Scandal in Bohemia.”

LIU: There were some pretty amazing stories. The one that stood out to me, which was a Watson story that I got to know him a little more through, was “The Hound of the Baskervilles.” He really is on his own in that. Of course it turns out that Holmes has been there all along, but it’s interesting looking into his interior.

IVIE: Yeah, the entirety of “The Hound of the Baskervilles” is narrated just by Watson. And his diary and letters, too.

LIU: Yeah, I think it’s really cool. We started incorporating that into the show, too, the letters and journals.

IVIE: Has this detective genre always appealed to you? Did you grow up watching or reading detective whodunits?

LIU: I remember more of the old school Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys sort of thing. I also grew up with the Scooby-Doo mysteries. Remember when the villain would go, “I would’ve gotten away with it if it weren’t for you rascal-y kids!” Those were the kind of the things I immersed myself in. I have to say that my mother has always been a huge fan of Columbo and Murder, She Wrote, so this show was her dream come true. I don’t think she totally understood what was going on with Ally McBeal. [laughs]

IVIE: I’ve enjoyed witnessing Joan’s evolution throughout the course of the show, starting off as a sober companion and eventually ending up as a trusty sidekick and confidant to Sherlock. What can we expect from Joan in Season Three?

LIU: When you see them in the third season, you see some friction between the two characters. Joan is now on her own, she has her own detective agency, has a boyfriend, and has been without Sherlock for eight months. She’s got her own apartment, she’s settled, and he shows back up. I think she’s a little bit hurt by what happened and how their relationship and partnership ended, which was basically his decision and his choice, and he left it all in one little note for her. I think she felt that their relationship was much deeper than that, and that he was dismissive in the way that he handled that.

IVIE: How would you define the relationship between Joan and Sherlock?

LIU: I think that it’s a really positive and good relationship, overall. They really have a good chemistry together, work really hard together, and understand each other. They acknowledge each other and respect each other, which is a really important way to have a friendship. And they can learn from each other, you know? She’s very curious about him and I think he sees that she’s a very smart person—that’s vital for him in having respect for someone, having them be intelligent and thinking for themselves.

IVIE: Do you see any of Joan in yourself?

LIU: I do to a certain degree. She’s a lot more measured and patient, for sure. She’s a very curious person, which I think I am, and I think she isn’t afraid of change. She was a doctor, and then became a sober companion, and then jumped off and became a detective. I think sometimes it’s good to make big leaps.

IVIE: You’ve probably been asked this question many times, but do you think a romance between Joan and Sherlock could ever fittingly happen?

LIU: It’s a question that’s often asked and I think it’s really up to the executives. Rob Doherty, the creator [of Elementary] really feels incredibly strongly about keeping their relationship platonic. He has already taken great strides to keep the relationship as clean as possible according to the literature, but he has also changed so much of it by changing the gender of Watson. To have them have a romantic involvement would turn the whole thing upside-down in a way that might really jump the line. [Doherty] felt really strongly about it and I think that’s the one thing he really wants to stay true to.

IVIE: I totally agree. Even on the BBC’s Sherlock, there are campaigns to get Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock and Martin Freeman’s Watson to become romantically involved. It’s like, enough already, no!

LIU: No way, that’s so weird! People do have that level of friendship oftentimes, but it doesn’t mean it’s physical. I think that everyone just assumes because there’s chemistry the next thing should be happening. I would vote “no” for a romance. I think for sure the creator would vote no on that, too.

IVIE: I’ve talked to both women and men who watch Elementary, and they all consistently mention how well dressed and fashionable Joan is. Do you collaborate with the wardrobe department on styling decisions at all?

LIU: That’s awesome. Yes, I collaborate with Rebecca [Hofherr], who’s the costume designer, who’s wonderful. She’s very easy to work with. One thing we try to maintain about Joan and her style is that she’s a bit wrinkled, you know what I mean? Sometimes it looks like things are really put together, but we always want to make sure things aren’t too tight and are comfortable, kind of like she throws things together. We don’t want it to seem so business-y, so we go away from suits. Chic, but not corporate. Also just to make her seem like her outfits aren’t so put-together all the time. But I’m glad that people really seem to like it, it’s a relief! We don’t splurge a lot on the show, we try to do cheaper things, like things Joan would wear a lot. She wears the same white jacket and shoes frequently.

IVIE: Will we be seeing more of the infamous Clyde the Turtle in the upcoming season?

LIU: Clyde will indeed be in it again. We have to share custody of Clyde.

IVIE: Is it true that Clyde is actually two tortoises? Pulling a Mary Kate and Ashley in Full House on us?

LIU: Yes. It’s just like having twins on a show. Just in case one is crying and screaming and passed out or something.

IVIE: You made your directorial debut for an episode of Elementary last season [“Paint It Black”]. Do you have plans to direct an episode again soon?

LIU: That was so exciting. I’ll be directing another episode again very shortly in December, so you’ll be seeing it in a month and a half.

IVIE: Where did your interest in directing come from?

LIU: I guess I was curious about it. Having been in this business for a while, you kind of see and get a glimpse of everything doing film and television. I think it seemed like a natural progression to go into directing, and I hope to explore more of it, because it’s very exciting and a really good way to collide all the things that you’ve known and experienced in the business and put them all into one.

IVIE: Is there an ideal guest star that you’d like to see on the show in the upcoming season?

LIU: I would love to see Mycroft come back. I really think there was a wonderful tension for Mycroft and Sherlock as well as the triangle that occurred when Joan became involved with him. There’s something very deep about that relationship, and I also think that Rhys Ifans is a fantastic actor. He commands the screen, but off-screen he’s incredibly lovely. A real treat to have on the show.

IVIE: I remember the first few episodes that I saw Rhys in, I was like, where have I seen this guy before? So I looked at his Wikipedia page and it became obvious: he was the crazy guy from Notting Hill!

LIU: Yes, the roommate! So good! Everything he does, he just kills it, no matter the role.

IVIE: And it’s always good to have some MI6 action on the show, which Mycroft provided. Some international flair.

LIU: [laughs] International flair, exactly, some added spice. Just throw some spy stuff in there to throw people off their game. You just don’t expect it, you know? It came out of nowhere.

IVIE: That whole three-episode arc at the end of the second season…

LIU: That was awesome. I was lucky enough to direct one of those episodes, which is more narrative in tone. It’s more fun in some ways, too.

IVIE: You’ve done a range of acting work for both television and film. Do you now find yourself preferring one to the other?

LIU: I love both of them equally. The lack of predictability with television is something that’s constantly changing what your perception of who you think your character is. Suddenly I have a father that’s schizophrenic, or I discovered something else, or I have a relationship with Mycroft. The things that pop up and change the game for you and always keep you on your toes. The wonderful thing about film is that you have something that has a beginning, middle, and end, and you have a concrete amount of time to shoot it. And the process of that can be longer, like editing and advertising and testing the movie, so it’s very different. Television you just continue going, no matter what’s happening outside of your world. You get lost in that vortex a little bit.

IVIE: It’s interesting that America is now embracing the “mini-series” format that has already been so heavily utilized overseas, where there are a set amount of short episodes, and that’s it. In a way, it’s kind of like a cinematic experience.

LIU: I like that, too. It allows you to have a freedom of creativity and at the same time you don’t feel like you have to be contracted to something for that long; you’re really working on a piece of art. And then you’re done and you move on, or it comes back, like Downton Abbey. You don’t know. Those things become little masterpieces. The thing about television is that you see a range of actors now that you may not have seen five years ago even, 10 years ago absolutely not, and I think now there’s no wrong about doing television. There’s no definitive category for what kind of department you fall into anymore.

IVIE: What’s a fun, secret fact about your costar Jonny Lee Miller?

LIU: A fun fact about Jonny Lee Miller is that he oftentimes does handstands on a wall before he does a take, sometimes with pushups, to get blood to his brain and get him geared up for a long monologue that he may have. He stays there, hangs a little bit, and then turns around and does the scene. Most of the time in the brownstone more than anywhere else. He’s in full costume and everything. That’s trivia!

IVIE: I wish I could do wall-handstands by myself.

LIU: Oh my god, I need someone to push my legs up and then hold me there. I’m a cheat!

ELEMENTARY PREMIERES THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30 ON CBS.

#Lucy Liu #Interview #2014 #comic con #jlm #mycroft #wardrobe #directing #third season #joanlock

[harostar]

How do you think of how AoT handles Anti Semitism, X Men fallacy aside. I've heard of how the reason the Eldians are so Hated was a result of reprehensible things there ancestors had done, and there religon with Ymir was sort of based on a Lie.

That would seem problematic at first glance, But I did want to learn more from someone who actually knew the series. Especially as I do know the situation in real life has complexities regarding Cycles of hate

You know, I had kind of set this Ask aside and been unsure about answering it. But I think I will give it a poke, as best as I can as someone that is one-degrees of separation from Jewish folks. So obvious disclaimer that I am approaching things from an outsider’s perspective.

The series stumbled heavily in choosing to so closely use allegories related to Nazi Germany and the Jewish people. I think a large percentage of the problem is because the Holocaust has become short-hand in public consciousness for Genocide and atrocities. Those images are scorched into the world-wide mind, and unfortunately touching on it as an allegory or using it as the basis for fictional discrimination is a very, very, very messy and difficult thing. ESPECIALLY when the creator(s) involved are not Jewish, and don’t understand the deeper aspects of Antisemitism that have been weaved into Western culture for centuries. 

Isayama borrowed from European history, used a historical atrocity to create a comparison in his work. He.......made many mistakes in doing so, because it’s a messy thing to do even when you ARE familiar with how much that hatred is woven into a lot of European imagery, stories, and beliefs. A Japanese audience is probably not going to pick up on those elements, the way a Western reader might for better or worse. 

I think that decision has muddled and tainted a lot of discussion around the series. Some people outright call it “Nazi Propaganda” and refuse to associate with people that read the series. I would argue that we are the audience have a lot of digest and discussion in terms of how the “Eldian Allegory” plays in comparison to the other themes of the work. 

Because the series would have worked MUCH BETTER had he not made the decision to base his fictional ethnic group on a real one. It was a mistake that casts doubt on a work that focuses so much on themes so opposed to a “Nazi” or “Fascist” ideology.

The atrocities of the Eldian Empire simply being exaggerations and demonizing, not matching a simple history of neighboring groups/nations fighting each other for resources and land. The idea of Ymir as a Goddess or a witch that made a deal with the Devil both being false versions of what was simply....a girl. An ordinary girl that stumbled across something Otherworldly, and gained a power that was exploited. 

The history of the series is simply about one group gaining an advantage over their neighbors. The Titans served as numerous metaphors throughout the series:

Dehumanization, especially in times of war

Gunpowder 

Chemical weapons

Nuclear weapons

The largest theme that emerges particularly in the final arcs of the story are explicitly Anti-War, Anti-Imperialism, Anti-Militarism, and Pro-Humanitarian.

Hatred and Bigotry are learned, they are things that people actively have to teach their children. The most powerful counter to Hatred is simply meeting other people. Our shared humanity proves that we are more similar than we are different. 

(This is beautifully illustrated in a flashback, in which the Survey Corps are infiltrating Marley. They end up meeting a group of foreign refugees, who welcome them into their camp for helping a child. Though the two groups do not speak the same language, they are able to understand each other enough to share in a communal meal and then party the night away. Even when we come from vastly different cultures and don’t speak the same language, we can find common ground. There is a simple joy in how people are people are people, no matter what differences we might have.)

In terms of the problematic elements, I would argue that Isayama did not intend anything Antisemitism about his work. In particular, he frames the allegorical Eldians as sympathetic with most of the cast coming from this group. The story centers on their plight and spends the most time in humanizing them. Ignorance rather than Malice. It taints the work, but also clashes with the major themes of the story. 

Indeed, our common humanity is such an important theme. Hatred and Revenge are empty, only leading to further tragedy. Eren represents those emotions and urges taken to the extreme, and that is ultimately why he becomes the Final Villain of the series. Because he allows hatred to consume him, and loses hope in the world. He can only see “Us vs Them”, and cannot see a path forward that does not involve Genocide. It’s a tragedy that warns us about letting anger consume us, and the dangers of surrendering ourselves to Violence being unavoidable. Eren can see the Future, and therefore he is trapped with the belief that there are no other paths forward. That he must follow in the footsteps of his future self, no matter what. 

It’s an ugly, tragic turn that transforms the series protagonist into a Monster. Into a world-ending monster that his loved ones must now deal with, because they have learned the lessons he did not.

The thing that separates the heroes in this story is Hope, but also a willingness to recognize the futility of revenge and hatred. As the final arcs progress, they are increasingly confronted with the option to look away from atrocities or to take revenge on people. Increasingly, they choose to take a different path.

The story of Sasha and Gabi is central in this particular theme. Sasha kills soldiers that Gabi knew, and attacked her home. But she cannot bring herself to shoot a child, even one that is clearly an enemy. Gabi is a child indoctrinated into Nationalistic, bigoted views. She kills Sasha as an enemy, but then finds her world turned on its head when she accidentally meets Sasha’s family. She’s forced to confront the reality that there are no Monsters and Devils, just ordinary people just like her that have suffered tragedies because of war. 

When given the opportunity for revenge, Sasha’s father refuses. He gives the “Forest” speech, comparing his daughter’s decision to become a soldier in war to letting her go alone into the forest. He accepts her decision and the tragic outcome, but also HIS responsibility as an adult to not pass burdens of Hatred and Revenge on to the next generation. He will not punish Gabi for being a child caught up in war. 

And this becomes an important moment for Gabi and for everyone else. She is not FORGIVEN for her crime, but these people make the conscious choice to spare her. Mikasa shields her from harm, Jean regrets hurting her in anger, they all make the choice to treat Gabi as a CHILD and not a soldier. To recognize their responsibility in doing better than the adults responsible for them. They were Child Soldiers, but they make the choice that the next generation SHOULD NOT be soldiers. 

The series deals heavily in Trauma, especially the ways that War destroys people. The physical, mental, and emotional cost to people are heavily on display throughout the series. The cast have suffered emotional and mental injuries that will never heal, and they struggle with wanting a better world for the next generation.

Children are another big theme. We have the cast start out as children, becoming Child Soldiers, and eventually reaching Adulthood. As they become the adults, we have a new generation introduced in Gabi, Falco, Udo, Sofia, and Kaya. The series gets a little heavy-handed with how Children are the Future, and people have a responsibility to not burden them. To not force their sins upon the children, to not teach them hatred or revenge, to not use them as tools. 

Zeke’s storyline contrasts with Eren’s in that each brother has reached a different conclusion about the central problem. 

Zeke wants to snuff out their own future, preventing more Eldians from being born. Their lives are suffering, so the kindest thing that can be done is to kill them or prevent them from being born. Life is meaningless, because living means suffering. 

Eren takes his hatred to its most extreme, deciding that to protect his “In Group” (the Island of Paradis) that he will destroy everything else. He has taken Dehumanization and Us vs Them mentality to its greatest extreme. He sees no future where people can do better. He refuses to even let them try. He has no hope, he sees only ugliness in the world.

In contrast, we have what has become the alliance. The surviving members of the Survey Corps, the surviving members of the Warriors, and an assortment of people from other nations. A motley group of people of different backgrounds, races and political alliances that are all brought together by a singular belief that the world is worth saving. That it shouldn’t be a Zero Sum game.

That the world is very cruel, but also very beautiful.

Hatred, cruelty, selfishness, greed, militarism, nationalism, imperialism, racism, and bigotry have led the world towards possible destruction. The Rumbling as a metaphor for Nuclear War, humanity destroying itself because it cannot look for a path besides violence.

The pure Destructive urge that is Eren, contrasted against the other two parts of that Golden Trio. 

Mikasa, the girl that was saved by a single act of kindness. The strongest of all, but also so very kind. A girl that has seen the ugliness of the world, but also the goodness in it. 

Armin, the boy with a dream. The intellectual that once asked if it was necessary to abandon your humanity to win, but has realized that our shared humanity is more important. The one filled with hope, even in the darkest moments.

And of course into this, we have Falco Grice. The boy that embodies the central themes of the story: a child soldier that has seen the worst of humanity, and has decided the best way to fight is by being Kind. 

#aot #snk #discourse #antisemitism mention

[nightswithkookmin]

GOING ON A HIATUS

Thanks to everyone who's taken the time out to read my posts and has enjoyed it so far. It's really been fun and entertaining exchanging thoughts and having these much deeper ship discussions.

I thought this issue was gonna go away but I woke up this morning to more people messaging me about finding my last video analysis on several other platforms without appropriate credit.

But that's not disturbing. The disturbing part is the people sliding into people's DM'S on other platforms to get them to take down my video because they don't want people sharing my content on other platforms as they believe it would only make my blog popular.

For those worried about this whole credit business, thanks for showing this much concern for me? I really appreciate the love and concern if it's from a genuine place of concern. Thank you...

I think some of you already know this by now or might have figured it out, I am a law student, I am very much well aware what is and what isn't within my rights? Lol

I honestly didn't see this whole credit thingy as a big deal. It's not. Not to me. Lol. I repost people's photos without credit too all the time. Often, it's because I don't know who to credit and most time my lazy ass just forgets to. Lol. I think it's normal? It's inconsequential I mean.

The videos I use are usually often water marked by the appropriate owners so I don't go through the hustle of figuring this whole credit business out. If I should decide to come back here again I will check that habit of mine?

While this whole credit business is not a big deal to me, malicious slander and defamation to my character is and I don't take it lightly.

It has been brought to my attention that some Jikookers from Tumblr have since been sliding into people's DM's on other platforms asking them to take down my video and or remove the credit they give to my post.

They are telling people I am problematic, calling me the Taekook Lives of the Jikook community. That I have been spreading lies about Jikook, that the Jikook Tumblr community hates me or something like that and to further caricaturize me and make me appear more evil in order to get people to turn on me and hate me, they make up the most ridiculous lies about me claiming that I believe a notorious serial killer is innocent.

Now I have since deleted my YT account because I don't want my colleagues to find out I am into shipping too lol- shipping is a guilty pleasure of mine and I know how this fandom works unfortunately. I've been a silent part of it since 2014. I mean it's started already. The Doxing and shit.

The original post under which these replies are from couldn't save sadly as my account has been deleted but you can see from my notifications the general feel of what my interests outside shipping looks like.

I am interested in a myriad of topics, from literature, Aliens, writing, Harry Potter, history, activism, advocacy, philosophy, law, politics, NASA, and mystery and murder among other things.

My quora is mostly filled with notifications from my Book community and True crime community and often I do share my thoughts and answer questions with regards to the psychology of murderers, legal evidence, notorious villains in literature- well I guess now you know the kind of lawyer I want to be if and when I'm able to complete law school.

But what has my interest in these topics got to do with Jikook and shipping please?? How does this prove I hate Jikook and spread lies about them?

This Kookie Min Monsta person slipped into someone's DMS and asked the person who had put up my video analysis to take it down or discredit me because to her I am problematic. She is not the only one.

You want so bad to paint me black- no pun intended just to win an argument? You claim I am the evil malicious person here but I am not the one sliding into people's dms trying to take credit away from people for their hardwork, spreading hate and negative energy, making things up to manipulate people's perception of others and get them to hate and turn on them- and all because of A SHIP? Damn. This is pathetic.

Who died and made you the gatekeeper of the jikook shipping community? Honestly antics like these don't work on me try again.

I made a video commentary on my Booktube YT account- yes I am part of the book YouTube community as well sue me or better still slip into their inboxes and tell them I voted for Trump therefore I hate chipmunks.

The commentary I made on YT months ago was when I was in the highs of finding a new passion and it was on Ann Rule's book, The Stranger Besides Me- a true crime novel on Ted Bundy which I found so poorly written that at the end of the book it left with me wondering whether or not Ted Bundy was guilty at all!

The Author's writing style which deviates from most writing styles of True Crime novels I have read gave me trust issues as I stated in the video. It felt more as if she was writing a made up fictional novel than an actual True Crime novel but because she knew Ted Bundy in person she made it seem as if we just had to believe her account.

Then there was this whole thing about the police not being able to match the DNA samples taken from his rape victims, to his own Semen because his Semen was DNAless- in lay man's terms. I'll spare you the technicalities involved.

As I stated in that video, I do believe Ted Bundy was guilty but I do not have much faith in the Judicial system, or criminal procedures or even the Author of that book- a sentiment most people within the true crime community share as well. We just had differing views on whether the writer's style took away from the narrative and waters down on the extent of Bundy's guilt.

We had a Similar conversation about Chris Watt. If the community I was engaging in didn't have a problem with my commentary why do you? Please don't meddle in things you know nothing about. It's embarrassing.

The conversation about whether or not Ted Bundy is innocent is moot but a philosophical one. It has nothing to do with Ted Bundy's guilt but more so the criminal procedures involved in his case and the different accounts that exists surrounding his case.

He was electrocuted, he confessed to his crimes no damn person with brains would think or assume he is innocent and I never said anything of that nature drew any conclusions to that effect.

Besides, I moved on from Ted Bundy a long time ago. Now I am into the Serial Killer who writes death poems and signs it off with drawings of the size of his dick at his crime scenes- mind your own business please or don't and let's have an intellectual discourse about him? Lmho.

I am also into cat memes if you care to know and have a whole IG dedicated to cat memes. I believe human beings are the most dumbest species in all the galaxies and when the Aliens arrive I am snitching.

When my mind is at rest, I often wonder if Aliens have masculinity complex and if they do whether or not their masculinity is contingent on the size of their dicks or whether they have to engage in a battle to the death with an alien grizzly bear to determine who is the man.

I love BTS memes too- a little too much and often end up debating over the internet with random people over whether BTS memes are funnier than cat memes- I'm weird, true. But how does all of that make me a bad person?

It's crazy how these people can go on these other platforms to ask people to take down the credits to my posts as well as my posts itself but can't ask people who run to these other platforms with misinterpretations of my work to take those down.

Instead they come on here to call me out for people's interpretations of my work?? It doesn't work that way. You are the author of your own opinion and interpretation of other people's work. You don't call out the original author for someone's opinion of their work. If that were so I would be emailing Stephanie Meyer for Anna Todd and her After series. Get some education.

I have since blocked this person and others whose Tumblr I have been able to find thanks to all those that's helped me finding them on here.

My gf also tried reaching out to the persons who shared my post after we realised this was becoming an issue and had asked them to credit her or my blog- but honestly I don't care about that yet she won't give it a rest. Lol. My ride or die this one. Sigh.

However, we realized soon that this is not about 'stealing' credit- can't call someone out for not giving credit when I suck at that myself. Lol.

This is about people's malicious intentions and their attempts to silence me and take away my right to freedom of expression however way that they can. This is wrong and evil.

I honestly don't care for all these ship politics these people are engaged in. I've had enough intelligent conversations to know the distinction between arguments that flows from bruised egos and actual conversations around a subject matter.

This whole I am right, she is wrong politics... y'all get that the point of having an opinion is not to be right, right? We all cant have the same perspective and you can't call someone a liar for holding views that is different from yours. That is a bizarre mentality to have.

As I stated in my post, that content I made was a rebuttal to the Taekook theories running around on the internet alleging JK glared at Tae when he pulled on his shoulder because he was jealous Tae and Jin were having fun behind him. He wasn't. He was worried Tae was gonna expose him and JM holding hands behind Suga.

If you don't think they were holding hands then Taekookers were right and his reaction was because he was Jealous of Taejin I guess...

But thats your truth. That's not my truth. I don't believe Taekook is real. JK isn't jealous of Taejin he is not Twelve- but then again he was sneaking around behind Suga holding his boyfriend's hands so I guess he is twelve? Lol. Jikook!

Do you.

But please stop the evil malicious attacks and seek immediate help. There is such a thing as right and wrong and this is just plain wrong. Your Karma and chakra are in the negative nodes and you need to fix it. It is not funny anymore.

Thank you to everyone who has shown genuine concerns for me in the past few days and thank you so much for trying to stand up for me. There are good people on here and I have met and interacted with a lot of them and thank you so much for such a wonderful experience and insightful discussions.

I don't hate people because of our differences in thoughts, beliefs, opinions. There's always room for dissenting opinions in every sphere. At the very least, we can agree to disagree and shake on it. But You can't make up shit about people just to prove your opinion is right and their opinions and views which differ from yours are 'wrong.

I am not a victim though, and they are not bullies, psst. They are just vile pathetic human beings exposing the greens of their insides. What you do says more about who you are as a person and human being. And this is who they are.

Just be a nice decent human being. That's what this world needs. Fix whatever is broken inside of you and free your mind and spirit. Hate is never the answer.

I'm going to be away for a while because I have studies, work and other interests I want to pursue at the moment- it's just my AADD flaring up so if you see me henceforth raving about Nana at least you'd know why. Lol. She's wrecking my Jimin bias. Lmho.

Spread positivity, do the right thing, stand up for a good cause and keep supporting Jikook. Jikook is real.

Until we meet again.

Signed,

GOLDY

[lutrain2020]

Meet the Creator!

Introducing: Seeking7 or Seeking!

Commission:  I don't offer writing commissions at the moment, mostly because I'm not sure how to conduct or present myself in the market. If anyone would like to request a certain fic or short story from me, however, I'd be glad to work out details with them. :)

Social Media: A03: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seeking7 FFnet: https://www.fanfiction.net/u/13334645/

Tell us a little bit about you!

Hiya! I'm Seeking7, or Seeking. I was born in Alabama and raised in California to a pair of the most hardworking Egyptian immigrants you've ever met, and the mixture of Arabic and American influence over the course of my life has had a profound influence on the way I look at the world. My favorite subjects are biology and english, and I aspire to become either an EMT or military medic after I graduate. In regards to hobbies (aside from playing copious amounts of Zelda), I love studying American and Ancient Israelite history, and I hope to one day learn ancient Hebrew and Greek so I can read the original biblical manuscripts for myself!

Is there someone who inspires you and your writing?

While my own brain can usually come up with a certain scene or idea that would inspire me to put paper to pen, it's the people I have around me that encourage me to keep writing. The people on FFN and AO3 who comment and leave kudos on my work mean the world to me (shout out to JoSeBach on FFN and MyWritingisMeh on Ao3 for leaving comments/reviews on each chapter of my fic "Mephibosheth"). The LU fans who come to my livewrites on the discord are so ridiculously encouraging and always let me know that my writing can actually be interesting to some people -- a fact that never ceases to astound me. But most credit goes to my younger sister. Even when I don't show her a work because it might be a little bit extreme or intense for her age, she always lets me know that she's sure it's good regardless. Her unconditional, unreasonable support inspires me to be that kind of person to other fic writers!

What got you into writing?

Three books in particular encouraged me to take writing seriously. "Crime and Punishment" was the first in this process, showcasing just how intense, beautiful, and profound a book with actually very little plot can be. The entire book takes place more or less in the head of a man wracked to pieces by guilt, and Dostoevsky's decision to focus on internal instead of external conflict changed the way I looked at literature. "East of Eden" was next. It wasn't just the book's allegorical nature or the Cain and Abel motif that astounded me - Steinbeck's vivid descriptions of everything from the human mind to sunrise in Salinas has had a profound impact on my own writing. I still reference the first few pages when I write! (actually, if you look at my fic "The Most Sincere Kind of Lie," the opening paragraph is heavily inspired by the first page of East of Eden!) Finally, the biblical Book of Job changed the way I look at dialogue and interactions between flawed characters. The whole book is almost written like an ancient screenplay and deals with heavy questions like the meaning of pain and the meaning of meaninglessness without offering direct answers - which inspired me to try and include those questions in my own writing and handle them in a similar, vague, interperative way.

What's your favorite part of the writing process?

After outlining a fic, I usually start out by writing them like a screenplay with all dialogue tags and action notes written off to the side. When sarcastic banter,  silly, lighthearted interactions, or intense conversations with a deeper meaning behind them start to come together, I can't help but smile. That usually gives the the extra inspirational boost I need to go back and flesh everything out so it becomes a story! (if you struggle with writing dialogue, message me on the discord and I'll be glad to tell you everything I know and send you the multitude of resources I have on the subject)

What's your least favorite part of the writing process?

Vetting works for grammatical mistakes turns writing fics into homework! I can't stand posting something and later reading just to find out that I forgot to capitalize a character's name, or that a comma is missing, or that Ao3 or FFN messed up the page breaks and I have to go back in and fix it. I'm not a perfectionist most of the time, but when I come to writing, I absolutely am.

Whats your favorite type of scene to write?

Intense philosophical debates and serious heart-to-heart conversations are by far my favorite kind of scenes to write, and that's because they're my favorite kind of scenes to observe and read! I always leave them feeling like I've gained something intellectually and emotionally, and it's my constant hope and dream to be able to impart the same kind of introspective thoughtfulness on the reader.  

What's the hardest for you to write?

Allowing or even plotting for a character to go off the deep end is always such a hard thing to write. Not for them to die, necessarily, but for them to completely lose their morals, priorities, and relationships in search for something selfish or temporary. Writing them making the same mistakes over and over not because they're stupid but because they don't care about the consequences is always hard -- it's like killing off a character and replacing them with the darkest, nastiest version of themselves. Basically, writing the opposite of character development is the opposite of fun. :(

What's your favorite genre to write?

Whatever the hybrid child of angst and fluff is called, that's my baby. I find that a combination of the two can make for a really interesting experience and give me more space to explore different faucets of each character's personality. It's also the perfect breeding ground for some intense, sincere conversations.

What fandoms do you enjoy writing for?

I don't write for a lot of fandoms, just Linked Universe, Undertale, and occasionally LoZ stuff not tied directly to our nine precious boys.

What's the work you are most proud of?

I've only gotten into LU very recently, so at the time of writing this I don't have anything from the fandom that's ready to showcase. I do have some cool Undertale stuff though, at least in my opinion! If you're interested in that, there are two fics I've poured (and am currently pouring) my heart and soul into that I'm extremely proud of. The first one is 'The Reason,' which is just a quick oneshot focused on Grillby being an amazing, hardworking dad, (https://archiveofourown.org/works/24354130) and the second is Mephibosheth,' my multi-chapter pre-canon fic about the lives of Asriel and Chara. '(https://archiveofourown.org/works/23804797)

Is there a specific scene you are particularly proud of?

Going again off the works I referenced earlier, a particular scene in the ninth chapter of 'Mephibosheth' had me patting myself on the back. I can't tell you what it is, though, because it's a massive spoiler. ;)

Is there something you had to work through that forced you to grow as a writer?

At the beginning of my junior year of high school I submitted two works into a competition I was confident I would win. No, not just win, I was sure I would get first place nationally. The competition never had many submissions and I knew that the works I submitted were pretty darn good. As you can probably guess, I didn't win anything. No medal or mention, nothing. I was in shock for a good few days and considering giving up writing completely. Then I realized how stupid I was being for assuming I was entitled to an award, for writing something only for recognition, and for thinking that I should give up on something I love so much just because it didn't supply me with the endorphin rush I thought it would. I made it a goal to improve as much as humanly possible afterwards, and I'm happy to say that I think I'm making progress towards that!

Do you have any fics inspired by real life stories?

Every gremlin-like thing the boys do in my WIP LU fic "The Most Sincere Kind of Lie" (by the time this is up, it'll probably be on Ao3) is based off something I've seen my brother and sister do. They're the embodiment of utter chaos and the manifestation of the primal urge to destroy, so they're great inspiration for Link shenanigans. Also, almost all of the banter in 'Mephibosheth' has taken inspiration from one of three places; conversations I've had with my grandparents, conversations I've had with my siblings, or interviews I've watched online. Inspiration for thought-provoking dialogue has to come somewhere that's not my own brain - there aren't enough brain cells to bear the brunt of that creative burden!

Where do you post your finished works?

I post on FFN and Ao3, both under the alias Seeking7. What's that, you say? You want a link to my profile? Well, who am I to refuse?? (AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seeking7) (FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/u/13334645/)

#Meet The Creator #lutrain2020 #linkeduniverse #lu

[lavendulaconminatio]

Years ago I ran a blog on ace discourse: @asleepingwindow As a lesbian raised in the Catholic Church, where you can be gay just don’t act on it, I knew asexual activism had nothing to do with being gay. I know an asexual gay person is the church’s fucking wet dream. I always insisted I don’t care whether people identify that way but stop trying to say you suffer as I do as a lesbian. Stop fucking invading lgbt spaces too and making them unsafe for us! But that was a losing battle. I wonder how this time period will be seen 20-30 years from an lgbt history perspective.

Anyway, besides knowing asexual gay people are the kind of gay people straight people want, I also hated this idea that seemed to be gaining popularity about people being more oppressed simply because they weren’t seen as valid. Validity didn’t mean laws meant to protect their population, or having police see your body as human and worthy of life; they merely meant existing in popular media so people see them. There was never anything deeper than that to so called asexual oppression, which I will never think is a thing. I mean asexuality is a thing but people don’t actively hate you for not having sex, that’s a fact of fucking life. My people died by the thousands in the 80s, sometimes with only lesbians to give a shit, and some straight person says their totes oppressed because they don’t want to fuck? Yeah ok. Or if there was a basis in oppression, it was often just blatant sexism and homophobia. All men say you’re a prude for not having sex, this is nothing special, Jan.

Now years later after arguing my heart out, making a master post and closing up shop, I find myself with another side blog to combat an issue that I once again feel harms lesbians and women. Instead of being more concerned about the men that berate, beat, and kill trans women, activists are literally attacking women, especially lesbians, for not validating trans people. The level of vitriol leveled at a woman for talking about her vagina is so above and beyond any hatred for the men who have murdered trans women.

Then in some perveted irony, those same deaths are propped up as reasons to shut down women talking about sexism. Meanwhile, more women than anyone can count die every day because they are female. We don’t get the luxury of our deaths being marked a hate crime. Instead it’s domestic violence, or maybe FGM gone wrong amoung the countless other things that needlessly and horrifically kill women. And I haven’t even talked about rape.

I knew the ridiculous activism of the asexual movement would have lasting consequences but I honestly never thought the concept of validity would be taken and warped so far to try and pretend biological sex doesn’t exist and that women aren’t female just to make trans women feel better about their dysphoria. I feel immense compassion for anyone with dysphoria, I have it and struggled for a long time to figure out if I was trans or a butch lesbian. There is such an immense disconnect here about the importance of validity and what real oppression looks like. Especially when you refuse to even discuss detrans people for fear it will make you seem less valid. So their struggles don’t exist to make you feel better. Once again, all about erasing females to stroke the egos of males.

This is not the biggest issue on my plate, but it’s a recent small example of tangible consequences to prejudice. The other day I was trying to refill an opioid I have a legal prescription for but the pharmacist refused because they couldn’t find it. Despite having going through this before this woman refused to look where I suggested, and I suffered in pain for 3 days before my doctor’s office was able to tell them they had it for sure. I mean this isn’t about sexism and more about ableism (though women’s pain is often discounted more, black pain even more) In that moment, I didn’t want to be validated. I didn’t want the pharmacist to know who I am, my identity, my disabilities, I wanted her to stop judging pain patients as a whole and give me my fucking legal prescription. Every single legislation and guideline that limits opioid prescriptions are born of a prejudice against addicts and a indifference to people in pain. That pharmacist didn’t give a shit about my pain, to bother even looking, because the rules made her right and I was probably an addict anyway. That is a real tangible feeling of oppression, and like I said it’s nothing compared to other examples I just didn’t want to dig up anything more upsetting.

That is how I feel about oppression. Validity matters, representation matters, but it is not the nitty gritty of what oppression is. It’s screaming at the walls, throwing your phone, because someone with the power to judge and fuck up your life, did exactly that. And worse they feel righteous for what they did because to them you’re just a “insert slur here”. And that’s just a small nonviolent and nonlethal example.

Now unlike asexuality, I know to be trans is to be oppressed and to suffer. But you cannot lift yourself up by putting others down, you will be on a tower of dominos that can fall the moment some other group does it to you. I always said trans people obviously belonged with LGB groups because obviously bigots didn’t care if a couple was two gay men or a man and non-passing trans woman. To me it spoke to a shared history and understanding. But maybe I was wrong, maybe that doesn’t exist. I think at least the one major difference now that I can definitely see is it’s ridiculous to infer female privilege by calling us cis. One thing is for sure, LGB and trans history are not as simple as I had ignorantly assumed in the past.

I don’t want to dictate what trans life is like, I don’t want deny any adult the right to transition, I don’t have any interest in misgendering, I believe there is a difference between sex and gender. But by fucking god I will not let anyone trample on my rights, call me bitch, cunt, terf, cum dumpster, deny my oppression as a female, deny my suffering, deny my reality as a female, just so You can feel better about your body. I will not sacrifice my body at the alter of your perceptions of your body.

Society loves to say otherwise, but women don’t exist to make you feel better. We don’t exist to make men feel more like a man or for trans women to feel more like a woman. We exist for our fucking selves, leave us alone! I’m not sorry if it makes you feel less of a woman because you need to address the misogyny you have been socialized into as a male. You all reek of sexism and think being trans means you magically cannot be affected by male socialization. That is some first class Bullshit. I’m a poor disabled lesbian, and none of that erases the racial bias I was taught and raised in as a white person. I always need to be willing to confront that, and it’s no different with males. Trans or cis, all of you were raised to hate women. Own it so we can fucking get past it.

Furthermore, our society only does better when we foster discourse. Disagreeing can be enraging but it’s how you learn if your own beliefs are worth keeping or discarding. It’s how you grow. Only insecure bullies feel the need to demand loyalty, stamp out dissent, and mock their opponents than actually argue. Don’t give into this intellectual dishonesty that might be easy, feel good, gain you a moment of praise, but ultimately throws women’s liberation and equality under the bus and into a raging inferno. How dare you think your right to feel valid is more important than my right to live freely and without shame as a female.

I’m very much open to good faith discourse on this topic, but do not mistake me. I have suffered for being born with a vagina, and no male will ever get to shut me up. So the next time you want to say choke on a dick, choke on your own.

#misogyny #sexism #feminism #trans activism #radical feminism #gender critical

[lighthouseroleplay]

RHETT  MONTGOMERY

                          ( 23 ,  cis man , he/him )

♪♫ currently listening  ⧸⧸  do you love someone by grouplove

a trickle of sweat between shoulderblades, tousled hair, the sweetness of the first bite into an apple. a single sunflower alone in a field of grass, puppy-dog enthusiasm, unsent texts. ice on indigo bruises, ace bandages neatly rolled, excited ramblings bitten back. distant eyes, the taste of water when parched, the way crickets trill first thing in the morning. a loud, booming bass.

    •  jasper, through sheer luck, was in practically every class you had in high school. you were never close, but by virtue of group projects and a shared love of the local coffee shop as a study spot, you spent a lot of time together. you knew they always thought you were smart, a certainty you didn’t share, and when you didn’t graduate with the rest of your class, you knew they’d had questions, doing your best to dodge them on social media and in person. you knew their intentions were good, but some things you didn’t know if you wanted to share.

    •  emrys was an oddity, but perhaps the strange aspect of your friendship with her was that you had not always been her friend. you weren’t expecting to be homecoming king, weren’t expecting the chaos and attention that followed. suddenly you were holding hands on a float, smiling uncomfortably, spending more and more time with her. your friends assumed you were dating, why wouldn’t they? an athlete and a cheerleader, the homecoming king and queen, what could be more perfect than that, and it was so easy to let them believe it. for some reason, you trusted her, comfortable sharing tidbits of your life that went deeper than sports and smiles, and you could tell she felt the same. it was only ever a friendship for both of you, but both of you had your own reasons for letting others believe it was anything more. (in truth, it was the same reason. one thing you never discussed? who you were actually attracted to.)

also connected to auclair

taken by ryan  ⧸⧸  cody kearsley

Pressure. He’s cracked under it, overcome it, and thrived because of it. Living up to the standards of one of the most well-regarded families in Tenebrin Port (residents of Renfrew Heights, no less) took focus and dedication. With an accountant for a father and a professor for a mother, it was expected he would be an intellectual. If that wasn’t enough, back in his glory days his dad was shortlisted for the NFL until a shoulder injury put him out of commission. Naturally, Rhett was expected to follow in the man’s footsteps. He was a kindergartener at Roosevelt Elementary when he first learned how to throw and sustain a tackle. The pressure to finish what his father had started wasn’t unwarranted; Rhett had inherited his talent. Growing up, if he wasn’t studying, he’d be in the backyard doing drills, wind sprints, and perfecting his form. The weekends he spent fishing down at the Lookout were his only respite from the grueling hours of conditioning and schoolwork. But through it all, his dad was his best coach and his mom his biggest cheerleader. Their approval and support meant everything; he could always count on them to root for him in the stands.

With a Letterman jacket and good looks to boot, popularity came easy for him at Cecil Morgan. No one, not even Rhett, was surprised when he found himself crowned Homecoming king. Few things in Rhett’s mundane existence were surprising, aside from the fact he’d never had a girlfriend. Not a real one anyway. His best friend masquerading as one to cover his secret left unspoken didn’t count. It didn’t click why even she, the hottest cheerleader in school and most incredible girl in Tenebrin, couldn’t get him going. According to the movies, he was meant to actually enjoy slow dancing with his queen, not spend it eyeing one of his male teammates schmoozing by the punch table.

Rhett wasn’t in denial; his attraction towards men wasn’t a mystery to him. But the timing of coming to terms with his sexuality was far from ideal. Bigger things were at stake. When he was finally ready to rip off the bandaid and come out, he didn’t want to further burden his parents. Months after he’d gotten his crown and graduation was in sight, his father came under investigation for aiding in tax evasion. Most of their savings, including his college fund, went to paying off the press. His father worked for some high profile clients. The last thing they wanted was a scandal and the Montgomerys would rather struggle in silence than damage their reputation in Tenebrin. It seemed hiding behind a facade ran in his blood.

With his father out of work and his mother out on a research sabbatical, it became difficult to sustain their lifestyle. Rhett volunteered to pick up shifts as a barista at Has Bean, his favorite study spot. Bitter as he was that his parents had squandered the money meant to propel him out of town and into his future, he felt an obligation to provide for them. He became a caregiver and what little income he made from his wage and tips went towards putting food on the table. In the midst of legal battles and long hours at the cafe, his grades and attendance suffered. Not that he cared. None of it mattered. It was too late in the game to apply for scholarships. His parents didn’t have the money to send him to any of the prestigious places he’d been accepted – all of which would rescind those acceptances when they saw his final semester’s academic performance. It was pointless. And he made sure not to show up on his intended graduation date to avoid the embarrassment.

Rhett’s father was soon prosecuted for aiding and abetting a tax crime earning himself five years in federal prison. He spent the summer in a daze. Reality set in that his dad might not be the man he always knew him to be. How could he have spent his whole life admiring and respecting a criminal? Because that didn’t change who he was. So he had his secrets and lived behind a mask. So did Rhett. As the new school year approached, his mother begged him to save face with his classmates and maintain that all was well on the homefront. Part of his role in ensuring people stopped asking questions was to complete his second senior year without complaint. Classes were easy since he’d already sat through a year of the same material. Lucky for him, since he spent most of his days distracted eyeing the new enigmatic, exchange student. Perhaps, it’s true what they say. Everything happens for a reason. The butterfly effect. If his father hadn’t broken the law he wouldn’t have stayed at Cecil Morgan for another year. And if he hadn’t stayed at school for an extra year, he wouldn’t have found himself in the back corner of a party kissing the best thing to happen to him in this godforsaken town that seemed to take everything from him. Including Andy Clare.

His father, his hopes and dreams, the headstrong girl with more potential for success than them all. Tenebrin takes and takes and takes. And yet, Rhett was stuck. He got his own place, a studio on Leforge Avenue, and went full-time as a manager at Has Bean. Most of the others from that night had gotten out, avoiding the inevitable. But he knew nothing could ever assuage the endless guilt he felt. They were responsible. No one told Andy to jump into the water that night, but not one of them tried to save her. Not one of them tried to overcome their own fear. Searching for ways to remedy his facing mind in the evenings when he was home alone, Rhett took up painting. It was therapeutic to unjumble the images in his mind on a blank canvas. Strangely, he found his biggest inspiration the first time he ever visited the bench named in memoriam for Andy down at the Lookout.

His artwork had one common theme: water; what he feared more than anything else. The sound of a wave crashing against the shore had lost all of its former peacefulness. Now it only caused him to shutter. Don’t go into the water, he reminded himself. Easier said than done. Every night for the past few months he’s had the same vision of Andy screaming, thrashing beneath the waves, then rising above the water in a flash of light and echo of song beckoned him to the old lighthouse.

Between the dream, his father’s impending release in a few months, and the arrival of some familiar faces in town he’s on the verge of a visit with the ghosts of his past. Those are dangerous waters to navigate for someone who’s become a recluse and cut off the world in the midst of trauma. The pressure’s on. Will Rhett sink or will he swim?

#skel: all #montgomery #montgomery: skel #skel: taken

[tomasorban]

THE ZODIAC: LIBRA THE SCALES

Date of Rulership: 22nd September-23rd October; Polarity: Positive, male; Quality: Cardinal; Ruling planet: Venus; Element: Air; Body part: Back, kidneys, and ovaries; Colour: All shades of blue; Gemstone: Sapphire, jade; Metal: Copper or bronze.

Libra is probably the first sign in which we see a comprehensive exploration of the concept of duality and a conciliation of opposing forces like order and chaos, activity and passivity, truth and falsehood, equality and inequality, and so forth. The sign is primarily concerned with this conflicting relationship and interaction between opposites because it inherently understands that opposing forces in the universe facilitate the fruition of equilibrium. Sadly, this is one theme that more often than not eludes all other archetypes standing along the wheel of heaven. With Libra, we begin to acquire a much deeper understanding of the cosmos as an inhabited space of conscious and superconscious extensions and examine questions such as whether or not two things or people can co-habit the same space and partake in symbiosis. If so, can the two be synchronized in such a way as to foster the allusion that the two are actually one? Can two people or things of variant compositions and teleological hardware be made to step, skip, or even march to the same rhythm? According to Libra, such affiliations can be successfully developed and maintained otherwise the world would lapse into a lapsarian state of war and disarray. The psychological and social friction caused by the everlasting battle between thoughts of yes and no and the actions of give and take mediate compromised experiences from which more than a single person learns and grows. Hence, what we find with the Libran formative force is that it is always juggling with two or more conflicting viewpoints and attempting to harmonize them in such a way as to leave the minds from whence they originated mutually satisfied. When this process of unanimity works it has the power to transmute base matter to gold. Alternatively failure to make peace between them results in negative consequences like alienation, disenchantment, and self-destruction.  

“As ye make your bed, so shall ye sleep in it,” says Libra in a stern voice. “Many of the preceding inhabitants of the zodiac–Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, and Virgo–see me as being rather cold, distant and impersonal. I can come across that way, especially when my superego Osiris springs into action. Would you like to know what Osiris tells me every night as I’m drifting off to sleep? He says that everything that exists on the physical, mental, or spiritual planes is subject to the cosmic law of cause and effect. For every action there is a reaction, and for everything that is pushed there will be something pulled away. He also says that irrespective of class, gender, distinction, social rank or privilege, every individual in possession of a soul is born into this world with a dowry. If he or she utilizes this dowry to the best of his or her ability whilst remaining faithfully orientated towards justice and truth, life usually materializes as sympathetic and kind. If, though, egotistic gratification becomes the reason for one to commit social misconduct and misbehaviour, the universe will react by drawing the noose around his or her personal freedom and squeeze the life out of him or her, bit by bit.

On the whole, I think listening to these short lectures on moral and social codes has made me a much better entity. Furthermore, I’m much more apt and skilful at weeding out liars, swindlers, bullies and cowards than I used to be, and can easily detect any irruptions of emotion, cunning justifications and intellectual arguments generated to obstruct pathways to the truth. Don’t you dare think that I’m not a merciful power; there’s plenty of compassion and empathy in me. I can understand how someone’s personal circumstances might compel them to commit a crime against another or humanity as a whole, but that in no way diminishes my belief that violation of another’s rights or social transgression should be punished accordingly.

In any case, I’m a social animal and need to be around people, especially those that share similar interests and are composed of the same moral clay as myself. I feel that people should be treated respectfully at all times; courteous interactions and social etiquette are a must! I cope well with most things, vent occasionally, and can be exceptionally understanding and tolerant of others’ vices. I’m happy to say that unlike many of my co-stars on the zodiacal band, I do fight fairly and respectfully. I also see nothing wrong with looking after oneself. Much can be discerned about one’s personality and character from grooming and personal hygiene. Like attracts like; if I want to attract the beautiful to myself, I too must make an effort to look beautiful. I care what likeminded others think of me; more often than not, looking good steadfast earns their approval so I’m all for it!”

Libra is a sign that is intimately linked to cerebral processes which have governed the evolution of human consciousness and the historic induction of a civilized life based on social parameters, moral codes and conventions. Thus it would be more than appropriate to declare that Libra is a faithful advocate for the acknowledgment of interpersonal relationships between two committed people regardless of race or gender. There is something of the sacred and divine in the love that exists between two committed individuals, and in Libra’s eyes these partnerships should be acknowledged, endorsed and held in the highest honour by all citizens unified under the umbrella of culture. The inclination towards convention is not to say that Libra is narrow-minded, bigoted, or totalitarian in any way, shape, or form–far from it! Libra respects and recognizes all unions of matrimony regardless of the dynamic and nature of the partnership whilst at the same time expressing preference for monogamistic lifestyles. It is not opposed to polygamy, but does not wish to revel in it itself. Libra is a firm believer in the adage that “everyone is born equal” and does not believe in gender-specific roles, colours, or any other qualities quantified and standardized by Western culture in that way.

With respect to its personal life, the Libran psyche can go on forgiving the mistakes and wrongdoings of significant others until it begins to feel a sense of hopelessness. When this threshold is reached, Libra can become cold-hearted, detached and mercilessly unyielding. It should also be mentioned that Librans can be quite charming and seductive and often enjoy flirting more than the sexual encounter itself. They are brilliant schemers and diplomats and will never act on impulse. For a Libran, deliberation is more appealing than immediacy and long-term goals and effects are far more important than fleeting and momentary pleasures. Libra is a cardinal energy and cannot stay inert for too long without becoming restless. Nevertheless it needs intermittent breaks between prolonged periods of activity to diffuse tension and excess stress otherwise its mental health can become afflicted.

There are two symbols associated with the zodiacal sign of Libra. The first, a set of scales, is the only inert object to exemplify a zodiacal sign in the Western zodiac as well as the perfect exoteric expression of Libra’s rudimentary quality–balance. All ancient civilizations, from the Indians and Persians to the Hellenes and Babylonians stood united in attributing to the seventh sign concepts which enabled the universal derivation of order from primordial chaos. The Romans attributed special significance to this sign because the foundation stone of Rome and thus of Italian self-determination was laid on October 4th, a date which falls under the mediation of the Libran house. In ancient Egypt, Libra was inexplicably connected to the concept of maat, a word used to denote the providential state of order, truth, balance and justice and personified as an Egyptian goddess with an ostrich feather strapped to her headdress. In ancient Egyptian society it was widely held that maat had been inaugurated by the gods at the moment of creation and was supposed to be upheld by the pharaoh, the living incarnation of Horus, through temple construction and the enactment of ritual. A surviving body of ancient Egyptian literature coined Instructive or Wisdom Literature illuminates just how vital justice, ethical standards and social etiquette were to the lives of the ancient Egyptians but especially to their eschatological practices and beliefs. Maat played a pivotal role in day-to-day undertakings but it played an even bigger role in the psychostasia, the judgement that was thought to occur following the death of an individual and determined whether or not he or she would continue to exist in an alternate dimension known as the Amenti. According to instructional texts connected to the moral code, any expression of disorder, envy, deceit, rebellion against established authority, laziness, injustice, and ingratitude were crimes against maat and set the individual soul upon the road which led to punishment, an eternal state of non-existence.

The second symbol is an astrological shorthand for the zodiacal sign utilized by astrologers in the creation of astrological charts and looks like a yoke. Interestingly, the ancient Greeks called Libra “Zygos” which essentially means “yoke”. An even more striking parallel exists between this pictogram and the ancient Egyptian hieroglyph used to denote akhet, the horizon or place of the rising and setting sun. In ancient Egypt the just mentioned word was originally used as an ideogram for “horizon” and “mountain of light” until the Ptolemaic Period when Hellenistic culture introduced Chaldean astrology to Egypt and connected the latter with the seventh house of the zodiac. From that moment onwards the word akhet was also a synonym for Libra and was appropriate given that the appearance of the full moon in this sign signals a return of the solar orb to the vernal equinox that might be interpreted as a tipping of the scales in the opposite direction and a reinstatement of universal balance.

In retrospect, both astrological sign and shorthand recall positive elementary and cardinal traits belonging to Libra–tenderness, tranquillity, fondness, orderliness, and sophistication. Dispassion, impartiality, relaxation, and sporadic inertia are also indigenous to its psychic make-up, a notion consistent with a lull in agricultural movement during the transient period of its government. The sign thrives when polar opposites coexist in a state of harmony but any psychological or physiological affliction can throw the scales off balance and result in protean temperaments and wild mood swings. The propensity of this sign to discern both sides of an argument and equate, measure, and quantify all possible trajectories before rationalizing a final judgement marks it as the personal abode of diplomats, judges, governments, and law-makers.

#astrology #zodiac #astropsychology #psychology #consciousness #libra

[jesusfollowerstuff]

The Vision

World Communique. Feel free to share this with everyone.  Friday, April 16, 2021

The Vision

It was an open skyline. There was a thin layer of cloud hovering above the earth: clear sky below, clear sky above. I had a sense this was covering the whole earth. I don’t recall seeing a sky quite like that before. The thin cloud layer seemed uniform and purposeful. This was the vision.  

Then I waited..... for an interpretation. Every vision has one. When it came I was astounded by the weight of it. ‘God is angry!’  As clear in my spirit as an audible voice to my ears. That was the message.  ‘God is angry!’

Feeling like a spectator, I continued to wait.  Then it came.  The anger had to do with the covid/wuhan chaos. I prayed and waited for more details wanted to know specifically with whom was God angry and why, and what was I do do about it?  Everything has a reason and purpose. He showed it to me for a reason.

Part of the answer came rising slowly in my spirit, revealed like something coming out of a mist.

God is angry with the people responsible for covidphobia1,; with those who rejected truth and embraced fear and lies, with those who deliberately criminalized dissenting voices, with those who intimidated vulnerable people, with those who abused their power and authority, and with those who rejected repurposed treatments that could have saved thousands of lives and still could.

Waiting on God, I was feeling the weight of this for about a week and a half. It was uncomfortable to my spirit. I felt like a dark cloud was hovering over me.

Then one day as I was pondering it, again, rising up in my spirit like a mist came the word,  ‘Murder’. I saw the skyline again and sensed murder to be intimately connected with covidphobia. Intellectually I already knew that and had heard it said, but hearing it from the Spirit of God was huge.

I continued waiting, thinking about God being angry. What was he going to do? I was wanting some kind of confirmation about this heavy word, not having received anything quite of this magnitude before.  A week or so later I saw R.T. Kendall on Daystar TV. I almost couldn’t believe it when he answered the question, ‘Is America being judged?’ He replied, “It certainly is. We may not like it but God is angry. I don't have the vocabulary to tell you how angry God is........”  I got a check in my spirit, this was my confirmation.  Mr Kendall was talking specifically about America but I knew the vision was more than that.  “35:04 We're living in a day where people don't even believe in the wrath of God. I'm telling you now God is angry and you're getting just a taste of it, the judgment.  The judgment is because there is an angry God but he's a loving God and He's trying to get our attention and it's a wonderful thing.”

My journey of waiting continued when a week or so later I went to Grace Life Church website (the church in Alberta, Canada under ‘real’ lock-down, with two fences erected around it by police) and read their PUBLIC STATEMENT.  So enlightening, informative and true! Digging in deeper I read the part about “Directing Government to its Duty-Romans 13:1-4. Pastor James Coates declared in his sermon, “9:19 The government needs to be informed of its God-ordained purpose and if we the church don't inform them who will......32:16 The government is a God-ordained institution put in place to ensure law and order and to protect these God-given rights....41:00 ... it isn't the government's responsibility to protect us from a virus. What's their responsibility is to protect our God-given rights.”

After more prayerful consideration I concluded that God is angry at governments and authorities guilty of covidphobia. They are guilty of murder, and someone needs to tell them.  

As I was praying about how to convey this message, a word from Kenneth Copeland resonated with me, “When sin is full, judgment has to come.”2 I recalled a scripture verse talking about ‘cup of iniquity getting full’, and wondered how close to the top it now was. It must be close I reasoned. God is compassionate and when children and babies are harmed, that will enrage Him even more.  I’ve read three stories of pregnant women getting a ‘vaccine’ for covid. They miscarried within the week.

One story, whose photo I cannot get out of my mind, was of a nursing mother. She got a ‘vaccine’ on a Wednesday and continued breastfeeding her healthy baby. The next day he had red blotches all over his body (the photo I saw) and was not doing well. The baby continued to decline and was taken to emergency and diagnosed with thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura and elevated liver enzymes. He died Friday. My spirit was grieved for several days after learning this. I can’t even image what Creator is experiencing. His creation suffering and dying needlessly. This feels like abortion outside the womb.

This is an open message to all people responsible* for what I will call the catastrophe of covidphobia,

‘You are guilty of murder’ and by implication, lesser offences. You are charged before the courts of heaven.’

You have a window of time to repent. I don’t know how long that is but I wouldn't wait if I were you. I don’t know what form the judgment will take but it will be severe.

I just got a text reminding me that the WHO is being charged with crimes against humanity.  Might have already started.

Also, for those who reject this message and do not repent, I shake the dust off my feet at you.

*This includes but not limited to; governments of all levels, media, big pharma, hollywood churches/places of faith, law enforcement, medical personnel,.... fill in the rest.

Sources

1https://westernstandardonline.com/2021/04/carpay-dr-hinshaw-does-more-harm-than-good-to-public-health/

2 Believers Voice of Victory, 04/06/2021

https://www.daystar.tv/joni-table-talk/season:7/videos/we-ve-never-been-this-way-before-rt-kendall

https://youtu.be/nvz1lZ0cH04

,

We've Never Been This Way Before

| R.T. Kendall

https://youtu.be/Dh6nXD4Rtg0 , Grace Life Church, FULL SERMON-Directing Government to its Duty - Romans 13:1-4, (Feb 14, 2021)

https://gracelife.ca/  PUBLIC STATEMENT Grace Life Church

Genesis 15:16,  I Thessalonians 2:16, Revelation 14:9,10, Matthew 10:11-15

_______________________________________________________________

[jasonfry]

Author’s Notes: Imperial Justice, Pt. 2

WARNING: These notes will completely spoil Servants of the Empire: Imperial Justice. Haven’t read it? Stop and go here.

(Part 1 of Imperial Justice notes are here. Go here for notes for Edge of the Galaxy and here for Rebel in the Ranks.)

Part 2: Justice

In the second part of Imperial Justice, Zare discovers the consequences of continuing his quest to find Dhara, pushing him to a fateful decision. He’s made enemies of both Roddance and Oleg, and the net seems to be closing on him. It’s definitely closing on Merei -- and worst of all, our protagonists no longer have each other, as their relationship goes from strained to finished.

Maybe this is a good place to stop and talk about being cruel to fictional characters.

UH-OH, Y’ALL, HE’S DRAGGING OUT THE SOAPBOX.

About a million years ago, a small but vocal segment of Star Wars fandom lost its collective mind about (wait for it) Kevin J. Anderson’s decision to kill off General Madine in Darksaber. I read the back-and-forth in disbelief. General Madine? Really? The guy who was inserted into Return of the Jedi as insurance in case the Mon Calamari masks weren’t expressive enough? Beyond that, I couldn’t figure out what those angry fans wanted. A novel in which Madine accompanied Luke & Co. on picnics, everyone was nice to each other and nothing bad ever happened?

Unfortunately, that pretty much was what this segment of the fanbase wanted, for every character you’d expect them to care about and a bunch of others besides. (Once again: Madine? Really?) I’ve learned that every fandom has this faction, and every writer has to politely but pointedly ignore its members, because there’s no storytelling that way – no conflict, no suspense, no growth and ultimately no measurable audience.

As fans, few of us take things that far. (Thank goodness!) But even a moderate-sized draught of Protect My Favorites is bad for storytelling. A book will fail if readers don’t care enough about the characters. But a book will also fail if the author cares too much about the characters. That’s not your job. Your job is to manipulate them as required for the story --  to which the storyteller must be “eternally and unswervingly loyal,” in the words of the great Isak Dinesen. 

And sometimes that means your job is to be one cold-blooded motherfucker. Isak Dinesen probably wouldn’t have put it that way, but I bet she would have nodded.

I THINK HE’S CLIMBING OFF THAT THING. IT’S OK TO COME BACK.

Imperial Justice is indeed cruel to Zare and Merei, pushing them to breaking points beyond which they’re no longer the same people. But that cruelty is in service of the story and their breakup is an unhappy but logical outcome of their situation. They’re extremely capable, but they’ve navigated wrenchingly difficult times in part by being able to rely on each other for comfort and counsel. Once that’s taken from them, they struggle to adjust. Rather than helping each other through tough patches by talking, their inability to talk makes those tough patches worse. And once they can talk again, during Zare’s winter break, they discover it’s too late.

Zare returns to the Academy and is assigned, along with other cadets, to supporting Kallus’s crackdown on dissent – an exercise that Roddance hopes will force him into a mistake and his dismissal from Imperial service.

He’s paired with Oleg, his nemesis, and goes door to door asking Lothal citizens about their neighbors’ loyalties. The techniques are straight out of the fascist playbook, from breaking down social bonds by recruiting informants to using the letter of the law as a weapon. Same goes for the rhetoric that accompanies those techniques. It’s hard to disagree that evading even a minor law is wrong. It’s tough to argue that treason doesn’t, in fact, begin with disloyal thoughts. And it’s difficult to raise practical objections to rigorous law enforcement when you know you’ll be accused of being soft on crime. 

Whether you’re in a galaxy far far away or a divided county close to home, opposing such rhetoric demands you say “yes but” to seemingly straightforward propositions, something depressingly few people have the strength and/or intellectual honesty to do. It’s tempting to drop the “but” and not think about the bigger picture, with its gray areas and complications and imperfect answers. (Of course, as a member of the military, Zare has far less leeway than that.)

There is some pushback to Kallus’s orders and discussion of those gray areas, which I used to explore the key characters’ different points of view. As true believers, Oleg and Roddance don’t care about those gray areas. Chiron is painfully aware of them but trusts that someone with more authority will do the right thing. It’s Zare who sees what Chiron can’t – that the Empire’s abuses aren’t a bug but a feature.

Things get worse from there, with Zare and the other cadets ordered to take the children of fugitives into “protective custody.” That forces Zare to confront the question that breaks him: What isn’t he willing to do in order to find his sister? Is Dhara’s life worth bringing pain and misery to many other families? Zare eventually finds his limits and vows that he won’t obey an order he knows is wrong, even though he knows such an order is inevitable. This is the trap Roddance has set for him, and Zare escapes it only because Oleg stumbles into his own trap first.

Merei, meanwhile, grows increasingly desperate to escape her mother’s investigation and Laxo’s organization. She and Jix cook up a plan to use a pulse-mag to erase her records at Bakiska’s – an attempt that relies more on bluster than planning, and predictably fails. But Merei then improvises, faking her own kidnapping and engineering an Imperial raid she convinces herself will send Laxo to prison. Instead, it results in the crime boss’s death, leaving Merei to live with the consequences.

I’d sketched out a chillier endgame, in which Laxo’s death was what Merei intended. My editor Jen Heddle objected to that, and she was right. The sticking point wasn’t the audience but the character -- that was too ruthless for Merei at that point in the story. Having Laxo’s death be accidental, even if Merei should have realized the danger, was a better way of showing she was in deeper than even she realized, and raised the interesting question of how she’d react to a miscalculation that got people killed.

The lesson, as always: storytelling is a collaborative process, and editors are there to help you. Listen to them!

Notes on this section:

I enjoyed writing the scene of Merei, Rosey and Laxo’s thugs in the back of the speeder van. Girl’s got sand, as they put it in True Grit. Though I do feel kind of bad that I stuck Wookieepedia with a character whose name might be Gort and might be Vort and might be neither.

Laxo calling Merei “clever girl” is, of course, a nod to Jurassic Park – and one that foreshadows Laxo’s fate.

I liked the scene of Merei telling Zare how she waved to him when she passed the Academy, and being upset when she figures out he wasn’t there. If we think back to breakups, often we’ll remember a little thing that somehow became a big thing – and our queasy realization that the reaction was the tipoff that something was really wrong.

Holshef steps into Beck’s role as the conscience of Lothal, something that’s important in The Secret Academy. But note Holshef isn’t actually present in Imperial Justice beyond this brief flashback. I tried to thread a needle there: I needed to establish Holshef so he didn’t come out of nowhere in the next book, but I didn’t want to lose the focus on Merei. (I also didn’t have the word count to stretch out the way I’d need to.) So I wrote a brief scene to plant the seed and moved on.

Jix was an interesting character to play with. I saw his interest in Merei and her reaction to it as a way to ratchet up the emotional pressure on her. I also liked portraying a character who’s admirable but a little shy of “hero” status. Jix really is brave and wants to help Merei, but he’s just not cut out for this – as will become painfully clear in the next book. Merei, on the other hand, is figuring out that she’s capable of far more than she might have guessed.

I often say that writing for kids isn’t different than writing for adults, beyond the protagonists and manuscripts being shorter. It’s a good line, but only mostly true. One difference is what you show and what you don’t: we mulled showing Zare and Oleg rounding up children, but a) I didn’t have the word count and b) I thought that scene was too upsetting for a kids’ book. 

Still, I’m not sure I would have included that scene in a work of adult fiction, either. Zare’s reaction is the most important takeaway from it, along with learning that he tried to minimize the kids’ trauma. I was able to establish both those things with a bit of dialogue and a quick flashback. I find that’s often a useful way to approach a scene, particularly when you’re pressed for space: figure out the scene’s primary function in the story, look for a secondary function, and think about how to check those things off as quickly and efficiently as possible. 

The customs raid is where everything comes crashing down for Oleg – and we get the payoff from that seemingly stray detail about his uncles from Rebel in the Ranks. Oleg is done in by blind adherence to the letter of the law and guilt by association – an ironic comeuppance given his budding career as an eager young fascist. But we also see Zare smoothly take over the investigation when Oleg falters, and immediately capitalize on his rival’s stumble. Zare wouldn’t have raided the warehouse in the first place, and his decency compels him to speak up for Oleg – but that doesn’t stop him from eliminating an enemy. I don’t love recalling Imperial Justice, but I am proud of that scene: it advances the plot, characters and theme, and accomplishes all that in less than four pages. 

I needed readers to react to Laxo’s demise by thinking that on some level he had it coming. That’s why we see him callously betray Pinson, and order Merei to watch as Holshef is turned over to a bounty hunter, which will lead to the gentle poet’s detention and death. Laxo’s charming, but has neither honor nor morals – Merei knows that sooner or later, he’ll sell her out too. Still, I wanted things to be a little more nuanced than that. So we also see that Laxo genuinely likes Merei and is more exasperated and disappointed than angry about the debacle with the pulse-mag. 

Does the Inquisitor believe Zare has Force powers like his sister’s? Or is he merely using Zare to get to Ezra, Kanan and the other rebels? It’s not entirely clear in Servants of the Empire, and I liked the ambiguity. That said, I think the Inquisitor’s last line to Zare reveals a lot.

I had to do a few things in a hurry to get Zare “in place” for his cameo with Ezra from “Vision of Hope,” so we see him get his promotion and his new code clearance. The toughest part was arranging their meeting, since much of the book had shown Zare unable to speak freely with Merei. The obvious answer was to send a (very freshly repainted) Chopper. But how would Zare and the droid communicate? I fussed over various answers before going low-tech: a hidden note, complete with pen. Sometimes a plot solution is worse than the problem, so you just move on as quickly as you can.

Zare’s meeting with Ezra is followed by a brief scene in which Zare manhandles Oleg and essentially boots him out of the story. I liked that scene because it showed us a righteous and ruthless Zare. He’s changed since the beginning of Imperial Justice, but is that a good thing? Zare isn’t sure, and neither are we. (That last line sucks, though – it’s simultaneously purple and empty.) As for Oleg, I don’t know what became of him and ultimately it isn’t important. Oleg has no character arc – he’s a little jerk when he arrives and a little jerk when he departs. I can picture him as a brutal Capital City cop embittered by the theft of his chance at Imperial glory, or living out some similarly small and mean existence.

Epilogue

The epilogue is essentially a preview of The Secret Academy, setting up a few things that are important to that book. We find out that Zare hasn’t escaped but been maneuvered into greater danger by his enemies. Zare and Merei are moving on completely different tracks that may or may not converge. And Merei can’t resist more electronic snooping, suggesting that her getaway may not be so clean.

All of those elements would come into play in the series finale -- but that’s another set of notes. See you soon!

#author's notes #star wars #servants of the empire #storytelling #writing

[phoenixrp-blog1]

“I realized it's all my fault, but couldn't tell you. Yesterday, you'd forgiven me but it'll still be two days till I say I'm sorry.” - One Week by Barenaked Ladies

Basics

NAME: Fabian Ortega

AGE: 989

OCCUPATION: Lawyer for the Chambers & Ortega Law Firm

SPECIES: Pride Demon

BIRTHPLACE: Central America

CURRENT LOCATION IN CASTOR: Kaningfield

FACE CLAIM: Ryan Guzman

Biography

None of the people on the surface know exactly what Fabian’s original body had looked like. He always had different names, different vessels; there was no need to settle in his mind. His past is just as much of a secret as his original name. The only ones who know it are the Sin Demons older than himself. Even then, he’s never too happy with them saying it out loud. Though, with the vessel he has today, there is quite the attachment and he might actually keep this one and the name. For the first time in centuries, he’s found Pride in something that is attached to his existence.

As he was traveling America in order to delve into his Sin, he saw how Prideful the political aspect of the country was. It wasn’t just the politics that kept him there, no. It was far more than that. It was the entire aspect of what this country was built on. The Pride these people had for where they lived, the falsehood of the people overlooking the mistakes that had been made by the government, and the how flashy their Pride was...it appealed to him on such a deeper level than he could’ve thought. With this in mind, Fabian knew that he would take some part in this country and stick around for a bit.

The thing was, his happiness was short lived as he experienced a side of Pride he hadn’t in ages. In the 1970s, the gangs in Southern California were far different than the Mafia he was used to experiencing on the Eastern portion of the United States. It was more about terrorizing; complete chaos than it was about organized crime like the Mafia. No, it was much darker, but the Pride they felt was far different than anything he’d felt so far. He stuck around, having kept a watchful eye while making sure no one saw him. Though, what happened next wasn’t something he was entirely prepared for.

Seeing an explosion of guns between two rival gangs, bats being smashed over people’s heads, cars running over those trying to get away. It was madness. Though, with one of the gang members he was following, he saw something that had struck him to the core. The man looked a lot like his brother from his former life, something he knew was impossible. With watching the man die in front of him from bullet wounds, Fabian dragged the man into the alleyway he was hiding in and waited until the soul fell down to Hell. Slipping into the vessel and writhing in slight pain since the wounds were still fresh from the bullets, Fabian took off to search out this man’s true desires.

When learning the young man wanted to be lawyer and get out of the gang life, Fabian knew it was meant to be. Studying in several schools and taking on the name he is known by now, he’s made sure to get as many degrees in law from several countries as he could. Though, as he traveled around to learn said laws and government, he came across Castor which had been a far different place since he’d last been there. It actually had structure to it’s Province, let alone a law firm that he knew he had to be a part of. Upon meeting Drake Chambers, he knew his goal was to learn from the man. One would think it to be strange that a Pride Demon was learning from someone younger than himself, especially one that wasn’t a Demon himself. The thing was, it went beyond that. It was his own Pride that told him to go for it, to become one of, if not the best lawyers in all of Castor. Well, that was until the War broke out.

During the War, Fabian had fought hard but nearly lost his favorite vessel and had been humbled by his own mortality and could’ve been sent back down. But, no, he fought hard and pulled through in order to keep himself where he was. The thing is, the War fueled his pride more than one could think possible. When Castor won the War, though, he felt the highest amount he had ever felt in all of his time being a Demon. The world celebrating World War II had been a very close second. He knew, from that point on, he was not going to leave Castor and partnered up with Drake in order to give his skills as a lawyer to those who had given him such a feast.

Personality Traits

POSITIVE: Calm, Intelligent, Quick-Witted

NEGATIVE: Proud, Vain, Regretful

Connections

DORIAN: It’s no surprise that Fabian stood by and watched as Dorian got beat up by a Wrath Demon. He could smell the Pride coming off of the new Sin Demon and just couldn’t resist. The thing was, when he saw how broken he had become, Fabian couldn’t help but feel remorse. Instead of walking away after feeding, he introduced himself to Dorian and has offered the young Demon his guidance. He knows, in age, Dorian is much older than him, but he’s new to being a Sin Demon, and Fabian is too prideful to just let the man fall.

SINCLAIR: Every Sin Demon knows Sinclair in some way or another. For Fabian, he’d met the Lust Demon many years ago while the other was venturing into one of the countries that Fabian was studying in. Though, because of Sinclair’s obvious lust for learning, he had taught Sinclair what he knew about the laws that ruled the countries. They delve into deep, intellectual conversations, though knows Sinclair has tried to turn their conversations in a lustful direction. But, because Fabian is much more interested in Sinclair’s intelligence, he always steers it back to what they were originally talking about.

STEFAN: When Fabian came across Stefan during one of the Cirque’s landings in America, Fabian couldn’t help but become fascinated with Stefan’s skill and determination. It was no surprise what Sin he was, but he knew he could learn from this man. Though, because he was a performer, Fabian kept his curiosity at bay. Then, like a strange coincidence, the two Sin Demons crossed paths when the Cirque found permanent residence in Castor. Now, with Stefan close by, he’s seeking the man out to finally fill his curiosity.

BLAIR: Ghosts, to Fabian, are a symbol of pride in some ways. Either they are still on this plane of existence because of their own unfinished business or they’re too prideful to really go to the light. Without a doubt, though, this Pride Demon finds it more intriguing to know their pasts than to know more about their species. A ghost is a ghost to him, but each story is different with the same outcome. With Blair, he could sense the pride in her, wanting to get to know more about this Ghost that is, somehow, capturing his interest.

MISCHA: With the Captain and him being on decent terms, he’s more than likely the one coming into the station if a criminal is in need of a lawyer. He has no problem doing this, seeing as how the city pays him for such a civic duty. It also helps the reputation of C & O Law Firm, not to mention boosts his Pride. It doesn’t help that he can sense it from the Captain that she’s just so fucking prideful. He can’t help it, just as any Sin Demon can’t help but feast when they meet someone full of their Sin.

ADRIENE: Upon meeting Adriene on the strip, he knew there was something strong and mysterious about the woman. It wasn’t because she was a vampire or any of that. It was that pride she held whenever he saw her. The thing was, where was it coming from? Why did she feels so compelled to let it hang over her? He hasn’t asked her much besides the typical ice breakers, but he has invited her out for drinks. Each time she has said no which has stung a bit to his pride. Usually people went along with him, his own sin having some charm to it. He’ll get to have drinks with her one day, and he’d be damned if he didn’t keep trying. 

BRIANA: Talk about a Sprite with Pride! She’s the main reason he even goes into O-Positive since she feeds him all night long whenever she gets a compliment or a tip. It’s just too much to resist. He’s spoken with her, made sure to boost her pride to feed and then leaving a hefty tip in thanks for her company. Just like Mischa, he just can’t get enough of her. Though, as he has gotten to know her, he’s given her the number to his personal smartphone just in case she ever wants to talk to him outside of work.

This character is: OPEN || RESERVED || TAKEN

#all #open #open male #om #lawyer #c & o law firm #pride demon #demon #ryan guzman #ryan guzman fc #fabian ortega #kaningfield #mw #most wanted

[muggleriddle]

Second round barman pls! Headcanons for Feliks Ravenwood

Heheheh let’s go, now with the floppy haired doctor!

What does their bedroom look like?

It’s full of stuff. Like, aside from your usual bedroom stuff, many books and weird knicknacks (idk, the skull of an animal? or a human skull? bc why not). But like… many… books. Books pilled on the floor, on the bedside table, inside the wardrobe. Astronomy maps and world maps on the walls because he doesn’t like empty walls.

Do they have any daily rituals?

Make a cup of tea before going to bed every night. Checking his keys in his pocket every time he leaves the house (he checks at least 3 times). He tries to read a little before bed every night too.

Do they exercise, and if so, what do they do? How often?

He swims. And after Frank arrived, he sometimes tries to practice punching a sandbag -q

What would they do if they needed to make dinner but the kitchen was busy?

He’d sneak into the kitchen and steal something that he could prepare in his room. Idk, bread and cheese for a sandwich, biscuits, chocolate, etc. And then proceed to make a little picnic on his bed.

Cleanliness habits (personal, workspace, etc.)

Even though he’s not the most organized person in the world, he’s cares a lot about cleanliness, thank you very much. He’s a doctor and a pathologist, he knows the value of a clean workplace and how not washing your hands can fuck things up. He bathes as soon as he arrives at home because ‘I’m smelling like formoldehyde and my hands are dry as fuck because of the gloves, just wait a minute and then you can tell me everything about your plants, Frank’.

Eating habits and sample daily menu

Again, he doesn’t eat much. He tries to keep track of time to have his meals on time, but sometimes it slips away from him. He doesn’t starve himself like Tom Sr, though. He usually has lunch outside and dinner at home (after Frank moved in, he was the one in charge of cooking and Feliks had to learn to eat spiced mashed potatoes, one of Bryce’s favourite dishes).

Favorite way to waste time and feelings surrounding wasting time

Reading or looking at stars, the later not being possible after he moved to London. He has trouble allowing himself to waste time… He thinks he should be working most of the time.

Favorite indulgence and feelings surrounding indulging

Taking a train and having a trip to Scotland just for the sake of seeing a scottish landscape. And letting his accent become evident just to see someone (who most likely is irritating him) looking confused because they didn’t understand a single word that he’s said.

Makeup?

I don’t think he ever wore it? But the original Feliks, by Thams, wore kohl on his eyes and I really would like to see it in this Feliks aww yess.

Neuroses? Do they recognize them as such?

He’s terrified of failure. He tries to hide it behind an easy going behaviour, but he’s terrified of failing in something. Maybe that’s the reason he decided to dig deeper into the Riddles’ deaths. He’s also terrified of being alone.

Intellectual pursuits?

He just really likes to learn? Anything? He’s not a Gemini, but he enjoys learning lots of new stuff. His major focus is pathology, especially forensic pathology, but he enjoys lots of stuff.

Favorite book genre?

Fantasy and crime solving stuff (Sherlock Holmes fan, that’s him).

Sexual Orientation? And, regardless of own orientation, thoughts on sexual orientation in general?

Feliks’ sexual orientation is really… complicated for me? I find it difficult to put my finger on the right one. I mostly see him as asexual, but panromantic. He enjoys kissing and cuddling (he’s the king of cuddling), but for him to risk going deeper in a relationship (like, accepting having sex?), there needs to be something about the person… Idk how to explain???? He might even enjoy sex, but I don’t think he ever looked at someone and “ah, aye, I want to sleep with this person right away”. Anyway, he enjoyes the company of boys and girls and whatever you choose to call yourself.

Physical abnormalities? (Both visible and not, including injuries/disabilities, long-term illnesses, food-intolerances, etc.)

He’s short sighted. Like… really short sighted. His myopia is so bad he can’t see a thing a hand in front of his eyes. He has scars on his hands (between his pointing finger and the thumb) from a ‘accident in a forest’ from when he was 16 and he happened to break his jaw once, in his early 20s (I’m using here info from the original Feliks by Thams, but I still need to adapt this into this Feliks Ravenwood).

Biggest and smallest short term goal?

Biggest: solve the Riddles’ case

Smallest: make Frank Bryce laugh (or is it the biggest one?)

Biggest and smallest long term goal?

Biggest: do something about his life in order not to feel like a background character in it

Smallest: … I can’t say without giving spoilers for three of wands.

Preferred mode of dress and rituals surrounding dress

Pants + shirt + vest/sweater. When he’s outside, he wears a suit or a coat. When it’s cold, a scarf. He’s okay with ties or bowties. He really likes the colourful clothes of the wizarding kind. Glasses. He loves wearing labcoats because there are MORE POCKETS FOR HIM TO FILL WITH PENS AND LITTLE NOTEBOOKS AND OTHER STUFF.

Favorite beverage?

He likes whiskey, I guess. And he’ll learn to like Butterbeer.

What do they think about before falling asleep at night?

Stars. He feels a little foolish, but it’s one of the things he remembers about his mum (actually, that his aunt told him about her): that she wished good night to the stars. So he does it too.

Sometimes he thinks about corpses, but hey, it’s his job.

Childhood illnesses? Any interesting stories behind them?

Chicken pox, colds, broken jaw, sun burns from rare outings during sunny days.

Turn-ons? Turn-offs?

Turn on: a good talk (those chats that you have with someone and spends hours and hours talking just to notice it’s five in the morning?), cuddling and sometimes, the person’s magic, depending on how it looks to his eyes;

Turn off: anyone that makes him feel uncomfortable;

Given a blank piece of paper, a pencil, and nothing to do, what would happen?

Doodles, random words, some stuff written in cyrillic alphabet.

How organized are they? How does this organization/disorganization manifest in their everyday life?

His house is full of useless stuff, but they’re organized… for him. But his workplace is neat. Don’t you dare to move a scalpel from his table or to change the order of his histology slides.

Is there one subject of study that they excel at? Or do they even care about intellectual pursuits at all?

Pathology, especially forensic pathology. He really enjoys learning about astronomy too.

How do they see themselves 5 years from today?

He just wants to be happy and not alone, tbh.

Do they have any plans for the future? Any contingency plans if things don’t workout?

Again, I can’t give out spoilers!

What is their biggest regret?

Studying Medicine. It’s a regret and it’s not at the same time… It’s complicated. Not being able to know his mum too, and leaving Scotland.

Who do they see as their best friend? Their worst enemy?

Frank Bryce and another character that has not been introduced yet. And his worst enemy? I think Feliks would laugh at the thought of having a worst enemy, I mean ‘I’m not a character in a book, why would I have an enemy?’

Reaction to sudden extrapersonal disaster (eg The house is on fire! What do they do?)

He’d try to help. He’d be terrified of not managing to do so, but he’d try.

Reaction to sudden intrapersonal disaster (eg close family member suddenly dies)

If the disaster can be helped, he’d try to help. If not, he wouldn’t know what to do, try not to feel bad about it just to have a emotional breakdown when he’s alone and thinking about the said disaster.

Most prized possession?

Photos of his mum and his microscope. (and a human skull he used to study anatomy when he was a student and now keeps at his house). And something else I can’t say because of spoilers.

Thoughts on material possessions in general?

He… likes to have useless stuff?

Concept of home and family?

You choose your family. He loves his mum and dad, even though he never met them, but he also loves Frank as a family that limped into his life while shouting and threatening to call the police.

Thoughts on privacy? (Are they a private person, or are they prone to ‘TMI’?)

Feliks enjoys privacy, but he also hates being alone? He was kind of used of living by himself, but once Frank moves in, he just can’t help but be near him to talk or just… be near him. You know, sharing the bed while they read just to comment a thing here and there about the book etc.

What activities do they enjoy, but consider to be a waste of time?

Going to a park just to sit in a bench and watch people who walk by him.

What makes them feel guilty?

Taking breaks and not working as a ‘regular’ physician. He’s young and a lot of people tell him that a doctor like him should be out there on the field, being a clinician or a surgeon, but he can’t do it and he feels a little guilty about choosing pathology over clinic/surgery.

Are they more analytical or more emotional in their decision-making?

Ahm… a bit of the two? But I guess his emotional side wins.

Would they consider themselves a Type A or Type B personality?

B.

What recharges them when they’re feeling drained?

When his piano was tuned, he used to play it. But just lying down on his bed, in silence, also helps. And working with corpses, because.. they’re quiet. And he ends up talking a little with them when he needs to talk and has no one to talk with.

Would you say that they have a superiority-complex? Inferiority-complex? Neither?

Ahm… I think neither?

How misanthropic are they?

He’s not misanthropic. Frank is a little baffled by it, because Feliks works with the results of human violence, he sees victims of murder, accidents, suicide, etc, but he keeps being a pretty positive person who can see good things in everyone and is most of the times trying to make someone smile.

Hobbies?

He draws a little, mostly anatomy or histology stuff. Plays the piano, when the piano is tuned. Reads a lot. When he was younger, back in Scotland, he used to love hiking in forests and glens.

How far did they get in formal education? What are their views on formal education vs self-education?

Feliks has a degree in Medicine and is a especialist in Pathology and Forensic Pathology.

Religion?

Catholic.

Superstitions or views on the occult?

He wants to believe in everything you tell him… And he at least considers the possibility of it being true. He likes to test things, as he’s a scientist. I mean, this is the man who decided to investigate three deaths further because of some thing he (and only he) saw on the bodies. Once he discovers about magic… well, then the sky is the limit to his beliefs.

Do they express their thoughts through words or deeds?

Words.

If they were to fall in love, who (or what) is their ideal?

Someone who can keep him entertained, like, who has a good chat and is avid for knowledge like him. Someone who makes him laugh and laughs with him. Someone with a good hug kkkk.

How do they express love?

He loves cuddling and hugging. He likes to share those silent moments, where you’re doing nothing but are together. He tries to make the one he loves laugh and feel comfortable and good.

If this person were to get into a fist fight, what is their fighting style like?

He knows where to hit, but he’s not that good of a fighter. Frank is teaching him, though. He’d be better off if you gave him a knife, then he’d know where to stab to make someone bleed to death -q

Is this person afraid of dying? Why or why not?

No. Death is like an old friend to him. He works with dead people and illnesses, he faces death everyday, so he has learned to see it as something natural and beyond control.

#feliks ravenwood #trio csi #mine #asks #ask

[neworoldnews]

The concept of discrimination plays roughly the same role in public debate as the concept of terrorism. In just the same way as disliked militants are often condemned as ‘terrorists’, so disliked policies that differentiate among people are often condemned as ‘discrimination’. Those charges have deep rhetorical power. However, both concepts remain woefully unanalyzed. In this article I want to analyze the concept of discrimination: what it is, and what it isn’t.

Differentiating among people on account of their group membership, disadvantaging some and not others, is not the problem with discrimination. We don’t discriminate against criminals by burdening them with jail. It is when disadvantages are unjustly imposed because of group membership that differentiation between groups is morally objectionable. This is what we call discrimination.

Intentionally disadvantaging innocent people merely because of their group membership is the clearest form of discrimination. (Perhaps people can also be discriminated against unintentionally, but that likely originally derives from intentionally disadvantaging members of that group.) Doing so strikes at the core of how we think people should be treated. Basic respect for persons entails regarding them as individuals with a right to equal consideration, not just judging them according to others with whom they happen to be grouped. So it might seem that disadvantaging someone for that reason is necessarily wrong.

We sometimes do intentionally disadvantage innocent people based solely on group membership, in cases where it does not seem wrong to do so. Airline pilots must retire at a certain age. You must be at least eighteen to vote. When one can get married, drink alcohol, join the military, or sign contracts, are similarly restricted. Insurance rates are established by group membership, not by individual characteristics. Of course, these are not the sort of groups commonly recognized as being victims of discrimination. But the salient point is that sometimes there are good reasons to sort and burden people merely because of their group membership. So how do we tell when group membership is a good reason to burden someone, and when it isn’t?

Take ten year olds. Not all ten year olds lack the maturity, judgment and experience to drive or vote, but the odds are that any individual among them does. It’s a matter of probabilities. Given that we can’t easily test every ten year old, restricting their rights solely on account of their age seems reasonable. So there is a plausible connection in this case between group membership and why a particular burden is imposed. By contrast, if someone’s group membership is irrelevant to why they’re being disadvantaged, that seems a bad reason. If a bus company refuses to hire black people just because they’re black, this is a bad reason because skin color is irrelevant to bus driving. Gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, and national origin, are all similarly irrelevant to bus driving, too.

Graphic © Amy Baker 2019. Please visit instagram.com/amy_louisebaker

Digging Deeper

Disadvantaging people when their group membership is irrelevant appears to explain both what discrimination is, and why it is wrong. However, this account of discrimination is still uninformative because it doesn’t address the question of what counts as an irrelevant reason. Or I could say that everybody, including discriminators, agrees that we should impose burdens for relevant reasons only. We just disagree about what counts as a relevant reason. In a racist community, for example, skin color becomes terribly relevant. So the ‘irrelevant reason’ account of discrimination is still too abstract. It doesn’t explain what is distinctively morally problematic about discrimination.

We might think that discrimination is objectionable because it disadvantages people on account of an immutable characteristic – some aspect of themselves that they cannot change. This ignores the fact that we can also discriminate against people for things they can change. Even if people could change their sexual orientation, by, say, taking a pill, it would still be wrong to discriminate against gays. Moreover, if discrimination is wrong because it disadvantages people for features they cannot change, this suggests that that feature is somehow objectionable. It gives the impression that if they could change it they should, but since they cannot, it is wrong to disadvantage them for, as it were, being stuck with something they can’t do anything about. However, it is not the case that it is wrong to discriminate against a woman because she cannot change her gender (sex-change operations aside). Whether or not she can change gender is beside the point.

Perhaps discrimination is wrong because it violates an intuitively obvious principle of justice – that we should treat likes alike. Since all humans share their humanity, all humans should be treated alike. The formal notion that ‘we should treat like cases alike’ is unassailable; but as with the ‘irrelevant reason’ account of discrimination, this idea is also uninformative, since the question of what counts as a ‘relevant difference’ resurfaces. The discriminator readily agrees that he should treat like cases alike: he just regards features such as skin color, gender, etc as differences sufficient to make the people involved not alike.

It’s not discrimination to lock up a criminal.

Clearly, thinking that a difference among people is relevant does not make it so. Even the discriminator knows that. Indeed, it would be unintelligible to disadvantage, say, black people, just because they are black; or to treat women worse than men just because they are women. Even discriminators understand that treating people disadvantageously solely because of skin color or gender etc is as incomprehensible as doing so just because of the number of letters in their names. Rather, the discriminator takes another step: he regards the trait in question as a marker for some other relevantly objectionable feature, such as incompetence, untrustworthiness, or inferior moral status. For this reason, the discriminator believes he does no wrong by imposing comparative disadvantages on people because of their group membership. In fact, he thinks he’s treating people as they deserve because of their group membership because of this negative feature that he associates with that group membership.

We tend to overlook the rationality that intentional discrimination requires and psychoanalyze instead: ‘homophobic’, ‘prejudiced’, ‘biased’, ‘bigoted’, ‘selfish’, ‘hateful’, and similar diagnostic terms come to mind. But such ad hominem critiques fail to address the discriminator or his discrimination perceptively, since he would deny he’s doing anything wrong. He thinks he acts justifiably. He thinks that he’s doing the same thing we do when we prohibit ten-year-old kids from driving or voting, or when we restrict application to the military to those under thirty, or, indeed, when we shun a bar in a high crime area of town late at night – that is, when there actually is some good reason for disadvantaging someone solely on account of group membership. We might regret that, as a practical matter, we cannot test all ten-year-olds to see who can drive safely or is mature enough to marry, vote, or sign a contract. But just as we think we’re justified in prohibiting all ten-year-olds from driving, so the discriminator thinks he is justified in disadvantaging women, black people, homosexuals, Jews, etc, since being a member of one of the groups he excludes means having some further objectionable feature or defect that justifies the treatment – even though he might concede that there will be a few individual exceptions.

An exception to the norm

Image © Bofy 2019. Please visit worldofbofy.com

Achieving Accurate Stereo Vision

When called upon to justify (even to himself) the burdens a discriminator imposes on people because of their group membership, he must appeal to an alleged fact that, if correct, would indeed justify the disadvantageous treatment. Were this not the case, the discriminator could not even understand his own actions. That is, since the discriminator imposes disadvantages intentionally, he has to know why he is doing so. However, since the discriminator is mistaken about the facts and judgments (moral or otherwise), he harms people mistakenly, and therefore unjustifiably. They do not deserve his maltreatment. This is why discrimination is wrong.

Stereotypes are generalizations which can be more or less accurate; in fact the difference between prohibiting all ten-year-olds from driving and unethical discrimination turns on the difference between accurate and misinformed stereotypes of the salient groups. If black people really did spread dangerous diseases in the community swimming pool, that would be a good reason to exclude them; if many homosexuals really did sexually exploit children, that would be a good reason not to allow them to be teachers; if most immigrants really were rapists and drug dealers, that would be a good reason to keep them out of the country; and if women really were incapable of making good judgments, then that would be a good reason not to, for instance, let them drive.

Inaccurate but firmly embraced stereotypes or faulty judgments are not easily corrected by facts or argumentation – although in theory they should be, since the discriminator takes himself to be rational. However, since discriminators embrace defective views regarding the people against whom they discriminate, despite good reasons to the contrary, they are now subject to a second kind of moral criticism. How we form and maintain our beliefs is itself a moral issue because what we believe affects others, and because believing contrary to good evidence and arguments is beneath our dignity as rational deliberators.

Have I perhaps over-intellectualized discrimination? Maybe it’s just a groundless, free-standing hatred or dislike for people in a particular social group. But if I hate, am disgusted by, fear, or distain, I must have corresponding beliefs about the object of my emotions. I must think that the object of my hate or disgust merits my opprobrium; if I am afraid, I must believe that the object of my fear can harm me. So when discriminators are simply urged to abandon their hate, fear, etc, they no doubt find the advice question-begging: Why abandon emotions I rightfully hold?

No. The real issue for discriminators is whether the disadvantages they impose on account of group membership are warranted; and that turns on the validity of their beliefs about the target group.

But what if the disadvantage is based on statistically verifiable facts? Employers favor non-smokers because they are sick less often than smokers; low income drug addicts are more liable to be petty criminals; skin-heads are more prone to violence; the guy with the rebel flag on his pickup truck is more likely to be a racist; people who drive Priuses are more likely to be political liberals; and so on. With stereotypes which have some basis in the facts, the odds are that any individual in the group will have or lack the trait in question. Most women lack the upper body strength to be firefighters. But some do have it. Most ten-year-olds are not capable of being good drivers. But some are. If we disadvantage someone because of a statistically-correct group norm, but who nevertheless is an exception to the norm, we treat that person unfairly. That person does not deserve the burden we impose, even if others in the group do.

However, this is different from imposing burdens on individuals because of false beliefs or incorrect judgments about the group. If we disadvantage someone who is an exception in a stereotype with some basis in fact, it seems to me not discriminatory. It is unfair; and we should try to address unfairness if we can. But not all unfairness counts as discrimination. Discrimination is a particular kind of unfairness, which turns on imposing burdens because of factually misinformed stereotypes.

We can also wonder why certain stereotypes have become somewhat accurate. If prior discrimination produced a stereotype with some basis in fact – such as disadvantaging immigrants leading to greater poverty among them, leading to higher crime rates – it hardly seems fair to appeal to the stereotype as grounds for further disadvantaging members of that group.

Let’s say discrimination involves the imposition of disadvantages on the basis of misinformed stereotypes. This account can be generalized to also include cases of defective (or at least wildly improbable) theories regarding certain groups where evidence about the target group plays a limited role. This can often happen in religious objections to homosexuality, same-sex marriage, the status of women vis-à-vis men, and the like. Generally, the discriminator with misinformed stereotypes is in theory amenable to empirical data, whereas this type of religious discriminator is not. His basis for treating members of the target group disadvantageously is not based on empirical evidence. But here too the burden of proof is on the discriminator, since he has to think that the disadvantage he imposes is reasonably warranted.

Perhaps you might think the moral ideal is to judge people as individuals with specific characters and abilities, not as members of groups. But this may be psychologically unrealistic and is often impractical, so in practice we function socially with stereotypes of varying degrees of accuracy. Further, since social identity presupposes various group memberships, and because it makes no sense to imagine individuals without some sort of social identity, ignoring group membership is more than a practically unrealistic ideal, it is a fiction. We do not live in a state of nature as abstract individuals independent of social groups. So instead of trying to ignore this fact, we should acknowledge that the ethical issue is how group membership of one sort or another may legitimately be handled in dealing with individual persons

[terabitweb]

Original Post from SC Magazine Author: Danny Bradbury

Complicated malware infections and cross-site scripting attacks are great techniques to compromise a company, but why use them when you can whisper in someone’s ear instead? Some of the most successful attacks involve nothing more than a phone, some self-confidence, and an innate understanding of what makes people tick. 

Successful data breaches need not require expensive technology, massive deceptions, or even expertly faked credentials. Sometimes all it takes is a phone call to the help desk and a request for assistance logging in. You do not even have to be a legitmate user if you are convincing enough.

Social engineering is one of the least expensive, most powerful tools in a hacker’s toolbox. In the SC Media Special Report My Friend My Enemy, we surveyed the social engineering landscape. In this report, we will venture deeper into topic and detail the reasons why it works and how to defend against it.

Social engineers have two primary goals, according to Steve Healey, chief technical officer at social engineering and security consultancy Pratum. The first is to obtain information. “Depending on the business and the industry there are all kinds of information with different values assigned to it,” Healey says, adding that customers’ records can be a high-value target in industries such as healthcare.

He also sees an increase in corporate espionage, as social engineers manipulate people inside companies to steal intellectual property and other confidential data.

Other goals are as simples as theft or malicious mischief. Sometimes it is financial theft by hijacking a company’s money transfer processes and diverting funds to an attacker’s account, or the attacks can also be ideologically motivated. “Someone might want to target a particular organization because of some vendetta or hacktivist claim,” he adds.

Sometimes social engineering attacks are part of a broader campaign, he notes. Manipulating employees might increase the chance of successfully installing ransomware, again a crime of financial theft.

On rare occasions, the attack might be part of a diversionary tactic to misdirect a company’s resources away from another, high-value attack.

Psychological manipulation

No matter what the goal, the successful social engineer will pursue it by getting inside someone’s head, says Shawn Moyer, CEO and founding partner of penetration testing firm Atredis Partners. Social engineering is a big factor in his penetration testing and red teaming practice where his consultancy works with corporate management to find vulnerabilities in a company’s defenses.

“People tend to like people who are like themselves,” he says. “If you’re doing social engineering in Utah and you’re not a Mormon, there are little pins you can buy on Amazon that Mormons all use to identify themselves to each other,” he says. Using these pins as an example, he adds: “If you’re walking around a building and you have a pin like that, people will be more likely to respond.”

Shawn Moyer, CEO, Atredis Partners

Making someone like you by finding common ground is one of several principles from a favorite book of Moyer: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, by Robert Cialdini, a former Stanford professor of marketing, business and psychology. In the book Cialdini categorizes several techniques used to influence people, such as social proof (doing what you see others doing), along with enforced scarcity (limiting the time that you give someone to respond to a request).

This psychological manipulation is the basis of all social engineering, Moyer says, pointing out that the term was popularized by business leaders that wanted to manipulate their employees en masse to improve performance. In fact, social engineering has much deeper roots. Dutch industrialist Jacque Marken coined the term more than a century ago in the 1890s as a way to describe a method of improving what was wrong in the world’s social environment.

Today’s attacker hacks their target’s psychology in similar ways that marketers do, exploiting innate desires and fears to achieve a set goal. “It’s the overlap between social sciences and dirty applications,” Moyer says.

Reconnaissance

Psychological manipulation is where UK-based social engineering consultant Jenny Radcliffe focuses her efforts. As a teenager, she says she would spend her time infiltrating buildings for kicks with her friends to stave off boredom and earn bragging rights. As an adult, she focused her attention on human psychology and eventually became a negotiation trainer. She quickly began mixing these skills to conduct penetration tests for corporate clients, teaching them how to protect themselves from low-tech, old-school con artist attacks.

Radcliffe is an expert at exploiting a company’s biggest weakness: its employees. “I talk about three M’s: Mistake, mischief, and malice. They are the three kinds of insider threat,” she says.

Individuals will often help her towards her goal by unwittingly providing her with sensitive information. She can also manipulate employees to help her by playing on their weaknesses. “There are a lot of people who are not happy in an organization and whose level of loyalty to the company is quite low,” she says. These can be excellent targets for an attacker hoping to get someone on the inside working for them If all else fails, malicious manipulation of an employee through blackmail is an option, although this is a slower process. She draws an ethical line here when engaging in social engineering tests for clients.

Jenny Radcliffe, social engineering consultant

Before she does any of that, though, Radcliffe spends a lot of time simply observing the company, people and processes. She begins most social engineering jobs with a reconnaissance phase. “Once hired, I would look at an organization as a business first. I look at its culture and setup. It’s a macro analysis,” she says. These are the same techniques that she uses in negotiation research.

She reads articles and reports that help her understand how the company celebrates its successes and how it treats employees who fail. She analyzes how the company markets itself, how it grows, and identifies its competition. It gives her a picture of the kind of person that works there. She does all this before she singles out a selection of individual targets.

“Those would be people who are chatty on social media. Those who have left the company, too. I try and narrow it down to between a dozen and 20.”

Advanced reconnaissance helps Radcliffe to prepare her for all future interactions, including physical intrusions.

“By the time I make that initial contact or turn up at that site, I already know as much as any outsider could know and probably a bit more about that company so that it’s natural for me to be there. It’s not a big ask because I’m already familiar with everything that goes on.”

Radcliffe will often use social media to find a person’s weaknesses. She has found evidence of employees’ unusual sexual proclivities online, and also sees staff members consistently posting on social networks about how much they dislike their jobs. Each of these could be exploitable in different ways by a malicious actor, she says.

Moyer’s approach often includes looking for people on the fringes of a company when he is identifying targets. “I go for remote workers, branch offices, and small locations. They won’t be as consistently enforced and inculcated into the culture as the people in headquarters,” he says.

Moyer researches individual targets heavily on social media. He surfs Facebook, Instagram and other social media accounts looking for useful assets. Some people post their business card on their timeline to celebrate a new job, he says. Others scan receipts or other documents using their phone, unwittingly storing them on a public cloud account in the process. Physical access to a building can itself be a useful form of surveillance. If an attacker wants to access digital resources, then stealing a laptop from inside the office is often a great way to do it, explains Moyer. To do this, he uses another of Cialdini’s psychological manipulation techniques: authority.

Social engineers convey authority by merely wearing the right outfit. Moyer has a collection of telecom worker overalls in his office and can often be found walking through a target’s corridors in a uniform with a company logo, having tailgated his way into a building. This gives him access to building layouts and contents. Most people won’t question him because they assume he’s working there, he says.

Some social engineers go for old-fashioned dumpster diving during the reconnaissance phase. Healey uses this old-school hacker technique to find useful insights into a company. This might include anything from a list of employee IDs to a staff directory; even an email printed off with a list of recipients can be helpful when mounting an attack.

Phishing for secrets

Armed with reconnaissance information, the savvy social engineer will then mount an attack on a target. This happens in several ways, but phishing is the most prevalent, experts agree. In many cases, phishing attacks target financial gain. Business email compromise (BEC) scammers either spoof a senior executive’s email account or use stolen email credentials to hijack the real account.

Erich Kron, security awareness advocate, KnowBe4

They then email another executive within the same company or at a supplier, asking for an urgent wire transfer to solve a fake problem such as an outstanding invoice. The victim faithfully sends the money straight into the attacker’s bank account.

These social engineering attacks are now rampant. In February 2018, researchers from a major systems manufacturer identified a massive BEC campaign targeting Fortune 500 companies designed to trick victims into fraudulent wire transfers. The attack started in the fall of 2017 with spear phishing emails that told victims their signature was required on a document about stocks they owned. A fraudulent “DocuSign” portal was used to collect the confidential data. The attacks are believed to have generated hundreds of millions of dollars for the attackers, the vendor’s report said.

In the past, phishers simply altered the headers of their emails to spoof a legitimate address, explains Chris Hadnagy, CEO at Social-Engineer and author of several books on social engineering, including Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking. Today, companies use technologies such as Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) to help thwart those attacks. SPF authenticates the IP address used to send the message against a list provided by the sender. DKIM uses private/public key pairs to encrypt and verify message headers. Finally, messaging parties can use the Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC) protocol to indicate that they are using SPF and DKIM to protect their messages.

That’s all very well, says Hadnagy, but it doesn’t stop more nefarious phishing methods. These include registering domains that look like legitimate ones at first glance. “Our eyes fill in gaps that we expect,” Hadnagy says.

For example, let us assume an attacker creates an email using the standard Opentype font Cantoria MT Standard found in Microsoft Word and other popular word process applications.  In that email, the attacker is trying to send a victim to a fake website that looks like a valid one. If the site, for example, was app1e.com, it would be almost impossible for the recipient to realize that the site is not actually Apple Inc.’s apple.com site. In the font Cantoria MT Std, the number 1 and the lower-case L look virtually the same — 1 and l. Can you tell which is which? (As of this writing, the domain app1e.com is for sale for $3700 and is not owned by Apple.)

Psyops on the Phone

“Vishing” (voice phishing), also known as pretexting, is another favorite tool. Attackers misrepresent themselves on the phone and use psychological manipulation to achieve their goals.

Pretexting is easier than phishing because phone numbers are notoriously easy to spoof, warns Hadnagy. “This has increased 100fold. Voice servers are cheap and easy to set up,” he says. “Phone lines are still basic, so whatever [number] I shove down the phone line is what pops up on your phone. I can change my phone number to yours. There’s no authentication in the phone system.”

Criminals can use pretexting to siphon funds directly from their targets. In December 2013, crooks telephoned the CFO at U.K. hedge fund Fortelus Capital Management on a Friday night, pretending to be from its bank, Coutts. The caller warned of potentially fraudulent activity and asked the CFO to generate access codes using his smart card. The attackers then transferred some £742,668 ($1.2 million) from the Fortelus account to a variety of other accounts. The company later dismissed and sued its CFO.

Pretexting isn’t unique to cybercriminals; it is used in corporate investigations and espionage, too. Hewlett-Packard admitted that an agency it hired might have used pretexting to obtain access to its own directors’ phone records in 2006.

Following the rules

Having security policies and procedures in place to protect the company is a fundamental requirement, say experts. Always wearing a security badge while in the building and verifying someone’s identity before giving out sensitive information should be standard procedure, but even that is not foolproof; a smart criminal can duplicate security badges as well. The real trick is getting users to follow the policies, says Moyer. Part of that involves using the same psychological techniques on employees, he suggests. “When you’re creating an awareness program and building resilience against different techniques, you’re trying to modify people’s behavior,” he explains.

As an example, he uses another of Cialdini’s psychological pillars: Commitment and consistency. This technique relies on an individual’s need to live up to what they have publicly said they will do and have written down. Making someone declare that they are a custodian of sensitive data and that their job matters — and to feel that sense of responsibility — is a powerful tool, he asserts. “When you train someone that they have those feelings of responsibility and accountability, you’re setting up commitment and consistency.”

Social engineering’s low barrier to entry has always been part of the allure of the attack. As companies improve their technical protections, social engineering is becoming a go-to technique for criminals and spies. While technology protections grow stronger, human weaknesses stay the same. The challenge companies face today in reducing vulnerabilites is not only becoming more secure by breaking bad habits that some employees have, but breaking some good ones too.

The post Manipulating human nature appeared first on SC Media.

#gallery-0-5 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-5 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Go to Source Author: Danny Bradbury Manipulating human nature Original Post from SC Magazine Author: Danny Bradbury Complicated malware infections and cross-site scripting attacks are great techniques to compromise a company, but why use them when you can whisper in someone’s ear instead?

#SC Magazine

[myrambles1611]

Two sides of the same coin: our different personalities online and in real life

If you are reading this, chances are that you have a blog on this hellsite or at least know the basics of Tumblr. If you don’t, allow me to tell you the basics: firstly, if your post is more than five lines, you always, ALWAYS, apologize; so I apologize for the long post in advance. Secondly, and more importantly, none of us are really ourselves online. Of course there are some of the bigger, more popular blogs that display their complete identities online, but most of us choose to hide our true selves behind fan, aesthetic, meme, and even porn blogs. If you, like me, have been on this site for a while, you have figured out how to enjoy Tumblr’s “relatable” self-deprecating humor, beautiful fan art, and socio-political debate while maintaining your “online” persona. There may be some intersections between your online persona and your true self but most of your online profile is an ideal version of yourself that is far more confident and witty than your offline persona could ever be. We have these profiles because isn’t it so liberating and satisfying to have so many people appreciate the meme you just made? It offers us an escape from our boring, everyday lives so we can live our ideal personality instead of simply chasing it. But if you end up doing this for long enough, I am sure you will realize that soon enough you develop two completely different personalities: one online and one offline. Your online personality is well crafted and maintained, very different from your offline personality. One of the students Donna Freitas interviewed for her article “Instagrim” thinks of “herself, her name, as a brand. She has a reputation and she needs to protect it. She’s a curator,” (Freitas, Donna.) This creates a distinct divide between your online and offline personalities, which begs the obvious question: who are you truly? Now this can turn into an unnecessarily convoluted philosophical analysis of one’s “true” self and I’d rather stay away from that because we all have enough existential crises. So I’ll stick to an analysis of why this dual personality phenomenon is emotionally and psychologically detrimental for users of social media, especially young teenagers who are still maturing emotionally and socially.

It is necessarily to acknowledge the fact that changing personalities online is not just a result of wanting to be someone else online, but also protecting yourself from possible scams. Most of our parents or adults in a similar position have warned us repeatedly about “stranger-danger,” which is just as pertinent online. Romance scams are highly common - “In the U.S., romance scams account for the highest financial losses of all internet-facilitated crimes, the FBI reports. The bureau’s Internet Crime Complaint Center said it received 15,000 romance scam complaints last year ― a 20 percent increase over the previous year,” (Brenoff, Ann.) These scams, as Brenoff outlines in her article “How A Billion-Dollar Internet Scam Is Breaking Hearts And Bank Accounts,” target lonely women who have recently experienced a tragedy and thus readily open up to men who are willing to be their figurative shoulders to cry on. So why would we even bother revealing our true personalities online if we can be exploited because of it? Protecting ourselves is just another reason for the different personalities but it is overshadowed by the need to be a different person online and create a persona for yourself.

Even though I mentioned only two personalities (online and offline), the issue is actually more complicated as we tend to take on multiple personalities based on the social media outlet we are using. “As the number of platforms increase, it’s amazing to watch the way that we are adapting to multiple networks—and our ability to communicate and connect with different audiences through different voices online,” (Casserly, Meghan.) Casserly makes a great point about not only adapting different online voices, but also communicating with different audiences. Each social media outlet has its own audience and purpose, thus we end up creating drastically different profiles that are tailored perfectly to the outlet. According to Ashley Brown, a PR consultant with Jones-Dilworth who was interviews by Casserly, states that “of all her social media accounts, Twitter offers the most well-rounded view of herself.” Perhaps you, like Ashley, prefer Twitter with its 280 character limit, or maybe you like Instagram’s creative, artistic layout possibilities, but we all have that one outlet that we are more attracted to. Richard Laermer “calls this soul-splitting a gift from the Net gods. “I’m not one-dimensional,” he says, (Casserly, Meghan.) I’m sure most of you would agree with Laermer because isn’t it great to be able to casually switch between being a crazy fanatic fangirl on your anime fanblog to being a politically correct intellectual in just the click of a button?

Before we delve deeper into how these different personalities actually affect us, it is essential to analyze how exactly do our “real” personalities differ from our online ones or rather do these personalities actually differ? Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, in his article “How different are your online and offline personalities?” states that “although our digital identity is fragmented, research suggests that our various online personas lead back to the same personality,” (Chamorro-Premuzic, Tomas.) He suggests that “it is harder to fake it online when you are being observed for a longer period of time. Conversely, deliberate deception and impression management are relatively straightforward during short-term interactions, such as job interviews, first dates and dinner parties. We all have a window for displaying the bright side of our personality and adhering to social etiquette, but what happens when a great portion of our lives is being broadcasted?” (Chamorro-Premuzic, Tomas.) Even though Premuzic is correct in stating that “deliberate deception” is easy during short-term interactions, it is even easier to be deceptive online. Premuzic fails to understand that it is infinitely easier to create a profile of yourself online where people simply don’t know who the ‘real you’ is, and I don’t mean this in terms of “cat-fishing” where an old man is actually posing as a young woman. Slight changes to your personality traits, especially exhibiting the ones that you desire, such as confidence, are very easy when you control what you post online. Take a look at any of your acquaintances’ Instagram and you will know what I am talking about. That guy from your Business class who only posts shirtless selfies at the gym might actually be dealing with self-esteem issues. That girl in your Biology class who has a million Instagram followers because of her trendy outfits might be dealing with severe anxiety. But we will never know because we only get a snippet, a heavily edited and carefully crafted snippet, of their real self. The key here is that we get to create and manage our online personas the way we want to unlike in real life where body language, expressions, tone, etc. quickly give away our true feelings, which is harder to do online. Thus, our online profiles and personalities are scripted, just like reality TV shows, so even though “various online profiles do eventually lead back to the same personality,” is this “soul-splitting” really healthy?

Going back to Freitas’ “Instagrim” article, it is clear that your online version “isn’t a true reflection of yourself. People have pressure now, more than ever, to project an image that everything’s peachy and wonderful in their life," (Freitas, Donna.) This pressure is mainly caused by the fear of being criticized for our true selves by our online audience. With Photoshop and similar editing tools, it is easy to create the image of a perfect life but what happens when we forget to edit out our love handles and accidently let the mask of perfection slip? The answer is cyberbullying, which numerous teenagers face with the increased use of social media. In their article “What parents should know about the 'constant pressure' of social media for teens,” Suzanne Yeo and Catherine Thorbecke interviewed “Dr. Logan Levkoff, an expert in parent-child communications,” who mentioned that “social media plays a "huge role" in causing anxiety for teens.” Yeo and Thorbecke interview five teenage girls about their experience with social media and cyberbullying who mentioned that “there’s just constant pressure” and feel “criticized for almost everything on social media.” They also mentioned that this criticism is especially taxing when directed to the way they look, which translates into body image issues and also eating disorders. Cyberbullying hurts in a different way than other types of bullying because the comments on the internet never truly disappear, thus always reinforcing the criticism. This fear of being criticized and pressure to always seem perfect can also translate into real life, as was the case with “Penn Face” where students of the esteemed University of Pennsylvania face the pressures of keeping up perfect appearances regardless of their serious internal problems, which has led to many suicides (Dent, Mark.) Thus difference in online and offline personalities, although seemingly harmless on the outside, gives way to a much darker and serious issue of cyberbullying, which must be addressed in order to protect the youth and help them develop and mature without the fear of being harshly criticized.

I suppose this is a good time to self-reflect and take a look at how different your personalities are. If you are a teenager like me, then I am sure you will understand these pressures of perfection but I hope that you will also understand that perfection is subjective. Although very cliche, it is important to realize that everyone is perfect in their own ways and you don’t have to pretend to be someone you are not in order to achieve this vague ideal of perfection. So if you enjoy being a crazy fan girl on your side fan blog but also want to be ‘meme-king’ on your main blog, then go ahead, but, as Kevin G. (Mean Girls) says, “Don’t let the haters stop you from doing your thang.”

Works Cited

Brenoff, Ann. "How A Billion-Dollar Internet Scam Is Breaking Hearts And Bank Accounts." HuffPost, 27 July 2017, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/romance-scams-online-fbi-facebook_us_59414c67e4b0d318548666f9.

Casserly, Meghan. "Multiple Personalities And Social Media: The Many Faces of Me." Forbes, 2 May 2012, www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2011/01/26/multiple-personalities-and-social-media-the-many-faces-of-me/#3d63a2cf6d51.

Chamorro-Premuzic, Tomas. "How Different Are Your Online and Offline Personalities?" The Guardian, 14 Feb. 2018, www.theguardian.com/media-network/2015/sep/24/online-offline-personality-digital-identity.

Dent, Mark. "'Penn Face? and the 'social? Ivy's Suicide Problem, and How Students Are Fighting Back." Billy Penn, 11 Dec. 2015, billypenn.com/2015/12/11/penn-face-and-the-social-ivys-suicide-problem-and-how-students-are-fighting-back/.

Freitas, Donna. "Instagrim: Why Social Media Makes Students Miserable." The Chronicle of Higher Education, 7 May 2017, www.chronicle.com/article/Instagrim-Why-Social-Media/239983.

Yeo, Suzanne, and Catherine Thorbecke. "Teens Lament 'constant Pressure' of Social Media." ABC News, 2 Nov. 2017, abcnews.go.com/Health/parents-constant-pressure-social-media-teens/story?id=50822684.

[weblistposting-blog]

New Post has been published on Weblistposting

New Post has been published on https://weblistposting.com/driver-gets-life-in-prison-for-fatal-wreck/

Driver gets life in prison for fatal wreck

A Shasta Lake man who pleaded responsible ultimate month to 2d-diploma murder and different prices, together with DUI and hit-and-run, in reference to a crash that killed a 10-yr-old Redding woman was sentenced Friday to lifestyles in prison.

Charles Kevin Canfield, 27, became sentenced to fifteen years to lifestyles in prison.

Canfield changed into using 1995 Stay away from pickup west on Hartnell near Churn Creek Street around 9:20 p.M. On Jan. 28, 2016, whilst he crashed right into a taxi driven by Richard Cathcart, 62, of Redding, police, and prosecutors have said.

Canfield then drove away and ran a pink mild at Northwoods Way, hitting a 2001 Mitsubishi coupe driven by way of Marcel Johnson, 20, of Redding, in keeping with police.

Johnson’s sister, Marley, a passenger in the Mitsubishi, became killed in the crash. She turned into a fifth-grader at Rother Elementary College.

Police have stated Canfield ran far from the crash and become later arrested outdoor a Hilltop Pressure eating place.

No More Criminal Executions Allowed in the Earth life Enjoy jail Planet – Need to Do Complete Time

The 12 months changed into 2244 and human beings had simply learned that the existence Enjoy is not all that it had regarded. It seems that the human shape is not anything Greater than an avatar for a sophisticated enlightened species. The lifestyles stories people know is definitely a digital fact prison to assist those beings that do not act well of their society a place to go to examine via Experience the way to live inside the confines of the legal guidelines they have created, assisting their minds examine proper from wrong and all of the demanding situations of morality based on an infinite variety of occasions.

In essence it is to help this superior lifestyle and enlightened beings realise that every action has reactions and consequences each correct and bad. Alas here on the earth there are even worse criminals, while matters pass awry and those constantly make bad alternatives, folks that haven’t learned from their classes, and are looking to work thru their very own intellectual demanding situations on this realm. Due to this humans have gotten together and constructed societal structures together with laws and punishment. Among the punishments for the maximum heinous crimes is capital punishment – placing people to dying for his or her dastardly deeds.

The notable counsel for the enlightened beings does not need human beings placing different humans to death within the digital-fact prison due to the fact this ends that person’s virtual-reality Revel in earlier than that they had learned their lesson. In other phrases, human beings had been being despatched back without the wisdom essential to hold on to the advanced and enlightened beings world. The enlightened beings had no choice but to come into the existence Revel in and defined to those inside the virtual jail why they have been there, what they Must do, and why there should not be Criminal executions, irrespective of the crime.

Although the people understood what they have been coping with now, and how the life Revel in labored and why they were here, and were able to conquer their conventional and cultural historic non-secular bias to recognize what became now the fact, they did not agree with that folks who created heinous crimes and disrupted the subculture and society and earth should be allowed to live here either.

They requested the enlightened advanced beings if those individuals can be put down right into a deeper degree of virtual-reality Revel in in a secondary jail, therefore they might restore the life Revel in for humanity so it became bearable while absolutely everyone found out their lesson right here earlier than going again to be enlightened society.

The great enlightened beings failed to like this idea, didn’t need the humans going for walks their very own asylum, and instructed the people that if they did not restore it they might reduce them off and now not let absolutely everyone lower back into their enlightened society. The humans said that they did not want to be informed what to do, they did not like tyranny, and that they wanted to run their very own affairs creating a international with lifestyles, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

They instructed the enlightened beings to; “visit hell” all of the at the same time as knowing that was a fictitious vicinity, and that the enlightened beings believed Earth’s existence Experience prison planet became “hell” so to talk, although the human avatars desired to make it “heaven on this planet” and so the enlightened beings have been advised that human beings have been inquisitive about going again, that they would alternatively live right here and stay for all time, and they might gladly send those who they completed returned to them to do anything they desired with them, as it wouldn’t be their hassle anymore.

The enlightened being stated “Quality, we might not ship you any More human beings, and you may in no way come back, you may be caught dwelling forever on the earth,” and the human beings agreed. The jail world has now turn out to be a loose international, in contrast to that of the enlightened beings who at one time kept sending us their trash. The very last treaty become ratified in 2255 on August 22.

Criminal Law Limits and Bernie Madoff – life in prison – Is it Truthful For All Worried? Crook Law is an exciting philosophical take a look at if you step away from all the legal guidelines, regulations, and policies which might be written inside all of the pages of all the Regulation books, codes, and regs. You spot there’s a restrict to Crook justice, and a restrict to Crook Regulation. For instance, if someone kills 30 humans in an explosion or terrorist act, you may sentence them to loss of life, however then in the end, is their punishment simply Truthful to all of the harm they have got prompted? The punishment failed to fit the crime, they were given off too clean.

And this additionally is going for corporate crime, For instance in the case of Bernie Madoff, the notorious international document holder for a Ponzi scheme. Apparently, he stole over $50 billion, and claimed he had invested this cash, which changed into really worth 150 billion by now. Many human beings misplaced their whole lifestyles savings and it ruined so many lives. His punishment will likely be existence in jail, however he has already led one of these high-quality lifestyles at the pinnacle of the food chain for so many years and he is an vintage man now.

Is that this Honest for all Concerned? Simply now not. although we had been to sentence him to demise that definitely would not justify a Fair punishment for all that hurt he has triggered such a lot of people. no longer to say all of the nonprofit businesses that had to close down and all the properly they could now not do.

There are criminal Regulation limits and existence in jail or maybe capital punishment now and again does no longer suffice. Perhaps we need to recall this, and parent out a Greater just Manner to punish folks that accomplish that a great deal harm to our society and civilization.