#no good choices

[howifeltabouthim]

Here, there, nowhere to go. But maybe there was something to be said for choosing the hell you know.

Mariam Rahmani, from Liquid

[pratchettquotes]

"If that's all the choice there is, I'm not choosing."

Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures

[this-acuteneurosis]

Ownership

No one is happy with what's going on, but everyone is doing their best. Mostly.

[forwhomtheteasteeps]

I’m noticing a trend of people talking about “underconsumption” and they mostly seem to mean “actually using what you buy” and it’s weirdly frustrating for me.

I grew up tiptoeing on the poverty line. Sometimes we would be well below the line and other times we would be just at the line. Never really above it. Not only did we use everything we had until it completely gave out, but we also used some things far past it. If you cut open a tooth paste tube you can get some more out of it. Cut open condiment bottles for the same reason. Tape shoes shut and stuff them with newspaper to keep warm. Keep everything just in case.

Now I’m watching people shame me for buying new when I can, but here’s the thing:

I want to buy it new

I want the new shoes and I want three pairs. I want to throw away my toothpaste tube and get a new one. I want to shower the kids in my life with presents. I want a fancy coffee. I want takeout for dinner. I want to buy the dress, the hat, the jeans. I want to get a manicure. I want it all.

Is it good for me? Maybe. Certainly not all the time. Moderation is key, right? But how do I find moderation when my therapist and spouse say “sometimes is fine, just don’t buy everything “, half of society says “buy everything” and half says “buying kills the planet”

I’m healing my inner child with pretty clothes and restaurants. Not willfully destroying my planet, my body, or my peace.

[pxxrthotie]

How I look at him after he calls me “baby”, “sweetheart” or “angel”

[visenyaism]

do you have any ideas about why so many students are struggling with literacy now? I know that illiteracy and reading comprehension have been issues for years and most americans read at like a 5th grade reading level but I’m curious why it seems to be worse now (pandemic? no child left behind?)

It is everything. There’s not one answer. I could talk about this forever so instead I set a five minute timer on my phone and wrote a list of as many of the many things that are causing this on a systemic level that I could think of:

It’s parents not reading with their kids (a privilege, but some parents have that privilege to be able to do this and don’t.)

It’s youtube from birth and never being bored.

It’s phasing out phonics for sight words (memorizing without understanding sounds or meaning) in elementary schools in the early aughts.

It’s defunding public libraries that do all the community and youth outreach.

It’s NCLB and mandating standardized tests which center reading short passages as opposed to longform texts so students don’t build up the endurance or comprehension skills.

It’s NCLB preventing schools from holding students back if they lack the literacy skills to move onto the next grade because they can’t be left behind so they’re passed on.

It’s the chronic underfunding of ESL and Special Ed programs for students who need extra literacy support.

It’s the cultural devaluing of the humanities in favor of stem and business because those make more money which leads to a lot of students to completely disregard reading and writing.

It’s the learning loss from covid.

It’s covid trauma manifesting in a lot of students as learned helplessness, or an inability to “figure things out” or push through adversity to complete challenging tasks independently, especially reading difficult texts.

It’s covid normalizing cheating and copying.

It’s increasing phone use.

It’s damage to attention span exacerbated by increased phone use that leaves you without an ability to sit and be bored ever without 2-3 forms of constant stimulation.

It’s shortform video becoming the predominant form of social media content as opposed to anything text-based.

It’s starting to also be generative AI.

It’s the book bans.

what did I miss.

[reasonsforhope]

"Doctors and women now have the final say about when an abortion should be performed, after a Maricopa County Superior Court judge struck down the state’s 15-week ban following last year’s vote to enshrine abortion rights in the Arizona Constitution. 

Two local OB-GYNs and the Arizona chapter of Planned Parenthood took the state to court over the ban late last year. The trio argued that the 2022 law, which prohibited abortions after its gestational deadline unless a patient was facing death or the impairment of a major bodily function, should be struck down because voters in November [2024] overwhelmingly decided to make the procedure a fundamental right via Proposition 139. 

Judge Frank Moskowitz agreed, writing in a two-page ruling that the 15-week law is instantly nullified and no one will ever be able to carry out its punishments. The law threatened doctors who violated it with up to two years in prison. 

“(The state of Arizona), its respective agents, officers, employees, successors, and all persons acting in concert with each or any of them are hereby immediately and permanently and forever enjoined and restrained from implementing, enforcing, or giving any effect to (the 2022 law),” reads Moskowitz’s order. 

The 15-week ban directly conflicted with Prop. 139, because the voter-approved constitutional provisions explicitly allow abortions to be performed to the point of fetal viability, generally regarded to be around 23 to 24 weeks. It also includes a carveout for abortions beyond that point if a doctor deems one is necessary to preserve a patient’s life, physical or mental health. 

Abortion rights advocates celebrated the ruling, which has been long-awaited and represents the first win in tearing down Arizona’s many hostile abortion laws. More than two dozen anti-abortion laws remain on the books, including laws that mandate a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion can be performed and forbid the use of telehealth to prescribe the abortion pill. Each of those will likely need to be individually challenged in court. 

Dr. Paul Isaacson, one of the OB-GYNs involved in the lawsuit and the co-owner of a private abortion clinic in the Phoenix area, said the ruling restores his ability to offer his patients critical care without worrying about being criminalized for it. 

“For nearly three years, my hands were tied because of this cruel ban,” he said in a written statement. “It is a relief to no longer have to turn away patients from essential health care.”"

-via Arizona Mirror, March 5, 2025

[kavaleyre]

• The Hanged Man •

“Compared to what Falin went through? This is nothing.”

[dimeadozencows]

My personal understanding of the situation

[jewelsigaveu]

not to be like both sides are wrong, and only i’m right, but i have been thinking about sabrina’s album cover controversy. to me, it’s pretty evident that she is going to be exploring her own compliance in getting into relationships where she gets treated badly or well like a dog. while manchild is a tongue-in-cheek mocking song that is all about how she just keeps stumbling into bed with these loser men, woe is me, there is an obvious irony to lines like “won’t you let an innocent woman be?” “i swear they choose me, i’m not choosing them.” sabrina is hardly an innocent doe-eyed girl. she is very sharp and experienced in relationships, and no one is forcing her to date these men. the music video further emphasizes this point by showcasing her hitchhiking into increasingly more ridiculous automobiles with increasingly more ridiculous men who all let her down in various absurd and/or violent ways. and yet the closing shot of the video is her getting out of one car and immediately running over and jumping into the next, continuing the cycle. so while the song on the surface externalizes the blame for her mistreatment to basically everyone but her, the subtext is all about how sabrina is the one doing this to herself. when i see the album cover of her smiling at the camera on her knees while a man holds her hair like a leash, i see a deep and very uncomfortable self-awareness and acknowledgement happening here. it’s obviously going to be dressed up in the shiny pop music veneer and sabrina’s signature brand of dry humor, but this is a very sensitive topic that most upcoming pop girls wouldn’t touch with a ten feet pole because it is humiliating to admit that you’re complicit in your own mistreatment and degradation. that you aren’t just posing as a dog, but you actually let men treat you like one. manchild isn’t just the first single from the album but also the opening track, setting the stage for what the album will be exploring. and again while on the surface it looks like your usual my ex is a loser classic fare, in actuality it is all about how sabrina is deluding herself about her choice of partners. “manchild, why you always come running to me?” she asks, and i’m willing to bet that she is going to be answering that question in the album, eventually coming to the conclusion that these things aren’t as one-sided as she initially presented them to be. from what i’ve seen, sabrina is very smart and very deliberate when it comes to her branding. i highly doubt she chose such a sensational image just to “appeal to the male gaze.” yes the picture is meant to play into that trope, but hardly in a glorifying way.

[spurgie-cousin]

This is such a good, succinct way of describing the illusion of choice many fundamentalist women and men have when it comes to life paths.

[obligateweirdo]

I honestly thought this was the obvious take when I first watched those fateful 15 minutes. I was very soon disabused of this notion by the fandom.

I wouldn’t say Crowley was wrong, either. They both wanted, more than anything, to be together. Each just asked the other to do the one thing they couldn’t do for each other.

Aziraphale Made the Right Decision

I've talked about this before, but I'm doing it again because this is my blog and I do what I want.

Now, I pretty much can't stand anything about my country's government. Different leaders get different levels of vitriol from me, but overall it almost doesn't matter bc the overall system is so corrupt and slanted in favor of rich white people at the expense of everyone else. So yeah, if I could comfortably go off to live in the woods with my husband and my cat and never deal with anything ever again, that would be living the dream.

BUT.

Let's say a White House spokesperson shows up on my doorstep and offers me a job. I'm like, dude I do NOT want to work in DC. He offers a similar position to my husband, we could work together, really shake things up. I tell my husband, and he doesn't take it well. Tells me good luck and walks out. Ouch.

I'm wavering now, not sure what to do. I ask the White House guy what this job will entail.

They say, "Oh, we're starting World War 3. Nuclear Armageddon, all life on earth will most likely be extinguished, you know the drill. Ready to go?"

You're going to tell me that I can, in good conscience, say, "Actually I think I'll stay with my husband and watch the world burn. Thanks but no thanks."

Do I think they're actually going to let me have complete control of the situation? Of course not. Am I morally obligated to at least try because for fucks sake it's WORLD WAR 3???

Yeah, I'd say so.

This is setting aside all speculation about threats to Crowley, subtle control, anything we didn't see. And for the record, I think there's a LOT going on in that scene that we didn't see. But even if what we saw was all there was, Aziraphale made the right call.

[vaspider]

I cannot stress enough how important it is that whatever you think of anything else, Trump Cannot Be President Again.

The "rip apart democracy and install an autocrat" group was not Ready for him in 2016. They didn't think he'd win.

They're ready now. They're teeing up for a second Trump president. Whatever your favorite current Thing, it would be worse under Trump, and it is not an exaggeration to say that they're going to try to make sure that they stay in power forever, by any means necessary.

SCOTUS basically just said, "If Trump sends the Army in to murder protestors, that's okay. If Trump assassinates a political rival with the armed forces of which he is the Commander In Chief, that's an official act, and there's no recourse."

Anything he can even vaguely justify as "an official act" - including installing people in the Justice Department to support his coup, including pressuring his VP to support his coup - is no longer a crime.

This isn't just me saying this, btw. Here's Robert Reich, lifelong public servant (and yes, dad of @samreich, since I know what's important to y'all):

Finally, the Republican-appointed justices have given a dangerous amount of discretion to presidents — broad enough, as Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted in her dissent, to protect presidents from prosecution for bribes and assassinations. A president already has the authority under the Insurrection Act to order troops into American streets. After today’s ruling, those troops would be under the command of a person who would almost certainly enjoy absolute immunity for the orders he gives them.

This is unbelievably terrifying.

[henryscapon]

how to ask the demon you've been smitten over for 6000 years to dance: an angel's guide

bonus:

[akl-sketch]

Inside me are two wolves - one wants to play Baldur’s Gate and the other wants to draw Baldur’s Gate.