#a matter of principle

[weirdlookindog]

"Wherever she looked, Fred's eyes were studying her, his hands reaching for her"

Henry Enoch Sharp (1912–2019) - Illustration for E. K. Jarvis' 'A Matter of Principle'

(Fantastic Adventures Vol.13 #4, April 1951)

[grapemoon]

Always wanted to do the @m-chromatic color pallet challenge thang hehehe. Not my best oliver but im proud of him and his colors #lala

No example of the pallet version under cut

[bixels]

tarpit site.

[mewvore]

the absolute nerve of tech companies to make dogshit digital products, beg and plead for people to buy them, and when that obviously doesn't work they just force people to get the product (force update, brick old versions) going "we know best its great we promise :)" and its a fucked up wreck for 90% of its life until they make something to replace it thats EVEN WORSE. like remember when coke made new coke and that shit caused absolute pandemonium? I miss when companies were beholden to actual customer feedback and not the 10 or so billionaires who invest in them with oodles of cash so they can tank consumer backlash until their dogshit is publicly """"""accepted""""

[shisasan]

John Dee, Monas Hieroglyphica (The Hieroglyphic Monad) Originally published: 1564

[triglycercule]

imagining this very funny totally amusing bit where dust (despite having a lot of pockets) makes horror carry a lighter for him (only because he can't be bothered to remember to bring one on him all the time) and horror keeps it in his head

but horror's a dick so everytime dust wants to smoke and he needs a light horror's always like "whats the password :3" (he actually said the emoticon i was the quotation marks) and dust has to guess. because horror changes it every time. and its never something predictable. and then he either just totally gives up on that cig or he has to forcefully dig into horror's head to get the lighter because horror's being a PRICK

now dust is shoulder deep into horror's eyesocket while horror is clawing and screaming and killer's just standing there behind them watching this unfold with that fuckass smile on his face (he can't get this type of entertainment anywhere else)

[notrobinsomethingworse]

The real reason Tim took the cowl out of his costume was because he almost died of heatstroke when Bruce very clearly told him to “use a more breathable fabric chum” with Tim replying “nah, I’ll be alright.”

[beesbeesbees42]

I forgot I named my Pokemon that and now it looks like my child is being held for a ransom

[stupidvillainousposts]

Having Pups and a Skittish Boyfriend Makes it Difficult to be Intimate

Fidds, wrapping his arms around Stan: C'mon, sweetheart; Ya haven't slept for ten straight hours.

Stan, staring at Ford's journal: Not tired.

Fidds: Well, I think I know how t' fix that conundrum~

Stan, wagging his tail with interest: Oh, really?

Fidds, running a hand up Stan's shirt: *Chuckles* I sure do~

Mabel, running into the lab holding a sweater: Grunkle Stan! Grunkle Fidds! Look what I made!

Stan and Fidds: *Immediately Pull Away From Each Other*

Mabel: Whoa, you're both really red. Are you okay?

Fidds, nervously: Yep! Perfectly fine! Whaddya have on yer little sweater there, pun'kin?

Mabel: *Goes on a Spiel About Her Work*

Stan: *Turns Back Around to Study the Journal More*

Fidds, under his breath: Darn it.

----------------------------

Fidds: *Nibbling on Stan's Neck While They're in Bed*

Stan: *Panting and Whimpering Happily*

Dipper: *Knocks on the Door Frantically* GRUNKLE STAN! THERE'S A GIANT RAT IN THE KITCHEN!

Fidds: *Hisses Quietly*

Stan, snickering: Alright, gimme a second, Squirt! I'll get down there and catch it!

------------------------------

Stan: Anyone got anything planned for today?

Dipper: I'm gonna binge that cool show Wendy told us about!

Mabel: I've got sweaters to make!

Stan: What about you, Honey Bunches? Got anything planned?

Fidds, thinking he'll finally be able to get freaky with Stan: No, nothing in particular. Why d'ya ask?

Stan: I have to check the perimeter for the week. It'll probably take all day so I wanted to make sure nothing important was going on. You'll be okay here with the pups, right?

Fidds, gritting his teeth: Yup. Fine as flour.

-----------------------------

Stan: The pups are hanging out in the woods with Wendy.

Fidds: Okay?

Stan: They should be out for a while.

Fidds, getting hopeful: Yeah...?

Stan: So... I was thinking...

Fidds, excitedly: About...

Stan, suddenly anxious: Nothing, nevermind.

Fidds, horrifically shocked: ...I'm going outside.

Stan: Why?

Fidds: I need some fresh air!

---------------------------------

Fidds: *Peacefully Reading a Book*

Stan: *Walks Up to Fidds* I wanna have sex.

Fidds: YEE-FUCKING-HAW!

[holdingonforheaven]

the problem with torturing fox. is that. we now have to fix fox. and while its easy to think of ways to torture him. thinking of ways to heal him? much harder.

[mothmanavenue]

can i confess something else that will absolutely get me stoned in the town square since im dropping my unpopular opinions. I don’t like altean broadsword Lance. i already disliked red paladin Lance. the broadsword was like rubbing salt in the wound. why couldn’t he have his own niche. why was his character development just making him keith. i understand that it was like “he accepts that he doesn’t have to be a leader and excels as a co-leader and you can find happiness that way yada yada yada”. but you could’ve done that without making him keith. also now give him something unique, cool, that falls in line with his sniper bit. i’m not saying just give him another gun, im saying give him something quiet and lethal. like a garotte. yeah i want garotte lance.

i yap a lot more in my notes by the way if you were interested in other unpopular opinions. don’t send me hate messages or comments i won’t read it and will block viciously i also will not be debating this this is my hill to die on <3

[pasdetrois]

Death and the Maiden (Ballet Rambert, 1937). Photographer unknown. Duchess Theatre, London, UK Accompanied by Franz Schubert's String Quartet No. 14 'Death and the Maiden' (1824)

[seaglassdinosaur]

I like to think about Woodbine Chance. He made a dangerous, decisive, split-second choice to run from the reaping and was shot for it. That decision lead to Haymitch being taken to the Capital and cemented his role in the rebellion that took down Panem twenty-five years later.

Woodbine wasn’t thinking of that. Didn’t have it as a whisper in his mind, but he changed the course of history. He was killed, torn from the world, but that effect of his one rebellious action rippled throughout the lives of everyone around him. They could edit out Woodbine, but couldn’t erase his impact; couldn’t edit out Haymitch, put on that train and winning the quell, becoming a victor who helped make the Mockingjay.

Did his family know that and feel pride? Did they feel his presence years after his death, years after they had to stop talking about him, as they watched the Capital crumble? Did they cry, knowing that defining moment in Woodbine’s life, a life that was so entirely erased, couldn’t be taken away, but spread outward?

One choice and he changed the world.

[starscr0ss]

im thinking about celestia and the abyss being literal opposites (chaos and order) and im thinking about childe and lumine being sort of embodiments of that, just not in the way we think. after the latest natlan quest its clear to us what the fatui intends and what they want- i think the tsaritsa more than anything loves humanity, which is why she directly opposes celestia who are known for bringing down different civilizations. childe, as Her weapon and Her blade is an extenction of that: he's a blade forged by the abyss, bathed in Her holyness, meant to strike down those who sin. lumine (talking solely about traveler lumine) is the literal sister of the prince of the abyss, she has clear ties to it and at this point in the story still is hesitant about fully opposing him (i love angst). her entire story revolves around chaose and disrupting celestia's (and the fatui's) order. isnt that fun

i think what childe longs for the most is control- control of himself, his life, his powers, his story, his fate. i think what lumine wants the most is freedom, which is just another phacet of chaos

anyways. you see it. the themes are theming

[bananacakepie]

Mark had ever right to crash out when Gwyn showed up. Like, Gwyn didn’t say “you left the hunt so you didn’t have to swear the oath,” he said, “you could have lied through it.”

Gwyn needed someone to save Kieran, and he thought: I better go and ask Mark to lie his way out of this for me.

And Gwyn knows Mark is strong, he openly points out that Mark had been talented amongst the Hunt (and that was when Mark had been malnourished). But Gwyn doesn’t want Mark to fight to save Kieran. No, Gwyn recognizes that the only way to even have a chance to rescue Kieran would be to lie. He wants Mark to go against one of his strongest principles: honesty. And Mark - who is surrounded by deception - struggles with the idea of lying. But Gywn just shoves all of that pressure on him.

[contemplatingoutlander]

Finally, The New York Times Editorial Board says Trump is unfit to hold the Office of the President of the United States!

This is a "gift🎁link" so you can read the entire, HISTORIC editorial by The New York Times Editorial Board stating in no uncertain terms that Donald Trump is unfit for office.

Below are some excerpts from the five subsections of the editorial: I Moral Fitness, II. Principled Leadership, III. Character, IV. A President's Words, and V. Rule of Law

I. MORAL FITNESS MATTERS

Presidents are confronted daily with challenges that require not just strength and conviction but also honesty, humility, selflessness, fortitude and the perspective that comes from sound moral judgment. If Mr. Trump has these qualities, Americans have never seen them in action on behalf of the nation’s interests. His words and actions demonstrate a disregard for basic right and wrong and a clear lack of moral fitness for the responsibilities of the presidency.

He lies blatantly and maliciously, embraces racists, abuses women and has a schoolyard bully’s instinct to target society’s most vulnerable. He has delighted in coarsening and polarizing the town square with ever more divisive and incendiary language. Mr. Trump is a man who craves validation and vindication, so much that he would prefer a hostile leader’s lies to his own intelligence agencies’ truths and would shake down a vulnerable ally for short-term political advantage. His handling of everything from routine affairs to major crises was undermined by his blundering combination of impulsiveness, insecurity and unstudied certainty. [...] The Supreme Court, with its ruling on July 1 granting presidents “absolute immunity” for official acts, has removed an obstacle to Mr. Trump’s worst impulses: the threat of legal consequences. What remains is his own sense of right and wrong. Our country’s future is too precious to rely on such a broken moral compass. [color emphasis added]

Below the cut are excerpts from the other four subsections.

II. PRINCIPLED LEADERSHIP MATTERS

Republican presidents and presidential candidates have used their leadership at critical moments to set a tone for society to live up to. Mr. Reagan faced down totalitarianism in the 1980s.... George H.W. Bush signed the Americans With Disabilities Act.... George W. Bush, for all his failures after Sept. 11, did not stoke hate against or demonize Muslims or Islam.

As a candidate during the 2008 race, Mr. McCain spoke out when his fellow conservatives spread lies about his opponent, Barack Obama. Mr. Romney was willing to sacrifice his standing and influence in the party he once represented as a presidential nominee, by boldly calling out Mr. Trump’s failings and voting for his removal from office. These acts of leadership are what it means to put country first, to think beyond oneself. Mr. Trump has demonstrated contempt for these American ideals. He admires autocrats, from Viktor Orban to Vladimir Putin to Kim Jong-un. He believes in the strongman model of power — a leader who makes things happen by demanding it, compelling agreement through force of will or personality. In reality, a strongman rules through fear and the unprincipled use of political might for self-serving ends, imposing poorly conceived policies that smother innovation, entrepreneurship, ideas and hope. During his four years in office, Mr. Trump tried to govern the United States as a strongman would, issuing orders or making decrees on Twitter. He announced sudden changes in policy — on who can serve in the military, on trade policy, on how the United States deals with North Korea or Russia — without consulting experts on his staff about how these changes would affect America. Indeed, nowhere did he put his political or personal interests above the national interest more tragically than during the pandemic, when he faked his way through a crisis by touting conspiracy theories and pseudoscience while ignoring the advice of his own experts and resisting basic safety measures that would have saved lives. [...] A second Trump administration would be different. He intends to fill his administration with sycophants, those who have shown themselves willing to obey Mr. Trump’s demands or those who lack the strength to stand up to him. He wants to remove those who would be obstacles to his agenda, by enacting an order to make it easier to fire civil servants and replace them with those more loyal to him. This means not only that Americans would lose the benefit of their expertise but also that America would be governed in a climate of fear, in which government employees must serve the interests of the president rather than the public.... Another term under Mr. Trump’s leadership would risk doing permanent damage to our government. [color/ emphasis added]

III. CHARACTER MATTERS

Character is the quality that gives a leader credibility, authority and influence. During the 2016 campaign, Mr. Trump’s petty attacks on his opponents and their families led many Republicans to conclude that he lacked such character. Other Republicans, including those who supported the former president’s policies in office, say they can no longer in good conscience back him for the presidency. “It’s a job that requires the kind of character he just doesn’t have,” Paul Ryan, a former Republican House speaker, said of Mr. Trump in May.

Those who know Mr. Trump’s character best — the people he appointed to serve in the most important positions of his White House — have expressed grave doubts about his fitness for office.His former chief of staff John Kelly, a retired four-star Marine Corps general, described Mr. Trump as “a person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution and the rule of law.” Bill Barr, whom Mr. Trump appointed as attorney general, said of him, “He will always put his own interest and gratifying his own ego ahead of everything else, including the country’s interest.” James Mattis, a retired four-star Marine general who served as defense secretary, said, “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try.” Mike Pence, Mr. Trump’s vice president, has disavowed him. No other vice president in modern American history has done this. “I believe that anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States,” Mr. Pence has said. “And anyone who asked someone else to put them over the Constitution should never be president of the United States again.” [...] It may be tempting for Americans to believe that a second Trump presidency would be much like the first, with the rest of government steeled to protect the country and resist his worst impulses. But the strongman needs others to be weak, and Mr. Trump is surrounding himself with yes men. The American public has a right to demand more from their president and those who would serve under him. [color/ emphasis added]

IV. A PRESIDENT’S WORDS MATTER

When America saw white nationalists and neo-Nazis march through the streets of Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 and activists were rallying against racism, Mr. Trump spoke of “very fine people on both sides.” When he was pressed about the white supremacist Proud Boys during a 2020 debate, Mr. Trump told them to “stand back and stand by,” a request that, records show, they took literally in deciding to storm Congress. This winter, the former president urged Iowans to vote for him and score a victory over their fellow Americans — “all of the liars, cheaters, thugs, perverts, frauds, crooks, freaks, creeps.” And in a Veterans Day speech in New Hampshire, he used the word “vermin,” a term he has deployed to describe both immigrants and political opponents.

What a president says reflects on the United States and the kind of society we aspire to be. In 2022 this board raised an urgent alarm about the rising threat of political violence in the United States and what Americans could do to stop it. At the time... the Republican Party was in the middle of a fight for control, between Trumpists and those who were ready to move on from his destructive leadership. This struggle within the party has consequences for all Americans. “A healthy democracy requires both political parties to be fully committed to the rule of law and not to entertain or even tacitly encourage violence or violent speech,” we wrote. A large faction of one party in our country fails that test, and that faction, Mr. Trump’s MAGA extremists, now control the party and its levers of power. There are many reasons his conquest of the Republican Party is bad for American democracy, but one of the most significant is that those extremists have often embraced violent speech or the belief in using violence to achieve their political goals. This belief led to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, and it has resulted in a rising number of threats against judges, elected officials and prosecutors. This threat cannot be separated from Mr. Trump’s use of language to encourage violence, to dehumanize groups of people and to spread lies. A study by researchers at the University of California, Davis, released in October 2022, came to the conclusion that MAGA Republicans (as opposed to those who identified themselves as traditional Republicans) “are more likely to hold extreme and racist beliefs, to endorse political violence, to see such violence as likely to occur and to predict that they will be armed under circumstances in which they consider political violence to be justified.” The Republican Party had an opportunity to renounce Trumpism; it has submitted to it. Republican leaders have had many opportunities to repudiate his violent discourse and make clear that it should have no place in political life; they failed to. [...] But with his nomination by his party all but assured, Mr. Trump has become even more reckless in employing extreme and violent speech, such as his references to executing generals who raise questions about his actions. He has argued, before the Supreme Court, that he should have the right to assassinate a political rival and face no consequences. [color/ emphasis added]

V. THE RULE OF LAW MATTERS

The danger from these foundational failings — of morals and character, of principled leadership and rhetorical excess — is never clearer than in Mr. Trump’s disregard for rule of law, his willingness to do long-term damage to the integrity of America’s systems for short-term personal gain. As we’ve noted, Mr. Trump’s disregard for democracy was most evident in his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and to encourage violence to stop the peaceful transfer of power. What stood in his way were the many patriotic Americans, at every level of government, who rejected his efforts to bully them into complying with his demands to change election results. Instead, they followed the rules and followed the law. This respect for the rule of law, not the rule of men, is what has allowed American democracy to survive for more than 200 years.

In the four years since losing the election, Mr. Trump has become only more determined to subvert the rule of law, because his whole theory of Trumpism boils down to doing whatever he wants without consequence. Americans are seeing this unfold as Mr. Trump attempts to fight off numerous criminal charges. Not content to work within the law to defend himself, he is instead turning to sympathetic judges — including two Supreme Court justices with apparent conflicts over the 2020 election and Jan. 6-related litigation. The playbook: delay federal prosecution until he can win election and end those legal cases. His vision of government is one that does what he wants, rather than a government that operates according to the rule of law as prescribed by the Constitution, the courts and Congress. [...] So much in the past two decades has tested these norms in our society.... We need a recommitment to the rule of law and the values of fair play. This election is a moment for Americans to decide whether we will keep striving for those ideals. Mr. Trump rejects them. If he is re-elected, America will face a new and precarious future, one that it may not be prepared for. It is a future in which intelligence agencies would be judged not according to whether they preserved national security but by whether they served Mr. Trump’s political agenda. It means that prosecutors and law enforcement officials would be judged not according to whether they follow the law to keep Americans safe but by whether they obey his demands to “go after” political enemies. It means that public servants would be judged not according to their dedication or skill but by whether they show sufficient loyalty to him and his MAGA agenda. Even if Mr. Trump’s vague policy agenda would not be fulfilled, he could rule by fear. The lesson of other countries shows that when a bureaucracy is politicized or pressured, the best public servants will run for the exits. This is what has already happened in Mr. Trump’s Republican Party, with principled leaders and officials retiring, quitting or facing ouster. In a second term, he intends to do that to the whole of government. [color/ emphasis added]