Repent (Scenes From The Fall, Nine.)

I am not the god of war, Diana, I am the god of truth. Mankind stole this world from us. They ruined it, day by day. And I, the only one wise enough to see it, was left too weak to stop them. All these years, I have struggled alone, whispering into their ears. Ideas, inspiration for formulas, weapons... but I don't make them use them. They start these wars on their own. All I do is orchestrate an armistice I know they cannot keep, in the hope they will destroy themselves. But it has never been enough... until you. When you first arrived, I was going to crush you. But I knew that if only you could see what the other gods could not, then you would join me, and with our powers combined, we could finally end all the pain, all the suffering, the destruction they bring. And we could return this world to the paradise it was before them, forever. ~Ares, from the film Wonder Woman.

...

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.

And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

If any man have an ear, let him hear.

He that leads into captivity shall go into captivity: he that kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he speaks as a dragon.

And he exercises all the power of the first beast before him, and causes the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

And he doeth great wonders, so that he makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,

And deceive them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

And he caused all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. ~Revelation 13, King James Bible.

I saw this when I got home from the store. I walked, because the car is in the shop.

FOX News is talking about some hokey "Out of body experience" crap where some preachers supposedly "visited Hell."

They should've stayed there as far as I'm concerned. This stuff is complete bullshit, always has been.

Meanwhile judging from the look on Katie Britt's face the Jack Smith hearings did not go well. Throw in the fact that Eric Schmitt tried to make it sound like prosecuting the former President of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, for war crimes was itself somehow Something Something Gazpacho "Illegal" rather than the proper function of international law. Well, FOX News can't talk about the Jack Smith hearing, now can they??

I mean, given their abandonment of all things actually Republican and apparent desire to be nothing more than ass-kissers for some absolute monarch, I suppose "Republicans" would bristle at the thought of any malevolent leader anywhere being held to account. Although considering that Hashim Thaci is Muslim I'm surprised they'd try and claim him for the club.

Justice anywhere is a threat to Injustice everywhere, I guess?? And bad leadership or injustice does not become good, or justice, just because you dress it up in a bunch of Bible-talk (while trying to say nobody else can do the same.) Fuck all that.

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. ~George Orwell, 1984. 

Reagan Wept.

Earlier today, I saw this, too.

Apparently Suella Braverman, who's joined Reform UK wants to force British kids to sing Christian songs in school?

This in one of the least-religiously-observant, most secular countries in the world where chances are real good if somebody is a regular participant in any religious activity they're not a Christian (most likely Muslim, in fact) or if they are Christian, bet they're a Black African or Afro-Caribbean type of Christian with decidedly Pentecostal leanings.

Braverman herself is supposedly Buddhist, and married to a Jewish guy, so I don't even know where she's coming up with this crap except that Reform and all these far-Right Brits seem to be taking money from American Christian Nationalists who see they're likely going to lose over here and picked a really stupid place to try to export their "Culture War" to. I don't even get how they thought this crap was going to work, like at all. And the British people ain't having it, so far.

I mean, I get it, these people are stupid. I hate to sound that way but most of the actual intelligent or principled conservatives have jumped ship for various reasons, and many more are still doing so.

Because this shit gets dumber every day.

Every day these fucking people get more obsessed with pushing Christianity on other people while blatantly not practicing it themselves.

Thatcher joined Reagan in his weeping, pretty much.

I'm TIRED of this bullshit.

We've got to take the neighborhood back. We've got to go in there. Just forget telling your child to go to the Peace Corps. It's right around the corner. It's standing on the corner. It can't speak English. It doesn't want to speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk. "Why you ain't where you is go." I don't know who these people are. And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. Then I heard the father talk. This is all in the house. You used to talk a certain way on the corner and you got into the house and switched to English. Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't land a plane with "why you ain't…". You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth. There is no Bible that has that kind of language. Where did these people get the idea that they're moving ahead on this? Well, they know they're not, they're just hanging out in the same place, five or six generations sitting in the projects when you're just supposed to stay there long enough to get a job and move out. ~Bill Cosby, the "Pound Cake" speech.

I can't even talk the way that these fucking people talk, anymore.

And what does this shit come down to about every fucking time?? Some chud trying to justify the Cornell Seven. Patriarchy, Rape, various forms of bad behavior by "Men."

Ya know, back in the day Christian apologists and anti-Cult people liked to try to connect cults or any religion they judged as a cult with sexual perversity. It wasn't an entirely wrong idea...a lot of cults really are All About The Power Of The Penis, MAGA is no exception.

But those guys were doing it to rile up a specific type of Christian that it's apparently not cool to be, now. Can't have anybody in Trump's world believing that sexual perversity is wrong now can we.

But the issue is these motherfuckers wanna have their drugs and their orgiastic parties and all that and still be considered to be oh-so-righteous. No, fuck you, none of this works that way.

And even if you win, political Power does not change Right from Wrong.

There's still an Afterlife, you're still gonna be judged in it.

The fact that these fucking people ignore that or simply refuse to obey it tells me, at the end of the day, these assholes are probably one motherfucker of a lot more Atheistic than Richard Dawkins.

Or worse, whatever spiritual beliefs they do have are likely so alien from the Bible or Christianity or any of the other Abrahamic religions that God does not recognize these fucking idiots.

And Buddha sure as hell wouldn't, Susie.

No one gets "Saved" by what they make Other people do. You have to talk to God, the gods, the Universe, the Dharma or what the fuck ever your damn self and come clean about what you did.

You know, Repent.

These Fucking People? They don't want to repent. They don't think they did anything wrong in the first place!

And that's why they're all going to Hell.

They just want to see how many of the rest of us they can take with them.

At this point "Conservatives" are just trying to hypnotize people with their bullshit.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

Слава Україна!

The Holy Quran says it, "Pilgrimage to the House [of God built by the prophet Abraham] is a duty men owe to God; those who are able, make the journey." (3:97) Allah said: "And proclaim the pilgrimage among men; they will come to you on foot and upon each lean camel, they will come from every deep ravine" (22:27). Every one of the thousands at the airport, about to leave for Jeddah, was dressed this way. You could be a king or a peasant and no one would know. Some powerful personages, who were discreetly pointed out to me, had on the same thing I had on. Once thus dressed, we all had begun intermittently calling out "Labbayka! (Allahumma) Labbayka!" (Here I come, O Lord!) Packed in the plane were white, black, brown, red, and yellow people, blue eyes and blond hair, and my kinky red hair -- all together, brothers! All honoring the same God, all in turn giving equal honor to each other. . . .That is when I first began to reappraise the "white man." It was when I first began to perceive that "white man," as commonly used, means complexion only secondarily; primarily it described attitudes and actions. In America, "white man" meant specific attitudes and actions toward the black man, and toward all other non-white men. But in the Muslim world, I had seen that men with white complexions were more genuinely brotherly than anyone else had ever been. That morning was the start of a radical alteration in my whole outlook about "white" men. ~Malcolm X.

Eight

Hess: So what shall we toast to, boys? I can blather on about “To health” or “To success,” but I’d like to do somethin’ a little less rote. Where you from, Brown Eyes?

Migs Mayfield: How ’bout a toast to Operation Cinder?

Hess: Now there’s a man who knows his history.

Mayfield: No, I don’t just know it. I lived it. I was in Burnin Konn.

Hess: Burnin Konn?

Mayfield: Mmm.

Hess: That was a hard day. I had to make many unpleasant decisions.

Mayfield: Yes, you did. Entire city gone in moments, along with everybody in it. We lost our whole division that day. Man, that was like 5-10,000 people.

Hess: Yep. All heroes of the Empire.

Mayfield: Yeah. And all dead.

Hess: Well, it’s a small sacrifice for the greater good, son.

Mayfield: Depends on who you ask, don’t you think?

Hess: [irritated] What you gettin’ at, trooper?

Mayfield: All those people, the ones who died, was it good for them? Hmm? Their families? The guys I served with? Civilians, those poor mud scuffers, died defending their homes, fighting for freedom. Was it good for them?

Hess: But we’ve outlasted them, son. They’re eating themselves alive. The New Republic is in complete disarray, and we grow stronger. You see, with the rhydonium you’ve delivered, we can create havoc that’s gonna make Burnin Konn pale by comparison. And then they’re gonna turn to us once again. You see, boys, everybody thinks they want freedom, but what they really want is order. And when they realize that, they’re gonna welcome us back with open arms. Ah. To the Empire.

[Mayfield chuckles, then fires a blaster at Hess' chest, killing him instantly. He and Mando then shoot their way out of the mess hall] ~From The Mandalorian, Season 2, Ep. 7 "The Believer"

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: ~John 11:25