Four Lights (Day Of The Lord, Five.)

Gul Madred: I remember the first time I ate a live taspar. I was six years old and living on the streets of Lakat. There was a band of children, four, five...six years old—some even smaller, desperately trying to survive. We were thin, scrawny little animals, constantly hungry, always cold. We slept together in doorways, like packs of wild gettles, for warmth. Once I found a nest. Taspars had mated and built a nest in the eave of a burned-out building. And I found three eggs in it. It was like finding treasure. I cracked one open on the spot and ate it, very much as you just did. I planned to save the other two. They would keep me alive for another week. But of course, an older boy saw them and wanted them. And he got them. But he had to break my arm to do it.

Jean-Luc Picard: Must be rewarding to you to...to repay others for all those years of misery.

Gul Madred: What do you mean?

Jean-Luc Picard: Torture has never been a reliable means of extracting information. It is ultimately self-defeating as a means of control. One wonders why it is still practiced.

Gul Madred: I fail to see where this analysis is leading.

Jean-Luc Picard: Whenever I look at you now, I will not see a powerful Cardassian warrior; I will see a six-year-old boy who is powerless to protect himself.

Gul Madred: Be quiet!

Jean-Luc Picard: In spite of all you have done to me, I find you a pitiable man.

Gul Madred: Picard, stop it. Or I will turn this on and leave you in agony all night!

Jean-Luc Picard: Aha! You called me "Picard!"

Gul Madred: What are the Federation's defense plans for Minos Korva?

Jean-Luc Picard: There are four lights!

~From Star Trek: The Next Generation S6.E11 "Chains Of Command, Part II"

...

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

I saw this earlier.

Apparently a couple of idiot legislators in Florida want to make it illegal to fail a student on something if they invoke "god."

Sorry, but that's like making it legal for kids to cheat on their homework.

They might not learn anything at all, except to lie real good. Is that what These Fucking People think is "Christian??"

Of course not, they see it as an expression of political power.

Which attitudes have already bred a few generations of useless liars, at least.

(And I'm serious, to illustrate this I'll just point out the generations of outlandish lies White "Conservatives" tell about the American social safety net.)

For the record, as a Christian kid attending Christian private schools in the 1980's I saw kids get paddled (I'm talking get yo ass beat with the big old board-looking thing with all the holes in it, BTW) for less than Samantha Fulnecky did.

And there's a reason for that. 

Facts don't care about your political dogma or religion.

Nor do most career fields or practical jobs other than in politics or religion. Maybe advertising or "Business" runs a close second but there, you can actually have consequences for doing it wrong.

Truth is Truth and it doesn't give a shit about your opinion. You can bullshit or obscure it for awhile but it will always out, eventually.

But more than that, things simply are what they are. Failing to acknowledge this and live in the world as it is simply doesn't benefit anyone, least of all you.

If you have to accurately measure something, change a tire, do a task at work, read a book, take care of a kid or a pet, etc. not a damned one of those things is gonna give a shit if you're the right kind of "Christian" or "Conservative" or not. There is a right way and a wrong way to do most things. Life is not podcast bullshitting or political banter.

I'm a veteran, there is a right way and a wrong way to (for example) put on a gas mask or fire and maintain your weapon. If you do it the wrong way, you can die. Or you can survive but then have to be cared for by others, who also are trying to survive.

My partner might be a moderate conservative, but she's a vet tech. She has to do her job right, the first time, every time, and do it correctly or somebody's pet might die. This cuts down on her believing a lot of the bullshit going around.

You have to know how to get by and survive in a world that doesn't give a crap about you or your claimed "Beliefs."

Not to be crude or anything, but that's simply the way it is. I had this literally beat into me by the time I was like eight years old.

My Dad didn't tolerate lazy-assed not-wanting-to-do-your-homework bullshit, and my Mom was even worse.

I see why that was, now, and I'm grateful that I was taught properly.

Note: This always starts at home, don't let the State raise your kids, folks.

And thankfully, my family generally attended churches that had similar attitudes towards literal and theological Truth and which cared more about you picking up a Christian belief or two and having it stick than about any particular dogma, interpretation or politics.

Now?? the people who allegedly obsess over that you have to believe in their religion just exactly the right way at all times now literally don't care if you can read, or write anything more than "Jesus Did It!"

Anybody who thinks this way is not your friend, they're not on your side. In practical terms, they're really your enemy and their goal is to control you, fuck you over, manipulate you and/or steal from you.

Truth is the only floor most of us will ever have to stand on to push back against Power.

For fuck's sake the Bible itself says as much many times.

That's why these CHUDs want an AI Jesus that they can program to distract the people, or a dead savior on a stick and not a Living Christ that might Judge them.

Right and Wrong are what they are, anybody who cares enough to think about it can figure this out for themselves.

Jesus isn't a "Get Out Of Thinking For Free" card.

Christianity is a vastly complex philosophical and religious endeavor that actually requires a bit of education in it to do properly...if you want to avoid worshiping your own brain chemicals and emotional reactions, that is. 

Doesn't matter what faith one is talking about either, really, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, hippy Neo-Pagan weirdness, faithfulness takes knowledge and work and solidarity with other people.

And it's the bearers of the Tabernacle of Moloch that wish to distract you from this fact.

Salvation might be a free gift, but having the free will to make the choice and knowing what it means takes a little effort.

Participating in the Divine Conversation can be hard, but: You either believe in freedom or you don't.

And that applies to freedom of conscience or religion (and to the freedom of the world from the latter) as much as anything else.

On the Day Of The Lord, randomly blurting out "Jesus Did It!" ain't gonna save you.

You will be judged for your actions and intentions as well as claimed beliefs, please assume God is at least as smart as you are, probably smarter.

There are four lights, yo.

Слава Україна!

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.

Four

When men stop believing in God, it isn't that they then believe in nothing: they believe in everything. ~Umberto Eco