zanopticon:

A story that the Jews tell each other is that when the slaves were fleeing Egypt they came to the edge of the Red Sea and thought: well, fuck, this is it. Water in front of them and enemies behind. They had escaped, sure, but all this meant was that they were going to die free instead of in chains. A meaningful distinction in an abstract sense, but the Jews are a practical people, and mostly what they were concerned with in that moment was: they would be equally dead either way.

A man stepped out from the group. He stepped into the water. He said: mi chamocha ba’eilim adonai? Who is like you Adonai, among the gods who are worshipped? He sang that verse over and over again. He sang it as he waded into the sea. He gave his body over to his faith as he walked. There was nowhere to go but forward. If he was going to die, he figured, and be equally dead either way, he was not going to die in slavery and he was not going to die at the hands of the Egyptians, either. He was going to die walking and singing, believing, trying to find progress in the chaos, in the waves. 

In the story, the water laps first at his feet, then his knees, his thighs, his ribs, his neck, finally flowing into his mouth as he sings and sings and sings. The words get choked, mispronounced: the hard cha of mi chamocha becomes mi kamoka, strangled but still certain. 

In the story, this man is why the people get their miracle, the waters parting to let them cross through on dry land. It is an act of divine intervention, but it only comes because someone is willing to put his life on the line to make it happen. I keep thinking about him this week, that apocryphal man and how it is a story we make sure to keep telling each other: when there is water in front of you and enemies behind, you do not wait for your god, or a sign. You trust in something larger than yourself and open your mouth to sing about it. You put your feet on the ground and walk forward. 

shaelit:

the-knights-who-say-book:

according to this textbook, because president hayes, elected 1876, was elected as the result of several disputed votes, he was sometimes referred to as “his fraudulency”. and i sincerely love that

“your fraudulency, the cabinet is ready”

“jim i told you not to call me that”

“sorry, mr perjurer. i mean mr president”

“jim”

Oh we are so bringing this back.

This gallery contains 10 photos.

baawri: #AbSamjhautaNahin shows the effect of our words, our choices, our decisions, and reactions on women. It shows how women today are a victim of judgement, gender stereotyping, subconscious body shaming, and moral policing, more so today, than ever. [x]

janeypievanas:

Our favorite photo from when I was trying to get a Christmas-card worthy photo.

setissma:

Headcanon:

When Harry gets his first place after Hogwarts that actually has more than one floor, he comes home after getting a load of boxes to find Hermione using a sledgehammer on the drywall beneath the stairs. And Ron’s like, “Look, mate, I borrowed this stuff from my dad, I’ve got a DRILL and a – what’s it called again, Hermione?” “A stud finder.” “Right, one of those, and we’re going to fix your stairs.” Harry’s like, “But there’s nothing wrong with them.” “Yes, Harry, there is.” Harry’s just sort of standing there in total bewilderment while Hermione totally demolishes the wall. “We couldn’t have done that with magic?” “No, Harry, this is personal. You two take this mess out to the skip.” And then Harry stands around a while longer and Hermione puts in support beams in the appropriate places so the stairs don’t fall in, and Ron’s very excited about using the stud finder even though Hermione won’t let him use the drill. When they’re finished, Harry has this set of shelves. So he says, still completely confused, “I thought we picked this place because it had loads of storage.” And Hermione says, “Go get some of my books. I know it’s just shelves, but it’s not a bloody cupboard.”

And every time Harry moves for the rest of his life, Ron and Hermione are there on moving day and they knock out anything under the stairs, even if it’s just a wall. Hermione reads a lot of books. Ron learns to use a miter saw and a carpenter’s square and practices the nail hammering spell until he can do it perfectly on the first try. And sometimes it isn’t very practical but it looks nice…

And sometimes, when they all get older and have children, it’s cozy and has a purpose…

And eventually Hermione gets the trick of there being nothing under the stairs at all…

Which is the story of how Harry Potter never lived in a house with a cupboard under the stairs again for the entire rest of his life.

raptorific:

Things that, as a mentally ill person, I do not find offensive:

• Using the words “crazy” or “nuts” or “insane” to describe something unexpected or incredible, such as “Mars has two moons?! That’s crazy!” or “Wow, those Westboro Baptists sure believe some crazy shit” or “that party was insane!” or “You really think you can have unlimited chocolate by cutting it a certain way? Are you insane?” or “One Direction’s fans went nuts when they stepped out of that chariot.”
• Using words like “lunatic” or “madman” to describe someone who’s behavior is fanatical, like “Why is that raving lunatic shouting about abortion at this soldier’s funeral?”

Things that, as a mentally ill person, I find incredibly offensive:

• When you use the words “crazy” or “nuts” or “insane” or “lunatic” or “madman” or any variant as a way of dismissing me or people like me and acting like we’re not full people
• The portrayal in the media of mentally ill people as not existing beyond their illness on the rare occasion we’re shown as existing at all
• The portrayal of mentally ill people as dangerous, or more violent than mentally healthy people, or less intelligent and competent to run their own lives than mentally healthy people, and the fact that a lot of writers don’t seem to understand that “mentally ill” is not a motivation. 
• The fact that every time there’s a mass shooting or a bombing or an attack and they can’t scapegoat a religion or race for the crime, the perpetrator seems to grow a mental illness just in time for the trial, and people think that explains (or in some cases excuses) what they did
• The fact that when people push for not allowing people who can’t use them responsibly to own weapons, they always seem to start at “mentally ill people” on the list of people who shouldn’t be allowed handle weapons, even though there’s no correlation between mental illness and violence. 
• When people say “you’d have to be crazy to (commit atrocity)” even though no, sane people commit atrocities all the time. In fact, most violent crime is committed by people with no mental illness. 
• The fact that I have literally seen otherwise-progressive people suggest that all mentally ill people be registered by the government, and perhaps required to identify themselves, and maybe imprisoned for public safety if the need arises. How would you have us identify ourselves? Should we wear a patch on our clothes, or just present our papers upon request?

But I think what really gets me the most:

• When mentally healthy people call others out on our behalf when it comes to things on the first list, but remain completely silent about, or even actively complicit in, everything on the second list. 

hissing-hummingbird:

yuleagin-nova:

“Alt-Right aren’t Neo-Nazis because it’s not just about white supremacy”

Nazis weren’t just about white supremacy either. They were about controlling women, return to cultural traditionalism, homophobia (the gay community had reached record heights in Germany, making identification that much easier), and “law and order”.

Everything the alt-right stands for

is the Nazi line.

No really. Berlin in the 1910’s up before they took power. Had a THRIVING gay community. Much like how some think of San Francisco today. Germany was also at the time up front with academic education and research that helped normalize and validate all queer people, including trans people and coining terms that while not really used today was really helpful at the time and did NOT classify anything as any form of illness.

And it was such kind of private research institute in Berlin “Der Institut für Sexualwissenschaft” that was one of the main targets of the mass book burning in 1933 where archives, files and papers were burned on the street and the institute permanently shut down.

And yes this acceptance where there was actually a free and relatively safe and open gay community at that time was blamed on Jewish people by Hitler himself unsurprisingly.

Do not let history fool you into thinking that long ago we had absolutely nothing. It was violently taken from us and pushed us far back and I beg for it to not happen again.

tbh anyone who habitually refers to a group of people as “scum” is not a person I care to interact with on a regular basis

historical memes: phonebooth stuffing

thisisntgoodbi:

glumshoe:

brianenu:

glumshoe:

before the mannequin challenge, planking, or the Harlem Shake, the hot meme of 1959 involved teenagers cramming as many of themselves as possible into a phone booth

While phonebooth stuffing was arguably a pretty cool meme, it went out of style by the end of the year and was replaced by “hunkerin’”, which is as boring as it sounds and identical to the modern Slav Squat:

And now for a 1920s meme

Pole sitting

Everything old is new again – early Christian ascetics called Stylites pulled the same shit by climbing to the top of pillars and sitting up there for as long as possible. Not sure I’d call that a “meme”, as it was done for the purposes of becoming more holy through torturing yourself.

I’m sorry but is “to become more holy through torturing yourself” not the purpose of meming?

The World Was Wide Enough

sahara947:

a-hamil-ton-of-sins:

Burr: I can’t let this man with 6 small children who need a fatherly figure make an orphan of my 22-year old married daugher

Burr: I was too young and blind to see
Hamilton’s ghost in the distance: you were 54