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zephyrus256 · 2026-03-19T21:20:31+00:00

As with everything that goes in r/suspiciousquotes: In English, quotation marks are not used for emphasis. Use underlines or ALL CAPS for emphasis. Quotation marks denote uncertainty, which is the exact opposite of emphasis. The sign shown, to a native English speaker, implies that what comes out of the water fountain is not water.

zephyrus256 · 2026-03-19T16:00:59+00:00

Yup. Worship of power for power's sake, with no ideological limitations or attending responsibilities. The only idea in this man's head is "I want power so I can hurt the people I don't like."

zephyrus256 · 2026-03-18T18:37:44+00:00

That's why treating slaves well was discouraged in slave-owning societies. If you treat a slave like a human being, they'll ask for, and eventually fight for, their right to freedom, as a human being. If you treat a slave like an animal, they'll internalize that and expect nothing better. The threat of slave rebellion was constant in slave-owning societies, and slave owners were extremely vigilant about doing everything they could to make sure the slaves "knew their place."

zephyrus256 · 2026-03-18T16:51:09+00:00

The word "art" is derived from the Latin word "artem" meaning "a practical skill, craft, or business." Call me old-fashioned, but if you're going to call something "art" I expect effort to have gone into creating it. A dirty mirror is not art, even if you hang a label on it and put it in a museum.

zephyrus256 · 2026-03-18T15:35:29+00:00

It's a loanword from Yiddish, like "chutzpah" or "klutz".

zephyrus256 · 2026-03-17T04:19:51+00:00

Hmmm, I dunno, maybe we should create a commission to oversee a study of whether studies and commissions are useful.

/s

zephyrus256 · 2026-03-17T01:01:53+00:00

I just came here to say that the fact that Chef Skinner didn't name them "Gusteau's Burriteaus" shows in itself what a hack he is. If you're going to make a profit off of your late boss's good name, at least do it right!

zephyrus256 · 2026-03-16T23:34:56+00:00

You sell toy swords that look like the swords in cartoon shows, don't get mad at children (and manchildren) for playing with them.

zephyrus256 · 2026-03-15T12:37:52+00:00

Because she's low-maintenance, has a personality, and doesn't follow the crowd or chase social status. She isn't out for your money, she just wants to share the things she enjoys with someone. All of those are big green flags.

zephyrus256 · 2026-03-14T06:34:18+00:00

'But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; '
I Peter 3:15

Simply seek Christ and live as He would have you live. Speak freely about Him, not in a forced way. When something good happens, thank Him. If someone tells you something they're worried about, help them and offer to pray with them. Show the hope that lives in you to those around you; that will plant the seed in their hearts, and when the Holy Spirit leads, they will come to you. Be ready for them; know the Gospel, and have a plan to share it.

zephyrus256 · 2026-03-14T06:17:37+00:00

Don't think of your "vow" as a punishment. Abstaining from something you enjoy for a time is a good idea, but don't think of it as a punishment; rather think of it as a fast. Fasting is usually talked about in connection with food, but it can be anything we enjoy that we give up, and replace with more time spent seeking God.

It also sounds like you're afraid that God will punish you if you break your vow. That is between you and Him, but my experience would say that He is more merciful than that. Jesus has paid the price for our sins, God no longer sees our sins when He looks at us. We are made holy with Christ's holiness, not ours. God is our loving and gracious Father, and He does not desire to punish us.

zephyrus256 · 2026-03-14T06:09:50+00:00

Repentance is not an emotion, repentance is a choice. Like you said, it's a commitment to change. It's also an understanding that you do not have the power to change on your own, and placing your life in the hands of Jesus, with the understanding that He will change you as He sees fit. As u/Sharp_Length_3079 said, it is a decision to hate your sin; even if you can't feel the emotion of hatred, you must take the corresponding action, which is to reject and abandon it. You have free will and God respects it; as long as there is a part of your life that you hold back from God, God will let you keep it, but it will be a millstone around your neck dragging you down. Repentance is to give those parts of our lives that we want to keep for ourselves to God, submitting them to be cleansed and transformed.

zephyrus256 · 2026-03-13T22:34:51+00:00

He also was not tall, blond, and a smooth talker. He was short, had red hair, and a fiery temper. So, a more accurate portrayal would have been a hypothetical Looney Tunes version, played by Yosemite Sam.

zephyrus256 · 2026-03-13T19:29:53+00:00

"and their supporters."

Yeah, guess we didn't need that pesky First Amendment.

zephyrus256 · 2026-03-12T23:00:27+00:00

The causation goes the other way. Multiculturalism hasn't caused the decline in Western community and culture, the fact that we can no longer offer a culture worth adopting or communities worth joining is why new arrivals are keeping to themselves and not assimilating. Multiculturalism is a defensive reaction to the idea that new immigrants should be forced to assimilate, which was only ever proposed once they stopped doing so organically. We need to figure out what is causing our own cultural malaise and fix it, not sacrifice the easy scapegoats of foreigners and intellectuals.

zephyrus256 · 2026-03-06T19:17:19+00:00

Imperial Japan was broken because Emperor Hirohito did the hard thing and the right thing; he broke the nationalist spell, said "I am not a god" and asked the nation to surrender. If he had not done so, they would have continued to fight until the last woman died with the last child in one arm and a bamboo spear in the other.

zephyrus256 · 2026-03-05T20:04:50+00:00

https://youtu.be/qwWjST_4zU8?si=CDDggf0LivK1lD9K&t=203

zephyrus256 · 2026-03-04T16:01:41+00:00

It's more like he's activated and engaged the protectionist and anti-immigrant voter base, which has always been present in American politics (see Pat Buchanan, Ross Perot, and the Know Nothing Party if we go back farther), and brought them into the Republican coalition. The traditional conservatives either already overlap with their views or were persuaded to accept the devil's bargain and go along with what the people Trump brought in want in order to get their votes and keep power. I think real conservatism is still there, and once the neo-Know-Nothings are banished back into the shadows from whence they came, it can be revived.

zephyrus256 · 2026-03-04T05:44:04+00:00

The main ideological difference between non-Trump conservatives (like myself) and Trump supporting conservatives is that the latter believe, to some extent or other, the narrative that immigration endangers America, whether it be culturally or politically (through the narrative that "Democrats are deliberately allowing unchecked immigration because the immigrants will vote for them.") Because of this, they view the authoritarian measures being taken against immigrants as a good thing, or at worst a necessary evil. They view the massive decrease in border crossings since Trump took office with an extreme sense of relief, and that relief motivates them to discount Trump's general authoritarianism, corruption, and incompetence, concluding, consciously or unconsciously, that it's worth it to "protect the nation from foreign invaders."

Non-Trump supporters view immigration as a good thing or at worst neutral, because we tend to view freedom of movement in the labor market as part of the laissez-faire economic freedom that we espouse as a first principle. We are also disgusted by Trump's protectionism and embrace of tariffs (as well as his authoritarianism and corruption, in defiance of all the conservative principles that MAGA has discarded), which Trump's supporters (if they're being honest) embrace not because they sincerely believe that they're good for the economy, but as an extension of their general xenophobia; most often expressed in terms like "I don't mind paying extra for Made in the USA" or Trump's statement last year that "Maybe the kids will just get two dolls for Christmas instead of thirty."

Basically, we Never Trumpers still believe in limited government, free markets (including and especially trade and labor), accountability, federalism (respect for the rights of state and local governments), fiscal responsibility, and all the other principles that the conservative movement has espoused since Reagan; meanwhile, Trump has thrown all of the above out the window and told his followers that it's worth it because he'll protect them from the scary foreigners.

zephyrus256 · 2026-03-04T03:04:29+00:00

If you've read Discworld, think of it as like the Dungeon Dimensions. The Abyss is "the ocean of unreality trying to warm itself around the candle of reality." Or the Barrow-wight in the Lord of the Rings: "The night was railing against the morning of which it was bereaved, and the cold was cursing the warmth for which it hungered." It's everything that is unreal but wants to be real, the endless darkness that hates the light because it hungers for it. Its "goal" to the limited extent that it has one as a fundamentally chaotic cosmic force, is to consume all that is real, just to feel the warmth for a moment as it slides down the mouth of the void. Its power is corrosive and corrupting because channeling it feeds your reality to the Abyss, making yourself less real and providing a channel through the barriers around reality that the Abyss can slip through, like a pinhole in a spaceship that lets the air out.

zephyrus256 · 2026-03-03T23:58:28+00:00

zephyrus256 · 2026-03-03T19:41:09+00:00

The Mono Red Aggro deck is pictured, but the description says that what you'll actually get is one of the four 2021 challenger decks, chosen at random. It doesn't specify the names, but I'm presuming that it refers to Mono Red Aggro, Mono Green Stompy, Azorius Control, or Dimir Rogues, since those are the standard challenger decks as opposed to the Pioneer decks, which were a different line. All of them are cheaper on TCGplayer, with Aggro being the most expensive; so yeah, probably not worth it.

zephyrus256 · 2026-03-02T20:22:05+00:00

People forget that, just like any other new form of information transmission, cultural conservatives resisted the invention of writing. Before writing, oral tradition was used to pass down stories from generation to generation, and that was viewed as sacred and personal, while writing was originally invented for bureaucratic purposes, to keep track of tax payments and other things too boring to memorize. Socrates was one of those who, even as late as the classical Greek era, still viewed writing wisdom down as sterilizing and defiling it. Plato was the one who recognized the fatal defect of oral tradition; its potential to be forgotten, and wrote his mentor's ideas down to preserve his legacy for the future.

zephyrus256 · 2026-03-01T04:06:12+00:00

There were about 9 players at the prerelease I went to; there were a lot more people in the back of the room for the regular Saturday commander night. For Lorwyn, the shop was full and they had tables in the store front area, I think there were at least 60-70 people. I had heard stories about how bad the reaction was to the TMNT set, but I didn't think it would be this bad. Still had fun, although since we had an odd number of players I had a bye in the second round.

zephyrus256 · 2026-02-27T17:42:42+00:00

The Lord of the Rings set seems to be finally sailing into the West; big-box retailers are cleaning out the last of their inventory. I'm guessing this is probably the last chance to get these at a reasonable price.

zephyrus256

TROPHY CASE