Nick > Recent Status Updates

"The thirteenth and fourteenth amendments - the ones abolishing slavery and guaranteeing citizenship rights -- still exist, but they've been so weakened by custom, by Congress and the various state legislatures, and by recent Supreme Court decisions that they don't much matter."

"'Join us! Our doors are open to wvery nationality, every race! Leave your sinful past behind, and become one of us! Help us to make America great again!'

He's had notable success with this carrot and stick approach. 'Join us and thrive, or whatever happens to you as a result of your own sinful stubbornness is your problem.'"

Embrace diversity.
Unite--
Or be divided,
robbed,
ruled,
killed
By those who see you as prey.
Embrace diversity
or be destroyed.

"Not until the flow of blood stopped did I feel safe."

Haha laughed my ass off, thank you Ms. Butler: " Sensible. Conservative and sensible and mature and WRONG. Very much in character with Joanne."

"Olivar doesn't sound like slavery," he said. "Those rich people would never let themselves be slaves."
Dad gave him a smile. "Not now," he said. "Not at first." He shook his head. "Kagimoto, Stamm, Frampton: Japanese, German, Canadian. When I was young, people said it would come to this. Well, why shouldn't other countries buy what's left of us if we put it up for sale."

If hyperempathy syndrome were a more common complaint, people couldn't do such things. They could kill if they had to, and bear the pain of it or be destroyed by it. But if everyone could feel everyone else's pain, who would torture? Who would cause anyone unnecessary pain? I've never thought of my problem as something that might do some good before, but the way things are, I think it would help.

"It's just a nasty old building on the outside," he was saying of hus new home. "You wouldn't believe him great it looks once you go in, though."

"Whorehouse or spaceship?" I asked.

"It's got stuff you never saw," he evaded. "TV windows you go through instead of just sitting and looking at. Headsets, belts and touchrings... you see and feel everything, do anything. Anything!"

"Civilization is to groups what intelligence is to individuals. It is a means of combining the intelligence of many to achieve ongoing group adaptation.

Civilization, like intelligence, may serve well, serve adequately, or fail to serve its adaptive function. When civilization fails to serve, it must disintegrate unless it is acted upon by unifying internal or external forces."

To get along with God, consider the consequences of your behavior.

"If you can think of ways to entertain them and teach them at the same time, you'll get your information out. And all without making anyone look down."

"Look down...?"

"Into the abyss, Daughter." But I wasn't in trouble any more. Not at the moment. "You've just noticed the abyss," he continued. "The adults in the community have been balancing at the edge of it for more years than you've been alive."

"Things are changing now, too. Our adults haven't been wiped out by a plague so they're still anchored in the past, waiting for the good old days to come back. But things have changed a lot, and they'll change more... This is just one of the big jumps instead of the little step-by-step changes that are easier to take. People have changed the climate of the world. Now they're waiting for the old days to come back."

A victim of God may,
Through learning adaption,
Become a partner of God,
A victim of God may,
Through forethought and planning,
Become a shaper of God.
Or a victim of God may,
Through shortsightedness and fear,
Remain God's victim,
God's plaything,
God's prey.

God can't be resisted or stopped, but can be shaped and focused. This means God is not to be prayed to. Prayers only help the person doing the praying, and then, only if they strengthen and focus that person's resolve. If they're used that way, they can help us in our only real relationship with God. They help us to shape God and to accept and work with the shapes that God imposes on us. God is power... God prevails.

"Most of the dead are street poor who have nowhere to go and who don't hear the warnings until it's too late for their feet to take them to safety. Where's safety for them anyway? Is it a sin against God to be poor? We're almost poor ourselves. There are fewer and fewer jobs among us, more of us being born, more kids growing up with nothing to look forward to. One way or another, we'll all be poor someday."

A long time ago I read Earthsea and I thought it was just OK. After reading all of these and loving them I probably need to reread Earthsea.

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN YEARS I AM READING A BOOK

I just laughed out loud.

The "F" in Fillory doesn't stand for "fair."

"Wishes are for children ... I grew up."

Man, already ate through more than a quarter of this. TRAIN CAN'T STOP.

"...fairies thought all this military stuff was pretty silly, but they went along with it for the same reason that fairies ever did anything, namely, for the lulz." AT LAST I HAVE READ "LULZ" IN A BOOK.

Harry Potter for Jordan: ENGAGED.

Sometimes the author goes a little too far, for example: "The physical range provided by the spears of the ... phalanx provided much of the psychological leverage that permitted Alexander the Great to conquer the known world." Other than examples like that, the book is fascinating and interesting.

If the author's supposition about the high percentage of non-firers in direct fire situations is correct, what does a move to modes of killing such as drones mean for casualty rates in future combat?

Military man cites "places in the heart" with Sally field. Never thought I would see that happen. Awesome.

S.L.A. Marshall apologies and blaming violence in media so far. Keepin' on with it since this work is highly regarded.