When The World Ends

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

Grandma — not a fan of apocalyptic fiction — used to say “The world ends once for each of us.”

I only wish she was right.

The world has ended several times for me now, and then… I pick up my boots and build it again. (Note I’m sleepy and still weird-jet-like-lagged enough I almost typed “pick up my boobs.)

Look, the world ended for me when I left the village to go to high school in the city. It was a different world, and my past assumptions no longer applied. Then I became an exchange student and the world ended again. And I came back and strangely the world was yet different. And then I got married…

I’ve moved between states 4 times in my married life, and the world ends. And you build again.

I’m not making light of the devastation, particularly for those still digging out of Helene and Milton. For a lot of them, the devastation and the end of the world is so vast that there is not– or there seems to be no — tomorrow. The world has ended.

I’ve found myself almost in that place once or twice through my own stupidity not a natural disaster. And it took me years to dig out, and the scars remain.

But I’m saying: The world ended. You endure, you survive. And then you must build again.

And I’m saying it too if the unimaginable happens and the enemies of civilization, through fraud, capture the key points in our nation and manage to destroy it as close to utterly as possible.

The world ends. That is a sign that you must build again.

Because unfortunately there is no other choice. Humans build, and sometimes it all gets destroyed, and we grieve.

And then we build again.

Because to stop is to die. If you stop, you’re lying down and dying, as is everything with you. There is no future anymore.

My heart goes out to the people who lost everything. When the wild fires in Colorado took familiar neighborhoods and friends’ houses, it wasn’t as large a disaster. When floods destroyed and reshaped our beloved Manitou Springs, it wasn’t as last a disaster. I’ll continue praying for those people who were unfortunate enough to get hit by monster storms at a time when our government not only wasn’t helping but was actively undermining and almost making war on its own people.

First comes survival, and achieving a place where you can endure day to day without dying.

And then you take your broken heart and you mend it by rebuilding, by making things new again.

It will never be the same. You retain the scars and the homesickness for what will never again be, what never exists again, outside your mind and your dreams.

But you build. You go on, because there is nothing else.

I’ll continue praying for the victims of destruction, storm and man made. And that it’s not as complete as it could be.

And I’ll be here, to cheer on and help when I can, while you build.

We build. To build is to live. Even on a broken heart. Even when everything we built before has been destroyed.

We build.

Sursum corda.

100 thoughts on “When The World Ends”

  1. When an arsonist set fire to your house and you are uninsured, something ends, and yet you keep trying to find a route to build again. That is where Jasini and I are, and yes, Sarah, we will rebuild, for others to try (and odds are likely) destroy it again. But there is hope and God is good. Though I may doubt the goodness of man many a time, I never doubt the goodness of God.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Nor the goodness of the evil but beautiful space princess who bears the flame of hope for so many of us. Know we are here, and the many beyond and after us to carry that flame, it shall not fail

      Liked by 1 person

  3. When my father passed away, my sister and her husband stayed with her for a day or two. I was living with her, prior to going back to school in a couple of months. After a couple of days, my sister asked mama if she wanted them to stay with her. She said no and passed along something her mother had said (and I may not be exact): You have to begin like you want to go on.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Gah. That hit me in the feels. I’ll try to remember it for the next devastation in my forecast.

      I believe in transitional spaces. Foyers. Mudrooms. Airlocks. Stairwells. The reloading bench. The Wood Between the Worlds. That strange place you go when you use the sword of Melanie to crawl through the hedge.

      Whenever my world is too much, I’ve enjoyed lingering longer than is socially acceptable. But I guess they really aren’t meant to live in.

      And sometimes there are no transitional spaces. They were taken too.

      Like

  4. “Away in the waste of White Horse Down
    An idle child alone
    Played some small game through hours that pass,
    And patiently would pluck the grass,
    Patiently push the stone.

    On the lean, green edge for ever,
    Where the blank chalk touched the turf,
    The child played on, alone, divine,
    As a child plays on the last line
    That sunders sand and surf.

    For he dwelleth in high divisions
    Too simple to understand,
    Seeing on what morn of mystery
    The Uncreated rent the sea
    With roarings, from the land.

    Through the long infant hours like days
    He built one tower in vain—
    Piled up small stones to make a town,
    And evermore the stones fell down,
    And he piled them up again.

    And crimson kings on battle-towers,
    And saints on Gothic spires,
    And hermits on their peaks of snow,
    And heroes on their pyres,

    And patriots riding royally,
    That rush the rocking town,
    Stretch hands, and hunger and aspire,
    Seeking to mount where high and higher,
    The child whom Time can never tire,
    Sings over White Horse Down.

    And this was the might of Alfred,
    At the ending of the way;
    That of such smiters, wise or wild,
    He was least distant from the child,
    Piling the stones all day.” – G. K. Chesterton, The Ballad of the White Horse

    Liked by 1 person

  5. This hymn by Charles Wesley has always inspired me because of the refrain:

    Lift up your heart, lift up your voice! Rejoice, again I say, rejoice!

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  6. “It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine”. 🤣

    More seriously, I’ve heard too many warnings of “Great World-Ending Disasters” in my lifetime and yep, we and the world are still around.

    There are always going to be “personal world-ending disasters” and “major world-ending disasters”, but as Sarah said “if we’re still living, we can rebuild”.

    Oh, I remember reading that some of the Nuclear Scientists wondered if the first nuclear bomb test would ignite Earth’s Atmosphere.

    Of course, it didn’t do so or did it? [Very Big Twisted Grin]

    Liked by 1 person

    1. “It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine”.

      Reminds me of a scene in “Miracle on 34th street.”

      “I made the martinis tripple strength, and she feels wonderful!”

      Liked by 1 person

    2. “I see a bad moon risin’ “

      It’s amazing how every Republican president since Peanut got tossed out has been “Literally Hitler”, and yet not a single leftist is in a concentration camp when they continue to whine and bitch. Makes you wonder if Hitler reformed after death… :twisted:

      Liked by 1 person

      1. One of the past-her-sell-by-date TV hosts was declaring that Literally Hitler being elected would be just like the NSDAP being in office, and camps, and persecution, and the usual. Yawn.

        They are so boring. Why can’t they find someone else to compare to, like, oh, I don’t know. Enver Hoxa, or Ceaucescu, or someone? At least “He’s literally Papa Doc” would be mildly entertaining and witty by comparison.

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        1. Want their heads to explode? Just reply, “No, he’s literally Karl Marx”. A canard, of course, but it would be amusing to watch the reaction. :twisted:

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    3. Your last line reminds of one by Douglas Adams:

      “There is a theory which states that if anyone ever finds out what the universe is for and where it is going, it will immediately disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarrely inexplicable.

      There is another theory which states that this has already happened.”

      Like

    4. Teller was collecting bets on atmospheric ignition while the Los Alamos guys were in the observation dugout at Trinity.

      I don’t know if anyone recorded who was for or against, but it did show a certain type of humor.

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  7. Come, my friends,

    ‘T is not too late to seek a newer world.

    Push off, and sitting well in order smite

    The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds

    To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths

    Of all the western stars, until I die.

    It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:

    It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,

    And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

    Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’

    We are not now that strength which in old days

    Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;

    One equal temper of heroic hearts,

    Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

    To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

    — Tennyson

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

      To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

      That was my high school yearbook motto.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Just as good, and just as appropriate to current times (Macaulay translation):

        Then out spake brave Horatius

        The Captain of the Gate

        “To every man upon this Earth

        Death cometh soon or late.

        And how can man die better

        Than facing fearful odds

        For the ashes of his fathers

        And the temples of his gods,

        And for the tender mother

        Who dandled him to rest

        And for the wife who nurses

        His baby at her breast,

        And for the holy maidens

        Who feed the eternal flame,

        To save them from false Sextus

        That wrought the deed of shame?”

        (Substitute your favorite leftist for Sextus; “we got a million of ’em”) :twisted: .

        Liked by 1 person

          2. That wrought the deed of shame.

            Deeds of shame. Under that Chicago rule, they’re way past enemy action.

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  8. Thus far, all worlds and stories end. The problem is that they don’t always end the way we want them to, when we want them to, how we want them to.

    We are creators made in the image of a Creator. Even if you don’t follow that belief, the sense explains why we keep building, even “with worn out tools,” as Kipling put it.

    Liked by 2 people

  9. Swear allegiance to the flag

    Whatever flag they offer

    Never hint at what you really feel

    Teach the children quietly

    For some day sons and daughters

    Will rise up and fight while we stood still.

    –“Can you hear me,” Mike and the Mechanics

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    2. Matthew 5:25-26:
      Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.

      Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.

      Liked by 1 person

  10. How about some other Kipling?

    Hymn to Breaking Strain (song version)

    The careful text-books measure

      (Let all who build beware!) 

    The load, the shock, the pressure

      Material can bear. 

    So, when the buckled girder

      Lets down the grinding span, 

    The blame of loss, or murder, 

      Is laid upon the man. 

        Not on the Stuff — the Man!

    But in our daily dealing 

      With stone and steel, we find

    The Gods have no such feeling

      Of justice toward mankind. 

    To no set gauge they make us — 

      For no laid course prepare —

    And presently o’ertake us

      With loads we cannot bear: 

        Too merciless to bear.

    The prudent text-books give it 

      In tables at the end –

    The stress that shears a rivet 

      Or makes a tie-bar bend —

    What traffic wrecks macadam —

      What concrete should endure —

    But we, poor Sons of Adam

      Have no such literature,

        To warn us or make sure! 

    We hold all Earth to plunder —

      All Time and Space as well —

    Too wonder-stale to wonder

      At each new miracle;

    Till, in the mid-illusion

      Of Godhead ‘neath our hand,

    Falls multiple confusion

      On all we did or planned —

         The mighty works we planned.

    We only of Creation

      (Oh, luckier bridge and rail!) 

    Abide the twin damnation — 

      To fail and know we fail.

    Yet we – by which sure token

      We know we once were Gods —

    Take shame in being broken

      However great the odds —

        The Burden or the Odds.

    Oh, veiled and secret Power

      Whose paths we seek in vain,

    Be with us in our hour

      Of overthrow and pain;

    That we – by which sure token

      We know Thy ways are true —

    In spite of being broken,

      Because of being broken,

        May rise and build anew.

        Stand up and build anew!

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Thank you! I tried to give it a thumbs-up, but of course the $^%^#% thing wants phone numbers and/or social media accounts and/or, for all I know, my @#^#% social, DOB, and mother’s maiden name.

        …

        He shall mark our goings, question whence we came,
        Set his guards about us, as in Freedom’s name.

        He shall take a tribute, toll of all our ware;
        He shall change our gold for arms–arms we may not bear.

        He shall break his Judges if they cross his word;
        He shall rule above the Law calling on the Lord.

        He shall peep and mutter; and the night shall bring
        Watchers ‘neath our window, lest we mock the King —

        …

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  11. Katrina survivor with survivor guilt. My heart aches for those going through the pain. Everyone else is moving on with their lives, their bills are still due, and if they take Faustian deal of holding off on mortgage payments, they’ll find out the regulations means it all has to be paid back at end of the year. So many things, except TANSTAAFL, except from the Salvation Army.

    And to those that lost lives, I have no words. I know the horror of not knowing if a family member is alive or dead for a week. But mine ended with finding them alive. But just that taste…I’m sorry. It’s a pain that is unexplainable.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. My beloved and I both have cousins in the Asheville area. I knew mine was doing OK, aside from not having water. (Her neighbor has a well, so it could be worse). But my beloved didn’t track his cousin down until today. She’s also waterless, but well.

      Liked by 2 people

    2. I have two parallel images that define the Sally Annes in my mind (I think I got that pet name for Col. Booth’s church/ministry from my mother): one is their delightful thrift shops, and the other is a scene in North To Alaska where the SA choir sings accompaniment to a John Wayne mud brawl.

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  12. I’ve got a longer comment, but I wanted to point this out-as long as you’re alive, it’s going to hurt at some point.

    Take the pain with a smile, roll with the punches.

    And give it back to the people who deserve it.

    Liked by 1 person

      2. I had to laugh at that, largely because it’s so true. At least now I don’t wake up for a full bladder. Aching back yes. And this is the good mattress. Shrugs.

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  13. I’ve lived in 3 countries (including the US) and two states. The world does not end, it just reboots.

    As for the weather. I’m in South Texas and have dealt with 3 hurricanes. One was mild and took the power out for less than 24 hours. the second, we evacuated, went to stay with family in Louisiana (right after Katrina) close enough to Mississippi that we drove over one day and saw all the places my dad grew up. Spent two weeks there, but the Hurricane actually missed us. We could have stayed home. Third actually did hit and did a LOT of damage, but mostly just fallen trees and power out. I have a friend who’s house is hooked up the main street line so they had power on day 2. I camped out on his couch for about a week, I think. I feel lucky that I have never had to deal with major life changing damage.

    I pray for everyone who lost so much.

    Liked by 1 person

  14. reminds me of a character at the end of a book, IIRC <i>A Canticle For Lebowitz</i>, where the guy shakes the dust from his sandals as he climbs on board the spaceship. Though most of us aren’t in quite so terminal a state.

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  15. reminds me of a character at the end of a book, IIRC <i>A Canticle For Lebowitz</i>, where the guy shakes the dust from his sandals as he climbs on board the spaceship. Though most of us aren’t in quite so terminal a state.

    Liked by 1 person

    2. That is from the very end of Walter Miller’s A Canticle For Liebowitz in the section titled “Fiat Voluntuas Tua” (Thy will be done from the Lords Prayer in Latin). Shaking the dust off your feet (or in some translations sandals) is from Matthew 10:14-15

      14 And if anyone will not welcome you or listen to your message, shake the dust off your feet as you leave that house or that town. 15 I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for the region of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town!

      The footnote on shake the dust off is this

      to shake the dust off represented, on one level, shaking off the uncleanness from one’s feet; see Luke 10:11, Acts 13:51 and 18:6. At another level, however, it is similar to a prophetic sign, representing the termination of all fellowship with those individuals or localities that have rejected the messengers along with their message of the coming kingdom of heaven. This in essence constitutes a sign of eschatological judgment, as confirmed in the following verse.

      In essence its saying if they will not listen to you then eff them and the horse they rode in on.

      Miller was one darn good writer I would say on a par with Heinlein or Bradbury. The complexity and beauty of the writing of Canticle and any of his short stories I have found are next level. Unfortunately, he had horrible PTSD from being a gunner on a B-17 that did bombing runs that included the fire bombing of Dresden. This led him to massive depression and ultimately his suicide.

      Liked by 1 person

  17. We build and rebuild as we are Demi creators in the image of G-d. And Deus ubique est!

    Like

  18. Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

        And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools

    — Kipling, “If”

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  19. we build and rebuild as we are demo-creators made in the image of God. And Deus ubique est

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  20. we build and rebuild as we are demo-creators made in the image of God. And Deus ubique est

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  21. I just saw a clip from the 60 Minutes Harris interview. The host asked “Why doesn’t Netanyahu listen to you?”

    The correct answer is “Why should he?”

    Benjamin Netanyahu is the Prime Minister of a sovereign nation that is not the United States. His duty is to do what is best for Israel and the Israeli people. He has no obligation to pay attention to Kackling Kamela or any other US politician. Israel’s leaders don’t tell us how to run our country; we have no right to tell them how to run theirs.

    He is responding to a blatant act of war committed by Iran as retaliation for Israel taking out a scumbag terrorist. By all rights, Israel should have declared war on Iran the next day. All of Iran’s military bases should be smoking holes in the desert by now.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Considering the relative size of Iran versus Israel, and what happens to that relative size if any of the Arab countries join in with Iran, Israel is appropriately cautious.

      David had the opportunity to slay Goliath with a mere sling. It was also direct divine intervention to set it all up. David still had to have faith, audacity, and select his “five smooth stones”. He then faced the giant, and knocked Goliath senseless via sling, and beheaded him with Goliath’s own sword.

      And in taking out that one Philistine, he demoralized and broke the rest.

      I suspect someone is arranging another thumpin’, and probably choosing a proper stone to launch.

      Note, Israel recently re-enacted Genesis 34 (AKA Operation Grim Beeper AKA Operation Vengeful Mohel, or as I like to call it, “Hey All y’all, watch Briss”), so they might have yet another good scripture template for dealing with their tormentors.

      Popcorn? I will sue Kosher salt…..

      Liked by 1 person

    2. The correct answer for Que Mala would be “Probably because I’m a clueless moron who doesn’t think the Jewish state or the Jewish people have a right to exist”. Even she knows better than to tell that truth though.

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  23. I’ve had my life come to an end quite a few times.

    Losing jobs. Especially the last two-first job since COVID and the other my loss of employment seemed to have come right out of nowhere.

    Lost my mother. Lost an uncle who is going to be in my next story because I think he needs to be remembered a bit more. Lost several girlfriends for Reasons. One or two was my fault, most were expecting what we didn’t want.

    Nearly lost the house that I live in to the big fires in California. Twice. Lost my apartment (thank God before COVID hit) and had to massively downsize to move. Still left stuff behind (the garage is always what gets you…).

    And that doesn’t count near-misses in the car, accidents, times where I had been so sick that I wanted to die (including the flu after the first semester of four-year college that hit me so hard that I had insomnia for two weeks afterwards), and all of the other things that got you so very close.

    At the very least…you made it here, you’ve made it this long…and there’s more to come.

    Not always the most pleasant experience and journey, but there is somewhere to go. Always.

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    1. I’m actually hoping for early retirement offers/lay offs with severance this month or next. There were a few signs (like making everyone do resumes over the summer) but no luck so far.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Well, there’s also the Dell approach being discussed on Linked In.

        • Order all employees to Return To Office in 2 weeks. Badge Scan auditing.
        • Why, no, we don’t care if the nearest office is 100 miles away, or you relocated under our previous policy. RTO in 2 weeks.
        • No, we won’t pay for relocation.
        • If you don’t show up, we will consider you abandoned your job voluntarily. No severance, unemployment, or anything else,

        🎶Pointy-Haired Boss🎶

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        1. Well, that’s just Dell in a nutshell, as it were.

          The only reason why I got a Dell XPS when I went computer shopping pre-COVID was that it did everything I wanted it to do and I didn’t have to build a new one myself.

          There are so many stories about Dell being…well, Dell. From the cluster f(YAY!)k that was their phone tech support (they outsourced non-commercial callers to India, but kept the commercial phone support in Texas due to contract requirements with clients…until someone found out the number to call for the commercial tech support teams…), deliberate planned obsolescence, cheap proprietary hardware, etc, etc, etc…

          Even with all the other issues, I’m just tempted to build my next computer on general principals at this point (nobody makes one with a BluRay drive or memory card access built-in these days, it’s all about streaming…).

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        2. Including “We don’t care that we are changing your contract because we hired you to work remote.” My response would be. Get new job, or whatever (especially if contract violation was a realistic charge), and then “Bye.” When they call regarding what I’d been working on, because document? HaHaHeHe “Sucks doesn’t it.”

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        3. We’ve been on a weird 3 days of badge scans a week for 4 out of 6 weeks for month. But we learned the times they test for compliance and between that and most weeks with holidays not counting you can do 4 of 8.

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  25. pick up my boobs

    We already knew you had a great rack but you’re only now telling this about their detachable? Man, lots of women would like that. I’ve wanted the detachable version of something else ever since that King Missile song.

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  26. I was tempted to post not with a bang but a whimper but that won’t do at all. Perhaps Graham of Montrose:

    He either fears his fate too much

    Or his deserts are small,

    That puts it not unto the touch

        To win or lose it all.

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  27. Ring around the Rosie.

    A pocket full of posies.

    Ashes. Ashes.

    We all fall down.

    If kids can pull through the Black Death with that bit of doggerel, we can surely deal with life’s tribulations.

    (grin)

    Embrace the suck!

    Liked by 1 person

  28. In other disasters there are refugee camps that sometimes last for years. The lamented Somali Ilan Omar came from such a camp.

    In Appalachia, they’re rebuilding roads and clearing out debris from their properties. They’re not going anywhere. In Florida they’ll have the beach babes sunning on the sand in a matter of weeks. This annoys the left.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. In the modern era, any “refugee camp” that lasts over two years means that someone is using the refugees as props for political theater. Note that “someone” can include actors from among the “refugees”. See Palestinians.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Or (and that’s an inclusive or) they just don’t want those people.

        Based on behavior, especially in Gaza, I suspect the latter very much applies to Palestinians. I suspect the ones who are actually productive people have found a way out and integrated into Arab majority countries.

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  29. Very off topic, but speaking of wounding the Republic did anyone see “Lesbian Dorito Eucharist” coming?

    If you did, can you show me the rest of your bingo card as a warning.

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    1. Herbn I had almost exactly that thought. The sheer feeling of Dom/Sub culture in that stuff combined with the rather sexualized behavior is just downright creepy even ignoring the whiff of épater les bourgeois involved in its reference to Eucharist/communion. How the hell does Whitless think that is going to draw ANYONE (other than perhaps card holding members of The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence) to the Harris/Walz ticket?

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        1. I’ve seen ESR’s post. It’s view seems to be they don’t know they’re going to squidge out 75%+ of the 30+ age group. What they need is male votes (they OWN the young single female) and to keep their Black, Hispanic and Islamic sub sections. I suppose some small section of the ma;e populace MIGHT find this titillating, but likely not such that it moves the vote. Their minorities are far more sexually and religiously conservative so this seems to be a negative. Are they truly that divorced from things? I mean they are kind of clueless, but their various advisors seem to know better than that. It just utterly baffles me. If they were that fricking stupid we’d swept them out of the way long ago. I return to my two theories, either they know the fix is in and they can do what they want OR even they don’t really want Kamala running stuff as they know how much of an idiot she is and don’t think she can be controlled even as well as the Turnip in Chief.

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          2. Gu jar of vicious morons, plus their advisors are an ensemble within their echo chamber.

            Folks outside of the echo chamber, or actively hostile to it, a) might not be eager to collaborate on bullet proofing Democrat party planning in exchange for money b) endanger the magical exercise that the Democrat practice of politics as communist religion is c) are not people that serial sexual predators want to have close.

            Bill was a sexual predator, Hillary is at least an enabler, and probably actively likes hurting people in some predatory way herself.

            The selection of Obama, Biden, and now Harris and maybe Walz is not primarily picking faces for being fundamentally nice and decent people.

            The specific persons picked for appointment as part of this regime’s trans push have been a bit remarkable. The bald loony that got fired from the DoE is remarkably obnoxious even by the standards of LGBT activists. Or rather, the activists who are worse cannot hold down any job but activism. It’s pretty clearly the politics of magical thinking about the value of theatrics, and of use of individuals as symbols to break down the willpower of resistors. There’s a synergistic effect that they are trying for, that does not exist. But, you play into things by buying into their notions of how the symbolic magic works.

            Anyway, humans are not ergodic in their behavior. There are a bunch of selection and self-selection effects in play with the folks doing the marketing now for the Dems.

            For starters, every single person with the background to quality for senior advisor positions within the Harris campaign parody is going to have in 2020 thought that frauding Biden in, and the associated campaign silliness, was a really good idea that would accomplish their goals. There are a bunch of steps since then, for people to fall away from the crowd, or be drawn to another path.

            One might personally be sure that Harris will fail, but saying so in public burns your bridges with the race fetishists, and with the sex fetishists. Being caught clapping softly might burn some bridges. You can avoid burning your bridges, and at the same time not be competing for the highly placed marketing positions.

            Three weeks? I’m not sure how long a competent marketeer would take to produce ad copy, but there is a very limited time left for the career ‘opportunity’ of noticeably participating in this campaign. Harris is obviously personally overseeing aspects of the marketing. If she loses, any good will there has no future value. If she ‘wins’, it would. Clearly, she approved of the ‘buying Doritos like a normie’ ad. The later Dorito ad is perhaps primarily aimed at Harris, in part by appealing to her previous choices.

            Some current Democrat governors were full facist for Biden in 2020. Even ignoring the ones who are outright criminal, a second Trump term could have consequences for those governors. And the PRC might be unhappy with them, if they fled for the PRC ahead of the election.

            Anyway, Barry Jeff’s Democratic Party is a bullying franchise, and this ad both counts coup against the normies, and it positions Whitmer within the party hierarchy.

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        2. I always felt uncomfortable around those people in Fandom and Faire and kink, because I kept getting the feeling that they had no idea of how to deal with personal boundaries other than stomping on them until someone punched them. And them blaming the person that threw the punch in self-defense for attacking them.

          (Informed consent in kink is supposed to be sacred, especially considering how close you get to playing on the edge and further of mental and physical limits.)

          It doesn’t surprise me at all that a lot of the “shock the mundanes” people were one of the first people to have a lot of reported sexual assaults and such…

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          1. Agreed…the “freaking the mundanes” always bugged me in SCA days outside of specific circumstances (like doing your own thing in the park and them staring). And, yeah, sexual abuse of various forms has torn up fandom and is still tearing up the SCA. The later has also sundered in two partially because of reoccurring grooming (mostly via fighters) plus excessive DIE mentality (not sure on the exact mix, but I know of several SMA people who had left SCA and came back to bring their kids and picked SMA over SCA for that reason).

            They make things VERY uncomfortable in kink spaces as you’re already pretty vulnerable and now you have people invading personal space, although sometimes they pay a physical price (too close and a backswing can get you accidentally or “accidentally”).

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            1. The biggest issue with SCA, with fandom, with Faire, with kink, is that a lot of the people in it are damaged and vulnerable in many ways. They’re looking for somewhere that allows them to belong and to have a community. Which makes these places prime hunting grounds for predators of various kinds.

              It doesn’t help that many of them are reliant upon a fantasy for existing, and if you can believe in the core fantasy…it’s very easy to believe in other things, as well.

              (I’ve read far too much about cults and the recruitment mechanisms they use.)

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              1. I just wish things other than the kink scene were better about screening. Even it fell apart screening wise in the late 90s but it is coming back with a vengeance (not entirely for good reasons, but it is coming back).

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                1. Many of these scenes are created and founded by nerds. They want to share their scenes. And they share very hard when they do-and a lot of the tourists, a lot of the abusers, a lot of the colonizers use that desire to have someone care about the things they like as a way in to manipulate them.

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        1. As am I. Which brings up why make it available? I don’t think Michigan is in play, but tick off enough normies and it might be. It feels a bit like someone knows something, either that the cheat will be so massive it doesn’t matter, or that they’ve written Kamala off and will try this when it comes around on the guitar again in 2028

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          1. One theory is Whitmer wants to run and if Harris loses she can run in 2028 but if she wins the wait is to 2032 which might be too long.

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          2. Normies and the Islamists that the (D) herd has been trying to woo. Apparently the “Israel should be left alone” and the “Death to the Little Satan” crowd have backed into each other and agree on not liking (D) foreign policy, although for very different reasons.

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  30. There’s always another end-of-the-world.

    Here’s a patch I bought back during lockdown – note the seller I got it from ended up being in Rostov On Don thus the USSR rocker, and for missing rockers there’s no Y2K, which was big in the Tech world back then, as were the 1989 and Y2K stock crashes, and there’s nada for the 2008 financial-system-almost-melted-down / Great Recession:

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      1. There’s so many of them, it’s hard to keep track of them.

        Of course, there’s also the “ends of the World” in Science Fiction.

        Harry Harrison’s “Make Room! Make Room!” had extreme over-population by 1999. [Wink]

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Yeah. No big quakes either, except for the “Kaiju incident” at Fukushima. And it has H5N1 but no SARS, which was a bigger deal.

        But practically at some point you run out of sleeve.

        It reall should be real rockers, down below the main patch. The way it is now, when the next end-of-the-world comes around there’ll be no room to add the new patch.

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  32. I know it sounds weird, but there’s something a little bit freeing when you no longer have a bunch of stuff tying you down. Granted, if you lost it all, and replaced it in kind with fluid cash, it would make that losing a whole lot easier to stomach. When I left home, it was with a single suitcase of clothing, and little expectation of returning (evil step monster.) That relief was intoxicating. Couple of moves we had, lost entire shipping containers of our stuff. Uncle Sam or insurance reimbursed, but you never recover the full value of those things. But again, those things no longer have a hold on you, a need to care for, store, or worry about.

    That’s NOT the same as having nothing, eating bugs, and being happy. You get to choose what you have, what you earned, or what you want to keep that someone gifted you. And that’s the way it should be, whether you lose it all to a disaster, or never lose anything.

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    1. The way I put it:

      What owns you?

      Drugs? Sex? Rock and Roll? Work? Family?

      God? Which one?

      For me: Books. 12,000. I love looking at the thousands over my head. Mostly paperbacks above 6 feet above the floor, so when Mordor West shakes it will be a “gentle” rain of lightweight books. This was God’s paradox demand to me. “In order to keep your books, you must be willing to give them up.”

      For all of us, are we willing to give up what owns us? The one guy who leaves Jesus sad is the rich guy who asks: Are any rules he has missed? Jesus sees that he is owned by his riches, and tells him if he is serious: “Go sell all you have, give it to the poor, and follow Me.”

      So. What owns You?

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