There is no better way to broaden your mind than to read old books and see what strange things the authors took for granted, and what questions they had yet to answer, and what things were possible in their world that are inconceivable in ours.

I'm a little afraid to share this because I don't wait to create a permission structure for future attempts. I was a trans kid (now a trans adult), & suicide definitely occurred to me quite a bit in those days. So if you're a young trans person reading this, let me say: Please, stay alive…(cont'd)

Get out the word to Wisconsin! Tomorrow the Senate attempts to ram through one of the most restrictive internet bills in the country. AB 105 / SB 130 bans adults from using VPNs to access material "harmful to minors" A massive attack on online privacy. www.defendonlineprivacy.com/wi/action.php

Does anybody else hear the music upon seeing these?

I guess it doesn't count because I didn't see it in a theater, but Brazil

Coming for trans youth care is bad enough, but of course they were never going to stop there. This is why we fight every battle.

Newsom is terrible and we shouldn't be afraid of saying it. Every effort should be expended to ensure this worthless hack won't be the Democratic nominee.

The listed price of goods should be mandated to be what you truly pay. After surcharges. After taxes. Pay the workers a living wage and just roll the cost of tips in there too. If the burrito says it's $12.69, your card will be billed $12.69. If you leave no tip, you're not screwing anyone over.

Also there's an implicit belief that if someone does some experimenting with their gender and/or sexuality at time 1 and at time 2 decides they're mostly or entirely cis or straight, they'll somehow be sullied or ruined by having experimented. That is also BS, especially for *social* transition.

HELLO I WAS A QUEER TEEN IN THE 1990s AND THE ARGUMENTS AGAINST SOCIAL TRANSITION NOW ARE INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM THE ARGUMENTS AGAINST "LETTING" US BE (at the time, for me) GAY OR LESBIAN THEN. They all rest on the belief that it's inherently better to be straight (then)/cis (now) and that's BS.

Art Nude, behind the scene, fun photo of Betzu, Sie ist Idaho and Wolfpup (retired models) in a forest setting. #art #nude #artnude #models #muses #nudity #nudes #fineart #fineartnude #hike #nature #nudeinnature #naturenude #existinglight #noflash #natural #beauty #BTS #betzu #sieistidaho #wolfpup

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hells to the yeah!! Much power to these workers.

Nothing destroys religion better than a state church, and nothing protects it better than secular government. Counterintuitive but true

Astrid Kallsen, Wayside Falls behind her @astridkallsen.bsky.social #notsexuallyexplicit, #fineartnude, #nude, #nudeinnature, #redhead, #waterfall, #bigrocks, #westvirginia, #diagonallines,

This is a good piece on varying definitions, within the Jewish community, on the term "Zionism." The fact that these definitions vary so widely is part of how these discussions online get so tangled so quickly.

NOOOOOO 😭 I mean, I only knew him from his self-parodying role in Don't Trust the Bitch in Apartment 23 (don't know if that show is streaming anywhere, but you owe it to yourself to watch it), but man, he was brilliant in that. Some of the best television I've ever seen. He will be missed 😢

"The false choice between 'moderate' and 'progressive' has trapped Democrats in an irrelevant debate … anti-authoritarian movements don’t win by moderating their positions on a traditional left-right axis but by creating an entirely new one" www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-no... Interesting read

If Dem leadership started messaging from the (correct) position of "abolish ICE" and, lacking the votes, negotiated the Republicans down to "actually require ICE to abide by the Constitution," I would call that a victory (with more battles to come, of course). But starting from here just looks weak!

Don't agree with Cato Inst on much. But: Very glad they have quantified what has been obvious for years.

Big uproar about Chappell Roan's outfit but after Joan of Arc, Lady Godiva is really the next logical step in historical cosplay

No masks on cops. No masks on cops. No masks on cops. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

The fundamental thrust of totalitarianism is that the government dictates terms of how every aspect of every organization, as well as your own life, operates. The Soviet Union, the Nazis, the modern PRC, all have commissars in every org to ensure they follow the government political line.

not every Democrat is perfect on trans rights but they are one of the most successful pro-trans rights parties in the world.

With Valentine’s Day coming up, I’m trying to write a poem to Aphrodite and coming to realize that poetry is hard. 😅 (It’s especially difficult as I’m trying to keep rhyme and meter, and while I know that’s not “required,” it’s my artistic vision, dammit.)

Happy Hedgehog Day!

Playing #Hades

/2 Ezra Klein will dine out on being the subject of Sarah Lawrence students being meanies for years, and the right and its useful idiots will use it to frame the primary risk to free speech on college campus as being students rather than government censorship.

I like neither Ezra Klein nor shouting down speakers. I think Ezra Klein profits, metaphorically and literally, by being shouted down by Sarah Lawrence students, and that doing it to him was more or less like trying to discourage a dog by throwing bacon at it. /1

Okay, apparently what I posted before was wrong; Quantum Leap (2022) actually leaves Netflix on February _14,_ not 15. (Valentine's Day! 😢) I assume that means the last day to watch this is the 13th. But don't wait! Watch this ep, enjoy it, and encourage trans-friendly programming in the future.

I think that means we, and by we I mean highly activated, high-attention partisans, need to take things on the chin. It's not about us, it's about getting my wife's book club to the polls in huge numbers. If they're buying it, it's working, if they're not, it's not.

As the minority, the best way to do that is to make reasonable sounding asks that underline how absolutely horrific Republican governance is. That way Republicans either refuse, and look terrible, or concede, and still look terrible while giving us a policy win.

Here's mine: Democrats are the minority. They are probably, but not definitely, going to become the majority. What we really want is for them to become a super majority, this requires making Republicans really fucking unpopular.

This is a real gut-punch to me. Not because I particularly needed to see superhero dick, but because I thought we were making slow, but tangible, steps towards acknowledging that console games aimed at adults having mature content isn’t the end of the world. Apparently that goal is still a ways away

the sluts WILL save us.

"Ballet is woman." -- George Balanchine * BlueSky exclusive * "Olivia - Talarra Eleganta" IG:@oliviapreston5 #fineart #female #figure #toned #canadamodel

Brief, important, and terrifying thread 😬

I am, as always, torn between whether SonAmy or Sonadow is the better pairing. (I don't, like, write porn of them, though. The only time I've ever written erotic fanfiction was back in the 2000s, when I wrote a story about Nell, Hawke, and Lash, from Advance Wars, having a threesome. It was weird.)

I feel a vague sense of accomplishment, now that I've beaten Super Mario Galaxy and completed every Galaxy available _without_ touching the Garden or the Trial Galaxies. They still say "New" on the map! BAHAHAHAHA

Another vigil happening today, organized by VA workers and veterans. 🕯️

Similarly, the point of "First They Came" is not "when they came for me, that's when it was bad." They point is everyone should oppose them when they first start coming for people, even if it's not anyone you know or like. Because if you don't, things usually get worse from there.

The reason Anne Frank's story has resonated with so many people over so many years is not because circumstances have to be exactly the same as her's for anyone to care, but because anything remotely like it is wrong, and societies moving in that direction should oppose it well before they get there.

Last week in Minnesota, I watched ordinary people risk their lives to protect their neighbors. In the process, they not only won a significant—though not final—victory against authoritarianism, they proved virtually every MAGA social theory wrong. (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Nerdy but relevant: In a post-9/11 story, Captain America was so wrought after killing a terrorist that he decided to reveal his secret identity to the world. If he was going to be killing people, he knew, he could not do so as a man in a mask. These people won't own up after killing a VA nurse!

Agreed. Copyright is at best a necessary evil, and we should be working on reforms and limits, not expansion.

Yeah, I've just been catching up on Bluesky and… just… may the Gods preserve us, and bless those who are standing in the way of fascism and tyranny 😔

FTR, I complained about it at the time… to my brother 😅 kinda wished I'd said it somewhere, like, public… But yeah, whitewashing Khan was as bad as whitewashing (and mispronouncing) Ra's al Ghul in Batman Begins. Yes, they're villains, but man, they're _cool_ villains! Let them be diverse, too!

Nature’s bath 🌴

@embersatori.bsky.social and Nico. #createeveryday