“There’s a great Yiddish expression that says, “If I knew God, I’d be God.” In fact, I think that claiming that you “know God’s will” is an act of incredible hubris. Instead, what we say about God has much more to say about us than about God. There are, in fact, a whole range of different theologies within Judaism (you can find some of them in the terrific books “Finding God“ and “The God Upgrade,” both of which describe a whole range of differing, and sometimes even conflicting, theologies.) And while I can only speak personally here, to me, “God” isn’t really a noun at all — it’s a verb. Here’s why. The most common name that God gives Godself in the Torah is “YHVH,” a name that is sometimes thought to be so holy that no one was allowed to pronounce it. But that’s not exactly right — it’s not that “YHVH” was not allowed to be pronounced, it’s that it is literally unpronounceable, since it consists of four Hebrew vowels (yod, hay, vav and hay). By the way, that’s also why some people incorrectly call this name “Yahweh,” since (as Rabbi Lawrence Kushner once said), if you tried to pronounce a name that was all vowels, you’d risk serious respiratory injury. But even more importantly, the name YHVH is actually a conflation of all the tenses of the Hebrew verb “to be.” God’s name could be seen as “was-is-will be,” so God isn’t something you can’t capture or name — God is only something you can experience. And indeed, when Moses is at the burning bush, having just been told by God that he will be leading the Israelites out of Egypt, he says, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God responds that God’s name is “Ehyeh asher ehyeh,” which is often translated as “I am what I am.” But it could also be translated as, “I am what I will be.” So God is whatever God will be — we simply have no idea. Indeed, for my own theology, I believe that God is found in the “becoming,” transforming “what will be” into “what is.””

— Rabbi Geoffrey A. Mitelman,

why doth the human body ooze when provoked

theres an ooze for just about every brand of human provocation and plainly i am sick of it

was going to elucidate on this matter but then realized i was accidentally inventing the four humors again

no smart appliances in this house. absolute fucking moron appliances only. my toaster is there to make bread hot not to tweet what time I ate breakfast or whatever the fuck

don't need my goddamn microwave to snitch to the nsa

if i am somehow forced to own a smart appliance (likely due to lack of availability) i will figure out how to take the computer out and make it dumb

lobotomize your coffeemaker

the government be like hey guys the pandemic is over! but also no it’s not :) it’s totally fine to go out now but like still stay home! wear a mask but you don’t have to! stay six feet apart but like if you wanna go to a concert packed with hundreds of people that’s totally fine too!! Anyways guys stay safe out there haha :)

if the pandemic is over, no it’s not. don’t go out because it’s over. no it isn’t. yes ❤️

What people think hyper focusing is

What hyper focusing actually is

May I suggest

Photographer Ann Sophie Lindström spent several months documenting  a group of horsemen in North Philadelphia who have been countering crime through their love for horses.  For more riveting photos of the equestrians of North Philly, here’s this week’s Spotlight essay from Emily Anne Epstein.

A stallion named Dusty rears up as Jamil Prattis, 25, leads him to the lot across from the Fletcher Street Stables, October 19, 2013. Jamil became involved with the horses when he was 12 years old, after he saw a group of urban cowboys riding through the streets of North Philadelphia. (Ann Sophie Lindström)

Jamil Prattis sits in front of his house on French Street, May 23, 2014. (Ann Sophie Lindström)

Stephfon Darnell Tolbert, 31, teases a pony named Harlem, making him rear up, October 2, 2013. Harlem is known for being aggressive when someone gets too close. (Ann Sophie Lindström) 

A horse is tied up in front of a vacant lot on Fletcher Street while horsemen clean the stalls, October 6, 2016. (Ann Sophie Lindström) 

Stable manager Edward E. Ward cuddles a horse named Maverick, September 29, 2013. (Ann Sophie Lindström) 

Tymeir Sanders, 17, stops by a friend’s house on West Harold Street while out on a ride with Rosie, June 1, 2014. (Ann Sophie Lindström) 

Stephfon Darnell Tolbert, 24, prepares feed for the horses, October 16, 2016. The horsemen have tack rooms where they keep supplies, feed, and hay. (Ann Sophie Lindström) 

Donnell Glenn takes Cash out for an evening walk, October 9, 2013. (Ann Sophie Lindström) 

Stevie Spann, 50, checks on the horses before closing the stable for the evening, August 22, 2014.  (Ann Sophie Lindström)

Jamil Prattis, Stevie Spann, and Nate Benson sit inside a horse trailer to escape the sun and smoke, May 25, 2014. (Ann Sophie Lindström)

There is no indoor arena at the Fletcher Stable, so the horsemen like use the vacant lot across the street to train their animals, October 6, 2013. (Ann Sophie Lindström) 

Romere Burch,13, rides bareback on a stallion named Ace N da Whole on Glennwood Avenue, October 3, 2013. (Ann Sophie Lindström) 

how long have I been out

sometimes self care is saying “this is stupid” and closing the tab

What a lot of people don’t understand is that the prison industrial complex goes far beyond just the fact that prisons exists.

It’s every single major corporation in the world benefitting from paying slave wages for prison labor

It’s private prisons enforcing quotas to incentivize the state to arrest and convict at higher rates

It’s the war on drugs treating (mostly black and latino) non-violent drug users as hardened criminals

It’s the school to prison pipeline

It’s a country where homelessness is criminalized

It’s mandatory minimum prison sentences

It’s imprisoning civilians for years without bail Before they get a trial

It’s prisoners leaving prison in debt because the slave wages they were forced to work for didn’t cover the cost of food and a bed

It’s former prisoners losing the right to vote

It’s employers discriminating against former prisoners

It’s abuse and substandard living conditions.

It’s a corrupt police state that falsifies evidence and unfairly targets minorities.

The problem is that a lot of y'all still just think of prison as a place where bad people go. It’s not. Most of the bad people are in board rooms, on the golf course, at the bank, in the white house. The truth is, prisons in America are just a business. The lie that they keep you safe is just an ad they can run.

Abolish the prison industrial complex

And not that this is as important as the effects on the prisoners themselves, but the use of drastically underpaid prison labor depresses the whole labor market.

Think about it. Let’s say Company X makes a product with prison labor, paying pennies instead of minimum wage.  Then let’s say Company Y decides to take a principled stand and not use prison labor. They’re going to get priced out of the market. They’ll either squeeze their employees, go under, or both. But let’s imagine that Company Y manages to hang in there. And let’s imagine that its employees want a concession - higher wages, better safety, health insurance, you name it - what kind of bargaining power do you think those employees have when their employer can dismiss them for prison labor?

It’s not less important at all! These things are inextricably linked!

Because these companies, that value profit above human life, are now incentivized to keep prison populations higher. Those companies are going to invest in privatizes prisons. They are going to lobby for harsher sentencing for minor crimes. 

Using prison labor to keep the rest of us ‘in line’ is not an unfortunate side effect, it’s by design. It is the capitalist Free Market at work. “Well, I tried to run a fair and honest business, but all my workers kept bitching about a living wage whatever that is. I had no choice but to fire them all and resort to using slave labor.”

Without prison abolition, we will never truly be able to progress towards a more equitable society.

So the Jet/Zuko fight scene is great for many reasons but can you imagine, sitting in dunkins donuts, sipping your dunkaccino, and this crazed teenager comes in with these enormous. hooks? and accuses the ALSO teenaged cashier of being a russian sleeper agent and there’s a cop who tries to diffuse the situation but instead of letting things de-escalate the cashier leaps over the counter, steals the cop’s gun, and says “i’ll give you a show” i mean-

your man doesn’t have the mental strength to caramelize onions 

your man thinks it takes 5-10 minutes to caramelize onions

Who’s fucking carmelizing onions?

Have you sociopaths forgotten that apples exist?

do you think caramelizing onions is putting caramel on onions