Avtomat Kalashnikova model of 1947, more commonly known as the AK-47, or Kalashnikov. It's the worlds most popular assault rifle, a weapon all fighters love. An elegantly simple nine pound amalgamation of forged steel and plywood, it doesn't break, jam, or overheat. It will fire whether it's covered in mud or filled with sand. It's so easy even a child could use it, and they do. The Soviets put the gun on a coin. Mozambique put it on their flag. Since the end of the Cold War, the Kalashnikov has become the Russian people's greatest export. After that comes vodka, caviar, and suicidal novelists. One thing is for sure, no one was lining up to buy their cars.
someone better than you, but you're not resorting to accusing them of cheating, only of making an effort.
A place of punishments and rewards. The poet assures us that —
"Stone walls do not a prison make,"
but a combination of the stone wall, the political parasite and the moral instructor is no garden of sweets.
(also: crime)
(also: The Devil's Dictionary)
"Stone walls do not a prison make,"
but a combination of the stone wall, the political parasite and the moral instructor is no garden of sweets.
(also: crime)
(also: The Devil's Dictionary)
(n.) a hip-again ideology, and basically anti-capitalist. a passage vehicle, for breaking free from some current norms, but by no means the final balanced form.. I worry sometimes about people who just soaked in "ugh, it's capitalism that dehumanizes people, it's all capitalism's fault" and are fighting like that's the whole truth (whom I see a lot of, online and in some of my adjacent social circles!!). scapegoating doesn't solve anything.. but if I take a breath in and out, I know it will be ok. there is more to come after this.
"just share what you can & take what you need" works great & intuitively within a family context; but on a society level, historically, has led to horrible mismanagement and its own forms of dehumanization.. people are not going to get magically better at intrapersonal relationships, or resource logistics, or equal access to healthcare, simply because there's a change in the system. a system is a tool, like a knife, not good or bad on its own-- and I'm sure you've heard where this is going before, so I won't bore you.
if you want a society infused with respect towards others: embody it, weave it tight into your own life with everything you do. if you want honest communication, start by cutting out the outright lies in your daily relationships, then move on to the trickier & smaller white lies you tell yourself in a half-whispered thought. these things will get you a lot farther and make the journey a lot more engaging, challenging and rewarding.
"just share what you can & take what you need" works great & intuitively within a family context; but on a society level, historically, has led to horrible mismanagement and its own forms of dehumanization.. people are not going to get magically better at intrapersonal relationships, or resource logistics, or equal access to healthcare, simply because there's a change in the system. a system is a tool, like a knife, not good or bad on its own-- and I'm sure you've heard where this is going before, so I won't bore you.
if you want a society infused with respect towards others: embody it, weave it tight into your own life with everything you do. if you want honest communication, start by cutting out the outright lies in your daily relationships, then move on to the trickier & smaller white lies you tell yourself in a half-whispered thought. these things will get you a lot farther and make the journey a lot more engaging, challenging and rewarding.
(n.) the joy that accompanies seeing a rival or enemy suffer; sort of the reverse of an empathetic cringe of embarrassment
(n.) one who wishes to give peace a chance.
(n.) "lowly, humble," literally "on the ground". an act of submission.
(also: humus)
(also: humble)
(also: humiliation)
(also: humus)
(also: humble)
(also: humiliation)
(n.) someone of high rank or prestige, or someone whose delusion of rank and prestige needs to be indulged; a muckety-muck
someone who is capable of immersing into digital environments. There are many kinds of gamers. Some enjoy building up their strength as heroes, and saving worlds alongside beloved allies. Others prefer to play the role of the villain or hoodlum, and revel in the glorious chaos they wreak. Another category of gamer plays to escape, either from negative thoughts and feelings, or for other reasons, not related to such things. All gamers have something they connect with in their game that they enjoy, or occupies their energy. Never assume that any demographic of person can be a better gamer than any other demographic of person. This is a toxic myth that looms over gamer culture, preventing it from reaching its utopia.
(also: utopia)
(also: utopia)
Worse version of Czech republic full of angry villagers
A receptacle for such sacred objects as pieces of the true cross, short-ribs of the saints, the ears of Balaam's ass, the lung of the cock that called Peter to repentance and so forth. Reliquaries are commonly of metal, and provided with a lock to prevent the contents from coming out and performing miracles at unseasonable times. A feather from the wing of the Angel of the Annunciation once escaped during a sermon in Saint Peter's and so tickled the noses of the congregation that they woke and sneezed with great vehemence three times each. It is related in the Gesta Sanctorum that a sacristan in the Canterbury cathedral surprised the head of Saint Dennis in the library. Reprimanded by its stern custodian, it explained that it was seeking a body of doctrine. This unseemly levity so enraged the diocesan that the offender was publicly anathematized, thrown into the Stour and replaced by another head of Saint Dennis, brought from Rome.
(also: The Devil's Dictionary)
(also: The Devil's Dictionary)
Words designed to show that the person of whom they are uttered is devoid of the dignity of character distinguishing him who utters them. It may be graphic, mimetic or merely rident. Shaftesbury is quoted as having pronounced it the test of truth — a ridiculous assertion, for many a solemn fallacy has undergone centuries of ridicule with no abatement of its popular acceptance. What, for example, has been more valorously derided than the doctrine of Infant Respectability?
(also: The Devil's Dictionary)
(also: The Devil's Dictionary)
(v.) Conducting disputes over minor marginal issues, while overlooking more serious ones.
Derived from the scenario of people arguing over what color to paint the bicycle shed while the house is not finished.
(also: pedantry)
(also: law of triviality)
(also: peter's principle)
(also: grammar nazi)
Derived from the scenario of people arguing over what color to paint the bicycle shed while the house is not finished.
(also: pedantry)
(also: law of triviality)
(also: peter's principle)
(also: grammar nazi)
. In ancient Rome, a definite, formal pageant in honor of one who had been disserviceable to the enemies of the nation. A lesser "triumph." In modern English the word is improperly used to signify any loose and spontaneous expression of popular homage to the hero of the hour and place.
"I had an ovation!" the actor man said,
But I thought it uncommonly queer,
That people and critics by him had been led
By the ear.
The Latin lexicon makes his absurd
Assertion as plain as a peg;
In "ovum" we find the true root of the word.
It means egg.
—Dudley Spink
"I had an ovation!" the actor man said,
But I thought it uncommonly queer,
That people and critics by him had been led
By the ear.
The Latin lexicon makes his absurd
Assertion as plain as a peg;
In "ovum" we find the true root of the word.
It means egg.
—Dudley Spink
An outlook, usually forbidding. An expectation, usually forbidden.
Blow, blow, ye spicy breezes —
O'er Ceylon blow your breath,
Where every prospect pleases,
Save only that of death.
—Bishop Sheber
(also: The Devil's Dictionary)
Blow, blow, ye spicy breezes —
O'er Ceylon blow your breath,
Where every prospect pleases,
Save only that of death.
—Bishop Sheber
(also: The Devil's Dictionary)
One forgotten of the gods and living to a great age. History is abundantly supplied with examples, from Methuselah to Old Parr, but some notable instances of longevity are less well known. A Calabrian peasant named Coloni, born in 1753, lived so long that he had what he considered a glimpse of the dawn of universal peace. Scanavius relates that he knew an archbishop who was so old that he could remember a time when he did not deserve hanging. In 1566 a linen draper of Bristol, England, declared that he had lived five hundred years, and that in all that time he had never told a lie. There are instances of longevity (macrobiosis) in our own country. Senator Chauncey Depew is old enough to know better. The editor of The American, a newspaper in New York City, has a memory that goes back to the time when he was a rascal, but not to the fact. The President of the United States was born so long ago that many of the friends of his youth have risen to high political and military preferment without the assistance of personal merit. The verses following were written by a macrobian:
When I was young the world was fair
And amiable and sunny.
A brightness was in all the air,
In all the waters, honey.
The jokes were fine and funny,
The statesmen honest in their views,
And in their lives, as well,
And when you heard a bit of news
'Twas true enough to tell.
Men were not ranting, shouting, reeking,
Nor women "generally speaking."
The Summer then was long indeed:
It lasted one whole season!
The sparkling Winter gave no heed
When ordered by Unreason
To bring the early peas on.
Now, where the dickens is the sense
In calling that a year
Which does no more than just commence
Before the end is near?
When I was young the year extended
From month to month until it ended.
I know not why the world has changed
To something dark and dreary,
And everything is now arranged
To make a fellow weary.
The Weather Man — I fear he
Has much to do with it, for, sure,
The air is not the same:
It chokes you when it is impure,
When pure it makes you lame.
With windows closed you are asthmatic;
Open, neuralgic or sciatic.
Well, I suppose this new régime
Of dun degeneration
Seems eviler than it would seem
To a better observation,
And has for compensation
Some blessings in a deep disguise
Which mortal sight has failed
To pierce, although to angels' eyes
They're visibly unveiled.
If Age is such a boon, good land!
He's costumed by a master hand!
—Venable Strigg
When I was young the world was fair
And amiable and sunny.
A brightness was in all the air,
In all the waters, honey.
The jokes were fine and funny,
The statesmen honest in their views,
And in their lives, as well,
And when you heard a bit of news
'Twas true enough to tell.
Men were not ranting, shouting, reeking,
Nor women "generally speaking."
The Summer then was long indeed:
It lasted one whole season!
The sparkling Winter gave no heed
When ordered by Unreason
To bring the early peas on.
Now, where the dickens is the sense
In calling that a year
Which does no more than just commence
Before the end is near?
When I was young the year extended
From month to month until it ended.
I know not why the world has changed
To something dark and dreary,
And everything is now arranged
To make a fellow weary.
The Weather Man — I fear he
Has much to do with it, for, sure,
The air is not the same:
It chokes you when it is impure,
When pure it makes you lame.
With windows closed you are asthmatic;
Open, neuralgic or sciatic.
Well, I suppose this new régime
Of dun degeneration
Seems eviler than it would seem
To a better observation,
And has for compensation
Some blessings in a deep disguise
Which mortal sight has failed
To pierce, although to angels' eyes
They're visibly unveiled.
If Age is such a boon, good land!
He's costumed by a master hand!
—Venable Strigg
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