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Art, Fun, & Nonsense.
Or, how to play with your money, from Kestrel! This is such a cool thing to do when you leave a tip for someone.
© Kestrel, all rights reserved.
A beautiful Eurasian Jay from Giliell, click for full size!
© Giliell, all rights reserved.
Screengrab.
Curious about all the republican upset over “The Memo”? Aaron Rupar at Think Progress has the answers. It all boils down to bullshit, but there’s little the rethugs love more than a pot of shit to stir about.
House Republicans and right-wing media outlets are up in arms about a classified memo purportedly detailing misconduct related to the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign for possible collusion with Russia.
After reviewing it on Thursday, a number of Trump-supporting Republicans flooded the airwaves on Fox News. On Hannity, Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Jim Jordan (R-OH) called for Mueller to be fired, with Gaetz characterizing the special counsel’s investigation as “a lie built on corruption” and akin to “a palace coup.” On Friday morning, Fox & Friends spun the story as “worse than Watergate.”
The truth about the new ‘top secret’ memo Republicans can’t stop talking about.
Three pictures. The scitalis has a dog’s head, wings and two feet. The anphivena is shown with two heads, wings and claws. The ydrus is killing a crocodile by crawling into its mouth and tearing it apart.
Three pictures. The scitalis has a dog’s head, wings and two feet. The anphivena is shown with two heads, wings and claws. The ydrus is killing a crocodile by crawling into its mouth and tearing it apart.
Three pictures. The scitalis has a dog’s head, wings and two feet. The anphivena is shown with two heads, wings and claws. The ydrus is killing a crocodile by crawling into its mouth and tearing it apart.
Text Translation:
Of the snake called scitalis The snake called scitalis gets its name because it glitters with such a variety of colour on its back that it slows down those who look at it on account of its markings. And because it is not a keen crawler and cannot overtake the prey it pursues, it catches those who are stunned by the marvel of its appearance. It gets so hot that even in winter it casts off its burning skin, something to Lucan refers: The scitalis alone can shed its skin while the rime is still scattered over the ground’ (Pharsalia, 9, 717).
Of the anphivena The anphivena is so called because it has two heads, one where its head should be, the other on its tail; it moves quickly in the direction of either of its head, with its body forming a circle. Alone among snakes it faces the cold and is the first to come out of hibernation. Lucan, again, says of it: ‘The fell amphisbaena, that moves towards each of its two heads’ (Pharsalia, 9, 719). Its eyes glow like lamps.
Of the ydrus A creature lives in the River Nile which is called idrus, because it lives in water. For the Greek word for water is idros Thus it is called aquatilis serpens, ‘water-snake’. Those who are bitten by it swell up, a sickness called by some boa, because it can be cured by the dung of an ox, bos. The idra is a dragon with many heads of the kind that lived on the island, or marsh, of Lerna in the province of Arcadia. It is called in Latin excedra because when one of its heads is cut off, three grow in its place. This is a myth, however, for it is accepted that the hydra was a place where water gushed out, destroying the town nearby; where, as one outlet was closed up, many others burst open. Seeing this, Hercules drained the marsh and so closed the water-spouts. For the word idra is so called from the Greek word for water.
The idrus is a worthy enemy of the crocodile and has this characteristic and habit: when it sees a crocodile sleeping on the shore, it enters the crocodile through its open mouth, rolling itself in mud in order to slide more easily down its throat. The crocodile therefore, instantly swallows the idrus alive. But the idrus, tearing open the crocodile’s intestines, comes out whole and unharmed.
For this reason death and hell are symbolised by the crocodile; their enemy is our Lord Jesus Christ. For taking human flesh, he descended into hell and, tearing open its inner parts, he led forth those who were unjustly held there. He destroyed death itself by rising from the dead, and through the prophet mocks death, saying:’O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction’ (Hosea, 13:14).
From Giliell, click for full size!
© Giliell, all rights reserved.
From Giliell, click for full size!
© Giliell, all rights reserved.
Angua gets a dish of Nutella all to herself.
© C. Ford.
Lucifer (the morning star) represented as a winged child pouring light from a jar. Engraving by G.H. Frezza, 1704.
Rodney Howard-Browne, a certified member of the lunatic fringe has come up with a brand new shtick.
During the program, Howard-Browne warned that the shadowy elites who run the world literally worship Satan and are intent on removing Trump from office, possibly with the assistance of Vice President Mike Pence.
“At the highest levels, these people worship Lucifer,” he said. “What I am talking to you about right now is the Luciferian structure of the globe. These people care absolutely nothing—I believe that with President Trump coming was a last minute reprieve, but we are being set up even now, as we speak, for the coming of that Antichrist one-world religion and one money system.”
Oh yes, the specter of ecumenism. I recall people being quite upsetty about that one way back in my Calvary Chapel days, but y’know, back then, people were absolutely certain the rapture was right around the corner, and a lot of people thought adopting bar codes was the mark of the beast and all that crap. You can rest easy, Rodney. We humans are light years from an ecumenical church and a one money system. For such things to develop, people need to be at peace, and be willing to talk and agree with one another, that cooperation business. We aren’t even close to dreaming about that at this point in time.
I don’t understand why you in the lunatic fringe are always focused on people at “the highest level” and all that elite nonsense. It’s not those who have power and money who fuel revolutions; those people are terrified of the ‘common folk’ deciding they are mad as hell and aren’t going to take it anymore. Besides, there are more of us common types than ‘elites’, so I’d think any shadowy movement would be found amongst the hoi polloi. People at a high level with lots of power and money tend to be firmly in favour of the status quo.
The election of Trump, Howard-Browne said, gave the world “a window” of opportunity to fight back against the satanic system before it destroys the world.
Hahahaha, no. The election, such as it was, allowed a minority of vicious bigots the hope of being able to oppress others, and to bring about the fascism they worship.
“What people don’t understand,” he said, “they might not like Trump because he was not a Sunday school teacher, but we didn’t need a Sunday school teacher, we needed a wrecking ball and we have a wrecking ball by the name of President Donald J. Trump. I’m so happy that he is wrecking everything and I say, ‘Wreck on, Mr. President.’ The tweets are important because they are rabbits that he is sending for the media to catch while he is doing something else and we have to pray that God gives us this reprieve because you know if they can’t push the racism thing, if they can’t push the whole, you know, he has lost his mind, then they will take him out. And that is the next thing on the horizon.”
Oh FFS, what a load of bonnaconshit. We needed a wrecking ball like we needed a nice new hole in our heads. There’s no need to push anything – every day, the Tiny Tyrant proves his racism, his shallowness, his fucking idiocy. He is not any sort of genius, who is deliberately tweeting distractions. Unfortunately, his tweets are direct evidence of how his mind works, and that should scare the shit out of every person on the planet. If an assassin has not stepped up, given all the destruction wrought over the past year, it’s not going to happen, Rodney. I doubt an impeachment will happen either, because it seems no one has the fucking spine to follow the law and do the right thing.
Howard-Browne then warned that while he personally likes the vice president, “Mike Pence is a company man, Mike Pence will do what the GOP tells him to do … So we are in a very precarious situation, more precarious now than we can ever even begin to imagine.”
Right. You’re talking about a man with the spine of a jellyfish. Pence excels at kissing ass, I’ll give you that, but that doesn’t make him dangerous. In a bad situation, Pence would fall to his knees and grovel to the Tiny Tyrant. We aren’t talking about some silent man of action, the stereotype you see in too many movies. Pence is Trump’s fluffer, nothing more.
The asp is avoiding the sound of a snake charmer by putting one ear to the ground and putting his tail in the other ear. The snake charmer is protecting himself with a shield and stick.
Text Translation:
Of the asp. The asp, aspis, is so called because it injects poisons with its bite, spreading them throughout the body. For the Greek word for poison is ios, and from this comes the word aspis, because it kills with a poisonous bite. It moves quickly with its mouth always open and emitting vapour. There are various kinds and species of asps which inflict harm with different effects. It is said that when the asp begins to endure a snake-charmer summoning it with music designed for that purpose, to bring it out of its cave, and it does not want to come out, it presses one ear to the ground, and blocks and covers the other with its tail, and deaf to those magic sounds, does not go out to the man who is charming him.
Of a similar nature are the men of this world, who close one ear with earthly desires. The other they block with their deeds, lest they hear the voice of the Lord saying: ‘Whosoever he be of you that foresaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple or servant’ (see Luke, 14:33). Asps do no more than merely close their ears. Men of this world blind their eyes lest they see heaven and are reminded of the works of the Lord.
The dissa is a kind of asp, called situla in Latin, because those it bites die of thirst, sitis. There is a kind of asp called ypnalis, because it kills you by sending you to sleep. It was this snake that Cleopatra applied to herself, and was released by death as if by sleep. The emorrosis is an asp, so called because it kills by making you sweat blood. If you are bitten by it, you grow weak, so that your veins open and your life is drawn forth in your blood. For the Greek word for ‘blood’ is emath. The prester is an asp that moves quickly with its mouth always open and emitting vapour, as the poet recalled like this: ‘The greedy prester that opens wide its foaming mouth’ (Lucan, Pharsalia, 9, 722). If it strikes you, you swell up and die of gross distention, for the swollen body putrefies immediately after.
The spectaficus is an asp which, when it bites a man, destroys him, so that he turns entirely into fluid in the snake’s mouth. The cerastis, is so called because it has horns on its head like a ram’s. For the Greek word for ‘horns’ is ceraste. It has a set of four small horns and, displaying them, it persuades animals that they are good to eat, then kills its prey; for it covers its entire body with sand, so that no trace of it shows, except the part with which it catches the birds or animals it has attracted. It bends more than other snakes, so that it seems to have no spine.
Goshawk, from Charly, click for full size!
© Charly, all rights reserved.