Mark Twain was a writer in the late 1800s in America who wrote some real novels, but also is mainly known for his humorous and satirical writing. He’s exaggerating here for comedic effect, not trying to be serious. So it’s probably a combination of the older language and the fact that he’s trying to be funny.
One of my favorite passages from Mark Twain’s “The Awful German Language”:
There are ten parts of speech, and they are all troublesome. An average sentence, in a German newspaper, is a sublime and impressive curiosity; it occupies a quarter of a column; it contains all the ten parts of speech – not in regular order, but mixed; it is built mainly of compound words constructed by the writer on the spot, and not to be found in any dictionary – six or seven words compacted into one, without joint or seam – that is, without hyphens; it treats of fourteen or fifteen different subjects, each inclosed in a parenthesis of its own, with here and there extra parentheses which reinclose three or four of the minor parentheses, making pens within pens: finally, all the parentheses and reparentheses are massed together between a couple of king-parentheses, one of which is placed in the first line of the majestic sentence and the other in the middle of the last line of it – after which comes the VERB, and you find out for the first time what the man has been talking about; and after the verb – merely by way of ornament, as far as I can make out – the writer shovels in “haben sind gewesen gehabt haben geworden sein,” or words to that effect, and the monument is finished. I suppose that this closing hurrah is in the nature of the flourish to a man’s signature – not necessary, but pretty. German books are easy enough to read when you hold them before the looking-glass or stand on your head – so as to reverse the construction – but I think that to learn to read and understand a German newspaper is a thing which must always remain an impossibility to a foreigner.
What the fuck did you just fucking say about Nicole, you little removed? Ill have you know she graduated top of her class in the Navy Seals, and shes been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and she has over 300 confirmed kills. She is trained in gorilla warfare and shes the top sniper in the entire Polish armed forces. You are nothing to her but just another target. She will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to her over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak she is contacting her secret network of spies across Poland and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. Youre fucking dead, kid. She can be anywhere, anytime, and she can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and thats just with her bare hands. Not only is she extensively trained in unarmed combat, but she has access to the entire arsenal of the Polish Marine Corps and she will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little clever comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldnt, you didn’t, and now youre paying the price, you goddamn idiot. She will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You’re fucking dead, kiddo.
Oh hey, it’s Sam Reich’s dad!
I’m often skeptical of the idea of intersectionality. Trying to lump people who are black, queer, atheist, immigrants, feminists, etc. in one big group and have them fight for each other’s rights isn’t going to work super well, and any division can just detail the whole effort.
But the T in LGBT has been there since the very early days of the gay rights movement. Trans people were not just there at Stonewall, they were the crux of the riots, for fuck’s sake! I grew up when people were literally trying to erase gay people from existence - the whole “is it a choice vs. are you born gay?” debate, which was both insulting and not important (oh, if it’s a choice, then it’s fine for you to oppress someone?) was erasure. Gay-erasure was a thing, everyone. Bi-erasure has been a thing for ages! Now I see the same thing happening to trans folks, and it’s like a bunch of people are either forgetting it or willfully ignoring history.
It’s not even just about what this comic is saying, i.e., if you let them come for people who are trans, then soon they’ll come for you. Even if I knew 100% gay marriage was not under threat AT ALL, I’d still support the trans community, because it’s not a tit-for-tat when someone’s existence is at stake! Sure, we need to convince the public, sure it’s hard and sure, there are some small (VERY small in terms of numbers) issues like trans athletes and regretful transitioners that maybe need some working through or compromises, just as gay marriage had to start with civil unions before the public accepted “marriage.” But it’s worth fighting for!
Okay, rant over, especially with me knowing Lemmy is fine with trans folks, y’all are good peeps, I just felt angry about this today.
My DAUGHTER shoots electricity from her fingers whenever anyone compliments her!
Get out of my head!
Letze Woche habe ich gelernt, dass mussten und müssten sind anders. Duolingo akzeptiert beide, und jetzt habe ich keine Idee welche ist richtig.
Es tut mir leid für meine Grammatik. Mein Deutsch ist wahrscheinlich nicht so gut.
I would probably not rule this as an attack. Lighting a creature on fire? Sure. But lighting oil, which happens to catch a creature on fire? Nah. IMO, aggressive actions aren’t attacks unless they make contact with or directly (not indirectly) affect an enemy. At least, that’s how I’d rule.
That being said, keep in mind that invisible creatures aren’t undetectable , just unseen. Someone dumps out a flask of oil? As soon as that oil leaves the flask (so it’s not being worn or carried), it’s visible, and leaving a trail for any enemy to follow. Attacks against targets you can’t see are made with disadvantage, but can still be made. A bunch of goblins swinging axes at the air are eventually gonna hit something. Are you having invisible characters make stealth checks? They’d get advantage, but if they make noise (e.g., strike a tinderbox), every enemy in the area should get a chance to roll a Perception check against Stealth, not just use passive Perception.
All that being said, if your players come up with a cool idea, roll with it. I actually really like the idea of an invisible PC lighting a fire on their enemies. But (most) enemies aren’t dumb, and they’re not going to sit around doing nothing if a clumsy, noisy invisible thing dumps out oil all around them and then lights it on fire. Plus, sometimes a half-executed idea is more fun than a perfectly-executed one (oh shit, remember when we lit the thieves den on fire but then had to run away because they were so furious and nearly killed Gary?!?)
Don’t be afraid to change or define the rules as necessary. It’s your game. If every single time they infiltrate, they’re turning invisible and setting fire, then say, “it’s going to be an attack from now on, and you’ll lose invisibility.” FORCE them to be creative. Lastly, let the players know that they can always ask. A PC casting invisibility would know if an action is going to cancel it. So they can check with you in the moment, you make a ruling, and then they can decide what to do. If later you decide you were wrong, tell them that next time it’ll be different.
Hope that helps!
You’re absolutely right. I just signed up on .ml because I was a reddit refugee and it was one of the largest instances, and it got the fastest updates. Like a year later, suddenly everyone’s talking about me like I’m part of some crazy cult. I bet well over half of .ml users don’t even come close to the extreme stereotype, but are considering going to another instance just so we don’t get bullied any more. It’s likely going to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Before I realized and came out as bi, I was in the GSA (gay-straight alliance) in high school as a “straight.” My state was voting to ban gay marriage at the time, and we campaigned against it. I got just as much if not more hate from people than the LGBT members. Maybe because they viewed them as a lost cause? It was usually adults yelling at a 17-year-old kid for being a “betrayer” and a “pervert lover” (I liked that one), just because I supported two consenting adults marrying regardless of gender. Staunch allies definitely earn the title.
Multiattack claws now, tiger power!
If tomorrow we banned non-self-driving (NSD) cars, sure. But in most countries, grandfathering in old cars is going to happen for a while. Which means that self-driving and non-self-driving cars will have to share the road.
I could see some transitions possibly. For example, on a 4-lane highway: “In 2027, lane 1 will be separated by a barrier and only allow SD cars. Lanes 2-4 will be for NSD cars only. In 2029, lanes 1-2 for SD. By 2033, NSD cars will be banned on this highway.”
“My neighbor Jerry wrote his password on a post-it note and stuck it to his monitor that I can see through the window. Let me just add it to the database…”
LARGEST PASSWORD LEAK EVER RELEASED BY BOB SMITH OF 123 MAPLE ST!!!
It’s just an homage to Trump, who is famous for not paying bills!
Because people are rarely single issue voters. There are a few here and there, but given the dominance of the US’s two-party system, you often have to make a choice. If I imagine 2 candidates: one who is strongly pro-choice but overtly anti-gay, and another who is strongly pro-life but also pro-LGBTQ issues, that would actually be a pretty tough decision for me.
As much as I want to hate Trump supporters, I can still sympathize with them. A lot are lifelong Republicans who are choosing between someone who will probably try to enact 90% of their personal beliefs but is an authoritarian crazy person, and someone who seems sane but disagrees with them on 90% of issues and will do everything to stymie the things they believe to be right. It’s not a simple choice.
I’m ignoring third-parties here as a caveat, so apologies if that’s the crux of your question. But my opinion is that you should push for and vote for a new system while accepting that the rules are what they are now, and you have to strategize with the current situation.
Do not pay a lot of attention to single polls. Poll aggregators (even with flaws like RealClearPolitics) are so much better, and a predictive model (Nate Silver or the new 538) is even better. Great pollsters don’t herd and are not afraid of publishing outliers.
If we see the overall aggregate start to tend more toward Harris, that’s significant and this poll was an early sign. If it doesn’t, then this poll was just an outlier.
Just updated this morning, shit. Working okay so far, though.
“Stop laughing,” the department chief said in an interview with WLMY. “This is a wheel problem for us.”
It would suck for the Atlantic and Jeff Goldberg, but I almost hope that they charge him with distributing classified info for posting the plans. The courts would absolutely WRECK the government in that case