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We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Today, we remember.
A hundred years ago today, the German army, having swept through Belgium and into northwestern France, had been forced back from the Marne and had set up defensive trenches that they would occupy, across the killing fields of Flanders from the French and British trenches, for most of the next four years.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
A hundred years ago today, the Austro-Hungarian army had finally (after months of incompetence and failure) broken the back of the Serbian army and were marching on Belgrade. They would take it, but they'd hold it for less than two weeks, and it would take another year for them to recapture the city.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.
A hundred years ago today, the initial Russian invasion of Prussia had collapsed, but the simultaneous invasion of Galicia had succeeded. Przemysl lay besieged, its inhabitants starving and dying of cholera.
A hundred years ago today, the Russian army and the Germany army engaged outside of Lodz, a battle which would see 280,000 killed, wounded, or captured in a meaningless fight that had no clear victor.
And this was just the beginning.
This decision does NOT say that, broadly speaking, companies can avoid paying for the health insurance of their employees. It does NOT say that, broadly speaking, companies do not have to pay for contraceptive care. It does NOT say that, as some commentators have had it, women are second-class citizens, that contraceptive care isn’t important or isn’t health care, or that only Christian religious beliefs are protected. It is a very narrow decision, as we have generally come to expect from Justice Alito, and it deliberately calls out many of the potential extreme extensions of the law as things which the decision does not hold.
That said, in my view, it’s also a deeply flawed decision which carries grave and serious risks if it is not carefully cabined.
Sunday, 21st October. Starting in the afternoon sometime.
ni and i like to make stuff ourselves, like bread and beer, wine and meals from scratch, and we like to grow our own food. it's fun to have made something all by myself.
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Men in Black 3 [DVD] [2012]
by Anonymous
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Kolchak - The Night Stalker
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Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History
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Gojira [Blu-ray]
by Anonymous
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Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism
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Monsters
by Anonymous
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Thursday December 22nd
- To those that give (8 comments)
Thursday November 10th
- In Memoriam (9 comments)
Tuesday August 23rd
- Eight days (30 comments)
Saturday August 13th
- Thoughts on the riots (25 comments)
Monday August 1st
- On the way between there and here. (6 comments)
Wednesday July 6th
- So where was I? (12 comments)
Friday July 1st
- Automatic Asshole Correction (15 comments)
Sunday May 22nd
- We owe it to each other to tell stories. (10 comments)
Monday May 9th
- There was, once. (21 comments)
Wednesday April 27th
- Another good moment (10 comments)