Andy Staples

And here we are

I left a couple of decades ago after taking the local council candidate training - which was dedicated to convincing you that doing what was politically expedient but clearly wrong was the correct thing to do. I wasn't convinced.

Gordale Scar. Tolkien's inspiration for Rivendell say some. Helm's Deep, say others. Tolkien himself was silent on the matter.

The Badger Stone - one of many hundreds of examples of neolithic or Bronze Age rock art on Ilkley Moor.

6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

"4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Bishop Mariann's sermon followed the spirit of 1 Corinthians 13, 1-7:

"1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ "

"21 Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

4) Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, thank you for saying what every Christian should be saying, and using the platform you had to say loudly, clearly and in public.

The fundamentalists supporting Trump? Earlier today a friend posted a gospel passage relevant to them: Matthew 7, 21-23.

3) The moves against immigrants, legal and otherwise, and the pardoning of insurrectionists are equally vile. And equally expected.

2) The level of ignorance shown by declaring all Americans legally female would be amusing if it weren't for the fact that it doesn't matter to the far-right regime now in power in the US. It's the opening move in a campaign against the highly vulnerable trans gender community.

I am content to know that if a thing looks and smells like pigshit, it's pigshit, and I leave the study of the components of the pig's diet to the forensic archaeologists. Anyone trying to tell you it wasn't a Nazi/Fascist salute is an apologist at best.

1) Yes, it was a Nazi salute. You want to claim it was a Roman one? All right, call it a Fascist salute. The distinctions between Nazi and Fascist may be of interest to political science graduates.

If I'm silent on major events, it's usually because I'm too tired or busy to process them into coherent thoughts.

My thoughts on Monday's events are still not coherent. I've got as far as key takeaways and some woolly thinking.

The cold snap continues. Sub-zero temperatures all week. The canal is frozen over.

Ice and fire: as southern California burns, we're in the middle of a cold snap in the Yorkshire Dales.

Hiya!

Aren't we all?

The question is, does it not recognise then as swears, or was no one using them at the time?

My inner 14 year old has found a brother. ;)

Happy Wolfenoot! Celebrate your pack!

I usually get audiobooks of books I've already read so they I can enjoy them again on the road. Rarely do I get a work of fiction I don't bave a dead-tree or books version of. Though I do get Great Courses lectures, which aren't in print/ebook.

SwearSky Bluesky profanity, as it happens

This is oddly cathartic. All the swear words used on Blue Sky, in real time.

I hope it recognises words like cocksplash, bawbag, and wazzock.

swearsky.bagpuss.org

So much new activity here this week. Why could that be? (Adopts innocent pondering posture, tapping pen against teeth and gazing up into the middle distance.)

Typo. I meant sexting with bots.

Nevertheless, the app's general usage for setting with bots showed through when the ship's steward invited me to get frisky with her in the ship's hydroponics bay.
This did prompt our astrogator to say he'd prefer if we didn't scandalised the lettuces, which amused me.

Introduced a pair of armed cutters ambushing us as we left jumpspace after a passenger activated a beacon. One AI asked what they could be after. Another said he'd discovered our cargo was owned by a Zhodani shell company. At no point had I mentioned Zhodani, in background or chat.