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A strong wind blows if your 14 year old sister had a blog before you did.

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Mar
16th
Fri
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sweet coat of arms, Faroe Islands…
More like, sweet goat of arms.

sweet coat of arms, Faroe Islands…

More like, sweet goat of arms.

Feb
23rd
Thu
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I think that, pending a suitably fitting personality, I should one day name a cat Kermit and then always call him Kim. Then he would embody all the sweet domesticity of the muppet, all the mischief of Kipling’s protagonist and the man who orchestrated the Iranian coup of 1953, and have both one and two syllable options for when I call him. Yes, that would do nicely. I want a cat.

Jan
19th
Thu
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Idea stolen from me. Shameless, borpface.

Idea stolen from me. Shameless, borpface.

(Source: borntoexplode)

Dec
21st
Wed
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Fact is, this rivalry has so little on-field history that it rivals the Invasion of Grenada in terms of significance.

some dude writing for Yahoo sports. And yet, you gave it a capital I. One paragraph in the history books is infinitely more than zero. History 1, sports 0.

(I can’t say ‘say that to Grenada,’ because the article was about New York, which has to be an order of magnitude bigger than the county of Grenada. Still, does not rival in significance a military campaign with Cold War implications in which people died.)

Dec
20th
Tue
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“the facelessness of the Earth must be terminated; the field must have its master.” N. S. Khrushchev, ~1961

“the facelessness of the Earth must be terminated; the field must have its master.” N. S. Khrushchev, ~1961

(Source: potandvodka, via borntoexplode)

Nov
16th
Wed
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thefucksidontgive:

I shall now eat your face because I love you 

(Source: valleygirlintellegencia, via borntoexplode)

Nov
15th
Tue
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All of us around Stalin were temporary people. As long as he trusted us to a certain degree, we were allowed to go on living and working. Bit the moment he stopped trusting you, Stalin would start to scrutinize you until the cup of his distrust overflowed. Then it would be your turn to follow those who were no longer among the living.
— Nikita Khrushchev
Oct
18th
Tue
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In which James Blunt preserves the existing international order, or, this is what it’s like when worlds collide, or, history is sometimes altogether too cool

So as far as I knew when I woke up this morning, James Blunt is the guy who wrote that one song about how beautiful you are, which is a little catchy, though I always expect the final note of the chorus to do something more minor or interesting than it ends up doing. That was the extent to which he was relevant to my life. Then, I find out that he also has the following kickass claim to fame:

At the end of the Kosovo war, a Russian detachment of peacekeepers stationed in Bosnia took it upon themselves to motor down to the Pristina Airport—the most strategically critical entry point for supplies into Kosovo—and occupy it. Russia wasn’t so keen on NATO’s military intervention in the Balkans, particularly against the Slavic Serbs. Anywho, the British unit that had been sent to occupy this airport from the South by NATO central command was heartily surprised to see Russian tanks pointed in their direction as they approached the airport. The officer in charge went up the chain of command to the Supreme Allied Commander of Europe, Mr. Wesley Clark (later of 2004 Democratic primary fame), who (allegedly) gives the order to take the airport by force.

The commanding officer and second in command of British unit (I imagine) looked at each other and uttered a collective “WTF?,” and concluded that they needed a second opinion, at which point they broke the chain of command and phoned the defense ministry in London. The defense ministry told them to sit tight, and to make a long story short, the situation was eventually resolved diplomatically, and  World War III was averted.

And who was the officer who refused to carry out the attack order? None other than Captain James Blunt, who is apparently now a folk hero in the Balkans (in addition, the commanding officer who supported that decision was named Mike Jackson). History FTW.

Oct
17th
Mon
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I am non-party, married, with a 5-year-old son. I work as an engineer and have been and still am in a responsible position. I regard myself as a good citizen of the U.S.S.R.
I cannot agree with the prohibition of abortions. And I am very glad that this law has not entered into force but has been submitted to the workers for discussion.
The prohibition of abortion means the compulsory birth of a child to a woman who does not want a child. The birth of a child ties married people to each other. Not everyone will readily abandon a child, for alimony is not all that children need. Where the parents produce a child of their own free will, all is well. But where a child comes into the family against the will of the parents, a grim personal drama will be enacted which will undoubtedly lower the social value of the parents and leave its mark on the child.
A categorical prohibition of abortion will confront young people with a dilemma: either complete sexual abstinence or the risk of jeopardizing their studies and disrupting their life. To my mind any prohibition of abortion is bound to mutilate many a young life. Apart from this, re result of such a prohibition might be an increase in the death-rate from abortions because they will then be performed illegally….
— An editorial printed in Izvestiia in May 1936, months before abortions, legal since the revolution of 1917, were banned in the USSR. The wheel on these ethical debates keeps on getting reinvented.
Oct
11th
Tue
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We know that at this moment we do not yet have a communist system, and that it is impossible to require equality…but we must say “You have to live within such and such bounds, you are in the seventeenth rank.” If he receives more, then he is subject to special demands; some return will be exacted of him. It is only literary work which is paid outside of any limits. Why is this done? Because it is still difficult to reach the situation where communist writers write just as cheerfully for nothing as for pay, and we are forced to make this concession.
— A. A. Solts, Communist Ethics. There you are, Dinah.