1944 – Snowball the cat tries to take over a machine gun in Normandy so she can shoot some Nazis herself.
Blessed post. Good kitty
i want someone to read that headline in an old timey reporter voice
Okay fun fact: cats were actively deployed to trenches and ships to help deal with rodent infestations in both world wars, and they had the curb cutter effect of keeping the men’s spirits high.
One cat, Simon, was given the rank “Able Seacat Simon” after dutifully killing rats and mice that were destroying the HMS Amethyst’s food supplies. The ship had come under fire during the Chinese civil war and many of its crewmen had died. The cat had been gravely injured, too, but he picked out the shrapnel himself – seriously – and went straight to killing the rodents that were overrunning the ship. He unfortunately passed from his injuries two weeks before he was scheduled to receive the Dickin Medal. To this day, he is the only cat to receive this award.
Here’s another WW1 trenchcat, who would have been ratter, mouser, companion and gas warning – not AFAIK by dying, like a canary, but since cats reacted to the smell of gas long before it was strong enough for humans to notice, the troops had a bit more time to get their masks on, and the cats went into gasproof boxes.
Meanwhile, somewhere on the other side of No Man’s Land…
Meet Percy, mascot of HMLS (D20) “Daphne” with Lt Drader. Both survived the War, and Percy retired to live out his peacetime life in the Drader family home.
(Here’s a video clip; given how noisy, hot and smelly early tanks were, Percy seems remarkably unfazed.)
A US Army tank cat, Mustard of the 321st, with a Renault FT light tank and its driver Sgt Postal…
A Royal Artillery kitten (the battery mascot)…
Pincher of HMS Vindex on what looks like a Sopwith Pup scout…
Togo, ship’s cat of HMS Dreadnought (though I’ve also seen “HMS Irresistible”)…
Ship’s cat of HMS Queen Elizabeth atop 15″ main battery…
And speaking of big ships and big guns…
“Make nice all you like, Human. I despise you. I wanted a billet on a battleship, not this tinpot destroyer…” (Ching, of HMAS Swan.)
they’re all following this jesus nonsense instead of the old roman religion
they only know what it’s like under the empire and not the glory of the res publica
all of them want to follow weird greek fashions like writing poetry and growing beards instead of following the mos maiorum and wearing togas
they’re all so used to this cushy “pax romana” nonsense that none of them want to conquer anything like their ancestors did, and they probably don’t even remember carthage
they have no idea what it was like living before the common era
have any of them ever risen up on their own to depose a king or stab a tyrant? i think not
“is being gay genetic” there’s literally no good reason to ask this question. shitheel
???
what
Are you saying that “being gay is genetic” is such an obvious thing that it shouldn’t be asked? Or are you saying that “being gay is genetic” is so untrue that just asking it is offensive?
I don’t believe that being gay is genetic, partly because the studies that have been done on the subject have only been able to show loose correlative connections to being gay by conditions such as in-utero hormone levels, birth order, having an identical twin who is gay. The burden of proof lies on the person proposing that it IS true to prove it, and they have not proven it, thus there is no reasonable position to take than to say that being gay is not genetically caused.
I firmly believe that any scientific study that seeks to find the “biological causative variable” to being gay (such as a specific genetic sequence) has a VERY HIGH POTENTIAL to make it easier to commit anti-gay discrimination, anti-gay genocide, anti-gay eugenics, anti-gay conversion therapy. I do not want people to be able to be outed by a genetic test. Many minors and dependents’ safety is contingent on the fact that they are able to withhold the fact that they are gay from their parents and/or guardians. I do not want “gay” to be a part of people’s medical records, since medical records that indicate transgender status, mental illness, HIV positive status, etc, are currently used to discriminate against people. I do not want people to abort their fetus specifically because a test indicates that fetus will grow up to be gay.
I do not want the medical industry to destroy our ability to self-identify.
What do you do if you are gay but a genetic test claims that you are straight?
I am a 24 year old lesbian transgender woman. When I was about… 15-19 years old I identified as a bisexual male. I do not want a genetic test for gayness to be done to me in order to determine which one of those identities is “fake” and which one is “real.” I do not want such a test to injure my sense of self. I know who I am.
I believe that gender and sexual orientation are roles that are socially mandated, meaning that these are not universal labels but rather cultural labels. The idea of bringing genetics and biology into this to reinforce the barriers between different labels is horrible and invites social violence.
Gay people do not need such a test. They know they are gay, thus that test is obsolete.
A genetic test for gayness will not cure homophobia, but give it a weapon.
Instead of homophobes believing “gay people are moral degenerates” they will believe “gay people are, genetically, moral degenerates. Now please give us your blood so we can see if you are subhuman or not.”
I am American and I have never seen photos like this. I had no idea there are borders like this. Even though I LOVE the idea of open borders, I am staring at these pictures like “wait…people can just…walk across some stones or grass and BE IN ANOTHER COUNTRY??? and nobody stops them?? how does that WORK?!” So you can tell that my country’s propaganda has gotten to me by convincing me that this CAN’T work even though…it…obviously can.
These pics just seem unreal to me. I’ve been taught my whole life that this can’t exist. In 27 years no one has ever sat me down and gone, look, here’s how it is elsewhere. It isn’t impossible at all.
I want to add something, but I’d just be restating what they said. I.. didn’t know peace and kindness like this was possible.
I accidentally crossed into Germany while biking 2 years ago – didn’t notice until my cell phone provider sent me a “Welcome to Germany!” text.
Okay, but these are the internal borders; per the Schengen Agreement you can cross freely from one country to another. The *external* borders of Europe, however, are much more heavily guarded. Don’t mistake Europe for some welcoming, friendly, borderless Utopia.
It’s only because of the EU and/or the Schengen Agreement (as relevant) that there is free movement inside the area. Getting in to begin with is a very different matter, as already mentioned.
On the other hand the Internet also contains so many cats. Before the Internet, there were maybe five or six cats in my neighborhood, and some of them weren’t even friendly. Now I have access to every cat, and I should not discount that.
Also you can replace “cats” with, like, “people who know what you’re going through with your struggles in life,” so there’s that too.
hello I heard we were giving you access to pictures of our cats
if you are quiet and polite you can pet the tux in the cat tree but the tabby will demand your attention whereever you are so plz enjoy this access.
Top quality cats
Tonight’s badly lit delight, which I finally got around midnight: the one pan Singapore noodles from earlier.
(About a quarter of that size batch, for two decent-sized bowls worth. The original recipe there would make a lot, and you’d better have a big pan for it. I’d probably make half the recipe for two hungry adults.)
Some of the vegetables were a little more cooked than I meant, because I forgot that it takes about twice as long to cook the noodles with less liquid. But, very pleased overall!
One thing I did find out the hard way before, but thankfully remembered this time: the noodles also probably won’t need as much liquid as you’d think. Better to add less than the full amount called for at first. Much easier to add a little more hot water if it starts looking too dry, than to take it out later if you use too much.
The texture also benefits from letting it sit off the heat for a few minutes before eating, so the noodles can finish absorbing all the moisture on the outside.
This is a definite do again, with the results for the amount of effort required.
HOW DARE TRUMP WANT KIDS TO EAT BETTER THAN PRISONERS!
Thanks, Obama!
I won’t comment on the politics for either side with this. I only want to say: My freshman year of high school in a rural town, we had three lunch lines. One had stuffed crust pizza, fresh french fries, or chickenburgers. Another had homemade southern soul foods (a staple in any Louisianian school). The last was “the outside line” and it was usually Po’Boys or hamburgers. Everyone ate well and there was rarely more than two trash cans for the lunch room and neither seemed to fill fast. The very next year Mrs. Obama’s meal plan hit the schools. The pizza line was shut down and the quality and amount of food served to kids quickly diminished. By my senior year, no one would eat. Plates sat stacked in the middle of the tables, mostly untouched and full of wrappers from the vending machine foods because no one wanted to eat the school lunches anymore. You were lucky to be let out early for lunch because by the end of the first lunch shift the vending machines would be almost empty. There were about five trash cans and a constant janitor because all the food was being tossed instead of being eaten.
I remember always eating outside with my friends and 99% of the time we would eat from the outside line. I remember opening the to go box and seeing Po’boy buns and being so excited (because at that time they were the best thing the school could serve) but then, to my great horror, I would bite into it and find that the contents were just a slice of Spam and a half melted slice of cheese.
I remember hearing so many people saying they couldn’t wait to be out of school for the day because they were starving. When I asked about lunch they would tell me that the food was so bad that they couldn’t eat it and that they didn’t have money to spend at the vending machines every day. I remember being one of those people after my dad lost his job. I remember holding a conversation with one of the lunch ladies after I graduated from there about why the meals were so terrible and all she said was that they tried to make them taste good, it was just so hard after funding from the state got so low and the meal plan from Mrs. Obama got so bad for them.
I particularly remember one semester of high school where I was stuck in a class that let out late (the teacher talked A LOT and was one of those that always said “the bell doesn’t dismiss you, I do”) on the second lunch shift. I would often be in line for food and get sent away with at least half of the others there because they would run out of food.
I say all this because I want people to realize what this did to kids like me in poor states and in rural communities. At least two thirds of my school was starving. The students there now are probably STILL starving.
I think what Mrs. Obama tried to do was very admirable. But what failed with it, is schools like mine couldn’t afford what she planned because we were in the boonies. We had little to no funding outside of football (our one saving grace) and of course that funding rarely went to anything else. What we need is a system built for the poor kids in the middle of nowhere that buds outward to even the richest of schools. Something that works for everyone and does so actively, not just in theory. I think Mrs. Obama wanted that, but it fell through too badly before it could be saved.
I remember in elementary school I had decent food, but when I went to middle school and highschool (which was around the same time this happened) all the food was crap. If you didn’t eat what they served, you either didn’t get in the line, get Ill, or take a few bites of food only to throw it away. The only lunch everyone ate was probably on pizza day.
And let me tell you, these lunches are not in any way healthier. They have basically no nutitional value and the only things people eat they get tired of after eating it every single week so they either suck it up, don’t eat, or bring their own food. And not everyone can afford to bring their own food.
Breakfast was shit, too. You can’t give kids poptarts or muffins everyday. That is not healthy. The school couldn’t cook some damn eggs once in a while?
And even worse is when they then get rid of the vending machines. It was a sad day when I came to school and discovered all but one machine gone, the remaining one just dispensing bottled water and Powerade.
I remember Thursdays used to be my favorite lunch day because they had this really tasty pasta dish. Then around high school they rarely had it and it tasted awful. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg for my school. Again, good intentions, but poor execution.
I don’t care about your political leanings, when Mrs. Obama implemented this school lunch thing, people suffered. Even if everything else the Obamas did was hunkey dory good shit mang, this is a place where they failed. And they failed miserably. Good intentions only go so far. And don’t get me wrong, her intentions were good. But I remember when the change happened in my school. And things were not pretty.
Reducing caloric value was just about the last thing that needed to happen with a meal program intended to make sure growing schoolchildren got enough to eat for at least one meal a day.
It was already too often not enough food when I was going through school, well before these reforms. Particularly for older kids. And I did personally know some who were depending more heavily on the school lunches than anyone should ever need to.
Not much I have read about those changes has sounded like a good idea, no matter the intentions. All other politics aside.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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