Joel Fouse

Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me. - Solzhenitsyn

@Burchoff @Ameen_HGA @Teltae @howertonjosh Maybe because if it's happening at all, the scale really is small enough that no one should care. Unless you really want to take the position that 40 million people should go hungry in the richest country on earth because a handful of them don't qualify for assistance.

@Ameen_HGA @Teltae @howertonjosh You cannot do that. When you say "by and large" or "majority". Your acknowledging that yes the thing you want to claim isnt happening actually is happening. You just want to depend on the scale being small enough that no one should care.

"Shouldn't Christians support max-boosting welfare programs, because Jesus said to feed the hungry and the early church was marked by generosity to the poor?" 1) No, using the government to forcefully take other people's money against their will and redistribute it was not a mark of the early church. They were generous to the poor, A) with their own money, and B) of their own volition. And yes, individual Christians and churches SHOULD do that!! 2) Although a thin social safety net for the most dire circumstances is permissible, there are *no* examples in the Bible of God commanding (or affirming) governments to take money from earners and redistribute it to take care of people in the Bible. Sometimes, people will (mistakenly) point to OT gleaning commands as an example of Biblical "welfare", but notice those are commands are given to individual Israelites. They are not an example of centralized government redistribution of wealth. There's a reason for this... 3) There is a difference in the Bible between the role of the individual and the role of the State. It is evil and harmful when an individual does the role of the State (i.e., taking personal vengeance for a crime rather than letting the State enact justice). And it is evil and harmful when the State does the role of the individual and the church (i.e., stealing from people via excessive taxation to take on the primary role of charity in a society in place of individuals and churches). It's harmful because with governments "you always get more of what you SUBSIDIZE and less of what you PENALIZE." This is why when governments do "charity", it tends to PRODUCE more poverty in that region rather than ALLEVIATE it over time, because the government has removed the incentives for hard work and ingenuity in society. (A good portion of the population thinks, "Eh, why get out and grind, the government will cover me.") And this is why it actually requires a form of evil and is very harmful for a government to be subsidizing 40M people (12% of the entire population) via food stamps.

@cordiallycourt I wonder if there might be a "piano moving and storage" kind of company in the area that could pick it up and at least store it safely short term while you work out what to do with it. There would be a cost of course, but maybe less than hauling it to VA? 🤔 (also: Hi!)

@cordiallycourt Did the school just tell you out of the blue "Oh hey we're moving in a month, come get it"? Even if you actively wanted to sell, making it go away in that time window is a bit of a tall order. +

We were moving to rural Virginia, where we are now. It was intended to be only a 2 year thing, so we arranged to have our piano housed/borrowed by a school in Ohio, just to keep it safe til we were more settled. Moving a piano this size is SO DANG EXPENSIVE (like 4-5k)

@Lala80847543 @JodiLuJohnson @_nomadic_soul I could be wrong, but I took "online it's worse" to refer to the degree and frequency, not the personal impact. It absolutely happens in real life, just hopefully not like fifty times before you've walked a city block. 🤔

@JodiLuJohnson @_nomadic_soul Online is worse because you haven't experienced it? No. These mofos exist in real life. Nobody gets killed Online, it all happens in real life

@hoopersnook Those eyes speak *volumes*.

Literal hypocrisy. Ashes on head. Lies and calling evil good on lips. Bitter and fresh water and all that.

@JacobPetterle @KrangTNelson @DOGE Federal law is public and recorded too, and Trump can't just wave that away by executive fiat.

@KrangTNelson Primary sources exist. Executive Orders are public. Policy announcements are recorded. But reading those would require actual effort right? Much easier to tweet conspiracies. Looking forward to revisiting this take when @DOGE (which expires July 4 2026) shows exactly how unelected bureaucrats spent TRILLIONS of your tax dollars with zero oversight. Meanwhile manufacturing hits record highs crime drops and Americans can afford to live again. Can't wait to see how badly your take ages. 🫡

@choward064 @JBsTwoCents Party of One a.co/d/eA30roy

Many of you follow me for Mia, as you should, but you may not know that I was once a writer. Not terribly talented or insightful but honest, which is as much as I could control. Today someone went years back on my IG and found a post where I was promoting my book.

@ObiJuanKenobi19 @emilykmay Don't be that guy. 🤷🏼 Bonus tip: What you did in your comment is called "tone policing". Don't be that guy either. 🤨

@ObiJuanKenobi19 @emilykmay More generally speaking, if your girl is routinely seeing to it that everyone else is taken care of, who's taking care of her? I'm not suggesting you're one of them but there are too many guys whose gut response would be "I just figured she'd take care of herself too". +

i love watching gen x women demand better (and get it).

@LowAltGenius @Britannica Oh not at all, to be sure, just seemed a curious stat to throw out in response to a post entirely about their elevation. Not trying to be combative or anything.

The lowest point in Lesotho is 1,400 meters (4,593 ft) above sea level. Lesotho is the only independent state in the world that lies entirely above 1,000 meters (3,281 ft) in elevation. You could place Lesotho over a lot of flat countries and they wouldn't even touch.

@thescottbarber If you think of "that's based" as basically saying something is "based in truth" or "based in reality", you'll roughly be in the right neighborhood.

I still have no clue what “based” means

@imwesto @emilykmay A pretty big one is whether either of them speak harshly or critically to or about the other one in the presence of others. 🤔

@emilykmay how can you tell?

the wildest part about telling people i was getting divorced was the amount of women who immediately replied, "ugh it'll probably be us soon too." shocked, i would say, "wait, seriously???" and they would be like "yeah the drinking is becoming a lot again, i'm pretty over it."

@emilykmay @woernerAF Don't mind me catching up on the news. ☺️ Have fun and be good(ish...). Peace to you both. 🙏

anyway if you wanna follow my boyfriend on twitter he's @woernerAF, he is a 10/10 human ❤️

alright alright here we go, "and in the blink of a crinkling eye, everything has changed."

@heyletsmakestuf Not here much, but still... 🙂

@OutOfElement_i @andrewdgravy @RadioFreeTom My code doesn't care if I'm dressed professionally or in grubby farm jeans and a hoodie, and I work better when I'm comfortable.

@OutOfElement_i @andrewdgravy @RadioFreeTom One of several reasons I much prefer working from home. Fewer brain cycles wasted on caring what others think of my outfit means I'm more focused on doing what I do best and actually get paid for.