@shelmedine.bsky.social
I lurk therefore I am. Seriously. That’s it.
18.12.2025 13:46 — 👍 20444 🔁 6447 💬 104 📌 141
THIS is what makes my head spin: The president is not a moral figure in any idiom, any land, any culture, any subculture. I'm not talking about the liberal enlightenment that would make him want the country to take care of the poor and sick. I mean he has no Republican values either. He has no honor among thieves, no cosa nostra loyalty, no Southern code against cheating or lying, none of the openness of New York, rectitude of Boston, expressiveness and kindness of California, no evangelical family values, no Protestant work ethic. No Catholic moral seriousness, no sense of contrition or gratitude. No Jewish moral and intellectual precision, sense of history. He doesn't care about the life of the mind OR the life of the senses. He is not mandarin, not committed to inquiry or justice, not hospitable. He is not proper. He is not a bon vivant who loves to eat, drink, laugh. There's nothing he would die for - not American values, obviously, but not the land of Russia or his wife or young
son. He has some hollow success creeds from Norman Vincent Peale, but Peale was obsessed with fair-dealing and a Presbyterian pastor; Trump has no fairness or piety. He's not sentimental; no affection for dogs or babies. No love for mothers, "the common man"" veterans. He has no sense of military valor, and is openly a coward about war. He would have sorely lacked the pagan beauty and capacity to fight required in ancient Greece. He doesn't care about his wife or wives; he is a philanderer but he's not a romantic hero with great love for women and sex. He commands loyalty and labor from his children not because he loves them, even; he seems almost to hate them — and if one of them slipped it would be terrifying. He does no philanthropy. He doesn't - in a more secular key - even seem to have a sense of his enlightened self-interest enough to shake Angela Merkel's hand. Doesn't even affect a love for the arts, like most rich New Yorkers. He doesn't live and die by aesthetics and health practices like some fascists; he's
very ugly and barely mammalian. Am I missing an obscure moral system to which he so much as nods? Also are there other people, living or dead, like him?
Virginia Heffernan wrote this shortly after the 2016 election and it still holds true
16.12.2025 04:21 — 👍 6820 🔁 2027 💬 139 📌 189
🪼Happy World Jellyfish Day!
These brainless, boneless, and bloodless beauties play an important role in our ocean ecosystems.
youtube.com/shorts/KRi9y...
My perhaps controversial assessment is that when you share the propaganda of your enemies to call it out or to mock it… you’re still spreading their propaganda and maybe doing exactly what they hope you’ll do.
01.11.2025 11:52 — 👍 4149 🔁 757 💬 152 📌 98
Two horrific attacks by USMC veterans have folks asking what is going on for veterans who aren't accessing the mental healthcare they need. I appreciate MSNBC reaching out to me for commentary. Veterans--and Americans broadly--need connection and help. www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
01.10.2025 02:08 — 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0I wanted to get a video of this ghost crab but every time I got close to their hole they scuttled back in, so I tried getting clever with it. I made a little sandcastle and shoved my phone into it, hit record, and walked away. Crab was VERY suspicious of this addition to their environment.
19.09.2025 12:30 — 👍 30358 🔁 6876 💬 647 📌 467
We took the paywall down on this one. defector.com/how-the-fuck...
04.09.2025 17:27 — 👍 7122 🔁 3939 💬 180 📌 266
The Anglo-Saxon crypt at Ripon Cathedral in North Yorkshire. Dating to 672 AD, the crypt is the only surviving part of St. Wilfrid’s original church. 📸 My own. #SaxonSunday #RiponCathedral
17.08.2025 07:19 — 👍 160 🔁 25 💬 3 📌 1
Imagine getting a 3,200 square foot home, fully custom made for your needs, by one of the greatest architects of all time, for less than half a million dollars.
Full story at NPR.
www.npr.org/2025/07/23/n...
The author's mom was in my high school class, and is one of the most deeply kind and principled people I've known. This story of a journey in faith is so rewarding to read, and exemplifies what (I think) Jesus would want us to do. The last paragraph made me cry.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
It's that time of year where I post this one
19.12.2024 16:50 — 👍 18191 🔁 3308 💬 164 📌 105
I saw a post on Facebook yesterday about a swan frozen to the ice on Reykjavík pond. People were wondering what could be done and there was a comment from this absolute legend pictured below saying: "I am on my way with the necessary gear".
And there is just nothing cooler than people like this.
Wow! This is amazing!
01.12.2024 14:50 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0“What radicalized you?” Bro I was told to treat people the way I would want to be treated in kindergarten and it made sense idk what else there is to say
19.11.2024 03:56 — 👍 33620 🔁 11655 💬 231 📌 335
Screen capture of Tyler Hoechlin as Superman in the TV show Superman & Lois.
Tyler Hoechlin got an honorable mention in TVLine's performer of the week.
16.11.2024 18:50 — 👍 6 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0This feels like we’re in one of the Jurassic Park sequels where a lot of us were like “hey let’s not try this again because last time the dinosaurs got loose” but other people were like “well, maybe the dinosaurs won’t get loose this time.”
11.11.2024 16:49 — 👍 2961 🔁 471 💬 96 📌 26Mr. Atticus the Catticus
10.11.2024 03:01 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Tuxedo kitten with big yellow eyes, pink nose, and long white whiskers stares into the camera
10.11.2024 02:55 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Aunt Fannie’s mosquito wipes. Used by a creek in western PA in August and worked great. Mosquitoes love me and they just bounced off
04.06.2024 21:01 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
