Martin Kelley
@martinkelley.com
Senior editor at Friendsjournal.org, OG blogger at Quakerranter.org. South Jersey dad, hiker, runner.
My interview with John Helding is up. He makes a good case for being open to become more playful and experimental in our worship and suggests better language for our various worship styles. #quakers
Open Worship, Guided Worship, Fluid Worship: A Talk with John Helding
YouTube video by Friends Journal Quakers
youtube.com
On the blog: Finding the Sweet Harmony in Friends Worship www.quakerranter.org/finding-the-...
Finding the Sweet Harmony in Friends Worship | Quaker Ranter
quakerranter.org
Not at all a surprising outcome. China's been disciplined and strategic while Trump changes policies every month. In the last 18 months the U.S. has pretty definitively dropped the ball on future-looking energy, transportation, and education policies and they're the odds-on favorite to win on AI.
'According to Quaker doctrine...“inner illumination” can only come as a result of concentration of the thoughts on God, for which purpose neither a learned sermon nor a liturgy is necessary. On the contrary...everyone...shall say what he has to say, whom the inner voice prompts' (Edward Bernstein).
Invariably on first dates the clapper would fail to respond to my first two-clap prompt and I’d see a panicked look as my date reevaluated the life decisions that had led them to my bedroom.
Martin Kelley@martinkelley.com · 2w agoAnd yes, my bachelor-era bedrooms were decked out with clappers that would set the mood lighting.
Sorry boss, @theverge.com dropped a 70-minute video on the history of The Clapper and I will be off Slack till 4pm.
How The Clapper became a viral sensation
YouTube video by Version History
youtube.com
Pete Hegseth: "We need our warriors to embrace the Spartan mindset" U.S. Military: *suffers crushing defeat to the Persians*
The Pentagon is withholding causality and hit numbers. The CDC is withholding infection rates. The FDA is withholding information about food contamination. The EPA is withholding pollution and climate data. This corrupt administration is ALL about concealing the consequences of its incompetence.
The Twin Cities Marathon, which featured heavily in this story I wrote about climate change and road racing, just announced they're moving their to mid-October starting in 2027 slate.com/life/2025/09...
It’s the One Factor Runners Can’t Control. It’s Wreaking Havoc on Marathons.
It’s only going to get worse.
slate.com
Well, we may have lost but at least we look like we cheated
This is shocking but at the same time not surprising.
Rep. Mike Levin@levin.house.gov · 4w agoA military spouse near Camp Pendleton put it simply: she’s only managing right now because of the extra pay she gets while her husband is deployed overseas. Once he’s home, that buffer disappears, and she knows she’s not alone.
Every day it's like "Republican-Appointed Supreme Court to Decide Whether the FDA Can Stop People From Selling Ground Glass as Flour"
"Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our Language or Customs, any more than they can acquire our Complexion." - Ben Franklin on Emmers' German ancestors
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last mo.Tom Emmer: "Minnesotans are so afraid that you're gonna call us a racist, you're gonna call us an Islamophobe. You know what? I'm done being even the least bit careful. Somalis don't assimilate. And if they don't assimilate, then they should go the hell back to where they came from."
Pundits: "The left doesn't know how to make appeals with patriotism!" Protestor at Delaney Hall waving an American flag:
talia jane@taliajane.bsky.social · last mo.ICE/Geo drove into a demonstrator today.
The three players in this photo: 1. Nigerian heritage, grew up in England, and is only a citizen thanks to birthright citizenship. 2. Born + raised in Holland, has a dad who immigrated to the US from Suriname. 3. Said he wanted to “make people who look like me proud” while playing on Juneteenth
Is there anyone, and I mean this, *anyone*, who believes any of this or believes these aren't the most self-serving, craven, people who have negotiated a U.S. surrender? I'm glad if the fighting stops, certainly, but this has been even more of a shitshow than I imagined going in.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2mo agoJD Vance comes out in support of Iran's right of self-defense and right to have ballistic missiles: "Israel doesn't give up the right of self-defense if Hezbollah fires rockets or drones at Israel. The Iranians don't give up the right of self-defense in their country."
normal guy: hey man how’s it going Greg Bovino: you gotta hand it to vlad the impaler
Christopher Mathias@letsgomathias.bsky.social · 2mo agoapparently he is in Romania
Lutnick and Rubio must take tranquilizers when appearing with Trump so their eyes don't bug out. Even so they sometimes break.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2mo agoTrump says that Iran "has to have" ballistic missiles, adding "what am I going to do? Am I going to let Saudi Arabia have missiles but they can't have them?"
In our September issue, we're revisiting the peace testimony: How does it speak to the experience of Friends today? Do we need to rethink some of its assumptions, or should we be doubling down? We're accepting submissions (1,200-2,500 words) until June 22. Visit our website for more guidelines!
Write For Friends Journal - Submit Writing For Quaker Publication
Friends Journal is an independent magazine serving the entire Religious Society of Friends. We welcome articles, poetry, art, photographs, and more.
friendsjournal.org
Trump's surrender to Iran raises eyebrows in some liberal circles.
Your passage will start after this video from our partners at FanDuel.
Raffi Melkonian@rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 2mo agoYou can go through the strait free, but it takes 2 days, or you can subscribe to Hormuz Plus.
If Trump actually ends his War on Iran it will be the single best decision he's made in the conflict, regardless of concessions. He disproved a core belief of the Iran Deal critics, that a better outcome existed through threats and force. Catastrophic failure, bombs cannot secure what diplomacy did.
One of the things that I think people don't understand about Netanyahu is that they think he is racist in some inscrutable or exotic Israeli way, when he is actually racist in the exact way you'd expect a guy who went to high school in the Philly suburbs in the late 1960s (as he did) to be
Leah McElrath@leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 2mo agoWow—Netanyahu reportedly used to refer to President Obama as “boy”:
One of the benefits of hiring someone wildly underqualified for a job is usually that you don’t have to overpay them.
Philip Bump@pbump.com · 2mo ago🫥
White House Doctor Claims Trump A Perfectly Healthy 9-Foot-Tall 35-Year Old https://theonion.com/white-house-doctor-claims-trump-a-perfectly-healthy-9-foot-tall-35-year-old/
the trump official — who led the siege & occupation of Minneapolis — admitting to having an ongoing dialogue/rapport with Martin Sellner, a straight-up Nazi who influenced the Christchurch shooter, while speaking at a conference about remigration (read: ethnic cleansing) is a pretty big deal!
Osservatorio sul complottismo@sulcomplottismo.bsky.social · 2mo agoGreg Bovino at the far-right Remigration summit in Portugal: "Martin Sellner, you've invited me here today. Your ideas, we've talked a lot on that and those ideas mirror each other. We've never talked before face to face until yesterday and we're on the same sheet of music almost immediately".
Missed Quaker worship and a talk and potluck afterwards because a kid camping pickup kept getting later and later. Now I’m asking the AI if pumpkin pie freezes well.
