"Jasper Man Is Sentenced," Kingston Whig-Standard. July 7, 1943. Page 3. ---- Changing his plea to one of guilty on each of eight charges of committing gross indecency, Carl Beamish, aged 41, of Jasper, who was arrested June 19 was sentenced to three years in Kingston Penitentiary and ordered given 10 strokes of the strap when he appeared before Magistrate Wright in Brockville court yesterday morning. He was sentenced to three years on each of the charges the sentences to run concurrently. He had pleaded not guilty at previous appearances in court.

A charge of selling unlawful articles was also brought against the man. He entered a plea of guilty to this offence and was given another two years concurrent sentence by the magistrate. Confiscation of the goods was ordered by the court.

Hon. H. A. Stewart, K.C., appearing for the accused, presented an appeal for leniency and handed to the magistrate a petition signed by numerous residents of the Jasper district. Crown Attorney H. Atkinson moved for a penitentiary sentence when Provincial Constable Alex MacLeod had concluded his evidence. His attitude was that juveniles 'should be protected' and the magistrate, feeling definite that the man was a menace to the morality of juveniles, as an example and warning to others who might be so inclined, felt a severe penalty was warranted. Beamish left the court room in a broken condition, supported by a relative.

[AL: Beamish, according to his police and prison records, was convicted of gross indecency, a deliberately vague charge in the Criminal Code mostly used to prosecute gay men engaged in sexual activity, and with providing contraceptives for sale - not condoms but likely some kind of abortificant. He was a storekeeper in the small town of Jasper outside of Brockville, and so was likely selling or providing information on safe sex and pornography, almost certainly to younger people. He had no previous criminal record and was single and 41 - it's possible Beamish was gay himself, but this is hard to figure without digging even deeper into court transcripts. He was convict #7369 at Kingston Penitentiary, and worked at the change room. He was whipped twice in 1943 and 1944 as part of his sentence. A model prisoner, he was transferred to the low security Collin's Bay Penitentiary in November 1944, and paroled in mid-1945.]

i think if someone just heard him out about all the crazy stuff hes had to deal with the spot wouldnt be trying 2 wreck everyones shit

I’m glad Maes Hughes died.

He’s a fan favorite character and I enjoy him a lot too, but I think fundamentally he’s a character who has to die. His role in the narrative is to haunt it.

I might be even more of a weirdo because I enjoy his manga characterization over his Brotherhood or ‘03 portrayal, but I love the idea of Hughes being someone the Elric brothers barely know - someone we, the audience, barely see.

Until he dies.

Because suddenly he’s everywhere. He was Roy’s friend and Armstrong’s superior officer and Winry’s acquaintance and Elicia’s father - and he was the soldier both Ed and Al knew, but didn’t actually know, that got killed because of them anyway.

In the manga Winry stays at Hughes’ place, but Ed and Al enter his house for the first time after they found out he died. For them, it’s not about losing a friend (though I am sure they liked him just fine) because that story is already Roy’s - for them it’s about realizing that this plot they’ve involved themselves in kills people that aren’t actually directly involved at all to begin with. It makes sense for their allies and friends and loved-ones to be targeted by the antagonists - but a soldier who mostly joined in because he was at the right (or wrong) place at the right (wrong) time? That’s not supposed to happen. And that’s what makes Hughes’ death so hard on them.

(and poor Elicia - abandoned children without their fathers were always a weakness of Ed’s)

But Roy? Yeah... he suffers. From the moment of Hughes’ dead on, Roy is haunted by it. By him. His best friend follows him everywhere. We see it in the way Roy only involves himself in the plot because Hughes figured something out and Roy is desperate for answers. He hunts down the homunculi to save this country, sure, but mostly so he can burn his best friend’s murderer to the ground. When Riza talks about winning against the Führer and their military dictatorship, she talks about all of them, not a hint of revenge coloring her vision - but Roy? It is telling that it isn’t a greater ideal that makes him torture Envy, but the agony of his best friend’s death.

The thing that almost breaks Roy is Maes.

No.

It’s Maes’ memory haunting the narrative.

And isn’t that beautiful?

The tragedy of it all, the horror, and the realization that Roy Mustang never really recovered from the War, that his friends are the only think keeping him in one piece, the fact that Roy Mustang is a Hero and a Monster and a fallible human capable of love.

Maes Hughes has to die to remind all of us of what Roy Mustang is capable of: love, loyalty, devotion.... and the slaughter and torture of numerous people.

His ghost is haunting the narrative - and for that I love him.

These were dangerous thoughts, he knew. They were the kind that crept up on a Watchman when the chase was over and it was just you and him, facing one another in that breathless little pinch between the crime and the punishment.

And maybe a Watchman had seen civilization with the skin ripped off one time too many and stopped acting like a Watchman and started acting like a normal human being and realized that the click of the crossbow or the sweep of the sword would make all the world so clean.

And you couldn't think like that, even about vampires. Even though they'd take the lives of other people because little lives don't matter and what the hell can we take away from them?

And, too, you couldn't think like that because they gave you a sword and a badge and that turned you into something else and that had to mean there were some thoughts you couldn't think.

Only crimes could take place in darkness. Punishment had to be done in the light. That was the job of a good Watchman, Carrot always said. To light a candle in the dark.

Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay

Same couple, different font. I rest my case

this image came to me a while back and wouldn't leave me alone until i brought it into the world, and after seeing your Barbenheimer art i thought i might send it to you. love all your work, and it's been great seeing the development of these two! <3

.

Seeing "proship dni" (or the variety of rude variations that folks think are cute/clever *sigh*) in controversial communities, attached to dead dove content, or on selfship posts makes my head spin every damn time

my brother in christ, who else is gonna stick up for you? the antis? lol. lmao, even.

thing I'm working on

following the theory that loki intentionally banded the avengers together so he could sicc them on thanos later, after he took the throne in T:TDW, i think he'd be so angry at the events of civil war like:

loki as odin: hello heimdall, how do earth's mightiest heroes fare as of late?

heimdall: they have disagreed on many subjects and split up two days ago

loki:

heimdall:

loki: they haVE WHAT?

cue loki coming down to earth and bonking everyone's heads together until they all get along again

stark: how the heck are you alive???

loki: skills. listen here, i did not pour my blood, sweat and tears to form this team for you idiots to throw all my hard work out the window!

loki, grabbing rhodes and stark by the wrists: now, we are going to get your little friends out of prison, understood?

like an exasperated kindergarten teacher, y'know?

Loki, hitting Steve over the head with a newspaper: he's your friend, of course he's upset you lied to him about something like this

Tony: hah!

Loki, giving Tony a death glare: did you have to fight each other about it

I do have to wonder how many murders Kabru committed around his party that they are not only desensitized to it but going 'yeah that's our guy', holding down struggling victims, and then helping dispose of the bodies. And not being shaken by any of that at all during or after.

@strangegutz 's heartbreak gulch feat. one (1) buck

One thing I love about mutant mayhem is that Leo has a crush on an April who’s not conventionally attractive. It almost feels like, because of the turtles’ isolated upbringing* he hasn’t been influenced by the popular western beauty ideals and just thinks this ordinary human is beautiful! And I think that’s really cool! Because she is!

*though they’ve clearly been exposed to celebrities and other pop culture so ?? idk lol

Can you elaborate on the Our Flag Means Death thing? If you want

Yeah! So I get that realism isn't the be-all end-all of fiction, but. I really wish Taika Waititi et al. had done even 30 seconds of research on 18th century American history before they wrote an extended joke about the protagonist having a "man for sale" in episode 3. Yes, it's a white man being sold, but a guy still gets led to a market by a rope around his neck and then auctioned off... and this is played for laughs. I don't know a ton of Caribbean history, but even I know that no one in Nassau in 1717 would have been confused by the idea of selling a human being, the way they are on OFMD.

That was all before I found out that the real Stede Bonnet was a known enslaver and possible rapist. I think his story could be a horror comedy about a horrible person being horrible (see: What We Do in the Shadows) but the Stede we see on OFMD spouts progressive pop-psych slogans and is allegedly here to teach us radical self-love. Not a great combination.

Also, I'm one of the people who found OFMD unwatchable partially because I'd seen Black Sails. Black Sails came out 8 years before, features a lot of the same historical figures and Treasure Island characters, and has more queer rep than OFMD. But Black Sails's main plot is about a doomed-yet-glorious fight to end slavery in the Americas in the 1700s, and it is unflinchingly honest in its depictions of racism, imperialism, and homophobia. So it's jarring and deeply unfunny to see some of that same material cleaned up (the polyamorous main character is now a monogamous gay man; the kill-or-be-enslaved stakes are now potted plant thefts) or else swept under the rug (acknowledging slavery and homophobia would ruin the fun! let's pretend they don't exist!) for a different show that gets lauded as "groundbreaking" for its milquetoast repackaging of queerness.

just saw someone tag one of my posts about how abusive people need to be allowed to change, even if you never forgive them, with something like "it's hard to differentiate between abusive and ultimately human, and downright criminal."

and, i mean this in the nicest way possible, it's hard to differentiate that because there is no difference.

criminals are human. it does no good to pretend they aren't. the ones you're probably talking about, the rapists and serial killers, have certainly done heinous things, and we need to address that, but crucially, they are still people. human beings who made awful, unconscionable choices, that you or anyone around you *could also choose to make*. to declare otherwise is to shield perpetrators that haven't been found out yet.

and i do believe that in an ideal world, people who have done heinous things would have the opportunity to build a new life where they can make society better instead of worse. (that's a bit pie-in-the-sky, but we can still strive to be closer to that than we currently are, even if we know it's ultimately impossible to actually reach it)

tyranny gang of all time if im honest

saying “we do things the right way” when team black is going to murder a six year old in a sophie’s choice assassination is crazy. be proud of your war crimes smh