tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-236626172024-03-18T20:08:02.364-07:00Graphictruth<p><b>The ethics of power and personal responsibility.</b></p>
<p>an inarticulate moan in many modes</p>Bob Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12331371505961522315noreply@blogger.comBlogger1452125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23662617.post-29974606783390573572019-08-21T14:31:00.000-07:002019-08-21T14:56:18.948-07:00The Abomination of Desolation<h3 style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Trending Today on Twitter: #Antichrist</h3>
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Thanks To Trump, Both <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ChosenOne?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ChosenOne</a> And <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Antichrist?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Antichrist</a> Are Trending On Twitter <a href="https://t.co/gkc1lREdhI">https://t.co/gkc1lREdhI</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SmartNews?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SmartNews</a></div>
— Anita Blue (@MostlyMe2) <a href="https://twitter.com/MostlyMe2/status/1164285237859274752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 21, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Oh, yes, the different factions are taking this very differently, but one side is fucknuts. The side that calls Trump their <b>GodEmperor. </b>That's fucknuts.<br />
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Speaking of fucknuts, The CheeToad said something about buying Greenland from Denmark. Now, maybe that was something that passed for a joke in his plaque-clogged brain, but he's a world leader and people have to take you at face value, even when you <i>are</i> a joke.<br />
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And there you have it. Poor baby <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a>. A woman (actually with polite understatement) says his absurd suggestion is absurd. And sad little Donald’s feelings are hurt.<br />
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Narcissism vs. the national interest, Chapter ... what chapter are we on now? Can’t keep track. <a href="https://t.co/H80OChTsFu">https://t.co/H80OChTsFu</a></div>
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) <a href="https://twitter.com/gtconway3d/status/1164229253606629383?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 21, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<br />Bob Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12331371505961522315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23662617.post-80809990514095939002019-05-11T12:37:00.000-07:002019-08-21T10:48:24.338-07:00Pretending I'm Busy.Ugh. Today is hard. I have managed <b>one</b> sentence. The day is still young and the tab remains open, but Twitter has been my escape.<br />
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But it's been aggravating too.<br />
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Heartbeat bills and other explosions of transphobic, misogynist white supremacy have me wanting to fling things.<br />
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And no, I do <i><b>not</b></i> need to consider the perspective of tiki-torch wielding Nazis. The proper response to that perspective is a neat hole between the eyes, or a bayonet if you are out of ammo. In the style of our fathers and grandfathers, don't you know.<br />
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This is well-settled wisdom. As is the proper fate of the Confederacy and the place of KKKlansmen in the social pecking order.<br />
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See also snake-shit, lower than.<br />
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<span style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;">I felt compelled to create a graphictruth. It felt good. It's been a while.</span></div>
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But mostly I sipped my coffee in the tub and tried to focus. Well, mostly I focused on not dropping my phone into the tub. It's been that kind of a day. Time to let other people do my fighting and fussing for me.<br />
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Stupid people. <i>We are drowning in stupid people!</i> See above.<br />
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Marie is one of my fave Tweeps; she makes me evilgiggle at least once a day. Or facepalm. So much <i>"why didn't I say that"</i> going on here.<br />
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Marie is Wicked Smaht. This thread. <b><i><a href="https://twitter.com/thistallawkgirl/status/1126641144723591168" target="_blank">This thread right here</a>!! She's all up in my wheelhouse, thinking out loud about ethics and shit!</i></b><br />
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It was a bright spot in an otherwise shit day.<br />
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But at least some people are using their indoor voices to say sensible things. That matters when you have a great big bully pulpit; using it surgically.<br />
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<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/05/02/democrats-can-do-it-all/?utm_term=.450533e2dc41" target="_blank">Jeniffer Rubin on walking and chewing gum at the same time.</a><br />
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There is another benefit for Democrats in pursuing a full-court press on both substance and scandal: the Senate. As House bills pile up outside the Senate chamber (because Sen. Mitch McConnell won’t bring them up for votes), the GOP-controlled Senate refuses even to investigate obvious wrongdoing and Republican senators make fools of themselves slobbering over Trump and his Cabinet officials (as they did with Barr), the portrait of craven, spineless enablers becomes more vivid. They won’t pass bills. They won’t do real oversight. They won’t insist on truth-telling from witnesses. The more reasons they give voters to oppose sycophantic senators, the more likely a flip in control of the Senate becomes.</blockquote>
This. So much this.<br />
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Ok, Maybe I can get back to work now.<br />
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Bob Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12331371505961522315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23662617.post-35104058179314387802019-05-06T12:43:00.002-07:002019-05-07T09:20:28.949-07:00Working on my working onIt's difficult to get back into writing. I am starting to rediscover the discipline I had when I was churning out words between tweets and Reddit nastygrams.<br />
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Nearly dying has a way of concentrating the mind - if it doesn't simply reset the damn thing.<br />
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That's what it was for me; a hard reset. Two years passed as I focused on regaining my brain and the thing my wife considered more important - not dying.<br />
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I have been reliably informed that will be a life-long challenge.<br />
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I am reassured and terrified that my fearsome intelligence matters not a whit to her. Well, maybe a bare whit. But I <i>was </i>nearly whitless and she didn't seem to care. I love her a bunch more than all the way to the top, now.<br />
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Now that I've got my sense back, I've been rummaging through what I'd managed to write before that and some of it can manage to stand alone. I've sent some of that over to Wattpad. I'm just getting my name out, experimenting and trying to read the room without getting my ego crushed; I'm not really worrying about money, but I'd really love feedback.<br />
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Be gentle, I'm really out of practice.<br />
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If I start worrying about money, all my piles are gonna fall over. <b><i>Again.</i></b><br />
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The thing that I <i>wasn't </i>doing before my heart attack was publicity of any kind at all. I think maybe three people knew I was writing <i>anything.</i> I'm not sure how many knew it was adult fiction. As in, fiction intended for grownups.<br />
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I don't like saying it's erotic, although it is, in spots. I think.<br />
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It's not porn, either, although there are spots that are damn well intended to be pornographic. Outside of those specific chapters and scenes, my characters tend to say "fuck" an awful lot, or words to that effect. The net result is that I have to keep my work away from Mormons, Baptists and Mike Pence.<br />
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But with some exceptions, my work isn't really about the kinks my characters have. Kinks are just part of what makes the characters. I don't write around the grownup things grownups do, I think that's kind of toxic. I don't go out of my way to set up cameras in their boudoirs, either. What I try to avoid is the sort of writing that's completely focused on the reader's fixations.<br />
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I know that my work will get tossed in the same bin with the foot fetishists, the buttsex folks and of course, my favourite - femsubs. It's probably going to annoy people who are simply looking for a posh wank. I'm sorry, there's nothing wrong with that, but I'm not going to write it.<br />
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I <b><i>am</i></b> pleased that people will have a bin to find it in! Maybe they might enjoy something that's a bit more than a three-orgasm pander. And at the same time I hope that I can <i>write </i>something that contains three worthwhile orgasms!<br />
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Sex scenes are <i>hard! </i>It's easier to write space battles!<br />
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My writing is about ethics; mostly personal ethics. Sexual ethics are pretty important in this #metoo world; far more than I ever realized. I have enjoyed the male privilege that led to a life that was mostly free of unsolicited gropes and dick picks. But it was only mostly free. Yep, #metoo.<br />
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Nonetheless, we don't want to become grim, joyless and unlaid. At least, not those of us that are on skin terms with decency. That's how the next generation of decent people come to be, and trust me, they struggle in a home filled with perps, perves and pearl-clutching prudes. I hope I can encourage people to avoid being any of those things. Will Sex Sell Ethics? Buy my books and see!<br />
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<b>Here's the forward from <i>Alicia's Long Weekend,</i> which is all about Alicia's very odd and interesting kinks.</b><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">All my characters have kinks. That's how I learn who they are and to a large extent what they will and will not do.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The more important they are to the story, the more I have to know about them. As I write I find myself deep into large chunks that I know will have to be cut; pages becoming paragraphs. </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is the largest so far. At nearly 19,000 words, I cannot possibly leave it in and it's far too much character development for a supporting character. I am fond of her, but not so fond that she can take over the story! And now I sense that would actually horrify her.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That does sound a little mad, doesn't it?</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I often argue with my characters and lose. For instance, I thought there were much better things to be doing than to write "The Harlequin Box." It was originally a short diversion for another novel entirely. It was intended to be a short story - something like <b><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_1240735975"></span>"A Deserving Victim."<span id="goog_1240735976"></span></a></b></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The original novel is sitting on a virtual shelf now. I lost that argument and a certain flat-chested redhead has been on a mission ever since. Winning has a price, I remind her with a virtual towel-snap when her interest flags.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In other words – yes, there will be more.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Eventually, I will invite you to read the entire story.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When?</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Gawd. Don't YOU start!</span></i></div>
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<br />Bob Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12331371505961522315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23662617.post-42125868049462332392019-05-02T09:53:00.000-07:002019-05-06T08:19:16.089-07:00SPLOOSH!<span style="background-color: white; color: #6f6f6f; font-family: "source sans pro" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">SPLOOSH is an erotic story I'm publishing on Wattpad. It's episodic and with the help of you and the Wattpad community, I hope to polish it until it gleams. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #6f6f6f; font-family: "source sans pro" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">It's set in Twin Trees; The City Within the Wall. It's a setting and cast of characters I'm very familiar with.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #eeeeee; color: #6f6f6f; font-family: "source sans pro" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="280" src="https://embed.wattpad.com/story/185407311" width="500"></iframe></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee; color: #6f6f6f; font-family: "source sans pro" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #6f6f6f; font-family: "source sans pro" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">If you enjoy erotic stories and worldbuilding that involves elves, shapeshifting and slave-culture, you will likely enjoy this. </span></span>Bob Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12331371505961522315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23662617.post-88735279920587024782019-05-02T09:23:00.003-07:002019-05-06T08:28:35.115-07:00Blog Revival: 2013 was a long time ago!<b>2013.</b><br />
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<b>I don't recall much about that time. Obama was President and all was right with the world.</b> And if not really all, more than had ever been the case.<br />
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I remember; I was concentrating on writing a still-incomplete novel. And now that I have a couple complete chunks published on the social-writing platform Wattpad, it seems to be time to revive my blog, rather than starting an entirely new one.<br />
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I am Bob King, AKA Graphictruth on Twitter and Reddit, as well as the erotic writer, <a href="https://twitter.com/bobkingnine" target="_blank">@BobKingNine</a>. This is my blog. The URL has changed because I flaked. That happens, given my brain.<br />
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Other things in the meantime; a heart attack that failed to kill me and the gradual return of my IQ after that. Classic <i>Flowers for Algernon</i> stuff.<br />
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<a href="https://twitter.com/graphictruth" target="_blank">@Graphictruth</a> is mostly concerned with politics, as is <a href="https://www.blogger.com/://www.reddit.com/u/graphictruth" target="_blank">/u/graphictruth.</a><br />
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Oh, right, I remember why I stopped writing here. Redditors can be pissy about dropping links to blogs, especially your own, and it occurred to me that I could easily get higher reader counts writing there than here, anyway. And People were Mean To Me. Which, as much as I depreciate it, matters.<br />
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But now, I'd rather keep my own copyrights to myself. I'll announce new things here.<br />
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Reddit's tolerance for racism and other sorts of bigotry have become an easily avoided embarrassment by shifting back here and adding Twitter to my social media portfolio along with Wattpad, where I can discuss the specifics of my writing without making this an adult blog. I don't want to be ghettoized again; I've permitted that too much in my life.<br />
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We <i>need</i> to scare those horses, they have been crapping all over the public square.<br />
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Bob Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12331371505961522315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23662617.post-56307633979147853452019-05-01T10:19:00.002-07:002019-05-01T10:19:26.947-07:00Guns don't kill people ... But when people choose to kill people, the best choice is a gun!Before you read further or anything else anyone else is saying about this topic, realize that talking about it at all is a new thing and it's a very <i>good</i> thing. Violence of all forms has been dropping. Not just in the US; worldwide.*<br />
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Sudden, organized violence and mass invasions by smelly strangers wishing to do us harm is something that most people, in most places no longer need prepare for.<br />
<br />
In the United States, when the Second Amendment was written**, it was very much a fact of life and had been a fact of life for as long as history had been recorded. It was also a very important step - an affirmation that citizen-individuals did not simply have to put up with being caught in the middle of the board when the Sport of Kings was being played. And as a result of that and many other small awakenings and progress, things are much, much better in the blink of a historian's eye.<br />
<br />
It's as if we are slowly awakening from a horrible nightmare and now having to confront the vomit and mess that points to some horrifying binge. But in many ways, that's the hard part. Bear that in mind as you read.<br />
<br />
I have been waiting for someone to address the elephant in the room - and no, I don't actually mean "Republicans." They aren't helping much, but neither are the Democrats; in fact, the argument they are having is serving as a smokescreen for the issues that are not being talked about at all.<br />
<br />
That is because the current gun-control debate to the south of us is focusing on everything but the actual issues.<br />
<br />
The discussion is circling around HOW people kill one another. The real question should be WHY they are killing each other. Instead, people simply shrug and dismiss them as "crazy," "deranged," perhaps "unhinged."<br />
<br />
Well, no <i>doubt,</i> but if you stop to think of it, that's not much of an answer <i>either. </i> WHY did they snap? For that matter, why doesn't it happen more often? Because, well, see the first paragraph.<br />
<br />
While violence has become a more and more remote likelihood in our lives, our culture insists that it's a very real, common thing that we must all gird our loins to face. Our culture is in denial about a very GOOD thing - and that's kind of strange when you think about it. One usually thinks of denial in regard to bad things - STD's, Alcoholism, pollution, etc. We can all mostly expect to die in bed at an advanced age and that that is true even of many who are well below the poverty line. That is a very good thing.<br />
<br />
It goes completely unremarked. And as if to compensate, the hysteria surrounding any given incident of violence seems to have been kicked up a notch or seven. There are other oddities that cause me to wonder aloud if there is a huge fraction of the population who simply cannot cope with a self-concept that doesn't include a large aspect of controlled violence with the associated need to prove that capability in war or by looking for trouble in dark alleys.<br />
<br />
I wonder because there are many obvious and inexpensive ways to reduce violence on every scale, but if you suggest them aloud, it's met with derision and reflexive outrage, even though these are strategies that are proven to work and indeed HAVE worked to reduce violence to the levels we now enjoy.<br />
<br />
It's simply not done to consider the motives of a violent criminal in the United States, and to a lesser but large extent, Canada.<br />
<br />
Considering it at all brands you as a "liberal," even when the motive is critical to preventing future incidents. It won't win you any popularity contests to suggest aloud that while this <i>particular</i> so-and-so might well "deserve" to be hung by his toes over a slow fire, it might possibly behoove us all to consider the making of such monsters so there might be less of a need for firewood.<br />
<br />
And so the circle of abuse continues, because while there are simple things that can be done if a nation is willing to do them and ample evidence that they work well, statistically, the evidence is angrily dismissed or studiously ignored.<br />
<br />
You see, you might think that Canada is gun-averse. Nope. We are averse to stress, and noise and rude people; we dislike horrifying surprises, we maintain a culture that suppresses people who advocate and celebrate violence and intolerance by custom and design. But when it comes to guns... we have lots of them, we celebrate them, we have a lot of fun with them, some of us practically <b>fellate</b> them.. .and by and large, it's not an issue.<br />
<br />
It's about as difficult to maintain your ownership of a gun as it is to maintain your ownership of a car. I don't think they require separate liability so on the whole, if you can afford a cheap car, you can afford a damn <i>nifty</i> weapon. All for the price of being willing to swear and affirm that you aren't any more likely to kill someone than you are with that legally parked second-hand pickup.<br />
<br />
By and large, it works. By and large, our gun violence arises from <i>illegal</i> weapons. That is rather handy when prosecuting offenders - it adds a gigantic pile of consequence. But at the same time, our laws are not so very difficult to comply with, our cultures not so very different, our police are hardly omnipresent - so I for one would expect rather more violence than there is if gun control were the only factor in play. There's more to it than access to weapons.<br />
<br />
<b>People who WANT to kill people are the people who kill people. </b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>THAT'S what you need to address <i>because there is no shortage of pressure cookers. </i></b><br />
<br />
In that sense, gun advocacy people are right - first, if people can't get guns legally, they will get them illegally. Or they will just make guns. Which, you may be surprised to know, mostly isn't illegal at all and all too soon with emerging technology will be something any idiot can do in their home fabrication shop.<br />
<br />
Gun control laws discourage those who have a passing impulse and that is a very good thing; it achieves a huge drop in unplanned, impulsive misuses of guns. It does nothing about those who really, really REALLY want to kill one or more people and the common wisdom is that you really can't. But that's true of any crime and from a social point of view, as long as you keep the isolated incidents isolated, it's only an individual tragedy.<br />
<br />
Any idiot can make a bomb and if they can follow the sort of directions needed to assemble an Ikea table, they <i>probably</i> won't blow themselves up in the process. Poison never ceased to work and it's commonly available. A garrotte is both efficient and easily disposable. If you are not squeamish, a pocket-knife will certainly do the trick.<br />
<br />
So this bears thinking upon, for as badly sabotaged and generally useless as US Gun Control has been made at the behest of the National Rifle Association and the members of it, it seems that the small barriers of access, money and time are enough to keep the rioters out of the streets.<br />
<br />
With guns so easily available, people haven't thought much about what they might have if they were to throw caution and regard for the law to the wind. If you can build a bomb - you can build a mortar. If you can weld, you can build a really GOOD mortar!<br />
<br />
I'm not going to go into detail, but even rocket science isn't rocket science these days.<br />
<br />
Law or no law, those barriers will vanish - and indeed, they were mostly non-extant anyway. For those who are not fixated upon the symbolism of gun ownership - which seems to be both sides - it's pretty much beside the point.<br />
<br />
People kill people. <i>Guns are used to kill particular people because that's usually the best tool for the job.</i> If you have a sudden impulse to kill; the sort of fit of anger that might otherwise result in a fist-fight and a shameful appearance before a justice of the peace after a night in county lockup - you really do not want to have a loaded weapon in easy reach. This is - or should be - plain common sense. While almost everyone thinks they are perfectly capable of controlling themselves, and almost everyone is <b>mostly</b> correct on that point it ain't predictably true for <b>anyone</b>. <i>Trust</i> me on that point.<br />
<br />
But of course the worst and most troubling statistics are not crimes of passion, nor are they even the tragic accidental shootings. No. It's <i><b>suicides. </b></i><br />
<br />
If people try to kill themselves with means other than a gun, they mostly fail. Given a gun, they mostly succeed. While you may shrug and consider that their inalienable right to choose - a right I would argue in favour of, <i>in extremis</i> - I still think it should be something one should ponder a bit. Particularly given the fact that some poor bastard has to clean up the mess.<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.medicaldaily.com/leaded-gasoline-linked-rise-and-fall-violent-crime-244173" target="_blank">*Leaded gas linked to rise and fall of violence in the 20th Century.</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">*<a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2018/02/second-amendment-ratified-preserve-slavery/" target="_blank">*They were concerned with slave insurrections for the most part. </a></span>Bob Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12331371505961522315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23662617.post-81443721095619760582013-06-20T17:20:00.003-07:002019-05-01T09:43:43.359-07:00Anarchy, Activism and Assholes - Finding Common Ground. <h2 class="PXLWASD-M-h">
<a href="http://www.alternet.org/personal-health/anarchists-oppressed-psychiatry-and-underground-resistance?paging=off" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><i><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Are the Young People That Shrinks Label as Disruptive Really Anarchists with a Healthy Resistance to Oppressive Authority?</span></b></i></a></h2>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="node-title">
<i><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: inherit;">It has been my experience that many rebellious young people labeled with
psychiatric disorders and substance abuse don’t reject all authorities,
simply those they’ve assessed to be illegitimate ones, which just
happens to be a great deal of society’s authorities. Often, these young
people are craving a relationship with mutual respect in which they can
receive help navigating the authoritarian society around them.</span></i></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<h1 class="title" id="page-title">
<a href="http://www.alternet.org/authors/bruce-e-levine" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Bruce E. Levine</span></a></h1>
</blockquote>
<br />
Alternet has been publishing unusual perspectives on issues that are - well, this one would be familiar to people from various interest groups. The idea that males, particularly are being diagnosed with the mental deficit of having testicles is pretty common over on the right wing, and from the leftist viewpoint, authoritarian structures are oppressing individual self-expression. But both sides view this as being a problem with the structures created by proper authorities - not any deficit in the quality of authority on offer. I think that's an important point - and it's one I haven't run across much even in Libertarian circles. <br />
<br />
Those are the sorts of unusual perspectives you wish to seek out. But
that one paragraph is the part I wish to hang my article upon - I
suggest you read his piece fully in it's own right. There's lots more and it's stated in a sort of leftist / academic cant that tends to put my teeth on edge. But it's still accessible and I'm glad I didn't let that deter me. I've come to realize this is kind of like having to wait for a Southerner to get to the point. It really doesn't mean they are bound to be saying something that will confirm your preconceptions about Southerners - and by the same token, I really don't respect people who learn to hide their regional or intellectual accents in order to more easily appeal to my comfortable preconceptions. Such folks tend to be the ones I have learned to worry about the most. Indeed, that's pretty much the point to this post.<br />
<br />
Expertise matters. And we need to be able to evaluate it honestly without it <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">feeling</span></span> uncomfortable or unusual. <br />
<br />
Being who he is - a mental
health professional - and an Anarchist; my, what an unusual
combination, because it runs counter to what the mental health community
does. The ability to conform to social expectations is considered
evidence of someone in a state of balanced mental health. It's actually a
useful perspective and certainly needs to be part of the counseling
given since being able to function within society is pretty much what
sanity is all about. But at the same time, society tolerates pockets of
unacknowledged batshit crazy. We need people who are capable of and
willing to not put up with stupid shit just for the sake of <i>"going along to get along,"</i> fitting in or <i>"furthering the larger goals of the Struggle."</i> <br />
<br />
I will cop to being an anti-authoritarian, but that is in large part due to being a poster child for the point the author makes above. As I've often said; "Question Authority, wait a reasonable time for a sensible answer." A lack of sensible answers, or answers that you already know to be completely wrong means that that is an untrustworthy authority.<br />
<br />
We need, as a culture and as a people to be ok with that idea that having authority - being in a position of power - obligates that person to use that power and that trust wisely and well. We should all be a little reluctant to have power thrust upon us and a little less comfort with donating ours without due diligence. Because that trust is commonly abused and those who donate power tend to be treated with contempt by those who got it with too few strings.<br />
<br />
Nor is this a political idea. The source above and the source below think so - but that's because of their own contexts and backgrounds. They think in political terms because they are political activists so that's where they have seen this stuff. But you can find it everywhere. <i>"Lo, where three or more are gathered together, politics will be with thee."</i><br />
<br />
He's casting this as a potential political awakening. Well, I suppose you could look at it that way - but frankly, other than pointing out there are lots of people that do not reflexively tug the forelock to the guy (yes, it's usually a guy, and he's usually white, get over it) in the corner office with the imported rosewood desk, we also need to call horseshit on the idea that requiring an authority to have demonstrable, USEFUL insight is "political." It needs to come up before the vision statement and the call to action.<br />
<br />
All too often, people join movements and organizations, assume the cloak of religious belief or espouse certain philosophical viewpoints in order to get what they want - power, wealth, the sort of sexual partners/victims they prefer or less toxically, the company of people they find otherwise agreeable to be around. And everything they say and do is to feed those needs.<br />
<br />
Worse yet, it's often completely unconscious. Or as my father told me about the art of salesmanship; <i>"In order to sell a product, you must believe in it. So you have to lie to yourself first."</i><br />
<br />
That was one of the things that caused me to start round-filing my father's advice even before considering it. And this made me, of course, dangerously un-responsive to proper guidance, bringing me into contact with quite... useless ... mental heath care at an early age.<br />
<br />
It wasn't that I was unwilling to listen respectfully to good advice - but I'd learned that taking parental advice about how to deal with social situations tended to get me beat up even more often than simply ignoring it when I already knew the outcome.<br />
<br />
It should be ok to call bullshit on your elders when they utter bullshit even if you are at your best within a socially conservative hierarchy. And here's where I part with my libertarian fellows - some people really suck at autonomy. Indeed, most of us suck at it more than we would care to admit. Generally, we work around this with a little help from parents, friends and colleagues, while we all cheerfully pretend that it's an exchange of favours and conveniences - not stark necessities. But they <i>are,</i> and those who do not face that in themselves risk being featured on <i>Cops</i>, <i>Hoarders </i>or<i> Intervention.</i><br />
<br />
If you don't believe me, ask my wife. <br />
<br />
Bullshit detection needs to be seen as valuable. This is the value of the leftist call: "Check your privilege!" It's all too often used to shut people down - but then, it's a sharp tool. Sharp tools have a tendency to be used for bad things. That doesn't mean you shouldn't have them in your drawer and fail to use them as intended.<br />
<br />
It means to understand how your frame of reference is influencing what you are doing and saying - particularly when you are acting or advocating in ways that impact others. It's really a favour because if you are blissfully unaware of privilege, you will make very bad policy which will tend to make whatever you were trying to fix far worse. <br />
<br />
If people did that more - checked their own bullshit and checked the bullshit of others - well, the Republican Party in particular and the Social Conservative and Religious Conservative movements worldwide would not have fallen prey to so many manipulative sociopaths; people skilled at saying the right words at the right time to gain support, or at least, a lack of active opposition.<br />
<br />
Does the phrase <i>"Compassionate Conservatism"</i> ring a bell? Or how about the economic promises of Neo-Conservatism? It amounted to "trust us, once the rich get much richer, they will inevitably share the wealth."<br />
<br />
But it did sound reasonable. It seemed sincere at the time. And nobody - or at least, far too few, questioned these authorities.<br />
<br />
And yes, it happens on the Left, too. Here's another really great article - again, from the left; that's where I've been today.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<h1>
<a href="http://inciteblog.wordpress.com/2010/07/15/why-misogynists-make-great-informants-how-gender-violence-on-the-left-enables-state-violence-in-radical-movements/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Why Misogynists Make Great Informants: How Gender Violence on the Left Enables State Violence in Radical Movements</span></span></i></span></a></h1>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>On Democracy Now! Malik Rahim, former Black Panther and cofounder of
Common Ground in New Orleans, spoke about how devastated he was by
Darby’s revelation that he was an FBI informant. Several times he stated
that his heart had been broken. He especially lamented all of the
“young ladies” who left Common Ground as a result of Darby’s
domineering, aggressive style of organizing. And when those “young
ladies” complained? Well, their concerns likely fell on sympathetic but
ultimately unresponsive ears—everything may have been true, and after
the fact everyone admits how disruptive Darby was, quick to suggest
violent, ill-conceived direct-action schemes that endangered everyone he
worked with. There were even claims of Darby sexually assaulting female
organizers at Common Ground and in general being dismissive of women
working in the organization. [2] Darby created conflict in all of the
organizations he worked with, yet people were hesitant to hold him
accountable because of his history and reputation as an organizer and
his “dedication” to “the work.” People continued to defend him until he
outed himself as an FBI informant. Even Rahim, for all of his guilt and
angst, chose to leave Darby in charge of Common Ground although every
time there was conflict in the organization it seemed to involve Darby. </i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>The piece was originally published in <a href="http://www.makeshiftmag.com/"> <b>make/shift</b> </a> magazine’s Spring/Summer 2010 issue and written by <b><a href="http://creolemaroon.blogspot.com/">Courtney Desiree Morris</a></b>.</i></span></blockquote>
<br />
The article as a whole speaks of how and why leftist activist movements have gotten sidetracked by drama and have generally failed to realize their ambitions over the last several decades. They are easily distracted, easily infiltrated and perhaps over-tolerant of bad behaviour, a little too accepting of 'woundedness' as being the price of oppression.<br />
<br />
Goddess knows it's true enough! Frankly, I find those who don't carry a few scars to be deeply uninteresting - but at the same time, you have to own your own shit and take responsibility for it. And what's the point of life if you don't?<br />
<br />
People put up with far too much bullshit in order to further the goals they believe in, not realizing that in doing so, they actually undermine those goals and contribute to the end of the movement.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Time and again heterosexual men in radical movements have been allowed
to assert their privilege and subordinate others. Despite all that we
say to the contrary, the fact is that radical social movements and
organizations in the United States have refused to seriously address
gender violence [1] as a threat to the survival of our struggles. We’ve
treated misogyny, homophobia, and heterosexism as lesser evils—secondary
issues—that will eventually take care of themselves or fade into the
background once the “real” issues—racism, the police, class inequality,
U.S. wars of aggression—are resolved. There are serious consequences for
choosing ignorance. Misogyny and homophobia are central to the
reproduction of violence in radical activist communities. Scratch a
misogynist and you’ll find a homophobe. Scratch a little deeper and you
might find the makings of a future informant (or someone who just
destabilizes movements like informants do).</i></blockquote>
Maybe she doesn't see it, maybe she needs to check her own frame of reference or the critical theory she's applying, but it seems to me that Misogyny, homophobia, racism, oppression and abuse are the roots from which the abuses of power, like police, structural inequality and wars of aggression against brown people arise. And it's a hell of a lot easier to redirect a stream when you start at the source. <br />
<br />
The thing that struck me about this article was that if you were to rewrite it in politically neutral language, we would all recognize it from personal experience. From the high-school prom committee. From that bruising time in Student Government that blunted your idealism. From the Al-Anon group. From working in IT in a major corporation. From within the Pride movement. From within the Evangelical movement. From within the Tea Party. From within Catholic religious communities. Yes, within the Men's Rights movement. Absolutely within the Second Amendment community.<br />
<br />
People commonly put their own agendas and their own neuroses ahead of the interests of the group and you absolutely do see most members of those communities going through all kinds of contortions to explain or excuse that behaviour.<br />
<br />
<i><b>Stop</b></i> that! Call them to account or just walk away. If you don't, it will all end in tears anyway, so why put it off?<br />
<br />
<a href="http://exodusinternational.org/2013/06/exodus-international-to-shut-down/" rel="nofollow">Calling people to account actually works, believe it or not. </a>So try it. <br />
<br />Bob Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12331371505961522315noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23662617.post-21838737559246155512013-01-28T22:38:00.000-08:002013-01-29T13:38:00.752-08:00So, Alaska is in the news again...<br />
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I'm still largely ignoring political stories but I haven't cancelled my email subs, and this story landed in my email inbox via <b><i><a href="http://truth-out.org/news/item/14163-fbi-militant-informant-tells-all#startOfPageId14163">truthout</a>.</i></b><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 24.640625px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Bill Fulton, undercover FBI informant in the “Alaska Militia Trial,” gave a lengthy interview to The Mudflats about his role in the case, and his controversial life in Anchorage before it was revealed. In this article, he shares his candid opinion about local Anchorage media, national progressive media, Joe Miller, and what they got wrong. Yours truly didn’t even escape entirely unscathed. </span></span></blockquote>
This was republished from The Mudflats with credit but no link. So read it <a href="http://www.themudflats.net/?p=35343">here</a>. Credit where it's due and I'm annoyed that I had to I had to google to find it. In a story like this, the real story is to be found in the comments and between the lines, if it's to be found at all.<br />
<br />
You probably remember Jeanne Devon of The Mudflats. That - and the fact that Truthout picked up the story - told me that there would be amusements to be had. Indeed, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/15/joe-miller-bill-fulton-fbi-politics_n_2479644.html">The Huffington Post has been on the case. </a> Reporting with 30% less smug condensation than I would have expected:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="background-color: white; border: none; color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; list-style: none; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Huffington Post <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/11/joe-miller-alaska-bulletproof-vest_n_2444137.html" style="border: none; color: #0088c3; cursor: pointer; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial;" target="_hplink">reported last week on Bill Fulton</a>, the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/11/bill-fulton-alaska-fbi-informant_n_2456883.html" style="border: none; color: #0088c3; cursor: pointer; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial;" target="_hplink">FBI informant</a> who helped the feds bring down extremist militia leader Schaeffer Cox. At the time he was working as an informant, Fulton was also providing security for Miller's 2010 Senate campaign. During one high-profile incident, Fulton <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/11/joe-miller-alaska-bulletproof-vest_n_2444137.html" style="border: none; color: #0088c3; cursor: pointer; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial;" target="_hplink">handcuffed a journalist trying to ask Miller questions.</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In an <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-fbi-militia-fulton-politics-20130114,0,7619221,full.story" style="border: none; color: #0088c3; cursor: pointer; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial;" target="_hplink">interview Monday with the Los Angeles Times</a>, Miller said the handcuffing incident was “absolutely” detrimental to his campaign and “utilized as a political weapon against us in the state.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Miller told the L.A. Times he was troubled that Fulton, who <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/11/joe-miller-alaska-bulletproof-vest_n_2444137.html" style="border: none; color: #0088c3; cursor: pointer; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial;" target="_hplink">told HuffPost</a> that he is personally fiscally conservative but socially liberal, injected controversy into his campaign. He <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-fbi-militia-fulton-politics-20130114,0,7619221,full.story" style="border: none; color: #0088c3; cursor: pointer; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial;" target="_hplink">pointed out that a separate FBI investigation into the late Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska)</a> cost him reelection in 2008 even though charges were ultimately dropped by the Justice Department in 2009 when prosecutors failed to turn over potentially exculpatory evidence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“This is the second U.S. Senate race in Alaska that the FBI has had some involvement in,” <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-fbi-militia-fulton-politics-20130114,0,7619221,full.story" style="border: none; color: #0088c3; cursor: pointer; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: initial;" target="_hplink">Miller told the L.A. Times</a>. “I’m certainly not expressing any type of conspiracy theory about the FBI causing any kind of trouble to my campaign, but it’s conceptually troubling to me that you have a paid informant working on multiple campaigns answering to the FBI, being debriefed by the FBI, and I really think it’s incumbent on that agency to come clean about the scope of this individual’s employment and the level of involvement the FBI had in that.”</span></div>
</blockquote>
No, really. It's conceptually troubling that someone beholden to the conservative establishment under Ted Stevens might actually have been "debriefed" about "The Corrupt Bastards Club."<br />
<br />
Then after that, having fallen into the political orbit of someone who was not at all shy about "talking smack" about being a "sovereign citizen." That's not the gubbment pickin' on you, son. That's a lack of situational awareness, although the most important question is unasked and unanswered. I would phrase it, myself, something like this: "Where do you FIND these people?"<br />
<br />
His tortured statement lends support to accusations of paranoia others allege. Anyway, it is suddenly News, and we turn to local sources to see what sense, if any, can be made of it. Jeanne Devon of the Mudflats comes out as the star here - for doing something actual journalists do, go out and talk to the primary sources.<br />
<br />
The Mudflats (and the other Alaskan blogs) provided invaluable context and background to the whole Sarah Palin story, back in the day. That is to say, the Sarah Palin Crowd still probably want to club Jeanne Devon like a seal. So it may or may not be helpful that Jeanne did this, as opposed to someone with a more neutral point of view. Remember that She (and others) dug up dirt that the McCain Campaign really should have known about, and took a lot of crap for it. Even then, though, the whole connection between Palin, extremist religious militants and various armed nutcases was clearly a clusterfuck waiting to happen. <a href="http://www.graphictruth.com/2008/09/spiders-behind-sarahs-eyes.html">I was bemused why the Alaska left didn't hit this nail harder.</a><br />
<br />
But now I understand better; it's in the service of not alarming the mostly-harmless crazy fellow-travelers that you have to do business with and cannot afford to offend too viscerally, lest they become not-at-all-harmless. And that is really what this story is all about. The parts in between the parts that seem like news.<br />
<br />
I recall thinking that Alaskan politics reminded me of a Jr. High Student Body election crossed with a knife fight in a dark closet. Now, my approach to politics is not that of someone interested in it, but as one who considers it a disease that, while uncomfortable, provides an immunity against more deadly plagues. And of course, it gives me an harmless outlet for my insufferable tendency to over-share my entirely reasonable views.<br />
<br />
The political process tends to distract the distractable and give opportunities for people to discredit themselves before they are in a position to do anything terribly dangerous. They spend money on elections instead of inssurections - and this is a GOOD thing. Even when it's Citizens United amounts.<br />
<br />
Compare how politics works in a place like Syria or Egypt and you may begin to understand why Churchill referred to it as the worst possible system - except for all the others. Politicians in the United States are not commonly assassinated and don't find it prudent to retire to places lacking extradition treaties in the normal course of events.<br />
<br />
But it's not a <i>perfect</i> system. As they say in The Tubes of The Interwebs, Hilarity Commenced.<br />
<br />
This hairball seems to have all started when Bill Fulton, surplus dealer and alaskan Version of Dog The Bounty Hunter encountered some folks who seemed just a little crazy by <i>his</i> standards. And you know, when your entire business plan revolves around selling camo gear and and "survival equipment" to people who have come to Alaska because - well, because it's <i>prudent</i> - he probably has a broad tolerance for crazy talk. Being a swinging dick is just .... part of life, places like that. And if you do the stuff he does, it's not a good thing to be mild-mannered and nonconfrontational. Nope, Bill is a Charactor, in a tragicomic story with a Cast of Thousands.<br />
<br />
Just to get along in a small town on the cold and lonely edge of America you might tend to charitably overlook the fine line between talking smack and the people who believe the smack they talk. Hell, there's no way to know and no good reason to really want to be sure about it. Most people prefer to think that such talk is just that - talk. Most times they are right, too. In a really small town, you really have to think about the implications of Doing Something - because who the hell is going to unlock the gas pump tomorrow? <br />
<br />
Anchorage isn't exactly a small town - but it's not exactly cosmopolitan, either. And the people involved command influences that make the analogy valid. And remember, Fulton's lilihood relied on such folks being comfortable doing business with him. When gun culture and testosterone is the sum of your business plan, you will hear a lot more "smack" than most folks and probably take it even less seriously on the whole.<br />
<br />
And that's how the story started to unfold, in the very small and diffuse town that Alaska seems to be in a political sense. Because someone talked some smack that Bill Fulton felt he had to take seriously.<br />
<br />
Bill Fulton, a guy who's life revolved around being the go-to swinging dick; did security work, he did fugitive and bail bond work, and he sold guns and things to people who needed them, or thought they did. And then sometimes he took his crew out into the woods and rounded up a few of the fugitives that make owning a weapon or seven seem prudent. And <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jan/12/nation/la-na-militia-mole-20130113/2">it seems that he was of a prominence that involved him in local conservative politics</a> regardless of his own libertarian/Independant views. There, as everywhere, you can't untangle gun-culture and tea-party politics and as my father used to say, "you gotta go along to get along." Personally, I prefer "Don't FUCK with the money!" When your business is at the mercy of ten thousand laws and regulations, it makes sense to get to know the people who think themselves qualified to write them.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
When then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was plotting a move against the Republican Party chief at the state convention in 2008, Fulton was there strategizing over whiskey and cigars with Palin staffer Frank Bailey and Joe Miller,<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </strong>who later made a well-publicized run<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </strong>for the U.S. Senate as a tea party conservative.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
That was the meeting<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </strong>where Fulton was introduced to Schaeffer Cox, an up-and-coming young firebrand of the far right who was running for the state Legislature and had, as it turned out, plans that went well beyond upending the Republican Party in Alaska.</blockquote>
<br />
But let's just say that at this remove, there wasn't a hell of a lot of percentage in pissing off the larger portion of his likely client base... unless they started talking in truly alarming ways. There doesn't seem to be an explanation of what that was, exactly; the scary stuff he does speak of is mentioned as occurring after he became an informant.<br />
<br />
Well, I'm sure that nugget will be in his upcoming book. I'll bet money someone is going to turn it into a movie. I'm hoping it's Quentin Tarantino. Because we got us a badass here! And I mean that affectionately.<br />
<br />
Some talk about upholding the Constitution and taking oaths, whatever you might care to say about Fulton, he seems to take his oath seriously. You know, that, "All enemies, foreign and domestic?"<i> That</i> part. And he did pay a price for his sense of duty.<br />
<br />
It never seems to have occurred to anyone that he was anything other than a gun-totin', Palin-votin', Second-Amendment quotin' professional hippie-puncher. Rachael Maddow even called him a Nazi on MSNBC! That's some street cred right there! At the time, it gladdened his heart, for there's nothing that gets you into the good graces of the lunatic fringe than being Disapproved of by the First Feminazi of the Liberal Establishment.<br />
<br />
And so, secure in the bosom of the terrorists, the sausage-making that is both politics and practical law enforcement ground on. I do want to remind you of the outcome:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Cox, 28, was sentenced Tuesday to 25 years in prison for heading a militia that plotted to kill judges and other government employees and conspired to accumulate the firepower needed to do it from Fulton. And Fulton, who became one of two key informants the FBI used to gather evidence against Cox and his cohorts, went from being the Alaska Peacemakers Militia's "supply sergeant" to its most celebrated snitch.</span></div>
</blockquote>
Now, say what you like about the history of the FBI and it's distressing record of concentrating on political threats at the expense of what an external observer such as myself would think of as an actual threat. There isn't actually as sharp a line between the two as one might hope - and the FBI really <i>does</i> have to consider the problems that might ensue if a corrupt, violent fringe movement actually took over a state, county or local government.<br />
<br />
There ARE people who speak of that As A Good Thing, and there have been cases where it's happened, more or less. I'm thinking of Sheriff Joe Arpaio and I'm thinking of Huey Long; there was of course the whole infiltration of the KKK during the whole civil rights movement; and I'm sure I could think of others. Some would be on the left, some would be on the right, all are about knocking over established apple carts. That's what the FBI concerns itself with - people who wish to destabilize the government.<br />
<br />
So it's hard to argue with a straight face that this is something that the FBI should not take an interest in. Particularly when they say things like this:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Cox had been accused of assaulting his wife, and worried that state authorities were trying to take his son away. He talked about Fulton serving what he called common-law warrants on the officials he thought were out to get him.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"He said these guys need to be arrested and brought to trial," Fulton recalled. "I said, 'What are you going to do with them?' He said, 'We'll either fine them, or we'll hang them.'"</span></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">Cox and company discussed how they were going to go to the homes of selected enemies, cut the electricity to the house, and make enough noise to lure their main target onto the front porch, where he could be shot. Then the windows and doors would be boarded up, and the house, with the rest of the family inside, would be set on fire. "Collateral damage"</span><strong style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> </strong><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">is the way Fulton said they described it.</span> </span></blockquote>
Cox, was seriously part of Alaskan politics; not some nobody on a remote mountaintop.<br />
<br />
It's as if they find it rude or indelicate to mention that a rising star in the Conservative firmament is now a convicted domestic terrorist. But it can be awkward to have remind people of the difference between <a href="http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/todd_palin_was_registered_memb.php">Colourful</a> and Certifiable. Everybody knows everybody - and there are people who think that fucknuts is a perfectly defensible political philosophy.<br />
<br />
<b><i>So, the issue of the day is "The Hopfinger Incident."</i></b><br />
<br />
Fulton was doing security for a Joe Miller event and ended up arresting a local blogger. The story degenerates at that point, but it appears that there was some jerk-on-jerk action, with each side saying with some justification that being a jerk was part of their respective jobs.<br />
<br />
We also learn that the arrest (for assault and trespassing) was (a) a clean bust in a purely legal sense and (b) too damn trivial to pursue past the actual "sit in a corner and be GOOD for 20 minutes" outcome.<br />
<br />
It seems that Hopfinger may well have pushed someone - or at least said he did until he started saying he didn't. Others are claiming it all a plot. Some allege he was drunk. Me, I think he went in strong, hoping to nail a good quote by sheer surprise and so did Fulton, on the principle of crowd control; Stop the loud and aggressive, and there won't be a damn stampede.<br />
<br />
It's being spun by the right wing blog, <a href="http://alaskapride.blogspot.ca/2013/01/alaska-militia-supergrass-william.html">Alaska Pride</a> as having been an FBI plot to derail the Miller campaign.<br />
<br />
Now, I'm not sure of the slant on the Alaska Dispatch because they are taking the whole thing so damn personally. A Serious Journalist Was Manhandled! While in the course of his duty! Goodness! That hardly ever happens.<br />
<br />
A journalist who couldn't be bothered to carry credentials and was using a flip-cam instead of something an actual journalist might be expected to in order to let Security know they shouldn't casually bounce you off the floor. Apparently he expected to be Recognized without the usual tribal identifications - because everybody knows everybody. Well, apparently that's not always true.<br />
<br />
My sense is that he was indeed recognized for <i>what</i> he was, if not for who, and that's why he got bounced and cuffed. Reporter failed to notice there was Security, Security did not consider that the shouty guy with a toy videocamera might be Legitimate Journalist from A Serious Publication. Once the mutual misunderstanding passed, well, there was <i>already</i> paperwork.<br />
<br />
Looked at objectively, I think you could assume that both were padding their credentials a little in their respective roles, and that probably led to a situation that might have been entirely avoided in a place as sophisticated as, say Amarillo or Phoenix. But then, that's the sense I get about Alaska in general. It reminds me of a community theatre production of Shakespeare.<br />
<br />
But at the end of the day, each did their jobs and it all worked out in the end. No harm, no foul, right? Well, here's Craig Medred, Esquire, Editor of the Very Serious News Source, The Alaska Dispatch on <i>that!</i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Fulton's problem is that he is a guy with delusions of grandeur. But don't take my word for it, take his. Again as told to the LA Times:</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding-left: 60px;">
<em style="padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"Fulton said it did cross his mind after the fact that the very public confrontation with the journalist 'was actually good for us operationally,' in terms of the FBI investigation."</span></em></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Good for "us?" "Operationally." Can you say, "FBI wannabe?"</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It's pretty clear now Fulton took Hopfinger down to attract publicity. Murphy has been good enough to help Fulton get it by providing a platform for him to spin it nationally as to how he was the good guy in the white hat pursuing dangerous miltiaman Schaeffer Cox, an Alaska blowhard if ever there was one. Cox talked about killing Alaska judges, law enforcement officers, and politicians. He'll spend a good part of the rest of his life in prison for it.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I wish the authorities were as thorough about prosecuting the people who said they'd like to kill me, including a state trooper or two if their coworkers were to have been believed back in the day. This state is full of people who talk smack. It's talk. But in that regard, you've got to say one thing for Drop Zone Bill.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">He didn't just talk. He put people in prison, and he sunk a Senate campaign while the FBI stood on and watched. Miller, whom I've been trying to talk to about this incident for two years (He erroneously thinks I'm a lefty and doesn't realize I'm just some pain-in-the-ass, old-school journalist who gets fixated on trying to find the truth) seems to be finally, at last, figuring out what happened.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<br />
Don't be silly. I'll never claim publicly to be "an old school journalist" because my two-year degree in journalism and a stint at an advertising fishwrapper barely counts as school. I also learned along the way - the hard way that it's best to keep personal butthurt out of my editorials. If that's "old school journalism," then he must be referring to the era between the great wars, when every town with two horses had three newspapers - each one owned or directed by a political faction.<br />
<br />
I also learned that I should never assume malice when stupidity is a sufficient explanation.<br />
<br />
I can easily derive, that if my own reporter was an intimate part of the stupidity, that I should just shut up, because if the event WAS staged by the FBI, if it was not just chance and ill-luck, if you wanted it to actually WORK, all Mission Impossible style - Hopfinger would have to be part of it... and so would Medred.<br />
<br />
That would not be something I would wish to have crossing the minds of my tea-tardy blogging colleagues.<br />
<br />
I find myself disappointed in the conspiracy theorists who have overlooked that point - but straining at gnats and swallowing camels is part of the mindset.<br />
<br />
If you <i>stage</i> an incident, you don't just <i>hope</i> someone is going to make a scene. You make sure of it, and you control the narrative about it for exactly the same reasons that would apply to Fulton being part of the "conspiracy" to "derail" Miller's campaign.<br />
<br />
When you "run an operation" or plan an event, or go into court or diagram a football play - you do not leave large elements of chance at the very heart of the plot. Is Hopfinger <i>really</i> such a predictable idiot that you could just plan to be there, knowing there would be a scene? Even if that were actually true, isn't that the sort of thing a campaign is supposed to handle?<br />
<br />
There were incidents like that all the time with both Bush campaigns and it never caused Bush the slightest problem with anyone likely to vote for Bush. That is because the professionals handled it professionally. If <i>this</i> "derailed" the campaign, I think it a stretch to claim it had rails to begin with.<br />
<br />
Now, was the FBI concerned about Miller's involvement with "People who talk smack?" I would think that would be something a domestic counter-intelligence and counter-terrorist agency would discreetly look into, yes. If history is any guide and the examples of files on public figures are any example, yes, they would definitely want to know a lot about Miller. But I always thought their style was to dig dirt and use it for leverage. Not much point in that if he doesn't win the election.<br />
<br />
I'd read this as him being tried and found wanting; neither a credible threat nor a useful tool. <br />
<br />
But if there was an agenda on the part of the FBI, the one I would bet on would be hopes for a career making domestic terrorism bust that swept in a Senate Candidate. That's something that gets your boy scout ass out of the Anchorage office. Putting Miller in prison along with <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;">Schaeffer Cox would have made someone's year, for sure. </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;">So I'd be shocked if he wasn't investigated. </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;">L</span>et us hearken back to where and when Fulton was introduced to <i>real, actual, convicted domestic terrorists;</i> at a meeting to support Millers ambitions. You'd kind of have to look into Miller.<br />
<br />
We need not presume that Miller conspired to support terrorism. Let us just say that he was in the same room, heard the same things that Fulton did, and whatever that was, he did not see a problem. Make of that what you will. Nobody seems to be praising the man's intelligence, it's entirely possible it went right by him.<br />
<br />
So, take a deep breath, and pay a little silent homage to the bullet y'all dodged there. Because I seem to recall that a Republican ended up with that seat. <a href="http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/one-time-senate-candidate-joe-miller-reinvents-himself-online-news-publisher">"Against all odds."</a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A conservative Republican who ran on a platform of restoring the nation's political system to one driven by a strict interpretation of the constitutional framework established by the founding fathers, Miller didn't take his loss to incumbent Lisa Murkowski easily. She'd run an unprecedented write-in campaign after losing the primary to Miller, and won.</span></span></blockquote>
I sure would not have called that outcome. In any ordinary reality, a write-in-spoiler candidate might cause the anointed Republican to lose to the anointed Democrat.<br />
<br />
I am guessing that would be the FBI's presumed agenda here, right? Getting "Obama's Man" in?<br />
<br />
No.. no, this was not the sort of thing that comes about because it was planned. I can tell, because everyone involved is some mixture of confused, embarrassed and upset. <br />
<br />
In military terms, this is called "A Crossing Engagement" where two forces manage to stumble upon each other in the dark, achieving total mutual surprise. Yes, it may have worked out to contribute to Fulton's undercover work - but a glorious day of routine would have achieved the same end. The mission here was to <i>cater</i> to Miller's paranoia, not to risk triggering it.<br />
<br />
<br />
One <a href="http://www.alaskadispatch.com/users/aleut-granddaughter">commenter at Alaska Dispatch</a> picks the thread of this with a wry insight into what the actual plotting was.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
What I read is that he [Fulton] is a political independent. If that's reflected in his registration status, then is he is in the majority of Alaska registered voters whose numbers in the independent parties combined is greater than the Republican or Democratic Party registered voters.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
This is also why I believe that Joe Miller is such a whiner, and completely wrong in that he could have won the general over Murkowski. Either he knows and of course won't admit it, or he's clueless which is worse - so many of those votes for him in the primary where from "strategic voters" either displaying their unhappiness with Murkowski(thinking there would be a message sent but no real consequence), or votes for the lesser candidate (Miller) hoping that he would be more beatable by the Democratic candidate in the general election than Murkowski.<br />
I worked this election. People not involved with lots of other voters can speculate all they want, but for people involved in the election with their eyes open, it was very clear that a whole lot of people used their voting rights to gamble. I was disappointed, but then began to find it humorous that this misfire of voting (as it is intended to be) just set Miller off & gave him false hopes. He's paranoid, and not very bright, so everything has just been one conspiracy after another against him - when it never was about him except as a shadow character. Who knew he would use this to launch himself out of the shadows and into a frying pan of his own making.<br />
You just never know when you may contribute collectively to creating a monster of unknown proportions, which is why I am personally against using voting to gamble.</blockquote>
<br />
Like most of history and human life stuff happens and you try to make sense of it in retrospect. Being human, you try to portray your involvement as having at least made sense to you at the time, given what you knew then. But there are also times when it's best to walk away with whatever dignity remains and whatever you were able to pick up on the way out the door. <br />
<br />Bob Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12331371505961522315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23662617.post-86047406626488937752013-01-14T12:34:00.000-08:002013-01-14T12:39:07.007-08:00Cui Bono? Aaron Swartz and all the rest <div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.zazzle.com/cui_bono_rip_aaron_swartz-235200398765573025?rf=238308253102024501"> <img alt="Cui Bono : RIP Aaron Swartz" src="http://rlv.zcache.com/cui_bono_rip_aaron_swartz-r7d9cd52a04e641aa87ef9fd987b5f1ad_va6lr_325.jpg?bg=0xffffff" height="640" style="border: 0px;" width="640" /> </a> <br />
<a href="http://www.zazzle.com/cui_bono_rip_aaron_swartz-235200398765573025?rf=238308253102024501">Cui Bono : RIP Aaron Swartz</a> by <a href="http://www.zazzle.com/webcarve*">webcarve</a> <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cui_bono">Cui bono</a></b></i> ("To whose benefit?", literally "as a benefit to whom?", a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_dative" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Double dative">double dative</a> construction), also rendered as <i><b>Cui prodest</b></i>, is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Latin">Latin</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adage" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Adage">adage</a> that is used either to suggest a hidden motive or to indicate that the party responsible for something may not be who it appears at first to be.</span><br />
Commonly the phrase is used to suggest that the person or people <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guilty" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Guilty">guilty</a> of committing a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Crime">crime</a> may be found among those who have something to gain, chiefly with an eye toward financial gain. The party that benefits may not always be obvious or may have successfully diverted attention to a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scapegoat" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Scapegoat">scapegoat</a>, for example.<br />
The Roman orator and statesman <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Tullius_Cicero" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Marcus Tullius Cicero">Marcus Tullius Cicero</a>, in his speech <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_Roscio_Amerino" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Pro Roscio Amerino">Pro Roscio Amerino</a></i>,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-1" style="line-height: 1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cui_bono#cite_note-1" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial; white-space: nowrap;">[1]</a></sup> section 84, attributed the expression <i>cui bono</i> to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Rome" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Ancient Rome">Roman</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consul" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Consul">consul</a> and <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censor_(ancient_Rome)" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Censor (ancient Rome)">censor</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucius_Cassius_Longinus_Ravilla" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Lucius Cassius Longinus Ravilla">Lucius Cassius Longinus Ravilla</a>:<br />
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<tr><td style="border: none; color: #b2b7f2; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 35px; font-weight: bold; padding: 10px;" valign="top" width="20">“</td><td style="border: none; padding: 4px 10px;" valign="top"><i>L. Cassius ille quem populus Romanus verissimum et sapientissimum iudicem putabat identidem in causis quaerere solebat 'cui bono' fuisset.</i><br />
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The famous Lucius Cassius, whom the Roman people used to regard as a very honest and wise judge, was in the habit of asking, time and again, 'To whose benefit?'</div>
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Another example of Cicero using "<i>cui bono</i>" is in his defence of Milo, in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_Milone" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial;" title="Pro Milone">Pro Milone</a>. He even makes a reference to Cassius: "let that maxim of Cassius apply".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-2" style="line-height: 1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cui_bono#cite_note-2" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: initial; white-space: nowrap;">[2]</a></sup></blockquote>
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<b style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/01/14/1441211/killers-slavers-and-bank-robbers-all-face-less-severe-prison-terms-than-aaron-swartz-did/">Aaron Swartz Faced A More Severe Prison Term Than Killers, Slave Dealers And Bank Robbers</a></b><br />
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<h1 class="title-news" style="background-color: white; border: none; color: #111111; line-height: 36px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/13/matthew-davies-medical-marijuana-obama_n_2468324.html?utm_hp_ref=politics" style="font-family: inherit;">Matthew Davies' Wife Asks Obama To End Family's 'Nightmare,' Drop Medical Marijuana Case</a></span></h1>
<h1 class="title-news" style="background-color: white; border: none; color: #111111; line-height: 36px; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;">
<a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/150223/as_the_treatment_of_bradley_manning_grows_more_obscene%2C_reality_becomes_harder_to_ignore" style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">As the Treatment of Bradley Manning Grows More Obscene, Reality Becomes Harder to Ignore</span></a></h1>
Bob Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12331371505961522315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23662617.post-92213474581291737942012-12-29T15:42:00.001-08:002012-12-29T15:42:10.197-08:00Just Study It Out - an idea who's time has come!<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><a href="http://www.zazzle.com/just_study_it_out_the_definitive_blank_book-130325199731862366?rf=238308253102024501">Just Study It Out - The Definitive Blank Book!</a></i></span></b></div>
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<span style="line-height: 150%;">It's a meme that captured my imagination, because it is the definitive </span><span style="line-height: 24px;">explanation</span><span style="line-height: 150%;"> for what the hell is WRONG with people these days. It comes from this video clip, and I defy you to watch it without wincing, regardless of your political preferences or your preferences in culture or ethnic company. </span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/2E87gciwebw" width="480"></iframe><br />
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></span><span style="line-height: 150%;">If this seems unwieldy or incoherent, please bear with me. I'm out of practice. </span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 150%;">I confess that I have wandered away from political blogging of late, because politics have been utterly, horrifyingly, soul-crushingly depressing. Indeed, unless I press send on this, the record for posts in 2012 will be completely blank. I even passed on the opportunity of mocking the stupid regarding The Mayan Apocolypse. It just seemed too easy.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 150%;">You have to be a political junkie of sorts to truly appreciate the hilarity of Chris Matthews literally stumbling into a Palinesqe </span><i style="line-height: 150%;">"Gotcha Moment."</i><span style="line-height: 150%;"> And I feel his pain... Because I'm embarrassed on her behalf AND his every time I see this. Poor Tweety, he may well have thought that it was respectful of him to let age express it's wisdom. Certainly she looked as if she was of a status and social position where one could reasonably expect to hear something sensible. And yet... and yet... there's nothing at all useful beneath the fur and the expensive haircut. And that is a succinct expression of why I wandered away from it all. </span><i style="line-height: 150%;">This.</i><span style="line-height: 150%;"> Right </span><i style="line-height: 150%;">Here. </i><br />
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<span style="line-height: 150%;">It had started to occur to me that I could keep blogging simply by cutting and pasting. That I was repeating myself. That there was nothing new to say and no need to be particularly clever or insightful or mindful of important affairs of public policy and the pressing concerns of our liberties and rights in this modern age because the people who are the problem are people like this. Moreover, these are the same people who have always been the problem. The very same people that H.L. Menckin mocked and Westbrook Pegler defended as<i> <b>"The Salt of the Earth."</b></i></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 150%;">Salt indeed. Uric acid is indeed a salt. And when it percolates down to the bottom of the manure pile that is the modern GOP, it can blow up for no reason at all. How's that for a shitty metaphor? </span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 150%;"><i>Clearly, no volume of words, no amount of common sense, no appeal to decency or even self-interest matters. </i>The only way to get people like this to do the right thing is to say that the wrong thing is approved of by </span><span style="line-height: 24px;">atheist</span><span style="line-height: 150%;"> niggers from outer space who wish to </span><span style="line-height: 24px;">fluoridate</span><span style="line-height: 150%;"> our precious bodily fluids. An evident frustration and contempt for such people has been expressed by every thinking person in history from Socrates to Twain to Mencken to Marx to William F. Buckley, Jr.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 150%;">Almost equally, they railed against </span><span style="line-height: 24px;">natalist</span><span style="line-height: 150%;"> populism and appeals to mean-spirited, racist policies - even in cases when they could arguably be said to profit from structural racism. Why? Because racists are painfully stupid and that stupidity pervades everything they do. The only thing that matters to a racist is that nobody who is not of their race ever gets an even break - and anyone who is of their race is to be supported, regardless. Now, this is just dumb. Because I've met people of all races that were, variably, </span><span style="line-height: 24px;">marvellous</span><span style="line-height: 150%;"> and useless. A few managed to be both at once. The real problem with racism is that it requires people to become so simple-minded that they are the ultimate expression and indeed, the creators of every problem they attribute to "those people."</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 150%;">The only thing more horrifying to an honest man of conviction than being accosted by racist fucknuttery is to be applauded and praised by them as Being An Ally Of Our Cause. This can wear upon even the most cynical and least sensitive - <a href="http://howconservativesdrovemeaway.blogspot.ca/">in case you are wondering why sensible, sane conservatism is less and less evident on the "right" of the American Political spectrum.</a> As the Internet spreads their ... let's call them "ideas"... as expressed in their own words as opposed to the dry </span><span style="line-height: 24px;">euphemisms</span><span style="line-height: 150%;"> of professional diplomats, two things occur. First, people everywhere start to realize how this pervasive corruption has affected their own lives and homelands. </span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 150%;">And second, they see how very eager their local lords and masters succumbed. Their local idiots were no better, and for the most part, there were fewer institutional structures in place to resist the corruption. </span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 24px;">I wandered off to Second Life, as I do when I need contact with people in a sense where I need not arrange my life around the risks of alarming all the stupid people seen above - and I do that because almost everyone there who has been there for any length of time is there for much the same reason - the ability to express who and what they are without worrying about what the neighbours might think.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 150%;">Now, that doesn't always lead to warm and fuzzy insights into human nature. But since people have less motivation to lie about their motives, it becomes easier to avoid the people you don't care to associate with.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 150%;">The lesson I do wish to share is that for many people, conformity and compliance with social norms stops the moment they think nobody is watching them. </span><br />
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I think that even to this day, H.L Mencken has the last word on such people.</div>
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<i><b>"The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he hasn't been caught."</b></i></div>
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These are also the same people who seem to sincerely believe that without the imposition by force of Judeo-Christian values, all people would become criminals and disrespect all forms of authority.<br />
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They are the people who think that being restrained from imposing their moral views on others is interference with THEIR religious liberty!<br />
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It's something I can comprehend as an cynical appeal to the wishful prejudices of the weak-minded in the name of profit and power. <a href="http://now.msn.com/hobby-lobby-will-risk-fines-rather-than-comply-with-birth-control-mandate">It's when it's sincere and very costly that my mind boggles.</a><br />
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It is not difficult to imagine what H.L. Mencken would have said about the current crop of moron-Americans elected to the House with the aid of gerrymandering and compliant electronic voting machines that can always be relied upon to come up with the "right" result, for he had much to say about the Democrats of his day and their mystifying ability to convince even the dead to vote. </div>
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But then I am reminded, this is simply a new twist on an old game and that in the perspective of history, this is not actually all that bad a time in North American history, and that very little has changed. We-all have muddled through worse - it's just that the internet and modern electronic media tells us about it immediately - and makes it impossible to forget, both how very far we have come - and how far we have to go to become as civilized as our various social conceits allege that we are. </div>
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And that has been an ironic blessing, for this entire year, Graphictruth has been read by between 20 to a couple-hundred people every day, depending on the news of the day. Recall, I mentioned that I hardly needed to blog at all? That all I needed to do was cut and paste, for most times, I had said it already.<br />
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<span style="text-align: left;">Google agrees. That's where most of my traffic comes from - people who were looking for something they were wondering about and they were referred to what I had said. Already. So it appears that my time had not been entirely wasted. I am perversely - but I lack what Mencken had - a job that would afford me enough whisky to do it five days a week despite the Sisyphean nature of it. <i>So perhaps you might buy a tee-shirt, as a tangible form of applause. </i></span></div>
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...it was the small trickle of sales and the small trickle of readers that persisted dispite my complete neglect of this blog that dragged me back. Just enough to let me know that there might be something to what I was doing and that it would be a shame to let more months go by without repeating the obvious, rudely and illustrated in a way that will get you banned from all the finer establishments in Alabama and Afganistan.<br />
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If you look back on my history of blogging, you will see that my will to speak fairly much evaporated around the time President Obama was about to be elected. Indeed, rather than voting in the election, I voted with my feet, for I felt that even if he were elected, the best possible outcome would be to slow the train-wreck that the American Political experience had become. I confidently expected violence and possible outright civil war. Nor do I yet rule that out - though I see it as significantly less likely now than I did in 2008.<br />
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But I see that what I've written is still read - and reasonably frequently; often the things that seemed to go completely unheard at the time. While my readership is nothing at all significant for a modern pundit, if I put it into terms familiar to the exemplars of our past - well Socrates and Shakespeare alike were dead a very long time before they reached my current tally of 199,510 all time readers.<br />
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Many other bloggers have much larger numbers. And like them, many of those numbers include people who didn't read a single word. But the point is never those who simply mindlessly agree or disagree, or just click through to an ad for natural male enhancement. It's about the percentage chance of resonance; one or two words making a difference or changing a mind. The idea that expands a horizon. And at nearly 200,000 views as of today, I can accept that it is statistical certainty that I have. Not because I wish to feel smug - but because with such numbers, it's an unavoidable conclusion.<br />
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I say this aloud because I know there are others out there, toiling away and speaking their minds and this sort of angst and despair is commonplace. But these days, it takes no special effort for wisdom to be preserved and it's become astonishingly easy to find it. Your words or mine, there is a hunger out there and people ARE looking.<br />
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So we will call this a New Year's Resolution. I resolve to write more this coming year. I will also try to avoid repeating myself - for did I not just say that Google will do that for me?</div>
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Bob Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12331371505961522315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23662617.post-69829198647175786502011-12-09T16:19:00.000-08:002011-12-09T16:19:13.809-08:00Godless Athiests Persecute Rick Perry with Mockery of Jesus!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnVGsogff0vYoIb-9Jj7LUYu8yn0khjnUlxpO8W4tYSdJRXxUg9V2i5Qf2M5m6vpc2M39QKIUdmSel3qok0KAGKqPk9e_OC-eJgTTz1np_aVYARKwox9_cdaxtE7q-_xhYfbwl/s400/Blasphemy%2521.JPG" width="400" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://funnyordie.com/m/6coz"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Jesus Responds to Rick Perry</b></span></a></div><br />
Blasphemy! ... or <i>IS</i> it?<br />
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As our comic impersonator put it... <br />
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<i>"What have gays in the military ever done to Rick Perry other than keeping him safe while he executed the mentally retarded?"</i><br />
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When you read the Words in Red, Jesus had a few blunt things to say about the Pharisees of his day, the ones that made a big, fat hairy deal about public piety. He had a few choice parables about people who talked the talk but didn't actually walk the walk. And whatever you might think of an actor portraying Jesus...<br />
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...the gist of the Gospels is that you ARE supposed to be impersonating Jesus. Or to put it in the terms of modern sunday-school Christianity; "What WOULD Jesus Do?"<br />
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So the question is not whether it's bad to impersonate Jesus. It's not. The question is, if you attempt to impersonate Jesus, would anyone know that's what you are doing?<br />
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If you HAVE to take out an ad to say that you are <a href="http://youtu.be/0PAJNntoRgA">"not ashamed to admit that I'm a Christian...</a>" while attacking the President for supposedly "persecuting" your faith... well, after this, I'd be ashamed as all hell to be mistaken for anyone even remotely LIKE you.<br />
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But I have a word for "Christians" like Rick Perry.<br />
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<a href="http://www.graphictruth.com/2009/03/tired-of-chromefishtians-fleecing-your.html"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Chromefishtian.</span></i></b></a>Bob Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12331371505961522315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23662617.post-80922836539154475832011-11-15T20:00:00.000-08:002011-11-15T20:54:36.824-08:00Zombies VS Pod People: Best. Birthday. Ever.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.filminamerica.com/Movies/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers1978/invasion23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="307" src="http://www.filminamerica.com/Movies/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers1978/invasion23.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://capitoilette.com/2011/11/15/oakland-mayor-jean-quan-admits-cities-coordinated-crackdown-on-occupy-movement/">She's not the Mayor! She's a POD PERSON!</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><i><b style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</b></i><br />
<i><b style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</b></i><br />
<i><b style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 19px;">Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard. - </b><b style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 19px;"><a class="extiw" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._L._Mencken" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; color: #3366bb; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="w:H. L. Mencken">Henry Louis Mencken</a></b></i><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3gSmEhLkEbcQ-xy42naZrA0wC4sHWHbU8uTdk1D7w_Iearyo-itDCCfl27vqpU4F7wse6TVMt_wygQ7dyl94dY8Msn63MnlBS_UN8w8LIehaSIjz-3ojLQPDcXFcMHUP45Mi4/s1600/Best-Birthday-Ever.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3gSmEhLkEbcQ-xy42naZrA0wC4sHWHbU8uTdk1D7w_Iearyo-itDCCfl27vqpU4F7wse6TVMt_wygQ7dyl94dY8Msn63MnlBS_UN8w8LIehaSIjz-3ojLQPDcXFcMHUP45Mi4/s640/Best-Birthday-Ever.JPG" width="561" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Happy Birthday To Me! <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/">The Reddit Politics Page, </a>November 15, 2011.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;">"There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary to public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute or common law. </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;">Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back." - </span><a class="extiw" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; color: #3366bb; line-height: 19px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="w:Robert A. Heinlein">Robert Heinlein</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;">. </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;">Life-Line</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;">(1939)</span></i></span></b><br />
<br />
<b>Today is my birthday, a day I have loathed for most of my life.</b><br />
<br />
It has always been associated with disappointed expectations, another year older and a lifetime's dour assurance that there's more of the same to come.<br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>But today I saw the tipping point - the turn away from a baleful future I have been blogging against since the tragedy of 9/11 convinced me to get out of my own head and give a public damn.</b><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
I will go on record as saying that today, November 15, 2011 was the day everything changed. The day the future we need became obviously more probable than the future <a href="http://www.graphictruth.com/search?q=civil+war+II">I had been predicting for more than ten years.</a><br />
<br />
I am temperamentally a cynic and while I do know the better side of humankind, and have generally good reason to expect the best of individuals, I have come to have rather low expectations of them in their great masses. My general view of them is well summed up by my choices of intellectual heroes.<br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I've long considered myself an reflexive conservative; but it is the conservatism of </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._L._Mencken" style="font-family: inherit;">H.L. Mencken</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> and </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"><a class="extiw" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; color: #3366bb; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="w:Robert A. Heinlein">Robert Heinlein</a>.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> It is the conservatism of best practices. It is the conservatism that tells me that if I MUST jump from a perfectly good </span>aircraft<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">, I want to have packed both chutes myself.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">As a Reflexive-Conservative, I prefer the company of people who embody the self-discipline required to be trusted with firearms and the wisdom to know why, by whom and to what end they are entrusted with my lack of concern.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.addictinginfo.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/perry-gun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="433" src="http://www.addictinginfo.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/perry-gun.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rick Perry - A Texan who reflects well on the intelligence of George Bush and the impulse control of LBJ.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>This fool just failed the NRA safety course. See if you can count how many critical failures this picture represents. I'm genuinely surprised he's actually holding it by the right end. </i></span></b><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">While I will uphold your natural right as a human being to bear arms in defence of your family and person against any forces you feel might threaten your person, your dignity and your way of life, I point out that every society exists in order to let you hoe a row of potatoes in some expectation of peace and the reasonable hope of not being trampled in your own field, and that no society that failed to do that most basic task lasted much longer than a second missed harvest. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
Now we don't mostly live and die by the whim of the weather - but when we are led by people who do not see widespread unemployment, poverty and homelessness to be a problem, well, that is a group of leaders that need to be replaced by those who understand what the point of a civilized society is - lest there become so many victims of Social Darwinism wandering the streets that civil society simply collapses in the face of being obviously pointless.<br />
<br />
And yet we have people arguing in favour of Social Darwinism - as if history proved that people forced to the margins and subjected to increasing oppression and poverty simply and politely accepted their fate. <br />
<br />
The right of self-defence is inalienable and of course, wandering hordes of wandering, hungry "zombies" are an obvious reason for having the means to defend yourself. But, when emergency planners speak of <a href="http://www.bt.cdc.gov/socialmedia/zombies_blog.asp">"the zombie apocolypse,"</a> they likely mean starving Black and Hispanic citizens deciding to eat the rich, braaaaains first.<br />
<br />
When well educated, reasonable, prudent professionals feel a need to prepare the public for the potential breakdown of civil order of that degree, well, first, you should raise one eyebrow and say "indeed"... and you should do it on your way out the door to get any bits of kit you happen to be missing. <br />
<br />
But what should first cross your mind (as you fill your shopping cart, mind you...) is how much better it would be to craft a society that was inherently zombie-proof. Because, well, there have been quite a few examples of what might as well have been a zombie apcolypse, and the reason we lived through it amounted to a lot of people banding together to make sure that the zombies went away. And at some time, it occured to people that it would be A Good Thing to try and nip zombie infestations in the bud.<br />
<br />
We call that development "civilization."<br />
<br />
When you think of it that way, it becomes pretty obvious that any civilization that has brought the zombie apocalypse upon itself deserves to suffer such a fate.<br />
<br />
Now every single practical guide to survival will tell you that if you are alone in the face of the zombie apocolypse, the best use of your gun is to blow your own brains out before the zombies get to you. This is what europeans realized about the Huns, and that's part of what brought about the age of the Nation State. Not being flayed alive as part of the evening's entertainment is a significant incentive. With so much history to learn from, it should be obvious to the dullest that the only practical way to ensure personal security is in some co-operative way. You <i>have</i> to sleep sometime. This is why the 2nd Amendment of the US Constitution is written the way it is.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 19px;">"A <b>well regulated</b> militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."</span></blockquote>When you think of it that way, you also realize that it is very much to your advantage and my advantage to deal with the immediate concerns that we both share. Such as, say, not being shot by fools, rousted by thugs or eaten by zombies. With those matters dealt with, we can spend time on our divergent, individual concerns.<br />
<br />
But within the last decade and a bit, pointing out such clearly obvious things to the typical Republican or Canadian Conservative brings accusations of being a "Socialist" and at the same time "a fascist who wants to take away our guns."<br />
<br />
Does this look like a "well regulated militia" to you?<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/buovLQ9qyWQ" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
Those are citizen-taxpayers, and the children of citizen-taxpayers. Seems to me these guys are the people the 2nd Amendment was intended to deal with, not the people it was intended to empower.<br />
<br />
But then, as I said, I'm a reflexive conservative. I expect the cops to uphold the law and protect citizens, not assault the citizenry and spit on the law.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/NxjLxoqVqGo" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
But clearly they do - and clearly the people telling them to do it haven't the first idea why that's an amazingly, vibrantly, painfully stupid thing to do. Because you see, this is not the sort of thing that makes real conservatives happy. This is the sort of thing that made the Civil Rights Act possible, these are the optics that ended the British Empire. When decent people realized what was being done in their name, with their money, while they were being told there was no reason to pay attention to a few isolated malcontents.<br />
<br />
Instead, the video shows that the Zombie apocolypse is upon us, and it's lead by men in riot gear, sent by the mayor of your home town. My, doesn't that just that just resonate with your <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pod_People_(Invasion_of_the_Body_Snatchers)">cinematic memory</a>?<br />
<br />
The people entrusted with protecting our society are acting as if they were Pod People. And of course, the tide turns when people start to realize that external appearances and the reality of motivations are very much at odds.<br />
<br />
As much as the average social conservative might giggle at the idea of hippies getting punched, the idea of a hippie chick getting punched by a cop for presenting a valid court order to an officer of the law... that is quite another thing. That's not a cop. That's a POD PERSON! That's a ZOMBIE! The APOCOLYPSE is upon us! <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jesse-kornbluth/the-police-riot-at-berkel_b_1091208.html">Jesse Kornbluth put it in this way</a>, and set the twitterversre on fire.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; line-height: 20px;">Many of us have knee-jerk reactions to cops beating citizens. Mine comes from George Orwell, the subject of my honors thesis. He wrote something like this: </span><em style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; line-height: 20px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><b>When I see a policeman with a club beating a man on the ground, I don't have to ask whose side I'm on.</b></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Century, Times, serif; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"> But with the exception of the great Colbert, you will look in vain for an intelligent conversation about any of this on television."</span></blockquote>I would dryly ask why anyone would turn to their television to hear an intelligent "discussion" about a policeman beating a man on the ground. Perhaps liberals, pacifists and pansies might consider this a time to dialogue and raise conciousness, but a genuine conservative? <a href="http://www.jwayne.com/movie_quotes.shtml">What, I dryly ask, would John Wayne Do?</a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq"><i><b style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua'; text-align: -webkit-left;">John Bernard Books (The Shootist):</b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people and I expect the same from them." </span></i></blockquote> There are some assertions and arguments that will be made in favor of such a thing, but there are some assertions for which the most logical and and appropriate response is a punch in the throat. And should that present the spectre of unreasonable paperwork unworthy of the affront - then turn away from the yammering of fools. I have. And if you are reading this - I suspect you haven't watched much television for the last five years, either.<br />
<br />
The conversation IS happening between people who have realized they don't need Tom Brokaw's goddamn permission to have a serious fucking conversation about the moral imperatives expressed by a cop beating supine citizens. To the extent that such an idea needs much discussion, I shall refer you to american history for the sort of conversation required.<br />
<br />
<i>"Let us hang together, or we shall most assuredly all hang separtely."</i><br />
<br />
and, of course, should it come to that; <i> "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes."</i><br />
<br />
That is why I've been smiling all day. It's been my best birthday in literally decades, for today, I have genuine hope that I will see the beginning of something wonderful, instead of hoping I will die before seeing what I most dread.<br />
<br />
There will be marching and shouting and yelling and beating and blood and pain for months, possibly years; there might be occasional terrorism and civil wars will continue - though I consider that far, FAR less likely within the US than I did just a week ago. But however it goes down, the only real question for the US Right wing and the Neo Conservative movement worldwide is how long they can postpone surrender, and under what terms they may negotiate a dignified reatreat.<br />
<br />
Just in time for 2012, it's the end of the world as we knew it... and it's about time.<br />
<ul style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; list-style-image: url(data:image/png; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.3em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></ul>Bob Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12331371505961522315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23662617.post-43739801265183911552011-09-28T09:48:00.000-07:002011-09-28T09:48:31.100-07:00Gmail Phishing ScamI just got this email, and while it's the usual sort of <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/phishing-symptoms.aspx">phishing scam</a>, the timing is pretty good for a better than usual success rate, because of the uncertainty Google has created with it's real names policy regarding Google products. I've sent it on to abuse@gmail.com, if anyone lives there, but the important thing to do is make sure than neither you, nor any of your slightly computer-illiterate friends fall for it.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" class="cf gJ"><tbody>
<tr><td class="gF gK"><table cellpadding="0" class="cf NtHald"><tbody>
<tr class="UszGxc undefined"><td class="g7"><span class="lHQn1d" role="checkbox" style="outline: 0;" tabindex="-1"><span class="g9"><img alt="" class="f tk3N6e-KT-JX" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif" /></span></span></td><td class="gG"><span class="gI">from</span></td><td class="gL" colspan="2"><span class="gI"><span class="ik"><img class="QrVm3d" height="16px" id="upi" name="upi" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif" width="16px" /></span><span class="gD" style="color: #00681c;">Gmail Team</span> <span class="go">google.e-mail.verification@cyberservices.com</span> </span></td></tr>
<tr class="undefined"><td class="gG" colspan="2"><span class="gI">to</span></td><td class="gL" colspan="2"><span class="gI"><span class="ik"><img class=" QrVm3d" height="16px" id="upi" name="upi" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif" width="16px" /></span>info.support@google.com</span></td></tr>
<tr class="undefined"><td class="gG" colspan="2"><span class="gI">date</span></td><td class="gL" colspan="2"><span class="gI"><span class="ik"><img height="16px" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif" width="16px" /></span>Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 4:49 AM</span></td></tr>
<tr class="undefined"><td class="gG" colspan="2"><span class="gI">subject</span></td><td class="gL" colspan="2"><span class="gI"><span class="ik"><img height="16px" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif" width="16px" /></span>Gmail Warning Verification</span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="4"><span class="gI"></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table></td><td class="gH"><div class="gK UszGxc"><span class="iD">hide details</span> <span alt="Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 4:49 AM" class="g3" id=":w9" title="Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 4:49 AM">4:49 AM (4 hours ago)</span> <span></span></div></td><td class="gH cY8xve"><br />
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</tbody></table><div class="ii gt" id=":w6"><div id=":w5"><div><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;"><div><span><div><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva; font-size: x-small;">Dear Member,</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva; font-size: x-small;">We have decided to protect each account with a user account control to protect user privacy and make sure each user account is not accessed unauthorized since we have been detecting unusual activities on some user accounts. We are sending this general message to all users to confirm their details below for verification purposes :</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva; font-size: x-small;">* Full Name * :</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva; font-size: x-small;">* Email ID * :</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva; font-size: x-small;">* Password * :</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva; font-size: x-small;">* Year of Birth * :</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva; font-size: x-small;">*Alternative E-mail * :</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva; font-size: x-small;">* Country * :</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva; font-size: x-small;">Remember : All members are sending in their details for verification. E-mail to let us know if you do not want to receive spam e-mails anymore. Account owner that refuses to update his or her account within (7)days of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently. Your account email service will continue to work as normal.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://google.com/" target="_blank">Google.com</a></span></div></span></div></span></div></div></div><br />
The English usage is a tell, and it makes me think Russia or Eastern Europe. But the most important thing is to remember that no reputable company asks for your password in email.<br />
<br />
Ok, back to our irregularly scheduled mutterings.<br />
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</style>Bob Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12331371505961522315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23662617.post-87601647002349818672011-08-16T13:02:00.000-07:002011-08-16T13:02:35.386-07:002012 and Beyond: The End of the World as We Know ItWe seem to think that mind and spirit are separate, that there is a spiritual realm and a practical realm and that they do not overlap at all - and that the one does not inform the other.<br />
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But cause and effect still rules and amoral actions in the here and now lead to direct consquences that are suffered by our children and grandchildren. Indeed.. unto the seventh generation.<br />
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Bob Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12331371505961522315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23662617.post-8361263668034357292011-08-12T17:19:00.000-07:002011-08-12T17:35:52.282-07:00#Nymwars: Content is King, and King is Content.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://mashable.com/2011/08/12/google-plus-pseudonyms/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Mashable+%28Mashable%29">My patience has ended. </a></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">I'm just about to pull the pin on Google+ so that I can take some time and think about my reliance on other Google services. The entire debate tells me that for whatever reason, google as a corporation has jumped the shark and I do not feel comfortable investing my social capital in it.<br />
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And if that social capital were not valuable, they would not be locked in a death match with Facebook over data-mining futures, and governments would not be petitioning them for their databases.<br />
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Oddly, my decision is not based on whether I have anything to hide. I have always made the point of never putting anything on the Internet that could put me at risk, and I make a point of distancing myself from those who do.<br />
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<i>"Content is King, and King is Content."</i> The reality of the Internet is there is always someplace else - and moreover, wherever you are will cease to be anyplace sometime in the future. One SURE way of ensuring that the interesting people will leave is to send out invitations to the "bridge and tunnel set," the sort of people who think that the Luxor casino is even better than the actual pyramids of Egypt.<br />
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This is about investment, and where my time is best spent and to what ends. Google, at the moment, seems like a very poor investment for my social capital and I shall be investigating other social investment vehicles.<br />
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You see, I'm a fucking punk; I understand the difference between civility and civilization. "Civility" is being careful about the words used to boast about raping a peasant wench.<br />
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"Civilization" is a condition in which it's considered wrong to rape peasants, and a right and proper outcome is to bring rapists to justice, regardless of their station in life.<br />
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If that distinction is unclear to you - and it seems to me that it is - a discussion about "civility" as being a way to make things "better" will create no better thing that I care to participate in.</span><br />
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</span>Bob Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12331371505961522315noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23662617.post-45253412401210964462011-07-31T18:01:00.000-07:002011-07-31T18:01:08.860-07:00THIS! Or in Canadian, "Peace, Order, Good Government."<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-us5YDgB1eHUSP3FdQFaNlCDD6EH-fA0feCXj8quE9Fy-CDM1_1zBUfo_IUCK5Tn9MwOrqN0muJisoShUjPLsOpMpgPQyzYOb98Ay6QNU4LsWAm_EC3czUnCvwaIXh4Q7z26U/s1600/122634.jpg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-us5YDgB1eHUSP3FdQFaNlCDD6EH-fA0feCXj8quE9Fy-CDM1_1zBUfo_IUCK5Tn9MwOrqN0muJisoShUjPLsOpMpgPQyzYOb98Ay6QNU4LsWAm_EC3czUnCvwaIXh4Q7z26U/s1600/122634.jpg.png" /></a></div>I found this in the comments section of a TPM post; <a href="http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/07/wisconsin-goper-admits-she-compared-public-schools-to-nazi-germany.php">an otherwise forgettable rhetorical drive-by of an entirely deserving target.</a> The thread was mostly partisan, and mostly well-aimed jibes at a target that more than deserves to be mocked, because she's an insult to the intelligence and principles of anyone who actually should be engaged in the process.<br />
<br />
Now, this assumption was inherent in the post and the reaction; it is of course the underpinning of the Resistance ... I mean, the rather incoherent gasp of horror that is the US Progressive movement. But I've never really seen the resistance to the tea-tards put so well. It's not enough to mock and resist; one really should know why, or one's disdain can and perhaps <i>should</i> be dismissed as mere partisan sniping.<br />
<blockquote><table style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-collapse: separate; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; float: none; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; width: 190px;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="dsq-header-avatar" id="dsq-header-avatar-269507364" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; float: none; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 65px;"><blockquote><a class="dsq-avatar dsq-tt" href="http://disqus.com/talkingpointsmemo-a12e84d00afa4c1f/" id="dsq-avatar-269507364" original-title="Expand guntotingliberal's profile" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: left; color: #aa0000; cursor: default !important; display: block; float: left; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-top: 0px; max-width: none; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 3px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 3px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; width: auto;"><img alt="" class="" src="http://media.disqus.com/uploads/forums/42/4713/avatar92.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.148438) 0px 1px 3px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.699219); background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(187, 187, 187); border-bottom-left-radius: 3px 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px 3px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial !important; border-color: initial !important; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(187, 187, 187); border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(187, 187, 187); border-right-width: 1px; border-style: initial; border-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(187, 187, 187); border-top-left-radius: 3px 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px 3px; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: initial !important; border-width: initial !important; box-shadow: none !important; display: block; float: none; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 12px !important; max-width: none; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 3px; padding-right: 3px; padding-top: 3px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; width: auto;" /></a></blockquote></td><td class="dsq-comment-header-meta" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; float: none; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: middle;"><blockquote><cite class="dsq-comment-cite" id="dsq-cite-269507364" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: rgb(153, 0, 0) !important; display: inline; float: none; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif !important; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: none; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; width: auto; word-wrap: break-word !important;"><span id="dsq-author-user-269507364">guntotingliberal</span></cite><span class="dsq-comment-header-time" style="clear: both !important; color: #999999; display: block !important; font-family: '\'Helvetica Neue\'', helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px !important; font-weight: normal !important; padding-bottom: 0px !important; padding-left: 0px !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-top: 0px !important; text-transform: uppercase !important;"><a href="http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/07/wisconsin-goper-admits-she-compared-public-schools-to-nazi-germany.php#comment-269507364" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: inherit; cursor: pointer; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: none; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; width: auto;" title="Permalink">1 DAY AGO</a></span></blockquote></td></tr>
</tbody></table>The GOP loves to fight, loves to win, but frankly, finds governing a pain in the ass. They don't think it should or even can be done properly, since government is the problem, not the solution. Why people vote for individuals who despise the process they're fighting hard to become a part of is so far beyond me as to make me, in my own view, practically a foreigner in my own country. </blockquote><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: yellow;">I don't want an arsonist managing my lumberyard.<br />
I don't want government-haters running my government.</span></blockquote><blockquote>Seems simple to me. I believe in our government, and the founding fathers who risked and sacrificed everything they had to establish it. I'm tired of idiots telling me the People shouldn't rely on the government. We the People established the government. It's ours. We made it. and we made it to help solve problems. To rely on institutions set up to help us is not a shame. Tearing down those institutions is.</blockquote><blockquote>I love America and I love my American Rights. I love our open arms and our promise of hope to the wretched refuse of the world -- you know, our grandparents and great-grandparents, and their parents, and theirs, etc.</blockquote> Emphasis Mine.Bob Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12331371505961522315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23662617.post-64806663554435117882011-07-29T15:55:00.000-07:002011-07-29T16:02:21.428-07:00The Ironic Ethics of Wernher Von Braun<div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><br />
<img src="http://www.truth-out.org/sites/default/files/072711leopold_story.jpg" width="240" /></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.truth-out.org/air-force-cites-new-testament-ex-nazi-train-officers-ethics-launching-nuclear-weapons/1311776738">Air Force Cites New Testament, Ex-Nazi, to Train Officers on Ethics of Launching Nuclear Weapons | Truthout</a></span><br />
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<i>This story changed even before I got it published. Update below.</i><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">There are certain levels of irony that tend to render the ordinary human speechless. There are ways of getting through, and Jason Leopold guts it out with his usual determined outrage and the aid of direct quotation.</span><br />
<blockquote><div class="sweet-justice" style="line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">One of the most disturbing slides quotes <a href="http://www.operationpaperclip.info/wernher-von-braun.php" style="color: #990000; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Wernher Von Braun</a>, a former member of the Nazi Party and SS officer. Von Braun is not being cited in the PowerPoint as an authority on a liquid hydrogen turbopumps or a launch vehicle's pogo oscillations, rather he's specifically being referenced as a moral authority, which is remarkable considering that the Nazi scientist used Jews imprisoned in concentration camps, captured French anti-Nazi partisans and civilians, and others, to help build the V-2, a weapon responsible for the death of thousands of British civilians.</span></div><div class="sweet-justice" style="line-height: 1.467em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"We knew that we had created a new means of warfare and the question as to what nation, to what victorious nation we were willing to entrust this brainchild of ours was a <strong style="font-style: italic;">moral decision</strong>[emphasis in document] more than anything else," Von Braun said upon surrendering to American forces in May 1945. "We wanted to see the world spared another conflict such as Germany had just been through and <strong style="font-style: italic;">we felt that only by surrendering such a weapon to people who are guided by the Bible could such an assurance to the world be best secured</strong>." [emphasis in document]</span></div></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Well, as stunning an irony and as compelling an insight as it is... it's not exactly new, either. So rather than react in amazement to the sudden realization that the people who build and deploy disintegrating totem poles with radioactive "happy endings" may have to struggle with the ethics involved... rather than that, I turn to Tom Leher. Because Just Moral Outrage Theory goes down better with a bit of piano. </span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/kTKn1aSOyOs" width="560"></iframe><br />
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And this way... <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Lehrer">I turn you on to Tom Lehrer.</a> He also had some things to say about the ethics of deploying nuclear weapons that really should have been included in that Air Force Power Point presentation.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="510" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pklr0UD9eSo" width="640"></iframe><br />
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UPDATE: <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/air-force-pulls-christian-themed-ethics-training-missile-officers/1311972789">It appears that the military found the optics as bad as everyone else did.</a><br />
<blockquote>The Air Force, in response to a report published by Truthout earlier this week, has pulled a Christian-themed training session that used a quote from an ex-Nazi SS officer and numerous passages from the New and Old Testament to teach missile officers about the morals and ethics of launching nuclear weapons.<br />
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"It has been taken out of the curriculum and is being reviewed," said David Smith, chief of the Air Force's Air Education and Training Command, about the Nuclear Ethics and Nuclear Warfare training session. "The commander reviewed it and decided we needed to have a good hard look at it and make sure it reflected views of modern society."<br />
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Smith said the ethics course has been in place for "20-plus years." He added that it will now be "given thorough scrutiny" and if "folks will be appointed to look at what we have and determine its utility and if they think its useful to continue having an ethics course they will develop a new course."</blockquote>So perhaps they will now consider including Tom Lehrer in the revised materials? It was a contemporary critical review of that ethos. Somehow, that makes this whole thing a little more darkly humorous, as "20+ years" puts it in range of not just Lehrer, but other thoughtful critiques of the ethics of atomic war.<br />
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Indeed, the Air Force need not even concern themselves with creating new materials. <a href="http://www.teachwithmovies.org/guides/dr-strangelove.html#">It turns out an Independent Contractor has met the need.</a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.teachwithmovies.org/guides/dr-strangelove.html#"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir-JrN_9XfHFM97YddmiC5-V2Yi4Ww4AMpC5arUcA1Uqudm8BJcdrfJAJgcxPXI7teX5q1X83zWCkFMkvVVER8Mr3SJkqJ-qJphXUsQoZCwpL5crfL8_bh-L6OjNkdJNt5pxoX/s320/drstrangelove.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Bob Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12331371505961522315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23662617.post-18708496627284177252011-07-29T11:59:00.000-07:002011-07-29T11:59:59.879-07:00Obama on the Debt Ceiling "negotiations:" A tax by any other name...<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kyletramirez/3447713814/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="D.C. Tea Party hardly a tea party by Kyle T. Ramirez, on Flickr"><img alt="D.C. Tea Party hardly a tea party" height="332" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3332/3447713814_a2aefc8b0e.jpg" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ah, the irony. The sweet, sweet, unintended irony!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>I've said this a bunch of times out loud and in print, but had despaired of ever seeing anyone important and well-connected saying something like this out loud. This is one of the great shared secrets of power. Not all taxation is called taxation.<br />
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</div><a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/07/29/remarks-president-status-debt-ceiling-negotiations">Remarks by the President on the Status of Debt Ceiling Negotiations | The White House</a>: <br />
<blockquote>"Keep in mind, if we don’t do that, if we don’t come to an agreement, we could lose our country’s AAA credit rating, not because we didn’t have the capacity to pay our bills -- we do -- but because we didn’t have a AAA political system to match our AAA credit rating.<br />
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And make no mistake -– for those who say they oppose tax increases on anyone, a lower credit rating would result potentially in a tax increase on everyone in the form of higher interest rates on their mortgages, their car loans, their credit cards. And that’s inexcusable."</blockquote>The way I'd put it is that a "tax" is an additional fee, charge, expense or transactional cost that you cannot avoid and must pay in order to conduct the ordinary business of life. <br />
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</div><div>And this is absolutely a tax. Worse yet, it's a tax that rewards nobody but banks - it essentially will create a condition where you - and <i>you</i> and <i>you</i> and <i>you</i> - will have to pay more for everything, and none of that additional money will achieve a single damn thing. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Which, from the viewpoint of a middleman, is the perfect tax. Getting an extra share of something in return for nothing at all.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Now do please realize that the people that brought us to this passage are the people who say, loudly and insistantly, that <i>"all taxation is theft." </i></div><div><br />
</div><div>But rather than eliminate taxation, they've figured out how to privatize it - by compelling the government to mandate theft. </div><div><br />
</div><div>This compellingly illustrates the compound idiocy of the Tea-Party caucus, for I regret to say, for the majority of them, there isn't a shred of nudge-nudge wink-wink. They aren't actually trying to "put one over" on the American People. They really think that there is a difference between having to pay Peter and having no choice but to pay Paul. </div><div><br />
</div><div>And they think it's "freedom" when you have to pay Paul twice as much to do what Peter did before, for results that are at best half as good.</div><div><br />
</div><div>The sole task of good government is to do those things that cannot be done cost-effectively in bits and pieces, here and there; to determine standards and provide for the common security and defense.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Well, tanking the economy would be a brilliant stroke of economic warfare, if it were done by an actual enemy of the state. It will do more harm over a longer span of time than, say, popping a nuke over Washington.</div><div><br />
</div><div>So perhaps it might be prudent, at this juncture, to consider that anyone damn fool enough to think that risking the entire economy over a re-election strategy <i>is, in fact, an enemy of the state. In a very real, non-rhetorical, this isn't <b>politics</b> you <b>morons</b> sort of way.</i></div><div><i><br />
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</div>Bob Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12331371505961522315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23662617.post-84372065768437917312011-07-29T10:46:00.000-07:002011-07-29T10:46:47.597-07:00John McCain Wakes Up in Bizarro World<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2_LQtXytLTQ?hd=1" width="560"></iframe><br />
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I remember back to the dawning of the current Cycle of Unease, the days immediately after the 9/11 attacks.<br />
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I'd been ignoring politics almost entirely; politics, current affairs, world news and for the reasons most people do.<br />
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It's <b>boring.</b> Politics are <i>supposed</i> to be boring. Like soccer, golf or Dungeons and Dragons, while it matters a great deal to those who enjoy the sport and great benefits are claimed of it, the rest of us are mostly glad that it keeps those who are interested in such things locked away in oppressively smoke-free rooms, chewing nicorette and trying to look dignified while peeing on one another's shoes.<br />
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It is not particularly surprising that those who participate in this needful task try to make it seem more significant than it is when in the ideal, it is a mind-numbing routine with occasional achievements, not unlike a garbage worker's job; it's value is mostly recognized when the workers go on strike to remind us that we could, after all, do without them if we were not such fucking lazy slobs, willing to recycle and compost.<br />
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And perhaps there's a lesson in there for those of us unwilling to sully our hands with such a distasteful task. Clearly, the standards have slipped to a point that it would be an improvement if the whole lot of them went on strike.<br />
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You see, every once in a while it does matter what sort of person we send to our legislatures. We expect our political leaders to respond in accordance to our expectations. And I mean not just according to the most petulant and dogmatic interpretation of our political wishful thinking - I mean, in accordance to "what sane people would choose to do, given the access and information a member of Congress has."<br />
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In a way, it's just like a volunteer firehouse. Most of the time - ideally, even - it's a way for people to get out of the house, sit around with friends in a context where they can play with large, rumbly boy-toys, drink sodas and swap lies in a context where belching and ball-scratching is not merely tolerated, but humorously encouraged. The understanding, though, is that when the bell rings, you run for the fucking truck! ALL of you!<br />
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For ten years, the American People presumed that they had sent firefighters to the hall, and that if they didn't actually say all that much, or seem to be doing all that much that made sense, it was presumed that they were, after all, fire-fighters and knew at least that fire was hot, water was wet and explosives go bang.<br />
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As these are not particularly complex ideas, it seemed safe enough to presume that people old enough to be elected to the House and Senate; people legally able drink hard liquor and presumably able to read and at least sign their own names; such people would know intuitively, that there is a time to play games and a time to fight fires.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/07/27/280754/boehner-gop-want-chaos-debt-ceiling/">I mean, you would think, wouldn't you?</a><br />
<blockquote>House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said today that some members of his own caucus who are refusing to agree to a compromise debt ceiling deal are hoping to unleash “chaos” and thus force the White House and Senate Democrats to make bigger concessions than they’re already offering. <a href="http://www.npr.org/2011/07/14/137832130/debt-ceiling-deal-hell-no-caucus-stands-firm" style="color: #333333; text-decoration: underline;">As many as 40</a> House Republicans, especially Tea Party members and freshmen, have <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/07/25/278811/lee-admits-he-is-an-extortionist/" style="color: #333333; text-decoration: underline;">demanded nothing short</a> of changing the Constitution to include a balanced budget amendment before they would vote to raise debt ceiling, even though that has zero chance before the U.S. faces potential default on Aug. 2.<br />
Speaking on conservative radio host Laura Ingraham’s show this morning, Boehner agreed that failing to raise the limit before the deadline would be devastating, and said the “chaos” plan won’t work when asked by Ingraham what’s motivating the recalcitrant Republicans:<br />
BOEHNER: Well, first they want more. And my goodness, I want more too. And secondly, <strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">a lot of them believe that if we get past August the second and we have enough chaos, we could force the Senate and the White House to accept a balanced budget amendment</strong>. I’m not sure that that — I don’t think that that strategy works. Because I think the closer we get to August the second, frankly, the less leverage we have vis a vis our colleagues in the Senate and the White House.</blockquote>This is what we get from the Tea Party Caucus and the freaking' House Majority Leader?<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/WFvGAbWeNSQ" width="425"></iframe><br />
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It's amazing how very diplomatic other nations are being in the face of this assault upon reason and the very real and deadly threat that a small group of economic illiterates would happly tank the global economy in order to achieve a political goal.<br />
<br />
But then I rememember Will Rogers' definition of "diplomacy." <i>"Diplomacy is the art of saying "Nice doggie" until you can find a rock."</i><br />
<i><br />
</i><br />
On that note, I remind y'all that John McCain - A man who is very much an elder statesman of the GOP - didn't say anything like "nice doggie." But more to the direct point, neither did President Obama. Which leads me to think that he may well have a few choice rocks all picked out.Bob Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12331371505961522315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23662617.post-66880255589124835162011-07-27T13:58:00.000-07:002011-07-27T14:00:02.152-07:00The Legend of the Tea Party Patriots - YouTube<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/fyvdQXycp5U?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
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"I've been waiting 40 years to say that..."Bob Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12331371505961522315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23662617.post-38462145682614095042011-07-26T14:30:00.000-07:002011-07-27T15:12:23.246-07:00Bill O'Reilly gets it EXACTLY right!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://rlv.zcache.com/chromefishtian_sticker-d217539800025334564836x_325.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://rlv.zcache.com/chromefishtian_sticker-d217539800025334564836x_325.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><i><b style="font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">"No one believing in Jesus commits mass murder," he said. "The man might have called himself a Christian on the net, but he is certainly not of that faith...</b><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/26/bill-oreilly-media-breivik-christian_n_909498.html" style="font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px;">we can find no evidence, none, that this killer practiced Christianity in any way."</a></i><br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><b><i><br />
</i></b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">It's odd to find that I agree with Bill-O. I do. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.graphictruth.com/search?q=red+letter+christians">I've said a great deal about this over the years.</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"> I was actually a little shocked to see how VERY much I'd said about it.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">But I don't think Bill-O would really like to pursue that thought. Because it amounts to this: <b><i>Calling</i> yourself a Christian doesn't <i>make</i> you a Christian.</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: yellow; font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 20px;"><span style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: none; color: inherit; cursor: auto; display: inline; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: inherit; word-spacing: inherit;"><span style="background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: none; color: inherit; cursor: auto; display: inline; font-variant: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: inherit; word-spacing: inherit;">Anders Behring Breivik is a Christian in exactly the same sense that Michelle Bachmann is. Or Ted Haggard. Or George Bush. Or <a href="http://www.graphictruth.com/2011/07/in-which-i-fail-to-mourn-tom-ball.html">Tom Ball.</a></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"> </span></i></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">Jesus made this point a few times.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_2032586099"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><i><b> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"</span></b></i></span></a></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://bible.cc/matthew/7-21.htm"><i><b>Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord,.. </b></i></a></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: inherit;"><i><b>"</b></i></span> but I think that obvious and commonplace. Frankly, people like Bill and Anders and George Bush really don't seem to act as if there <i>are</i> consequences in the afterlife for their acts - but what they do care about is you giving them the slack, the benefit of the doubt a "coreligionist" deserves.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">So to avoid confusion about the point myself, and being quite unwilling to concede the foundation of my own moral high ground to those unworthy of it, I've coined the term</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.graphictruth.com/search?q=chromefishtians"><i> "Chromefishtians."</i></a> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">Chromefishtians are people, people like the sort Bill is complaining of. The are the ones that have to slap a chrome fish or a bible verse on everything they do so that people will know they are godly people. Because, well, if they didn't do that, their actions would lead people to different and perhaps more obvious conclusions.</span><br />
<br />
Let me quote an example of what I mean <a href="http://www.graphictruth.com/2011/03/and-now-brief-word-from-history.html">from one of my many fine rants </a>on the topic.<br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;"> (<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2627159/posts" style="color: #336699; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: red;">Welcome to Free Republic! America's exclusive site for God, Family, Country, Life & Liberty constitutional conservative activists!</span></a></span> ) in a thread titled <a href="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2691369/posts" style="color: #336699; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: black;">Wisconsin Teachers Lead Students in Anti-Walker Chants (thugs instruct children in the capitol)</span></span></a><br />
</span><br />
<blockquote><div class="a2" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">To: <b>Libloather</b></span></span></div><div class="b2" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">> Are they indoctrinating their pupils? </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">You bet your @$$ that's exactly what they've been doing since the 1960s. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">> Where are the decent people of Wisconsin? </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Working to support these slugs. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Or cleaning and oiling their rifles.</span></span></div><div class="a2" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2691369/posts?page=8#8" style="color: #336699; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_self">8</a> posted on <b><span class="date">March-19-11 10:11:34 AM</span></b> by <a href="http://www.freerepublic.com/~flatusimaximus/" style="color: #336699; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" title="Since 2004-04-30">Flatus I. Maximus</a> (Everything you know about McCarthyism is wrong.)</span></span></div><hr noshade="noshade" size="1" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=23662617" name="9" style="color: #336699; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-decoration: none;"></a></span></span><br />
<div class="a2" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">To: <b>bigbob</b></span></span></div><div class="b2" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">It’s that bad. Isn’t it?</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br clear="all" /></span></span></div><div class="a2" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2691369/posts?page=9#9" style="color: #336699; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_self">9</a> posted on <b><span class="date">March-19-11 10:28:03 AM</span></b> by <a href="http://www.freerepublic.com/~gvnana/" style="color: #336699; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" title="Since 2000-12-10">GVnana</a></span></span></div><hr noshade="noshade" size="1" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=23662617" name="10" style="color: #336699; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-decoration: none;"></a></span></span><br />
<div class="a2" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">To: <b>Libloather</b></span></span></div><div class="b2" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">It’s the way WI “repents” for having twice elected Joe McCarthy to the Senate.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br clear="all" /></span></span></div><div class="a2" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2691369/posts?page=10#10" style="color: #336699; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_self">10</a> posted on <b><span class="date">March-19-11 11:02:14 AM</span></b> by <a href="http://www.freerepublic.com/~theodorer/" style="color: #336699; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" title="Since 2000-12-09">Theodore R.</a> (John Boehner just surrendered the only weapon with which he had to fight. What does OH see in him?)</span></span></div><hr noshade="noshade" size="1" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=23662617" name="11" style="color: #336699; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-decoration: none;"></a></span></span><br />
<div class="a2" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">To: <b>sanjuanbob</b></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 15px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"Where are the decent people of Wisconsin? Why no rallys?"</i><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Working and earning a living. It's long past time to go Galt.</span></span></span></blockquote></blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">Boy, it's a good thing they tell us they are Christians, right up there in the title. I don't know how we'd ever know, otherwise. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></div>Bob Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12331371505961522315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23662617.post-51731533608829394852011-07-23T13:11:00.000-07:002011-07-23T13:18:03.498-07:00Oslo proves that Right Wing Terrorism doesn't exist. /s<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKDXgTYp0WRgRDI2kGz7IZRnEbF1ulmWp0Amg0EuStLY0reovnDjEIekcXa9Zk7aO9jTH2OgOYvekk3TTSf5yFdKdmjpD_5ReUG5Mj-DMamp3kmGT745ihpXBQwVDEgBdnhcCR/s1600/Liberal+Hunting+Permit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKDXgTYp0WRgRDI2kGz7IZRnEbF1ulmWp0Amg0EuStLY0reovnDjEIekcXa9Zk7aO9jTH2OgOYvekk3TTSf5yFdKdmjpD_5ReUG5Mj-DMamp3kmGT745ihpXBQwVDEgBdnhcCR/s640/Liberal+Hunting+Permit.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2007/03/eliminationism-in-america-appendix.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The Price of Eliminationist Rhetoric</span></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">It's early days in the aftermath of the Oslo bombing and I shall leave the actual motives of the actual criminal to the actual authorities who will have to decide how to decently dispose of the matter. As is often the case, I'm fascinated by the reactions of people who are shocked, shocked, to find out that an act of terrorism wasn't committed by a bonded and licensed terrorist. <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-norway-attacks-police,0,6277048.story">It turned out that</a> <span class="fullpost"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">Anders Behring Breivik not a radical Islamist at all.</span></span><br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 22px;">OnlineSocialMedia.net reports that on Breivik's Facebook page he listed his interests as body building, hunting, freemasonry, stock analysis and the Modern Warfare 2 video game. Breivik said he had completed “3,000 hours of study in micro and macro finance, religion,” and describes himself as being both Christian and conservative.</span></blockquote><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/07/23/norway-attack.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Over at the CBC, this little nugget produced confusion among the readership:</span></a><br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">“It’s not clear what his motivation is yet and the police haven’t really talked about that,” CBC reporter Nahlah Ayed said from the scene outside Oslo on Saturday. “What we do know from police is that he has been very co-operative and is very keen to express his point of view.”</span></blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">In response to the new information that the perpetrator may have right-wing cultural and religious leanings, "scapeloftruth" writes</span><br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;">"his Facebook page suggests he may be a Christian fundamentalist"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;">Surprise, surprise.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;">==============</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;">What precisely does that mean?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;">Christian Fundamentalist?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;">This is an Extremely RARE incident for a Christian , especially if it WAS religiously motivated. You can't say that for the Religion of peace now can ya. and to those who equate this with Timothy McVeigh, He was NOT a Christian and did NOT commit his crimes in the name of ANY Religion.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;">This will be used by the left and exploited by Liberals to show That Christians commit Terror as much as Muslims and you more finger pointing and suspicion toward Non Muslims when there is ANY terrorism in Europefrom now on.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;">This One Pyscho will distract people from the real Everyday Threats Europe faces from Islamists and he has , in the eyes of Bleeding hearts and Leftists , made us ALL equal in ideology and capability toward Religious Violence, which is 100% false and misleading.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"> "</span></span></blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> "LiberalLoser" writes</span><br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;">Why would someone who is anti-Muslim immigration attack Norwegians? Why wouldn't they just attack Muslims?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;">It makes more sense that this man is trying to 'undermine' any anti-immigration policies happening in Norway.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><br />
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;">That would make him a leftist, not someone on the right.</span></span></blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">And any number simply say "his religion doesn't matter, he's clearly insane." Which should be what we say any time a politically or religiously motivated act of violence occurs, of course, but in practice, they are only "crazy" if they act violently in support of a cause the person speaking tends to sympathize with.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Case in point.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFLKbEQGtKO12NlTEGV7uwjOWV09ByWxfY6hpSjewpx_Y3nWo6hz0U_hSWWLgxj_JJ0ffHHoKmFmjI9F4i9Yy57N2sb_oaow_ySwtitRRpb3o-AwdfNFxyXloCAMrgy9oZSKMd/s1600/2ndClass.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFLKbEQGtKO12NlTEGV7uwjOWV09ByWxfY6hpSjewpx_Y3nWo6hz0U_hSWWLgxj_JJ0ffHHoKmFmjI9F4i9Yy57N2sb_oaow_ySwtitRRpb3o-AwdfNFxyXloCAMrgy9oZSKMd/s1600/2ndClass.JPG" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/07/23/norway-attack.html">Article comment</a> suggest it's <i>perfectly understandable</i> that things like this happen, with all them Muslims</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">coming into Norway.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Then, of course, this being the CBC, the point IS raised that it would have been rather difficult for him to kill so many people without access to a gun. Which is inarguable - but clearly,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_Norway"> very strict gun regulations</a> did not preclude a premeditated act of terrorism, which also included a <a href="http://youtu.be/Gxm_qpKh7Jw">large ANFO explosion</a>.</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPbNPHzZXhQBbevl8RbbAZtW4WN66kf66QBsOqO3MUwQp2aAH5deiJzCND0eECZtAo6AuOYEcR1l-W52slI7cAdZwwn-t2n8bVJof7jZ2rKaKQydk1hnVPE4cfNWIeObQ3LjRQ/s1600/.30cal+air+machine-gun.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPbNPHzZXhQBbevl8RbbAZtW4WN66kf66QBsOqO3MUwQp2aAH5deiJzCND0eECZtAo6AuOYEcR1l-W52slI7cAdZwwn-t2n8bVJof7jZ2rKaKQydk1hnVPE4cfNWIeObQ3LjRQ/s200/.30cal+air+machine-gun.JPG" width="164" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Designed by a hobbyist machinist, </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">this air-powered selective-fire weapon</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">is truly lethal.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">So of course, dragging the the <a href="http://www2.canada.com/nanaimodailynews/news/story.html?id=7f22da1b-cbb2-469d-94da-05e333ecc69e">need to have a Long Gun Registry</a> into this is beside the point - had he needed to, this fellow could have managed to create a functional automatic weapon with hobby-grade machine tools. You can't make physics illegal, and even if you regulate ammunition as many gun-control advocates suggest - well, have a look at this screenshot, a .30 calibre sub-machinegun.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">If you are truly determined to kill a lot of people, it's possible to find a way to do it, rather easily. It becomes even simpler if you aren't concerned about legal or personal consequences. <a href="http://www.graphictruth.com/2009/04/bitter-low-hanging-fruit-begins-to-fall.html">I've written about this sort of thing before, and likely will have to again...</a></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Law-abiding citizens who are neither suffering from mental illness nor operating under some delusion do not generally kill people, even if they are farmers with tons of ammonium nitrate, hundreds of gallons of diesel fuel, guns, ammo, and long dark winters of boredom. If that's all it took, Saskatchewan would have a lot more craters.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=graphictruth-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0981576982&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="align: left; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">So what we really must talk about is motivation. Why do people like <span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">Anders Behring Breivik resort to terrorism? How does it become part of their thinking, to the extent that he can calmly hunt down and kill children who happen to be at a politically sponsored summer camp?</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"><i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliminationism"><b>Eliminationism</b> </a>is the belief that one's political opponents are "a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;" title="Cancer">cancer</a> on the body politic that must be excised — either by separation from the public at large, through <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;" title="Censorship">censorship</a> or by outright <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_murder" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; color: #0645ad; text-decoration: none;" title="Mass murder">extermination</a> — in order to protect the purity of the nation"</i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"><i><br />
</i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;">It's crazy. But it's a depressingly common sort of crazy that leaves piles of bodies in it's wake, from the Killing Fields of Cambodia, to the Rwandan Genocides, to Waco, to Bosnia, to ... well, I'm sure you can think of other examples. And yes, you could indeed make the argument that Ruby Ridge was an example - as was Wounded Knee. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;">No particular religion or political viewpoint that is required. All you need do is convince someone holding Belief A that people that have Belief B deserve to be killed for the "good of right-thinking people."</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;">Sadly, that's easy enough to do, and done commonly enough that I think "crazy" isn't the right word. Unless we are to consider that sort of crazy to be a sort of "normal." Of course, if you start with someone who's a little crazy and a bit stupid, it's fairly straightforward to point them at people like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Tucson_shooting">Congresswoman Giffords</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Tiller">Dr. George Tiller</a> and then, of course, disavow any responsibility for the acts of obviously crazy people.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;">But there seems to be a lot of money in Crazy Talk. Here's some golden oldies, courtesy of <a href="http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2007/03/eliminationism-in-america-appendix.html">Orcinus</a>- remember these?</span><br />
<blockquote><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2003/11/brownshirt-barbie.html">Ann Coulter</a></span></i>:</b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> "My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building."</span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> "We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed too."</span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> "They are either traitors or idiots, and on the matter of America’s self-preservation, the difference is irrelevant. Fifty years of treason hasn’t slowed them down."</span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."</span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> "God said ... rape the planet -- it's yours. That's our job: drilling, mining and striping. Sweaters are the anti-Biblical view. Big gas-guzzling cars with phones and CD players and wet bars -- that's the Biblical view."</span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> "I have to say I'm all for public flogging."</span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> "I think [women] should be armed but should not [be allowed to] vote."</span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> "Liberals hate America, they hate flag-wavers, they hate abortion opponents, they hate all religions except Islam, post 9/11. Even Islamic terrorists don't hate America like liberals do. They don't have the energy. If they had that much energy, they'd have indoor plumbing by now."</span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> "My libertarian friends are probably getting a little upset now but I think that's because they never appreciate the benefits of local fascism."</span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> "In this recurring nightmare of a presidency, we have a national debate about whether he [Clinton] 'did it,' even though all sentient people know he did. Otherwise there would be debates only about whether to impeach or assassinate."</span></i></b></blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;">You know, in a sane culture, people who say crazy things like that in public are given appropriate medication - not book deals and appearances on Fox. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span>Bob Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12331371505961522315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23662617.post-74473654142023344102011-07-21T11:17:00.000-07:002011-07-21T11:17:38.935-07:00Al Frankin Focuses on Focus on the Family.<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZyAueltLsa4" width="480"></iframe><br />
<br />
You see, this is why Focus on the Family hates those "lie-buh-ral edumacators" and "critical thinkers" and people who actually look stuff up.<br />
<br />
They unfairly use these tactics to embarrass "Real Uhmurikins."Bob Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12331371505961522315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23662617.post-47373701303403453772011-07-20T19:18:00.000-07:002011-07-20T19:18:01.979-07:00The Start of the End of an Empire<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/20945041@N06/2073884375/" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Fox News GOP Merger - Faux News by New England Secession, on Flickr"><img alt="Fox News GOP Merger - Faux News" height="246" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2379/2073884375_3a0b542d36.jpg" width="326" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Graphic courtesy <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/20945041@N06/">New England Secession</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>The downfall of the Murdoch empire is well underway, and the conventional wisdom seems to be that this will be limited to "the Murdoch Empire." And in a sense, perhaps it will be - but you really must think in terms of what that empire entails.<span class="fullpost"></span><br />
<br />
If you think only in terms of media, you would be quite wrong. If you were to think in terms of influence and corruption - well, you would be closer to the mark. If you were to think in terms of "what would have happened had Murdoch been against the Iraq war" - well, now, you are starting to get the shape of it. But you'd still be out of scale.<br />
<br />
Media and money influence in two ways - by what they choose to "invest" in and what they choose to ignore. And both depend very heavily indeed upon credibility. RJ Eskow writes in an Truthout Op-Ed:<br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 23px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">History books record an empire's fall as a series of dates and events. Battles are fought, people resist, elections are called, arrest warrants are issued. But those are just details. An empire really falls in that moment when people stop believing that it's invulnerable. Whenever the spell is broken, whether it's by anger or just by awareness, the end becomes inevitable. It doesn't matter what happens to Rupert or James Murdoch now. They may return to positions of relative wealth and privilege or their lives may take unpleasant turns. Either way, the Murdoch empire has already fallen.</span></span></blockquote>But what will that mean in practical terms? There was something very telling to be found in a discussion of <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/19/us-newscorp-murdoch-papers-idUSTRE76I1IT20110719">Murdoch's "hands on" approach</a> to the news and his choice of politics and his choice of candidates to support.<br />
<blockquote>Neil, the editor of Britain's Sunday Times for 11 years, told a House of Lords committee looking into media ownership in 2008 that he was never in any doubt what Murdoch wanted, even though he could not recall a direct instruction telling him to take a particular line.<br />
"On every major issue of the time and every major political personality or business personality, I knew what he thought and you knew, as an editor, that you did not have a freehold, you had a leasehold ... and that leasehold depended on accommodating his views," he said.<br />
"Rupert Murdoch is obsessed with what his newspapers say. He picks the editors that will take the kind of view of these things that he has and these editors know what is expected of them when the big issues come and they fall into line."<br />
In the 1980s, the Sun's MacKenzie would hear from Murdoch on a daily basis -- not quite to discuss exact headlines, but to make sure the newspaper would report the major issues as the press baron saw fit.</blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1673907489"><span id="midArticle_14"></span></a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1673907489"><span id="midArticle_15"></span></a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1673907486"><span id="midArticle_0"></span></a></span><br />
Nor is it particularly surprising (or difficult) to find out that he Murdoch hive-mind approaches political clients the way he approaches employees.<br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;">In 1992, when Britain was unceremoniously ejected from the European Exchange Rate mechanism and forced to raise interest rates to double digits, then Prime Minister John Major called Kelvin MacKenzie, the editor of Murdoch's tabloid The Sun, to ask how he planned to play the story. Mackenzie famously told Major: "Well John, let me put it this way. I've got a large bucket of shit lying on my desk and tomorrow morning I'm going to pour it all over your head."</span></span></blockquote>The Global Post goes on, a bit smugly:<br />
<blockquote>Here is the important point: This is a story about journalism and its unique power — for good and evil Journalism is not like any other business — and it's product cannot be measured by normal business school taught analytics. The main product of journalism is not tittle-tattle and check-book obtained "scoops" about celebrities — as Rupert Murdoch has found to his cost. It is about digging out the facts about how societies are governed, about corruption, about eyewitness accounts of how the world works. Strong institutions — led by editors who are willing to give reporters the time and space — are necessary to fund that work.<br />
And without their efforts and vigilance then parliaments and congresses and presidents can be cowed by all manner of powerful special interests, especially those whose idea of the journalism business is give the people what they want: tits and ass and a large dose of prejudice. </blockquote><br />
A keen observation that misses one of the great truths of history, even as they note in passing that Murdoch's tabloids are read by at least 40% of the UK population. While upmarket papers are included in his stable, I'm sure their private briefs are more about what will not be covered than what will be exploited. The way you deal with thinking people is to avoid giving them anything to think about that leads them to think about what you are up to.<br />
<br />
His taste in politicians runs to those who are controllable and who's politics appeals to his tabloid demographic; Those who have no thoughts of their own, or have some weakness that can be used to keep them on a leash. Interestingly enough, the currently leading Republican contender (or so we are told...) is Michelle Bachmann. She reportedly suffers from such <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2011/07/18/stress-related-condition-incapacitates-bachmann-heavy-pill-use-alleged/#ixzz1SZgAjHdn">debilitating headaches</a> that she's probably incapable of actually steering the ship of state. She would need to rely on some quiet, grey Eminence.<br />
<br />
But she does appeal to the mob. And that, combined with built in leverage, is her appeal to Murdoch. And she's the only sort that has such appeal. So if you have wondered why those suppored by the media on the Right have turned out to be such a sorry, corrupt and shallow lot - well, consider the source of their support.<br />
<br />
Nobody better has a chance with the yowling rabble - or the man who whips them into a froth.<br />
<br />
The problem for Murdoch, Bachmann and the GOP is that the mob is ... a mob. And not only have they turned on Murdoch - they are likely to turn on anyone that reminds them of Murdoch.<br />
<br />
Let me remind us all how this often works out.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTuA5S3AqEzef74E3CGes-yIWcXRKH16jQEMKbQS9ZutTr_jwF0jROnZoja1Zmy4gnc_hpaTcP1ORoIBkxofrnLECXhcW7oKSh-me-xTclJMfiCTVvMjUVuoZSXdS1f_nPBg_V/s1600/Execution_robespierre%252C_saint_just....jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTuA5S3AqEzef74E3CGes-yIWcXRKH16jQEMKbQS9ZutTr_jwF0jROnZoja1Zmy4gnc_hpaTcP1ORoIBkxofrnLECXhcW7oKSh-me-xTclJMfiCTVvMjUVuoZSXdS1f_nPBg_V/s640/Execution_robespierre%252C_saint_just....jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19px;">The execution of Robespierre and his supporters on 28 July 1794</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Bob Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12331371505961522315noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23662617.post-29497780776329622842011-07-09T15:02:00.000-07:002011-07-09T15:02:24.486-07:00Never Let Amateurs do ParodyThis is the original, unintended self-parody.<span class="fullpost"></span><br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/UkBmhM0R2A0" width="425"></iframe><br />
<br />
This is the actual parody.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/9QBv2CFTSWU" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
Rarely has <a href="http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Poe's_Law">Poe's Law</a> bitten so hard, or with such sharp little teeth. Thank Ghu for Miss Vermont, the "winking smiley."<br />
<br />
<b>Bob's Correlation:</b> Pretty people don't have to be smart. People who are happy with being judged on their looks should not be graded on their ability to answer "Gotcha" questions, like, say, "Should it be illegal to divide by zero" or "Where and why did Paul Revere ride."<br />
<br />
<b>Bob's Even More Obvious Correlation:</b> Never confuse pretty with smart.Bob Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12331371505961522315noreply@blogger.com0