Pro transgressione eorum, qui negant mali

Both Helen Gibbs and Joshua A Humphries did not like my comments to them in a post on Facebook (PDF available here) that I was invited to participate in. They decided to SWAT them as being 'contrary to Facebook community guidelines'. Good try, MRAs, but poor execution. Allow me to reproduce those comments here:

-----

Joshua A. Humphries: You don't believe Chick promotes violence? I see. You apparently have never read very much into them or who they finance.

-----

Helen Gibbs: You are free to associate with whom you choose to associate with. If you wish to associate with Paul Elam, a man who has no problem promoting sexual assault and harassment of feminists in order to reassert male dominance and roll back equality, then you are free to do so.

I am also free to call you out on it. By associating with him and supporting his website, you support him and his statements. It means you support his statement that the reason women are raped is because "they are stupid (and often arrogant) enough to walk though [sic] life with the equivalent of a [sic] I'M A STUPID, CONNIVING BITCH – PLEASE RAPE ME neon sign glowing above their empty little narcissistic heads." It means you support his site Register-Her.com and all the shaming and misogyny that site embodies.

So my question to you is, since you support Paul Elam, and thus support what he thinks and does, why do you do so? A person only supports those who they think are right in what they do and think.

I ask you no question that I wouldn't ask of someone who supported the thoughts and actions of anyone else I oppose, like the Phelps family, or the Klan, or whatnot.

"The many men of the MHRM would treat me with far more respect because they trusted by ability to be self-aware and self-determining."

Yeah, I'll need citations for that. My experience with the MRA community is that they don't treat women as such unless they are completely obedient and submissive - and I'm a frequenter of AVFM, MGOTOW, and Return of Kings.

-----

Joshua A. Humphries: Your point is that Livingstone, Bachmann, et al are right in their opinion that the definition of hate group is too broad.

I'm pointing out that the reason they think that is because the current definition INCLUDES THEM and they think that they're the shining crusaders on the hill. Except they aren't. They're evil, hateful assholes, regardless of their political affiliation. But no one likes to think of themselves as evil, so they ignore that they are. Willful ignorance.

Here's also my point: Livingstone and Bachmann and et al are wrong about the definition of a hate group being too broad.

-----

You should have just left them on the post, folks. Now it will remain with me forever. And I will make sure you and yours know all about it and who you support. If you want to see the whole conversation, it's immortalized in PDF here.

Nisi prius venire ad me, quia ego sum malus.

Lately, I have not been up to much. I have completed Dishonored, including the DLCs The Knife of Dunwall and The Brigmore Witches. I skipped the Dunwall City Trials because they were meaningless runs devoid of content and story - and I play for story. It was indeed a short game, as video games go these days, but satisfying in play style and story nonetheless. It is certainly a spiritual successor to the Thief series; I will do a more in-depth comparison between the two when I get around to playing Thi4f - which will be as soon as it goes GOTY and is DLCed out.

In the meantime, I have moved on to Fallout New Vegas, sufficiently modded and patched. That will be an interesting sojourn. The name of my courier is Castaigne and it's a she, as is my tradition in Fallout games, complete with spiked mohawk and blue hair. All of the DLCs are loaded and she is awaiting beginning of play in good ol' Goodsprings.

Meanwhile, in real life I have been having conversations with myself on my love of conformity, promotions of obedience and hierarchy, and my predilection for order. I don't think these conversations are going well. My conclusions are quite simply summed up.

Et vos umquam observabant.

Quae mihi videtur, in mare fundat ex acedia.

Hoc cogitans: sic loquor.

Oh, Mary, don't you weep, don't you mourn.
Oh, Mary, don't you weep, don't you mourn.
Didn't Pharaoh's army get drowned?
Oh, Mary, don't you weep.

-- Aretha Franklin, "Mary, Don't You Weep"

What I said today in regards to freedom of association:

There are all sorts of arguments that I could make, but I'm just going to do the legal one: You've never had a "freedom of association" right in the USA. It's not in the Constitution. It's not in the Bill of Rights. It's always been an implied part of the 1st Amendment, and implied means it is not absolute.

Your ability to freely associate has been governed by caselaw and statute since the founding of this nation in 1789. Civil rights modifies your freedom of association, along with court cases like Roberts v. United States Jaycee (1984). While freedom of association is an essential part of freedom of speech [as specified in NAACP vs. Alabama (1958)], it is not unrestricted and it can be restricted. This is no different than how speech itself may be restricted and is absolute.

So if you want to have this absolute freedom of association enshrined? Get an Amendment passed. But don't bleat at me how businesses should have this absolute freedom of association without it.

They took the credit for your second symphony.
Rewritten by machine and new technology,
And now I understand the problems you can see.
-- The Buggles, "Video Killed The Radio Star"

What I said today in regards to elimination of jobs BECAUSE INTERNET:

While the article's argument is incorrect, it does have a slight point. Most of modern technology advances these days are eliminating lower-class and middle-class jobs, and in conference with my father's long business experience, this has been increasing exponentially along with technology advances since the late 1970s. You do not need a secretary when you have software; you do not need factory workers when you have robots.

Technology is GOING to eliminate the middle class and what's left over in lower-class or creative jobs is not going to be sufficient to employ the American populace. The truism that evolving technology creates jobs is a lie; this was only true so long as automation, automated software, and robots were not financially feasible. The only action our elected officials can take to stop this is by outlawing technological advancement and banning all research; otherwise, there is no action they can take that will stop or enhance the destruction of the middle class in any truly significant way.

Come listen all you galls and boys
I's just from Tuckyhoe,
I'm goin to sing a little song,
My name is Jim Crow
-- Attributed to T. D. "Daddy" Rice, "Jump Jim Crow"


What I said today on the determination of who is homosexual, in regards to the refusal of business under "religious freedom" laws:

Because I'm an ass, I would absolutely apply the standard arbitrarily. Funny enough, people who opposed me ethically or politically would find themselves pointed at and labeled with "HOMOGAY! SERVICE REFUSED! HOMOGAY OUT!" Of course, some (many) would object because they would protest their heterosexuality. I would then require them to prove it - pictures with faces showing or banging away on the floor of my store would be perfectly acceptable.

I'm sure this would go over well. I would certainly be amused.

You say you got a real solution
Well you know
We'd all want to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well you know
We're all doing what we can
-- The Beatles, "So You Want A Revolution"

I am a really strong proponent of this concept: 

Adeo durus malis

Ooh Lordy, troubles so hard
Ooh Lordy, troubles so hard
Don't nobody know my troubles but God
Don't nobody know my troubles but God
-- Vera Hall, "Trouble So Hard"

It's been a rough time and I have not updated here as I ought to have done. I am still at the same apartment. Still married to Alison. My roommate, AliQ, is no longer with us; circumstances forced her back home. Unfortunately (and partially my fault), her departure left us financially troubled. It has been that which has mainly occupied my time of late.

Still, I came up with a solution this evening that should be feasible and will right what once went wrong. Unfortunately, this does not involve Scott Bakula leaping into  my body and uttering "Oh boy." - though that would be cool if it did happen. No, my solutions tend more towards the practical.

It should also be noted that GPC did an excellent job of fucking me over, but that is simply the reputation of that vaunted Georgia educational institution. My usual cranky rankling is now beginning to settle into grudge-hate; this pleases me. I can do things with grudge-hate.

(Ooh) Outside your balcony… I have a room with a view
(And I’m watching you)
I dial your telephone… each and every afternoon
-- Dalbello, "Gonna Get Close To You"

An interesting incident involving Alison's cell phone last night may lead me to a mystery that needs unraveling. It is a pity, because I really do not have the time to deal with it at the moment. No matter. I fulfilled my part of the bargain and alerted Her that the first tier of security may have been broken. Pity it will never get a chance to go beyond me.

If that seems cryptic to you, it is because it is supposed to be. No, do not ask. I will not say.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

He sees you when you're sleeping
He knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!
-- "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town"

Let us discuss something that everyone may have forgotten...and which people probably do not realize has a very great effect on what's happening today. As is usual for what I write about, it will probably not be very pleasant.

The Information Awareness Office was instituted by DARPA in 2002, designed to bring together several projects already underway at DARPA involving the use of surveillance and information technology to monitor and track...well, threats against the state. Like terrorists. Everyone hates terrorists. You can read all about it at Wikipedia. It was full of fascinating things that completely demolished privacy, like Human ID At A Distance and Scalable Social Network Analysis. All of these combined to create what was called Total Information Awareness. I will quote directly from Wikipedia for this one:

The goal of the Total Information Awareness (TIA) program is to revolutionize the ability of the United States to detect, classify and identify foreign terrorists – and decipher their plans – and thereby enable the U.S. to take timely action to successfully preempt and defeat terrorist acts.
To that end, the TIA program objective is to create a counter-terrorism information system that:

1. Increases information coverage by an order of magnitude, and affords easy future scaling

2. Provides focused warnings within an hour after a triggering event occurs or an evidence threshold is passed

3. Automatically queues analysts based on partial pattern matches and has patterns that cover 90% of all previously known foreign terrorist attacks

4. Supports collaboration, analytical reasoning and information sharing so that analysts can hypothesize, test and propose theories and mitigating strategies about possible futures, so decision-makers can effectively evaluate the impact of current or future policies and prospective courses of action.

It was a masterpiece of surveillance. Naturally, the whole idea of this huge invasion of privacy was anathema to the citizens of the US at that time, since they saw that the whole thing could be, well, used against them against of against putative terrorists. After a suitable amount of outcry, the IAO and TIA were shut down. Some of the more useful projects that made up the IAO were renamed, but it all mostly went away.

Or so everyone thought.

Every breath you take
Every move you make
Every bond you break
Every step you take
I'll be watching you.
-- The Police, "Every Breath You Take"

What actually happened is that all of the defense contractors that were working on the TIA were all let go and then immediately re-hired as all of the TIA projects were privatized. Most of it went over to Booz Allen and other national security contracters, which is unsurprising. We then began bringing it back piecemeal into the alphabet bureaucracies. It began to be inserted into the commericial enterprises of our consumer society. People know various parts of it by various names: PRISM, the NSA Data Center, and so on.

But frankly, the whole kit-and-kaboodle doesn't need to hide anymore. Total Information Awareness is back from the black budget and here to stay. Don't you feel safer now?

Just food for thought.

Nocte Auriga

Gladius acutus veritatem.

It has been a while since I posted, but that is OK; I have been very busy. Now it is time to get some of those thoughts back on paper. Or on screen. However one prefers to term it.

Right now my mind is on sexual harassment, especially in that of the subcultures I am familiar with, geek and skeptic. It is no secret that policies and opinions on harassment are changing in those communities, especially with the very public focuses on things like Elevatorgate and Dragon*Con. These things have been kept silent too long, especially amongst geeks, and need to be dealt with properly. They are being dealt with properly, for the most part. However, even in 2013, there are still disturbing things happening.

No, not good. And not to be tolerated either. But what should one do?

I agree with this article: It is time to name names. I believe this should always have been done, but I am a...I hesitate to say courageous person, because that does not match well. It is more accurate to say that I have no fear of dropping nukes and burning bridges for the sake of the honesty and to bring down the iniquitous. That is more of a crusader ethic than a courageous or heroic ethic. I am willing to be the hardass so that others do not have to be.

That brings me to think...there are many who will not feel comfortable in naming names. But I would. So I offer that as a service; if there is a name to be named, let me know and I shall do the naming, the shaming, the outing. I can take that heat; I can be that shield. The truth will make you free.

Doctor oportet destrui

"—E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose
Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together."
     - Robert Browning, "My Last Duchess"

Tonight I am listening to this playlist. This is the sort of music I have come to like best, a soundscape of a certain grimmer note. It is is comforting; it relaxes me and enables my focus. It allows thought to rest with crystal cold in my brainpan.

I believe that everyone has music that speaks to them. Dark ambient seems to speak best to me. Perhaps it complements my outlook on things. Perhaps I just like dissonance or unsettling noise. It does not matter; what matters is that I know what I like and seek out what I like. The one mistake I avoid is assuming that others will share my tastes unilaterally; this is definitely not so.

"The needle slips in and out
Never was one more pricked by poison
Then by that transcribed in clear detail.
Who says the sword is mightier? Certainly
Not the proverb."
     - Gustav Hendricks, "Does the Ball have a Point?"

I am currently attempting to create a complete chronology of Doctor Who. I had created one previously, separated into Old and New Who sections, but my roommate AliQ told me that it was too restricted in what was decided as canon. I completely disagree, but I concede the point; this is a more inclusive chronology. Anyway, the main source that I am using is the Doctor Who Reference Guide. It is the most complete listing of media that I am aware of.

And it is finished, in its basic form. I'll have to go over it later and proof it.

In principio erat nisi.

"You are the sound that I hear.
You are the sound that I hear.
We're not standing.
We're falling."
     - Fever Ray, "The Wolf"

I do not know why I am doing this blog. I really do not. Lately I have become convinced that I am probably mad and creating a blog ex nihilo for no purpose whatsoever seems to fit the profile of madness, but beyond that flimsy excuse for reasoning I cannot come up with a damn thing. I do know that I say 'madness' because I have never been diagnosed with a mental issue of any sort (and I doubt I will ever be), but I am also too quirked and strange-thinking to be anything other than eccentric. Except I am not rich, therefore I cannot be eccentric. So I must be mad.

We will not talk about how that string of thinking is maddening.

I suppose part of a maybe reason to do a blog is that everyone that I know seems to have Something To Say, important things or studious and erudite things or interesting things. I do not have any important or erudite or interesting things to say. I do not even feel that I have wise things to say. I do not know what to say; I have spent my life feeling that way and I do not think that will change. I rarely consider what I have to say to be important or worthwhile or any sort of thing worth listening to. I have been told that most people feel that way. To quote:

"You want to be famous and rich and happy
But you're terrified you have nothing to offer this world
Nothing to say and no way to say it
But you can say it in three languages"
     - KMFDM, "Dogma"

Except that is not the real quote. The lyrics for Dogma are spoken by Nicole Blackman and those same lyrics are a short rewrite of her poem/spoken word "Indictment", which may be found in her book Blood Sugar.  I prefer "Indictment", even though it is without any punctuation at all. While "Dogma" is succinct, "Indictment" tells the whole tale.

See? Nothing important there. No insight. Just regurgitation of fact.

In the space of silence since I wrote that I closed my eyes. I had a vision of a body hanging from a noose, no details, all in shadow, but it was swinging. You could hear the creaking of the beam, see the sway of shadowed body as it goes from side to side. The room was dusty, all made of wood - you could smell the dust.

Kitzmiller v. Dover (2005) is one of the most fascinating court cases to read, primarily because of its ultimate scathing destruction of YECreationist/ID attempts to embed itself permanently in the fabric of science. Everyone should read about it.

See? Non sequiturs. Things that pop through my brain one by one. There is an actual running link between Fever Ray, my inadequacy of speech, Nicole Blackman, a vision of a hanged body, and Kitzmiller, a logic path that I can barely describe in its convolutions.

I am tired. There is nothing to see here.