Wooo!

Earthquake! Wheee!

Shooter

In the past several months I've skipped over a number of rant-worthy issues. I can't let this one go by without comment though:

Accused shooter hated liberals, expected to be killed

Traitorous right-wing warmongers have declared a "Culture War" on U.S. soil against American citizens.

These instigators have been recruiting with the traditional Christian war-call of "We are the victims!", "THEY are Godless Unrepentant Sinners!", and "Think of the Children!" and anyone daring to express dissent becomes the enemy, treated as if they turned their back on God, Family, Marriage, Country and Decency.

This war is waged with ceaseless vilification of the "Left", the "Liberal Media", the "Gays", the "Immigrants" (legal or not), those "Equal Opportunists putting White Men out of jobs", the "Feminazis", and the "welfare loving Democrats", and any other non-party-line-carrying scapegoat. Regardless of how illogical and implausible the blame may be.

The slippery slope argument comes up again and again threatening that gay marriage will destroy existing marriages and lead to rampant beastiality, incest, pedophilia, ... (and possibly even necrophilia!).

I doubt this culture war crap has anything to do with ethics or morality. It's all about money, power, blame and political CYA. The trail isn't hard to follow:

The current "Economic Situation" (gas prices, foreclosures, weak dollar, national deficit, job losses, Iraq, Bin Laden at large, etc, etc, etc) has made some people very rich and their political accomplices very powerful. The culture war is their get-away plan, so they can sneak off quietly with their ill-gotten gains and let someone else take the fall.

They are (and/or have paid off) big media networks to furtively and irrationally shift the blame onto a bunch of scapegoats and pad with so much substanceless fluff and redherrings that viewers are overwhelmed and bamboozled by it all.

And what better demographic to take the fall than those that usually vote AGAINST the corrupt reigio/corporate/military/government combination known as the American Fascist Party. (I mean the Republicans.)

Godwin's Law states "As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.") ... but I can't help myself here. I do see several parallels between the vilification of the Jews in Nazi Germany... and the vilification of Gays and "the Left" in the U.S.. It is the dissimiarities that are important here though. The right-wing movers-and-shakers have learned one lesson that Hitler missed:

"An inefficient virus kills its host. A clever virus stays with it." -- James Lovelock

Or, paraphrased for politics: "A living scapegoat can carry more blame." -- me.

Of course, not everyone got the non-violence memo. Some idiots are so steeped in the sewage spewed by the likes of Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage, and Rush Limbaugh that they think shooting up a church is a great way to go out in a heroic blaze of glory. [edit: revealed today: books by O'Reilly, Savage and Sean Hannity were found in this guys house as well]

I'm quite certain that as this stupid "Culture War" continues, there will be more hate crimes and fatalities perpetrated by idiots that buy into the madness.

Gays can't retaliate with violence, we're inherently too peaceful. We haven't the majority/massive numbers for a Ghandi-esque strategy of passive resistence. Nor do we have the enduring organization for a masonic-style secret government order. (so much for that Gay Agenda).

Our weapons? Hollywood, a little extra discretionary income, and the Bush-enfeebled Judicial System. Faaantastic. :(

The only way to end this stupid culture war is to make it considerably unprofitable to those waging it.

SD Comic Con 2008

Well, today was the day. Procrastination gypped me out of a 4 day pass, so today was it for me. Curiously enough, I think things worked out better this way. I got there earlier, found my favorites and kept moving.

Various memories of the day:

• One of my favorite artists, Colleen Duran, was here for the first time in several years.
• Phil Foglio, has a new Girl Genius book out... Woot!
• Will Wright (of TheSims fame) gave a fantastic (albeit veryfastwithoutstoppingtobreathe) talk on the insanely anticipated new game Spore, which left even jaded folks like me salivating. He showed some of the "late game play" aspects, as well as a gallery of some of the most creative/bizarre creature submissions from folks... someone even created a "companion cube" style creature... ha! He pointed out that it took users on the internet only 18 days to create a number of species roughly equivalent to how many known species inhabit the earth...
  
• Got to the City of Heroes booth in time for an in-world "special disguise power"... oh yeah, and an invite to a party Saturday night. (me? party? hrm.)
• Saw the new up-coming "Ghostbusters" game, which was drawing a lot of attention.
• Worn out from canvasing the exhibition floor, I sat through both Capcom's "Street Fighter IV" session (because it was in the room that would have HBO's "True Blood" panel, both of which paled in comparison to Will Wright's session).
• Saw costumes galore, but the ones that got the biggest chuckle out of me were: A plushie "headcrab" (from "Half Life 2") and another guy in a suit&ski-mask with a paper cut-out mask strapped to his face that looked like a distinctive texan engineer from Team Fortress 2. "Hey! That Engineer's a SPY!"

Anyway... sad that I only had one day at the con, but still feeling rather satisfied.

Up next: A quick review of some utterly absurd things recently seen for sale.

Befuddlement of the day: "They" say that 666 is the number of the beast. Shouldn't that be DCLXVI instead? Or do biblical warnings use Arabic numerals, then switch to Roman numerals, and then switch back to Arabic numerals? Hrm.

Summer Issues

Haven't had much to say lately. Things are serene and satisfactory, personally, though I'm a bit sad that George Carlin is no longer with us.

I recently heard a quip, I forget where: "If God opposes gay marriage so much... why is the mid-west being punished instead of California?" (referring to the flooding).

I'm sure there are those that will think that it was their job to stop California.

I'm still somewhat befuddled by the nay-sayers, those defense of marriage, 'one man one woman' types.

Why is it they fail to understand that Gay marriage is quite simply None of Their Business.

Whom I trust, whom I confide in, whom I sleep with, whom I love... whom I CHOOSE to build a life with (or not)... is no one's business but my own (and whomever might be directly involved.)

If that partnership resembles a lifelong loving commitment which government and religions normally refer to and treat as 'marriage' ... then it would be dishonest and deceptive to call it anything else... regardless of the personal arrangements of fleshy bits.

The possibility to produce offspring 'naturally' is not a requirement for 'marriage'... if it is, then the marriages of infertile couples should be annulled... and no woman past menopause should be allowed to marry.

"The Bible Says..." ... many other things that modern society flat out chooses to ignore as irrelevently outdated. But people still look for those loopholes that allow them to exploit other humans under their God's laws. Salome Witches... Canaanites... Heretics... Muslims... anytime grabby greedy people get ambitious they use religion to empower their faithful... and prey upon the 'outsiders'. How 'Christian'.

So... two men are seen holding hands walking down the street, and some five year old child will ask why. Not because it's unusual... but because children ask 'why?' about EVERYTHING. Does it do "violence to children" (as the pope implied about same gender parents) to see two people holding hands affectionately? No.. the fear is that the children might think that that behavior is 'acceptable' if exposed to it. God forbid.

But 'acceptability' has nothing to do with Gender Identity and Preference. (note: Being 'gay' and being 'transgendered' are NOT the same thing. I know men who wish they were women who also happen to have little to no interest in men.) People harbor 'unacceptable' longings for things they can not have, whether it's being a different gender, or the love of someone unavailable or incompatible. Attraction to another human being ranges from unwavering repulsion to lascivious obsession, with a large middle area of "just not interested either way".

Can some people choose to form a lasting 'loving' commitment with someone they are only marginally attracted to? Certainly. Can that happen if there's an unwavering revulsion? Rather unlikely.

What I must conclude from the "hide the gays from our children" types is that they want their potentially gay child to grow up in ignorance, and to 'settle' for someone they find utterly unattractive. I'm sure that'll make for a lasting marriage.

I've said it before... somewhere... "If you want to defend marriage, do something about the divorce rate first."

Obligatory trite cliche: "Blowing out someone else's candle doesn't make yours shine any brighter."

Griefers

A few non-ranty thoughts about 'Griefers'. (a slang term used to describe a player in a multiplayer video game who plays the game simply to cause grief to other players through harassment.)

Griefing, has many parallels to bullying and verbal assault. Most griefers will stay within the letter of the law, (but ignore the spirit of it), which makes it difficult for authority figures to intervene decisively. It is not uncommon for victims to feel that calling for help shows weakness.

Griefers attack people's self identity, their pride, their values. Like an angry drunk at the bar, spoiling for a fight, they'll play nice long enough to ingratiate themselves with a target, and then, bit by bit, turn nasty. Most often, they rely on small subtle comments that provoke over-reactions from their intended target.

The goal, usually, is to make the confrontation seem to be the victim's fault.

Often the victim will pick up on this tactic and fight back even harder trying to take the high ground in a battle where they've already been knocked off balance emotionally. The more the victim cares, the harder they struggle to 'win' the conflict, the more they expose tender targets for the griefer to hit... and, ultimately, the more hopeless the situation becomes for the victim.

Griefing is almost a martial art in its own right, requiring balance, focus, objectivity, practice, discipline, knowing your opponents weaknesses and exploiting them, etc, etc.

Recognize the signs of a potential griefer early. When they bait you with taunts, ignore them or laugh them off by agreeing in a jovial self-deprecating way.

Only a master of articulate wit has a chance of one-up-ing a griefer sufficiently to win a battle, but the war is still lost. The griefer, having found a worthy opponent, will return and attempt new gambits.

Engage in combat with a griefer at all, and they win. They've made you play their game, not your own. Even if you one-up them until dawn, they've hijacked your focus, your concentration, your time and effort for however long the conflict took place.

The only way to 'win' against a griefer is to recognize that their jibes and taunts for what they are, and disregard them. Unless, of course, you're spoiling for a fight yourself, in which case, enjoy.

Make like a Tree

... and leave? This morning a landscaping crew came by and chainsawed down the palm trees lining my street. True, they were just poles with little poofs at the top, offering only a little shade and a little absorption of traffic noise... but now my street looks just that much more bare and sad. =(

If this is a pre-cursor for them sinking the utility lines, fine, but I'm still grumpy about it.

Yayzerama!!!

Everybody's favorite Linden, Torley Linden, just submitted a new video tutorial to the official Second Life blog!

*VIDEO* Tip of the Week #28: Particle editing magic!

Which was filmed at my Particle Laboratory learning center! Woohoo! =)

Thank you Torley!