I really appreciate your fearless and fierce demand the world get better.
- Ellen Joyce, on Icarus
Thursday, January 31, 2019
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
Very nearly everything wrong with 2019 in one image
This reminds me of that goody fake game show in Time Bandits, which I was also reminded of when reading the Shadowrun game vision of the future in which game shows and sitcoms often involve people dying. And then we have Hunger Games, right? Humans love their blood sports, just as long as it's someone else dying, and we can pretend the oligarchs get their comeuppance in the end, even though we know bloody well that they don't.
But humans also love their sex. And love viewing women as sex objects, right? I mean, history shows this, and #MeToo wasn't some spontaneous outrage, but was really backlash against the unraveling of progress in equality since the 1960s. It's beem really stunning how equality has been unwound and now avowed sexual predators sit in the White House and appoint an accused sexual predator and emotionally unstable asshole, to the Supreme Court, while enabling sociopaths in the Senate overrule the will of the American people to support both scum.
Americans love to think of women as sex objects, and all too often, we women have accepted this, and bought into it, and been broken down by it.
I've always thought of Howie Mandel as just plain weird. I don't know of anything particularly wrong with him.
But, the advert image says "Here is Howie! See Howie! This show is about Howie! Oh, and come and see the parade of skin-tone diverse, basic body type-identical eye candy we parade every day behind Howie!"
Yeah, lovely pandering to base interests there, people. Yuck.
Saturday, January 26, 2019
Make Veteran Franklin Davis famous
Viral Photo Shows Homeless Vietnam Vet, Franklin Davis, Sweeping The Vietnam Veterans Memorial During Shutdown
So, apparently, it's not just a meme. He's a real guy, who really does this.
Franklin Davis has cancer and diabetes, and is kicked out of the Washington, D.C., homeless shelter where he stays at 8 a.m. each morning.
This week, the Vietnam veteran has been heading to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial park, cleaning up the trash that has accumulated during the ongoing government shutdown. The homeless veteran gained some viral fame this week after CNN published a picture of him cleaning the park on a cold and wintry day. The picture was shared on Reddit and reached the top of the front page, attracting plenty of praise for the quiet sacrifices from Davis.
Source: Here (I copied key text items, to emphasize Davis and why this meme and story are important, so even if the source link breaks, this information persists.)
Davis was spotted by photographer Stephen Voss, who saw the veteran picking up garbage and sweeping away leaves around the memorial. Davis said he wanted to honor those who lost their lives in the Vietnam War.
Davis is one of many Americans who have decided to pitch in during the ongoing government shutdown, including many who have gone to national parks overflowing with garbage and human waste to help clean up.
Boot-stomp appropriateness?
Okay, tell it to me honestly, is it only because I'm not black, that the image of a black man wearing "I've been boot-stomped" latex pants seems slightly inappropriate? I mean, I am a cynical bitch, but even so, I'm probably just overthinking this.
Or, maybe it's just that he's such a handsome devil? I'm going with that. Damn, but he is fine :-)
Saturday, January 19, 2019
MeWe without Me
The first time I heard of MeWe was reference (with link) to a letter by one of the owners/founders defending James Wood and his whiny "First Amendment says you can't hold me accountable for being an asshole" whine about his "liberal" agent firing Wood for being an asshole.
That set off so many red flags, I ran out of red crayons. The whole thing reeked of pandering to shitty elements of American society too stupid to understand the Constitution, too selfish to distinguish freedom from tyranny with consequences for personal responsibility, and nakedly courting those elements.
Then I read their marketing material and product offerings. It was all too slick. Everything about it reminded me of people I know whose lips say they want to make the world a better place (and often they do), but every enchanting amd dazzling speech always ends up with "and it will make me a lot of money." Always. Read the fine print, and buried in there are the buzzwords, a bit of dog whistling to both the far right and far left, and promises, promises, promises how people running a private corporation - offering you a licensed service, on their terms, which can be changed on a whim, promising they respect your privacy, if only you'll join their service which is going to make them rich.
Waaaaaay too slick. Waaaaay too willing to pander to anyone for a buck.
That was my first and second look at MeWe. Word up is that I'm not wrong.
Doesn't mean other people can't benefit using the service. Again, reading the material, it looks pretty solid, especially for a few bucks a year. (What I hear is the free service is full of holes, but $30/year ain't bad, IIRC.) Just means I'm not excited about it.
That set off so many red flags, I ran out of red crayons. The whole thing reeked of pandering to shitty elements of American society too stupid to understand the Constitution, too selfish to distinguish freedom from tyranny with consequences for personal responsibility, and nakedly courting those elements.
Then I read their marketing material and product offerings. It was all too slick. Everything about it reminded me of people I know whose lips say they want to make the world a better place (and often they do), but every enchanting amd dazzling speech always ends up with "and it will make me a lot of money." Always. Read the fine print, and buried in there are the buzzwords, a bit of dog whistling to both the far right and far left, and promises, promises, promises how people running a private corporation - offering you a licensed service, on their terms, which can be changed on a whim, promising they respect your privacy, if only you'll join their service which is going to make them rich.
Waaaaaay too slick. Waaaaay too willing to pander to anyone for a buck.
That was my first and second look at MeWe. Word up is that I'm not wrong.
Doesn't mean other people can't benefit using the service. Again, reading the material, it looks pretty solid, especially for a few bucks a year. (What I hear is the free service is full of holes, but $30/year ain't bad, IIRC.) Just means I'm not excited about it.
Thursday, January 10, 2019
Americans love guns more than children
(Since G+ is getting nuked, I'm dumping comments to posts, so maybe they'll stay around a bit. I only semi-care about formatting right now, since I'm depressed G+ is getting nuked.)
The problem in the US, though, is that the "passion" for "freedom" and gun ownership has crossed the line into sheer madness.
The link is not, in fact, "false." False requires the facts to be wrong, which they aren't, and the premise is a persuasive argument that Americans love their guns more than their children, which she makes a compelling argument for, given that every time school children are mass-murdered by gun-toting lunatics, the response is "More guns! More guns!" which is exactly as stupid as shouting "Throw gasoline on that fire!"
In the vein of "madness," I'll point out that it is nearly impossible to get any kind of legislation passed limiting the number of firearms in the US, or if unhealthy people should be allowed to own them, because every time something is suggested - for example, that concerned family members can petition a judge to confiscate firearms from people diagnosed with mental illness, and the judge has to review the request, and approve it, before anything can be done about taking guns away from the mentally ill person (California) - are painted as "gummint wants to take guns from veterans" - which is total misrepresentation, fear-mongering, and adds to the insanity of gun owners calling in death threats to anyone who speaks out against loose firearm laws. (It happens.)
That's not "freedom loving" - it's madness.
"Freedom loving" would be gun owners stepping up to say "You know what? One of the reasons I own a gun is because I want to be able to shoot back. Why the fuck are there so many guns out there that I have to be afraid of them in the first place? Why the fuck are lunatics allowed to buy guns?"
Instead, the shouting is always "More guns! More guns!" As if, "more guns" somehow makes things better? That's like saying "The best way to cure illegal drug addiction is more illegal drugs!" or "The solution to being fat is to eat more!"
Instead, the question needs to be "Why the fuck are there so many guns out there, and how do we stop insane people from having guns? How to we stop children being mass-murdered by guns? How do we stop nightclub or movie theater massacres with guns?" (Note, that in many of those "mass shootings," there were people among the victims with guns, and those guns didn't mean jack shit, so let's be clear that "more guns" is not solving any problems, but it is resulting in more gun deaths.)
Why do politicians and public figures get death threats when they suggest "less guns means less gun deaths," but no one is receiving death threats for dumping more guns onto the streets?
So, my message to gun owners is: "Clean up your own damn house, people, and you won't have to deal with outsiders having to clean up after you."
q.v. https://plus.google.com/u/0/+IcarusAnneRiley/posts/Q3tA73tkfwJ
q.v. https://plus.google.com/u/0/+AlbertNakano/posts/XtVSogPLzUL
q.v. CNN Op-ed
Do we love our guns more than our children?
By Tess Taylor
Updated 9:01 AM ET, Thu February 15, 2018
https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/18/opinions/guns-children-taylor-opinion/index.html
The problem in the US, though, is that the "passion" for "freedom" and gun ownership has crossed the line into sheer madness.
The link is not, in fact, "false." False requires the facts to be wrong, which they aren't, and the premise is a persuasive argument that Americans love their guns more than their children, which she makes a compelling argument for, given that every time school children are mass-murdered by gun-toting lunatics, the response is "More guns! More guns!" which is exactly as stupid as shouting "Throw gasoline on that fire!"
In the vein of "madness," I'll point out that it is nearly impossible to get any kind of legislation passed limiting the number of firearms in the US, or if unhealthy people should be allowed to own them, because every time something is suggested - for example, that concerned family members can petition a judge to confiscate firearms from people diagnosed with mental illness, and the judge has to review the request, and approve it, before anything can be done about taking guns away from the mentally ill person (California) - are painted as "gummint wants to take guns from veterans" - which is total misrepresentation, fear-mongering, and adds to the insanity of gun owners calling in death threats to anyone who speaks out against loose firearm laws. (It happens.)
That's not "freedom loving" - it's madness.
"Freedom loving" would be gun owners stepping up to say "You know what? One of the reasons I own a gun is because I want to be able to shoot back. Why the fuck are there so many guns out there that I have to be afraid of them in the first place? Why the fuck are lunatics allowed to buy guns?"
Instead, the shouting is always "More guns! More guns!" As if, "more guns" somehow makes things better? That's like saying "The best way to cure illegal drug addiction is more illegal drugs!" or "The solution to being fat is to eat more!"
Instead, the question needs to be "Why the fuck are there so many guns out there, and how do we stop insane people from having guns? How to we stop children being mass-murdered by guns? How do we stop nightclub or movie theater massacres with guns?" (Note, that in many of those "mass shootings," there were people among the victims with guns, and those guns didn't mean jack shit, so let's be clear that "more guns" is not solving any problems, but it is resulting in more gun deaths.)
Why do politicians and public figures get death threats when they suggest "less guns means less gun deaths," but no one is receiving death threats for dumping more guns onto the streets?
So, my message to gun owners is: "Clean up your own damn house, people, and you won't have to deal with outsiders having to clean up after you."
q.v. https://plus.google.com/u/0/+IcarusAnneRiley/posts/Q3tA73tkfwJ
q.v. https://plus.google.com/u/0/+AlbertNakano/posts/XtVSogPLzUL
q.v. CNN Op-ed
Do we love our guns more than our children?
By Tess Taylor
Updated 9:01 AM ET, Thu February 15, 2018
https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/18/opinions/guns-children-taylor-opinion/index.html
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