If we make the solution illegal, the actual problem magically goes away, right? - It's Class Warfare, Bitches

Apparently, asshat politicians are at it again. This time, according to the petition, the asshat philosophy is that "If we make it illegal to feed homeless people, then homeless people will go away, right?"

Okay, let's cut thru the smoke-and-mirrors.

1. The only goal of a program like this is to Look Like Something Is Being Done. It's a smokescreen;
2. To starve homeless people into going anywhere else and becoming somebody else's problem. Note that under this model, "dead" is a legitimate form of "somewhere else,";
3. Reality Calling: If homeless people had an alternative option to being homeless, they would take it. Ignore what O'Reilly, Limbaugh and their buddies try selling you: there is nothing glamorous about having no food, nor shelter, and being at chronic risk of violent assault every day from gangs, other starving people, or even just middle-class assholes with a hard-on to kick someone who can't fight back.

There you go: classic political "fuck those who can't fight back, because I can trample them in order to gain power and prestige."

It's class warfare, bitches.



#ItsClassWarfareBitches #IdiotsOfTheWorld

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Humans are Tribal - or - Why I Bitch About the USA

The world is a tiny little place. It looks big, but it isn't. I understand that better than most people (you don't need to know why).

The truth is that within my lifetime, the Chinese and Indians will become the economic superpowers, and then white people - who have dominated history and treated everyone else as second-class citizens - will be painfully surprised to find the situation reversed and themselves as the trod-upon (q.v. novel White Lotus by John Hersey). Well, when I say "white people," I mostly mean "white men," since even white women have plenty of experience being treated like dirt by all men.

Anyway, humans are tribal. We divvy ourselves into "us" and "them," because our brains are small and we can only handle so much input and we need to know whom to trust. We also need to feel special - we are emotionally hard-wired to try to be big fish in small ponds.

Simply put, that's why I bitch so much about the USofA - I live here. It shapes my daily life much more than events anywhere else (even when those events cause the Rich White Men to Get Excitable). It's not as if I get all wet for the USofA. If I lived in Australia, France or Nigeria, then those would be the places I'd bitch about most. It's call "being human."

So, while I'm blessed to be getting hits from all over the world - and I mean nearly everywhere!! Woot!! - I'm not intentionally neglecting the human failings in Italy, Russia, Thailand or India - I just don't live there, so lack the first hand knowledge of the dumb things people do there. I mean, we're all idiots part of the time - welcome to the human condition.

But, like I said, humans are tribal, and we bitch most about what we know most about :)

Musical Monday: SAIL by AWOLnation - A.D.D. Sucks Rocks

When a fan-made video gets 146M views (at the time of this writing, in December, 2014), and no one even knows how to find your official video (a paltry 3M views), it's time to throw in the towel and license the fan video as your official video. In fact, I thought this fan-made video was the official video until I read the Wikipedia page for the song, and learned otherwise.

One of the funniest lines in the whole song is "blame it on my A.D.D., baby."

Except that Attention Deficit Disorder is actually not very funny. Oh, sure everyone jokes about it, whenever people seem flighty or flakey, or simply not paying attention, or because they're too busy listening to the noise in their own heads, but it's not funny. Hell, as I said, they even make a joke of it in this song, which is why I'm talking about it in this rant.

Adult Attention Deficit Disorder creates unnecessary conflict and misery. It can - quite literally - make it impossible to focus, or to remember things. It can - quite literally - make it impossible to remember a conversation from five minutes ago.  The person suffering the disorder of ADD can be fully engaged in said conversation, participate, contribute, and come to accord on important decisions - and then five minutes later the entire thing is gone from memory. I shit you not. A.D.D. SUCKS ROCKS BIG TIME.

For someone afflicted with ADD, her brain is her enemy. Recent studies using brain-scan technology have discovered the real problem isn't that the brain is over-stimulated, but that the damn thing keeps falling asleep, and so craves external stimulation to keep itself awake. That's why the eyes dart around, and the ears constantly pick up background sounds, and the thoughts race like hamsters in a wheel, and the body is always moving and touching things.  A person with ADD might desperately want to hold still, or to remember things, but the enemy in her skull won't do its damn job and ignores her wishes.

How do I know the ADD brain is the enemy and it's not just some personality deficiency or character flaw?

What's the old joke? "Give you three guesses, and the first two don't count."

Concerta (TM) is my second best friend in the world (after a human being with the patience of a saint, and piles of unconditional love).

Concerta is anti-ADD medication. Concerta makes it possible for me to focus. It makes it possible for me to remember things at all. Concerta enables me to exercise my considerable willpower over my poor impulse control. Concerta transforms my brain into my friend and ally , instead of my enemy.

I learned about Concerta less than a decade ago. The saint in my life parked my ass down and said "Watch this video." It was a clip from the Today show, where a doctor talked about ADD and new treatments available.

When it was over, I made him play it again.
Then I said "I really don't have to be like this, anymore?"
Then I cried.

Then I saw a doctor, and I got medication. Then my brain became my ally, instead of my enemy, and I could hold still, sit quietly, hold a train of thought or a memory in my head for longer than two minutes, and I discovered who I am (and I mean that literally, that's not even a metaphor).

Now, I panic if I forget to take my afternoon pill with me, and my "crash stash" has run out.   I will break your arm if you try to take my Concerta away. Kinda sad, I know, that the idea of a few hours with my old brain freaks me out so much. But that tells you how miserable I was being that way; I won't go back.

My brain still isn't perfect. As I have to remind my man every so often "tired trumps Concerta," so sometimes I have to focus hard to focus at all. But, now I've learned how I can act, and think and behave when my brain is working like a normal brain, and so I know how to modify my behavior for when the medication wears off.

"Blame it on my A.D.D., baby," is still part of my life, but at least it's not very often, and I can enjoy - and remember(!) - the other moments.

April, 2015, Edit:  It looks like the original video has been made private, and I can't find a new link to it.  I left the code embedded, below, just in case it gets unlocked.  I'm going to hazard a guess the AWOLNATION guys got it yanked, because it was kicking their ass all over the playground in page views (see my remarks above) (Also, in the comments section of this behind the scenes vid, someone remarks that Nanalew said on her FB page there was a problem with the record label.)

Okay, so here is the official video.  (I know, right?  Just that image screams "Ugh!")

I did find what looks like a copy of the Nanalew video, and the quality isn't quite as good.

And here is my original embedded link to Nanalew's tribute video.  I include it here, just in case it gets unlocked at some future point, and you can watch it again.

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It's a gun, not a condom 4: National Defense against whom?? Canada??

Just a reminder: I'm not anti-gun; I'm anti-stupid. It's a VERY important distinction, and will prevent you from jumping to the wrong assumptions about my message.

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Guarding the Borders

One of the tired old yarns I hear about why every American "needs" to own a gun is "national defense."

To which I always reply "Against whom? Canada?"

Sadly, it gets even funnier (in the absurd sense of the word), because the Canadians can't even protect themselves, let alone invade the United States.

The truth is that Americans do not "need" to own guns. No, really - once penis compensation, paranoia, and mental disorders are put aside - they don't. "Want" is an entirely different  issue.

The Military Option

We're NOT going to be invaded!!

The United States has the world's most over-developed military to prevent invasion (and/or go off and invade other countries). Not to even mention the nightmare logistics of trying to launch a meaningful invasion. Hello! Satellites and spyplanes and anyone with an Internet connection will spot the buildup and mobilization months in advance, and the US has missiles and submarines-with-missiles and planes-with-missiles to blow the fuck out of any invasion force long before homeboy-with-a-pistol needs to worry about protecting his homestead.

Civil (and Civilian) Defense

Also, even if the police were not being militarized by the corportist elitists (who push old military equipment out of the military in order to siphon taxpayer money to themselves via the military buying new shit), then we still have some of the best trained civil public safety people in the world. Seriously, the US police academies are a bitch to get into, and a bigger bitch to graduate from. Yeah, there are law enforcement people who make really bad decisions (cough, Ferguson, cough), but armed vigilantes are sure as shit the wrong answer (cough, George Zimmerman, cough).

The civil defense forces become important, because the truth of having a gun in your home simply means someone in your home is more likely to get killed by a gun. Imagine that - bit like saying you're risk of being bitten by a dog goes way up by having a dog in your house: it's a no-brainer. I talked to a guy who bitched about having a gun stolen from his car twice. I asked "was it in a lock box?" Answer: "Hell, no." Okay, so, the question I didn't get to ask was: did they break into your car because they saw a free gun sitting out, or did they break in and discovered "hey, free gun"? And I didn't get to ask: "Where the fuck are you parking that your car keeps getting broken into, and why are you still there?"

Call 911 and let the guys paid to get shot at take the risks of getting shot at. Carrying a gun won't stop you from getting attacked; it merely gives you a chance to escalate the violence level and hope the other guy dies first (and hope there aren't a dozen whackjob vigilante-wannabes nearby ready to run in and shoot you, simply because they have a hard-on to shoot someone and won't stop to ask pesky questions like "which one of you started it?"). Your best plan remains to be smart, avoid risky areas, and make sure your phone can autodial 911. (Of course, with assholes across the country gutting funding for services like 911, fire department, and police department, and even road maintenance, it won't be long before calling 911 gets an automated message, because we can no longer afford to actually staff those services either).

Who Put The Bug Up Your Ass?

If you still have a bug up your ass thinking Americans "need" guns, then ask yourself who put the bug there? Was it the NRA? Was it Fox News? The local Republican candidate? Was it the guy running the local gun shop? Was it anyone at all who benefits from getting you to spend money buying guns, or benefits from you being a frightened, paranoid, distrustful bastard? Gosh, imagine they might have an agenda to feed you shit and screw with your head by stuffing that bug up your ass?

I don't care if you want to own a gun. Just don't be naïve or stupid about it, and definitely don't be an ignorant dick about it.

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Today is Christmas day, and also Thursday

Whether you celebrate Christmas, or not, as either a religious holiday, or maybe just a work holiday, or as a day to give people presents, or as the day to eat Chinese take-out (the old saw about Jewish people eating Chinese take-out on Christmas day, because other restaurants were closed), or even just for today being Thursday...

In the spirit of love, friendship, and the well-wishing of peace and goodwill towards all...

Happy Kwanzahanamas!!

And Merry Christmas, too! :)

Holy crap: I'm a global phenomenon!

Well, okay, so "phenomenon" is probably giving myself airs, but half of celebrity is self-promotion and acting like a celebrity, so I'll use the flashy words. Perception is reality, so if I repeat the mantra that I'm famous, then eventually people will wonder who this "famous Icarus person is," and then it will be a self-fulfilling prophecy, right?

What was my point? Oh, yes, yes. Check this out: I'm getting hits from all over the world! Even the United Arab Emirates, of all places! I mean, that's so unlikely that it becomes super-cool.

Now, I understand the reality is that the Internet really shrinks the world, since it becomes possible to touch anything, anywhere, and borders are meaningless and boundaries only barely have meaning. 

So, maybe it's more about time zones and culture. I think it's awesome that I could write something which would appeal to people all over the planet, even just for the few seconds to view a couple of my pages.  

Ripples on the pond, as I touch them, and they touch me. I mean, you just know that person in Australia never once thought "Hey, I bet my clicking here will make some woman on the other side of the planet giggle with child-like glee, and spur her to write about it." 

Funny thing,  life :)

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Corporations are not people; stop talking like they are

Language is important. Phrases like "Koch Industries would not talk to us" are logically invalid, since "Koch Industries" does not actually exist, except as a consensus acceptance of a body of laws, and therefore cannot make decisions, nor speak.

"Representatives from Koch Industries would not talk to us" is a logical construction, because people who are members of an organization can choose to talk or not talk.

By using the phrases "Bane Capital fired 1600 people today" we perpetuate the idea that non-existent entities can think logically, and we allow the human beings who make the decisions - and execute the decisions - to throw 1600 people to the wind, generally as a way of making a handful of people at the top of the food chain even more rich to hide behind a paper shield, operate without repercussions, as they hide behind shields made of smoke and mirrors.

Therefore, if we are ever to hold responsible - or give credit to, e.g. "Engineers at Apple have unveiled the iPhone XIV"  - the human beings that make decisions and accomplish things - for better and worse - we must reintroduce those few little words into the sentences we use. 

If we are ever going to escape the fallacy of "Corporations as people" and recover our civil rights - as HUMAN BEINGS - then we must demand that other human beings be called out. 

You can do this by telling the human beings that write news stories or press releases that you expect them to stop being lazy, and use proper sentences. Send an email to the humans at your news station that says "Microsoft cannot make decisions, because it does not really exist, but representatives of Microsoft made decisions, and by-the-way, those representatives have names, and who were they, exactly, so they can be held accountable for their decisions?"

Perception is Reality, and as long as we buy into the fiction that non-existent entities are real, then they are real. And we - as real people - have the power to reject this false reality and demand accountability of the humans behind the curtains.

Here is the litmus test: If the ZomPoc happened tomorrow, who could help you rebuild? "Puget Sound Energy" or "The engineers with skills and equipment who have pieces of plastic identifying a tribal entity (PSE) that doesn't fucking matter anymore, because the zombies are coming!"  I mean, really: In the ZomPoc, there is no "Microsoft," there is no "Fox News," there is no "Koch Industries," because the laws have changed, and anything that requires a law to exist doesn't really exist at all.

Change the language, change the reality, reclaim the world.

Edit: Here is a fantastic article on NPR which discusses how this bullshit came about, and reinforces that the class  warfare party line decision by the Supreme Court justices in 2010 threw out a century of legal precedent to further their neo-feudalist agenda.

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