You know how people say Feminism has already won and those ladies should shut up?

Turns out they don't know jack. The same old 50s style women hating beliefs that the woman should feel bad for being raped live on. They live on with the support of the lower federal courts too! Still this particular story is almost surreal with the whole being required to cheer for your rapist thing. Attractive women really are public property it would seem.

I'm pretty glad I have external genitalia all things considered.

And now; some Propaganda Model news.

A hagiography was originally a biography of a saint listing all their positive virtues and painting them in the best light possible, subsequently it has come to mean a highly positive portrayal of a person, usually in print.

The propaganda model would suggest that if an event that is negative to US interests occurred and it could not safely be ignored then it will be belittled, diminished and "spun" to lessen its' impact on US policy as much as possible.

The Wikileaks document release last week was just such an event and I betcha can't guess what happened. It is consistently fascinating to me (though unsurprising) that the NYT is held up as an example of extremely liberal journalism when it is such an obvious and blatant establishment supporter. The reasons for things being such is simple and twofold: 1)It is to keep the Overton Window (do note the depressing fact right wing uber shill Glenn Beck has tried to co-opt the term just as he has tried to co-opt Martin Luther King's actions) in the very right wing place it is currently, American political discourse will stay right wing as long as people think what the NYT offer is in any way left wing. 2) To people who want to be left wing and suchlike but aren't that well informed (what with how subservient the US media is and all) will read the NYT and unknowingly consume right wing propaganda.

Glenn Greenwald while at no point referring to the propaganda model (Chomsky is Haraam in American mainsteam political discourse) does a very good job of showing how the reaction to this release of information by Wikileaks is a case study of just how the propaganda model works. Greenwald draws some solace from the fact people are questioning just how in the pentagon's pocket the NYT writers were and I suppose to an extent it is. But if nearly of ample evidence of just how blatantly Burns and his ilk lied about Iraq and Afghanistan is only now drawing some criticism rather than hair teared out outrage it would seem that the Propaganda Model is functioning well enough for the elite and US interests.

Bankers always win but this time they've won even more:

Found here.

So yeah America's Plutocratic Aristocracy is incomprehensibly rich and able to spend as much as it wants on elections. Things are going to get a lot worse for everyone on earth bar that tiny elite.

McDonalds franchise owner gives glimpse of America's future.

Just to be extra clear this is not (yet) McDonalds central policy, just one scumbag in Ohio but thanks to corporate power mushrooming the pesky laws preventing this sort of thing will likely be gotten rid of by bought and paid for candidates soon enough. What is this sort of thing? Well employees at an Ohio McDonalds got a note in their most recent paycheck telling them who to vote for or else. So the libertarian dream of those who are richest getting to make all the decisions gets one step closer!



thanks jonny

Men Against Pornography

Ok, we've been here before, another article pointing out the range of deeply questionable aspects of pornography and specifically focusing on male feminist objections and reservations about the sex industry. However a couple of things that hadn't occured to me before needs highlighting:

Kimmel remains open-minded about pornography – what's needed is a much broader conversation about it, he says – but the picture he paints in Guyland is nonetheless troubling. "Pornotopia is the place where [young men] can get even," he writes, "where women get what they 'deserve' and the guys never have to be tested, or face rejection. And so the pornographic universe becomes a place of homosocial solace, a refuge from the harsh reality of a more gender equitable world than has ever existed. It's about anger at the loss of privilege – and an effort to restore men's unchallenged authority. And, it turns out, that anger is worse among younger men."

Which is, in hindsight really obvious but for some reason just hadn't clicked. Privilege is hella addictive and as women slowly gain more rights young men who exist in a culture largely shaped by total male dominance are feeling deeply short changed by the deficit between the extremely easy and privileged life society leads them to expect and the merely quite easy and privileged life they receive. They're angry and want to see those awful bitches punished.

Secondly:

The anti-sexist educator and activist Jackson Katz, author of the 2006 book The Macho Paradox, suggests the porn industry has an obvious interest in undermining intimacy between men and women – if couples were to find sexual fulfillment together, the market would plummet. And this opposition to intimacy, says Jensen, helps explain why porn has become so cruel, degrading and humiliating – why, to quote Martin Amis, it has become "a parody of love" addressing itself "to love's opposites, which are hate and death".

Which pretty mind blowing and hard to deny. Pornographers do not want their audience to be happy or content in any way or they'll stop buying. So as with all Patriarchy while women suffer most men suffer too with the exception of the tiny elite who actually benefit from the deeply unfair system we exist in.

Does this mean pornography in all cases is unacceptable? Maybe I'm not sure but as long as porn exists both in the mainstream and and unquestioned and simultaneously a "dirty" but glamorised production process that not nearly enough attention is paid to and not enough scepticism is used against it will have no hope to be anything other than a bad thing.

Then again in a world where chocolate is made from cocoa picked by child slaves and fashionable clothes are made in 3rd world sweatshops focusing on the negative aspects of one specific capitalist product is probably myopic. Pornography is a deeply unpleasant business but it is a business and not that different from many others in its' methods.

Guess who's going to get raped and murdered!

This person:

That person right there is going to get raped and murdered. She didn't have much of a chance to start with lets be honest but with this being the main Americas story out there today. The chances this attractive young woman seeing out the year dropped to pretty much zero. Not only will she present an exceptionally alluring target for the cartels but she's unlikely to see much support from the more veteran officers either.

The commoditising of dissent.

This is a funny quick look about a new skateboarding game:


But it is also a good insight into how youthful rebellion has been completely taken over and made into a product. Mostly because this game doesn't do it particularly well but still it really is noteworthy how "youth culture" has made questioning the status quo and how society into a deeply conformist and profitable venture for "the man". Channel what you can't prevent I suppose.

The Skynet of stealing.

This is finance so I can't really speak to the content but I get the feeling it is important. Essentially the big banks are using computer programs to manipulate and control the market. Happily the US Govt is merrily looking the other way about this because it worked out so well last time.

Jonny linked by a different article about this a long time ago but I forgot to link it so thanks to him for at least making me aware this is an important issue.

Banksy status: Still owning.

He was invited to do an intro for the simpsons and its really good. Somewhat surprising they aired it but it is all free advertising even if it is controversy. Google around a bit and you can find people defending the conditions depicted in the video, what a wonderful world.

Israel ever more openly fascist.

Will try and do a proper post on this soon but the Israeli cabinet has approved legislation to force all Israeli citizens to recite a loyalty oath to the country as a Jewish Democratic State. Or to put it another people who live in Israel who aren't Jewish or refuse to regard it as a solely Jewish state, which would affect dissenting Israelis of European origin as well as the Arab minority, will no longer be Israelis and can be expelled. Yay

Lobbying in action.

The EU is trying to promote free, open source software and big software companies like Microsoft are using their lobbying firms to quash it as much as possible. A Spanish blogger (excuse the slightly odd way its written) has highlighted their efforts via a policy document the lobbyists had modified so as to better meet their views.

Wikileaks is a good thing.

thanks jonny

A case study of a corrupt occupation.

John Dolan is one of the good ones. He is a bitter and pessimistic man but such are the wages of speaking truth to power. People far better informed than me have suggested he has a further curse, he is an unrecognised artistic genius, doomed like Van Gogh or Nietzsche to have his literary work recognised only after his death. I mean sure you can be high minded and stuff but I'd imagine all things being equal those with gifts would like to be recognised in their lifetime, especially by young attractive people and rich people of any shape size or colour. I mean damn, who wouldn't?

He was one of the main people behind The Exile and is still an occasional contributor to The Exiled. While he did a lot of good work under his own name his most popular stuff was probably when he posed as http://exiledonline.com/cat/war-nerd/>The War Nerd where he did quite probably the best analysis of modern conflicts you're likely to read, stripped of jingoism and bolstered with the context we're seldom provided with. To actually make a living, for the powers that be make sure dissent isn't profitable, he worked in academia all over the world until a few years ago while at the University of Victoria he was fired for encouraging students to criticise George Monbiot. Now I'm not sure of the specifics and since I like Monbiot I'd like to hope he didn't personally push for the dismissal but who knows. He wrote of the trials of extreme poverty in North America and one can thus understand how he came to be employed at the corrupt right wing institution that is the America University of Iraq.

He got fired after working there for little over a year but he experienced enough to write a lengthy article about how messed up the place was. I feel little need to criticise a formerly destitute man for selling out in order to eat. The way things work you either sell out or start off rich enough not to need to worry about an income, the game is rigged. Indeed the concept of selling out seems to me to mean you get nice and rich off of betraying your ideals but you don't go into academia to get rich (except maybe if you're an American sports coach):


Bear that in mind when reading the article for if an institution like a university which one generally wouldn't associate with a bonanza of graft ("suck on it losers, I got three of my monographs bought by the library!") you can begin to guess how terrible the corruption and fraud is in occupation institutions that are associated with fabulous wealth. That is not to say the American University of Iraq is simply a cautionary hint to the wider Iraq situation, it the people who are paying considerable amounts of money to learn there are being shafted by the cronyism and blind right wing ideology touting of a faculty so cowed and intellectually timid as to no longer really be able to call themselves academics.

Still when it comes time to bomb Iran we will likely sell the Kurds out to gain Turkish support, and dead Kurds wont need universities.

Facebook in not protecting people's privacy shocker.

For all the positive benefits users of facebook speak of, arranging overconsumption of alcohol, recording and sharing pictures of your overconsumption and helping employers decide if your alcohol consumption matches up with their corporate ethos, we all know that really all it exists to do is to get as much of your personal information as possible so as to sell it off. Kind of like how people often don't like to say they're going to the toilet but instead use a euphemism (which can be more vulgar than the truth but w/e) the general populace likes to pretend Facebook actually cares about you and your views instead of just a fungible data node. Ya know, like with shop loyalty cards.

A couple interesting privacy issues that have come up of late: The new Groups "security" feature is easily exploitable and far from under the control of the group creators. Oh and thanks to an indifference to personal privacy on the part of both Apple and Google your phone number is probably easily available on facebook even if you didn't put it there.

why yes it is ironic I am posting about this stuff on a google owned blog

Oregon congressional candidate thinks law is more of a guideline.

pretend I made an Oregon trail joke here, something about only being able to carry 15lbs of illegal funding back to the wagon or whatever

A Republican candidate for a Congressional district in Oregon has received mysterious support to the tune of $150k from anonymous donors which if it is from a single individual is extremely illegal. He appeared on the Rachel Maddow show to... well allegedly to address this issue but mostly to rant and gurn like a crazy old man. What clear message he did give was that because his Democratic opponent has around a million dollars of funding (to his ~$350k) and because Maddow can't account for every penny said Democratic candidate has spent (which is not really relevant as long as it was donated legally) then him receiving $150k of highly suspicious funding is of no consequence. I suppose he sees campaign funding laws as a kind of handicap system so the less likely you are to win the less they apply to you.



To save you from having to watch the later parts of the video, he is quite uncomfortable to watch, I will point out the guy is... how should I say it? Adamant in his claims he is a scientist but in possession of insights and views that the majority of the scientific community is not. To wit, he is fucking crazy. Hes a Republican so his denial of global warming and Evolution aren't especially shocking. Nor is the fact he supports home schooling (he has home school curriculum business) but his vehemence is noteworthy, he believes the public school system should be abolished:

He also believes Women and African Americans don't have the mental capacity or inclination for science and that the best place to store nuclear waste is in the foundations of buildings, why? because it is good for you!

Robinson is an advocate for nuclear power and a proponent of radiation hormesis, a theory claiming that very low levels of radiation can be beneficial to humans. He writes in a 1997 issue of Access to Energy, “The most sensible use of low-level radioactive waste is as a concrete and insulation additive in residential homes — especially in areas where there is insufficient natural radiation for optimum health.” He told EW that a state like Oregon, with its lower radiation rates, suffers from higher cancer rates than Colorado, which has higher background radiation. The damage done at a very low level of radioactivity keeps the immune system in shape, he says. In response to a question regarding whether this is similar in principle to homeopathy, he says, “Homeopathy is so strange; it’s outside of my field of specialization.”

Both the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements and United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation say there is no evidence to support the theory of radiation hormesis. What has been proven is that high levels of radiation are indeed pretty bad for our health.

So really I suppose his disinterest in the law is unsurprising, he seems pretty disinterested in reality as a whole. But after a few depressing posts of late I can bring you a ray of hope in regards to this guy. As things currently stand he has a 0.0% chance of winning the election. All the more reason to cheat I suppose.

The study of myth and legend to be promoted in British schools.

The Tories have decided to follow the American propaganda method of only teaching national history in schools. In a way I shouldn't care after all everything in school is a lie to children anyway and anything of worth is taught at degree level or learnt by people off their own back, school gives you the foundations to learn more and nothing else really. But damnit I like history and while yes the overwhelming focus on WW2 is perhaps a problem but it is a subject separated to some extent from national identity and children can be encouraged to explore the range of potential reasons for the start of the war in the face of the perception it was all Hitler's fault. But with British history, especially for children up to the age of 13 parents will likely feel compelled to complain and attack teachers that send any other message than Britain was good.

This of course leaves aside problems such as inability to empathise with other cultures and the insularity only knowing your own history causes but that is very likely the aim of the Tories in doing this. Now lets look at a few quotes:

He attacked the current approach to history teaching, which he said denied children the chance to learn "our island story" in favour of a mix of topics at primary level and a brief study of Henry VIII and Hitler at secondary.

Why on earth would one want children to learn about anywhere other than a small island, who gives a shit about the vast majority of the earth and its' population?

Gove said: "Our literature is the best in the world – it is every child's birthright, and we should be proud to teach it in every school."

Following on from the previous quote one really gets a clear view of the level of nationalism going into this decision, it is a clear step backwards in understanding the rest of the world. But this is a right wing government so not really a surprise. Also if anyone can tell me how one can define how one culture's literature is better than another's please do let me know, I am keen to learn.

It is a source of dismay to Conservatives that Winston Churchill is currently left off the history curriculum for 11 to 13-year-olds, while two anti-slavery campaigners, William Wilberforce and Olaudah Equiano, are the only historical figures mentioned by name.

Not that freeing the slaves was a bad thing or anything, just really people seem to focus on it a bit too much. I mean yes human beings were stripped of all their rights, treated as property and generally abused in every manner possible but that isn't going to indoctrinate children into liking the Tories now is it?

I am very keen to know what children will get to learn about Winston Churchill, will it be his support for gassing Kurds (that which nasty old Saddam was hung for)? His desire to turn the BBC into a state propaganda organ during the General Strike? Or perhaps his (at best) total indifference to the deaths of four million Indian colonial subjects due to an avoidable famine during WW2?

LOL

Gove also said he wanted GCSE maths and science exams to be made tougher, adding: "We urgently need to ensure our children study rigorous disciplines instead of pseudo-subjects.

"In Massachusetts, 16-year-olds are asked in their science exams, to identify the shape of a carbon tetrabromide molecule as predicted by the valence-shell repulsion theory.

"In England, 16-year-olds are asked in their science exams whether we sweat through our lungs or our skin."

In both Britain and Massachusetts there aren't different levels of science exams nor are there questions weighted with different marks to acknowledge some questions are easier than others. This is a scientific fact.

Oh and the history expert who is advising on all this just happens to be a TV historian who did a rather flattering history series about Britain's history. The best person for the job was obviously chosen.

Dissent in the age of Obama.

Cindy Sheehan has a short editorial about the COINTELPRO-esque raids on peace activists last week.

Among other things she raises the interesting point that Obama is still portrayed as the good guy to most Americans and in the US media to the extent people can't really conceive of him being in charge of a regime that is doing plenty of evil things. In effect because of Obama the entire apparatus of US imperialism is more or less given a free pass.

Things are going to get a lot worse part II

normally when I post a link jonny sent me I thank him, it is after all only polite and it is important to cite your sources. on this occasion I'm not really sure I'm grateful for finding this out, it is terrifying.

So what is an America of "limited government" under resurgent superfunded Republicans in serverly cash strapped times going to look like? Well bearing in mind the obvious caveat that limited government never applies to the military or apparatuses of control (CIA, FBI, DHS etc) it means unless you're very rich things are going to get worse and the poorer you are the more things will get worse. This is Reagan's legacy and in abstract terms middle class people have known it was bad and had to rely increasingly on credit since real wages haven't risen since the 80s but they got by just about. With the credit crunch that perception is shifting but it looks like a sledgehammer blow of reality is about to hit.

In the past , the glorious past, with an article entitled Ayn Rand Conservatism at Work -- Firefighters Let Family's House Burn Down Because Owner Didn't Pay $75 Fee Americans could shake their heads at the Libertarian insanity of a small township or whatever but slowly but surely this horrific logic is being applied to whole states such as Arizona:

Arizona governor Jan Brewer’s response to her state’s fiscal crisis. Earlier this year, Brewer signed a budget that eliminated the Children’s Health Insurance Program, denying health care to 47,000 low-income kids in Arizona. She also proposed a hike in the state sales tax—the most regressive tax, whose burden falls disproportionately on working people.

Tennessee:

which cut 100,000 people from its Medicaid rolls, including 8,000 children. One of those people was Jessica Pipkin, who lost the use of her arms and legs in a car accident in 2005. Pipkin requires round-the-clock care—at $37 per hour—but was told she would lose her benefits because she and her husband earn too much to qualify. Are they rich? Well, her husband makes $19,000 as a satellite television repairman, and Pipkin receives another $14,000 in Social Security benefits.

Minnesota

In Minnesota, Governor Tim Pawlenty, a contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, submitted a budget that slashed funds from student aid, financial assistance to counties and municipalities, a job program for the blind and the mentally ill, low-income housing programs, mass transit in the Twin Cities, and a state insurance program that helps cover people with costly preexisting medical conditions. It was approved by a Democratically controlled legislature; lawmakers justified their budget by pointing out that they’d rejected Pawlenty’s proposals for deeper, even more painful cuts.

Georgia, Oregon, Florida, New Jersey and Maryland:

Clayton County, Georgia, a mostly African American suburb of Atlanta, eliminated its bus service into the city, leaving tens of thousands of Georgia’s working poor without a way of getting to their jobs. “I don’t know what I’m going to do,” a 57-year-old worker told the Los Angeles Times. “So many people here, they’re going to be sure enough messed up. We need this bus bad.” Oregon, Florida, New Jersey, and Maryland are also looking at deep cuts to public transportation systems to make up budget shortfalls.

and to round it all out Ohio:

Perhaps the most striking vision of the libertarian utopia comes from Ashtabula County, Ohio. It reduced the number of sheriff’s deputies patrolling the 720-square-mile county from 112 to 49 and cut the number of prisoners in detention from 140 to 30. More than 700 people were put “on a waiting list to serve time in the jail.” Some were facing relatively minor charges, but the list also included, according to Sheriff Billy Johnson, violent offenders

So even local policing is subject to cuts under limited government, as long as the status quo isn't affected for the elite then poors can wallow in crime and with the number of Americans in poverty rising dramatically that means a whole lot of people just having to suck up dealing with crime.

That said a Judge from the county offered this advice for citizens:

“Arm themselves ... Be very careful, be vigilant, get in touch with your neighbors, because we’re going to have to look after each other.”

Advice I would strongly endorse although not for the same reasons the Judge did. Americans are going to have to band together as best they can because no one else can help them and the elite are even more openly than usual out to get them.

Welp things are going to get a lot worse

Theres not really much I can say but thanks to the right wing's victory in Citizens United v. FEC and corporations now allowed to spend an unlimited amount Republican campaigns already have a 5 to 1 one funding advantage that may well hit 10 to 1 this month. These midterms have already received more funding than the 2008 Presidential election.

I suppose though now corporations have stolen all that money from the American people what else are they going to do but buy more politicians so they can steal more?

Theres no real positive spin I can put on this, there is very little chance unlimited corporate spending will be curbed in the foreseeable future.

Australian Racism Addendum

Defenders of Australia might well point out the racism highlighted the other day occurred in the Northern Territory, a harsh and unpleasant area and that everywhere has places where unpleasant things can happen and this Australian "wild west" cannot be used to judge the whole country.

Fair enough so let us today visit Perth, the capital of Western Australia and the fourth largest city in the country. In 2008 an unarmed Aboriginal man already in detention was surrounded by nine police officers and because he refused a strip search was tasered 13 times. As is par for the course with these things none of the Police involved have been charged with any crime.

As was brought up when that pitch invader was tasered the argument Police made all over the world when scrabbling to get their hands on a new weapon was that stun guns were an excellent replacement for firearms so in dangerous situations Police would have been forced to shoot someone they could instead just stun them. Thus the question was asked was pitch invasion now a crime worthy of shooting? Perhaps we civilians just don't "get" it. Similarly this evil not-white should be grateful his attackers had tasers or they'd have been forced to shoot him 13 times.

It cannot be over emphasised how similar late capitalism and feudalism are.

You hear people talking about a new aristocracy or how certain behaviour is "medieval" and you understand it as hyperbole. After all this is an age of progress ever moving forward and regression is a bogey man to be rolled out to demonise a policy things aren't really getting worse. But of course that isn't the case, things are getting worse and anyway the past is always with us.

Nonetheless the feudal nature of the actions of the elite slip by unnoticed because it is very unpleasant to realise just how undemocratic and deeply unfair their attitudes and wielded power are. Mark Ames has profiled one of the Koch brothers' evangelical propagandists and I'll be damned if I can tell the difference between the patronage system he operates within and a medieval clergyman retained by a local lord to keep the peasants in line.

Nuclear Artwork

Jonny linked me this ages ago and I've consistently intended to but not actually managed to link this It is a piece of Artwork created by Isao Hashimoto which using simplistic images and sounds shows when and where every nuclear explosion occurred on earth between 1945 and 1998 and who caused each one. It is well worth a watch even if you do get the impression at the end of it that the leaders of powerful industrialised nations have a great deal in common with Chimpanzees that screech and fling their poop when angry or threatened.

thanks jonny

China continuing to ramp up soft conquest of Europe.

A good while ago I mentioned how China was taking advantage of Greece's current financial problems to to buy into the EU. Well that was just a contracted that was helpful to Greece's economy at a bad time. Now China is offering to buy up Greek debt especially in key areas of infrastructure that are of vital importance to Chinese export markets. Since Greece solving its' debt problem of vital importance for the whole of the EU this would give Beijing considerable leverage over the EU. The article mentions how this might cause the EU to be less critical of the current value of the Yuan. I agree but almost certainly not for the reasons the author meant. Interestingly this is quite similar to how the IMF and World Bank operate in service of US foreign policy.

As I said before, it is all smiles and kindness now but once they have that leverage China could well try to do some unpleasant things to the EU and more to the point disincline the EU from criticising far more unpleasant things China does to its' citizens and near neighbours.

Australia is racist as all hell.

I know I know, it is pretty shocking a country that had a whites only immigration policy until 1973 and still has one that is considered racist, that keeps the remnants of the Aboriginal peoples the British didn't kill in squalid camps in the wasteland no one else wants and then blames Aboriginal people for the outcomes of such treatment and then following a "remedy" to those problems by further punishing Aboriginal people and treating them as untermensch, all of which was imposed by the Australian military is Racist but there you go. I aim to shock.

In this fun and happy read one learns about the conditions of Aboriginal people, the indifference of white Australians to institutionalised racism and how a town was happy at the lenient punishment for a group of young white men who killed an Aboriginal man who stood up them driving their 4x4 at and otherwise harassing Aboriginal people. To be honest it makes me violently angry but thats not the way, the racists are always better armed and far far better at inhuman violence, a more community based solution is required. Though first white Australians need to acknowledge there is a problem to start with.

The legacy of the British Empire is quite a thing.

Pretty good news RealID didn't come in really.

So yeah I play computer games, you know this but people who don't know me that well don't know this because computer gaming is a mark of shame to some extent. Now while I would say some of people's dislike for gamers is a problem on their part there is good reason not to hold the hobby in high esteem.

RealID was Blizzard's (maker of the ever popular World of Warcraft) bully idea to make WoW and their other games more like Facebook. For a range of reasons users reacted very strongly against the plan and Blizzard backed down from the plan albeit without acknowledging any of the actual concerns of their customers. Instead they chose to pat themselves on the back for listening to the community. But anyway corporations exist to be hypocritical and evil so this isn't news.

However Kieron Gillen in his final Sunday Papers for RPS (he will be missed) linked a good example of why gaming isn't as culturally acceptable as some people would like and also just how horrible RealID would've been for women (and likely minorities, homosexuals and anyone else prejudiced people might not like).

Starcraft II is another game made by Blizzard and it widely agreed to be a very good game. It came out twelve years after Starcraft and to live up to the massive expectations highlights Blizzard's talent for game development. So with the myth that the majority of computer games players are teenage males is being dispelled one would expect women to play such a popular game. One of the biggest Starcraft fansites, team liquid however did not share this view.

A week The Hathor Legacy did a post about a woman posting on the team liquid forums wanting advice on how to set up an all female clan (a group of people who compete against other clans for prestige and sometimes in proper competitions). The response was the depressingly common mix of sexual harassment and the whining of privileged white males because there is one little thing their privilege doesn't allow them to do. The kicker was though that a moderator of the forum came out in support for the sexists and admonished the woman. However a second post shows the staff of team liquid trying to entrap and then intimidate the author of the original post. Calling people out on their prejudices just isn't right and deserving of retaliation apparently.

The Hathor Legacy posts explain things far better than I could but I do want to repeat their assertions about RealID. This level of harassment was directed towards a woman for volunteering she was female. If every woman (and other potential targets for the unpleasant types the internet abounds with)'s name was out there for easy datamining, harassment and stalking it would've been terribly unpleasant and struck the acceptance of gaming a near deadly blow. Now the death of gaming thing might seem a little selfish, a little myopic but this potential death blow wouldn't be delivered by a hostile act but by the general population of male gamers being given enough power to show the world what they're actually like. The views and culture of gaming is rotten and needs to be seriously addressed by everyone who considers themselves a gamer.

Legality has nothing do with right and wrong.

It is a wise person, a legitimate person, who looks upon the world and only respects that which is worthy of respect. This is such a person.

Russell Brand interview

Russell Brand is generally portrayed as a bawd but if you actually listen to what he has to say the fact he is a former drug and sex addict isn't relevant and in this interview he brings up the point that narratives about himself and everything else cloud the meaning at the heart of issues. He is a lot of other things but he is also someone who overcame considerable hardship and unpleasantness as a child to get to where he is, perhaps people should bear that in mind more than they do. I recommend you watch it. One odd thing I consistently notice is that he uses big words it sounds like he is using them for their own sake but they are always correct to the conversation and convey his meaning, I wonder if it is simply the Essex accent, have I been trained to assume certain accents make you thick?

As a reward for watching the interview (which to be honest was pretty rewarding in itself) here is Brand utterly destroying Murdoch's The Sun at a charity gala event for Amnesty International:

Net Neutrality drifting away.

I can't be bothered to even act surprised or feign credulity in regards to the excuses given but essentially the Democratic dominated congress has backed away from any kind of legislation protecting people's rights. So now its all on the FCC heralding another round of secret meetings with those who oppose net neutrality and at best the FCC expanding its' remit which will then be undone by either the supreme court or the Republicans next time they get into power. Still who really though the plebs would be allowed to keep a medium that allowed such freedom of speech?

Depress yourself here.

MLK's plagarism and lies by omission.

This article examines the mainstream in general and NYT in particular's favourite conspiracy denier Gerald Posner. Oh hes also a massive plagarist and a self proclaimed thieving cocksucker but now he is no long a "journalist" and instead works PR for some of Hamid Karazi's relatives including Ahmed Wali Karzai a drug lord on the CIA's payroll.

So really it would be quite a leap to assume his popular lone gunman theory books about the assassinations of JFK and MLK could in any way be deliberate pieces of propaganda supporting the US government's line on the issue!


Yet this is exactly what the article does!. It is quite convincing that this thieving cocksucker omitted evidence that calls into question his conclusion that the official story that James Earl Ray killed MLK was wholly correct. The author does a much better job of explaining it than I could so you should read it.

Doctor's union speaks up for the NHS.

Of the many plans of the Tory government to privatise the public sector one of the more prominent is the stealth privatisation of the NHS. The plan is relatively simple, under cover of all sorts of positive buzzwords Health Secretary Andrew Lansley is pushing for GPs to take on control of chunks of the NHS's budget but GPs are busy enough as it is so it is very likely they will pass on these duties on to private contractors. The motivation to do this is a big pay raise, big enough that it will absorb the fee GPs will pay the contractors and still leave them better off.

This was a pretty clever plan, doctors, in the main, certainly didn't get into their profession to help people or at least people who aren't themselves. But maybe even their greed has a limit. While this could be a holdout for an even bigger bribe it would seem the doctor's union isn't too fond of the plan calling it a slash and burn approach. I don't know if this is going anywhere but Doctors potentially turning down more money is a pretty big thing in itself.