The Sound of Rain on Metal

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If You Believe in IP, How Can You Teach Others?

I propose Wizard's Law: People are absurd to the limit of their legal ability.

& Coda: People are absurd to the limit of their likely ability to evade legal consequences.

...it's always fun to see them humiliated like that.

South Africa Destroys England In Cricket

• Cook fined for slow over rate

• South Africa v England: as it happened

• Ashes are not 'crown jewels' yet, says Clarke

looking back in my journal, my best project idea ever was probably "a comedic biographical film about President Rutherford B. Hayes."

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discouraged though i've been getting, i keep coming back to myself and saying: no, alex, you're not done. be careful, be cheerful, be quiet. you know this cycle, wait to feel better. trust yourself. unbelievably, this seems to work.

There is no link to this - it's a personal experience, and I am curious as to what YOU would have done.

I just had a tense moment at an isolated Chase Bank drive-up ATM. I drove up, used my card, and was waiting for the money when I saw this big rough-looking dude walking toward the front of my truck. He was about twenty yards away, and already giving the "my car broke down, trying to get wife and kids back on the road. Can you help me out? blah, blah..." when I said, "Stop right where you frickin' are. Don't come any closer, I don't CARE what your story is - you DON'T panhandle at an ATM!" I checked my rear view mirror to see if someone else was coming up behind me. He was alone, but was still inching toward me. I told him to stop again. I grabbed the bucks, and drove out in a hurry.

I am not a heartless SOB, and I have given handouts at intersections, but this was in an area with no one else near - a bad location for an ATM. I've had plenty of experience with firearms, but I haven't touched a gun since 1970. Honestly, if I had had a gun today, I would have been reaching for it. What would you have done?

One of the biggest ironies in the history of philosophy is that Plato is regarded as the archetypal rationalist from whom the tradition acquires its dogmatic enthusiasm for the intellect's ability to know the Real.

Lisa Harney passes on the call to boycott Feministing -- the final straw being the failure of moderators there to adequately address concerns about unchecked ableism in posts and comments, the site has been in the attention of trans-activists due to the recent flap over widespread unchecked transphobia among comments at the site. Said boycott is easy enough for me; I haven't read that site in ages because of transphobia and cissexism, among other reasons.

Between the fairly common straight-up transphobia on feminist blogs, and unchecked transphobia in comment threads, in fact, there is almost no feminist forum on the web anymore that I feel safe reading. Twisty? Nope. Feministe? Nope. Pam's House Blend? Nope.

Really the only major feminist blog I feel safe at anymore as a trans woman is Shakesville. Livejournal seems mostly safe. But my feminist world becomes smaller and smaller to the point where I have to wonder if I can really be a feminist anymore. Now I'm beginning to question even whether or not it is feasible to retrofit a critical analysis of society based on gender to cope with the fact that some women are assigned male at birth and some men are assigned female at birth. I used to think, "Sure, why not?" But the "why not" is playing out in the blogosphere: transgender acceptance within feminism is looking more and more every day like a failed experiment.

Takes?

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A comment of mine which I'd like to underline. Concerning Afghanistan.

Now, as I was reading this, I almost feel for the western democratizators. They're oh so good and clean, and Karzai is soooo bad. Poor things. :-)

Beside his presence on the membership records of various western corporations, he's also present on the records of CIA. As are many of the Talibans who are also, oh so bad, a creation of CIA, the Pakistani services and the Soviet occupation. Afghan orphans are taught in the madrassa schools of Pakistan, later to become Talibans.

The present occupation is no better than the Soviet one, only the killings are performed in a more technological way (sometimes). Preferably with drones without pilots. But this one is much more harmful to the Afghanis at least for one reason - the over-production of opium and respectively heroine. Let me remind you that after every bloody mission for 'democratization', if the climate permits, there's always a boom in the production of opium and other drugs. One of the most famous examples is the production in the Golden Triangle, aka Vietnam War.

Technically, the solution for Afghanistan is insultingly simple. Dozens of agricultural planes stuffed to the roof with thousands of tonnes of herbicides. Sprinkle the poppy fields at once, and next year it'll be super-unprofitable to invest in anything remotely related to opium.

This gets me back to the topic. Who's actually benefiting from the drugs production? Is it the Afghani peasants? No way. Certainly, they manage to make ends meet so-so, similarly to the Colombian peasants. Is it the local drug feudals? OK, they're doing pretty good everywhere around the world. But if you really look deep, who's the organizer and the main profiteer from this global logistical operation called drug trafficking? The circle has narrowed down, hasn't it? And who enters the spotlight? You guessed right - aggressor #1 using the mask of democratizator #1 in the world. Why doesn't any of those inspection authorities ever check what's being transported in those huge transportation military planes which are flying to Turkey and the US bases in the former Soviet Central Asia? That's the place where the opium becomes heroine.

And Karzai is really the perfect guy for the job.

I don't see a change coming to Afghanistan. Neither today, nor in a year, nor in a decade.

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Addendum:

Selling western-style kleptodemocracy through penis-shaped bombs pooped by war planes has almost invariably lead to even bigger trouble than a few guys with turbans sitting in the government of the poorest country in the world. And, while in the more 'diluted' regions such as Palestine, Lebanon, etc, the locals have been very familiar with that game for centuries, still nothing but more trouble is what one could expect.

The story is well-known and rehearsed over countless times. We seem to love repetition (only in our case it's not the mother of learning). In 1973, the US brought down what came closest to a king, and tried to invent kleptodemocracy, Orient-style. They duly did that, after which they crapped all over the place; in their turn the Rushkies jumped in to save the turbans from capitalism - didn't work again - then the Shrub (whose memory apparently spans no more than 6 months) decided to re-discover Afghanistan, so now you have the same old troubles, Vietnam-style. Because while Vietnam wanted to kick the kleptodemocratizators back into where they had come from (which they duly did), Afghanistan ensures its bread and butter through export of heroine. Very cheap and very high quality heroine...

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photographs: moscow individuals

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Darrel Wayne Mohler has been charged with raping two children in Missouri more than 20 years ago. His arrest Friday came a day after he told The Associated Press that the alleged child abuse by his relatives was "unspeakable"…

"I can't think of words that would put this in perspective. I find it repulsive if it's true," Mohler said Thursday of his family members' charges. AP 11/14/09

Lurid accusations of sex with children?

Check.

The term “ritual abuse?”

Check.

The term “suppressed memories?”

Check.

Carefully worded comments from law enforcement strongly implying the presumption of guilt while at the same time hinting at an utter dearth of evidence beyond the bare accusation?

Check.

The names, pictures, and perp-walks of the accused being published so everyone can spit on them, revile them, emote, beat their chests, and invoke castration and other creative methods of punishment?

Check.

A witness or relative who publicly expressed some level of doubt about the accusations added to the list of suspects?

Check.

This case seems too familiar. I feel like I've stepped into a Wayback machine and stepped out into the era of MICHELLE REMEMBERS and the McMartin Preschool fiasco. And what's most disturbing are the number of people jumping on the bandwagon and immediately assuming these guys are guilty. Thus far I've seen absolutely zilch other than the accusations in the way of evidence.

Anybody else have thoughts about this?

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i think i'll just get hitched, buy a plot of land out in the middle of nowhere, and make a living as a subsistence farmer. i'm insane.

also, water found on the moon. pretty awesome.

also, Fantastic Mr. Fox is only limited release right now...comes out nationwide on Thanksgiving.

Christmas is going to be very depressing this year without Inch. i am going to print and frame pictures of her for my family members for Christmas...i think they will appreciate that.

reading Louis-Ferdinand Celine's Fable for Another Time right now. pretty crazy stuff so far.

making vegetarian lasagna on Sunday! stay tuned for recipe! :)