Balance?

Yin and Yang

Yet another Great Fear has been realized, as Nicolas Sarkozy ascends to the French Presidency. I respect that his rule is the result of free and democratic elections, and that he may yet prove himself to be a fair and competent leader...but the fear remains that his "tough stance" on immigration is the first step down a dark path. There have already been rioter/police clashes, and not a one of Sarkozy's policies has been implemented yet! The Citizen printed a little sub-story with interview snippets from immigrants living in France, entitled "With Sarkozy, the riots will be permanent"... I imagine that - if nothing else - the news from France in the coming months will be colourful. Personally, I stand by what I said here.

On the plus side, a newly-published report could be a nice BITCHSLAP to the Right-Wing: The Justice Department of Canada has found that Same-Sex couples raise children just as well or better than their Heterosexual counterparts. From what I have just read, it seems that our not-new-anymore Conservative government wasn't all that keen on publishing this study (what a surprise!). I'm sure there will be all manner of "explanations", or "secret bias" hypothesis floated by the diehard homophobes, but maybe, just maybe this will permit everyone to settle down and live as equals, as it is written in the Charters and Constitutions of this world (some of it, at any rate).

Some Dumbass won't let that happen, but it's a good hope while it lasts :)

Again, with the limited time imposed by internet cutoff. I hope to post more later.

-Loud

Betrayal From Within

A Not Inconsequential Co-Incidence

This is my 88^th post, and I'm going to be talking about some of the racist scum that litters our planet. It wouldn't strike many of you as eerie, but that's because you may not be aware of what 88 can mean. The 8^th letter of the alphabet is 'H', and 2 of them together (88) is some Neo-Nazi code for “Heil Hitler”. In case you are wondering how I know this, I believe it was in a Citizen article about a worrying rise in Neo-Nazi activities. Anyhow, it is rather appropriate that my 88^th post be dedicated to denouncing this blight upon our societies.

It all began when I wanted to listen to one of my favourite political songs of all time; “George Bush Don't Like Black People”, I believe it is called. Well, I decided to look for it on Youtube, because...umm...I'm a bit of a sellout that way, I suppose. It is common knowledge that Youtube commenters are perhaps the least intelligent people on the web this side of Myspace or LJ. Well, in with the n00bz, and the genuinely deficient, there are also the mentally challenged AND racist folk, too. I will not quote any of the filth that was posted below, but if you follow the link you WILL be appalled by some of what you read. Now, I have no idea what comments will be on page 1 by the time you read this, but chances are there will be a good enough example. No need to dig down, your imagination can surely conjure the utter vitriol that some have thrown.

Well, some mention of the BNP – British National Party – in one comment or other on a video jogged a vague memory of a video seen in World Issues class last semester. It was NOT a good memory. Ah, yes, I thought, the genuinely frightening skinhead party in Britain. I was not amused by suggestions that this party sounded like “Reasonable People who want their country back”, even though it's par for the course given the average intelligence of a Youtube commenter (as discussed in the previous paragraph). This was a victim of PR, clearly. A little reading later, and I was in full-on panic mode. This morning brought further bad news, which is that France's mainstream political parties are adopting forms of the extreme-right's immigration control, no, reversal. I'm not talking “ooh, spooky” afraid here, I felt the kind of dread I feel when contemplating a mass extinction by asteroid impact!

As a society, the West has a well-documented history of violence and oppression. If it wasn't being done to outsiders, we were visiting both upon our brothers and sisters! Apologizing for what was done by our ancestors is meaningless, on so many levels. We should not shoulder the blame for actions which are not our own. What we should do is ensure that nothing of their like should ever occur again. It's so easy to apologize to the Acadians for deporting them, when no one is alive to stare you in the face, and tell you just how they suffered. It's easy to be removed. It would be another thing if George Bush looked an ordinary Iraqi man or woman in the eyes, and tried to explain to them why their son/daughter/father/brother is dead. It may sound, it may even BE cliché, but we can only change the future! Groups like the BNP threaten to drag us back into near-barbarism.

We cannot look at the problems in our society, and point to a single cause. The world doesn't work like that. Everyone running the BNP surely knows this, but they understand that people can be made to accept such a declaration as truth. The shepherd leads the sheep, and this shepherd wants the white sheep to fight the black ones. Why? Perhaps because some people get their rocks off creating conflict, and watching the gory aftermath...the greatest snuff film of all, in a way. Determining the real reason can wait until we have these white-trash warlords thrown into one of those convenient Guantanamo-style prison camps (where they can be subjected to the very humiliations they would visit upon the Other). What is important is that they be stopped NOW.

We can start by making immigrants feel welcome in our societies, by following the one rule we all have in common. Welcome others as you would be welcomed, extend them the courtesies you would wish extended. It may be presumptuous to assume they will enjoy or make use of either, but a misinterpreted overture of goodwill is better than no overture at all, in my mind. When people are uneasy, they will look for the familiar, and we end up with ghettos. Add a little poverty to the mix, and you have a recipe for crime. If you knew that a handshake, or a friendly word to a newcomer might save their child from a life of violence, you would give that man or woman the warmest handshake you'd ever given! It may not be so simple, but again, the best course is to act. Handshakes may not cure poverty, but they go a long way towards solving the problem of alienation.

To say that “poverty is a tougher nut to crack” would be rather akin to saying “Robbing Fort Knox will be more than your average stickup”. I sure as hell know what the solution ISN'T, however: deport 'em all, and enforce 'cultural purity'. Even if immigrant groups are statistically more likely to commit crimes, it makes no sense to halt immigration, deport them, or anything of the like. The Fact is that males are FAR more likely to be serial killers than women. Should we ban all men from society for this reason? I hope not...I'm rather fond of my social contract, thankyouverymuch. If groups like the BNP were actually intent upon preserving Western society, they would use REAL logic and reason. There are number of cause-and-effect relationships between poverty, and things Unpleasant. Remove the cause, and we remove the effect. It could conceivably be argued that Immigrants are the cause, and that they should be removed. Sure, if you like forcing people from their homes, dividing families, and otherwise destroying millions of lives, in order to improve others. Even if we decide that the “Greatest Good” is morally right, no matter what evil is done to obtain it, I imagine that the negative consequences of a mass deportation VASTLY outweigh any positive impact upon the “indigenous” Caucasian population. Why is it that arrogant, self-centered right-wing bastards would spend tax money to evict immigrants, when that very same money could go towards enhancing EVERYONE'S quality of life? Perhaps the same reason that the US has publicly-funded killing, and privatized life-saving...whatever that reason is.

I firmly believe that if ANY Western country elects a government in the vein of the BNP - for that matter, any state or province – it is the solemn duty of every other country in the West to declare all-out War against that country (or state, or province), until every single party member or supporter, every single soldier sympathetic to the cause, lies broken, bleeding or dead at our feet (ok, ok...Imprisoned works too, if we must). Why should we indulge in such bloodshed, you ask? Because we fought Hitler in World War II, and these...calling them “people” elevates them above their due...are no better. We could hold our noses, hold our tongues, and say to ourselves “peace in our time”, no matter how repulsive we would find a xenophobic government...or we could learn from history, and waste no time in ERASING THAT GOVERNMENT FROM THE FACE OF THIS EARTH!

Fortunately, there is an alternative. Westerners possessed of the franchise in their country can fight intolerance, injustice, and inequity with the most fearsome weapons of all: their votes. What if you support hatred and intolerance? See above paragraph.

Happy 70th (post) to my Blog

Raise some glasses, Ladies and Gents...this Blog may be 70 posts old, but - like most everyone still living* at 70 - it's still a feisty teen on the inside. Don't know why I'm choosing 70 to make even a small fuss about a milestone or other....maybe 70 is the new 50? Doesn't really matter...if you really want to complain about an excuse to celebrate, go ahead, for all the good it will do you!

*"Living" is more than the state of not being dead yet.

Winston Smith

On my way home from Star's today (We did indeed talk things over a bit. Most of the day was spent being thoroughly lazy and comfy...fine by me.) I picked up the X-Press,

Why in hell is Metro still around in Ottawa? If you're going to read a short paper, do you really want to read one that takes itself so seriously? Serious news requires the space for a decent volume of information, enough room for debate...the Metro has neither. Dose worked because it had a sense of humour, bizarre horoscopes, and, of course, sex advice from strangers. It was something you didn't find in greater detail in the Citizen or Sun (let's face it: Dear Abby is TAME!). X-Press is one step up, because it barely even covers Newspaper material, and has cool local stuff instead....and 'Savage Love...best Sex advice column Ever! Metro is as useful in the hand as it is trampled on an OC bus floor!

PS. If, by any chance, someone who writes for Metro sees this...I say "take two pages less talking about celebrities, and call me in the morning!"

Well, I read the "High Bias" column, which informed me that Security services in the US and Canada are now using the same computer algorithms to determine if YOU are a terrorist. I believe one of the criteria was "seat and meal choice on aeroplanes". I have melodramatically suggested in the past that a lot of "antiterror" legislation was the beginning of a Dark Path, and I know that others have predicted a loss of all privacy, and everything from there up to the rise of totalitarianism. Wherever that Dark Path leads, we have now embarked upon it, for better or for worse.

I am not against computerization in general, but here, I have to start by opposing this particular use. This is no game of chess, no daisyworld, no SETI! Terrorism comes in too many colours, shapes, and sizes to be calculated. More importantly, many of these colours, shapes, and sizes are NOT NECESSARILY terrorists. If, as is proposed, anyone with a risk factor above a certain threshold will have their personal data forwarded to other agencies, does it not make sense to have a PERSON REVIEW SUCH CASES? The computer will work only as well as it is programmed (Example: In 2001, Hal 9000 was NOT FUCKING EVIL! He was a computer programmed for accuracy who was ordered to lie, and went crazy as a result of the conflict. The error was Human!), and the program is not (yet) capable of the flexibility that a human mind is. Were that it the case, though. An impartial, human-like mind would be a very useful asset indeed. At any rate, there will be people who are flagged by bizarre coincidence, and it would save time, effort, and money in the long run if you paid a guy to look out for red herrings (as it were) among the "high-risk" crowd. If this sort of thing is going to happen, every citizen is OWED this service. The reason the Government turns to such barbaric measures is because they are easy...regulation and due process would make the methods less easy, and therefore no better than honest ones. This would be VERY, VERY good. Plus, even if the governments go ahead anyway, there will be STANDARDS to ensure fairness.

It is such a cowardly thing, to collect data which should be private. It is an admission of fear, of resignation. An American soldier killed in Iraq is not a victory for Terrorists, but every granule of 'dirt' collected on any citizen IS! What freedom do you have, if everything you do is recorded, and should a computer, simply following orders, decide you are a threat, you can be arrested without charge, and held indefinitely. Ladies and Gentlemen, you no longer live in the Free World. The internet, thankfully, is still around, but suppose someone codes a national terrorism filter, and decides to add a little here and there, take out "dissidents" by "accident", hmmm? This may or may not ever happen, but that might not matter. Why risk the PR backlash when you can just record every site that anyone visits, and then "vanish" the people who read what you don't want them to? Maybe if you talk to someone who says the wrong thing, overhear someone, even? There are CCTVs everywhere in the UK these days, they could tell if you were in earshot of someone "dangerous", and they could have you dealt with. If this sounds more than a little alarmist, you are correct. None or all of this may happen, but the fact remains: Big Brother Is Watching You!

Now, you may say "but these measures are for COUNTER-TERRORISM purposes only!"

Good one, skippy! Remember when the GST was scrapped? Of course you don't, because it WASN'T. It WAS promised, some years ago, however. Or, how about that Ad-scam in Quebec? Government so honest, why, Abe Lincoln would be put to SHAME! If we are lucky, these petty crimes may only be portents of more petty theft to come. If these lies are the beginning of something greater, however, it would be wise to begin fearing for your life!

But back to that whole "cowardice" thing I was on about. There is a nifty little thing in our laws called a 'statute of limitations', which is a lovely thing. If the law cannot catch you and prove you have done something after a certain number of years, you can confess, and you cannot be held accountable, because the Law failed. Some crimes cannot have such a limit (it is never safe to let a murderer lose, after all), but it is a healthy thing, because it provides additional motivation for the Law to WORK HARD in the alloted time. Antiterror legislation allows you to be held indefinitely without trial. There is NO motivation for them to convict you. There is every reason to keep you in a cell for the rest of your life, and say "We have made this country SAFER by [FUCKING OVER THIS POOR BASTARD and] holding him as a suspected terrorist!". The reason is simple: you cannot catch a truly dedicated terrorist, because he or she is clever enough to blend in. Governments need smoke and mirrors to make people believe that terrorism wears a Burqa, or somesuch, because the minute the general populace realizes what I have said here, the Governments lose all that nice, cushy power to make life a living hell for anyone they don't particularly like.

Don't laugh it off. Could be you they have in the crosshairs...

"I only have 2 nipples, but I have 3 PS3s"

WHAT THE HOLY MOTHER OF FUCK!?!?

Yeah, well I have NOT-several-thousand-dollars-spent-on-3-systems-that-will-be-more affordable-when-there-are-games-worth-playing-on 'em!

On the other hand, I can't really criticize. Soon, I should be bragging about my having a new Lian-Li case (for the uninitiated, simply imagine if pure sex could be made from brushed aluminum. Now, bend that into a computer case. That is Lian-Li). I hope I can still snag it at near-half-price. Now the question is, do I buy 3?

That would be fucking RAD!

Anyhow, that's all for tonight. I feel like a little bit of Videogame commentary in the near future, a little escape from the spooky spooky politics will do everyone some good. WoW: Burning Crusade (or as I like to call it "ha-ha, I'm not going to buy it because I like having money and some semblance of a life!") is coming out soon, which ought to be...interesting.

Remember, Remember...

Some Good News:

Finally, there are Core 2 Duo/Quadro SLI boards out. The one I've seen is on the expensive side, though. I don't know if or when there will be a new system purchase in the household, but I know that things just got easier for me. SLI might be a little much for a single purchase, but as an upgrade option that can double performance for the (much reduced) cost of a second card at a later date? Smashing.

AMD has apparently produced a modified ATI graphics board to serve as an FPU-intensive co-processor. The thing costs well over $2K, so I don't have my hopes up. Still, what a way to fill up the third PCI-e slot that some motherboards are now including for a third vid card to run physics calculations. I wonder if that is a possible application of the new AMD product. Time will tell...

And I got 28/28 on my World Issues quiz.

ROCK!

V for Verdant

Reading a passage from a report on sustainable industry, my mind wandered to a potential future, and it was unnerving at first. The report itself was very welcome, suggesting that envronmentally friendly, sustainable business is not only possible, but highly profitable. One suggestion for the future was to move from providing a product to providing a solution. This entails renting out and re-using materials, rather than selling disposable products over and over. The companies would be responsible for the maintenance of the equipment, and would reap the benefits of energy and resource efficiency. The renter would pay for the service. Everyone is happy, right? Perhaps not so.

It is easy to blame large industries for the looming ecological crisis, but individual actions add up to quite a bit. Do you eat at McDonalds? You're supporting the destruction of forests to make room for more meat production. Do you drive a car? You're pumping C0₂ into the atmosphere. It may soon be the case, if businesses see reason, that individuals will be doing the least to prevent catastrophic ecological damage. Suppose businesses start renting everything, providing and maintaining their 'solutions', which you pay a fee to use. Imagine if businesses control what you have access to, what you should be allowed to rent from them. “You should not have a car” they might say “it is an inefficient transportation solution...but for $199 a month, we could have a carpool driver pick you up on his rounds.”. For your own protection, your choice may be limited. After all, look what you did with your so-called 'freedom': pollute the planet without a care! I will admit that the potential for this hobbesian corporate fascist utopia is small, but I cannot discount it. You have a choice now: get involved on your own terms!

I'm not trying to be anti-corporate here, so much as anti-complacent. I think that if we will not willingly become green, then we deserve the boot of eco-fascism. I'm not talking about Nazism here, mind you. Just to play devil's advocate here, I think the idea is not without merit. Voter turnout these days is around 50%, if I recall correctly. That means that HALF the eligible population does not feel the need to elect a government. That is as good as saying you would be just as happy under a dictator. I know that if you asked a non-voter, they would say otherwise, but we all know what speaks louder than words. Besides, if they won't take action now, why would they take action to resist a dictator? If awareness and willingness to act on environmental issues is similar in this society, it may be necessary to de-value the individual, and emphasize a sustainable state.

At the very least, movement to solve environmental issues will have to be a collective effort. We can work as a group of individuals with a common goal, or as faceless automatons of corporate hegemony. Your Choice. Our Choice.

I'm sure someone is curious about the paper I was reading. Well, I read 2 or 3 this evening, and they were encouraging, for the most part. We have been the victim of a great lie, of unknown motivation, it seems. There exists today the capacity to make a greener future, is what I am being led to believe. It will save money, and the side-effects will include increased productivity. One paper cited a factory where two small changes resulted in higher efficiency and lower costs. The designer used a fatter pipe than normal, decreasing friction. Second, they laid out straight pipes, and then put all the components in place. These two changes reduced the required strength of the pump by 95%. Over the course of several years, the savings add up. Furthermore, the authors contend that many commonplace practices are rooted in faulty logic: lower overhead costs are better. Savings over time are either not counted, or expected too soon from more efficient - yet initially pricier – solutions. Essentially, when businesspeople try to dissuade the public from demanding higher environmental standards, they are lying. They are lying through their teeth when they say it will hurt the economy. Perhaps they are unaware: perhaps the short-term expenditures blind them to all further benefit. On the other hand, maybe they know the truth all too well. Are we bearing witness to the rape of the planet, of GAIA herself? Have a particular set of people decided to destroy her self-esteem, shred every last vestige of her dignity, strip her naked, and display her battered, broken body to all? Such malice is not beyond human capacity, for certain. It is not to late to stop this crime: let the truth be known: Green is Lean, not Mean!

Owned!

This is a bit of a spinoff from my comments on the potential for corporate eco-fascism. I wanted to ask the question:

Should Consumer Rights Exist?

Suppose you want to watch a movie, and you have the option of buying a DVD, or downloading that same movie from iTunes (or another online service). If you purchase the movie, you would be able to make copies for your own personal use. You could store it on your mp3 player, store a copy on your laptop's hard drive, and leave the disc at home. Copy protection and the DMCA have made this difficult of late (this is more US legislation, so I'm not sure how it applies to me). The iTunes copy might be downloadable to your iPod, but forget transferring it around without a little hacking first. The reason that consumer rights exist is to prevent this kind of situation. When you buy a car, you can choose who fixes it, who insures it, etc. Imagine if this were not so.

Property is an imperfect concept, but it has advantages. Obviously, the #1 problem is inequality, where money creates the illusion of superiority and inferiority. There are billions of hard-working people in the world who are not billionaires. One might assume that those people simply don't work hard enough, which is wrong. The right circumstances are not presented for all people to become successful. Even if they were, our current system requires that only the few become rich, exploiting the efforts of many subservients. Are the workers truly less capable than the rich? It's not a given, but we may see it as such. The discrepancy between who has 'stuff' and who does not is enormous. If property did not exist as such, people would not judge or be judged by their 'things'. Why should a the value of a person's TV speak more to their character than their viewing habits seem to?

Money, and by extension, the acquisition of personal property is a driving force, there is no doubt. People have a certain pride in their things, especially those they have created, modified, and/or mastered. As a computer hardware junkie, I like to feel a certain attachment to my computers. It is not that I do not ever wish to share them with others, but I want to upgrade, tweak, and tinker to my heart's content. If I do not own the computer, this is not possible. I know that it is a selfish impulse, and you might assume that my desire is to have the best computer, to beat out the others. In some cases, I'm sure that's true. For me, it boils down to gaming: I want framerates smooth as butter, with graphics more opulent than most palaces. Speakers that shake the Earth, and sound quality that would put live orchestras to shame. Of course, of these I have none, but even contemplating them is a flight of fancy in and of itself. Sometimes, as Calvin's father tells him, the anticipation of having something is better than actually having it. The thing you want is finite, but your imagination can make it boundless, unreal. Can you imagine the thought of renting something the same way?

What has this to do with 'Solutions-Based Economics'?

The thought of a solutions-based economy brings to mind the possibility that DRM will not remain Digital. Your right to control the services you use may be compromised, if you hold no ownership over them. Look at the EULA for most software. The first thing they tell you is that you do not own the software. You just use the stuff. Imagine if everything were like that, and you can see why it is a scary thought. “Property is theft” used to mean that private ownership was counter-productive to freedom. Someday, it might mean that the consumer should not own what rightfully belongs to the Corporation. That will be a dark day.

Finally, there is one quote that I wish to share:

“Governments that make it hard for business to do business and that try to take the place of business in meeting the people's needs keep their people poor.”

It is not explained what place business is to fill, but I would rather that my services came from a body beholden to all citizens, not to a select group of stockholders and consumers.

The Greatest Show On Earth!

I wore my AWESOME HAT to school today. It is roughly one foot tall, all told, and it looks kinda magickal. I need a suit to match, or perhaps contrast with it. I'll be honest and say that it was as much about the attention as any kind of expression. Mostly, I think it was just too cool. I need to mix things up more often, be a little different. It feels more human to be noticed, on occasion.

This post is about to fill 3 pages in OpenOffice, and I haven't added any preamble yet. I think I'll stop soon.

Notes:

Gold, should you read this: The firefly RPG does indeed have you create your own characters. You can use the Serenity crew, but that would be l4mz0r. Also, I understand your haste with the silver cat, but be mindful: courtship can be a long process. You do not have to wait, but sometimes it carries a reward.

This Dragon has gotta fly for the roost. Disturb at your peril.

Roar.