Will Shetterly's Blog, page 116

Walt Whitman's argument for Basic Income

without a right to free speech, you do not have a right to say you're offended

There are two popular stories on the internet now about free speech and being offended. Oddly, some people are simultaneously citing one as a reason why speech should stop short of offending people and the other as a reason why people should speak out against those who are offended. The first is the Charlie Hebdo massacre; fans of hate speech laws say Charlie Hebdo went too far. The second is the

Why Steve Trevor is the best male role model ever

This is a fairly recent image, but Wonder Woman has been saving Trevor's butt for as long as she's existed, and he's never been threatened by it, nor has he ever been emasculated by it. As I've said before and will say again, that relationship is my model for my relationship with Emma.

(I understand why lesbians want Wonder Woman to be a lesbian. What they don't understand is that a lesbian

The love of censorship unites dictatorial communists, identitarian feminists, and rightwing Catholics

If you value free speech, read the following for a little outrage. Or if you value censorship, read them for comfort:

An identitarian feminist:Unpopular Opinion: Satire Should Punch Up. Charlie Hebdo Did Not. | Miss Kitty Stryker

A rightwing Catholic:MUSLIMS ARE RIGHT TO BE ANGRY - Catholic League

And a few dictatorial communists at reddit:Why I don't support the racist rag Charlie Hebdo (

Basic Income would bring a new creative renaissance

Within a few minutes, my web-surfing brought me to three things:

At2014: Some (Honest) Publishing Numbers, and (Almost) Throwing in the Towel, Kameron Hurley talks about the astonishing amount of promotion she does for her work.

AtBusiness Musings: Things I Learned (Or Relearned) in 2014, under the subtitle"Success Costs Money", Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes, "Those investments I mentioned

Excluded by intersectionality: Keith Vidal (plus a note about the series and "the talk")

Cop shoots dead a tased, restrained, 100lb teen: "we don't have time for this" - Boing Boing:

Mark Wilsey, identified as Vidal's father, told reporters that his family had called the police to help get his son to a mental evaluation during a 'schizophrenic incident' in which Vidal had picked up a small screwdriver.

Two officers were able to calm Vidal, reported Star News Online. A third arrived

Basic Income's effect on creativity

FromCash or Copyright or Real Creativity? | naked capitalism:

...A series of studies by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan Teresa Amabile, and others, have shown that primary school kids don’t learn to read if they’re paid to, artists produce their worst work when they’re commissioned to produce it, and people get worse at solving puzzles if you reward them for successful solutions.

The reason for

Humans Need Not Apply: One reason Basic Income is necessary

Martin Luther King Jr. said, "We are demanding an emergency program to provide employment for everyone in need of a job, or if a work program is impractical, a guaranteed annual income at levels that sustain life in decent circumstances. It is now incontestable that the wealth and resources of the United States make the elimination of poverty absolutely practical." (Emphasis mine—universal

My New Year's Resolution

I'm going to spend more time promoting Basic Income, which I love because it's a universal approach to problems, and less time on the identitarians who are desperate to divide us in any way they can. Which may boil down to "Accentuate the positive."

Here's what may be the original, by the writer, Johnny Mercer, with the Pied Pipers:



And here's the eternally cool Ella Fitzgerald's version:

An Adam Smith quote for supporters of Basic Income

"All for ourselves, and nothing for other people,seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind." —Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations

And today's related news article:For the Wealthiest Political Donors, It Was a Very Good Year - Bloomberg Politics: "Three of the country'swealthiestpolitical contributors each saw their net worth grow in 2014 by more