Nikolas P. Robinson's Blog, page 55

Part One: Introducing…Me!

I have done some fucked up things in my 35 years of life, many of them things that I am not exactly proud of, which is not to say that I am ashamed of them either. The worst that can be said is that I feel a sense of ambivalence regarding these things, occasionally verging with a sort of perverse amusement. To simply say that there is something wrong with me would be an extreme example of understatement, the number of things that could viably be claimed as being wrong with me is something I don’t often like to dwell on…but that is precisely why I am undertaking this particular bit of self-indulgence.

The proper place to begin would be at the beginning, of course, but I am in no position to go back that far, so I will simply go back as far as I am able. I can’t promise anything like a coherent narrative will unfold here, because I know myself far too well to make an assertion that patently ludicrous.  There  will be some bouncing around here and there, as I document my life, some of the choices I have made, and (where possible) the proximate causes for some of those choices. I hope that some of this might be entertaining, to those of you who have a certain specific sort of humor about you…other parts will probably be downright fucking depressing. That is life though, a series of ups and downs…so get used to it.

I haven’t been writing lately, not how I would like to be, and this felt like the best way to kick start my motivation and get the engine behind my creativity purring along like the well-oiled machine it most assuredly has never been. It is past time for me to get my life back on track; I have been working a great deal towards the purpose of improving my physical condition and now I need to dedicate a similar degree of effort towards my intellectual and psychological well-being. I figure that the best way to get started down that path would be to examine my life a little more closely. Cross your fucking fingers for me, because I can’t very well do it for myself while I am writing. This may take me a while, so have some god damn patience, ok?

Laser Intertial Fusion-Fission Energy [L.I.F.E.] (May 01, 2009)

Introduction:

With constant reminders of the tenuous state of energy production and the limited nature of the fuel resources that are commonly exploited for that purpose, it should be clear to almost all of us that drastic changes involving our energy sources and methods of production are required in order to sustain our worldwide culture and society into the future.  One of the alternatives that are now coming to light is the Laser Inertial Fusion-Fission Energy (L.I.F.E.) program that is now being developed at the National Ignition Facility found at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. This research has the potential to greatly modify the landscape of both our social and scientific worldviews while providing a safe, clean, and efficient source of electricity fueled by a resource that is both abundant and not likely to become exhausted at any time in the foreseeable future. In the following pages I hope to provide a brief overview of the history and explanation of the processes involved, the program that is being developed at the National Ignition Facility, and the potential benefits that can be derived from the work that is being done.

Definitions and Relevant History:

The following paragraphs provide a basic working understanding of the process of nuclear fusion as well as a very brief overview of the relevant steps that have led to the development of the program housed at the National Ignition Facility.

In the 2008 report “Fusion as an Energy Source: Challenges and Opportunities” by W.J. Nuttall, fusion is defined as the formation of a stable atomic nucleus through the combination (fusing) of less stable, smaller atomic nuclei. The energy derived from a nuclear fusion reaction comes from the “difference between the nuclear binding energies of the initial and final components.” In the sun, fusion takes place at temperatures at around 15 million°C, whereas those in experimental reactors are closer to 100 million°C. A part of the reason for the greater temperature requirements for the fusion reactions that take place in laboratory environments here on earth as opposed to those that take place in stars is that the pressure and the mass of fuel involved is far greater in a star, and thus greater temperatures are required to produce similar reactions on Earth.

In the section, “How ICF Works” from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory website an overview of the attempts to develop internal confinement fusion since the 1940’s is detailed. In the earlier attempts magnetic fields are used in order “to confine hot, turbulent mixtures of ions and free electrons called plasmas so they can be heated to temperatures of 100 to 300 million kelvins.” With confined temperatures of that range heavy isotopes of hydrogen (deuterium and tritium) are capable of being fused into a heavy isotope of helium with a release of energy that is transformed from kinetic to heat as interactions with additional material takes place. Starting in the 1970’s, two types of inertial confinement fusion have been developed, the direct drive and indirect drive methods. The Indirect drive method is to be attempted first at National Ignition Facility, where “lasers heat the inner walls of a gold cavity called a hohlraum…” which will contain a tiny pellet of heavy hydrogen isotopes. This process is to result in the genesis of superhot plasma which radiates a uniform ‘bath’ of soft X-rays.”  These x-rays will cause the surface of the fuel pellet to heat up and ablate very rapidly while the pellet itself implodes, creating a hot spot in the center where the fusion is triggered. If everything goes according to plan, the energy production of the fusion process itself will exceed that required to power the laser and initiate the process by 10 to 100 times. Success with this objective will provide the first steps towards viable fusion-powered energy in commercial power plants.

The Program at the National Ignition Facility:

What follows is a description of both the lasers that have been developed for use in the L.I.F.E. program and the facility in which the experiments are to take place.

In the report provided by the U.S. Department of Energy in March of 2009 it was announced that the largest laser ever developed had been completed at the National Ignition Facility. This achievement is expected to increase national security, decrease American dependence on foreign oil, and usher in an opportunity to experience breakthroughs in numerous scientific fields. It is noted that this has not been the first groundbreaking achievement to be realized by those at the National Ignition Facility, as earlier in March of 2009 the National Ignition Facility was the world’s first laser to exceed a megajoule by producing more than 25 times the previous energy record with a recorded 1.1 million joules of ultraviolet energy.

“The National Ignition Facility: Ushering in a New Age for Science” found on the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory website provides a detailed overview of what the facility actually consists of. When experimentation begins in 2010 they will take place in a facility that has dimensions of a ten-story building and three football fields. Inside of this massive structure are 192 lasers which are expected to produce at least 60 times the energy of any existing laser system. Once everything is in place, approximately two million joules of energy can be targeted on the central chamber which will simulate conditions otherwise only found in cores of stars, gas giant planets, and nuclear weapons. All of this carried out for the purpose of providing “significant contributions to national and global security,” and opening the door to the possibility of fusion energy as a practical source of energy.

Potential Benefits:

While there are likely to be multiple benefits that I did not touch upon in my research, the following paragraphs sum up what I felt to be the most important benefits that we stand to reap if the research being conducted is successful.

As it states in “Inertial Fusion Energy” on the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory website, the program at the National Ignition Facility provides not only the opportunity to validate the viability of inertial fusion energy as a source for electricity, but just as importantly provides a potential energy source that  is not dependent upon rare or non-renewable resources. The fuel(s) required for the National Ignition Facility’s fusion program are “derived from water and the metal lithium, a relatively abundant resource.” Unlike the limited surplus of petroleum, coal, natural gas, and other non-renewable energy sources, heavy hydrogen constitutes “one in every 6,500 atoms on Earth…” This provides a fuel that is not only available worldwide but one that compares quite favorably with current fuel resources. “One gallon of seawater would provide the equivalent energy of 300 gallons of gasoline; fuel from 50 cups of water contains the energy equivalent of two tons of coal.”

According to the article written by Gail Overton for LaserFocusWorld, there are numerous potential benefits to be derived from the research being performed at the National Ignition Facility as well as at similar laboratories around the world. Reducing the quantity of carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere by replacing current fossil-fuel power plants with nuclear fusion power plants and dramatically reducing the amount of nuclear waste that is left behind by the presently utilized nuclear fission power plants being the two most important benefits from an ecological perspective. However, not only would nuclear fusion reduce the amount of nuclear waste compared to what is produced by nuclear fission, but once the process was underway, it could be used to, “consume the available stockpiles of spent nuclear fuel…” thereby actually reducing the amount of preexisting nuclear waste that is already a cause for concern.

Conclusion:

While there is no guarantee that the research being conducted at the National Ignition Facility will produce the results that are anticipated or that an industry developed around the process of inertial fusion energy production will arise with successful completion of the experiments that are underway, it is important that we explore new avenues and begin searching for new ways to both provide the necessary energy for our daily lives and diminish our negative impact on the world around us. There are numerous other alternatives being explored, and it may be that a combination of various energy sources is the best method available to us, but that requires that we explore these new potential sources of energy, and this paper was designed to sponsor an awareness of one particular method. If I have successfully provided a greater degree of understanding, both of the program located at the National Ignition Facility itself and of the benefits that we can hope to derive from that and related programs, then I have accomplished what I have set out to do.

UFOs and Alien Abduction (April 09, 2007)

I have never experienced anything in my life that could be considered paranormal. I have never witnessed anything that could be referred to as a UFO nor have I ever been abducted by aliens. Likewise I have never met anyone who claims to have witnessed a UFO or who claims to have been abducted by aliens. There are those who would claim that my inability to believe in such things is symptomatic of an insular frame of mind on my part. However I did not witness the “Big Bang”, I have never seen a subatomic particle with my own eyes, and I have never actually seen a distant star as anything other than the speck of light that it appears to be from Earth. I do believe in these things, because, though I cannot claim to have seen them with my own eyes, they make sense when placed into a framework with other things that I do know to be true. I believe in more than that which I have seen and experienced, but there is a degree of common sense and logic that needs to be applied to these things that remain unseen.

UFO sightings can be traced back to biblical times if some interpretations of Ezekiel 1: 4-28 are to be believed, even though biblical scholars have thoroughly addressed the misinterpretations applied to this story by individuals such as Erich von Daniken[i] in Chariots of the Gods?, a UFO fanatic’s bible. According to von Daniken, what Ezekiel witnessed was some manner of amphibious helicopter or another advanced form of technology not available to human beings at the time the story was written.

More recently, in fall of 2006, according to a report posted to the Associated Press[ii], a UFO was sighed in the sky above Chicago’s O’Hare airport, “The workers, some of them pilots, said the object didn’t have lights and hovered over an airport terminal before shooting up through the clouds.” FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory is quoted as responding, “That night was a perfect atmospheric condition in terms of low (cloud) ceiling and a lot of airport lights. When the lights shine up into the clouds, sometimes you can see funny things.”

Though there appear to be few credible arguments in favor of the existence of extraterrestrial visitations to Earth, there are many legitimate scientific explanations as to why so many people claim to have experienced alien abductions or witnessed what they insist was some manner of alien craft, the most well-understood being a phenomenon known as sleep paralysis. In her article “Abduction by Aliens or Sleep Paralysis?” a response to a Roper Poll that claimed an estimated 3.7 million Americans had been abducted, Susan Blackmore[iii] explains the phenomena known as sleep paralysis,

In a typical sleep-paralysis episode, a person wakes up paralyzed, senses a presence in the room, feels fear or even terror, and may hear buzzing and humming noises or see strange lights. A visible or invisible entity may even sit on their chest, shaking, strangling, or prodding them.

Blackmore further draws a correlation between the amounts of television an adult watched and their interpretation of how aliens would look based upon the results of a study she performed in Britain. 350 subjects, of varying ages and levels of education, were asked to relax and listen to a story about an alien abduction that Blackmore recited. Following this story Blackmore asked a series of questions and further requested that a number of the individuals taking part in this study draw a picture of the alien that they had envisioned. Though the results are necessarily ambiguous as far as confirmation or repudiation of actual abduction experiences, Blackmore does state, “These findings do not and cannot prove that no real abductions are occurring on this planet. What they do show is that knowledge of the appearance and behavior of abducting aliens depends…on how much television a person watches.”

Blackmore is not the only person to have reached the conclusion that most (if not all) experiences relating to alien encounters can be explained in terms of sleep paralysis. In an editorial piece for Scientific American, Michael Shermer[iv] states,

The most likely explanation for alien abductions is sleep paralysis and hypnopompic (on awakening) hallucinations. Temporary paralysis is often accompanied by visual and auditory hallucinations and sexual fantasies, all of which are interpreted within the context of pop culture’s fascination with UFOs and aliens.

This statement by Shermer is directly related to an alien encounter that he personally experienced while bicycling across the United States in August of 1983 during which,

A large craft with bright lights overtook me and forced me to the side of the road. Alien beings exited the craft and abducted me for 90 minutes, after which time I found myself back on the road with no memory of what transpired inside the ship. I can prove that this happened because I recounted it to a film crew shortly afterward.

Instead of operating under the assumption that he had actually been abducted, Shermer used his critical thinking skills and investigated the actual events surrounding his experience and concluded, “My abduction experience was triggered by sleep deprivation and physical exhaustion.”

Anyone familiar with the show The X-Files would probably be familiar with the poster of the “flying saucer” with the words, “I Want to Believe” emblazoned above. I can sympathize with the sentiment behind the statement. I also want to believe. I would be happy to believe that we have been visited by extraterrestrial intelligences. I would be content just to have some evidence, less profound than actual visitations, to support my belief that they are indeed out there somewhere. But I am unable to let my wistful desires influence my realistic analysis of the evidence at hand. This very desire to believe can serve as a severe handicap where our capacity to rationally assess situations is concerned. According to James Alcock[v], in the article “The Belief Engine”,

Beliefs can become very resistant to contrary information and experience. If you really believe that alien abductions occur, then any evidence against that belief can be rationalized away — in terms of conspiracy theories, other people’s ignorance, or whatever.

And conspiracy theories certainly abound when believers in UFO phenomena and alien abduction are questioned regarding the lack of substantiating evidence to support these claims. But Carl Sagan[vi] probably responded best to these conspiracy theories in an interview for NOVA when he stated, “because of human fallibility, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” I agree with Sagan’s stance completely. It is my opinion that the burden of proof lies on the shoulders of those who are attempting to make claims of an outlandish variety without any substantiating evidence.

There is very little doubt in the vast majority of those who constitute the relevant scientific fields (astronomy and the growing field of astrobiology to name only a couple) that extraterrestrial life does exist and that it has led to the development of intelligent life elsewhere. According to Dr. Frank Drake’s calculations there would be a minimum of approximately 10,000 worlds supporting intelligent life within just our own galaxy, primarily orbiting stars similar to our own and most likely found in what has come to be referred to as the galactic habitable zone. This hypothetical zone can be visualized in terms of a belt encircling the center of our galaxy meeting the conditions of being both close enough to the galactic center to benefit from a sufficiently high level of heavy elements and far enough distant that the greater propensity for asteroid and comet collisions as well as increased outbursts of radiation from supernovae can be avoided. It seems to be a viable assumption that there is other life out there, considering the sheer number of stars, even if only a small proportion of those actually harbor planets, a small number of which being rocky worlds similar to Earth.

Since 1960, thanks in large part to the efforts of Dr. Drake, there has been a growing program in place with the sole purpose of scanning the sky above us for any sign of intelligent life beyond our world. SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) has been growing not simply with a greater number of radio telescopes and subsequently a greater section of the sky being scanned at any given time, but these methods have been reinforced by implementation of equipment with greater and greater levels of sophistication, and yet according to Erik Skindrud[vii] in the article “The Big Question” he claims, “to this day no definite extraterrestrial signals have been recorded by the more than 70 radio searches undertaken.”

Many factors weigh heavily against extraterrestrial intelligence having visited our planet and these same factors work against our drive to explore and colonize beyond Earth. Distance, time, and cost-effectiveness stand in the way of our most imaginative plans of colonizing the moon or more distant Mars. Just the thought of expanding beyond the boundaries of our own solar system is almost alien when it comes to practical application. In order for an alien civilization from Proxima Centauri (the nearest star to our own) to have visited Earth this morning, they would have had to have left their own home world a minimum of 4 years ago traveling at the speed of light. Traveling any more slowly and that travel time increases exponentially. At our current level of technological advancement the resources required to undertake such a venture ourselves would bankrupt every civilized nation on Earth. An interesting question to me is, how utterly alien would another species have to be in order to overcome these limiting elements for themselves, and to what purpose?

Analysis Of the Fermi Paradox (April 01, 2007)

In the middle of the 20th century a physicist named Enrico Fermi posited the question, “Where are they?” in reference to extraterrestrial life. The age of the universe (calculated to be 13 billion years) and the great number of stars (estimated to be between 100 and 250 billion in the Milky Way alone) would imply that the universe should be teeming with life, and yet we haven’t received any confirmation of this. That apparent disconnect between what seems altogether likely, that there should be numerous technological civilizations laced throughout the universe, and that which is evident is the foundation of what has come to be known as The Fermi Paradox. Since that initial question was posed, physicists, biologists, and other scientists have been attempting to provide their own solutions to this conundrum. There are two primary schools of thought that have developed in response to this scenario. There are those who suspect that extraterrestrial life is out there, that we haven’t been looking hard or long enough, and that it’s only a matter of time before we find them (or they find us); and there are those who suspect that life is an exceedingly rare thing, and that we are unlikely ever to discover (or be discovered by) any life beyond the boundaries of this planet. There are only two ways to solve this debate, either we discover (or are discovered by) extraterrestrial intelligence or we spread throughout the whole of our own galaxy and use a process of elimination to rule out that there is or has been life around another star. So far we are doing our best to work towards that first potential solution, but we still have a long way to go.

Many problems arise when it comes to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, not the least of which being scale and time. According to recent research performed by physicist Rasmus Bjork of the Niels Bohr Institute, current calculations indicate that it would take approximately 10 billion years for a civilization to explore less than 1% of the galaxy, traveling at a tenth of the speed of light., so even if we could receive signals from another intelligent civilization the likelihood is small that we could ever reach them. Regardless of this daunting realization we do have multiple programs in place which are engineered specifically for the purpose of scanning the galaxy for any trace of life that might be there to be discovered.

The first of these programs is known as SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), established in 1960 by Frank D. Drake, who believed that water bearing planets were common in our galaxy. Presently SETI consists of a series of radio telescopes tuning into the frequencies emanating from space, in search of any kind of discernable signal that could be intelligent in origin. In an article by Erik Skindrud it is stated,

Recent discoveries have confirmed many of Drake’s assumptions. Within the past year, astronomers discovered several planets that orbit other stars. Scientists have found complex organic molecules floating in interstellar space. And NASA stunned the world with evidence that primitive life may have existed on Mars several billion years ago. (Skindrud 152)

Where signals from other intelligent life is concerned, we have yet to meet with any success, but that lack of success doesn’t dissuade individuals like Dr. Geoffrey Landis of the Ohio Aerospace Institute, “One likely reason we have not yet detected extraterrestrial civilizations by radio is that SETI searches are likely simply listening at the wrong range of frequencies” (Landis 163). Landis further speculates “It is also possible that a civilization interested in communicating across interstellar distances would not use high beamspread techniques like radio at all, but would use much shorter wavelength and hence more directed means” (Landis 163). It seems that he hasn’t been able to determine any solution to this primary problem standing in the way of SETI being ultimately effective beyond methods that would be extreme in nature,

Unless the antenna size is unrealistically large (thousands of kilometers), across interstellar distances the overwhelming majority of any signal sent by radio will be broadcast to the empty space between the stars. (Landis 163)

Cost effectiveness comes into play heavily when it comes to the methods we are capable of employing in our search.

Another of the programs that we have in place is the Terrestrial PlanetFinder, and the earlier (and admittedly, less advanced) incarnations of this same search for planetary bodies orbiting other stars. According to Alan Longstaff with the Royal Observatory Greenwich in London, “Over 120 extrasolar planets have been found orbiting 105 stars” (Longstaff 28). But finding planets is only a portion of the problem, the vast majority of the planets we are discovering are of the gas giant classification, and those are not (to the best of our current knowledge) capable of supporting intelligent life. But there is hope, according to Longstaff, “If a growing planetary system retains enough dust for the much slower building of terrestrial planets, then about half the known extrasolar systems could form Earth-mass planets in their habitable zones” (Longstaff 28).  The key, Longstaff urges, is that we look for subtle signs of life when we do finally begin examining rocky planets, that what we’re looking for are

tantalizing spectral lines of biomolecules in the light from a distant earthlike world, or structures within rocks from another planet that are not of obvious geological (or even biological) origin. When we discover any such evidence — actually, long before we reach that point — we’re going to need a working definition of what life is and how we’ll recognize it. (Longstaff 28)

Longstaff brings up an interesting point in that statement regarding our capacity to recognize life for what it is when we may have an unintentional bias towards the specific types of life that we are familiar with here on Earth. This issue is definitely one that we will need to address in great detail when it comes time to analyze potential life-bearing planets, and is one that the burgeoning field of astrobiology is taking steps to categorize.

Now that the two major programs relating to the search for extraterrestrial life have been introduced it is time to discuss where we should be looking. The subject of habitability is a major issue in our speculations regarding alien life. Assuming that we are looking for life similar to our own, we do have a rough approximation of the conditions required to produce and support that life. According to Margaret Turnbull,

Part of the search for living worlds beyond the solar system involves the idea of a habitable zone around each star. This is a region where the temperature is right for the presence of liquid water on an earthlike planet. (Turnbull 58)

This particular region of orbit around the parent star is reasonably well understood, the problem with habitability is not so much one of distance but one of time.

The first requirement — habitability over billions of years — puts strict constraints on several stellar parameters that are easily observed. Young stars are not the best places to look. Not only has life had less time to develop, but, for the first billion years or so, asteroids and comets bombard the system, frustrating life’s efforts to survive. It turns out that stars — like adolescents entering adulthood — go through a significant decrease in flaring and other chromospheric activity after an age of 3 billion years. The Sun is one such example of a star that significantly decreased its flaring activity at an age of 3 billion years. Whether this newfound calm helps life form is unclear, but, at the very least, this lets us identify and rule out the youngest stars from our searches. (Turnbull 58)

The issue of habitability isn’t isolated to the scale of a solar system however, as it has been speculated that there is a specific area of our galaxy that could be categorized as the galactic habitability belt, where the stellar bodies are far enough apart from one another that there isn’t a constant bombardment of radiation that would be deadly to life as we know it.

Ultimately I am a believer. I happen to feel that there is life out there beyond the bounds of both our planet and our imaginations and I feel that it is simply a matter of time before we find what we are looking for. Whether this discovery will happen within my lifetime is relatively unimportant in contrast to the sheer importance of the discovery itself. I do sometimes find myself wondering the same thing that Fermi did back in 1950, but I’m patient enough to accept that it will take time before I know the answer to that important question, “Where are they?”

Insane Clown Posse: The Idiocy Continues

The following is a transcript of a conversation that my friends and I had regarding the news that Insane Clown Posse (ICP) is filing suit for the labeling of their fans (otherwise known as juggalos) as a dangerous gang by the FBI and Department of Justice. I felt that the conversation was worth sharing and that it might merit some thoughts from those few of you who happen to follow this blog. Only the first names of the parties involved will be shared, because I’m not a total asshole…and I will make attempts to correct spelling and occasional grammatical errors where I happen to notice them (in addition to removing most, if not all, instances of “lol” and emoticons, while rearranging some elements to make things a touch more linear). I’m far too lazy to properly edit the whole thing though, so you can take a flying leap if you expect that much of me. Also, as a warning, we do happen to get a little off topic at points…but I opted to retain those elements by virtue of the fact that they provide a fairly honest impression of what its like to be involved in a conversation with my friends and I.

My first thoughts upon reading the article on Al Jazeera was to be appalled, not that the classification was extant but that this insipid lawsuit was actually happening. According to the same rationale here, shouldn’t Marilyn Manson have been suing the FBI and other law enforcement agencies because of the way he was dragged into the midst of the Columbine aftermath? Goths and all sorts of associated people were being labelled as dangerous criminals by law enforcement all over the nation…because those dumb shit kids happened to listen to bands like Marilyn Manson and KMFDM (neither of which happen to be goth bands, I might add). I think ICP are just a bunch of fucking crybaby pieces of shit.

Ryan: I’m not sure what they expected. They pretty much set up all of the characteristics for juggalos to conform to. It is sorta bullshit, but I never understood what was to be gained by that culture anyway.

Daniel: Well because as much as I don’t care for Manson, he is measurable more intelligent than ICP and every juggalo combined, that is why he wouldn’t have sued.

Me: It’s calling a spade a spade…they behave like a gang, referring to one another as family even if they don’t actually know one another or if they are total pieces of shit (just because they have a certain taste and style, which is essentially no different from colors associated with one gang or another), and most of them I have known are jobless criminals and junkies anyhow. Of course they won’t get hired showing up somewhere with fucking clown makeup on (which I would not be surprised is the case where the references in this article is concerned)…I was never stupid enough to wear makeup to a job interview for a reason…because I actually wanted a job. Hell, the vast majority of juggalos that I’ve met are borderline retarded, semi-literate, and irresponsible…of course they aren’t getting jobs outside of fast food chains. There are, of course, exceptions…but of the literally hundreds of juggalos I have met…they constitute fewer than I can count on my fingers.

Ryan: It’s ironic that they blame that for not being able to get a job. Yeah, that’s why.

Me: Yeah, it couldn’t conceivably be that they are unemployable morons with shitty work history, no marketable skills, and poor attitudes…I imagine that them being juggalos was never a factor at all…and that the employers in question had literally no idea of any ICP association. I can’t say that for certain…but how fucking likely is it that the potential employer(s) refused to hire these jackasses because of anything to do with ICP rather than things that would have led them not to hire anyone else without the same associations under the same circumstances?

Daniel: Exactly, Nik. when 95 percent of your audience wouldn’t drop any IQ points from free basing bleach that is sad.

Ryan: “I wore juggalo makeup to my job interview and they didn’t hire me. Fucking FBI.”

Me: “I have a hatchet man tattoo on my cheek and this law firm won’t hire me as a secretary…this is violation of my free speech!”

Me: The ACLU should know better anyhow…bringing up the issue of businesses not hiring juggalos is as stupid as arguing about free speech where Phil Robertson was concerned. Free speech has literally no relevance in that situation…or really in the FBI labeling the fans as criminals…it isn’t a violation of first amendment rights at all.

Ryan: The FBI labeling them as criminals is a constitutional violation. Not of the first amendment, but of others with regard to due process and the like. This sort of federal profiling is bullshit, but I don’t actually believe that’s actually what’s affecting them. I just think it’s a stupid waste of time and resources to put toward treating them as a criminal enterprise as opposed to the inscrutable mob of idiots they are.

Me: Well, the article makes it pretty plain that they are trying to treat it as a first amendment violation…which should get laughed out of court. The employability part really pisses me off. I have enough sense to even take my facial jewelry out for job interviews and leave it that way until I have tested the water and determined whether it will fly. That’s just common sense…you don’t show up with an attitude and there is no reason why you would share your musical taste or group affiliations (unless relevant somehow) when interviewing. There are no reasons a potential employer would know a damn thing about ICP associations if you are applying and interviewing in a way that would actually get you a job anyhow.

Ryan: Do you think they label bronies as a gang? I mean, it’s equally unthinking, and quite a bit more creepy. But it’s culturally innocent. Of course, there aren’t nearly as many bronies as there are juggalos, but give it time. Actually, I bet there’s some membership crossover there.

Me: The elusive brugalloni…I have searched for years to discover one in its natural habitat.

Kristin: Ok I changed my mind. THIS conversation has made my night! I would contribute but enjoying the read too much. Bravo! And I know some brownies. Ugh. And one thinks he is David Tennant I think he should don the grease paint first.

Me: Your auto correct changed bronies to brownies I think…lunless you are trying to discuss a transgender pre-girl scout.

Kristin: Bronies. However, I know brownies too.

Ryan: Brownies are tasty.

Me: I have known some brownies in my day as well…though I haven’t seen any little girls wearing brownie uniforms or anything in a long time…do they even still exist?

Ryan: Girl scouts do. I still see them peddling cookies here and there. I don’t know if they still use the term “brownies” or not, though.

Kristin: Fortunately none of the brownies I knew chose to take cartoons or face paint to a sub level of thought. Go Brownies!

Me: Not that you know…

Ryan: All of the brownies I know are a few inches tall and like to think those cute little arrows will prevent me from putting them in my stew.

Me: Fucking fae bastards…flittering all about…this way and that. I can’t go ten feet without stepping on one.

Kristin: And I’m ok with that! It might be in the brugalloni handbook…

Me: Not yet it isn’t…but I will be sure to at least include a footnote before I send it off for publication.

Ryan: I’m seriously considering wearing a torn blue shirt and bringing a chainsaw and shotgun to my next job interview. Free speech, screwheads.

Me: That is a brilliant idea…and I may follow suit. I want to burn some bridges. I’ll show up with a hot pink wig (poorly placed upon my head so as to allow my real hair to protrude at various points), a glittery tube top, and pajama pants tucked into knee-high stormtrooper boots…with garish red lipstick smeared all over my face and a crack pipe tucked visibly into my waistband.

Ryan: Fuck it. I’ve changed my mind. If they set a precedent for the juggalos, it’ll be a boon to cosplayers everywhere. We’ll see Deadpool and Batman driving cabs and Sailor Moon and Darth Vader handing out Big Macs at McDonald’s. We’ll have steampunk law firms and gothic school administrations. Cats and dogs, living together. The perfect world, I say.

Me: We will become the most ridiculous culture ever imagined…and we can all be free to let our freak flags fly.

Ryan: And you’ll know a creep when you see one. He’ll wear that shit like a badge. It’ll be the 48-year-old balding wad of cellulite wearing a poorly made and very stretched Rainbow Brite costume.

Me: Fuck you, Ryan. That was my plan…I am that man.

Todd: Thank you guys, this was most entertaining! I couldn’t agree more.

Me: You’re welcome, Todd. I think we’ve been having a lot of fun with it.

Todd: Except for the Bronies part, I have a documentary on that subject saved on Netflix. Have to wait to form an opinion on them until after I watch it.

Me: I have a difficult time comprehending the bronies who are simply guys who enjoy My Little Pony…but the ones involved in the erotic aspect of bronie culture sort of creep me out.

Todd: No more creepy than making being a fan of a shitty rap duo that wears clown make up into a “lifestyle.” I also thought that when Vanilla Ice became a Juggalo that it would have killed the movement.

Me: He didn’t kill the home renovation industry…so it doesn’t surprise me.

Todd: I wonder if ICP had a “blood in, blood out” policy when he changed careers?

Me: I don’t see how they can reverse the lobotomies that are a customary ritual for becoming a juggalo…but maybe there was a “blood out” characteristic that I can’t conceive of.

Ryan: They could give him a second head, and make him president.

Me: They most certainly could not…he’s no Zaphod.

Ryan: Beeblebrox, Beeblebrox, Baby. Stop! Slartibartfasttime.

Me: That was just awful! But I quite sincerely chuckled.

Ryan: MC Slartibartfast needs to be a thing. Douglas Adams inspired raps would make me one very happy geek.

Johnny: I disagree. Although the bands that you mentioned did in fact have their name dragged through the mud. “Juggalos” are in a different category. They have actually been classified by the federal government as a national gang threat. Just like the bloods and the crips. Say what you want about their music; the federal gang classification of their fans is wrong.

Me: Regardless of how wrong it might be…it isn’t a violation of first amendment rights by any stretch of the imagination and there is no place for ICP to be involved in any manner of lawsuit.
I don’t agree with the classification per se, solely because I disagree with the language in the definition that is used to categorize a group as being a violent gang…but there are correlations that do apply when we utilize the definition of gang that is in place where the Department of Justice is concerned. The prevalence within the juggalo culture of drug use and testosterone fueled aggression does qualify it as having “in part” a purpose of criminal activity and intimidation (which is all that’s required for the criminal aspect of a gang to be applied).
Sadly, they do fall fairly well into the classification of a violent gang in more respects than they don’t. Sure, not all of them are violent or prone to criminal behavior…but the same is true about Bloods or Crips, as there are numerous members who are only affiliated out of a sense of belonging and family rather than criminal enterprise.

Ryan: Statistically, if there’s a greater incidence of criminal activity among juggalos than the population at large, which I suspect is the case because drugs, then they have a foundation for that classification. I disagree with it, but I also disagree with the War on Drugs. But none of that would change the fact, if it is the case.

Me: Besides, though the FBI didn’t officially make a classification…law enforcement agencies in numerous states including Colorado and Utah did classify goths as being the same sort of loosely organized hybrid gang that juggalos are being categorized as being by the FBI as of 2011.
Similarly, schools around the country (since Columbine) have put dress codes in place that were intended to stem the goth appearance and style since that same event.
Hell, prior to that (by a few years) I was kicked out of school for nothing more than wearing black eyeliner and lipstick and black skirts. I took my complaint to the superintendent and my concerns were summarily dismissed at that level too. Hell, Joel and I, along with other friends were temporarily monitored by local police because of that whole goth thing…and concern that it was a new sort of gang that was active in the region.

Ryan: I remember that shit. Also, this is nothing to the 90s era law enforcement overreaction to gang scare.

Me: Police (including the FBI) see a pattern within a certain subcultural group that trends towards criminal or antisocial behavior (antisocial in the sense that this behavior runs contrary to the societal status quo) combined with easily identifiable signs and outward expressions of “membership” such as the face painting, tattoos, and hatchet symbols…and they would be remiss not to pursue some manner of investigation into the situation. That is what they are supposed to be doing…anticipating potential threats in order to prevent crime…not just to clean up after it has been committed.

Ryan: 33,000. Thirty-three thousand gangs in the FBI database.

Me: 33,000…damn. The fact that it includes organized crime and motorcycle gangs really doesn’t help to make that number any easier to swallow.

Andy: I agree that other sub cultures have been drug through the mud, when shit goes down. My issue with the gang classification is that people are being targeted as gang affiliated, just for being a fan of some music others can’t stand. Discriminating against a person because their choice in music sucks is where this lies.
Dubstep, Bieber, and Miley suck as well, but we don’t do the same shit to people who like them as they do ICP. I’ve heard of instant disqualification from going to Job Corps, students being forced to leave in the middle of their education because of this affiliation. It is because of their tattoos, not because they dress like the clowns, which is what everyone believes all juggalos do at all times. Eye roll.
It’s like not hiring any black people because the blood and Crips are predominantly black. Or latino because they are surenos. Or I’m going bald, so I must be Aryan race.
If nautical stars tattoos, facial piercings, or Skinny Puppy became known gang symbols, and normal people like you, or Chandra were fired for those, never to be rehired based on those….isn’t this the same?
I recall when you fought tooth and nail, against a news job, for your right to keep your piercings. Going so far as to join the religion of body mods, Hilarious. And also, kind of the same.
Now, other hand. There is a juggalo gang. They do very bad shit, and the FBI isn’t targeting good people for liking scummy music. They are trying to eliminate a problem, and save people’s lives.
I don’t know. This is such a touchy subject.

Me: That’s the problem…ultimately…that there are groups within the juggalo culture that are organized into criminal elements. It has nothing to do with the music at all, simply the self-identification that is correlated with these criminal groups. I could have a blue bandanna on in the wrong place at the wrong time and would automatically be treated as a gang member as well (regardless of the fact that I just happen to like the color blue). That’s why I said that ICP has no place being involved in any sort of lawsuit, because this has nothing to do with first amendment rights and almost nothing to do with the music as well.
This has no more to do with ICP than those assholes in Columbine had anything to do with the music they listened to. The suit is my problem…and ICP being involved in this idiotic suit screams nothing but publicity stunt and a pathetic ploy for sympathy and relevance outside of the juggalo culture that already enjoys them.
I wasn’t upset about police following Joel, Nick, and I around (sometimes with cameras)…I thought it was funny, but not upsetting. At worst, it was a waste of police resources that could better be distributed elsewhere…but they didn’t know that…and I can’t fault them for what they had no reason to know.
I almost got fired from a job simply because a co-worker took exception to something that had nothing at all to do with my job…and it damn well upset me. But I put forth a reasonable argument against that bullshit and hoped that it would make a difference…sadly, it made only minimal difference and I was still left feeling like I had been punished. You win some and you lose some though.
Let’s say I had some manner of Nazi tattoo on my body somewhere (pick one; the SS symbol, the swastika, or the iron cross)…it would be entirely justifiable for me to be fired or denied a job even if I had no affiliation with any neo Nazi or KKK-based organizations. Personal expression is great, but there can be consequences depending on the form that expression happens to take. That is what personal liberty and freedom of speech and expression is all about…we have the right to do these things but people and organizations have the right to castigate us for them. Admittedly, I think ICP produces little more than the aural equivalent of toilet leavings…though some of the early material was at least entertainingly stupid instead of just stupid stupid as it became after a few albums had been released.
I feel the same way about Marilyn Manson…though I happen to enjoy more of that material than what ICP released.
That personal taste has very little to do with my disdain regarding this nonsense lawsuit though. I loathe these flimsy and transparent publicity stunts…getting idiots riled up in defense of the indefensibly stupid.

Ryan: It actually worries me how many people misinterpret the 1st amendment to mean their expression is immune to criticism or judgement. That’s actually the fucking opposite of what it does. It allows you to voice your bullshit specifically in order for the rest of us to rip it apart and exclude you from our activities.

Me: Exactly. I can’t comprehend how the ACLU has gotten involved in this…they, of all people, should know better.

Ryan: Every lawyer in the ACLU thinks they’re David Goldberger. One of my favorite ironies is that men like him took the “never forget” idiom to heart. He defended their march not because he agreed with them, but because he knows that it’s important for people to have the opportunity to learn about them. That way they can remember why they disagree with them. I suppose that reference is a little obscure. There’s probably Google on the device anyone’s reading this on. Google David Goldberger Skokie.

Me: It’s funny…I just started thinking about how I first heard of Insane Clown Posse, as I was about ready to fall asleep. It was while I was hanging out at The Atomic Cafe that my friend Charles introduced me to ICP when I was a teenager. I can’t hold it against him though, since he also really helped to increase my appreciation of Tom Waits as well. The good definitely outweighs the bad there.
Char was actually a pretty profound influence on me during my early and mid-teens…one of the first people that I ran into in that whole crowd that I actually looked up to. It’s funny the way nostalgia can hit someone out of seemingly nowhere.

Charles: Ha, yeah…not one of my finer moments. Actually, for what it was Riddlebox wasn’t that bad of an album. The problem was that the group and the fan base both became incrementally worse. Glad to know that my influence was at least cumulatively positive.

Me: Damn right it was, Char…no concerns there.

Bob: Inductively Coupled Plasma needs more Faygo
is something I dearly hope to see someday in a fab meeting.

Me: Good lord, Bob…if I had been drinking that would have led to a spit take.

Carl: The first amendment doesn’t protect you from the public, but it does protect you from the government, which the FBI is an agency of. In this case I think it does apply. Also we have the freedom of association and assembly, and the right to fair trial (to be considered innocent until proven guilty). I don’t think the FBI is wrong for keeping an eye on the criminal elements within the culture, but I think that painting the whole culture as a violent criminal gang is lazy police work. The closest analogy I can draw, currently, would be considering all Harley Davidson riders members of the Biker Gang because the outlaw biker gangs recruit from bikers who ride American motorcycles.
I’m on ICP’s side with this, kind of. Mostly because for the most part I see the large part (but not everyone bell curves, people, bell curves) of juggalos as developmentally disabled and mentally infirm. Put less politely, the cops are picking on the borderline retarded kids. I also think that the culture is more cult-like than gang like, but those edges are definitely blurred. From my perspective, it’s a big ridiculous rock and roll cult not unlike the deadheads (who had PLENTY of criminal elements as well) that attracts, nay, courts the left hand of western society’s bell curve.
I’ll also admit that I like ICP (and have never denied it) but I’m frequently annoyed by juggalos. The kitschy ridiculous concept and ‘lets be as gross as possible’ lyrics are fun. I also like circus/carnival paraphernalia and dead baby jokes, so my tastes lay in that gutter anyway; I don’t advocate them as a group everyone should/could appreciate.

Me: I stand by my statement that ICP doesn’t have a leg to stand on where any sort of first amendment violation is concerned…no one, not the FBI nor the DOJ is infringing in any way on their rights as “artists” or anything of the sort. The worst thing the FBI (and DOJ) is doing is to classify members of that whole juggalo collective as being potential members of a potentially violent criminal element.
I totally concur that they behave far more like a cult than a gang though…the mentality is certainly more in line with that sort of activity…which would also end up meriting the same sort of scrutiny from law enforcement agencies. And a cult that capitalizes on the disenfranchised mentally challenged elements within our society is definitely something we should watch with caution…much like Westboro Baptist. Law enforcement agencies pretty carefully monitored deadheads as well…which led to probably no small number of drug trafficking and distribution busts along with quite likely a good many prostitution and solicitation arrests. I may disagree with the laws that police would have been upholding by completing those arrests (since I am pro-legalization or decriminalization of most illicit substances as well as prostitution)…but I can’t hold that against them.

Carl: With that pro-legalize consensual entertainment stance, consider that if I lend someone an ICP CD I could, pedantically, be guilty of criminal gang recruitment charges. (Not withstanding the foreseen tongue in cheek assertion that loaning someone an ICP CD should in itself be a crime)

Ryan: I’m actually not sure what the criteria is for the FBI to designate ganghood. (Lol I just noticed this story is on CNN as I type this). But judging from the wide variety of organized criminal gangs, I imagine it’s a pretty loose classification. It has to include inner city street gangs, motorcycle gangs (while taking into account that they are nothing like they were in the 60s), organized crime syndicates, and regional delicacies.
There is one thing we can all agree on, though. Dennis Rodman is a douchebag.

AJ: I have a feeling that this song is going to hurt their case…

“Do you wear a hatchetman?
Then yo in a gang, and yo ass better be ready to do that thang.
You rep tha JRB and you will never snitch.
(JRB?) Juggalo Rydas Bitch!
Did you beat your girlfriends who dissed your boys?
Did your crew’s name originate in Illinois?
Do you cross your enemies out with a “K?”
Then yo gang related too muthafucka, like Violent J.”
…that part’s gonna hurt their testimony.

Me: Yeah, whether it was written as a joke or not…it does predate the FBI classification by quite a number of years…this is one of those things that could very well come back to bite them in the massive asses that they happen to bear.

Ryan: That’s pretty damning. I’m pretty sure it’s inadmissible under the fifth if they are facing criminal accusation, but in the process of suing over gang classification at the very least they’ll look like complete idiots.

Me: I don’t know that the fifth applies to publicly made statements…

Ryan: It does. It applies to all self-incriminating statements that aren’t made in either an interrogation setting or under oath. But it also only applies if there are real criminal allegations, I think.

Me: I’m still trying to wrap my head around what the fuck they think they’re trying to do with this lawsuit bullshit. No government agency has violated any of the rights of the individuals that are part of ICP regarding any aspect of the first amendment…nor has there apparently been any sort of interference with the production team behind or distribution of their releases. They have no place in this at all…and it genuinely isn’t a violation of the juggalo civil rights to classify them as being a potential gang threat either. The police aren’t out rounding them up or anything like they have done with actual street gang members at different points.

Johnny: Because official gang designation by the US government makes having any ICP logo, tattoo, t-shirt, etc. flying gang colors. Which by itself is probable cause to stop and frisk in many states. Easily identifiable 1st amendment violation. I like ICP. But even if I hated them I would still be on their side in this issue. Because it sets precedent. Who is to say they DON’T give Marilyn Manson or any other bands fans official gang designation if this holds up?

Ryan: I don’t know. I think there’s a divide in the determination of our rights ideally and how they work in the real world. I blame movies and tv. Using the 5th as an example, tv and movie cops are guilty of coercing self-incrimination all the fucking time. You can’t just trick someone into a recorded or broadcast confession and then expect that to stand as evidence in a courtroom. The reason we have Miranda rights at all is so that we are aware we’re being interrogated when we are. Tv gets that wrong too, lol. They can totally arrest you without reading them, they just aren’t supposed to use anything you say as evidence until you hear them.
Gang classification can be bullshit. Law enforcement will use it as probable cause for warrants and other nonsense, so juggalos themselves may be able to sue if in fact that is happening and those warrants turn up nothing incriminating. But ICP themselves aren’t being hurt at all by it. It actually conforms to the public image they themselves built.
I don’t know how it’ll go down. But fuck juggalos. The NDAA is the real threat to those rights.

Me: Who gives a shit about being stopped and frisked anyhow? If you don’t have anything illegal on your person it doesn’t do anything but take up a few minutes of your day…assuming you don’t cop a stupid anti-authority attitude and make the situation worse…which, judging from the juggalos I know, is likely to happen…but that is their own damn fault. Police have a wide variety of things that fall into the categories required to justify stopping and searching people already…who gives a shit if we add a few more. Hell, just like the TSA, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we reach a point where the police are able to randomly select citizens to stop and search…and unless I happen to be in a hurry to get somewhere it is only a minor inconvenience to me. This is still a massive improvement over random stops, at least it is directed (and in a sensible manner), since there is a proportionately high number of juggalos who are involved in criminal activity…which was what led to the classification in the first place. Regarding wearing a specific brand or logo as identification with a gang, that has already been happening…there are places where the logos of certain sports franchises are associated with gang activity and you can be stopped and searched for that. I can’t say that I have ever heard of an instance where one of those franchises has gotten the ACLU involved because of it.
This is literally no different…the ICP logo or brand affiliation being cause for stop/search activity from the police is not even a step removed from the same thing happening because of a team logo or brand affiliation.

Ryan: I don’t want to be stopped and frisked. And I am adamantly opposed to stop-and-frisk policies the likes of which make NYC such a fucked up place right now, especially involving racial profiling. Juggalos probably shouldn’t be stopped for that reason alone. But if they are, they should sue, and for the proper search and seizure rights violations that would apply. And that’s not to say that they would be successful in that lawsuit. But it would certainly apply more closely to any real rights violations.

Me: I don’t relish the thought of being stopped and frisked for any reason…least of all a piece of clothing I happen to be wearing or a tattoo I have (we’ll ignore how fucking stupid I think it is to get a band’s logo as a tattoo, my friends know my thoughts on that already)…but I sure as shit won’t cry about it or feel litigious. It’s far too easy to argue probable cause on the part of the police, and I really couldn’t give much of a shit. If I happened to be arrested due to that stop and frisk, it would be my own fault anyhow…you know, for having been clearly guilty of commission of some sort of criminal activity. But no…of course…it would be the cop’s fault for searching me, not for me having something illegal on my person. We have almost no sense of accountability as a society…and I have already heard those arguments from I don’t even want to think of how many people…it was the cop’s fault…it was the fault of the person who called the police…it’s never their own fault for being involved in illegal activities.

Johnny: Yeah because none of us has ever had anything illegal in our pocket…I am afraid to be stopped and frisked. What team?

Me: Almost every major athletic franchise has a gang with association to their logo…the Folk Nation and Bloods are the most notable, using everything from Chicago Bulls to Oakland Raiders insignia and apparel…but even less well-known gangs like the Vice Lords and Black Disciples utilize athletic team logos as gang identification symbols. That sort of gang self-identification has been in practice for decades…and has led to individuals being stopped and searched due to falling into a specific demographic while wearing something with the brand in question. Of course I have had plenty of occasions where there was something illegal in my pocket…though I can say that it has probably been a solid decade since that was the case. But if I had gotten stopped and frisked for something and been caught, the last person I would have the right to be upset with would be the cop who was doing his/her job.

Kristin: I totally went to bed at the wrong time last night! Nikolas, you should print this and collage it or something!

And this is where we find ourselves now. I have just gone through the painfully tedious process of transcribing everything here with minor bits of editing to make it more readable. I hope that you enjoy.

A Fairytale for the New Year

Once there was a lovely little girl who believed, with all her heart, she was a princess. As a ruddy faced toddler she imagined she must have been stolen away from her real parents and the kingdom that would have someday been her own.

Her life was a life of drudgery and unhappy toil in the stony fields belonging to those she was forced to call mother and father.

In those rough and mostly barren fields her life wasted away, year after year, and she gradually began to forget the musings and daydreams of her childhood as the responsibilities of being a woman took up more and more of her hollow life. Those responsibilities took on a most unpleasant character shortly after the death of the stranger she called mother, as the man she called father began to treat her as a woman in ways that she struggled every night to suffer through and each morning to forget.

Life continued in this fashion until one day the man she called father was lowered into the ground as well.

She forgot about her childish musings as life took its toll, until one day she lay dying, crippled and broken from years of painful labor. It was upon her bed, while breathing her final breaths, that she was forced to recall her childhood fantasies when she recognized a familiar twinkle shrouded in the glare within the eyes of her own children; themselves bitter and resentful, finding comfort in daydreams much like her own.

Intolerance

My good friend, Carl, posed an interesting query today as to whether intolerance of bigotry and intolerance itself qualifies as just another form of intolerance that we should be working to do away with. His inquiry is based on a fairly sound substrate, that our current standards regarding moral character and tolerance might be untenable and outright unrealistic notions based on an idealistic version of society that simply cannot exist in any sort of sustained manner. I’m inclined to suspect that he is absolutely correct in thinking that a tolerant and accepting society is something that simply can’t and won’t exist (not within my lifetime, at least), but I can’t accept the hypothesis that it is hypocritical for someone to be intolerant of bigotry as simply more intolerance, leading to an increasingly intolerant environment.

Recent situations like those pertaining to Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty fame (and I use the word fame in the most disgusted sense possible) as well as an Ohio teacher who was suspended fairly recently because of racist comments both in the classroom and on public forums tend to get people riled up and they incite a lot of anger on the part of those who happen to be on the receiving end of the bigotry being spouted off by individuals who are clearly (in my opinion) not suited to be making any sort of social or political commentary due to a level of ignorance that is beyond astounding. When punitive actions are taken we end up hearing from the supporters as well, crying out about free speech in obviously ill-informed rants fueled by a total and complete lack of comprehension regarding how freedom of speech functions and what the free market means.

I’m not the most sensitive person when it comes to making comments and jokes that could be deemed offensive by people of various races, genders, sexual orientations, and the like…I’m not wired in such a way as to really recognize that I might be out of line with something that I happen to find humorous. At least I’m aware of the fact that I can be a little insensitive…or maybe a lot insensitive…it really depends on who you ask. None of those things are meant to be spiteful or uttered with hate or disdain in mind, and I certainly don’t say things like that (I will not provide examples here because I’m actually trying to avoid being a total piece of shit by sharing racist or sexist jokes or anything along those lines, this is not the place for it) with the impression that I’m making genuine, articulate statements about a person or group of people. I’m the first person to admit that if I were met with violence or some other form of negative response it would be entirely my fault…well, mostly my fault…some people just need a broader sense of humor.

I spent a while thinking about Carl’s assertion and I am forced to disagree. I don’t think it is remotely hypocritical to be intolerant of bigotry. It’s an apples and assholes sort of situation, there’s no comparison to be made. A bigot, by definition, may be someone who is intolerant of opinions differing from their own…but in the sense that we were discussing it, it was more directly related to the intolerance of individuals based on things such as race, sexual orientation, and gender. I could care less about people who are intolerant of religious beliefs or political affiliation at present, as those aren’t the salient forms of intolerance that I’m planning on discussing herein. Where it concerns politics or religion, people are very much entitled to their own differing opinions on the matter, intolerance may be a bit too extreme, but fine…people can go right ahead and dislike others for the choices they make in life, and that is precisely the point I’m intending to make.

To hate someone for something that is outside of the scope of their control (or anyone else’s, for that matter) is the bigotry I hate, and I don’t even feel like there’s anything wrong with hating it, not in the least. No man nor woman chooses the racial characteristics they are born exhibiting, our gender is similarly out of our hands (and no amount of surgery ever really changes what’s written in our chromosomes, regardless of what it might do for our exterior appearance, at least not yet), and I am a firm believer that sexual preference is not a choice (no matter how many “reformed” homosexuals the fundamentalist sorts will parade around to reinforce their arguments to the contrary). Being intolerant of those who espouse intolerance of people based upon those things that they did not choose is a perfectly rational response. In hating people for the ignorant beliefs that they express we are displaying contempt for their choices and decisions, not for who they are by no choice of their own. That is precisely why we should hate someone; why we choose not to be friends with this person or that, because of the choices they make.

We can blame it on their environment or lack of education, their sheltered upbringing, or any number of additional factors…but those cease to hold any weight outside of childhood, when the influence from our surroundings is really the only influence we happen to experience. We are not a society of isolated pockets of humanity and we haven’t been for quite some time, this is no longer a world where information is unavailable or even particularly difficult to come by. People make choices, regardless of how they were raised or where…these are simple facts of life. Environment can be used to partially explain criminal behavior from an individual, up to and including rape or murder, but it damn well will not lead a judge or jury to set someone free. Our choices are what we should be judged for, the decisions we make in life are the only things by which we can be legitimately judged. And I will damn well judge men like Phil Robertson harshly for their brazen, willful ignorance as well as the ill-informed bigotry that they spread when they speak poorly of people because of nothing more than sexual preference and race.

These people are, of course, entitled to their own opinions, and I’m not inclined to physically harm them for expressing those ignorant opinions, but I sure as shit don’t need to respect those opinions or pretend that they are somehow valid or on equal footing with opinions to the contrary.

You can agree with me or disagree with me, and that’s great…you’re welcome to feel however you like, and so am I.

It’s Been A While: More Politics-Deal With It

This is to be another political post, which makes me think that perhaps I should just get it out of my system altogether and become a politician…since I happen to be so damn opinionated on the matter and hate being an armchair political analyst. I know that plenty of you (assuming anyone actually reads these posts) have entirely different opinions from me…and that’s great, that difference of opinion is what allows for discourse to take place…without diversity of thought an opinion we have no room for meeting of the minds.

Our former mayor posted something earlier today regarding what he perceives as backwards morality from “Christians” that constitute the far right wing of the Republican Party…the invocation of Christ whenever they are rallying against issues that Jesus had no opinion on (at least nothing mentioned in the Gospels) such as gay marriage, abortion, taxes, and numerous other things while actively working to upset programs that coincide with the actual teachings of Christ (caring for the poor and the hungry, the sick and the elderly). You all know that I am not a Christian…that I’m not even remotely religious…but I do have a bit of knowledge about these things.

I initially wanted to do no more than let our former Mayor know that there are still Republicans like myself who don’t feel that these individuals speak for the party as a whole. I was going to leave it at that until someone opted to refer to Romans: Chapter 1, where there are some statements that could be interpreted as being opposed to homosexuality.

I felt it was necessary to point out that Romans was not a Gospel and did not have any statements made by Jesus attached to it. At best it was the writing of Paul the Apostle (not one of the Twelve Apostles, something that I suspect many Christians are unaware of), quite probably half a century after the death of Christ. It might also be noted that Paul was never in the presence of Christ (not being born until after Christ had died) and that his conversion came about from a vision of the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. So Paul had no firsthand experience of Christ or his teachings…in fact he actively persecuted the early Christian cult during his life up until that conversion took place; and this is the man responsible for the bulk of the non-Gospel New Testament. He was just a man, nothing more…as fallible as any other.

The individual also pointed towards 2nd Timothy: Chapter 3 and I felt compelled to point out that these verses still have nothing to do with the teachings of Christ…and are even further removed. 2 Timothy has unknown authorship but it is traditionally attributed to some random (unnamed) follower of Paul the Apostle…somewhere in the vicinity of a century after Christ’s death.

This individual then expressed that they had assumed I might believe in the divine inspiration of scripture.

I felt the need to disillusion him of that; considering that it is only in those pieces of writing that it mentioned that the scripture was divinely inspired…I question it a great deal. I question the veracity of anything that changes dramatically in meaning when translated from Hebrew to Aramaic to Greek and further. If divinely inspired, the meaning would remain constant. That is far from the case. I can write a piece of scripture today, tack on something about how all scripture is valid and inspired by god, and people are supposed to accept that? What is in the commonly used Bible today is nothing compared to what is found in the Catholic Bible, and that only consists of what a handful of humans determined would best suit their needs as scripture. Who gets to determine which scripture is valid and which is not…because neither God nor Jesus ever made any statements to that effect?

I didn’t mean to come off as being cynical there, but recognize that I really am a bit cynical when it comes to those things. I can understand how that whole statement could be considered highly cynical, and I was sorry about that. I just wanted to express my concern regarding the mindset associated with scripture being divinely inspired. Bart D. Ehrman has addressed these issues far better than I ever could, being Professor of religious studies at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill…he has been able to go far more in depth than I am able where the veracity of Biblical scripture (and especially the New Testament) is concerned. I highly recommend anyone who has the means should take the time to procure and read some of his books on textual criticism of scripture. That is neither here nor there though.

It was after this that another individual made some comments about how there isn’t really much of an actual difference between big government Republicans and socialist Democrats as far as he was concerned, and he isn’t entirely incorrect. He commented on the fact that there is no article of the Constitution that speaks of equalizing pay or for providing healthcare or education.

To me, it has nothing to do with either Republicans or Democrats really…but I could see where he was coming from.

Those of you who know me are aware that I happen to be a small government Republican. I think we need fewer laws and interferences into the daily lives of the American people. I don’t think it is the place of government (state or national) to define marriage or anything else. We need to step back and trim the fat from our overbearing obsession with legislation.

Regarding protection of wages, healthcare, education, and similar bones of contention I had to disagree…as these are issues that directly impact the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness of the very population this government was developed to protect. Those issues weren’t salient at the time this country was founded and would almost definitely have been taken into consideration by the founding fathers had that been otherwise. The US government was designed in such a way as to allow for alterations and modification with the passage of time. It has never been a static creation and wasn’t intended to be. Our government has the sole function of providing for the well being of the populace that supports it…to uphold the rights and liberties of the American population. Nowhere is it stated that we are expected to become involved in political or social reform in other nations, but that isn’t often something that we hear complaints about from the same people who are so concerned with the programs that aid the American people.

Regarding the Christian uproar from the far right wing of the Republican party as far as these issues are concerned, John Adams and George Washington were pretty clear on that very point when the Treaty of Tripoli was signed. There was no ambiguity in the wording. Those persons in the US government who are so concerned with their distorted form of Christianity and the almost rabid desire to impose it upon everyone else are suffering from delusions of what Christ taught as well as basic lack of understanding regarding the history of the United States.

That same man recognized that we are, of course, entitled to our differences of opinion and went on from there to express his concern over what he sees as an inflated Executive branch, stating, “Who needs congress when presidential decree gets the job done?”

I definitely feel that our last two presidents have set an unwelcome and disturbing precedent as far as overstepping the bounds of the office is concerned. I’m not a huge fan of our “do nothing” Congress either. It is my opinion that we need a complete overhaul of Washington, but not the variety that the Tea Party has been pushing for…the last thing we need in Washington is more people who don’t understand how the government works (or is intended to work) and who believe that Christ hated the poor and needy.

These are just my opinions of course. I am just some guy who happens to feel that some of this should be common sense.

November 2012: The Beginning of Something Special

The morning begins with a mist draping the world outside just like it has for the last 70 days. It’s one of those heavy, pervasive sort of fogs that occludes everything further than half a block away. His mind automatically drifts towards numerous horror films he’s seen as he crosses the threshold from his warm living room into the chill, almost suffocating air beyond. The atmosphere is conducive to that particular variety of musing, and he finds himself catering to it quite frequently.

It is with these disjointed thoughts fluttering through his mind that he begins walking across the dead lawn towards his car parked along the curb. He is halfway across the distance when he catches a subtle movement with his peripheral vision.

He glances towards the skeletal hedge of branches that marks the property line and sees a piece of that must have blown into it with the breeze during the night.

He turns with a momentary surge of irritation from the worn footpath to the curb with the intention of pulling the garbage from the branches, there aren’t many things that annoy him more than having stray refuse blowing around and winding up in his yard. It looks so tacky.

The bag rustles a little bit more audibly as he approaches and he notices somewhere in the corner of his rational mind that there is no breeze that should be producing the apparent motion. There’s probably an animal of some kind in there, a rodent or something, he tells himself.

He decides to exhibit a bit of caution when extracting the trash.

As he reaches for it, a pair of large arthropod limbs extend from beneath the side of the bag, causing him to jump back, startled. He watches it with unwavering attention as the limbs probe around a little bit and the whole thing shifts just slightly as additional armored appendages stretch out before the trash creature scurries away across the neighbors lawn.

It is going to be one of those days, he thinks to himself as he returns to the path towards his car, his eyes scanning the visible distance in search of any other surprises that might be awaiting him.

A Little Something To Think About

The current political climate is a horrifying thing for anyone who is capable of rational thought, neither of the major political parties inspire much faith or hope in the nation we live in today or for the future that expands before us.

What scares me most about the Republican Party as it exists today is the trend towards devolution that is so seemingly pervasive. The rhetoric that is spewed is something that should make us all laugh at the sheer ludicrous nature of it; and it might if it weren’t so truly terrifying, and made all the more terrifying by virtue of the fact that so many people are altogether too willing to accept it as fact instead of the theatrical nonsense that rhetoric (by nature) always is.

Beyond the rhetoric, though, is the subtext, and that is what is most mortifying. Racism, homophobia, and sexism abound in ways that should be appalling to everyone, not just those who are of the opposition. I used to be proud to say that I am a Conservative (capital letter intended), but there is nothing that I want more these days than to sever all ties with that hate and fear mongering culture that has devoured and transformed what was once the Republican Party.

I’ve seen Republicans point fingers at men like Robert Byrd and George Wallace as examples of the racism that was once associated with the Democratic Party, and they aren’t wrong in doing so. There is ample evidence of racism and sexism within the Democratic Party during the civil rights movement. They, of course, choose to ignore men like Jesse Helms who may have started out as a Democrat but was happily accepted into the Republican Party during the 1970′s, the party where he spent the majority of his political career. As appalling as I find any of those particular views, I also recognize that, at the time, they were pretty damn common. It was a different nation, and a different world, 40 years and more ago. That doesn’t make it acceptable by any stretch of the imagination, but it does make it a bit easier to understand. A few bad apples (or even a few dozen) decades ago doesn’t spoil the bunch today.

The Republican Party lost my support and my votes in any instance where it is pandering to the lowest common denominator like the tea party and fanatical religious right, and I’ve been hard pressed to discover any place where that is not the case. It’s fucked up that, as my Republican friends gleefully point out, during the civil rights movement it was the Democrats who were notably racist and sexist, but are now championing the rights of homosexuals and women…how times have changed. Both parties have changed since then, but only one of them seems to be changing in a positive manner anymore. America, as a whole, has been circling the drain for a good, long while, I have no doubt about that. But the GOP deciding to turn their back on progress and reality by stupidly picking up the banner dropped by men like Robert Byrd and George Wallace might be a sign that they will reach the drain ahead of the rest of us.

I’m not a huge fan of the Democratic Party, I disagree with a lot of the policies that are promoted by the party leadership, but at least they want people to be treated like people. There isn’t a widespread assumption within the Democratic Party that God has delineated certain people and lifestyles as being subhuman, and that alone is enough cause for me to throw my lot in with them in the coming election, and it should be enough for you too.

The only valid issue I’ve ever witnessed any of my Republican friends complaining about with respect to the Democrats was their short-sighted, knee jerk stance on gun control. It’s exceedingly rare that the gun violence which perpetuates their stance is perpetrated by legally obtained firearms, thus tighter restrictions are of little to no value. However, the insipid Second Amendment argument does not make their case at all. Seeing as how none of these mouth breathing, brainwashed jackasses are members of a “well regulated militia,” the right to bear arms does not apply to them. The wording was very clear in our Constitution, and it did not even ambiguously indicate that it was meant to be interpreted as a right for any Tom, Dick, and Harry to purchase and bear arms. What scares me, and makes me desire stricter laws where firearms are concerned, are these religious nut, tea party idiots having guns. I wouldn’t place a firearm in the hands of a severely mentally challenged child, and the same basic reasoning applies here.

A good friend of mine optimistically believes that all of this appalling shit (from racism to fanatical Christianity) will be ground under the feet of reason and science within the next 50 years. “Don’t hold your breath there,” is what I have to say in response. He has far more faith in human nature than I do. You can force feed facts and reality down people’s throats and it doesn’t hold a candle to feeling like they are special and that every action that they commit, no matter how heinous, is ultimately forgiven by the only judge that matters even if no other human being would ever provide said forgiveness.

The reality that we are all mortal, insignificant creatures who will be utterly scoured from the face of the universe in another couple of billion years when the atmosphere and everything else is burned away simply lacks the appeal of being eternally loved, special little beings for whom the whole universe was assembled. There’s simply no way to compete with that. We’re arrogant little fuckers, human beings, and when it comes to a choice between being special or being little more than a dust mote, most of us are going to choose the former.

I made my choice.