Quotes from the American Taliban

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/8/1/11724/72122

7 Mines

Testing LJ's file hosting...

Has anyone seen a 7 in Minesweeper before? And this was only on "Intermediate", which doesn't have a high density. ( Read more... )

(no subject)

I have been asked to name 5 idiosyncrasies about myself.

1. It's only the demands of the world that keeps my on anything like a 24-hour schedule. When I was younger, if left to myself, my diurnal cycles would average about 30 hours. Now I'm not sure I'd have cycles at all. Sometimes I'd take lots of short naps and sometimes I'd stay up a couple of days and them sleep lots.
2. I like the calculation/creativity called for in some board games, but I wish there were more such activities that were cooperative (collaborative, really) instead of competitive. RPGs with a very good GM can fill the bill, but they're too much work unless I play them very frequently.
3. I like driving curvy roads at speeds that don't push the limits of traction, but force me to stay alert. With a car that's got really nice suspension, it's not just the staying alert that's nice. It makes me feel like the car is a dream-like extension of my own balance and reach.
4. I like to be productive with others. Solitude is OK (but sub-optimal) for entertainment and learning, but downright difficult when being productive.
5. I'm really lousy at picking up the lyrics of songs without reading them.

How to cause a commotion

Now that I can host pics here, let's try this January post over again:



Step 1. Tie balloons to car.
Step 2. Drive like a bat out of hell....
Step 3. Watch people freak out !!!!

More Eliminationism

As reported by Orcinus/David Neiwert

Probably the most striking scene in Patrice O'Neill's excellent P.O.V. documentary currently airing on PBS, "The Fire Next Time," involves my friend Brenda Kitterman teaching her two teenage daughters how to use a handgun.

The girls were more or less forced to learn because Elizabeth, the elder of the two, began speaking out against right-wing hate groups at her Kalispell, Montana, school in emulation of her mom, and was subsequently threatened and had her tires slashed. Their family was subjected to a barrage of threatening phone calls and late-night visitations from strange men in their yard, one of them shouting at the mother to come out. The elder daughter was being followed home from her job every night.

It was part of a campaign of right-wing intimidation of conservationists and "liberals" in Montana's Flathead Valley, ( Read more... )

That's how eliminationist hate works, regardless of its target: Its aim is to threaten and intimidate not merely the immediate target, but anyone who might think of speaking out on their behalf. This cuts the target off from the community support it might normally enjoy and leaves them feeling even more isolated.

What is Fascism and when should we take is seriously?

This post is only half done, but I'm getting tired and I'm too impatient to wait until I get back from the World Boardgaimg Championships next Sunday to post it. Please comment if you wish, and I'll post more when I get back.

As I've written in other fora in the past, the notion that Fascism was rule by corporations is considerably off kilter. Mussolini, Hitler, Franco, Perón... they all oscillated between economic policies that would be considered right-wing and those that would be considered left-wing. But while the economics were pragmatic and variable, the evil politics were the essence of the system. The fascist program, as I understand it, was:

1. The nation is what matters. Individuals are merely the atoms which comprise the nation and have no other importance.
2. In modern (20th Century) times, the state is the vehicle through which the nation is realized. Therefore all power must be subordinated to the state.
3. The nation has within itself institutions which come and go over the centuries, and which over time become part of the story of the nation itself. These institutions, which are opposed by other revolutionary movements ("other" because Fascism is itself revolutionary) such as Marxism, must be incorporated into the state power structure. However these institutions (such as the nationally characteristic church denomination, plantations, paternalistic corporations, non-revolutionary labor unions, and the military elite) must have their power blunted so they cannot interfere with the great undertakings of the state.
4. Voting is an inane method of setting policy and choosing leaders. Those who are fit to lead are those who have both the physical courage and the courage of their convictions sufficient to commit -- and possibly be subject to -- violence in the name of those convictions. Groups of such men (sic) are the basic building blocks of an effective and moral state. Those who would merely show up to vote do not have the interests of the nation in mind.

( Read more... )