You Can Remain Silent

When you leave.

I’ve been following along with the news, especially the backlash retailers are experiencing with “Pride,” loosely after my apartment was flooded again at 0230EDT last Thursday morning.

I think things are kinda-sorta getting back together. We’ve got a lot of stuff that we’ve got to have hauled out, but we’re back home since Wednesday. Big thanks to my MIL for coming up to help with the cleanup and reorganization.

In amongst the chaos at home, I did watch the last episode of Vice News Tonight. I will have trouble missing it. They didn’t really say anything about that being the last episode. The episode, itself, focused on some guy who died in Mississippi under suspicious circumstances. Was he lynched? Um…he was not hanged publicly for the public to see. Nobody quite understands the circumstances of his death. But, that the Podunk law enforcement agencies haven’t spent considerable time and effort trying to find who lynched him means that he was killed like it’s still 1963. Nothing’s changed. (And that’s why it’s important that the cheerleaders for the party of Jim Eastland must come down to set things straight….)

I was more bummed about Kennedy’s departure from FOX Business. It was fascinating to see her transition from the token Republican on MTV to a Libertarian stalwart. In spite of her too-frequent dalliances with the NeoHips, I will miss her show.

Maybe I’d find something else. Maybe not. Whatever.

But back to the not paying too-close attention to the news, there’s been a bit of controversy over Twitter’s brief cancellation of What IS A Woman?. While I’m happy Elon Musk overrode his employees’ inclination to bury it, it’s still something I really just don’t care to watch.

Without the burial, there’s nothing subversive about trying to find it. I simply don’t care about the movie, or its producer.

But with the controversies about what Target has done with transgender swimwear, too, it’s something I care very little about. While I think what they’ve done is a bad business decision, there’s very little for me to do about it aside from shopping there even less than I do now.

If that makes me a bigot, great. What was your name again? Where do you like do you work? Where to you like to shop? Great. I’ll make sure I avoid those places, too.

But that’s about all I’m going to say about it.

See the title. I have the right not to participate. I have the right to deny you my business.

I’m not going to proclaim loudly either of those choices.

If you think that makes me a bad person, again, Whatever.

Feels Like Sunday

Probably because I didn’t work yesterday.

I’ve been listening to things on Substack this morning. I do really appreciate the text-to-speech feature. Reading things is very difficult with my vision the way it is

Latest listen? Justin Amash’s birthday wish to F.A. Hayek. I appreciate the sentiments, but it doesn’t square well at all with the MiCaucs; laws are just to be ignored when they don’t suit whatever whim you’ve got at the moment.

And this is why the Libertarian Party of Virginia is gone.

Working within the system of laws is too mard, for Morans, we won, so GTFO.

.

If a law, or regulation tracing to it, is unjust change it. You can’t just ignore it.

Okay, CATO, we get that the Jones Act is stupid. Help someone on the Hill to pass a bill to repeal it. (Full disclosure on this — I do donate money to CATO…)

But beyond the justification of laws and regulations, the permanence is the problem.

Like the blessed Assault Weapons Ban, or the Bush Tax Cuts, sunset them. They address a particular problem for a fixed amount of time. If they’re still needed, pass a new law that does the same thing.

You Don’t Know

So many of my thoughts come back to something from Coach Mora.

I don’t know whether The ReOpening was good or not.

I guess it’s supposed to be something done in the style of The Office. Of course, I’d watched a few episodes of it, but the humor was largely lost on me.

Kind of the same thing with the special.

I have absolutely no idea. And I can’t really judge whether it did a good job in trying to capture the spirit of the inspiration.

I don’t like eggs. I couldn’t tell you which restaurants make a good omelet.

And even if there was a place that made one of the best ones around, I wouldn’t order it because I don’t like eating eggs.

Looking around on Twitter the day after, however, the response seems to be somewhat muted. I kind of expected to see rave reviews, just like the NeoHips’ rejoicing about The Debate. But I didn’t see that sort of adulation.

I think I’ve been trying to be better at thinking that sort of way.

If that makes me not part of the team, whatever. I can believe or not believe whatever I want.

Steady Eddie

Been thinking a lot lately about Eddie Willers. (Cliffs Notes version…)

I started down this line of thinking after listening to an episode of Your Welcome where the guest posited that every single person can be best at one thing, and that it’s a good thing to promote that.

Mmm….not sure I agree. Can you be proficient enough at one thing to make yourself useful to someone else in furtherance of another goal? It Doesn’t Take A Hero. (Yes, the sorts of high school side reading that stem from being the son of an Army officer…)

Your abilities also change over time. Mine have been significantly affected (negatively) by my medical condition. So maybe I’m not what I was meant to be, what I’m best at, but I can still do various things, and derive a sense of accomplishment from doing those things that maybe aren’t my forte. But no matter what you end up doing, do it as well as you can, nad get the rewards from that.

And try to enjoy those rewards. (One of the places I really fall down; I beat myself for accolades…)

Back to Eddie, however — he’s not one of the bad guys, even if it’s not one of the incredible protagonists. He’s not stupid. I mean, in the early aughts, he might have driven a Dodge Stratus.

But that’s not the temperament he had in the book, or the movie(s).

He was always loyal to a goal set by someone else. I think there’s something admirable about that…even if he wasn’t doing the single thing at which he was best.

Return of the Mac

Background music… (And apologies to myself, or anyone who reads this in the future, for any broken/dead links; everything gets deleted, eventually…)

MacMoMo that is. On Orkut back in the day, there was a particularly-radical Islamic grad student at a university in Scotland who was particularly intrigued with the “new left,” or “Libertarian Socialists.” His first name was Mohammad, which got shortened to “MoMo.” Since he was in Scotland, that morphed into “MacMoMo.”

Cathy Young, a former writer for Reason (a publication to which I’ve been subscribed on and off since about 1995, and to whose foundation I donate money) published a tweet storm from someone I think might be MacMoMo just absolutely eviscerating the thing that seems to be an undeniable truth in the NeoHippie LP Russia Caucus, that the gas attacks against people in Syria didn’t happen.

So, who I think is MacMoMo’s rebuttal to that.

It has to be a lie to continue granting unquestioned veracity to the storylines coming from these people who’ve “taken over” the Libertarian Party. The biggest proponent, one featured prominently in the LP’s antiwar rally in DC a short time ago, claimed on another podcast that the Rwandan genocide was because of something the US did.

The source for that? Edward S. Herman. The same guy who helped write coauthored Distortions At Fourth Hand. He also wrote extensively denying what the Serbs did in Bosnia/Kosovo during the 1990s.

The evidence for those things is pretty conclusive. There’s people alive who were on the ground that you can talk to. The UN and ICC held hearings on what happened.

But it takes me back to “The Debate,” which the NeoHip bobbleheads running the LP loudly-proclaimed was won by one participant. You have to snake around the reasoning, but it’s ultimately straightforward — Everything bad that happens is because of the US.

No. That’s not true.

Then you start looking at the things that get omitted from the storylines to protect those who you admire, and who might have been at fault.

Things happen. There’s no underlying reason or cause. There’s no grand conspiracies.

That realization is very, very difficult for many people to accept.

It speaks to things like whatever happened with the Nordstream Pipelines.

It could have been the US. It could have been Russia. It could have been Ukrainians. It also could also have been an accident. But there’s Sy Hersh saying that the US blew it up!

Logical fallacy.

We’ll just gloss over contravening information about what Syria did with regards to chemical weapons.

Just leave out the parts that don’t fit, and you’ll be better off.

Um.

A similar line with the health effects of the mRNA vaccines. Any negative health thing that pops up for someone who was vaccinated is because of the vaccine.

Can’t be that there’s any other explanation. It has to be because of the vaccine.

Or not. It couldn’t be anything else, because there needs to be something immediately to blame.

Reax

I’d started writing this before the final episode of the podseries was released.

I still feel pretty much the same way I felt after hearing JKR’s final bits.

So I’m leaving this as is, and will add bits after….

I’ve been considering lately, and no shit, it’s been costing me sleep, things about the issues surrounding J.K. Rowling.

Then Richard Dawkins, hero of evangelical agnostics, came out and said that there’s only two genders. (Pls2bforgiving the CR link, but it’s what came up when I S’dTFW for it….)

This episode, in some of the Twitter discussion, was supposed to be the killshot for her reservations.

The individual interviewed in the episode described the mental health benefits that came from early transition.

But it was female to male.

I think what Ms. Rowling is concerned about is the sorts of things that only males can do.

Can a biological man be physically-abused by a female? Absolutely. But, it’s the exception, rather than the rule.

While I was working through this entry, I say this story float actroas my Twitter feed.

I fully understand why she feels the way she does about hard-fought women’s rights, safe spaces, etc., being taken over by predatory biological males.

Refusing to acknowledge that, to me, is pretty disgusting.

But it also shows a fundamental misunderstanding; people aren’t just going to assent, no matter how much damage you think you’ve inflicted with your cancellation efforts.

Leave people alone.

If there’s something made by a person you once admired, but no longer do, you have the choice. You don’t get to demand he/change it because it doesn’t comport with the views you hold at this instant. If it really bothers you that much, you can leave.

The work isn’t there to please you. It’s there to communicate whatever the artist wanted to commmunicate when he/she wanted to communicate it.

Maybe that same take isn’t there anymore. Maybe it is. Whatever. It’s not for you the consumer to change. If you don’t like it, stop paying attention.

Settling For Saturday

Odd week, but some resolution on what I’m going to be doing over the next few weeks.

It goes along with finding resolution on lots of things.

  • I think I’m permanently finished with some things and places. i just don’t have any fondness anymore. I find it a bit fascinating how you can people can just erase anything someone might have found interesting. So whatever. The Gen X comes out; I’ll find something else.
  • With that, perhaps more than is healthy, I’ve been looking into Yuri Andropov. Some of this is in reaction to the rally the LP shamefully signed its name on to in DC a few weeks ago. Growing up, and in school, I’d heard a ton about Prague 1968, but there wasn’t a lot I got on what happened in Hungary in 1956. When I was there (1993), Budapest was an interesting mix of modern and filthy. Seeing some of the more-recent pictures, it looks a lot better. But the Andropov-era scars were still around. Excuse the sourcing, but Putin loved the guy. I think there’s probably some backstory that can be absorbed from examination.
  • I haven’t watched any XFL. I will probably watch some USFL when it comes back, but the desire to watch sports is somewhere behind many other things. Again. Whatever.

That’s What You Get

Last few days has been spent watching the fallout from the Libertarian Party’s epic rally next weekend in DC. The new chairwoman, who I sort of supported heading into the LP convention last summer has, and continues, to oversee the entire party drifting past the point of embarrassing its members to embarrassing everyone who’s ever associated with them.

But one of the featured speakers, who’s since bowed out, is a dude who was trying to pick up young teenage girls on Yahoo Messenger. LMGTFY isn’t working anymore, but considering how old the story is, I’ll link the BBC story directly.

What can you do?

You can leave.

I try to stop paying attention, but things drift across my attention from time to time, and I dig in more.

One of the people I’ve been paying attention to lately is Kyle Orton. No, not the former NFL Quarterback, and inspiration for my college friend’s fantasy team name, “Orton hears a boo.”

More information about the Russian Orthodox church.

Have a bunch of confused people been convinced by former-KGB into joining a religion that’s really there to serve whatever oligarch is running Russia?

I don’t know.

But it’s a disturbing thought.

Sunday

Watching the dwindling bits of Shmoocon.

A bit intersting, but I’m having trouble maintaining focus. One of the talks about disinformation amplification was interesting. I’m hoping it’s posted online soon so Justin can view it for Fact Check This. The speaker didn’t touch too much on how the sketchy information actually feeds into the fact check sites.

Missing Context!!1!

The talk on reporting requirements (and the enabling legislation) was interesting.

Just reporting things a) may not be feasible in the arbitrary timelines, b) might actually negatively affect security, c) doesn’t fit nicely with existing bureaucracy, and; d) might not really tell anyone anything worthwhile.

It’s a shame, and has given me a new perspective on this. The hard-and-fast deadlines really might not do any good. Hmmmm…

But I keep getting distracted by other things.

First, and probably most predictably, was the latest The Fifth Column.

Major takeaways? 1. I had the same thoughts as Moynihan on the San Francisco reparations to black residents; OJ deserves reparations for discrimination he faced in his native city grown u0. 2. The anti-war advocates are proving, once again, that they’re full of shit.

That last bit goes to the disinformation talk I watched. “The Usual Suspects” seem to actually get wrapped into these Russian disinformation campaigns. The one “expert” who’s gotten quite a bit of traction among Libertarian circles the past few years, actually cited something because it had Edward S. Herman’s blessing.

Who’s that? The guy who, with Chomsky, denied the Cambodian genocide. Distortions At Fourth Hand

The are not credible people.

They spent years saying the Russians weren’t going to invade Ukraine.

Then when it happens, it’s because Nazis.

They’re also the ones who said that the US dollar was going to collapse because of the Federal Reserve’s money printing.

And nothing about the collapse of the Euro. LP National will tell you that’s also because of the Federal Reserve.

Countries whose currencies are backed by hard assets will be fine. Like Iran. Their currency is doing great. Please don’t check other news sites, and just go to AntiWar.com. (And I feel filthy for even opening that site….)

Time to watch the closing plenary, and football. Me and the micro-dog.

Afternoons and Coffeespoons

The second half of that stolen title is from my lethargy; I didn’t sleep well last night after being awoken by screaming neighbor kids around 0600.

Topics

I watched the one on the helicopter with OSINT.

The presentation on helicopters was interesting.

The speaker was a bit miffed at Elon Musk over suspending the account(s) that’d been giving out his aircrafts’ locations.

Not sure what you do about that. It’s not really economically viable to pair up aircraft the way you would cars.

I don’t like the account(s) being suspended/silenced, but I do understand why he’s doing what he does.

The ones matching the vaccine QR codes to users gives me a little bit more confidence if there’s isolation and no logging at the places of verification. Several ID factors there, and could assure privacy if there’s no record of check-ins; if the syst4em is isolated without any tallying ability. But it gets to be something like voter ID rules. Naturally, it’s racist if you have to show an ID for anything, and there’s a potential for multiple use of the ID and QR code….

But it does make me feel better than some of the more radical proposals that have been out there…..WEF, Chinese Social Credit score style things.

Still, I maintain that it’s completely inappropriate for private companies to be checking these sorts of things. In some instances, governments are forcing corporations to od it. I disagree with that.

For the companies that are doing it without coercion, fuck you. I’m not giving you money. Certainly not now, and quite possibly for the rest of my life. Your management chose to do this, and you get to live without my business. Good job.

I will not going to go to Madison Square Garden. Your management’s choices caused that. Even if there’s some sort of legal retribution, I’m out. It’s your loss. Apologies to whoever’s performing there, but they made the bed, and they have to sleep in it.

Same goes for the regional burger chain who wanted to see vaxports to even walk in the door to buy a takeout order…I enjoyed your food, but never pay for it myself, again. I also won’t come sit down in one of your stores. If someone else buys and delivers your food, I’d probably eat it, but you’ve lost me as a customer.

I’m also a bit happy I’m not there at the conference, too. If I’d paid for a ticket before the stupid mandate, I might have still gone.

But I’m not going to buy a ticket with your arbitrary decisions.

(I didn’t look at going being a bit short of money courtesy some crypto scammers who’ll remain nameless….)

I also watched the talk talk on textiles and technology.

I guess I understood where she was going at first, but she lost me at the end.

Though I’m hesitant to link to the site, they do have a good copy of the Christmas Letter.

Nobody owes you a job. Certainly nobody owes you a job where you currently live.

I’ve listened to a lot of discussion lately about how artificial intelligence will change how people work…and it’s not a bad thing.

There will always be a market for things that aren’t as perfectly-crafted as a computer would do it.

How many Amish furniture shops are around? Why would you buy from someone who crafted a piece by hand when there’s little question about whether you could actually get something of better quality that’s machine-made?

So more watching tomorrow. I 0robably should look more closely at what’s on tap.