A Paradox

Something hit me today.

Transgenders say that genetics do not define their sexuality.

Homosexuals say that genetics define their sexuality.

I'm a bigot if I disagree with either.

Um...which is it?  Can we actually have it both ways?

Idle Threats

The world DESPERATELY needs to realize that threats are just that: they aren't actions.  The vast majority of threats running around out there are only threats in the perception of the terrified masses who choose to live in fear.  Empty threats are just words.

You can track the vast majority of today's problems to people living in fear and reacting to threats that don't warrant any concern at all.

Everything from the TSA (no, nobody has ever even attempted to bomb a plane with a bottle of hand sanitizer BUT WE MUST TAKE THEM ALL BECAUSE OF THE THREAT!) to trash talk over video games (the Carter kid, STILL jailed over a 'lol j/k' FB post, Phil Fish quitting the game industry over 'abuse', the Black Ops backlash over 'nerfing') are suffering this issue.

Folks, I used to joust with the KKK on one of their BBS' back in the day.  (Long story how I wound up there. Hint: not because I was looking to join.)  I was threatened with everything you could imagine, by people from a group with a history of violence, who had a copy of my photo ID with my name, address, etc.  Not 'internet tough guys', these were people who lived within easy driving distance.  (My personal favorite: 'I'm gonna rape you with a posthole digger, you n***er-lover!')

What happened?

Nothing.

Cowards make threats.  Dangerous people just do things.  They don't send you a lovely message detailing what they're about to do, they just show up and do it.

I'm just tired of it.  It all falls back to everyone taking everything and themselves just incredibly seriously.  If someone threatens to rape and murder my wife over some trifle in a video game, is that okay?  Of course not.  But should I get all butthurt, call authorities, and buy a handgun?  Of course not.  People who say such things, by the very act of saying them, announce their impotence and cowardice. Actual rapist/murderers don't get on the internet and threaten it, they just go rape and murder.

If you look at all of the (over) publicized acts of violence in recent days, none of them had any warning.  None of the mass shootings had threatened their targets.  (ONE guy who basically failed at his mass shooting attempt appears to have gone on 4chan and said, effectively, 'gonna shoot up a mall tomorrow, should be lulz'.  The fact that he did this on 4chan should explain why he didn't even manage to kill anyone.)

As far as I can tell, the number of times someone actually tracked a victim down over the internet as part of a rage/threat incident can be counted on one hand.

Is it a problem?  Sure, in that we have an ocean of people, mostly young males, who think it's fine to say this stuff behind the wall of anonymity.  That's a huge sign of major moral decay in society.  People who respect other humans and human life in general don't threaten someone's family over a few milliseconds shaved off the firing time of a rifle in a video game.  That's a character flaw of massive proportions.

That being said, our reaction to said threats is a sign of a breakdown on our part.  Are we raising a generation of sociopaths?  Looks like it.  Are we positively reinforcing that behavior by treating it as noteworthy and effective?  Absolutely.

So the next time someone says something horrible to you online, blow it off.  Realize that the truth is that person is well beneath your notice.  Act based on actions, not words.

The World Has Moved On

I think I know what King meant when he used that phrase frequently in the Tower saga.

I wonder if what I've been feeling lately happens to all men when they reach certain age, or a stage in life?

I feel like the world has moved on.  Things have spiraled completely out of control to the point that they no long make anything resembling sense.  Public behavior has become something alien to me. It's easy to write it off as generational, things 'kids these days' do that shocks old fuddy duddy me, but I don't think it's that simple.

I can't think of a word for it outside of 'decay'.  Things have decayed.  Logic, reason, simple common sense...driven to ground like a hunted animal.  Not just ignored, but openly targeted by the forces of ignorance and stupidity.  Orwellian stuff: 2+2 doesn't = 4, because someone says so.

Reality is what it is...but more and more I see active, aggressive attempts to redefine it based on perception.  Schrodinger's Cat nonsense.  (In case you missed the boat on that one, if you put a cat in the box, IT'S STILL IN THE DAMN BOX unless someone took it out...your ability to observe it doesn't change a thing because you're not some all-powerful deity whose sense of sight dictates what does and doesn't exist.)

I'm at a loss as to how to approach such things.  I can't abide by them.  I mean, I can't pretend to go along with the insanity.  Real is still real, logic is still logical, reason still rules the world.  But society and culture continue the march of the fool, so what am I to do about it?

I used to think commentating on it would help, but that's been disproved by many years of failure. All platforms available to me to speak my viewpoint and attempt to educate are, effectively, karaoke: everyone comes to sing, nobody comes to listen.  I used to think, hey, if I did an audio show, or a video show, or some other media...but I know full well that won't change a thing.

Is this how it always is when you get old and wisdom finally catches up to you?  Did my forefathers also look out on their worlds as they aged and see madness?  Or is it really, truly getting worse?

Another word we're abusing

This has been said elsewhere, but people still refuse to knock it off.

We're beating the crap out of the word 'assault' when used in the phrase 'assault rifle' specifically.

There's no such animal as an 'assault rifle' and there's no such thing as a rifle that's not used for assaults.

People are ignorant.  They just don't understand. I get that.  Let me help, in the hope that someone who needs to read this actually reads this.

When you think 'assault rifle' you are likely thinking of movies and TV.  Black, ugly-looking weapons spitting out bullets.  Synonymous with 'machine gun'.  

Automatic weapons (the kind that shoot lots of bullets by holding down the trigger) have been illegal to citizens in the US since the early 20th century.  If that's what you think of when you think 'assault rifle' you're already off in the weeds and making fools of yourselves when you discuss this issue.

What we have in the US are semi-automatic rifles.  You pull the trigger and one bullet comes out.  

Now, you'll notice I used a blanket statement there: rifles.  Not assault rifles, hunting rifles, etc.  Rifles are rifles.  If the rifle is made with black metal and plastic, has a pistol grip, and some fancy collapsing stock, that does not make it more dangerous, or specifically designed for killing humans. It makes it lighter, gives it a certain look, and makes it more durable for some uses.  

If a rifle has a traditional stock, a traditional grip, and is made of wood...you can absolutely murder the crap out of someone with it.  That 'hunting' rifle can kill a human just as efficiently as an 'assault' model.  

Guns are guns.  They are designed to put holes in things.  Living things, in general.  They are weapons.  

Demonizing specific rifles because of how they look is just completely silly.  There is no such thing as an assault rifle ban, because there's no such thing as an assault rifle, outside of the nonsense definition concocted by liberal politicians.

You can say you're against all guns, or none.  You really don't have a logical leg to stand on beyond that.  I know that annoying old constitution gets in your way and all, but if you think disarming people is a solution, go ahead and try.  The guys in Boston used pressure cookers.  Evil people will always find a way to accomplish what evil they wish to perform.  Always.  Nature of the beast.  

Just please, stop saying it's the fault of 'assault rifles'.  Hell, please stop using the term, because it's a plainly stupid, ignorant thing to say.

A Story and An Explanation

When I was a kid, maybe 11 or 12, I had a friend in the neighborhood.  His name was Doug, he was a couple years younger than me.  We weren't best friends or anything, he was a neighborhood kid, and we knew each other, played together, etc.

One day, out of nowhere, he comes around on his bike and just starts being incredibly mean to me.  Calling me names, taunting me, just really nasty.

After a few minutes of this, he gets off his bike and picks up this really old Sunday newspaper that had been sitting in a neighbor's yard for a long time. It'd been wet many times, dried back up after, till it was a hard, crumbly mess.

He started hitting me with it as he rode past me.  If I got out of the way, he'd throw it at me, then pick it up as I was recovering.  It hurt, badly.

During all this, I tried to make him stop.  I started by reasoning with him, asking him what was wrong, trying to find out why he was acting this way.  Then rage took over, but I was fat and he was fast and on a bike, so I couldn't catch him to make him stop.

In the end, I just collapsed on my knees in my neighbor's yard, sobbing uncontrollably.  Between the physical pain and the complete, unbridled frustration, I just collapsed inside and out.

I don't even remember what happened from there.  How it ended.

Right now, I feel exactly the same way.  No matter how much I try to do the right thing, or make things better, or help situations and people, I just keep taking the hits.  I'm completely incapable of making it stop.  And that's all I want at this point: I just want it to stop.  I'm beyond reasoning with it, I'm no longer trying to salvage the relationship (pushing the metaphor to it's limits, but you get the picture) I just want to be left alone in my impotent, helpless misery.

Feeling sorry for myself?  Yep.  Someone should, may as well be me.

Happy?

If anyone actually wonders things about me (which is a thing to doubt) I imagine many wonder why I'm not happier.  I'm funny, but anyone who has ever read or heard the life story of a comedian knows those two things really don't have anything to do with one another.  Hell, angst seems to be humor's best fuel.

I have my issues.  I have things I have to cope with.  I do suffer from depression, although the better things get in my life the less it comes up.  (I'm saying it's not always clinical depression...I'm usually at my darkest when life is at it's worst.)

That said, I'm incredibly blessed.  I have the most amazing wife in the world, the world's best stinky little dog, good friends, all the necessities of life and more.  All that, and yet I'm not one of those sunny, cheery people full of optimism and positive thoughts.

The source of my pseudonym has a bit of the answer that I'll share with you now. If anyone does wonder, this may help with that.

“Sometimes the man who looks happiest in town, with the biggest smile, is the one carrying the biggest load of sin. There are smiles & smiles; learn to tell the dark variety from the light. The seal-barker, the laugh-shouter, half the time he's covering up. He's had his fun & he's guilty. And all men do love sin, Will, oh how they love it, never doubt, in all shapes, sizes, colors & smells. Times come when troughs, not tables, suit appetites. Hear a man too loudly praising others & look to wonder if he didn't just get up from the sty. On the other hand, that unhappy, pale, put-upon man walking by, who looks all guilt & sin, why, often that's your good man with a capital G, Will. For being good is a fearful occupation; men strain at it & sometimes break in two. I've known a few. You work twice as hard to be a farmer as to be his hog. I suppose it's thinking about trying to be good makes the crack run up the wall one night. A man with high standards, too, the least hair falls on him sometimes wilts his spine. He can't let himself alone, won't let himself off the hook if he falls just a breath from grace.” Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury

It's certainly not the whole of it, but it's a part.  The weight of your actions, the weight of your temptations.

Gun Control?

I'm sure some people who have read me for years are waiting for me to say something about the gun control issue. I don't really have anything to say because the whole concept is so completely stupid that it shouldn't even warrant conversation. Same people are now saying we need to censor violent video games. Next thing, we'll be back to editing comic books and rock and roll records. It's a continuation of the culture that nobody is ever to blame for what they do, and I have zero interest in engaging anyone who actually thinks banning/controlling -anything- will stop things like Sandy Hook. If you're one of those people, I pity you, and have no idea how you make it through every day life.

Version 2.0

It may be the influenza thinking, but I'm starting this back up. Not as a strictly sociopolitical outlet, but a standard blog. Facebook does a lousy job of meeting that need, as I have much I'd like to say without being engaged by people desperately looking to meet their quota of people argued with on the internet in a given day. Facebook will be for social networking. This will be for blogging. Quite simple, really. If you read something you don't like here, stop reading. Unlike Facebook it won't just 'appear' on your list, you have to come over here and intentionally read it. Those who like it, cool. Those who don't, I'm sure there are dozens of memes involving cats or Obama or Gangnam Style that you'd just love to rage at, head back to them and work out your yayas.