How I joined an Army of 54,000 Social Justice Warriors

We have gone where no MRA has gone before.

I suppose it was inevitable.

The toxic reach of the reactionary culture war has now officially affected over 54,000 people thanks to an Internet drama started by the jilted boyfriend of a game designer that is called "Gamergate".

According to Wikipedia, Gamergate is the latest battle in the culture war, as those fearful of change rallied behind the dubious banner of defending "video games journalism".  This was correctly debunked as a smoke screen to hide the nasty MRA and anti-semite roots of the people behind the "movement".  In other words it's the latest in a series of political scams originating from the fringe right to exploit the gullible, in this case naive gamers who think feminists are stealing their video games.  Kinda like the Gun Rights folks, but with World of Warcraft.

My experience with close encounters of the creepy sort, having been the target of a political fraud, it comes as no surprise that many of the players have been exposed as liars, Holocaust deniers or tolerant of exploiting children sexually. Oh and trans-phobia cranked up to the stratosphere. In fact this cluster of symptoms seem to be a reoccurring recipe for the Libertarian conartist with delusions of grandeur.  As I saw this toxic nightmare leaking into my Twitter feed, all sorts of alarm bells went off.  If you've been tricked and manipulated by fringe political propaganda before, and you've managed to see through it and escape, its not hard to spot.  I worried for a bit that no one could connect the dots.

Thankfully real journalists were on the ball once enough information got out.  It was all a con, from the start.  Gamergate's mainstream credibility is destroyed.   And it gets sleazier and sleazier day by day, as it embraces the MRA element publicly.  (Ironically, the Gater charade brought more attention to feminist issues in the computer and tech industries than Sarkeesian's videos ever did)  The only people left will be hardcore cultural warriors with nothing left to lose.   That's what the media needs to watch out for:  people radicalised by the Gamergate movement who will act out violently.  Nazi apologists and propagandists pioneered asymmetrical attacks with devastating results.  And it's already been proven Nazi apologists are part of the core of Gamergate culture.

So why am I writing about Gamergate now, as it's cultural relevance declines into the Internet toilet?  Because some idiot has decided to put my name on this SJW blocklist that has over 54,000 people. (!)

For those who haven't followed github, this is a response to Randi Harper's excellent ggautoblocker that made a truly amusing ruckus from Gaters who don't know how to computer.   Now they think they'll retaliate by blocking what they think are SJW(Social Justice Warrior) accounts, little realizing most so called SJW's will be thrilled not the be sealioned by Gaters. 

Making me wonder if Gaters can really be that dumb.  Or could there is another goal behind the SJW blocklist?   Like making a data base of people to stalk and harass with death threats and worse like they did with Zoe Quinn and Anita Sarkeesian?

That's why I'm finally blogging this.  It is not my first rodeo with fringe right lunatic con artists, and these people are never as clever as they think they are. As a result, I have a scorched earth policy with anyone trying to start trouble.  It didn't end well for the last conartists that unwisely recruited me into their political scam and it won't end well for anyone afterwards.

My advice to the "leaders" of Gamergate?  Only contact people who want to be involved with your "project".  Leave everyone else alone.

For once take the smart way out.



Steven Colbert with Anita Sarkeesian

L.P.D.: Libertarian Police Department By Tom O’Donnell

When ever I need a laugh at the insane antics of Right Libertarians--which, for practical purposes in the States means anyone supporting the racist, conspiracy ridden, Libertarian Party--this article  never fails to deliver:

I was shooting heroin and reading “The Fountainhead” in the front seat of my privately owned police cruiser when a call came in. I put a quarter in the radio to activate it. It was the chief.
“Bad news, detective. We got a situation.”
“What? Is the mayor trying to ban trans fats again?”

“Worse. Somebody just stole four hundred and forty-seven million dollars’ worth of bitcoins.”

Read on:

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/l-p-d-libertarian-police-department

Found at Something Awful Forums, where one can also see it's possible to break free of Libertarian brainwashing:

 OP, I used to be you. Maybe not quite as masochistic, in that I didn't go around inflicting my terrible ideas on strangers, but everything from the content of your ideas (though I was much more hardcore Objectivist and would have sneered at your wishy-washy ancap bullshit) to the way you present them is hilariously familiar to me.

This will probably have no impact on you, but: you are wrong. Objectively wrong. Your understanding of 'society' as an entity is simplistic nonsense.

As a simple example: you are able to have this conversation because someone, at some point, thought it worth the effort to teach you to read and write. This is not a universal value, and not necessarily provided in the absence of a well-maintained society that values literacy. There are plenty of places in the world where literacy is not valued, and thus not universal. You happen to live in one where it is.

The idea that you could, in any way, discharge the debt you owe to the society you're a part of is absurd. You can't. It's not possible. You will go to your grave still deeply in the red to that society. But that's okay; the rest of us have agreed that people should be allowed to run a negative balance for their entire lives, and we include you.

I'm not going to bother expanding on this point (yet, anyway) because I have a strong suspicion that you're going to read it, identify a few key words to fixate on, argue against what those words suggest to you, and fail to think deeply about the actual content of this post.

Because ten years ago, that's what I would have done.

If by some chance I'm wrong about that, let me know and I'll give you the whole dissertation on your relationship to the abstraction we call 'society', and how the libertarian understanding of that relationship is shallow and self-serving.

 Well said.

The Strain and the "Plot Device That Must Not Be Named"

I'm enjoying the TV adaptation of Del Torro's "The Strain".  But I have to say, after three episodes, with genre savvy clues in abundance, one element strains (hah, hah) credibility:  the lack of one character using the "V" word.

And I don't mean "Voldemort". 

Perhaps it's set in a world without Ann Rice.  Or any vampire legends whatsoever.  But it's starting to get a bit silly:

I'd expect a snarky gallows humor joke about the V-A-M P-I-R-E-S by now.  

I am enjoying the show, especially the subplot between the Holocaust survivor and the Nazi(boo, hiss).  But I'm looking forward to a character who will state the obvious...this looks like VAMPIRES.

Maybe it'll happen tonight.

Rita Skeeter covers the 2014 Quidditch World Cup Finals

 Well, it had to happen.  What ever else she is, that woman is a survivor.

In JK Rowling's recent Pottermore story, Skeeter covers this year's Quidditch World Cup, though some muggle at Today Books claims this is an imaginary sport event.  Well, if it's so imagniary how come I've got advanced tickets, huh? 

Oh, muggles are supposed to think it's imaginary.  My bad.  Fortunately the Ministry of Magic hasn't discovered the Internet or I would be so in trouble with the Wizard Cops. 

Catch up on the latest gossip about the Boy Who Lived...happily ever after!

Dumbledore’s Army Reunites at Quidditch World Cup Final
By the Daily Prophet’s Gossip Correspondent, Rita Skeeter

READ IT HERE.

 

The Disney Animal Run

 Needless to say I was cursing the lack of a camera during this event.

 Everyone is familiar with the musical singing Disney princess trope:  animals popping up to be helpers of our heroine in her time of need, or just to be a Greek chorus of moral support.  Even people who have never seen a Disney fairy tale movie know about them. Perhaps they ventured down the Aisle of Deadly Pink in the toy department.  Few return from that dreadful place unmarked.

But rarely does one expect a Disney animal ensemble during one's morning jog. 

Mind, the animals weren't actually singing, at least not so's I could hear.   Nor were they particularly helpful or encouraging.  They were just there... strangely tame-like.  Perhaps they were taking a break from someone's else's musical in progress.

First there was the squirrel in the small play park where I do my pullups and situps.  She or he was cheekily sitting on the top of a garbage bin, watching me go to and fro from the water fountain... right next to it.  I suppose it's used to being fed, but at 6:00 in the morning?  There were other squirrels ...wising keeping a proper distance of several yards between them and the human.

When I went to get my last drink before resuming my run, this little bugger disappears inside the garbage bin.  Keep in mind this is one of those bins with a round hole in the center of a metal lid.  I peered in to see the hint of a bushy tail underneath a pizza box. 

Not quite the same can, but just as cheeky

Okayyyy.  This was probably the exact same squirrel holding a burnt out firecracker several weeks back.  Running with a rough crowd , so it is.   It'll come to a bad end, mark my words.

On I go, the birds chirping in the air.  okay, it's morning, we expect the birds to chirp.  What we don't expect is a vole to scamper from a field in front of us and back.

A vole?  Now these rodents aren't that high on the food chain and have it in their interests to avoid loud lumbering animals...like the jogger huffing and puffing up hill on the gravel path by it's field.  Why would it even go in my direction... unless it was about to burst into song?   Obviously it forgot it's lines and was so embarressed it ran off.

He just wants to SING

Then the Pièce de résistance, the big Rogers and Hammerstien finish... with a small flock of crows.  I'm nearing the house and two are on the street, one is on a power line, all cawing away.  Then they fluttered a short distance to a different power line.  A ginger cat bursts from the foliage(aidez moi?) and the crows do another chorus.     And they followed that cat across the street and up a hill.

Not so much singing as bitching

Now most people might think this could all be explained  by something silly like the cat had wandered near a tree with a nest and the crows were chasing it off.

But I know better.  It was at the end of my run, so it  had to be the big musical finish of my Disney Animal Run.

Marilyn Manson's Mother Passes Away

I just heard that Marylin Manson's mother passed on:

Marilyn Manson is mourning the death of his mother, Barbara J. Warner, who died Tuesday at the age of 68 after suffering a long battle with dementia.

 An obituary published on the CantonRep.com website notes "Barbara J. Warner, age 68, passed peacefully on Tuesday after a long battle with dementia. She was a wife, lover, mother, and friend who will be missed forever."

 I've been a "fan in absentia" of Marylin Manson ever since his eloquent interview in Michael Moore's "Bowling For Columbine":

Michael Moore: If you were to talk directly to the kids at Columbine or the people in that community, what would you say to them if they were here right now?
Marilyn Manson: I wouldn't say a single word to them I would listen to what they have to say, and that's what no one did.

And:

Marilyn Manson: The two by-products of that whole tragedy were, violence in entertainment, and gun control. And how perfect that that was the two things that we were going to talk about with the upcoming election. And also, then we forgot about Monica Lewinsky and we forgot about, uh, the President was shooting bombs overseas, yet I'm a bad guy because I, well I sing some rock-and-roll songs, and who's a bigger influence, the President or Marilyn Manson? I'd like to think me, but I'm going to go with the President. 

He shoots and scores. 

I don't know how many idiots I've met who confuse pop culture influence with actual political power.  I suppose it's easier to blame an entertainer--Manson, Angelina Jolie, Paris Hilton--than buckle down and write ones congress critter or learn how to politically organize.  Manson nails it: his influence on popular culture is unquestionable, but to conflate that influence with the power of passing legislation or declaring war shows the politicians and pundits using Manson as a scapegoat were being deliberately dishonest and obtuse...because they knew better.

All water under the bridge....though I should probably get around to actually listening to Manson's music one day.

Many sympathies for your loss, Sir.   

RIP  Barbara J. Warner.

The Geek Roundup Season Finales: Once Upon a Time, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Grimm

I'm a bit behind on thoughts and reviews I planned, so I'm going to do this lot in one batch before the memory fades:

Remember when you thought you left the gas on? This is worse.

Once Upon a Time: "There's No Place Like Home";  Very Good.  Exits the season with a timey-wimey episode that involves Emma and Hook going into the Pillar of Fire vortex triggered by Zelena's death.(Note to Storybrook residents: when the bad guy or girl you've just defeated makes a construct for their evil scheme  destroy it utterly before going to celebrate at Granny's).

It could have been tedious or rife with bad cliches, but it was all well done, espcially seeing Hook jealous of his past self who also has a thing for Emma.   Robert Carlyle is in good form as old Rumple( Emma re Hook:"You've sorta buried the hatchet." Rumple: "Yes, but why isn't it in his head?"), and it's a relief it takes less time than usual in timey-wimey stories to convince him they're from the future.  Given magic is a reality that makes sense, but writers of genre shows often forget that.(Both Star Trek Voyager and Next Generation had bright spots of awareness).    Rumple and Belle finally marry and I hope I was seeing Rumple replace the fake dagger he tricked Belle with(Bad Rumple!) with the real one so their marriage mostly starts out on the right foot.

It sucks that the woman Emma and Hook rescue from the Regina the Evil Queen turns out to be Regina the pseudo-reformed antihero's boyfriend's formerly dead wife, but this is a chance for the character to grow.   It will be beyond tedious if the writers try to "make her evil" once again.  I suspect Marion is doomed anyway.  Tink may be a rogue fairy, but my impression is the fairy dust itself never lies.  So unless it works only in one direction, Robin and Regina are "meant for each other" in the OUAT universe.  Of course in real life everyone has multiple people that could make long term happy relationships.  It would be a refreshing break for the writers to incorporate this is the OUAT universe:  "Yes, Regina, I feel you're my soul mate, but I love Marion too and, well, she got here first."

I've no clue who this Frosty/Frozen/Snow Queen person is at the end, though fandom appears to be deeply impressed.  Love the idea, Snow Queen, with maybe a bit of Queen Jadis (A blizzard in June?  Strange weather in Storybrooke!), but I'm less impressed with the cheezy blue and sequined dress.  Come on, snow/ice theme villains have a meme that works: white, ice, sparkle.  That's a crystal sparkle not glittery.  Any variation had better be knock your eyes out awesome to pull off.  This just made me think "what"?

Boring place holder while I hunt down the episode for a screenie.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.(last time I type it with periods) first season finale, "Beginning of the End": Out-fracking-satnding.  So much awesome in it I know I need to watch it again for bits I missed.  Highlights include May kicking Ward's ass,  Nick Fury back from the grave,   Deathlock getting free and a quintessential Joss Whedon fake-out playing with our expectations: when the highly modified and motivated Garrett turns out not be be dead and drags himself out of his metal box into the supper soldier machine to modify himself into a near invincible killing machine, he has only enough time to chew the scenery a bit before Coulson blows him away.  Absolutely brilliant.

Also, they seem to be distancing themselves from the hokey HYDRA meme, which is fine by me. They imply Garrett was a rogue, rogue agent, but whatever.  He's just random  atomic particles now.

Aww...it looks so sweet.  You know it can't last.

Grimm: "Blond Ambition"; Very Good.  Joining a line of genre shows(okay, oneish) with not so perfect weddings. The good news is neither Monroe or Rosalee  were visited by a time traveling version of themselves warning them to break off the marriage to save the person they love[Buffy reference].   Neither does Rosalee burst into song.   But what does happen is Adalind goes thru with the de-Grimming program for Nick.  Her "reasons" don't even make sense--"get back at " Nick?  His mum who saved her and her baby.  And  there's no guarantee she'll get her kid back after this.  In fact all she's done is burn bridges with all the people who had some sympathy for her.  It's the only weak bit in this episode:  is Adalind really that stupid and gullible? She must be the charms of the deliciously evil Alex Denisof, who does villain very, very well.  Now, when he's on the screen, I almost never think about that "Rogue Demon Hunter" .

Truble leaps into awesome form, heroically trying to save Nick but, alas, is too late.  It doesn't help when she crashes the wedding and the guests see her as a Grimm and go nuts and break the green potion stuff that would have saved Nick's Grimmness.  I predict next season there will be lots and lots and lots of research at the Magic Box, er, Rosalee's shop.

We're left with a cliff hanger on weather Sean will survive being shot--which almost guarantees he will. Come on, his Hexenbiest DNA has to count for something.  But then that didn't help Adalind's mother and she was just cut with glass.

I'm personally pleased Wu is being set up to come into the Masquerade...and look forward to the royal bitching out he'll give everyone for letting him think he was going crazy.  Except for maybe Hank, they all deserve it.

All is all an enjoyable ep, and solid setup for the next season. 

These three make up for the mixed ending of "The Tomorrow People", which was a victim of that Dark and Sinister Force in the Universe known as their own writers.  Never able to break out of their After School special plotting, they doomed the show, even though the ending hints at a future.  Maybe they think they'll be picked up by Syfy.  The show and actors may deserve a second chance, but the writers need to have that very honest dicussion about their flaws and limits that George Lucas never got when he made "Phantom Menace".

A more worthy candidate for Syfy that was also cancelled in "Almost Human".  Great show, great chemistry, but went out with a whimper on their last episode.  Of course, since Fox played the eps out of order in what fandom understandably suspects was an effort to sabotage the show,  we don't know if that was supposed to be the "last" episode.  I'm willing to give TTP another chance is they find a home, but if there's a choice between TTP and Almost Human is the higher quality show.

Alas, now veiwing will be dry a while as I wait for "Sleepy Hollow", "Doctor Who", and "Walking Dead" to return.  Though there still is "Continuum" to keep me company.  Perhaps now I'll take the time to explore another well talked about show I simply didn't have time for:

"Supernatural"?   "Barely Human"?  Or actually check out "True Blood" or "Game of Thrones"?

We'll see.

It's Hitler's Birthday

 Dear Adolf,

Just a little something to show we haven't forgotten you:

Easter Eggs for Hitler

Hoping you're still burning in Hell,

Hugs!

 XOX



Pic from Facebook.

Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D: "Providence"

Things get (sorta) better.   Hydra may not be less hokey, but Whedon and company poke fun when they can: 

"HAIL HYDRA!"
"You look like a West Texas cheerleader at a pep rally."

We're also introduced to Eric who, while looking like a gamer geek, is highly competent and asking, nay, demanding, all the right questions.    (Hi, Coulson.  Who the fuck are these people  and why should they be trusted?) 

Ward continues to show he's a smarmy, backstabbing git, Coulson still hasn't let May out of the doghouse, and Flower Girl?   

Raina's going to be bummed to learn the toothfairy isn't real either.

I dunno what to make of Flower Girl.  She wasn't alone bizarrely attached to the idea Garrett aka the Clairvoyant had real psychic powers, but geez, she acts like she just learned Santa Claus isn't real.   How can someone that naive and trusting be willing to work for KAOS, er, I mean, Hydra?

Where the hell are we again?

So after dragging everyone in the middle of nowhere, getting inside Fury's super duper secret base, Sky gives the game away as soon as Ward calls to see what's up.   Of course it's not Sky's fault, no one knows Ward is Hydra, but it's excruciatingly painful to watch.  I guess the writers just want us to know how good Ward is at evil.

Not just evil, but happy evil

 Meanwhile, Garrett makes a deal with the newly released Quinn for access to the mini McGuffin, er, gravitonium.

*beat*

  Gravitinum? Anyone wondering why the word "hokey" features in these AOS reviews?

Anyway, Ward and Garrett agree to use Ward's hotness to manipulate Sky into decrypting the other McGuffin.  Oh boy.  Can't wait.

Side note, I've recently starting watching the remastered "Get Smart" series. Every time KAOS is on screen Hydra is never far from my thoughts.  That is how hokey Hydra as a concept remains.  Fortunately the characters, especially Coulson and Sky, capture my interest enough for me to hand wave Marvel's hokeiness...for now.

Speaking of hokey, I know what "Agents of Shield" needs to spice things up:  exploding paint. 

Paint that explodes by vibration..BOOM

How I've been feeling about the last couple episodes

I'll send a can to Hydra FedEX.

Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D.: "Turn, Turn, Turn"

 Spoilers!

I've been enjoying Agents of Shield.  At fist I read much second hand whinging at AVClub,  no amateurs at the sport.   At the same time I knew a friend who was following it  with little complaints.  Then I discovered (some how I missed this) that Joss Whedon was involved and I said to myself, "Just wait one bloody second."

I am a Joss fan, and I was perplexed at what could be the problem.  But looking back it wasn't surprising.  His flagship series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, had one major hurdle before I become a faithful fan for life:  the title. 

"Buffy the What?" I said when I first became aware of it in the late '90's.  I continued in fan philistinism until I was finally assimilated sometime in late 2001.  And that seems to be a pattern for Joss projects:   a slow immersion, then a sudden awareness of awesomeness.  From that perspective the dismissive 'tude re AOS made sense.  Give it time and it'll build momentum...it's the Joss way.

So I gave it a shot and was reasonably entertained and not prone to nerd rage until "Turn, Turn, Turn."

There's this baddie called the Clairvoyant, who is not a guy stuck in a wheelchair,

nor the ruthlessly competent, but personally cold, Agent Hand(my personal choice),

But Coulson's old war buddy Garrett.

To which I said, "Um, okay".  But I liked him....

It worked well enough for me because we didn't know much about him besides what Garrett and Coulson said, and people can change for the worse.  But when we discover HYDRA is behind all the rubbish, and then Ward of all people turns out to be a HYDRA agent, that was just too much.

HYDRA was a fictitious terrorist organization introduced in the comics in the 60's with projected red scare written all over it:

HYDRA is a criminal organization dedicated to the achievement of world domination through terrorist and subversive activities on various fronts, resulting in a fascist New World Order. Its extent of operations is worldwide; always attempting to elude the ongoing counter-espionage operations by S.H.I.E.L.D. HYDRA is funded by Baron Strucker's personal fortune, based on his recovered hoard of Nazi plunder from World War II, and funds established by the original leaders of the Japanese secret society that became HYDRA.
The organization is run with behind-the-scenes direction by Baron Strucker, alias Supreme Hydra. Under him is a central ruling committee; under them are individual division chiefs, and under them are the rank and file members and special agents.
In order to become a member of HYDRA, an individual must be a legal adult willing to submit to a thorough investigation of the applicant's personal background and to swear a death-oath of loyalty to HYDRA and its principles.

 Death oath? 

This is where I have a problem.   What worked in pulp comics in the sixties, is hokey as hell today.   It doesn't appear as if HYDRA or it's raison d'tre has been revamped to make it a plausible choice for a well intentioned extremist or naive dupe to swear a "death oath".  I'm really having trouble keeping a straight face on that one.  What's this New World Order(are you serious?) going to do for everyone that makes a "death oath" worth it?  I can think of several scenarios, usually of the bait and switch cult variety, but I'm not getting that's the direction they're going.  They seem to be playing this straight and it's too hokey for words.

 This is the seal of HYDRA:

Isn't it cool?  I mean, on a cool scale of 1 to 10, it's at least a 12.   Yay for coolness.  But...

Is a it believable that a normal, sane person, with no fanatical tendencies, would swear a "death oath" to any organization that had this logo? 

"Oh yes, I really believe the nice people with the skull and tentacle seal just want to make the world a better place.  This will end well."

Seriously?  Ward in no way fits the profile of someone deranged enough to believe this. 

I'm not alone in feeling this direction is not true to the character; fandom is desperately holding out that it's a clever ruse, and Ward's really a double, double agent and Hand isn't dead, having been simply stunned.  Alas, I believe people will be disappointed.  I fear they're playing it straight on this one.

There were other missteps leading to this moment: Hand suspects Coulson, so she's going to kill everyone on the plane?  Coulson's idiot decision to keep May, a combat expert, in cuffs while they are under attack and it has been determined, whatever May did, it had nothing to do with the Clairvoyant.  And, my personal annoyance, the idea that the Clairvoyant had psychic powers at all.  Yes, it's possible since this is a universe with super powers, but it really shouldn't have been a stretch for anyone to wonder if SHIELD had a good old fashioned mole and that's how the Clairvoyant was "clairvoyant".  So on top of this we have HYDRA now. 

Meh.

My personal suspicion is this is MARVEL's call; Whedon and crew can only operate creatively within Marvel's parameters and Marvel, for whatever reason,  is invested in the hokey retro HYDRA meme.

Ah well.  I'll continue watching and hope for the best.

Japanese sleazebag vandalizes Anne Frank books

In March the Asian Reporter had a story on what can only be Japanese Nazi sympathizers, vandalizing Anne Frank books[Download here] :

300+ Anne Frank books
vandalized in Tokyo libraries

 TOKYO (AP) — Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl and scores of books about the young Holocaust victim have been vandalized in Tokyo public libraries. The damage was mostly in the form of dozens of ripped pages in the books. Librarians have counted more than 300 damaged books at 31 municipal libraries since the end of January.

Guess this puts pay to the idea that Japanese or anyone involved with a Japanese can't be a racist.  The article goes on to remind us of Japan and Germany's alliance during WWII:

Japan and Nazi Germany were allies in World War II, and though Holocaust denial has occurred in Japan at times, the motive for damaging the Anne Frank books is unclear. Police are investigating.

The historical alliance aside, it's still boggling that anyone would feel this motivated.

More recently arrests have been made:
http://time.com/24885/man-arrested-in-anne-frank-book-vandalism-in-tokyo/

Man Arrested in Anne Frank Book Vandalism in Tokyo

• Associated Press

 March 14, 2014  10:13 AM ET

 

(TOKYO) — Police on Friday arrested a man for allegedly tearing pages out of books related to Anne Frank at a Tokyo library.
More than 300 books related to the Holocaust victim, including “The Diary of a Young Girl,” have been found vandalized recently at libraries across Japan’s capital.
Tokyo police said the man, 36, sneaked into a library on Feb. 5 and ripped pages from 23 Frank-related books, including at least one copy of the diary. Some of the ripped pages were found in a plastic bag at an unidentified house in Tokyo.
Police said the suspect admitted to ripping the pages out of the books, but that his motive was unclear. They didn't release the suspect's name.
Frank wrote her diary during the two years her family hid from the Nazis during World War II. She was 15 when she died in a concentration camp in 1945. Her father survived and published the diary, which has become the most widely read document to emerge from the Holocaust.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

One sleazebag  down.  How many more to go?  Because he didn't do all 300 on his own.

Will watch for updates.

In this Friday, Feb. 21, 2014 photo, ripped copies of Anne Frank's "Diary of a Young Girl" and related books are shown at Shinjuku City Library in Tokyo. Japanese police have arrested a man for allegedly tearing pages out of books related to Frank at a Tokyo library. Koji Ueda—AP

Socialist Snow Plow

Found at 4chan:

Strange Visitors

Visitors are lovely.  At least some visitors.  Others, you wonder what they're up to, how long they will stay and if they'll eat up all the food.

There's some odd traffic to this blog from the Netherlands.  As much as I would love to believe my musings on popular culture have circled the globe and captivated a foreign audience,  it's doubtful. My updates have been infrequent and mostly for my own amusement.

A far more likely explanation is this person is part of a group of con artists who remain vindictive even after 7 years of disassociation.  Why do I suspect this?  Because there's been a recent bout of Terms of Use violation reports and yet another attempt to contact responsible adults close to these people to resolve this.  They have long since learned to be "hit counter" shy, sending friends to view what they don't dare.  Sadly, they have not learned not to lie.

In any event, they have two associates in the Netherlands.  If I'm correct, I'm not really sure what the point is.  This blog has nothing to do with their "interests".  However, part of the con was appropriating material and ideas from people they were deceiving.   A bit like a small child mimicking adults for laughs.   At first it seems flattering.  But then one realizes how creepy it is; they mimic to hide their own writing styles and try to appropriate ideas they are too dull to come up with on their own.   

Therefore I must wonder if my visitor's goal is to exploit my intellectual property.

To whom it concerns:  This is a bad idea.  You are not invisible:

 Location:  N---------, G----------, Netherlands

This is not a proxy.  This is an individual who seems to have come by searching for the blog, not content(popular content searches involve "The Hobbit". Review of Desolation of Smaug coming soon) .

If I am wrong about the intentions of this visitor, I apologize.

If I'm right, be aware I will protect my intellectual property to the fullest extent of the law.  That includes all material on my blogs.  As unreasonable as the DMCA laws can be, they can be quite handy.

You have been warned. 

Military Female Fitness: They're doing it wrong...again

I saw this blurb in passing on Yahoo:

Marines delay female fitness plan after half fail

WASHINGTON (AP) — More than half of female Marines in boot camp can't do three pullups, the minimum standard that was supposed to take effect with the new year, prompting the Marine Corps to delay the requirement, part of the process of equalizing physical standards to integrate women into combat…

Associated Press

I'll let someone else read it all because this shite irritates me to no end.  As in 'makes my blood boil'.

Here's why:

1.  Any fit adult, or adolescent for that matter, considering military service(as in trained to kill people to defend country, fellow, soldiers and self), should at minimum have the body strength to pull their own weight up.  Imagine alligators snapping at your heels.

2.  Military weight requirements, at least when I was in (the 80's), actively made it harder for a woman the same strength as a man her size to be excepted.  If you looked at the charts, the maximum weight for my height as a female was something like 145lbs.   You can be very fit at that weight with my height IF you have a small frame.(I have a medium frame).   If you don't, that number is more like a minimum, than a max.  .The male requirements for my height max out at 170lbs, which is close to the weight I am now.  I am not fat.     Think about it.

IMO this drastic difference was a based on the flawed assumption that women were always heavier because they were fatter.    Whereas the assumption for men, much more logical, was that to have the strength to do the job, they needed to be a certain weight.  To check that was muscle, not fat, their were the strength tests.     Why that logic wasn't applied to women, I don't know.   Make the weight the same(muscle mass), use the strength test to check that it's muscle not fat.  But that leads to the second problem...

3. The military's strength tests for women, at least when I was in, seemed to be designed to get women in the military, not to make sure they could do the job.  Compare the men's PT test max of run 3 miles in 20mins(? working from memory here),  80 situps in two minutes, and 20 pullups to the women's 1.5 miles in 15 minutes,hang for 30 secs, and 50 situps in a minute.

Run 1.5 miles in 15 minutes is a MAX?  Are you serious?  1.5 MILES?  When I'm lean(about 150-155 lbs) I can blow that in my sleep.  And I'm much older than these young women who in theory should out preform me.    This is insulting.

But when you're in the service, you have so much shite to keep up with, you take your breaks when you can.  I trained to male standards, and they knew it...allowing me to coast during my tokenism influenced female PT tests.   I always maxed out the "hang"(lol) and situps. Ironically, then I wasn't as good a runner and never maxed out.  I put that down to being 120 lbs and energy starved. Even I was under the impression I needed to eat less, or at least lots of rabbit food, to be fit, believing exercising like a maniac would be enough.  It only get's you so far without ample macro nutrients(protein, etc).  I've learned since.  

So the MILITARY created a situation guaranteeing that female recruits would be weaker than male recruits.  For this conversation it's irrelevant what anyone thinks women can do, or the average fitness of females in this society(which sucks).  The only thing that's relevant is ensuring women recruited are strong enough.  This is perfectly possible.

So why'd did the military commit to this foolishness?  Off the top of my head;

1.  Quotas.  The push for gender parity made people rush for a stop gap.  And as a stop gap it would be fine.  But this stop gap thinking lingered...or malingered...decades after it was needed.   The military isn't alone in this; police departments also share this foolishness.  I deeply respect fire departments for NOT doing this.  Unfortunately not enough women are attracted to being firefighters so there hasn't been enough social pressure to change the reasons why woman lag in the strength department.  Thanks to institutions like the military and police forces wimping out this leads to another major factor...

2. Limited by fitness of recruits available.  If the tests for female recruits had been the same as for male recruits, true many women wouldn't qualify.  But that would have put pressure on other institutions, like High School physical fitness programs, to find out why.  Remember how high school PE made you a strong and fit person?  Neither do I.  I had to go out of my way to find the gym in my junior and senior years.  It wasn't complete crap, but it reflected that society was confused about how one got consistently fit.   And I'll never forget the FEMALE PE instructor who taught boys PE who believed girls couldn't run a mile.  Seriously.  No, really.  Even though I wasn't doing any real running then, I didn't buy it. It sounded very unlikely.  Weren't there women running marathons on telly?  Were they mutants or something?   So being given a pool of girls trained by people who didn't believe in them didn't help.   

This is exacerbated now by a situation where cash strapped schools systems have cut their PE programs.  This means the recruiters should expect their recruit pools of both genders to suffer.  But boys considering military service will go out of their , way are encouraged culturally to go out of their way, to find a gym and supported by friends and family.  Girls have zero, read zero, cultural support while at the same time being told eating more will make you fat, exactly NOT the thing you need to do as an adolescent trying to build muscle.

3.  Inertia.   Self explanatory. But making a pool of potential victims was never a good idea.   You would think they learned from the pathetic military rape scandal(something else that makes my blood boil).  It's not rocket surgery   :

 "Let's make a sub group of female soldiers inside our macho culture that on average is weaker than the male soldiers, encourage aggression and sexual violence (Abu Ghraib) and be completely surprised when the men start targeting their fellow female soldiers.  Surprised, I say!  How did that happen?"

Then one shining day someone got over the idea of women in combat.  Lovely.  I should give them points for trying.   *gives point*  But carrying the baggage of failures past, their first attempt wasn't as successful as they needed.  

Their solution?  Throw out the strength requirement.

OR  

Find out why some of these women didn't develop the strength and learn how all of them can.

Body strength is the deference between being a physical force or a victim.  It should go without saying to operate with confidence in a "macho" culture you NEED to hold your own, whether you're going into combat or not.  If you can't protect yourself, you can't protect your mates or country.  Frankly the military should prioritize increasing female strength requirements to have parity with male requirements if only for the safety of female soldiers.

It does make a difference.  When I was in I was never targeted for any sexual serious harassment except once one evening when it was hard to see who I was, and the guy's own mates told him to stand down.  They knew me. 

But in a backhanded was this is good news.  Half the women could qualify. At one time most people assumed no women could do three pull ups.   That means they all can if they want to AND are shown how.  

My suggestions to military fitness "engineers":

1.  Raise the weight requirements for female recruits to match males of the same height.  
2. AT THE SAME TIME, make physical tests the same for both genders.
3. Make a media announcement a couple years before easing these changes in, to inform and put pressure on educational institutions. This will give them the motive to push for funding of PE programs.
4. Respect the limits of boot camp training.  Boot camp will not "build" anyone up.  At least not physically.  There isn't enough time and there isn't enough heavy muscle stimulation followed by rest. It appears to work as a strength program for people with muscle that has gone soft and flabby, or people who haven't finished growing.       Boot camp is to train fighting conditioning.  For that you need a recruit that already has the raw physical ability.  I can say from personal experience boot camp did not increase my strength at all.  

It really isn't rocket surgery.

[Notes on text:  even though I was in the Navy, in my program we trained with Marines.  Details of my recollection about requirements may be wrong.  The author is about 160lbs, and, when conditioned, can do 6-8 pullups at a time on a good day.  In the past, up to 14ish, but I weighed less]