Signal Wave

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Good morning to all!

Just a note to let you all know: I know it's been about six weeks since I published an Outside the Asylum essay. The truth is that the logistics of my life have exploded this fall, mostly due to a veritable tsunami of doctors' appointments--my own, other people's, and even my cat's. At the same time, I'm struggling to get a pile of house projects done that should have been done two years ago when we moved in here, but I didn't want to spend the money. The upshot of all this is that, like Alice, it takes all the running I can do to stay in the same place.

Alice_queen2.jpg

By John Tenniel - Алиса в зазеркалье. Оригинальные гравюры Джона Тенниела, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14629431

I am trying to get my schedule under control. Hopefully, I will actually get some of these house projects finished, and they are the sort that should stay finished for anywhere from a year to fifteen years once they're done. Some house projects, and most housework, exists in a realm where "done" is not a viable concept, because the project that is "done" starts undoing itself as soon as you walk away from it. I'm trying to finish the ones that will remain finished for a while. If and when I succeed, some brainspace and actual space should open up in my life. I hope.

That said, here's what I've been doing lately, in the breaks between doctors' appointments and house management:

xcom.jpg

My boyfriend has been trying to get me to try XCOM for a long time. I don't usually play games that have a modern military skin; I play games for a combination of escapism and challenge, and having soldiers that look like soldiers, rather than looking like wizards or medieval swordsmen, is a bit too close to reality for me. However, XCOM is a science-fiction game oriented toward fighting alien invasion. Not my favorite kind of science fiction, but it's pretty far from Call of Duty; you're not fighting humans or human nations or anything real.

I've gone farther and farther into strategy games and am hovering on the edge of war gaming, mainly for the intellectual challenge of figuring out tactical puzzles. My brain does not behave if it has nothing at all to work on. Gaming is what I've been feeding it, as it's a purely intellectual challenge with no emotional content. The gendering of gaming is starting to bother me very slightly, as there are (at least apparently) very few women in this corner of the culture. Not that women don't game, but strategy gaming and war gaming are not where you're likely to find a lot of them.

And here's what I'm (still) watching, in the wee hours of the night when I can't sleep:

phoenixes.jpg

I can't believe there are sixty episodes of this. Phew!

As for books, I'm re-reading stuff right now:

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Interesting; I just noticed that there's a phoenix theme here! I wonder what that means.

Steven Brust is one of my favorite fantasy authors, perhaps (now that Ursula LeGuin is dead), my favorite living fantasy author. This book is the inaugural volume of The Khaavren Romances, a series Brust started because he loves Alexandre Dumas, and wanted to write in his style. So he re-wrote The Three Musketeers in a fantasy/sci fi setting. I love it. It's fair to say that any given reader will either love it or hate it, because this is how the writing style reads:

It would seem, therefore, that if we allow our readers, by virtue of being in the company of the historian, to eavesdrop on this interchange, we will have, in one scene, discharged two obligations; a sacrifice, if we may say so, to the god Brevity, whom all historians, indeed, all who work with the written word, ought to worship. We cannot say too little on this subject.”
― Steven Brust, The Phoenix Guards

Smile

Actually, that's one of the more restrained quotations from The Phoenix Guards, but apparently most people do not include the more ornate quotations in places like Goodreads and Wikiquotes. I wonder why.

How are you all today?

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phillybluesfan's picture

Today Óscar Romero (1917–1980) will be named a saint by the Catholic Church.

We who consider ourselves political progressives too often dismiss "people of faith folks" as naive or ignorant or worse.

That point of view needs to be reconsidered.

For My Sake.jpg

As Archbishop of San Salvador for the last four years of his life, Romero was a strong, public voice for the many voiceless and anonymous poor of El Salvador and Latin America. When he preached in the cathedral on Sunday mornings, the streets were empty and all the radios where on full volume, to hear truth and sanity in an insane and corrupt world.

Here is a man who suffered with and for those who suffered. His loving heart shines through clearly in his homilies:

The shepherd must be where the suffering is.

My soul is sore when I learn how our people are tortured, when I learn how the rights of those created in the image of God are violated.

A Gospel that doesn’t take into account the rights of human beings, a Christianity that doesn’t make a positive contribution to the history of the world, is not the authentic doctrine of Christ, but rather simply an instrument of power. We . . . don’t want to be a plaything of the worldly powers, rather we want to be the Church that carries the authentic, courageous Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, even when it might become necessary to die like he did, on a cross.

In his homily on March 23, 1980, the day before he was murdered, Romero addressed the Salvadoran military directly:

Brothers, we are part of the same people. You are killing your own brother and sister peasants and when you are faced with an order to kill given by a man, the law of God must prevail; the law that says: Thou shalt not kill. No soldier is obliged to obey an order against the law of God. No one has to obey an immoral law. And it is time that you recover your consciences. . . . In the name of God, then, and in the name of this suffering people whose laments rise up to heaven each day more tumultuously, I plead with you, I pray you, I order you, in the name of God: Stop the repression!

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Few are guilty, but all are responsible.”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Prophets

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@phillybluesfan Oh, wow. I'm so glad that is happening. Taken a long time.

I have great respect for all who risked and lost their lives down there, including Romero, the four nuns from the United States, and the friend of Romero's who convinced him to take the risk, Rutilio Grande. And, of course, all those whose names will never be known.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

enhydra lutris's picture

as to the tasks and such and hear you loud and clear. There's the daily stuff, weekly stuff, monthly stuff and, then, if and when you get to it and get done, there is stuff that is actually done, finished and over, for a substantial duration. Of course, a fair amount of the latter stuff is not the stuff of one hour or even one day and can become a slog at times. In the middle of that there is also the dead time, stuff that gets glued and then not only cannot be further processed for 24+ hours, but takes up your work-space with its drying presence so that you can't do anything else, either. Ditto painted stuff.

My reading is largely stalled, a ton of unread magazines and books, mostly non-fiction including a lot of science. I was into strategy and war games back in the dark ages of board games and recall essentially no women being involved. That is weird, in a way, because women are quite good at strategy, logistics, and such; certainly as good as men, on average.

At any rate, have a great day, and good luck with all the projects and chores.

Edit: fixed typo

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@enhydra lutris Even in D&D, we are a minority. Of course, D&D was spread across the world by military, essentially, and there are more men than women in most militaries--certainly in the U.S. military.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Lookout's picture

Why rush through that To Do list...there will just be more additions by the time you reach the end.

Another day, some more chores. Well at least last week I washed all our windows, but I've still got to mow once more before winter dormancy.

As to entertainment, I've been onto Ruth Rendell mysteries
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ruth+rendell+mysteries
We like to watch an episode after dinner every couple of nights or so.

Hope you escaped any storm damage. My buddies near Quincy are still without power.

All the best.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout windows a couple of years ago. Got about half way through.

So you done good!

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dfarrah

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@dfarrah @dfarrah Heh. Thanks, dfarrah. Smile

Oh. I just realized you were talking to Lookout. Well, I agree, he did do good.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Lookout We didn't even get rain! I felt a little stupid having done that hurricane prep, but you have to, don't you?

As for the To Do list, a lot of it has been doctor's appointments, and not easily postponed (most of it). Some of it had already been postponed for a long time. Smile

As for getting rooms furnished, painted, fixing or replacing the sprinkler system, etc., those are the kind of chores I crave to get done. They will stay done for a while. The others, well...I try to keep the mess around the house down to a dull roar.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

lotlizard's picture

Bavaria state election, projection
30 minutes after polls closed
35.4 % CSU – Christian Social Union; allies of chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU
18.9     Greens
11.6     Free Voters of Bavaria
10.9     AfD – Alternative for Germany; right-wing populists
  9.6     SPD – Social Democrats
  5.0     FDP – Free Democrats, laissez-faire-economics party; “liberals” (European terminology)
  3.5     Left Party (winning no seats because below 5 percent cutoff)
  5.1     other small parties winning no seats
——
Source: ZDF TV live
https://www.zdf.de/live-tv

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@lotlizard
I have a feeling Green Parties are going to become more and more relevant all over the World.

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Beware the bullshit factories.

lotlizard's picture

@Timmethy2.0  
Breakdown of election results reportedly says that in Bavarian cities of 100,000 population and over, with 30% of the vote the Greens are now the largest party there. The CSU, the classical Bavarian party, only gets 23% and the Social Democrats 10%.

The commentators all say that the Greens have “arrived in the political center in Germany.”

They already were the largest party in Baden-Württemberg, home of Daimler AG (maker of the Mercedes-Benz), where they hold the post of “minister president” (state governor) in the person of Winfried Kretschmann.

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@Timmethy2.0

become corrupt.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@HenryAWallace I never know what the "center" means, anymore.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

lotlizard's picture

Bavaria state election, projection
1 hour after polls closed
35.7 % CSU – Christian Social Union; allies of chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU
18.7     Greens
11.6     Free Voters of Bavaria
11.1     AfD – Alternative for Germany; right-wing populists
  9.5     SPD – Social Democrats
  5.0     FDP – Free Democrats, laissez-faire-economics party; “liberals” (European terminology)
            (could still narrowly fail to make the 5 percent cutoff)
  3.3     Left Party (winning no seats because below 5 percent cutoff)
  5.1     other small parties winning no seats
——
Source: ZDF TV live
https://www.zdf.de/live-tv

Preliminary seat allocation indicates a parliamentary majority for a CSU-led coalition with either Greens or Free Voters (with the latter much more likely).

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lotlizard's picture

Bavaria state election, projection
3 hours and 45 minutes after polls closed
37.3 % CSU – Christian Social Union; allies of chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU
17.7     Greens
11.5     Free Voters of Bavaria
10.3     AfD – Alternative for Germany; right-wing populists
  9.6     SPD – Social Democrats
  5.0     FDP – Free Democrats, laissez-faire-economics party; “liberals” (European terminology)
            (could still narrowly miss the 5 percent cutoff)
  3.0     Left Party (missing 5 percent cutoff, winning no seats)
  5.6     other small parties winning no seats
——
Source: ARD TV broadcast “Tagesthemen”
http://wahl.tagesschau.de/wahlen/2018-10-14-LT-DE-BY/index.shtml

Seats in state parliament (total 200, majority = 101):
CSU 83, Greens 38, Free Voters 25, AfD 22, SPD 21, FDP 11

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with "Phoenix"" in the title. It means perennial rebirth and rising the skies, even after reduction to ashes. Or, put perhaps more mundanely and less inspirationally, "Matter is neither created nor destroyed, but only changed from one form to another." (-;

Perhaps you are enjoying these works of art because of wanting that in your own life. And have it you have, you do and you shall:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vt0B0bZVM8]

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@HenryAWallace I was wondering about that. Smile

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

The Aspie Corner's picture

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@The Aspie Corner @The Aspie Corner @The Aspie Corner I can't believe how fucking stupid the liberals are being about this. The powerful show them one right wing asshole like Alex Jones and say "See? We're stopping the mean nasty man from saying mean nasty things!" and they go "YEAH! Right on!" and then, after banning Jones, the PTB go on to shut down 10 or 15 independent left-wing sites, with no fanfare. Plenty of fanfare about shutting up the evil RW bastard; no fanfare about shutting up the little, not particularly famous indie lefties.

And when you object, they tell you you're defending Jones. Or whoever happens to be the RW stalking horse that day.

It's all very well to say "Alex Jones is not the same as Caitlin Johnstone; he's not a journalist; he's a bad man; he harasses people's families." But expecting the current fascist regime (which did NOT begin in January 2017 and will not go away once the racist rodeo clown with the fucked-up hair gets yanked out of office) to use that kind of nuance in making decisions on whom to censor, is plainly ridiculous. You're dealing with a bunch of bad-faith actors. If you say "Well, it's OK to censor Alex Jones," they will use that idea to hide what they're doing a lot more of, which is censoring people like us. And across the culture censorship, as a concept, will become morally acceptable. Soon it will be normalized, and people won't even think to ask about it (like torture). Actually, we're nearly there, with the help of a lot of liberal people with whom I'm very angry at at the moment for not understanding with clarity what's being done here. This is just one more step in the transformation of the culture which began in the late 70s. Before Reagan and his 'revolution,' the idea that profit automatically justified behavior, or that morality could make no pronouncements on anything to do with profit, or that greed was good, or that being cruel to people a la Howard Stern was cool, would have left people shocked. One by one, the moral principles that resided in this culture, meagre and poorly-developed though they arguably were, have fallen, and all the left can do is say "Oh well, it was a shit culture anyway," or "We don't need to worry about censoring Alex Jones, cause he's a vicious piece of shit." Meanwhile the goalposts continue to get moved.

But hey, we've already made waterboarding somebody 187 times OK, what's a little censorship.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

The Aspie Corner's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal @Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal Sure, he might defend Julian Assange or give Ron Paul a blow job when he isn't peddling cult-level bullshit like water turning frogs gay or China staging an invasion from your local walmart, but beyond that, he's on the same level as Jim Bakker and Billy Graham.

He only managed to avoid being removed from shit sites like Facebook and Twitter because he was good for business. For capital. You know, the guys he both defends and whines about in the same breath. Especially when it comes to their wars. Business has never cared about the meaningless concept of free speech unless they can make a buck off of it. And since it's now become trendy to lambaste death cults like the NRA (Because they are also bad for business, remember), Jones, in their eyes, became toxic.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@The Aspie Corner I don't care what he contributes. It's not about Jones for me. Jones is what the powerful use to justify their silencing of thousands of voices. They could use Mickey Mouse or Hitler for all I care. The point is that they are not trustworthy and they are not doing anything moral, not even by accident. They are hiding profoundly immoral acts behind the screen of shutting down Jones' cruelty.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@The Aspie Corner WHAT?? The Atlantic Council is Facebook's FACT CHECKER? For. Fuck's. Sakes.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@The Aspie Corner This argument about FB, Twitter, etc. being private companies and therefore having the right to censor is an exact parallel to the argument about the Democratic Party being a private club, and therefore having the right to determine their candidates without reference to the party's voters.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@The Aspie Corner It's not about defending Jones' freedom of speech. It's understanding what the powerful are currently doing, and the tactics they are using to do it, and justify it to the public.

They are using every left-wing or liberal belief they can repurpose as a mask for their increasing authoritarianism and centralization of control into a tiny minority's hands. They have to revise what those left-wing beliefs are, of course, and remove any inconvenient aspects. Feminism, for instance, must have nothing to do with any material conditions except the material condition of being raped or sexually abused. All the rest, including abortion, have been wiped out. It's difficult to fathom that thirty years ago there was discussion within feminism whether capitalism itself was anti-feminist, whether a feminist society could be capitalist, whether feminism required opposition to all or most war, whether feminism necessitated a different relationship to the planet that extraction. All of that is gone. Even the anti abuse and anti-rape discourse that remains has shifted, in the sense that it is not directed solely or primarily by victims or their lawyers, but by corporate media and social media (not sure I should even make a distinction there).

Similar things have happened to anti-racist discourse. The connection between racism and money, racism and wealth, and racism and poverty are now nearly unspeakable. If you talk about the connection between racism and poverty, you are likely to have someone tell you you are a racist stereotyping black people as poor. Wall St targeted blacks and new immigrants with their "ghetto mortgages" (their phrase), yet we have Hillary Clinton saying "Breaking up the banks won't end racism, will it?" to resounding NOs and cheers. Even the power analysis of the relationship between the police and black people in this country has had the volume turned way down on it; where you once heard a lot about cops murdering and tormenting black people if you tuned into a conversation about racism, now you just hear about redneck Trump supporters and the fact that they fly the Stars and Bars and want a statue of Stonewall Jackson downtown. The fact that everyone was practically beside themselves with delight over the Black Panther movie, which had a poor Black man who grew up in Oakland and wanted a worldwide revolution against racism as THE BAD GUY and a bunch of African royalty in a magic African version of Galt's Gulch as the good guys shows exactly where liberal discourse now lies: the traditional forms of liberalism are, at this point, all of them repurposed to serve the aims of capital, the war machine, the fossil fuel extraction industries, and the police state.

This is done to make it near impossible to voice a genuinely left-wing opinion in this country, because you can either cheer on the distorted versions of left-wing beliefs and causes--which means that you're supporting the current homicidal, and indeed psychotic power structure--or you can critique those distortions--in which case, you're liable to look like you disagree with the old liberal verities about race, gender, and sexual orientation. If you choose the latter, you will be called a bigot or at least a right wing sympathizer, and some of the people who see you that way will genuinely believe it. Which is the worst of all, because it divides people of good will. The sockpuppets and trolls, especially the paid ones, can fuck off; the real damage they do does not lie in their insults but in the ways their discourse effectively sets good people at odds, making it seem that one cannot pursue the old left-wing goals AND be against bigotry of all kinds.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

lotlizard's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal  

a bunch of African royalty in a magic African version of Galt's Gulch as the good guys

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@lotlizard What's even worse is that the good guys' ally in that movie? A white CIA agent. He's one of the goodies. That nasty black man who grew up in Oakland and wants a revolution...he's the baddy.

After all, all the good black people are living in gated communities like royalty, aren't they?

Yes, another thing about Wakanda is that it essentially has Donald Trump's immigration policy.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

lotlizard's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal  
turns out to be a former (?) CIA agent who met the Grand Councilwoman, leader of the Galactic Federation, years ago during the Roswell UFO incident . . .

Darned if a key plot figure don’t always turn out to be workin’ for They Who Must Not Be Named.

Also . . .

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/21/business/media/michelle-obama-book-to...

That $3,000 isn’t really for a goodie bag and a seat in the first row at a book reading. It’s how you get your foot on the first rung of the ladder in the extremely selective screening process that is a prequisite qualification for admission to Wakanda.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@enhydra lutris Thank you, e.l.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

lotlizard's picture

Bavaria state election
official preliminary final result
37.2 % CSU – Christian Social Union; allies of chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU
17.5     Greens
11.6     Free Voters of Bavaria
10.2     AfD – Alternative for Germany; right-wing populists
  9.7     SPD – Social Democrats
  5.1     FDP – Free Democrats, laissez-faire-economics party; “liberals” (European terminology)
  3.2     Left Party (missing 5 percent cutoff, winning no seats)
  5.4     other small parties winning no seats
——
Source: Süddeutsche Zeitung
https://www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/amtliches-endergebnis-sechs-parteien-...

Turnout: 72.4 % of approximately 9.5 million eligible voters (2013 turnout: 63.6 Wacko

Seat allocation in parliament (total 205, majority = 103):
CSU 85, Greens 38, Free Voters 27, AfD 22, SPD 22, FDP 11

New government will almost certainly be a coalition of the CSU and the Free Voters.

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janis b's picture

@lotlizard

but not surprising for the very Catholic Bavaria. Unfortunately it probably won't include the Green Party, which won half of the number of votes the leading party won, and 6% more than the Free Voters. Unfortunately, it looks like a good number of its residents/voters will not be represented.

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lotlizard's picture

could be deliberately instigated by a rogue scientist after all? Without, of course, the possibility of remediation through time travel?

https://futurism.com/smallpox-synthesis-pandemic

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@lotlizard
i'm sorry, but was there some doubt about this?

wait until the eco-hackers get serious about it. even since before crispr it has been inevitable that someone will someday do something really, really nasty.

though i used to think the first big hack would be some clown cloning the necessary genes into dandelions so that they would produce THC (and miscellaneous other cannabinoids). now, i don't think that will be necessary, so instead, some terrorist will fuck us up bad.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

i took creative writing classes, back in the undergrad days.

had i ever submitted a sentence such as that you've cited, i would have been crucified.

i found it odd that so many years after both modernism and post-modernism, after frank lloyd wright dynamited the "rules" of architecture, after joyce dynamited the "rules" of the novel, after ionesco and beckett dynamited the "rules" of theatre, after stravinsky dynamited the "rules" of music ... that somehow, everyone wanted to worship at the altar of hemingway, transforming his style into dogma. most of the books i read as a youngster were written before hemingway went to war, or at least before his influence had distorted american writing. (check out the original nancy drew books -- hard to find, but they've been reissued as special editions -- if you want to get a taste of what even children read before hemingway banished the adverb and the subordinate clause.)

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@UntimelyRippd Well, I hate to admit it, but I mainly like The Phoenix Guards' style because I think it's funny.

That said, yes, Hemingway-worship became a thing. Not his social commentary, but his style. Like most forms of worship, it tended to stifle diversity.

Personally, I think my favorite style would fall somewhere between Hemingway and Dumas. Joyce is like taking acid: a good thing if applied properly, but not something I'd want to do every day.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
extremely unorthodox fictional prose. for one thing, it seems a bit twee ("hmm, yes, aren't i a clever fellow?"), and for another, it's too much damned work -- i'm more interested in the story than in the style. but i figure, if joyce can get away with that and yet be deemed a brilliant writer, then how can someone be criticized merely for writing in a 19th-century style?

the only "rule" should be, make it work.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@UntimelyRippd At least in the case of Finnegan's Wake, Joyce was attempting to have a psychological effect on the brain of the reader, and not just a "What the hell is this?" effect. It was meant to engender anti-authoritarian thinking. He meant well.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

ggersh's picture

and what if we are those aliens.....just sayin

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley