My Collected Writings on history, science fiction, philosophy, and women.
I guess I can’t really blame my neighbour for what happened. You see, I’d been out of town for the past week, and the endless crying in The Human Centipede is rather convincing (the plot and dialogue are another matter). As far as my neighbour knew, my girlfriend had been home alone when the screaming started, and can you really expect a single mother to intervene? And I guess I can’t really blame the police, either. As far as cops go they were decent enough. Of course they took the throwing star my brother given me the day before, fresh...
So I’ve been hanging out at the government run Health and Wellness Centres lately. Not for any sort of legitimate reason, mind you, I just lounge in the waiting area so-as to upset the squares and remind them of what a Free Man looks like. Anyway I was reading The Party Line, a free magazine for the Canadian Mental Health Association, when I came across the following quotes: The WHO ranks mental disorders as the number one disability claim in Canada, with depression being the most common. These disability claims have been on the rise for the last 10 years…...
For those of you unfamiliar with the event in question, which occurred at the start of the long weekend, Thunderfoot’s video will get you up to speed. Standing up for free speech and pissing off religious zealots are always Epic Win in my book – I’m just sorry I didn’t get my drawing of Slayer, Alice Cooper, Satan, and Bon Jovi rescuing 6 year old Aysha done in time. Guys like Thunderfoot are doing a great job of promoting Classical Liberal values in a society where Tolerance is far too often conflated with Respect, resulting in a black and vile...
One of the many reasons I can’t stand the Insane Clown Posse is that I’m a Big-Into-Science kind of guy. I can say things like “allele variation over generations in a changing environment” without stumbling, I can explain exactly why the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics is bullshit, and one time I choked a guy half-to-death for daring to utter words in my house which were deeply anti-science. “Do you have any idea,” I whispered, staring into eyes full of white-terror, my hands squeezing his trachea, “just how badly I’ve always wanted to kill a man? And how goddamn tempting...
It’s been a while since I posted. Last month was awful, and it was capped off with a trip through Canada’s socialized medical system. After my friend got a referral from an outside Expert, I arrived with him at the Emergency Room of one our nation’s Fine Hospitals. 9 hours later he was finally admitted, and they began a rigorous course of testing for Heart Disease and Swine Flu – neither of which were the reasons he’d come there in the first place. At first I kept myself amused by playing with any of the equipment I could get my...
President Obama’s 2010 State of the Union Address was last week, and now that I’ve had a few days to mull it over I figured I’d write about it. No, I’m not going to talk about the specific policies he mentioned – the SOTU’s big, looking at the tactics is a waste of time. Something like this calls for a strategic analysis. Video here; Transcript here. I’ve never watched a State of the Union Address before; I’ve read summaries of them, but never actually watched one. And the first things that stood out to me about this one was the...
“The thing is, at some point you have to balance the rights of the individual versus the needs of society.” His statement left me stunned. I’d invited this tax collector into my home on good faith, and when he wasn’t praising the intricacies of World of Warcraft, he was busy uttering the vilest musings it’s ever been my misfortune to hear. “I mean, you’ve got to think about China – we need to compete with their worker class, and we won’t be able to do that without locking up citizens for victimless crimes.” China. Now there’s a moral barometer. I...
I was walking down Glasgow Street, two blocks off of Duke, when the pills began to kick in. “You’re looking a bit light-headed,” said the merchant who was eyeing me, “Don’t worry about that,” I said, “I’ll be fine. I’m a professional. Just hurry up with that damned bagel.” The clocks were striking nine, as I recall, and the cold April air was doing nothing to improve my temperament. My blood’s not thick enough for this part of Oceania, I’ve never been able to wake up properly in this climate. The pep pills have a tendency of giving me the...
I really like this image. It neatly sums up my feelings about the current political climate with a minimalist, visceral approach. But at the same time there’s an implicit premise here which can be used to justify the current regime. It’s best summed up by one Ed Giorgio: “We have a saying in this business: ‘Privacy and security are a zero-sum game.’” [Sources indicate that after the interview Giorgio proceeded to savagely rape a howler monkey before defecating on the Bill of Rights.] With monsters like this in government, we’re lucky to have clear thinkers like security expert Bruce Schneier...
I’ll be honest folks, I don’t like mentioning this – on the one hand, the beast that betrays freedom creeps, it comes on from all sides, attacking those that nobody cares about… But Goddamnit, I just don’t like talking about the smoking bullshit. I’m biased about it all. So instead, let me tall you about Robin Hanson. The man ain’t no true Libertarian – 90% of the time he agrees with us, but the other 10% of the time, well… He believes in efficiency, not liberty. Nine times out of ten he’ll say freedom is the true route, but that...
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