the underlying themes, substances which persist

[jobefish]

I am a big Charles Bukowski fan. I love the brutal honesty of that lovely and sad man. But I am bothered sometimes when things he said are taken out of context. Like this quote. “The less I needed, the better I felt.” Take a moment to reflect upon that quote. It makes it sound as if ol’ Bukowski...

[hypokeimena-blog]

The link goes to an extremely well-written analysis of Dominionism by Katherine Yurica.

I have paraphrased the four immoral principles of the Dominionist movement as the following:

1) Falsehoods are not only acceptable, they are a necessity. The corollary is: The masses will accept any lie if it is spoken with vigor, energy and dedication.

2) It is necessary to be cast under the cloak of "goodness" whereas all opponents and their ideas must be cast as "evil."

3) Complete destruction of every opponent must be accomplished through unrelenting personal attacks.

4) The creation of the appearance of overwhelming power and brutality is necessary in order to destroy the will of opponents to launch opposition of any kind.

"We must be feared, so that they will think twice before opening their mouths." -- Eric Heubeck, author of The Integration of Theory and Practice:A Program for the New Traditionalist Movement

[hypokeimena-blog]

"George W. Bush began to wield the sword of God’s revenge with relish from the beginning of his administration, but most of us missed the sword play.  It happened quietly, with barely a mention in the media ... On December 24, 2001, Pat Robertson resigned his position as President of the Christian Coalition."

[hypokeimena-blog]

Rolling Stone Opines Re: "The Battle For The Soul of Occupy Wall Street"

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-battle-for-the-soul-of-occupy-wall-street-20120621?print=true

hmmm...

[hypokeimena-blog]

more guns != less crime

me: i got him to admit that there are no solid statistics one way or the other. the opinion "more guns = less crime" is based on a belief

me: i told him that i do *not* believe that "more guns = less crime" also precisely because there are no solid statistics one way or the other

cobra: crime isn't linked to having guns, it's linked to poverty

cobra: guns are just a tool to make it easier.

[hypokeimena-blog]

You are a monarch, like your parents before you, a ruler of a small pleasant kingdom of rivers and evergreens. Unlike your parents, however, you have hopes and dreams! You want a bigger and more pleasant kingdom ... You want a Dominion! In all directions lie fiefs, freeholds, and feodums. All are small bits of land, controlled by petty lords and verging on anarchy. You will bring civilization to these people, uniting them under your banner.

Donald X. Vaccarino's description of the mindset necessary in order to succeed at his game Dominion: "You must race to get as much of the unclaimed land as possible, fending them [several other monarchs] off along the way." (Donald's profile @BoardGameGeek.com)

[hypokeimena-blog]

Nick Herbert is a man who currently holds a position of Minister of State for Police and Criminal Justice in the UK.  his claim is that undercover police need to be able to have sex with activists, in order to make their relationship to the group more plausible.

the entire relationship between genuine activists, and a cop-undercover-as-an-activist, is FRAUDULENT in nature. the cop misrepresents himself from the inception as someone he's not, to damage the individual activists and/or to benefit the individual police officer and their case, which may or may not be sound.

it's fraud; it's coercive; it's non-consensual.

from the article:

Caroline Lucas, the leader of the Green Party ... accused the police of failing to take seriously the legal claims of eight women who said their lives had been devastated by the intrusion of undercover police officers.

[hypokeimena-blog]

yeah, there were two different endings because there were two different situations.

the underlying message we're supposed to infer here is that a proliferation of gun ownership would lead to less criminal violence.

"Carrying a gun ... may not always help". i'd like to talk more about that, and maybe try to think of ways to begin to keep situations like the theatre massacre in Aurora from re-occurring.  perhaps address what drives people (often, notably, "straight" white males) to go cuckoo and commit hideous acts of violence in the first place. i'd rather talk about that, instead of focusing on individuals' rights to tote around tools of murder.

[hypokeimena-blog]

has been my background for a while. highly relevant, always.

[hypokeimena-blog]

this is a video from FOX31 in Denver, CO. i found it originally via a RawStory article about the theatre shooting in Aurora, CO at the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises.

this person's story, and others like them, can be used (by reporters and others) 1. as evidence that civilians ought to be banned from obtaining gas masks and bulletproof shields 2. to reinforce the notion that there just happens to be senseless violence and terror in the world with no identifiable cause (and since there is no identifiable cause, no identifiable guilty party or system) 3. to further the pretense that police are the Heroes Who Save Us From Madness "he came in, he was dressed in full riot gear, had a gas mask on as well as a bulletproof vest. she [the witness in the video] said, for no reason, he took out a gun, first shot the ceiling, then he launched tear gas into the audience. she says at that point that's when there was sort of panic inside the theatre ... the hero in the story, if there is one, will be the police officer, or police officers, on the scene." -- reporter from Denver FOX