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Epistulae Ciceronis
A Perfectly Squiffy Jag Recent Entries |
| 01:32 pm - Dogville |
| 10:14 am - Self-Righteousness |
| 01:57 pm - Political Quiz. |
( Super-long political poll )
| 01:27 pm - Castrated Men and Uptight Women. |
The other day,
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
herbaliser pointed me to a post on the Stranger’s Slog by Dan Savage regarding “nice guys” and their fear of being (seen as) pigs, centering around a letter from a 28-year-old virgin (!!). This, as many of you know, is one of my pet topics. I can’t stand nice guys. And, to be clear, I’m not talking about people who are genuinely nice; I’m talking about people who need to be perceived as nice. Men who, due to shyness, insecurity, or some misplaced ideology (think: masculine guilt) cower behind safe opinions, don’t stand-up for themselves and go out of their way to behave how they think people want them to behave. Spineless men who, inevitably, descend to either self-righteousness judgment, a victim mentality or both. These are the scumbags who think pretending to be a girl’s friend gives them some sort of priority ranking in her dating life – and then get mopey when she dates a “bad boy” (who is really just someone who is confident, assertive and willing to make the first move). If you’re reading this and it sounds at all familiar: grow a dick. Seriously.
- ( Nice guys mean well ).
( Savage Love ).
( Supporting Evidence )
| 07:19 pm - Sexual Subtext of Politics |
herbaliser sent me a link from the Stranger talking about how McCain's offensive, fundamentally, "seeks to translate Obama's hard-won political currency into the primal terms of unbridled, white-female lust for black cock". This concept, of course, is not new - the book Gender and Law blames a similar fear on the introduction of gender-specific law in the United States (actually a fascinating argument, but tangential to this post). And, of course, as a white male I share this fear of disempowerment by way of the great obsidian obelisk [contemplate].
But, really: shame on the Republicans for resorting to such base bigotry in their political campaigns.
This is old news, though. No one cares about Obama's cock anymore. Our minds are far too occupied with what Sarah Palin might be like in bed. In fact, since McCain's announcement of his running mate, the few remarks I've heard about Sarah Palin's politics have been completely eclipsed by the impressive amount of content pertaining to the attractiveness of her and her family. Every feminist fear of what Clinton's campaign would inevitably deteriorate into has been realized in response to the Palin's nomination.
The fascinating part is that this hasn't spawned from the mouths of right-wing radicals like Rush Limbaugh, but from my own circle of left-liberal friends. But, of course, Sarah Palin gave up her right to being evaluated independent of her gender as soon as she chose to support the rights of unborn babies. In fact, since the pro-life movement is an overt attempt of the patriarchy to keep women in a subservient position, can Sarah Palin really even qualify as a female?
But, of course, none of this really matters anyway - why bother evaluating her politics when we know she slept her way to the top anyway?
| 09:59 am - Supporting the Troops = Supporting the War |
| 07:10 pm - Those Crazy Mormons. |
"During pretrial hearings, Ron's behavior in the courtroom served to underscore his lawyers' contention that he was mentally incompetent. He appeared with a cloth sign attached to the seat of his prison jumpsuit that read, EXIT ONLY; his attorneys explained that he wore the sign to ward off the Mormon angel Moroni, who Ron believed was an evil homosexual spirit trying to invade his body through his anus. He believed that this same sodomizing spirit had already taken possession of Judge Hansen's body, which is why Ron made a point of shouting profanities at the judge and addressing him with such epithets as 'Punky Brewster' and 'fucking punk.'"
| 10:48 pm - Coffee house chatter |
| 12:19 pm - My Immigration Rights Theory |
Last year the essential workers legislation gained a luke warm reception. The legislation essentially proposed making it easier for illegal immigrants to register and get work visas thus allowing labor needs to be met while also strengthening national security. I talked about this a bit on my blog and also in a debate I moderated at a local university; the response was overwhelmingly negative by liberals because it was condoning exploitation. The view at that point was that we needed to hold corporations accountable for who they hire as to limit the incentive for people to immigrate illegally. During similar discussions I invited criticism, glares and new enemies by saying that I planned on hiring day laborers to assist with my housework; providing any support for illegal immigrants was seen as exploiting workers, undermining labor laws and working against unemployment (which was still a hot topic back then).
Brief tangent: Neo-conservativism is typically misunderstood. Contrary to popular belief it is not founded in religion - quite the opposite. Neocons essentially believe that the masses are incapable of dealing with the moral ambiguity of statecraft and therefore need something like religion to provide justifications for otherwise selfish acts. For example, wrapping a war in humanitarian and/or religious speech. Or, for instance, suggesting that it's racist not to allow cheap migrant workers to cross into our country and work for peanuts.
The government has a long history of providing moral justifications (to both the world and our electorate) when public opinion is not favoring our economic interests (from basic political rhetoric such as "human rights" or "democracy" to more extreme but effective tactics such as Pearl Harbor). I'd hardly be surprised if the outlandishly impractical legislation proposed recently was intended specifically to create this type of backlash, knowing precisely how the reactive left would spin it and subsequently giving the masses the moral and ideological justification they need.
In a couple months the Essential Workers legislation will be brought to the table and will pass with a majority vote. Liberals and illegal immigrants will celebrate it as a demonstration of democracy at work. Economic conservatives will celebrate it as a brilliant political success and will be handsomely rewarded by their corporate sponsors.
* "Economically conservative politicians" translates roughly to 90% of our federal representatives regardless of their party affiliation.
| 06:03 pm - Pro-Life Democrats |
Poll #717092
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 42
Are you, as Howard Dean (Chairman of the Democratic National Convention) has proposed, willing to embrace pro-life Democrats?
View Answers
No. It violates the ideological principles of the party.
1 (2.4%)
No. It violates my personal values which I am unwilling to compromise on. 22 (52.4%)
Yes. It is a necessary pragmatic move to win the vote against the Republicans. 8 (19.0%)
Yes. In fact, I would consider myself a pro-life Democrat. 3 (7.1%)
N/A. I don't vote for or support the U.S. Democrat party or their ideals. 8 (19.0%)
Feel free to discuss.
| 01:32 pm - Europe as the liberal holy land |
crescimento happened to beat me to it in his post "Screw you Europe". So, instead of recreating the wheel, I've just left a lengthy comment there and am providing this entry as a reference for those of you who have something to say about the topic.As an aside, for those of you who don't know my politics: I tend to be fairly liberal in some areas. The term "liberal", however, has become synonymous with ignorance to me; it's very similar to how I might be reluctant to call myself a "Christian" if I believed in God.
| 02:25 pm - Memories |
| 05:05 pm - Discuss. |
| 04:45 pm - Childhood |
- Aldous Huxley, Doors of Perception
| 04:40 pm - A society of island universes |
- Aldous Huxley, Doors of Perception.
| 11:45 am - Media Literacy and Michael Moore |
huffines and karinkarinkarin recently, I realized ( why it is that I dislike Michael Moore so much ).Naturally, everyone is stupid except for the people we agree with. Brilliant!
| 12:53 pm - Test-taking Tip #31 |
Since I'm sure everyone who reads this agrees with this ethic, I wanted to share one of my favorite tips regarding cheating, which has a specific emphasis on test taking, in honor of my recent dance with academia. Naturally, one of the biggest challenges with cheating on a test is the fear of getting caught. One of the classic methods for avoiding this is to vary your answers slightly; this usually means that you are penalized, however, for your cleverness.
Here's a better tactic. After you copy the answers from the smart person that you sat next to, turn in your test and tell the instructor that you would like to talk to them after class. At that point say something to this effect: "I don't really know how to say this and I don't want to get anyone in trouble, but I think the person next to me was looking at my answers. They probably weren't cheating because they seem pretty smart, but I thought you should at least be aware of it. I know what it's like to feel pressure under a difficult test and if they need some tutoring or something I'd be happy to help out."
This is precisely how I handled my tests this year, and the result is a shining 4.0. I also had the joy of seeing one of my over-acheiver peers be put on probation on suspician of copying answers. That's what she gets for being a NERD! Hahahaha.
| 08:39 am - Sexism in America |
herbaliser recently referenced "The Great Stop Fucking Him Post" in her journal, which is cmpriest's response to the article Abortion foes shun Democrats' proposal to reduce pregnancies (from The Seattle Times). Naturally, I had an opinion on this.
What do you think? Do men want women to have babies?
| 05:20 pm - What academia needs... |
| 12:31 pm - Why I'd be a Satanist if I believed in God |
( Bible Study with the Jehova Witnesses )
( Personal and Socialized Foundations for Skepticism )
( New Perspectives on the Bible )
Nonetheless, if I believed in God, I would not become a Jehova Witness. Instead, I would likely become a Satanist.
( Satan and Free Will )
Now, that all said, I don't believe in God. Or Jehova. Or Satan. Or all-powerful entities (on an absolute scale). Or that the Bible is the absolute word of any of the aforementioned. Or life after death.
But if I did...
| 08:54 pm - On the topic of "love"... |
| 11:16 pm - Sorry world. |
| 03:10 pm - What Jeremy Believes |
This is primarily because I do not identify myself by my beliefs and I think that opinions are largely subjective, conditional to experience and otherwise transitory; I do not believe that my views are inherently right or the best option for other people.
Nonetheless, by request, my personal views on a number of popular issues...
- ( Abortion: Yes. I eat dead babies. )
( Drugs: Sure. )
( Political Theory: Conservative, with conditions. )
( American Politics: Democrat with conditions )
( Equal Opportunity: Need to strengthen the base (education) )
( Gay Marriage: Managed via corporate law )
( God and Morality: *Yawn* )
( Suicide: Suit yourself. )
Now, that said, I’ll probably refrain from sharing my opinion for a while because I could (generally) care less about what people think about these beliefs and I find it tiring to articulate and discuss them.
| 08:03 pm - Just clarifying... |
| 10:55 am - Grow the fuck up. |
What does bother me is the response seen by the people I consider friends. I always associated zealotry, blind hatred, polarized dogma, fundamental ideology, moral judgment and debilitating anger as signs of religious extremism. These, however, have apparently become the standard liberal response to the official vote of a long-standing and well-documented cultural rift; this response only acts to reinforce that divide and demonstrate the universal (non-partisan) childishness of our culture.
When I was in grade school my baseball team lost a close game to a competitive team. At the end, when we were to shake hands with the victors, my team members spit on their hands and accused them of cheating. Instead of practicing harder, they got depressed and ultimately ended up losing nearly all subsequent games; they chose to be victims. It was disappointing to watch such childishness but then again we were, in fact, children: it is through such experiences that we ultimately learned to grow up and have better sportsmanship.
Or did we?
| 01:16 pm - The new cultural dogma |
| 11:48 am - Reflexive Hypocricy |
| 02:09 pm - A general response to my friends... |
( Why the president will win the election )
| 03:00 am - Blondes have more fun? |
I realized that this supports, largely, the stereotype that blondes are more fun (and thus it's safer to be sexually forward with them) and brunettes are more serious, nurturing and intelligent (and thus, perhaps, more intimidating romantically and sexually).
Now, if this relationship does exist, I'd propose that it is mostly conditioned, although it could also be genetic (I just tend to blame nurture over nature by default). It makes sense, though: if someone is expected to act a certain way based on their appearance they will likely find themselves reactively catering to that mold. Regardless of the source, though, I think it's an interesting generality. Since I have very limited experience with blonde women, however, I'm soliciting your experiences.
Poll #341260 What do you think?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 56
Blonde girls only: Do you get a lot of attention but aren't taken very seriously?
View Answers
Yes, the stereotype is true 11 (40.7%)
No, no more than any other woman 4 (14.8%)
N/A, I'm not and never have been a blonde female. 12 (44.4%)
Non-Blonde Girls: Do you get unwanted ("creepy") attention more than positive attention?
View Answers
Yes, the stereotype is true 29 (54.7%)
No, no more than any other woman 17 (32.1%)
N/A, I'm not and never have been a non-blonde female 7 (13.2%)
Men: Are these stereotypes consistent with your experience?
View Answers
Yes, blondes tend to be more fun and brunettes more serious/brainy 5 (21.7%)
No, that's a ridiculous stereotype; there is no general trend between hair color and personality 4 (17.4%)
N/A, I've never had a penis 14 (60.9%)
Any women want to die their hair as an unscientific social experiment? Also does anyone know when it was that the stereotype of blondes as fun/dumb originated? I'm thinking it was a 1940s pinup girl / Marylin Monroe association. I do know that before the 20th century, blondes were considered more innocent and pure, a stereotype I think we still may apply to young girls as a whole.
| 06:30 pm - The Garden of Forking Paths |
Then I look back at the information I have absorbed: the books I've read, movies I've seen, places I've been, people I've known, things I've done. So many experiences, so much knowledge. It all goes away, though. What was their name? How did it end? What was the lesson?
( It depresses me. Lost opportunities, lost memories. )
To what end does this worrying result? The nature of hindsight reinforces our ineffectiveness. I am a victim of good fortune and a master of many regrets and yet, nonetheless, I am no more prepared for the future than I was the past. Only in the moment do we grow, but it's in the moment that I'm lost. Only blind idealism stands a chance at change; if we knew the score, we'd all be old.